H. B. Cornwall

“ The bulb of a thermometer is kept well immersed beneath the surface of the oil, draughts are to be avoided, and the heat very slowly raised. From time to time, as the flashing-point is approached, the temperature is noted, and a very small flame, as a gas-jet issuing from a glass tube drawn to a fine point, is quickly passed across its surface, taking care not to touch the oil. A faint blue flame will flash across the oil when it reaches a temperature at which explosive gases are given off. ”

“ Petroleum as a Fuel and Gas-Producer.—The use of gasolene in gas-machines is well known, and sometimes naphtha has been used to enrich coal-gas, by decomposing its vapor at a cherry-red heat, so as to produce a gas rich in heavy hydrocarbons, which is mixed with the coal-gas. Crude petroleum has also been conducted continuously into red-hot cast-iron retorts, whereby it is decomposed and rich gas formed. ”

“ Cracking can be accomplished by distilling the oils under pressure, or, as is the case in the very large stills now employed, by allowing the vapors of the heavier hydrocarbons, on condensing, to flow down again upon the now hotter oil in the still, whereby they are cracked, depositing carbon. By carefully adapting the heat to the changing character of the oil, the yield of illuminating oil can be increased, but a residuum is always left in the large stills to be afterward treated in smaller ones. ”

“ This gas is the cause of spouting-wells. If a well is sunk into the top of a fissure containing oil and gas, the gas will first escape, and then the oil must be pumped out; but, if the well strikes in the oil, the pressure of the gas would first drive out the oil. If water also was present and the well struck the bottom of the fissure the heavier water would first escape, then the oil, and then the gas. ”

“ T. S. Hunt holds that the petroleum of the limestone of Ontario, Canada, and other localities is largely the result of decomposition of the organic matters in these same rocks, and not of distillation from below. This view Newberry opposes on the following grounds: The Corniferous limestone, from his very extended observations, contains little hydrocarbons; oil and gas springs are rare where it underlies the surface; no considerable quantity of petroleum has been derived from wells in the Corniferous, Niagara, or any other limestone; even at Chicago there are no paying wells. ”

“ The Newton gas-well, five miles south of Titusville, Pennsylvania, is 786 feet deep, and yielded 4,000,000 cubic feet per day, supplying light and fuel to a great number of dwellings and manufactories in Titusville. A rolling-mill near Pittsburg is run by gas brought from Butler County, a distance of about nineteen miles, and when it is not needed the gas is lighted, furnishing a jet of flame seventy feet high, which, with another jet from a neighboring mill, furnishes a grand spectacle at night. ”

“ Some investigators have ascribed a vegetable origin to petroleum, but most authorities agree in attributing it to animal as well as vegetable agencies. Shales are the most common oil-bearing rocks, and in their formation the organic materials would be finely divided and protected from oxidation. ”

“ The steam and naphtha vapors were thus kept above the liquid at a temperature much above the boiling-point of naphtha, but never as high as 300° Fahr., and the decompositions appeared to occur rather in the vapors than in the liquid. The heavy oil drawn off below had a dark yellowish-brown color, was nearly odorless after a few days' exposure to the air, had a specific gravity of about 34° Beaumé, and boiled above 400° Fahr. By redistilling, it was broken up into lighter and heavier liquid hydrocarbons, paraffine, and separated carbon (American Journal of Science, III., ii., 184) . ”

“ The gasolene is used for making gas. The naphtha and benzine destined for the market are kept separate, but sometimes they are further treated at the refinery, and are then run together, and sent to the naphtha-works with a density of 68° to 70° B. Here they are treated in iron stills of 200 to 600 barrels capacity, heated by coal. The vapors are condensed in a series of three worms, and the operation is so managed that the various products are obtained of the required density. ”

“ It is the object of the refiner to make as much illuminating oil as possible, and to do this advantage is taken of the fact that, when the vapors of heavy oils are heated above their boiling-points, carbon is deposited, and the condensed hydrocarbons resulting have a less specific gravity. This decomposition is technically called "cracking," and it was observed long ago that in distilling the heavier oils lighter hydrocarbons were obtained during the first stages of the operation, even when not wanted. ”

