The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-25

first.
 BOILERS, PUMPS AND TANKS FAILED
 The third attempt was made with twen- ty boilers throwing steam and water four rotary pumps throwing water, two -J- barrel tanks with four-inch steam jetted lines and two pumps throwing fire foam.
 With the preparation for the fourth at tempt completed there were twenty-tsfe three-inch lines and nine four-inch lines into the fire crater Twenty boilers and
 eleven rotary pumps ready ot throw steam, water, mud and carbon tetrach- lorde This attempt, along with the fifth attempt to extnguish the fire was
 failure.
 Officials of the company brought arttl- lery officers from the western depart ment. United States army. who consid- cred bombarding the well with field how itzers, but who reported that portable ar tillery was too small in calibre to ac- ccmplish the task.
 Thus through the fatiguing efforts of nine days and nights in which time the company expended nearly half million dollars they arrived at the point where aE effort seemed in vain, and had reached the end of their resources. EXPLOSIVE SUSPENDED ON CABLE
 The company now considered the idea advanced by Ford Alexander of conquer
 ing the fire by explosives MT Alexander
 had been engaged in oil-well blasting in California fields for the Giant Powder Company His idea was to suspend package of blasting gelatin upon cables, ia such a manner that the package corsid be safely brought to the edge of &e fire at distance of about forty feet above the ground.
 Two derricks approximately forty feet high hfIilf nf O burning we'll and so far away that the heat would not destroy them. A nine Ixteenths steel cable was attached to the top of one of them, then laid around the well outside of the terrific heat zone. to the other derrick where it was run through a pulley at the top and the end attached to the drum of a small winding CT zine underneath The explosives. bound in one package and covered with | eavy sheetilgs of asbestos, were secvre- fly attached ta this cable at the same distance away from the first derrick as the burning we'll was. The explosives,
 before being made up into this package, had been primed electrically. When this was done, the engine under the second derrick began drawing the cable taut, which pulled the explosives toward the well and at the same time hoisted them. When they had reached the proper spot, ttey were exploded electrically. tT- is unnecessary to state that this had to be done very quickly so as to bring the ex- plosive charge to the necessary point before they were ignited or exploded by the heat from the burning we'll With a stream of water from a thre- inch hose playing upon him, and upon the protecting screen behind which he was working and upon the ground ovtr which he was advancing, MT. Alexander worked forward with the explosive pack 9 Q 10 Of hot ttaf package was in the position he wanted | it at the moment of explosion.
 EXTINGUISHES FLAMES As the package drew near the column | Of gushing fire the suction of rushing air drew it to the flame, and as it reached l the outer edge of the fire, MT. Alexander 1 exploded the package. At the moment he exploded it he was within 200 feet of che lexplosion, but states that he neither heard nor felt anything.
 Eye witnesses at greater distance state that when the package exploded the gas well fire was divided into thre zee tens The section at the point of ex- plosion was moved bodily away from tse column of gas in horizontal directS0i, the upper section was blown upward ana beyond danger of reignition of the gas column, while the lower section was snuffed out very much as a candle IS snuffed out. the flow of gas beingF lem porarily checked.
 To get an idea of the enormous amount of gas flowing from this well one has but to note that the entire city of San Franciscod consumes but 2, ,000000 cu1ic feet of gas each day, and that this well
 alone would supply more than enough gas for eight cities the same size The Standard Oil Company expendee nearly half million dollars in vain at tempts to extinguish the fire and had arr rived at the end of it's resources in gas
 well fire fighting. Army artillery officers
 were called upon but could advance no
 plan to snuff out this colossal blaze.
 Then explosives come to the aid of men
 displacing old ideas and methods with
 new ones that are more economical. In
 the future, gas well fires, oil well Nes
 and oil reservoir fires will be extinguished
 with explosives at a small comparative ycost to what has heretofore been ex-
 pended.