The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-22 00:00:00

those now living to economise the world's re-
sources for those who may come hereafter, and
perhaps no greater economy could be exercised
than in thus utilising petroleum. But a short time
ago, dismay reigned in the oil regions of Pennsyl-
vania. The oil was there in abundance, but the

question was, what to do with it. The price had
fallen so as scarcely to pay its working expenses.

Over a region which in the United StateS alone ex-
tends upwards of 62,000 square miles the springs are
found. In Kentucky, Ohio, and Western Virginia
the oil is in the carboniferous group, in Pennsylvania

in the Devonian. It has been discovered in over

300 localities beyond the oil districts of these States.
California, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan,
and lowa, all furnish petroleum. In the Oil Creek
Valley, Pennsylvania, there are 500 wells, yielding
a daily average of about 4,000 barrels. The total
exports of petroleum were in 1862 upwards of
10,000,000 gallons ; in 1863 more than 28,000,000 ;
in 1864 in excess of 31,000,000; in 1865, 42,000,000 ;
in 1866, 1,700,000 barrels; while the shipments for
the first six months of 1866 are exceeded by the

same period of 1867 by about 50,000 barrels. The
average price of refined oil. during 1866 was from
40 to 45 cents per gallon ; and the average price for
the first six months of 1867 has been from 24 to 26
cents per gallon. Prices are now rising rapidly-
after this heavy fall, and petroleum will cer-
tainly tend strongly upwards, if its value for
generating steam can be established. It is spread
over the world, obtained with great facility, and at
a small expenditure of labour. The United States
produce about 10,000 barrels daily, a quantity
which could be largely increased if the demand
arose. " BACON'S Handbook," to which we are
indebted for some of the above statistics, de-
scribing the ease with which fortunes have been
made in this oil, says :—" Here somebody has
punched a hole in the ground, thrust in an iron
tube with a spout, erected enormous reservoirs,
and straightway up the tube, through the spout, and
into the tank, there flow $ll,OOO every day. He
does nothing ; he may go to Europe or to Halifax,
but the work goes on just the same." Emphatically,
this man has struck ile. If those whose work benefits
mankind deserve a fortune, it may soon be proved
that the strikers of oil are among the best of this
class. The petroleum from the wells of West Vir-
ginia can be handled and stored as safely as coal.
Its gravity renders it non-explosive, which is the
objection to the light oils of Pennsylvania. Pre-
suming this fuel to be deprived of its dangerous
qualities, it requires little effort of the imagination
to understand the advantages that steamers will
derive from its use. It is not the expense of en-
gines that forces shipowners so generally to rely
on sails ; but the cost of fuel, which necessi-
tates the main part of the cargo to be stowed
away in the ship for her own propulsion•
Reduce this to one-tenth, and scarcely a large sail-
ing ship will ever afterwards be found on the high
seas. If sails are rendered almost useless, if the
heavy outlay for stokers be unnecessary, an im-
mense saving will be effected in the number of
hands necessary to work a ship. The power of war
vessels will be greatly increased, coaling stations
become useless, and vessels will glide along with no
black train of noxious smoke behind them, passing
from ocean to ocean, from continent to continent,
relieved from the uncertainty of the weather, and
lightened from their black burden of coal. These
are experiments better worth a nation's while to
test than the destructive force of projectiles or the
resisting power of Warrior targets—Anylo-American
Times.