A LAMPFUL OF OIL.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 207, 11 October 1888, Page 3

A LAMPFUL OF OIL.

From Harper's Magazine Man’s ingenuity in the production of artificial light has spanned the gap between the primitive striking of flints and tits b>i liant elec trie glow of modern times Though gas and electricity are the highest form® of this evolution, petroleum, soon af'er its introduction, a« a eheap, portable, and bril’iant illnminant, supersede I all nva's as “ the po r man’s light.” Whale and kindred oils had long occupied this position, but were about ready to resign it, as the pursuit of the whale had driven it to Northern latitudes, increasing the cost and scarcity of its products. The aid of chemistry wa« invoked to discover a substitute. This was found in the distillate of bituminous coals and shales, and its manti facture was largely increasing when the drill in Pennsylvania revealed vast quantities of a superior natural fluid. Befi ted petroleum literally ” cast into the shade” all animal, vegetab'e, and other mineral oils, and its steadv flame, now not only burns in the frontiersman’s cabin and the ter ement-houses of th- poor, but is the popular light in our villages and towns. Thirty-five years ago known only for it. medicinal virtues, petro. leum to day is one of our great staple domesti • products, and the fourth article in value of our exports. Petroleum is ft universal product. who«e existence and burning properties have been known from the dawn of history. It is therefore v**rv remarkable that its prac’ical nltilization should have bean reserved to Americans of our dav and generation. Ph\sicallv enn-i dared, petroleum is a liquid bitumen (hydrocarbon), and occupies a middle position between natural gas and asphaltum—respectively its gaseous and solid forma ihes a fountain of pitch on the Euphrates, from which “ three diff*rent sub stances, aspha’t. salt and oil were drawn.” A semi-liquid bitumen was pmnloyed in Babylon and Nineveh as a cement in masonrv, cisterns, etc. Baku, the present seat of the Russian Petroleum industry, but in ancient times a portion of Persia, is famed for its sacred fires, and we know that as early as a.d. 636, the period of the Saracen conquest pilgrimages were made to its uhrines by fire-worshippers Hindoos continue to visit these naptha springs to the prese t time. Marco Polo visi ed the spot in the thirteenth century, and reported that the oil was “ good to burn, and to anoint animals that have the mange. People come from vast distances to fetch it, for, in all countries rou id there is no other oil.” The first mention of etroleum in the United States is contained in a letter from the commandant of Fort Duquesne to General Montcalm in 1759. In it he describes a religious ceremony of the .Seneca Indians, three leagues above the mouth of the Venango. •* The surface of the stream,” he says, “ was covered with a thick scum, which, upon applying a torch at a given signal, burst into a complete conflagration.” There is evidence tha* some aboriginal race had known the value of Petroleum, and had dusr pits ten to twelve feet in diameter and eight to ten feet in depth to procure it. he first petroleum discovered at any depth was in the salt wells on the Kanawha Big Sandy, Cumberland, and Allegheny rivers. The first well bored for salt in the Unite I States was in 1806, and thereafter the industry grew and extended, and in almost all the salt wells a little petroleum was found. It was reg rded as an inconvenience, and the only thought given to it was to get rid of it. In 1833, Professor Silliman, the elder, described a visit to an oil spring near Cuba, New York. He said that the petroleum which floated on the surface was collected by thin wooden skimmers then strained through flannel, and used for sprains, rheumatism, and sores on horses. At hia early date, oil from this and other springs and from the wells at Burkesville was bottled and sold under the name of “ Seneca Oil ” or ** American Oil.” Samuel M. Kier, a Pittsburg druggist, began in 1849 to bottle quire extensively petroleum taken from his father’s salt well at Tarentum, located about twenty miles above Pit eburg. At this period the paraffine industry of Scotland was successfully established and both lubricating and illuminating oils were distilled from Boghead and other coals and shales The manufacture was begun in 1853 in Waltham, Massachusetts, and in 1854 at Newtown ( ‘reek. Long Island, by the North American Kerosene Gaslight Company of New York. By 1857 59 there were over fifty works iu this country engaged in the m nufacture of coal oil, and a large proportion of these were in the West, particularly in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, where quan ities of cheap bituminous coals were In the summer of 1854, Dr Brewer, member of a large firm of lumbermen and merchants in Titusville, Pennsylvania, visited Dartmouth College, of which he was a gra-diia-e. He carried with him a sample of the oil obtained from a sp ing located on Cherry

tree run, a small tributary of Oil Creek, and owned by his firm, Brewer, Watson, and Co The specimen wa« shown to Professor Crosby of Dartmouth, who in turn exhibited it a f w weeks later to George H. Bissell, a New York lawyer, then on a visit to his alma mater. Investigation followed, and on the 10th of November, Brewer, Watson, and Co. deeded to Eveleth «nd Bissell one hundred and five acres of land, and on December 30, 1854, the Penn ylvania R ck Oil Company was organ sed, with a nominal capital of $250,000, divided into 10,000 sha es of $25

