DEPTH OF OIL WELLS

Evening Star, Issue 17155, 23 September 1919, Page 3

DEPTH OF OIL WELLS

In the sbrties and seventies of the past century the average depth of oil wells was only about 150 ft, though the Chinese are credited wiih having resorted to power machinery in well drilling before the Christian era. By 190Q the average depth had risen to l,oooi't. At present the average may be j»ut at 2,500 ft, and that depth had considerably been exceeded in several of the new wells in the Midlands when oil was repcrted to have been struck at Hardstoft In the last week of May. The well of Borfslaw-Tarnowice, in Galicia, was driven t> 5,810 ft before the war, and there are several wells more than a mile in depth. Sucl a development and an annual output 3f over 70,000,000 tons of oil (1917) necesairily imply highly-specialised mining systems and machinery, as well as a tendency "o deliver the control of the whole industry into the hands of powerful combines. land wells were still being worked in I-umania in 1916, in spite of the:r terribledangers, by the side of plants equipped on the most modern systems of the percussioi, rotary, hydraulic, and combination type.—' Engineering.'