The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-12-23
OIL AND NATURAL GAS.
TIE PROCESSES OF NATURE BY WHICH
THEY WERE STORED AWAY.
veaied--The Great Russian OIL Fields.
The Natural Gas of What
may be Expected fn the Future.


"When natural gas was first dis
covered" said Prof. W. J. MCGEE to
Star writer, 1t was regarded as a
thing mysterious and uncanny, il not
positively diabolical. The spread Of
various diseases was attributed to it,
its employment was declared impious,
and belief widely prevailed that its
extraction from the earth was cause
OF earthquakes. For a long time
even science was very much puzzled
about it, and biologists could give no
instruction on the subject to prospec-
tors, who sought blindly for the pro-
duct.
Now, however, the origin Of rock
gas and petroleum, as well as the laws
by which they were accumulated, is
so we'll understood that it is as easy
to predict the success or failure OF
prospect bore for oil or gas, as to tell
where an artesian we'll will or will not
fetch water.
lowing to the lack Of knowledge
on the subject, the first oil wells in
Pennsylvania were put down without
adequate preparation, and the oil
poured forth In such volumes as to
overflow the land and poison the wa
ters. rUf
In the great Russian field of Baku
the flow Of petroleum is SO difficult to
control that more than once it has
swept away all barriers and flowed for
days in geysers as thick as a mans
body and 200 feet in height. Such
geysers were charged with sand,
which buried neighboring houses and
farms, the oil flowing seward in riv-
ers many miles long.
1.-The pressure Of rock gas in our
own fields is so enormous that for
some time it was believed to be I'M
controllable In cases its roar when
escaping could be heard for miles,
compelling the closing of schools and
permanently deafening the workmen.
Scientific investigation has made
known the cause of the tremendous
pressure under which the gas and oil
are confined. Every great field in
Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana is an
enormous dome beneath the surface
of the ground, filed in with porous
sandstone or limestone.
1.-THE natural gas of Indiana is such
q dome, about fifty miles across,
formed by the bending out of shape
Of the strata incidentally to the con-
traction of the earth's crust. The
course grained limestone under it is
charged with infammable fluids. On
top is gas, beneath it oil and under
the soil salt water.
This dome rises in the middle of
great basin 500 miles in diameter. The
rain water falling into this basin is
partly absorbed by the rocks, and it
flows from all directions toward the
centre, driving the oil and gas which
are in the rocks toward the dome and
thus COMPRISING it with enormous
power.
Rock gas is very nearly the same
thing as the marsh gas which is often
seen bubbling from the muddy bot
toms Of stagnant ponds. 1t, and oil
likewise, was formed originally by the
slow decomposition of woody or other
organic matter contained in the strata
Of the earth.
"The making of both is now in pro-
gress in all rocks containing partly
decomposed organic remains. The
question is often asked, Is natural
gas yet forming?' Undoubtedly, but
so slowly that it goes but an infinitely
small way toward supplying the con-
sumption of the store now being
drawn upon.
" At the present rate of exhaustion
it will not take long to use up the
supply in the great Cincinnati arch,
which represents the accumulation Of
millions of years"
= All the compounds of carbon upon
which the civilized world chiefly de-
ponds at present for fuel must be ex-
hausted within a few centuries. The
anthracite coal will be used up within
few decades, while bituminous coal
beds formed in the carboniferous and
cretaceous epochs will be dug out
within 1000 or 1000 years.
Happily, however, the stock of
bitumens in the rocks Of the earth
Is practically unlimited and in them
will be found the fuels and illumi-
nants of the future.
1t Is we'll to be able to look for
WdIQ WIFI confluence 10 CnlS promise
Of the future, inasmuch as the human
race cannot get along without some
thing to burn that will produce heat,
power and light. Man may be defined
as the fuel-using animal.
He builds houses, but so do the ant
and the wasp; the mouse, the squir-
rel and the bee store up provisions
against the inclement season, the
oriole weaves cloth with which to pro-
tect its young, the tailor bird prepares
thread and sews seams, the ant keeps
slaves that 1t may be relieved of labor,
feeds kline for their milk and reaps
the harvest; the beaver cuts canals
and dams rivers; the spider lays
snares; the ant lion set traps for
game; certain monkeys use missiles
in battle, and many animals organize
for offensive and defensive purposes.
But man alone utilities fuel. Next
to food fuel is the most important
subject OF thought of to-day, as in the
days of the discovery and worship of
fire. And by the way the natural gas