Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1870-06-30
TRIP THROUGH THE OIL REGIONS
Allegheny Salt
and Chemical WOrks-Oil City
Tftusville-The Mysterious Grease
sIle'' PhenOmena-FamO Wells
IsPetrea cum Playing Gut?
al Correspondsace Of The Sar.l


Iler RhenOmenA-FamO Wells
IsPetrea cum Playing 0utf
Editorial Correspondence Of The Sfar.l
ERIE, PENN, June II.
The American disposition to make short cuts
across lots shows itself in the way we razee the
meny-syllsbeled musical Indian and Spanish
names we have annexed" with the territory to
which they belonged. Thus San Francisco was
speedily cut down 60 "Frisco,n - and the Monon-
gahela is known in Smoky City as the "Monge-
hale" We left the "Mongehale" and the Pitts
burg smokebank yesterday morning, and our
cosy special train was headed up the valley of
the Allegheny river on the way to the Oil
Regions. The Allegheny is navigable for oil
boats eight months of the year all the way up to
Oil Creek one hundred and thirty miles distant,
and a large proportion of the oil brought down
to Pittsburg, the great petroleum market of the
world, is taken in bulk in barges, or oblong
boxes into which the Oil is poured. There is
much waste, necessarily, and the rapid Ale
gheny has its turbulent waters literally
smoothed Down with oil.
Formerly these barges were made of the
slightest materials, intended to last only one
trip, but now they are constructed of sufficient
strength to bear long service, and they are
towed back again for use from all points down
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; from as far
down as New Orleans, even. Notwithstanding
the immense quantities of petroleum taken
down by water, the Allegheny Valley railroad
is kept busy in its transportation, and one is
never cut OF sight of freight trains loaded with
those tall, slender blue-colored barrels peculiar
to the petroleum trade.
Almost Immediately upon leaving Pittsburg
we shot in amongst the salt-wells of the Allie
gheny Valley, and at Natrona we made some
ltn 10 imam thn aba
there. 1t seems to me that few outside OF Penn
sylvania are aware of the fact that chemical
works of this Importance are located here. The
annual product is some four million pounds of
caustic soda, five millions Of sal soda, about the
same Of bi-carbonate of soda, seven million
pounds of porous alum, thirty thousand carboys
Of sulphuric acid, and large quantities of mu-
riatic and nitric acid, concentrated lye, aqua
forts, ammonia, benzine, crystalized alum
&c, &c. The works, which cover some twenty
five acres, are owned by Pennsylvania COM
pany.
s'Striking Ile.''
The earliest production OF oil for use ~ an
illuminator was from petroleum taken from
jet wells a short distance from Pittsburg, in
the Allegheny river, but 1t was not procured in
any great quantities in that neghborhood, and
II Is not until the traveller has ascended the Allie
ghany TO Parker's Landing, in Clarion county,
50 miles from Pittsburg, that the oil derricks
begin to figure prominently in the landscape
Our train was stopped at some of the first wells
met to give the passengers an opportunity to
examine them, but soon they grew so frequent
covering valley land and hill sides and even
surmounting mountainous crests, that they
ceased to attract individual attention until we
approached the district of the leviathan wells
where ''ile has been struck" to some purpose.
of these wells, every one of which cost at least
from 1000 to $1,000, and many much more, is
a success. And large as has been the Weld from
rne on neiu, ana important is the branch n,
trade created by the oil fever, it is estimated
that the entire yield thus far would not paw the
interest on the money spent in boring tor oil.
At Oil City our special train was changed
from the track Of the Allegheny Valley railroad
to the Oil Greek and Allegheny River railroad,
which we followed to Cory. The route up Oil
Creek took us through the most interesting por-
ton of the oil regions, and a stop was made at
the famous Story Farm, where the Columbia
Oil Company, one OF the most successful in the
"region," have made their immense dividends
Our active friend, David A. Stewart, head of
the Pittsburg Locomotive Works, and who m ade
his "first million" at the Columbia wells was on
hand here with a band of music comprising
twenty performers. and who, by the way are
employees of the company on the Story Farm
But a concern that turns out 400 barrels of oil
day all the 1866 days of the year can well afford
to have brass band of its own. The wells of
the Columbia Company are scattered over some
five hundred acres OF ground embraced in the
Story Farm, which they purchased In 1861, and
it is noticeable fact that the best wells are on
the crown of high and steep hill. Up this hill
we climbed, to the music of Stewards band, to
see how oil wells are bored. The Columbia
Company work their ground more systematic
ally than most Of the oil-borers. They locate
their wells at least 800 feet apart, and have two
or three new wells constantly in drilling to SUD-
ply the place of failing wells. The operations at
the Story Farm, with all the best modern appIi-
ances for boring, worked by steam power, at
fords as great a contrast to the rude system
practiced by the early bsrers, as does modern
quartz mining with expensive machinery
compared to the early mode of pan-wash-
ing on the first discovery Of gold in Cali.
fornia. In fact, oi-boring, like gold-mlning,
has passed beyond the speculative stage, and is
now pursued on steady business like basis.
Improved methods of drilling have been at
tanned, and the expense of operating the wells
has been materially reduced. And many of the
old, abandoned wells have been cleaned out.
and are successfully worked.
The mode of boring, as witnessed by us. is as
follows:-First tall pyramidal frame work,
styled derrick, is placed over the site OF the
well, fourteen to sixteen feet square at the base
and rising to about nftysix feet for wells of the
depth of 800 to 800 feet. Within this derrick is
suspended the wheel-work that operates the
tools used in drilling. The first operation is to
drive the iron conductor, or driving pine. to the
bed rock" which varies from six to seventy
nve feet This pipe is used as q conduc-
tor to prevent earth or stones from fall
ing into the pit or hole while the drilling
is going on. The driving pipe is of cast iron
six to eight inches in diameter, and is in joints
about ten feet in length. The work Of driving
this pipe Is difficult one, since the pipe must
be forced down through all distractions to a
great depth, while it must be perfectly vertical.
A oattering ram is used to drive down the pipe,
ana when one joint is driven another Is placed
upon 1t, and the process is continued. After
the pipe Is driven the work of drilling is COM
menced, the tools being alternately lifted and
dropped by the action OF the working beam. It
Is requisite that the tools should be turned each
time they are dropped to make the hole ronnd