The Lusk Herald, April 18, 1919

Big Refinery to be Built Here At Once

  Not many of our readers know that a modern up-to-date oil refinery costing $140,000 is to be built in our city.  The company will be owned and operated by our own people, and in the interest of this community, and not for its exploitation.  From the fact that it will use the McWhorter processes for cracking and the McWhorter formulae for the treatment of the products, it will be styled The McWhorter Oil and Refining Co., of Lusk.

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The Lusk Standard, July 25, 1919

M’WHORTER REFINERY ONE OF MOST IMPORTANT ENTERPRISES FOR THE BILLION DOLLAR CITY

On Saturday of last week the Standard man was driven by Mr. Milton McWhorter to the ground of the Lusk refinery, now nearing completion on its site a mile and a half west from the city. After passing up a slightly inclining road on the latter half of the route, a small summit on the horizon is reached, from which vantage point the traveler looks down upon the buildings of the refinery. Although at present not extensive nor imposing, the little group have a business-like appearance and are just what they purport to be---the nucleus of an oil refining plant which is prepared to extend into large proportions, and which when ready to begin operations will be complete in every detail for an output of 200 barrels daily.
The corporation which owns and controls the refinery is composed of Lusk people, and is known as the Oil and Refining Company of Lusk. The officers and directors are well known men in Lusk. Milton McWhorter, president of the company, is an advanced chemist and oil refiner. The processes which will be used in the refining of the crude oils in the Lusk refinery are his own, and are an advancement over older methods in use in many refineries at this date. Besides the Lusk refinery, there are three other McWhorter refineries operating successfully today under the McWhorter name---at Haggerman, N.M., at Brownwood, Texas, and at San Antonio, Texas. The other officers of the Lusk company are as follows: W.C. Reed, Vice-President and Treasurer; Guy Moses, Secretary. Directors: W.C. Reed, Fred H. Moses, Harry Hargraves, George H. Howes and Milton McWhorter.
As we reached the summit in the saddle from which the first view of the plant is had, Mr. McWhorter stopped the engine of his car to give the writer time to look over the site. And it has certainly been well chosen. The buildings are lying on level ground, in close proximity to the C. & N.W. tracks, from which a spur will soon be run for the accommodation of the refinery. The company has twenty acres of land, 500 feet of which front on the right of way of the C. & N.W.
“We have the ground here for a five-thousand-barrel plant,” Mr. McWhorter explained. “You will note the more than a quarter of a mile in width of the valley in which it lies. The ground is all underlaid with a deep strata of sand and gravel through which a constant stream of water is flowing, and which will supply water for all out needs, even though the capacity of the plant may have reached the five thousand barrel a day capacity or greater, as is not improbable within the course of a few years.” To the east of the refinery, sitting on a hill a quarter of a mile distant, were two large tanks, the termination of the Illinois Pipe Line, which is bringing in the crude oil from the Lusk field. Mr. McWhorter pointed to these and remarked: “We built here with the idea of being close to this line. You can see it puts is in the position of being logical consumer of the Lance Creek oils. However, for reasons which may appear later, it now seems that we may have to begin operations in the plant with oils shipped in from another field.”
These explanations were being given as we drove down the slope which leads to the building, which are neatly arranged, and have received their first coat of lead-colored factory paint. As we reached the plant, immediately the character of Mr. McWhorter began to show itself in the interest he has taken in the living accommodations of employees. (“My people,” as he calls them) at the works: “It has always been by theory,” said he, “that if I make good clean decent living quarters for my people, I can always get good, clean, decent people to perform the work at my refineries. I like to have my living accommodations such that married men can bring their families to live in them, and children may be brought up, in health and morality. I’m not so very much of a church-goer myself, but there will always be vehicles for the use of my people who wish to attend Sunday services in town. Besides, I always pay a little more than anyone else, and in that way we have a more contented family, as it were, around me and I have a right to expect and do get a better loyalty from those on the pay-roll of the works. The first consideration in any of the works where I have been interested in the comfort of my people. There is nothing here but is free to the employees. They will have running water as soon as I can get the tank put up on that high tower there. It will have a good force---ample for fire purposes as well as all other needs of the home and outdoor use. There are free baths and every living room is electric lighted, and no charge for any of these accommodations.” Here we led into the building where the main living quarters for the employees is situated. It is built more on the plan of a good roomy cottage, than the usual habitat provided for the mill or mining workman. The dining room is made large enough to afford ample room for the force at the refinery, and still leaves sitting room and a place of comfort in which to read, rest and enjoy the leisure hour. The sleeping quarters are home-like, electric lighted and well named—all the comforts of a home.
