The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1920-08-19
History of Oil
Earliest Account of Discovery
of Crude Oil in America Found
In Work of Sir Walter Raleigh
(By c. E. Deaton)

When the professional oil wildcat.
ter of the twentieth century moves w
near the long axis line of Texas OF
New Mexico uplift, builds his derrick
pulls off celebration "spuds in" and
starts drilling for oil, he generally
feels like he is launching a new in.
dustry. He believes the oil business
is yet in its infancy He believes
further that thousands of barrels of
Liquid bitumen" are sealed up in the
halfmoon shaped reservoirs in the
structure. and if he can only force
the "steel needle" down through a
couple of thousand feet of rock beds
he can open an outlet for this oil,
which under the hundreds of tons of
rock and gas pressure will gush out
over the derrick, startle the neigh
bors, spatter the surrounding sheep
country with shimmering grease and
allow him to wire his stockholders in
eighteen or twenty states, message
about as follows:
"Wonder pool struck. Vertical
river of crude oil gushing high above
derrick. Will pay monster dividends
as soon as clerical force can be hired
to check out some"
Such are the spectacular dreams of
the present day oil promoter. He is
an adventurer of the first magnitude
and his dreams are coming true in
many instances.
But the oil industry is indeed not
discovery of the Twentieth Century
We note that an oil anticline was cut
through by tributary of the Eu-
pirates river years before Christ,
and some of the oil was used in mir
ing mortar to build the walls of Baby
lon. This information is contained in
the work of Herodotus, the Greek
historian and is also mentioned by
Diodorus, Bochart and Josephus, who
refer to oil springs that existed at
that time.
The work of Strabo in the first
century B. c., and Pliny's work in the
first century A, D., both show that
oil was used at that time for illumi-
nation, and Plutarch also speaks of
the oil springs discovered near Ker-
kuk mot Iowa remember) about that
date. Pliny was great student of
rock formations, according to history
and on the Gath day Of August A. D.
70 he crossed the Bay of Stabiae to
get little closer observation of the
great Volcano of Vesuvius which had
just emitted the boiling mass of mag
ma which overwhelmed the cities of
Pompei and Herculaneum, and in so
doing he drew too close to the phe-
nomenon and persisted. advice to
geologists-do not try 10 geologic
the flank of an active voIcano.)
The earliest history obtainable of
China and Japan show that natural
gas was used there for both lighting
and heating in ancient times. Italy
woke up to the use of petroleum gas
in the twelfth century, when gas
springs were discovered in the north
I'm part of that country.
Near the close of the thirteenth
century, Marco Polo discovered oil
'eepage along the south slope of the
peninsula of Apheron, near the city
If Baku in Transcaucasian Russia.
In the fourteenth century oil was
exploited as medicine and was sold
Ill over the little contry of Bavaia
1nder the name of "St. Quirinu's Oip'
md 'Earthbalsam."
The earliest account of crude oil
n America occurs in the work of Sir
Walter Raleigh The oil was discov-
,red in the year 1896, and was called
4 pitch lake. Thirty-seven years later
Joseph d'Allion found oil springs in
The state of New York. and mentioned
The discovery in his. book entitled
Historic du Canada"
In the seventeenth century Thomas
Shirley found natural gas in Shrop-
shire, a western county of England.
and brought the same to the attention
of the Royal Society Of England, but
they neither exploited or commercial
lied it, and in 1924 oil was being sold
in Burma under the name of "Barba-
do tar"
The first oil map in America was
gotten out by Peter Kahn, Russian
traveller, who drew a map showing
the location of oil springs in Pennsyl-
vania. This was in the year 174S,
but the oil deposits of America were
not exploited until the early part of
tho Ninataanfh oaNt,,rxy ,.,bor oil xuo,