298 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



of sulphur, nitrogen, and the different proportions in which they distil at 

 different temperatures. There are also marked differences in iodiue ab- 

 sorption, and in the coefficients of expansion. The latter were determined 

 by ascertaining the specific gravity at 5°, 10", 20°, and 25°, and divid- 

 ing the differences in specific gravity at the different temperatures by 

 five and multiplying the quotient by 100,000, the method described in 

 Kedwood's treatise on petroleum. 



In the development of oil territory hitherto, no attempts have been 

 made to ascertain the series of hydrocarbons which compose the main 

 body of the crude oil. Beside the work of Pelouze and Cahours, 

 Schoelemmer, and Warren on the Pennsylvania and Canadian oils, and 

 the work carried on in this Laboratory, no attempts have been made to 

 determine the form of the hydrocarbons in the lower distillates of 

 American oils, and nothing whatever beside the unpublished work of 

 this Laboratory on the determination of the composition of the portions 

 with higher boiling points. Beside the work of Markownikoff on the 

 Russian oils and the work of Warren and Storer on Rangoon petroleum, 

 very little has been done in this direction on oils from other fields. On 

 account of the ease in the ^preparation of commercial products from the 

 lighter oils of Pennsylvania and Ohio, the ultimate composition was of 

 less importance than it is now becoming in the development of oil fields 

 that yield heavier crude oils, such as the oil territory in California, 

 Texas, South America, Japan, and numerous other fields recently dis- 

 covered. The methods that must be applied to these heavy oils are 

 essentially different from the methods that have been universally in use 

 since the beginning of the oil industry. In Japan, the promoters of 

 those oil fields will have the advantage not only of all former experience 

 in oil refining, but the further advantage of a knowledge of the hydro- 

 carbons which form the main body of the crude oils. Japanese petro- 

 leum apparently differs from other heavy petroleums in that it contains 

 smaller amounts of the benzol homologues. Benzol and its homologues 

 were found in the Amaze oil, and some of the other crude oils, but 

 fuming sulphuric acid failed to reduce materially the specific gravity of 

 several of the distillates that should yield benzol hydrocarbons, if they 

 were present. 



Constituents of Petroleum from the Amaze Field. 



The lightest oil from the Japanese fields is found in the Amaze terri- 

 tory. It consequently contains the largest projjortion of more volatile 



