Part 1

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THE

Journal of Electricity, Power and Gas

Devoted to the Conversion, Transmission and Distribution of Energy.

VOLUME XX. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., MAY 2, 1908 No. 18

LIGHTING SYSTEM OF THE ORCUTT OIL FIELDS.

By CLEM A. COPELAND.

Consulting Engineer, Los Angeles, Cal.

The large and deep-lying oil-sand lakes and subterranean gas works, commencing with the southern rim of the Santa Maria Valley and stretching away for a dozen miles southward toward Santa Barbara, contribute some 14,600,000 barrels of high gravity refining and fuel oil to California’s annual production of 40,000,000 barrels.

With the assistance of two eight-inch pipe lines 32 miles to Port Harford, a similar line 48 miles across the Isthmus of Panama, and a goodly fleet of vessels, the Union Oil Company scatters this oil from Seattle to San Diego, and from New York to Japan. Chile also has a share for the working of its nitre beds and its railways.

The little towns of Santa Maria and Orcutt receive with open pipes a tithe of the gas which nature has here stored, and which would otherwise escape the many safety valves, while the steam rig engines have often been run with direct gas pressure from the wells.

This land of gas and gushers is difficult of control, and is always ready to pop off at from 100 to 400 pounds pressure through the many 3,000-foot tubes which puncture its depths. When a new gusher is brought in, it sprays the adjacent hills with a glistening shadow of petroleum and is no respecter of persons or property. One new and frisky fury flowed 12,000 barrels per day, and delivered 4,000,000 cubic feet of gas every 24 hours for four months, gradually dropping to a production of 7,000 barrels, which it maintained for nearly a year, finally diminishing to 3,500, and now, after three and a third years, is still producing 250 barrels per day, having delivered during this time 3,000,000 barrels of petroleum, and enough gas to last San Francisco for three years. This is, with perhaps one exception, the most remarkable well in the history of oil industry, and is widely known as “Hartwell No. 1.”

The district contains two groups of wells, one contiguous to Orcutt, and the other near Lompoc. Danger from fire due to the excessive gas pressure of the Orcutt fields is exceedingly great, as evidenced by the burning of four “rigs” in the first two years of its history, during which time there were fifteen wells brought into production. The cost of these “rigs” exceeded the cost of the lighting plant, which is described in these notes, and no fires have since occurred in the sixty wells now producing. The advisability of the plant is therefore quite patent.

The lighting system employed in the Orcutt oil fields is perhaps only interesting in illustrating how the methods employed in large undertakings may be used to great advantage in the smaller enterprises to effect a large saving and to simplify conventional methods. The smaller undertakings often afford opportunities of saving a larger percentage in cost and operation in connection with the larger ones. In the present instance, an economy of $9,000 was made in a system which would have cost $30,000 if constructed along conventional lines.

As may be seen from some of the views in these notes, the country covered by the system is very hilly and stony, hard sandstone being everywhere prominent. Trees would have interfered considerably over perhaps a third of the line with ordinary construction, and being oak, it would have cost heavily to eliminate them. Although the winters in this section are very bleak and windy, no snow has ever fallen. The attached map shows the wells, which are unusually far apart and scattered over some 5,000 acres of land.

Long span work, employing copper cables, and using the oil-well derricks for support, seemed well to meet these and all other conditions in the most economical fashion. The adoption of long span work effected a large saving in the length of line and wire needed to cover the territory, since air-line routes could be covered in all cases across country, without any care being taken to lay out a pole line which would conform to some general inflexible plan. Moreover, much vertical distance was saved in not having to follow the contour of the country. Incidentally the long span work makes the installation of new pieces of line very easy and simple, and no large amount of material need be kept on hand for expansion purposes.

Where conditions are rapidly changing, as in the present instance, existing lines having to be moved because of the abandonment of wells or re-arrangement as new wells come in amongst the old ones, are easily changed, with but little loss of labor and material. The derricks, 80 feet in height, make ideal supports for long-span construction, and steel frames, heavy enough for the largest size of wire, eventually were made of “scrap” pipe set in cement. Where the derricks were not available, redwood “dead-men” were also used between derricks which were near together, but on opposite sides of rises or hills. The present system of distribution is 72,550 feet, or 13.75 miles, in length, and consists of 70 derricks, 9 frames, and 10 “dead-men,” making the average span about 800 feet. The seven-strand bare copper cables used in this work were furnished under rigid specifications previously described in the “Journal,” by the Standard Underground Cable Company. One will observe from the map and photos that there are many spans 1,500 feet in length, one span of 2,000 feet between derricks and one 2,600 feet from one frame to another. The sags allowed correspond to 60 feet on a 2,000-foot span, and the cables were very small for such work, No. 6 being used for the greatest lengths, which occurs as a neutral on the longest spans. The sizes used are Nos. 2, 4, and 6.

