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CHAPTER XXT 

 PETROLEUM 



PETROLEUM (Latin, petra, a rock ; okum'oil). 



' Lord ! Lord ! this great airth holds a hundred things 

 covered up for them as knows how to look, and do not mind 

 digging. But, gentlemen, the greatest gift the airth has to 

 bestow, she gave to me abundant, spontaneous, etarnal 

 free and that is He ! He ! ' l 



This is what Gilead P. Beck said about petroleum, and we 

 are told how, when he had made up his mind that oil existed 

 in a certain district, in spite of ridicule from his neighbours, 

 he went on boring and boring, until at last to his delight one 

 day oil did indeed come welling up to the surface. He had 

 ' struck ile ! ' This happened in the United States in the 

 'sixties. 



But in many cases a great deal of valuable oil was wasted, 

 because the finders had made no preparation for gathering it 

 or storing it, and it went flowing away over the land to the 

 nearest stream, and finally was lost in the sea. 



Soon, however, they grew wiser, and the oil was put into 

 barrels and carried away in carts to the nearest railway 

 station, and then sent off by ordinary trains to its destination. 

 Other improvements followed, and nowadays in oil districts 

 the oil is made to flow from the wells into underground pipes, 

 from which it is pumped into great storage tanks or into tank 

 steamers. 



Petroleum is a bituminous oil which oozes from hollows in 

 sedimentary rocks such as sandstone. It is mainly composed 

 of carbon and hydrogen, and is very inflammable. In colour 

 it varies from pale yellow to almost black. 



From very early days people knew about it ; they found 

 it floating on the surface of the water in wells or on ponds, 



Walter Besant, The Golden Butterfly. 



