History of the Water Supply of the World / arranged in a comprehensive form from eminent authorities, containing a description of the various methods of water supply, pollution and purification of waters, and sanitary effects, with analyses of potable waters, also geology and water strata of Hamilton county, Ohio, statistics of the Ohio river, proposed water supply of Cincinnati.

by Thomas J. Bell

WELL BORING.

The art of boring into the earth was practiced by the Chinese 2,000 years ago, the feature of their system being the percussive action of a tool suspended by a flexible rope.

The system now practiced in Great Britain, and on the Continent, is that in which the tools are attached to rods, consisting of a number of lengths, from ten to thirty feet long, joined by a separate collar, with a combined vertical and definite rotary motion, produced by a swivel joint in the upper length, or by suspending the rod to a “dog.” An ordinary well is first sunk to such a depth that the water below will rise, through the boring, into it. The object is to partly facilitate the object of boring, but chiefly to enable the pumps to be fixed without too great a length of suction. In deep wells, windlasses, driven by steam power, are used for operating the tool; the size of rod being, usually, 1¼ inch square; but for an eight foot boring, a 4½ inch square rod was used. To reduce the jarring and vibration, where borings are of considerable depth, the rods are hollow, in order to give same rigidity and resistance to torsion with less weight, and made buoyant, when working in water, by filling the rod with cork or light wood. A sliding joint, known as the “Oëuyenhausen joint,” is frequently used to bring the jarring only on that portion of the boring rod below. A shell pump is employed, in combination with the boring tool, for gathering the detritus, which obviates frequent raising of rod. Free-falling tools, guided by sliding joint, with catch or pall to raise same, are largely used. The weight of tool depends upon the depth and character of boring, that of the La Chapelle well being four tons.

In the oil-well boring of Pennsylvania, the rope (with about 50 feet of iron bar, sliding jaws, sinking bar, flat drill and sand pump attached) are exclusively preferred.