The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-09-24
TEST FALLING BODIES
N Deep NINE SHAFT
REMARKABLE RESULTS OF Ex-
PER,MENTs SHOWING Eff.
FEcTs EARrH's REVOLUTION.
Machinery.

The Michigan College of Mines.
Houghton. Mich. has made some in
terssting tests Of falling bodies In a
deep vertical shaft Of copper mine
lat Calumet. Mich. Within a radius Of
|a mile from Calumet are three OF the
deepest shafts In the world. one Of
them being $500 feet deep. One Of the
experiments consisted In dropping a
smooth metal ball two inches in diam
ster from the center Of the shaft and
trying to catch It in a box Of clay
placed 1900 feet beneath. Another ball
was dropped from the southwest COR
ner Of the shaft. The balls were drop
ped by burning the threads by which
they were suspended so that they
started to fall directly downward. The
shaft h nine by thirty feet cross-sec-
ton. The first Of the balls was sus-
pended four feet from the side OF the
shaft and the second from point nine
feet from the opposite corner. Neither
Of the balls reached the box Of clay;
one Of them was never found and the
other, presumably the one started from
the center, was found by workman
lodged in the timbers on the east side
Of the shaft 800 feet from the surface
Bodies Never Reach Bottom.
Bodies dropped into the shaft invari-
ably lodge somewhere in the east wall.
This action takes place because the
earth Is rotating on Its axis from west
to east. At Calumet particle at the
surface Is moving to the east at the
rate Of about 1000 feet second; but
a particle 5000 feet down the shaft
having the same angular velocity as
the particle on the surface, Is moving
than 1000 feet per second The ball
suspended at the top of the shaft had
q thousand feet las second velocity; it
was not only moving eastward at that
rate when 1t started to fall but con-
tinued moving eastward all the way
down the shaft Meanwhile 1t dropped
to the bottom at rate which would
have taken TN seconds for the fall If
there had been no air resistance to en-
counter. During the TN seconds. the
particle at the surface and the ball
falling at the same rate would have
travelled TN times four inches or
nearly six feet further eastward than
the particle at the bottom of the shaft.
The ball started from the center Of the
shaft, therefore, struck the east wall
long before 1t reached the bottom. AS
a matter of fact, the resistance Of the
air at the high speed the ball acquired
soon after starting; was sufficient to
prevent any further acceleration and
the ball was much longer
than TN seconds in falling. In fact,
only 500 feet Of fall was required for
the ball to make the four feet from the
center of the shaft to the east wall
and the other ball must have lodged at
some point not much further down.
II the walls Of the shaft were smooth
and free from obstructi n, no doubt
a falling body would rebound from side
to side Of the shaft and finally reach
bottom, but the many timbers in the
lining Of the shaft and the levels all
the way down furnish places where a
body is sure to lodge, and so If a load
Of ore were to be spilled into the shaft |
near the top most Of 1t would later be |
'ound clinging to the shaft or stranded |
IN the levels east Of the shaft.