Note- I have found well over 120 photos showing the dredges used on the construction of the NYS Barge Canal. Addition posts with more photos will follow.
The 1900s New York State Barge Canal was one of a number of “modern day” canal projects that included the Hennepin (Illinois and Mississippi), the Chicago Sanitary, the Panama, and the New York State canals. The construction of the Panama placed it in “competition” with the Barge Canal, at least in the eyes of the engineering forces working on New York’s project. So over the course of construction from 1905 to 1918, we see a very active PR campaign on the part of New York as they try not to get lost in the excitement of the isthmus canal. Thus, we have a wealth of journal articles, reports and photographs to help us understand the construction and machinery used. The engineers were very keen on getting articles in the engineering journals for all to read, and these articles went into great details about the machinery, tools, techniques, and innovations being used and developed. New York even went as far to publish a monthly Barge Canal Bulletin that chronicles the project.
And the engineer’s pride was not too far off as this large project was noteworthy for many innovations. This passage in the February 1915 issue of The Contractor gives a bit of context; “Just as the excavation of the Chicago Drainage Canal caused a great improvement in steam shovel construction, so the New York Barge Canal, with its great variety of material encountered stimulated the builders of hydraulic dredges to develop a machine capable of digging material before considered beyond the ability of this type of dredge. As a result of the experience gained in this work a great advance has been made in cutter construction.“
This look at dredges is a continuation of a series that has been examining the machinery used to construct the New York State Barge Canal between 1906 and 1918. As this project built on the machines and technologies being developed in the other canal projects of the day, what we see here would have been used on those works.
The steam powered dredge was about 30 years old when it was put to use in the various construction contracts along the NYS Barge Canal. Human and animal powered dredges had been in use as early as 1718 in Europe, but it was the development of the small “portable” steam engine that really brought them into use in earth removal.
The construction of the Barge Canal was broken up and let out as many contracts that companies could bid on. The low bidder won the bid and then set about setting up his plant. The contract might be for dredging a river, lake, or cutting a completely new channel. The machines use reflected what the contractor thought they would be excavating.
The dredge had to be suited to the materials (spoils) to be removed. “Soft” homogeneous materials such as organic muck, marl, sand, ooze, quicksand, and so on, could be removed in a steady continuous manner. Thus we find the “continuous dredge” type being used. These fall into two types; the ladder/bucket/elevator dredge, and the suction/hydraulic dredge. These dredges could remove, transport and deposit the spoils fairly quickly, making them the preferred dredge to use whenever possible. Although these machines could handle small rocks, they were not suited to removing harder materials like rock, large stone, boulders, conglomerate soils. In many cases these materials had to be drilled and blasted so that they could be removed. If possible, it was better to use a track mounted steam shovel and carry out the removal in dry conditions. However, in many cases the rock was found under softer material in a watered channel. In these cases, the steam shovel was still used, except it was mounted to a barge. As the spoil was removed scoop by scoop, this type of dredge was called an intermittent dredge. The dipper dredge and the cable operated grapple dredge fall into this type.
We will begin with the continuous types.
The Ladder Dredge
The oldest dredge type was the ladder/elevator/bucket dredge dating back to the 1700s. The name(s) comes from the design, where a long boom fitted with a endless chain of buckets. When the boom is lowered into the materials to be removed, the buckets scoop up the spoil and carry it to the top of the boom, dump it onto a system of belt conveyors, and the return as the chain revolves. The belt conveyor then carries dredging spoils to a dump scow or deposit them onto land. Since the material is removed in a continuous manner, it is considered to be a continuous dredge type.
Ladder dredges were better suited for to a dryer environment as if the materials being removed is too loose, it could easily wash out of the bucket before it got to the conveyor. However, they are more robust in what they could handle. Ladder dredges were often seen in mining operations as they can work in dry material. By using a series of screens along the conveyor, the materials could be easily separated into various piles of different sizes. In the images we often see the ladder dredges being used to build up banks and dikes since they could pile the spoils.
The working depth depended on the length of the boom and the size of the engines. In the machines we see used on the Barge Canal, each bucket weights over 2000 pounds and could scoop up 8.5-cubic-feet of materials.
Ladder dredges were extensively used on the construction of the Suez Canal, and it was what the French used in their attempt to dig the Panama Canal. When they left the project, they left behind nearly 20 of the large machines to rot in the jungle.
The Hydraulic Dredge
The first suction dredge was designed in 1867 in Europe and the first suction dredge in America followed shortly after in 1872. These machines used a large centrifugal pump to create a suction that basically vacuumed up the earth and rock. A long suction tube extended out from the bow of the dredge and was lowered into the work area. At the stern, hundreds, or even thousands, of feet of discharge pipes carried the spoil and water mix to a dump scow, landside containment area, or even dumped into non-navigation area in the river or lake. As with the ladder dredge, these are called continuous dredges.
