The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-01-31
Petroleum in Austria

1t is a fact not generally known that
an extensive industry, analogous to u
oil-boTing, exists in the heart OF the
European continent, and it will be q
source Of comfort to those who lament
over the irregular and laundering
management Of the business among US,
TO know that the processes OF the Old
World are, L possible, more crude n
clumHy than our own. Mining-Engi-
neer ,Jicinsky describes the naptha and
earthwax production of austrian Sail
els thus:
SWhoever now visits Borislsv, sees
before him a second CALIFORNIA; busy
activity, of which no idea can be OBJ
tanned except by personal observation:
Windlass stands close TO wlndlsssY and
workman to workman, while among
them peep the eager buyers and sellers
Of the fresh naphtha and wax, with &
shouting and confusion like that Of q
great fair"
From various sources We learn
that in q very small district there are
no less than FIVE thousand to six thous-
and wells now in operation, and as
many more already caved in. They
are twenty-five to one hundred and
seventy feet deep, and generally over
twelve feet apart Sometimes they
are 30 close together that the men at
the windlssses interfere with each
other; and so irregularly are the shafts
sunk that il is NOT uncommon for two
neighboripg ones to run together IN
depth.
These wells are not bored like those
of Venango county, Pennsylvania, but
dug. like the surface wells of Inniskil-
len, Canada West The escape of OBJ
noxious and inhammable gasses is SO
great as to prevent the sinking of deep
er shafts.
In these wells the oil is allowed to
collect, and then taken out, together
with much water, by means of buckets.
The productiVeness of the wells varies
greatly. Some furnish but one to four
buckets of oil, holding seven gallons
each, per week; others, more favorably
situated, yield from forty to one hun
dred buckets. A hundred-bucket well
of Galicia would be ~quivalent to a two
barrel well on Oil Creek; but it must
be remembered that naphtha is worth
more than petroleum
The productiveness varies also as to
time. Some of the wells have already
given oil uninterruptedly for three or
four years Others have become ex.
hausted in six months or a year.
About one hundred and fifty wells
are now producing wax-in the aggre
gate about two tons per week-ofwhich
some furnish but the smallest tracs, and
others three to twenty hundred weight
daily.
The present annual production OF
Borislav is ninety thousand hundred
weight of naphtha, and forty.hve thous-
and of
This mineral wax, known to mine
ralogists as ozokerite, is a peculiar com
pound of carbon and hydrogen, con
tanning IS : per cent of the former and
IA per cent of the latter; by direct
light greenish, by reflected light yell
lowish and reddish in color, very soft,
melting easily TO a clear oil, which hsr-
dens again on cooling combustible at a
high temperature, with a clear flame,
and almost without residuum- 1t is
extensively used for the manufacture
OF candles.
The geological formation in which
these products occur lie tertiary, being
the Eocene sandstones of the Csrpa,
than range 1t will be seen at once
that this is much more recent than the
petroleum deposits of Canada or the
United States east of the Rocky Noun
tains.
The shiftlessness Of the nsphtba min
ers is explained by the fact that they
are Gslician peasants, without skill or
experience; and that this branch of
mining is not regulated by law, as are
the older and longer known. Steps are
now taking for the introduction of pro
per system into this field and the pro
d~uctiveness of Gslicis will doubtless
increase under the impulse of added
skill and capital