Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-02-04
A LAND OF NAPHTHA.
Highly Iniammable Nature of Everything
at Baku Petroleum Wells.

at Baku Petroleum Wells.
Probably there is no spot on earth
where more highly inhammable matter
lies exposed to such terrible conAagra
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 air one breathes is laden
with a greasy odor, and the waters Of
the bay are covered with an iridiscent
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 nat
ural 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 BOm-
bay and Gujerat kindles the oil shipped
to him from Batoum without a sigh for
q vanished belief. When the late shah
OF Persia visited Baku, it 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 it by Peter the Great
a specimen Of the worship that his pred
ecessors had all but stamped out in the
portion they had conquered and retain
ed. For less distinguished visitors to see
there is only ruined tower, from the
top of which flare natural jets. through
iron gas pipes, and number Of cells,
with affairs for the once sacred fire, and
some ancient inscriptions.
Everything round is saturated, and l
have stood in those sheds the only dry
object. with q 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 a
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 roads have
naphtha streams by the sides, and naph-
tina pipes Of all sizes cross and interlace
in all directions until they are hardly
passable One rashly thrown match
would set miles in o blaze, and the
most stringent regulations are wisely
enforced. But for them disasters would
be terribly frequent
a very different appearance is present
ed by the palpitating Black Town,
where in gigantic furnaces the naphtha
is distilled and churned and distilled
again as benzine, kerosene and yaseline
and many valuable chemicals arc 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
it is pumped the length Of the tirebox,
forming bright tongues Of heat giving
flames. Railways and steamers alike are
30 heated in Russia. Pail Mall Gazette.