POWER OF COMPRESSED GAS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 133, 12 June 1909, Page 14

POWER OF COMPRESSED GAS.

While workmen were engaged boring near Compdovo Rivadavia. in tho south of Patagonia, and had reached a depth of about seventeen hundred feet, an enor- J mous volume of gaseous liquid and earth burst foith, reaching to a height of four hundred and fifty feet. When tho rubbish' came down again it destroyed the boring tower and rendered the machinery useless. For a time nobody would go within thirty yards of the spot, fearing that they were in the proximity of & volcano. Petroleum was discovered in this neighbourhood about two years ago, and this evidence of another vein being struck at a, distance of about a quarter of a milo from the fivst has caused much re-> joicing in the district. According to tho chief -timing engineer, Mr. Quarteno, the phenomenon gives every assurance of an unlimited deposit of wealth, a3 after seven hundred cubic feet of water had been pumped out tho petroleum rose with great force. Tho petroleum extracted will be used for locomotives of tho Patagcrtian railways and in tbe steamers and workshops of the State. The oil will bo kept in large tanks. It is intended to sell by public tender lots of tun thousand square feet in the petroleum zone, reserving one lot for the State,