Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Pittsburg Press Friday, September 22, 1905 STRANGE PHENOMENON. Articles Dropped in Mining Shaft Never Reach Bottom. It is an interesting scientific fact, and one not generally known, that nothing that falls from the mouth of the deepest mining shaft in the world ever reaches the bottom. This has been demonstrated at the famous Red Jacket shaft of the Big Calumet and Hecla copper mine at Calumet. The article, no matter shape or size it may be, is invariably found clinging to the east side of the shaft. One day a monkey wrench was dropped, but it did not get to the bottom. It was found lodged against the east side of the shaft several hundred feet down. This incident coming to the attention of the Michigan College of Mines, it was decided to make a careful test of the apparent phenomenon. It was decided best to use a small but heavy spherical body, and a mar- ble, tied to a thread, was suspended about 12 feet below the mouth of the shaft. When the marble was absolutely still, assuring that would drop straight down, the thread was burned through by the flame of a candle. The marble fell, but at a point 500 feet from the surface brought up against the east wall of the shaft. The same would be the case were a man to fall into the shaft. While it would mean sure death, the body, badly torn, would be found lodged in the timbering on the east side. Members of the faculty of the College of Mines are now engaged in experiments with a view of developing data as to the thickness of the earth's crust. It is not hoped to solve the perplexing problem of the distribution of the earth's matter, but it is hoped to add to the information collect- ed concerning it. To this end the Red Jacket shaft presents advantages possessed by no other place in the universe. The deep shafts in other parts of the country and in foreign lands generally begin at an altitude and end above or very little below the sea level, whereas at the Calumet mine the Red Jacket shaft starts in a comparatively low altitude and pierces the earth's crust deeper and further below the ocean level than any other in existence. It is hoped within a year to be able to give some intelligent information re- garding the investigations. - Lake Linden (Mich.) Cor. St. Paul Dispatch. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ===========================================================================