332 EXPLOSIBILITY OF COAL OILS. 



skunky odor wliicli characterizes the coal gas artificial!}'- elaborated 

 in city gas-works. 



The petroleum being separable by distillation from the- coal at a 

 more moderate temperature than coal gas, there is reason to believe 

 from analogy that the same process of elaboration of petroleum goes 

 on naturally beneath the earth as is artificially accomplished on its 

 surface. The fact of the increased heat of the interior of the earth, 

 in the vicinity of both the gas-springs and oil-springs in the valleys of 

 the Alleghany mountains, is manifested in the numerous "hot springs" 

 which gush forth unceasingly between the adjacent mountains in 

 Western Virginia, together with numerous "sulphur springs." 

 Indeed, this distillation of the carburetted hydrogen gas and oil from 

 the bituminous coal, under intense pressure at great depths in the 

 earth, constitutes a natural process of coking, whereby the flaming 

 bituminous coal becomes gradually converted into anthracite or flame- 

 less coal. 



The constantly decreasing supply of whale oil, and correspondingly 

 increasing price of it, has recently stimulated industrial enterprise to 

 seek out other sources of supply of this necessary article. The long- 

 neglected oil-springs freely offered in tiny streams naturally flowing 

 from the earth, have at last attracted attention. Impatient, however, 

 of the stinted supply thus freely ofiered without labor, even some of 

 the same resolute men who have pursued the whales among the 

 icebergs of the polar seas and to the remotest waters of the globe, 

 have laid down their harpoons and taken up steel drills to tap the 

 very fountains of coal oil, in the hidden depths of the earth, in the 

 w^estern valleys of Pennsylvania. 



The results of some of the attempts to obtain a more abundant 

 supply of coal oil, or petroleum, have proved so successful as to ap- 

 pear marvellous and incredible. From one of these recent drill-holes, 

 termed "oil wells," the petroleum gushed up with such violent force 

 as to discharge the stream high in the air, and the flow continued so 

 abundant that it reached the furnace of the steam-engine used for 

 working the drill-rods. Becoming thus kindled, a vast flame lighted 

 up the surrounding countr}' at night. Before the conflagration could 

 be extinguished many hundreds of barrels of petroleum flowed in a 

 blazing flood into the adjacent rivers. In another instance, the reser- 

 voirs of petroleum being tapped by the drills earlier than anticipated 

 and before a supply of empty casks was provided, the gushing stream 

 was turned into a ravine and there collected by a dam to preserve it 

 for use. Over considerable extents of valleys an abundance of 

 petroleum has been thus obtained from reservoirs, in which it has 

 been gradually accumulating from the natural process of distillation 

 of bituminous coals in the depths of the earth. The ample supply 

 of petroleum available from these sources has quite recently reduced 

 the price of it to about fifty cents per barrel, and has nearly super- 

 seded recourse to the artificial distillation of bituminous coal. This 

 unexpected gift to the children of men may well excite their wonder 

 and their admiration of the provident care in anticipating human 

 wants thus manifested by a bountiful Creator. 



