New-York tribune., 1901-08-04

includes the pressure from the pump and the
weight OF the column Of water When this tre-
mendous pressure OF water reaches the oil bearing
sand there be only result The water will
displace the oil The oil cannot rise 10 the surface,
because II has In the Beaumont field a pressure of
only seventy-hve pounds the square inch. II Is
plain that a pressure OF sevcnty-fve pounds can
not overcome IA pressure OF 500 pounds The oil
can do only one thing. 1t can flow back through
it's stratum OF sand porous rock 10 some other
place. The water then comes in and takes posses
sion Of the vacated by the oil. No oil comes
the surface OF the ground; the drill goes deeper
and the casing following the drill. shuts OF the
stratum oC oil forever. AS there is rarely more
than stratum Of oil in a place. the well is
drilled unu it is abandoned as dry hole
In Pennsylvania 1t is a crime to let water into the
oil bearing sand. The penalty is a hne oil Slo""' IN
the early days Of the Bradford heid water was let
into oil hearing sand. with the result that the
oil was forced 10 the remote borders of the district
Wells that should have been good producers were
abandoned a as dry Then the oil operators went TO
the PENNSYLVANIA legislature and secured the enact
ment of laws to protect the oil bearing sand
LUCKY LUCAS ACCIDENT
The Lucas well. Spindle Top, was begun with
the standard drilling outht used in Pennsylvania.
This system requires only enough water In the wei
to soften the mud and clay the heavy plunge
drill hammers its way into the earth. Even this
small quantity of water is baled out of the well
each time that the drill is withdrawn Thus the
we'll will be Galed dry many times IN course or
day If any oil exists In the bottom of the well IL
will be brought up in the baler The Lucas well
would have been finished with the standard tools
had the driIlers not encountered strata OF quick
sand that they did not know how to control The
standard outfit was discarded and the rotary rig
substituted. At a depth of about one thousand feet
an accident happened to the drilling apparatus The
casing was drawn from the WELL and the we'll was
baled out. The drill had just penetrated the oil
bearing sand and the oil waiting for the re-
moval of the pressure of water. When the point in
the baing reached where the pressure of
water less than the pressure of oil the oil
Sushed forth.
That the beginning of The most remarkable
oil excitement ever known in the United States
Even Pithole the fabulous less astonishing
tween 1865 and 1901 1t is not much TO say that
had it not been for the accident to the Lucas well
the Beaumont oil field. with It's gushers of unprece-
dented capacity would have remained undiscovered
That the oil operators realize this is shown by
the fact that wells in course of boring baled
more frequently than before. But this is poor
protection against the risks of letting water into
the oil bearing sand of drilling past the oil when
the machinery is working smoothly and the hole is
being sunk at the rate of foot a minute.
So long the rotary drill is working In clay or
sand ii makes rapid progress, Two hundred feet in
twenty-four hours is not unknown. When the drill
strikes rock however. its usefulness rapid ma
chine ceases Rotary machines working night and
day have been known to make more than