Things in the superintendents’ quarters are on the same plan, no more pretentious, but roomy, cheerful and inviting. The main office has one large room, not yet entirely finished, but at the present time containing a fording desk, a good-sized steel safe and such other office fixtures as are necessary for immediate occupancy of the premises, and private consultation room in the rear.
From the living and office buildings the Standard man was taken into the boiler and pump house. There are a set of double boilers, which furnish the power to run the burners, the three different pumps, and to lift the vapor off from the stills. The three pumps each have their separate work to perform—one for handling the crude oil, one for kerosene, and the third for gasolene. The system of piping which carries their different oils to and from all their separate receptacles is laid well under ground, as it is also the water piping for the entire plant. There are large suction pipes in connection with the system by which carload lots of oil are unloaded. These suction pipes, we were informed will handle about 200 barrels of oil per hour, and are great savers of time. Also, with the discharge from this same pump either the stills may be loaded or the crude oil placed in the elevated fuel tanks, or it may be place in any empty tanks from the car.
The gasolene pump and the kerosene pumps have much the same routine of work to perform. The duties of the gasolene pump are varied and numerous. It picks up the crude gasolene and places it in the treatment tanks where it is chemically purified; also, it picks up the same after it is purified and puts it into the steam still for redistillation; again, the same pump picks up the redistilled gasolene and distributes it to the various storage tanks.
In the pump house a well has been sunk to a depth of about thirty feet. At ten feet water began to come in the gravel; after this depth had been attained the well was sank some twenty feet under the greatest disadvantages, the incoming water making it impossible to go deeper. The flow in the gravel is so steady here it is thought this one well will be amply sufficient for the working of a 5,000-barrel plant, but should it at any time prove insufficient it will require but a few days to sink and put into commission another well of similar size and capacity as this first one now in use.
Standing near the pump house is a tower about thirty feet in height. This tower is pf sufficient size to carry two 200-barrel tanks. One of these tanks will furnish the head for the water system, the water to be pumped into it from the well heretofore described. The main pipe from this tank is attached to a sewer system which affords a completed drainage from every building on the premises, and will give a good head on the pipes furnished for protection in case of fire. The other 200-barrel tank which will rest on this tower will contain the crude oil which will be used for fuel for the boilers under the stills, and for the boiler in the engine room.
Besides this tower, there are two other towers—one much higher than the water tank structure. On the lower of these last there will be space for five 200-barrel tanks to sit. These will be filled by gravity from the tanks of the higher tower, which is known as the agitator tower, and from which impurities known as alkaloid and acid “sludge” are ran off. These buildings, towers, pumping plant, boiler room, etc., as have been described, have been erected with the idea of a 5,000-barrell per day output.
From the towers we were taken to the still. There are four large boilers here, set in brick, which constitute a complete unit of the still, and which has a capacity of 250 barrels per day, measure in Lance Creek oil. If measured in the heavier black oils the daily output would be about 200 barrels. The different uses of the boilers as they are set, taking then from left to right are: First, the gasolene still; second, for lubricating oil; third, for kerosene, and the fourth the steam still.
The condensers for this unit, by which the vapors are condensed, have been delayed in Denver. After the vapors have been condensed they run by gravity from the condenser into the receiving tanks. The suction pipes come in here and carry this oil, in its present condition, to the tanks above, where it is chemically treated and purified.
It rests now in tanks for a period, experiment shows how long. After it has rested there a sufficient length of time it is ran by gravity into the filters and passes through these into the receiving tanks in the still house, and from these tanks the finished product is carried out into the storage tanks in the yard.
The filters are a part of the McWhorter process which is unknown in the business except in the refineries bearing the name. they are made from 14-inch sewer pipe, the filling for the filter being the secret of the method. “There are none of the refineries now in operation using the process in complete from as we will have it here in the Lusk plant,” said Mr. McWhorter. The McWhorter cracking process is a secret process I have developed myself in handling the heavy oils on the Pacific coast. The plant as it stands today has been built with special adaptability to these light oils from the Lance Creek district, and will be just as useful here as in California.