Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-03-11
A LAND OF NAPHTHA.
InGnmmnbIc Nature of Everything at
the BalSu Petroleum Wells,

the BalSu Petroleum Wells.
Probably there is no spot on earth
where more highly inhhmmable matter
lies exposed to such terrible conflagra-
tions as that just reported from Baku
than in the district lying just beyond
that town on the shores Of the Caspian.
Everything seems saturated with pc
troleum; the Gir one breathes is laden
with a greasy odor, ana the waters of
the bay are covered with an iridescent
sheen which at night may be set on fire
with most weird effect. Not only is
black naphtha to be seen in monster
fountains playing from the very earth,
but white naphtha flows of itself in
places, and short way off are the
natural gas vents over which the natives
do their cooking, without coal, and
which once fed the sacred Zoroastrian
fires. No wonder that the ancient Per-
slams looked on this as holy ground,
where the eternal heaven-fed flames OF
life burst forth in sacred buildings, the
remains of which are still extant, and
the modern Persian or Parsee of Bonn
bay and Guierat liindles the oil shipped
to him from Batoum without sigh for
vanished belief. When the late shah
of Persia visited Baku il was necessary
to import number of priests for the
occasion, that he might witness in the
portion Of the Persian empire that had
been wrested from II by Peter the Great
specimen of the worship that his
predecessors had all but stamped out in,
the portion they had conqured and re-
tanned. For less distinguished visitors
to see there Is only a ruined t6wet, from
the top of which fare natural jets,
through iron gaspipes, and a Number Of
cells, with affairs for the once sacred
fre, and some ancient Inscriptions.
Everything round is saturated, and I
have stood in those sheds the only dry
object, with naphtha spout playing
above and falling deafeningly upon the
roof. No one objects TO naphtha there,
and the men even wash in it, using sand
Herewith, while all employed have q
fixed allowance for fuel and light. No
! dwellings more dismal than theirs can
be imagined. Dante should have visited
the spot.
All around between the wells lie lakes
Of seething naphtha, which, when clear
Of sand and stones, will be pumped into
iron reservoirs. The ronds have naphtha
streams by the sides, and naphtha pipes
of all sizes cross and lnterlace in all dl-
rections until they are hardly passable.
One rashly thrown match would set
miles in n blaze, and the most stringent
regulations are wisely enforced. But
for them disasters would be terribly
frequent.
A very different appearance Is pre-
sented by the palpitating Black Town,
where in gigantic furnaces the naphtha
is distilled and churned and distilled
again as benzine, kerosene and vaselne,
and many valuable chemicals are one
by one removed, till only the thick,
black residue, of use for fuel, is left, and
much of this is used to feed the furnaces
themselves. Boilers so heated closely
resemble those intended for coal and
wood, except that on the inside of the
fire doors are stout jets, through which
II is pumped the length of the fireboX
forming bright tongues of heat-giving
flames. Railways and steamers alike
are so heated In Russia.-Pall Mall Ga
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