THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 65 



to obtain this oil. The idea now occurred to Drake that he might 

 g-et the petroleum by borinf^ for it, and it is said he only got this 

 notion from the picture of the derrick on the liniment bottles. And 

 so it happened that on the 26th of August, 1859. Drake bored his 

 first oil well and by great good fortune was enabled to bring into 

 commerce that wonderful commodity, American petroleum. 



It is my special endeavor in this short paper to help you to more 

 fully realize with what remarkable and far-reaching consequences 

 this discovery was attended, by enumerating the more important 

 products obtained from petroleum and some of the various uses to 

 which they are put. In the first place, let us recall that although 

 petroleum is found in nearly all parts of the world, the only im- 

 portant sources are California, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and the 

 Caucasus. The crude product which flows or is pumped from the 

 well, is used for lubricating purposes either directly or after being 

 filtered through animal charcoal. In the Caucasus, on the Euphrates 

 River and also in our own Western States it has been successfully 

 used as a fuel both for locomotives and steamships. Most of the 

 oil, however, is purified by being mixed with 1% to 2% of sulphuric 

 acid, and then after the sludge, as the acid plus the contaminations 

 is called, has settled and has been drawn off, the remaining oil is 

 w^ashed with alkali and water. This purified oil next undergoes 

 fractional distillation. The first products w^hich distil over are 

 gaseous hydrocarbons such as methane, ethane, ethylene, etc., which 

 are allowed to escape. Then follows the crude naphtha, which 

 yields naphtha, petroleum, benzine and gasolene on redistillation. 

 The naphtha is largely used in the manufacture of oil-cloth, benzine 

 in mixing paints and gasolene as a fuel for stoves, launches and 

 automobiles. All three, but particularly the benzine, are employed 

 as solvents for fats and oils and often even for alkaloids A very 

 light naphtha, called cymogen, was formerly used in artificial ice 

 machines, and a slightly heavier one, rhigolene, was employed as 

 an anaesthetic. These have since been replaced, however, the for- 

 mer by ammonia and the latter by cocaine and ethyl-chloride. The 

 next distillate from the petroleum consists of burning oils or kero- 

 sene of various grades. How extensively this is used for heating 

 and illuminating purposes is well known to you. Moreover, by let- 

 ting kerosene or petroleum itself trickle down through a tower filled 

 with red-hot brick, it is split up or cracked into gaseous hydrocar- 



