The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1895-09-26


Johnny. He was one of the mush-
rooms of unstable growth who
sprung up in night, startled the
world with his amazingly extrava-
giant manners and then extinguished
himself with one faint flicker, as we
sometimes see brilliant star pluck
ell from the heavens, It's light lost
in the Hood tide of greater planets.
Coal oil Johuny, thirty years ago
was a real living fact in osse. To
lay he il memory. Re was the
first, feeble pre- cursor of CONNER
cial and financial storm which was
10 hurl into existence the greatest
and most powerful corporation on
on the face of the earth, namely the
Standard Oil Company.
If you start on the map OF Penn
sylvauia and trace line from the
northeastern corner OF MKean
county, diagonally across the State
down to the West Virginia border,
you describe between that and the
Ohio State line on the west, and the
New York boundary on the north,
the territory in Pennsylvania, known
as the oil district, comprising about
twenty counties. Until the Stand
ard Oil Company invaded France
and Russia, this territory furnished
the oil for the world and started
many millions of capital into the
track of commerce. In the Brad
ford district alone, over fourteen
thousand wells have been dug with
in the past ten years at an average
depth of twenty-five hundred feet
representing yield of about ten
barrels per well per day the first
year of their flow and now flowing
two or three barrels per day.
This district is known as "tor-
pedo" territory, that is explosives
of the most terrific character must
be employed to dislodge the oil
from its rocky caverns even after
being found by the industrious and
persistent driller. saw well shot
recently in the heart of a hemlock
forest, at depth of twenty-hundred
feet. One hundred quarts OF nitro
glycerine, the most powerful explo.
sive known, were carefully poured
down to the bottom of the well and
in the language of one of the wild,
rough oil men, when the exploding
cap was dropped by n modest and
composed young lady present
there was living hell' at the bot
tom of that well, half mile beneath
the surface of the earth. The deton
alton could be distinctly heard
and the earth trenibled while the
oil, set free, came rushing out q,
the top like great, gurgling foun
tain and shot over hundred fee,
into the air. Nature accompanies
the discovery Of oil with gas, which
latter agent drives the fluid out oi
the earth and when it fails to do sc
wep pump it out. Oil is not found
in Streams or in strata like coal, iror
and the minerals. No man has ever
been to the bottom OF an oil well
but quarter of a century of daily
experience, with all possible infor
nation and knowledge, which
. science and hard work have brough,
to bear upon the problem, have as
conclusively as these means car
establish anything. proven that oil is
confined in irregular belts between
casing, or it is found in huge OBJ
long shaped rock formations, re,
sembling eggs. When the dri!lei
pierces the rocky covering he has
been successful, while expert OF
hunters say you might as we'll dis
in China for it, if you send the drill
to the bottom aud miss the cavern
Oil is seldom found at q depth less
than twenty-five hundred feet, bu
there is specimen secured at six OF
seven hundred feet less although il
is of spurious character, unfit foi
illuminating purposes. The average
annual product OF it has steadily in
creased since first discovered ant
wells are to day being put down il
active oil districts, ut the rate OF tiv,
, hundred per month, and this rate o
drilling has been steadily MAINTAIN
ed during ten years past, says Super
intondent Charles L. Goodwin,
practical oil man of MKean county
The amount of capital invested il
J the oil business in Pennsylvania il
almost beyond rational belief, bu
two years ago the bureau Of in
dustrial statistics at Harrisburg col
lated, under the supervision of tn,
State Statistician, facts concerning
the production Of oil, iron, gas ant
! timber in our State, and the returns
exhibit an array of figures almos
incredible.
Mr.. Goodwin has told me that on,
enterprise alone in which he is con
cerned has invested the sum o
1870, 0000 90 in getting the enterpris
into u productive condition. Thi
, field now has eighty three wells il
operation, but the sum invested