Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

334 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. A BREACH IN THE BAKU-BATOUM PIPE LINE. The oil has been maliciously set on fire—a by no moans rare occurrence during the recent disturbances in the Caucascus district. Raising Oil to the Surface. Extinguishing a Burning Fountain. spite of every attempt made to extinguish them. As recently as 1908 an oil well in Mexico burned fiercely for forty-eight days, during which period it is estimated that nearly 500,000 tons of oil were consumed. There are many ways of quelling burning wells of medium force and capacity. One of the most usual, adopted with success in the case of the fires at Spindle Top, Texas, is to lead to- wards the well a number of pipes connected with steam- boilers, and, when a high pressure has been raised, to open the valves suddenly, and turn the full blast of the escaping steam against the flame. The non-inflammable steam dis- places the air, and the flame dies from lack of oxygen. Carbonic acid gas has also been tried successfully as an extin- guishing agent. A final resource is to tunnel under the ground and throttle the supply of oil by squeezing the pipe flat with hydraulic jacks. Occasionally an oil tank ignites. If situ- ated on high ground, it may cause great destruction by flooding the country with burning oil. It is therefore usual to surround tanks with an earthen bank or wall capable of impounding the contents of the tank, should' the latter give way. Where gas is present under high pressure and in large quantities, the well owner is frequently saved the trouble of raising the oil by artifi- cial means, as the liquid is ejected like soda-water from a siphon. The flow is usually intermittent owing to the oil and the gas gaining access alternately to the bottom of the well casing. The life of a gusher or fountain well varies considerably, many having maintained a periodic dis- charge for a number of years. In the early days of the Russian oil fields, some of the wells yielded, by natural flow, as much as 500,000 tons of oil. Where the oil is not accompanied by much sand, and good screwed, casing is employed for lining the well, a heavy valve may be fitted to the top of the casing to control an anticipated flow. But if sand be present and riveted casing used, it is necessary to allow the oil to flow freely and impinge on a baffle plate of chilled cast-iron or steel to check the discharge. The oil is then allowed to run into large settling reservoirs, where the sand settles and any water, which is often mingled with the oil, sinks, while the light oil rises to the top, whence it is pumped into storage tanks. If the oil does not flow naturally, mechan- ical means have to be provided for its extrac- tion from the wells. The cheapest and most convenient method is that of Pumping, pumping by means of a deep- well cylinder pump lowered on piping nearly to the bottom of the well. The plunger is worked by rods connected to a walking-beam