The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-12-30
DRILLING IN FLINT NOW.
a Theory About Artssien Wells as a
Preventive of EARTHQUAKES.

/ a
Preventive of Earthquakes.
Contractor Joyce, who is putting down
the deep artesian well on the Springfield
plantation, has bssn very much annoyed
since last Tuesday afternoon over the loss
Of his pump and its iron hook, which lie al
the bottom Of the we'll, depth, lacking but
q few feet of ], 400. He has had graphing
tools made with which he hops to fish out
the obstruction.
The accident was caused by the eye Of the
hook coming in contact either with some
| Jagged part OF the wells side, or the
projecting rim at the bottom of the casing.
and as the driver is Of very large diameter,
the velocity OF the ascending line and its
pump was 80 great that tue defective iron
| eye CT the hook snapped of like glass. The
iron was Z inches in diameter, aid Mr..
joyce says Its terrible strengt should have
reSiste the collision. He thinks it probable
that be viii be able to fish the obstruction
out, but it may be necessary To cut it to
pieces with the drills-e most tedious opera
t.ol. Should be be able 70 get the pump
out Of the well to-day, he will resume drill
ing.
The character Of the strata for the 200
feet last drilled, Mr.. Joyce says. has made
the work of drilling slow, aggravating, and
expensive. The drills have been in the very
finest grained flint, ranging in thickness
from two inches up to two feet, and in
some places, he says, the intermediate
stratum of clay or other soft formations
have been hardly distin Unstable. So hard
has the flint proved, that the heavy steel
drills, tempered as hard as water can tenn
per them, nave been worn away as much as
turee-quarters OF an inch in half hours
drilling, necessitating frequent dressing,
with thu delays of changing drills
The flint, Mr.. Joyce says, is Of two vari-
cites, one of which varies in color from a
deep brown 10 nearly black, and the other
from ligh yellow TO nearly white. While
both varieties are 50 hard that they readily
cut glass like diamond, the whittier variety
Is tho closer grain. and wears away the
drill points 70 a greater extent than the
DARKER variety. HJw much deeper down
the flint formation extends is, of course,
conJecturai The drill were in the fiji It
when they were taken out to pump the well
last Tuesday afternoon.
Mr.. Joyce says that he did not meet such
continuous layers Of flint in the wells at st.
Augustine and Jacksonville, and therefore
he cannot estimate 20 what depth the drills
Will have to go to get out of it finally. To
the depth OF / 200 feet the formation closely
apprJximated that met with in the Florida
wells. He does not seem to be discouraged,
however, as to the final result, and he says
that the water is below somewhere, and in
1nexhaustible supply, as the wells in South
Carolina and Florida, on the South Atlantic
coast, attest. In
Deep artesian wells as protection against
severe earthquakes is a favorite theory with
Mr.. Joyce, and he says that if Charleston
had had dozen sucn wells in 1856 as the
well on the Springfield plantation, the
earthquake that year would not have been
80 disastrous as UheV give vent tn the i'm
Eneuss pressure of gases which are continu-
ally accommodating In the bowels Of the
earth He has been watching with great
interest the Investigations Of scientific men
n the natural gas regions Of
Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and
Virginia, and he says the conclusions of the
me of science is that if the earth had not
been relieved of this pressure by giving
vent TO the gases at the earthis surface
sub erransan commissions would have fol-
lowed sooner or later, and he compares the
earth to q boiler overcharged with steam
1t the boiler is given vent the steam escapes
without damage; if the pressure be confined
the boiler bursts and leaves ruin in its track.
Let the overcharged earth. said Mr.. Joyce,
constantly accommodating gases, and ac-
cumulating pressure, have vent, and the
danger of explosion is lessened.
Referring to the theory of some persons
that the deep artesian wells will diminish
their flow, Mr.. Joyce says the idea is mis-
taken one, and he says that the well he is
now drilling. with its daily flow of $780,
600 gallons of water, will flow on long after
present generations have gone, unless
some cosmic disturbance should close the
WE'LL as the water-bearing ok is the reser-
voir OF centuries of infiltration, and will
be the reservoir for the same ceaseless work
for centuries to come.