USA > West Virginia > Kanawha County > Charleston > History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens > Part 17
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The hydraulic contrivance for raising salt water from the gums, consisting of a bucket, a swape and a man, was simple, slow and sure ; but the spirit of progress was abroad and it soon gave place to a more complicated ar- rangement, consisting of a pump, lever, crank, shaft, and blind horse or mule, that revolved in its orbit around the shaft. This was con- sidered a wonderful achievement in mechanical contrivance, especially by the men who had worked the swapes.
For several years this "horse-mill," as it was called, was the only mode of pumping salt water on Kanawha but in the fullness of time it also went to the rear-in 1828-and the steam engine came to the front, not only for pumping but also for boring wells and various other uses.
In 1831 William Morris, or "Billy" Morris, as he was familiarly called, a very ingenious, successful and practical well borer, invented a
simple tool, which has done more to render deep boring practicable, simple and cheap, than anything else since the introduction of steam.
This tool has always been called here "Slips," but in the oil regions they have given it the name of "Jars." It is a long double-link, with jaws that fit closely, but slide loosely up and down. They are made of the best steel, are about 30 inches long, and fitted, top and bot- tom, with pin and socket joint, respectively. For use they are interposed between the heavy iron sinker with its cutting chisel-bit below, and the line of auger poles or ropes above. Its object is to let the heavy sinker and bit have a clear, quick, cutting fall, unobstructed and un- encumbered by the slower motion of the long line of auger poles above. In the case of fast auger or other tools in the well, they are also used to give heavy jars upward or downward, or both, to loosen them. From this use the oil well people have given them the name of "Jars."
Billy Morris never patented his invention, and never asked for nor made a dollar out of it, but as a public benefactor he deserves to rank with the inventors of the sewing-machine, reaping-machines, planing-machine, printing cylinders, cotton gin, etc.
This tool has been adopted into general use wherever deep boring is done, but, outside of Kanawha, few have heard of Billy Morris, or know where the slips or jars came from.
The invention of this tool, the adoption of the heavy sinker and some other minor im- provements in well boring, gave a great im- petus to deep boring in Kanawha. Wells were put down 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 1,800 feet, and one-the deepest in Kanawha-by Charles Reynolds, to about 2,000 feet. These borings would doubtless have been carried to a much greater depth, but that the fact soon got to be understood, that the salt-bearing strata had been passed, and that no brines were obtained at a greater depth than 800 to 1,000 feet. The limit of salt-bearing rocks is readily told by the character of the borings. Within this limit are sandstones, shale, coal, etc., of the coal measures lying nearly horizontal, though dip- ping slightly to the northwest; below is the · carboniferous limestone which underlies the
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coal measures, and crops out 100 miles to the eastward. This limestone, when penetrated, is known to the well-borers as the "long-running rock," from the fact that a boring bit will run a long time in it without being dulled.
No regular suites of samples of borings from the Kanawha wells have ever been kept. This is not important, however, as the strata are well known, and can be examined along the New river canon as they crop out to the east- ward.
The Kanawha borings have educated and sent forth a set of skilful well-borers, all over the country, who have bored for water for ir- rigation on the western plains, for artesian wells for city, factory, or private use, for salt water at various places, for oil all over the country, for geological or mineralogical ex- plorations, etc, etc.
Nearly all the Kanawha salt wells have con- tained more or less petroleum oil, and some of the deepest wells a considerable flow. Many persons now think, trusting to their recollec- tions, that some of the wells afforded as much as 25 to 50 barrels per day. This was allowed to flow over the top of the salt cisterns, on to the river, where, from its specific gravity, it spread over a large surface, and by its beautiful iridescent hues, and not very sav- ory odor, could be traced for many miles down the stream. It was from this that the river re- ceived the familiar nickname of "Old Greasy" by which it was for a long time familiarly known by Kanawha boatmen and others.
At that time this oil not only had no value, but was considered a great nuisance, and every effort was made to tube it out and get rid of it. It is now the opinion of some competent geologists, as well as of practical oil men, that very deep borings, say 2,500 feet, would pene- trate rich oil-bearing strata, and possibly in- exhaustible supplies of gas.
