Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1897 — A UNIQUE INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

A UNIQUE INDUSTRY.

'• ww tnbrtoatuif Oil la Obtain** In !'»«•> Mylvantti. The lubricating oil field of French Creek, in Venango County, Pennsylvi* ni» i one of the moat curious spots la dhi/lldom, The business had its start In the well of lllacksmith Evans, at iianklAn. in the '< 0’», und since then i: ,009,) 00 worth of oil has been taken fr m the few miles square of territory where this oil alone Is found. Around ts proscribed limits wells that yield irvely of tho regular Illuminati g oil tieve boon drilled, but none of that kind of oil has ever been found within 'dio lubricating oil limits. This small but rich oil dlstrlot extends into the village of Franklin, tho county scat of Venango County, and there are wells In many private yards in that place. The production has fallen off greatly, though, and the price also. The monthly yield now Is not more than 7,00 barrels, and the price Ih below 1 a barrel. The oil is refined at Oil City, and eighty different commercial products result, be ides the oil itself. Franklin on oys a monopoly of the heavy oil trade, but th j business is conducted on a much more economical basis than when Blaossmith Evans was getting his :0d barrels a day from hii pioneer well and rec iving $3 > a barrel tor it. There is little or no gas In the lubricating oil rock, and every well has to bo pump d. As many as fifty wells are pumped by one engine. This Is accomplished by an ingenious ievtce called the p mpiua rig. The wells to bo pump'd are connected with sucker rods screwed together, reaching out in all directions, frequently more than a mile from the engine. In the woods around I ranklin these sucker rods may be encountered, workin r elowly back and forth with the regu lar motion of a piston, and no engine wilhin sight or hearing. The Bame tiling may be seen in the streets of Franklin, where the long arms reach In to connect with the wells in the vllr lags boundaries. ihe well arc not pumped regularly, but by “head-." Twice a day there is •uffic ent accumulation of oil in the wells to bo pumped out, and then the many-armed engines are stated and k pt going until all the oil of that nead is pumped out. Sometimes a new well will start off with a yle d of ten or fifteen barrels a day, but this fhenome al yield does not last long. a klng It all iu ail, the lubricating oil »rner of the petro.eum fields Is altotether unique.