Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/214

Rh that the water must have run in at least at the rate of 27,000 gallons per minute, or 16,000 gallons more than we had pumping-power to lift.

Having thus obtained a fairly accurate measurement of the quantity of water we had to contend with, I again engaged the services of Lambert, the diver who had on a previous occasion closed the door in the long heading, as well as the use of one of Fleuss’s diving dresses, in which he had previously done the work. On the 29th he tried to reach the door in the Fleuss dress, but found it impossible to do so.

I think at the time his health was bad, as he had just returned from Australia, where he had been engaged in raising a vessel, the Austral, in Sydney harbour.

On the 30th, however, assisted by two other divers, he went up again, dressed in his ordinary dress, and this time succeeded in closing the door.

By the 3rd November the pumps had again entirely cleared the tunnel of water, and the Great Spring was imprisoned, as it had been in January, 1881.

On the 12th October, just when the water of the Great Spring had gained its highest level and wholly drowned the works at Sudbrook and under the river, the largest of the pumps at 5 miles 4 chains broke, and in a few hours that pit also was drowned, and the works full of water.

At 7 p.m. on the 17th October, the night-shift,