Newport daily independent., 1906-04-14
STARTLIN1sI,s S
 FRO
EN0LISHMAN wourn
 TWELVE MILES DEEP.
Would Solve Many Questions Un- knowa to tha Scientific World Estimated Cost $25, 100000
 and to Take 85 Years.

Experiments to be tried fn the W ash ington monument by officers of the geo- logical survey to try to determine ths compressivenesa ot the earth's mass. 1 has awakened widespread interest ia 1 scientific circles. Coming ss It does o1 the heels of project brosched by Charles Algernon Parsoas Of England to bore a hole 12 miles into the earth. tho scientific world has much food eor speculation.
 Prof. Parsoas eseSnasss gha4 to sjnb . shaft 12 mites deep would cost s25 ,000, = GOO. and that it woui6 eeSairs s5 years to accomplish it. This sasft, cut down into the earth. would represent ehs equivalent of hole one foot deep jn I mass 66S feet thick. It would solve many questions that the scientific knowI, adge of the world has left unanswered, yet it would investigate only the crust and leave thousands of miles of the in tarior mass still untouched.
 The amount of compression at ths globes center should, to some extent at least, define the character of the mass of which 1t is formed. It is argued that the great mass of the interior of the earth Is solid. Against the contention that the planet, under & crust 25 miles thick. Is a mass of fiery liquid is arrayed the fact of the known density of the globe That density in the earth's entirety is about 5.5 times the density of the water that covers three-Quarters of the sur face.
 The assumption of comparatively thin crust requires, according to SIT William Thompson. that this crust should have rigidity possessed by no known substance. The sun exerts such | strain upon the substance of the earth that the planet could not maintain it's supposed crust were at least 1000 CT 2,500 miles in thickness.
 There is a gradual increase fin the tem- . perature while penetrating the surfaca ot the crust. This increase in some b. calities is as rapid as one degree for eacd 56 feet of desceut, in others one degree for 75 to S5 feet.
 Ir the Comstock silver mines of Ne vada, at depth of 3.065 feet water ha, a temperature of 170 degrees, F'ahren- heit. The deepest excavations in the earth are at the Calumet and HecIa cop, per mines in Michigan, where the longev perpendicular shaft goes down 49A0 feet, while one of the standing shaf's is more than 5000 feet in length.
 There are in these mines 250 miles pf lateral galleries. Colossal engines arg required to ventilate the immense sub- terranean city and to keep the tempera- ture endurable in the lower levels Al, oualy difficult would be the task of da- sce1dins below the nile level
 At the lowest rate of tncc aasa i, ths temperature in penetrating the earth. th heat at the depth suggested by Mr Par sons. - miles down. would ba SG0 d. ecaes Fahrenheit This heat, though Ia, from inc fusing point of wroIght ir01 , 23A degrees), would render the rsa nf 'D0.s. even if the lower borings of the stas- Wara constructed as they are in o;. "2:;5, difficult process. It would def .la IT 2st colossal s.hame of artificial rA- tTieavat.on to render such depths await e#,a fo" entrance by human beings.
 No considerations of com mercial be-- o;i. eG .ac into the plans of MT. Parson &a suggesting the Emile boring into tn o-',s. 9. the earth It is a scheme puraty 7 .s the interest of scientific knowledge