DRAMA OF BEN NEVIS.

Thames Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17835, 10 March 1930, Page 7

DRAMA OF BEN NEVIS.

16-MILE TUNNEL.

•WOMAN FIRES TWO TONS OF T.N.T. A woman's touch exploded two tons of T.N.T. and gelatine at Loch Treigh recently, and brought t'o a triumphant end one of the greatest achievements in post-war engineering. The explosion tore the bottom from Lock Ereig, and the loeh lapped gently into the 16-mile tunnel under Ben Nevis which leads to the power house of the North British Aluminium- Company. Scarcely a ripple disturbed the water. The detonation caused no more noise than a door being slammed. • The-woman, Mrs W. Murray-Mor-rison, was one of the two people, excluding the engineers employed on the work, who forecasted correctly what would happen when the explosion occurred. Mr Lambert, the representative of Nobel's, the explosive manufacturers, gave the other correct result.

It was he who packed into the 16ft crust of rock between the tunnel and the loch enough explosive to wreck half of London, saying: "It will not even ripple the water.'? Great Britain's foremost engineerino- brains placed in sealed envelopes their forecast of what would happen when the explosion took place.' These forecasts , included: — v A tidal wave 30ft. high rushing down (Loch Treig and the River Treig. . " . " A waterspout 200 or 300 ft high. Avalanche? ..of hundreds of tons' of rock hurtling from the moun"tains. The burial of the West Highland Railway under masses of rock. - The final operations were carried out in secret and dramatic fashion. 'The firing party stole out from Fort William before the town was awake •—every member pledged to secrecy.