In 1775, Gen. Washington visited the Ka- nawha Valley in person ( ?) and located some very valuable lands for his military services. About three miles above the Salt Lick, he set apart and deeded to the public, forever, a square acre of land near the river, on which was a great natural wonder, then little under- stood, called a "burning spring." For many,
many years after, it was visited by every one who came to or passed through Kanawha, as one of the great curiosities of the region. It was simply a hole in the ground, which filled with water when it rained, and up through which issued a jet of gas, giving the water the appearance of boiling, and when lighted burned with a bright flame until blown out by high wind.
In 1841 William Tompkins, in boring a salt well a short distance above the burning spring, struck a large flow of gas, which he turned to account by "boiling his furnace," and making salt with it, effecting a great saving in fuel and economy in the cost of salt.
In 1843 Messrs. Dickinson and Shrewsbury, boring a few rods below, tapped at about 1,000 feet in depth, nature's great gas reservoir of this region. So great was the pressure of this bore-hole, that the auger, consisting of a heavy iron sinker weighing some 500 pounds, and several hundred feet more of auger poles, weighing in all, perhaps 1,000 pounds, was shot up out of the well like an arrow out of a cross-bow. With it came a column of salt water, which stood probably 150 feet high. The roaring of this gas and water, as they is- sued, could be heard under favorable condi- tions for several miles.
It would have been difficult to estimate with any approach to accuracy, the quantity of gas vented by this well, and no attempt was made to measure it. I heard it roughly estimated as being enough to light London and Paris, with, perhaps, enough left to supply a few such villages as New York and Philadelphia. But as this is a salt well, as well as gas well, I suggest that the gas estimate be taken, "cum grano salis."
While this well was blowing, it was the custom of the stage drivers, as they passed down by it, to stop and let their passengers take a look at the novel and wonderful display. On one occasion a professor from Harvard Col- lege was one of the stage passengers, and be- ing a man of investigating and experimenting turn of mind, he went as near the well as he could get for the gas and spray of the falling water, and lighted a match to see if the gas would burn. Instantly the whole atmosphere
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was ablaze, the Professor's hair and eye-brows singed, and his clothes afire. The well-frame and engine-house also took fire, and were much damaged. The Professor, who had jumped into the river to save himself from the fire, crawled out and back to the stage as best he could, and went on to Charleston, where he. took to bed, and sent for a doctor to dress his burns.
Col. Dickinson, one of the owners of the well, hearing of the burning of his engine- house and well-frame, sent for his man of af- fairs, Col. Woodyard, and ordered him to fol- low the unknown stage passenger to town, get a warrant, have him arrested and punished for wilfully and wantonly burning his property, "unless," concluded Col. Dickinson, as Wood- yard was about starting, "unless you find that the fellow is a natural d-d fool, and didn't know any better." Arriving at Charleston, Woodyard went to the room of the burnt pro- fessor at the hotel, finding him in bed, his face and hands blistered, and in a sorry plight gen- erally. He proceeded to state in very plain terms, the object of his visit, at which the pro- fessor seemed greatly worried, and alarmed, not knowing the extent of this additional im- pending trouble, which his folly had brought upon him. Before he had expressed himself in words, however, Woodyard proceeded to deliver, verbatim, and with great emphasis the codicil to Dickinson's instructions. The pro- fessor, notwithstanding his physical pain and mental alarm, seemed to take in the ludicrous- ness of the whole case, and with an effort to smile through his blisters, replied that it seemed a pretty hard alternative; but, under the cir- cumstances, he felt it his duty to confess under the last clause, and escape. "Well," said Woodyard, "if this is your decision, my duty is ended and I bid you good morning."
COL. LEVI J. WOODYARD was born in Fair- fax county, Va., February 14. 1800. His father came to Wood county when Levi was but six years old. Levi was raised on a farm and went to school and obtained some little education. He came to Kanawha county in 1825. He became an oarsman on a flat-boat, shipping salt to the lower Ohio, and kept up this business for several years. He was then
given the place of manager of a salt furnace by Dickinson and Shrewsbury, which place he held as long as this firm continued in the salt business. He was made the agent for Kana- wha salt in the West and held this until the war came on, when business suspended; he then returned to Charleston and resided there until his death. He was a man that attended to his own business and let others do likewise. He became president of the Kanawha Valley bank and his manner was rather rugged for a position where a somewhat different style was required from that which was appropriate to the manager of a salt furnace. He was an earnest, sincere, honest and sober man and went at his work, whatever it might be, with all the vim that was in him, but there was but little else than his rugged way.
