History of the Horton Sphere: globular or spherical oil & gas storage tanks.

Underground oil storage tanks, or UST's, whether still present or previously removed, involve a risk of costly oil leaks and soil contamination which may need to be addressed. Here are investigation methods that any home buyer, owner, or home inspector can apply to reduce these risks by looking for evidence that a buried oil tank is or was at a property.

History of Spherical Oil & Gas Storage Tanks in the U.S.: the Horton Sphere

Spherical Storage Tanks: the Horton Sphere

- David Grudzinski & Daniel Friedman

In the U.S. spherical tanks for the storage of liquids and gases were first described in detail by George Horton in the 1920s.

Photo: a spherical oil storage tank discovered by Rhode Island home inspector David Grudzinski; the excavation contractor cleaned the tank and decided to keep it.

During and just after WWII spherical storage tanks were also made of concrete because of the shortage of steel in the U.S. (Wallace 1946) Horton's 1924 spherical tank patent described use of a sphere for storage of fuels including volatiles.

The Horton application was first filed in 1923!

Spherical storage tanks require the least surface area for a given volume of stored fuel, liquid or gas, so there is the least heat transfer between the tank and its surroundings - useful in some applications

Spherical storage tanks were historically used most-often to store gases or LPG

Spherical storage tanks are of particular use in areas where the tank may be exposed to seismic or other disturbances, and where a leak or explosion that could result would be catastrophic.

Also in 1934 Boardman also described a spherical tank in 1934 and cited the need to address difficulties in thermal expansion and contraction of storage tanks

Spherical Storage Tank Research & Patents

• Boardman, Harry C. "Spherical container." U.S. Patent 1,953,949, issued April 10, 1934.
  
  Excerpt: This invention relates to improvements in spherical containers and, more especially, to sheet metal spherical containers and supports therefor. 5 The invention is especially applicable in con nection with spherical containers adapted to con tain fluids under pressure, for example, spheres holding compressed gas.
  
  It has been found that sheet metal spherical gas containers are subject 10 to considerable expansion and contraction due to thermal and pressure variations. Owing to this expansion and contraction of the container, dif ficulty has been encountered in supporting the Sale.
• Brinkman, Herbert C. "Storage tank." U.S. Patent 2,295,514, issued September 8, 1942.
  
  Excerpt:
  In the spherical gas holders well known in the art, a. metallic sphere is mounted upon a. foundation, usually consisting of a plurality of pedestals rising from the ground` in a circle.
  
• Bryan, Blackburn. "Elevated storage tank." U.S. Patent 2,657,819, issued November 3, 1953.
  
• Daniels, Edwin G. "Method of making spherical containers." U.S. Patent 1,958,421, issued May 15, 1934.
  
• Drosos, John C., Stephanos V. Tsinopoulos, and Dimitris L. Karabalis. "Seismic response of spherical liquid storage tanks with a dissipative bracing system." In 5th GRACM International Congress on Computational Mechanics, Limassol, vol. 29, pp. 313-319. 2005.
• Fiore, Alessandra, Cristoforo Demartino, Rita Greco, Carlo Rago, Concetta Sulpizio, and Ivo Vanzi. "Seismic performance of spherical liquid storage tanks: a case study." International Journal of Advanced Structural Engineering 10, no. 2 (2018): 121-130.
  
  Excerpts: Spherical storage tanks are widely used for various types of liquids, including hazardous contents, thus requiring suitable and careful design for seismic actions. On this topic, a significant case study is described in this paper, dealing with the dynamic analysis of a spherical storage tank containing butane. ... These tanks are usually named Horton sphere and are used for storage of compressed gases such as propane, liquefied petroleum gas or butane in a liquid–gas stage. The seismic analysis of spherical storage tanks requires to account for the fluid–structure interaction and for the soil–structure interaction.

• Horton, George T. "Spherical tank." U.S. Patent 2,427,676, issued September 23, 1947.
  
  Excerpt: This invention relates to elevated tanks for the storage of fluids, and relates particularly to a Spherical tank supported on circumferentially Spaced columns. It has been found in the past that elevated tanks, and especially spherical tanks, are sub jected to expansion and contraction caused by the heat of the sun, changes in temperature caused by the weather, variations in pressure, and the like.
  
  These expansions and contractions Sometimes tear the tank loose from its supporting legs or columns and thus many of these tanks re quire frequent and expensive repairs.
  
  They are especially bothersome with spherical tanks as it is difficult to attach supporting columns to the tank, this being usually done by welding the col umns to the sides of the tank at points below the horizontal equator.
  
  As the columns are welded to the tank at an angle, any loosening of the welding by expansion or contraction immediately brings the weight of the tank to bear on the weakened portion and tends to tear the whole Column loose.
  
  A tank So Supported tends to rock back and forth and this fact increases the problem of providing adequate support for the spherical tank.
  
• Horton, George T. "Elevated tank." U.S. Patent 2,264,668, issued December 2, 1941.
  
