John Franklin Carll

Background

John Franklin Carll was born on May 7, 1828 in Bushwick (now Brooklyn), Long Island, United States; the son of John and Margaret (Walters) Carll.

Education

He was educated at Union Hall Academy in Flushing, Long Island.

Career

At eighteen, when Carll had finished his schooling, he joined his father in farming and was so occupied for about three years. He then entered the publishing field in association with his brother-in-law, E. O. Crowell, and assisted in the editing and printing of the Daily Eagle in Newark, N. J. Four years later he disposed of his interests in that newspaper and returned to Flushing where for ten years he was engaged in the practise of civil engineering and surveying. In October 1864 he moved to Pleasantville, Pa. , and became identified with work in the development of the oil fields of that state. While so occupied, he invented the static-pressure sand pump, a removable pump chamber, and adjustable sleeves for piston rods. In 1874 Prof. J. P. Lesley, chief of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, appointed Carll as one of the assistant geologists, in charge of the petroleum and natural-gas surveys. The seven reports which he compiled on this work have, from their publication to the present time, been considered by oil men as standard authorities. They are models of conscientious investigation and scientific description. Carll was the first geologist to comprehend the structure of the oil regions of Pennsylvania and to furnish in his reports a reliable exposition of their essential features. These reports cover the geology of the oil regions of Warren, Venango, Clarion, and Butler counties of Pennsylvania; they also include surveys of Garland and Panama conglomerates in Warren and Crawford counties in Pennsylvania and in Chautauqua County of New York. In them Carll described oil-well rigs and tools and discussed both the pre-glacial and post-glacial drainage of Erie County, Pa. He also gave an excellent comparison of the geology of northeastern Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania, and western New York.

Carll continued with the Survey until 1885 when he resigned to enter private practise as a consulting geologist.

At the time of his death in 1904, in Waldron, Ark. , Carll was on his way south for the benefit of his health.

Achievements

• It is hardly too much to say that the geology of petroleum was virtually created by John Carll and his service to the science in sweeping away many popular fallacies was invaluable. He was the first geologist to comprehend the structure of the oil regions of Pennsylvania and to furnish in his reports. Carll was the inventor of the static-pressure sand pump, a removable pump chamber, and adjustable sleeves for piston rods. He exerted an influence upon the more thoughtful part of the population of the oil regions, an influence so unpretentious, steady, and consistent as almost to elude observation, but so real and fundamental as to illustrate admirably the true function of a geological survey.

Works

More photos

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  • Geological Report on Warren County and the Neighboring Oil Regions

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Seventh report on the oil and gas fields of western Pennsylvania: For 1887, 1888, with additional unpublished well records

Connections

Carll was married twice: in 1853 to Hannah A. Burtis of South Oyster Bay, Long Island, who died in September 1859, and in 1868 to Martha Tappan of Newark, New Jersey, who died in 1903.

Father:

John Carll

Mother:

Margaret (Walters) Carll

1st wife:

Hannah A. Burtis

2nd wife:

Martha Tappan