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August 29, 2014

Church Work

a_william-walker-52.jpg

Walker worked in total darkness for more than five years,
from 1906 to 1911, handling an estimated 25,800 bags of concrete and 114,900 concrete blocks while wearing a suit that weighed nearly 200 pounds. “In addition,” notes the cathedral’s booklet, “as he was working in a graveyard, there was some risk of infection. However, Walker seems to have regarded his pipe as his sovereign remedy against all possible ills and immediately on his return to the surface, he always lit his pipe.”
– Futility Closet

Posted by gerardvanderleun at August 29, 2014 12:19 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

I read about this guy years ago! Fascinating story. As they say, it was traditional to bury people under the floor of the cathedral. The peat soil preserved the bodies, so he'd keep encountering these floating corpses bumping against him in the soup murk. I've seen pictures of the bronze statue of him in his diver's suit, there in the cathedral.

Posted by: Dr. Mabuse [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 30, 2014 7:38 PM

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