Abstract
October 20, 1830.—The patent granted on Oct. 20, 1830, to Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, afterwards the tenth Earl of Dundonald, for “apparatus to facilitate excavating, sinking, and mining” was an important one in the history of tunnelling, the invention being for the introduction of air under pressure into the tunnel for the purpose of keeping back the water and holding up the face of the excavation. The specification included most of the essential features—such as the air-lock before the working chamber—which have characterised the use of the process since the time of the invention. The system was adopted at first only for shaft sinking, the first application being at Chalonnes on the Loire. It was not until 1879 that it was used for tunnel work, in an attempt to tunnel under the Hudson River at New York, and in the same year at Antwerp.
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Calendar of Patent Records. Nature 124, 637 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124637b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124637b0