The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-08-29

less per cent discount for cash.
| Two sizes of casing are used in lining
oil wells in the west. One is AS inches
in diameter and the other 81 inches.
One costs IS cents foot and the other
81 cents, free on board the cars at
Chanute or Independence, with a dis
count of 2 per cent for cash within 80
days. Mr.. Harrington has used both
He will line his No. 8 well with Ga
| casing, because he was 1T on hand. but
| hereafter he will use 49, He says the
smaller size pumps more easily, because
/ il fills with oil more deeply. The adj
vantage of the larger size is that II a
| leak occurs the smaller size can be
dropped in and the larger casing pulled
out. That danger, however, is so Re-
| mote that Mr.. Harrington will take the
chance and hereafter use the smaller
size. The difference in the expense of
the two wells is the ID cents a foot
in the price of the casing, which for one
of his wells is $16 or SIT. The dry cas-
ing used is 81 inches in diameter, which
costs 81 cents foot with the usual dis
count of 2 per cent for cash. He uses
from 20 to 40 feet in a well, according
to the formation of the ground.
The Harrington power plant consists
of a brick shelter 20 by 40 feet, in which
are installed a gas engine and a shackle
power, both set upon cement bases and
in a cement floor. There is also base
and counter shafting for a steam en-
CINE to be purchased later for use
should the gas engine break down. The
gas engine cost $301.50 at Chanute and
the power $3.50. The power will pump
% wells. 1t is now pumping eight wells
for the firm and one for a neighbor.
The latter is more than a quarter of a
mile away. The others are within that
distance. The shackle rods. reaching
from the plant to the wells, cost 412
cents a foot at Independence. The
Jacks" and suction rods cost 1913 for
each well. In addition, the property is
supplied with 120 horse power boiler.
which furnishes steam for pushing oil
Inc inc
S425 at Chanute. The Standard allows
a cent a barrel for the use of the steam.
The harrington property is provided
with q ''puller" which cost $500. This
machine takes the place of a derrick
and is employed to pull the suction rods
when it becomes necessary to replace
the cups. 1t also pulls the tubing. A
man and a boy and a team of horses
the use of this machine in two hours
By its use the necessity of a derrick
for each well is obviated. A derrick
costs $40 and besides the interest on the
investment thereby added to the cost of
producing the oil. it is apt to blow
down. The "puller" is not in common
use. but the economy of it is so plain
that it soon will be.
Mr.. Harrington uses wooden tanks for
oil storage. instead of galvanized iron. He
has four under one roof and they cost $1iO
apiece BY the use of wooden tanks the
oil does not evaporate freely and sand
does not cut them out and cause them to
leak His tanks hold $50 barrels each. On
top of the tank shed is gas trap which
catches the gas that comes from the sew
located near the plant The land supplies
all the gas necessary for night illumina-
ing steam for the drilling rig and the
Standards pipe line pump.
feet deep. The oil sand is from forty to
eighty feet thick. In each well is from
feet The SeO average cost per Wen of drilling
and cleaning eight wells has been sS6S. Is.
The average runs up 0 on fo aec9nnt, OF o 5ne
well. Mr. Harrington estimates the cost
of drilling and cleaning No and equip
F Pn II and %i'n LACKS viii be :7oS The entire
cost of the plant and eight wells, includ-
5 SIS the TO SaS TINS i he ADDS SOC for No 8
and the whole expense to date. not count
t ms ' is about 500 for railroad freight
The bower plans, which includes the
shackle power and the extra cement base
and counter shafting, t for the proposes
extra base and counter shafting the cost
of the plant would be less than $500
oil into the pfp e line June a. and to date
it has run 4624 barrels, worth at market
that the property will pay out in the next
six months. The monthly expense OF OPP
Mr.. Farrington's time. The only man en-
ployed regularly, besides Mr.. harrington,
is Superintendent BlauVelt. VINO receives
800 a month. The other $50 goes to pay
the cost of pulling and to buy needed
supplies for the plant. When he drills IN
his ninth well Mr.. Harrington will sus-
pend development and wait for property
TO paw out He estimates that the nine
wells will produce nearly 100 barrels
day. g. -,
last February local boomers in Cherry
vale heralded it as a 1000 barrel Wcll.
Really. that well is one of the highest
producers on the harrington ground, and
ALWAYS has been. The best well on the
ground pumps about twenty-five barrels |
a day, and the average of the eight is less
than ten barrels Really, ten barrels a |
iay is a fine we'll and to prove 1t men VINO |
have been carried away by extrava CANT |
newspaper reports of the big oil wells
have only to take pencil and paper ana
5clIre out what ten barrels a day at |
sighty-eight cents a barrel, or even sixty
eight cents, will do in a year for prop |
hat by sixteen wells to a forty-acre tract |
and so on. and the production soon runs |