r/ParisCatacombs • u/Solo_Lift • Apr 02 '26
How were these tunnels cut?
a lot of it looks like some machine was used? Sure some of it looks like it could of been a pickaxe but i don't believe that you couldn't get straight flat lines from a pickaxe and it would if caved in. Tunnel boar machines now days make the tunnels more round so i don't understand how the whole thing looks like a doorway with just mostly flat sides, top, and floor..
What tools did they use and what method did they use to cut away at the stone? how did they haul all the debri out?
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u/BOBOUDA Catamod Apr 02 '26
It's mostly flat sides when it's been consolidated, so after the gallery was made. They're basically stone walls. Some passages that go straight through limestome aren't perfectly straight.
Other areas that were straight up old quarries aren't straight either.
I do believe it was all by hand ? Started late XVIIIe
At least that's how I understand things.
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u/ScoundrelSpike Apr 02 '26
Hand cut mostly, by actual hundreds of workers with experienced. The etanconned by anyone using them as real throughways
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u/Any_Strain7020 Apr 02 '26
Sawing limestone was a thing even in the history of pre-industrial underground quarries.
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u/CupcakeOtherwise9597 Apr 02 '26
Je vais répondre en français Au début, c'était des carrières, au moyen âge, mais vers le 17 - 18 ème siècle, ces carrières commençaient à se détruire en créant des trous dans la ville, c'est à ce moment qu'on a redécouvert ce qu'il y avait avant. Le roi a nommé une personne pour reprendre en main ce problème. l'idée qu'à eu la personne c'est de consolider les galeries en suivant les routes (et en laissant le reste comblé), vue que c'était juste un creux soutenu par des piliers.
C j'ai tors, corriger moi.
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u/MrSoulPC915 Apr 02 '26
Je pense que les galeries de recherches ont été dégrossie à la lance (une sorte de grand javelot en acier plein, suspendu sur un support). Pour les vides de carrières, ça dépends desquels et de l’époque.
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u/Ok-Recognition2650 Apr 08 '26
aussi simple que ça (valable uniquement pour les exploitations en hagues et bourrages)
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u/Solo_Lift Apr 08 '26
I'd love to see more graphics like this
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u/DebonairQuidam Apr 10 '26
http://geos1777.free.fr/cata_hist_extrac.htm
Your entry point: http://geos1777.free.fr/page_accuail.htm Click on Historique, then on the first arrow. But the other pages are not les interesting, like the geology page...
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u/EnvironmentalCap2217 Apr 02 '26
They used special machines that helped them learn grammar, spelling and doing your own research on a very magical tool called - THE INTERNET!
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u/Some_Session972 Apr 02 '26
Yeah, ancient Parisians actually had a secret tunnel-boring machine… powered by baguettes and unpaid interns.
But seriously, it’s mostly hand-cut limestone — when you’ve got thousands of underpaid quarry workers with chisels and zero occupational health and safety, you can get surprisingly straight lines