Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-08-31
sPoUTING OIL BEYOND CONTROL.
Beaumont Gusher Kills Two Men
and Endangers a Town.

Beaumont Gusher Kills Two Men
and Endangers a Town.
The famous gushers Of the Beau
mont oil field claimed the lives Of two
men last Monday, and one Of the larg-
est wells in the world Is going wild,
utterly beyond control, and Is spread
ing oil over the prairies by the thou
! sands Of barrels.
James B. Smith and John McDaniels
were the drillers who died trying to
approach the we'll and shut off the flow.
The we'll Is 1000 feet deep with an
8-inch hole, and it was not expected
''in' before Tuesday afternoon.
At Ills Monday morning, without
the slightest warning, while the men
were drilling, there was a terrific roar,
and water was shot out Of the well,
straight up and a portion Of which was
sprayed in every direction. The men
had barely time to escape and left the
rotary-clamping drilling pipe. This
prevents the closing of the valve and
causes a spray to shoot off on every
side. Five hundred dollars reward was
offered for any one who would tear
away the rotary and let the oil go
clear. In attempting to do this the two
men died and a dozen more were over
come, some barely regaining life. Mes
sages were sent to Galveston and 9TH
er places for deep sea diving suits, in
which 1t is proposed to invade and
close the valve. Should the oil take
fire by any means the consequences
would be awful.
The following, taken from the July
Cosmopolitan, will give the layman
some idea Of the greatness Of one Of
the Texas oil gushers. When it is re-
membered that one Texas "gusher"
spouts more oil than all the wells in
the Pennsylvania oil fields, the great
ness of this accident will be seen at q
glance.
The article, Of which the following
are extracts, was written by Edward
| Russell Treherne:
The present method of boring a we'll
Is as follows: A derrick from 30 feet
to 70 feet in height is erected over the
spot where 1t Is proposed to drill the
well, and iron casting, or pipe, is driven
down through the soil. Inside this the
drill Is operated, the casing being
pushed down as the hole Is heightened,
successfully smaller pipe being used as
greater depths are reached, so that a
5000 foot we'll may begin with 10-inch
| casing at the surface, and end In a
2a-inch pipe at the lowest level. OF
course. the piping is made strong
enough to resist a considerable lateral
pressure; but, even so, in passing
through quicksands 1t is often pinch
ed out" or collapsed. To avoid this in
sinking the well that afterward became
the first great Beaumont H"eusher,"
Captain JI,.eas arranged an internal
hydraulic pressure in the tube that
counterbalanced that without. The
cost of boring a we'll varies with the
geological formation Of the country;
but 1t seldom exceeds $1,000 for 5000
foot well.
When the well has reached the OIL
bearing stratum. which consists Of po-
rous sand and rock, a torpedo Of from
one to rs gallons Of nitro-glycerine is
carefully lowered to the bottom and
discharged by dropping an iron weight
or "90 devil" on 1t.
The resulting explosion Is felt at the
surface only as a slight trembling; but
In the depths its effect Is suddenly to
drive away the oil and create cham
ber in the sand or rock, into which the
oil soon flows back, impelled by its
own gases. It is then forced up the
well-hole to the surface. When the
Lucas we'll was Struck" the flow came
with such violence that the derrick
was demolished and 600 feet Of 4-inch
iron pipe, weighing upward Of six tons.
was blown a distance Of 300 feet into
the air, where It buckled and came
down in shapeless mass. The oil gey-
ser then quieted down into a steady
flow, leaving the surface in solid col
umn six inches in diameter and rising
to a height Of $50 feet. whence 1t fell
in q spray that deluged the surround
ing country. It has been estimated
that the oil came out Of that hole at
the rate Of $4,000 barrels a day, and 1t
was six days before the flow could be
even partially controlled, and three
more before the we'll was capped and
the flow stopped. In those nine days,
hundreds of thousands Of barrels Of oil
flowed over the surrounding country,
forming little lake in a neighboring
depression.
Sometimes the oil in these tanks at
the wells, at the refineries or along the
intermediate pipe lines catches fire,
when a magnificent, If costly, spectacle
is presented. The greatest conf1agra-
tion Of the kind took place on July S,
1900, when one Of the big field Of tanks
at Bayonne, New Jersey. was struck by
| lightning. Instantly there was a great
binding flash, terrific explosion, and
vast sheet Of flames roared to tow
ering height in the blackness of the
midnight sky. The reflected light
could be seen all night for miles, and
by day 1t darkened the heavens with
great swirling. gyrating clouds Of inky
smoke. In spite Of every effort, moth
ing could be done except to conf1ne the
/ fire to the tanks, and it was allowed to
burn itself out, a process which con-
sumed the better part of five days.
| 8B Saws an Athens, Ala, dispatch: