The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-07-14

woman fwhen she sees us coming Will
rush into the house, close the door and
then look ont from a corner OF the win
dow curtain. Well, we may as well
move, on, or that woman over there will
Move over into the next county or die
of fright"
Union, Oil Company No. 4, standing
at the foot of hill near Clarendon,
was as devoid of any indication of the
existence of crude petroleum as an oil
well may be aud still be, an oil well.
There was no grease" on the derrick
floor; nothing but dirty water dripped
from the; ponderops drill and heavy
cable; the boiler was black and cold;
the sand line swayed, idly in the breeze;
and lover all hung the s'forlornness " of a
we'll finished, but not yet shot; of man
dead, but not yet buried. e..
"Now, then, some of you felluwsn"
called out Kuhn, as he carried two cans
Of, nitro glycerine into the derrick,
"get me four pals Of hot water, and be
lively about it" :
Two of the lease hands Immediately
repaired to drilling well few rods
away, and soon returned with the re-
quired amount of hot water.
"You see," said the indefatigase se
John, as he proceeded with the work,
"here are seven cans of glycerine. The
compound in four of the cans is frozen
nearly solid and has. to be thawed out
so that it will flow like water, before it
can be used. The other three cans were
thawed out at q well yesterday and are
.eonse1uentIS5 ready .sfor use. This
operation of +thawingis is vexatious busi-
ness, because nitro-glycerine freezes at
forty degrees. and in the winter we
have to work hard to keep the stuff
ready for use, even after we are at the
well ready to put in a shot. put these
cans, you see, in this hot water and have
to wait patiently for the thawing pro-
cess. to be completed. In the mean
time ever thing must be got ready.
Here you," he again called to the lease
employees, "come in here and tie down
this :walking-beam. -
The end OF the heavy walking-beam,
from which the drilling tools are sus-
down to the headache post" In the
extreme lower end of the walking beam
hung n btassive iron hook and from this
hook hung part of the temper screw,
the screw proper having been taken
down out of the way. A small piece ol
rope WAS then hitched to the lower end
strong iron pulley fastened securely to
the rope. When left to hang of its own
accord the pulley was exactly over the
hole in the ground, which had been
drilled to depth of .1.21S feet The
pulley was then fastened in position
over the hole by means of three ropes
hitched to each side of the bull wheel
and to the drill standing on the derrick
floor. The torpedo reel, a heavy iron
hand reel. was bolted; securely to the
crank of the band wheel shaft outside
the derrick and the rope from it was
carried through the side of the derrick
and passed through the pulley hanging
over the hole.
t'-'.H-'l THE ANCHOR i"-
s<How much anchor do you want?''
called out Kuhn to the Union Oil Com.
pany's manager, who was in the midst
of an animated discussion with an ex.
forty-quart shot. That worthy pulled
Misunderstanding notebook from
hisfcoat pocket and answered: ss.@
Twenty-seven feet.n Is
-. b. that he means explained
Kuhn ssthat he wishes the torpedo ex.
ploded Just twenty seven feet from the
bottom of the hole. This bundle of tin
tubes you see here is what we call
sanphor.h These tubes are about an
inch in diameter and each one is. eight
feet long. and to get the required
amount of anchor fasten them togeth,
er. as you would stoye-pipe, until have
twentyeseTen feet of it This wooden
plug Joined into one end of the anchor
and the other end of the anchor fast
en- TO the bottom of the torpedo she'll
Now we lower the anchor and she'll into
the hole until the top of the shell is
about three feet from the top of the
hole, and we fasten the torpedo to the
hook IN the end of the reel line thai
runs over the pulley. There. you see
we have the empty she'll hanging in the
hole. suspended by the line and ready
for the melted glycerine. A forty quar-
shell Is twelve feet long and four and 1
half inches in diameter and is made in
two sections. The lower section. jus
half Of the whole shell, is hanging ther,
in the we'll 1t has an open top JUS
like an ordinary tin pail, while the up
per section is provided with head
and percussion caps, Now we will try
the glycerine. Yes, it's all melted anC
ready for pouring"
II Kuhn lifted a can carefully from tn,
hot water, removed the corks from thu
\ two nozzies and began pouring tn,
glycerine through a crooked funne
4 into the shell. Tne stuff had the ap
pearanee of half-melted lard and rar
! out of the can very slowly. In tn,
summer, when glycerine is thoroughly
! melted, it closely resembles inseed oil
4 ItwaS a delicate operation and verl
!. tryiuS to- the stoutest nerves, for ha(
K1hk1etthe. can fail or had the stut
stopped over unnoticed none of tn,
three piens.in the derrick would hav,
lived to tell the story. But john
nerves were like steel and no acciden
occurred : At last the twenty quar-
section was filled to the top and tn,
w9rk of lowering to the bottom began
Slowly. very slowly, the torpedo rec
was unYound and carefully, very care
fully, Ves. sWymer guided the shell int
the casing.@ Fifty feet of line was thu
unwound and then the reel went taste
and still faster, until the shell haC
passed through five hundred feet o
empty space and seven hundred feet o
crude petroleum and had stopped ian
chored'' twenty-seven feet from tn
bottom of the long hole. The hook a
the end of the line was, by slackin.
upon the line. QeJacneQ from the Snel
and was wound up on the reel. Th
remaining section of the shell was thel
filed with glycerine in q similar man
ner, the percussion caps put in plac
by means of disk and small spindle
the operation of which could not be ex
planned CLEARLY without illustrations
and theswhoie thing was carefully low
ered, sosthat the conical al-shaped bottom
of the upper shell would fit tightly int
the open top of the lower shell. TIL
hook was detached aud the line draw
1 up the second time, after which tn
1 pulley was taken down, the reel re
j moved and the derrick floor cleared {
cans and tools. -
4 .we are all ready now." said Kuhr
as he took a final survey of the SUI
Il roundings.
!. / stood with the "go-devil." foul
. i Han iron atinor in nnn hand ON