The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-19

hours or days. throwing out thousands
OF barrels like a huge hole spouting,
or 1t may cease after being shot and
compel its owner to pump the oil out.
When a big well is expected arrange
ments are made by the erection Of large
tanks to store the Oil and when it first
ows 1t is connected by a series of pipes
to them, but when an unusual well is
found and its thousands Of barrels are
poured into the nearest stream 1t be-
comes a source Of danger to everyone
living along its torturous. way.
Biologists have stated that there was
no oil east of the Alleghenies and it
was left for the wildcat driller to de-
monstrate that large quantities Of oil
existed in western New York and gas
has been found in many places in that
state and in paying quantities. in
Oswego county, and it would not be
surprising to find oil even farther east.
Many theories have been advanced
as to the origin or causes which lead
to the production Of oil some of them
very ingenious; but most Of them
wanting In some essential feature. If
oil was always found in the same
strata, II it was always of the same
uniform character many Of these theor-
les would be more valuable: but why
should the oil found on OIL Creek be
Of a specific gravity of 81 baum and
that from Franklin, less than ten miles
away, be Of a 20 baum and of an entire
ly different character, the former worth
s1.O0 per barrel for light while the lat
ter is worth six to eight dollars as
lubricant? Again that found in Canada
Is impregnated with aeroleine, a pun
gent substance very irritating to the
lungs and throat and found in fish
oil by the distillation, while nothing of
the kind exists in Pennsylvania petro-
leum.
Another writer says "the transforma-
tion of wood fibre into oil is a chemical
change, taking place always out Of
contact with atmospheric air, and US
ually under water. but by no means
connected with any geological period.
AS for instance, the coal period with
which many intelligent people asso1
ciate it.
Dr. Gresner says: During the pas
sage of vegetable substances into coal
ther Is an escape Of vast quantities of
carbon confined with hydrogen; It Is
only necessary that he gases of these
elements should be condensed to pro-
duce hydrocarbon oils; the operation is
a decomposing and combining one and
the new combinations formed during
the transmutation Of wood into coal
have close anology to those produced
during the distillation Of wood without
the admission Of air; the gases gener-
ated in strata of coal and coal strata
are always under great pressure which
tends to their condensation and ths
consequent formation of OIL"
OF VEGETABLE ORIGIN?
"That coal has been derived from
vegetables Is undoubted; peat and
wood are found to pass by insensible
shades into Ignite, Ignite into COM
pact, bituminOus coal and the end of
the transformation appears in anthra-
cite from which nearly all the hydro
gen has been expelled and carbon re-
mains. From the expulsion of oxygen,
carbon and hydrogen from wood and
the variety 1t presents until it forms
true coal heat has not been necessary,
although it has doubtless exercised a
powerful influence in connection with
those chemical changes ever going for
ward in the earth.
1.-The condensation Of hydrogen and
carbon producing oil and the fact OF
strata of coal and shale before they
reach the maximum of carbonzation
giving out these elements in great
quantities under pressure and the
tendency Of these gases and oils to
diffuse reasons for finding oil in form
ations having no traces of vegeta-
ton"
Another writer supposes that the
petroleum of Pennsylvania arises from
the distillation by subterranean heat
Of the hydro carbon agents resident
in the carbonaceous strata underly-
ing the oil regions"
Still another says: '"That the great
beds of anthracite coal of Pennsyl-
vania on the southern slope of the
Alleghenies are merely the reslduary
coke, as it were. of a distillation pro-
cess which has converted their blum
inOus matter into oil, and distributed
it by some convulsion Of the earth
through the formations beyond the
mountain range"
The theory of scientific men of the
present day in explanation of the
source of salt in the sea is this: "The
carbonic acid of the air is constantly