508 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ARTESIAN WELLS. 



great mass of the population. We would recommend the careful study of the decree of 1812, to 

 those who wish to establish the decimal division in this country, or to make any serious innovations 

 upon the present system. «#*#*.*#^ 



TVeights. 



The gm??ime marks the weight; it is equal to the 

 Aveight of a cubic centimetre, of pure water, at its 

 maximum of density. It hns been found equal to 

 18.827 French grains, of which 5.76 make 472.5 

 English; and 489.5058 grnnmics make a pound of 

 the standard of the mint at Paris. * * 



Pleasures of Coin. 



The standard coin of France is a piece of sil- 

 ver of the weight of five grammes, or five times 

 18 yVoV grains?, containing ^Vth of alloy and yj.ths 

 of pure silver, and very nearly the 24th part of 

 the pound sterling metallic value, being nearly the 

 same with the livre tournois: it is called a franc, 

 and divided into dccimes and centimes. There 

 are pieces of five francs, two francs, f , ^ and ^ 

 franc. The gold coins, like the silver coin, con- 

 tain y'pth of alloy and Vpths of pure metal. They 

 are called Napoleon's d'or or octo grammes: an 

 octo gramme of gold is worth 25 francs. * * * 



[The two next articles exhibit remarkable exam- 

 ples of the ascending force of subterranean water in one 

 Artesianwell, and of variations in that force in another. 

 The facts stated may be useful to some of our readers, 

 and perhaps will be interesting to all. The character 

 of the calcareous earth through which the well of Ro- 

 chelle was bored, as here described, seems to be very 

 similar in appearance and character to the "rotten 

 limestone" through which the Artesian wells of South- 

 ern Alabama are bored to depths varying between 300 

 and 600 feet.] 



REMARKABLE HEIGHT AND FORCE OF AS- 

 CENSION OF WATER IN AN ARTESIAN WELL 

 AT TOURS. 



Translated for the Farmers" Register, from the .^nnala de I'.^g- 

 riculture Francaisc. 



M. Degousee, civil engineer and well borer, has 

 completed the bored well which he had underta- 

 ken in the cavalry quarter of the city of Tours, 

 at the joint expense of the city and of the war de- 

 partment. 



This well exhibits a result, which until nov\^ is 

 without example, both for the height of ascension 

 and the volume of its water, of which the product 

 is more than 1,500,000 litres in twenty-four hours. 



The well, of 138 metres of depth, is bored in one 

 of the most elevated quarters of the city, at 8 me- 

 tres, 40 [centimetres] above the level of the ca- 

 nalling of the Loire at the bridge of Tours, and 

 58 m. 40 above the level of the sea. 



Its diameter is Owi. 25 at the upper part, reduced 

 to Om. 090 at the lower part. It is fiirnished 

 with iron tubes to the depth of 28/?i. 25. 



The ascending flow, (which had been preceded 

 by many sources yielding very little water,) was 

 met with in a bed of green sand of 2/w. 10 in thick- 

 ness, at 128ni. 50 deep below the surface of the 

 earth, and 70???.. 09 below the level of the sea. 



The water is perfectly limpid; without taste or 



scent: it dissolves soap well, and cooks vegetables 

 perfectly. Its temperature is 17'^ 50 (centigrade.)* 



The maximum of ascension of the Avater 

 [or the highest point to which it rises] is 1st. 17m. 

 80 above the bottom ol' the basin of the Chateau 

 d'Eau; 2nd. \Sm. 80 above the surface of the 

 ground; 3rd. 27?!?. 20 above the canalling of the 

 Loire at the bridge of Tours, and 4th, 77m. 20 

 above the level of the sea. 



After the bursting up of the Avater from its source, 

 it threw out iiom the bottom of the boring, frag- 

 ments of the green sand of the size of a large 

 walnut. To try the repulsive force of the water, 

 there were successively put into the upper tube, 

 i)ulletg of 4, of 6, and of 8; none of Avhich could 

 sink, but were immediately thrown out. A cube 

 of greater diameter and of Qm. 65 in height hav- 

 ing been put upon the upper base, there were placed 

 on it successively twenty-two bullets of 12, which 

 were all forcibly rejected: the twenty-second only 

 remained stationary upon the orifice of the base.t 



An important observation is the continued in- 

 creased product of the five first wells bored by M. 

 Degousee in the city of Tours. The first gave 

 onl}^ 30 litres of water a minute; the second 75; 

 the third 173; the fourth 900, and the fifth, 1,100 

 litres. Thi.is these five wells give 2,273 litres per 

 minute, or 3,280,320 in the twenty-four hours. It 

 has scarcely been three years since Tours had only 

 :n^utRcIent fountains, of.eu dry part of the year, 

 or only yielding water of bad quality. It is seen 

 now that it obtains from these five wells, 3,280,320 

 litres of water each day; it has 22,000 inhabitants 

 — which makes 149 litres and a fraction, or nearly 

 150 litres of water which each individual may ac- 

 tually use per da)'. 



Since the completion of the jicw well in the 

 cavalry quarter, the soldiers give the preference 

 to its water, and consider it excellent. It has been 

 also remarked that the horses, which were fre- 

 quently disordered by the water of the old water- 

 ing place, do not now suffer any indisposition of 

 the kind with which they were formerly affected. 



*Tbe scale of the Centigrade thermometer, which 

 is used in France, is so divided that 0°, marks the 

 freezing point, and 100° the boiling point of water. 

 To find what is the temperature as marked by the cen- 

 tigrade in degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer (which 

 is that used in England and this country) it is only ne- 

 cessary to multiply by 9, divide the product by 5, and 

 then add 32. Thus of the IT" 50 above— 

 17.50 

 9 



5)1.57.50 



31.90 

 32. 



=63°.90 hundredths of Fahrenheit— Ed. F. R. 



t "Un cube d'un plus grand diametre et de om65 de 

 hauteur ayant ete place sur la base superieure, on y 

 a successivementmis jusqu'a vingt-deuxboulets de 12, 

 qui ont tous ete rejetes avec force; le vingt-deuxieme 

 seulement est reste stationnaire sur rorilice de la 



