Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1898 — A UNIQUE INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

A UNIQUE INDUSTRY.

«<rw Lubricating Oil I® Obtain®® la F®aar nylnnta. The lubricating oD field of French Creek, in Venango County, Pennsylva* aia Is one of the most curious spots in ill oildom. The business had its start in the well of Blacksmith Evans, at r ranklln, in the TO’®, and since then M ,00.i,' 00 worth of oil has been taken fr m the few miles square of territory where this oil alone & found. Around ts prescribed limits wells that yield argely of the regular Illuminati g oil nave been drilled, but none of that kind of oil has ever been found within ,he lubricating oil limits. This small but rich oil district extends into the village of Franklin, the county seat of Venango County, Lnd there are wells In many private yards in that place. The production has fal feu off greatly, though, and the price also. The monthly yield now is not more than T,OOj barrels, and the price is below 4 a barret The oil is refined at OP City, and eighty different commercial products result, be .ides the oil itself. Franklin en oys a monopoly of the heavy oil trade, but th? business is conducted on a much more economical basis than when Blacksmith Evam was getting his ~00 barrels a day from his pioneer well and rec iving $3 t barrel for it. There is little or no gas In tho lubricating oil rock, and e? ery well has to be pumpad. As jnany an fifty wells are pumped by one engine. This is accomplished by an ingenious device called the pumping rig. The wells to be pump 'd are connected with lucker rods screwed together, reaching out in all directions, frequently more than a mile from the engine. In the woods around Franklin these sucker rods may be encountered, working slowly back and forth with the regu lar motion of a piston, and no engine within sight or hearing. The same thing may be seen in the streets of Franklin, where the long arms reach in to connect with the wells in the village boundaries. Ihe wells are not pumped regularly, but by “heads. ” Twice a day there is sufficient accumulation of <4l in ths wells to be pumped out, aad then the many-armed engines are sta tea and k nt going until all the oil of that “bead” is pumped out Sometimes a new well will start off with a yie d ot ten or fifteen barrels a day, but this phenomenal yield does not last long. Taking is all in all, the lubricating ot. lorner of the petroleum fields is alto tether unique.