The Portland daily press., 1867-05-03

experiments. Therefore, apain roro,.. 4,
Government must protect the interests of tb~se
men in their labors by granting patent ior IL
You can well see the great benefits that viii
be derived by all who adopt il.
This shows who the men are that are at the
bottom of this thing; "all the mechanical par
ties connected with this apparatus" and it
NAV be added. that some of them undoubtedly
understand the value ofprinter's INK. Whiie
these men have q laudable hope OF gam irOm
the success of their undertaking, they appeal
to the "oil men"-who have almost without eX-
ception been losers-to come to tho rescue,
promising revival of the oil business.
But We ask special attention TO one single
item in MIR. Testers rose-tinted calculations.
He proposes to save in the cost Of fuel alone in
the manufacturing interests of the United
States, by the substitution of oil for coal, $780,
100000 annuallyl BY references to official ta-
bles we find that the gross product of petrole-
um oil in the United States for 1864 was lit
tie more than two million barrels; for 1860
nearly two and quarter millions, and estimof-
ed for 1866, three millions OF barrels. This oil,
is now worth in New York, in bulk, about $4.00
to $3.50 per barrel. Suppose We put it at 500,
which would leave very fair margin for profit
to the producer. At 800 per barrel the entire
production of the United States would amount
to $21 100000. Now will Mr.. Lester or some
other oil man explain how S3O,OO0,OOO are to
be saued bv burning petroleum instead Of
coal, when the total yield is onlyS21 100000?
Are we told that increased demand will create
an increased production? This is by no mears
sure. If gold were $50 instead of $18 per
ounce, it is not sure that the number of ounces
produced would be any more than it now is
1t cannot be found where it does not exist, no
matter how great the stimulant to exertion.
SO If the price Of petroleum should be raised to
$40 or $15 per barrel, though it is quite proba-
BILE many ae,o toells would be put down, it by
no means follows that the production would DO
largely increased. Wells and districts play
out, and no live man knows where tho next
oil district is to be discovered, or, in fact, if
there are to be any more discovered. That in
creased demand would enhance the price of
the article is not to be doubted; that the pro-
ductiOn would be largely increased by the
tain.
But one thing is certain. If enough oil
would be required by mechanical manufac ur-
fuel in this business alone, when the ocean
steamers, and railroads, and particularly the
Pacific railroad shall come to adopt this kind of
fuel, the quantity required to meet the demand
would be sufficient to reckon the saving not
at $30,OO00OO, but at $6O,O0O,OOO or perhaps
$1O0,OOO,0 900 annually. Now is it probable that
any sensible Board Of Railroad or Steamship
Directors, or the Navy Department, or the Di-
rectors of any considerable manufacturing es-
tablishment, would incur the expense of chang
| ing all their arrangements for burning wood or
coal, and OF substituting new kind of fuel,
without first entering upon careful investiga-
tion to SEQ if an adequate supply could be de-
pended upon at figure that would Justify the
revolution in their steam-generating machin-
cry? And is it not as plain as pikestaff that,
just as soon as they began TO investigate this
point, they would make discoveries and arrive
at conclusions which would effectualy bar them
against making the changes referred to, and
show that the pretended saving of such vast
sum in fuel is all delusion-a mere figment
of the brain? We hope our readers will care
fully consider these things and not allow them
selves to go crazy over another oil specula-
ton, or to be drawn away from their legitimate
business or to have their money drawn away
from them by any golden promises that have
no more substantial basis than the stuff Of
which dreams are made
We once heard a visionary man deliver leo
ture upon the power of galvanism, and with
apparatus he undertook to show that in a few
years this agent would supercede steam, and
that men would ride across the continent in
carriages without horses or any other motive
power except a small galvanic battery placed
between their feet. The few years have como
and gone, the battery is still used as the agent
of dispatch and speed but not of power, and the
lecturer has laid aside his apparatus and gone
into the more prosaic work of rearing young
fruit trees, in which honest and useful vocation
we rejoice to learn he is not only benefting
his neighbOrhood but putting money in his
own pOckets