Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-04-12


TIoN.
From Harpers weekly.l
The early history of petroleum is interest
ing Thesndians and first settlers in North.
western Pennsylvania used it for medicinal
purposes, gathering it from the surface OF
springs and streams It was also used by the
Indians in their weird exercises and devo.
tons. the surface of the streams being 'ired
and made to blaze with great flame"
The discovery Of petroleum in a quantity
sufficient to induce the belief that it would
eventually become an article of commerce was
made by Colonel E. L. Drake, when, in Au.
gust, 1859, he dropped drill, after reaching
depth of seventy feet, into a crevice from
which the oil came to within five feet of the
surface. This shallow well gave a pumping
yield of twenty five barrels day. The ex-
citement caused by this discovery was only
equalled by the California gold fever. Wells
were Immediately sunk in the vicinity and in
all available territory for miles around. Farms
which would have been considered high in
price at five dollars per acre were held at
thousands of dollars. New oil regions were
quickly discovered, and at this time oil wells
are i'll active operation in no less than six
counties of Northwestern Pennsylvania. They
produced during 1877 more than II, 600, 600
barrels of crude petroleum
The life of an oil well is from two to five
years. The old wells still give few barrels
day, but are not profitable to work except
in the most economical manner.
The counties of Butler and Clarion are at
present the chief oil territory, and in both of
these counties the derricks, numerous enough
already, are going up with q rapidity which
is astonishing when the present depressed
condition of the oil market is considered
l.., & =, l. IL
various appliances for workingit is at present
about five thousand dollars In Butler coun-
ty the wells are now sunk to a depth of about
fifteen hundred feet, going through the sec
ond sand, which was formerly the oil-bearing
sand, to the third sand, which is now the pro-
ductive stratum.
The work of drilling an oil well has been
greatly simplitied of late years, and the work,
aided by many new appliances and inventions,
proceeds with surprising rapidity. The drill
used is a heavy mass of iron thirty feet in
length joined together and tipped with a
steel chisel some three feet in length and five
inches in diameter. This drill is suspended
to strong hempen rope, which passes over a
pulley at the top of the derrick, thence down
to a windlass, which is worked by pulleys
from the engine which is usually located
midway between two wells This rope is
caught by clamps to n huge beam known as a
Samson bar which furnishes the up-and-
down movement necessary to the work
When quantity of rock and sand is loosened
the drill is withdrawn and a sand pump is let
down, the debris is drawn up, sharpened
drill point replaces the dull one and the work
proceeds
If the well proves to be an oil well, and not
the despised dry hole, with which expensive
cavities the oil region is so plentifully pierced,
the gas generated from the well itself will, as
a general thing, afford fuel for all needed
purposes about the well, and a flame of gas
for light which would suffice 10 light large
hall. The well-mans cook stove is a curious
contrivance. The space usually occupied by
coal is half filled with broken bricks, into
which a small gas pipe is introduced. 1t is
slight trouble to light the fire, and there are
no ashes to be removed. Many wells in But
Ter county are barren of oil, but in place
thereof they yield supply of gas which is
conducted for miles in pipes, and used for il
Elimination and other household purposes.
From the earliest period of the discovery of
oil the question of storage and transportation
has been a source of anxiety to the producer.
When large flowing well is discovered in
new territory, vast quantity of oil must run
TO waste before proper tankage can be pro-
vded, and it is inadvisable to stop the flow of
oil, for fear Of permanent injury to the well.
This loss of oil and the difficulty of trans
porting it by wagons and fat-boats were the
chief reasons for the introduction of the
small pipes which now traverse the whole oil
region in Western New York and Northwest
ern Pennsylvania. The aggregate length of
these well-pipe lines is not far from two thou
sand miles. These are, of course, principally
feeders which conduct the crude oil to large
iron tanks, from which the oil is again pumped
either to great storage tanks located at some
point remote from any buildings and conven-
lent to a railroad. or to the tanks of the re-
fnery which is to treat the crude petroleum
The largest tank in the world is located at
Brilliant, few miles above Pittsburgh, on
the Allegheny river The total tankage at
this point is about $1,000 barrels. The ca
pacity of the great tank is said to be 45, 600
barrels. The tank is constructed of iron
plates quarter of an inch in thickness its
height is twenty-eight feet its diameter, lO4
feet.
The principal pumping station on the main
line is at the new town of Carbon Centre,
where the great boilers, run entirely by gas,
drive a Cameron and n Knowles pump on al
ternate days, forcing the oil through four
inch pipe to tanks located at Freeport, dis
tance of fourteen miles The oil pipe is not
buried. but laid on the surface. and follows
almost a direct line, traversing ravines and
crossing hills of considerable elevation. From
Freeport the oil is again pumped to the re-
fneries in the vicinity of Pittsburgh The
capacity of the pumps is given as follows.
The dimensions of the Especial" steam-pump
made for use at Carbon Centre, Pennsylvania,
are: cylinder, 80 inches diameter
pump cylinder, inches diameter; stroko of
piston, 3G inches. The working pressure on
the line varies from $50 to 100 pounds per
square inch The temperature of the atmos-
phere has considerable effect on the huidity
of the oil. The capacity of the pump is
about $500 barrels per day of 239 hours, half
an hour being taken each day at noon to
gauge the tanks.
The late excitement among oil-producers
and others interested in the shipment of pc
troleum, and the attempt to secure the pass
age of free pipe line law by the Pennsylvania
Legislature, brought various conflicting state
ments before the public. The oil-producers,
desiring only to secure the cheap transporta-
ton which they are confident that the pipe
lines from the seaboard would afford, ignored
the fact that the pipe line, through which
crude oil only could be shipped would con-
vey the raw material directly away from the
great refineries which have been erected con-
venient to the wells and promote the ship
ment of crude oil TO the foreign markets, TO
be refined abroad. The railroad companies
objected TO being deprived of one of their
principal articles of freight, and the depre-
citation in value of their thousands of tank
cars. The barrel-makers and hoop-manufac-
turers also interposed strong remonstrance
against the sea-board pipe line. The bill was
not passed but the right of way for pipe
line from the oil regions TO Baltimore has
been purchased, and the line will, it is said,
be built. The route of this line is given as
follows by one of the promoters of the pro-
posed work The line will start from the east
side of the Allegheny river, at a point nearly
opposite, or little below Parker's, thence
southeasterly through the counties of Clarion
Armstrong, Indiana, Cambria, Blair (passing
between Altoona and Tyrone, towns on the
Pennsylvania railroad), Huntington (near
Orbisonia), Franklin, Cumberland (near Ship
pensburg), Adams (near Gettysburg) within
the State of Pennsylvania. In Maryland it
will run through Carroll and Baltimore coun-
ties to Centre Creek, on Patapsoo Bay, south
of Baltimore, in Anne Arundel county, where