New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1915-08-18
that in case there is any trouble with the
well, the tubes can be drawn up. The
derricks are from IS to so feet high.
The Buyers Monopoly.

mere are TWO companies operating
wells there at the present time. The
Standard Oil Co. and the Honolulu Co.
The latter hasSits head offices and direc-
tors at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands.
These two companies are the only buyers
of oil there and if they don't care to buy
the oil of smaller company or an in
dividual owner, he can not sell his oil
anywhere. He must therefore agree to
their terms or keep his product.
I "The Honolulu Co. has well there at
, the present time that we saw, that runs
a steady stream of oil about three and
one half inches in diameter day and
night. They told us that it was worth
$1,000 day to the company.
another well is called the ''Lakeview
No. II. This we'll, when sunk, gushed
oil to height of from 500 to 600 feet.
It has produced, up to this time, $5,OOO,-
900 worth of oil and today it is being
pumped, and yields as much as any
! ordinary well does. There is also a
"Lakeview No. e. This we'll acted
very much like mo. /" and is also still
flowing
"The pumping is done with steam.
. There is a large beam connected to the
pumping rods and this is fastened to an
eccentric. The steam is carried through
pipes from some distance farther away
from the we'll. The fire danger is very
: great so the boilers are always some
distance from the pumps. In this way
one man can tend quite few wells at
one time. They do not need to fire the
boilers because they burn crude oil in
them.
There are times when an oil pump
! will "stick". In order to save time they
, Shoot them. In other words, they
dynamite them. We met a man that
does this for living. 1t seems to be a
very risky sort of business but he does
; not think so. He told us that sometimes
when they shoot a well, it gushes the
oil some distance into the air. It is
then re-piped and the pumping contin-
ues.
The Fire Danger.
| THE fire danger is very great. Many
thousands of dollars worth of oil has gone
up IN smoke on account of some careless
employee. In ease there is fire, they
I try to extinguish it by blasting at the
base of it. If this cannot be done, it
must be let alone until it has burned it.
self out sufficiently The smoke from
a fire of this nature is very black and
sitting.
From the wells the oil is run into
tanks. These tanks have uniform
capacity of $4,000 barrels. The Stan
dard Oil Co. has group of 20 such
tanks there. From these tanks it is
sent through pipes to San Francisco.
At intervals of 20 miles there are pumping
stations that force the oil on. The
entire length of the pipe line is something
over 200 miles. This method of con-
i veying the oil is much cheaper and more
convenient than by rail.
There is only one railroad running
through this district. It runs one
passenger and one freight a day. 1t
! takes in all the towns in the district and
consequently covers some of the same
ground twice by backing to the main
tracks again. We therefore took an
auto stage to Bakersfield and from there
we went to southern points.
"A trip like this into the oilfelds is
an education. 1t is more interesting
i to have guide, who has worked around
the wells, as he can furnish accurate in
formation. We were at Taft for about
; 80 hours and we feel that the trip was
we'll worth while
! DR.. Reineke made several interesting
observations on the use of oil in Cali