e tch. This was the first petroleum company ever organised. Professor B. Silliman, Jr,, ihe Yale chemist, was engaged to exhaustively test and report upon the petroleum, which he finally did April 16, 1855.. His report was singularly co rect in his estima*e of its utility, and in his forecast of the proper method < f refining it. Owing to various complications aud di-s**nsiuns amrng the stock-holders, the pr operty was fi « 4 y leased

to the Seneca Oil Company, a Qunnepticut Corporation avrned in Haven Things moved al wly. Finally in 1857, E. L. Drake, by courtesy ” • olonel,” who had been consecutively dry-goods clerk, express agent, and railruad conductor, was sent out to the property to examine and report. He returned full of enthusiasm The next year Drake again d« parted for the f< promised land,” determined to bore a well as had been done for salt. Begining to drill in the early summer of 1858, his labours Were interrupted, and again resumed, and on August 28, 1859, at a depth uf sixtynine and a half f* et, he ** struck oil.” This was a red-letter day in the annals of Oildom, as it marks the first deliberate step in the petroleum industry, It will be noted that the parties in interest, while never abandoning their undertaking, were unconscious of the great mine of wealth which lay beneath their property. They 'actually occupied nearly five years, from the date of their purchase, in drilling a hole sixty-nine and a half feet in the ground. Colonel ” Drake, whose name will ’for-

ever be identified with the first oil well ever drilled, after acquiring notoriety and a a competency, los’ it all in speculating in oil stocks in New York. He also lost his health, and was reduced to positive penury, which was first relieved by a purge of S4.?QO generously contributed by his old neighbors and friends in Titusville. In 1873 the Legislature of the State of Pennsylvania granted an annuity of $1,500 to himself and fiis wife during the lifetime of either. The

widow is still living. The Drake well was tubed, and started off at the r«*te of ten barrels per day, and later, by the aid of a more powerful pump its production was increased to forty barrels. To-day a well of this size would be regarded as email, as crude oil is now worth only two and one-half cents per gallon, while the product of the Drake well during the first four months commanded an average of fifty cents. Doubt and distrust that preceded Drake’s successful venture suddenly fled before the common conviction that an oil Well w «s the open tesame to wealth. Lajld Which hitherto had been valued only for its timber increased in price a hundred or a thousand fold. Every farmer now thought he had found an Aladdin’s lamp filled to the brim with kerosene. The dreary solitudes which had been broken only by the W’ odmin’s axe now resounded with the busy notes of preparation for a dive into nature’s great grab bag. In the beginning developments proceeded slowly, as the weans of transportation were defective, si>4 •Vei-j’llilng had.to b« intc tlie

w By June, 1860, the d ily produciioii wa-* e< iina'ed to be two hmsdi d ■are a. Ou the loth of May. 1861, a rep 1 t w .s made that 135 wel.a were producing 1288 ba rels. In this mouth the Funh well, at a depth of 4GO feet, encountered the ” third sand ” from which s r dum the bulk of oil has since been 0 tdned, though usually at a much greater depth. Several different theories have b eo advanced as to the origin of the oil, but one of them are entirely s ti.factory As a matter of fact, pe roleum is . nconnt red in all ages from the Laurentian to the tertiary. The sand s rat. in Pennsylvania i ■ which oil is found are c'lieAe iu the Chemung gr. up of th® Devonian forma, ion The iiaina is de ived from the Chemung Biver, where they crop out dis inotly. By this time the prospectors had le rned where to find the oil, and in September, 1861. the Empire well, on the Tarr Farm, started off, to everybody’s amazement at the rate of 2500 bar els per day. Production ran to waste for want of bar* els and tanks to store tho oil, and became more of a drug in November, when the Phillips well on the Ta r farm flowed 3000 barrels the first day. Ot**er wells came in to swell the production, and by January 1, 1862. oil could hardly be sold at the well at any price, and was nominally quoted at ten centa per barrel. Sales in New York at that time did not cover the cost of tran p rtation. This was a wasteful and unpr fitable period. J T. Henry -tales that the production during the eariy p rt of 1863 was scarcely half that of the beginning of 1862, and that of 1864 was still less In May, 1865, the production had declined to less than 400<) barrels per day In January, 1865, the Frazer well on the Holmden farm, at Pith le, ’• struck oil,” and its output the first day was 250 bar els. Jiris was followed by a aeries of rich strikes, which ike a m.guet drew restless spirits from every quarter unt I within a few moot* s a city of 15,000 to 20,000 peop'e was established Pith *le City was a nine days’ wonder ;it was so phenomenal and ephemeral that it was Ike the phantom of the imagi nation. It had banks, saloons chnrehe , school-houses, lar e and numerous hotels, one costing about. 375 000, a tire department, aud by .'■eptember a daily newspaper. It was at one time, next after Phila 'etchia and Pittsburg. the largest post office in Pennsylvai ia. During the coming - inter the wells showe s gns of exhaustion, and within two years the glories of Pithole had vanished. and fl od complet'd the work of destruction, aud to day here is h .rdly a human habitation to mark its site.

