, 1876-01-29

What is 1t 2" I asked Mr.. Warmcastle.
"That's the great Delemater gas mill, Mr..
Perkins, four miles away" he answered.
"I thought it was four hundred trains of
cars passing over a bridge" 1 said.
All night long | listened TO the roar of that
great Delemater mill, and the next morning I
rode four miles over scrub oak bills, through
muddy gulches, and passed, | suppose, fifty
pumping oil wells, to see the startling wonder.
The noise grew louder and louder as we ap-
preached. Then the rumble changed to a his
sing rush like a thousand locomotives blowing
off steam.
At an eighth of mile the noise changed
again to the continuous roar of a thousand can
non. The human voice could not be heard.
Communication was by pantOmine. The lame
shoots into the air seventy feet like a steeple on
fire. The hills were covered with snow, but
for two acres around the we'll the grass is green
and growing, except close to the we'll, where
the ground looks like burnt lava. At q safe
distance calves and sheep stand warming them
selves and eating the dollhouse grass. This
two acres of sterile Pennsylvania looks like a
section Of fertile Florida.
"What makes it sound like the continuous
report of artillery 2" I asked the engineer.
Because it is a ive-inch cannon constant
ly exploding. Look, " said he, " you see the
first flame twenty feet from the muzzle-that
is the flash, the explosion. 1t is like a cannon,
only this is continuous-a million cannons a
mlnute--in fact, one explosion and conclusion
going on forever !"
1t is wonderful to see this volcano fame
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 up LOCO feet
through q fveinch iron pipe, and is conducted off
200 feet through another tube, whore it finds
vent. The general pressure of the gas with
the valve open is 800 pounds to the square
inch. We partly closed the valve and the
pressure ran up to 1900 closed it a little
more, and the tubing began to tremble and
the great ton weight holding it down began to
lit. 1t was only a quick turn of the skilful
engineer that saved l 900 feet Of iron tubing,
anchored down with several tons weight,
from shooting like an arrow into the air. You
can better realize the terrible pressure of this
gas when you reflect that the pressure on an
ordinary locomotive boiler is from 80 to 125
pounds to the square inch, while the pressure
from this we'll, if the valve is closed, would
run up to $500, and then tear the tubing out
and throw the heavy machinery into The
air.
The engineer conducted q half-inch stream
of gas into a IL horse power steam engine, and
II ran it so fast that the machinery broke.
The amount of heat and light in the gas
escaping is equal to 2, 100 tons of coal per day.
The gas would light New York, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore. 1t would run every looomo-
tive in the State of Pennsylvania, 1t would
fill the biggest balloon in half a minute, and
burst it into a thousand t~atters, or shoot it off
like a gigantic bombsbelI, and, as it is very
light-much lighter than ordinary gas-it
will be Of immense value hereafter in trying
balloon experiments.
So great is the pressure that engineers say
this gas would flow through tubing to Pitts
burgh, a distance of forty miles, in ten minutes.
The pipe lines here push oil twelve miles over
hills and valleys with 1000 pounds pressure to
the square inch, but this gas would push itself
to New York in a few hours. The we'll is
estimated to produce 100000 cubic feet Of
the richest gas in a day.
The we'll is named after Mr.. Delemater who
bored it. He was employed by Mr.. Henry
Harley, formerly connected with the Erie
Railway, who now claims the we'll, and if six
men and six hickory clubs will keep him in
possession against another claimant, Mr.. Harley
will continue to own it.
l saw James Murray who assisted to bore
the well. When I asked him to give me the
history of it he said
"Well, sir, after boring 800 feet we struck
rock, solid rock, and followed it for twenty-five
days. At the third sand we struck oil, and
~arn1~o5 n4-.- l...l n, OakoIow g.