448 



BORING 



of boring: 1st, the mode supposed to have been originated in China, of using ropes 

 for working the boring tools, in place of rods. This system, which has been success- 

 fully carried out in America and elsewhere in the boring for petroleum, as previously 

 described ; but the principle has been most thoroughly adapted and re-arranged by 

 Messrs. Mather and Platt. 2nd, by the invention of M. Fauvellc, by means of which 

 the beaten-up rock at the bottom of the borehole, instead of having to bo drawn up 

 by rods or ropes, is continuously removed by a current of water forced down the bore- 

 hole by means of a pump placed at the top. 



The foregoing brief reference to certain modes of boring has boon made for the 

 purpose of drawing attention to the chief conditions upon which economical boring 

 depends. 



On the Ajyplication of Soring to the Sinking of Shafts. The science of boring has 

 recently been applied in a manner, the practical economy of which is of great impor- 

 tance as bearing upon the investment of capital in the sinking of coal-mines through 

 aqueous strata. M. Kind has within the past twelve years in Germany and Franco 

 put down a number of shafts, varying in diameter from 9 to 14 feet, a considerable 

 distance. These pits have been sunk through strata yielding immense volumes of 

 water, and the whole process has been conducted under water. To enable such 

 shafts to bo sunk down to their full depth by shutting off the feeders of waters met 

 with, by means of tubing placed in the shaft, M. Chaudron, a Belgian engineer, 

 came to M. Kind's aid, and by the application of several simple, but ingenious con- 

 trivances, hereafter to be described, has succeeded in fixing the necessary tubing under 

 water, and in providing a perfectly efficient joint at the base of the tubing, between 

 the water-bearing and the dry strata. 



Of the future coal-fields of England, it is probable that nearly half of the remaining 

 deposit of coal will have to be obtained by sinkings through newer formations than 

 the coal-measures, where very large quantities of water will have to be encountered. 

 This indicates the importance to this country of some economical system of piercing 

 such strata. 



The ordinary system of sinking through strata containing large quantities of water 

 has been to provide a large pumping plant, and to pump each feeder of water out as 

 met with, fixing on the rock forming the barrier for each feeder a firmly wedged iron 

 curb, and making it the base of the tubing which is built in segments, such segments 



being generally about 4 feet long by 2 feet 9 inches high. The joints between 

 these segments are made secure by means of wooden sheeting wedged tightly. Where 

 the feeders are large, several sets of pumps have sometimes to bo introduced into the 

 pit, and the workmen have almost continually to be working in water, and at a great 

 disadvantage. This difficulty, combined with the heavy cost of fuel, cost of buckets 

 and powder, the great liability of accidents to the pumping plant, the cost of fixing 

 the curbs and segmental tubing, and the risk entailed in the large number of joints 

 in the tubing, constitute the chief disadvantages of this system of sinking pits through 

 watery strata. 



The Kind-Chaudron system may be briefly described by pointing out the various 

 processes adopted : 



1st. The opening of the mine is commenced by erecting the plant shown l>y 

 Jigs. 186 and 187, which exhibit two sectional elevations of the surface arrangements 



