BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 32, pp. 171-186 March 31, 1921 



IMPOETANT EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF PETROLEUM 

 AND NATURAL OAS ^ 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY I. C. WHITE 



{Read before the Society December 28, 1920.) 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Ancient references to petroleum 171 



Religious cult founded on natural gas springs 172 



Antiquity of use in China and Japan 172 



Eai'liest American accounts of petroleum and natural gas 173 



Pennsylvania originated petroleum industry 173 



West Virginia first in utilizing natural gas 173 



Colonel Drake's well the real beginning of the petroleum industry 174 



Modern history of petroleum and natural gas divisible into three principal 



epochs 174 



Characteristics of first epoch 174 



Characteristics of the second epoch 175 



Characteristics of the third epoch 176 



Criticisms of the "anticlinal theory" 177 



Summary of R. Van A. Mills' results 178 



Value of petroleum for maritime fuel 179 



Peak of production reached 180 



Exhaustion of petroleum 181 



Origin of petroleum 188 



Master mind of the Standard Oil Company 183 



Sanctity of private property the only path to progress 184 



i\.NCiENT References to Petroleum 



The date of the first use of petroleum or its residual products, pitch 

 and asphaltum, precedes authentic history. Probably the first recorded 

 utilization is that in the 11th chapter of Genesis, in which it is stated 

 that the soft or semi-fluid bitumen found in the valley of the Euphrates, 

 and translated "slime," was used as mortar in the building of Babylon 

 more then forty centuries ago. Eratosthenes, a celebrated Grecian writer 



1 Manuscript received by the Secretary of the Society January 17, 1921. 



(171) 



