DUNEDIN HARBOR WORKS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 589, 26 October 1869, Page 2

DUNEDIN HARBOR WORKS.

(From the Daily Times.) The travelling shoot, made by Mr William Wilson, of the Otago Foundry, for the purpose of enabling the dredging machine to discharge the slit from the new channel over the retaining wall, without the aid of punts, is at length in successful operation, some delay having occurred through the difficulty of obtaining a suitable engine to work it. The engine is of ten-horse powe r, and a very five multitubular boiler, suitable for salt water, has been made expressly for it, by Messrs Sparrow and Thomas of Dunedin. Resting upon three punts, with the engine alongside, the discharging apparatus is moored for six hours daily, during high water, across the channel, with one end projecting over the wall. It is one hundred and thirty-five feet long, exclusive of a moveable iron shoot at the end. It consists of an immensely strong frame of wood, braced with iron, along which an endless chain runs, over flanged rollers; and fitted with boards four feet long. This chain is driven by the engine by means of bevel and spur geaiing. Along the whole ■ length of the apparatus there is a rail of iron. Attached by a hinge to the stern of the dredging machine is a beam fitted with jaws, which close upon the rail along which it Blides, as the dredge, by means of powerful windlasses worked by steam, movea to and fro sideways across the channel. The silt is a very fine and compact mud, with shells intermixed, and the best possible stuff for dredging. Each bucket deposits nearly scwt of sludge upon the boards as they pass along underneath, conveying over the wall some two hundred tons of silt or sludge per hour. In using punts for conveying the silt inside of the wall, there was a great loss of time as well as useless expenditure of labor. Tt was a most tedious, laborious, and harassing :y tern, and at time', during the prevalence of high winds, the punts were quite unmanageable. None of these objections apply to the new discharging apparatus, which, notwithstanding its immense size and weight, is managed with comparative ease, and really exceeds the expectations of its projectors. Any one having a taste for mechanics would enjoy a visit to the dredging machine during working hours. It is undoubtedly the finest machinery of the kind in the Colonies.. Viaifenw.. -tn__the «tis9jprp. VniiU 1"» r«»IJ*»Jy received by Mr William Douglas, who is in charge, and who carried out the works, first under Mr Thompson, and lately under Mr Barr, Provincial Engineer. The work of deepening the channel has already proved immensely advantageous to trade, enabling vessels of large size to discharge and take in cargo at the Rattray street jetty. The fine three-masted schooner Engelbert, capable of carrying 444 tons of general cargo, moored this week alongside of the jetty, drAing eleven feet of water, and the Ottawa left the jetty, drawing eleven feet six inches. Such is the want of accommodation for vessels, owing to the deepening of the channel, that we believe it is intended to lengthen the etty without delay.