From the Earth to the Moon, Chapter 14 summary
Chapter 14 of 51 · Part 1 · 6 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 14, Barbicane and Murchison organize workers, supplies, and machinery to excavate the immense well needed for the Columbiad, completing its stone lining ahead of the deadline. Flooding and a partial collapse bring deaths, while Barbicane stays at Stones Hill and works to protect the laborers’ health and safety.
What happens
- Murchison recruits fifteen hundred skilled workers, and a flotilla brings them, their families, and supplies to Tampa Town.
- Barbicane begins a railway to Stones Hill, where workers erect huts and prepare the excavation site.
- Crews dig through earth, sand, clay, and rock, while masons build a stone lining on a descending oak wheel.
- Work continues day and night, with falling stones causing serious injuries.
- In February, workers overcome flooding, but weakened soil causes a partial collapse that kills several laborers.
- By June tenth, the stone-lined well reaches nine hundred feet, twenty days ahead of schedule, and the Gun Club congratulates Murchison.
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In this chapter
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What supports the masonry as the excavation deepens?
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