Dimon’s Reef, New York Harbor.
General Newton, U. S. Corps of Engineers, who has been entrusted with the expenditure of the annual appropriation for the improvements in New York harbor, having constructed a floating drilling apparatus, with steam power to capstans, four steam derricks, and direct engines to lift the drop-drills, applied to me (1870) first, to enter upon a competitive test, with Nitro-Glycerin as compared with Dualin, and with blasting powder, into which a reel of lightning fuse was inserted, to ensure more perfect and rapid combustion of the powder. These tests were conducted at Hell Gate, under the supervision of Mr. Reitheimer; Mr. H. H. Pratt, with Nitro-Glycerin, on my behalf; Mr. Dittmar with Dualin, and Mr. Gomez, for the powder and lightning fuse blasts, who respectively directed the holes to be drilled, charged them, and fired the several charges. The results were decisive of the superiority of Nitro-Glycerin, over both Dualin, and Blasting Powder, even when assisted by a coil of lightning or fulminating fuse, inserted in the powder. Two points were elicited, as reported by my operator; first the Nitro-Glycerin tore out more work, invariably reaching to the bottom, and sometimes beyond the bottom of the drill hole, whilst its explosion was so instantaneous it did not cause leakage in the roof, as with Dualin. Thereupon I was invited by General Newton, to arrange operations for blasting at Dimon’s Reef, between the Staten Island Ferry and Governor’s Island. Eight holes had been drilled in a circle of twenty feet diameter, with a ninth or central hole, thus leaving an average of eight feet of rock between each drill hole. Finding that the drilled holes were shaped like an inverted cone, owing to the omission of the reamer; that is, whilst the drill, jars, sinker bar, cable and cable clutch of the Pennsylvania oil wells, had been used, the provision for remedying the effect of the worn edges of the drill, had been overlooked, and thus a very disadvantageous form of hole, viz.: funnel shaped, was the result, necessitating the use of a cartridge, whose diameter must not exceed that of the smallest, which in this case was the lowest part of the drilled hole. The irregularity, and jagged edge of these unreamed holes, had also to be guarded against, lest the friction of any Nitro-Glycerin moistening the outside of the cartridge, might cause a casualty. I therefore determined, until better drilling could be secured, to use 2¼ inch two-ply rubber hose for cartridges, a material by no means desirable, because it afforded a cushion between the rock and the blast, but it became a necessity from the funnel shaped drill holes, when providing against the risk of premature explosion. The holes being 4½ inches in diameter at the upper part, and barely 3 inches at the bottom; the cartridge made of rubber hose, being uniform throughout, containing a column of liquid Nitro-Glycerin, 2¼ inches in diameter only, and 6 feet long; at the upper part of the holes there was an intervening cushion of water and hose, over 1 inch thick; and at the lower part, a cushion of ⅜ inch of hose. This should have been avoided, and I have mentioned these details as a caution to future operators, who desire the full explosive force of Nitro-Glycerin.
The depth of water at or during high-tide, is about twenty-two feet, and at low tide, fourteen to fifteen feet, the tide running four miles an hour with an amount of silty matter, drainage of N. Y. City sewerage, rendering it impossible for a diver to distinguish objects one foot from his helmet. Under these circumstances plugs have to be inserted in the several holes, each plug attached to the other by a rope, so as to enable the diver to guide himself from one hole to the other. Owing to various interfering circumstances the holes were only ready for blasting on the 16th of December, 1870; and the second day after arrival in New York, accompanied with three assistants, I proceeded to the work; there was a stiff wind blowing from the northwest, which, meeting the tide, caused a chopping sea; the weather was cold as shown by the crust of ice attached to the scow. The frozen Nitro-Glycerin was thawed out by hot water obtained from the steam boiler on board the scow.
These cartridges were lowered to the diver with the connecting wire, fuse, and exploder attached, one after the other, occupying twenty minutes; two of the holes being too small to allow the cartridge to be fully inserted, these projected, one about eighteen inches, the other one foot above the surface of the holes; the diver, moreover, became entangled in the wires and in order to extricate him, it was necessary twice to haul him to the surface, after which considerable time was occupied in moving the scow from over the site of the intended explosion, before the order could be given to fire. The amount of Nitro-Glycerin used to fill the nine cartridges, was one hundred and thirty-four pounds. On the order being given, the charge was successfully fired. Similar charges of nine cartridges, with more perfect holes and a heavier charge were fired three weeks afterwards.
Nitro-Glycerin Torpedoes in Oil Wells.—The Legislature of Massachusetts having resolved to place the further construction of the Hoosac Tunnel under contract, pending the transfer from October, 1868, to April, 1869, from State management to the present contractors, Messrs. F. Shanly & Co. I proceeded to the Oil Region, and there verified the fact that Nitro-Glycerin, properly exploded, i. e., the charge completely exploded, was more efficient in causing an increased yield of oil when applied to wells ceasing or diminishing their yield, than any other material. Erhardt’s powder, Oriental powder, and ordinary blasting powder, had been used very generally, and Nitro-Glycerin had been alleged to have been used, but the results were unsatisfactory; as soon however, as we started a Nitro-Glycerin factory at Titusville, and inserted charges varying from six pounds to fifty pounds, the results were so advantageous to the well owners, that none others would be used, while Nitro-Glycerin could be obtained. The first explosion was in D. Crossley’s well on the Weed farm, a charge of six pounds having been inserted, and fired. The well whose previous best yield had only amounted to six barrels per day, increased forthwith to one hundred and twenty barrels of petroleum per day, and settled down to forty barrels per day, which were obtained daily for nearly a year. On the road to Enterprise at the McKinney & Prior well, the explosion of six pounds of Nitro-Glycerin invariably started the well to flow at the rate of about one hundred barrels in twenty-four hours. At the Crocker wells on the Weed farm, the increase after an explosion of Nitro-Glycerin was usually from ten barrels to one hundred and twenty. After a charge of Nitro-Glycerin in an oil well, the yield generally rises to the highest point it has ever attained, and thence gradually diminishes therefrom, apparently owing to an accumulation of paraffine deposited in the interstices of the walls of the well. This has led to the pouring down the well, benzine, and pumping same out with the oil, and is another form of recuperating the yield of oil. As the process of increasing the production of Petroleum in oil wells, by means of the explosion of gunpowder or its equivalent, substantially as described in the specification of E. O. L. Roberts, ante-dated May 20, 1866, was claimed by the patentee to cover the use of Nitro-Glycerin and every known or hereafter to be invented method of effecting an explosion in an oil well, and as the case has hereto been presented in the courts, this claim has been sustained.
When, therefore, the contractors commenced operations on their work at the Tunnel, I resumed my manufacture of Nitro-Glycerin for that work, leaving the oil region, where the oil operators and producers have since been incessantly litigating the validity of the Roberts patents above referred to, with, however, up to the present date, indifferent success. The average of greatly increased production in exhausted wells, so far as my experience extended, during four months at one hundred wells, was that 80 per cent. were benefited, and in about 20 per cent. no marked results were obtained. When the question as to whether this form of blasting, viz.: in oil wells, is patentable has been decided, it will be time to renew the careful application of Nitro-Glycerin in oil wells, but at present, the careless handling, the pursuit of wealth regardless of the lives of the employed, and the unscrupulous assertion prevalent among those interested in the patent referred to, is depriving the oil producers of a valuable agent. Since, however, the present yield of oil is ample for the consumption, this, so far as the public is concerned, is of less moment than it is to the producers, who, by the time economical and useful blasting in oil wells is needed to bring up the yield to the ever increasing demand, will have finally disposed of this patent litigation.
