7 SEPTEMBER 2024 WorldWide Drilling Resource® History by Ronald B. Peterson Drilling Products Specialist, Mountainland Supply Company The topic for this month is History, as it is WWDR’s anniversary month. Who better to talk about history than an old fart? The water well industry is arguably, if not the oldest profession, the second oldest profession. The first recorded reference to the water well industry is found in the book of Genesis in the Bible. In Genesis Chapter 21 Verse 30, Abimelech refers to his flock and it is recorded Abimelech told Abraham, “That they may be a witness unto me that I have digged this well.” The well was hand dug - a method that is still in use today. The next reference I find is the Chinese used a spring pole rig to construct wells to depths of up to 2500 feet. They were usually looking for brine for its salt content (a valuable and necessary commodity even then). They sometimes encountered natural gas which they would ignite and use to evaporate the water and dry the salt. The drilling rate was approximately 25 feet per year. The spring pole rig would have a rope tied on the end with three stirrups near the ground. Men would place their feet in these stirrups and then stomp down in unison, allowing the bit to pound on the bottom and advance the hole. This is where the term “kicking down the well” came from. This drilling method was basically unchanged for 3000+/- years and has evolved into the cable tool drilling method which is still in use today. The aboriginals in Australia would scoop out the sand or mud in a streambed to form what they called a soakage. They would cover the hole with spinifex (a local grass) and use a reed inserted through the spinifex layer to draw the water and quench their thirst. In the late 1800s, a Frenchman who drilled for water is credited with recognizing the advantages of circulation in the well drilling process and developing a way to apply it. The oil industry got its start in 1814 near Caldwell, Ohio. It was observed that oil was seeping out of the ground near a spring. Then in 1858 near Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada, they started intentionally drilling for oil, and the gas and oil industry was born. The first oil well in the United Sates was drilled on August 27, 1859, by Colonel Edwin Drake near Titusville, Pennsylvania. In the early days, the rigs were constructed of wood, including in some cases the drill pipe. It has often been said those were the days when the men were iron and the rigs were wooden. The deepest hand dug well was constructed near Woodingdean, England. It was started in 1858, with a diameter of six feet and dug to 438 feet where it was reduced to four feet and continued to 1285 feet - 850 feet below sea level. It was completed in 1862. Digging was continuous 24 hours per day with crews climbing a ladder in and out of the well. The well was lined with bricks as it was dug. Roughly 326,490 pounds of material was removed from the well. It was only used for four years. WTR Peterson Cont’d on page 18.
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