Deepest Wells in the World

Deepest Wells in the World.

The deepest well drilled in the United States is that of George Westinghouse, at Homewood, near the city of Pittsburgh, Pa., which on Dec. 1, 1886, had reached a depth of 4,618 feet, when the tools were lost and drilling ceased. The Buchanan farm well of the Niagara Oil Company, drilled by Frederick Crocker, in Hopewell township, Washington, Co., Pa., is 4,303 feet deep. The Rush well of the Niagara Oil Company, in Washington, Co., Pa., was abandoned at 3,330 feet. The deep well of Jonathan Watson, near Titusville, Pa., was drilled about 3,500 ft. J.M. Guffey & Co.'s well on the Walz farm at West Newton, Westmoreland Co., Pa., was drilled to a depth of 3,500 ft. The well of Isaac Willets at Sargent's Mills, near Sycamore, in Greene County, Pa., was abandoned at 3,008 feet.

The deepest bore hole in Europe is at Schladebach, near Kotschan station, on the railway between Corbetha and Leipzig, and was untertaken by the Prussian Government in search for coal. The apparatus used is a diamond drill, down the hollow shaft of which water is forced, raising again to the surface outside the shaft of the drill and inside the tube in which the drill works. By this method cores of about fifty feet in length have been obtained. The average length bored in twenty-four hours is twenty to thirty-three feet, but under favorable circumstances as much as 180 feet has been bored in that time. Other deep holes are as follows:

Domnitz, near Wetting . . . 3,287 ft
Probat-Jesar, Mecklenburg . . . 3,957 ft
Sperenberg, near Zossen . . . 4,173 ft
Unseburg, near Strassfurt. . . .4,242 ft
Leith-Elmshorn, Holstein . . . 4,390 ft
Schladebach. . . 4,515 ft