Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1870-06-30
d,wn' nor the gas and oil get up beyond it, out

"N' "oA ING gas anu OIL get up beyond IL, out
side of the tube.
The drilling of an oil-wen was formerly a
labor Of months. Now with the improved and
heavier tools a well can be drilled and s.tested,
In nom twenty to thirty days. In the early
eimes OF the oil excitement, when flowing wells
were struck an explosion followed, the tools
were thrown out to great height and volume
81 gas and oil spouted up to a height of fifty or
more feet with roar like the scape pipe of a
steamer, and covering whole acres with its
greasy flood. But the flowing wells are things
OF the past, and the operator is now content If
the oil comes after patient pumping. But few
wells hold out their largest flow for more than
two or three months. Sometimes the decrease
is not from the diminution of oil, but because of
IL e clogging up of the Oil veins by parafine,
thick greasy substance of dirty brown color
This paraffine obstruction is now removed by
pouring in quantities of benzine.
When well has failed TO yield oil without
apparent cause, the explosion of a torpedo at the
bottom frequently revives the flow by fracturing
the rock and clearing away any distractions
from the oil vein. In many instances wells
yielding five barrels or less of Oil per day have
been increased by the application of the torpedo
TO seventy-fve and one hundred barrels. The
torpedo is now being brought into very extensive
and successful use to resuscitate old played ont
and abandoned wells.
A Largeish Grease Spot.
The richest oil region thus far developed is in
Nenango county, Pennsylvania, but the wide
region of petroleum oil so far traced on the North
American continent extends from the south
east portion of the Ohio valley to the Georgian
Bay OF Lake Huron, and from the Alleghauies
to west OF the Missouri river. Over this vast
district 1t appears in scattered localities but it
hoEh hnav, H.nrr,~ L.
area, embracing part of Canada West from
Lake Huron to Lake Ontario, portions of West
ern New York, Western Pennsylvania the
southeastern half of Ohio, all of Northwestern
Virginia, and the eastern portion of Kentucky.
1t is stated that the geographical center of this
grand Petrolia is at Marietta, Ohio, and that
the superficial extent of it is not less than
lOO,OOO square miles. Incidentally may add
that petroleum is found in Asia. Africa, North
ern Italy, India, the West India Islands, South
America, &c; but don't propose to do any
blowing in The STAR-with composition costing
60 cents thousand-for the lie of any other
countries than the land of the free and the
home of the brave. Other peoples may have
struck lie, but they don't know how to work it,
and 1t is evident from our exports that the rest
of the world has to depend upon us for the great
lubricating and illuminating fluid.
The first shipments abroad were made in Octo-
Der, 1861. The exports for tha year were about
| million gallons, and that quantity completely
hooded the European markets, so little was the
important uses TO which petroleum could be ap-
piled then known. In five months of this wear.
(1s1O,) from January LIST to June 1st we have
exported no less than forty million gallons, and
| the remaining seven months of the wear will
with the steady increase in the amount export-
| ed, bring it up to one hundred millions of GAL
| Ions exported from the United States for the
| year 1870!
The supposition that the oil supply is falling
| on is quite incorrect. Individual wells fall of
In production, but the deficit is made up and
more by new wells and by the enlargement of
the oil producing area. Thus the five months
exports of this year exceeds the exports for the
same period last year over five million gallons
while the home consumption has increaseu IN,
IKE ratio. That the demand keeps pace with
the inere.-~d supply sffown by the steady
prices at which it is maintained as compared
with the huctuating prices of its early develop
ment, as for instance in July, 1851, when it sold
as low as ten cents per barrel!
The Mysterious Grease.
Petroleum, or rock oil seems to be a law unto
itself, defyng all efforts to trace its origin or to
account for its eccentric modes OF DEVELOPMENT.
hnd that scarcely any two Of the men who
ness agree as to the source from which this Oil
is derived, and most of them simply rest on the
''dont know" theory. OF course, the natural
supposition is that the Oil comes from coal by
some process of distillation i'm natures labora-
tory, but the facts tell rather more against than
for this theory.
The oil Is never found in coal beds nor have
the subterraneous reservoirs of Oil apparently
any connection with coal beds, nor even with
coal states, and some of the first geologists assert
that the apparent connection of the oil region
with the coal basins OF Western Pennsylyania
and Ohio is geological deception. For one
thing the petroleum differs so much in character
in different localities as to make it difficult TO
settle upon any conclusion. The petroleum of
Canada yields on distilation a pungsnt oil de-
rived from fish called acroline, hence the
theory that the petroleum OF that quarter
is produced by the decomposition of vast
numbers OF marine animals. Some of the
learned writers argue that petroleum comes
from the carbonic acid gas with which the at
mosphere was charged in .the Pre-Adamitlc
period. This is very likely, but as the gas in
question was not favorable to human life it un-
fortunately happens that there was no scientific
man or newspaper reporter on the spot to tell
us how the thing was done. 1t is maintained
with equal ability that the petroleum was gen.
Grated solely from "gelatinous sea-organ-
isms, animal and vegetable;" and there is a
yet more profound theory that the mysteri-
Gus grease has its origin in forests of
angiospermous exogenous trees belonging to
the upper miocene or lower pliocene, tertiary
mineralzing Unanimously instead of to lig-
mite, )" &C., &c.,-but L forbear. foresee that
THE STAR readers won't stand much more of
this sort OF thing with the Thermometer in the
nineties. Let us rest on the comfortable "don't
know" theory OF the venangoites, Oil Citizens
and Titusvillains. Sufficient to say that the
grease is here in unlimited quantities. and As
an extensively used illuminator serves to throw
good deal Of light on everything but its own
history.
Gle" PhenOmena.
Volumes could be written OF interest concern
ing the marvellous and unaccountable features
Of the oil hoY; and almost every 'farm" has its
special story of the freaks OF the mysterious
fluid. The oil comes from some of the wells in
a steady stream; from others it is emitted In
regular strokes, as pulse beats, and in other
cases it bursts forth with spasmodic force at
L. - -l-r