i6 



NATURE 



[August 29, 19 18 



further the application of science to industry through- 

 out the locality, but will also embody the very spirit 

 of humanism by working in close touch with the 

 artisan classes, and especially with the Workers' 

 Educational Association. 



-niE RUMAXCE OF PETROLEUM.'^ 



PETROLEUM is defined in the Petroleum Act of 

 1871 as including "any rock oil, Rangoon oil, 

 Burmf^h oil, oil made from petroleum, coal, schist, 

 shale, peat, or other bituminous substances, and any 

 products of petroleum, or any of the above-mentioned 

 oils." 



The scientific definition is even wider, embracing 

 natural gas, solid bitumen, and ozokerite. 



It is, therefore, an appropriate introduction, for the 

 suggestion of which I am indebted to the Fullerian 

 professor of chemistry, to recall that it was in the labora- 

 tory of this institution, in 1825, that Faraday examined 

 the liquid which separates when the gas made by the 

 destructive distillation of fixed oils is subjected to com- 

 pression, and isolated from it the hydrocarbon benzene, 

 as well as several other compounds of carbon and 

 hydrogen. 



In 1815 John Taylor was granted a patent for a 

 process described as producing " inflammable air or 

 olefiant gas applicable to the purposes of giving light" 

 from vegetable or animal oil, fat, bitumen, or resin. 

 This oil-gas, compressed by a method patented by 

 Gordon and Heard in 18 19, was supplied by a .com- 

 pany having the title of the London Portable Gas 

 Company. It was contained in vessels having a 

 capacity of 2 cubic ft., which were delivered to the 

 premises of consumers, and returned when empty to 

 be refilled. The liquid which separated when the gas 

 was compressed into these cylinders was that which 

 Faraday examined. 



It is not reasonable to assume that whilst he was 

 ascertaining the chemical constitution and properties 

 of what was actually synthetic petroleum, Faraday 

 can have realised the importance of the part destined 

 to be played by these hydrocarbons in peace and in 

 war. 



Nevertheless, his extended reference to what he 

 describes as the remarkable action of sulphuric acid 

 upon the compounds of carbon and hydrogen which 

 he had isolated, and his subsequent paper on the 

 mutual action of sulphuric acid and naphthalene, 

 appear to indicate that he may have had an intuitive 

 perception of the valuable industrial developments in 

 the manufacture of dyes which after many years fol- 

 lowed his classic researches. 



In the same year Faraday also published the results 

 of his examination of caoutcliouc, and showed that 

 this substance is mainly a compound of carbon and 

 hydrogen. 



Eleven years later Edmund Davy, a cousin of Sir 

 Humphry Davy, discovered the gaseous hydrocarbon 

 which we now know as acetylene. The account of his 

 discovery which he gave at the meeting of the British 

 Association in 1836 was as follows : — " Early in the 

 present year the author, in attempting to procure 

 potassium by strongly heating a mixture of calcined 

 tartar and charcoal in a large iron bottle, obtained a 

 black substance which readily decomposed water and 

 yielded a gas which, on examination, proved to be a 

 new compound of carbon and hydrogen." 



It is interesting to note the relation between these 

 respective researches of Faraday and Edmund Davy 

 and the rival theories of the organic and inorganic 



1 Abridged from a discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday, 

 June 7, by Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart. 



NO. 2548, VOL. lOl] 



; origin of petroleum, to which further reference will 

 j be made. 



There are many obvious allusions to the occurrence 



and uses of petroleum in the Old Testament scriptures. 



I Thus in the account of the building of the Tower of 



j Babel we are told that "slime had they for mortar," 



I the word "slime" in our version being given as 



[ "bitumen" In the Vulgate. Again, in Genesis xiv. 10, 



i the vale of Siddim is described- as "full of slime 



! pits," and on this account It has been suggested that 



I the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah may have 



occurred through the sudden outburst of petroleum in 



this region. This has led Mr. W. H. Dalton to remark 



; that the destruction of these cities and our recent 



.conquests in Palestine were effected bv the same 



agency, with the essential difference that in the latter 



case the flow of the oil was under control. 



The vale of Siddim, with Its slime pits, is no more; 

 even its precise position is a matter of doubt, but the 

 pitch spring of the Ionian island of Zante, described 

 by Herodotus in 450 B.C., may still be seen. 



The photograph of this spring of petroleum now 

 projected on the screen was taken In 1890, whilst my 

 guide was in the act of inserting an olive branch into 

 the spring and withdrawing it dripping with the oil, 

 the flow being, apparently, as abundant as It was more 

 than two thousand three hundred years previously. I 

 may add that drilling for petroleum In the locality has 

 not resulted in obtaining any vield of commercial im- 

 portance. 



Long before the Christian era the drilling of wells 

 for natural gas, with a view to its use as a source of 

 heat In evaporating brine, was a recognised industry in 

 China, and It Is worthy of note that the instruments 

 employed bear a close resemblance to modern drilling 

 appliances. 



Petroleum occurs In greater or less quantity through- 

 out the whole range of strata of the earth's crust, 

 from the Laurentlan rocks to the most recent members 

 of the Quaternary period, but it Is found in quantities 

 of industrial Importance almost wholly in the com- 

 paratively old Devonian and Carboniferous formations 

 on one hand, or in the various divisions of the com- 

 paratively yoqng Tertiary rocks on the other. 



Its origin has been the subject of much controversy 

 among distinguished geologists and chemists who have 

 devoted special study to the subject. Berthelot and 

 Mendel^eff lent the weight of their authority to the 

 theory that petroleum was derived from metallic car- 

 bides lying far beneath the porous strata in which the 

 oil is stored, and made the attractive suggestion that 

 the process might be conceivably In operation at the 

 present time. The view is now, however, universally 

 accepted that petroleum Is of organic origin, and that 

 it has been produced from vegetable matter and the 

 lower forms of animal life, chiefly aggregated during 

 the geological periods referred to, when favourable 

 conditions, which did not persist through the whole 

 ! period, occurred. In certain places — for instance, in 

 j Karabugas Bay, on the eastern side of the Caspian 

 ] Sea, in Sweden, In Sardinia, and in the eastern part 

 j of the Mediterranean — there is some conversion of 

 ! organic matter into petroleum actually to be seen in 

 j progress at the present time. 



I Whilst, however, as I have said, there is general 

 I agreement as to the organic origin of petrolepm, there 

 Is considerable difference of opinion as to whether the 

 oil is in all cases indigenous to the strata In which it 

 is found, and as to whether the conversion of the 

 organic matter was practically completed when the 

 strata were formed, so that the age of the rocks is 

 that of the petroleum found therein. There are dis- 

 tinguished advocates of the view that petroleum results 

 from the action of a slow, continuous process of dis- 



