Fire well

Fire well

Huojing Town, located in Qionglai, Sichuan Province, is the first place to discover natural gas in the world.

Chinese words

A well that produces combustible natural gas. In ancient times, it was often used to boil salt.

"Zuo Si" in Wenxuan: "the well of fire shines in the deep spring, and the high fan flies in the sky." Liu Kui noted: "there is Huojing in Shu County, southwest of Linqiong county. Well of fire, well of salt. "

"There is a fire well in Xichuan. It's very strange. The well is cold, and there is no fire gas. But the bamboo is cut to remove the knots, and the lacquer cloth is sewn together. One end of the lacquer cloth is inserted into the bottom of the well, and the top of the lacquer cloth is connected with the bottom of the well. The mouth is tight to the navel of the kettle, and the brine is injected into the kettle. When the fire is heated, the water boils

Hot spring well.

Wang Bao's Wentang stele in the Northern Zhou Dynasty said: "the fire well, the flying spring, the hanging sky and the far fan. The coke comes from boiling water

Tang Xuanzong's poem "warm soup vs. snow" says: "if you don't see hot spring ice, you'd rather know that the fire well is out."

summary

brief introduction

One kilometer to the west of Huojing Town, you can get to the earliest Huojing relic. This is an ancient well, just by the side of the road at the foot of the mountain. The shaft is about half a meter high, but it is made of gray black Han bricks, and the pattern of the brick wall is still clear. The inner diameter of the ancient well is 1 meter, and the mouth of the well is hexagonal. Looking down, there is still a clear water in the well. Beside the well, a stone tablet made of red sandstone stands towering, with a height of 6 meters and a flame rising at the top. On the front of the monument, facing the main road, you can see the five characters of "ancient Huojing of Han Dynasty" in a distance, and on the side, it says "the world's first well". On the other side are small characters, which record the historical facts of ancient Huojing since Han Dynasty.

historical origin

This is the site of ancient Huojing in Linqiong in the Han Dynasty, which is the origin of the name of Huojing town today. In the Han Dynasty, people called the natural gas well "Huojing", so Huojing town got its name. According to records, in ancient times, it used to be a barren beach. Someone found that there was salt water leaching underground, so they dug wells to boil salt. The deeper the well was dug, the more salt was produced. So they followed suit and dug six wells successively, which were arranged in hexagonal shape, collectively referred to as "hexagonal wells". One night, lightning, thunder, a thunderbolt hit, the deepest well suddenly Hula jump out of the flame, soared for several feet, folk respect for "god fire", the first fire well appeared.

In Youzha Township, Huojing Town, where salt is boiled, the ancient ceramic natural gas pipeline buried more than one meter underground can still be seen behind Xiong Fu'an's house. The diameter of the pipe is 12 cm and the wall thickness is 1 cm. According to Xiong Fu'an's recollection, in addition to this, there were bamboo tubes and fire troughs made of stone used to transport natural gas and salt water in ancient times.

The natural gas and well salt industry in Huojing town brought unprecedented prosperity to the local economy, which went through the Tang, song and Yuan Dynasties. In 1659, the British discovered natural gas in the Western Hemisphere, and gradually became the main fuel for street and house lighting in Europe. At this time, the fire well natural gas, which was first discovered and used for thousands of years, was not as obvious as before.

Fire well refers to the well that can eject natural gas.

Scientific name

According to the name of modern science, the fire well we call in our life is called natural gas. It's a kind of gaseous fuel, which is naturally produced and can be burned. Its main component is biogas, and its chemical name is methane. In addition, it also contains a small amount of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, helium and other gases. That is to say, it is a kind of mixed gas, which is also called "gas" in foreign language. Like coal and oil, it is also due to the long-term change of buried organic matter. Because of this, it can not only exist alone, but also coexist with coal or oil. Where this kind of gas accumulates, as long as a well is drilled, it will blow out naturally. A little bit on the spout, the firepower is very strong, so our folk and ancient books call it Huojing.

