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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Herald, 1915-01-22, Page 5asiaaavaial •ons` ac a �'•,':;,' ate i WELLAND SHIP CANAL PORT WELLER HARBOR: BE- GINS TO TAKE SHAPE.. 1 bele 'Canal Will Cost $50,000,000, and Will Be Completed in. Five Years. The fact, that Canada has under- taken the construction of a water- way possessing features • unprece- dented in the history of similar un- dertakings, not only on this conti- nent, but in the world, is a fact whichmay not be generally appre- ciated, but in certain aspects Can- ada, can make claim to this distinc- tion for the work she h:as entered upon for the construction of the Welland Ship Oana1, fake connecting :tank between Lakes. Erie and On- tario. .As.all of the earth excavated be- tween Thorold and Lake Ontario is to be disposed of in service ground fills to form the harbor in the lake, the Government has built a double • track, standard gauge construction r:ailwa3 , seven miles in length, be- tween these points for the purpose of transporting this material; and for the purpose of hauling atone ex- cavated and cruvshed at the site of the flight locks in Thorold, to the other lock sites for the making of concrete to be used in the building of the looks. This railway has been equipped with a, complete inter- locking plant and train -despatch- ing system, and it is expected that for the next few years it will be one of the busiest roads in the Domin- ion. For contract purposes, the entire canal, 26 miles in length, has been divided into nine sections., section No. 1 being at the Lake Ontario end and. the others following • con- secutivc'iy,trhe augli: to Lake Erie. Section NO. 1 is under contract to the Dominion Dredging Company of Ottawa and consists of the dredge ing of a channel 1,000 feet wide from the shore line to deep water in Lake • Ontario, a distance of one and a half miles; also one and a half miles of dry excavation inland, and the construction of lock No. 1, the whole entailing the removal of ap- proximately 2;000,000 cubic yards of dredged material, 2,250,000 cubic yards of dry material, and the plae ing of 300,000 cubic yards of con- erete, 'at an estimated. cost of $3,- 500,000. Their four dredges have three steam shovels and one drag - line excavator at work on this sec- tion in the past year. The harbor will be of most commodious pro- portions and will be formed by the construction of two immense em- bankments, one on each side of the entrance channel extending one and one-half miles into the lake, and with a top width of from 400 to 500 feet over their whole length. All of the earth ezceavated between Thorold and the lake will be placed in these embankments, and besides finding a ready means, for the dis- posal of this inimens:e amount of ex- cavated material, it will. result in the .formation of as large area, of vel- uable "made" ground which can be utilized for shipping and commer- cial purposes. Well Out Into the Lake. These embankments are now well out into the lake, .about 2,000,000 cubic yards of earth having already been deposited in them. At their outer end, on each side, will be con- strutted 700 feet of entrance piers, built of reinforced concrete cribs with mars concrete superstructure, These cribs are an interesting study, being massive concrete •structures, measuring 110 feet ;bong, 34 feet wide, and 38 feet high, and weigh- ing 2,000 tons each. In other words, each will be equivalent toe three- storey house with 54 rooms, and there will be 55 cribs in 'all. Dur- ingthe past ,seasoi . a half slail+lion cubic yards of dredging in the liar bol' -have been exeavat d, and about 2,000,000 cubic yards of dry material on shore, and eonsider.abie progress has been n3ade an the construction f leek aeinforeeel concrete wall to Rick Nei. 1. Section . No. 2 is immediately, ,south of iseotaon No. 1, and is under contract to Messrs.. Baldry, Yer- burg & Hutcchinson, of Westminnster, Eng.. Itis •about four milts an length v • i..