Nov. 16, 1888.J 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



5i5 



gone, the heat of the still is increased, and paraffin distils 

 over, and is collected separately. The distillation is then 

 continued at a higher temperature, when other oils of a 

 higher specific gravity are produced. These oils are too 

 heavy for burning in lamps ; the temperature at which 

 they vaporise being very high, they will not burn on a 

 lamp wick. This oil has good properties, which have 

 been utilised in another direction. As a lubricating 

 material for steam cylinders it has no equal. Having no 

 action on metals, and being stable at a high steam heat, 

 it is very much superior to tallow or vegetable oil for 

 this special purpose. Another bye-product in the paraffin 

 industry which has recently come into extensive use is 

 vaseline — a semi-solid paste, which, when purified, has 

 a fine amber colour, and is used for dressing wounds, 

 and for the bases of ointments and pomades. As it is 

 one of the paraffin series it never becomes rancid, as all 

 animal and vegetable fats do, by the separation of the 

 fatty acid from the glycerine. No doubt all petroleum 

 districts will show evidence of the presence of the oil by 

 exudation on the surface or by the oil being brought up 

 by springs of water. In order to obtain the oil in large 

 quantities, bore-holes are made and carried deep enough 

 to reach the oil-bearing strata. This is generally suffi- 

 cient for a fairly constant flow of crude oil. There is 

 often pressure sufficient for the oil to be spouted into 

 tanks without pumping. It is then conveyed to the 

 refineries either by special railway tanks or by lines of 

 iron pipe. Many of the latter are several miles in length. 

 Petroleum is now being largely used for fuel in place of 

 coal. The Standard Oil Company of Cleveland, Ohio, 

 have constructed a pipe line 207 miles long, stretching 

 from Lima to South Chicago. The pipe is 8 inches in 

 diameter. There is a powerful pumping engine at Lima, 

 and this forces the oil all the way to Chicago, where a 

 steady stream issues, amounting to 5,000 barrels a day. 

 The company have reservoirs into which the oil is run, 

 and they supply great quantities to the ironworks of the 

 district. There is great difference in the geological age 

 of the strata in which oil and gas are found. In Ohio, 

 Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee the oil has its origin 

 in sandstones or shales of Devonian age, or in the 

 Trenton limestone of the Lower Silurian. In describing 

 the Wyoming oil region, Mr. Bedford quoted from 

 Professors Aughey and Ricketts, who state that the 

 cretaceous rocks are the best developed, and the most 

 important of the whole series. They are from 5,000 

 feet to 6,000 feet thick, and are divided into four 

 groups — the Dakota, Colerado, Fox Hills, and Laramie. 

 They consist mainly of a coarse conglomerate, firmly 

 cemented ; porous sandstones and sandy shales, but no 

 limestone. Every one of those groups has oil springs, or 

 contains strata whose outcrops are saturated with oil. 

 With one single exception, no petroleum occurs (in this 

 district) in any other than cretaceous rocks. The excep- 

 tion is the Schoshone oil, which is found at a lower 

 horizon, namely — at or near the bottom of the Triassic 

 or the top of the carboniferous formation. Thus in the 

 Eastern States the oil is found in Silurian and Devonian 

 strata, and in the Western States it lies in the cretaceous 

 rocks. The names of these beds are local, and sound 

 somewhat strange to English geologists ; they, however, 

 are similar in their fossil remains to a great extent, and 

 will correspond with those of our wealden, upper and 

 lower greensand, and chalk. Passing now to the 

 Russian oil-fields, it may be said that the method of 

 production by boring is the same as in America, but the 



yield is still greater. The petroleum has been worked 

 commercially since the Russians annexed the district in 

 1 80 1. Formerly a monopoly existed in this trade, but 

 upon its abolition several companies were established, 

 and an enormous production has resulted. There are 

 between 400 and 500 wells drilled in the Baku district, 

 about 100 of which yield a supply, only some twenty of 

 these being flowing wells. These are all comparatively 

 close together, and occupy a space of land not more than 

 3^ miles square. One of these wells spouts a jet of oil 

 into the air amounting to a million gallons in twenty-four 

 hours. Petroleum is largely obtained in other parts of 

 the Caspian district. Mr. Bedford gave a very in- 

 teresting account of the boring operations necessary to 

 reach the oil, which have to be taken to a depth of from 

 300 ft. to 600 ft. As soon as indications appear of oil, 

 which is generally preceded by a rush of gas, a cap is 

 fixed on the top, with valves to control and regulate the 

 flow; for in some cases the oil has come up with such 

 force that it has destroyed everything around. The 

 yield is enormous ; the Droojba well sent up two million 

 gallons a day for some time. Messrs. Noble Bros, had 

 one well which spouted thirty million gallons in four 

 weeks. The copious supply at Baku will be understood 

 when it is stated that the single well just described 

 equals in its flow of oil all the 25,000 wells of America 

 put together, and there is yet no sign of any diminu- 

 tion of quantity. The position of Baku is rather un- 

 favourable for the transmission of the oil to the 

 European and Indian markets. It is now sent to Batoum 

 on the Black Sea in railway tanks, and this journey 

 generally takes a week or ten days. It is intended 

 to lay a pipe line to convey it, which will be some 

 600 miles in length. There are several theories which 

 attempt to account for the formation of petroleum 

 in the rocks. Some great chemists think that it has 

 originated by the union of inorganic elements, that the 

 carbon existing in the strata combined in some way with 

 hydrogen and oxygen. The more generally received 

 opinion is that the oil is the result of the decomposition 

 of animal and vegetable remains, which lived at the 

 time when the rocks were laid down. The evidence 

 seems to point to animal remains as the most likely to 

 yield hydrocarbons. If the oil had been derived from 

 plant life, one would expect to find the fossil plant 

 remains in fair quantity, but this is not so. Coal strata 

 would be expected to furnish oil ; but little, if any, is 

 ever found in them. Animal remains are always found 

 in strata yielding oil. The Trenton limestone contains 

 orthoceratites in great quantities, and the cavities often 

 contain several ounces of oil. Hoefer says that all 

 slates which give hydro-carbon oils on distillation are 

 rich in animal remains, while they show few of vegetable 

 origin ; and that the rocks which contain large quantities 

 of vegetable remains are not bituminous as a rule, but 

 become so when animal remains are also present. The 

 fact of salt water being so often present with petroleum 

 also points to a marine fauna. Supposing that these 

 fossil remains have been subjected to heat and pressure 

 for a great length of time, as they no doubt have, then 

 great chemical changes would occur ; decomposition 

 would begin with the nitrogenous portions of the animal 

 (the gelatine, albumen, etc.). The fats not being so 

 easily changed, would remain to a later period and be 

 absorbed by the rocks. These fats are different in 

 chemical constitution from the paraffin series of oils, 

 and further decomposition would be necessary to pro- 