As the cables were suspended high above the ground and good construction was relied upon for safety from breakage, they were used without insulation, and a large saving was thus effected. “Goose-egg” strain insulators, first designed by the writer several years ago, are used to insulate the cables. Copper sleeves were used to splice the cables and to loop them to the insulators.

It is of considerable interest to observe the action of these light cables in a high wind, for even in the most gusty storms there is no whipping action. In the longer spans, the cables hang absolutely parallel and sway in a most deliberate manner from 12 to 25 feet out of line.

Inasmuch as fuel economy is of little importance, since either waste gas or oil can be used, a large drop in the distributing system is permissible, and a radius of three or four miles from the power-house can be economically attained by the use of 210 to 250 volt lamps on the three-wire direct-current system. At present the maximum distance is 255 miles, and four voltages of lamps are employed. The derricks are wired on the two-wire system with No. 14 T. B. W. P. medium, hard-drawn wire, care being taken to keep all wires on the outside of derrick house wherever possible. Although the wires and insulators have been in some cases completely sprayed and saturated with oil from the gushers, no troubles of insulation have been experienced.

At the time this work was started, there was a small plant on the Pinal Oil Company’s property near by, where keyed sockets were used until one of the drillers was injured by a gas explosion caused by turning off one of the lights. This, of course, suggested the care necessary to guard against such accidents. In the present installation, double-pole fuses were constructed for each derrick and tank house, by using two weatherproof sockets and Edison plug fuses, all inclosed in a gauze cylinder like a Davy mine lamp. Switches for tank house and derricks were also inclosed in gauze. In wiring the derricks, sleeves were used for splicing, so that in the whole system no solder nor torch was used. Specially designed heavy wire lamp guards and portables, with wires inclosed in cotton-covered garden hose, are other features of the derrick wiring. When drilling is commenced, the derrick is wired for eleven lights. Tank houses, some fifteen or twenty in number, are wired with a light over each tank.

The power-house is of only passing interest, being designed for reliability and minimum first cost, and with the idea of transplanting it to some new location should future conditions dictate. The view shows two 10×10 Shepherd engines, clutched to either end of a shaft, from which two 45-kilowatt, 250-volt, direct-current Westinghouse generators are belted. In case of accident to one generator, a switch on the switchboard converts the 3-wire to a 2-wire system, using the two outside wires as one, and the neutral as the return conductor. Three 48×14 fire-tube boilers supply steam at 125 pounds pressure. The power-house is in a perennially cool location on a hill crest, so that it could be made small and cozy.

The system has been in uninterrupted and satisfactory operation for two years. The only trouble during the time was caused by one wire of one span breaking, due to an imperfection in splicing. The section has long-continued and severe winds, much rain and cold weather, but two winters have developed no imperfections. Although the lights burn all night, no interruption has been experienced. Reliability is important, since, if the lights failed, there would be a temptation to light candles or lanterns at a critical time.

The system was designed and supervised by Mr. Copeland, of Messrs. Clem. Copeland and F. R. Schanck, consulting engineers for the Union Oil Company. Mr. C. W. Crawley, who is at present electrical superintendent, was foreman of construction.

ALCOHOL vs. GASOLINE FOR POWER.

The Technologic Branch of the United States Geological Survey, under the direction of Mr. J. A. Holmes, has recently completed an elaborate series of tests on the relative value of gasoline and alcohol as producers of power. The tests, over two thousand in number, probably represent the most complete and exact investigation of the kind that has been made, either in this country or abroad, and includes much original research work.

Correspondingly well-designed alcohol and gasoline engines when running under the most advantageous conditions for each, will consume equal volumes of the fuel for which they are designed. This statement is based on the results of many tests made under the most favorable practical conditions that could be obtained for the size and type of engines and fuel used. An average of the minimum fuel consumption values thus obtained, gives a like figure of eight-tenths (.8) of a pint per hour per brake horsepower for gasoline and alcohol.

Considering that the heat value of a gallon of the denatured alcohol is only a little over six-tenths (.6) that of a gallon of the gasoline, this result of equal fuel consumption by volume for gasoline and alcohol engines probably represents the best comparative value that can be obtained for alcohol at the present time, as is also indicated by continental practice. Though the possibility of obtaining this condition in practice here has been thoroughly demonstrated at the Government Fuel-testing Plant, it yet remains with the engine manufacturers to make the “equal fuel consumption by volume” a commercial basis of comparison.

The gasoline engines that were used in these tests are representative of the standard American stationary-engine types, rating at 10 to 15 horsepower, at speeds of from 250 to 300 revolutions per minute, while the alcohol engines were of similar construction and identical in size with the gasoline engines.

The air was not preheated for the above tests on alcohol and gasoline, and the engines were equipped with the ordinary types of constant level suction lift and constant level pressure spray carburetters. Many special tests with air preheated to various temperatures up to 250° Fahrenheit, and tests with special carburetters were made, but no beneficial effects traceable to better carburation were found when the engines were handled under the special test conditions, including constant speed and best load.

The commercial completely denatured alcohol referred to is 100 parts ethyl alcohol plus 10 parts methyl alcohol plus one-half of one part benzol, and corresponds very closely to 94 per cent by volume or 91 per cent by weight ethyl alcohol (grain alcohol).

No detrimental effects on the cylinder walls and valves of the engines were found from the use of the above denatured alcohol.

The lowest consumption values were obtained with the highest compression that it was found practical to use; which compression for the denatured alcohol ranged from 150 to 180 pounds per square inch above atmosphere.

Eighty per cent alcohol (alcohol and water) for use in engines of the present types would have to sell for at least 15 per cent less per gallon than the denatured alcohol, in order to compete with it. The minimum consumption values in gallons per hour per brake horsepower for 80 per cent alcohol is approximately 17.5 per cent greater than for the denatured alcohol used, or for gasoline. A series of tests made with alcohol of various percentages by volume ranging from 94 per cent to 50 per cent, showed that the minimum consumption values in gallons per hour per brake horsepower increased a little more rapidly than the alcohol decreased in percentage of pure alcohol. That is, the thermal efficiency decreased with the decrease in percentage of pure alcohol. This decrease in thermal efficiency or increase in consumption referred to pure alcohol is, however, comparatively slight from 100 per cent alcohol down to about 80 per cent alcohol. Within these limits it may be neglected in making the calculations necessary to compare the minimum consumption values for tests with different percentages of alcohol.

The nearer the alcohol is to pure, the greater the maximum horsepower of the engine. The per cent reduction in maximum horsepower for 80 per cent alcohol as compared with that for denatured alcohol used, was less than one per cent, but the starting and regulating difficulties are appreciably increased.

With suitable compression, mixtures of gasoline and alcohol vapors (double carburetters) gave thermal efficiencies ranging between that for gasoline (maximum 22.2 per cent) and that for alcohol (maximum 34.6 per cent) but in no case were they higher than that for alcohol. The above thermal efficiencies are calculated from the brake horsepower and the low calorific value of the fuel, which for the gasoline was 19,100 British thermal units per pound, and for the denatured alcohol was 10,500 British thermal units per pound.

As has been previously published, alcohol can be used with more or less satisfaction in stationary and marine gasoline engines and these gasoline engines will use from one and one-half to twice as much alcohol as gasoline when operating under the same conditions. The possibilities, however, of altering the ordinary gasoline engines as required to obtain the best economies with alcohol are very limited; for the amount that the compression can be raised without entirely redesigning the cylinder head and valve arrangement is ordinarily not sufficient, nor are the gasoline engines usually built heavy enough to stand the maximum explosive pressures, which often reach six and seven hundred pounds per square inch. With the increase in weight for the same-sized engine designed to use alcohol instead of gasoline, comes an increase in maximum horsepower of a little over thirty-five per cent (35%), so that its weight per horsepower need not be greater than that of the gasoline engine, and probably will be less.

The work was taken up to investigate the characteristic action of fuels used in internal combustion engines with a detailed study of the action of each fuel (gasoline and alcohol) as governed by the many variable conditions of engine manipulation, design and equipment. These variables were isolated, so far as possible; their separate and combined effects were determined; worked out under practical operating conditions; and led up to the conditions required for minimum fuel consumption. The results show the saving that can be obtained over conditions for maximum consumption, and also establish a definite basis of comparison under conditions most favorable to each fuel. This latter is a point of much commercial interest, and a study of the comparative action of gasoline and alcohol may be of great service in solving some of the general internal-combustion-engine problems where other than liquid fuels are used.

A large number of fundamental tests were necessary in order to clearly define conditions and interpret results. In a way they follow the work conducted by the Department of Agriculture, supplementing to a certain extent, but not duplicating bulletin 191, which gives much data of general value.

Many of the tests of internal-combustion engines have been made, but most of them, especially in this country, were by private concerns, for a specified purpose, and the results are not generally available. Furthermore, as is generally recognized by those familiar with gas, and especially gasoline-engine operation, the conditions influencing engine performance are so numerous and varied as to make the value of offhand comparison very limited and oftentimes misleading, exact comparisons only being possible under identical conditions or with reference to the actual known differences in all conditions that influence the results.

ELECTRICAL CODE REVISIONS.

At the recent meeting of the Underwriters’ National Electric Association it was decided that Cooper Hewitt lamps must have a cut-out for each lamp or series, except when contained in a single frame and lighted by a single operation, in which case not more than five lamps shall be dependent on a single cut-out. The regulators must be enclosed in non-combustible cases, and where subject to flyings of lint or combustible material, all openings through the casings must be protected by a fine wire gauze. Moore electric light tubes must be installed so as to be free from liability to mechanical injury or of contact with inflammable material. The high-potential coils and regulating apparatus must be installed in an approved steel cabinet, which shall be ventilated in such a manner as to prevent the escape of flame or sparks in case of burn-out. The apparatus in this box must be mounted on slate, and the enclosing case positively grounded. The supply conductors must comply with the rules governing low-potential systems where such wires do not carry current having a potential of over 300 volts.

Rule 8, section _d_, was amended to apply to auto-starters only, and a new section was added to rule 60 governing the details of rheostat construction. New rules regarding low-potential transformers follow: Oil transformers must not be placed inside of any building except central stations and sub-stations, unless by special permission of the inspection department. Air-cooled transformers must not be placed inside of any building excepting central stations and sub-stations, unless the highest voltage of either primary or secondary does not exceed 550 volts, and must be so mounted that the case shall be one foot from combustible material or separated therefrom by non-combustible, non-absorptive, insulating material, such as slate or marble. Where transformers are placed at a lesser distance, a slab of slate or marble somewhat larger than the transformer must be used, and where the transformer is mounted on a side wall, the slate or marble must be secured independent of the transformer supports, the transformer being supported by bolts countersunk at least one-eighth inch below the surface of the back of the slab and filled.

For wiring electric cranes the following rules were adopted: All wires except bare collector wires, those between resistances and contact plates of rheostats and those subjected to severe external heat, must be approved, rubber-covered and not smaller in size than No. 12 B. & S. Wires between resistances and contact plates of rheostats must conform to No. 4-c, unless the wires are exposed to moisture, in which case the insulation must also be rubber. Wires subjected to severe external heat must have approved slow-burning insulation. All wires, excepting collector wires and those run in metal conduit or armored cable, must be supported by knobs or cleats which separate them at least one inch from the surface wired over, but in dry places where space is limited and the distance between wires as required by Rule 24-h cannot be obtained, each wire must be separately encased in approved flexible tubing securely fastened in place. Collector wires must be supported by approved insulators so mounted that even with the extreme movement permitted the wires will be separated at all times at least one and one-half inches from the surface wired over. Collector wires must be held at the ends by approved strain insulators.

Where the wires are arranged in a horizontal plane above the crane, they must be supported at least every twenty feet if practicable, and separated at least six inches, but if longer spans are necessary, the distance between wires must be increased proportionately, the span in no case to exceed forty feet. If not arranged in a horizontal plane, they must be carried along the runways and must be rigidly and securely attached to their insulating supports at least every twenty feet, and if not arranged in a vertical plane, must be separated at least eight inches.

Where bridge collector wires are over eighty feet long, insulating supports on which the wires may loosely lie must be provided at least every fifty feet. Bridge collector wires must be kept at least two and one-half inches apart, but a greater spacing should be used whenever it may be obtained. Collector wires must not be smaller in size than specified in the following table for the various spans:

Distance between Size wire rigid supports. required. Feet. B. & S. 0 to 30 6 31 to 60 4 Over 60 2

Collectors must be so designed that sparking will be reduced to a minimum between them and collector wires. The main collector wires must be protected by a cut-out and the circuit controlled by a switch, cut-out and switch to be so located as to be easy of access from the floor. Cranes operated from cabs must have a cut-out and switch connected into the leads from the main collector wires and so located in the cab as to be readily accessible to the operator. Where there is more than one motor on a single crane, each motor lead must be protected by a cut-out located in the cab if there is one.

Controllers must be installed according to No. 4, except that if the crane is located outdoors the wires between resistances and contact plates of rheostats may be rubber-covered or bare or slow-burning if properly supported. If the crane operates over readily combustible material, the resistances must be placed in a fire-resisting enclosure; or, if located in a cab, the cab must be constructed of non-combustible material and sides provided which enclose the cab from its floor to a height at least six inches above the top of the resistance.