424 ARTESIAN WELLS. 



have long been used in Italy, in the duchy of Modena; 

 they have also been successfully applied in Holland, China,* 

 and N. America. By means of similar wells, it is probable 

 that water may be raised to the surface of many parts of the 

 sandy deserts of Africa and Asia, and it has been in con- 

 templation to construct a series of these wells along the 

 main road which crosses the Isthmus of Suez. 



I have felt it important thus to enter into the history of 

 Artesian Wells, because their more frequent adoption will 

 add to the facilities of supplying fresh Water in many re- 

 gions of the Earth, particularly in low and level districts, 

 where this prime necessary of Life is inaccessible by any 

 other means; and because the theory of their mode of ope- 

 ration explains one of the most important and most common 

 contrivances in the subterraneous economy of the Globe, 

 for the production of natural springs. 



By these compound results of the original disposition of 

 the strata and their subsequent disturbances, the entire Crust 

 of the Earth has become one grand and connected Appa- 



* An economical and easy method of sinking Artesian Wells and borings 

 for coal, &c., has recently been practised near SaarbrUck, by M. Sellow. In- 

 stead of the tardy and costly process of boring with a number of Iron Rods 

 screwed to each other, one heavy Bar of cast Iron about six feet long and 

 four inches in diameter, armed at its lower end with a cutting Chisel, and 

 surrounded by a hollow chamber, to receive through valves, and bring up the 

 detritus of the perforated stratum, is suspended from the end of a stroug 

 rope, which passes over a wheel or pulley fixed above the spot in which the 

 hole is made. As this rope is raised up and down over the wheel, its tortiou 

 gives to the Bar of Iron a circular motion, sufficient to vary the place of the 

 cutting Chisel at each descent. 



When the chamber is full, the whole apparatus is raised quickly to the 

 surface to be unloaded, and is again let down by the action of the same 

 wheel. This process has been long practised in China, from whence the re- 

 port of its use has been brougjit to Europe. The Chinese are said to have 

 bored in tiiis manner to tlie depth of 1000 feet. M. Sellow has with this 

 instrument lately made perforations 18 inches in diameter, and several hun- 

 dred feet deep, for the purpose of ventilating coal mines at Saarbriick. The 

 general substitution of this method for the costly process of boring with rods* 

 of iron, may be of much public importance, especially where water can only 

 be obtained from groat depths. 



