Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 10 -- Geophysical, Pnuematic and Electromagnetic Engines
Thomas Milner's The Gallery of Nature, A Pictorial and Descriptive Tour
Through Creation, Illustration of the Wonders of Astronomy, Physical
Geography, and Geology (1882) provides some pneumatic speculation.
Weeding Well, in the Peak of Derbyshire, other wise called the Ebbing
and Flowing ... lies in a field by the road-side in the neighborhood of
Castleton Dale, surrounded with mud and weeds. The motion of the
water depends upon the quantity of rain during the season, and is by no
means regular, as it has ceased to flow for several weeks during a
drought; but, in very wet weather, it will flow and ebb more than once in
an hour. The time which it continues to flow varies; but it is sometimes
four or five minutes, the water appearing at first slightly agitated, and then
issuing forth from nine small apertures with a gurgling sound. After
remaining stationary, it then ebbs to its ordinary level... No theory has yet
been proposed to account for the peculiarity of these springs which is
perfectly satisfactory; but probably the interposition of columns of gas
conveying pressure, somewhat on the principle of Hero's fountain, acts
an important part, as well as the common hypothesis of an interior cavity
of water discharging itself by a siphon-formed channel.
A pneumatic engine for underground rivers requires a disparity in air pressure to push or suck
water uphill. And indeed the atmospheric pressure at the foot of a hill is greater than that at the
top, but the difference in energy (what would propel the fluid) is nil because the pressure drop is
balanced by the elevation gain.
And 25 years later, the pneumatic theory with two options: one due to atmospheric pressure
differential and the other to vapor entrainment. From "Blowing Springs and Wells of Georgia, with
an Explanation of the Phenomena," Science, February 8, 1907, by S.W. McCallie,
Grant Blowing Spring
The phenomenon can readily be detected by holding a smoldering match or lighted paper near
the opening from which the water flows. The motion of the air is to be seen in its full force at an
opening in the bluff above... At this opening, which leads down to the stream supplying the
spring, there is, at times, a strong current of air passing inward or outward, depending on the
atmospheric conditions hereafter to be discussed.
Boston Well
The Boston deep well belongs to the second class of blowing wells, namely, wells in which the
direction of the air current is in one direction only.
The main water supply at present is said to come from a subterranean stream in the limestone
at 120 feet... Shortly after the completion of the well, Mr. J.Z. Brantley, the mayor of the town,
discovered that there was a continuous draught of air passing down the casing, and by placing
his ear near the mouth of the well he was able to detect a sound like running water. This
indraught, Mr. Brantley reports, was quite strong and continued as long as the well was left
open.
The Lester Well
Mr. Miller, in describing this well, says that at a depth of 154 feet he struck a stream of water
running so swiftly that he could not pass a two-pound iron plumb bob attached to a fishing line
through it. He reports blowing crevices in the well at 87, 124 and 144 feet. When the well was
being bored the air from each of these cavities is said to have passed in in the forenoon and
out in the afternoon; but after the completion of the well to the swift moving subterranean
stream, the air ceased to pass outward, but was sucked in with a strong steady pull, drawing
the flame and smoke of a torch down the casing when held 6 inches above its opening.
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