Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1895-06-21
1900 FEET DEEP.
a TREMENDOUS HOLE FOR THE
NEXT PARIS FAIR.
Six Elevators to Carry Visitors Up
and Down tho Big Excavation
1t Is TO BE Nearly
Mile I'm Depth.
HHE great novelty of the Paris
Fair of 1900 will be, it is en-


OF the earth. NJ. Grousset's
plan, which, it has boon amour ced,
has been approved by tho mansgo-
mont, is to dig series of eight verti-
cal shafts, oaoh 600 feet in length, one
beginning whore another leaves of.
Two passenger elevators are to run in
each shaft, and there are to be gal
leries or stations at the end of each
elevator journey. where refreshments
will be served under the blaze of cleo
trio lights. We are told that the ex-
cavation will be thoroughly ventilated,
by what means has not yet been made
known, and that the traveller who de-
sends to tho lowest gallery depth will
be 1900 feet below the surface from
which he started. Tho estimated cost
is 50, 600, 600, which, one would think,
is quito moderate for 80 largo an I'M
dertaking. Tho protector says he
hopes to throw now light upon the
question of tho increase of tempera-
ture as greater depths within the
earth's core nre attained, and upon
other subterranean problems.
One thing is quito certain, and that
is that the men who will dig this pro-
digious holo will not be involved in
the predicament that defeated the
Russian merchant in Yakutsk. ST.
beria, about sixty years ago. Tho
Lem River water was not good enough
for him, aud so he decided to dig n
well. His men had only excavated n
few feet with pick and shovel whom
they declared that they had struck
8 old rock. If was only frozen earth,
however, and so tho merchant kept
his men poking away, expecting cvery
day to get through tho stratum OF
frozen earth. He wnsn little surprised
whom the summer season ended and
he was still in solidly frozen soil; but
tho next spring no courageously be-
gun work again, and did not stop I'M
til he had dug his way through 205
feet of earth ms hard rs rock. Then
he covered the hole with boards, and
decided to use river water awhile
longer.
Tho Academy OF Sciences in ST. Pc
tersburg heard the story, aud thought
it would be good thing, i'll the in
terest OF science, to carry on tho work
Tho Academy, however, woaried oil
pm ing the bills when it's diggers had
reached depth of 1872 feet and were
still in solidly frozen ground. From
the temperature Mt the bottom they
estimated that tho ground was proba.
bly, frozen to dopth of over coo
feet. The big hole, with it's frozen
walls, still exists, unless some one, in
quito recent years, has taken tine
trouble to fill it up.
There is reason to doubt that Mr..
Grousset's proposed big hole in Pari;
Will add very much to our present
knowledge of subterranenu problems,
rs he seems to hopo it will. Borings
have now been carried about 900 feet
nearer tho centre of the cnrth than il
is proposed to extend tho underground
pleasure route in Paris. 1t is proba.
bio that the deepest boring yet made
is that at Schladebach, between Leip.
zig and Merccburg, Germany, where
distance of about $40 feet from the
surface has been attained, with Il tenn
perature ct the bottom of sc. 6 degrees
centigrade, little moro than half tho
way between tho freezing and the boil
ing point OF water. Nobody can tell
yet whether the passengers at the Paris
fair will be made very uncomfortable
by the heat at the bottom of the shafts.
Such thing as uniform rate Of heat
increase apparently does not exist in
the subterranenu regions. Mr.. G. X.
Gilbert says that the rate of Increase
varies in different places, ranging
from one degree Fahrenheit for each
$50 feet of descent to ono degree
Fahrenheit for each thirty feet. The
general or normal rate is, perhaps,
one degree in seventy-fvc feet. There
are many local causes that greatly
Affect the Increase OF heat. For in
stance, in some Of tho lower lovels OF
the Comstock mines in Nevada, though
not moro than one-half rs deep as tho
boring at Schladcbach, the mon could
work only three or four hours ut q
time owing to the terrible heat. Thi.
was caused by scalding water forced
up from lower depths, which raiset
the temperature to 100 degrees Fahren
heit.
1t does not quite follow TINT becaus,
the Paris tourist will descend nearly
mile into the earth that he will fint
there almost intolerablo heat. Blu
then again he may. As this excava
ton Is to be by NO means the deepest
on record, and as we have no reason
to believe that anything ont of tn,
common will be found, it will not b
surprising if about the only scientiii,
interest attaching to the enterprise
VIII be the revealing of the subter
ranean conditions underlying Paris
The work will be quite sure, at leas
to tell us how thick is the formation
OF chalk which underlies Paris; for W.
know that tue same formation tina
shows itself in glittering Wilderness in
the cliffs of Dover is spread far over
france and that Paris is built above