Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1905 — NEW WAY OF DRILLING SALT. [ARTICLE]

NEW WAY OF DRILLING SALT.

Hand Power Has Been Displaced by Auger Worked by Compressed Air. In the city of Muskegon, Mich., salt is used in large quantities, and consequently the warehouses of the firms dealing in it are capacious enough to store away a very considerable supply. As is well known, salt, on account of its affinity for water, is a substance that has a tendency to harden and cake when piled away any length of time, and some of the cellars where i.t is stored’’eonhrhi beds of it twenty feet high and so hard that but little impression can be made upon them even with the pick or ax. ’ ' For this reason a somewhat curious device has been brought into use to loosen the material so that it can readily be secured. This is a large boring tool or auger which is operated by compressed air. The auger is mounted on a wheeler truck which is guided by handles projecting from the rear of the framework. The rear end of the auger revolves in a socket fitted into the framework, while the air is admitted to the socket from the hose which supplies it When operated, the boring tool is pushed against the mass of salt, and the auger is set in motion; and in a minute or two —so rapidly does the tool work—a hole about five indies in diameter Is made in the formation the entire length of the auger. Then another hole is drilled parallel with the first, and another until the pile has been undermined, so to speak, when its contents can easily be broken out. The advantage of this method Js seen when it is stated that two men can get out as much salt by the power method as two dozen men by using picks and shovels. —Technical World.