The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-10-07
nv FREDERIcK }. HAsKIN

BURKESVILLE, KY, Oct. lin the
history of the conversion of natural
products into commodities useful to
man nothing seems stranger than that
petroleum was known by ancients and
known continuously for uncounted CEN
turtles, yet did not become an import
ant commercial product till so years
ago.
From the Latin words ''petro", a
rock, and "oleum", oil, we get the name
petroleum." oil" The "slime"
spoken of in the Old Testament in the
construction of the tower of Babel
was partly evaporated petroleum. The
inhabitants of Nineveh and Babylon
used it as binder for brick as mortar
is used nowadays in making walls. Oil
springs on the island of Zante are
mentioned by the Greek historian
HeTodotus.
Egyptians used petroleum in en-
balming and imported it from the W.
cinity of the Dead Sea centuries before
the birth of Christ. Lamps of the tenn
pie of Jupiter were lighted with oil
from the springs of Agrigentum on the
island of Sicily.
Persians, Chinese, Japanese, used it
to a limited extent 5000 years ago.
The mound builders who preceded the
American Indians of the period OF
Christopher Columbus, made use of it
Yet when a man drilling for salt near
Burkesville in southern Kentucky IN
1929 struck oil he was disappointed
and alarmed, and did not realize that
he had tapped what was to become
natural resource enormously valuable.
The story as told in Burkesville is
that the salt we'll driller had been sew
eral times disappointed. Making an
other attempt he remarked that he
would drill till he should strike salt
or strike hell"
When he struck oil and a gusher
poured it's contents into Cumberland
River, caught fire and covered the
surface of the stream with flame, for
so miles, he was sure that he had made
good his boast According to the leg
ends of the Cumberland he started
running from the scene and perhaps
still is going, as the Flying Dutchman
still is sailing his ship.
Nowadays every drug store sells
clear tasteless mineral oil' as medi-
cine When the Burkesville well
stopped burning, or when means were
found to stop it company began bot
Ting the crude oil and selling it as
medicine, while Seneca oil" was be,
ing sold from the salt wells of the
Pittsburgh region and from spring
in which oil flowed near Cuba, New
York.
Beeswax, tallow, whale oil and lard
oil were the popular illuminants in
those days, and whales were becoming
scarce. Crude petroleum was unfit tc
burn indoors because of the smoke anc
odor The first patent for refining
it was not granted till 1850. All the
history of kerosene has been writer
since then. Gasoline is a later pro
duct, and more recent than the frs
manufacture of gasoline is the use Of
oil as binder for roads, a use some
what similar to that made of it Baby
Ion.
Oil and Coal
Development.
Oil wells have changed the aspects
OF life in the oil counties in Kentucky
much less than coal mines have chang
ed life in the coal counties. Coal de
velopment makes cities business up
On a far larger scale than oil develop
ment The former villages of the val
leys of the Big Sandy, the Cumberland
and the Kentucky have been made 81
important by coal that various cite
are in hot competition for the business
that is to be done in them. Cincinnati
Louisville, Knoxville, and Hungtintol
send travelling men into territor
which hardly was on the trade ma
till coal made it rich. Oil is tapped
There is boom. The oil towns ar
crowded beyond capacity for a tins
But when the last wildcat territor
has been developed and the oil is flow
ing through the pipeline, evidence G
the boom consists to a considerable
degree in tales of sudden wealt
which came TO poor land holders WHIT
in many instances, left the mountain
to settle in the Bluegrass where road
are good and automobiles may be useC
1t is said commonly in the Bluegrass
that mountain money has done NOR
than anything else to advance tn
price of farm land in the central coun
les.
Many mountain farms, which r
warded labor so slightly that no sent
ment for the home bound the owne
to the soil when he sold out to an o
company or took his one-eighth roya
ty are abandoned to idle growtl
Their former owners are living in th
section of the state which James ALE
has celebrated in novels descriptiv
of NE soil and the social life of til
region in which all roads lead to Lee
ilgton.
Irvine, in Estill county has becon
a substantial town, but mainly becaus
of large railroad yards establishe
nearby after the oil development
Beattyville. the county seat OF LIE