Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-03

pany was formed to dig big, square hole
In the ground at Tid1oute, and Mr.. Nc
Cutcheon was also employed to work on
this. The south side of the river, opposite
the town, was selected as the best point to
lead the riches of the earth out to the sur
face and appropriate them to the use of the
New York company. So at this point the
shaft was begun. As Mr.. McCutcheon
remembers it. the hole was 12x8 feet. They
dug down with pick and shovel, blasting
through the rocks. and drew the diggings
out with tub and windlass 1t was not
particularly hard digging. and the work
went along quite rapidly. 1t was not
thought at all difficult undertaking to dig
down to the third-sand rock at that place,
and the company was very sanguine of
realizing speedy and vast fortune-taking
the juice right out of the orange, as it were,
and leaving the pulp and hole for those who
were content to puncture it with a pin.
A Big TunnelIng scheme.
The intention of the company was to dig
down to the oil rock and then tunnel into it
in all directions, if necessary, to find the
lake Of oil. The company was not mistaken
in their calculations as to finding thelthird
sand. They did dig down to it, finding it
about the same depth as the Tarentum
weIl-165 feet Much oil was found, and
several holes were drilled at different angles
into the rock as tests for oil before beginning
to tunnel with pick and shovel, There was
enough gas in the shaft to make it danger
Gus for the laborers, and an air blast was
put up, by means of which fresh air was
constantly pumped into the hole. Each
crew worked a few hours, in day time only,
and were relieved by another crew. The
shaft was curbed with plank and was very
ifoh MI nf . fba
great depth it had been carried down.
Before the tunneling into the oil rock was
begun the tragedy occurred which put
stop to all further work. One day the men
were sitting around the mouth of the we'll,
about to 20 to work. A man by the name
of Hart who was foreman, was standing on
q plank across the top Of the shaft, and as a
precautionary measure before sending down
the men dropped lighted taper into the
hole. Instantly there was a terrific e1-
plosion of gas in the shaft. The men were
hurled violently back by the shock, and
Hart and the plank upon which he was
standing were lifted into the air. Strange
enough, Hart fell back into the shaft and
his dead and mangled body was fshed out
of it.
The Work on the Shaft Abandoned.
Gas explosions were little known in those
days, and the fatality accompanying this
one created great excitement throughout
that section. ALI the machinery about the
mouth of the shaft was wrecked and the
men were more or less injured by the shock.
Mr.. McCutcheon had an arm dislocated and
q piece Of flying plank laid open his scalp.
Hundreds OF persons visited the scene, and
there seemed to be a universal sentiment
against continuing the work. The excite
ment was intense. and did not subside until
Hart's body was taken out. The company
did not care to risk another explosion, and
although they had succeeded in getting the
shaft to point where they expected resli-
sation of their hopes the work was abandoned
and never again resumed.
Among the early follies of the petroleum
industry the oil shaft stands pre-eminent.
The manifest impossibility of working them
with the large quantity OF gas which would
necessarily be found with the oil should
have caused the projectors to hesitate before
beginning them. The idea of sinking q
shaft was born of the selfish spirit which
wishes to hog the whole persimmon. Itwas
reasoned that if hole few inches in diam
eter would yield q fortune in . short time,
then q whole ten feet square would simply
mean wealth without limit. Il was not
suspected then that the size of the puncture
was Of mighty small Importance alongside
the location of the puncture.