Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1860-12-12

brown or greenish color, and a stronl
characteristic odor. 1t may be regardc,
as a compound of several of large groul
of bituminous substances, whieh differ mucl
in their physical characters, while the.
present striking similarity of chemica
composition. OF these, the two extreme
-Asphaltum, a hard, black solid, ant
Naptha-an exceedingly light, volatile anc
transparent fluid; exhibit marked con
trast of form, yet they, as well as all th'
intermediate members of the series, arr
composed almost entirely of carbon and by
drogen. These hydrocarbons are consid
cred by all chemists to be of organic orr
gin-that is, to be derived from the decom
position of vegetable or animal tissues
Ordinary coal, which may be included il
the same category, is of purely vegetable
origin, while some cannels and bituminous
shales contain portion of animal matter.
Petroleum has usually been produced from
bituminized plants, but those varieties of
it which are obtained from rocks filed with
animal remains-as highly fossiliferOus
limestones- which have a peculiar
strong and disagreeable odor, in virtue of
the sulphur and nitrogen which they con-
tain, are probably for the most part of an
imal origin.
The precise process by which petroleum
is evolved from the carbonaceous matters
contained in the rocks which furnish it, is
not yet fully known, because we can not in
ordinary circumstances inspect it, We may
fairly infer, however, that it is a distilla-
tion, though generally performed at low
temperature.
These changes in the hydro-carbon SOL
ids are but necessary preparatory steps in
the process of their combustion. By the
of heat we produce them at Will,
and rapidly. They also take place spon-
taneOusly but slowly. Barburetted hydro
gen is rapidly produced from bituminous
substances by artificial dry distillatiOn.-I
So it is evolved in nature, at low tempera-
lures from submerged (aII doubtless emerg-
ed) vegetable matter. 1t is also thrown off
in immense quantities by the spontaneous
distillation of bituminous coal in mines
Doubtless the same is true of the liquid
HYDROCARBONS. Though less observable
than the gasses l think they may often, if
BOT always, be detected among the products
Of decomposition of submerged vegetable
tissue. This, at least, We may safely af-
firm: that their spontaneous production on
large scale in nature may generally be
raced to extensive aceumulations of btu
ninOus vegetation from which they have
1een derived. From this they are evolved
,y a kind of distillation, which differs from
'ur artificial process in wanting (n many
ases at least) the condition of high tenn
,erature, but including the perhaps no less
,Otent elements of time and pressure.
The DISTRIBUTION OF PETROLEUM.
A knowledge of where and how rock oil
ceurs in nature, will be a useful guide to
he repositories of it, which, without doubt,
xist, though still unknown, within our
tate limits. 1 have already briefly allu-
ed to its general distribution over the
arth's surface, and to the great quantities
f it obtained from the shores of the Cas-
ian sea, the banks of the Irrawady, SC.
t is also found in various parts of Europe,
here it has been long made an article of
ommerce. The New World furnishes it
l still greater abundance, and the most
accumulations of petroleum and ;
sphaltum known are those of the Island z
Trinidad, West Indies, and of the south !
m coast of California. In Canada West !
re springs from which enormous quanti-
es of petroleum issue, Of which, however,
he value is impaired by its almost unsup- G
ortable odor. Within the limits of the c
nited States, it occurs on the shores of
eneca Lake, n. Y.,-whenee the name, ]
Seneca Oil, % which has been given it, in G
lbany, Cayuga, and several other eoun- t
es in the same State-in many localities S
| northeastern Pennsylvania, western a
irginia, in Kentucky, Illinois, &c. &c. r
/ Ohio, it has already been found in No 6
e, Adams, Franklin, Medina, Lorain, Y
1yahoga, Trumbull, MahOning, and 9TH |,
counties. and will doubtless be hereaf- y
r discovered in many places where it is il
It now known to exist.
Petroleum occurs in the sedementary v
cks of all ages, from the drift deposits to h
e base of the fossiliferous series; where O
T, indeed, there is carbOnaceous matter o.
om which it could be formed. In Gneiss c,
ID Mica slate it is also sometimes discov- il
ed, but only in such as are evidently of o
etamOrphic character. The great btu v
nous springs of California and the West II
dies issue from Tertiary rocks, which al Il
contain beds of Ignite. Heie volcanic Il
encies have, at recent period, been in n
tense action, and the bitumen is appar- 5,
tly distilled from the ignites by subter- Il
mean fires. In our more immediate Vi =.
lity, the oil springs are mostly confined T
the upper DevOnian rocks, and in o hio h
is is emphatically the oil horizon. Al
THE OIL Rocks OF ONO. is
i have said that the WaEerly series-Or Il
g Chemung and Portage rock s-are the ol
rocks Of Ohio. By this 1 mean that oi