Oil well

“ Wrinkles, gray-hairs and sometimes oil-wells come to him who has patience to wait. Just as 1884 was expiring, the discovery of oil in a well on the Gantz lot, a few rods from the Chartiers-Railroad depot, electrified the ancient borough 287of Washington, midway between Pittsburg and Wheeling. The whole town gathered to see the grease spout above the derrick. Hundreds of oilmen hurried to pick up leases and jerk the tools. ”

“ So conservative an authority as the Geological Survey estimates that the oil shales of the Western States alone contain many times over the quantity of oil that will be recovered from our oil wells. The retorting of oil from oil shale has been a commercial industry for many years in Scotland and France; in fact, oil was obtained from oil shale here in the United States before the first oil well was drilled. ”

“ But not a drop of oil had issued from the veteran-well for scores of years. One man alone survived of those who had gazed upon the flow of petroleum previous to the fire which checked the greasian tide forever. He lived ten miles northwest and his short story was learned on the return-trip by another route. The scattered rustics were accustomed to go to the well once or twice a year and dip enough oil to medicate and lubricate whoever or whatever needed it. The fluid was dark and heavy and for years rose to within a few feet of the surface. ”

“ After sinking the well through the solid rock to the depth of seventy or eighty feet, oil presented itself in such quantities, mingled with the salt water, as to fill the miners with the utmost disgust, and induce them to abandon the well altogether. They were boring for salt, not for petroleum. Salt was an article of utility and large demand; oil was of comparatively small importance, and already a drug in the market, through the spontaneous yield of nature. Again, a well was dug in the town of Franklin, about thirty years ago, for the supply of a household with water. ”

“ Thirty thousand poods are equivalent to one hundred and twenty-five thousand gallons; multiplied by twenty-four it gives the unprecedented yield of three million gallons a day. Estimating thirty gallons to the barrel, we have a well flowing one hundred thousand barrels of oil daily! This is something never dreamed of by the wildest petroleum speculator in America. A single well of the Baku district is producing more oil than the aggregate of all the petroleum wells in the United States. ”

“ The main point to be attended to in order to extract the greatest quantity and the best quality of oil, is that it should be well kneaded, and that the proper proportion of hot water for the extraction of the oil should be used; it is always safer to be sparing of it than to be too profuse. ”

“ So hurriedly had the well been "doctored" in fact, that the oil was freshly splashed all over the sides, and when the Commissioners came and saw what had been done, they tested the oil and pronounced it "dead"—that is, oil that had been in a barrel a long time before being poured down the hole. "Live" oil, just from the earth, is readily recognizable on account of its tendency, to bubble when first brought to the surface, and to develop "rainbow" hues. ”

“ Then there came an account of petroleum or oil wells, in which it was clearly demonstrated that this admirable product represented, in comparison with other oils, a saving of more than sixty per cent; that it gave a light of matchless purity and brilliancy; that it burnt without odor; and, above all, that, in spite of what might have been said by interested persons, there was no possible danger of explosion connected with its use. ”

“ Others assert that the same result might be produced from a vast mass of oil-giving vegetation having been crushed by a similar process. Be that as it may, in several parts of the States, as well as in Canada, enormous pits exist full of this curious oil. It is obtained by boring in the ground in those spots where the oil is likely to be found. Often, however, the speculator, after spending time and capital in the experiment, finds that no oil appears at his call. ”

“ The Standard Oil Companies own hundreds of thousands of acres of oil-lands, and wells, refineries, and many thousand miles of pipe-lines throughout the United States. They have business houses in the principal cities of the Old World as well as the New, and carry their oil in their own great oil-steamships abroad as easily as in their pipe-lines to the American seaboard. They control the greater part of the petroleum business of this country, and export much of the oil used abroad. ”

“ I think he will be very successful in obtaining oil from flax or linseed. For a beginning, and for persons that never saw oil made before, which is the case with the workmen who are making it—they knew nothing about making oil—I think they have done extraordinary well. ”

“ But if this theory is correct it does not follow that the drying of such a well proves a final stoppage of the supply, for if the cavity and crevice are left, more oil may ooze into the crevice and flow into the cavity, and this may continue again and again throughout the whole oil district so long as the surrounding feeders of permeable strata continue saturated, or nearly so. ”

“ They prove that mineral oil may be produced in connection with coal seams and apparently from the coal itself. A sound theory of the origin of petroleum is of practical as well as theoretical value, inasmuch as the very practical question of the probable permanency of supply depends entirely on the nature of the origin of that supply. ”

“ Oil, you know, cannot in any way be made to dissolve in water. If a mixture of the two liquids is well shaken, the oil divides into an infinity of tiny globules uniformly distributed, and the whole takes on a whitish tint that looks something like milk. ”

“ From the first water and oil flow out together, the oil impregnating the grass and soil; in the second it gathers on the surface of the water to the depth of the thickness of a finger; from the third it rises to the surface and flows with the current of the creek. The Indians prefer wells without an outlet. From such they first dip the oil that has accumulated, then stir the well and, when the water has settled, fill their kettles with fresh oil, which they purify by boiling. It is used medicinally, as an ointment for toothache, headache, swellings, rheumatism and sprains. ”

“ The rise and progress of the mineral-oil industry are too well known to need any special comment. In this and other countries, the supply of hydro-carbon oils, both from shale-beds and springs, has of late years received remarkable development. ”

“ Then came the discovery of real mineral-oil wells, which so quickly revolutionized the oil-traffic of the world. Here, as in most other cases, we have evidence of the "nothing-new" theory; for, since King Petroleum has asserted his power, men marvel to find traces of ancient workings, proving that by-gone generations had discovered the native oil—so long ago, that very old trees of several centuries' growth have been found growing in the excavated ground. ”

