sarcastic. He assails the opinion of the commissioners that "the loss of
power by carrying the compressed air through five miles of pipe will be
quite insignificant;" and after asserting that there are no _data_ by
which to test the correctness of this opinion, and claiming "some
experience in such matters," prefers that such an "_experiment_" should
be tried with somebody's money besides his own. It is gratifying to
learn from Mr. Bird, himself, that he he has had experience in the
matter of compressed air as a motive power, and that a "cussed
furriner," as he elegantly phrases it is not to be allowed to bear off
the palm of this great discovery uncontested. Doubtless M. Sommeiller
will yield to the superior science and sagacity of Mr. Bird; but our
countryman should lose no time in informing his fellow citizens of his
investigations, experiments and success in arriving at the conclusion
that compressed air cannot "be carried through five miles of pipe
without a very serious loss of power through friction, leakage, &c."
But, unfortunately for this view of the case, there are data
establishing the fact that compressed air has been conveyed through more
than two miles of pipe at Mt. Cenis, and then operated the drills
without any appreciable loss of power. If there is no loss in two miles,
how can there be in five? It is no longer an experiment, but an
established scientific fact.
The size of the present excavation next engages the attention of our
observer, and he calls the commissioners to account because they have
not followed their own recommendation to excavate the Tunnel to its full
dimensions as the work proceeds. Since their recommendation was made in
the winter of 1863, the commissioners have had much experience, and the
price of labor has doubled. Only a small number of men can work on a
heading, but when a heading has been advanced a large number of workmen
can follow rapidly in enlarging the excavation, and will soon overtake
those engaged on the heading. At Mt. Cenis, the pneumatic drills are
only used on the heading, and the enlargement is done by numerous
laborers with hand drills. It is apparent that the commissioners have
been actuated solely by motives of economy in prosecuting the heading
alone, at the present high rates of labor. The work of enlargement is
comparatively easy and rapid, and might well await a decline in the cost
of labor, though it must be admitted that the importance of completing
this noble work, ought to outweigh the consideration of _any possible_
cost.
On the subject of pneumatic drills, Mr. Bird is emphatic. He says, "no
intelligent man puts the slightest confidence in the successful working
of any borer, or drill, in the rock of the Hoosac Mountain, unless
operated by hand. In a strictly homogeneous rock, machine drills might
work, but in a rock like the Hoosac, where the drills, working generally
in a comparatively soft material, are liable at any moment to strike
veins of quartz, and where a part of the hole will be in the slate and
the rest in quartz, no machine drill has yet been found to stand." This
reckless and false assertion is made in utter defiance of Mr. Storrow's
report and all other authorities upon the Alps Tunnel, which has now
been excavated nearly four miles with machine drills on the heading. Mr.
Storrow says that masonry is used because the rock "is not homogeneous
in character. I stood at the front of the machines, watching them for
three quarters of an hour. One drill was driving directly into hard
quartz, advancing very slowly, and making the sparks fly at every
stroke. Others working in softer spots, were cutting rapidly."
Mr. Bird has much to learn about pneumatic drills, and, without going
beyond the borders of Massachusetts, he can see a drill operate by
compressed air, so indifferent as to the character of the rock it works
upon, that it will penetrate the hardest granite and the composite rock
of the Hoosac with the same facility, and at a rate which would astonish
even M. Sommeiller.
The figures upon which Bird bases a "calculation" as to the time of
completing the Tunnel, are as far from being correct as his general
statements are from the truth. One example is enough to illustrate, and
by this the reader may fairly judge what the "calculation" is worth. He
says the total length of the Tunnel is 24,586 feet, when the _fact_ is
that it is 25,586 feet. This is no mistake of the printer, for the
figures repeatedly occur in the pamphlet, and always the same; and it is
with this gross blunder that the "calculation" sets out. The truth is
that any careful reader of this article, is a Better judge of the whole
subject than Mr. Bird, because he will have reliable dates, facts and
figures, by the aid of which he can make a calculation for himself, or'
form an opinion as to the time within which the work can be done, which
will be quite as likely to be correct as any, "I undertake to say," of
the oracular Bird.