✓r Y/i,.. K•., ✓.3...nr ... e, .. k.,a :dee. f ' •a..,ilcae,e'6"aa !: eeeeeeeSL9NG9WJY7tlDmfJ>f�p The New Harbor Being Built to Order at fort Weller, at the Lake Ontario End of the New Welland Canal. and involves the removal.. of 6,500,- 000 cubic yards of earth and the constructaou of locks Nos. 2 and 3, which will contain in the neighbor- hood of 600,000 cubic yards of con- crete. Engaged on this section ars four steam shovels, two drag -line excavators, and six elevating grad- ers drawn by traction engines and mule teams. Operations have been very -active here during the past season, about 1,700,000 cubic yards of earth having been excavated and deposited in the harbor embank- ments in the lake. The oontractors are at present engaged in the con- struction of the breast wall at the head of. lock No. 2, upon which the upper gates will eventually rest. This wall will rest on solid rock 61. feet below the ground surface, will be 175 feet, and 25 feet wide, built of mass concrete. Most Expensive Section. Section No. 3 is the most impor- tant and the most expensive section of the entire project, involving as it does the construotion of twin locks in flight 4, 5, and 6, single lock No. 7, and a guard lock, the building of a tremendous earth dam to form apondage of 84 acres for regulating the water level in the flight locks, and two difficult and expensive railway •diversions. There are 2,- 700,000 cubic yards of rock to be excavated from the lock sites and the locks themselves will involve the placing, of 1,200,000 cubic yards of concrete. This section is less than two miles in length, mostly within the town of Thoro:kl. The estimated cost of this section is in the neigh- borhood of $10,000,000, and the con- tractors are .Messrs. O'Brien & Do- heny and Quinland & Robertson, of Montreal. The present line of the Grand Trunk. Railway traverses the site of the flight locks, and this railway ha.s had to be diverted a sh,ort dis- tance to the west fora distianee of four miles. As it is, :here the rail- vay_ ,climbs ,: the.Niagara " searpp= .hent, rising ,almost 150 feet within a distance of one and a half -miles,. this has proved a, very difficult piece of relocation. The Grand Trunk Main line to• Niagara Falls crosses the canal prism at rightangles at the foot of the proposed twin locks No. 4, and a double -track railway bridge has had to be constructed to carry the tracks over the lock site in order that excavation for the lock pit may be proceeded with beneath the railway. The, bridge has been completed, and trains are now run- ning over it. Good progress has also been made on the dam for pond -age at head of lock 6. This dam will be about 2,500 feet long, .and 75 feet high at its highest point with a concrete core -wall over its entire length extending down a depth of 35 feet at some points to solid rock. The contrac- tors for this section are required, under their contract, to ,supply crushed stone for the contractors for section 1 nand 2 for concrete, and for this purpose they have erected an immense rock -crushing plant with a ccapaoity of 4,000 tons per day. This plant is now in operation and will be kept running all. winter, as rock excavation on the site of the flight locks proceeds. Complete in Five Years. From Thorold to Lake Erie the new canal will follow largely the route of the present canal, and the work will consist principadly of deepening and widening the exist- ing channel to the new dimensions. Section 5 is the only remaining seotion which has as yet been placed under contract, the contractors be- ing the Canadian Dredging Com- pany, of Midland, Ont. They have had five steam shovels employed all season, and expect to commence dredging operations in the early spring. Phe work copsists of the removal, of 5,500,000 cubic yards of earth in the channel and along the west bank, the material to be die- poted of on low lands adjoining the canal. The estimated east of this section is $1,950,000. The estimated cost of the entire project ie $50,00p,000, and if the un- settled state of affairs brought about by the present war does not operate -agaivat it, it is anticipated that tl work can be completed within fiVe years. Mr. J. L. Weller, formerly super- intending engineer of the present Welland Canal:, is engineer in charge of :surveys, design, and cots- struotion of the new work; fir.' W. H. Sullivan is principal, assistant. • q. 11iEMO A:BLEEARTIIQUA:EES. The Year, :Place and Number Tilled; in Great Quakes. • Year. Place. Killed. 526 -Antioch "50,000.. 893 -India . .............. 180,000 1306 -Pekin . 100,.900. 1536 -China. . 830,000 1626 -Naples . 70,000 1667-Schumaki . 80,000 1692 -Jamaica. . 4,000 1693-Cicily . 100,000 1703 -Aquila, Italy 5,000 17 03-Yeddo, Japan 200,000 1706 -The Abruzzi ........ 15,000 1716-Al-giers,. 20,000 1726 --Palermo . 6,000 1731 -Pekin . .. 100,000 1737 -India . 300,0W 1746 -Lima ad Callao 18,000 1754 -Grand Cairo ... 40,000 1755-Kashua•, Persia 40,000 1755 -Lisbon . r 50,000 1759 --Syria 30,000 1784-Ezinghian, Asia Minor . 5,000 1797= -.Santa Fe and Panama . 