According to Liu Jingshu's Yiyuan in Song Dynasty, the earliest discovery of Huojing was in Linqiong County, Sichuan Province. He wrote: "there is a fire well in Linqiong County, Shu County, which is more than sixty feet deep. The rise of the Han Dynasty, then Yan He Mi Gen; Huan Ling of the world, Yan potential gradually decline; Zhuge a glimpse and more prosperous In the period of emperor Huan and Emperor Ling in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the fire well was not as vigorous as it was at first, but Zhuge Liang went to see it, but the fire was booming again. This is, of course, a bit close to myth and far fetched. However, the flow of natural gas sometimes flourishes at a certain time, declines at a certain time, and then becomes vigorous.

The same book also said: "there are fire wells in beilangshan and yaohuo Shanxi. The bottom can't be seen deep. The heat is rising, if it's micro electricity. If you use grass to Cuan it, you will be able to ignite the mountain with fire. " According to the records of Qiongzhou Prefecture, there is a fire well 80 miles southwest of the state. Shu Du Fu: Mars shines in the spring, high flame fan in the sky. Note: if you want to make a fire, you should first throw it at home. In an instant, the flame comes out and is filled in a bamboo tube. The fire is ashless. Well water, fire, take well fire boiling water, a Dendrobium salt five bucket. If you cook at home, you have less salt. " Now if we go to Ziliujing and other places in Sichuan to see how salt is boiled, it is still similar to the records in Qiongzhou Prefecture annals.

We can also find similar records in Tongchuan Fu Zhi. For example: "at the foot of Fulong mountain in Pengxi County, diwa is like a pool. With fire, there is a sound in the ground, and the fire is blazing. Summer rain stop water, then flame water, water boiling, and cold as before. When the water dries up in the winter moon, there will be flames on the earth, and visitors will burn their clothes and skirts. " All these can prove that throughout Sichuan, there were many fire wells in the past dynasties, which continuously ejected gas all the year round and ignited in case of fire. At the same time, there are also fire wells in many other areas of the south.

From the modern scientific point of view, the so-called fire well can be roughly divided into three types, namely gas well, oil well and coal well.

These three kinds of wells can all eject natural gas and ignite, which can be called fire wells. We should try to make full use of the natural gas from these kinds of wells to replace the combustion of coal and save coal; and to replace the power required for processing and save a lot of labor; at the same time, we can improve the working environment and reduce the adverse effects of ash and high temperature radiation on environmental health.

Huojing is selected from Tiangong Kaiwu

Historical records

original text

There is a fire well in Xichuan. The well was cold water, and there was no fire. However, the long bamboo was used to peel off the knots, and the lacquer cloth was sewn together. One end of the well was inserted into the bottom of the well, and the top of the well was connected with the mouth tightly to the navel of the cauldron, and the brine was injected into the cauldron. If you look at it from the perspective of bamboo, you will never feel any burning. No fire, but with the God of fire, this world is also a great miracle!

translation

There is a fire well in Sichuan, China. It's very strange. The water in that well is cold, absolutely without fire, but use the stripped long hair bamboo to remove the bamboo knots, wrap the seams of the bamboo tube with lacquer cloth, insert one end into the bottom of the well, bend the top of the other end to connect, close the mouth to the bottom of the pot, and pour salt water into the pot. When you see the fire, the water boils immediately. Open the bamboo to see it, there is no burning inside the bamboo tube. It's a strange thing in the world that you can burn with natural gas without seeing sparks!

notes

Xichuan: Sichuan

Fire well: refers to natural gas well

Unexpectedly: unexpectedly

Qujie: Eradicate Zhujie

Sewn lacquer cloth: wrap the seam of bamboo tube with lacquer cloth. Note that lacquer cloth here means "with lacquer cloth", and nouns are used as adverbials.

Bottom of pot

Fiery: fiery

Jiao Yanyi: scorched appearance

Vulcan: refers to natural gas combustion

Address: Huojing Town, Qionglai City, Chengdu City

Longitude: 103.232421875

Latitude: 30.38431930542

Chinese PinYin : Huo Jing