“Now, this springboard was very similar in action and function to the springpole which we’ve used here in America, chiefly at first for drilling brine wells. It was used, too, in drilling the first oil well of the California fields.”
“But they’ve given that up now, haven’t they?” asked Ned.
“Sure they have,” was the answer. “The walking beam, which is the biggest piece of timber in the present-day drilling rig, has taken its place. And, of course, that’s now operated by steam instead of manual labor. But my point is that the old springboard process of the Chinese and the springpole method that we’ve used till recently are fundamentally based on the same thing—the percussion process.”
“We’ve got a long way from that now, I imagine,” remarked Ned.
“We have and we haven’t,” replied Tom. “Percussion is still in common use in a great many wells, especially when they’re not supposed to go very deep and where the rocks are of comparatively soft stone. But where these conditions don’t exist, the rotary method is often employed. In that case two strings of pipe are used, one to wall up the hole, while the other with the drill attached is rotated inside of it. An important thing in connection with this method is that a circulation of thick mud pumped through the drill stem will support the walls of the hole until the well is completed, provided it isn’t too deep. It’s being used a lot now in the Texas fields, and I’m looking into it thoroughly. I tell you, old boy, it’s a fascinating study.”
“That’s the way I like to hear you talk,” said Ned, with a smile. “Once you get interested in a thing, you’ll never stop until you improve on it. I’ll bet a year’s salary that before a month’s over, you’ll have invented something that will set the country talking.”
“Don’t risk your money so recklessly,” laughed Tom.
“I’m not rash,” replied Ned. “As a matter of fact, such a wager wouldn’t be sportsmanlike, for I’d be betting on a sure thing.”
Although Tom’s time had been taken up so fully day and night with the contract he had on hand and the new invention he was evolving, he had not forgotten or neglected the unfortunate airman whom he and his friends had saved from death.
Several times each week he called up the hospital by telephone to learn how the patient was progressing. And he had requested Mrs. Baggert, the housekeeper of the Swift home, to send fruit, jellies and other delicacies to the sufferer, a task which that warm-hearted woman undertook gladly.