“ That material is used by the fertilizing companies and they add to it the requisite amount of ammonia or phosphoric acid, or potash, or what is required for particular kinds of agriculture.
One of the chief products is oil, and the analysis of the crude oil obtained from the process is as follows:
The crude oil is a very dark thick-looking substance, very much like what you would see lubricating any bearing of engines, and very much like the crude oil that is obtained from the oil wells of this country. ”

“ The local cheapness of labour is an additional argument in favour of preparing the oil at the places where the nut grows. The extraction of the oil is very simple. In Jamaica, Polynesia, and the East Indies, 50 per cent. is obtained by boiling the kernels in water; by reducing the kernels to meal, heating in a water-bath, and placing the mass in bags under hydraulic pressure, the yield is about 60-66 per cent. The shells are themselves excellent fuel. The oil is completely clarified by mere filtration. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Some of the oils produced are of excellent quality, but others are inferior, and do not ascend the wick in sufficient quantity to afford a constant light. None of the native petroleums contain carbolic acid and other impurities which exist in the oils distilled from coals and shales; hence their purification is simple and comparatively cheap. “The oil prepared1143 from petroleum is almost colourless; it has a specific gravity of about ·810, and when of good quality only a slight and rather aromatic odour.” (Payen.) See Petroleum, and above. ”

“ We may obtain oil from such material, but it is utterly different from any kind of mineral oil, while, on the other hand, by distilling natural bituminous shales, or cannel coal, or peat, we obtain a crude oil almost identical with natural petroleum, and the little difference between the two is perfectly accounted for by the greater rapidity of our methods of distillation as compared with the slow natural process. We may go on approximating more and more nearly to the natural petroleum by distilling more and more slowly. ”

“ "Follows here the strict receipt
For that sauce to dainty meat,
Named Idleness, which many eat
By preference, and call it sweet:
First watch for morsels, like a hound
Mix well with buffets, stir them round
With good thick oil of flatteries,
And froth with mean self-lauding lies.
Serve warm: the vessels you must choose
To keep it in are dead men's shoes." ”

“ It naturally follows that, with the constant withdrawal of large supplies of crude oil from Mother Earth, Nature’s stores must be growing less, and it is not surprising, therefore, to hear, with persistent regularity, alarming rumours of the coming dearth of crude oil. ”

“ In these fields—whether we look to America or Russia—there has always been considerable waste of crude oil, mostly in regard to furnishing power for oil-field operations, while the natural gases which exude from the wells themselves, and to which reference is made in another chapter, have, in times past, been allowed to pass uncontrolled into the atmosphere. ”

“ And so the early operators on Oil Creek made the oil-development “a foot long” and it “growed the rest.” The tiny seed is a vigorous plant, the puling babe a lusty giant. Amid lights and shadows, clouds and sunshine, successes and failures, struggles and triumphs, starless nights and radiant days, petroleum has moved ahead steadily. Growth, “creation by law,” is ever going on in the healthy plant, the tree, the animal, the mind, the universe. We must go forward if the acorn is to become an oak, the infant a mature man, the feeble industry a sturdy development. ”

“ Extraordinary indications of oil and gas extend over a strip of country twenty-five miles long by a half-mile wide, in porous sandstone. Springs of heavier petroleum flow from hills of volcanic rocks in the vicinity. Open wells, in which the oil settles as it oozes from the rocks, are dug sixteen to twenty feet deep. For countless generations the simple natives dipped up the sticky fluid and carried it great distances on their backs, to burn in its crude state, besides sending a large amount yearly to the Shah’s dominions. ”

“ Astral oil and mineral sperm oil are special illuminating oils of high flashing points. Crude petroleum is much used for fuel purposes in engines. Along the Pacific Coast, especially in southern California, where good coal is scarce, the locomotives consume large quantities of crude oil. Paraffin residue is placed on the market for medicinal purposes under the name of vaseline, petroleum ointment, and cosmoline. ”

“ The plants, which are usually worked by a small hot-air engine (or, alternately, by the use of weights) , supply only the demand created, and their control is automatic perfection.
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN OIL COMPANY’S OIL COOKER
To-day, petroleum plays quite an important part in heating arrangements, and several stoves are upon the market which burn the ordinary illuminating oil. ”

“ Petroleum, is the common name of a series of rock oils found in large quantities in the United States and Canada, near Rangoon, and in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea. The oil issues from the rocks, or is drawn from subterranean reservoirs, where its presence is supposed to result from natural distillation of vegetable and animal substances, and after refining, put in the market as benzoline, paraffin, and lubricating oil. It is extensively used in the industries, and has been applied as fuel to steamships. ”

“ It is delivered at your house in neat cans, or the grocer will sell it by the pint, quart, gallon or barrel. The light is pure as heaven’s own sunshine, grateful to the eye and beautifying to the home. No other substance approaches petroleum in the number and utility of its products. Long years of patient research and experiment have extracted from it one-hundred-and-fifty articles of value in art, science, mechanics and domestic economy. ”

“ Others are deprived of a part of their more volatile constituents by spontaneous evaporation, or by distillation, in vacuo or otherwise, at the lowest possible temperature. Such are known as “reduced oils”.
In most petroleum-producing countries, however, and particularly where the product is abundant, the crude oil is fractionally distilled, so as to separate it into petroleum spirit of various grades, burning oils, gas oils, lubricating oils, and (if the crude oil yields that product) paraffin. ”