1897.1 



NATURE AND ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. 109 



Other California oil from which this experiment could be repeated > 

 and I have long since concluded that the sulphur was in this instance 

 dissolved in the oil. 



While in California a few years ago, I was engaged in distilling 

 these petroleums in quantities ranging from a few gallons to thou- 

 sands of barrels. I looked in vain for any evidence that they were 

 sulphur petfroleums. It was only after I had begun fractioning the 

 light oils — a work for which I had not the proper appliances in 

 California — that I began to suspect that there were sulphur com- 

 pounds present, and at last discovered that, with the thermometer 

 bulb immersed in the condensing vapor, even at a temperature as 

 low as 1 00° C, the distillates were decomposed and hydrogen sul- 

 phide disengaged. This decomposition of the oil was accompanied 

 by a deposition in the flask of carbon, or a compound so rich in car- 

 bon that it remained undissolved in either the distillate or residual 

 oil, and also by condensation of the residual molecule, as indicated 

 by a continual rise in the boiling point of the oil remaining in the 

 flask. 



These observations have led me to conclude that sulphur as well 

 as nitrogen plays a part in the changes which are active in the nat- 

 ural conversion of petroleum, through maltha, into asphaltum. 

 That the esters exist as acid salts of the basic oils is quite probable ; 

 that polymerization of the molecules occurs to some extent cannot 

 be doubted ; that decomposition of the sulphur compounds takes 

 place very slowly and at comparatively low temperatures with con- 

 densation of the residual molecules is almost certain ; and that re- 

 moval of hydrogen in the oil through deoxidation of the sulphates 

 in the water with which the bitumens are in constant contact, with 

 substitution of sulphur, may all be accepted as the prime factors of 

 the problem involved in these changes. The lines of investigation 

 above indicated have led me to some very interesting work upon 

 the sulphur content of other bitumens than petroleum, which work 

 is as yet incomplete. 



Closely related to these factors are some observations made dur- 

 ing my last visit to California. It was noticed that when the oils 

 conveyed through pipe lines were distilled in summer, the yield of 

 naphtha was much less than was obtained from the same oils in 

 winter, although the extremes of temperature were not great. 

 Upon investigation I found that in October, 1894, the oil, flowing 

 through the blackened pipes laid upon the surface, was discharged 



