The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1901-08-24
Mr. William En- Thomas Westminster Carroll County, Demo
cratic Associate Judge of the Fifth judicial
District.
Earth's Deepest Holes.
From the New York Sun.

1 FTOlu Tie NEW lOEk ouu.
Near Pittsburg well has been dug $685.
feet deep-that is, 252 feet more than a
mile Near Wheeling, W. Va, they are
sinking well which is now within few
hundred feet of mile deep. At last re-
port they had reached the 1920 foot level.
At Sperenberg, near Berlin, Germany, they
are driving hole in gypsum beds which
is already 1859 feet deep and it is getting
deeper every day. At Schladabach, neal
Leipsic, they are taking salt from well
that is even deeper than the Pittsburg well.
This hole is 6265 feet deep The Red
Jacket shaft of the Calumet and Hecla
Mine in the Lake Superior copper district
is a mile deep and men work in the shaft.
Near by, the Tamarack Mine has shaft
nearly as deep as the Red Jacket. But at
Paruschowitz, in Eastern Silesia, there is
a well which is now 600 feet deep, or ex-
actly 100 feet more than mile and a
quarter They are still boring, and it is
the intention to go down $500 feet, or one
and two-third miles, when some interesting
scientific experiments will be made. I'm
questionably, this is now the deepest arti-
fetal hole in the world.
But in this race far into the earth S
core there are other competitors, other well
holes which are not quite so deep as these
big ones, but are pressing them hard.
They are mostly in Germany At Leith,
near Altoona, there is hole 1888 feet
deep At Eu, near Strassfurt, they have
gone down 4241 feet At Lubtheen, in
Mecklenburg, they are still digging at
3949 feet. At Sennewitz, near Halle, 1914
feet has been reached. At Inowrazlaw,
Posen, drills are working at 1924 feet,
while at Friedrichsane, near Aschersleben,
they have punched hole in the earth
3543 feet deep. At St. Louis they have
well which will stand comparison with
these German wells 1t is 3843 feet deep.
| All Of these wells are more than half mile
deep, and several of them have passed the
three quarter mark.
As these wells all get hotter and hotter
as they are driven deeper and deeper, the
outcome suggested is, that as soon as a
sufficient depth is reached, natural steam
will be encountered, or if the well be dry
water can be pumped in and returned in
the form of marketable vapor. tits pointed
out that many buildings in several parts of
the world are heated with naturally warm
well water. The hospital at Grenelle and
large factories in Wurtemberg are notable
examples Also, the geyser shows how
heat from the earth interior may manifest
itself forcibly on the surface.
Beside the chasms in the oceans bed
for more than half of the whole sea floor
| lies two miles below the surface of the
water One eighth of this latter area is
depressed below three miles This eighth
itself is seven million square geographical
miles in extent and contains areas or rather
basins which dip in places more than five
miles below the surface These last almost
unfathomable holes i'll the ocean bottom
occur only in three places, Or at least only
three soundings of five miles or more have
been made There may be others, OF
course, even deeper, which have as yet re-
manned undiscovered
The deepest of these holes exists in the
South Pacific, to the east of the Kerma-
decs It's 5155 fathoms deep, or $50 feet
more than five geographical miles. The
sounding that went to its bottom represents
the farthest reach of humankind toward
the centre of the earth. Yet what came
back with the rod was meagre in view Of
what might have been expected, A little
globigerina ooze, a little of that curious red
clay which covers nearly half of the sea
floor, few manganese nodules, some
minute magnetic spherules of cosmic orr
gin-that was all; these and the positive
assurance of intense darkness and bitter
cold