The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-11-06
ARE BORING FOR STEAM
THE DEEPEST WE'LL IN THE WORLD
 NEAR PITTSBURG.

At AS soihE ouhh III thS luLeEtSts Oi SCienCS
 and 1t is Believed the High Temperature
 Will Produce Quantities of Steam.
 The deepest well in the world will soon be completed near Pittsburg. It is now more than one mile deep, and when it is finished 1t is expected to reach two miles down into the earth. It is being bored in the interest of science. The object in penetrating so deeply is to de- termine just what the interior of the human footstool is like. From a com mercial point of view the well was success long ago. A comparatively few feet below the surface both gas and oil were struck in paying quantities, but the company owning the plants deter mined to dedicate it to science, and in- Vited Professor William Hallock, of Co., lumbia college, to carry on series of temperature Investigations as the hole is carried deeper and deeper into the earth. The result of these inVeStiga- tions is interesting, and it is the opinion of several scientists that the ultimate result of the boring will prove to be of economic as well as of scientific value. It is the intention of the company to continue the boring process until some- thing entirely new and original is de- veloped This may seem a crude way of putting the statement, but it has long been theory among well men that If it is possible to go deep enough some new geologic condition or economic feature IypIllS ha fp11n1 Tn avict t1a least they claim natural steam would be encountered, or the well walls would finally become so hot that water could be pumped down cold and pumped up in the form of steam, and thus the nat ural power of the future be obtained. There is material for much speculation, and the interest becomes greater in in- creased ratio as the drill descends. One remarkable feature of the we'll is that | the gas found near the surface is now used to operate the engines which do | the drilling. Thus the natural power already issuing from the well is utilized for the purpose of deepening it. @ Professor Hallock estimates that al l ten thousand feet-the proposed depth | of the well-the temperature will be two hundred and twenty-eight degrees
 AS at temperature of two hundred and | twelve degrees water is converted into vapor, he expects that his well will af- | ford an ample supply of natural steam | that will prove to be the cheapest pow.
 CT available to man.
 | It is generally believed by scientific | men that the temperature of the eartf
 increases one degree for every sixty l feet of depth; and it is upon this basi: 1 that Professor Hallock has made his l estimate. But, like all general rules i 1 is subject to exceptions, and in thi:
 case to very material ones, because tht | increase of temperature is not uniform ! Comparatively little has been ascer
 tained regarding the interior of tn, | earth and the conditions that prevail
 there; yet it is known that the crust O
 the earth is exposed to quite as variou.
 conditions as it's surface. Granite, foI
 instance-especially if it carries mucl
 feldspar-gives off more heat thar
 slate or other rock containing higl | percentage of hornblende Lime give
 off still more heat, at any time and il
 almost any condition, but especial,
 when 'slacked" or decomposed by sud
 den contact with air or water, or both
 These varying conditions caus
 widely diverging effects, yet Professo
 Hallock claims a temperature at tel
 thousand feet depth of two hundre'
 and twenty-eight degrees; he is correc | according to theoretical knowledge I
 the increase of temperature were uni
 form, it could be depended upon tha
 at six hundred feet the heat would, tn
 surface temperature being neutralized be about ten degrees. At six thousant
 feet it would be one hundred degrees
 at ten thousand feet about one hun | dred and sixty-six and tWo-third de | grees.
 Practice. however, has demonstrate
 that the increase in temperature is gov erned by conditions such as mentione'
 above, and instances of exceptional. | high temperatures at comparativel
 shallow depths are not wanting.
 | On the Comstock, in Nevada, whel
 the Savage and Gould & Curry min
 workings were connected at their twen ty-six hundred level, about twent years ago, the temperature of the con I meeting drifts-that from the north il l the Gould x Curry and that from tn south in the Savage-was, respectively | one hundred and forty-five degrees il | the former and one hundred and thirty seven degrees In the latter. The tenn ' perature in the Gould x Curry min
 would have indicated an increase O Il one degree for every eighteen feet o depth. Other workings in the Com
 stock lode, technically referred to a
 ''hot ends" and at shallower depths : were still hotter.
 Instances of the effects of local condi : tions upon temperature might be mul l tiplied, but these will suffice to demon