Rotary drilling of wells using explosives

Claim 1

IN THE DRILLING OF A WELL BY ROTATING A HOLLOW DRILL STRING HAVING A DRILL BIT ATTACHED TO ITS LOWER END AND IN WHICH AN AQUEOUS DRILLING FLUID IS CIRCULATED THROUGH A PATH OF FLOW DEFINED BY THE HOLLOW DRILL STRING AND THE ANNULUS BETWEEN THE DRILL STRING AND THE WALL OF THE WELL WHEREIN THE WELL IS DRILLED WITH SAID BIT, THE STEP OF INTRODUCING INTO THE CIRCULATING DRILLING FLUID A SUFFICENT AMOUNT WITHIN THE RANGE FROM ABOUT 0.1 TO 10 POUNDS PER BARREL OF DRILLING FLUID OF WATER SOLUBLE CAPSULES CONTAINING AN EXPLOSIVE WHICH WOULD EVENTUALLY BE RENDERED HARMLESS BY EXTENDED CONTACT WITH WATER, SAID CAPSULES HAVING A SIZE WITHIN THE RANGE FROM ABOUT 0.01 TO ABOUT 0.25 INCH, SAID EXPLOSIVE HAVING A SENSITIVITY AS MEASURED BY THE DROP-SENSITIVITY TEST WITHIN THE RANGE FROM ABOUT 2 TO ABOUT 10CM., SAID CAPSULES BEING CIRCULATED TO AND DISCHARGED UNDER THE DRILL BIT AND THERE EXPLODED BY WEIGHT IMPOSED ON SAID CAPSULES BY SAID DRILL BIT WHEREBY INCREASED DRILLING RATES ARE OBTAINED.