The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-18
By HOLLAND

New York, June IT,. Special )- When the Calumet and Hecla Copper Mining company discovered that as they went nearer to the center of the earth, they found richer veins of cop per- they did not hesitate to excavate until they reached nearly a mile beneath the surface. Some of the mines of the far west have burrowed approximately a mile beneath the | surface seeking richer and richer veins of ore. But 1t has remained for a elf-taught expert to drill an oil well already reaching three thousand l feet below the surface and to be con | tinued until at least b,o0O rect nave | been drilled.
 The oil industry all over the world will be greatly interested in this ex- | ploit- The drilling Is close to the | banks of the Rio Grande river. about l 20 miles below Brownsville, Tex. IL 1 Is A. great drill not only with respect l to the depth 1t has already reached | but also in it's diameter, which is "A | inches. What there was in the sur | face or in the revelations, which were made few feet below the surface, l which led Niels Esperson of Houston l to undertake to drill the deepest well l or at least one of the deepest in that | almost forsaken country, he only | knows. Yet the oil people have faith l in him, because in the past he has | succeeded. It used to be said that | in some of the Indian tribes, so-called m edicine men by instinct or intui- 1 tion were able to point a spot | beneath which pure water could be | found. MT. Esperson seems to have | that faculty with respect to oil. | While he does not disdain reports made by the professional oil geolo- l gists. nevertheless he acts upon his | own judgment. The geologists saw | nothing in the humble field of Texas, after the early pools were exhausted which justified them in reporting in | favor of deeper drilling.
 l MT Esperson. either by instinct or intuition, caused drill to penetrate | to the deep oil sand which underlies the humble field and that to at a time when 1t was presumed that the | field had been exhausted.
 l He did not build wiser than he | knew for he had perfect faith in the outcome if the drill went deep enough. The well which he drilled | into that deep oil sand flowed at the
 rate of ,000 barrels a day, and MT. Esperson received $5,0o0,000 for his interest in the well.
 The Deep oil Sands
 He has always had faith that in the deep sands which stretch onward from the gulf coast of Texas there remain to be exploited a vast amount
 of oil. His methods have been adopted by some of the oil industries in that r.. fnr dcA fN oil sand was penetrated the we'll l gushed at the rate of 25,0o0 barrels a day. vt did net maintain that rate. but continued for some time to yield | 10, 900 barrels a day.
 MT. Esperson purposes continuing the drill in the well near Browns
 vile, until at least 5000 feet beneath
 the surface have been reached, He
 has confidence that not more than
 5000 feet of drilling is necessary be-
 fore he strikes a gusher which will equal some of the largest Mexican .gushers. There of course Is always
 the danger that water will ultimately
 find it's way into the wells which are
 drilled near the coast. But before the
 water comes vast amounts of oil will
 be yielded by the wells. The oil pro-
 ducing industry in that vicinity has led to plan for the construction of deep water fort nea4 the mouth of
 the Rio Grande river.
 A Great Rccordd
 The oil industry in the past year
 has made some records which will
 become traditional. One of them Is
 furnish ed by well, which is near
 Breckenridge in Texas This well be-
 gan to yield in May of last year. It's |, yield did not compare in amount with ,that reported from other wells, but it
 had this advantage over others in
 that it's average yield was kept up
 day after day. The yield came at the
 time when oil was commanding $3.50
 barrel. Therefore in the 12 months
 this one well gave forth oil. which yielded the owners about $4000,0
 This Is sometimes spoken of as a rec
 ord not surpassed by any other well
 ever drilled in the United States in the aggregate amount of money received
 from it's production
 i, Producers of Cotton and Makers Oi Cotton Fabrics
 George Westinghouse some 15 years ago spoke to the members of } the Southern Business Congress at their annual gatherin~. = Atssnra- He