OIL AND GAS WELLS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1335, 28 July 1883, Page 3

OIL AND GAS WELLS.

Oil is found at depths varying from 500 to 1500 feet. Some wells start with a production of a few barrels per day and continue thus for years. Others, known as “ gushers,” start with a spurt, 1000 or 2000 barrels and flow only during the first day. After flowing ceases, pumping is begun. One well yields largely for a time, and then stops 4 altogether ; another, though it may have been a gusher at first,. becomes a valuable producer and holds out for years. Some of the oldest wells are still producing. Gas is struck quite as often as oil. and the volume yielded is enormous. There was a well at St. Joe, Butler county, a few years ago, which was a wonder even to oilmen. When the gas issued from the earth it made a ripping and tearing among things in its vicinity that people were glad to get at a safe distance. Dirt and mud, sticks and stones, were thrown high into the air, After its first angry symptoms had subsided the gas s was lighted, and it furnished light and iilur mination for all the country round. The • snow melted away from several acres of ' ground, and calves and sheep fattened on the grass which sprang up; crickets and grasshoppers and little birds lingered lovingly around that well, singing its praises all the winter long. I remember reading about it at the time and thinking the whole story a lie j but it wasn’t. It ii fine to see the oil wells at night. Ail around arc the blazing jets of gas, some big and some little. Five miles from the well? you can still see the lurid illumination of the gas reflected upon the clouds. Pipes carrying oil run from the wells through the country in all directions. They extend to Pittsburg, to Cleveland, and to New York. At the pump stations are engines which send thefluid through tin, land, Hugs iron tanks will bs noticed at intervals ell through the oil country. Theso tanks generally have a capacity of about 20,000 barrels each. The oil is stored in them until it is required for shipment, Ono of the tanks, situated opposite Parker, was struck by lightning in 1879 and the contents took fire. The flames wore communicated to two other tanka near by, the oil boiled up and overflowed, and the burning liquid rushed down the bank into the Alleghany River. The petroleum continued to burn for nearly two days, ami during the , time the entire surface of the river, for over half a mile of its course, was a sheet of flames, affording one of the grandest sights ever witnessed.