The Opelousas courier., 1884-12-13
PETROLEUM.
N Has superseded Whale Oil-Its
cry

'HEE#9
potroleum has for a considerable
neriod challenged the more "ancien'
and fsh-like' product, the familiar
whale-oil of commerce, in n very es-
sential use. Two very important pro-
ducts. however, may serve to account
1 for the ftful persistence of the whale
sshery: one is the characteristic baleen,
or "whalebone," of the right whale
and the other spermaceti, a substance
equally peculiar to the sperm whale
Both these products are of immense
Importance to civilized life. Inc
swhalebone'' is, indeed, subject to
Auctuating markets, but SO essentially
peculiar, and sopossessed OF lnyaluaDie
qualities is it, that the demand VIII
always be so considerable as to MAIN
tain more or less stability in Its COM
mercial relations.
Soon after the discovery OF mineral
!. oil. which has proved such a Vaiuaoio
substitute for that of the whale n
whale fishery began to assume a doubt
full aspect, and a rapid decline brought
the industry to a complete ~standstill,
60 far as our principal whaling COM
munities were concerned. Petroleum
has been known from very ancient
times. and has been collected in various
narts of the world, but it was reserved
for American enterprise, about the
year 1859, successfully to produce the
article by boring through rocky strata
lofts fountain head, whence the artesian
tubes deliver it in a seemingly endless
flow. There is plain evidence that
petroleum was used in Nineyeh and
Babylon, the asphalt used in building
being a partially evaporated petroleum
Wells of petroleum are mentioned in
ancient history. The earliest notice of
this oil in America is through the use
Of Seneca oil,' which was petroleum
sold as a medical remedy. It is well
understood now that the aborigines
had early access to the oil fields of
Pennsylvania. Large trees are now
growing on the earthen mounds that
were left in the oil regions, showing
the great length of time that has
elapsed since they were worked. In
1919 oil was accidentally obtained
while boring for salt water on the
Muskingum river, in Ohio. 1t was
used to a limited extent in the vicinity
but the genius of invention had not
yet applied the appropriate apparatus
for its successful use as an illumination.
The oil ut that time, indeed, was re
garded as a nuisance, as it interfered
greatly with the salt industry. In
1886 wells were worked in the Valley
of Kanawha, and the oil was sod as a
me6icine; from fifty to one hundred
barrels were collected for this purpose
annually.
1t was not until about 1850 that
,erious attention was directed to the
use of petroleum as a means of house
lighting. From this period onward
the remarkable history of mineral oil
and its commercial Importance is a
matter Of common knowledge. Al
though it is only about twenty years
since the use of this oil became genera
for lighting houses, its daily production
in the United States has been consider
ably more than $4,000 barrels. The
wells on Oil Creek are estimated to run
more oil in a fortnight than was cap
tured per annum by the entire feet Of
600 vessels which sailed from Nan
tucket, New Bedford. Stonington. New
London aud Providence in the palmies'
days of the whale-fshery.-Neec YORK
ECeniag Post.