## Foreword

THE WORLD TODAY enjoys the blessings of petroleum in so many ways it is hard to realize that virtually no fundamental knowledge of this vital natural resource existed as recently as a century ago.

It remained for the distinguished Yale professor, Benjamin Silliman, Jr., to conduct a series of pioneering experiments with petroleum and so provide the basic information that was needed before the oil industry could come into being.

To mark the 100th anniversary of issuance of Professor Silliman's now-historic report based on his study of Pennsylvania crude oil, the American Petroleum Institute has presented to Yale University a bronze plaque for mounting in the main hallway of the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory in New Haven. The plaque was given during a meeting of the General Committee of the API Division of Refining in St. Louis on May 11, 1955.

Ethyl Corporation is happy to present this booklet as a permanent record and memento of that occasion. In addition to the remarks of those who participated in the presentation ceremony, the booklet contains, in the inside back cover pocket, a reproduction of Professor Silliman's memorable paper. This was made from an original copy of the Report which is part of Ethyl Corporation's collection of historical petroleum documents.

The Yale campus as it looked during Professor Silliman's time. Silliman spent virtually his entire adult life at the New Haven school as a member of the faculty.

Remarks by

HAROLD G. OSBORN

Vice Chairman, General Committee, Division of Refining
Vice President of Continental Oil Company

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO this past month a great chemist published one of the significant scientific papers of the 19th century. It was significant not because it established fundamental principles or announced revolutionary techniques but, rather, because in effect it said to mankind: "This is your big chance to make a better world. Here is the stuff with which to work. Here are the plans from which to build. The rest is up to you."

The author of that paper was Benjamin Silliman, Jr., who was born in 1816 and died in 1885. Most of his 69 years of fruitful life were spent as first a student and then a teacher at Yale College, where he established himself as one of this country's great leaders of scientific thought. He wrote extensively on chemistry, physics, mineralogy and meteorology. He was an authority on toxicology, a pioneer in the technical processes of chemicals manufacturing, and one of the founders of agricultural chemistry. All of this can be found in any good encyclopedia. It would be a rare volume indeed—outside the literature of this particular industry—that would take cognizance of Benjamin Silliman, Jr., as a refiner of crude oil.

This is an unforgivable oversight on the part of his biographers,
for it is very possible that the most lasting and influential of all of
Silliman's contributions to science was a report signed by him on
April 16, 1855, which ends with the words:

"In conclusion, gentlemen, it appears to me that there is much
ground for encouragement in the belief that your Company have in
their possession a raw material from which, by simple and not
expensive process, they may manufacture very valuable products."

Professor Silliman's paper was not the first on the subject of petro-
leum. Twenty-two years earlier—in 1833—his father, Prof. Benjamin
Silliman, Sr., also of Yale College, published a report in the *American
Journal of Science* which described the famous petroleum spring at
Cuba, New York. In this report, the elder Silliman noted that the oil
from the spring was similar to the "Seneca oil" sold in the East for
medicinal and other purposes, and from which, he related, he had
distilled a product suitable for use in storing metallic sodium and
potassium. In that same year, and in the same journal, Dr. S. P.
Hildreth, of Marietta, Ohio, discussed the collection of petroleum
from salt wells in that region, and described how its burning quality
and odor were improved by filtering through charcoal.

These earlier writings are academically interesting but of little
importance. It is the work of the younger Silliman that was definitive
in its time and that is significant today. This great paper dispelled the
prevalent doubt of the value of petroleum, encouraged capitalists to
invest in the venture that led to the drilling of Drake's famous well
in 1859 and brought about the founding of the industry which we
inherit today.

It is fitting, therefore, that on this occasion, one hundred years
later, the Division of Refining of the American Petroleum Institute
should express the appreciation of the refining industry for this
pioneer's work in the form of a bronze plaque, which reads:

THE SILLIMAN PETROLEUM REPORT

DURING THE WINTER MONTHS OF 1855, BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, JR., PROFESSOR OF GENERAL AND APPLIED CHEMISTRY AT YALE, CONDUCTED A SERIES OF PIONEERING EXPERIMENTS ON THE PROPERTIES AND USES OF PETROLEUM GATHERED FROM SPRINGS NEAR TITUSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA. HIS DETAILED AND OPTIMISTIC REPORT, COMPLETED APRIL 16, 1855, LED TO THE DRILLING OF THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL OIL WELL BY EDWIN L. DRAKE AT TITUSVILLE IN 1859, AND THE FOUNDING OF THE MODERN PETROLEUM INDUSTRY.

THIS MEMORIAL IS PRESENTED TO YALE UNIVERSITY
BY THE AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE
IN OBSERVANCE OF THE
100TH ANNIVERSARY OF PROFESSOR SILLIMAN'S REPORT

1855

1955

To accept this recognition in the name of Yale University, we are
privileged to have with us Prof. Barnett F. Dodge, chairman of that
school's Department of Chemical Engineering and president of the
American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Professor Dodge has long been associated with this industry
through his own studies and contributions to the science of petroleum
refining, and is eminently qualified to speak to us on the place and
measure of Benjamin Silliman, Jr.

Prof. Barnett F. Dodge, E. B. McConnell and Harold G. Osborn with the plaque. The presentation took place in St. Louis during the Silver Jubilee meeting of the API's Division of Refining.

Remarks by

PROF. BARNETT F. DODGE

Chairman, Department of Chemical Engineering, Yale University
President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers

IT IS A VERY GREAT PLEASURE and honor for me to accept this most handsome memorial plaque on behalf of Yale. It commemorates the centennial of a chemical analysis whose significance staggers the imagination. There is no need for me to comment on what the petroleum industry has become in the 100 years since Benjamin Silliman, Jr., submitted his historic report. Such comments would be superfluous, even presumptuous, before a body of men such as is gathered here.

Benjamin Silliman, Jr., was a man whose memory deserves to be preserved for many reasons. As I look at this plaque, I must think of it as a memorial to more than a single report. I think of it as a tribute to the man who established and equipped the first college chemistry research laboratory in the United States. I think of it also as a memorial to the beginning of the ties between American industry and higher education, between the theoretical teacher and scientist in his laboratory and the industrial world where the scientific principles developed by him are applied.

In thanking the American Petroleum Institute for this plaque, I would like to give you a brief picture of Benjamin Silliman, Jr., of the conditions under which he worked, and sketch briefly how he