The oil and gas from this well were par- tially collected, and conveyed through wooden pipes, to the nearest furnace, where they were used in making salt.
For many years this natural flow of gas lift- ed the salt water 1,000 feet from the bottom of the well, forced it a mile or more through pipes, to a salt furnace, raised it into a reser- voir, boiled it in the furnace, and lighted the premises all around at night. About the only objection to the arrangement was, that it did not lift the salt and pack it in barrels.
The success of this well induced other salt makers to bore deep wells for gas, and several were successful. Messrs. Worth & English, Tompkins, Welch & Co., William D. Shrews- bury, J. H. Fry, and J. S. O. Brooks, got gas wells and used the gas either alone, or in con- nection with coal, for fuel in salt making. Gas was also struck in a few other wells, but did not last long, and was not utilized.
The first flow of gas ever struck in Kana- wha, was as far back as 1815, in a well bored by Capt. James Wilson, within the present city limits of Charleston, near the residence of C. C. Lewis, Esq. The Captain had not gotten as good salt water as he expected; but instead of being discouraged, he declared in language emphatic, that he would have better brine or bore the well into-lower regions, with higher temperature. Shortly after this the auger struck a cavity which gave vent to an immense
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flow of gas and salt water. The gas caught fire from a grate near at hand, and blazed up with great force and brilliancy, much to the consternation of the well borers and others. Capt. Wilson thought it would be a reckless tempting of Providence to go any deeper, and ordered the boring stopped. This well is now owned by the Charleston Gas Light Company, who at some future time contemplate re-open- ing it to test the gas for lighting the city.
Of the many wells in the neighborhood, that have furnished gas, some have stopped sud- denly, and some by a slow and gradual pro- cess. Whether these stoppages have been from exhaustion of gas, or sudden, or gradual stop- page of the vent-ways, has not been definitely determined. It is known, however, that in the Dickinson and Shrewsbury well, which blew longer than any other, the copper pipes in the well, and the wooden pipes leading to the furnace, were lined with a mineral deposit, in some places nearly closing them. This deposit has not been analyzed, but may possibly be sili- cate of lime. A system of torpedoing might break up these incrustations from the walls of the well and rock cavities, and start the gas again. From the results of such wells in Penn- sylvania, and New York, we have large en- couragement to hope for similar results here. A few wells intelligently manipulated, might give gas enough to boil all the salt manufac- tured here, and run all the machinery in the neighborhood.
After the introduction of steam power, and the use of coal for fuel, no striking change was effected in the process of salt manufacture for a number of years. What improvements were made, were simply in degree. Wells were bored deeper, the holes were bored larger, the tubing was better, the pumps and rigging sim- pler. The furnaces were larger, better con- structed, and more effectively operated, the quality of salt improved and the quantity in- creased, but still they were kettle furnaces of the original type.
The mammoth of the kettle era was that of Joseph Friend & Son, at the mouth of Camp- bell's creek, on which they made 100,000 bush- els of salt per annum. The usual capacity of
the other furnaces was 25,000 to 50,000 bushels per annum.
PATRICK'S FURNACE
This was about the condition of the salt manufacture here in 1835, when there were all told, about 40 furnaces, producing annually about 2,000,000 bushels of salt. During this year George H. Patrick, Esq., of Onondaga, New York, came here, to introduce a patent steam furnace.
The furnace proper, after it was developed and improved, consisted of cast iron pans, or bottoms, 8 to 10 feet by 3 feet. Eight or ten of these pieces were bolted together by iron screws, forming one section 24 to 30 feet long, by 8 to 10 feet wide. There were two, three or four of these sections according to the size of the furnace. Over each of the sections was constructed a wooden steam chest, bolted to the flanges on the sides of the pans, and otherwise held together by wooden clamps and keys, and iron bolts and rods, all made steam and water tight by calking. These several sections were set longitudinally on the furnace walls to form one continuous furnace.
