Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-03-22
How Petroleum is Found.

feet below the lowest coal measures, the
Butler County oil-bearing rock being
fully 800 feet below the level of the
sea. The general public entertain the
idea that it is the result of the distilla-
ton of coal; but scientists and general
operators deny any connection between
the coal and oil measures. Hitherto
science has afforded little light upon
the origin of rock oil, while operators
have given more attention 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 a product
of the decomposition of aquatic plants
and animals, as coal is the result of
enormous deposits of vegetation. Other
authorities have asserted that it is the
result of d~istillation in the earth's crust.
AS yet its origin is utterly undetermin-
ed.
In the winter of 1859 Colonel E. l..
Drake, of New Haven, Conn, started
an artesian well on an islanu in Oil
Greek, a small tributary of the Allie
ghany River. A neighboring spring
had for a long time given out about
twenty barrels of petroleum in each year
which had been bottled and sold for
medicinal purposes under the name of
"Seneca OIL" 1t was with a view of
increasing this yield that the artesian
well was started. In the latter part of
August, 1859, the drill reached the oil
bearing rock at a depth of se%venty-one
feet, and resulted in a yield of yer l.
900 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 illuminate their
feast and war dances. During these
centuries no efforts had been made to
secure it in large quantities, and the
first one to drill for the product had
caused a glut in the market by produc-
ing twenty-five barrels per day. But
subsequent events showed that Colonel
Drake builded greater than he knew.
Its near resemblance to crude coal
oil-the first product of the destructive
distillation of coal-led manufacturers
to subject petroleum to those same pro-
cesses to which crude coal oil was sub
jected in the manufacture of an illumi-
nator, and in a day a demand for tho
product was creased. From a daily
yield of % barrels $4,000 barrels pro-
duction has been reached and passed.
From sales of fifty-celt walls for corns,
chillblains and rheumatism, transac-
tons have enlarged to entire cargoes,
and are daily carried from our shores
to every part of the globe. From Il
feet-the depth of the initial effort-the
oil-driller of to-day sinks d shaft l, 200
feet ~deep-nearly one-third of a mile.
Indeed, some wells have been drilled
to a depth of nearly 5000 feet. Instead
of a twenty-five barrel ''pumper" the
Oil operator has sometimes been re-
warded with q 5000 barrel "spouter,"
and one well on the Dougherty farm,
near Petrolia, flowed 1880 barrels du-
ring the first twenty-four hours.
From a product unknown among
American exports, petroleum arose
in a 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 $500, 600, 900
in gold-almost equal (f 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 Ma
tional bank circulation. From serving
at feasts and orgies of savages it has
arisen to the foremost position in the
world as an illuminator, and now en-
tiers millions of households, carrying
humanizing and civilizing effects which
can hardly be estimated. From Col.
Drake, the solitary operator of 1859,
with his single assistant, the number
receiving employment from drilling
has increased to 1000 men, while those
who derive support from pumping, re-
filming, and transporting petroleum, to-
gether with the mechanics, statesmen,
and clerks employed in various depend.
ent industries, and among whom may
be included m~achinists and manufac.
turers of barrels, boilers, drilling tools,
chemicals, glue, lamps, and the like.
would form a larger army than wor
fol- us American independence.
Nor is the sudden growth of this in
dustry the most remarkable event of it,
CdTeeF. COlOSSdl 1OFIuueS udFo DeeI
made and dissipated by dealing in s
staple which has ever been subject tt
the most violent fluctuations in prices
) Crude oil has sold as high rs $14 PEI
barrel at the wells when demand ha'
/ exceeded the supply, and, when thu
scales has turned contra, tea cents
barrel has darkened the hopes of pro
: ducers. Wonderful improvements hav'
, been made in all branches of the indus
try, and Yankee ingenuity have beer
taxed to the utmost. 1t took Colone
Drake eight months to drill seventy-on'
. feet in 1859; but in 1876 Mr.. Charlie
+ S. Clark drilled over 1900 feet in TWEEN
+ ty-eight days, the usual time being si
or eight weeks. In the refining brancl
great improvements have been effected
Many will remember the dark color o
: oil turned out by refners in early days
Its offensive odor made even the pres
= ence of a lamp an objectional featur
J in any room, while the fumes arisin!
/ from a burpipr 1amn uoro almost nm