The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-12-20
BY-PRODUCTSEXPLOITED
THE RESULT or DISCOVERIES IN THE
OIL INDUSTRY.

A1nasinE Number OF Things which Have
Been Taken From Petroleum Residue
Progress Of the Art--New York the Cen
TIRE Of the Work.
Among the manufacturing Industries
In the neighborhood OF New York few
are larger than those connected with
the preparation Of petroleum for the
market. Like thousands OF other en-
terprises, the oil industry owes no
small part Of its present development
to the little savings which progressive
ingenuity has devised. The story Of
the discovery and application Of nu-
merous by-products of kerosene Is typ
lcal Of the advance and enrichment
which modern methods and chemistry
have contributed in many and varied
fields.
When the discovery of petroleum In
quantity first permitted the use OF the
mineral on q large scale, 1t was man
ufactured only for the illuminating oil
which it contained. OF the Pennsyl-
vania crude oil, this constituted fifty
to fifty-fOur per cent, or even more;
by one process as much as seventy
per cent. in illuminating oil was OBJ
tanned. The remainder was all, or
practically all, waste. Gas was pro-
duced in the earlier stages Of the dis
tillation, but whatever inflammable
vapors the crude gave or before 1t
reached the temperature at which IL
Eliminating oil would boil, were burned,
though sometimes as fuel. Tar. pitch,
or residuum remained In the stills
after the illuminating oil had been got
out. This was thrown away; more
often than not, run into the creeks
near the refineries. The manipulation
Of petroleum was thus the manufac-
ture Of kerosene; it was like the separ-
alton of lead only from an ore which
also contained paying quantities Of
copper, silver and gold.
For in the crude petroleum were
variety of other substances awaiting
only isolation from the compounds
with which they were mixed. OF fluids
more volatile than kerosene, there was
a whole group of naphthas; OF sub
jects less easily brought to boil, there
was such products as paraffine, par
affine oil, vaseline, wide variety Of
other lubricating oils, and a number OF
sorts of pitch. Some of these were to
be had simply by condensing and saw
ing the vapors given off by distillation,
at different degrees Of heat; some
were available only after special pro-
cesses supplementary to dlstillation.
had been carried out. In almost all
cases, the product, once separated from
other components of the petroleum
OF it's distillates, needed to be careful
ly refined. ,>.~s
Little time passed before kerosene
ceased to be the only material for
which crude oil was treated by water,
acid, alkali and fire. The chemistry
of the substance was fairly well known
before the discovery Of the great Penn
sylvania fields in 1861. A substance
very much like petroleum had been
distilled in the late forties from the BIZ
luminous camel found in parts of
| Scotland. Even the heavy fluid OBJ
tanned by heating this shale to about
800 degrees Fahrenheit and condens-
ing the vapors resulting, the Scotch
manufacturers were making an illum-
mating oil already in 1848. For nearly
forty years the competition has pro-
ceeded, though ever, to be sure, with
growing proof that the British coal
oil, despite economies of manufacture
and ingenuities of invention, was no
commercial match for the rock oil of
the Americans. Partly in Scotland,
partly in America, there has been
worked out system of the utiliza-
ton of the by-products for which, in
brilliance and completeness. there are
| few parallels in the whole history of
manufacturing technique.
| The products other than kerosene
finally derived from petroleum show
wide divergences in both their physical
| characteristics and the uses to which
| they can be put. Some Of them are so
volatile that at ordinary temperatures
they take the gaseous form; others
cannot be separated from the mother
| LIQUID short of red heat. Certain of
the commodities are solid; the major
| lily, uOWctCI, dlO AulOSy IAOu5A ACAO
| again there is a wide range of differ
ence in point of specific gravity. In
a broad way they may be grouped as
| products obtained before and after
| the distillation of kerosene.
After the kerosene of commerce has
been boiled off. with the help Of jets
of live steam, the tar, which used to
be thrown away, is made to give up
large proportion of lubricating oil,
about seventeen and one-half per cent.
of the total weight of the crude ma
terial. Into the condensers, along with
| this OIL there passes also about two
per cent. of paraffin, which can be sep
arated by pressing after the distillate
has cooled, and is then ready for the
fltering and other publications which
fetch it out finally as white wax.
OF the whole weight of the petroleum
scarcely ten per cent. is lost in manu-
facture when the process is arranged
to extract this considerable proportion
of lubricants. When the still is so
built and the firing conducted that the
highest practicable quantity about
seventy per cent? of Illuminating oil