Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1939-06-01

patents in 26 countries.
This McConnelsville oil well is a
further adaptation of the same prin-
ciple.
From time immemorial oil has
seeped from the rock cliffs along
Tavener Run. Only thought can es-
innate the millions of barrels that
have trickled down the little creek
and away into the Muskingum. Once
the Indians gathered it as Senaca
oil.
From about 1870, the ground just
back of the seeping out-crop had
been drilled on every two acres. 1t
was a famous, highly productive,
early Cow Run field. But the old
wells gradually became exhausted.
They were treated with vacuum and
other pressure processes, but by
1890 all the wells, save one, on this
141 acres had declined to one-tenth
of barrel day and had been aban-
doned.
H. H. Coupler, an old time driller
and oil scout, knew of this local for
nation, had read of Ranney's work
and thought his horizontal drilling
might be effective in bringing back
this production.
Ranney came, looked the site
over, and they started the new we'll
in the fall of '37.
It's drilling is another long story
of encountering unforeseen technical
difficulties and overcoming them.
Three entirely new tools have been
developed and patented. Each is
story in itself-but far too technical
for most of us.
Ranney contends he can now con.
troll the direction of his diamond
drilling bit, swerving it either up or
down thousand feet inside the
rock And he has a device for MAX
ing an instantaneous and automatic
survey" at any point in the hole.
Entirely new methods of cleaning
the well had to be developed and so
on and so on.
Oil experts from all over the coun-
try gathered for the spectacular
shooting of the we'll on March 29th
last.
The equivalent of 800 quarts of
nitroglycerine were packed in the
head of the 953-foot hole and
charges of TINT were strung along
almost it's entire length.
The Du Pont engineers, who plac-
ed the shot, had a seismograph on
top of the rock cliff, 220 feet above.
1t showed that the whole hill jump
ed an inch and half with the shot.
"Why, they're literally shaking out
the oil" someone said
For Is minutes, the well blew gas
fumes, sand and debris. And then
the oil came in a grand flow. RAN
ney has some pictures of it, but they
were snapped in excitement and
don't give the full effect.
When he turns on the vacuum,
the well flows barrel an hour.
Even in this experimental we'll, in
which there were many minor err
rors, the steady production should
be good for four or five barrels a
day. And it may go on Indefinitely
who knows?
Engineers and scientists from
here, there and everywhere are COM
ing almost every day. The Engineers
Society of Western Pennsylvania
are coming to view the we'll next
month. For the first time in their
long history, they're holding their
annual meeting away from Pitts
burgh. They're planning a barbecue
at this well in the afternoon, will
then drive over and see the histori-
cal Macksburg well, and land in Ma
retta for the night and formal ses-
sions the next day.
By the time they're here, Ranney
will have two new wells under way.
They'll be across the run, and 400
feet nearer the river. Both will
start into the rock at the same point. |
but will radiate at an angle. That's |
Ranney's original mining idea |
They'll be larger holes-three inch
es-and will start lower in the sand |
stratum And will have the ad- /