Historical

Okotoks Western Wheel
July 2, 2008 Vol 33 No 43

Francis Sinclair-Smith was born to Robert and Annie Sinclair-Smith of Montifieth, Scotland on May 7, 1894. He received his education at Bedford School. While there, he excelled in the sport of rowing.

... A Seaboard Scrubbing Plant in the summer of 1925 initiated gas processing... The original plant consisted of six wooden grid packed scrubbers, each three feet in diameter by sixty feet in height, operating at a pressure of 315 pounds per square inch; two wooden grid packed pacifiers, each 15 feet in diameter by 54 feet in height, operating at atmospheric pressure; one 3 feet by 123 feet stack which carried off hydrogen sulphide gas to the atmosphere... This plant was enlarged... so that by 1928 it had a capacity of sixty million cubic feet per day... The facility was modernized in 1935 when the wooden grid type scrubbers were replaced by bubble cap type scrubbers. This change increased the capacity to seventy-five million cubic feet per day... (in 1941), a Girbotol unit with a normal capacity of fifty million cubic feet per day and an emergency capacity of seventy-two million cubic feet per day was installed...

The American Standard cable-tool drilling rig, utilizing a cable (hemp rope and later steel) for lifting or lowering the drilling tools and a separate "sand" line for lifting or lowering the bailer, was in use in Western Canada as late as 1947 (Alliance Trans Alberta No.2, Lsd2, Sec.18, Twp.20, Rge.1W4M). The majority of cable-tool rigs were characterized by framed wooden derricks with a long attached shed with enclosed engine. The exposed steam boiler, with its characteristically high smoke stack adjoined the other end of the linear shed. The singular identifying feature or hallmark of the cable-tool rig was its "walking beam" which by controlled rocking, served to activate the stroke of the cable and the resultant alternating percussion and churning of the chisel type bit. Between the end of the cable and the bit were the "jars" or large metal links used to facilitate the freeing of a stuck bit.

THE TURNER VALLEY OILFIELD STORY

Historical Background

At first, the gas just bubbled out of the bank along the Sheep River. Aboriginal peoples knew of the gas for centuries, but had no particular use for it, though in the north, tar seepages yielded medicines and pitch for caulking canoes. Legend has it that cowboys fried bacon and eggs over the gas seepages as they passed through the area on cattle drives. The gas was easy to find since their horses refused to drink where it bubbled up in the water.

- Alberta's first gas discovery was accidental; a CPR crew drilling for water in 1883 at Langevin siding, in southeastern Alberta, and discovered gas instead at 1155 feet. Encouraged by 500 psi wellhead pressure, lines were quickly laid to the nearby city of Medicine Hat. For years there after street lights burned 24 hours a day in the belief the cost of fuel consumed was less than a Lamplighter's salary.

This company began at the drill site of Dingman #1, (Alberta's first major gas discovery in 1914). It came about when Calgary Petroleum Product Company had only nine wells in operation by 1920, and produced just 66,000 barrels of natural gas in 10 years. That coupled with the fire that ripped through the absorption plant in October of that year. Being unable to pay the $50,000 repair bill sold its operations to Imperial Oil. Imperial Oil reorganized the company under the name Royalite Oil Company Ltd.

Born in Brampton Ontario September 1, 1854. Working as a library assistant his quick mind was recognized and was encourged to return to school. He attended Osgoode Hall and completed studies in law in 1877.

Photo courtesy Glenbow Archives