The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-17

States geological survey, he had been
conducting some measurements in the
well near Wheeling. He was thus able
to compare one with the other
The method of taking the tempera-
ture was simple. Self-registering Their
mometers were placed in iron buckets
three feet long and three inches in di-
ameter. A bucket holding thermome-
ters was hung on to the end of steel
wire and let down into the hole two
hundred and sixty feet, when another
bucket was tied on and the lowering
was continued. Measurements were
thus made at various depths. 1t was
tedious work, and when the lower
depths were reached it required nearly
an hour to get the buckets back to the
surface, once the measurement had
been made. On the way down in the
Pittsburg we'll natural gas was encoun-
tered, tapped and used for a time to
drive the machinery that worked the
drills. In this instance the we'll fur
nished power to dig itself out
All of these wells have now been
sunk lower, therefore, according to the
average rate of increase, the Speren-
oerg ought to measure approximately
124 degrees a the bottom; the Schlada-
BACH 143 degrees, the Wheeling 116 de-
grees, the Pittsburg 12S degrees, and,
according to the German average. the
ParushoWitz well, which has not yet
been reported would show tempera-
ture at the bottom somewhere between
1855 degrees and 100 degrees Fahrnheit.
would ike much 0io-
ging before the heat Of these wells
could be utilized. All things being
equal, the Pittsburg well, at ten thou
sand feet, should develop a temperature
greater than that of boiling water, es
pecially as the heat increases more
rapidly as the hole gets deeper.
But these wells were all bored in
what might be called the normal crust
of the earth, where the strata lie in stu.
Had they been dug in Wyoming, in the
geyser basin, for instance, it is proba-
BILE that steam or very hot water would
have been encountered not many feet
below the surface, for, after all, the
geyser is one of natures deepest holes
since it connects in one way or another
with the internal heat of the earth and,
therefore, we have a sort of indication
of how an artificial deep hole might
act if once it We're driven down far
enough to form vent for the heat of
the earth. On the other hand, had one
of the wells been driven down under
Michigan, through the copper beds, it
is probable that even ten thousand feet
would not beget a tempera ture too hot
for breathing purposes, let alone suffi-
Gent for the production of steam.
This to the lay mind must appear
in view of the fact that the re-
gton is full of experimenting rock and,
therefore, ought to conduct heat readi-
~. Nevertheless it is a fact that these
rocks do not conduct the heat. The
of the lowest Calumet and
Hecla shaft never goes far from seven
ty degrees Professor Agassiz buried
at various depths in the
mines and got very little variation
Professor Pierce, of Harvard, obtained
some slabs of rock from the lower lev
els, and by means of an electric Their
mostat tested their heat conducting
which We're reported to be
small in comparison with those of some
other rocks. His idea in this case, how
ever, leans more to an approximation
IF heat conductivity of rock in general,
IN the end to form an estimate of the
aarths age since If the cooling rate of
all rock is known then taken in relation
to thickness, it would be possible to de-
termine approximately how long it has
1een since the exterior of the earth was
molten. The deep wells furnish data in
his connection also.
Among other theories concerning the
Calumet rock it is suggested that per-
maps the proximity of the waters of
Lake Superior have a cooling effect on
he copper mines Low temperatures
ire characteristic of all the subaqueous
deep holes. Beside the chasms in Fthe
ocean bed the holes in the land are as
pin punctures, for more than half of the (
whole sea floor lies two miles below the
surface of the water. One-eighth of
his latter area is depressed below |
hree miles. This eighth itself is seven
million square geographical miles in
xtent and contains areas, or, rather |
basins which dip in places over five |
niles below the surface. These last al |
most unfathomable holes in the ocean |
bottom occur only in three places, or, at |
east only three soundings of five miles
II more have been made. There may |
,e Others of course, even deeper, /
which have as yet remained undiscov-
red The deepest of these holes exists
n the South Pacific to the east of the
<ermadecs 1t is 5,155 fathoms deep, or
80 feet more than five geographical
niles. The sounding that went to it's
,ottom represents the farthest reach Of
toward the center of the
arth. Yet what came back with the
Cd was meager in view of what might
ave been expected. A little globiger-
ma ooze. a little of that curious red I
lay which covers nearly half of the
ca floor, a few manganese noduleS, L
ONE minute magnetic spherules of cos
nic origin, that was all; these and the h
positive assurance of intense darkness
nd bitter cold. The ooze was what
tas left of animal carcasses sweeping
Onward through centuries: the clay
1as the plastic remnants of even ear
er periods; the spherules We're repre-
entatives of meteoric particles which
ad plunged through Unreasonable dis I
ance from "outer dark to inner dark" Is
volcanic debris, oxides of iron, zeolitic
rystals, manganese noduleS and re- ;