The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-01-27
Persian Petroleum.

graph, writing from Baku, an old Per-
sian (now Russian) town on the Gas.
plan, gives SOME very interesting de-
tails as to the petroleum found in that
locality, which we condense for our
readers.
4 When enc is told in Russian, French,
| and German that on his way down the
Caspian it is absolutely necessary he
should stay at Baku and see the "eyer-
lasting fire." one yields to the united
advice. There is not tree or shrub to
be seen upon the arid hills and stony
steppe, and the smell Of naphtha is
never out of the nostrils. Baku, whose
Persio population is sprinkled with
| sharp Armenians who would rake
lprofiLs out of this or any other fire, looks
Tout southwark over a splendid natural
1 harbor, presenting the aspect OF a
thoroughly Oriental town conscious of
coming greatness when its subterranean
riches are better known and largely
worked. At Baku rain rarely falls, the
sky is generally cloudless; SO if you have
the fixed popular belief that your lie
will be prolonged until you have eaten
the proverbial ''peck of dirt" and no
longer, by no means expedite your end
by coming to Baku. 1t is more dusty
than san Francisco OF Odessa; and you
must take great care, or you will sWal-
low the peck ia month. The Hotel
| Dominique offers you room with the
floor well sanded by the wind, a bare
bedstead, and a chair votlG tout; but the
town has 'ssrtuck ile," anu before MANY
wears are passed the world will hear
more OF Baku. The engines OF the steam-
boat which brought us here from Astrak-
Than were driven with petroleum; and IL
was the same ship, by the by, in which
his Majesty the Shah trayersed the Cas-
plan. Coal, the Captain told me, costs
but 1871 roubles per hour, while petro-
leum costs but ~ roubles-a notable re-
lduction this. La three or four years
Baku will be united by railway with the
Black Sea, and then probably all the
ships on the Euxine will be supplied
with the same disagreeable but ineKpen-
siye fuel. The machinery reminded me
. of one of those pretty contriyances Tor
blowing the spray OF scent in drawing
room, AS the coarse residue OF the Pc
: troleum--for it is that alone which Is
J burned-pours in Thin stream from the
, mouth OF each fire, jet OF steam blows
it into spray, and thus it is consumed
with an even heat throughout the fur
: naces of the engines.
= In q dust storm, to which for many
, reasons the minor plaques OF Egypt were
preferable, we set out, with horses 80
active that one might suppose they too
3 were fed with naphtha, to see the "ever-
I lasting fire." which Is quite as wonder
full as the Solfaterra at Naples, or the
Geysers OF Iceland, and to me Infinitely
more curious as the seat of probably one
of the most ancient forms OF worship.
In the outskirts of Baku you might sup
pose you were driving from Caro- to the
= pyramids. The district is all dust
I and desolation-a desert in which
the road runs wherever you please.
For two or three miles along
the shore. of the bay, the many
works where the petroleum is refined by
] itself as fuel pour forth dense smoke,
and at eight miles from the town lie the
springs. The average depth at which
| the oil is touched seems to be about $50
feet: the wells are for the most part nine
, inches to the foot in diameter. From
the one we visited a small steam-engiae,
with the most primitive gear, lifts about
450,0 900 pounds weight of petroleum ia
day. The oil is OF greenish-gray color,
and is emptied into pit carelessly dug
in the earth, from whence men take it in
4 buckets and pour it into skins and bar
) rels, AT the works of the kalaiy Com
j pany. an American concern,
when their well was first opened,
the petroleum burst up in a.
: fountain nine feet in diameter, and
was thrown forty leet into the air. At
4 all the wells it is now raised by circular
, tube about nine feet long and as many
: inches in diameter, with valve at the
: lower end, which opens on touching the
, ground. This is lowered and raised by
d steam-engine in about one and half
: minutes. A man pulls the full tube to-
: ward the tub, into which it pours it's con-
/. | tents. and from the tub the oil runs into
the pit from which the skins and bar
> rels are filed. i am assured that, while
+ the Baku petroleum is OF better quality
r \ than that OF Pennsylvania, it is far less
q dan gerous, because its flashing point of
: mperature is forty degrees higher than
J that OF the American product.
A 1t is certainly very wonderful upon q
!. sandy plain, with not a tree or q blade
1 OF grass in sight, to look upon a reser-
j. yofr Of liquid fuel thus drawn from this
stony soil; yet, to my thinking, there
= was spectacle much more curious
, iabout twelve yersts further from Baku,
, twhen we came to one of the most am
cient altars in the world, erect and FAM
ing with its natural burnt-otfering TO
a this day. For unnumbered ages the gas,
which is generated by this subterranean
store of Oil, has escaped through certain
+ fissures in the limestone crag of whicn
Q the hills are composed, and when lighted
has been the object of the prayers OF gem
=. erati0ns of priests, as 1t blazed and
tlared away to the heavens. For long,
: long generations the worship of these
| flames has been maintained by
. priests from India, who have died
upon the spot, to be sue
ceeded by other devotees from The same
country. II would, Of course, be possi-
bic TO extinguish the blaze, IL one were
TO choke the fssures; and the people
about the place say that sometimes whe n
, the wind rises to a hurricane, the. fire is
, actually put out. The gas, however,
can then be relighted withJa spark; and
this is done, not as OF yore, with mys-
terious incantations and the terrif ID
awe OF proselytes, but-to what base
uses may gpds come lin order to burn
lime for Baku, and to dlstit tho oil from
whence the gas issues. / don't know a
! man more to be pitied in this world than
, | the poor Indian priest who is the pres
Il ent successor of long line of guardians
OF this once wholly sacred spot.
There the light fiared on its formerly
]hallowed altar-piece, maid-of-all-work TO
lhalt dozen degenerate Persians who
9 thought OF nothing but making lime, and
1 lin another place it was being utilized in
:, pipe to boil the rude stIlls by which
,.I, to- NOT !. M 1u