ROMANCE OF OIL

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11495, 24 November 1931, Page 2

ROMANCE OF OIL

FORTUNES MADE IN A DAY

One of the extraordinary features of the romance of the oil industry Ls the growth of the use of petrol. As recently as 39 years ago anyone sailing past the coast of Sumatra, in th 0 Dutch East Indies, would see huge columns of smoko ascending. This was the smoke of petrol, unsaleable at any price, which was being pumped out into the jungle and burned. At sonic of the oil refineries in the United States at that time men used to open the tanks at night secretly, in order to allow the despised petrol to flow into the rivers. At that time it was the business of the refiners to refine the crude oil into lamp oil and get rid of the petrol, which might make domestic lamps explode. This one-time waste product has changed the history of nations and of civilisation, writes Mr. .1. H. Young in the May number of “Chambers's Journal.'’ Petroleum wells at Agrimontum were described hv Roman writers as the source of lamp oil 2000 years ago. At a later date oil from wells near Modena was used lor lighting, and the street lamps of Genoa burned pure petroleum. The great oil awakening took place in Pennsylvania in 1350. Before that date petroleum was scarcely known, except-os a medicine or. chemical agent. In that year Colonel Edwin Drake, who was regarded by his friends as being mentally unsound because ol his determination to- discover oil reservoirs in the earth, was the first man to “strike oil.” He was drilling with a hand drill, and at a -dcpt.il of GOft. he found hi s -hore full -of dark fluid which proved to he oil. This discovery proved to he the beginning of what in tlie United States was known as the “oil fever.”-

Drake’s discovery was followed by some remarkable incidents. Men with scarcely a penny in the world were converted into millionaires. One of these lucky pioneers was a farmer named Funk, whose well spouted oil at the rate of 1000 barrels a day and made him a millionaire in. a month. Almost immediately afterwards Jim 'fair, a toam!stcr. uncovered a gusher that delivered 2000 barrels a day, which gave him a daily revenue of more than four times the original price for which he had been willing to sell Ids property. One of tho most dramatic stories of a fortune made by oil is that of James Sherman. He sank his entire fortune of £IOO in the lease of- a farm for prospecting for oil. He disposed of one-cigivlh of his interest to purchase machinery. Success evaded him. He disposed of one-sixteenth for a. shotgun, and another sixteenth to buy a horse. .Urgently in neecl'of hiqney, ..ho sold a third sixteenth for-£lO. Next- day' the Sherman Svell began spouting at the rate;.-of- 3500 barrels -.a day. •In two years it- yielded 2.000,000 barrels of oil. Sherman made £1,000,000. froip,. his .investment, of £IOO. The'owners of the other shares di-vided-.£600,000 between them. •Only about.-six years ago .a poor cai/driver -in California leased a small- piece -of land to fan oil syndicate for - boring. He was .shrewd -enough, to. stipulate.•that .lie, should reteivd-25 per cent, .of the profits 'from-“he venture. : Within a month the . bore, was .spouting -10,000 tons of oil' a-day. . The Yield fell ■to >2OOO. tons .daily, and then’ ’censed. The bore -ya.s cleared but, and thp fouru tain, 'recommenced: with '““',000 tons dailyk/ Tho- ear-driver found- -himself the possessor of. a large- fortune. Thp romance- goes’o“.. llecenilv a young j man-from a poor home in-Texas join. ‘ *ed the United States Navy as a sto.ker. He has still two years of his service with the navy io run, but a discovery of oil’ bn the home proper! v has. given .him an- j income 'of. 40,000 dollars (flSOOO) a month.