The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1909-10-09

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 it 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 25 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 it in guam
titles sufficient for fuel and light. Still
in some places it formed such q
scum" on the small streams that 1t
was reported the small boys who
went in swimming were made SO slip
Ilsql desH lou pInoo xsq3 lsq3 xIsd
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 a few hundred feet,
1t was found that oil could be pumped
out of the rocks like water, and
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,
the 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 porous sandstone lying I'M
der the coal measures and above thick
deposits of Devonian shale, which
a good deal of carbonaceous
matter. These shales crop out con-
tinuously from little south Of
Rochester, N. r., all along parallel
70 Lake Erie to the vicinity Of San
husky, o., and then turn south, con-
.inuing to the Ohio. near the mouth
Of the Scioto river. Over all the area
south and east of this line these
'hales are several hundred feet
.hick, and are reached by the drill at |
iepths, ranging from a few hundred to |
1000 or 5000 feet.
In Ohio these shales contain from
en- to twenty per cent. of very fine
'omminuted carbonaceous matter, de-
lived probably from seaweed which |
loated around in the Devonian period
'ver the Mississippi valley, as it does
low in the Sargossa sea in the middle |
4 the Atlantic. Indeed. in the earlier
'eriod of which we have just spoken
'rof. Newberry was proposing to OBJ
ain oil by distilling this shale, from
which he calculated oil could be
reduced indefinitely for 25 cents a
allon. 1t is comforting to think that
Te have this source of supply to fall
ack upon when our present method
ails.
The most plausible theory to ac-
cunt for the great supplies of oil
Ihich are now found in the "oil
ands" of western Pennsylvania and
icinity is that it is a slow accumu-
alton from the distillation of these
hales, which has been unable to es-
ape through the compact rocks COW
ring the surface and has found refuge
1 the interstices and crevices of the
pose sandstone everything the shale.
This theory is supported first by the
act that oil is not found largely in
onnection with coal beds, and hence
cnnot have been derived from them
econd, by the fact that where these
hales are at the surface and there is
o compact rock over them, such as
ould confine the gas into which the
II would distill, oil is not found in
lrge quantities.
Speaking thus of gas makes 1t nec-
ssary to say something of the con-
ection between gas and oil. Chem
ally they are practically the same,
of carbon and hydrogen in
lie proportion CT one part of carbon
, two of hydrogen. A large amount
gas almost always escapes from oil
ellis, while often gas only is pro