The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1914-06-28
ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM
Oh. p. Mccullough

ii. L. MCCullOuSu)
The question of the origin of petrole-
um and NATURAL gas has received the
attention of some of the most dis
tinguished chemists and biologists,
and has been eXperimentally invesh-
gated with instructive results. Whilst,
however, it has been conclusively es-
tablished by laboratory experiments,
that products more or less closely re-
sembling those which are met with
in nature, may be obtained by various
processes, it cannot be said that any
one theory of origin has yet found
universay acceptance
Humboit, in 1904, expressed the
opinion that oil was distilled by vol
canic action from strata at an immense
depth, and Reichenback in 1894, ad-
vanced the theory that it was formed
by the action of subterranean heat
on the turpentine of pine trees. The
early references to the origin relate
only to the liquid and solid forms of
bitumen, the connection between nat
ural gas and petroleum having appar-
emily not been recognized. The vari-
Gus theories which have been formu-
lated from time to time may be divided
into three groups. The first consist
ing of those which attribute to pc
troleum and inorganic origin, the sec
rived from the decomposition of ter
restrial vegetation, and the third of
those which regard it as product of
the decay of marine vegetable or an
imal matter or both.
Orton, in his report on the occurrence
of petroleum, natural gas, and asphalt
rock in western Kentucky, 1891, has
given one of the most complete re-
sumes yet published of the various
views expressed. He clasifies the theor-
les dealing with the derivation from
organic matter with the two divisions.
The first division comprises those that
are based upon the view that petro-
leum has been formed from organic
bodies in the strata now yielding the
oil, the decomposition having princi-
pally taken place in stu, and the oil
being thus mainly indigenous to the
yielding strata. This view has been
supported by Sterry Hunt, Leslie, White
and Whitney, and to greater or less
extent by many other authorities. The
second division includes the theory de-
pendant upon the conclusion that pc
troleum is a product of distillation,
or of the secondary decomposition of
organic matter. This general conclu-
sion has been advocated by Newbury,
Peckham, and large number of geolo-
gists. The assumption is that the
original remains were partially trans
formed in stu, and of the conveyance
to the rocks now yielding oil of the
petroleum produced by distillation,
was aided by hydrcstatic force or pres
sure, "the so-called bituminous shales"
being counted the chief source of
these products In controversy on
this point, some have assumed that
water pressure alone was implied by
the term hydrostatic, instead of the
wider Specification covering all fluids.
Gas, whether. free or suspended in
petroleum is a most potent agent In
the distribution of oil and of any as
sociated water, whilst the concentrated
salinity of the latter in many cases
notates against and hypothetical con-
ection with artesian water passages.
Orton considers that petroleum is the
aren't product from which both gas
and solid bitumen are derived, and,