The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-01-22
OIL ONCE THROWN AWAY.
Petroleum Has Had Romantic His
tory in United States.

The radius of the worlds discov-
cred oil fields is becoming extended
more widely every year. and the
increasing area over which oil is
found. helps to prove the theory that
petroleum is a product of the delayed
decomposition of marine life and
vegetation of the carbombaerous and
tertiary periods; for though there
are undoubtedly limits to pronfic oil
bearing strata, very few countries
exist in which small quantities may
not occur. Even in England small
amounts have been noticed in deep
wells at Willesden and Newark.
When in 1S49 James Young first
made mineral lubricants from oil is
suing from the shales in the 'Riddings
Collery, and afterward obtained the
OF! by distilling certain Scotch shales
and cannels at low temperature, the
lighter portions of the distillation
were looked upon as waste products,
only the heavy residue being needed
as a lubricant. Young. however, dis
covered eventually that these lighter
portions were being bought up and
shipped to Germany for use in spec
tally constructed lamps, and having
obtained patterns of these lamps he
had them made in Edinburg.
Ten years after the original dis
covery of shale oil Col. Drake, in
sinking a we'll for brine in Pennsyl-
vania, came across oil in quantity at
depth of about 69 feet, his we'll
(despite the early difficulties of col
lection and suorage) yielding about
1000 barrels in year. This led to
an enormous number of wells being
sunk near Oil Creek and along the
valleys of the Alleghenies, where
large volumes of oil were found, al
though at far greater depth than in
the first instance.
Until 1861 these wells continued
to yield a moderate supply, the oil
having to be pumped, but in that
year oil was found suddenly Under
enormous pressure at a depth Of 400
feet, and some of the wells in the
neighborhood gave a yield of $500
barrels day.
This was the beginning of the oil
fever in America, and prospecting be-
gan in every direction. Such quantl-
ties Of oil were discovered that,
despite criminal waste due to the
wells being sunk without proper pro-
vision for collecting the oil, the sup
rly rapidly outran the demand, which
was then in it's infancy, and the price
fell to such an extent that in many
cases the barrels cost more than was
fetched by their contents, the latter
frequently being allowed to run to
waste. Indeed, it is supposed that in
Pennsylvania alone 100000 bar
rels of oil were run down the streams
owing to the impossibility of deal
ing with the overglutted market.
Slowly, however, the market I'M
proved, and with the growth of the
European demand that came into be-
ing attention was drawn to the
wealth of oil already known to exist
in the Baku district of Russia, where
up to that time the oil production
had been a monopoly in the hands of
Meersoeff, a trader. In 1872 the
government withdrew this concession
and imposed a tax on the oil produc-
ed as a result of which the whole
Apsheron Peninsula was developed
rapidly and rich strata were pierced.
At present the worlds supply OF
petroleum approximates to the enor-
nous amount of 50,000,000 tons an
nually, more than 350,000,000 BAR
rels, drawn from the following coun-
tries:
Million