S. F. Peckham

“ Cracked oils of good quality are nothing new, but I have never seen them made by one distillation and one treatment. Cracked oils should be finished by distillation, not treatment. A second distillation would enable the refiner to first remove the two volatile products of cracking and the heavy, uncracked portion of the paraffine-oil, besides destroying the sulphur compounds. But such a technology would so far increase the cost of the oil that those employing it could not compete in the market with those who did not, except by virtue of the superior quality of their oil. ”

“ It may be assumed that petroleum is the normal or primary product of the decomposition of marine animal or vegetable organisms, chiefly the former, and that nearly all other varieties of bitumen are products of a subsequent decomposition of petroleum, differing both in kind and degree. The occurrence of petroleum in the lower palaeozoic rocks of Pennsylvania and Canada, which contain no traces of land plants, shows that it has not in all cases been derived from terrestrial vegetation, but may have been formed from marine plants or animals ”

“ Frequent and dreadful as these disasters are, it is with great difficulty that the public can be convinced that all grades of naphtha and all fluids containing them, when burned in any kind of lamp (explosive or non-explosive) , are more dangerous than gunpowder, because so much more carelessly used. These inflammable and, under certain circumstances, terribly explosive fluids, are nearly worthless as articles of commerce, and they burn so rapidly that they are of comparatively little value to the consumer as materials for illumination. ”

“ The vast production and low price of crude oil had thrown the manufacture of petroleum into the hands of corporations controlling immense capital, and establishments in which the oil is handled in quantities proportionate to the enormous demand. Meantime a method of refining petroleum bad been generally introduced, by which a large proportion of the total burning-oil produced consisted of mixed or cracked oils. Such a proportion of high-test oils as were demanded by the market was made, but the great bulk of the distillate had been converted into a cracked or mixed oil. ”

“ The petroleum industry, in many of its aspects, is the product of development. This statement is true, not only as respects its vast magnitude, but also as pertaining to many of its details. The process of cracking had been employed in treating the distillates from coal before petroleum became an article of commerce; yet petroleum, for a number of years following its discovery in large quantities, was uniformly distilled into naphtha, normal burning-oil, and paraffine-oil. ”

“ All lamps are safe with good oil, and the quality of any oil can be ascertained easily by the following test: Take a pint tin cup, fill it nearly full of water warmed so that a thermometer immersed in it will show 120°, pour a small quantity of oil on the water, stir a little, then pass a lighted match quickly but closely over the surface of the oil once; if it ignites, the oil is unsafe. If purchases are made of from three to five gallons at a time, and this test is made, people can protect themselves. ”

“ Experiment has repeatedly demonstrated that an oil that will give off vapors that will flash at 100° Fahr. is safe for any legitimate use. As painful and disastrous accidents are liable to follow the explosion of a lamp, and as the increased danger of explosion where low-test oils are used is obvious to any reflecting person, all efforts to restrict the manufacture or sale of unsafe oils by legislation have been hitherto directed toward the exclusion of very low-test oils from the market. ”

“ Nearly every state in the Union has passed similar laws, and in many sections of the country kerosene may be purchased with comparative safety, as the different kinds of naphtha are regarded as dangerous, and are sold under proper restrictions. Yet notwithstanding these laws, and the general recognition of the fact that poor oils are very unsafe, a great deal of bad kerosene is burned every year, particularly in our large cities, and at the same time much property is destroyed and many lives are lost. ”

“ The victims are generally women and helpless children. Good kerosene is always safe under all conditions attending its use. It is naphtha that injures the quality of kerosene, and naphtha is never safe under any circumstances. So alarmingly frequent have these accidents become, and so disastrous have been the results, that in all civilized countries very stringent laws have been enacted, restraining and regulating the sale and storage of petroleum and its products. ”

“ In England such legislation has been based upon very elaborate research, and has been in the main successful; but in the United States no less earnest though less carefully considered measures have been embodied in legislation which has resulted in the enactment of a great variety of statutes—giving to some States laws unreasonably exacting, to others wise provisions, while yet others have no legislative restrictions whatever. ”

“ Salt water commonly comes up with the oil, and is separated from it by standing in the vats into which the products are received. The proportion of this to the oil is very variable, and the quantity of oil daily pumped from a single well is far from being regular. Sometimes the oil, when first struck, rushes up with great violence by reason of the pressure of the carburetted hydrogen gas that accompanies it. ”

“ That the effect must be bad, determining a tendency to certain forms of disease and aggravating others, can not fail to be apparent to the most unreflecting person, especially when it is considered in how few instances any means are employed to remove from the apartment in which these oils are burned the products of combustion. When under such circumstances a pure oil is burned into pure water and carbonic acid, the atmosphere receives a sufficient burden ”

“ Though we obtain oils resembling petroleum by the destructive distillation of coals, shales, and even animal substances, its occurrence is not confined to localities contiguous to large deposits of these substances. On the contrary, springs of it issue in different parts of the world from all the stratified rocks, and from the volcanic and metamorphic formations. In Ohio and West Virginia it is found in the coal measures, and the wells are in some instances sunk through these into the sandstones and slates before they become productive. ”

