1865.] 109 [Briggs. 



caster County to the neighborhood of the Hudson and the Atlantic 

 shore in an hour or so. 



Mr. Briggs gave a description of his recent visit to the 

 Venango County Oil Region. 



He described the discomforts of travelling to it, the crowds which 

 filled it, the muddiness and general disorder which characterizes it, 

 the reckless waste of money, time, and energy, manifest throughout 

 it; the smallness of the average production of oil for the outlay, 

 and, in his opinion, the entire absence of all reliable geological 

 indicia for determining a good place for boring. He described 

 minutely the method of constructing the derricks and boring ma- 

 chinery, and of using the tools in the process of boring, each of 

 which he named, described, and exhibited in drawings, expressing 

 his admiration of the practical tact which had been developed, the 

 perfect adaptation of simple means to the desired end, and the 

 rapidity and precision with which wells are sunk every day, which a 

 few years ago would have been considered triumphs of the best 

 engineering ability in Europe. The history, progress, and detailed 

 method of each single Artesian well were, but a few years ago, 

 considered worthy of elaborate illustrated publication. Now, in his 

 opinion, at least two hundred such wells are being sunk all the time, 

 with a simplicity of apparatus, and a speed and certainty of pro- 

 gress, which, although unrecorded, throws all former exhibitions of 

 skill into the shade. 



The daily present amount of petroleum reaching the depot of Oil 

 City is about four thousand barrels, while not less than three thou- 

 sand wells are in various stages of action in that part of the Oil 

 Creek Valley, and those of its branches which lie within easy reach 

 of Oil City. Of this amount, three thousand barrels are the pro- 

 duction of a few large wells, leaving an average of say one-third or 

 one-fourth of a barrel per day to the remainder; of this last number, 

 he thinks not more than one well in twenty produces anything at all. 



Mr. Briggs described, in addition to his former remarks, his visit 

 to the Parkersburg region in Virginia, and the single instance which 

 fell under his observation of a truly economical application of power 

 by a company established twelve or fourteen years ago, whose nume- 

 rous wells were all sunk and pumped by one engine, by means of 

 horizontal rods led off from it in different directions between pairs 

 of fence posts, from the caps of which swinging arms were hung, 



