Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-03-27
THE OLDEST OIL FIELD,

THE OLDEST OIL FIELD.
Something About the Le Bel Ter
ritory In Alsaoe.
Curious Petroleum Deposits That Ha0
Been Worked for One Hundred and
Forty Years-How IN Aisatian Oil
Wen Il Sunk.
'sThe oldest practical petroleum pro-
ducers in the world are the LIE Bel fam
lily, of Alsace," said ex-senator Lewis
Emery. Jr.. the fighting anti-Standard
oil producer of Bradford, Pa, to New
York Sun Reporter. ''Strange as 1t may
seem. they began to produce petroleum
more than $50 years before Colone4
Drake sank his pioneer well in Penn
sylvania, and yet the history of oil pro-
duction Is dated from brakes successful
venture near Titusville. No one in this
country ever heard Of the ancient Al
satan oil field until 1880. In that year
I was making q tour of Investigation
among the Russian and other alleged
foreign oil countries and learned of the
existence Of the Le Bel territory. I was
surprised to find that it was only fiftR
miles from Strasburg, and that . rail-
road ran within three miles of it to .
place called Sultz-uqter'm-Wald. tool
a trip to the district, aud met the own
er, NJ. Jacques Le Bel, an ancestor a
whose, as he told me, had discovered the
oil In 1735, found that It made an excel
lent lubricator, and purchased for son1
81, 600 meters square of the land in the
region, and went to mining the oil. NJ
Le Bel also told me that 1 was tie first
foreigner who had ever visited the field
'fI found it a most curious oil regions
and when told LIE Bel that was 90
oil operator myself from the greatese
oil country in the world, he was sare
prised, for he knew nothing ahouA anV
other oil country beside his own prim-
tive field, which had been owned ane
worked by the descendants of its dis
coverer for 13o years. After satisfying
him of the truth Of my statements
except the one as to the manner 10
which oil wells were put down and opess
ated in America, which he could Aot
bring himself to believe-he consented
to show me the way he put dow, ana
operated his wells, at the same time as
who had ever been permitted to exaA-
inc the works. After seeing the 0ae
they produced oil in Alsace. I wss not
surprised that M. LIE Bel was increde
1ous about the Pennsylvania methods.
THE sinking of an Alsatian oil well
is more like the operation of opening Q
coal mine than by tapping an oil vein.
as understood and practiced in our fields
When the oil operator in Alsace sets out
to put down an oil well he first efects
building sox1oo feet for his engine and
boiler. Near by an excavation 20 feet
deep and Il feet square is made in the
ground. This is filled with solid stone
masonry. Upon this foundation is
erected . chimney 100 feet high. octa-
gonal in shape, and II feet in diameter.
The work Of digging the we'll is begun
beneath the engine house. As the we'll
Is to consist Of q shaft and numerous
drifts and galleries, its plan is first care
fully laid out by an engineer. The shaft
is excavated entirely by workmen with
pick and shovel. The work goes on
night and day, there being three sets of
hands, three in a set, who work eight
hours day each.
s"The Alsatian oil wells were put
down to depth of about 800 feet al
though when the pioneer operator in
the field went to work In 1735 he had to
go down only so feet to get to the OIL
That vein was long ago exhausted, and
the second vein was found at the pres
ent depth At q depth of 80 feet tun-
mel is cut from the shaft at an ascend
ing slope to fetch its other opening -
the surface at the base Of the tall chin
new. This tunnel. or drift, Is three feet
So uare, and it is really q fue up which
the impure underground air is drawn by
the chimney draught- The shaft propee
is divided into three compartments by
wooden partitions from top to bottom.
One is 8 feet by and is the well.
Another is feet by 8 and is air tight at
the top. This one the hue opens out Of.
The third compartment is of the same
size as the second, and down 1t fresh air
is drawn by the draught Of the hue that
carries off the impure air from tho
bottom.
"When shaft Is sunk to the oil sand
or vein, tunnels are cut in all directions
from it, as an ascending slope. The oil
oozes from the surrounding earth into
these tunnels or drains, and runs Gown
to the bottom of the shaft The tunnels
drain an area of several acre4 The
&C nsistency of the oil is such that the
workmen shovel it from the bottom of
the shaft into buckets, the same as they
did the dirt taken out in digging the
shaft. The buckets are hoisted to the
top and the oil is taken away immedi-
ately to be refined The methods of
refining were Of the crudest, but NJ lie
Bel obtained go per cent Of good lubri-
eating oil from the product Of his wells
The miners of this oil, for that is what
they are, light themselves It their work
by lamps strapped to their breasts
There is no gas with the Alsatian petro-
leum, such as our product always has
with it, or those miners would have 70
find some other way to get At Their OIL
IN. LIE Bel told me that it cost him
$14, 900 to put down single shaft-more
than three times as much as it costs to
drill a Pennsylvania well more than
three times as deep. The Alsatian oil
is sold by the pound, in packages of 200
pounds. They are called kilos. and
kilo was worth from S6 to so, at the then