_ ^ PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



of sulphur, nitrogen, and the different proportions in which they distil at 

 different temperatures. There are also marked differences in iodine ab- 

 sorption, and in the coefficients of expansion. The latter were determined 

 by ascertaining the specific gravity at <3°, 10°, 20°, and 25°, and divid- 

 ing the differences in specific gravity at the different temperatures hy 

 five and multiplying the quotient hy 100,000, the method described in 

 Redwood's treatise on petroleum. 



In the development of oil territory hitherto, no attempts have been 

 made to ascertain the series of hydrocarbons which compose the main 

 body of the crude oil. Beside the work of Pelouze and Cahours, 

 Schoelemmer, and Warren on the Pennsylvania and Canadian oils, and 

 the work carried on in this Laboratory, no attempts have been made to 



ermine the form of the hydrocarbons in the lower distillates of 

 American oils, and nothing whatever beside the unpublished work of 

 this Laboratory <>n the determination of the composition of the portions 

 with higher boiling points. Beside the work of Markownikoff on the 

 Russian oils and the work of Warren and Storer on Rangoon petroleum, 

 very little lias been done in this direction on oils from other fields. On 



account of the ease in the preparati >f commercial products from the 



lighter oils of Pennsylvania and Ohio, the ultimate composition was of 

 less importance than it is now becoming in the development of oil fields 

 that yield heavier crude oils, such as the oil territory in California, 

 Texas, South America, Japan, and numerous other fields recently dis- 

 covered. The methods that must be applied to these heavy oils are 

 essentially different from the methods that have been universally in nse 

 Bince the beginning of the oil industry. In Japan, the promoter- of 

 those oil fields will have the advantage not only of all former experiei 

 in oil refining, but the further advantage of a knowledge of the hydro- 

 carbons which form the main body of the crude oils. Japanese petro- 

 leum apparently differs from other heavy petroleums in that it contains 



Bmaller amount- of the benzol homologies. Benzol and its bomolosrues 



were found in the Amaze oil, and Bome of the other crude oils, but 

 fuming Bulphuric acid failed to reduce materially the specific gravity of 



eral of the distillates that should yield benzol hydrocarbons, if tl 

 were pr< sent. 



Constituents oi Petroleum from mi Amaze Field. 



The lightest oil from the Japanese fields is found in the Amaze terri- 

 tory. It consequently contain! the largest proportion of more volatile 



