BELOW THE EARTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 August 1930, Page 8

BELOW THE EARTH

NEW FIELDS FOR SCIENCE ♦

Science foresees as an epocnal scientific acheivement a subterranean laboratory miles deep in the inferno ol .heat which is the earth’s interior, where man may produce first-hand evidence (oncerning the origin of- the c'*rth, may imd out how to explain ami perhap- (, urb tin- earth’s lashing seas, spouting volcanos::', am! almost.

da'lv earthuiwkcs, may solve our .'■j'ov. jm: problem ‘>f power by tapping mir globe’s limitless heat to run our

civilisation, may throw now light on how life comes into existence and what causes death, says the “New York Times.”

Dr 1-ladlow Shapley, director of Harvard College Observatory, recommends as a beginning for man’s conquest of the mysteries hidden inside cur earth a series of permanent scientific laboratories established along a single shaft sunk to about three miles deep in the bowels of the earth. Deeper temporary workshops —ten, thirty, or even a hundred miles down —are desirable, he believes, if Iwo great obstacles in the form of expense and unusual engineering problems can be overcome.

The cost of building" the three mile shaft, “a major adventure of science,” Dr Shadley estimates at. about 10,000,000 dollars, or “less than one-half the cost of a single battleship.” He believes that if the money were available engineers could be persuaded within six months to begin digging.

Two of the world’s leading engineers, Sir-Charles A. Parsons, L'orSier president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and John L. Hodgson, who have considered the project of underground laboratories, see in it no obstacles that modern engineering cannot overcome.

Sir Charles, who assert# that for 25,000,000 dollars man can dig down about, 12 miles, and Mr Hodgson, who regards man’s conquest of the earth’s interior to a. depth of 30 miles as practical, say in agreement with Dr Shapiev's suggested plan: — “We don’t, know what there is in the interior of the earth and we ought to. It is certain that the proposed shaft, is a practical engineering project and that the only thing necessary to make it a. reality is the money.”

Si ra-ige Ilia! we should know more about Hie (-outre of our sun and about, at.'irs, hundred:, of millions of miles away, than wo do ahoui. the centre of our own little- globe, whose diameter is only 8001! miles. The deepest, borings in the world are not much more than one mile deep. It is as if. a sphere', the size of an orange, were inhabited by diminutive being’s, who bad explored their globe only at the surface and -a a. depth of oue-fomth the thickness of the paper on which this is written.

Picture the subterranean workshops which science says we must have if we are to achieve the goal of learning all that, we can about our earth and th? magnificent creation in which we

In their underground chamber, miles from the medley of noises of civilisation and safe from interruption, a group of men are earnestlj' working with queer-looking instruments and machines. Somewhat resembling deep divers in their thick helmets and strange clothing made out. of metals, they present a rare spectacle. The unusual uniform is evidently designed to protect the workers from the terrific heat, raging- outside their refrigerated laboratory. A line protrudes from a corner of the suit and loses itself endlessly in the obscure gloomy passages. What is it? Merely a. hose through which icy gases cvapoiated from liquid air are pumped into the suits. The air thus supplied is also breathed and in that way these adventurous men, far from the lifesustaining oxygen, keep alive.

UNDERGROUND CHAMBER

From outside the chamber comes the sound of a faint hiss. Then ribbons of- steam can be perceived curling upward in the deep gloom as the terrific heat of the red-hot rocks meets the refrigerated subterranean chamber. In this mysterious, buried laboratory, the astronomer, puzzling over problems of the' earth’s origin, rubs shoulders with the physicist who is seeking a key with which to unlock the power imprisoned in the atom. A geologist is making debate tests with the hope of proving or disproving definitely that America is drifting away from Europe. Next, to him, a biologist is studying what effect the absence of the cosmic rays may have on living creatures and is wondering how these studies may be used in the elimination of disease and the prolongation of life among men.

Through the narrow shaft which is the only link between lhe Plutonic laboratory and the surface of the earth, an elevator appeal's. From it another group of men. dressed in the same unusual style as those, already in tiie chamber, enter. They are the re-1 lief force of scientists. Human labour I beyond a certain limit of time here is impossible. There is a hurried consultation. Numerous charts and

graphs exchange hands. Then the elevator with its new cargo shoots upward at express speed. To make this dream an everyday realily, science must combat, its major difficulty in the form of the earth’s tremendous heat. The deeper we dig the hotter it gets. There is an approximate increase of one degree Fahrenheit for each seventy-five feet that we descend nearer to the earth’s heart, so that the temperature at three miles would be about 250 degrees Fabrenheir. At a depth of 30 miles the meVcilsss inferno would melt most of the substances known to us.

