Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 160, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1920 — Electricity to Thaw Ground. [ARTICLE]

Electricity to Thaw Ground.

The electric ground-thawing device used In Alaskan railroad building has the form of a hollow steel pile. This has a sharpened steel point at one end and a solid steel driving bead at the other, and the hollow body contains a suitable resistance coll. The pointed tube is driven like any pile into the frozen grbund to the required depth. Connection is then made with a power transmission line through a portable transformer mounted on a sledge and a lowwolt current of high amperage is passed through the coll. The heat soon thaws the surrounding ground sufficiently, for driving a wooden pile.