On the 1st of December, 1865, the penetration at the East end was 2904
feet; at the East heading of Western shaft, 414 feet; West heading of
same shaft, 280 feet; at West end heading, 756--in the whole, 4354 feet.
The central shaft had been sunk two hundred and twenty feet. The average
progress on this shaft during the months of August, September, October
and November was 18 3-4 feet per month. Assuming this for the average in
December, January and February the shaft was 275 feet deep, on the 1st
of March, the whole depth to grade being 1037 feet. The average progress
on the East face of Western shaft was sixty-three feet per month.
Allowing that average for December, January and February, and the
penetration on this face is now more than 600 feet. The average on East
end was forty-four feet. Add this average for the last three months, and
the penetration at this end is now 3036 feet, and the total penetration
4675 feet, with 575 feet of shaft sunk.
Mr. Laurie states in his report that in the ten tunnels which he names,
in this country and Europe, the average progress made on each face from
a shaft was thirty-eight feet, and on the end faces fifty-four feet per
month. Let the intelligent man who forms opinions and conclusions for
himself, compare the statistics which have been given in the course of
this writing in relation to tunneling in Europe and in this country, and
then, taking into consideration the inadequate means which have, until
recently, been applied to the Hoosac enterprise, and surveying the
progress which has been made whenever the work was prosecuted with
vigor, let him judge how soon, and at what cost, the Tunnel may be
completed, even without the aid of machine drills.
The concluding pages of the pamphlet contain a general charge against
the commissioners, or rather Mr. Brooks, the chairman, of mismanagement.
The only "_illustrations_" of this charge are, first, that Mr. Brooks
declined to sell the 3,000 tons of railroad iron which had been
purchased, and distributed along the graded track from Greenfield to the
mountain, and "other saleable property;" second, that he has
"disregarding the advice of others, whose judgment was entitled to
weight, put his own constructions upon the acts of the Legislature
relating to the powers and duties of the commissioners, in opposition to
the construction and in defiance of the orders of the Executive
Council;" third, he has seriously contemplated "the amazing folly of
building the railroad from Greenfield to the mountain!"
It is gratifying to know from more reliable authority than the
intimation of Mr. Bird, that Mr. Brooks did justify the opinion which is
generally entertained, of his good sense and judgment, by contemplating
that "amazing folly," and the only evidence of serious mismanagement on
his part, which Mr. Bird can produce, is that he did not, at once
execute his purpose, lay the rails and put the road in operation from
Greenfield to the mountain. The additional facilities which the
completion of this road would have afforded for expediting the work, and
reducing its cost, are too obvious to be enumerated. The extent and
value of the resources and material of the region through which the road
passes, and the importance of their speedy development, have already
been shown. The distance from Greenfield to the mountain is about thirty
miles, by a very uneven and hilly road; and yet, in 1861, the amount of
freight transported over it, was 12,350 tons, and the freight and livery
receipts were nearly $50,000. With a good railroad in operation, in the
place of a rugged highway, and the summer travel which it would induce,
there can be no doubt whatever, that the local business alone would
afford receipts very far beyond the estimates, upon which it is presumed
the offer of the Fitchburg and Vermont and Massachusetts companies to
take a lease of the road was based, that is, $21,500 a year more than
running expenses.
Whether Mr. Brooks is responsible for the delay in putting the road
under contract, and for the waste and damage which have resulted from a
neglect of three years, or whether Mr. Bird _did_ succeed, while a
member of the Council, in procuring an absolute injunction, the public
cannot now well determine, for, as the reader has already observed, Bird
declares that Mr. Brooks had absolute power, that the whole
responsibility rests with him, and yet boasts that he "did something"
towards preventing the completion of the road.
