THE ROMANCE OF PETOLEUM.

North Otago Times, 2 December 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE ROMANCE OF PETOLEUM.

I TORPEDOING OIL WELLS.

Renders- of newspapers may be struck by the many advertisements appearing asking for public money in order to float companies with the view of opening new oil-fields. This rush of enterprise is due to a recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to disband an enormous oil trust which enjoyed something like a monopoly in the control of the world's markets. Speculators and companies now profess to feel free to seek an independent' share of the profits from a commodity which lights millions of houses, feeds locomotives and motorcars, drives steamships and workshop machinery, supplies heat for cooking,, possesses valuable medical properties, and touches lite at hundreds of points. v

Rock-oil, which we now call petroleum, has been known to mankind from very early days, For the moment, the United States and the Caspian region of Russia are the greatest oilfields as regards the quantities extracted for human uses. But huge deposits, waiting their turn to be exploited, exist in China, Siberia, Burnish, Asia Minor, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and other oil-bearing countries, so that from time to time we shall have booms of investment,.cheapening of the product, and the rain of overcapitalised undertakings, The crude or natural oil occupies cavities in the earth's crust, and remains there until tapped by the engineer and his drills. How it got there, its origin and antecedents, is

I ■ not properly known. Some say it is ol a chemical parentage—that is to say, that when out earth was very hot it distilled and condensed itself. Others maintain that it is an organic material, or the result ol the decay and decomposition of vegetable and animal substances from far-off ages, Further, it is not known whether the supply of oil can ever be exhaustf/1 like coal, or whether the. matei the time being raanufacturedn^J^ The petroleuuTindustry dates back do further than 1859. In that year one Colonel Drake struck a "spouter," which sent forth a great supply of crude oil in Pennsylvania, This was the year before the American Civil War, and until the conflict was over, little further was done. Then tho oil prospector, like the gold pro-epector,-caught the mania of "'getting rich quickly," and In various parts of the United States oil towns sprang up like magic, The method of boring for the oil varies slightly in the various oilbearing countries. A derrick or wooden frame is erected over a likely spot, and from this boring tools are driven into the earth and rock, in order to sink a well whero the oil may collect. The well is cleared of sand and splinters of stone by a tool called a shell auger. Then more boring takes place until oil is struck. Next, a well-torpedo is lowered, This consists of, probably, some gallons of nitro-glycerine. It is made to explode, with the object of releasing the petroleum from the cavities containing it, so that it may spurt into the well prepared for it. A pipe is then put in to guide the flow upwards, a pump is inserted into the pipe, and the well made to yield its contents. It may be when the explosion takes place, that the oil will gush up the borehole to the surface without any need of pumping, and this is one form of what is called "a spouter." Or it may be that the oil may spurt forth from the earth on its own account as a natural "spouter." Of course, "Bpouters" mean a great saving in the cost of recovery. As tho mineral is thrown into the air, all that has to be done is to guide it to reservoirs. Ou the other hand, a "spouter" may rise 300 or 400 ft, into the air and carry everything it touches, away. Some of them havo been known to fling out 100,000 barrels of oil in twenty-four hours. When collected, the crude oil has to pass. through a refinery, or still, to be sorted into different varieties end qualities, Furnaces are lit under Immense cylinders, and .the crude mineral 'separated and condensed. The first products from the crude oil are the very volatile gases which become petrol and naphtha. The next distillation brings the illuminating oils for lamps and cooking stoves. Then follow the thick lubricating oils for machinery, greases Buch as vaseline, parafln-wax, so much used in making candles, sulphur, and tar. At many of the well mines, chiefly in America, the oil is brought by pipe-lines, or great iron condutis running underground sometimes for hundreds of miles, direct from the oil-fields by pumping, to the refineries strorage tanks, and even the seaports. Prior to 1886 oil was imported in barrels, but now tank Bteamers are a great feature of the petroleumcarrying trade. Some ot these steamers, which are divided Into compartments for safety, imjy carry as jsueh as 250,000 gallons pf oil,

On arriving the petroleum Is stored in great circular tanks, like gasometers, at Purfleet, Birkenhead, Hull, Newcastle, Dublin, and other places, and distributed to; outlying parts and shopkeepers .in" railway tank waggonß or road waggons, As.now existing, the' oil industry is. the greatest trade development history has every recorded, It has competed successfully with the rivalry of coal, and its, gas, electricity, water-power, and even its own earthborn relative, Natural gas, which is coming' more and more Into use in various parts of tho world. At the same time, oil-well digging is always a dubiouß speculation.- It is brlmfull of possible accidents and losses. Tho average life of a well is five vwb ; but whether it accumulates oil again after being drained of millions of gallons iB not at all certain. An inflow of water may at any time cause the ruin of the enterprise, and the loss of the invested .capital.

And then It is not a matter of surprise that at oil wells as there Is so much inflammable gas about, disastrous fires often occur, especially in hot weather, A whole reservoir may ignite, or a "spouter" disappear in flames, On the Caspian shores there are 1,200 square miles saturated with petroleum, which exudes to the surface of the great inland lake's water itself. The careless throwing away of a match in the harbour o! Baku may set the water alight far and wide.— "Spare Moments."