A PHENOMENAL ARTESIAN FLOW.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1425, 6 December 1886, Page 2

A PHENOMENAL ARTESIAN FLOW.

We published the other day an account of an extraordinary outburst of water from an artesian bore in the town of Belle Plaine, lowa, D.S. A.. Later papers ive the history of the overflow as fo lowe On Monday August 3rd. William We r and sons began boring an artesian wo 1 at the Intersection of Beech and Washington street*. The contract called fur a well with three-inch cuing, and a flow was guaranteed. The contractors bored a two-inch hole and theorised that the flow of water through It would wash it out clean so that they could sink a tbree-lnch casing. Thursday they struck water at a depth of 186 feet, at which time they had about sixty feet of three-inch casing down, and the water arose with strong force twelve feet ♦bove the surface in a solid three inch stream, plainly showing the strongest fl w yet struck. Friday morning the flow was under control, but during the afternoon, In the st'empt to force a three-inch tube into a two inch hole, the water broke loose and wore away a sufficient space outside the tubing to allow the water to boll on* around the pipes st ho surface. At sundown on Friday a stream of water, a foot in diameter, was ponring out. At 8 SO the city authorities were appealed to to take control and give relief from impending danger ; already mmy lots and houses were m .re or lets flooded. At 9 p m. a gang of men were set at work, the Mayor and Council personally superintmding them nnttl nearly morning. All expedients that could be pat In practice were tried, but the water oonid not be controlled. Saturday morrlng Engineer Paimer proposed that a fifteen-inch tubing should bo driven down to the bine, clay beli ved to bo about fifty feet, and y thus confining the water the outside fl iw could be stopped and then the water In the tubing controlled. This proved unavailing, and the flow continued to increase. The hole had increased to the slz of a barrel and the water was babling up four feet above the surface, th-ow ng out immense quantities of sand, it le ist 500 car loads bad been brought up by the flow, and the gang of men were kept constantly at work day and night shovelling it away. Channels had been dag for an outlet to the lowa river, and this channel had double the volume of the river at that point. There are seven other wells at Belle Plaine, but they have all ceased flowing since the outburst of iha last one Tho ci'-izans have grave apprehensions of the outcome. Jt was impossible at the time to estimate the damage. The southern ptrt of the town was more or leas flooded and cellars were filled with water. At latest eoooapts no relief bed been procured*