Newport daily independent., 1906-05-04
STARTLING PROJECT.
PARLIAMENTARY WOULD DIG HoLD
 TWELVE MILES DEEP.
Wsuld Solve Many ouestioas uA~ known to the Scientific World Estfmatsd Cost a2S, 900. 900
 AAd te Taks 80 Ysass.


 Experiments to be tried tn the WasA~ lngtoA monument by omcers ee the geo logical survey to try to determine tho oompressivs of the earth's nasA has awakened widespread interest h scientific circles. Coming a 1t does on the heels of . project broached by Charles Algernon Parsons, of EngiaAA. b bore a hole 12 miles into tho earth. the scientific world has much food for speculation.
 Prot. Parsons estimatss that to sink . shaft 12 miles deep would cost 92s. .00e.- 900, and that it would require eS yearA to accomplish 1t. This shAft, cut down into the earth. would represent the equivalent of . hola one foot desp in . mass 666 feet thick. It would solve many questions that the scientific knowl- edge of tho world has left unanswered. yet 1t would investigate only tho crust and leave thousands of miles of the in- terior mass still untouched.
 The amount of compression at the globes center should, to some extent at least, define the character of tho 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 tho planet. under . crust z5 miles thick. is a mass of fiery liquid is arrayed the fact of the known density of the globe. That density in the sarth's entirety fs about 5.5 times tho density of the water that covers three-Quarters of tho sur- face.
 The assumption of . comparatively thin crust requires. according to Sir William Thompson. that this crust should have rigidity possessed by no known substance. The sun exerts such a strain upon the substance of the earth that thc planet could not maintain it's shape as 1t does. he maintains, unless the supposed crust were at least 2,0O0 or 2,5O0 miles in thickness
 There is gradual increase in the tenn perature 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.
 In the Comstock silver mines of Me- vada, at depth of 3,065 feet, water has a temperature of ITO degrees, Fahren- heit. The deepest excavations In the earth are at the Calumet and Hecla cep- per mines in Michigan, where the longest perpendicular shaft goes down 4,900 feet, while one of the standing shafts Is more than 5000 feet in length.
 There are in these mines 250 miles of lateral galleries. Colossal engines are required to ventilate the immense sub terranean city and to keep the tempera- ture endurable in the lower levels. All deep mine borings prove how stipend ously difficult would be the task of de- scending below the mile level.
 At the lowest rate of increase in the temperature in penetrating the earth. the heat at the depth suggested by Mr. Par sons, F miles down, would be 800 de- srees Fahrenheit This heat. though far from the fustng point of wrought iron, 8.26D dagvees), would render tic use of tools. even if the lower borings of the shaft wers constructed as they are ih oil welIs, dih1cuit process. It would defy :hs most colossal scheme of artificial re- triseration to render such depths Nvail- able for entrance by human beings.
 No conBlderations of commercial ben eflt' enter into the plans of MT. Parsons in suggesting the Emile boring into the crust of the earth. It is scheme purely iH tho interest of scientific knowledge.