Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/812

 776 ARTESIAN WELLS inserted, retarding the work for many months. At Kissingen, Bavaria, there is a well 1,878 It. deep the last 138 ft. of which passes through rock salt. The water, which flows from it at the rate of 100 cubic feet a minute, contains 3} per cent, of salt; its temperature is 66 F., and the whole cost of boring was about $33 000. Artesian wells are of peculiar value upon desert plains, and those vast prairies that rest upon porous limestone formations, through which the surface water finds its way and is lost. In May, 1858, M. Jus, & French engineer, commenced boring for water in the desert of Sahara, and on June 19 a well was sunk, from which there flowed a steady stream of pure water, having a temperature of 61 F., at the rate of 1,000 .gallons per minute. Up to the present time (1872) over 75 wells have been bored in that desert, yielding an aggregate of 600,000 gallons an hour. The effect of this abundant supply of water upon the once bar- ren soil of the desert is plainly apparent ; two new villages have been built in the midst of former solitudes, 150,000 palm trees have been planted in more than 1,000 new gardens; the oases of Tamelhat, Oum Thior, and Shegga have each their wells yielding from 25 to 1,000 gallons per minute. A promising feature in these wells is that water is reached at a com- paratively slight depth, the one in the oasis of Sidi Nached being hardly 200 ft. deep. There is also a well at Bourne, England, which, though but 92 ft. deep, yields 557,000 gallons of pure water per day, and the pressure is suf- ficient to supply the town and force a stream above the highest roofs. The proprietors of the Continental hotel, Philadelphia, have late- ly completed a well, 8 inches in diameter and only 200 ft. deep, which supplies them with 50,000 gallons of pure water per day. The success attending the work of the French en- gineers in Africa is one of great promise to those who would undertake the irrigation of the rich plains of the Colorado desert ; and al- ready a well bored by direction of the Pacific railway company at Point of Rocks, 805 m. W. of Denver, in the midst of the alkali dis- trict, furnishes abundant water for the engines on that road, the water rising to within 11 ft. of the surface. In 1855 the United States gov- ernment sent out an expedition, under com- mand of Capt. Pope, for the purpose of boring for water in the Llano Estacado, near the bor- ders of Texas and New Mexico. The first well was sunk at a point 15 m. due E. of the river Pecos, on the 32d parallel of latitude. At the depth of 360 ft. the first stream of water was struck, which rose to the height of 70 ft. in the tubing ; at 641 ft. a second stream was struck, which rose 400 ft. Five miles E. of this point a second well was bored to the depth of 860 ft., in which the water rose 750 ft. Of the artesian wells in the United States, those at St. Louis, Louisville, and Charleston are among the most important, both from their extreme depth and the difficulties attending the sink- ing. The well at St. Louis was completed at the expense and under the direct supervision of William H. Belcher of that city. An inter- esting account of its progress is given by A. Litton, M. D., in the "Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis," vol. i., No. 1, 1857. The boring of this well was begun from the bottom of an open well 30 ft. deep in the spring of 1849. The bore to the depth of 219 ft. was 9 in. in diameter, then 6-J in. for 731 ft. further, and continued at 3 in. till the full depth, 2,199 ft., was reached. At 550 ft., the top of a limestone layer, the water became salty ; 200 ft. below this, in a layer of shale, it contained 1 per cent, of salt; and at 965 ft., below a bed of bituminous marl, 2 per cent. At the depth of 1,179 ft. the hardest rock was encountered, being a bed of chert 62 ft. thick. The work was stopped on March 12, 1854, in silicious and clayey beds belonging to the lower Silurian formation. The water is at present discharged through a 20-inch pipe at the rate of 75 gallons per minute ; it is only fit for medicinal purposes, having a strong odor of sulphuretted hydrogen, and containing over 8 per cent, of mineral matter, including 6 per cent, of salt ; its temperature is even at 73 '4 F. The total cost of this work exceeded $10,000. The well at Louisville, Ky., has a 3-inch bore, and is 2,086 ft. deep. The water flows from it at the rate of 830,000 gallons per day, and with a force equal to 10-horse power. It is perfectly clear, though highly charged with mineral substances, being similar in composi- tion and medical properties to the celebrated Kissingen waters, and the Blue Licks of Ken- tucky. Of all the wells sunk in the United States, none is so remarkable for the difficul- ties encountered and successfully overcome as that at Charleston, S. C. Since 1824 five at- tempts have been made by the city govern- ment to obtain good water by this means. In 1848 the last operation was commenced under the direction of Maj. Welton. The strata first penetrated were alluvial sands, saturated with water, which caused them to run as quicksand. These were shut out by cast-iron tubing of 6 in. diameter, which penetrated the clays and marls of the postpliocene formation, and finally reached the depth of 230 ft., where it rested upon a rock of the eocene formation. From this point down alternations of hard rock and loose sands were met with, the latter causing the same trouble as those above, run- ning in and filling the well, sometimes even to the height of 140 ft. up from the bottom in a single night. When it was found impossible to draw out the sands from these beds, the plan was adopted of shutting them out by tubing. The bore of the lower part, being first enlarged from 3 to 5 in., was lined with sheet-iron tubes to the depth of 700 ft. Sand flowing in at 1,020 ft. rendered it necessary to take out the tin tubing, and replace it with heavier tubes of 4 in. diameter and $ in. thick, which screwed one upon another; this was