1882.] on the MaJcing and Working of a Channel Tunnel, 141 



the train being full of smugglers, it may be they go to the nearest 

 fortress and bring down a regiment or two of soldiers ; but in any 

 event it seems to me that the smugglers would be very badly off, and 

 if there had been a still more numerous body of smugglers needing 

 a second train, that second train when it arrived near the mouth of 

 the tunnel would find itself barred by the inner gate, and the occu- 

 pants of it could not afford much aid to their comrades who were 

 already caged in the custom house. 



I have said I undertook not to enter into any contentious matter, 

 but nobody has suggested that there is any danger of smuggling, and 

 I have thought therefore nobody could be offended at my proposal 

 of a means of putting a stop to it, should any one hereafter suggest, 

 that among the dangers arising from a Channel tunnel is that of the 

 surreptitious introduction of goods. 



Such an arrangement as I have described would, it seems to me, 

 be free from any one of the three objections urged against other 

 plans for stopping the advent of undesirable persons. It will be 

 seen that as the apparatus must be worked at the passage of every 

 train, it would escaiDO objection No. 1, which is, that any special 

 arrangement to be employed only on an emergency would be of no 

 service when that emergency arose, because from want of use, it would 

 be sure to be out of order. Further, from the circumstance of this 

 habitual use it would escape objection No. 2, which is, that when the 

 special arrangement was needed on an emergency, even if it were not 

 out of order, it would be practically useless, because the men, not 

 being in the habit of working it, would lose their presence of mind, 

 and would fail to do the right thing at the right time ; and lastly, 

 this same habitual employment of the apparatus to every train would 

 get over the third objection, for it would prevent the suggestion being 

 made that any one train was treated with suspicion, while previous 

 trains had been allowed to pass unchallenged, as by the plan I 

 proj)Ose all trains would be treated alike and no invidious distinctions 

 would be made. 



Moreover, there would be no loss of time, as there would be no 

 delay beyond that which must occur somewhere for custom house 

 purposes. 



Bear with me for another minute while I describe to you a very 

 simple but effectual arrangement which might be used as an adjunct 

 to tiie double-grated station. Let there be made at the end of the 

 tunnel, just before it reached the bottom of the shaft, a turntable, say 

 100 feet in diameter and 10 or 20 feet below the level of the tunnel ; 

 on this turntable place a cylindrical block of concrete, say 35 to 

 40 feet high, and cased all round in armour plate, and line the tunnel 

 at each side of this circular block with armour-plate. Through the 

 concrete block and its armour-plate let the tunnel be carried, so that, 

 when the turntable with its block of armour-cased concrete stood in 

 one position, the tunnel would be continuous, straight through the 

 concrete block, but, when the turntable was revolved one quarter of a 



