SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
No. 2 bore, which flowed gas and water for some time, the action was 
equivalent to an air lift, and that any interference with this action 
would mean the filling of the bore with water and the exercising of a 
pressure on the gas of a column of water 3,670 feet in depth, or over 
1,500 lbs. per square inch, which was probably greater than the pressure 
of the gas met at 3,670 feet. 
In the No. 3 bore the gas blew the column of water out of the hole 
at 3,702 feet; but we do not know the depth of water column that was 
being used. When the fire was put out and repairs to the casing were 
started, some water was issuing with the gas, and it seems quite 
probable that, in repairing the casing, the flow of this water was so 
checked that it filled the bore and again shut off the gas by its excess of 
pressure. At any rate, we now have good evidence that the bore was 
flowing water when the gas suddenly shut off, and it is probable,. from 
what we now know of the gas pressure, that the pressure of the column ; 
of water would exceed that of the gas. 
Tuer Lesson or tHe Roma Borer Gas Frow. 
. The recent very great flow of gas in the Roma No. 4 bore, and the 
ubsence of flow while the water column stood in the bore, is a practical 
illustration of the necessity in boring, either for gas or oil, of so con- 
structing the bore that all upper flows of water can be absolutely shut 
off from the interior of the bore, so that the pressure on any stratum 
giving indications of gas or oil may be taken off that stratum by bailing 
the bore, without any fear of incursion of water from higher strata. 
If such waters have access to the bore they cannot be bailed so as to 
take the pressure of the column of water in the bore off the productive 
stratum, and if the pressure of the gas or oil should happen not to 
exceed that of the water above it, no flow of either gas or oil can be 
induced. This is a well-known maxim in boring for gas or oil, but it 
is very often neglected by those who think that there is nothing more 
to be considered in designing a bore to prospect for oil than in designing 
a bore for water. mA; 
Prrron Conrenr or tHe Gas. 
The illuminating value of the gas at Roma, measured some twenty 
years ago, was given at 24 candle-power, and, as the candle-power of 
methane is only 5, it was quite evident that the gas had constituents in 
it other than methane. The analysis, though by no means precise, 
showed that these other constituents were mainly hydrocarbons, and 
it was from these facts, and the known high illuminating value of even 
small proportions of the higher hydrocarbons which form the consti- 
tuents of petrol, that it was judged that the Roma gas contained vapour 
of the petrol constituents, and which led to arrangements being made 
with Mr. Henderson, Government Analyst, to test the amount of these 
constituents present. Mr, Henderson, in his preliminary tests, has 
already found 1.2 pints of petrol per 1,000 cubic feet of gas, and with 
‘more suitable adjustments of his pressure and temperature will, no doubt, 
get higher results. In America, large quantities of petrol were pro- 
fitably made from gas carrying no more than 1 pint of petrol per 1,000 
cubic feet of gas, while petrol was selling at 5d. per gallon. There is 
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