The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1876-02-10
A Great Gas Well.

"A 0reat Gas ell.
A correspondent writes: In Millers-
town, Pa, into the very centre of Butler
county went up on the hill and counted
forty nine small burning wells. The
whole heavens were aglow with light
The clouds were silver lined, and reflect
ed back the lurid glare from the wells |
could stand anywhere and read news
paper. The boilers of fifty oil well en-
gines heated with gas line the valley
fire lighted up the heavens. From toward
the lighted horizon came a rumbling roar
that drowned the hubbub of the street.
All night long | listened to the roar of
that great Delamater mill, and the next
morning | rode four miles over scrub oak
hills, through muddy gulches, and past, l
suppose, fifty pumping oil wells, to see
the startling wonder The noise grew
louder and louder as we approached.
Then the rumble changed to Il kissing
rush like thousand locomotives blowing
off steam. At an eight of mile the
noise changed again to the continuous
roar Of a thousand cannon. The hum N
voice could not be heard Communica-
ton was by pantomime. The flame shoots
into the air like Il steeple on fire. The
hills We're covered with snow, but lor two
acres around the well the grass is green
and growing, except close to the well,
where the ground looks like burned lava.
At a safe distance calves and sheep stand
warming themselves and eating the hot
house grass. This two acres of sterile
PENNSYLVANIA looks like a section Of fer
tile Florida
"What makes it sound Ike the contin-
uous report of artillery ?" | asked the en-
gineers.
because it is a five-inch cannon con-
stantly exploding Look" said he, 'you
muzzle, that is the flash, the explosion.
1t is like a cannon, only this is contlnu-
Gus, a million cannon minute. in fact,
one explosion and conclusion going on
forever" 1t is wonderful to see this vol
vanic flame exploding in the air. The
pressure is SO great that the gas cannot
ignite till it gets twenty feet beyond the
nozzle The stream of gas comes up
1860 feet through 4 tive-inch iron pipe,
and is conducted off 200 feet through an
other tube, where it finds vent. The
general pressure OF the gas with the
valve open is 800 pounds to the square
inch We partly close the valve, and the
pressure ran up to 200; closed it little
more, and the tubing began to tremble,
and the great ton weight holding it down
began to lift 1t was only Il quick turn OF
the skiliul engineer that saved 1900 feet
OF IRON tubing. anchored down with sew
eral tons weight, from shooting like an
arrow into the air. You can better real
ize the terrible pressure OF this gas when
you reflect that the pressure OF an ordi
nary locomotive boiler is from 50 to l25
pounds to the square inch, while the pres
sure from this we'll, if the valve is closed.
would run up 10 fifteen hundred, and then
tear the tubing out, and throw the heavy
machinery into the air. The engineer
conducted half-inch stream of gas into
a twelve horse power engine, and 1T ran
so fast that the machinery broke.
The amount OF heat and light in the
gas escaping is equal to POO tons OF coal
"a day The gas would light New York,
Philadelphia and Baltimore. IL would
run every locomotive in the state OF Penn
syIvania 1t would ill the biggest bal
loon in halt minute, and burst 1t into
thousand tatters, OF shoot it off like q gi-
gantic bombshell, and rs it is very light
much lighter than ordinary gas it would
be of immense value thereafter in trying
balloon experiments SO great is the pres
sure that engineers say this gas would
ilow through tubing to Pittsburg, dis
tance Of forty miles, in ten minutes. The
pipe lines here push oil twelve miles over
hiis and valleys with 1000 pounds pres
sure to the square inch. but this gas
would push itself to New York in u few
hours The we'll is estimated to produce
, 900, 900 cubic feet of the richest gas in
u day The Well is named after Mr.. Del
amater, who bored it. lie was employed
by Henry Harley, formerly connected
with the Erie railway, who now claims
the well, and if six men and six hickory
clubs will keep him IN possession against
another claimant Mr.. Harley will CON
tinue to own it, saw James Murray
who assisted to bore the well. When |
asked him to give me the history of it he
said
"Well, sir, after boring 800 ieet we
struck rock, solid rock. and followed it
for twenty-five days At the third sand
we struck oil, and pumped several bar
rels On October 4, after boring seventy
I'VE udNS tIu ioOp lCCt, VIC otl ubh NOW
in the rock about o'clock. Well, she
flew l30 feet in the air. Stones, salt, wa
ter, oil gas, busted like cannon, and the
St. 10 people cum rushin over the hill to
find busted biler and dead driller, but
well, we run like the devil; we run to
get away from the gravel stones and gas,
Bill Mcclure says, jim we've struck
hell, and the devil is comin'-runN And
we got away from that well and stayed
away till the next morning"
Then it blew all night without being
lighted, did it?'
Yes; we dassent 90 near her for two
days The gas Shot up like mist, cold
as ice You could see it in the air. After
two days | got a ball of candle wickin'
soaked it in turpentine, tied stone to it,
and that night SHE'D it into the gas
"Did she make noise, Jim ?"
"Make hoise! Great sun, she busted
like cannon full Of sand. You'd a
thought the bowels of the earth were fly
ing out. And light! why, the whole
basin here was as light as day. could
count tlocks OF sheep way over in the
woods, and folks way over in Petrolia,
ten miles away, saw it-and heard it.,
too, and they hear it just as loud to-day
as they did that first night"
The Diary of an Exhausted Litigant.