Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/553

 Popular Science Moiithh/

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���BOILER HOUSE-' .t SUPPLIES STEAM ft FOR ROCK DRILLS

���There will be nothing left to injure the bottom plates of vessels. In the oval : The river is shown re- entering the exca- vation after com- pletion of work

��the Black Rock Dam, near Buffalo, it was necessary to ha\e three fifteen-inch wrecking pumps in continual operation. To-day the drained area on the east side of the Hudson is noisy with an incessant chorus of drills, with the oc- casional counterpoint of a heavy blast. When the carving of the slips or water- ways is completed, there will be no ob- structions to injure the bottom plates of

��vessels floating there. The piers will be one thousand and fifty feet in length, and one hundred and fifty feet in width. One interesting feature about the piers is that only a small part of their length will be supported by actual con- tact with the underlying rock. The re- mainder will float, and the anchorage will be the grip which the piles have on the semi-fluid mud of tl^e river bottom.

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