Brine Wells and Petroleum

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 December 1915, Page 3

Brine Wells and Petroleum

IN Tiiii UilM'/aii. Hiii b.liLlC. Ohuia h;;s Lkxui u>l - years practically «n iiukiiu'wn country, a groat deal ol it an unexplored region, and, to civiilisation, a cfoscd book. The history oi the Empire oi Chinn dates back tv 2300 B.C. In tho 15th century, St. Francis Xavier, n missionary who uibouned with success in !.n<l;ia and Japui, stood outside the waits ol China ami .made an impassioned, but .fruitless, appeal to the nation to open her gates to Christianity. English intercourse with China began in the year 1C35 A.D. I3ut it was not until war of 1800 that tho 'barriers of exclusion 'between Chin; , , and the outside world weve tinally broken down.

]n 1827, a French missionary named Inibort visited tho province of SzcOhuan, where Impound wells producing gas, bituminous ird °.iul brine. >

report of this he fonva.vlod to the Society for the Propagation of the .Faith. Louis Coldre. missionary, who laboured for many years in the same district, and who had nir..pl^ v oj[>rM)!-tiini.t.t;'s to secure correct data, wrote an important paper, in which were embodied the same facts. This was as recent <is the early nineties. These wells have also been described by Alexander riosio .who visit-edSze-Chuan in 1839: by K TT. Parker t> the Royal Asiatic Society: and bv Read in the Mining and Scientific Press: . Sze-Chuan is the largest of the IS provinces of China. it has an are<i of over 200,000 square miles, or almost two and a quarter tiin-'s the area of the State of Victoria. Tho population is 70.000,000. Its western half herders on Thibet and is so elevated nnd mountainous that is well nijzh inaccessible and supports hut a scanty population. Compared with this rugged region, the eastern hall' is more in the nature of an elrvnlted basin, oi a roiigJT trinngu' :r shape, with mountains on three sides. Situated 100 miles from the port of Yangtse. nnd only accessible through very rugged and dangerous country, «a", that universal necessity of diet, L'oiild only lie obtained at a high cost. Sze-Chuan being a rich and fertile country and supplying, nearly every other human necessity, was rendered almost entirely .self-supporting when salt was discovered in. ner own rendons. When salt .springs appeared on the surface, it doubtless gave the s7iggc.ition oi boring down to increase the flow, and thus, earlier than the third century, the people; began to develop their owii salt induatry., It is jutcrestiiig to note that an elaborate techiifliugy u: geology was developed a-t this ve'\y early age, and, astonishing to anyone inclined to believe, that useful technology was developed, only in the last few centuries. The provinces of Chilili. Shansi , Shcnsi", and Ivan sec arc also supposed Lu bo rich in brine, gas, <md petroleum \yolls. Tht , Chinese method oi : working being on the co-op-erative principle, persons of small income combine together and sink one or several wells. The wells are'usually from 1,300 to 1,800 feet in depth, and are not more than five or six inches in diameter. Tho cost of borings is approximately 1,000 taels and upwards, or a little ovor £23 per well. • As it takes about three years to sink a well, we can quite understand that their undertakings were completed only by the -expenditure oi much time and labour. The Chinese do everything on h small scale and are not acquainted with the means of carrying out an enterprise ot any magnitude. The method of drilling anil pumping i!vt*r- wolls. howevor, is 'ngenious, and is the crude prototype c,f modern oil well boring.

linbert, the missionary, was greatly impressed by the Chinese niethodi oi sinking. Of course, ho had never Keen a- "driven" ur "bored" .well ; ii Europe, for this was in 18:27; but til , ? Chinese were thai Lapping their salt veins by this moans and incidentally getting natural -g.is and .some oil. But let the devout Frenchman tell the story in his own wav.

