Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1909-04-25
What q Water "Theorist" Has
Done For Western Kansas

like n surface river. They are sim
ply moisture which saturates certain
underground regions and which moves
along through those regions somewhat
In the same way that water reaches
the other end of a blanket when one
end is wet. =.
/ Slichter dug up a handful OF soil
In various places and went back to
: Madison. There for the first time
those age old grains OF sand were
! sliced Ly the throat and told 10 give
.. up their secret. They were measured
/ in millimeters, dry and singly. They
were weighed and magnifed and pho-
tographed. posed as billiard balls IN
a trignometric tableau. But most or
all their behavior was watched when
they were introduced to water.
In this way Slichter found that the
ability of soil to let water flow thro'
| II depends not only uuon the size OF
| the individual grains that compose II
but also upon the way In which they
are packed. And he was able to COM
I pose table OF figures. from when
| II one measures the size and finds the
average for the sand in certain re-
gion one can make an accurate guess
| at how much water can possibly now
underground through that region.
When he had found out every thing
about the soil which contained the
| water, SIichter went back to Kansas
again. His study of the difference IN
the way that various soils transmit
water was the most accurate guide
in picking out the region where the
most water had sunk down through
the earth to join the great. the ever
absorbing stream that was somewhere
underground.
Conditions Of "seepage Waters"
For It seemed that the water OF
greatest practical value was not that
OF the streams which had got tired OF
fighting the heat in a region where
an evaporation Of ninety inches was
common, streams that took rest by
crawling under their bed. They heip-
ed But the really important water
was that which had percolated down
ward directly through the soil ana
had gathered together and united In
to the real aristocracy OF underground
waters after it had got beneath the
surface of the earth, and was moving
along, fast or slow. hut inevitably. to-
ward the sea. The water that was
recovered in kansan might have seep-
ed down under the soil in Wyoming
six months ago, or 1t might have RAIN
ed upon the sand hills last week. Only
the study OF special conditions coHld
determine which.
He began to sink experimental wells
in the bed of the Arkansas. and north
and south Of the river. He used the
wells already there. about seventy-nVe
of them-and he sank nearly two hum
dred more.
And he made the extraordinary dis
coyery that while the waters of the
Arkansas had disappeared and were
moving along underground. none OF
the wells hack a very little north and
south OF the river We're fed from those
waters, but got their supply from the
rainfall upon the hills and plains
themselves--thCSe arid hills ana
plains that the settler had fought so
long.
His experiments and his obserVa-
tiOns had now shown him with con-
siderable accuracy where to look lcr
water But they had not given him
a lime on how much water TO expect
to find.
It was then that the theoretical
equation and the theoretical interest
Of the theoretical man rose up and
glOried. He had been attracted to|
the whole underground water Ques-
tion in the first place by the mere
little point Of wondering how fast
those waters could move in their IN
finitely small capillary pores. Now.
II he could accurately determine how
fast they do move. OF course he could
come very close indeed. to estimating
how fast the water would take the
plaoa of air in suction pipe at any
one spot In other words. he could
predict the amount Of water which
could be pumped at any one point.
For. remember, he was not telling
people to run pipes down into a rese-
voir. but. as it we're. into moving
succession Of infinitely small drops.
II those drops were moving very slew
~ and you were TO withdraw one of
them 1t would be so long before its
place could he taken by another that