The times., 1901-06-24


| from which is derived a large number OF
common and useful things. The kero-
sene. which burns in the table lamp and
| furnishes fuel for the summer stove, Is
, one of its products. Gasoline, widely used
| for street lighting and various forms OF
| heating apparatus = another Benzlne
| is one of the naphthas denixed from pc
| troleum while vaseline, cosnlpiine elc-'
! which form the basis of salves ana To-
tions are it's residual products. The black
| oil which the engineer hastily turns INTO
the joints and upon the rods OF the loco
motive. as the train stops at the station,
| is made from petroleum Parafiine ana
| chewing gum come from the same source,
while the benzol series of the aniiine dyes
| are manufactured from the RanGoon anu
! Caucasian rock oils.
| Petroleum in it's crude state is found IN
| the rock basins of the silurian and ter
! tiary geological periods, from le1 TO LV"
| feet below the surface. The oil rock
| sometimes shale and sometimes porous
! sandstone, is saturated with the petfo-
| leum. from which il is pumped by steam
| mower or is brought to the surface on
! the principle OF the artesian well. re
! troleum has been known from ahcleht
| times. 1t was pat to practical use as luei
| in the region around the Caspian sea
much earlier than elsewhere Under the
| name of 'Sicilian OIL it was burned in
lamps in Rome in the days Of Phny' 1t
entered into use in the arts in China cen
turies ago, and was discovered 10y the
early settlers in Canada and the United
| States. AS first known, petroleum came
| from springs, and among its hrst uses
| apparently learned from the North Amer
| lean Indians was its employment as
| medicinal agent to cure rheumatism ana
| neuralgia.
Borings for petroleum and its CONNER
! cial Importance may be said to date from
1853 Some Gil from the springs near
! Titusville. Pa was sent to Prof Benja>
| min SiIIiman. of Yale College, and after
| a chemical analysis of the same he issued
a report. in which he not only pointed
| out its chemical constituents, but its pos
| sibiiities as an article of trade. He pre-
dicted some of the many uses to which
| pretoleum has since been put, and the
| Sfliman report was the beginning OF the
oil industry in Pennsylvania, with its at
tendant excitement, speculation, and sud
den wealth of the fortunate owners Of
barren farms in Butler and Mexican
counties a company formed in New
| Haven sent E. L. Drake TO drill well
in the valley of Oil Creek, near the spring
! which had furnished the petroleum which
Prof Siliman had examined.
| Drake drove an iron pipe through thir-
| tv-six feet of soil to the rocks. After
| drilling through thirty-three feet Of solid
| shale the drill, one evening at dusk, sud
| denly dropped six inches. apparently into
| a crevice. The next morning petroleum
| was found bubbling out from the top of
| the well. The drill was removed and
pump applied, and several barrels of
| ,aI gVf.y ha
we'll Other wells were soon after drill
ed. and coal Oil" as it was then called.
became one of the important products of
! Pennsylvania The "oil fever followed.
and before the end of the civil war OH
| Creek, 'ridioute, Pithole, and Titusville
were the scenes of even greater activity
| than recently the mining camps of the
| Klondike have shown. In 1863 Pithole
| was, rext to Philadelphia, the largest
| postofice in the United States.
The oil fields of North america, the
| largest and most productive in the world,
! are confined to basin, with IT'S northern
| end in Canada. and its southern eXtremi-
( " in kentucky. This basin is in the gen
! eral form of an ellipse, it's. lines lnclud-
! ing eastern Ohio, western pennsylvania,
/ West Virginia, and Kentucky. The prin-
| cipaI field is in Mexican County, Pennsyl-
vania. where peculiar inclination OF the
4 containing basin appears 10 nave drauled
The supply on the upper edge OF the basin
( was long ago exhausted, but at the lower
! extremity We're sunk several years ago
! the wells still flowing, which nave uehed
| time and the enormous consumption OF
the product. Beside the oil-yieldiqg ter
| ritory of the United States and Canada,
| petroleum is produced in large quantities
| in the western eXtr>Slity OF the Caucasus
| Mountains in the region around Baku, IN
! Galicia and Roumania, il Japan, Burmah,
! and Italy. 1t is also found in Germany,
| ;,. nd
| Egypt. and in Assam, and the island OF
| Java.
| Petroleum is pumped from the oil-hear-
| ing rocks by means Of wells. These rocks
| are situated between strata into which
! the oil viii not penetrate, and II Is I'M
| prisoned, as II We're in an immense Dot
| tie The wells ore drilled through the
uf,per side of the bottle and its contents
| pumped out. The machinery for sinking
the oil well is quite simple, and was Dor
| rOwod from the older practice OF drllllng
| salt wells First a strong derrick is built
| of timber usually from 30 to 10 feet high,
| and is used for hosting purposes and for
| the mana cement OF the pipe-drving and
the drilling. heavy sin is framed into
| the base Of the derrick, in the centre OF
! which IS bored a hole ten inches IN diam
eter. This is the top Of the Wen Some
distance away is the engine shed con
tanning a Z to Is horse power steam en-
| gine
crank wizh one end made 10 play over
! the hole IN the derrick sill. completes the
| rig" as it is called. The first operation
| in making a well is to drive an iron pipe
| through the soil down to hard pan, or
| the rock The pipe is in sections, and IS
| driven by hOisting piece OF timber tC
| the top of the derrick by rope ana sud
| denly letting il fall. through racer, Chto
| the top Of the pipe Sometimes, how
! ever the pipe is driven by block fas-
! tened to the end OF the walking beam and
| operated by the engine
| When the rock Is reached the drilling
begins, the drill being worked by the
| walking beam Those drilling the well
| know at about what depth the oil may be
| expected. and when it Is found they have
/ struck lie" IN the phrase Of the To-
| cality.
One of the serious impedments to the
I oil industry in the beginning was the lack
I Of transportation. The refineTies were in
Boston, Pittsburg, and other large cities.
! One of them, in Cleveland, Ohio, in which
! John Rockefeller worked as a machinist.
| Standard OH Company, controlling the
| worlds output Of petroleum, as well as
! other vegetable and animal oils. The
! crude oil was FIRST shipped down Oil Creek
on fiat boats which could make the pas
| sage only in time Of fTeshet, and the
! transportation of the product was both
| expensive and dangerous. The next step
| oil was stored. Then came the large steel
! tanks on car wheels to carry the oil by
I rail. But these appliances were cumber-
| some and dangerous, and pipe lines We're
! laid from the Pennsylvania and Ohio
I fields TO the seaboaTd, to Chicago, and to
| other points, so that petroleum Is now
| carried from the wells to the retineries
| by gravity in iron pipes There are 600
! miles of pipe line in the United States,
] inn 1gfas.