238 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1888. 
the surface in cylinders resembling the sand pump. 
A-bout two minutes are required to lower and lift the 
tubes, which bring about fifty gallons of oil to the sur- 
face each stroke. "Torpedoing" is so far unknown as 
a well requires only to be bored a little deeper in order 
to bring fresh quantities of oil. The oil on issuing 
from the well is always allowed to stand for a time in 
reservoirs (which are frequently only shallow ponds in 
the surrounding soil) in order to deposit the sand, and is 
then pumped through the pipe lines to the refineries 
at the Blacktown on the coast some eight miles off. 
The Baku petroleum has a higher gravity than the 
American, averaging 0 873, or 310 B., and has been found 
to be entirely different in its chemical composition, con- 
sisting for the most part of hydrocarbons of the series 
UnH 2 n, isomeric with the olifine series and called 
" naphtheues." As will be seen later, this difference 
in chemical composition involves a difference in the 
refining methods and results. 
The processes of distilling Pennsylvania petroleum 
are in a general way at least familiar to most of 
my audience, so I shall not take the time to go over 
them in detail. It is sufficient to say t'h it although 
a normally conducted fractional distil) u,tion would 
give from thirty-five to fifty-five per cent only of 
illuminating oil, by the process of " cracking," or 
destructive distillation, the percentage of illumina- 
ting oil may be increased to seventy-five to eighty 
per cent, the benzine fraction being from ten to 
fifteen, and the residuum from five to ten per cent. 
On the other hand, the Russian petroleum does not 
yield over about twenty-seven to thirty per cent of 
illuminating oil of satisfactory quality, but will yield 
fifty per cent, of a very superior lubricating oil. 
Nobel Brothers, who are by far the most scientific 
and progressive in their methods, obtain about the 
following result: Benzine, 1 per cent; gasoline, 
3 per cent ; illuminating oil C32 deg. C. or 89 deg. 
F. Abel flash point), 37 per cent; Soliarovi lubri- 
cating oil, sp. gr. 0-87, 12 per cent ; Veregenni 
lubricating oil, sp. gr. 0-89, 10 per cent ; lubri- 
cating oil, sp. gr. 0'905, 17 per cent ; cylinder 
lubricating oil, sp. gr. 0'915, 5 per cent., vaseline, 
sp. gr. 0-925, 1 per cent ; liquid fuel, 14 per cent, and 
loss, 10 per cent ; total, 100. 
It is true that more illuminating oil than this 
twenty-seven per cent is sometimes gotten by some 
of the Baku refiners, but it is of lower flash test. 
Prof. Beilstein, of St. Petersburg, has also proposed 
a method of cracking by which the yield of illumi- 
nating oil can be raised to fifty per cent, but it is 
not adopted as yet to any considerable extent. With 
regard to the character of the best Russian illumi- 
nating oil as compared with the American oil, it is 
claimed by English and German experimenters that, 
while the Russian oil gives less light at the begin- 
ning of the burning when the lamp is full of oil and 
freshly trimmed, it affords a flame of somewhat 
greater permanence as the level of oil in the reser- 
voir becomes lower, the difference being supposed to 
be due to the greater power which the Russian oil 
has of ascending the wick. In a comparison of the 
lubricating oils, there seems but little doubt that the 
Russian product has a distinct advantage. These 
lubricating oils from Baku petroleum contain little 
or no solid hydrocarbons, the greatest quantity ob- 
tainable amounting to only a quarter of one per cent 
of the crude oil. They will show, therefore excep- 
tionally low cold tests. At the same time they 
have a remarkably high viscosity in relation to 
their specific gravity. This characteristic is ex- 
hibits! in the following tabular statement prepared 
by Boverton Redwood: — 
SJ . ■ ' w 
VI >> «J 
5 o !£ 
CO +3 O 
P- vi V 
£ rH 
o a % 
w o ►> 
Russian oil (sp. gr. 0-913.) 
