Page 4 Advertisements Column 2

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 64, 10 April 1909, Page 4

c TAPPING THE EARTH FOR HEAT 1 Sir William i'cl'l'jit Miggiv- '• lion Unit tin. 1 interior'iieat oi the oarlh v might lie tupped by means of ii bore hole is 'jiot exactly new. Indeed, experiments have actually been undertaken with thai end in view'. One of the most important was earned out bOiiH- years baek by the Or 'inr.i ■Uovcrnuivnl at a place called $ Paruschowitz, in Siletsia, when a depth of J)572fl was readied. Of course, t'he r bore is of very slender dimensions, three s feet six inches in diameter at the top, 3 decreasing gradually to two feet six * inches at the depth of one mile, at which 3 it remains for the rest of -the distance. At La Chapelle is a l)Ore of a similar } kind, and neatly us deep, constructed by 1 the French («oveniment for experi--1 mental purposes; and another similar • ,0110 exists near Stavropol, in Southern I j Russia. ' hi each case it was the original inten--51 lion to carry the bore much lower, but the expense was found to be prohibitive, when contrasted with the prospective insults. That is the worst oi sueli ' work*. After a certain depth the cost increases by Ivaps and bounds, aiid *:he time occupied lengthens proportionately. Thus, the lion. Charles Parsons, of turbine fame, who has made a ispeeial study til' the (juestioii. estimate* that io drill a hole ten miles deep through the earth's crust would cost U.'i.000.000, audi take eighty years. The job is a stupendous one. Yet it •'may be necessary for us to undertake it. Our coal supply will not last: for ever, and when this is exhausted the greatest industrial communities Avill be those that have the most direct means of arees* to tin- ftored-up heat of the earth's interior. While aiilrt lire the most productive of all injects, having been known to lay £g»;s at the rale of SO.UOO a day for a month. There are 2f>"B mil eft of railroad lino 1 ;to owr v 10.011(1 inhabitants hi tin* United States, as against 7.-t miles in (Franco. 0.2 in Ormany. and 5.5 in Orcit {Britain.