A Story Outline of Evolution 



yet the industry is in its infancy. The magnitude to which 

 this industry has grown in so short a time is the most stu- 

 pendous fact in industrial progress. 



Its hidden powers were discovered from time to time 

 as the industry developed, but not without the costly sacri- 

 fice of thousands of human lives. New uses were found to 

 which it could be applied as an agency for advancement and 

 each new use discovered developed many other collateral 

 uses. In many cases these secondary uses developed the 

 by-products into the principal products. 



In discussing the power of steam, no mention has been 

 made of the energy and compounds which are required to 

 produce the steam — namely, heat and water. Before the 

 discovery of crude oil and natural gas, the heat that pro- 

 duced steam was formed by the combustion of wood or coal, 

 but wood must be cut and coal dug from the ground. Natu- 

 ral gas is the only perfect fuel known to man and the only 

 product that possesses the quality of transporting itself by 

 its own force to the places where it is consumed. It not only 

 became an agency of light, but also an agency of heat in 

 the regions wherever it was found, and it soon became the 

 fuel in general use in these regions. But the searchers dis- 

 covered that when it was mixed with air in certain propor- 

 tions it would explode and that by causing it to explode in a 

 cylinder containing a piston, it would produce power and 

 thus was developed the internal combustion engine. But 

 natural gas being a vapor cannot be carried in an open 

 receptacle, but it must be contained and conducted in air- 

 tight pipes or other receptacles. The searchers discovered 

 that the more volatile parts of crude oil may be changed to 



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