The Portland daily press., 1862-12-19

F'NNfOOps
is twenty-five. The detailed report of the con-
dition OF the wells shows that production is on
the increase. Holders are firm at fifty cents
per barrel at the wells. and don't seem to care
about selling any great amount at that price,
With increased facilities for getting it to the
seaboard at cheap rate for transportation,the
operations will doubtless become much more
extended than at present.
The expectation of crude and refined petro-
leum from the principal Atlantic cities to Eu-
rope, South America, and the West Indies. has
already become considerable the larger por-
ton being shipped to England. Much oft is
! sent to Europe in this CT lde state. in which
form It is said TO be preferred for the sake of
the collateral products obtained in the process
OF refining. 1t is probable, however, that the
highly infiammable character of the unreflned
article, owing to the presence of certain case
Gus or exceedingly volatile compounds NAV
prove an objection to its shipment in that
state.
The quantity exported from the cities of
Philadelphia, New York. Boston, Baltimore.
and San Francisco, from the 1st of January to
the lst of April, 1862, amounted to 2,342,042
gallons, valued at $633,949. The receipts at
Cincinnati during the same period, of carbon
and petroleum oils, were 5l9,960 gallons. or
$1,000 barrels, nearly one-half of which was pet
roleum oil. The export from the three cities
first mentioned, from the first of January TO
the 10th OF May of the present year, were g.
651 ,130 gallons, worth 1888. $50. and the ship
ments in the last week Of that period from the
same places, were 265,6o0 gallons, valued at
s42, ,160
large reduction has taken place in
the price since the commencement of the
trade, and particularly during the last few
months. The price of crude petroleum in
Philadelphia on the 9TH of January 1862 was
from 22 l-2 TO % cents gallon, and of refined
oil 81 1-2 TO 45 cents. On the 10Th of March
the prices had declined at the same place to
~ and IL cents for crude, and 25 to 32 cents
for refined oil, while the most recent price cur
rent lists place it at Q aud 10 cents. Although
the capacity of the existing wells already ex-
ceeds profitable demand, there appears TO
be no assignabe limit to the flow, or to the
localities which may be found to Weld il,
whenever an augmented demand shall warrant
farther search, or increased production The
bitaminous coal areas Of the United States are
estimated to cover upwards of $4,000 square
miles III eight of the middle southern and
western States. Springs and reservoirs of pc
troleum have also been noticed by Capt STAINS
bury, on a branch of the Yellow Creek. S3
miles from Salt Lake City, in Utah, on the
route TO Fort Leavenworth. They exist also
in some of the neighboring British provinces.
1t is probable that the saliferous strata of our
western country may be generally found to
9iciu product.
The Importance OF this article is not limited
to its value as an item in the export trade of
our cities. Attention appears to have been
drst directed TO it on account of the demand
for a safe and cheap material for illumination,
In place OF the dangerous compounds of tur-
pentine, and other explosive hydrocarbons, as
well as for lubricating purposes, in which it
has proved to be a valuable substitute for ami
NAL oils. There is no doubt that the various
other uses of crude petroleum, or its constitu-
ents, will render it valuable acquisition to
the arts. The business of refining the raw
product, in order TO remove from il all corros-
i've and volatile elements, already employs a
number OF establishments, and will become
one of some magnitude. Practical chemistry
is daily adding TO the number and variety of
uses which the substance eliminated i'm the
process OF rectifcation may Je made to sub
serve in the arts.
Although the extraction of oil, pitch and
tar from bituninous shale was the subject of a
patent in England as early as 1895. and the
manufacture and publication of oil, gas, and
other hydrocarbons from coal received sever
al Improvements by the Earl of Dundonad,
and others at later period, the patent of Mr.
Young, of Manchester, secured in England in
1850, and in the United States in 1852, "lor the
obtaining of paralline oil, or an oil containing
parafiine, and parafline from bituminous coal,s
TO the manufacturing of these oils as source
of artificial light. The patent, which covered
very successful process, has given rise to
suits at law, one of which was recently bro't,
without success, 10 restrain the sale in Eng
land of petroleum oils, by the name of Amer
lean paraffine oil, as damaging to the sale of
MS "paraffne oil" on account of the highly
infammabe character of the former
Illuminating oil from coal appears to have
lapQ made pDl.Iy 1SlR hv nr Of
Nova Scotia, and in 1854 the Kerosene Oil
Company, on Long Island, commenced the
first manufacture of carbo-hydrogen oil under
patents secured by DIR. Gesner, using camel
coal from England, New York, and other parts
of the United States. The Breckenridge coal
oil works on the Ohio, at Cloverport, Ken
lucky, were commenced in 1856, and were
soon followed by Others, to the number of
twenty-five in operation in 1860, in Ohio alone,
with Il working capacity of three hundred gal
Ions of light oil each, per diem. There were
then about flfty-six factories in the United
st ates, exclusive of some engaged altogeth-
er on petroleum, and several small private coal
oil works. The capital expended in coal-oil
works and camel coal mines was estimated at
nearly four million dollars. The manufacture
OF coal-oil lamps, resulting from the use of the
oil, formed the principal business of sixteen
companies, who employed 2l50 men. and 400
women and boys, and work for 125 looms in
making the lamp-wick.
The camel coal employed by them, as well
as wood, peat, and other substances of yegeta-
BILE origin when subjected to destructive dis
tlllation in close vessels, at heat below that
at which they yield gas in abundance, affords
large quantity of a light supernatant oil,
amounting TO about one-fth of the product
which, having been purified and re-dstiled,
yields a very volatile and napthalous fluid, of
light specific gravity, containing some paraffno
oil, and highly infammable, owing to the pres
ence of benzoin or benzole. There is also OBJ
tanned a heavier oil, which is a fe and valua-
BILE burning oil, a denser lubricating OIL and
solid parafiine, peculiar white' crystalline
substance, beautifully adapted for candles, and
now manufactured TO some extent for that and
other practical uses. The petroleum of our
country has been found to be more econom-
lcal source for these several compounds of car
bon and hydrogen, and enables the mauufac-
turer to dispense with the first stage of the
process referred to- The cheapness of crude
petroleum, and the simple and comparatively
inexpensive process by which a safe and eco
nomical Illuminating oil may be obtained. give
an unusual interest to this subject, as affording
the means of preventing the great loss of life
shown by the recent census to result from the
dangerous compounds so extensively used for
that purpose. Although the petroleum oils,
when imperfectly rectifled, so that all the ben
zoe has not been expelled, are exceedingly
explosive, owing to the heat generated by the
combustion of the solid paraffine readily va
porizing and igniting the more ETHEREAL por-
e.