Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

TRANSPORTATION CANALS OF THE UNITED STATES. 169 beneath through the tube into the other caisson. The locks change position, and per- mit the gates to be opened and the vessel or vessels to be floated out. A lock of this type is being constructed at another point on the Erie Canal—namely, at END VIEW OF A SUCTION DREDGER. Pipes for delivering the spoil on to the banks seen in the background. Cohoes, New York—to take the place of a series of four- teen of the old-style locks, and will have power to lift eighty Mogul locomotives. It is said that five hundred of these heavy locomotives could be lifted by this device if need be. A detailed inspection of the the numerous contracts let for this great work would offer excellent object lessons Modern Canal Machinery. to engineering sceptics. The various contractors engaged upon the work are assem- bling modern machinery most suited to the various plans of the work, instead of employ- ing makeshift equipment to do work other than that for which it was intended. For instance, dry earth and rock excavations are handled by steam shovels ; Page scraper buckets throw up levees and excavate prisms in earth sections ; hard subaqueous rock is carried away by orange-peel buckets and dipper dredges ; soft subaqueous material by hydraulic and ladder dredges ; and so on. Most of the mate- rials encountered — varying from soft sand and clays of all kinds to cemented gravel— can be handled by the hydraulic dredge known as the “ Gey- ser.” These machines have cutters weighing 7,000 lbs. each, and are driven by a double 10 x 12-inch engine of 65 horse-power. They THE EFFECTS OF THE LÜBECKER EXCAVATOR. prosecution of can dig 18 feet below water-level, discharging material through 1,500 feet of 20-inch pipe to a height of 25 feet above water. The pump is connected to a Qeysers- triple expansion marine engine of 450 nom- inal and 550 overload horse-power. The swing bridges along the canal are oper- ated in most cases by electricity. Another interesting detail of the work now in progress is the pile-driving equipment.