ing jars or mills. They have also in course of development
pyrometer tubes for use with heat recording instruments.
The O. Hommel Co. is continually taking on and developing
new features in the ceramic trades and bids fair to grow
to still greater importance as one of the industries of Pittsburgh.
The general office is located at Carnegie, Pa., and
axecutive office at 209 Fourth Avenue, Pittsburgh.
THE KEYSTONE DRILLER COMPANY
Robert Magee Downie was born on a farm near Valencia,
Butler County, Pennsylvania, August 21, 1853. At the age
of 22, while as yet there was no such device known as a well
drilling machine on wheels, he learned that there was a
method of sinking small test holes for coal, by hand, using
a sapling as a spring-pole, to carry the drilling tools. With
the proceeds of a winter’s school-teaching and the assistance
of a neighbor he procured an outfit of spring-pole drilling
tools and went into the business of exploring for bituminous
coal.
It was hard work. Five to ten feet of three inch hole
was a fair day’s work for two strong men. He learned the
theory and “art” of drilling wells; and he observed that the
farmers sometimes used the abandoned test holes for water
supply. With a set of larger tools he went into the business
of drilling water wells, for which there was great demand;
but he had trouble convincing his clients that a permanent
and adequate supply of water could be gotten out of a 5
inch hole. The world had been accustomed since the days
of Abraham to wells four or five feet in diameter. He had
to guarantee his new-fangled well to produce “plenty of
water or no pay.” Experience showed that the drilled well
was more sanitary, could be cased securely against surface
contamination and vermin; that it was more reliable because
it could be carried down to a second or third waterbearing
stratum; that it was cheaper to make and safer for
man and beast.
It seemed that there should be an easier way. In 1878
Robert Downie built in his father’s farm yard, out of a heavy
wagon truck, a second-hand boiler and small steam engine,
