The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-30

nitro-glycerine in an oil we'll is hale
and hearty at seventy-two years OF
+ age He is Colonel William A. Myers,
! and his home is at Bolivar, N. Y. He
built the first factory in the United
States, near Titusville, Pa, in 1868. Up
TO that time powder had been used to
torpedo oil wells 1t was then that an
explosive could be discharged under
water was found in nitro glycerine.
Colonel Myers father was Philadel-
phia chemist and taught his son how to
! make it. The first well torpedoed was
| on Colonel Mills lease, near Titusville,
and the charge consisted of only two
pounds. Oil was worth nine dollars
barrel then, and torpedo that would
Gouble the production of a well was
worth almost what the maker chose to
ask for it. Colonel Myers built twelve
different factories in different parts of
the oil regions from 1868 to 1885, when
he retired from the business Only one
of the original factories stands intact
to-day. Myers made several fortunes
and spent his money like a prince, but,
fortunately for him, he still has snug
sum laid by.
Well shooters spin great yarns of
their experiences, and the stories are
of the hair raising order Well shoot
ers generally are fatalists to consid-
cradle degree in their belief, and it Is
probably on reason why they do not
fear the fluid. They state that when
one would think it was the most dan
gerous the explosive is the safest The
smallest drop can be placed on an an
vii and struck by the heaviest sledge-
hammer and the hammer will bound
back over the shoulder of the striker, no
matter how much he may try to hold it,
Some claim that it will tear the arm off,
but this is exaggeration. Transporting
the explosive from magazine to a
well Is not as dangerous as timid peo-
pie think, according to the shooters. 1t
is transported in square cans such as
are used for varnish. In preparing for
shooting a well long tin shell is sus-
pended in the tubing, and the shooter
pours the fluid in as If it was water. 1t
is not unusual for two hundred quarts
to be in we'll shooters wagon on one
trip. A slight leak In a can may be
touched off by friction and explode the
entire load If it should explode in the
center of a town every building would
be reduced instantly to debris.
Ever since the big explosion two miles
east of Montpelier people give the nitro
glycerine wagons and the magazines
wide berth. A big hole in the ground,
probably thirty feet in diameter and
fifteen feet deep in the centr, marks
tn place where the most disastrous nj
o-glycerine explosion of Indiana ever
occurred. George Hickok, who lost his
life there, was the oldest shooter in In
diana, and is said to have held the rec
ord for the best time in executing the
dangerous task. There Is no doubt that
he dropped the "go-devil' in more of
Indiana's famous oil wells than any
shooter ever in the field. Considering
the danger he encounters, the shooter is
poorly paid. The glycerine companies
pay him ten cents quart for doing the
work, which means he gets from nine to
sixteen dollars for every charge he
handles. Thousands of quarts of the
treacherous fluid are used every few
weeks in the old fields. If the wells
were not shot few in this section would
be worth the pumping, and the month
y report would show a big shrinkage in
All the big pools of the |
crude product seem to have been drilled
in, and it is necessary to give them "a |
shot to insuhe and increase their pro- |
luction- Indianapolis Journal.