A shaft twenty feet in diameter, and lined with granite, to be sunk in stages each about half a mile deep, is proposed by Sir Charles as “quite safe” from the pressures and temperatures encountered in tile earth’s interior within a twelve-miie depth. Below a, certain, depth the heal, would iiavo to In 1 pumped out.

Along lhe shaft, al suitable intervals. air locks would have to be }>rov'dc.d. Each of these would support the pressm'e of the air of the stage above, This keeping both the pressure and lhe temperature below the lock down to points tit. which human beings could survive.

Special cooling machinery would have to be designed and installed. Sir Charles suggests that the best cooling arrangement may be pipes filled with brine, which, by natural circulation would form u powerful pf hunt.

Special electrical apparatus would convey an enormous quantity of heat to the surface. In the lower depths refrigerating machinery at each halfmile stake would cope with the greater heat to be removed.

“There is no doubt that these methods would maintain a moderate temperature in a twelve-rnile shaft ail the way down to Hie bottom,” says Sir Charles. “They mark no departure except in matters of detail from the ordinary methods <>f engineers.

Perhaps most promising for humanity. however, are Hie experiments which a deep underground workshop would make possible on Hie physics and chemistry of life. At the present time biologists are able to keep light away from laboratory cultures of germs or other creatures. They can also keep air away. They can regulate the temperatures as they wish. But. one thing they cannot keep away from experiments at the surface of the earth—the cosmis ray, mysterious waves or particles, nobody knows quite what, which continually bombard the earth from outer space.

The cosmic ray penetrates laboratories as easily as light rays go through ordinary glass. Only in the underground laboratories which Dr Shapley recommends would it be possible to keep them out altogether. As these cosmis rays are potent, in-tluem-.es on the inmost nature of life, particularly on heredity, science would find it very desirable and important to discover what happens to living creatures when they are deprived of the habitual exposure to the cosmic rays io which all of nature’s creatures on the surface of Hie earth are subject.

How did on) - earth originate?

Where did the moon (.-onto from arid where is it going? What are the forces of evolution in the cosmos and what is Hie fate they bold in store for GUI- universe and particularly our earth ?

For these momentous questions scientists confidently believe the proposed subterranean laboratory would assist, in finding a solution. Dr Shapley says that according to Jeffreys both theory and observation indicate that the moon, at one time only a few thousand miles from the earth’s surface .has gradually receded and is moving away now. The moving away of the moon is expected to lengthen our day and our month, so that ages from now both the moon and the earth will have days and months of equal length. We will then have a month equal to forty-seven present, days.

MOON’S DISSOLUTION. When that time comes, the moon will again approach the earth, slowly, and gradually, until it is broken up by tidal disruption just before it. gets to the earth’s surface. This remote catastrophe may result in a ring of fragments circulating around the earth much like the ring tiiat is now around Saturn. Whether or not this is true and whether the planetesimal hypothesis describes accurately the origin and evolution of our globe are points which can be tested by scientists working in the deep interior of the earth. The subterarnean investigator, by examining the problem of the earth’s flow of heat, from its bowels, the distribution of radio-active elements, the pulsations of lhe earth’s crust, and by seismis studies, will throw new light on the origin and the supposed motoric nature of our earth. Dr Shapley points out that by utilising the work already done in existing

mines and borings, a three-mile shaft with four or five permanent laboratories at various levels could be sunk without much difficulty. While deeper laboratories are desirable and may later on become feasible, the threemile shaft alone, in his opinion, would yield scientific material of the greatest importance. “These so-called Plutonic laboratories may mark the coming decade

!as one of the important, epochs of I science in. man’s attempt to underj stand the earth,” he said. “Fully equipped with' modern scientific apparatus, some of which would have Ito be specially designed, they would contribute to our knowledge in a I dozen different fields of science.

“These workshops would help to lanswer the great questions regarding ’the biological effects of the cosmic rays and the radium rays, ether drag and llm Einstein theory of relativity, the iial.tiro of radio-activity in the rocks, and earthquakes. They would help us in the study of gravity, the lunar tides in the body of the. earth, the dating of the Ice Ages, and lhe earth’s source of heat. The project may have great, commercial possibilities. but in my opinion it. should be carried out. with the advance of science as its sole motive." Underground study of earthquake waves might, be. especially useful.