Bucyrus Drills: Drilling the Earth for 75 Years
Bucyrus Drills: Drilling the Earth for 75 Years
ITEM E436
By David Lang
The production of coal, iron, copper, and other minerals has always presented a need for blasting and associated blast holes. Likewise, the blossoming of housing in America has demanded a continual need for water wells for a growing rural population. Bucyrus International, Inc. (formerly Bucyrus-Erie Company) has been a traditional supplier of the tools to meet that need, a pioneer of the blast hole drilling effort since the Bucyrus purchase of the Armstrong Drill Company in 1933. Churn drills of that era eventually gave way to rotary blast hole drills in 1952.
This book recounts the history of drilling, early manufacturers of drilling equipment, the emergence of drilling methods, rigs, drill bits, and the role of Bucyrus in furthering the science and art of water well and blast hole drilling. While tracing the rich heritage of over 75 years of Bucyrus drill production terminology, explosives, hole size, and machinery design features are addressed. The production and use of over 11,600 churn drills, 42 jet piercer drills, and over 1,376 rotary blast hole drills are portrayed in vivid photography from the Bucyrus archives.
Softbound, 200 illustrations, 8.5”x11”, 128 pages
My limited exposure to “drilling the earth” can be summed up by two experiences. The first involved a trip to the open pit mines of Minnesota’s Iron Ore Range in 1958. The 300-foot-deep well I had to drill to supply water for my home 50 years ago was the second. This interesting account by David Lang—Bucyrus International’s director of engineering at the time of publication—focusing on the drilling efforts of the company’s various iterations, provides a useful introduction. While visually engaging, the book’s narrative text is limited to the captions that accompany the photographs and illustrations. Fourteen brief chapters, generally less than 10 pages each, provide coverage that includes well drilling and examples of early equipment, the acquisition of Armstrong Drill by Bucyrus-Erie in 1933, the principles of drilling, water well spudders, the demands of oil well servicing, blast hole churn drills that made the holes that were loaded with explosives and detonated, drill bits, various successful Bucyrus products (11,600 churn drills sold through 1984, for example), rotary water well drills, rotary blast hole drills, leveling drilling rigs (necessary to assure straight holes, I learned), derricks and masts, and, finally, the personnel that do the work.
Book Review by Robert Gabrick
