1846.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



805 



for the second quality of coal ; the average rate of wages is Is. 6.j",jd. per 

 day. The establishments for preparing other mineral productions for 

 market in 1838 were, for iron 221, copper 8, zinc 7, lead 2 ; tlie total num- 

 bes of furnaces was 132, of which 47 used coke and 22 charcoal. The 

 total number of accidents from 1821 to 1840 was 1,352, which occasioned 

 severe hurts to 882, and deaths to 1,710, making a total of 2,592 sufferers. 

 A paper was read " On Plate Glass-making in England in I84fi, con- 

 trasted with K'hat it was in 1827." By Mr. H. Howard. — The writer fur- 

 nished carefully all the materials for establishing this comparison. Amongst 

 other results he stated, that in 1827 plate glass was sold for about 12s. ave- 

 rage per foot, to the extent of about 5,000 feet per week ; in 1835, for from 

 8s. to 9s. per foot, to the extent of about 7,000 feet ; in 1844, for from 6s. 

 to 7s. per foot, reaching about 23,000 feet ; and in 1846, for from 5s. to 6s, — 

 about 40,000 feet per week. The sale is now about 45,000 feet weekly. 

 He mentioned that, in 1829, a plate glass manufactory ceesed operations 

 because of the small profit realized when selling at 12s.; while, in 1846, a 

 company, with a paid-up capital of 130,000^., reahzed a net profit of 

 30,000/. selling at from 5s. to 6s. Looking at this extraordinary increase, 

 in spite of the severity of excise restrictions, tlie author asks, what would 

 be the probable demand if the price were reduced to 4s. or 3s. 6d. per foot, 

 which, free as the trade now is from excise interference, would yield an 

 ample profit ? 



Section G — iMechanics. Professor Willis in the Chair. 



Vice-Presidents: Rev. Dr. Robinson, IMesisrs. G. Rennie, J. Scolt Russell, 

 W. Snow Harris. — Secretaries: Messr. C. Manby, W. Belts, juu. — 

 Committee: Messrs. J.Taylor, J.Walker, K. Stephenson, J.Locke 

 I. K. Brunei, C Vignolles, W. Fairbairu, E. Hodgkmson, E. W. Dent 

 W. Chiitfitld, J. Whitworth, J. Nasmyth. J. G. Bodrner, J. Fincham 

 R. C. Grantham, T. Hoblyn, Dr. Phipps, M. Ricardo, Mr. R. Roberts, 

 Sir J. Guest, Messrs. Grant, Brockedou, C. H. Gregory, W. Harding, 



Dr. Robinson gave an account of a " Modification of Dr. jr/ieivell's 

 Anemometer," for measuring the velocity of the wind. He explained to the 

 section verbally the nature of the various anemometers hitherto employed to 

 measure the Jorce of the wind, and distinguished Whewell's from them, as a 

 measure merely of comparative rate. The fault of it was, that the instru- 

 ment gave no absolute measure of velocity in miles per hour, and that it re- 

 duced the rates to no standard, and therefore the observations made at one 

 observatory were not capable of comparison with those at another. He had 

 applied an obs«rvation of Mr. Edgeworth, who was a family connexion of 

 his own, to the constrnction of such an addition as would render Whewell's 

 anemometer more perfect in this respect. He mounted on a vertical axis 

 three or four arms, carrying hemispherical cups at their extremities. These 

 cups opposed much less resistance to air acting on the concave sides than on 

 their convexities, and in such ratio that uniform revolution was produced, 

 at the rate of one-third of the velocity of the wind. From this measure, 

 which would be the same for all sizes of the instrument, and at all places 

 the mean velocity of the wind during a given period could always be ob- 

 tained in miles per hour. He concluded by reading some of the determina 

 tions of his own instrument at the observatory at Armagh. 



The Chairman, in giving the thanks of the Section to Dr. Robinson, ex- 

 pressed their sense of the scientific elegance and great practical value of an 

 invention applicable generalU- to the measurement of velocity of fluids ; and 

 he called their attention to the dexterous logical process by which the one 

 definite desired term had been eliminated from a multitude of unknown 

 quantities, as exhibiting an admirable example of the combination of sound 

 mathematical reasoning with sagacious experiment. 



Mr. Vignolles read a paper furnislied by M. Arago, for the express 

 purpose of being communicated to the Association, at which M. Arago 

 was prevented by illness from attending, " On a new metlwd of boring 

 for artesian springs," by M. Facvelle, of Perpignan, in France. The 

 paper, which was an abridged translation of M. I'auvelle's own account, 

 stated that — 



" Id 1833, I was present at the boring of an artesian well at Rivesaltes ; 

 the water was found, aud spouted up abundantly. They proceeded to the 

 tubing, and for that purpose enlarged the borehole from the top downwards. 

 I was struck by observing that it was no longer necessary to draw the 

 boring tools to get rid of ihe material, and that the water, risiug from the 

 bottom, brought up with it, in a slate of solution, all the soil which the 

 enlarging tools detached from the sides. 



I immediately observed to my friend, M. Gassal, who was with me — 

 " This is a remarkable fact, and one very easy to imitate ; if, through a 

 hollow boring rod, water be sent down into the bore-hole as it is sunk, the 

 water, in coming up again, must bring with it all the drilled particles." 

 On this principle I started to establish a new method of boring. The ap- 

 paratus is composed of a hollow boring rod, formed of wrought iron tubes 

 screwed end to end : the lower end of the hollow rod is armed with a per- 

 forating tool, suited to the character of the strata which have to be encoun- 

 tered. The diameter of the tool is larger than the diameter of the tubular 

 rod, in order to form around it an annular space through which the water 

 and the excavated material may rise up. The upper end of the hollow 

 rod is connected with a force-pump by jointed or flexible tubes, which will 

 follow the descending movement of the boring tube for an extent of some 

 yards. 1 his boring tube may be either worked by a rotatory movement 

 or by percussion with a jumper. The frame aud tackle for lifting, lower- 



ing, and sustaining the boring tube, ofl'er nothing particular. When the 

 boring tube is to be worked the pump must be first put in motion. 



