466 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



mile west of the first is as follows: Drive pipe (no. 1) 160 feet; 

 Medina sandstone, 1050 to 1850 feet; Trenton limestone, 2700 feet; 

 Potsdam sandstone, 3500 feet. 



The most interesting fact remains to be stated. While in no. 2 

 a small amount of gas was furnished by the Medina and the 

 Trenton formations, the only important vein was found in the 

 Potsdam sandstone. Gas was struck at 3526 feet. The amount 

 was sufficient to run the boilers of two 125 horse-power engines 

 for six or eight weeks. At the end of this time the volume fell 

 away till there was barely enough gas for one boiler. The initial 

 yield must have exceeded 100,000 cubic feet a day. The 

 original rock pressure is said to have been 800 pounds. The 

 granite has not been reached in either well, but it does not lie 

 far below the bottom of no. 2, viz, 3600 feet. A third well has 

 been located one mile west of no. 2 and two miles west of no. 1. 



In November of the same year another well of great force was 

 struck on the Kendall farm in the same district with the Monroe 

 and Binning wells. It was drilled by the Onondaga gas co., 

 which was also known as the Syracuse steam heating and power 

 co. The rock pressure of this well was reported at about 1100 

 pounds. The Trenton limestone was reached at 2250 feet. At 

 2350 feet, or about 100 feet below the surface of the stratum, a 

 gas vein of unusual force was reached. It drove the drilling 

 tools and cable out of the well, throwing the drill high above the 

 derrick. The cable alone weighed over 4000 pounds. It is cer- 

 tainly remarkable that more than 2000 feet of it should be lifted 

 bodily and made to clear the hole, without binding anywhere. 

 The well was " bridged " by fragments falling from above after 

 the tools were blown out. 



A well known as the Toll well was drilled still later in the 

 same neighborhood and its character was in keeping with the 

 wells that preceded it. These four wells, the Monroe, Binning, 

 Kendall and Toll wells, mark the center and highest development 

 of what may be called the Baldwinsville gas field. 



The Onondaga gas co. laid a pipe line in 1897 from the Bald- 

 winsville field to its works in Syracuse. Part of the line is six 

 inches in diameter. One of the wells, Talmage no. 1, was at- 

 tached to the line, and was used for a time in the steam heating 

 plant at Syracuse, but a notable fall in the rock pressure is said 



