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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

Company spokesmen point out that "delivery isn't included so if an individual does want to buy it then that could be tricky. They are also going to need a pretty big garden."

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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