An improvement was made to the dredge in 1878 when a revolving cutter head was fitted to the suction tube. The cutter-head could loosen harder materials and cut through organic matter. It is like the beater head on a home vacuum. To differentiate between the two types, the dredge without the cutter-head was called a suction dredge, while the one with the cutter-head was called a hydraulic dredge. Most of the machines we see in use on canal projects were hydraulic dredges, although at least one suction dredge was used to mine a sand bank for a concrete plant.
The hydraulic dredge was so important to the project that a 1913 article in the Engineering News begins with this synopsis. The excavation required for enlarging the new York State Canals to form the 12-foot Barge Canal across the state amounts to 110,000,000 cubic yards. A large amount of this material is being removed by hydraulic suction dredges, which have been specially designed for the work. The record of the performances of these dredges will be of interest to every contractor and engineer who deals with earth handling.
The hydraulic dredge was remarkably robust and the spoil piles show rather large stone being removed, although this caused quiet a bit of damage to the pumps. However in the rivers and lakes, these dredges were the only option to the contractors and they had to deal with the damage.
The major difficulty in using the hydraulic dredge was the handling of the spoil and water. Low areas near the project site would be selected and perimeter dikes would be built. As the slurry was pumped into the disposal area, the water was allowed to escape and (hopefully) return to the river. But as the dikes were often hastily constructed, they could break and cause the surrounding area to be flooded with the muddy mess.
The Dipper and Grapple Dredge
Although the hydraulic dredge was the principle tool in the contractors toolbox, it was not suited to all materials. In places were rock ledge, hardpan, or conglomerate materials had to be removed, the dipper or grapple dredge was placed in service.
The dipper dredge was basically a steam shovel mounted on a barge and like its land bound cousin, it’s large bucket could lift large pieces of blasted rock, boulders, or scoop gravels. Since the spoil was removed one bucket at a time, these fall into the intermittent type. In the photos, these are often seen working along with drilling rigs and blasting teams. The spoils were placed into dump scows or landside dump trains, or simply cast aside if space allowed. The working depth was limited by the length of the boom and the stability of the boat.
The grapple dredge was a cable crane mounted on a barge and outfitted with a clamshell or orange-peel bucket. (The orange-peel was a round bucket with 4 sections that was very good at sinking into soft materials.) This was the slowest of all the dredge types and was used in small projects. The clamshell was good for lifting large rock and stone, whereas the orange-peel was used to remove softer materials.
These dredges were large machines with steam engines, pumps, electrical generators, winches and so on. Unlike the steam shovel that could be moved to the work site by rail, the dredge was typically built on site, used, and then disassembled. Depending on the size of the work fleet, the contractor might have set up a drydock, such as what Stewart, Kerbaugh and Shenley constructed at Brewerton, west of Oneida Lake.(3) Many of the dredges were built by well known companies such as Bucyrus, Marion, Morris, American Locomotive, and sent to the project site as a pre-built kit. As each dredge was custom built, each has its own unique appearance. Some dredges were handsome boats while other had a more “rustic” look. The dredge was typically given a name that reflected the region of their work. Thus we see the Clyde near Clyde, Niagara in the west, Canajoharie in the Mohawk River, etc.
Each dredge was staffed with a crew that could number up to 15 men per shift. These included a captain or foreman, assistant, operator, fireman for the steam engine, mechanics, line handlers, men to shift the pipes, and others. If the crew ran 24-hours, the total crew could easily number around 40. To feed and house all these men, a floating crew quarters was used.
None of the dredges were self-propelled and had to be moved by tug boat. At the work site, long spuds would be lowered to anchor the dredge in place and to help steady it as it worked. The boom of the ladder and hydraulic dredge could only be raised and lowered, so to move the boom through the earth, the entire boat would be “swept” from side to side. To do this, cables would be attached to anchor points, one spud would be raised, and by winching the cable in, the dredge could be moved to that side. Then the process was reversed for the other side. As the spuds were raised and lowered, the dredge would “walk” forward.
This is just an introduction to the topic of dredges and dredging. But the photos tell the real story.
References-
All the photos used here are from – Barge Canal Construction Photos, Series 11833, New York State Archives, Albany, NY.
Barge Canal Bulletin, New York State, 1908-1918.
Hydraulic Dredging on the New York Barge Canal, Engineering News, Vol 69, No 15. page 710.
Prelini, Charles. Dredges and Dredging. D.Van Nostrand Company, NY , 1911
Engineering News- July 29, 1909 The Excavating and Dredging Outfit on the Oneida River Section, Contract No. 12 of the New York State Barge Canal. Page 111
Lanyon, Richard. Building The Canal To Save Chicago, 2012
Gigantic Feats For Engineers. The Syracuse Herald, April 18, 1909.
Breaks World’s Record. Baldwinsville Gazette and Farmer, November 18, 1909.
Big Dredge Is Built. The Chicago Sunday Tribune, October 20, 1895.
Report of Organizer Whitcraft, Steam Shovel and Dredge, Chicago, Illinois, August, 1908. Page 581.
Allen, Jean M. The Hydraulic Dredge; Its Value as a Contractor’s Tool, The Contractor, Vol 21, No. 4, February 15, 1915, page 26.