The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-08
K. C. OIL REFINERY.
A Four Million Dollar Plant in a
Corn Field.

Kansas CITY, OCT o.-Ine STANDARD
Oil company's big refinery at Sugar
Creek is ready to receive oil.
There has been an intense RI
valry between the 1000 men en-
ployed on the refinery at Sugar
Creek and the four big gangs of men
on the 116 miles of pipe line which
connects the refinery with the Kansas
and Indian territory oil fields. The
actual construction of the pipe line
was finished last week, but the Issue
was whether the pipe line would bring
oil to Sugar Creek before the refinery
was ready to receive it? The refinery
is ready to take oil and the pipe line
has not yet been tested This test
is being made now
Arrangements were completed Sat
urday to test the pipe line with water.
A temporary pump of 400 barrels an
hour capacity was erected at the
Standard tank farm south of Hum
boldt. A supply of water was secured
by damning coal creek. The pump
was started Monday but yesterday af
ternoon the water had not reached
the Sugar Creek refinery. 1t was esti-
mated that it would take ninety-six
hours continuous pumping to fill the
eight-inch pipe extending from Hum
boldt to Sugar Creek.
1t was stated at the Sugar Greek
refinery yesterday that oil could be re-
cievd and that matters had progressed
SO far that some of the products of
the crude oil could be manufacture
The tandard Oil officials are reticent
concerning many features of the re-
flnery and nothing could be obtained
as to just what the refinery was ready
to manufacture beyond a statement
that a number of the products could
now be made. There are more than
sixty products manufactured from
crude oil and the machinery for MAX
ing all of these products has not been
installed.
The building Of the Standard Oil re-
hnery and the connecting pipeline is a
remarkable example of the Rockefeller
methods. March ., 1904, the deal was
closed for the purchase of the land on
which the refinery has since been built
The next day men were clearing the
tract of corn stalks. A few days later
the big steel tanks and. the stills that
had been assembled at Whiting, Ind,
had been shipped to Kansas City. The
Rockefeller buyers contracted in Kan
Der. many cars of cement and crushed
rock, bought a right of way and built
a railroad to connect with the old indie
pendence air line. The sound of ham
mers on the big steel tanks disturbed
the rural quiet of Sugar Creek valley
before the men who sold their ground
realized that a, million dollar refinery
was to be built on the ground that they
had sold to men who said they were
going to raise garden truck for the
Kansas City markets.
In less than seven months the corn
field had been transformed into a re-
of Kansas and the Indian Territory.
The parts of the plant that have been
finished include:
Steel receiving tanks.
Fifty-five steel storage tanks.
Waterworks plant
Mechanical shops.
Chemical works.
Stillhouses.
Power house.
Oil pump house.
Acid works.
Connecting pipe system underground
and overhead.
The refinery, which will begin active
operations when the oil reaches it from
the Kansas oil fields, can scarcely be
called a, single industry, so vast is its
scope. When finally completed it will
make sixty products from crude oil. 1t
will employ LOO men, use 1914 million
gallons of water daily and burn a
thousand tons of coal a month. 1t
will handle all of the oil from the Kan
sas Indian Territory and Oklahoma
fields, and from this center will be dis
the products to the west and
the southwest.
The pipe test will be finished in a day
or two. Then the big pump with a ca
pacity of 10000 barrels a day will be-
gin pumping the oil to Kansas City.