40,000 1805 -Nap 1 e s 6,000 1822 -Aleppo . 2i0,000 1829-Hurica . 6,000 1830 -Canton 6,000 1842 -Cape Haytien 4,000 1857 -Calabria . 10,000 1859 -Quito . 5,000 1864 -Mendoza, .S. Aneriea _ 7,000 1868 -Ecuador and Peru .25,000 1875 -San Jose de Cucuta, Colombia 14,000 1881-iScio . 4,000 1891 --Honda Island, Japan 10,000 1893-K Itch a n , Persia 12,000 1894 -Venezuela . ... 3,000 1902 -Martinique 25,000 1905-Noroh, India ..... 20,000 1905 -Calabria . 5,000 6-- ran' ii'00 90 San "k' eascn ' . 1906 -Nicaragua .. Many thousands 1906-0olombia 2,000 1906 -Formosa . •1.',200 1906 -Chile ....... Many thousands 1907 -Jamaica 1,000 1907 -Sumatra 1,500 1907 -Calabria . 1908 -Messina 1909-Luristan ........ 1910 --Costa Rica 1911 -Mexico 1919 -Constantinople and district . 1914 -Sicily 000 200,000 think themselves right, to say which 5;000 of them is right. The political and religious differences between ra- 500 1,300 tions are generally much simpler than +they .are made out in the 6,000 newspapers. On the bare facts the islsue between Prussia, with the 150 rest of Germany, and England, with much of the rest of Europe, is really very simple indeed. German Aggression. U IS A WAR TO ERRE ItiORLD INTER'VIEW WITH A. FANO U S EN G1:ISH WRITER. Prussia Always on the Side o Tyranny and Resolved to Destroy iDesnoeracy. An American journalist has had an interesting interview on the war, with the famous English writer, G. K. Chesterton, art .his house at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. "This is the war to free the world! First and last it is a fight for freedom," he said. The word bas always been sacred in the wars e f white people ; but in their peri- ods of peace and occasional eorrup- tion there are always Sceptics who profess not to know what it means. "1t can only be described as the struggle you make against that 'which would make you other than yourself : which is our charge against Prussia. In this conneotion of course there is the customary fal- lacy which says that the enemy im- agines he is fighting for freedom too. This is one of the thousand mental weaknesses which have been produced by the modern agnostic habit of never ,pushing any argu- ment to its ultimate issue. "I saw in some silly pacifist pa- per aper the other day that we had let loose the horrible calamity of war :against people who thought, them- selves as right as we. Similarly=, if I wish to walk to London and one of shy friends points to the right and the other to the left, it is quite the other. They m.ay or may not have been Servians who slew ::the Austrian Archduke. They were certainly Austrians who annexed Bosnia. They were certainly Aus- trians who insisted that they, and not the Servian authorities should be judges of the honor of the vie - toes of Kumonovo and Lule Bur- gas. They were certainly Austrians who armed themselves to the teeth and then insisted on those humiliat- ing terms being accepted within twenty-four hours. Touching what is called in England a case to go to the jury, it is a very clear case in- deed. Prussian Knit ur. "Nor is there any .particularcom- plexity in the general political posi- tion of Germany in Europe. It is confused or concealed by talk about the 'Kultur' and the 'Zeitgeist,' ut- tered by the court poets and court philosophers of Prussia; but it is really very simple. The Prussian is and always has been resolved to de- stroy that great experiment called democracy, to destroy every one of the effects of the American and French revolutions. Here is no matter of emotion, but of clear, cold fact. "To G. K. Chesterton the conver- gence of proof is quite final. Prus- sia ha.s everywhere and always been on the side of tyranny; nowhere, and never once, on -the side of free- dom. She desires tyranny ; yea, even if it is not her own tyranny. Like the last outpost of the horrible Holy Alliance she really seeks to put all peoples 'back under dynastic and diplomatic rulers, with no more reference to the wishes of the de- mocracies so disposed of than she enough to say that one of them is as herself has shown to the demoera- certain as the other London is some- cies of Alsace and Lorraine. where; and one points to it while "The ease is easy about the plain the other does not. It is only.be- fact. But we unean deeper things etange.,people have long ago given when w.e say that this is a war to up 'pressang these questions in the set the wbrld `free; to free all Men theoretic as they do in the practical and all women. The resistance to world that so many ethical and