“ For the reasons stated, it appears that the health and safety of the public, and the protection of those manufacturers who would make a radical change in the methods of manufacture now employed, alike demand legislation that will exclude from the market not only oils that are unsafe from excess of naphtha, but those which in their general character are unhealthful to use and unsafe from other causes. ”

“ They have sunk two wells, which are now more than 400 ft. in depth; one of them affords a very strong and pure water, but not in great quantity. The other discharges such vast quantities of petroleum, or as it is vulgarly called ‘Seneka oil,’ and besides is subject to such tremendous explosions of gas as to force out all the water and afford nothing but gas for several days, that they make but little or no salt. Nevertheless the petroleum affords considerable profit, and is beginning to be in demand for lamps in workshops and manufactories. ”

“ When they reach their destination they are emptied into iron tanks, often of immense size, when the oil is again allowed to settle so that the last traces of water and any sand or other impurity may be removed.—The apparatus for manufacturing petroleum consists of stills of various forms and sizes, with worms for condensing the vapors, and agitators in which the oils are treated with chemicals. ”

“ They may be washed with sulphuric acid or strong solution of caustic soda, and very completely purified; but they are not acted on by either of these powerful reagents, and the product is a pure, colorless oil, with the odor of kerosene, and burning with a dazzling, white flame. The wick is burned but little more rapidly than that of an alcohol-lamp. The flame does not smoke, neither does it emit any unpleasant odor. These oils are safe, healthful, and economical; in fact, they constitute the best and cheapest illuminating agent ever given to man. ”

“ It is in respect to this difficulty that the public weal could be well served by judicious legislation that in its broadest sense might well be considered sanitary legislation. It is a proper subject for physicians to determine, what the precise effects upon the general health may be resulting from the combustion in lamps and stoves of the vast quantities of inferior oils that are daily consumed throughout the country. ”

“ Sometimes the stills are encased in wood or brick work to prevent loss of heat. Superheated steam is frequently introduced into the stills, especially during the distillation of the heavy oils. The very large stills recently constructed are used for carrying on the process known as “cracking.” After the removal of the gasolene and different grades of naphtha, the remainder is subjected to destructive distillation. Any method that will heat the vapors above the boiling point of the oil will decompose the heavy oil, with deposition of carbon and the production of lighter oils richer in hydrogen. ”

“ Of this vast quantity, by far the largest proportion is consumed as illuminating oil, or kerosene, for the production of which a stream of oil is constantly flowing through six-inch pipes from the oil-region of Western Pennsylvania to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Jersey City. In each of these cities establishments, constructed for the purpose, convert the crude oil into various products, principally illuminating oil, for the home market and an export trade of vast proportions. ”

“ That obtained nearer the sides of the tract is darker, gradually changing to a yellowish green, then reddish brown, and finally to asphalt. Those of southern California are leek-green when taken fresh from the rock; but they soon become brown and black, changing to maltha and asphalt. The Canadian oils are black, but those of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Rangoon, and many other localities, are for the most part of the ordinary color. All have a disagreable, pungent odor. In the province of Ontario oil has been obtained remarkable for its garlicky odor. ”

“ Of course, such diverse enactments relating to a single interest and question can not command the respectful consideration that uniform, just, and reasonable legislation would receive from all intelligent persons interested; hence, it may be fairly stated that in this country legislation relating to the testing of petroleum is in in many respects unsatisfactory. ”

“ The conglomerate which underlies the coal formation caps some of the hills in the oil region, and attains a thickness of from 100 to 300 ft. The shales and sandstones that succeed below this rock belong to the Chemung and Portage groups of the New York geologists, and extend over a large portion of southern New York, west of Binghamton, and of northwestern Pennsylvania. The oil wells are bored in this group through alternating layers of shales and sandstones, and an occasional stratum of a bluish sandy limestone. ”

“ These crude burning-oils were treated with sulphuric acid and caustic soda in such a manner as to produce the lightest colored oil possible, and they were further manipulated to bring the test within the legal requirements. As it was much less difficult to bring the mixed or cracked oils within the requirements of a burning rather than a flash test, the burning test has always found strong advocates among a certain class of the manufacturers of petroleum. ”

“ The branch establishment at Corry, Pa., is used only for the distillation of crude petroleum, the distillates being shipped to Boston for treatment. The processes employed at Boston are as follows: The crude oil is pumped from the tank cars into settling tanks placed under ground. After settling, it is pumped into large wrought-iron stills or upright cylinders which hold about 12,000 gallons each. In these stills the oil is heated by steam alone, which removes the various grades of naphtha, they constituting about 15 per cent. ”

“ The productive wells vary greatly in depth. In some large supplies have been afforded at 60 or 70 ft., and in others at greater depths to over 1,000 ft. Most of the oil is from wells over 180 ft. deep. Shallow wells, that are exhausted by pumping, are successively made to yield again by sinking them deeper. The oil is found at several zones or oil-producing belts at different depths. Several wells may continue in successful operation near together without seeming to draw upon each other ”

“ In N. W. Pennsylvania or in New York the wells are entirely outside of the coal field, and so remote from it that we cannot well imagine any connection between the oil and the coal beds. The strata in which the oil is found dip S. and pass below the coal measures at least 500 or 600 ft., the nearest coal bed to the more northern springs occurring in the tops of the highest hills, perhaps 30 m. ”