1400 
166 
88 
American oil (sp.gr. 0 914) 
231 
66 
71 
Russian oil (sp. gr. 0 - O07) 
649 
135 
79 
American oil (sp. gr. 0 - 907) 
171 
58 
66 
Russian oil (sp. gr. 0'898) 
173 
56 
67 
American oil (up. gr. 0'891) 
81 
40 
50 
Refined rape oil (for comparison) 
321 
112 
65 
It is true that the disproportion is chiefly at lower 
temperatures, the Russian oil losing its body relatively 
faster than the lees viscous American oil. One dis- 
tinctive feature of the Baku refining is the successful 
use they make of continuous distillation processes 
which are especially suited to Baku petroleums, as the 
quantity of burning oil separated being comparatively 
small the residuum is not very much Jess fluid thau 
the crude oil. The stills, each of the capacity of 4,400 
gallons, are arranged in groups or series of not more 
than twenty-five, and a stream of oil i9 kept con- 
tinuously flowing through the entire number. The 
crude oil entering the first still parts with its most 
volatile constituents, passing into the next still has 
rather less volatile hydrocarbons distilled from it, and 
finally flows from the last still in the condition of 
residuum, which in Russia is termed astatki, or masut. 
The several stills are maintained at temperatures cor- 
responding with the boiling points of the product? to 
be volatilized. Superheated steam is used for all the 
stills, the steam being delivered partly under the oil and 
partly above the level of the oil ; that is, in the vapour 
space above. The fuel used under all the stills in Baku 
is petroleum residuum or "astatki." At many of the 
smaller works , the liquid fuel is simply allowed to 
flow upon the hearth of the furnace, and in thus using 
it, a very dense black smoke is evolved, whence the 
refining suburb of Baku has come to be known as the 
Blacktown. At Nobel's refinery, however, arrange- 
ments are adoped for burning the fuel with a proper 
admixture of air, and smokeless combustion is thus 
obtained. The part the astatki, or liquid fuel, now 
plays in the Caucasian district and in Russia is some- 
thing not to be overlooked. It is the only fuel for 
locomotives, steamer.-, and factory engines throughout 
this part of Russia. It has replaced wood and coal, and 
the use of it is now exteuding as far as Moscow to the 
north, Teheran to the south, Merv and Khiva to the 
East and Batoum to the west. In 1883, the ag- 
gregate export of astatki to Russia by all the 
Baku firms was 281,000 tons. On the other hand, the 
production was estimated as exceeding 500,000 tons, 
leaving, after making allowance for consumption in 
refineries, perhaps as much as 200,000 tons, or 50,000,000 
gallons undisposed of. Enormous quantities are there- 
fore allowed to go to waste. It is found in practice that 
with a good hydrocarbon furnace one ton of astatki 
goes as far as three tons of mineral fuel.* Nobel 
Brothers alone are now turning out 450,000 tons of this 
fuel per year. 
It remains now to glance at the methods of trans- 
portation and commercial development of Russian 
petroleum fields as compared with those of America. 
Our American system of pipe lines, extending to the 
seaboard, has already been illustrated. With the oil 
once at the Atlantic seaboard, its shipment either as 
crude or as refined is readily effected to any part of the 
habitable globe. Here, the Russians are at a dis- 
advantage. Baku is on the Caspian Sea, on the border 
line between Europe and Asia, but with very imperfect 
means of communication. What there is may be said 
to have grown principally out of the energy and en- 
gineering ability of one man, Ludwig Nobel, a Swede by 
birth, although resident in Russia since his twelfth 
year. In 1875, bis elder brother, Robert Nobel, began 
refining at Baku in a small way, with capital 
furnished by Ludwig, who had extensive engi- 
neering works at St. Petersburg. The Nobel Brothers 
found all the oil that was refined at Blacktown trans- 
ported from Balakhani in barrels slung in two-wheeled 
Persian carts, termed "arbas." They laid down a pipe 
line eight miles long and it paid its expenses the first 
season. The imported American oil-well borers re- 
volutionized the method of sinking wells. Then it was 
that, finding the transportation facilities too limited to 
allow them to ship their oil, Ludwig Nobel, the engineer, 
designed and had built the first of the oil-tank steam- 
ers that allowed him to ship his oil on the Caspian 
from Baku to the mouth of the Volga, a distance of 46U 
miles. This first liquid transport, cr cistern .steamer,'' 
appenred ou the Caspian in 1879. There is now a fleet 
of forty of them, the Nobels owning twelve, carrying 
* N. B. — Ed, 
