Part 4

The writer of this article has not enjoyed "an intimate acquaintance of over thirty years with water power," but he has resided exactly the same length of time as Gov. Gardner said he had been a temperance man, in the manufacturing town of Fitchburg, and during that time has learned something about its _thirty-four_ water privileges and _five hundred and eighty-two feet head_ of water which they command, on the little Nashua and its tributaries. His knowledge of this water power enables him to exhibit the gross absurdity of Mr. Bird's efforts to dry up the Deerfield. One of these tributaries, which is less than eight miles long, affords a privilege with a head of twenty-one feet, of from seventy-five to one hundred horse power. The reader can form his own conclusions, by comparing this brook with that "fitful mountain torrent," the Deerfield river, which has its sources in the town of Stratton, Vt., flows southward to the foot of the Hoosac Mountain, then turning eastward, finds its way into the Connecticut, near Greenfield, traversing in its course, a distance of more than sixty miles. The length of the "fitful torrent" above the Hoosac dam, is about forty miles, and in that part of its course it is swelled by the contributions of numerous tributaries, several of which are respectively from twelve to eighteen miles long. A shrewd Yankee, who is not a civil engineer, and has not even had the experience of running a small paper mill, might "guess" that such a stream would furnish, with a head of thirty feet, as much as an eight hundred horse power.

But it is not eight hundred horse power, nor four hundred that is required to operate the drilling machinery and ventilate the tunnel; for two hundred and eight horse power is all that has ever been used or needed at Mt. Cenis. This leaves a pretty wide margin for drouths, _evaporation_, and other contingencies.

In his observations upon the power required, Mr. Bird becomes severe and 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."