Transatlantic tunnel

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The transatlantic tunnel has been a repeatedly discussed project since the 19th century, which for a long time fails due to the technical possibilities, today it tends to fail due to the enormous costs. He has been the subject of literature several times.

Interior view of the vehicle after Michel Verne : Un Express de l'avenir . In: Strand Magazine , 1895

idea

The basic idea is to connect North America and Europe , usually between the USA and Europe, by land. The length of such a tunnel would be between 5750 km ( New York - Paris ) and 3250 km ( Newfoundland - Tralee ). The technical solutions that are proposed vary. What they all have in common is that individual transport is never assumed, rather a railway or a railroad-like means of transport is provided. This should - depending on the proposed technology - reach travel speeds between 500 km / h and 6000 km / h. Compared to air traffic , such a connection could be faster, run without fossil fuels and / or enable the transport of bulk goods . Technically, the following solutions are proposed:

  • Tunnel in the lake floor
  • Tunnel on the lake floor
  • Tunnel tube floating in the water

Feasibility

Tunnel structure

The main problem today is the cost of such an undertaking. There are no realistic cost estimates. The published values ​​range between $ 88 billion and $ 12 trillion. These estimates also suffer from the fact that such a project is at the limits of what is currently feasible. Such a project is currently not economically viable. Difficulties in much shorter submarine tunnels , such as the Eurotunnel or the Seikan tunnel , where much cheaper technology was used than that proposed for a transatlantic tunnel, underline this.

  • A proposal from the 1960s envisaged a 3100 km long tunnel in the lake floor, in which a vacuum was to be created and which a magnetic levitation train traveled through. This should reach a speed of 5000 km / h.
  • A variant of this proposal envisages a tunnel tube in the water below the height that would be endangered by the hulls - about −160 m. But that does not rule out a collision with a submarine, for example . The route is to be led across Canada and Greenland , so that parts of it would be overland. That saved construction costs. The tube would consist of 54,000 prefabricated segments that would be sunk in the sea and connected together. The segments consist of two steel tubes lying one inside the other, the space in between would be filled with foam. The tube created by the strung together segments would be fixed to the sea bed with around 100,000 steel cables. Here, too, a magnetic levitation train would run in a vacuum or under negative pressure. This solution avoids the problems that pressure exerts on a tunnel tube laid in or on the seabed. On the other hand, there is still no experience with the technology of a tunnel tube floating in water.

vehicles

With regard to the trains that run in such a tunnel, this reflects the technical standard of the era in which the idea was developed. Proposals from the 19th century are based on conventional, albeit fast - for the conditions at the time - railway trains. With such a technique, the trip took two to three days.

Various forms of jet engines were discussed in the first half of the 20th century . The trains would take 18 minutes to accelerate to cruising speed and just as long to brake again. The travelers would be exposed to an acceleration of 0.2 m / s². So let Robert Goddard two corresponding patents secure.

Propulsion with jet engines has the disadvantage that they rely on air ( oxygen ), i.e. the tunnel cannot be operated under negative pressure or in a vacuum, and the moving train at high speed in the tunnel inhibits a considerable amount of air resistance . In addition, with such a type of drive the tunnel would always have to be supplied in larger quantities with oxygen and exhaust gases extracted. The travel times of such a train would presumably exceed those of the air traffic and the interest in such a tunnel would disappear.

The ideas since the second half of the 20th century have therefore been based on magnetic levitation trains that run in a tube in which a vacuum is created. Travel speeds of 5000 km / h or 7400 km / h should be achieved. Constantly maintaining the vacuum in such a long tube would be very laborious and an accidental influx of air into the tunnel at such high speeds and the resulting frictional heat would be very dangerous.

The tunnel in literature

The first proposal for such a tunnel comes from a story by Michel Verne , son of Jules Verne , Un Express de l'avenir ( German : An express train of the future ), which he published in 1888. Michel Verne is laying a 4800 km long tunnel between Boston and Liverpool . It consists of two parallel tubes. The vehicles are moved through the tubes with compressed air . He assumes a travel time of 2h 40 'and a cruising speed of 1800 km / h, but forgets the required slower drive and additional time for acceleration and braking.

In 1913, Bernhard Kellermann published the novel The Tunnel . The book was filmed four times between 1915 and 1935: in 1933 under the direction of Kurt Bernhardt with Paul Hartmann , Olly von Flint , Attila Hörbiger and Gustaf Gründgens in German.

1956 mentioned Arthur C. Clarke 's novel The seven suns (English: The City and the Stars ) intercontinental tunnel.

In 1972 the novel The Great Tunnel (English: A Trans-Atlantic Tunnel, Hurray! [1972], 1973 under the new title: Tunnel Through the Deeps ) by Harry Harrison appears . The tunnel is laid here on the seabed and is used by a magnetic levitation train.

Worth knowing

The "transatlantic tunnels" that are under construction or in operation today are much shorter and more manageable than the proposed projects:

  • One of them runs in Hamburg in the Miniatur Wunderland under the aisle for visitors that separates the "Europe" and "USA" sections. The tunnel is covered by a glass plate so that trains that run between "Europe" and "America" ​​are visible.
  • Another "Atlantic tunnel" of 9 m length has existed since the end of 2016 in the Haus des Meeres in Vienna , where visitors can walk through a transparent tube that runs through an aquarium that shows the animal world of the Atlantic.

swell

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hoffman: Trans-Atlantic .
  2. ^ Miller: Transatlantic Tunnel .
  3. ^ Hoffman: Trans-Atlantic .
  4. ^ NN: Transatlantic Tunnel The largest projects in the world .
  5. ^ Miller: Transatlantic Tunnel .
  6. ↑ NN: high speed .
  7. ^ Hoffman: Trans-Atlantic ; Pelican: Atlantic tunnel ; NN: high speed .
  8. ↑ Jeffrey Kluger: Robert H. Goddard, the father of rocketry . In: TIME Magazine v. March 29, 1999.
  9. ^ Miller: Transatlantic Tunnel .
  10. ^ Hoffman: Trans-Atlantic .
  11. ^ Pelican: Atlantic tunnel .
  12. ^ Miller: Transatlantic Tunnel .
  13. ^ Pelican: Atlantic tunnel .
  14. ↑ See: here .
  15. ↑ New in the Haus des Meeres: Aquarium “Atlantik-Tunnel” opened on vienna.at from December 15, 2016

Remarks

  1. ↑ The values ​​mentioned are extremely different: NN: Highspeed names US $ 88 - 175 billion and US $ 1.75 quadrillion (probably meaning: trillion) US $ , Pelikan: Atlantic tunnel € 1  trillion .
  2. ↑ The English version was published in Strand Magazine in 1895 and wrongly attributed to his father. This wrong attribution is repeated later (see: Rodman).