PETKOL 281 



drawn carriages are now so much changed that even in England, 

 where the movement has not been so rapid as in America and 

 some other countries, there is a prospect that in a few years the 

 horse as an agent of traction will become as great a curiosity 

 as the motor was a generation ago. 



This state of things has been brought about by the develop- 

 ment of various forms of internal combustion engines, of which 

 the gas-engine, introduced about 1876, is one form from which 

 engines capable of working with the vapour of a volatile liquid 

 have been developed. The perfection of engines of this type 

 applicable to every kind of moving vehicle, including the aero- 

 plane, has occupied the attention of the engineer for many years 

 past, and the supply of suitable " spirit " for the motor is a 

 business of importance second only to that of the supply of coal. 

 Motor spirit is derived almost entirely from the lighter and more 

 volatile portions of natural petroleum, which is now known to 

 exist in vast quantities in the earth, and distributed very widely. 

 There are, in fact, few countries in which it is not found in 

 greater or less amount. The value of petroleum as a fuel has 

 become greatly enhanced of late years, since it has become more 

 commonly used as a substitute for coal in locomotives, and in 

 ships, especially in ships of war. Apart, however, from its 

 utility as a fuel petroleum has been the subject of innumerable 

 researches in the hands of the chemist, and in addition to the use 

 of the constituent hydrocarbons actually existent in it which 

 receive a great variety of applications, there is some reason for 

 believing that certain of them may hereafter be transformed by 

 chemical processes so as to yield valuable compounds of a totally 

 different nature, such, for example, as synthetic rubber. 



The history of petroleum in its practical applications belongs 

 to modern times. For while the Fire-worshippers from India 

 and the East resorted centuries ago to the district near Baku on 

 the Caspian Sea, where inflammable gas issued from the ground 

 and where remains of some of their temples existed down to our 

 own times, the use of the oil which was associated with the gas 

 was of little practical importance. 



The great petroleum industry of the United States began in 

 1859. Up to this time the oil which was used almost exclusively 

 as a medicinal agent, both internally and externally, had been 

 collected in a crude way from the water of the Seneca Lake in 

 Allegheny County. New York, and other places. The production 



