190 



PETROLKI ' M PI PE-LINES. 

 TABLE IX. 



Month. 



Ml 



1--; 



UM 



un 



-:.--- -- 

 -..-.M-i 



.. 4-" 

 .'.--I . 



7 :-...- 



ijl&!l44 



. ...-,.. 

 :., r.i .. 



36,164,8X1 



.. - 



'.-: 

 34.Mfi.er.! 



R1 HI 



:. ..r... ; 



I W4 --., 



i .: -- 

 < . . - 

 - .i-.:. 



39.0S4,.'*! 



;w.74o.7:i4 

 :;-.!- .1: 



::.'. - ', 



-.- .11 .71 



36,757,137 



.. 

 :.-,- MM 



ajaa r 



.. 



I -...-. . 

 : . IC71 

 M,3B,9II2 



.;-.. .-..: 

 : .I.-V4.7 

 1.14J-.M1 



M.oM,m 



S3,M,4tB 



: SS 5 



. .:....-. 



: l.l-:. 77 



'.-.-4 



. 



::l.- m 

 tkflt \.< H 



:i\ mjm 



:-. --. 5 

 ::- -.... 



.".-.'. .' : 

 11JMU.-OI 



:. .' ..--. 

 -'... IU 

 '.-..... Jll 





I : -'.'M 



PETROLEUM PIPE-LINES. A descriptive :i ,,,l 

 historical account of the petroleum pipe-lines must 

 necessarily be a history of petroleum transportation, 

 that the reader may obtain a clear understanding of 

 the subject. Very early in the history of the petro 

 It-urn industry the transportation problem became the 

 most important question, next to the marketing of tin- 

 oil, to the producer. As all the refineries were located 

 in the citv of Pittsburg, Pa., the crude oil as produced 

 at the wells had to be transported to that city, and the 

 cost was fully one-half of the amount realized for the 

 oil. The oil at the wells was placed in barrels made of 

 heavy oak staves and bound with iron hoops. These 

 barrels were coated on the inside with glue, but as crude 

 petroleum invariably contained a small percentage of 

 water this coating of glue did not prove a complete 

 protection, and at times the loss through leakage was 

 serious. These barrels were purchased at a cost of 

 $3.50 each. A barrel in every respect superior is now 

 made at a cost of $1.25 to the refiners. The only 

 - of transporting the oil was on wagons drawn by 

 horses, and as the roads were new and for the most 

 part in execrable condition, the hauling of the oil from 

 the wells to the points of shipment on Oil Creek was 

 at times attended with great difficulties. During the 

 first few years of the petroleum industry the teamster 

 exacted his own terms. As t lie only channels through 

 which oil could reach the market were Oil Creek and 

 the Allegheny River, when the wells came to he located 

 farther from these water-ways the cost of hauling the 

 oil to them increased. Pit hole was the shipping point 

 for the oil produced on the Miller farm, only tour miles 

 distant, and for carting the oil this distance the team- 

 sters charged $3 per barrel, and at times even more. 

 Carting oil was the most profitable occupation in the 

 oil regions during the early history of petroleum, and 

 the foundation of many a fortune was laid through 

 the extortionate charges made by the teamsters. 



The oil when it arrived at the creek was placed on 

 flat -1-ottom boats or on rafts and floated down with the 

 current, but as for a great part of the time there was 

 not sufficient depth of water to float the boats or rafts 

 with their cargoes of oil, recourse was had to damming 

 the stream and so accumulating sufficient water to carry 

 the boats and floats beyond the shallows ami ohstrue- 

 tions. At times there were large accumulations of 

 boats at the points of shipment awaiting a sufficient 

 accumulation of water, ana when the dams would at 

 length be opened the rushing of the waters would 

 render control of the boats impossible as they were 

 swept down with the current in inextricable confusion, 

 and frequent collisions and wreckagi -.- were the result. 

 During one of these pond-freshet* on Oil ('reek from 

 LM.IHM) to 30,000 barrels of oil would be sent through 

 to oil City. The empty boats were towed up the 

 creek again by horses, who made their way along as 

 icy could, at times along the hank, but for the 

 part of the way wading in the stream. At Oil 

 City the barrels of oil were transferred to larger boats. 

 Atone time there were upward of lOOOtxMtatnd :',o 

 steamers engaged in this traffic. The losses occasioned 

 by collision.* and jams were serious and they were of 



frequent occurrence. During a freshet in May, 1864. 

 a jam occurred at Oil City, wrecking many boats and 

 oeca-ioning a loss of upwards of 25,000 barrels of oil. 

 Hulk-barges were early introduced on the Allegheny 

 and Ohio Rivers, and these, in an improved form of 

 construction, are still used to convey oil to refineries 

 i along the river. These bulk-boats were at first 

 crude affairs, ill calculated to withstand turhulent river 

 travel, but arc now built with eight compartments with 

 water tight bulkheads, and of a capacity to carry 2000 

 ban-els of oil. 



The railroads entering the oil regions early s:iw the 

 necessity of providing improved means for the trans- 

 portation of the rapidly increasing amounts of oil seek- 

 ing transportation facilities, and during the latter half 

 of the year 1865 the tank car was introduced. At first 

 the tank car was simply the ordinary flat ear, upon 

 which were securely fastened two wooden tanks with a 

 combined capacity of about 4000 gallons. It was not 

 until the year 1870 or 1871 that the wooden tank car 

 was displaced by the car with a tank constructed of 

 boiler-iron. These cars are still in use for transporting 

 crude oil and the various products of the still. The 

 tanks vary in size, holding from 4000 to 5000 gallons. 

 Thev are, of course, safer than the wooden ones for- 

 merly in use, and are in every way better adapted to 

 the purpose. A number of the larger refiners of 

 petroleum own tank care, and in this they are encour- 

 aged by the railroads. 



These difficulties in transportation and great expense 

 of cartage of the oil from the wells to the points of 

 shipment early attracted the attention of engineers and 

 others who sought means to overcome the diliieuhies 

 and reduce the enormous cost of marketing the | in xluct. 

 The earliest attempt to solve the problem by the use 

 of iron pipes to convey the crude, oil from the wells 

 was made by .Mr. J. L. Hutehinson. of New York, 

 although Gen. S. D. Karns, of Parkcrsburg. \V. Va., 

 d the practicability of this mode of transpor- 

 tation early in the autumn of 1860. In ISC.2 Mr. 

 IliiUihinson constructed a line of pipe on the Tarr 

 farm, where the lirsl flowing well haa been struck the 

 year before, to the first refinery erected in the oil r. 

 at Plumer. The wells were on one side of a high hill 

 and the refinery on the oilier. Mr. Htitcliinson be- 

 lieved that a line of pipe laid from the wells over the 

 hill to the refinery would, on the well-known syphon 

 principle, draw the oil over the hill to the refinery. 

 This plan proved a failure. The next year Mr. llutcii- 

 inson laid a pipe-line from the famous Sin rii.an well 

 to the terminus of the railroad at the Miller farm, a 

 distance of three miles. To overcome the hydraulic 

 |. iv^-iire of a column of oil of that length he placed air 

 chambers, similar to (hose used on hydraulic rams, It) 

 in diameter, along his pipe line at intervals of 

 50 or more feet to eipiali/e the pressure. The press- 

 ure did not hur.-t the pip.---, but although IIKK) bar- 

 rels of oil wen' emptied into them at the well barely 6(1 

 barrels reached their destination. Tin- pipes wen- of cast- 

 iron with lead sockets, and the joints were bron-lit to- 

 gether with the blow of a mallet. I'mii)^ were used to 

 force the oil through thepip' Mest disturbance 



