Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1909-10-07
MYSTERIES OF NATURE
BY George Frederick Wright,
A. M, L. D.
OIL "GUsHERs" AND THEIR ORIGIN
A. M, IL. D.

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The commercial discovery Of petrol
cum dates from the memory Of men
now little past middle life. Between
1850 and 1860 much alarm began to
be felt throughout the civilized world
because the whale fisheries were be.
coming unproductive. The disappear
ance OF whales meant the disappear
ance of whale oil, which was the main
dependence for light.
But 1t was discovered that oil could
be economically made from certain
kinds Of coal, especially camel coal,
which abounded in west Pennsylvania
and Virginia. Capitalists from New
England began to invest large sums
in these coal mines and to put up ex-
tensive plants for manufacturing coal
oil, and numerous inventions were
made for its use as an Illuminating
fluid. The oil was sold at Is cents per
gallon.
For some time, however, rock oil, or
petroleum, had been known to exude
in small quantities in western Penn
sylvania, and was put up in small bot
ties and sold for rs cents as an oint-
ment good for rheumatism and other
Ills. Sometimes this was called Mex
lean oil, but more generally Seneca
oil, from the name of the Indian tribe
settled on the Allegheny river where
1t was chiefly found. But there had
been no thought Of getting 1t in guam
titles sufficient for fuel and light. Still
in some places it formed such a
"scum" on the small streams that 1t
was reported the small boys who
went in swimming were made so slip
IIsql desE lou pInoo GsQl aqua 6Ied
clothes on.
Titusville, Pa, has the honor Of be-
ing the place where rock oil was first
found in large enough quantities to
make it commercially valuable. There,
on boring down few hundred feet,
1t was found that oil could be pumped
out of the rocks like water, and a
craze was started that is still going
on after more than forty years have
elasped and gives no signs Of abate-
ment.
AS the quality of this oil is nearly
the same as that derived from coal,
tho inventions already made served
for the utilization of this also, though
in this as in everything else mankind
has kept going on to perfection.
Throughout western Pennsylvania,
West Virginia and eastern Ohio, which
were the main centers Of production
for the first rs years, the oil was
found in a porous sandstone lying I'M
der the coal measures and above thick
deposits of Devonian shale, which
contained a good deal Of carbonaceous
matter. These shaleS crop out con-
tinuously from o little south of
Rochester, N. T., all along parallel
to Lake Erie to the vicinity Of San
dusky; O., and then turn south, con-
tinuing to the Ohio, near the mouth
Of the Scioto river. Over all the area
south and eastCof this line these
phales are several hundred feet
thick. and are reached by the drill at
depths, ranging from q few hundred to
1000 or 5000 feet
In Ohio these shales contain from
ten to twenty per cent. Of very fine
comminuted carbonaceous matter, de-
rived probably from seaweed which
floated around in the Devonian period
over the Mississippi valley, az It does
now in the sargossa sea IN the middle
Of the Atlantic. Indeed, In the earlier
period Of which we have just spoken
Prof. Newberry was proposing to OBJ
tain oil by distiIling this shale, from
which he calculated oil could be.
produced indefinitely for Is cents a
gallon. It is comforting to think that
we have this source Of supply to fall
back upon when our present method
fails.
The most plausible theory to &C
count for the great supplies Of oil
which are now found in the "oil
sands of western Pennsylvania and
vicinity Is that 1t is a slow accumu-
iation from the distillation OF these
shal,s, which has been unable to es-
c,pe through the compact rocks coy
erlug the surface and has found refuge
In the lnterstices and creyices Of the
loose sandstone everything the shale.
This theory is supported first by the