“ In Persia oil is largely found at Baku, on the west shore of the Caspian; China yields a small amount of oil; Japan has small and undeveloped districts; New Zealand, also, shows indications. In the Caucasus, Russia, surface-wells have long been worked, and lately wells have been sunk with great success. In Galicia, Austria, are wells yielding largely; and Alsace and Hanover have produced some oil. Petroleum has likewise been found in Peru, Ecuador, Southern Mexico, San Domingo, Trinidad, and Nova Scotia, in small quantities. ”

“ Composition.—Petroleum is a mixture of several hydrocarbons, and contains also bituminous materials, sulphur, carbonaceous matter, sand, and clay. Its odor is generally offensive. The color and specific gravity vary greatly. The crude petroleum of Pennsylvania is generally dark-green with a brownish tinge by reflected light; the color of thin layers by transmitted light varies from dark-yellowish to reddish-brown. The oil of Enniskillen is blackish-brown; of Mecca, Ohio, yellow ”

“ A current of steam heated to incandescence, meeting crude petroleum as it drips slowly over cast-iron shelves, takes up all the oil and carries it to a chamber where it meets an air-blast .and passes on to the combustion-chamber. ”

“ In the United States oil is very abundant in Western Pennsylvania, and has been found in considerable quantity in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. It has also been found, but in small quantities, in New York State, near Chicago, in Michigan, Indiana, Colorado, and California. The oil of Southern California comes from Tertiary shales, and is said to contain no paraffine. ”

“ The heavy oil of Franklin comes from a sand-rock 260 feet deep, and from 50 to 80 feet in thickness. The rower sand-rocks are said to produce very bright, pure oils. Only 39.5 square miles of the 3,115 miles of the oil-region of Pennsylvania are actually productive.
The West Virginia oil-wells occur along an anticlinal extending from the borders of Southern Ohio through Wood, Wirt, and Ritchie Counties, between thirty-five and forty miles. No oil is found in the horizontal rocks, but it occurs along the disturbed and broken, tilted strata on the edges of the line of uplift. ”

“ Here the hydrogen and hydrocarbons react upon each other, producing a permanent gas, which is purified as usual. The resulting gas is of uniform quality, very pure, and the saving in labor and materials is about 35 per cent. over coal-gas (Scientific American, January 8, 1876) .
As regards the use of petroleum for fuel, it has always been found difficult to secure the complete combustion of the oil, so as to avoid smoke ”

“ The well is lined with wrought-iron tubing, screwed together in sections, and, to prevent water from flowing down the outside of the lining into the well, a water-packer is used, which is essentially a circular piece of leather with the edges cut and turned upward, so that the whole forms a cup about the tube, which is pressed tightly against the sides of the well by the weight of the column of water. ”

“ Borings have been unsuccessful in Ohio wherever the Corniferous is the surface rock; and, further, there is no Corniferous limestone where Hunt cites it in Kentucky. There is positive proof that part of the oil comes from a lower horizon, and probably the Canada oil comes from underlying Silurian Collingwood shale. On Oil Creek are the argillaceous shales of the Waverley and Chemung strata, forming the sides and bottom of the valley, and below are several beds of sandstone, with the black shales of the Portage and Genesee still lower. In Ohio these favorable conditions are wanting ”

“ A noted foreign locality is Ye-nan-gyoung, in Burmah, where the wells are narrow shafts, 180 to 300 feet deep, and large enough for a man to work in. The oil is drawn up with a bucket and windlass, and as many as 1,000,000 barrels are annually obtained. ”

“ It is much better than the old flaxseed bag. The oil is conveyed from the oil-district to the refineries and shipping-stations by means of wrought-iron pipes, two to four inches in diameter, which form a network throughout the entire country, and have an aggregate length of nearly 2,000 miles. ”

“ The average production is not over 2,500 barrels daily. It occurs mainly in the Corniferous limestone of the Lower Devonian, but is also found in greater or less quantity in the Bird's-eye limestone of the Lower Silurian, and the Lower Helderberg limestone of the Upper Silurian. The cavities of Orthocerata in the Trenton limestone (Lower Silurian) at Pakenham, Canada, frequently hold small quantities of petroleum. In Canada East there is a petroleum district on the St. ”