National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1872-05-10
The Generation OF Petroleum.

i H' TtttHt utNtlopbWhe VI wv ''lib'
ductive power of pet olcum wells that
had been for some years abandoned be-
cause they were believed to he exhausted,
is not alone matter OF value to the
owners of tho territory that was until
lately presumed to be incapable of
further production, but il affords more
trustworthy basis than any the world has
hitherto been able to obtain for forming
IN approximately correct opinion con-
ccrning the chemical process whereby
petroleum is generated. Until within a
few days, popular opinion prevailed
that petroleum, in spite OF It's name, was
the product OF coal and 80 nearly was
this idea general among majority OF
people, that many foreign receivers of
petroleum are still accustomed to order
that the terrene oil of Pennsylvania and
Canada is exclusively product Of btu
mnous coal may now safely be pro
nouncsd to be an error There is GER
tainly no evidence that coal is not one
of the substances from which petroleum
is distilled but, at tho same time, it is
a somewhat strange fact, allowing
proper degree of credit to the belief that
coal does not enter into the composition
Of otroleum, that no coal beds susceptl-
BILE of being worked are known to exist
within fifty miles of the oil.producing
territory. Again, it is manifest and
recognized fact that carbon does pre-
dominate rs an integral essence ofpetro-
leum and the other fact that the oil
territory of Pennsylvania is surrounded
e Il ,l,.e
cminently reasonable to believe that coal
enters largely-if not, indeed, more
largely than any other substance-into
the process of distillation whereby pc
trolcum is produced
Petroleum il certainly a mineral oil.
But whatever may be the number and
chemical variety of the minerals from
which it is formed, the distillation OF 1t
is moro intimately associated with lime
stone than with any other mineral.
Sandstone is also found in boring oil
wells, but 1t is from the pores of lime
stone that, in the chemical process of
extracting oll from the minerals found
i'll connection with its production, the
greatest quantity Of petroleum is taken.
1t is singular that, in boring for oil, no
coal has ever been found, even in the
smallest quantities, while sand, sandstone
and limestone abound. The inference,
therefore, cannot be escaped that petro
leum is the product of the distillation of
at least two, and probably of more than
three, distinct mineral properties. In
the process of manufacturing refined oil, |
the crude article yields three different
products kerosene and resi-
dunn, fact which certainly supports
the belief that crude oil is tho product
OF three different minerals. SO far as |
concerns the contribution by coal of an
integer in the chemical process by which
petroleum is produced in and from GER
tain geological strata, it may be remarked
that the "hade" oil produced from BIZ
luminous tlll in England is very differ
ent from American petroleum ; i'll that
tho American naphtha must be used in
order that the latter may be burned in
lamps. Another fact that fayors the
inference that petroleum is mainly pro-
duced from or generated through lime
stone is that petroleum has been eX
tracted from limestone found in the
neighborhoods of Chicago and of Terrc
Hautc, Ind. In regard to the reproduce
tive powers recently developed in the
Pennsylvania territory believed to have
been exhausted, it affords two favorable
; First, IS a partial assur-
nnce that the distillation of petroleum is
a continuous process and next, that
the formerly abandoned territory was
gwen up because the machinery for ex-
tracing petroleum from the earth ex-
reeded in it's power of exhausting the
fluid the generative powers by which it
is produced. Petroleum MonMlH,