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 develop- 
ing new features in the ceramic trades and bids fair to grow 
to still greater importance as one of the industries of Pitts- 
burgh. 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 be- 
cause it could be carried down to a second or third water- 
bearing 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,