Death of the Torpedo King.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3362, 16 November 1889, Page 3

Death of the Torpedo King.

y A conspicuous career had just boeu closed by the death, at Titusville, Pennsylvania, of Dr W. B. Roberts, known as tho" Torpedo King" of tlio Old Country. The strange industry which he and bis brother, Colonel A. E, Roberts, built up was peculiar only to the oil regions of Pennsylvania. Dr Roberts wont to the oil country in the early days of the petroleum excitement, and lie and his brother soon obtained a patent for a system of exploding nitro-glycerinu at the bottom of oil wells to increase. their How. The apparatus was extremely simple, but it proved one of the most valuable inventions of the age. A lube made of tin to hold the explosive was supplied with a cap for exploding the substance, This was lowered into the well by means of a cord, and when at the desired depth, a small iron weight, called a"eodevil," was dropped down along the C cord, and this striking the title V containing the nitro-glycerinc, an . sxplosiom followed, shattering the Bjil-bearing rock, the result in •'nearly every case being an increase in the yield of the well. The demand for these torpedoes was enormous, There were irom 15,000 to 25,000 wells in the region, and nearly all of them were torpedoed at regular intervals. The two brothers got their own price, and their fortunes were rapidly made. It is estimated that they acquired from 2,000,000d»ls j to 4,000,000do!s each. Every oil producer bad to pay tribute to them, and finally the oil interest endeavoured to break the monopoly by attacking tho validity of tho patent. But the patentees were ultimately successful in maintaining their exclusive right to manufacture and use the torpedo for seventeen years—the life of the patent.