The Nenana daily news. (Nenana, Alaska) 1918-1921, 1919-09-08

which a well six inches in diameter
can be drilled seems to depend
chiefly on skill in drilling and
strength of cable. The cable itself
is heavy, and besides carrying its
own weight and the weight of
drill, which weighs one or two tons,
it must bear strains produced by
vertical movements of the drill,
which may be so great as to break
lit at any moment, so that the drill
and part of the cable may be
lodged in the well in such a way
that they cannot be removed. Ex-
ceptional skill is required, there
fore, in operating the ponderous
machinery used in drilling a well.
The drill, which is column of
steel about five inches in diameter
and 40 or so feet long, beveled to
V-shaped edge at the lower end,
is attached to one end of the cable,
and at some other point, deter
mined by the driller, the cable is
attached to long beam, which is
operated in the same manner as
the walking beam of a steamboat.
Merely to light the drill through
the height determined by the swing
lof the end of the walking-beam
and to let it drop repeatedly would
do no drilling. In order to drill,
oscillations must be induced in the
cable, such as those set up by at
taching a light weight to a sus-
pended rubber band. A slight oscil-
lation properly induced by the finger
at the upper end of the rubber
band will produce very large
oscillation of the weight attached
to its lower end. In some such way
as this the skillful driller produces
oscillations in the drill bit, which
throw the sharp beveled edge of the
drill on to the rock with high We
locity. The only means that the
driller has of knowing the behavior
of the drill is the general behavior
of the machinery and the slight i'm
pulses or tremors in the cable, which
he detects by his hand alone.
/ Deep Drilling Is Instructive.
! The information obtained from
drill holes carried to great depths
lis of exceptional economic and sci
entifc importance. Although the
wells drilled by the Hope Natural
Gas company and the Peoples Nat
ural Gas company have not yet
reached the goal sought depth
of 5000 feet-they have, neverthe-
less, come within All feet of the
goal, and incidentally they have es-
tablished the fact that no valuable
deposits Of oil exist in the imme-
diate vicinity of the wells at depths
somewhat greater than 1000 feet.
What's IN the Interior of the Earth
I The materials and the conditions
] in the interior of the earth have
+ long been q favorite subject of spec
ulation among scientific men. Ac-
cording TO the modern mathemati-
cal theory OF the propagation OF
earthquake waves through the earth.
the outer rock shell of the earth,
which is about two and one-half
times as heavy as water, EXTENDS
to depth Of less than 1000 miles.
Inside Of this shell is some material,
probably metallic, which is more
than five times as heavy as water.
Estimates of the temperature at the
center Of this nucleus range from
5000 to 10000 degrees Fahren-
heit, but these figures have little
or no value, for mathematician
have not yet found the law of the
distribution of temperature from the
surface to the center of the earth.
The temperature evidently increases
,.-;tb +ba Jan+h foof 2n1ip cnn-