THE ROMANCE OF OIL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10638, 14 April 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ROMANCE OF OIL.

"There are supplies of petroleum in the oil districts of the United States sufficient to supply tho whole world with illuminating oils for centuries." — Romance of Industry. Halt a century or more ago our fathers wore burning rushlights and candles made from animal fat, and their lamps were fed with sperm oil. Electricity had not been invented, and coal gas was so rarV and costly that it was beyond the reach of the average working man. Our factories and workshops were lighted with candles and lamps of this kind, aud sperm oil was used for lubricating our machinery. We were so dependent on the whale for our supplies ot oil that whale fishing in those days was one of our most important industries. Large ships were specially built and equipped for this kind of work. They were fitted with strong boats, and harpoons, and lines, and murderous weapons of all kinds, for capturing and killing whales, and cutting uip their lunge carcases, to supply our markets with oil. It was a rough and exciting and dangerous occupation, but there was money in the business, and so long as the whalers liad a mono-poly of our supplies of oil they could charge whatever they liked for it, and the shipovvners ancl the crews divided a good deal of plunder among them. But the discovery of petroleum wells and an abundant supply of cheap illuminating oil, killed this profitable industry. When the whalers came home loaded to the gunwale with blubber and whalebone,' they found that this cheap oil had broken down their monopoly and sent prices so low that their profits melted away, and they had little or nothing for their reward. So one by one the whaling ships abandoned whale hunting, and turned .their attention to more profitable work, ■pill and Whitby, and over so many o; Hit ports, felt the loss of this employlent very keenly for a time, and all tliat K left of the whale-'huiitrng'' business is ■^>c found at Dundee and one or two ports. of petroleum wells tapIPRWew sou-roes of wealth, and developed new industries. Nearly all our most valuable discoveries of natural wealth have been mado by men who stumbled on them by luck, or by chance, or -by a chapter of accidents. The diamond mines of South Africa were first suggested by some pretty stones that the .Kaffir children used as playthings. Tlie goldfields in Australia were discovered by a hunter, who hurt his foot by accidentally kicking a piece of gold-bearing quartz at the foot of a tree; and the petroleum wells in the United States were first brought to light by somebody's curiosity. The settlers in Pennsylvania observed that the water in one or two of the lakes was so "greasy" that neither horses nor cattle would drink it. ancl even the wild animals gave it a wide berth. They had no idea what was tlie matter with the water, or where the "grease" came from till a geologist came that way and told them that crude petroleum was floating on the water, and it came from the rocks beneath, and if they wanted to make thoir fortunes they had better begin boring oil wells., Divring the summer of 1859 a. few enterprising spirits began lo bore a hole three or four inches in diameter into the solid earth to see if they could "strike oil." They bored tliis hole mauy hundred feet in "deptli, and failed to find any well, and they began to think that geologist had been fooling them. But one day ' in August, 1859, they tapped the hidden storehouse, and petroleum rushed up that borehole at the rate of one thou--sand?*gallons per day. ancl all they had to do was to capture it, and put it into tanks and barrels, and 6end it to the refiner.

The place where this first well was discovered was on the Allehangy river, about one hundred and fifty miles above Pittsburg, and it was known afterwards as Oil Creek. The news of this discovery spread like wildfire, and it created as great a sensation as the gold mines in Australia, or California, or Klondyko, or the diamond mines of South. Africa. Prospectors and adventurers rushed into that oilfield from all quarters, and the whole district was soon dotted over with log huts, and shanties and tents to shelter theni.

But oil springs do not last for ever. The first well" yielded its thousand gallons per day for many weeks afterwards, and then its supplies* steadily diminished till it was exhausted, and its owners had to abandon it, and try their luck elsewhere. Our Yankee cousins call every new village or hamlet they locate a "city," and when the oil boom fiist began* mushroom cities sprang up everywhere, but many of them sprang up in a night, and withered in a night. Dur* ing the first fifteen months of that boommore than one thousand deep wells had been bored, and one lucky proprietor found a well that yielded 25,000 barrels of petroleum a day for a considerable time.

In 1865 Pithole .city, in Pennsylvania^ had only two houses and about a dozen, citizens of all sorts and sizes. The proprietors went to try their luck there, and struck such valuable wells that in four montlis the city had a population of 14,---000 inhabitants, and its output of petroleum was 5000 barrels a day. The following year all its wells were exhaivsted, and all "its prospectors had vanished, and as if to hide its shame, the city caught fire, and was utterly wiped out of existence. Every suocessM oil well was a fortune for somebody, and no prospector need waste much money iu his boring experiments. All a man needed was a rude derrick, and a small steam engine, and- a pump, and some barrels and tubs, and with this stock-in-trade he might soon become au oil king, or a millionaire, and some of the richest men in the world have made their fortunes out of these oil wells.'

There are about 30,000 miles of sixinch pipes already in use to convey the oil from the wells to the refineries, and then to. ports where it is pumped into tank steamers and exported. The American wells now yield about six. million gallons of oil every day. The refined oil is used for illuminating purposes, and the residuum for fuel. Tlie Russian oilfield is the keenest competitor with America. Six or-seven years ago a Russian millionaire at Baku made up his mind tliat he would break doAvn the monopoly of the American Trust in this country. So he sivnk wells, and captured enormous supplies, and the AngloCaucasian ■ Company, with his help, put the oil in our markets, Then the Rothschilds, who are millionaire bankers, undertook to finance the Consolidated Company to carry out another enterprise of the same kind. The oil is brought in tank steamers that were specially built for the purpose. It is stored in great reservoirs, and tanks on the outskirts of London, and it is conveyed, in underground pipes on the American plan. But there are vast oil fields that have never been exploited. In Canada there is a rich tract of country 1500 miles long, in the -Mackenzie River Valley, that has been tested, and some day it will yield enormous supplies. Other oil-bearing districts have been found in Roumania, and'Galicia, and Burmali, and India, and China, so it -will be a loiig time before our children have to sit, in darkness for want of illuminating oils. One of the most surprising things to W is the survival of one of our British oil industries. In the'.district round Glasgow there is a large supply of oilbearing shale which is dug up like coal, and broken up and burned in furnaces. Tlie gas which comes from this shale consists of oil Vapors and ammonia. It is condensed into a liquid, and when it is immersed in water the oil flows away at the top, and the ammonia liquor at the bottom. Tbe ammonia sulphate is sold at good'prices,- and the oil can be used either for lubricating purposes or for illumination. This industry owes its origin to the discoveries of Sir Lyon Playfair. It is worked with the most perfect machinery, and it has yielded satisfactory financial results.