WELL BORING 



6242 



WELLES 



or nearly three times the original cost. As 

 completed in 1871 it was twenty-six and three- 

 fourths miles long, had an average width of 

 160 feet and depth of 15 feet, and included 

 twenty-five locks, each 270 feet by 45 feet. It 



Toronto 



WELLAND CANAL, OLD AND NEW 

 (1) New canal ; (2) old canal ; (3,3) feeders. 



extended from Port Colborne on Lake Erie to 

 Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario. The average 

 annual tonnage of freight on the canal is about 

 4,000,000. 



New Ship Canal. In 1912 the Dominion gov- 

 ernment decided to make additional improve- 

 ments which would eventually cost $50,000,000. 

 Active construction was begun in 1913, and was 

 continued in the following years in spite of the 

 tremendous burden placed on the Dominion by 

 the War of the Nations. The new ship canal 

 will accommodate larger vessels than can use 

 the present canal. The width of the canal will 

 be 200 feet at the bottom and 310 feet at the 

 water line. The twenty-five old locks will be 

 replaced by seven large ones, each 800 feet long 

 by 80 feet wide in the clear, and 30 feet deep 

 at low water; each lock will have a lift of 

 forty-six and one-half feet, making a total lift 

 of 325% feet, which is the average difference in 

 level between lakes Erie and Ontario. 



These locks rival those of the Panama Canal ; 

 they are not as long as those at Gatun, but the 

 lift is greater. Three of the locks have a com- 

 bined lift of 139V& feet; whereas the similar 

 flight of three locks at Gatun has a lift of only 

 85 feet. The locks will be double, one side for 

 up-bound and the other for down-bound ves- 

 sels, and will have swinging, single-leaf gates. 



During the early years of the War of the 

 Nations, particularly in 1915, there were nu- 

 merous efforts by German spies to destroy 

 the canal, but without success. W.F.Z. 



WELL BORING, the drilling of holes of 

 small diameter and of varying depth, to tap 

 reservoirs of water, oil or gas, or to locate de- 



posits of iron and other minerals. Most deep 

 wells are bored with a heavy, chisel-shaped bar 

 having a cutting edge of steel, which descends 

 vertically, crushing the rock by a succession of 

 heavy blows. For penetrating denser rock an- 

 other sort of tool, the diamond drill, is used. 

 The pounding drill is, however, much more ex- 

 tensively employed; it has been developed to 

 a point of the highest efficiency in gas and oil 

 regions. 



The typical pounding drill consists of an up- 

 right frame, or derrick, about twenty feet across 

 at the base and seventy feet high. It is placed 

 over the spot where the well is to be bored. 

 Two pulleys, suspended in the tower, support 

 the crushing bar and a bucket for removing the 

 powdered rock and debris. The crushing bar, 

 or drill, is lifted and lowered by means of a 

 cable passed over the pulley and operated by 

 steam power. As successive blows are deliv- 

 ered, the drill is turned slightly, so that an 

 almost circular hole results. When sufficient de- 

 bris has been accumulated to impede the work- 

 ing of the drill, the steel buckets are lowered, 

 filled with mud and hoisted to the surface. 

 This bucket is fitted with a bottom opening 

 inward and working like a valve; it is forced 

 up as the bucket descends, and is closed as it 

 is lifted. In order to facilitate the removal of 

 debris, water is turned into the cutting at inter- 

 vals to reduce the rock dust to mud. It is cus- 

 tomary, to line the upper portions of deep wells 

 with a wrought-iron or steel casing, to prevent 

 the caving of soft rock and to exclude surface 

 water. With such drills, holes 3,000 or 4,000 

 feet deep can be driven, but the expense in- 

 creases with work on the lower levels. See 

 ARTESIAN WELL; PETROLEUM. 



WELLES, welz, GIDEON (1802-1878), an' 

 American statesman and former Secretary of 

 the Navy, was born at Glastonbury, Conn. He 

 studied at Norwich University, which he left 

 without taking a degree, and from 1826 to 1836 

 was editor of the Hartford Times. From 1827 

 to 1835 he was a member of the Connecticut 

 legislature, in which he advocated the abolition 

 of imprisonment for debt. He became state 

 comptroller in 1835, and from 1846 to 1849 was 

 chief of the bureau of supplies in the United 

 States navy. Although originally a Democrat, 

 he joined the Republican party upon its or- 

 ganization, and at the beginning of the War of 

 Secession was appointed Secretary of the Navy 

 by President Lincoln. Under his management 

 a blockade was established along the Confed- 

 erate coast, and a fleet of transports and iron- 



