3-021-546 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Isthmus of Suez Maritime Canal [in Egypt]: dredges and elevators at work, 1869. 'There is a different kind of mechanical apparatus, called the "drague à long couloir," which is used in immediate connection with the dredging-vessels, where the banks are not so high above the water...The dredges are furnished with iron buckets, fastened to an endless chain revolving over two drums; one being fixed at the end of a long movable arm, regulated by the depth at which the mud is scooped up; the other being at the top of a strong iron framework mounted upon the hull of the dredging-vessel...Each box of earth is lifted from the punt by a steel-wire rope, and placed on a truck which carries it to the upper end of the incline. Having reached this point the box is suspended vertically, when its end-door opens, so that it empties itself on the ground beneath. The empty box then runs down the other line of tramway, and is returned by the punt to the dredging-vessel...a steam-pump keeps a stream of water flowing through this channel, by which the dredged-up matter, when dropped into its upper end, is carried off and cast ashore on the bank of the canal...There are about sixty dredges still at work'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.