* * * * *
Since the foregoing pages were written, Mr Bird has published and
distributed another pamphlet, the remarkable audacity of which
challenges our attention. If one half of the assertions it contains were
true, if one half of its calculations and estimates could be
demonstrated, the Hoosac Tunnel ought to be abandoned at once, as the
greatest folly of the nineteenth century, and its ruins sacredly
preserved as a monument to coming generations of a monstrous popular
delusion: and if the epithets--swindlers, tricksters, liars, plunderers,
thieves, ingrates, rascals, traitors and fools--which Mr. F. W. Bird, of
Walpole, so freely and indiscriminately applies to everybody who has
advocated or favored the building of this Tunnel, were deserved; then a
very large proportion of several legislatures, a majority of several
executive councils, and many distinguished citizens and state officers,
including the late governor and attorney general, ought to be lodged for
the remainder of their days either in the state prison, or the asylums
for idiots.
This last publication of Bird's is mainly a repetition, "with
embellishments," of his previous pamphlet, with the addition of a
preface purporting to be the history of tunnel legislation to the
beginning of the present year, a string of calculations and conjectures
as to the capacity of the Western Railroad to transport ( provided it
were properly managed, and the double track completed) all the Western
freight and travel for all future time, and several pages of coarse
denunciation of Mr. Brooks, chairman of the Tunnel Commissioners, and
the manner in which he has managed the trust committed to him. The
subdivisions of these subjects are:--
1st. Tunnel Legislation. 2d. Abuse of Mr. Brooks. 3d. Power Drills. 4th.
The Deerfield Dam. 5th. "Porridge." 6th. The Western compared with the
Tunnel line. 7th. The Possible Capacity of the Western Road. 8th. The
Cost and Time required to Complete the Tunnel.
It is not our purpose to expose _all_ the misrepresentations and
perversion of facts to which Mr. Bird has resorted in the treatment of
his subject; but only enough of them to show what disreputable means the
foes of the Tunnel are capable of using in order to deceive the
community. Late results in the progress of work at the mountain, and in
the perfection of machinery, will enable us to illustrate the utter
absurdity of several of the most important of Mr. Bird's calculations,
or rather speculations, and enable the reader to judge what reliance can
be placed upon any of them.
In a review of the history of tunnel legislation, as given in this
pamphlet, passing by the frequent charges of "packed committees,"
"deceived legislatures," and "tricks of legislative legerdemain," we
come to an account of the Act of April, 1862, by which it appears that
the bill passed was not materially different from that prepared by Mr.
Bird, and offered by Mr. Swan. It was _entitled_, "An Act for the More
Speedy Completion of the Hoosac Tunnel," yet the anti-tunnel league
considered its passage "a substantial defeat of the scheme," because
they believed that Governor Andrew "was opposed to the Tunnel," and
would appoint commissioners whose opinions were in harmony with his own.
And the virtuous and honest member of the "Third House," through whose
adroit management, a bill bearing a title so inconsistent with its
purpose, was framed, affects a pious horror of legislative trickery!
Whatever Mr. Bird may have to say upon any of his various topics, he
never forgets to abuse Mr. Brooks; "_Carthago delenda est_" at any rate;
and he returns to the assault at the beginning or end of almost every
chapter, with renewed spitefulness. On page 21 it is represented that
Mr. Laurie, the engineer who had been designated by the governor and
council to make surveys, had a personal interview with Mr. Brooks, and
that the following colloquy took place:--
"I am here, Mr. Brooks, to make the surveys ordered." "What order?
What surveys?" "The surveys ordered by the governor and council."
"I have ordered no surveys and want none. When I need your services
I will send for you. Go about your business."
Even those who have never reckoned Mr. Bird a man of strict veracity
will be surprised to learn that this story is a pure fabrication, that
no such conversation, and no such interview ever took place. The
communications between the two gentlemen were a letter from Mr. Laurie,
who was at Hartford, and a reply by telegraph from Mr. Brooks, who was
in Boston. Mr. Laurie wrote,--"Presuming that you wish me to make these
surveys, I will come to Boston," &c. Mr. Brooks telegraphed,--"The new
survey has not been acted upon by commissioners."
On the same page of the pamphlet it is stated that Mr. Brooks, not being
satisfied with Mr. Laurie's conclusions, "demanded the suppression of
some portions of the report, and the modification of others." "Mr.
Laurie, after making such concessions as he could honestly make,
resolutely refused to yield to Mr. Brooks' imperious demands upon
material points." Now' this representation is just as false as the story
about the colloquy. Mr. Brooks did not make any such demands. An
exposure of both these fabrications is made in a communication to the
Boston Advertiser of March 10th, which contains copies of all the
correspondence on these subjects, between Mr. Brooks and Mr. Laurie.
