256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



company) well-nigh ruined by the claims brought against them by 

 neighbors whose lands were destroyed by the flood of oil. 



Until about nine years ago the working of the oil was entirely in 

 the hands of Russians and Armenians, and everything was done in the 

 most slovenly fashion. The oil drawn from the wells was collected 

 in shallow pits, whence it was ladled into barrels or skins, and then 

 transported eight or ten miles on quaint native carts to the refineries 

 at the town. The purified oil was afterward rebarreled, sent by 

 steamer to the mouth of the Volga, transferred to river-boats, and then 

 again transferred to carts, to be thus conveyed to the railway, and so 

 transported to all parts of Russia. But the labor this involved was 

 great, and the expense of carriage was consequently exorbitant. And 

 all this was greatly in favor of America, which could still contrive to 

 pay freight from Pennsylvania, and yet undersell the Baku oil-mer- 

 chants in their own Russian markets. 



The beginning of a new commercial and political era (of which we 

 as yet see only the dawn) dates from the year 1875, when Ludwig 

 Nobel (one of two Swedish brothers, engineers, whose father had set- 

 tled in St. Petersburg as a gunsmith) sent his brother Robert to the 

 Caucasus to purchase walnut-wood suitable for making gun-stocks. 

 On his journey Robert Nobel chanced to visit Baku, and was so struck 

 with the wonderful capabilities of the oil-region that, on relating his 

 impression to Ludwig, the latter sent him back to make further inves- 

 tigations, and soon afterward followed in person, when he found that 

 the reality far exceeded all that he had heard. 



At once perceiving the enormous advantages to be derived from 

 systematic working, with the aid of iron cisterns and pipes, the brothers 

 sought to interest others in the matter, and induce them to co-operate 

 with them. This, however, they found to be quite in vain. Their 

 theories were all denounced as utter folly. The oil-producers, the 

 land transport corps of carrieTs, the steamboat and railway companies, 

 all refused to aid their schemes, so there was nothing for it but to start 

 unaided in their own fashion. 



They calculated that to do so would involve an outlay of about 

 £1,380,000, and to obtain the needful capital it was necessary to fire 

 others with something of their own enthusiasm. The energetic Swedes 

 were not to be daunted. Difficulties of every sort were thrown in 

 their way, but one by one each was fought and conquered. First they 

 imported a body of wise and steady Swedes whom they could trust to 

 work faithfully for them. They then established great refineries at 

 Baku, laid down oil-pipes thence to the oil-fields of Balakhani (dis- 

 tant upward of six miles), and there commenced scientific boring to a 

 depth greater than had yet been attempted. When their borers struck 

 oil there was no waste, as at the other wells, for the pipes were ready 

 to carry the oil dii'ect to the refineries. 



The first step having thus been taken, the next was to avoid the 



