St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-10-30
A SALTY WONDER.

Millions of Gallons Of Salt Water Pro.
duced by . Pcnnsylvanis Well.
One of the greatest wonders of the
world, and yet comparatively unknown.
is the well which for the last sixteen
years has been flowing almost pure
salt at the rate of over $4,000 gallons
per day. 1t is located in Etna Dor
ough, along Pine creek. just opposite
the city. The history of the we'll was
related to reporter recently by Mr..
.. l.. Robertson. of the firm of Spang.
Chalfant & Co., whose large steel
works are located in close proximity to
the we'll. He said that in the spring Of
1872 the firm decided to sink we'll to
secure natural gas to run their works,
and the contract was given to Chalfant
q Graf. At a depth of 1900 feet a
saltwater vein was struck. Shortly
after the tools were lost. and after fish
ing for them for several months thew
were caught. The well was then
drilled TO depth of $500 feet, when
the tools got lost again, and after
spending five months in unsuccessful
attempts to recover them it was de-
clded TO abandon the we'll
A strong vein of gas WAS found at a
depth OF 800 feet. but there was so
much salt water that it could not find
its way out. Its pressure was SO great,
however, that the salt water was forced
up nearly ninety feet in the air.
For seven years this salt water con-
To ~ L.
barrels per hour, sometimes more and
sometimes less, but never falling short
of fifty barrels. 1t swelled the little
brook at its side to good-sized creek
and thence poured into the Allegheny
river. 1t was so strong in chloride of
sodium as to kill all the fish that came
within certain limits of the place where
1t entered the river. The idea of util-
izing the water seems not to have
entered any ones mind until about five
wears after the well began t. flow.
Several capitalists then conceived the
plan of extracting the chloride of So
dunn from the water and manu- featuring
salt For some reason the scheme fell
through then, but two years later
company was formed which established
the second largest salt works in the
United States. making about $50 barrels
of salt daily.
After all the salt has been taken from
The water it goes through process
which extracts the bromine. which
forms large proportion of the char
scter OF the water from the well. This
is a very valuable medical product.
When the water leaves the latter
works it would be perfectly pure and
tasteless were it not for the acids, etc,
used in extracting the salt and bro
mine.
The amount of water coming from
the well to-day is as great as when it
was struck. sixteen years ago. A pecu-
liar feature is that on some days. for a
period of about an hour, the well be-
comes unusually agitated and the pres
sure simply terrific, requiring the
strongest kind of joints and casing to
hold the water.
1t is almostimpossiblc to comprehend
the amount of water this well draws
from the bowels of the earth. In six
teen years. at the rate of 81. 900 gallons |
per day, it would have thrown off 203,-
1874. 400 gallons of water.
This water. if placed in barrels each !
forty gallons, would fill !
so, 796 ordinary freight cars. making a
train nearly 900 miles long. or almost
twice the distance from Pittsburgh to
Chicago. Pittsburgh Commercial Ga !
zetts