Newport daily independent., 1906-04-10
UNaLISHMAN wouA- s'll
 TWELVE MILES DEEP.
Would Solve Many Questions Un- known to the Scientific World Estimated Cost s25, 100000 !
 and to Take 65 Years.

Experiments to be tried in the Wash tnston monument by officers of the geo. logical survey to try to determine the compressiveneas of the earth's mass, has awakened widespread interest is scientific circles Coming as 1t does On the heels of 8 project broached by Charles Alseruoa PArs~-t of England. so bors a hole 12 nilss into tha earth. the scientific worax has much food sos speculation.
 Prof. PRysoss asMnasso that to sink . shaft le miles desD woald cost s25. .00c,- GOO. and that it woslA rsaslrs &S years to accomplish it. Thts sAast, eat down into the earth. would represent ths equivalent of ho!a one foot deep in a n ass sSS feet thick. 1t would solve many questions that tha scientific knovi. sdge of tue world has left unanswered. yet it would investigate only the crust and lsave 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 ths mass Of which it is formed. It ts argued that the great mas Of tho interior of the earth is solid. Against the contention that tho planet. under crust s miles thick, is q mass of fiery liquid is arrayed the fact of the known density of the globe That density in the ,earth's entirety ts about 5.5 times the density of the water that covers three-qaarters Of the sur- face.
 The assumption of comparatively thin crust requires. according to Sir William Thompson. that this crust should have risidity possessed by nn known substance. The sun exerts such a strain upon the substance of the earth that the planet aould not maintain it's shape as 1t does he maintains, unless tf,s supposed crust were at least 2,000 or 2,500 miles in thickness.
 There is a gradual increase fn the tenn peraturs while penetrating the surface of the crust This increase in some To- calities is as rapid as one degree for each 56 feet Of descent; in others one degree for 75 to 85 feet,
 Tn the Comstock silver mines of Ne yada, at depth of S.065 feet, water hae temperature of 1To degrees, Fahren heit. The deepest excavations in the earth are at the Calumet and Hecla cop. per mines in Michigan, whsre helonges' perpendicular shaft goes down 4,90t feet, while one of the standing shafts
 is more than 5000 feet ia length, There are in these mines 250 miles oi lateral galleries. Colossal engines ar' required to ventilate the immense sub i terrauean city and to keep the tempera ! ture endurable in the lower levels. Al 1 deep mine borines prove how stipend
 ously difficult would be the task of de
 sending below the mile level
 AZ the lowest rate of increase in tn, l temperature in ranetrat ing the earth. tb
 heat at the depth susgested by MT. Par
 sons. 1s miles down. would be 300 d.
 erees Fahrenheit This heat, though faI
 from the fusne point If wrought iron
 l3. .2SO degrees) would render the us:
 0f tools. even if the lower borings of tH'
 shat wera constructed as they are tr 0i
 wells a difficult process. It would def
 .he most col0ssa. x2GemA ot artificial re
 frigaration to render such depths avail
 able for entrance by human beings.
 No considerations of commercial Der
 aft enter into the plans of Mir Parson
 IT suggesting the Emile boring into tn
 crust of the earth. II js a scheme purei.
 x the interest of scientific Knowledge.