TUNNEL BUILDER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 567, 21 January 1929, Page 10

TUNNEL BUILDER

Under-Water Transit Lines PIONEER'S SUCCESSES On the anniversary of the opening ot the Holland Tunnels, in New York (November 13), not everybody will lecall the name of an engineer who was a pioneer in the construction ot tr, der-river transit liues, says "The New York Times.” Though born in France, he became a naturalised American i citizen. His name was Mark Isambard Brunei, and just a hundred years ago he was in deep trouble. After his tunnel under the Thames River had been brought half-way to completion disaster came. There was an explosion of gas and the irruption or water. The river broke through the masonry of the tunnel. Six men w ere drowned; Brunei's son escaped from death only by being washed up a shaft, and the whole project suffered such a set back that it was not completed until 1543. Brunei was the inventor of a shield system of boring. Two or three attempts, before Brunei made his, had had as their object the connection of the Kent and Essex shores of the Thames by a subaqueous passage. All had failed. It is related that one day when Brunei was passing through the dockyard in Chatham his eye was caught by a piece of ship timber perforated by a destructive worm. His study of the operations of the worm led him finally to the construction of a cast-iron shield, which would bore like an augur by means of strong hydraulic screws. He patented the plan and revived the project of a tunnel under the Thames. In 1524 a Thames Tunnel Company was formed, and in 1825 the work was begun, to be pursued under many difficulties. As fast as the machine cut through the earth, bricklayers followed it up with masonry arches. Six hundred feet, or half the length of the tunnel, had been completed in IS2B when the disaster came. The funds of the company were exhausted, and work was suspended for seven years. Then, in 1835, at the solicitation of the Duke of Wellington, the Government advanced the company, on loan.

£246,000. At last, in 1543 th* nel was completed. ’ ' Brunel was knighted by the n His fame travelled throughout 6eiL world. His name had not been t* 1 " gotten when London began to n ‘ its underground railroads or using a- shield to push a wav “ecthe Hudson. New York start on"! I '' Holland Tunnels. ea *®e As Brunei anticipated the „„ eers of the Xe» World who ufv have constructed their vehicula- , ’ nels. so he anticipated others on ,w' continent who have bnllt tubewhich railway trains run under But perhaps he did not have that mind when he started, nor did h. B ® to see locomotives puffing , heir , under the Thames. He died in Although the tunnel had been ' gineering success, it w as a s’ er ‘ failure in that, the tolls did no? vS a sufficient return on the investin', and in lXba it was taken over bv East London Railway Company ' h<? Brunei expended his talents non,, variety of mechanisms. At the nL' tul request of Lady Spence he n duced a machine for shuffling on ing cards. He improved the circVhr saw: he made contributions to 7? textile industry; was employed in tT construction of the first 'Ramsga,! steamer, and is said to have been first to suggest to the Admiralty iZ use of steam tugs. He laboured ill nearly fifteen years and spent neari, £15,000 in making an engine ffi would run with carbonic acid gasT reach the conclusion finally that “th practical application of ' condense? gases, including common air. was o ‘ so advantageous as that derived from' the expansive force of steam ” m America held briefly a claim m, Brunei’s talents. He came to thj° country in 1793, after having made in. prudently, a Royalist speech in p aris Here he lost no time in taking our naturalisation papers. He found much work to do. He was appointed, it k said, to make a survey of a canal be? tween Lake Champlain and the Hud soil, to plan and build a theatre i? New York and to plan defences ate fortifications for this city. There wa s every reason for his staying on— bu, one. Before he had left Prance he had met an English lady. Her nan,e was Sophie Kingdom. For her safe he abandoned his prospects in ihicountry, and in 1799 recrossed the Atlantic. In England he married an., there spent the remainder of his davt