Tunnel Engineering: A Museum TreatmentVogel, Robert M.
History
Tunnel Engineering: A Museum Treatment
Vogel, Robert M.
Tunneling -- History
To exhibit the sequence in a thorough manner, inviting and capable of
easy and correct interpretation by the nonprofessional viewer, models
offered the only logical means of presentation. Six tunnels were
selected, all driven in the 19th century. Each represents either a
fundamental, new concept of tunneling technique, or an important,
early application of one. Models of these works form the basis of the
exhibit. No effort was made to restrict the work to projects on
American soil. This would, in fact, have been quite impossible if an
accurate picture of tunnel technology was to be drawn; for as in
virtually all other areas of technology, the overall development
in this field has been international. The art of mining was first
developed highly in the Middle Ages in the Germanic states; the tunnel
shield was invented by a Frenchman residing in England, and the use of
compressed air to exclude the water from subaqueous tunnels was first
introduced on a major work by an American. In addition, the two main
subdivisions, rock and soft-ground tunneling, are each introduced by
a model not of an actual working, but of one typifying early classical
methods which were in use for centuries until the comparatively recent
development of more efficient systems of earth support and rock
breaking. Particular attention is given to accuracy of detail
throughout the series of eight models; original sources of descriptive
and graphic information were used in their construction wherever
possible. In all cases except the introductory model in the
rock-tunneling series, representing copper mining by early
civilizations, these sources were contemporary accounts.
The plan to use a uniform scale of reduction throughout, in order
to facilitate the viewers' interpretation, unfortunately proved
impractical, due to the great difference in the amount of area to be
encompassed in different models, and the necessity that the cases
holding them be of uniform height. The related models of the Broadway
and Tower Subways represent short sections of tunnels only 8 feet or
so in diameter enabling a relatively large scale, 1-1/2 inches to the
foot, to be used. Conversely, in order that the model of Brunel's
Thames Tunnel be most effective, it was necessary to include one of
the vertical terminal shafts used in its construction. These were
about 60 feet in depth, and thus the much smaller scale of 1/4 inch
to the foot was used. This variation is not as confusing as might be
thought, for the human figures in each model provide an immediate and
positive sense of proportion and scale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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