| Show WORLDS GREATEST GATES 1 ii t IN MAKING FOR BIG CANAL Panama Locks to Be Set With Titan a Portals That at Will i Resist Pres Pressure res tl sure 8 re of o Million i eon Pounds P T ITTS Pa Oct 20 The largest gates in the world are being haing made mads In for the Panama canal Any Anyone one of or the 92 of them for I there thre are 46 pairs in all will be he about as high as a six tory building 66 65 feet wide and seven seven feet thick The structural steel that will go to make them will weigh 6 OPO tons or more than eight times as much as was used to tob build b the Eiffel tower The mighty portals designed to ad admit admit admit mit a worlds commerce from one ocean to another must I lUit withstand a tide of criticism as wet welt well as aa a tremendous tremendous tremendous dous pressure of water and possible ul convulsions of earth For years yearn the controversy over oyt r gates sates or for no n gates eaten gat locks Jocks or has been the divid dividing ing ln issue of ot the canal pr In the face of fear tear in some acme sOl le quarters that the foundations on the future us are arc not sure enough for tor looks that 1 earthquakes or water pressure would them and antI that an enemy enem e mines or accidental explosions nufi DI il l j i easily destroy them the government IJ 1 t halbe un tO t build the gates gatos The Tho Tit cost will ba be b The I I builders bunders art arc arthe the Marshall Steel Construction company compan a half halt of ot whose wl olle independent plant pant hero here has ball i j jJ J been given art over oyer entirely to the gate contract Of ot the tons ton of steel suel required the th heaviest havis single pieces wilt will weigh about Ik i tuns luns ns These Thes will willbe willlie IU IUbe be lie the base girders which are aN seven feet wide and which will be lie placed pla d much like the first floor I girders of a skyscraper sky craper The series of ot girders above aboe them will 11 range from hA 31 f fr i t apart near the bottom to five feet apart at tits tha lops tops and over the k 1 structure gluts i formed form J it n 1 1 f t water ii ight i ht arm arni armr r ilai wH wI be b t halted much after afier the Hk th f of t cat irda on a hous houst Ti t I f m r n latee Ites wilt will range rang from an inch at ac tnt ins base to 1119 7 id of at an inch at the top op The weight of ut a Ingle single gate will Ii be about abou 1 i l lI I Continued on en Page Five l p J e WORLDS GREATEST i GATES FOR PANAMA Continued from Faze fast One tons and the tIme dimensions are 77 to SJ 22 8 feet high 60 to 65 feet wide and 7 feet thick The thousands of Individual pieces i numbered and fitted to tu go together like childrens blocks will wilt be shipped by b steamer via Baltimore and with them will go four hundred skilled structural steel builders from Pitta burg to set them up The Tue advance guard of experts leaves here in De December December December cember and the first work probably will vilL begin early in 1911 It will win take three years eara to com corn complete the job The location of the t e pairs of ot gates will be twenty twenty ty t at the Gatun dam darn on the Pacific side twelve at Pedro Miguel and fourteen at Miraflores near the At Atlantic Atlantie lantic lantie entrance The gates are de designed designed designed signed to hold back water H i feet teet deep In a channel feet teet wide which means a pressure of a million pounds Engineers point out that even oven if jf a tremendous explosion or earthquake should damage or destroy destro one or more sets sels of gates no great disaster would ensue for tor all an locks are arc to be made in duplicate to accommodate traffic In both directions at once and the wreck wreckage wreckage wreckage age of one set of locks locke would only necessitate the diversion of commerce I Into another set But violent earthquakes have not occurred in the Panama region for wore ore than two centuries and It would require a mighty siege for an enemy to destroy the locks Each lock will wilt be ample for a ship EO 60 per cent larger than any vessel now afloat and it has been estimated that as IS many as a hundred ocean ships may ma be handled in I a single Ingle day dayS S I |
