1898.] PECKHAM — THE GENESIS OF BITUMENS. 119 



Albertite of New Brunswick was also being distilled on the^ Atlantic 

 coast, while west of the Alleghenies cannel coal was being distilled 

 at Cannelton, on the Kanawha river, in West Virginia ; at Clover- 

 port, on the Ohio river, in Kentucky; at Newark, O., and near 

 Pittsburgh, Pa. The experiment of distilling oil from Devonian 

 pyroschists was also made at Erie, Pa. They yielded fifty gallons 

 of distillate to the ton. Without exception every one of these ma- 

 terials yielded paraffine, and when the petroleum obtained from 

 Pennsylvania and West Virginia was used as a substitute, it was 

 found that it yielded identical products, and the coal-oil industry 

 was quickly rendered unprofitable. In an attempt to utilize all 

 available material, William Atwood, who was one of the most skill- 

 ful technologists in coal oil, was sent to the Island of Trinidad, 

 where a plant was constructed and an unsuccessful attempt made to 

 prepare illuminating and lubricating oils from Trinidad pitch. The 

 pitch furnished distillates very different from the parafifine prod- 

 ucts obtained in the United States. 



During the last years, before the coal- oil industry ceased to be 

 profitable, a number of patents were granted for improvements in 

 this technology, mainly for improved methods of distillation. The 

 aim of these inventions was to effect a uniform heating of the mate- 

 rial by which a slow distillation at low temperatures would be pro- 

 moted. The presence of steam, often superheated, was found to 

 be at all times beneficial. While to produce gas from these mate- 

 rials, it was found necessary to thrust them into a retort heated to a 

 high temperature ; to produce oil, it was found on the contrary 

 best to distill at the lowest temperature possible. The intermediate 

 oils, too dense for illumination and too light for lubrication, accu- 

 mulated in the refineries, until Joshua Merrill discovered that by 

 distilling them in such a manner that the vapors were superheated 

 the vapors were '' cracked " or '• dissociated," and when they were 

 condensed they were found to be of such a specific gravity that 

 they could be used for illumination. This was the most important 

 discovery ever made in the technology of bitumens, and when 

 applied to the manufacture of paraffine petroleums it was of enor- 

 mous value. 



Soon after i860, attempts were made to treat the bitumens of 

 southern California by the same methods of distillation that were 

 employed in treating paraffine oils, but all the results obtained 

 showed that the processes were being applied to different materials 



