22 
BULLETIN 102, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
are favorably located in respect to distribution. From the refineries 
the gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil, lubricating oil, and other petroleum 
products are sent forth to supply the needs of surrounding territory, 
while refineries near seaboard furnish heavy contributions to foreign 
trade. As distribution is a diverging process, and, moreover, the 
crude petroleum is broken into numerous products requiring separate 
handling, the pipe-line is not broadly adapted to this diverse haulage. 
Eailroad tank cars, 1 therefore, receive the bulkier products and carry 
them to distributing depots, where storage tanks release the railroad 
carriers and suppty tank wagons that radiate to fill the local needs. 
In this way the entire country is covered by a network of specialized 
transporation, each step employing a bulk carrier best adapted to its 
particular purpose both as to size and mechanical facility, the whole 
involving the maximum of expedition and simplicity. Without this 
highly organized system, with its far-reaching ramifications, the 
present widespread use of gasoline and kerosene would not be pos- 
sible. From the oil field to the consumer, the handling of petroleum 
is remarkably efficient. 
The arrangements whereby a foreign trade has been built up and 
sustained are no less elaborate. Fleets of tank steamers and freighters 
carry the products in bulk or in suitable containers to all parts of the 
world. Fuel oil, gasoline, and lubricants go in greater measure to 
industrial countries, but kerosene penetrates to every corner of the 
globe, a system of depots and distributing lines adapting the product 
to the needs of the most out-of-the-way regions. The care that has 
been bestowed upon the extensions of the market for kerosene, against 
every conceivable obstacle of climate, topography, and racial preju- 
dice, is a striking example of industrial foresight; j^et without this 
policy, the whole oil industry would have been unable to expand to 
its present proportions. 
THE NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY. 
Natural gas is produced in large quantities in the United States, 
partly as a by-product from oil wells and partly from gas wells 
drilled in oil fields or adjacent territory. Both natural gas and 
petroleum are of common origin, the former indeed being merely a 
volatile component of petroleum, occurring either dissolved in the 
petroleum under pressure or migrated, as result of the advantageous 
degree of mobility favoring a gas, to positions more or less distant 
from the petroleum. The gas-bearing territory of the United States, 
therefore, embraces the productive oil fields and a considerable area 
besides. (See fig. 2.) Natural gas is won in 23 States, of which 
West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Oklahoma enjoy the largest 
commercial yields. 
1 And to some extent barges where water transportation is advantageously available. 
