French tunnel engineer Rodolphe Leschot in 1863 patented a “Tool for Boring Rock†– a ring of industrial-grade diamonds on the end of a tubular drill rod and designed to cut a cylindrical core. Water pumped through the drill rod washed away cuttings and cooled the bit.
Leschot’s system proved successful in drilling blast holes for tunneling Mount Cenis on the France-Italy border. By 1865, the use of diamond bits in oil well drilling was being examined in the petroleum regions of western Pennsylvania.
“It is not known if there is any connection between the 1865 experimental diamond core drilling in the Pennsylvania oil region and the Leschot blast hole drilling in France in 1863,†noted oil historian Samuel Pees in 2004. Learn more about Making Hole – Drilling Technology and visit Pennsylvania’s historic oil region and the Drake Well Museum in Titusville.
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