Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-03-27
NO. 25.
Miseellanuas Radias,
ABOUT OIL.
How Mother Earth Gives Oil to the
World, and lts Value In Daily Life.

flo" "otneT' EaTIn SiNeS VII 10 tno
World, and lts Value In Daily Life.
For all purposes Of human life the
world requires some 500.00o,00O gal
Ions Of oil year, or about one-quar-
ter of gallon to every man, woman
and child on the face of the globe.
Next to coal and the heat It pro-
vides, oil is the most valuable neces-
sity of mankind taken from the earth.
Gold is the most precious metal, but,
II coal and oil were taken away from
the world, gold would be of little
value. 1t cannot sustain life except
through Its purchasing power, while
coal and oil have within themselves
not only heat and light for human
beings, but many food supplies.
Mother earth has many treasures
underground, but probably none as
precious at the present time as her
supply of oil; and while this oil in
various sections of the country is
drilled and bored for and brought to
the surface Of the ground. few there
are who can explain how II got un-
derground.
For this reason I wish to give you
an oil story from the lips Of Prof.
Jacques Chennair of Paris, who has
completed an extensive study of the
natural oil fields Of China, Manchu-
ria, Russia and the United States, and
who, at an early day. will give final
conclusions to class of young engin-
eering students in Marseilles, who
are fitting themselves to be oil-hnders
the world over.
Prof. Chennair has just left CAL
weston, Texas, for Tahiti, in the pur-
suit Of his studies, and expects to
reach France late in January. His
simple talk on oil. its value, and how
1t enters into almost every daily re-
quirement Of our lives, is entertain
Ing, for, az scholar and represen-
tative Of the French government, he
Is an authority.
When in Chicago, Prof. Chennair
said to me:
"In a recent conversation which I
had with President Roosevelt, he
asked me what the oil production OF
the world represented to the people
on the globe, and ! replied that 1t
meant far more than 1t was generally
understood. Whether 1t be crude oil
that spouts right out of the earth or
the oil that, after 1t has been taken
out, is refined, It stands for locomo-
tive fuel, for lighting, for heating for
soaps, for many of the by-products
that enter into the manufacture of
butter (and butter that is lrealthful.)
for some of the ingredients Of -four,
especially the coarser grades, for
what is used in glycerine, in vaseline.
in listerine, what appears strongly re-
fined in extracts for fiavoring, and so
on. So long as 1t is pure no harm
can come from the use of natural
oils; impurities can only be introduc-
ed by man.
'In studying the origin of oils Of
the earth. 1 have visited Mount Vesu-
yius, Full, the sacred volcano OF Ja-
pan, Mauna Loa. In Hawaii. the vol
canic peaks Of Mexico, and the sub
merged volcanoes, or craters Of Eu-
rope, Manchuria, and your own coun-
try. Many craters that once were
above the surface Of the earth have
been sunk, through changes In the
crust, to a level lower than the sur
face yet they are still alive.
Volcanic action has produced all
the natural oil (by this / mean the
oils not extracted from vegetables)
that the world has ever had. The
manner Of its production has been
curious but not strange. Volcanoes,
whether in active eruption or exter-
nally quiet are always working. They
are really only gas vents for the in
ternal fires of the earth which be-
come especially active when water
from q lake or a sea Is suddenly in
troduced into them. They have i'm
mense heat internally.
"I found craters in Java whose In
ternal heat 200 feet down from their
mouth could not be less than 1,500
degrees-a heat so intense that any
Of our ordinary metals would disap-
pear in 1t like a vapor. At Mauna
Loa I was able to accurately deter
mine the existence of heat equivalent
to 5000 degrees on one Of our ther-
mometers. 1t Is heat such as this
that, with soil pressure, produces the
natural oil Of the world.
1.-The furnaces Of volcanic craters
melt rocks, clay and ordinary earth
into liquid mass. Out Of this mass
comes, when sufficient oxygen, hy-
drogen and nitrogen are developed, a
fluid which, not being spouted out on
to the surface of the earth. flows like
rivers through its inner recesses. lit
tie channels that open here and there.
This fluid, according to the character
Of material from which 1t has been
made, is oil of a certain value. Some
of it is thick and valuable only for
use on machinery; some Of 1t is thin
and strong in lighting properties;
still other oil is fit only, after proper
refinement, to be used in connection
with certain food products.
yet 1t is one of the remarkable
provisions of nature that no oil taken
from any part of the earth is value
less; 1t all has a natural use, II only
one knows what to do with 1t. To
tell you the story to this point, will
say that when I was at Kcheniff, a
small oil-producing center in Man
churia, 1 found an oil we'll flowing
with an exceedingly thin and white
product that did not yield over five
barrels a day. The owner and work.
men had abandoned 1t in despair. l