The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1894-01-11
STRUCK A HOT AlE WELL.
win Pipe 1t to His House and Utilize II
In an Incubator.

III an incuDAtors
TOPEKA, Kan, Jan. BE it in poll
tics, in religion or in nature, in Kansas
the unusual, the freakish is always
happening. The latest wonder is re.
ported from Linn county, near the
Missouri border, and is nothing less
than a hot air well. The story is
verified by A. II. Van Doom, lumber |
dealer of Atchison, who was last week |
driving from Butler, in Bates county,
Missouri, TO LaCyghe, in Linn county.
Just after he had crossed the Missouri
border he came to the farm of John p.
johnson. The farm lies partly in the
valley of the Marias de Cygnes river
and partly in the upland The farm
house is located on a sort of second
bench of the valley and stands back
fifty yards from the main travelled road.
AS he approached the house his atten-
ton was called by a crowd of men,
women and Children who were gathered
about a derrick. The crowd seemed so
greatly interested and excited that
Van Doom and his driver got out of
their buggy and joined it. They
learned that in boaring fer water
Johnson had, at depth of ninety feet,
penetrated cavern TO which there
instantly poured a steady stream of hot
air, so strong in volume that it was
with difficulty the drill was held down,
and so intense was the heat that the
men at the mouth of the hole were
driven away, and when they released
their hold upon the drill it Immediately
shot upward, disabling the derrick and
other machinery and breaking the gas
pipe which connected it with the drill.
Until the drill was wholly removed
from the mouth of the well the rush of
air caused din of sounds resembling
myriad of sharp little whistles, and
when the obstruction was removed the
noise resembled the roar of a blast
furnace.
The find of this we'll was made Dec.
IS, but the flow has not for a moment
relaxed in volume or force and the
roar can be distinctly heard 4 quarter
of mile away. The curiosity attracts
great crowds of farmers and is the talk
of the country round. At first little
vapor was expelled, but this has now
disappeared and the flow comes out dry
and so hot that 1t tans and even burns
Af IAA fho
heat by securing an egg in wooden
clamp and holding it in the flow, and In
five minutes it was roasted as well
done as it could be in a bed of hot ashes
: Local scientists have visited the scene
and tried to trace the flow to the cur
rent of natural gas that exists in the
adjoining county of Miami, but thi.
: theory is at once dissipated by the fac
that there is no odor nor anything elst
in the flow 1t comes out as pure as thu
air from hot air furnace. While Mr.
4 Johnson was in search of water whel
5 he bored the well, he has devised ;
plan by which he can put his discover.
: to good usd. His house, which is les
than fifty feet away, he proposes t
move more closely to the well and pip
the air into the various rooms for heat
ing purposes. He is chicken fancie
e and raises hogs and cattle and he vii
: also pipe the heat to the chicken house
o cattle sheds and hog pens. In tn
i chicken house he proposes TO use tn
d hot air not only for heating purpose
> but will apply it to incubators an
y when he once gets fairly started h
{ will have a Matching every day an
{ spring chickens the year round
e He already has a good trade in liv
i poultry with the Armours, of Kansa
Il CITY, but he will abandon this and col
II fine his sales to spring chickens nc
only at the Kansas City market bl
= elsewhere where he can find demand.