We begin at the forge, where a motor pants in a
side room, and blacksmiths are at work on bars of red-
hot iron ; and from here pass on to a derrick where
another American, in a large mushroom hat that helps
to keep off the oil-drippings, is at work on the boring
of a well.
The boring implement is a gigantic crow-bar, which
bores its way down by force of its own weight as it
falls. A steel cylinder with a simple valve scoops
into itself the slush and clay in the tube made by the
drill, and disgorges these outside the well. A big
windlass wound with rope works the drill, lifting it up
and letting it fall ; and it is itself worked by an engine
in a neighbouring shed. The oil spouts up from time to
time in a jet which reaches high above the mouth of
the well, and covers the derrick with an evil-smelling
filthy coat, which drips long after the jet has ceased,
turning all the surrounding area into a puddle of mud
and oil. In this environment the coolies work, and
the overseer stands, an elfish man, covered with dripping
oil. The coolies wear small basket hats, and little
besides.
This process continues till the full depth of the
well, some seventeen hundred feet, is reached.
The oil is pumped out by steam engines, or it comes
up of itself driven by the pressure of gas below. In
thè latter case, when the stop-cock. at the well’s mouth
is turned on, the gas rushes out with a roaring, grinding
sound and is quickly followed by a stream of yellow
brown oil, which foams out of the pipe into an iron
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