Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-10-23
A NOTABLE SHAFT.
Nearly 5000 Feet Below the Sur
face.
Tie Deepest Vertical Shaft on the Amcri
can Continent - How the Water is
Pumped From It-Wonderful
Work Under Ground.

1t should be a matter of pride to the
people of the United States to know
that within their boundaries is the
deepest vertical shaft on the American
continent, and the second deepest in
the whole world. This is what is
known as the Combination shaft, on
the Comstock lode, at Virginia City,
New. This shaft has now reached a
depth of a little over 800 feet. There
is only Ii deeper vertical shaft in the
~world-the Adalbent shaft of the silver
lead mines of Przibram, Bohemia,
which. at last accounts, had reached a
depth OF $3.50 feet.
The attainment of that depth was
made the occasion of a festival, which
continued three DAYS, and was still
further honored by the striking off of
commemorative medals of the valYe of
a form each. There is no record of
the beginning of work on this mine at
Przibram, although its written history
goes back to 1927. Twenty years ago
very few mining shafts in the world
had reached a depth of 5000 feet.
The very deepest at that time was in a
metalliferous mine in Hanover, which
was carried down 1900 feet: but this
was probably not a single perpendic-
ular shaft.
Two vertical shafts near Gilly, in
Belgium, are sunk TO a depth of 2. S47
feet. AT this point they are connected
by a drift, from which an exploring
shaft or Wine is sunk to a further
depth of 666 feet, and from that again
was put down q bore hole forty-nine
feet in depth. making the total depth
reached 1852 feet. AS the bore hole
did not reach the seam of coal sought
for. they returned and resumed opera
tons at the 2,S47 level. The deepest
points to which the crust of the earth
has ever been penetrated have been by
means Of such borings in quest of salt,
coal OF water. A bore hole for salt at
Probst Jesar, near Lubtheen, for the
Government Of Neutrality-suspicious..
is down 3.315 feet, the size of which
bore is twelve inches at the top and three
inches at the bottom. A bore hole was
put down for the Prussian Government
to the depth Of 4,1S3 feet. But in these
bore holes the United States leads the
world, as there is one near st. Louis,
Mo-, that is $500 feet in depth. Here
on the Comstock. in the Union Con-
solidated Mine, a depth of $500 feet
has been attained. but not by means Of
a single vertical shaft. The YER
teal depth of the shaft is 1900 feet;
the remainder of the depth has been
attained by means of wines sunk from
drifts. Several long drifts were run
nt th;o o,,.oo4 Io~+b ,r;+L,,+ J;A,o,14-
as regards ventilation or heat.
The Combination shaft is situated
much further east Gin which direction
the lode dips) than any other on the
Comstock. 1t is 5000 feet east of the
point where the great vein crops out
on the side of Mount Davidson; 2,2OO
feet east of the old Chollar-Potosi
shaft, 1900 feet east OF the old Hale &
Norcross Cor Fair) shaft, and 1000
feet east of the Savage shaft.
Thus, it will be seen it is far out
to the front in the country
toward which the vein is going. The
shaft is sunk in a very hard rock Gan
desite) every foot of which requires to
be blasted. The opening is about
thirty feet in length by ten feet in
width. In timbering up this 10 divided
into four different compartments,
some for the hosting and some for the
pumping machinery. thus presenting
at the top the appearance of four
small shafts set in a row. Over the
shaft stands several large buildings
all filled with ponderous machinery,
The Sutro drain tunnel (nearly four
miles in lengthy connects with the
shaft at a depth Of 1000 feet, up to
which point all the water encountered
below is pumped. The shaft was sunk
to the depth of 2,20o feet before more
water was encountered than could be
hoisted out in the ''skips'' with the
dirt. At the 2,200 level two Cornish
pumps, each with columns fifteen
inches in diameter, were put in.
At the 2,4OO level the same pumps
were used. On this level a drift was
run hat connected with the old Hale
& Norcross and Savage shafts, produc-
ing a good circulation of air both in
the shaft and in the mines mentioned.
AT this point, on account of the inflow
from the mines consequent upon con-