A CHANNEL TUNNEL IN 35 DAYS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 113, 5 February 1918, Page 5

A CHANNEL TUNNEL IN 35 DAYS

A "RUSH" PROPOSITION. A machine for tunnelling tho English Channel iu 35 days has been_ brought to the attention of the British Gov-' ernment by Mr. John K. Hencken, a civil engineer, of Fifth Avenue, says the "Daily Express." The scheme contemplates boring four tunnels by means of eight machines that 'will cut through earth and rock at the rate of 100 ft. per hour; and provides not only. for a. trackway in each tunnel, but a driveway along which motor lorries could he driven from England to the supply bases ui Franco.

Mr. Hencken asserts that ho can have the tunnels complete and ready for occupation within .1 few months' time, and declares that should the scheme be carried through it would release most of tho shipping now used between England and France, thus making available for other uses more ships than could be built in tho shipyards of tho world in several years. He offers to financo the scheme by floating a bond issue, which could bo paid off within a few years, and then to make the tunnels a prosent to Britain and Franco by the United States, and states that ho has the sanction of the American Government in making this offer. . , , • • l Mr. Honcken's plan is to havoeignb of his machines in use, under engineers of tho three nations ■ concerned—one machine at tho end of each of tho four tunnels, and another set boring the approaches at tho flamo time. In doKcribing his machine, Mr. Hencken says it consists of a series of j>wmgifiir hammers rotated at a peripheral speed of about 500 ft. a second, striking several hundred thousand blows a minute 011 tho space to lie excavated, and pulverising the material "from sin. in greatest dimensions down to impalpable powder."