Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century

by Robert Routledge

Allusion has already been made to one great characteristic of our age, namely, the replacement, in every department of industry, of manual labour by machines. A brief notice of even the main features of the various contrivances which have been made to take the place of men’s hands would more than occupy this volume. Accordingly, we must omit all reference to many branches of manufacture, although the products may be of very great utility, and the processes of very high interest; and in taking one example here and another there, we must be guided mainly by the extent and depth of the influence which the new invention appears destined to exert. This consideration has, with scarcely an exception, decided the selection of the topics already discussed, and it has also determined the introduction of the present article, which relates to machines of no less general importance than the rest, although at first sight it might seem to enter upon the details of merely a special branch of industry. But so general are the interests connected with the subject we are about to lay before our readers, that we are not sure it would not have been more logical to have placed the present article before all the rest. For whence comes the iron of which our steam engines, tools, rails, ships, cannon, bridges, and printing presses are made?—whence comes the fuel which supplies force to the engines?—whence come, in fine, the substances which form the matériel of every art? Plainly from the earth—the nurse and the mother of all, and in most cases from the bowels of the earth, for her treasures are hidden far below the surface—the coal, and the ores of iron and other metals, are not ready to our hand, exposed to the light of day. The railways also, and the canals, can be made only on condition that we cut roads through the solid rocks, and pierce with tunnels the towering mountains. Hence the tools which enable us to penetrate into the substance of the earth present the highest general interest from a practical point of view, and this interest is enhanced by the knowledge of the structure and past history of our planet acquired in such operations.

The operations by which solid rocks are penetrated in the sinking of shafts for mines, or in the driving of tunnels, drifts, headings, galleries, or cuttings for railways, mines, or other works, are easily understood. In the first place a number of holes—perhaps 3 ft. or 4 ft. deep and 2 in. or 3 in. in diameter—are formed in the rock. The holes are then charged with gunpowder or other explosive materials, a slow-burning match is adjusted, the miners retire to a safe distance, the explosion takes place—detaching, shattering, and loosening masses of the rock more or less considerable; and then gangs of workmen clear away the stones and débris which have been detached by the explosion, and the same series of operations is renewed. The holes for the blasting charges are formed by giving repeated blows on the rock with a kind of chisel called a jumper—the end of which is formed of very hard steel, so that the rock is in reality chipped away. The débris resulting from this operation is cleared away from time to time by a kind of auger or some similar contrivance. But for many purposes it is necessary to drill holes in rocks to great depths, hundreds of feet perhaps, as for example, in order to ascertain the nature of underlying strata, or to verify the presence of coal or other minerals before the expense of sinking a shaft is incurred. These bore-holes were commonly formed in exactly the same manner as the blast-holes already mentioned, by repeated blows of a chisel or jumper, which was attached to the end of a rod; and as the hole deepened, additional lengths of rod were joined on, and the rods were withdrawn from time to time to admit of the removal of the débris by augers, or by cylinders having a valve at the bottom. The reciprocating movement is given to the chisels and rods either by hand or by steam or water power. When the length of the rods becomes considerable, of course the difficulty of giving the requisite blows in rapid succession is greatly increased, for the whole length of rods has to be lifted each time, and if allowed to fall with too much violence, the breaking of the chisel or the rods is the inevitable result. The time requisite for drawing out the rods, removing the fragments chipped out, and again attaching the rods and lowering, also increases very much as the bore gets deeper. Messrs. Mather and Platt, the Manchester engineers, have, in order to obviate these difficulties, constructed machines in which the chipping or cutting is done by the fall of a tool suspended from a rope, the great advantage resulting from the arrangement being the facility and rapidity with which the tools used for the cutting and for the removal of the débris are lowered to their work and drawn up. It is necessary in using the jumper, whether in cutting blast-holes or bore-holes, to give the tool a slight turn after each blow, in order that the rock may be chipped off all round, and the action of the tool equalized. Many attempts have been made to drill rocks after the fashion in which iron is drilled—that is, by drilling properly so called, in which the tool has a rapid rotary motion. But even in comparatively soft rock, it is found that no steel can sufficiently withstand the abrading action of the rock, for the tool becomes quickly worn, and makes extremely slow progress. We shall have presently to return to the subject of bore-holes; but now let us turn our attention to an example which will illustrate the nature and advantages of the machinery which has in recent times been applied to work the jumpers by which the holes for blasting are formed.

THE MONT CENIS TUNNEL.

