Drilling

“ In recent years rotary drilling has been widely used in sinking deep oil wells. Boring is done by rotation of a bit attached to a steel pipe which when so used is called a 'drill stem.' A smaller bore, called 'rat-hole', sometimes precedes, and is reamed out to obtain, the full size hole. To aid operation, drilling fluid (mud-laden water) is pumped into the upper end of the drill stem and escapes into the well at high velocity through holes in the bit. ”

“ The second method (see Fig. 3) consists in drilling into the rock, in close proximity to the fault, until mineral water is obtained, the drill in the mean time being followed by an iron pipe, which effectually secures the flow, prevents the access of fresh water, and protects the rock through which the drill passes from the combined disintegrating action of both the water and carbonic-acid gas. ”

“ The deeper holes are made only in surface excavation of rock, the shallower, to a maximum depth of say 12 ft., being suitable for tunnelling and mining operations.
Hand Drilling.—The work is either “single-hand” or “double-hand.” In single-hand drilling, the miner wields the hammer with one hand, and with the other holds the drill or “bit,” rotating it slightly after every blow in order to keep the hole round and prevent the drill from sticking fast; in double-hand work, one man strikes, while the other holds and rotates the drill. ”

“ Power Drilling.—In power drilling the drill is driven by a reciprocating machine which either strikes and turns the drill in the hole, or lifts and turns it as in churn drilling, or the drill may be driven by a rotary machine which is revolved by compressed air, steam, or electricity. ”

“ He operated on a piece of hard diorite an inch and three-eighths in thickness, and employed as a drilling agent a wooden wand of ash, or at times, of pine, in conjunction with sharp quartz sand. Attached to the wand was a heavy disc, to act as a fly-wheel, and an alternating rotatory motion was obtained by means of a bow and cord attached at its centre to the apex of the drilling-stock, and giving motion to it after the manner of a "pump-drill," such as is used by the Dacotahs [100] and Iroquois [101] for producing fire by friction, or what is sometimes called the Chinese drill. ”

“ When working with rock drills, a shaft can be sunk 10 to 20 feet a month, against 7 to 8 feet by hand, and a level may on the average be driven 45 to 50 feet a month by rock drills against 10 or 12 feet by hand. When, however, a large surface for operating on is exposed, hand-drilling may be profitably employed. This is interesting as illustrating the fact that where labour is cheap machines seldom pay, and this is particularly worth mentioning for the benefit of those who have thought that it would be useful to introduce agricultural machinery into India. ”

“ Machine vs. Hand-Drilling.—The advantages of hand-drilling over machine-drilling lie, first, in the total saving of power, the absence of capital cost, repairs, depreciation, etc., on power, compresser Page 150 and drill plant; second, the time required for setting up machine-drills does not warrant frequent blasts, so that a number of holes on one radius are a necessity, and therefore machine-holes generally cannot be pointed to such advantage as hand-holes. Hand-holes can be set to any angle, and by thus frequent blasting yield greater tonnage per foot of hole. ”

“ With the improvement of the methods of drilling, and the debut of the rotary system, it has been possible not only to drill to much greater depths, but to considerably reduce the time requisite for drilling a well to the oil sands. Californian records for quick drilling with the rotary machine show that wells have been got down to the producing sands, in some fields nearly 4,000 feet below the surface, within one month. ”

“ DRILLING MACHINES
Everybody knows that oil wells and derricks go together. The tall derrick towers are needed to hoist drilling equipment in and out of the hole.
When men start to drill a well, they fasten a cutting tool, called a bit, to a piece of pipe which hangs upright{70} in the derrick. Machinery turns the whole thing round and round, so that the bit grinds down into the earth. When one length of pipe, called a joint, has almost disappeared into the hole, men screw another joint onto the top of it. Now the engine turns the double-length pipe, and the bit digs down deeper. ”

“ The large charges in deep holes break the walls very irregularly; misfires cause more delay; timbering is more difficult in the face of heavy blasting charges; and the larger amount of spoil broken at one time delays renewed drilling, and altogether the advantages seem to lie with hand-drilling in shafts of large horizontal section.
The rapid development of special drills for particular conditions has eliminated the advantage of hand-work in many situations during the past ten years, and the invention of the hammer type of drill bids fair to render hand-drilling a thing of the past. ”

“ The duty of a skilled white man, single-handed, in rock such as is usually met below the zone of oxidation, is from 5 to 7 feet per shift, depending on the rock and the man. Two men hand-drilling will therefore do from 1/4 to 2/3 of the same footage of holes that can be done by two men with a heavy machine-drill, and two men hand-drilling will do from 1/5 to 1/2 the footage of two men with two light drills. ”

“ Whether or not respondents, in drilling to a specified depth short of oil, may be regarded as engaged in producing or mining, and we certainly are not to be understood as intimating that they may not, recognition of the obvious requiries us to hold that at the very least they were engaged in a 'process or occupation necessary to the production' of oil. Oil is obtained only by piercing the earth's surface; drilling a well is a necessary part of the productive process to which it is intimately related. ”

“ The fishing tools are generally attached to the cable, and are used with portions of the ordinary string of tools, but some are fitted to pump-rods or tubing, and others to special rods.
The drilling of a well is commonly carried out under contract, the producer erecting the derrick and providing the engine and boiler while the drilling contractor finds the tools, and is responsible for accidents or failure to complete the well. ”

“ The natives use it for drilling their fish-hooks made of shell; for which purpose, as for drilling holes in china, it is peculiarly adapted, the lightness and evenness of its pressure lessening the danger of cracking these brittle materials. One would think that this quality would make the pump-drill particularly unsuitable for fire-making; but nevertheless, by making it very large and heavy, it has been turned to this service in North America, among the Iroquois Indians. ”

