Art. VIII. Petroleum, its History and Properties : by David 



Murray. 



[Read before the Albany Institute, December 16, 1862.] 



Bituminous matter in its various forms has been known 

 from the earliest historic periods. Sometimes it was found 

 in a solid form aud called asphaltum, sometimes in a semi- 

 solid form and then called bitumen, or again in a liquid form 

 and called naphtha. This latter name has in the more de- 

 finite nomenclature of scientific men been restricted to one 

 only of the products obtained from the distillation of bitu- 

 minous substances. The gas which is always present 

 wherever any of these substances are found, and some- 

 times escapes from the earth in vast quantities and with an 

 unceasing flow, is to be regarded as a material of kindred 

 constitution and origin. 



This entire class of substances has been invested with a 

 new interest to us by the recent discovery in this country 

 of unlimited reservoirs of this oil. It may safely be said 

 that no branch of commerce ever in so short a time attain- 

 ed such enormous proportions. Five years ago a few bar- 

 rels of this substance collected by slow and painful pro- 

 cesses, measured in the United States the amount of this 

 product. Its value was unrecognized, and the vast sources 

 from which it was to be derived, although separated from 

 us only by a thin crust of rock and soil were unsuspected. 

 We traveled with careless and unsuspecting feet over hid- 

 den treasures more valuable and wonderful than the gold 

 mines of California. Now half the houses in the land are 

 illuminated for their evening toils and pleasures by the beau- 

 tiful light furnished by rock oil. A new branch of industry 

 has sprung up involving the employment of vast amounts 

 of capital and thousands of busy hands, for the extraction, 

 refining and transportation of it. Inventive brains have been 



[Trans, iv.] 21 