The successful construction, by the direction of Napoleon, of a broad and easy highway from Switzerland into Italy, crossing the lofty Alps amid the snows and glaciers of the Simplon, has justly been considered a feat of skill redounding to the glory of its designers. But we have recently witnessed a greater feat of engineering skill, for we have seen the Alps conquered by the stupendous work known as the Mont Cenis Tunnel. This tunnel is 7½ English miles in length; but it is not the mere length which has made the undertaking remarkable. The mountain which is pierced by the tunnel is formed entirely of hard rock, and what added still more to the apparently impracticable character of the proposal when first announced was the circumstance that it was quite impossible to sink vertical shafts, so that the work could not, as in the usual process, be carried on at several points simultaneously, but must necessarily be continued from the two extremities only, a restriction which would occasion a vast loss of time and much expense, to say nothing of the difficulties of ventilating galleries of more than three miles in length. The reader must bear in mind that the importance of this question of ventilation depends not simply on the renewing of the air contaminated by the respiration of the workmen, but on the quick removal of the noxious gases produced in the explosions of the blasting charges. A work surrounded by such difficulties would probably have never been attempted had not Messrs. Sommeiller and Co. invited the attention of engineers to an engine of their invention, worked by compressed air, and capable of automatically working “jumpers” which could penetrate the hardest rock. These rock-boring machines, having been examined by competent authorities in the year 1857, were pronounced so efficient that the execution of the long-spoken-of Alpine tunnel was at once resolved upon, and before the close of that year the work had actually been commenced, after a skilful and accurate survey of the proposed locality had been made, and the direction of the tunnel set out. The tunnel does not pass through Mont Cenis, although the post road from St. Michel to Susa passes over part of Mont Cenis, which gives its name to the pass. The mountain really pierced by the tunnel is known as the Grand Vallon, and the tunnel passes almost exactly below its summit, but at a depth the perpendicular distance of which is as nearly as possible one mile. The northern end of the tunnel is near a village named Fourneaux.

Pending the construction of the Sommeiller machines, and other machinery which was to supply the motive force, the work of excavation was commenced at both ends, in 1857, in the ordinary manner, that is, by hand labour, and in 1858 surveys of the greatest possible accuracy were meanwhile made, in order that the two tunnels might be directed so that they would meet each other in the heart of the mountain. The reader will at once perceive that the smallest error in fixing on the direction of the two straight lines which ought to meet each other would entail very serious consequences. The difficulties of doing this may be conceived when we remember that the stations were nearly 8 miles apart, separated by rugged mountains, in a region of snows, mists, clouds, and winds, over which the levels had to be taken, and a very precise triangulation effected. So successfully were these difficulties overcome, and so accurately were the measurements and calculations made, that the junction of the centre lines of the completed tunnel failed by only a few inches, a length utterly insignificant under the conditions.

The work was carried on by manual labour only, until the beginning of 1861, for it was found, on practically testing the machinery, that many important modifications had to be made before it could be successfully employed in the great work for which it was designed. After the machinery had been set to work, at the Bardonnêche end, breakages and imperfections of various parts of the apparatus, or the contrivances for driving it, caused delay and trouble, so that during the whole of 1861 the machines were in actual operation for only 209 days, and the progress made averaged only 18 in. per day, an advance much less than could have been effected by manual labour. The engineers, not disheartened or deterred by these difficulties and disappointments, encountered them by making improvement after improvement in the machinery as experience accumulated, so that a wonderful difference in the rate of progress showed itself in 1862, when the working days numbered 325, and the average rate of advance was three feet nine inches per day.

At the Fourneaux extremity more time was required for the preparation of the air-compressing machinery, and the machines had been at work in the other extremity, with more or less interruption, for nearly two years before the preparations at Fourneaux were completed.

The illustration at the head of this article, Fig. [178], represents the Sommeiller machines at work, the motive power being compressed air, conveyed by tubes from receivers, into which it is forced until the pressure becomes equal to that of six atmospheres, or 90 lbs. per square inch. The compression was effected by taking advantage of the natural heads of water, which were made to act directly in compressing the air; the pressure due to a column of water 160 ft. high being made to act upwards, to compress air, and force it through valves into the receivers; then the supply of water was cut off, and that which had risen up into the vessel previously containing air was allowed to flow out, drawing in after it through another valve a fresh supply of air; and then the operations were repeated by the water being again permitted to compress the air, and so on, the whole of the movements being performed by the machinery itself. The compressed air, after doing its work in the cylinders of the boring tools, escaped into the atmosphere, and in its outrush became greatly cooled, a circumstance of the greatest possible advantage to the workmen, for otherwise, from the internal warmth of the earth, and that produced by the burning of lights, explosions of gunpowder, and respiration, the heat would have been intolerable. At the same time, the escaping air afforded a perfect ventilation of the workings while the machines were in action. At other times, as after the explosion of the charges, it was found desirable to allow a jet of air to stream out, in order that the smoke and carbonic acid gas should be quickly cleared away. Even had the work been done by manual labour alone, a plentiful supply of compressed air would have been required merely for ventilation, so that there was manifest advantage in utilizing it as the motive power of the machines.

Fig. 179.—Transit by Diligence over Mont Cenis.