CHAPTER III.
THROUGH THE ALPS.
“Cutthrough the Alps? It is an impossibility; and it would never pay!”
“Yet they are about to do it. Sommeiller, an engineer, has invented, or obtained, a rock-boring machine which promises to lighten the labour considerably; and then, of course, they will shatter great quantities of earth by explosives.”
“And what part of the Alps?”
“Through Mont Cenis. The tunnel will be about 7½ miles long, and the mountain over it will rise 5400 feet at one point.”
“And when do they expect to finish it?”
“I cannot say. They will begin on the southern—that is, the Italian—side first, and later on the French side. Through the tunnel will pass one of the principal routes from the West to the East.”
This conversation, we may suppose, took place in 1857, the year when the tunnel was commenced. For four years hand work was used, though blasting was in operation from the first; but in 1861 drilling by machinery was brought into play, and the rate of progress became much greater.
The machine was the first practical boring apparatus for rock, and was used first in making the Mont Cenis Tunnel. With explosives, as gun-cotton, dynamite, etc., the time occupied in cutting tunnels has been much reduced. Thus the Mont Cenis Tunnel occupied about thirteen years, and cost three millions of pounds. The St. Gotthard—another Alpine subway—occupied eight years, though it is 9¼ miles in length; and the Arlberg—yet another Alpine tunnel—a little over 6 miles long, occupied something more than three years.
Further, the railway of which the St. Gotthard Tunnel forms part, has been commercially very successful.This tunnel was commenced in 1872 and completed in 1880, the same year that saw the beginning of the Arlberg.
Tunnels through hard rock do not always need a lining of brickwork; but if the soil be clay, or loose earth of any kind, the lining of brick or stone must be brought up close to the scene of actual excavation. The Mont Cenis is lined with stone or brick almost entirely, about 900 feet, however, being without such lining.
And now, how was the actual work of tunnelling carried on? It will be seen at once that the problem was quite different from that of boring fifteen feet under the Thames, and sometimes through watery mud. In boring through mountains the quickest way of cutting and carting away rock is one of the chief points to be considered. At the Mont Cenis Tunnel the blasting took place by driving a series of shot holes into the soil, all over the surface to be cut, filling them with explosives, and firing them simultaneously in rings. Such explosives may be fired by a time-fuse or by electricity, giving the workmen ample time to escape out of reach. The shaken and shattered soil can then be cleared away.
The blast holes in this small-shot system are about 1 to 1½ inch in diameter, and from 1½ to 7 or 9 feet in the rock. The explosive is forced to the end of each, and the hole is then tamped—that is, closed with clay or sand—and fired in due time.
BORING MACHINE USED FOR THE MONT CENIS TUNNEL.
BORING MACHINE USED FOR THE MONT CENIS TUNNEL.
The cutters for boring in rock are often diamond drills, the cutting edges being furnished with a kind of diamond found in Brazil, of a black colour and of great hardness. These are placed round the edge of a cylinder of steel, to which iron pipes can be screwed as the edge cuts its way deeper in the rock. The stuff cut out as the drill revolves finds its way through the cylinder and the piping. There are, however, a great number of boring machines of different kinds, hard steel sometimes taking the place of the opaque diamondsfor cutting purposes. The compressed air with which many of the machines are worked assisted in the St. Gotthard in the ventilation of the tunnel, frequently a great consideration, as the space is so small and the gas from explosions often so great.
The Mont Cenis Tunnel marks a transition period in tunnelling. During the four years that hand labour was used, the average rate of progress was but nine inches a-day on either side; but when the rock-drills worked by compressed air were introduced, the speed was five times as great. Still further, at the Arlberg Tunnel through the Tyrolese Alps the average rate of progress was 9·07 yards per day, and the cost £108 per lineal yard; while the cost of the Mont Cenis was £226 per lineal yard. These figures show immense progress in economy and in speed.
The St. Gotthard Tunnel was begun in 1872, and the machine drills were used throughout. A heading was first cut about eight feet square, and the hollow thus gained was afterwards enlarged and finally sunk to the desired level. Several Ferroux drills were used, placed on a carriage, and an average charge of 1¾ lbs. of dynamite placed in the holes made. After firing, the compressed air was discharged and the shattered soil was cleared away.
In the Arlberg Tunnel a chief heading was driven, and then shafts opened up enabling smaller headings to be driven on both hands. Drills worked by hydraulic power were used, as well as drills worked by air, and, after the explosions, water spray was thrown out to assist in clearing and purifying the air. Ventilators also were used, which injected air at the rate of more than 8000 cubic feet per minute. Speedy transit of the earth excavated and the materials for masonry were also effected, it being estimated that some 900 tons of earth had to be taken out of each end, and about 350 tons of masonry had to be brought in, every day.
Tunnels through huge thicknesses of rock or under rivers can only be cut from the two opposite ends.Where possible, however, other shafts have been sunk along the line the subway was to take, and thus excavation might continue at several places along the line of route, the shafts being used for ventilation and for the conveyance of the excavated soil.
But the use of machine drills and of blasting explosives, with improved appliances for ventilation, have, with possibly some rare exceptions, rendered these methods obsolete. According to Pliny the tunnel for draining Lake Fucino was the greatest work of his day. It was over 3½ miles long, and cut under Monte Salviano. Forty shafts were sunk in cutting it, also sloping galleries, and huge copper buckets were used to carry away the earth. It is stated that this tunnel—some ten feet high, by six wide—occupied 30,000 men eleven years. Compare this with the Arlberg, or even the Gotthard, double and treble the length, occupying much less time. Sir Benjamin Baker has calculated that the Fucino tunnel could now be cut in eleven months.
Gunpowder gave some advance on old Roman methods of tunnelling. The improved explosives and rock-drills have gone further.
Even as the Mont Cenis shows a transition period, so the Arlberg may be said to emphasise a triumph of the methods then indicated. So great have been the improvements of the rock-boring machinery, of the power of the blasts, and the speedy ventilation following the explosions, and of the quick transit of materials, that we shall most likely hear no more of sinking numerous shafts along the route.
But what of subaqueous tunnels? Violent explosives are hardly suitable for excavation a few feet under a turbid river. What is to be done, when cutting under a full and treacherous stream?