New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1883-08-22
Boring an Oil Well.

"A ACtICl 1IOiH DIdulOtUs lcuuSylVlulS,
to the Drug Reporter gives very clear
description of the above operation, as
follows:
The machinery used in boring one of
these deep oil wells, while simple
enough in itself, requires nice adjust
ment and skillin operating. First comes
the derrick. sixty feet high, crowned by
massive pulley.
The derrick is q most essential part of
the mechanism, and its shape and
height are needed in handling the long
rods, piping, casting and other fittings
which have to be inserted perpendicu-
larly. The bore or drill used is not
much different from the ordinary hand
arm of the stone cutters, and the blade
is exactly the same. but is of massive
size, three or four inches across. about
four feet long, and weighing 100 or 200
pounds. A long solid rod, some thirty
feet long, three inches in diameten and
called the ''stem,' is screwed on the
drill. This stem weighs almost ton,
and its weight is the hammer relied on
for driving the drill through dirt and
rock. Next come the liars, two long
loose links of hardened iron playing
along each other about foot.
The object of jars is to raise the drill
with shock, SO us to detach it when so
tightly fixed that n steady pull would
break the machinery. The upper part
of the two jars is solidly welded to an
other long iron rod called the sinker bar,
to the upper end of which, in turn, is at
tached the rope leading up to the der
rick pulley, and thence to q stationary
steam engine. In boring the stem and
drill are raised with shock by the Jars,
and the operation repeated.
If may hazard q further illustration
of the internal boring machinery of the
we'll, let the reader link loosely togcth-
er the thumbs and foretingcrs of his two
hands, then bring his forearms into a
u straight line. Conceiving this line to
be perpendicular one, the point of one
elbow would represent the drill blade,
the adjacent forearm and hand the stem,
the linked fingers the jars, and the 9TH
er hand and form the sinker bar, with
the derrick cord attached to point rep
resented By the second elbow. BY re-
membering the immense and concen-
trated weight of the upright drill and
stem, the tremendous force of even a
short fall may be conceived. The drill
will bore many feet in single day
through solid rock, and q few hours
sometimes suffice to force it fifty feet
through dirt or gravel. When the de-
bris accumulates too thickly around the
! drill, the latter is drSwn up rapidly.
The debris has previously been reduced
to mud by keeping the drill constantly
surrounded by water. A sand pump,
not unlike an ordinary syringe, is then
let down, the mud sucked up, lifted,
and then the drill sent down to begin
its pounding anew. Great dizziness and
experience are needed to work the drill
without breaking the jars or connected
machinery, and in case of accident there
are grapples, hooks, knives, and other
devices without number, to be used in
recovering lost drills, cutting the rope,
and other emergencies, the bricfest ex-
PLANTATION of which would exceed the
limits of this letter
The exciting moment in boring well
is when drill is penetrating the upper
covering of sand rock which overlies
the oil. The force with which the com.
pressed gas and petroleum rushes up
ward almost surpasses belief. Drills.
jars, and sinker bars are sometimes
shot out along with debris. oil, and hiss
ing gas. Sometimes this gas and oil
take fire, and last summer one of the
wells thus ignitcd burned so fiercely
that q number of days elapsed before
the flames could be extinguished. More
nftnn thu fo ~ ua ,,rOy;IoI &c ~ n. n; n
and thousands of barrels escape. Two
or three years ago, at the height of the
oil production Of the Bradford region,
5000 barrels day were thus run.
ming to waste. But those halcyon days
Of Bradford are gone for ever. AL
though nineteen-twentieths of the wells
sunk in this region struck oil and
flowed freely, most of them now flow
sluggishly or have to be pumped two
or three times y week.