Why was a Tunnel Boring Machine Invented?
It actually had to do with the amount of money that could be raised for a tunneling project in Great Britain. This company only had so many $$ to bore a tunnel under the Thames River. To do that with extensive manual labor would not have been possible because simply they didn’t have the $$ to pay for that much labor. So they were caught in a delima. Thus the machine became a necessety. So to accomplish the job in the sub stone base and be within cost limits, the machine to bore was absolutely necessary. After the invention and proven use of the first tunneling machine, it was now possible to build tunnels at about 1/3 the cost and much easier to raise the needed funds , so with that, tunneling under rivers and thru mountains became a profitable venture. I saw this information on Public Television. Or PBS. I think if you called them you can actually purchase or retrive this video that shows the progression of tunnel building and the development and need for a tunneling machine.
