Abstract
FROM time to time attention has been called to the property exhibited by certain wells in different parts of this country of maintaining an active and permanent circulation of air. It was observed that currents alternately entered or issued from fissures in the sides of the wells, and though in some cases the first emission on sinking the well consisted of choke-damp, the gas subsequently passing consisted of no more than atmospheric air. While it was clear that the currents were not due to the evolution of any gas by chemical action in the rock or the water, an explanation of the phenomenon was found in the fact that the changes in the direction of the circulation coincided precisely with the changes of movement of the barometer, the current being outwards with a falling glass, inwards when the barometer was rising, and ceasing altogether when no change in the atmospheric pressure was taking place. The strength of the currents moreover was found to be proportionate to the rapidity of the barometric movements.
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References
J. Rofe, F.G.S., Geological Magazine, vol iv. p. 106, 1867.
A. G. Cameron, Geological Magazine, vol. vii. p. 95, 1880.
Proc. York Geol. and Polyt. Soc., N.S., vol. vii. p. 409, 1881.
Mr. H. J. Marten, Eighth Report on the Circulation of Underground Waters to the British Association, 1882.
Baldwin Latham, Report of the British Association for 1881, p. 614.
Proc. York Geol. and Polyt. Sec., op. cit.
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STRAHAN, A. THE MOVEMENTS OF AIR IN FISSURES AND THE BAROMETER . Nature 27, 375–376 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/027375a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027375a0