Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1865-03-01
PETROLEUM IN THE OLD WORLD.

back to very remote period. The springs
of Is, still famous, were known III the days
of Babylon prosperity, and the pitch then
in use was made by evaporatlng petroleum.
Herodotus describes bitumen5 spring in
Zacynthus, Zante, one of the Ionian Is
lands; and probably this spring sufhced the
Egyptian nation for their incessent religious
use of petroleum for mummies. 1t is not
a little curious that after a lapse of over
twenty-three hundred years, this spring
should come into the possession of an enter
prising American, Colonel Gowan, of Bos-
ton, and be found still productive. The
Greek fire Of modern times was probably
compounded of petroleum from the Zantean
springs Dioscorides tells us that rock oil
was collected in Sicily and burned IN the
lamps of Agrigentum. The classic home OF
naptha is Baku, high peninsula on the
western shores of the Caspian ga, contain
ing thirty-fve villages and twenty thousand
souls, rocky and sterile, without.an attrac-
tive spot, without a stream, without one
drop of water except what falls directly from
the Clouds and without tree. But gas
rises everywhere from a soil saturated with
naptha, and numerous volcanoes In action
discharge volumes Of mud. From the time
of Zoroaster the naptha of Baku has been
sent all over Asia for the service Of the sa-
cred fire of the Parsees. The liquid streams
spontaneously through the surface, and ri
ses wherever hole is bored. But especial
ly Belegan, six miles rom the capital vii
lage the sides of the mountain stream with
black oils, which collect In reservoirs con-
structed in an unknown ancient time; while
not far off, spring of white oil gushes
from the foot. Upon their festival occasions
the people pour tons Of this oil over the
surface Of water in a:bay of the Caspian, and
then set, as 1t were, earth, sea and sky
in blaze of light. Sometimes far grander
exhibitions take place naturally. In 1917 a
column OF fame, SIX hundred yards IN diam
eter, broke out near Bclegan, and roared
with boiling brine and calculated rocks for
eighteen days together, until it raised a
mound nine hundred feet in height. Of
course, the population use the oil for light
clay pipe or hollow reed stepped in lime wa
ter, set upright in the doar of dwelling,
serves as a natural and sufficient gas-pipe.
The Ghebers bottle it for foreign use the
Atecshiahns fire with it their lime-kilns and
burn their dead. From an equally remote
era the Burman empire and northern Hin
doostan have received annual supplies of
rock oil from the wells of the Himalayan val
ley of the Irrawaddy, through Rangoon;
and it has always been a favorite drug In
the Indian pharmacop@ia. In Italy, the
Oll Siis VI dIIHd anu udbS pdeh
nearly two centuries; the year 1640 being
that assigned to their discovery. The springs
of Ammiano have long lighted the streets
of Genoa. In France, oil springs have been
known from time immemorial at Clermont
and Gabian, and in Canton, Neufchatel
and in Bavaria, Germany. In the Island
of Trinidad, only mile from the coast,
there is basin of ninety acres, filed
with asphalt, yielding seventy gallons of
crude oil per ton. There are also springs of
aslphatic oil in the neighborhood, and large
pitohbanks off the shore. Ii is estimated
that the lake is capable of producing three
hundred million gallons of oil, and forty or
fifty gallons are considered equal to ton of
coal The Trinidad Colonist publishes a
naenoiire, by Mr.. Stollmeyer, of Port Spain.
proposing the use of this liquid fuel for
oceanic steam navigation, and he states that
he has been at various times for three years
suggesting this employment of distillate
from the pitch lake of Trinidad. To oil
ship would take above tenth of the time
it takes to coal her, if pipes were employed,
and the oil would take up forth of the
space Occupied by Goals. He recommends
that it be supplied at once as an auxiliary to
coal by throwing jets over the burning mass,
but contemplates, eventually, upright tubu-
lar boilers, the liquid fuel to be supplied as
fast as it can be converted into fame The
use of petroleum as a fuel has also claimed
much attention both in the American and
British navies, and its application to this
purpose in some form is not a remote event.