364 PEINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY 



has many important applications, and the naphtha industry is now of 

 great commercial importance, especially as naphtha and its refuse may 

 be used as fuel. 55 Whether naphtha was formed from organic matter is 

 very doubtful, as it is found in the most ancient Silurian strata which 

 correspond with epochs of the earth's existence when there was little 

 organic matter ; it could not penetrate from the higher to the lower 

 strata (more ancient) as it floats on water (and water penetrates 

 through all strata). It therefore tends to rise to the surface of the earth, 

 and it is always found in highlands parallel to the direction of the 

 mountains. 56 It is much more probable that its formation should be 

 attributed to the action of water, penetrating through the crevices 

 formed on the mountain slopes to the heart of the earth, on that ker- 

 nel of heated metallic matter which must be accepted as existing in 

 the interior of the earth. And as meteoric iron often contains carbon 

 (like cast iron), so, accepting the existence of such carburetted iron 

 at unattainable depths in the interior of the earth, it may be sup- 



5 Naphtha has been applied to heating purposes on a large scale in Russia only, not 

 only on account of the low cost of naphtha and of the refuse from the preparation of 

 kerosene, but also because the products of all the Baku naphtha do not find an outlet 

 for universal consumption. Naphtha itself and its various residues form excellent fuel, 

 burning without smoke and giving a high temperature (steel and iron may be easily 

 melted in the flame). A hundred poods of good coal (for instance, Don coal) used as 

 fuel for heating boilers are equivalent to 86 cubic feet (about 250 poods) of dry wood, 

 while only 70 poods of naphtha will be required ; and, moreover, there is no need for 

 stoking, as the liquid can be readily and evenly supplied in the required quantity. The 

 economical and other questions dealing with American and Baku petroleums have been 

 discussed more in detail in some separate works of mine (D. Mendeleeff) : (1) ' The 

 Naphtha Industry of Pennsylvania and the Caucasus,' 1870 ; (2) ' Where to Build 

 Naphtha Works,' 1880; (3) ' On the Naphtha Question,' 1883 ; (4) ' The Baku Naphtha 

 Question,' 1886. 



56 As during the process of the dry distillation of wood, seaweed, and similar vege- 

 table debris, and also when fats are decomposed by the action of heat (in closed vessels), 

 hydrocarbons similar to those of naphtha are formed, it was natural that this should 

 have been turned to account to explain the formation of the latter. But the hypothesis 

 of the formation of naphtha from vegetable debris inevitably assumes coal to be the 

 chief element of decomposition, and naphtha is met with in Pennsylvania and Canada, in 

 the Silurian and Devonian strata, which do not contain coal, and correspond to an epoch 

 not abounding in organic matter. Coal was formed from the vegetable debris of the 

 Carboniferous, Jurassic, and other recent strata, but, judging from the composition and 

 structure, it was subjected to the same decomposition as peat ; neither could liquid 

 hydrocarbons have been formed to such an extent as we see in naphtha. If we ascribe 

 the derivation of naphtha to the decomposition of fat (adipose, animal fat), we encounter 

 three almost insuperable difficulties : (1) Animal remains would furnish a great deal of 

 nitrogenous matter, whilst there is but very little in naphtha ; (2) the enormous 

 quantity of naphtha already discovered as compared with the insignificant amount of fat 

 in the animal carcase ; (3) the sources of naphtha always running parallel to mountain 

 chains is completely inexplicable. Being struck with this last-mentioned circumstance 

 in Pennsylvania, and finding that the sources in the Caucasus surround the whole 

 Caucasian range (Baku, Tiflis, Gouria, Kouban, Taman, Groznoe, Dagestan), I developed 

 in 1876 the hypothesis of the mineral origin of naphtha expounded further on. 



