Production Engineering and Engineering Research - Gas Column Apparatus for Precise Measurement of Oil Well Pressure (Abstract; see also Oil Weekly, April 4, 1932)

The apparatus is composed of sections of small diameter, seamless steel tubing welded into a continuous flexible tube. At the bottom end a 1/4-in. pipe nipple with a 10 to 15-lb. weight is attached, together with a registering thermometer and a pair of ball check valves. The entire length of tubing is coiled in a single layer upon a drum 4 ft. in diameter which can be attached to the platform of a truck and provided with devices for winding and unwinding the tubing. Connections are made with the upper end of the tubing through a stuffing box, thence to a gas manifold to which a pressure gage is connected. Hydrogen gas is carried in standard 2-ft. cylinders and readings are taken by admitting gas into the tubing from one (or both) of the hydrogen cylinders until the pressure has been built up above that to be measured. At this time the gas supply is cut off. Excess gas escapes through the open end of the tubing and when equilibrium is reached, the pressure is read at the surface gage. Corrections are made for the weight of the column of gas. The advantages claimed for the apparatus include accuracy and the ability to measure the pressures at any number of points without removing the gage. Among the disadvantages of the apparatus are the somewhat bulky size of the equipment and its relatively high initial cost.