Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-04-08
OUR PETROLEUM INTERESTS.
Their Importance Extent and Value
The vastness of the Business. and
Varied Uses of the Oil.

Varied Uses of the Oil.
The petroleum interests OF Los An
geles county continue to inc ease in i'm.
portance and value. While the wells
at Santa Cruz are failing in vigor and
yield, the San Fernando wells continue
to improve in yield and in the quality
Of the oil.
This remarkable region is more con-
stant in its supply than any other yet
discovered, and we trust its development
will be carried on with increasing force
till yield of 10000 barrels per day is
secured. In the Puente oil district
there is no failure of wells. Those that
have been bored have all been successful
and are yielding oil, although they arc
shallow wells, not half way down to the
best grade of oil. That district is satu-
rated with oil, and asphaltum is in pro-
digious supply. More and deeper wells
should be put down without delay.
The demand for petroleum for light
and fuel, is one Of tho largest CONNER.
cial demands in the world. Nsthing
but the demand for bread is so large as
the demand for petroleum. California
is better situated to supply that demand
than any other part Of the United
States. We have grand, smooth ocean
leading to the Oriental nations where
coo. .0O0,00O people live, aud where the
demand for petroleum is steady and vast.
Our climate is favorable for the produc-
ton of oil at all seasons of the year.
The weather is never too cold, and snow
never comes to interfere with the pro-
duction and movement Of the products
of our wells.
In the not distant future iron pipes
will be laid from the Sespe, San Fer
nando. Puente and La Brea to San
Pedro where the ships OF all nations
will load with petroleum for light and
fuel, and with asphaltum for sidewalks
for their great cities, while our city will
have re6neries and chemical laboratories
for changing the crude oil into its vari-
Gus valuable form, such as paraihne,
gasoline, vasoline, aniline colors, chew
ing-gum, naptha, camphine, kerosene,
lubricating oil, benzine and coal tallow.
Petroleum viii be the fuel in our loco
motives, factories and smelling works,
and in every zone some Of its products
will be in constant use. The crude oil,
which is balsam for throat diseases,
and a liniment for the cure OF rheuma-
tism, and dead shot for collie, was
highly priced forty years ago when little
phials of the oil sold for twenty. live
cents apiece, is now disused because it is
abundant and cheap, but it is just as
efiicacious now as then, and its virtues
are established after thorough trial.
Senator Camden, in the North Ameri-
can ReUiew, grasps the subject in o
very felicitous manner and in the
last number Of that valuable magazine
sketches with master hand the pro-
gress of petroleum round the world.
His words are so well chosen that it is
q pleasure to reproduce them. The
Senator says:
"Few things in fiction are more won
derful than the history of. petroleum
since the opening of the first oil well in
Pennsylvania, August 2Sth, 1859. Four
years before that time Jonathan Wat
son, who owned tract of land on Oil
Greek, noticed oil flowing from spring.
He took bottle OF it to Hartford,
Conn, to have it analyzed by well
known chemist. This authority pro-
nounced it an artificial product and not
a natural one. Had any person then
predicted that Northwestern Pennsyl-
vania and West Virginia would be found
to contain vast resources OF this oil, and
that it would in score of years have
added $1,000, 900, 900 to the wealth of
the nation, he would have been consid-
cred insane. Yet such prediction
would have fallon short of the truth.
There are to-day more than &c, 1000 wells
this oil and over 100, 900 per-
sons are exclusively engaged in handling
it. Railroads have been built to trans
port it, while through network of over
1000 miles Of iron pipes, running over
beneath rivers and through
fields, streams of it pulsate
continually. Oil from the wells in
Pennsylvania lights the streets of South
American cities, cathedrals in Europe,
the mosques Of Asia, the shop-windows
of Jerusalem, and it is known and used
over the whole civilized world.
As to the expectation of petroleum
the same writer says:
beginning in 1862 with shipments of
5SS, 600 gallons of oil to Germany, which
was sold for 81, 600 less than the cost of
across the-sea, the expor-
tation of oil has steadily increased, until
it now reaches but little less than 2,0O0,-
900 gallons day. For the first seven
months of 1882 the value of the exports
of petroleum and its products was $780,
9f6, S56. which was exceeded only by
the exports of cotton and cereals. Dur
ing the first eight months of 1882,
433, 25l ,lSl gallons of crude oil, or its
equivalent in refined, were exported,
against 800, DIG, 24S gallons during the
period of 1881. !"
These words of the eloquent Senator
are true, and show prominently the vast
importance of the petroleum trade. 1t
is in its infancy in California, Hercules
in its cradle, but will soon stand up
strong, important, unconquerable, to
turn the worlds machinery to grind its
grain and weave its cloth, and trans
mute the metals of the earth into coin
and other valuable forms. With a
prospect so vast, so grand for this great
use so diverse and con-
slant, it seems that capital must be
asleep not to see the great opening on
the Pacific Coast for the development of
the petroleum industry. The field is
great and ripe for the harvest, and it is
high time to thrust in the sickle while
the laborers are few and the work is
rewarding.
Mr.. Il Otto Wolff n vounV man who