"■I nil! explain how tlioy carry out the work. With all our knowledge and experience, we have never been able to a-ttoin to such •wonderful results. This is how they 'proceed. The, surf-Kv soil is 3 or 4 feet dvep; in this they plant a hollow bamboo surmounted with a stone made Avith a hole in 'he middle, 5 or 6 inches in diameter; n this table is placed a bit or steel spearweighing 300 or 100 lbs., wliict- 's oper- i ated by being raised and allowed to drop repeatedly by its own weight. TSiiflßteel spear is screwed into n headpiece slightly concave on top and j rounded underneath. A' man of great strength and activity mounts on to a gantry, and, during the entire mom ing, ..operates a Beam (walking beam) which rais<\s the bit two feet in height and allows it to fall by its own weight. From tiiiip to tiitio a lrMe water is thrown down the hole to facilitate the

breaking up of the rock" and assist m

converting the broken pieces into mud. v The drilling bit is suspended fay a strong rope made of bamboo fibre abodt the thickness of the finder and as strong as our cords made of catgut. This covd is attached to ,'bhe end of the beain, to which is fixpd a triangular piece of wood. ■Aβ^ 10, . , . nJ«Jii -'S Btationodi beside the the beam rises lie makes use of tlic tri-aiigit-in'order to guide the rope so" asiio ciifiio the bit to turn and thus ' 'sjtrike itt .a <lifFercnt «mglo at each I Wow. At midday the man ivho has b|en •working tiiß triangfo gets up on tk> gantry to relievo his mate until tlit evening, and at night two fresh mm continue tho work. "When they h;ne sunk three feot the bit is with- * drjjvn, and. hy the aid ot an enonfions wirph bawel on which the cable '.= wotnd, of which T will speak l«t<>r, a bailbco tube containing the dobris is brolijht to the surface. By this moms these" wells or tubes are sunk

truly vertical andi the sides are formed without projections." In the primitive days when boring the small wells for salt, seams of coal of great thickness were sometimes found at & depth of several hundred feet, but the Chinese were not oible to work these thick seams, because they had not learned how to .make use of blasting powder for doing such work* andi were also deferred by fear of encountering water in considerable quantities would have'ronclered their efforts useless. From some of the wells, or pits, however} coal, of which there are several verietiee, was obtained in large quantities, the seams varying from one to live inches in thickness. The., wells which produce only gas are termed firo wells, but this gas does not contain sufficient heat to evaporate the brine. When sinking the Brine wells they usually find at a depth of 1000 feet bituminous oil, which burns on water. Four or five barrels of oil, ench weighin" lOOlbs. are- obtained daily. The oil is extremely strong smelling and is used for lighting the factory, in which are placed the pans for evaporating the brine. Those- pans are of a shallow segment' of a. sphere, tour feet in din n otor, andi weighing about lfiOOlbs enoli Tho salt, •after tho water has evaporated, fills the entire pan and forms a solid (block the shape of the pan, weighing over 2001bs, and as hard as a. rock. Tts production at the preseit time is enough to meet the demands of 70,000,000 people and also permit a brisk trade with adjacent regions.

There is a theory in China that the gas results from a subterranean voican; if so, the gas would of necessity bo alight when issuing. The Chinese, both Heaithen and. Christian, believe it to be the fire of hell and are much afraid of it. When the gas flow is strong, tho well is capped; but, when the gas is unimportant, the petroleum and brine arc drawn off together into reservoirs. The petroleum rises to the surface of the brine and is drawn off. The oil is of a variety of colours. Some is milk white, pure enough to burn with a good light j a greeirshwhite variety is less useful; a darker yellow still less; and a "viscous black variety gives little light and much smoke.

The Chinese know nothing of the ai of refining this petroleum and burn i'; just as it is in crude lamps made so as to have no opening except thnt which is plugged by tho wick, as the volatile hydro-carbons, whicii remain iu the oil aro vevy inflammable. Tluiy also use the petroleum as an ointment in certain skin-diseases and for rheu niatism, just as the crude petroleum oi Pennsylvania was used by the Indians. There are 30 or 40 of these jwtroleuiiu yells ,in the Sze-lin-ching district, and «bout 50 in the whole province ol- Sze-Chuan. It must be not ed that neither the petrokMiin ivir .lv.

are the objects of search bv. the Oliineso, but they are merely incidentally discovered in drilling for brine. It is quite possible, therefore, that petroleum may be found in more aibuudant quantities if exploration is directed towards its discovery. It has been esHuiated that the production' of salt is 1.000.000 tons pe%year, and ffrfc total number of wells is estimated at 10,000. ft i.s certain that an intelligent study oi the gt'olojry of the provinms will reveal valuable unknown dnstriots.