On page 23, we are requested to "look at the item of the amount of the
people's money applied by _Mr. Brooks_ to the payment of Mr. Haupt's
debts," than which "there never was a more atrocious swindle." By
referring to the records of the executive council for May, June and July
of 1863, it will be seen that the subject of paying these claims was
referred to a committee of the council, consisting of Alfred Hitchcock,
F. W. Bird and Joel Hayden for special investigation. Upon the question
of the meaning and intent of the Act of 1862, and its legal
interpretation, the committee took counsel of Dwight Foster, Emory
Washburn, and Isaac R. Redfield, lawyers who had been designated by the
governor, as a commission to whom should be referred such questions upon
legal points as might arise in prosecuting the work, and in accordance
with the advice of these gentlemen, and their own convictions, a
majority of the committee (Mr. Bird of course opposing) reported that
the claims ought to be paid. A majority of the council and the governor
being of the same opinion, the claims were paid. The part performed by
Mr. Brooks and his associates was merely to audit and allow them. They
could not draw a dollar from the state-treasury for any purpose except
upon the governor's warrant. _If_ the payment of these claims was "an
atrocious swindle," then the governor, a majority of his council, and
the three lawyers, as well as the commissioners, were the atrocious
swindlers. It would appear that the incorruptible and virtuous Bird was
the only person about the state house, at that time, who could make any
pretension to honesty or fidelity.
The motives of Mr. Bird, in these unscrupulous attempts to disparage the
judgment and asperse the character of Mr. Brooks are best known to
himself, but it will be remembered that when Mr. Brooks received his
appointment he was thought to be opposed to the tunnel enterprise. He
has proved to be one of its ablest and most resolute friends. The
disappointment and grief of Mr. Bird may have been rendered more
poignant by his defeat last fall as a candidate for the honor of
representing his district in the Legislature, a defeat which he has
publicly attributed to the opposition of Mr. Brooks.
The only noteworthy thing in this pamphlet concerning the Deerfield Dam,
is an absurd attempt to misrepresent the commissioners' report of its
cost. They state that it is $125,919.74. It was finished last fall. Mr.
Bird says "the dam will have cost when finished, at least $275,000," and
thereafter to the end of his chapter on that topic, assumes that sum to
be the actual cost. He obtains these figures by adding to the real cost
of the dam, that of all the canals; buildings and machinery which are
being constructed between the dam and the tunnel. He might, with equal
propriety, have added the cost of the Walpole meeting house, or that of
his own paper mill. In a supplementary note we are informed that the dam
across the Connecticut at Holyoke, 1017 feet long, cost about $115,000.
We may assume that Mr. Bird applies these figures to the present dam,
and not to the one which gave way some years since. The cost of the
first dam is not given, and the inquisitive reader might ask what that
was, or whether the $115,000 should not with more propriety be
considered as an expenditure for repairs of an old dam rather than the
cost of a new one. However that may be, the cost of labor and material
at the time the new dam was built, or the old one repaired, was less
than one half of the cost of labor and material, at any time since the
Deerfield dam was commenced. It is possible that a cheaper structure
might have been built, which would answer the purpose, but the
commissioners and their engineers, warned perhaps, by the Holyoke
disaster, may be excused for constructing a work that will not be washed
away, though done at some additional cost for its security.
If there is one thing which Mr. Bird absolutely loves it is "porridge,"
and he returns to this topic with great vivacity. It may be briefly
stated that in December last, after the heading from the West portal had
been carried forward 111 feet, progress was stopped by an inlet of water
from a brook overhead and a spring below. This water operating on the
rotten rock, produced what Mr. Bird calls "porridge." It was a
difficulty which had been foreseen, but was never regarded by the
commissioners or engineers as of a formidable character. Soon after work
was suspended at this point, responsible parties came forward with an
offer to construct an arch lined with solid masonry through the
"porridge" to the Western shaft, a distance of about 2000 feet, for less
than $700,000; and to furnish satisfactory security for the performance
of their contract. The offer was declined.