After the furnace comes a series of wooden vats or cisterns, a usual size for which, is about IO feet wide and 100 feet long. The number of these cisterns varies according to the size of the furnace. They were constructed of poplar plank, 4 to 5 inches thick, dressed to joints, and fitted in a frame of oak by sills and clamps. They are tightened by driving wooden keys, and then calked to make them water tight. This system of clamping and keying cisterns was introduced here from a model brought by Col. B. H. Smith, from the navy yard at Norfolk. It was very simple and effective and has been retained to this day, with- out improvement or change.
There are two sets of these cisterns, the first in which the brines after boiling in the furnace proper are settled, and at the same time strengthened up to saturation; the latter in which the salt is graduated from the clear sat- urated brines. Thus settling and graining cis- terns are very much alike, except that the grainers, are but 15 to 18 inches deep, while
VIEW ON COAL RIVER, LOOKING NORTH FROM COUNTY BRIDGE, ST. ALBANS
ANCIENT METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTHI, ST. ALBANS
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, ST. ALBANS
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF MAIN ST., ST. ALBANS, LOOKING EAST FROM CEMETERY HILL.
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the settlers may be double that or more. Through each and all of these cisterns from end to end are three rows of copper pipes, usually 5 inches in diameter.
After the salt water is boiled in the furnace proper, it runs into these settling cisterns, and after being thoroughly settled and saturated, is drawn into the grainers, where the salt is deposited, and once in 24 hours is lifted out by long handled shovels, on to a salt board, suspended above the grainer, and from which, after proper graining, it is wheeled in wheel- barrows to a salt house, where it is packed in barrels ready for shipment.
The steam generated by the boiling in the furnace proper is carried from the steam chest, by wooden pipes, to the copper pipes and through the settlers and grainers. This steam giving up its heat in passing through these cis- terns, keeps up the temperature of the brines, and causes rapid evaporation. The tempera- ture of these cisterns varies from 120° to 190°; an average would probably be 165°.
This in short, is a description of the steam furnace, after it was improved, and the first mistakes and crudities eliminated. In the first experiments only very slight heat was imparted by the steam to the brines, and only very coarse or alum salt made. It was very simple, ac- complished all that was expected, and so soon as it was fairly tested, improved up to its working condition, and its advantages demon- strated, the days of kettle furnaces were num- bered.
Andrew Donnally and Isaac Noyes were the first to try and adopt the plan. Then followed John D. Lewis, Lewis Ruffner, Frederick Brooks, and others, till all had made the change; and when the Ohio river furnaces were built, the system was fully adopted there.
It is now about 40 years since George Pat- rick introduced the steam furnace, but it still holds its position securely, and without rival.
Minor improvements have been made, and the furnaces much enlarged, but the general plan has not been changed. From the 2,000 or 3,000 or 4,000 bushels per month of the earlier furnaces, the production has been in- creased to 20,000, 30,000 or 40,000 bushels per month. The writer's furnace, Snow Hill,
has made in one year, independent of all stop- pages, delays, etc., 420,000 bushels, the largest single month's run being 41,000 bushels. This furnace has 20,000 square feet of evaporating cistern surface, and over 1,300 square feet of metal-pan furnace-surface. About 1,200 bush- els of coal per day are consumed in the furnace proper, and about 300 more for engines, houses, and other purposes.
How far this will be exceeded in the future remains to be seen. The same progress has occurred in freighting salt, as in the manufac- ture. In the days of Elisha Brooks, the neigh- bors took the salt from the kettles in their pocket handkerchiefs, tin buckets, or pillow cases. Later, it was taken in mealbags, and on packsaddles.
The first shipment west, by river, was in 1808, in tubs, boxes, and hogsheads, floated on a raft of logs. Next came small flat-boats, 50 to 75 feet long and 10 to 18 feet wide, "run" by hand, and in which salt was shipped in bar- rels. These boats increased in size up to 160 feet or more long and 24 to 25 feet wide, and carried 1,800 to 2,200 barrels of salt.