  Excerpt: This invention relates to improvements in elevated tanks and more especially an elevated steel tank as is commonly employed for the storage of water and other fluids.
  Among the features of my invention is the provision of a substantially spherical tank supported on a substantially cylindrical riser pipe which in turn is supported by radial hollow tubular legs.
• Horton, George T., "" U.S. Patent 1,946,494, issued February 13, 1934
• Horton, George T. "Tank." U.S. Patent 1,517,006, issued November 25, 1924.
  
  Excerpt: My improved tank is designed to withstand a considerable amount of pressure and still have a relatively large capacity. For example, the tank shown in this application is designed for capacity of substantially 433,000 gallons and has a diameter of substantially 48 feet. My improved storage tank is made spherical in form so that with the minimum amount of weight, a maximum amount of pressure may be held.
• Jackson, James O. "Spherical type insulated container for liquefied gases." U.S. Patent 2,456,195, issued December 14, 1948.
  
• Jackson, James O. "Pressure storage tank." U.S. Patent 2,313,997, issued March 16, 1943.
  
• Jackson, James O., and Howell C. Cooper. "Low temperature storage tank." U.S. Patent 2,329,765, issued September 21, 1943.
  
• Kuehn, Paul M. "Tank." U.S. Patent 2,045,478, issued June 23, 1936.
  
• Marner, Charles L. "Pressure storage tank." U.S. Patent 2,376,263, issued May 15, 1945.
  
  Excerpts [Edited for clarity-df]: The invention relates to improvements in storage tanks and has reference more particularly to closed storage tanks tor storing volatile liquids under pressure, to thereby prevent the escape oi vapors from said liquids. [Sic] an object of the invention is to provide a storage tank tor holding liquids under pressure.
  
  Another object of the invention is to provide a container for volatile liquids having an approximately spherical contour with adequately curved plates welded to each other to form a closed container.
  
  The container may be described as including two or more spherical, sections comprising the portion of the tank above ground level and which is provided with a dished bottom member having location below v erourni level.
  
  Each tankis a solid of a revolution about a vertical axis. One of the outstanding ter-cine for strengthening the tank against bursting or collapsing pressures induced by the vapors or air in the tank,
• Shanor, Edgar E. "Storage tank." U.S. Patent 1,835,815, issued December 8, 1931.
• Stanley, Pomykala Edmund. "Underground storage tank." U.S. Patent 2,382,171, issued August 14, 1945.
• Wallace, Neff. "Storage tank and method of constructing same." U.S. Patent 2,413,243, issued December 24, 1946.
  
• Zerbe, F.K., SMITH CORP AO, 1938. Method of making a welded spherical vessel. U.S. Patent 2,118,388.
  
• Zhang, B. Y., H. H. Li, and W. Wang. "Numerical study of dynamic response and failure analysis of spherical storage tanks under external blast loading." Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 34 (2015): 209-217.
  
  Excerpt:
  The performance of energy infrastructures under extreme loading conditions, especially for blast and impact conditions, is of great importance despite the low probability for such events to occur.
  
  Due to catastrophic consequences of structural failure, it is crucial to improve the resistance of energy infrastructures against the impact of blasts.

Reader Comment: Cut-off copper tubing leads to a buried oil tank

I was inspecting a home on the edge of a lake built in 1972. I saw evidence of copper fuel lines cut off penetrating the foundation of the home behind the oil boiler. The homeowner bought the home 20 years ago and it had an exterior tank on a slab.

No one had ever suspected there was a buried oil tank on the property. I informed my client that this was evidence a buried tank had once been on the property.

No one had any idea if it was still present, or had been removed.

I searched around for some time with a ground probe, and eventually hit an object 18 inches below ground, but the size and shape was not consistent with a standard size and shape tank that would have been buried.

I decided it needed to be investigated so, with permission from the seller, I got to digging. I hit the tank surface 18 inches down, with 2 inch pipes consistent with the size for the fill and vent. I informed the client and realtors the tank was there, and should be investigated to see if the tank contained oil. I received the attached photo from the realtor.

The tank is a 275 gallon Ball shaped tank. Ive never seen one before, and it resembled a wrecking ball. Pretty neat.

The tank was empty and had not leaked. - David Grudzinski, Rhode Island 2019/11/23

• David Grudzinski, Advantage Home Inspections, ASHI cert # 249089, HUD cert# H-145, is a professional home inspector who contributes on various topics including structural matters.
  David Grudzinski, Cranston RI serving both Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut can be reached at 401-935-6547 fax- 401-490-0607 or by email to Davidgrudzinski@aol.com
  
  Mr. Grudzinski is a regular contributor to InspectAPedia.com - see BURIED OIL TANKS, OUTDOOR CLUES and DECK BOARD GAPS & SPACING and DECK FLASHING LEAKS, ROT Case Study, and BASEMENT WATER MOLD IMPACT and VERMICULITE INSULATION and STONE FOUNDATION DEFECTS for examples.

BTW: a fellow inspector told me his parent were in the HVAC wholesale biz in the 50s and these ball shaped tanks were remnants of WW11 bomb casings that they decided to use as oil tanks. I thought that was awesome. Some old buoys were also made from them.

...

Continue reading at OIL TANK, BURIED, FINDING or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

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• SPHERICAL OIL STORAGE TANKS - the HORTON SPHERE

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