298 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



cient, for it could open out only at a certain distance below the mouth 

 of the tube, which it would therefore leave standing on a ledge. 

 Here, the engineer, having first drilled a 3|- inch hole entirely through 

 the rock, and into the softer stratum below it, sent down another tool, 

 closed during its descent, and made to open out below the rock, and 

 to cut a passage through it of the requsite size, from the bottom up- 

 wards to the "mouth of the tube. This done, the tool could be closed 

 and withdrawn. None of those tools caused any embarrassment, or 

 failed to effect their purpose, although worked with a handle more 

 than a thousand feet long. Notwithstanding the use of the most per- 

 fect tubes that could be procured, the sands still continued to give 

 annoyance. As the rods were withdrawn, they would rush in from 

 below with the water, to fill the vacant space, sometimes filling the 

 well to the depth of 60 feet almost instantaneously. This was reme- 

 died by building a reservoir at a sufficient height, from which, as the 

 rods were withdrawn, the water was let into the well, so as to produce 

 a downward current through the pipes. Such a current was likewise 

 made use of, at times, to loosen and start the sands packed about the 

 mouth of the tube, and allow it to proceed. The lateral pressure on 

 the tubes has rapidly increased as they descended, requiring a power- 

 ful leverage and heavy blows of a rammer to force them down. When 

 started, however, they frequently descend very easily until arrested 

 by a rock. The present system can scarcely be sunk any lower, for, 

 although the bottom is free, so great is the lateral pressure that the 

 tubes cannot be started by a power under which the joints show si<jns 

 of giving way. Other tubing of such a size as to be let down inside 

 of the present system, will be speedily procured, when, it is hoped, 

 the work will again be prosecuted with vigor. 



A brief notice of the principal tools may not be out of place. The 

 rods used are of pine, about 3^ inches diameter and 30 feet long, 

 tapering at their extremities, where they are armed with iron heads 

 bearing screws. The tool to be used is screwed to a rod, and both are 

 let down into the well until only one end of the rod bearing a male 

 screw, projects above the mouth of the well, where it is firmly held by 

 an iron catch or yoke, beneath a suitable iron band on the screw. A 

 second rod is then screwed to the first one, and is similarly let down 

 and caught. A third is screwed to the second ; and so on until the 

 bottom is reached. The upper rod is held suspended either wholly or 

 in part, as the engineer desires, by a movable pulley, and bears a cross 

 bar or handle, by'means of which the workmen may turn the rods and 

 tool as they please. The chief tool is the auger, used for boring clays, 

 marl, or any consistent layer not of stony hardness. It is exceedingly 

 simple and "ingenious. A steel blade an inch wide and half an inch 

 thick, slightly tapering towards one extremity, is twisted like an auger, 

 and terminates in two cutting edges, like those of a drill for boring 

 iron. About six inches above the point two bitts like those of a plane 

 are securely fastened, one on each side of the central bitt, and are in- 

 clined at an angle of 45 degrees, so as to fit exactly its auger-like twist 

 of the blade ; the upper extremities of those bitts are extended back- 





