The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-12-19

den for the back of the husky tool
 dresser; but great massive tools thst
 require to be handled by power cranes; no longer the 20 feet of hole shift of 12 hours, but 120 feet in the
 same time; no longer the 697a foot
 hole but an average, in Pennsylva-
 mia, of 1900 feet.
 Here, for example, Is a brief his
 tory of Bradford Oil Coompany's No. 46. The first 40 feet were put down
 Is inches in diameter through loose earth, mud and soft. slate: and a wooden box or tube, called the "con- ductOr box,'' was inserted to the bot tom, to keep back the foreign mat ter from the hole. This first hole is
 called the spudding hole, because
 drilled by what is called the "spud-
 ding" process.
 At the bottom of the spudding hole
 hole SA inches in diameter, called
 the big hole, was started and con-
 ttnued through all the water -produc-
 ing soils and rocks to a depth of $50
 feet. Here the well was cased with
 iron pipe 5-8 inches in diameter, set
 firmly on the bottom and reaching clear to the surface.
 At the bottom of the big hole
 another hole GA inches in diameter
 was started and sunk to the bottom
 of the oiI-bearing strata. The oil
 sand of this particular well was 75
 feet thick, of a rich brown color, very
 soft and fine, and highly productive
 of oil and gas.
 The drilling of an oil well is a, mans
 job; it is no job for a seller of hair
 ribbons and perfumery. The old
 style method of drilling was by use
 of a steam engine; and these are even yet largely used, though some prefer the gas engine because it stands the strain better. The heavy tools are laboriousIy lifted to a generous height and then suddenly dropped back into the hole. Between lifts the engine speed is greatly accelerated because 1t has nothing to do. Therefore the engine room of a drilling rig is an ex- citing place.
 Shooting the well is no ladies' job either. The old-time oil well shooter travelled at night in a buggy, carry- ing with him enough nitroglycerine to shoot his next well. If the horse ran away or if he struck a rough spot in the road, they filled in the spot the next day and sent another man the | No. 46 was shot. they touched off 100 quarts of n4tro-glycerine in the oil bearing strata at one time. Nobody has ever been down a hole to see just what happens under such circum- stances, but the effect seems to be to loosen up things somewhat and start the oil to flowing, if there Is any to flow.
 After the well is shot, tubing two inches in diameter, properly equipped with working barrep' and standing | yalve' at the bottom, is inserted to the bottom of the hole. How would you go about it to put an iron pipe l 2 third of a mile long down a much | larger iron pipe? Would you first screw the pipe together on the ground md then lift it up and drop it into i the hole? If you tried that plan would you not be afraid it would bend 3 little before you got it straight up in the air?
 Or would you just hold the pipe down the well with one hand and screw in the lengths one after another with the other hand, gradually letting down the pipe until you struck bot tom? But suppose you got tired and dropped Q few lengths or a quarter of a mile of pipe down the well? How would you get it again? Well! You can let the oil man worry about that. He knows how to do 1t, and without losing any of his precious oil, or even any of his precious gas. But it is no job for one of the weak sisters.
 After he has his tube down the well the oil man puts in his rod, equipped with another sort of valve, and this, too, has to reach all the way from the top to the bottom of the well. Then he is ready to pump. This rod is called the sucker rod. By means of surface rods any number Of sucker rods can be operated from a single power house conveniently To- cated with reference to the group. Comp pressed air is also much used for pumping, and has some advantages over the other method.
 The average price of Pennsylvania crude petroleum has been about $2.5O; now It stands at S4.25 per barrel, with small probability of a decline. The average production per well is to- lay approximately half a barrel per | lay. A small operator with 20 pro- lucing wells has a very comfortable ncome, while one with 50 wells has 4iC 1O CrlINe1t4O+l lO4 S1 lOL LtA44Ss A ;usher may make a millionaire over light, but Pennsylvania has probably lad it's last great gusher.
 The first place where petroleum is mentioned in the Bible is in the ac- ount of the construction of the Tower of Babel. There the partially xa porated fluid is referred to as slime T
 And they had bricks for stone, md slime had they for mortar" Genesis 11:3). The first battle of istory occurred amid the slime it's" the ot1-bearing strata at the cad of the Dead Sea. "The vale of tddim was full of slime-pits; and le kings of Sodom ans. GomorraI7 led, and fell there.''-Genesis 14:1O.
 Curiously enough, bricks cemented ogether with dried petroleum have cen found in large quantities in Jineveh and Babylon, and the oil de- osits in the valley of the Dead Sea re now being developed. It was nese oil-bearing and sulphur-in- regnated shaIes that supplied the birthstone and fire" which destroyed odom and Com morrah. Genesis 9:24). We are glad to have the rophetic assurance that those people f Sodom, destroyed so many years go, shall yet return to their former E tate Ezekiel 16:55 on the b.,r-