Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE ARTESIAN WELLS OF AUSTRALIA. 319 ARTESIAN BORE AT MOREE, NEW SOUTH WALES. 1,008,080 gallons per day. Chinese Methods of enterprise ; now let us consider that of the engineers who provide and use the ma- chinery for sinking the bore. Centuries ago the Chinaman, Well-sinking. unaided by the geologist, chanced the site of his bore, and used such primitive, slow-working tools in sinking it, that it is said, much to the credit of his perseverance, the sinking of a single bore sometimes occupied several generations, Ah Sing leaving an unfinished one to his son Chin Tung, who handed the work on at his death to his son, and so on, till, perhaps a century after the bore was started, the long-expected water would bubble up. The mechanism employed in modern artesian boring may be summarized as follows :—A steel derrick, 60 feet high, with a timber plat- form at ground level, is erected over the bore, and by means of an up-and-down movement of a heavy beam operated by a powerful steam engine, the various kinds of steel tools cut through the rock by successive blows dealt at the rate of thirty Modern to fifty per minute. As it System« goes down the bore is lined with, wrought-iron tubes about ten inches in diameter at the top, and diminishing to about five inches in the deepest levels. This lining keeps a way clear for the upward passage of the water when the bore is complete. In rock, the rate of penetra- tion varies from 3 inches to 12 inches per hour. The percussion system just described lias in some cases been superseded by the diamond drill, the action of which is quite different, the tool being constantly turned and doing its work by abrasion. The diamonds, set in steel crowns, are generally of the black variety called Brazilian carbonado, in com- position nearly pure carbon, which is the