po- Prussia all over Europe is really a litical decisions are considered spontaneous and spiritual resist. doubtful or impossible. ance. It is a resistance in every "It is not impossible, because a people against a sort of paralyzing Frenchman and a German both octopus which they feel is the enemy of every .animal variety alike. "Redmond and the recruitment 'in Ireland is not a. trick of the Eng- lish politicians, though these are always full of tricks ! Irishmen really would dislike Prussians if there were no English men in the world. The enthusiasm of the Poles for the Russians is not a fraud of the Czar, whatever frauds may have been worked by the Czar. The Poles would always have bated Prussia if there had never been such a place as Russia. All peoples have felt the pressure of something inhuman in the Prussian influence ; this is rightly a revolt of the world." ACTIVITIES OF 1011101 Mme. Poincare, wife of the Presi- dent of France, is of German an- cestry. Russia has a woman aviator who has been sent to the front for act- ive duty. Over a million and a half women in the United States are engaged in agricultural pursuits: Female mill operators in the Bom- bay cotton mills earn about $90 a year in wages. Sixty new trades, heretofore mainly German industries, are now being taught women in England. Marriage licenses cost ten cents more in New York now -since the new war revenue tax has gone into effeelt. Chicago'•s municipal bureau of fire prevention has put its. stamp of disapproval on girl ushers in the theatres, .Battalions of Chinese women are ready at all times to aid in uphold- ing the Celestial republic in ease of war. In Australia male and female operators in the government ser- vioe of :the same grade and skill are paid equal wages. The wardrobe of Queen Alexan- dre of England hasbeen insured against tlie tisk of damage by air- craft to the extent of $300,000. Mrs. Havelock Ellis, wife of the famous English psychologist, says th't the war- has pot an end tomilitancy as a suffrage weapon. Girls of the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen are seriously handi- capped owing to their inability to "It is very essential to distinguish between the first facts and any previous !political theorde•s one may happen to entertain. One may say that the Servians are really bad enough to do anything -or that the 4.ustrians are good enough to do anything. One may hold that those who seem to be the injured party are really the aggressors, since it isn't at all inconvenient that peo • ple might enter into an elaborate conspiracy to get hit! In this way the, •story may be subtle. "But in the ordinary sense, in which we speak of common daily occurrences like theft and mur- der, the story is not subtle at all. Thus any one may maintain, if he so' chooses, that the real motive of, the British Ministers was not the defence of Belgian neutrality but the desire to crush the German feet. But no one can saythat the British did in fact invade Denmark and seize the Ki.ei Canal, which would probably have crushed the German fleet forever. In the same dead light of plain facts the Ger- Mans ,certainly did invade Belgium to' seize the open road to Paris. '"Three people bad entered into a solemn engagemaent with regard to certain email u5itates; two of them kept it because it was obligatory, the third broke it because it was convenient. Human motives must always be mysterious and mixed and. they can be interpreted on either. side. But the fats are not myst dieous, and they are all. • on our side, "Even'if we refer to the Seeba Austrian quarrel, 'which began the business, we find that the su:spi- secure dancing shoes manufactured mons -are di,stineely vaguer on the in Paris. one side than are the grievances on THOUGHTS FOR TIIE DAY. I do not, think the Kaiser will ever he allowed -to come to Britain again, or that he will ever want to. -Mr. Merton, M.P. Chivalry means far more than re- verence of men for women. It means reverence of strength for weakness wheresoever found. -Gannett. Public life is a situation of power and energy ; he trespasses against his duty who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he that goes over to the enemy. --Burke. •I do not 'think it is too much to say that in no part of Canada is the British settler more fairly treated and more welcome than he is in parts of Queibee.