A Deep, Deep Well

The proposal to sink a deep shaft ten or twelve miles into the crust of the earth is not new. It has been advanced from time to time in recent years. Frequently it has been coupled with a proposal to tap the interior heat of the earth for industrial purposes.

Last week, it was renewed by Sir Charles A. Parsons K.C.B., F.R.S., at a luncheon tendered him by the Engineers' Club of Manhattan. He suggested that the shaft be sunk purely in the interests of Science with no prospect of pecuniary profit. He suggested that it be twelve miles deep, and calculated that it would cost about $100,000,000. The expense of this huge undertaking he would have borne by those all over the world who are willing to contribute to the interest of Science.

After the luncheon he explained his project as follows:

"We don't know what there is down there and we ought to; that's the point. I have been doing preliminary experimentation for eight years and I am certain that such a shaft is a practical engineering project and that the only thing necessary to make it a reality is the money. It might be possible to go deeper than twelve miles.

"I would have the shaft 20 ft. in diameter and lined with granite, which experiments have shown would not fall in. The shaft would be sunk to different levels, in the same way that mining shafts are sunk, and it would be necessary, after we got down to a sufficient depth to have the heat pumped out. It is not a commercial project and there is no money to be made out of it by myself or any one else but, from a scientific standpoint, it should be undertaken as something equally as important as polar exploration. The spot where the shaft should be sunk ought to be determined by geologists."