The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-09-11
Spouting Oil Beyond Control.

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 McDan-
iels we're the drillers who died trying
to approach the well and shut off the
flow. The wells is 1000 feet deep
with an Sinch hole, and it was not
expected Sin" before Tuesday after
noon.
At 1l.15 Monday morning, " ithout
the slightest warning, while the men
were drilling, there was a terrific roar,
and water was shot out of the we'll,
followed by the oil, part of which
went straight up and a portion of
which was sprayed in every dircc-
ton. The men had barely time to
escape and left the rotary clamping
drilling pipe. This prevents the clos
ing of the valve and causes spray TO
shoot Off on every side. Five hun
drcd dollars reward was offered for
any one who would tear away the ro-
tary and let the oil go clear. In at
tempting to do this the two men died
and q dozen more were overcome,
some barely rcgaining life. Messages
were sent to Galveston and other
places for deep sea diving suits, in
which it 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
remembered 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 a
glance.
The article, Of which the following
are extracts, swas written by Edward
Russell Trehernc
The present method of boring we'll
is as follows: A derrick from 30 feet
to 70 feet in height is erected over
the spot where it is proposed to drill
the well, and iron casting, or pipe, is
driven down through the soil. In
side this the drill is operated, the
casting being pushed down as the
hole is heightened, succcssively small
ler pipe being used as greater depths
are reached, SO that 5000 foot we'll
may begin with 10-inch casting at
the surface, and end in q inch pipe
at the lowest Lowell Of course, the
piping is made strong enough to re-
sist considerable lateral pressure;
but, even so, in passing through
quicksands it is often ''pinked out, :"
or Collapsed. To avoid this in sink
ing the we'll that afterward became
the first great Beaumont "gusher,"
Captain Lucas arranged an internal
hydraulic pressure in the tube that
counterbalanced that without. The
cost of boring we'll varies with the
geological formation of the country;
but it seldom exceeds $4,000 for q
5000 foot we'll.
When the we'll has reached the oil
bearing stratum, which consists of po-
rous sand and rock, torpedo of from
one to 25 gallons of nitro-glycerine is
carefully lowered to the bottom and
discharged by dropping an iron weight
or '90 devil on it.
The resulting explosion is felt at
the surface only as slight trembling;
but in the depths it's effect is sudden
ly to drive away the oil and create a
chamber in the sand or rock, into
which ;he oil soon flows back, impelled
by its own gasses. 1t 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 tona, was blown a distance Of
800 feet into the air, where it buck
led and came down in shapeless
mass. The oil seyser then quieted
down into steady flow, leaving the
surface in solid column six inches
in diameter and rising to height Of
$50 feet, whence it fell in spray
that deluged the surrounding country.
1t has been estimated that the oil
came out of that hole at the rate of
O,00O barrels day, and It was six
dnvs hefOro tho hou oo,,lJ ho o,.,