liUS] on The Romance of Petroleum 3o5 



of the minimum quantity of oil obtainable, be exhausted by the 

 year 1935. 



It will be readily understood that the temporary storage and the 

 transport to the refineries of so large a volume of crude oil as is 

 represented by the annual output of over 70 million tons necessitates 

 the provision of facilities on a scale of great magnitude. In the 

 United States, and in many other oil-producing countries, the storage 

 is effected in vertical cylindrical steel tanks, which are usually 00 feet 

 in diameter by 'M) feet in height, whilst in Russia excavated earth 

 reservoirs, often of great size, are also employed. It will assist us to 

 realise what is needed if I give you some calculations which have 

 been obligingly made for me by Mr. William Sutton. 



A veitical cylindrical tank 80 feet in height would need to be 

 10,952 feet, or a little over two miles, in diameter to hold the world's 

 production of petroleum for last year. Such a tank would cover an 

 area approximately three times that of Hyde Park and Kensington 

 Gardens together. 



It would require a pipe 6 feet 2 inches internal diameter, with a 

 rate of oil-flow of 8 feet per second, or two miles an hour, delivering 

 continuously throughout the year, to transport the world's production 

 by that means. 



The oil would fill over seven million 10-ton railway tank waggons. 

 These woukl make a train of 28,()00 miles in length, considerably 

 more than sufficient to encircle the earth at the equator, and such a 

 train, running at 25 miles an hour, would take 46 days 16 hours to 

 pass a given point. 



The world's production of crude petroleum is equivalent to 

 17 gallons pe?' c^pifa of the estimated population of the world. 



The pipe-line system of transport of the crude oil from the 

 various oil-fields to the seaboard, where the chief refineries are situated, 

 over a distance of several hundred miles, has been brought to great 

 perfection in the United States, and there are now thousands of miles 

 of trunk lines, up to 8 inches in diameter, in operation. 



The working pressure, owing to friction and to the elevation of 

 sections of the line, is usually not less than 900 lb. on the square 

 inch, and may rise to 1200 or even 1500 lb. The steel tubing 

 employed, therefore, needs to be of exceptional strength, and the 

 screwed couplings to be of special construction. The form of pump 

 is of equal importance, for it must be such as to keep the column 

 of oil in continuous and regular motion, as the concussion which 

 would attend an intermittent flow would quickly have disastrous 

 consequences. 



The oil-producing countries of the British Empire are India 

 (Burma and Assam), the AVest Indies (Trinidad), and Canada, and 

 those in the aggregate furnish only 2 per cent of the total given. 



Under these conditions the British Government is to be con- 

 gratulated on having secured the control of the exceptionally prolific 



