568 ARTESIAN WELLS. 
proposed to apply the heat of ascending springs 
to the warming of green houses. Artesian wells 
have long been used in Italy, in the duchy of 
Modena; they have also been successfully ap- 
plied 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 contemplation to construct a series of 
* An economical and easy method of sinking Artesian Wells 
and boring for coal, &c. has recently been practised near Saar- 
briick, by M. Sellow. Instead 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 sur- 
rounded by a hollow chamber, to receive through valves, and 
bring up the detritus of the perforated stratum, is suspended from 
the end of a strong 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 tortion 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 prac- 
tised in China, from whence the report of its use has been 
brought to Europe. The Chinese are said to have bored in this 
manner to the depth of 1000 feet. M. Sellow has with this in- 
strument lately made perforations 18 inches in diameter, and 
several hundred 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 great depths. 
