BIG BLASTS.
The mightiest of gunpowder blasts iv connection with railway works, if not the rery greatest blast ever exploded, was that by which Sir William Cubitt blew away, with one charge of nineteen thousand pounds of gunpowder, Jhe entire mass of the Bound Down Cliff, which rose to the height of three hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea, within a few miles of Dover. This monster blast, fired by galvanic eleotricty at several poi«tsinßtantaneously,heaved off from the cliffs a reass of more than a million tons of chalk, which relied down npon the beach—the dislodged stuff covering a space of fifteen acres, which may still be sern by the traveller along the South eastern Railway, stretchiDg towards the sea near the western base of theweH-known Shakespeare's Cliff. By means of a similar blast on the Londonderry and Coleraine Railway a hill was thrown into the sea by a charge of three thousand pounds of gunpowder, and thirty thousand tons of material were _ thus instantaneously removed from the line of the works.—Leisure Hour.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THS18851001.2.19
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5213, 1 October 1885, Page 3
Word count
Tapeke kupu
177BIG BLASTS. Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5213, 1 October 1885, Page 3
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in