284 CHEMICAL DISCOVEKY AND INVENTION 



devotion existed in the neighbourhood of Baku down to our own 

 times. These were described by Mr. Arthur Arnold (afterwards 

 Sir Arthur Arnold), M.P. for Salford, who visited the district in 

 1875, * but it is almost unnecessary to add that the pilgrims who 

 now visit this region are attracted by considerations altogether 

 different from those which brought the followers of the Magi. 



The history of the commercial development of the Russian 

 oil-fields is comparatively simple, and the chief steps in its 

 progress can be readily traced. When Baku became Russian 

 territory, in the early part of the nineteenth century, having 

 been taken from Persia, the extraction of oil was made a crown 

 monopoly. The result of this was that the trade grew very 

 slowly, and in the meantime American oil found its way into all 

 the markets of the world. The monopoly at Baku was main- 

 tained down to 1872, but though the restriction was then re- 

 moved an excise duty was imposed, which for five years longer 

 served as an impediment to free production. Since that time all 

 restrictions have been removed, and the number of individuals 

 and companies engaged in boring for oil and in the business of 

 refining is very large. But the rapid expansion of the Russian 

 oil industry owes almost everything to the influence of the two 

 brothers Robert and Ludwig Nobel. 2 



Up to their time oil had been carried from the wells to the 

 refineries in barrels, and the refined oil to the Russian consumer 

 also in barrels. In place of this slow and costly system the use of 

 pipe lines for transmitting the crude oil, the introduction of tank 

 steamers on the Caspian in 1879, tank barges on the Volga, the 

 subsequent establishment of tank cars on the Russian railways, 

 the provision of storage tanks at convenient points on the rail- 

 ways all over the country are due to the initiative of the Nobel 

 Brothers. 



In the accompanying illustrations a few scenes are shown 

 characteristic of the district (Figs. 82, 83, 84, 85, 86). 



" After that of Russia the petroleum industry of the districts 

 of the Carpathian range next claims attention by its importance 

 and antiquity. On the northern slopes will be found the oil- 

 fields of Galicia ; while on the south-eastern and southern slopes 

 of the southern Carpathians or Transylvanian Alps lie the im- 



1 Through Persia by Karavan. London, 1875. 



2 Alfred Nobel, a third brother, was the inventor of dynamite. See 

 " Explosives." 



