THE SEVERN TUNNEL.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2077, 29 October 1885, Page 4

THE SEVERN TUNNEL.

The completion of the severn Tunnel, which shortens the distance between London and Cardiff by thutcen miles, and permits of the journey from Bristol being made in an hour and a quarter instead of two honra and a half, is a matter worthy of chronicling, from the magnitude of the work, and the difficulties which had to be surmounted. The total length of the tunnel is 7664 yards, or about 44 miles, and with the approaches, the severn Tunnel Railway from the junction at Roggiett to the junction at South Wales line at Pilning, is about eight miles in length. The width of the tunnel is 2(5 fret, and the height from the rails to the centre of the aich is 20 feet, A double line of rails has been laid. The ventahtion is effected by a Gnibal fan, 40 feet in diameter, discharging :: 10,000 feet of air per minute. The work has been carried on night and day, and to facilitate the progress, the tunnel was lighted by electricity, but the brush lamps used have been removed to allow of the locomothos passing to and fro. and there is to be no po-maneut lighting of the tunnel. The largest number of men employed on the woiks at one tune was 5000 men, and the greatest amount of tunnelling executed in any one mouth was 400 yards. The cobt of the tunnelling was about £100 a yard, but that does not include the vaiious preliminary work?, the cost of which will probably exceed that of the tunnelling Hume idea of the magnitude of this woik will be gathered from the fact that 7j.000.000 of bricks have been used, while tlieie have been about 70,000 cubic yards of excavation, pnucipally through rock The occasion of the running of tho first passpnger train through this tunnel was celebrated by the directois of the Great Western Railway Company on the sth of September, who performed the journey in a special train, and when cieiythhig passed off most satisfactorily. It ia not expected that the railway will be opened for general traffic until the beginning of the next year.

Some discussion has been aroused in Baptist circles by the ordination to the ministry of Miss Francess E Townaley, at Fairtield, Neb. She has been labouring as an evangelist for elexen years. '• If, cays Coleman Sellers, "a bar of ordinary foiled non be planed up to measure one inch square, and the bar be one English yard long, it will weiqli ten pounds, and tho tenth of such a bar Mill wricb one pound more .accurately than wilf the oidiuary litre of water weigh one kilogram. The English engineer, in these day.s of iron, knows when he uses shapes of iron, rolled of uniform section, that the tenth of their weight in pounds per yard ghes him the aiea of the section, and that this one admirable incident will long fix the disirability of the present unit of England and America." ShVERU, cases of poisoning by the fumes of nitric acid have occurred of late at Bonne and Halle, and have excited considerable interest In one instance & girl who was carrying along the street a metal vessel of nitric acid inhaled the vapor and died of asphyxia in twelve hours afterwards. In another instance a young chemist, who had been working for some hours with fuming nitric acid, was gradually poisoned and his recovery was very tedious. In view of nuch accidents, L'lOlcctucitc recommends that batteries, such as those of Bunscn, etc , should not be used in places where the \entilation is defective. Yea ! It is certainly true. Ask any of your friends who have purchased there. G.iHk k and Cranv* ell have numerous unasked for and very favourable commendations from country customers «tn their excellent parking ol Furniture, Crockery, and Gla^ 1 ;, &c. Ladies my gentlemen about to furnish "should remember that Garlirk and Cranwcll's n Tim Cheap Furnishing Warehouse of Auckland. Furniture to suit all classes ; also Carpets, I'lcor Cloths and all House Necessaries If jour new house is nearly finished, or, you are tfoinp to pet married, visit Garlick and Cranwel), Queen-street and Lome-street, Auckland. Intending purchaser* can have a catalogue tan fri«.