When Mr. Bird learned that work at this point was suspended, he became
jubilant. He has filled ten pages of his two pamphlets with "porridge,"
and excited some fears on the part of his friends that the stuff has
found access to the thinking part of his own person, and "muddled" it
badly. But of this the reader may judge by noting on page 34 of the last
pamphlet an assertion that the distance from the West portal to the
shaft is all demoralized rock; and on pages 36 and 37 a calculation that
it will cost $5,430,300 _in gold_, to construct this section of 2000
feet! But "porridge" is unreliable, and that at the Hoosac, has given
out; and so Mr. Bird's hopes and calculations, which were based upon it,
fall to the ground. Work has been recently resumed, and twenty-seven
feet beyond the point at which it was discontinued, solid rock was
reached, in which the workmen are now drilling and blasting without
molestation or fear of "porridge." The brook is passed, and in the
artesian well about half way from the portal to the shaft, solid rock
has been reached at 130 feet above grade. "Porridge" has served its
friends a mean trick and "well might _Mr. Bird_ exclaim in the language
of Woolsey (slightly altered,)"
"Had I but served _the truth_ with half the zeal
I served my _porridge_, _it_ would not, in my need,
Have left me naked to mine enemies."
The theoretical capacity of the Western Railroad is a fruitful subject
for speculations and array of figures, but facts and demonstrated truths
are what practical men wish to deal with. A comparison of the Tunnel and
Western lines is of no significance, when both are urgently needed. In
1847, when the Western Road was opened to Albany, it transported from
Albany to Boston 88,438 tons of freight, and last year, only 87,254
tons, 1184 tons less. Yet in 1847 it had no double track, and in 1865 it
had 116 miles of double track. The greatest tonnage was 116,288, in
1864: and that same year, 588,207 tons of through Eastward freight
arrived at Albany and Troy, and the total amount to those two points was
3,866,025; nearly three fourths of which was transported on the Erie
canal, an institution which is entirely left out of Mr. Bird's
calculations. More than six million tons of freight were brought from
the West last year to the Hudson river. Of this vast amount only a
little more than one sixtieth found its way to Boston over the Western
Road. In 1864, 471,919 tons of freight were transported from Albany and
Troy to Boston by the circuitous routes we have mentioned.
Mr. Bird makes a calculation that the capacity of the Western Road can
be so increased, by finishing the double track, increasing the rolling
stock and adding special auxiliary force to draw its freight trains up
the steep grades, that it can bring 1,797,120 tons of freight in a year.
It may be presumed that he means both local and through freight. But his
"calculation" is as baseless and flimsy as any of his numerous
statistical bubbles which have already been pricked. The best answer to
his whole argument is contained in a memorial of the Albany Board of
Trade to our legislature, with some extracts from which, our review of
this topic will be closed. But a few more of Mr. Bird's
misrepresentations must first be exposed. On page 56 he represents Mr.
Brooks as claiming that the whole through freight from the West to
Boston_ eight years hence_, will amount to 448,101 tons. This estimate
was made three years ago, and the words "eight years hence" were used at
that time, and not now, as Mr. Bird represents.
On page 50, is a list of names purporting to have been taken from the
original subscription list of stockholders in the Troy and Greenfield
Railroad. Mr. Otis Clapp is represented as having subscribed $200 in
"services;" and Daniel S. Richardson's name is appended, with ciphers
and exclamation points. The first of these misrepresentations has been
exposed by Mr. Clapp, who writes to the Boston Advertiser that he never
charged the company for any service, nor was ever credited by them for
services, but that he did subscribe and pay $1151.43 for stock of the
road. Mr. Richardson also writes to the Advertiser, and mildly suggests
that he was never in any way connected with the Troy and Greenfield
Railroad. On page 51, E. H. Derby is represented as being president of
the Fitchburg Railroad a pure fabrication; and Alvah Crocker as having
"large investments" in the same road, when its books show that at that
time he owned but six shares of stock. The truth is, Mr. Bird has no
hesitation or scruple in using other people's names in the same manner
as he uses figures and statistics in his calculations.