378 F. H. OLIPHANT 



point with about 150 tanks holding 35,000 barrels each. There 

 are other smaller lines in Cahfornia, extending from Pico can- 

 yon to Ventura and connecting FuUerton with Los Angeles. 



Texas has in the last few years greatly increased its mile- 

 age of main line. There are four lines from 22 to 30 miles in 

 length, reaching from the original field near Beaumont to tide 

 water on the Gulf, and connecting it with Port Arthur and 

 Sabine Pass. Sour Lake and Saratoga are also connected by 

 pipe lines with Beaumont. The Corsicana field in the north- 

 eastern part of the state is connected by pipe lines with the 

 refinery there. 



As early as 1875 organizations were effected and charters 

 secured for the privilege of building pipe lines to the seaboard. 

 However, these chartered companies at that time confined 

 their operations to the oil regions, where they built numerous 

 lines, usually of a 2-inch diameter, to the several railroads and 

 their branches and to the nearby refineries. The competition 

 among these new pipe line companies for securing the produc- 

 tion of the fields began to be marked, especially in Butler 

 county. Pa., and rates for delivery were cut to such an extent 

 that the lines were in several instances operated at a loss. The 

 demand for a consolidation of these competitive companies 

 became more and more emphatic. Under the title of the 

 Fairview Pipe Line a company was organized by Capt. J. J. 

 Vandergrift and George V. Foreman, under the laws of Penn- 

 sylvania, the act bearing date of April, 1874. This company 

 was afterwards known as the United Pipe Line association. 

 Into it was merged, from time to time, the other local lines, 

 until it controlled almost the entire system. Gradually the 

 temporary and uncertain characteristics of pipe line transpor- 

 tation disappeared, and more permanent structures were built. 



The cheap and efficient method of transportation by trunk 

 pipe fines, permitting the crude and refined petroleum to be 

 delivered at seaboard at a cost much less than it was possible 

 for it to be transported by rail or canal, marked an important 

 era in the history of the petroleum industrj^ Many problems 

 had to be solved in the construction of the first pipe line. The 

 question of the proper selection of pipes and the making of pipe 

 joints that would not leak under the great pressure; the man- 



