Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-05-01
Oil as Fuel.

Oil as Fuel.
1t has often been remarked that more
petroleum should be used as fuel in Cal
ifornia. 1t is doubtless true that more
should be used and would be used il 1t
could be obtained in such quantities as
were needsd. All that is needed in CAL
ifornia to supply petroleum for fuel is
more capital applied to boring the wells
to obtain the oil. The oil is here in
boundless supply, but it is still in the
sandstone and must be brought out. The
average Californian considers himself
about as keen and enterprising as any
body in the world, and sometimes looks
with contempt upon distant nations, and
thinks they are behind the age. 1t is
well to look at the progress that other
nations are making in the industrial arts
aud sciences before jumping at the con-
clusion that we are the wisest and
brightest of mankind. A Californian
will spend Sl50,0OO for ship, and a
heavy sum to IN it out and insure it,
then send it 5000 miles after cargo Of
coal, pay So ton for the coal and bring
it back 5000 miles to California to sell,
spending whole season in the venture,
and think he is smart, and the smartest
of the smart, too when, for $4,000, he
could have bored an oil well in Los An
geles and got all the fuel he wanted, and
more than his cargo of coal would
amount to, in half the time
Even the Russian, who is considered
not very progressive, knows more than
to commit that folly. He sends to Phil
adelphia and buys the best locomotives
that can be made, and hires the best oil
well drillers that can be found in Penn
sylvania. The locomotives and the men
have been sent to Baku on the western
shore of the Caspian Sea. In this land,
high and mountainous, like our own pc
troleum producing region in this county,
the richest OF results are being obtained
The same result can be obtained in our
own oil fields near Los Angeles.
Oil rises above water and should not
be sought in deep valleys, but above
them. The Baku region is about 5000
feet above sea level, and all our oil pro-
ducing territory is IN an elevated locality.
When our Californians see what is being
done ON the other side of the globe they
may be induced to make corresponding
effort on this coast and initiate Asiatics.
We have bettor oil and can have a
good and profitable demand if we will
only go ahead and produce the article
required.
There is demand right here in Los
Angeles for all the oil that we can pro-
duce and the example set before us by
the Russians is worthy Of our imitation.
The Independent Record, leading oil
journal of the United States, in speaking
of this Baku region says:
Baku has since the close of last sum-
mer suddenly sprung into a degree of
vitality and measure of prosperity and
in portance of which no one had pre-.
viously any reason to dream, and all be-
cause its subteranean wealth is pouring
forth its treasures in a most unwonted
fashion. We, in this country, have
been familiar with ''spouting wells" of
petroleum, but there such thing had
never been known. Something over five
months ago several erich strikes" as
our people term them, began to attract
attention, and new wells were bored in
numbers, and yielded astonishingly.
AT length one of the augers entered a
cavity which was really worthy of Oil
Creek in its best estate. 1t was a
"spouter," sure enough, and threw its
oily Jet high into the air with great
violence This was followed by another
and another, some throwing their
terrent of petroleum to tho height of
fifty feet or more. OF course, this
fierce outpouring, as in all such
acses, diminished within few
days, as the extreme tension from be-
meath was relieved, but the wells con-
tinued to yield at rate new for the
entire region. Additional wells were
bored in great numbers, and the work is
still going on and increasing, and the
end is not yet by any manner of means.
The natural results of this have fol-
lowed. Baku has grown like one of our
Oil Region towns, and being, unlike our
own localities, situated directly on a
great inland sea, mercantile, navy has
begun even within this brief space to
grow into existence. 1t is not to be
supposed that men as astute as those
ruling the great Russian nation fail to
see the immense futures to which this
may lead and the Government is taking
active and energetic measures to make
the most of the new state OF things.
Means of transportation are provided
rapidly to every part of the Caspian and
its aflluents, notably the Volga. A
pipe line is already planned to run the
petroleum across 10 the Black Sea, n
stretch of about five hundred miles
Once there, of course is has access to all
OF Eastern Europe, and in fact to the
markets Of the world.
Fhs Russians use this oil for fuel in
their American locomotives that fly
ever their vast plains. Why cannot We
do the same? The Russian engineer
takes in oil when he takes in water at n
station and needs no coal HEAVIER. The
people there recognize the remarkable
value of petroleum as fuel, more intelli
gently than they do here. Not only are
the locomotives propelled by the use of
petroleum, but the steamers on the Cas-
plan, Black and Mediterranean seas use
petroleum as fuel with the best of re-
suits.
The petroleum Of this country is more
valuable than that of Russia, because it
contains more illuminating q uaIities com.