Photograph from U. S. Geological Survey 



NUMBER FOUR WELL AT JOY FARM, OHIO, DRILLED IN 1 864 AND STILL 



PRODUCING OIL 



the world economy or realize all the 

 changes that have come about in its use 

 within a decade or two. 



OIL NO LONGER OUR LIGHT BY NIGHT, BUT 

 PREMIER POWER SOURCE 



When most of us were in school, "oil" 

 meant kerosene, and gasoline or benzine 

 was something to be bought in a bottle at 

 the drug-store or the paint shop. In 

 those earlier days the oil refiner put as 

 much gasoline in his kerosene product as 

 the traffic would allow ; today the auto- 

 mobilist complains that his gasoline con- 

 tains too much kerosene. The refiner 

 simply robs his less marketable kerosene 

 of the more inflammable content; so 

 that, as has been suggested, if Widow 

 O'Leary's cow again kicked over the 

 lamp, in all probability the spilt oil would 

 not set Chicago or any other city on fire. 



In those earlier days, too, fuel oil 

 played no part in industry. Then, petro- 

 leum's future mission seemed to be to 

 light up the dark corners of the world — 

 to be the handmaiden of Minerva; today, 

 oil has become the premier motive power, 

 not only on land and sea, but even in the 



heavens above and the depths below — 

 truly the best servant of Mars and Mer- 

 cury. 



Marshal Foch is quoted as saying that 

 "a drop of gasoline was worth in war a 

 drop of blood," and M. Berenger, the 

 French Commissioner-General of Petro- 

 leum, expressed the same idea when he 

 called attention to the fact that victory on 

 the battlefields of Belgium, France, and 

 Italy "could not have been gained with- 

 out that other blood of the earth which 

 is called oil." 



"And if petroleum has been the life 

 blood of the war, it will be still more the 

 life-blood of peace." The strategy of 

 peace should, however, lead us so to plan 

 for wise use of this precious fluid that 

 Mother Earth will not too soon be "bled 

 white." 



MORE THAN 3OO PRODUCTS OF 

 PETROLEUM 



The number and variety of uses of pe- 

 troleum and its products are continually 

 increasing, but even more striking is our 

 increased dependence upon a few of the 

 products of the oil refinery, notably gaso- 



185 



