WHERE THE WORLD GETS ITS OIL 



183 



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A SKETCH MAP SHOWING THE ELABORATE OIE PIPE-EINE SYSTEM WHICH FORMS A 

 NETWORK BENEATH THE SURFACE OF THE EASTERN HALF OF THE UNITED STATES 



There are enough oil pipe lines in the United States to girdle the earth at the equator and 



have S,coo miles to spare. 



laid down in western Pennsylvania at the 

 close of the Civil War, this system now 

 embraces a huge network of buried pipes 

 from four to eight inches in diameter, 

 trunk lines and laterals, aggregating 

 nearly 30,000 miles (see map above). 



A VAST NETWORK OF OIL PIPE LINES 



Along these hidden transportation lines 

 there are pumping stations every 40 miles 

 or so, but the daily circulation of oil in 

 these long arteries is appreciated only by 



the oil operators who sell their product 

 at one end and the refiners or shippers 

 who receive it at the other end. 



Another measure of this pipe-line sys- 

 tem is given in the fact that it would 

 take approximately two days' flow from 

 the 200,000 wells of the country simply 

 to fill these pipes. 



Petroleum's rank among the minerals is 

 won not by attractive appearance, but by 

 sheer usefulness. Few of us fully appre- 

 ciate how essential this mineral oil is in 



