The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-03-22
THE OLDEST OIL FIELD.
Something About the Le Bel Ter
ritory IN Alsace.

Something About the Lie Bel Ter
ritory in Alsace.
Curious Petroleum Deposits That Havo
Been Worked for One Hundred and
Forty Years-How an Aisatian Oil
wolf l. sunk.
'"The Oldest practical petroleum pro
ducers In the world are the lie Bel fam
Ily. of Alsace," said ex-senator Lewis
Emery, Jr., the fighting anti-Siandard
oil producer OF Bradford, Pa, to ANEW
York Sun Reporter. STRANGE as 1t may
seen, they begin TO produce petroleum
more than 100 years before Colonel
Drake sank his pioneer well IN rem
sylvania, and got the history of oil pro
duction IS dated from brakes successful
venture near Titusville~ No II In this
country ever heard OF the ancient AL
satan oil field until 1880. In that year
[ was making q tour of investigation
among tho Russian and other alleged
FOREIGN oil countries and learned of the
existence of the Lie Bel territory. [ was
surprised to find that 1t was only fifty
miles from StrasburF, and that a rail
road ran within three miles OF 1t to a
place called Sult2-unter'm-Wald. TOOK
a trip to tho district, and met tho own
er, NJ. Jacques La Bel, al ancestor OF
whose, as he told mo, had discovered the
oil In 1875, found hat 1t made an excel
lent lubricator, and purchased for a song
81, 900 meters square of the land in the
region, and vent 10 mining tho oil. M.
LIE Bel also told me that | was the iirst
foreigner who had ever visited the Held.
II found 1t n most curious oil region.
| and when / told LIE Bel that | was an
oil operator myself from tho greatest
oil country In the world, he was sur
prised, for he knew nothing about any
other oil country beside his W prim-
tive field, which had been owned and
worked by the descendants of It's dis
coverer for 1870 years. After satisfying
him OF the truth of my statements
except the one as TO the manner in
which oil wells were putdown and oper-
ated in America, which he could not
bring himself to believe-he consented
to show rue the way he put down and
operated his wells, at the same time as
suring me that l was the first outsider
who had aver been permitted to exam
inc the works. After seeing the way
| they produced oil in Alsace. l was not
surprised chat NJ. LIE Bel was incredu-
lous about the Pennsylvania methods.
The sinking Of an Alsatian oil we'll
is more like the operation OF opening q
coal mine than by tapping an oil vein,
as understood and practiced in GU fields
When the oil operator in Alsace sets out
to put down an oil we'll he first erects q
building sox1oo feet for his engine and
boiler. Near by an excavation 20 feet
deep and IA feet square Is made in the
ground. This Is filled with solid stone
masonry. Upon this foundation Is
erected a chimney 100 feet high, octa-
gonal In shape, and Ia feet in diameter.
The work Of digging the we'll Is begun
beueash the engine house. Is b well
is to consist of o 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 N
night and day, there being three sets of
hands, three in a set, who work eight
hours q day each.
'sThe Alsatian oil wells were put
down to a depth Of about 800 feet, al
though when the pioneer operator In
the field went to work In 1913 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
emit depth. At q depth Of 80 feet q tun-
mel Is cut from the shaft at an ascend
ing slope to fetch its other opening to
the surface at the base CT the tall ohm
ney. This tunnel, or drift, Is three feet
square, and 1t Is really a flue up which
the impure underground air Is drawn by
the chimney draught. The shaft proper
is divided into three compartments by
wooden partitions from top to bottom.
One is 9 feet by Q and is the we'll.
Another Is s feet by Q and Is air tight at
the top. This one the iue opens out Of.
The third compartment Is OF the same
size as the second, and down It fresh air
il drawn by the draught OF the fiue that
carries of the impure air from the
bottom.
when a shaft is sunk to tho oil sand
or vein, tunnels are cut in NIL directions
from 1t, as an ascending slope. The oil
oozes from tho surrounding earth into
these tunnels or drains. and runs down
to the bottom Of the shakt. The tunnels
drain an area OF several acres. The
CT nsistenoy of the oil 10 such that the
workmen shovel 1t 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 % the
top and the oil Is taken away immedi
ately to be refined. The methods Of
refining were OF the crudesb, but NJ. LIE
Bel obtained so 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 At their work
by lamps strapped TO their breasts.
There ia no gas with the Alsatian petro-
leum, such as our product always has
with IT, or thoso miners would have TO
find some other way to get at their oil.
IN. LIE Boil told me that 1t cost him
$4,000 to put down a single shaft-more
than three times as much As 1t costs to
drill a Pennsylvania we'll moro than
three times as desp. Tha Alsatian oil
Is sold by the pound. IN packages Of aoo
pounds They are called ktlos, and g
kilo was worth FROM SO to 80, AZ the then
market price. which is equal to from 81
TO IS a barrel. lie Bel had two wells In
operation when l was there, which were
yielding about Ia, 600 pounds of oil each
daily"