DREAMING ENGINEERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 543, 21 December 1928, Page 8

DREAMING ENGINEERS

ALTHOUGH essentially practical men, engineers do occasionally have their Jules Vernish moments, yet it must be remembered that frequently from the most fanciful of speculations have evolved the most amazing accomplishments. Dreamy James Watt, according to legend, saw a kettle boiling, and dreamt of the power of steam. Then came George Stephenson who saw how that power could be applied, and the result was the “Rocket,” the first railway engine. From the dream of Watt grew the accomplishment of Stephenson. The British, French and Spanish engineers who are to-day planning a vast railway that will have an uninterrupted run from England to Africa have their difficulties to overcome, but it may just happen that their gigantic dream will grow, too, into a reality. The scheme involves the building of tunnels across the English eannel and the Straits of Gibraltar, but one of those works was contemplated before. The first proposal for a channel tunnel was made by Napoleon 130 years ago, hut at that time Englishmen had no desire to make French access to their country any easier than nature intended it to be. The plan, however, was seriously taken up in 1876, and after negotiatons between the French and English Governments a protocol was signed. Experimental tunnels were bored on either side of the channel, but in 1882 work was stopped by order of the Board of Trade. The continuation of the scheme was under consideration in 1914, but then came the war, and since then nothing has been done, although the shaft on the Freneh side is used for the cultivation of the much-favoured edible snail ... so it has its uses after all.

The channel tunnel which has been talked about but never built, is only a small part of the gigantic scheme that the engineers have in contemplation now. The rail track they vision will sweep from England under water to France. Through France to Spain. From Spain under water again to Spanish Morocco, and then across the hot desolation of the Sahara desert. To reach Cairo it would be necessary to travel once more through a long stretch of the Libyan desert.

These are the plans that British, French and Spanish engineers have drawn up, but whether they are ever carried out is another matter. Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. Sterling may regard the whole scheme as a vote of confidence in railways as the primary means of transport for several generations, but it will certainly be a tiresome journey from London to Cairo.