Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 July 1915 — Deep Wells. [ARTICLE]

Deep Wells.

Upper Silesia, in the German empire, has the deepest Well in the world. It is a diamond drill hole in a coal field and measures 7,350 feet. A well in the United States that may go deeper, according to the United States geological survey, is four miles northwest of McDonald, Pa., and about fifteen miles west of Pittsburg. This well, which is being sunk to the Medina sandstone—a bed that elsewhere contains oil and gas —is now 7,147 feet deep. Some gas and oil were struck in the upper part of the well. Between the depths of 6,830 and 7,100 feet rocks bearing rock salt and salt water were encountered. These are regarded as of salina age, the same as those carrying rock salt in western New York. The temperatures in this well at the depth of 6,775 feet, as recently determined with great accuracy, is 145.8 degress Fahrenheit; At Derrick City, McKean county, Penn., near Bradford, there is a well 5,820 feet deep, which is probably the second deepest well in the United States. Another well is on Slaughter creek, Kanawha county, W. Va.; it is 5,595 feet deep. It penetrates a sandstone at 5,030 to 5,050 feet, and from this depth to the bottom, a distance of 545 feet, the well is in limestone. Near West Elizabeth, Pa., there is another well 5,575 feet beneath the surface, penetrating into a black shale. Another well being drilled at Gaines, Pa., has reached a depth of 5,500 feet. Deep well drillers in this country, of course, employ the most improved dnd effective rigs, but one of the most remarkable of wells, reaching a depth of 3,600 feet, was drilled for petroleum in western China by means of such crude appliances as a cable made of twisted strands of rattan.