These boats were all run by hand, at great risk, and although the Kanawha boatmen were the best in the world, the boats and cargoes were not unfrequently sunk, entailing heavy loss upon the owners of the salt. The late Col. Andrew Donnally used to ask, when he heard of one of his boats sinking, whether any of the boatmen were drowned; if not, he con- tended it was not a fair sink. But all this is now done away with. Salt is now shipped eastward by rail, and to the nearer westward
markets by daily and weekly steamboat pack- ets, and to the more distant markets by tow- boats and barges. A towboat will now take 8,000 to 15,000 barrels at one trip, landing them at Louisville, Evansville, Nashville, Mem- phis, St. Louis, or elsewhere.
In the matter of packages, no change has oc- curred here since the first use of barrels, the principle change being a gradual improvement in the quality of the cooperage. Our neigh- bors in Mason county, ship some salt in bulk, and some in bags, but the larger portion ir barrels.
Kanawha uses barrels exclusively. We use
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two sizes-280 pounds and 350 pounds net salt, respectively. The pork packing trade, takes the larger size, and the retail trade the smaller chiefly.
These barrels are made of white oak staves and hickory hoops, and it is believed that noth- ing cheaper or better can be devised for salt packages. They are cheaper than bags, more convenient to handle, more convenient to store, stand rougher usages, and more exposure to the weather. Markets having choice of salt in bags or barrels, generally prefer the barrels.
In the earlier times of salt making here, va- rious substances were experimented with for the purpose of settling and separating the im- purities from the brine. Blood, glue, jelly, lime, alum, etc., were used. Something of the sort was necessary when the brine was boiled down in kettles with all its impurities but they are all useless, and worse than useless in the present process, and have long been abandoned. Plenty of settle-room and plenty of time, are all that are needed to have the brines as clear as spring water. The bitterns, after the salt is granulated, are thrown away, or used for other purposes.
It has long been known that a small portion of some greasy or oily substance, on the sur- face of the brine helped "to cut the grain," and hasten the granulation. Butter, tallow, lard, rosin, oils, etc., have been tried. Of these, butter is far the best, and next to butter, tal- low ; lard and some of the others are positive- ly detrimental.
What the action of butter is, whether chem- ical or mechanical, or both, I think has never been determined, but certain it is, that a very small quantity of butter on the surface of brine, while it is granulating very much im- proves the salt, making the grain finer and more uniform.
Heat, too, is an important condition in mak- ing fine salt. The higher the temperature, other things being equal, the finer the salt. In making the finer grades of table and dairy salt, it is necessary to have the brine up to, or near, the boiling point.
On the other hand, the coarser grades of salt, preferred for meat packing and other
purposes, are made at temperatures of from 100 to 150 F.
A still coarser grained, or larger crystalled salt, known as alum salt or solar salt, and made in the open air by solar evaporation, is not made here, but there is no reason why it should not be to great advantage, as we have longer summers and warmer suns, than at Onondaga, New York, where it is very largely made, and with more profit than other grades of salt.
Some of the waste products from salt mak- ing are recently being utilized. Mr. Lerner, an enterprising German, is manufacturing bro- mine (both here and at the Mason county fur- naces) from bitterns, and Mr. Bemmelmans, a Belgian chemist, is erecting works to manu- facture hydrochloric acid from bitterns, and pigments from the impalpable oxide of iron which is deposited from salt brines.
The cost of manufacturing salt on Kana- wha varies, of course, from time to time, with the varying price of living, labor and supplies. It also varies with each particular furnace ac- cording to size, and the greater or less advan- tages which it possesses. The larger the fur- nace, other things being equal, the cheaper it will make salt. The general superintendence and management of a large furnace costs very little, if any more, than for a small one; and a given quantity of coal will make more salt on a large furnace than a small one.
The best furnace will make one hundred bushels of salt with eighty to ninety bushels of coal. A good average result is a bushel of salt for a bushel of coal, and the least econom- ical consume about one hundred and twenty- five bushels of coal per one hundred bushels of salt.
Some of the furnaces mine their own coal, and some buy fine or nut coal from mines that are shipping coal. Even the best furnaces do not use coal at all economically or to the best advantage. There is, in this respect, great room for improvement.
The cost of coal delivered at the furnaces ranges from 234 to 4 cents per bushel. The present cost of barrels is 25 to 28 cents for the smaller size and 28 to 32 cents for the larger.
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The cost of common day labor is $1.00 to $1.25 per day. Coal miners get 2 cents per bushel.
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