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BETTER FRUIT 



Page 25 



Increasing the Flow of a Well 



By Wm. J. Gochenour, Virginia 



IT occurred to me that a description 

 of my method of well drilling and 

 blasting to open up the water veins 

 would be of interest to readers of a 

 farm paper. Below I am giving a de- 

 scription of some work of this kind 

 recently done for the Chapin Sacks 

 Manufacturing Company of Woodstock, 

 Virginia. They wanted a supply of 

 about 300,000 gallons of water daily to 

 be used in operating their modern 

 creamery and ice plant. The wells 

 were sunk through very hard limestone. 

 There were eight feet of earth on top. 



The first well was sunk to a depth 

 of 240 feet and produced only 30,000 

 gallons of water in 24 hours. By ob- 

 serving the rock strata and finding 

 them very tight and almost without 

 crevices, we assumed that the water 

 courses were almost shut off and we 

 decided that shooting would be neces- 

 sary to obtain satisfactory results. 



The charge used was 325 pounds of 

 60 per cent straight nitroglycerine 

 dynamite. The charges were packed 

 tightly in four-inch metal tubes (ordi- 

 nary rain pipe), each section ten feet 

 long. The first tube rested on the bot- 

 tom of the well, the others being placed 

 one on top of the preceding one until 

 the explosives extended up the bore 

 hole to within sixty feet of the surface. 

 In the top tube (the last one put down), 

 we inserted a deep-well exploder. This, 

 of course, was imbedded in one of the 

 sticks of dynamite. Connecting wire 

 long enough to reach to the top of the 

 well was attached to this exploder and 

 the connecting wire in turn attached to 

 the leading wire, which at the proper 

 time was attached to the poles of the 

 blasting machine. Each of the tin tubes 

 had a tight bottom soldered on it. A 

 bail wire was run through two holes in 

 the top of the tube and a hook attached 

 to a three-eighths-inch rope was then 

 hooked into the bail and used in lower- 

 ing the tubes. The rope and tube were 

 left attached to the last charge lowered 

 (the one containing the exploder). The 

 object of this was to enable us to pull 

 this tube up to the surface again and 

 examine it, if for any reason the charge 

 failed to go off. 



The very last operation in a job of 

 this kind is attaching the ends of the 

 leading wire to the posts of the blasting 

 machine. This should never be done 

 until every one about the place is at a 

 safe distance and everything in readi- 

 ness to fire. 



The shot above described produced 

 the desired increase in water in a test 

 over a period of two days and one 

 night continuous pumping; they were 

 unable to exhaust the (low and the 

 water in the well lowered only six 

 feet, showing standing water to a depth 

 of 180 feet. Forty thousands gallons of 

 water per day were pumped. If there 

 is no water in a well about to be shot, 

 I would advise, after the dynamite 

 charges have been placed in position 



Che/aical 





and everything in readiness to fire, that 

 several barrels of water be poured into 

 the bore hole or, better still, that it be 

 filled to the surface because water will 

 keep the air from the explosives and 

 serves as the best kind of tamping for 

 well blasting. 



The Height of Heroism 



As we read the records of war heroes 

 there is an ever-compounding difficulty 

 in squaring our own aid in winning the 

 war with the performances of the men 

 at the front. 



We are proud of our Liberty Loan, 

 Thrift Stamp and Red Cross records, 

 and yet when we read the citations for 

 bravery, our actions become insignifi- 

 cant in comparison, although just as 

 necessary. 



Take the incident of Sergeant S. L. 

 Nickerson, Corporal M. J. O'Connell 

 and Private Thomas Ryan of the 101st 



Infantry — all deceased. It is recorded 

 that near Epieds, France, on July 23, 

 1918, that these three volunteered to 

 act as human decoys by crossing an 

 open field to draw the fire of the enemy. 

 Machine guns which could not be lo- 

 cated were holding up the advance and 

 there was strong probability that the 

 entire company would be wiped out if 

 the men charged in the open. 



Nickerson, O'Connell and Ryan said 

 good-bye to their pals, went over the 

 top walking proudly erect at different 

 places on the line and were promptly 

 killed. The machine guns were "spot- 

 ted," destroyed and the glorious Ameri- 

 can advance proceeded. 



Think of those three boys when you 

 decide the size of your next and last 

 Liberty Loan subscription. If you do 

 think of them the amount will be 

 larger than you planned yesterday. It 

 should be. 



