The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-04-05
How Petroleum Is Found.


Ter County oil-bearing rock lying fully
800 feet below the level of the sea. The
general public entertain the idea that it
is the result of the distillation of coal;
but scientists and practical operators deny
any connection between the coal and oil
measures. Hitherto science has afforded
but little light upon the origin of rock oil,
while operators have given more attcn-
ton to processes for extracting it from the
earth than to the investigation of the
question as to how it came there. There
are but few facts which will support any
theory whatever, and these point to prod
uct of the decomposition of aquatic plants
and animals, as coal is the result of enor-
nous deposits of vegetation. Other au
thorities have asserted that it is the result
of distillation in the earth's crust. AS yet
its origin is utterly undetermined.
In the winter of 1859, Col. f. L.
Drake, of New Haven, Conn.,, started an
artesian we'll on an island in Oil Greek, q
small tributary of the Allegheny River.
A neighboring spring had Tor long time
given out about twenty barrels of Pc
troleum in each year, which had been
bottled aud sold for medicinal purposes
under the name of Seneca OIL" It was
with view of increasing this yield that
the artesian well was started. In the lat
ter part of August, 1859, the drill reached
the cil.bearing rock at depth of seventy
one feet, and resulted in a yield of over
1000 gallons per day. For centuries the
Indians of that section had collected the
oil from the creek by spreading their
blankets upon its surface, their labors
being rewarded by small lots, with which
they mixed their war paint, or which they
burned to illumine their feasts and war
dances. During these centuries no effort
had been made to secure it in large guam
titles, and the first one to drill for the
product had caused glut in the market
by producing twenty five barrels per day.
But subsequent events showed that Col.
Drake builded greater than he knew.
Its near resemblance to crude coal oil
the first product of the destructive dis
tillation of coal-led manufacturers to
subject petroleum to those same processes
to which crude coal.oil was subjected in
the manufacture of an illuminator, and
in day demand for the product was
created. From daily yield Of twenty.
five barrels, SO, 900 barrels production has
been reached and passed. From sales of
fifty-cent walls for corns, chlblains and
rheumatism. transactions have enlarged to
entire cargoes and are daily carried from
our shores to every part Of the globe. From
seventy ne feet-the depth of the initial
effort-the oil-driller of to-day sinks a
shaft ], 200 feet deep-nearly one third of
a mile. Indeed, some wells have been
drilled to depth of nearly 5000 feet. In
stead of twenty five barrel "pumper,"
the oil operator has sometimes been re;
warded by a 5000 barrel "spouter," and
<,~n Aho Dnv, RI, f0HpvN moor
trOlia, flowed 4, 800 barrels during the first
twenty four hours. From a product un-
known among American exports, petro-
leum arose in decade of years to the third
position, being surpassed only by grain
and cotton. Between the inception of
the industry (say 1860 and the beginning
of the year just passed 1876) it has
brought into the United States more than
$40O, OOO, 200 in gold-almost equal, if the
heavy premium on gold during the civil
war be considered, to the entire amount
of the circulating medium of the Nation,
including the Treasury notes and Nation
al Bank circulation. From serving at
feasts and orgies of savages 1t has arisen
to the foremost position in the world rs
an illumination, and now enters millions
of households, carrying humanizing and
civilizing effects which can hardly be esti.
mated. From Col. Drake, the solitary Oh.
orator of 1859. with his single assistant, the
number receiving employment from drill
ing has increased to 1900 men, while
those who derive support from pumping,
refining and transporting petroleum, to-
gether with the mechanics, statesmen and
clerks employed in various dependent
industries, and among whom may be in
cluded machinists and manufacturers of
barrels, boilers, drilling tools. chemicals,
glue, lamps and the like, would torn q
larger army than won for Us American
independence.
Nor Is the sudden growth of this indus
try the most remarkable event in Its Ca
reer. Colossal fortunes have been made
and dissipatcd by dealing In q staple
which has ever been subject to the most
violent of fluctuations in prices. Crude |
oil has sold as high as $14 per barrel at
the wells when demand has exceeded the
supply. and, when the scales turned e0n-
tyc. ten cents per barrel has darkened the
homes of producers. Wonderful improve.
mcnts have been made in all branches of
the industry, and Yankee ingenuity has
been taxed to the utmost. 1t took Col.
Drake eight months to drill seventy one
feet in 1859; but in 1875 Mr.. Charles 8.
CLARK drilled over 1.5OO feet in twenty.
eight days, the usual time ;,eing six or
eight weeks. In the refining branch
great Improvements have been effected.
Aany will rem0mbor the dark color Of