Figs. 105, 106.
Nearly all the processes yet introduced for removing the products of the excavation must be considered to be, more or less, defective, because all are established on the supposition that the comminuting tool must be withdrawn, in order that the shell, or other tool intended to remove the products of the working of the comminutor, may be inserted. This remark applies to Kind’s operations at Passy and elsewhere, as he removed the rock detached from the bottom of the excavation by a shell, [Figs. 105, 106], which was a modification of the tool he invariably employs for this purpose. It consisted of a cylinder of wrought-iron, suspended from the rods by a frame, and fastened to it, a little below the centre of gravity, so that the operation of upsetting it, when loaded, could be easily performed. This cylinder was lowered to the level of the last workings of the trepan, and the materials already detached by that instrument were forced into the tool, by the gradual movement of the latter in a vertical direction. Some other implements, employed by Kind for the purpose of removing the products of the excavation in the shafts for the coal-mines of the North of France, were ingenious, and well adapted to the large dimensions of the shafts; but they were all, in some degree, exposed to the danger of becoming fixed, if used in the small borings of Artesian wells, by the minute particles of rocks falling down between their sides and the excavation from above. Their use was therefore abandoned, and the well of Passy was cleared out with the shell, the bottom of which was made to open upwards, with a hinged flap, which admitted the finer materials detached by the trepan. There were also several tools for the purpose of withdrawing the broken parts of the machinery from the excavation, or whatever substances might fall in from above; and all were marked by a great degree of simplicity, but they did not differ enough from those generally used for the same purpose to merit further remarks. In fact, the accidents intended to be guarded against or remedied are so precisely alike in all cases, that there can be little variety in the manufacture of these instruments. But there is no doubt that Kind deprived himself of a valuable appliance in not using the ball-clack, la soupape à boulet, that other well-borers employ, [Fig. 107].
Fig. 107.
At Passy great strength was given to the head of the striking tool, and to the part of the machinery applied to turn the trepan, because the great weight of the latter superinduced the danger of its breaking off under the influence of the shock, and because the solidity of this part of the machinery necessarily regulated the whole working of the tool. The head of the boring arrangement was connected with the balance-beam of the steam-engine by a straight link-chain, with a screw-coupling, admitting of being lengthened as the trepan descended, [Figs. 108, 109]. The balance-beam, in order to increase its elastic force in the upward stroke, is in Kind’s works made of wood, in two pieces; the upper one being of fir and the lower one of beech. The whole of the machinery is put in motion by steam, which is admitted to the upper part of the cylinder, and presses it down, and thus raises the tool at the other end of the beam to that part in connection with the cylinder. The counterpoise to the weight of the tools is also placed upon the cylinder-end of the beam. The cylinder receives the steam through ports that are opened and closed by hand, like those of a steam-hammer; so that the number of the strokes of the piston may be increased or diminished, and the length of the strokes may be increased, as occasion may require.
Figs. 108, 109.