Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1860-08-29
ORIGIN OF THE OIL.

As every one is now getting interested
in the Oil question, there will be a general
interest in the following communication
kindly furnished by Mr. WILLIAM DENTON,
one of the most learned Biologists of the
country, in which he discusses the inter
esting query as to the origin of the Oil
Where does the oil come from? says eve.
ry one; and, in answer to this natural
question, the most wild and extravagant
theories are propOunded. One thinks il
/ has soaked from once existing coal beds
down to the rocks in which it is now found;
the coal from which it was obtained, hav-
ing been swept off by denuding agencies,
Another believes that the oil was driven
by heat from beds Of bituminous coal into
the contiguous rocks, the coal. after parting
with its oil. assuming the form of anthra,
cite. A still wilder theOrizer has the oil
driven out of coal in the state of vapor,
condensed in the upper cold region of the
atmosphere, and rained upon the earth in
greasy sh overs; then finding its way as
best it could to the deep caverns that now
con6ne it, where, strange to say, it seems
struggling continually to get to the surface.
Still another. in despair of ever finding a
scientific solution of the question, believes
that God made the oil by miracle, and
placed it in the rock, as best pleased him,
where mans need would sharpen his inge-
nuity, and lead to its discovery.
1 need hardly say that science has nOth-
ing to do with these various theories, and
they utterly ia il to account for the fact
If the oil had soaked out of coal beds, the
coal beds and the rocks in their vicinity,
would contain the greatest amount of the
article; but this is not the ease, sad the
very opposite is true. 1 believe there is
no instance of the oil having been found in
contact with coal, and although it can be
obtained from camel coal BY heat, it is
only because the coal itself was made from
the oil, and not the oil from the coal. Had
the oil been driven out of the coal beds by
heat, then the rocks above the coal would
have contained it, the gas of course rising;
but it is to be found almost invaribly be-
low it. At Titusville the oil is found at
least 700 or 500 feet below the coal beds;
at Laona, in New York, more than fifty
miles from coal region. and geographic
ally more than a thousand feet below the
coal. At Buffalo, it is found more than
hundred miles from the coal regions, and
in geological formation 5000 feet below
the coal At other localities where 1 found
it in New York State. it is miles lower
down in the geologic series than this.
This article in its various forms of nap
tina, petroleum. asphaltum and camel coal
is not vegetable but an animal prOduc-
ton; and most of it was stored up ages be-
fore the coal beds were formed, or sin gle
tree grew on dry land. The coral insect,
that wondrous builder was the agent of
nature, employed for ages in secreting from
the impure waters of the Siluvian and De-
yonian oceans the carbon and hydrogen
necessary to form the oil as We find it in
many cases in their myriad cells, unchan-
ged by the lapse of ages. Crushed out of
the cells originally containingit, by press
ure. its volatile properties driven off BY |
heat, it assumes pitchy consistency, and
IS called asphaltum; and hardened by i'm
nense pressure is called camel coal.
Nor is this a mere theory; 1 have large
specimens of fossil coral, the cells of which
Ire, filled with, pure Seneca or Rock oil,
'ome of them obtained more than hun
lred miles from coal region have seen
hundreds of corals full of this oil, and
hese corals in the centre Of limestone
blocks, bearing no trace of oil anywhere
Except in the cells of the coral. 1 have
een coral reef through which creek
las run, thus exposing it to the air, and
rom this reef the oil was fOwing-Oil hav-
ng that distinctive smell, which once
melled is never forgotten.
Let it be understood then that the oil
ONES from below the coral reefs lying
,robably in some cases two or three thou
and feet below the surface The coral
ellis having been crushed by the pressure
the superintendent rocks, the oil has
cen forced into caverns and crevices and
robably the internal heat of the earth
onyerting the more volatile parts into gas,
lis gas forces the oil up through crevices
, the rocks sometimes to the surface. {
Many thousand square miles in this .
'untry are underlayed with this useful a
rtielc, as fut ure generations will make d
lanifest. '
n