--A. B. Tucker. For those of us who do not take to doing good as aprofession there is a. great deal of "social good to be done in hitting down gossip, in pre- venting misunderstandings, and in keeping friends with everybody. - Jewett. Germany and Germany alone is responsible for this terrible war, whish she is carrying on with a fero-. eity and a brutality that has scan- dalized Christendom, and placed a blot that will last to eternity on her. escutcheon. -Sir Frederick 1llilner. Edwards -Will you dine with. as ' this evening? We are ;going to have a pheasant. Eaton -And how many guests ? HAM NH GRAT CARE MITI! t4i'1a1 ES: OF fl➢: � �. 'ITU1 le $ :,-l< Ot1'1'i';x • .%. %Vorltsuan Writes of flit; Expo: i, e it'0 in an Fiseiesiv ;-4 Factory, When 1 first went 'to weak ire en explosives -factory I thought it sill,' to have to take off any boots and don sot -soled shoes, bort .'1 eerie learnt the reason, eves eewriter in London Answers. It is this --a nail in the aol:e of the boot is very dangerous. The fric- tion caused by that nail rubbing against ,something might blow you and your ooxnpani,ons :l:y ina.gh. Up in the Air. The buildings where the nitro- glycerine is manufactured are all at different levels, and all are sur- rounded by mighty earth embank- ments green with grans. All you can see over the sides of these embank- ments are just the reofe of these houses, and the houses theanselves are made of wood. Even iron nails axe not used; the frames are held together either by wooden pegs or brass nails. When there is an explosion in • of these houses the roof, as a r goes right up in the air, and wooden walls collapse ; and. though that building itself is r . ed, the strong emba+nl ment 1 vents the explosion from damaging and .spreading to the 'ether build- ings. Although I have beaat at this ex- plosive business some years I find the prooess of making nitro- glycer-ine still interests me. The nitrating house is where the Paroe.es3 begins,. and if you hunted round the build- ing with a magnify ng -glass it would puzzle you ta_F finer a bit of grit. In this building i, a .lar, tank of lead containing a mixture of sul- phuric and nitric aeills, and into this the glycerine ix .ati,n-wed to flow. A man watches tie liquid through a'glass windo.w '?r into the top •of the tank, and ko ps the mix- ture agitated by nseaan,a of powerful currents of compres,a,r gar. He has to keep hie ¢;ye on the thervnometer, to keep the heat down, for wahieli purpose. ab Constant stream of cold water .circulates about the tank, Through the •1's1n. In -about half an lour the mix- ture has become saw sxitro-glyeer- ine: . it is of .a pale ;yellow color, and the glycerine ii"erx it a sweet taste and a heavy, oily. consistency. A tap is turned, ;and the mixture flows from the nitrating house though wooden pipes, which are lined with lead, to the separating - house. It is here that the mixture reaches its arnost daatgero,usa stage, The waste acicS. are allowed to drain away from tape expliosive, and, as they do so. a scan w+asati:he,s very carefully to see that the tempera- ture does not get too 'high. As it reaches the danger point it begins to give off vivid red furies -.a real . danger -signal. When you see t.t se f,z.,aes, you have to increase the ,xamp.r>,seed air to try to keep them down, There is no time for dreaming.. You have got to keep very wide awake, and, if you cannot lower the tean:pera- ture sufficiently, >tbea ;tion must jump to the tap:which, tabs the nitro- glycerine run into the ,dreswninia tank -a large. coo4og oistp rn an side. If you have managed to -wash stuff properly, you let it flow in the filter -house. where, it is careful, • &Paned :through two flannels and tested by the chemist, who draws some off in a rub -bar l,t,, k,xt. Too Great :h Watt,. If the eherni.st trace -1a+ lit, another tap is opened, and enough nitro- glycerine to blue t,aundcam tiff the face of the earth ie ,»1k, wed to flow to the settling teacake, *here all the water that reina ne clieifi to the sue, face. Then at last you have. the stuff that dynamite ;itis made of, • The nitro-gl,vcerine mixed with a special kind of earth, which soaks up three times it's ,own osight of liquid, and is then moulded into stacks. The ;special earth robs the nitro-glycerine of it+ .:iurarger, and makes it safe to handle --ea eat, that I have seen a man, light, :a, stick of dynamite ,and then calmly light his cigar with the burning esploeive All the . same, d woulder5 •t advise . ,you. to follow the weasai!a11e wit.hint thinking twiee. Wild-eyed Customer --1 want a quarter's worth of oa,rboTic acid. Clerk -This is a hardware store. Brit we have-er-.-•e, Ane line of ropes, revolvers and rasore: