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Show "DIVINING ROD" FOR OIL. If the invention of .Eugene Klkins proves. as successful as he reports preliminary pre-liminary tests to have indicated it will, oil deposits will be .easily found and costly exploration work will no longer be necessary. Elkins's contrivance is simply an electrical "divining rod.'' Naturally, it differs wholly from tho willow twig which the oldtime "water witch" used to determine locations for wells down on the farm; but, in results, re-sults, it is expected-to perform similar and far more trustworthy service. Experiments conducted in the shallow shal-low field near L'orsicnnn, Texas, arc said to have demonstrated the worth of the instrument. Klkins has now gone to the Burkburnett district to make further tests. He says he is already al-ready well convinced that distance at which oil lies below the surface offers no obstacle to its discovery. The invention is described by Elkins as being a system which consists of forming an electrical circuit through the eafth by dropping an insulated wire to the bottom of a dry water-hole, valley or indentation and plncing a series of batteries on top of the eurth. to the positive polo of which is attached at-tached a land wire. This wire is then taken out over the field in any direction direc-tion and for any distance. All of the intermediate territory is combed thoroughly with electric currents flowing flow-ing from the positive pule to the negative nega-tive pole. The earth, being an excellent conductor, con-ductor, the electric currents travel from one to the other of. the charged poles by the path of least resistance, much as do the return currents of the telegraph through "ground wires'' to the point of origin. Oil being the only minerals in the earth through which electricity will not pass, it follotfs that an oil pool in the path of the electric currents mentioned will offer n greater resistance to the currents, forcing them to "go around" the pool, and also re suiting in an appreciable loss of current cur-rent through electrolysis. Both of these factors register resistance on an extremely ex-tremely delicate meter in the hands of the operator on the surface of the earth. Of course, this is but the briefest outline of Klkins ' device, but if servos to elucidate the principle upon which it works. It is so simple that, should it meet expectations, everybody interested inter-ested in finding nil will marvel that it hadn't been thought of before. That is the way of all really useful inven tions. |