Holland Tunnel

Construction on the Holland Tunnel to connect New York and New Jersey underneath the Hudson River began in 1920 and was finished in 1927. The tunnel was designed by Clifford M. Holland and Milton Freeman.  The tunnel consisted of two tubes, each carrying two lanes of traffic in either direction, to the tunnel could handle approximately 1,900 vehicles an hour in either direction and spanned a distance of 9,250 feet making it the longest underground tunnel at that time.  Since automobiles release toxic gases that need to be properly expelled from the tunnel, the need to properly ventilate the tunnel was a primary concern.

            Prior tunnels had been constructed over the years and were ventilated through natural air vents or large fan.  Before the Holland Tunnel, none had spanned as long a distance and, hence, ventilation had never been an issue.  To combat the ventilation problem of the Holland Tunnel the engineers asked for the help of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Yale, and the U.S. Bureau of Mines.  The U.S Bureau of Mines determined content of the exhaust gas that would be expelled on a daily basis and Yale determined the maximum amount of carbon monoxide that would be tolerable by humans in the tunnel

            These results were passed on to the University of Illinois where they began the design the ventilation system.  With the use of multiple researchers and a large scale model prototype of the tunnel Illinois came up with an innovative design.  The prototype ventilation system consisted of 84 fans with a combined 6,000 horse power. 42 fans supplied fresh air to the tunnel and 42 expelled the harmful carbon monoxide. The fans were to be housed in two twelve story structures at either end of the tunnel. This approach enabled the system to replenish the air supply every 1.6 minutes.  

            The tunnel experienced its greatest test in 1949 when a tanker truck carrying two tons of carbon disulfide exploded in the tunnel.  This accident exposed the structure to temperatures over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit and harmful gases. Fortunately, the ventilation system continued to function permitting the tunnel to reopen within fifty-six hours.

Work Cited:

Kingery, Alan, Rudy D. Berg, and E. H. Schillinger. Men and Ideas in Engineering; Twelve Histories from Illinois. Urbana: Published for the College of Engineering, U of Illinois, by the U of Illinois, 1967. Print.

 

Tunnel Talk: http: //tunneltalk.com/Contact-Us.php

 

Bridges and Tunnels:

 http://www.panynj.gov/bridges-tunnels/holland-tunnel-history.htmlhttp://www.panynj.gov/bridges-tunnels/holland-tunnel-history.html

Holland Tunnel Ventilation System:

https://www.asme.org/about-asme/who-we-are/engineering-history/landmarks/93-holland-tunnel-ventilation-system

Holland Tunnel Picture:

http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2012/11/holland-tunnel-still-drying-out-turns.html

Joseph Tykochinski-Tykociner

Photo of Joseph Tykociner demonstrating sound on film.

          Joseph Tykochinski-Tykociner was born into a merchant family in Vloclawek, Poland on October 5, 1877. Tykociner left Europe in 1896, at the age of 18, and traveled to the United States in hopes of developing his idea of electronically recording sound on film. When he arrived in the United States he found employment in New York, at the Electric Car Lighting Company constructing lightweight batteries. He then jumped from job to job while attending night classes at Cooper Union.  In 1897, he returned to Europe to continue his studies in electrical engineering at the Höheres Technisches Institut in Cöthen, Germany. As a young adult he first went to work for Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company in London, which, in 1901, was the first radio company to broadcast overseas.  He left the Marconi Company and went to work for Telefunken in Berlin. In 1904 he was asked by the Russian Czar to establish a radio link for the Russian naval fleets between the Baltic and Black sea.

Photo of Joseph Tykociner's public demonstration of sound on film 1922 UIUC

Tykociner returned to Poland in 1919 and was asked to work on a project to establish a telegraph link between Poland and the United states. The following year he began to work on a project for the Polish Railroad Company to aid in the development of their telegraphic communications systems.  Tykociner returned to the United States in 1921 to further his career. He found employment at the University of Illinois in Urban Champaign as a research professor in the Electrical Engineering Department. While employed at the University, Tykociner returned to working on his lifelong dream of electronically recording sound on film. By 1922 he had successfully created the first electronic sound on film which he called a “talkie.” However, due to University politics over who would control the patents on Tykociner’s invention, his dream of commercializing sound on film was never brought to fruition. Skeptics in the movie industry at the time also felt that humans were physiologically incapable of handing two illusions at once. In  1926 Lee de Forest gave a demonstration of sound on film to Warner Brothers. Tykociner continued his employment at the University of Illinois until 1946, researching Photoelectricity, Piezoelectricity, and Zetetics.

                                            

Note* demonstration starts at 5:16

Cited work:

Kingery, Alan, Rudy D. Berg, and E. H. Schillinger. Men and Ideas in Engineering; Twelve Histories from Illinois. Urbana: Published for the College of Engineering, U of Illinois, by the U of Illinois, 1967. Print.

Zielona, Sawomir Otysz. "Contributions of Polish Jews: Joseph Tykocinski–Tykociner (1877–1969), Pioneer of Sound on Film." Academia.edu. ©AAPJS Gazeta, Winter–Spring 2006, Vol. 13, no. 3. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <https://www.academia.edu/people/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Joseph+Tykoci%18ski%E2%80%93Tykociner>.

Portrait of Tykociner found in University Archives Series Number: 11/6/20. Box 1