DREDGING 



1857 



DRED SCOTT DECISION 



Those dreams, that on the silent night intrude. 

 And with false flitting shades our minds delude, 

 Jove never sends us downward from the skies ; 

 Nor can they from infernal mansions rise ; 

 But are all mere productions from the brain, 

 And fools consult interpreters in vain. 



As Dr. Sigmund Freud explains them, dreams 

 are the sleeping mental fulfilment of the 

 unexpressed wishes or desires of the ones who 

 are dreaming. Also they may have a physical 

 cause, as a sensation of cold while sleeping 

 may cause one to dream of snow storms and 

 freezing. An uncomfortable position or 

 strained muscles may cause a dream of falling 

 or struggling. An undigested meal may bring 

 the most horrible of all dreams, a nightmare 

 (which see). Dreams may indicate the condi- 

 tion of a person's health, for the more dreams 

 of which one is conscious the less sound and 

 beneficial is the sleep. It is believed that sleep 

 is rarely free from dreams, although we may 

 not be conscious of them or recall them later. 



Day-dreams are mental, unproductive imagi- 

 nings of the mind awake, and dreamland, a 

 fairyland place of delightful fancies. It is said 

 that Coleridge composed Kubla Khan, a beauti- 

 ful fragment of a poem, while partially asleep. 



DREDGING, drej'ing, the operation of re- 

 moving obstructions from the bottom of rivers, 

 harbors, channels and other bodies of water to 

 render them navigable. The machines per- 

 forming this work are known as dredges, and 



A DIPPER DREDGE 



they operate beneath the water on the principle 

 governing the work of steam shovels on land. 

 The first dredge operated by steam power was 

 used in England in 1796. It consisted of an 

 endless chain to which a number of iron buck- 

 ets were attached. The chain revolved in a 

 framework, the lower end of which was placed 

 in the water at such a depth that the buckets, 

 while in motion, caught on the bottom and 

 became filled with the substance to be removed. 

 117 



Barges were stationed close to the dredge to 

 receive the contents from the buckets. 



The accompanying illustration shows the 

 most effective form of a modern dipper dredge. 

 It is really a combination of crane and shovel 

 mounted on a strongly constructed barge. The 

 upright masts support an arm, or derrick, 

 which may be swung in a semi-circle like the 

 boom of a crane. The dipper consists of a 

 metal scoop or box open at the top and closed 

 by a door at the bottom. This dipper is low- 

 ered to the bottom and drawn forward with a 

 scooping motion by means of cables which 

 pass over the wheels at the end of the boom. 

 The dipper is gradually raised until it is clear 

 of the water. The boom is then swung until 

 the dipper rests immediately over a barge 

 placed to receive its contents. The door at the 

 bottom is opened by means of a cord attached 

 to a spring fastening and the dipper is emptied. 

 The capacity of the dippers vary, some raising 

 only two or three cubic yards of mud, while 

 the largest, such as were employed in the con- 

 struction of the Panama Canal, have a capacity 

 of eight and one-fourth cubic yards. 



DRED SCOTT DECISION, the conclusion of 

 a noted case bearing on slavery, argued in 1855 

 and 1856 in the United States Supreme Court. 

 This decision, which was announced on March 

 6, 1857, by Chief Justice Taney, was of vital 

 importance, because of its influence upon the 

 spread of slavery. Dred Scott, the plaintiff, 

 was a slave of an army officer of Missouri. His 

 owner took him to the free state of Illinois and 

 then to Minnesota, where by the Missouri 

 Compromise (which see), slavery was forbid- 

 den; in 1838 he was taken back to Missouri, a 

 slave tate. 



Scott subsequently learned that by previous 

 decisions of the Missouri courts his residence 

 in a free state made him a free man, and he 

 sued for his freedom in 1848, the local court of 

 Saint Louis County giving a verdict in his 

 favor. The state Supreme Court reversed the 

 decision, and this decision was upheld by the 

 United States Supreme Court, which declared 

 that a slave was merely a chattel and a citizen 

 had the right to take his property wherever he 

 chose, provided it was within the jurisdiction 

 of the United States. The court also decided 

 that no negro could be a citizen of the United 

 States and therefore would have no rights in a 

 court of law. By this decision slavery was 

 practically admitted to every state and terri- 

 tory in the Union; it increased the teuse feel- 

 ing between ( the sections and proved one- of 



