Early and Later History of 

 Petroleum. 



By L. P. CRANE. Praaidsat Pacific Caaat Petroleoin Hiner*' Aaaociatlon 



WHILE the history of petroleum in America prior to developments 

 brought about by artesian boring will probably be accounted of 

 little practical value, yet to the man of commercial Insight it is a 

 pivot point at which begins a new era in the world's manufacturing 

 industries. 



In Europe and Asia it has been an object of some commercial 

 value for centuries, and there is good reason to believe that it has been 

 known and used since the earliest ages of the world. 



It is impossible to go back to the time when petroleum was first dis- 

 covered. From its frequent occurrence in the form of springs in many 

 parts of the world, it is evident that it has always been known — certainly 

 more than four thousand years. 



Layard and Botta, in their discoveries at Nineveh, adduce positive 

 evidence that the inhabitants of this ancient city had knowledge of the 

 existence and use of petroleum. In building the city, an asphaltic mortar 

 ("slime" according to the Old Testament) was employed, the asphalt for 

 which was partially evaporated petroleum. That used at Babylon was 

 obtained from the Springs of Is, on the Euphrates, which, at a later date, 

 attracted the attention of Alexander, of Trajan, and of Julian; they, even 

 to this day, supply the neighboring villages with oil. 



Herodotus, 500 years before Christ, spoke of the oil wells of Zante; 

 and Pliny and Dioscorides described the oil of Agrigentum, which was 

 used In lamps under the name of "Sicilian Oil." 



The wells of Amiano, on the banks of the Taro, were formerly used 

 for lighting the City of Genoa. 



There is reason to believe that at some former period in the history 

 of the American continent, the existence and uses of petroleum had been 

 better understood than they were for some centuries before the recent 

 artesian developments. The numerous pits, until recently, and perhaps 

 even still to be seen along the valley of Oil Creek, cribbed with roughly 

 hewn timber, but nearly hidden by the rubbish of ages, indicate a develop- 

 ment comparatively extensive. Trees were found growing in the center 

 of some of these pits, which, we are told, on the evidence of the concentric 

 circles in the wood, were shown to be the growth of centuries. Many cir- 

 cumstances concur in referring these excavations to a period of time, and 

 to a race of people, who occupied the country prior to the advent of those 

 aborigines, found here by our Latin or Saxon ancestors. They were 

 probably the work of that mysterious people who left the traces of their 

 rude civilization in the copper mines about Lake Superior and the mounds 

 of the Southwest. 



When we consider how easily, partially nomadic races, of which they 

 probably were, degenerate, and how suddenly they are sometimes extin- 

 guished, this disposition of the matter seems plausible; but as all that 

 IS more within the sphere of the archaeologist than the historian of a 

 modern industry, we have passed it without research. 



Petroleum and electricity will revolutionize the vast territory west of 

 the Mississippi River, where the future people of America will plant the 

 great industries of the twentieth century. Connecting the Pacific Coast 

 with the Orient where 500,000,000 people are being modernized, and 

 made acquainted with the Saxon's methods of scientific productions. 



The percentage of oil carried in the sands of the Coalinga Field, as 

 shown by tests made by the Pacific Coast Petroleum Miners' Association 

 in 1904- and 1905, prove that from property in Section 31 the results 

 would be as follows per acre: 



