The daily gazette., 1881-06-23
..mooxLreHriSe.~
One OF the Peculiar Industries Of |
the Pennsylvania OIL Regious.

one Of the Peculiar Industries or
the Pennsylvania OIL Regious.
"Moonlighting'' 10 o peculiar industry
that owes its existence to the patent laws.
The late Colonel e. A. Roberts intro
duced the use of nltr0-glycerine torpe-
does In increasing the yield Of oil wells.
When the great flowing wells Of OIL
Creek, alter draining the petroleum
pools Of the lower field for three years,
had exhausted the supply, as was sup
posed, Colonel Roberts experimented on
on abandoned we'll with quantity of
nitro-glycerine, confined In tin shell
and exploded by conclusion. The ex-
plosion was followed by flow of oil,
and the old we'll yielded thirty barrels
day for several years afterward The
nitro-glycerine had shattered the old
bearing rock and opened the paraffine-
ologged veins. While serving In the
army Colonel Roberts noticed that
bombshell exploding beneath water in
varisbly spent Its force on the bottom
OF the stream, throwing mp mud and
stones In great quantities. This was due,
he supposed, to the solid llufd tampiDg
above the explosive. It was this idea
that led him to try the experiment of
nitro glycerine at the bottom of oil wells,
beneath hundreds of feet Of fluid tamp-
iug -.oil and water collected la the well.
He obtained patents on his device. The
validity Of the patents was questioned,
and nitro-glycsrine torpedoes we're used
by others without paying royalty TO Rob-
orts. BE brought nearly 5000 suits to
not r. IL trHt nnn nf
test, was carried through all the State
courts and TO the United States supreme
court. Roberts won in every court, and
nearly million dollars In royalties was
recovered.
The monopoly In nitro-slycerne tor
pedoes led to the Illicit use Of them In
wells. Men without fear of death or re-
gard for law went into the business of
shooting" wells for producers who did
not care to pay tribute to Roberts. Any
one has right to manufacture nitro
glycerine and to place torpedoes in wells.
La the exploding Of them lies the liza
billy to prosecution and penalty.
The moonlighter is always ready to
contract for the shooting Of well. He
carries his nitro-glyoerine in wagons
made especially for the purpose. They
are buckboards, with cushioned apart
ments under the seat, into which the
cans are placed. The roads of tho old
regions would scarcely be called roads
elsewhere. When not hub deep with
mud, they are stretches of deep ruts
and gulleys and projecting rocks.
Drawn by powerful horses, these wag-
ons loaded with sixty or q hundred
quarts of one of the most destructive
explosives known, ard which sudden
ia. is at any moment likely to explode
are driven by their reckless owners
over these roads In the darkest nights
at the top OF their horses speed. They
are called moonl;ghters, but the absence
Of the moon does not prevent them from
undertaking job. The RJberts COM
pany has q wonderful detective system,
which is constantly employed In ferret
Ing out the trespassers IN the torpedo
patent. 1t frequently happens that q
moonlighter Is spotted as he starts out
on one OF his nocturnal missions. The
moonlighter rarely fails to-be aware Of
the fact when he 10 followed by one of
the Roberts men. Then 1t Is race be
tween the two. 1.-THE moonshiner can
not evade the detective and finish his
job. be manages to secrete his nitro
glycerine in the bushes, old buildings,
barns, or other outbulldings of farms,
or IN any place where he was most like
| ly TO recover 1t for use on q more auspi-
ci0us occasion. Thus it happens that
these dangerous storehouses are liable
to be come upon at any time by people
passing through the woods or along the
streams, or by the farmers whose prem
ises have been utilized.
The cost of torpedoing well under
the Roberts patent averages $3.50.
The moonlighter will shoot it for less
than half OF that. Thus the saving
effected If the work Is not discovered
is a great temptation to certain class
of producers. If detected, however,
the penalty is heavy. The Roberts
price for torpejoing must be paid, and
whatever damages may be assessed. Ii
the we'll is an old one and has been
shot to increase its yield the value Of
the increased yield up to the time the
damages are assessed Is added to the
cost Of detected Illicit torpedoiug.
When Colonel Roberts died recently
his income was about $1,000 q day.
he had been separated from his wife
and family for several years. Mrs.
Roberts had begun proceedings against
him and they were pending at the time
of his death. A nephew of the de-
ceased man, resident of Bradford,
Pa, was made his heir. The nephe W
Voluntarily transferred a third OF the
wealth he inherited to each of the two
children of the dead inventor, keeping
the other third himself. Appraisers OF
the estate of Colonel Roberts have
been seven weeks engaged in fixing iis
value. Their duties are accompanied
with risk that the appraisers of nc
dead mans property ever ran before.
They are obliged TO visit all the nitro.
glycerine safes in the oil region, ex-
anime and place value on their con-
tents. There are thirty of these maya.
zines connected with the estate In the
Bradford field alone. These maga-
zines each contain from l, 900 to 10, 00t
pounds of the explosive. While the
appraisers were cautiously Creeping
about in one of them which contained
1000 pounds a driver of a Roberti
nitro -glycerine wagon came tearing NJ
to the safe with his team at the usua
| hraak-nack ratio He had haan nj,