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; 
i would not give the same education to the engineer that you would give to the 
é 
pps Fs 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 187 
suming that the stratum is found to be so favourable as to admit of an uninter- 
rupted daily progress of two to three yards being made at each face (a rate of pro- 
gress which is beyond my experience), twenty years will be absorbed in this trial 
only, and the two millions to be expended will become nearly three millions, by the 
addition of interest. Assuming the trial heading to be completed, and that ar- 
rangements had been made for working the main tunnel from as many as ten faces 
(four intermediate points and the two ends), and assuming the same absence of 
contingencies and an unbroken period of peace, a progress of 20 yards per week is 
the greatest that can be anticipated ; but for the purpose of my argument I will 
assume the progress to be 30 lineal yards per week. Upon this basis an additional 
period of twenty-five years will be required to complete the main tunnel. By that 
time the three millions expended in forming the heading will, by the addition of 
interest, have reached the sum of seyen millions, and the eight millions spent in the 
main tunnel will, for the same reason, have become twelve millions: thus, without 
taking into account innumerable unforeseen contingencies necessarily attendant on 
such a work, the outlay may be taken at twenty millions sterling, and the time 
occupied at not less than forty-five years. The carrying on the tunnel works at four 
intermediate points through a heading of such enormous length is clearly imprac- 
ticable ; three or four shafts in mid-channel would therefore become essential. Let 
us consider what the construction of a shaft in mid-channel would inyolve. It has 
to be founded in water of the depth of 30 fathoms, then to perforate a water-bearing 
stratum of uncertain thickness; then let us see what work this shaft has to do. 
From the very nature of the locality (a sea much vexed by storms) there must 
be a barrack for the workmen, space for the materials of construction, and a pier 
for shelter and for discharging the vessels laden with stores and materials. I 
must therefore confess that, to my mind, although such a work cannot be assumed 
to be mechanically impossible, it would appear to be commercially and nationally 
infeasible, If my views are correct, this great international problem still remains 
for solution, 
There is one other subject to which I will allude, and in the presence of so 
distinguished a man as Mr. Siemens, who has attained so eminent a position as an 
electrician, and who is now, I am happy to say, engaged in the completion of 
the Indo-European Telegraph, while he is at the same time applying his great 
powers to other subjects, I could hardly close my remarks without saying a few 
_ words on electricity, with which he has for many years been connected ; and it is 
- more especially interesting, as the Electric Telegraph was first practically applied 
by the late Mr. Robert Stephenson and myself to working the single line of rail- 
way, as originally constructed, between this city (Norwich) and Yarmouth, and 
about the same time it was adapted, at our suggestion, to working the stationary 
engine system on the Blackwall Railway. The experience derived from these 
adaptations induced me, at a later period, to originate commercial telegraphy, by 
establishing the Electric and International Telegraph Company in 1845-46. A 
question which has been greatly agitated in this country is that of the telegraph 
to the Hast, which is undoubtedly an undertaking of extreme utility. There is 
a company seeking to continue the telegraph to and through Egypt by way of 
the Red Sea, and they urge the great advantage it would be in making us more 
independent of foreign influences ; but a chain is always estimated by the strength 
of its weakest link, and there is one weak link in this proposed telegraphic chain, 
and that is the passage through Egypt. This latter pomt demands grave conside- 
‘ration. A teleoraphic line established vid Gibraltar, the Cape of Good Hope, and 
Ceylon would be 3000 miles longer than the direct route, and would no doubt cost 
a considerable additional sum; but if such a line were established, the only poten- 
tate with whom we should have to contend for possession of that telegraph would 
be Old Neptune. I wish our friend every success in the operation he is carrying on, 
‘but I should be better pleased to see his name associated with the successful com- 
pletion of en integral line of telegraph to India. 
There is another subject to which I would refer, and that is the question of tech- 
nical education. I think that education of this kind ought to be directed more 
especially to the branch which the student intends to pursue in after life. You 
as 
