The Cordova daily times., 1921-03-16
OIL PIPELINES ARE REGARDED
 AS ESSENTIAL

heath the oil fields of the United States, gigantic labyrinth of pipe lines 5O,OOO miles long, daily is doing work that would require 100000 oil tank cars and 5000 locomotives fuIIv one month to handle according to estimates of pipeline transportation | experts.
 1 Practically every barrel of oil taken from the nations 25S, 500 active wells today is shot through these pipelines and in this way reaches the oil re. fineries and subsequently the oil mar | kets, week and sometimes nontbs sooner than if shipped by railroads,
 The rapid movement through the pipes, compared with rail transporta tlon, is due to the fact that the flow through the underground system is not stopped at any point until it reaches it's destination in the re- liners tanks, whereas the tank car. attached to the freight train, must wait for block signals, must change crews at division points and finally, at it's destination must await it's turn in the dissembIing of the train. Consequently the oil pipe lines svs tenn of the country has now come to be regarded as essential to the ever increasing rate of oil production as the we'll driller himself.
 The history of pipe line transporta tion goes back to Civil war days and has its setting in the pioneer oil fields of Pennsylvania when produc- tion began to outstrip transportation facilities.
 This gave birth to the first pine line system. In 1861 Herman James of Erie, Pa. conceived a four-inch wooden pipe line from the Tarr farm to Oil City, Pa, but never carried it out. Then in 1862, a bill to aid pipe line construction was introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature but 1t was beaten by teamsters' lobby
 In 1862 J. L. Hutchings, a New Jer- sey operator, constructed two-inch line from the Tarr farm to Humbolt, Pa. But the teamsters destroyed the line, tearing up huge strips of it. He tried again in 1863 but again the line was destroyed.
 But in 1865, with the aid of the state police, Henry Harley success fully resisted the teamsters and oper- ated the first successful line of two inch piping, handling from six to eight barrels a day from Benninghoff Run to Shaffer, Pa.
 Then, the network of lines that still operate today in Pennsylvania, spread with such speed that soon the supply of lines exceeded the demand Several lines, as result, operated at a loss for years.
 The new southern field in Okla hOma and contiguous states were equipped almost from the start with the new oil transporting system.
 The southern field is now a verit- able labyrinth of lines. trunk systems extending north to Illinois refineries and southward to the Gulf coast sta tions. The fields proper are honey combed with the smaller, feeder pipes, connecting and feeding the trunk systems. A new well usually means new pipeline.
 A flow through this system is incessant but when there is a demand for different grade of oil, there is injected into the same system a hedder, or slug of water perhaps three feet long and this hedder separ- ates the different grades. Then an other hedder is injected and follow ing this is the original grade of oil, continuing it's flow.
 Frequently bullet-like "go-deviI' is pumped through the piping in the midst of the flow The revolving knives at the end of this proiectile fit the pipe snugly, cutting from the walls as it proceeds an accumulated sediment which would soon plug the pipe if left alone
 The oil helped along it's course at intervals by secondary pumping en- zines.
 In some places the pipes are ex- posed to view, running along rail- road right-of-ways, but more frequent ly they are buried about three feet in the earth to protect them from weather and accident The lines ire quently follow the railroad racks, be- cause it is simpler to contract a right-of-way with one railroad com pany than with score of individual property owners.
 It is estimated that the system transports total of 5O0OOO barrels of oil daily