“ For soft rock, single-hand drilling is from 20 to 30% cheaper than double-hand, but this difference does not hold good for the harder rocks. For these double-hand drilling is preferable, and may even be essential, to secure a reasonable speed of work.
Machine Drills.—The introduction of machine drills in the latter part of the 19th century exerted an important influence on the work of rock excavation in general, and specially on the art of mining. By their use many great tunnels and other works involving rock excavation under adverse conditions have been rapidly and successfully carried out. ”

“ The petroleum industry in the United States may be considered to date from the year 1859, when the first well avowedly drilled for the production of oil was completed by E. L. Drake. The present method of drilling as been evolved from the artesian well system previously adopted for obtaining brine and water. The drilling of petroleum wells is carried on The United States. ”

“ For reasons peculiar to the oil industry, a cable drilling crew then undertakes with cable tools to 'bring in' the well or else demonstrate that it is a dry hole. Respondents were employed by petitioner as members of its rotary drilling crew and worked on approximately thirty-two wells in the Panhandle Oil Field of Texas; thirty-one of those wells produced oil, and the other one produced gas. ”

“ The operation of drilling is frequently interrupted by the occurrence of an accident, which necessitates the use of fishing tools. If the fishing operation is unsuccessful the well has to be abandoned, often after months of labour, unless it is found possible to drill past the tools which have been lost. In readiness for a fracture of the drilling tools or of the cable, special appliances known as fishing tools are provided. ”

“ The wells in the Petrolia field have a depth of 480 ft., the contract price, including the cost of 100 ft. of wooden conductor, being 175 dols. (£35) , and the time occupied in drilling being from six to twelve days. Pole tools are used in drilling, the poles being of white ash, 37 ft. in length. The derrick is about 48 ft. in height. An auger some 4 ft. in length, and about a foot in diameter, is used to bore through the earth to the bed rock, the auger being rotated by horse power. ”

“ Special power apparatus is necessary for constructing an artesian or drilled well. The drilling costs from $3 per foot up, depending upon the nature of the subsoil and whether rock is encountered. Unless such a well has been drilled in the immediate vicinity it is not possible to hazard even a guess as to when water will be struck. ”

“ The tedious process of drilling wet-holes with light tools has gone where the woodbine twineth. Casing has retired the seed-bag permanently, and from the polish-rod to the working-barrel not the smallest detail remains unimproved. Having a portable engine and boiler at each well has given place to the cheaper plan of coupling a host of wells together, two men thus doing the work that once required twenty or thirty. Pipe-lines have superseded greasy barrels and swearing teamsters, and even tank-cars are following the flat-boats of pioneer times to oblivion. ”

“ To effect this progress of 120 feet, probably about 3,000 holes have been drilled in an area not exceeding 24 feet by ten feet, requiring twelve drilling machines, and 60 horse steam power to compress the air requisite to drive the drills; add to this the powder, over a ton and a half, the electric exploders, the candles and oil for miners, and the fact that a mass of rock 120 feet long, ten feet high and twenty-four feet wide, has to be carried out and dumped two miles from where it was excavated, and some slight idea of the labor at this one point may be formed. ”

“ In the Canadian oil fields the drilling contractor usually employs his own derrick, engine, boiler, and tools, furnishes wood and water, cases the well, and fixes the pump; the well owner providing the casing and pump, and subsequently erecting the permanent derrick.
The wells in the Oil Springs field were formerly from 200 ft. to 300 ft. in depth, but the oil stratum then worked became waterlogged, and the wells are now sunk to a depth of about 375 ft., and are cased to a depth of about 275 ft. to shut off the water. The contract price for drilling a 45⁄8 in. hole to a depth of about 375 ft. ”

“ No oil well, gas well or test well shall be drilled nearer than three hundred feet to any opening to a mine used as a means of ingress or egress for persons employed therein, nor nearer than one hundred feet to any building or inflammable structure connected therewith, and actually used as a part of the operating equipment of said mine.
Persons drilling oil and gas wells in coal bearing or coal producing townships. ”

“ To hold all the several parts of the iron-work together, it is necessary to use bolts and nuts; and here the drilling-machine is at work, boring the holes required. We suppose our casting planed and drilled, and follow it once more out of the shop,—still carried on the useful rails to the gauntry,—the traveller of which lifts it to its proper position, while the “erectors” are busy bolting together the finished pieces as they arrive. ”

“ The drill becomes industrial. Conquest and destruction give place to production in many forms. And what trophies Industry has won, what skill has it exercised, what labours has it performed! Every industrial process is performed by drilled bands of artizans. Go into Yorkshire and Lancashire, and you will find armies of drilled labourers at work, where the discipline is perfect, and the results, as regards the amount of manufactured productions turned out of hand, are prodigious.
On efficient drilling and discipline, men's success as individuals, and as societies entirely depends. ”

“ The drilling or boring they are engaged in is a slow process, and the choice of a spot, so that the explosion may loosen as much of the lode and as little of the rock as possible, is of considerable importance. ”

“ It is evident that accurate knowledge of the character and structure of the rock-formations in petroliferous territories is of the greatest importance in enabling the expert to select favourable sites for drilling operations, hence on well-conducted petroleum properties it is now customary to note the character and thickness of the strata perforated by the drill, so that a complete section may be prepared from the recorded data In some cases the depths are stated with reference to sea-level, instead of being taken from the surface, thus greatly facilitating the utilization of the records. ”

“ Boring a well involves using a giant drill. Onshore, the drill equipment is housed within an open steel girder tower called a Derrick, which is about 50m high and mounted upon a platform set about 11m above ground. Within the derrick, a system of pulleys and a wire rope, called a Drilling Line, acts like a crane, from the hook of which is suspended the Drill String. ”