The Story of Petroleum 



The author is an engineer 

 connected with a great oil- 

 refining company. His 

 article, while it describes 

 the general principles of 

 oil-refining, is intended 

 to explain how lubricat- 

 ing-oil in particular is 

 obtained. — Editor. 



THERE is a vast dif- 

 ference between pe- 

 troleum as 



it flows from the 

 earth and its 

 derivatives. An 

 oil refiner>' is a 

 res^ion of giant 

 stills, filters, stor- 

 age tanks, steam 

 and power 

 plants, coal 

 bunkers and 

 laboratories. Its 

 working popula- 

 tion is equal to 

 that of many 



By C. W. Stnitford 



The Agitator Is a 

 Bleaching Oil and 



Lead -Lined Steel Tower for 

 for Removing Impurities 



towns. Immense workshops are 

 required to manufacture the 

 undreds of thousands of bar- 

 rels, boxes and tins in which 

 its many products are 

 shipped. 



Crude oils are not simple 

 chemical compounds but 

 consist of a physical mix- 

 tureof different compounds 

 of the element carbon 

 and element hydrogen. 

 Other elements 

 such as sulphur, 

 oxygen, nitro- 

 gen and metallic 

 salts, etc., arc 

 present as im- 

 purities. Each 

 one of these 

 many com- 

 pounds has its 

 own definite 

 physical proper- 

 ties, such as 

 fixed boiling 

 point, gravity 



Battery of Aerial Condenser for Automatically Condensing Different Distillates. Which Are 

 Then Conducted Through the Water-Cooled Pipes to Their Respective "Running" Tanks 



385 