Oil men are fond of recalling the great fl.od of 1865, which swe.t everything movable out f th- valleys, carrying engines, derricks, bridges, embaukmeuta, tanks, and barrel. ■ f oil before its resistless fury. Iu this year also the government levied a tax of one dollar per barrel, and many oil producers were aid nt haart. Their spirits were revived next year, owing to the increased demand abroad fo petroleum and the repeal of the government tax. Our exports iu that year aggregited nearly 51,000,000 gallons, against 25,500,000 gallo a in 1865, an increase of one hundred per cent. Opera tions during a 1 these years up to about 1874 were in the valley of the'AVegheny and ..long its tributaries Oil Creek, Pitho e Tidioute, Parker’s La ding, Petroleum Centre, Oleopnlis, and Titusville were, each iu its own time, the centres of interest. A. early as 1860 a well was begun in McKean County, near Br.ulf .rd, but it Was abandoned at a depth of 850 feet. In 18/1 a other well in that vicinity was dri led through to “p.y sand,” which was below the level of the unsuccessful venture. It proved to be a small producer, yielding ten burro’s per day, and excited no in*erest. In 1874 eventy barrel Well was completed, which may be regard'-d as the beginning of the development of the Bradford field- On account of its area and the longevity of its wells, it has completelv overshadowed all other districts. Though the extent of its resources was not immediately recognise ', by January, 1878, its production reached 600 b barrels. The daily averavo then steadily rose to 17.500 in 1878 ; 38,500 in 1879 ; 55,000 in 1880; 71,000, in 1881. It attained its maximum production, 81,000 barrels, during the mouth of August, 1881, since which time it has steadily declined It has recently been yielding on y 26 000 barrels daily. In the Autumn of 1881 there was a large increase of operations in the Allegany field in Southern New York. By July, 1882, its production mounted to »n average of 23.884 barrels per day, which has declined to 7000 at recent dates. The period of its maximum development was simultmenus with the most phenomenal of all the latter fields— Cherry ’drove On the 22nd of December, 1881, Grace and Dimmick began to drill in this township what is known as a ” w Id cat” well, i. e., u gambling venture in territory not known to he oil-bearing. By March 3 1882, operations there were temporarily suspended, and the well was boarded up and guarded to prevent public insp ct*on. For nearly two months and a half the oil trade wa ched it with absorbing iu erest which its subsequent performances fully justified. It was known as ’’ Mystery 646. ” from the number of 'he lot upon which it was located Producers and speculators were on the qui vlve to ascertain 'he facts, and scouts were employed to fathom its mystery. It required bravery as well as diplomacy, a knowledge of i-ands and oi s as well a- physical endurance, to learn the secret of the drill. The scout who most distinguish- d himself was Si Hughes, who eluded the vigilance of the guards, crawled under the derrick, decided that the we I waS dangerous, and hastened to inform his principals of his discovery. For this piece of defective work he was haud«,mely re

warded. At four o’clock in the afternoon of May 17, 1882, it made a big flow. The news of a ** gu-her ” in the wilderness created a genuine sensation, and the spot was soon in vaded by an army of driller.. Within sixty days the surrounding farms were perforated by hundreds ot ho cs, and oil was springing from every pTe at the rate of 25 000 to 35,000 barrels per day. The area of

fertile territory was soon defined, and nature's resources were soon exhausied. By November the production had declined below 5000 barrels. The oil there was f und in the fourth, or "white s nd,”as distinguished fropi the third, or " bias? or ohopo ate-oolored sands ” of Bradford and Allegany Since then there has been a succession of wlrte san pools such as Cooper Tr .ot, B 11 own, Henry’s Mills, VVardwell’s Ferry, and thorn Creek — rhe home of the "gushers.” They lacked the staying qualities of the darker sand distrio s, and while they dazzled by their rocket-like asce it, they fell with t qua* celerity. The “ gushers ” may b» cnmpurpd with the boiling geysers of the Yellowatoue, as the tremendous hydrostatic pressure, when they are first opened, .ends a shower of oil high in the air above the derrick. (TO BE CONTINUED.)