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Tunnel Boring Machine B6 For Sale
Ebay really has everything you need - even a drill bit with specs like these:
- Has 227 double-headed rock picks tipped with tungsten carbide
- Possesses a revolving speed of 2.38 revolutions per minute
- As one of 10 TBM, it ate through millions of cubic metres of chalk and soil in digging the Channel Tunnel
For a fanciful look at how a tunnel-boring machine could be used as a recreational vehicle, see the mole from Oath of Fealty, a 1981 novel by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven.
Update 09-Feb-2017:
Take a look at this illustration from Ed Earl Repp's 1929 Science Wonders Stories yarn The Metal World:
End update.
The Tunnel Boring Machine B6 was one of eleven machines used to dig out the Eurotunnel. Read more about the Eurotunnel Drilling History. The first plans for a tunnel were put forward in 1802 by French mining engineer Albert Mathieu. The first link between the UK and mainland Europe? A natural isthmus that existed up until about 13,000 years ago. See also Eurotunnel Drill Bids Reach 5 Million Pounds (thanks to Slashdot).
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