Through the inferior of the tube a column of water is sent down to 

 the bottom of the bore holes, which water, rising in the annular 

 space between the exterior of the hollow boring rod, and the sides of the 

 bore-hole, creates an ascending current which carries up the triturated 

 soil; the boring tube is then worked like an ordinary boring rod, and as 

 the material is acted upon by the tool at the lower end, it is immediately 

 carried up to the top of the borehole by the ascending current of air. It 

 is a consequence of this operation that the cuttings being constantly car- 

 ried up by the water, there is no longer any occasion to draw up the bor- 

 ing tube to clear them away, making a very great saving of time. An- 

 other important and certainly no less advantage, is, that the boring tools 

 never get clogged by the soil ; they work constantly (without meeting ob- 

 structions) through the strata to be peuerated, thus getting rid at once of 

 nine tenths of the difficulties of boring. In addition, it should be men- 

 tioned, that experience has shown there are no slips in any ground which 

 ordinary boring-rods can penetrate ; that the boring tube works at 100 

 yards in depth with as much facility as when only ten yards down, and 

 that from the very circumstances of its being a hollow rod, it presents 

 more resistance to torsion than a solid rod of equal thickness and quite as 

 much resistance to traction: these are the principal advantages of the new 

 system of boring. Indeed these advantages have been fully confirmed by 

 the borings which I have just completed at Perpignaa, in St. Dominico's- 

 square. This boring was commenced on the 1st July, and was completed 

 ou the 23rd, by finding the artesian water at a depth of 560 feet. If from 

 these twenty-three days, each of ten hours' work, are deducted three Sun- 

 days and six lost days, there remain fourteen days or 140 hours of actual 

 work; which is upwards of one yard per hour, that is, ten times the work 

 of an ordinary boring rod. 



In the method I have described, it will be perceived that the water is 

 injected through the inferior of the boring-rod. Experience has taught 

 me that when gravel, or stones of some size are likely to be met with, it is 

 better to inject the water by the bore-hole, and let it rise through the bor- 

 ing tube. The additional velocity which may be thereby given to the 

 water, and the greater accuracy of calibre of the tube, allow the free 

 ascent of all substances which may be found at the bottom of the bore 

 hole, and which the former mode of working may not so readily accom- 

 plish. I have brought up by this latter way stones of 2J by 1^ inches. 



The idea of making the water remount through the interior of the boring 

 tube suggests an easy mode of boring below a film (sheet) of flowing 

 water: it would be sufficient to close the orifice of the bore hole hermetic- 

 ally, still however so as to allow the boring tube to work, but yet so that 

 the flowing water should be always forced down to the bottom of the bore 

 hole to find its way to a vent : it would thus draw up and carry away all 

 the detritus. If, in addition to the above, we consider the possibility of 

 making the hollow stem of the boring rod of wood, and of balancing it so 

 that it would weigh no more than the water in which it bus to move, the 

 problem of boring to depths of 1100 yards and upwards would appear to be 

 solved. 



In the square of St. Dominique at Perpignan, a boring had been carried 

 on upon the old method for upwards of eleven months for the purpose of 

 forming an artesian well, and the water had not been found. Fauvelle 

 placed his new tube alongside the old boring tackle, aud soon got down to 

 a depth of nearly 100 yards, when an accident occurred which would have 

 required some days to remedy. Fauvelle decided upon abandoning the 

 bore hule_ already sunk so deep, and commencing a new one, satisfied that 

 there would thereby be a saving iu time. The rate of sinking was equal 

 to four feet per hour of the time the hollow boring rod was actually at 

 work, the depth of 560 feet having been obtained iu 140 working hours, 

 for a bore hole of about six inches in diameter. 



M. Arago, who had seen the rods of Fauvelle at work, mentions how 

 fully they answered, and that the large powerful tools at the bottom of the 

 hollow boring rod cut easily through the hardest strata ; he confirmed the 

 fact of the large sized stoues and gravel coming up with tlie ascending 

 current, himself having watched them. He also mentioned tiiat such was 

 the opinion of the people in the vicinity of Perpignan, and so much was 

 water wanted, that orders for the sinking upwards of 2U0 artesian wells 

 had been given to Fauvelle. The introduction of this system into this 

 country, especially if combined with the Chinese or percussive system of 

 boring, as practised with bore holes of very large diameter, at the Saar- 

 bruch mines, and at many other places on the continent, must be product- 

 ive of great beuefit, aud wuuld not merely effect a saving of money aud 

 labour, but the paramount advantage of immediately solving the question 

 of the existence of coal, minerals, water, &c." 



[By reference to the last volume of this Journal, page 50, it « ill be seen 

 that a patent was granted lo Mr. R. Beart, July 12, 1844, for a nielhod 

 almost identical with that of M. Fauvelle.] — Ed. C. E. aud A. Journal. 



Sir JoBX Guest asked Mr. Vignolles to explain the system of percussion 

 boring, for the information of ihose gentlemen present who might not be 

 acquainted with it.— Mr. Vignolles said, instead of boring v\ith augurs or 

 rods, there was a heavy weight suspended by a rope and pulley ; and fixed 

 to the bottom of the weight was a tool of the crown form, viz., a circular 

 tool of iron, indented at the bottom. There was no description of rock on 

 which he had tried it that this tool did not penetrate with faciUty. The 

 prejudice of English workmen, however, had hitherto prevented its intro- 



