Show WELL DRILLING LORE the deepest well in the united states is near west elizabeth pa its bottom is feet beneath the surface the deepest well in the world is in germany and is feet deep A more remarkable well perhaps reaching a depth of teet feet was drilled for petroleum in western china by primitive methods and by means of such crude appliances as a cable made of twisted strands of rattan these facts and much other interesting information concerning underground supplies of water and oil and methods of getting them are given in a report entitled well drilling Aleth methods by isaiah bowman just published by the united states geological survey as water supply paper the report is comprehensive and well illustrated covering pages and containing plates and figures and may be considered one of the semi popular publications of the survey all rocks contain some water but some formations such as the granites goranites gra carry only an inappreciable amount sandstone on the other hand band has an absorptive capacity of cf a gallon or more of water per cubic foot of rock and is the best water bearer of the solid rocks wells sunk in sandstone are usually drilled and the water derived from that rock is seldom polluted to those who are contemplating sinking wells or increasing their water supply from underground sources this report taken in connection with another report recently published by the survey underground waters for far farm use water supply paper will be of interest water supply paper traces the history of well drilling from its earliest practice in china down to date and contains descriptions of the many methods of drilling now in use in the united states including not only drilling for water but for oil and other resources the credit of reducing well drilling to a science belongs to the chinese but in this as in many other things the chinese engineers have made but slight improvement during the last century which has witnessed so remarkable an ad vance in mechanical development in the united states mr bowman regards the use of 0 well weil casing as the greatest improvement yet devised for oil drilling and notes that holes can now be sunk safely and rapidly to a depth of feet he describes the various tools of drilling ranging from those required for the shallow hand driven well wel of f perhaps 20 feet to those used in drilling wells of maximum depth how can work proceed when a drilling tool is lost in a deep well is a question which may often be asked by any person unfamiliar with methods of well drilling drill ins the recovery of lost or broken drilling toola is in fact one of the most difficult features of well drilling simply to ascertain the nature of an accident which has occurred half a mile below the surface in it a hole perhaps only six inches in diameter requires some skill many devices have been perfected for capturing lost tools and the necessity for first learning the shape of the upper end of the tool and the position in which it lies in order to proceed to recover it has even led to the invention of a small camera which can be lowered to the bottom of the hole to take a photograph showing the conditions electricity is of course the agent employed in operating the device A copy of this report water supply paper or a copy of water supply paper mentioned above can be procured by applying to the director of the united states geological survey washington D C |