The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1909-04-17
By WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS

, nearing eAnaustloh, Nhlle Mehueletl
authoritatively states that oil is still
being formed in the Caspian fields.
DIR. Crook of the Northwestern uni
versity, Chicago, an authority upoI
voleanography, says 1.-The old theory
that the very center of the earth is q
molten mass, is no longer held He
asserts that while the center is gaseous
it is more rigid than glass yet les.
rigid than steel, with more or less mol
ten matter floating on this dense inner
sphere under the earth S crust. "Tak
ing water as l." says Mendeleeff, 1.-the
mean density of the earth is IS. AT
the surface, water and all rocks have a
density less than 3 and, since solid sub
stances are but slightly %compressible
even under the greatest pressure, it is
evident that inside the earth there are
substances of a greater density-in-
deed, (of a density not less than Z or
So that his conclusions correspond
with those of DI. Crook in respect to
molten matter floating on the inner
gaseous sphere.
Iron and carbon predominant in ma
ture, are widely diffused, fusible with
difficulty and therefore easily con
densed, and pass into a liquid state
when other mineral compounds are at
a temperature of association. Carbon
il but slightly volatile and has an af-
fnity for iron, so that at a high tenn
perature with the exclusion of oxygen
by the crust above the molten mass
that floats on the inner dense gaseous
sphere, carbide of iron would be formed
and predominant and so remain without
burning up, being ineandeseent like
the flament when heated in an electric
light globe.
The action of water, especially sea
water, upon this ineandescent carbide,
forms petroleum. However, Clarke
states that such chemically formed
petroleum, is OFFICIALLY inert, in that it
will not rotate IA ray of polarized light,
hut neither does his consideration of
those inert and apparently dead gases,
aIgon, helium, neon, krypton, and
xenon, account for their inertia, not
withstanding his laboratory expert
ments shows the transformation and
breaking down of radium, having an
atomic weight of 225, into helium, hav-
ing an atomic weight of 40, so that the
position of the same matter is trans-
ferrod from group ?, series II, in the
periodic classification of the elements
to, group 0, series ..
While on the other hand, direct lab
oratory experiments by both Cloez and
Mendeleeff, as well as many others,
both in America and abroad, prove that
manganiferous iron, rich in chemically
combined carbon, when treated with
acids particularly, h~ydrochlorie) gives
liquid hydrocarbons that in compost
ton, appearance, properties, reactions,
taste and smell, as well as commercial
use, are completely identical with ma
turai petroleum; while "carbide of
uranium forms them directly when act
ed on by water (Moissan).'
And, again, in the production of bon
zine both as a coal tar and a petroleum
product, while the chemical equation is
identical in every respect, there is a
difference between the products, not
withstanding both were produced in the
laboratory of nature, which makes one
more valuable and useful in the arts
and science han the other, so that
while this difference i~ntervenes both IN
respect to chemical and natural petro-
lcums, as well as benzines, it could be
ency of the atomical constituents, like
natter as a whole that in processes OF
evolution passes by progressive com
plexity, from the simpler nebulae
through the hotter stars to the colder
planets or, say, from sun to earth and
then to the moon, creating and losing
an atmosphere as well as energy and
power of manifestion of energy with
age. according to the laws of which,
universally accepted by all physicists
and chemists, undoubtedly ensues that
arrangement and classification of the
elements into periodic groups and
series. bv reason of which in three of
the spaces that were left blank, Men
deleeff, who announced the law, was
enabled to venture specific predictions,
chat have since been verified.
Having predicated indications for a
mineral origin of oil, a consideration of
other conclusions, is just. All fats,
whether of vegetable or animal origin
show, on reduction to 100 per cent, the
following composition: Carbon, ~;
hydrogen, IL; and oxygen, 10, hut that
petroleum and its residues. contain no
OXYGEN. Considering the composition
of ali fats, and their decomposition by
distinctive d%istillation to a cool carbon
series, upon analysis there results the
following table:
COAL Carl