3-021-621 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The new overland route to India and the railway tunnel of the Alps: amalgamation of the second and third working galleries, 1869. 'Two lines of rail are laid down upon the floor of the tunnel, along which trains of waggons, drawn by horses, bring in the implements or materials for the work, and carry out the fragments of stone and rubbish from the excavation...As the work progresses, the three galleries are enlarged by manual labour, and thrown into one broad and lofty excavation...an iron frame or carriage, travelling along the rails and coming up close to the uncut face of the rock, holds some rather complex machinery, which has a two-fold action - namely, that of a piston in a cylinder for propelling, somewhat like a popgun, the boring tool against the rock; and, secondly, a rotary action, which at the same time works the valve of the propelling cylinder - an ingenious combination - and gives a twist to the boring tool when it enters the rock at each successive stroke.... the workmen are often naked to the waist...The work never ceases, day or night, the men being divided into three gangs or "shifts," who labour each eight hours at a time. They are strong, sturdy, thickset Piedmontese, indefatigable in their sober good-humour'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.