FLYING UNDER THE SEA

Gisborne Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9843, 23 October 1924, Page 3

FLYING UNDER THE SEA

CURIOUS CHANNEL TUNNEL SCHEMES' OF THE PAST. The idea of a tunnel linking England and France, a subject that is receiving renewed attention, is not a new one. Tlie first man to propound a scheme for tunnelling the Channel was a French mining engineer named Math ieu, who impressed Napoleon with tho idea at- the beginning of the last century. In 1803 another Frenchman, Tcssicr do Mottray, suggested building a long iron tube and laying it at tho bottom of the Straits of Dover, so that people could walk through it. This plan, however, was not seriously considered until J. A. I home do Gamond, another French engineer, placed it on a practical basis and submitted it to the French Emperor in 1856. It was Thome de Gamond who first tackled the question of cross-Channel transit with real determination. Ha put forward a number of proposals, among them ideas for viuious kinds of bridges, a. steam ferry system plying between long piers, and a tunnel on the same lines as that now projected. s But although many schemes were evolved in the first half century it was not until 1867 that the idea of a tunnel captured the popular imagination. In that year Thome de Gamond and William Lowe, of Wrexham, jointly submitted plans for a tunnel to an international committee, which reported favorably on the . project, without, however, sanctioning the grant for money for which the inventors applied. This tunnel plan was tlie forerunner of many ingenious schemes discussed in the following years. A well-known engineer, Zerah Colburn, got out plans providing for tho construction of an immense tube, built in 1000 ft sections, which was to be sunk to the sen bottom and covered by concrete. Another idea which attracted attention was thnt_ of Thomas Page, the builder of Westminster Bridge, who proposed placing eight conical steel structures at intervals across the Channel and connecting them by long sections of tube lowered from ships. Another plan,- even more staitling, had for its object the building of a great bridge under -the water, with a single pair of rails over which an enclosed carriage was to he hauled by wire cables; while still another project was to consist of a. number of water-tight chambers, like caissons, which were to he suspended'from a great archway and whirled under the son at high speed. The Channel Tunnel Company was formed in 1875 and was given permission by Pnrlinmeiiu to certain preliminary work near Deal. The same year a French company started operations at a cost of 2,000,000 francs, the net result of this expenditure being that 7000 soundings were taken, £OOO samples nf the sea bed were secured, and a shaft begun at Sandgate. For the rest the tunnel remained what it still' is—a. pleasant dream to some and. a nightmare to others! But although the whole project was shelved as a result of the adicise i eport of a Parliamentary committee, which considered the question m 1883, inventive minds on both sides of the Channel did not rest. Only thirty years ago an attempt was made to give effect to a plan which nowadays makes strange leaning. Briefly, a moving platform, capable of accommodating a tram, was to be built so that it- could run along a submerged track suppovtou on long steel legs. . The full story of the project reminds one of a conception of Ju es Verne, as does the plan winch provided for tlie construction of two huge chutes, by means of winch passengers could glide in specially constructed. carriages to or fiom England.