16 Kansas Academy of Science. 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



THE OPTICAL ACTIVITY OF PETROLEUM AND ITS 

 SIGNIFICANCE. 



Bv P. W. BUSHONG. 



(Delivered at the forty-fifth annual meeting.) 



THE wide distribution of deposits of bitumen in its various 

 forms is attested in the very earliest writings, both sacred 

 and profane. In the book of Genesis we learn that slime was used 

 for mortar, and in the second book of th.e Maccabees we are told 

 that Neemias commanded the priests to sprinkle the sacrifices 

 with the thick water, and when this was done there was a great 

 fire kindled, so that every man marveled. 



Herodotus gives us the following description of the manner of 

 its collection : "At Ardericca is a well which produces three dif- 

 ferent substances, for asphalt, salt and oil are drawn up from it in 

 the following manner: It is pumped up by means of a swipe, and, 

 instead of a bucket, half a wine skin is attached to it. Having 

 dipped down with this, a man draws it up, and then pours the con- 

 tents into a reservoir, and, being poured from this into another, it 

 assumes these difiPerent forms: the asphalt and the salt immedi- 

 ately become solid, but the oil they collect, and the Persians call it 

 rhadinance. It is black and emits a strong oder."^ 



For more than 2500 years the disciples of Zoroaster have wor- 

 shipped the "eternal fires" in the neighborhood of Baku, Russia, 

 and not until recently have their temples been replaced by oil res- 

 ervoirs and refineries. 



Within the last half century a new shrine has been set up in 

 oildom, and our modern devotees have shown such zeal and activity 

 that it may again well be said that "every man marveled." But 

 the marvelous development of the petroleum industry has been 

 rendered possible only by reason of the gigantic strides which have 

 been made in the fields of natural science and technology. We 

 may look for even greater things in the future, for science is still 

 in its infancy. I have chosen for my subject to-night what I con- 

 sider to be one of the infant industries of science. 



1. Petroleum and its Products, S. F. Peckham, 1882, p. 1. 



