In 1862 on Deep Cut, a stock company drilled for oil and failed but struck a huge natural gas well. People knew little about gas, and it roared for two years with a deafening noise until it was accidentally ignited. Flames shot skyward to over 80 feet, lighting up the area for miles, and it blazed for more than a year. It was then bought by a Philadelphia company and put out with steam vapor for the purpose of producing carbon and soot. This soot factory operated for years and produced printers ink using 10,000 jet flames that burned under a plate of sandstone. Carbon from the sandstone was scraped off every twenty minutes. It was used to print many leading newspapers and magazines around the world, including the London Times and Harpers Magazine. The plant closed in 1886.