The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-02-06
He GATE CITY
MONDAY. FEB. 8.

pesrole um..Iss Discsvery, Deveasp
none, Commercint lmportance, &c.
IRON the New York SUM-
OH ClrY, Jan. 18, 1864.
10 compress the whole subject Of petro
nm into q newspaper article would be
~ more difficult Of accomplishment thar
~ yet performed by literary pestidigi.
Ators. However, / will give you, in q
oncise form as possible, the more inter.
eting features of the petroleum subject
laving my personal experience during
20 months tour in the classic region Of
nodern Grease to subsequent article.
WHAT PETROLEUM IS.
The rapid development of the oil pro.
acing territory, and the immense ouan.
AZ of petroleum that is now annually con.
mined in the United States, has made il
familiar TO the public that an elaborate
aalysis Of its properties is unnecessary
y natural oil. deposited 10 the earth
s0ally at the depth of from one hundred
. six hundred feet; has rancid, disa.
reeable odor, and is valuable for burn.
lpng, lubricatirg and medicinal purposes.
{Although its properties, and nowledge
pr the extent of its deposits, have but re.
Pently been known in this country, petro-
,leum has in reality been known and used
90 some extent in every age, running
pack almost to the diluvian period.
ITS ANTIQUITY.
In EOvpf not ratanr, ryo~ r.. !.
cinai purposes nearly four thousand wears
ego, and oil springs are still in existence
n that country. In the latter part of the
last century, two ship cargoes of the crude
oil were transported to England to be
sold, but the process of refining not being
understood, the traffic was abandoned.
Under the name of Sisilian oil, the PED.
pie of Agrigentam used what is now
known as petroleum for the purpose Of
and in Parma there is
lpring of naptha which the people spply
10 like use at the present day. In Asia
Minor the oil has been known to exist
Ind has been used to limited extent for
lges; and in Persia large quantity has
been annually consumed during several
iundred years. Even in this country
petroleum is by no means a new discov-
Try. 1t was we'll known to the Indians
before America was discovered, and vas
lsed for medicinal purposes. The early
'eitlers OF Western Pennsylvania, and
'ther districts where oil springs now ex-
st, used rock oil, as they call it, for vari-
BUS purposes. collecting it by skimming
he oil deposit on the top of the water as
: accumulated from the springs. In the
memoranda of his visit 60 Fort du Quesne,
now Pittsburgh during the French and
Indian war with the Colonies, General
mentions the existence of oil
'prings in localities where wells are now
o operation. But neither the Indians nor
he early white settlers knew anything of
he vast deposits in the bed of the sarlh.
WHAT PRODUCES PETROLEUM.
Biologists, like doctors, do not always
lgree. and with regard to the formation of !
natural causes which pro. !!
luce it-there is considerable diversity OF
opinion. The most rational theory, how
,ver, and the one entertained by the most
'minent biologists is this: The formation
# the North American Continent, the |
great uphesvsl which threw off the water
ind discovered the land, deposited vast |
ields of marshy salt grass and seaweed 10
he beds where petroleum is now found. /
This vegetable deposit, in the transforms
ion, became covered with successive lay h
re of sand, shutting up the vegetation IN
Is saltwater beds. The action of the in
ernsl heat Of the earth upon this vegeta-
ion and salt water could not consume the |
matter, nor could it drive off |
he salt water in vapour for the hardening |
Il sand into rock cut off all means of es-
APE. As result. the heat distilled the
extracting the carbon and n.y.
lrogen comprising them-thence the for
nation of the hydro carbonic compound |
Known as petroleum. The same natural
heat which performed the work OF distil- |
alton would naturally crack the rock |
lbove, to some extcnt-hence the assures |
through which the oil has been forced up |
n some localities, producing the oil
'priugs Upon this theory the fact that
he ii is found, when near the surface, |
n narrow cresices or assures, is easily |
,xplaiued-the petroleum being forced in.
% these cracks from the beds below.
10 W PETROLEUM BEDS WE'RE DISCOVERED
The region in which the oil is now
found in Western Pennsylvania has for a
century, almost, been known as salt
district, apd salt wells have been in oper-
atioa there ever since the early settlement
Of the country.
In boring salt wells the greatest diff
ficulty was fovnd in selecting localities
where the water was not impregnated
with a substance which the salt man de-
scribed as ga nasty, greasy substance, )"
and which We Of the present day call Pc
Nearly forty years ago a Mr.. Packer,
while boring for salt water on Deer creek
in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, "struck
oil" at the depth OF four hundred feet
The "greasy water" as be tymed it,
spurted up with great force. OVERLOOKING
the land thereabout, ruined his sal, ma
chinery, saturated the land With grease ::