I regret that time will not admit of my giving any description of the modes of "cut and cover" which have been proposed for the performance of subaqueous works; sometimes the proposition has been to do this by means of coffer-dams, and with the work therefore open to the day-light during execution, and sometimes by movable pneumatic appliances. Consideration of subaqueous works necessarily leads the mind to appliances for diving, and although its date is considerably anterior to 1862, I feel tempted, as I believe the construction is known to very few of our members, to say a few words about the diving apparatus known as the "Bateau-plongeur," and used at the "barrage" on the Nile. This consists of a barge fitted with an air-tight cabin provided with an air-lock, and having in the center of its floor a large oval opening, surrounded by a casing standing up above the water-line. In this casing, another casing slides telescopically, the upper part of which is connected to the top of the fixed casing by a leather "sleeve." When it is desired to examine the bottom of the river, the telescopic tube is lowered till it touches the bottom, and then air is pumped into the cabin until the pressure is sufficient to drive out the water, and thus to expose the bottom. This appears to be a very convenient arrangement for shallow draughts of water.
Reverting for a moment to Mr. Stoney's work, I may mention that he uses for the greatest depths he has to deal with, when preparing the bed to receive his blocks, a diving apparatus which (while easily accessible at all times) dispenses with the necessity of raising and lowering, needed in an ordinary diving-bell to allow of the entrance and exit of the workmen. Mr. Stoney employs a bell of adequate size, from the summit of which rises a hollow cylinder, furnished at the top with an air-lock, by which access can be obtained to the submerged bell. Beyond the general improvement in detail and in the mode of manufacture, and with the exception of the application of the telephone, there is probably not much to be said in the way of invention or progress in connection with the ordinary dress of the diver.
THE FLEUSS DIVING APPARATUS.
But one great step has been made in the diver's art by the introduction of the chemical system of respiration, the invention of Mr. Fleuss. He has succeeded in devising a perfectly portable apparatus, containing a chemical filter, by means of which the exhaled breath of the diver is deprived of its carbonic acid; the diver also carries a supply of compressed oxygen from which to add to the remaining nitrogen oxygen, in substitution for that which has been burnt up in the process of respiration. Armed with this apparatus, a diver is enabled to follow his vocation without any air-tube connecting with the surface, indeed without any connections whatever. A notable instance of a most courageous use of this apparatus was afforded by a diver named Lambert, who, during one of the inundations which occurred in the construction of the Severn tunnel, descended into the heading, and proceeding along it for some 330 yards (with the water standing some 35 feet above him), closed a sluice door, through which the water was entering the excavations, and thus enabled the pumps to unwater the tunnel. Altogether, on this occasion, this man was under the water, and without any communication with those above, for one hour and twenty-five minutes. The apparatus has also proved to be of great utility in cases of explosion in collieries, enabling the wearer to safely penetrate the workings, even when they have been filled with the fatal choke-damp, to rescue the injured or to remove the dead.
CONSTRUCTION OF TUNNELS.
With respect to the subject of tunneling thus incidentally introduced, in subaqueous work of this kind, I have already alluded to that which is done by "cut and cover," but where the influx of water is a source of great difficulty, as it was in the old Thames tunnel (though in this case for water one should read silt or mud), I do not know that anything has been devised so ingenious as the Thames tunnel shield; improvement has, however, been made by the application of compressed air.
In the instance of the Hudson River tunnel, the work was done in the manner proposed so long ago as the year 1830 by Lord Cochrane (Earl Dundonald) in that specification of his, No. 6,018, wherein he discloses, not merely the crude idea, but the very details needed for compressed air cylinder-sinking and tunneling, included air-locks and hydraulically-sealed modes for the introduction and extraction of materials. I may, perhaps, be permitted to mention that some few years ago I devised for a tunnel through the water-bearing chalk a mode of excavation by the use of compressed air to hold back the water, and combined with the employment of a tunneling machine. This work, I regret to say, was not carried out. But there are, happily, cases of subaqueous tunneling where the water can be dealt with by ordinary pumping power, more or less extensive, and where the material is capable of being cut by a tunneling machine. This was so in the Mersey tunnel, and would be in the Channel tunnel. In the Mersey tunnel, and in the experimental work of the Channel tunnel, Colonel Beaumont and Major English's tunneling machine has done most admirable work. In the 7 foot 4 inch diameter heading, in the new red sandstone of the Mersey tunnel, a speed of as much as 10 yards forward in twenty-four hours has been averaged, while a maximum of 11-2/3 yards has been attained; while in the 7 foot heading for the Channel tunnel, in the gray chalk, a maximum speed of as much as 24 yards forward in the twenty-four hours has been attained on the English side; and with the later machine put to work at the French end, a maximum speed of as much as 27-1/3 yards forward in the twenty-four hours has been effected. In ordinary land tunneling since 1862 there has been great progress, by the substitution of dynamite and preparations of a similar nature for gunpowder, and by the improvements in the rock-drills worked by compressed air, which are used in making the holes into which the explosive is charged. For boring for water, and for many other purposes, the diamond drill has proved of great service, and most certainly its advent should be welcomed by the geologist, as it has enabled specimens of the stratum passed through to be taken in the natural, unbroken condition, exhibiting not only the material and the very structure of the rock, but the direction and the angle of the dip of the beds.
Closely connected with tunneling machines are the machines for "getting" coal. This "getting," when practiced by manual labor, involves, as we know, the conversion into fragments and dust of a very considerable portion of the underside of the seam of coal, the workman laboring in a confined position, and in peril of the block of coal breaking away and crushing him beneath it. Coal-getting machines, such as those of the late Mr. Firth, worked by compressed air, reduce to a minimum the waste of coal, relieve the workman of a most fatiguing labor in a constrained position, and save him from the danger to which he is exposed in the hand operation. It is a matter of deep regret on many grounds, but especially as showing how little the true principles of political economy are realized by working men, who are usually well informed on many other points, that the commercial failure of these machines is due to their opposition. In connection with colliery work, and indeed in connection with explosives, in the sense of a substitution for them of sources of expansion acting more slowly, mention should be made of the hydraulic wedges. The employment of these in lieu of gunpowder, to force down the block of coal that had been undercut, is one of the means to be looked to for diminishing the explosions in collieries. Another substitute for gunpowder is found in the utilization of the expansion of lime when wetted. This has given birth to the lime cartridge, the merits of which are now universally recognized, but it is feared that trade prejudices may also prevent its introduction. While on this subject of "accidents in mines," it will be well to call attention to the investigations that have been made into the causes of these disasters, and into the probable part played by the minute dust which prevails to so great an extent in dry collieries.
The experiments of our honorary member, Sir Frederick Abel, on this point have been of the most striking and conclusive character, and corroborate investigations of the late Macquorn Rankine into the origin of explosions in flour mills and rice mills, which had previously been so obscure. The name of Mr. Galloway should also be mentioned as one of the earliest workers in this direction. At first sight, pile driving appears to have but little connection with explosives, but it will be well to notice an invention which has been brought into practical use, although not largely (in this country at all events), for driving piles, by allowing the monkey to fall on a cartridge placed in the cavity in the cap on top of the pile; the cartridge is exploded by the fall, and in the act of explosion drives down the pile and raises the monkey; during its ascent, and before the completion of its descent, time is found for the removal of the empty cartridge and the insertion of a new one.