Balakhani, yielding 36 571 barrels of 

 naphtha daily, ran waste for four weeks 

 before reservoirs could be prepared to 

 receive the oil.'" 



A celebrated Russian scientist, after 

 a visit to Baku in 1882, said: "Com 

 paring results achieved in the two 

 countries on one side and the average 

 depth and total number of wells on 

 the other, it may justly be stated that 

 the natural petroleum wells of Baku, 

 as far as our knowledge goes, have no 

 parallel in the world." 



The statement concerning the enor 

 mous yield from some of the wells of 

 this district may well challenge our 

 credulity. The following graphic de 

 scription of the bursting forth of the 

 great Droojba fountain is from an eye 

 witness and is given in the words of 

 Mr. Charles Marvin: " In America 

 there are over 25,000 petroleum wells; 

 Baku possesses 400, but a single one of 

 these 400 wells has thrown up as much 

 oil in a day as nearly the whole of the 

 25,000 in America put together. This 

 is very wonderful, but a more striking 

 fact is that the copiousness of the well 

 should have ruined its owners and 

 broken the heart of the engineer who 

 bored it after having yielded enough 

 oil in four months to have realized in 

 America at least one million sterling. 

 In Pennsylvania that fountain would 

 have made its owner's fortune. There 

 is $50,000 worth of oil flowing out of 

 the well every day. Here it has made 

 the owner a bankrupt (on account of 

 the damage done by the oil to sur 

 rounding property). These words were 

 addressed to me by an American petro 

 leum engineer as I stood alongside of 

 the well that had burst the previous 

 morning and out of which the oil was 

 flowing twice as high as the Great Gey 

 ser in Iceland with a roar that could be 

 heard several miles round. The foun 

 tain was a splendid spectacle and it 

 was the largest ever known at Baku. 

 When the first outburst took place the 

 oil had knocked off the roof and part 

 of the sides of the derrick, but there 

 was a beam left at the top, against 

 which the oil broke with a roar in its 

 upward course and which served in a 

 measure to check its velocity. The 

 derrick itself was 70 feet high and the 



oil and the sand, after bursting through 

 the roof and sides, flowed three times 

 higher, forming a grayish-black foun 

 tain, the column clearly defined on the 

 southern side, but merging into a cloud 

 of spray thirty yards broad on the 

 other. The strong southerly wind 

 enabled us to approach within a few 

 yards of the crater on the former side 

 and to look down into the sandy basin 

 from around about the bottom of the 

 derrick, where the oil was bubbling and 

 seething round the stalk of the oil- 

 shoot like a geyser. The diameter of 

 the tube up which the oil was rushing 

 was 10 inches. On issuing from this 

 the fountain formed a clearly defined 

 stem abo\it 18 inches thick and shot 

 up to the top of the derrick, where, in 

 striking against the beam, which was 

 already half-worn through by friction, 

 it got broadened out a little. Thus 

 continuing its course more than 200 

 feet high, it curled over and fell in a 

 dense cloud to the ground on the north 

 ern side, on a sand bank, over which 

 the olive-colored oil ran in innumer 

 able channels toward the lakes of 

 petroleum that had been formed on 

 the surface of the estate. Now and 

 again the sand flowing up with the oil 

 would obstruct the pipe or a stone 

 would clog the course; then the column 

 would sink for a few seconds lower 

 than 200 feet, but rise directly after 

 ward with a burst and a roar to 300 

 feet. . . . Some idea of the mass 

 of matter thrown up from the well 

 could be formed by a glance at the 

 damage done on the south side in 

 twenty-four hours; a vast shoal of sand 

 was formed, which buried to the roof 

 some magazines and shops and blocked 

 to the height of six or seven feet all 

 the neighboring derricks within a dis 

 tance of 50 yards. . . . Standing 

 on the top of the sand shoal we could 

 see where the oil, after flowing through 

 a score of channels from the ooze, 

 formed in the distance or lower ground 

 a whole series of oil lakes, some broad 

 enough and deep enough in which to 

 row a boat. Beyond this the oil could 

 be seen flowing away in a broad chan 

 nel toward the sea. This celebrated 

 well, from the best estimates that could 

 be made, gushed forth its oil treasure 



126 



