PETROLEUM, OK ROCK OIL. 



r,73 



ceding volume) ; and it lias already been to 

 some extent turned to account in this country 

 as a fuel, being thus used under the refining 

 stills. It is probable that for both these pur- 

 poses this material, as well as some sorts of 

 crude petroleum, may yet be in considerable 

 demand. So soon as suitable apparatus shall 

 have been invented for their consumption, and, 

 in case of the crude oils, wherever the cost of 

 these shall be relatively less than that of coal, 

 the economy both of space and material, and 

 the convenience of employment of fuels of this 

 sort, must lead to their extensive adoption in 

 practice, and especially as a source of heat for 

 the boilers of locomotives, in ocean steam navi- 

 gation, etc. Both as a fuel and as material for 

 lighting gas, the supplies of petroleum and 

 bitumen on the Pacific coast, where coal is very 

 costly, and steam fuel of any kind for marine 

 use extremely scarce, are likely to prove of great 

 importance. It is stated that at the Downer 

 refinery, in Corry, both the residuum and naph- 

 tha have been experimented with by use of a 

 new apparatus intended for their consumption, 

 and that they have thus afforded a heat as 

 powerful and regular as that from bituminous 

 or anthracite coal. Finajly, it has recently been 

 found that an oil of low gravity still remains in 

 the residuum as usually left ; and certain par- 

 ties in New York and Brooklyn have distilled 

 from it an excellent lubricating oil of a density 

 of 28 to 30. 



The principal uses to which varieties of crude 

 petroleum have been put, or for which some of 

 them obviously promise to be largely useful, the 

 former including the direct use of some pure 

 light oils for burning, the employment of the 

 oil from many particular locations as a remedial 

 agent, and that both for internal and external 

 use, etc., and the latter including especially 

 the office of fuel, and of a material for gas 

 manufacture, have already been incidentally 

 alluded to. The applications, however, of 

 petroleum and its products are ^till constantly 

 extending; and of some of their minor uses, or 

 such as are yet only in course of development, 

 it is not necessary here to speak. 



Duties on Petroleum. The Government tax 

 of t sventy cents per gallon on refined petroleum, 

 and the same on naphtha, went into effect July 

 1st, 1864 ; but the full influence of the tax upon 

 the prices of bonded and free oils was not reach- 

 ed until December. 



Commerce of Petroleum. The Xew York 

 wholesale prices, per gallon, of crude petro- 

 leum, of refined free, aud in bond and of re- 

 fined naphtha, in the first weeks of January, 

 April, July, and October, 1863 and 1864, with 

 the averages for those two years, and the 

 prices in the first weeks of January and 

 March, 1865, were as below. The qualities of 

 oil quoted arg of crude, gravity of 40 to 47 B. ; 

 of refined, "light straw" to "white"; of refined 

 naphtha, gravity of 60 to 63 B. Very high or 

 very A ow gravity crude, or "prime white" or 

 "straw" refined, would vary from the rates given. 

 VOL. IT. 43 A 



The following exhibit presents the total 

 quantities received of crude and refined petro- 

 leum, at Xew York, in 1863 (nearly accurate), 

 and 1864: 



Stock on hand, Jan. 1, 1863, in all the yards 165,100 bbls. 



Received in 1563. as reported 686,260 



Probable additions required, for omis- 

 sions, &c. 34,500 



Total receipts 720,760 



Total supply 885,860 



Deduct export from X. T.. in 1563 4^8,690 



Stock on hand, Jan. 1, 1564 82,709571.399 



Eemainder, taken for coTisnmption from Xevr 

 York in 1863, including shipments to 

 California 814,461 bbla. 



Equal to an average per month, of 26,205 w 



Stock on hand. Jan. 1, 1864, of all kinds 82,709 bbls. 



Received in 1864 720,100 



Total supply 802,809 bbla. 



Deduct export from X. Y., in 1364 533,394 



Stock on hand, Jan. 1, 1865 27,228560 622 



Eemainder taken for consumption from New 



York, in 1 ^A 242,1 57 bbK 



Equal to an average per month, of 20,182} " 



The Question of Durability of the Oil /Sup- 

 plies. The natural accumulation of petroleum 

 in each given region, and that of the bitumen 

 in any given stratum which may have been its 

 source, being of course some limited and (at 

 any given time) definite quantity, and the rate 

 at which if at ah 1 fresh supplies of the oil can 

 be evolved, being very slow, it must follow that, 

 by working any region, its available oil-sup- 

 plies will be gradually and steadily exhausted. 

 But the duration of the commercial supply of 

 the world will be greatly protracted by the 

 discovery of new regions, and by the develop- 

 ment of such as are remote and yet neglected ; 

 perhaps also in some cases by sinking wells into 

 collections of oil in strata deeper than those 

 which in the same districts have yet been pene- 

 trated. These presumptive conclusions appear 

 to be sustained both by general facts in the 

 history of petroleum regions, and by some spe- 

 cial facts already noted in course of working 

 the regionsthe most fully developed on this 

 continent. 



The yield of oil from the numerous springs 

 of the Rangoon district, on the Irrawaddy, has 

 become greatly reduced in quantity. The oil 

 springs of Agrigentum, in Sicily, and of Derby- 

 shire, England, have nearly ceased to flovr 



