Sketcher.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 414, 21 April 1904, Page 2

Sketcher.

MIRACLES. Mr Damming, jWg£ miteiftlogiefc to the State Board 2aaK oi Agriculture at Philadelphia, commands a position in the new army of optimists who are going to revolu. tdonisa ns by miracles. Tesla is to put us on speaking terms with the inhabitants of Mars—whether there be any or not: Edison is to give us inexhaustible storage batteries for electricity; Peary proposes to squeeze the energy out of the .auron borealis to drive the world's machinery; and a company of soaring Chicagoant have incorporated themselves with the object of flying a telegraph cable higr enough into the air so establish a conneo tion with the upper ether, and be for evei suspended there, independent of othei electrical supply, ao matter how ths, laws of gravity may grumble. Mr Demminj is modest by comparison with some o: these gentlemen. All he says is ' Bore mi holes of sufficient depth and diameter, an< I'll give you hot water for your shavinj and the boiliig of your potatoes,Jßtean for the driving of your engines, power fo run all your machinery.' Thirty holes, 12,000 feet deep, by lfoo in diameter—that is the top and botton of hia requisition. ■'•'"" Tue proposition is not precisely simple As a fact, with mining science at it present pitch, it approximates so nearl; to the impossible as to make it quite saf for Mr Demming to adventure the offer We all know that if we could convenientl; aad with economy sink a shaft 2 mile deep in onr back gardens we should ta] 'sufficient latent energy to make the opera tion more remunerative than anythiai else to which we could lay hand. Bn first get your shafts. One is costl; enousrh. Mr Demising will need the ai< of more Morgan syndicates than exist t finance the boring of his thirty pits. Tfc biggest thing ever accomplished in thi way happened, not in America, but it Germany, less than a score of miles froi Leipzig. While boring for coal, Captaii Huyssen made some inestimably valuabl observations. He got down to a depth c 2790 feet, and to do so cost him a record sum for a single experiment a which the main purpose was to add t scientific knowledge. But it was nothole uniformly of 1 foot in diameter. I was less than half that at the surface, an tapered off to the thickness of a man' finger. A costly diamond drill had to b used; the rods to which it was attache weighed 20 tons and could not be pa together or taken to pieces in less tha: ten hours.