Petrol

“ Petrol is distilled from oil which comes from wells bored deep down in the ground in Pennsylvania, in the south of Russia, in Burma, and elsewhere. Also it is distilled in Scotland from oil shale, from which paraffin oil and wax and similar substances are produced. ”

“ Petrol is one of the more volatile products of petroleum, and has a specific gravity of about 680—that is, volume for volume, its weight is to that of water in the proportion of 680 to 1,000. It is extremely dangerous, as it gives off an inflammable gas at ordinary temperatures. ”

“ Of a truth, we to-day live in an age of Oil, for the products of petroleum are inseparable from our daily life. Refined petroleum breathes the breath of power to the internal combustion engine which claims a realm of its own on land and sea, in the air, and under ocean waters; it also gives artificial light to countless millions in all corners of the world under a variety of circumstances and dissimilar conditions, while the wheels of industry unceasingly revolve consequent upon oil lubrication. ”

“ The slightest atom of dirt in the petrol will cause trouble. If you are going for a very long run it is a wise plan to take an extra can with you. It is, perhaps, unnecessary for me to warn you not to take a light near the petrol-tank while it is being filled up. ”

“ At the present day, even with our most up-to-date contrivances, we cannot make use of two-thirds of the available heat in our petrol. Instead of being able to turn this heat into useful mechanical work, we are compelled to throw it away—to waste it. ”

“ The festive boys who painted the early oil-towns red are getting gray and wrinkled, yet they smile clear down to their boots as they think of Petroleum Centre, Pithole, Babylon, or any other of the rapid places which shed a lurid glare along in the sixties. The smile is not so much on account of flowing wells and six-dollar crude as because of the rollicking scenes which carmined the pioneer-period of Petroleum. ”

“ I know little beyond the fact that the crude oil arrives by pipe from the oilfields by means of several pumping stations and that it is cooked or distilled over furnaces and converted into different grade oils from petrol to heavy fuel oil. ”

“ Petroleum products are also largely utilized in gas manufacture for, (1) the production of “air-gas,” (2) the manufacture of oil-gas, and (3) the enrichment of coal-gas. For heating purposes, the stoves employed are practically kerosene lamps of suitable construction, though gasoline is used as a domestic fuel in the United States. The use of petroleum as liquid fuel is dealt with under Fuel, as is the employment of its products in motors, which has greatly increased the demand for petroleum spirit. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They have seen the four salt-and-oil wells at Tarentum and the solitary oil-well at Titusville multiplied into a hundred-thousand holes drilled for petroleum and a production almost beyond calculation. Do the gentlemen composing this little group occupy a position dramatic in the marvelous events they review? Is petroleum freighted with interest and a touch of romance at every step of its passage from the well to the lamp? ”

“ If petrol be placed in the air it readily turns into a vapour, and this vapour is extremely inflammable. For this reason petrol is always kept in sealed tins, and very large quantities are not allowed to be stored near large towns. ”

“ The principal uses of petroleum are for burning as crude oil in furnaces and under boilers, particularly in locomotives. The refined products have various uses. Probably the most important is the lubricating oil. This is necessary in the development of all kinds of power. At least one-half pint of lubricating oil is used for every ton of coal consumed for power. All engines, all street and steam railways, steamships, sewing-machines, clocks, watches, and automobiles, in fact all operating machinery requires its use ”

“ 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. ”

“ Taking first the methods of oil transportation by land, in no other oil-producing country do we find such an elaborate system for dealing with enormous quantities of petroleum as in America, for it is safe to say that at least 500,000 barrels of crude oil have to be dealt with daily at the present time. ”

“ The ease with which oil fuel is handled is remarkable, for vessels of the largest size—that is, those using oil instead of coal for power purposes—could replenish their stores within a few hours at any oil port. In the transport of petroleum by the modern tankers, the taking on board of a full cargo is accomplished in about a single day, thanks to the most improved means of pumping oil from the shore tanks through flexible pipes. ”

“ American petroleum is a leading article of commerce, requiring hundreds of vessels to transport it to distant lands. Its refined product is known all over the civilized world. It has found its way to every part of Europe and the remotest portions of Asia. It shines on the western prairie, burns in the homes of New England and illumines miles of princely warehouses in the great cities of America. Everywhere is it to be met with, in the Levant and the Orient, in the hovel of the Russian peasant and the harem of the Turkish pasha. ”

“ Ever since petroleum and its products entered the realm of commercial commodities, there has been a ceaseless search throughout the two hemispheres for crude oil, and to-day there are comparatively few countries in the world where the presence of petroleum has not been proved. ”

“ But overall, less expensive oil represents a tremendous boon to our economy. Already, you're beginning to pay less for petroleum products of all kinds, including heating oil and gasoline. Isn't it good to be able to put a gallon of gas in the car for less than a dollar again? ”

“ And there are at present on-going studies which we hope will result in a future reduction of the prices of petroleum products, partic­ularly of kerosene, diesel, and LPG, on which the greater mass of our people depend. ”

“ As the calorific effect of petroleum is almost double that of coal, the engine is nearly as efficient as a steam-engine of large size, and much more so than one of the same power, while, on account of the cheapness of petroleum, the expense for fuel is no greater. The oil used can be obtained in comparatively small quantities at from six to seven cents a gallon, and at the latter price the cost of a horse-power per hour would be a little less than one and a quarter; cent, an expense considerably below the best results obtained in any of the engines using gas. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The two chief uses of the distillates from crude petroleum are for illumination and lubrication, but the various fractions in many cases have special applications. Rhigolene is used as a local anaesthetic; petroleum ether is employed as a solvent for caoutchouc, fatty oils, and plant principles, and for carbureting air in gas machines; gasoline is employed in the extraction of oil from oil seeds, in carbureting coal gas, in gasoline lamps, stoves, and plumbers' lamps. ”

“ So much has been written of late as to the use of petroleum as fuel for the purposes of steam-raising, that the reader is bound to be more or less au fait with the subject. It is, of course, one of vast importance, and during the next decade is certain to receive far more consideration than it has hitherto done, owing to the general desire that our coal wealth shall be conserved as much as possible. ”

“ The Celestials consume large quantities of petroleum, especially for lighting purposes, and in spite of the now considerable yields from the wells, a gigantic trade is regularly done in imported oils, especially those of American origin, for which there is a most up-to-date organization for distribution. ”

“ The earth is even being drilled, not for petroleum, but for its huge supplies of natural gas, and the huge reservoirs thus discovered are being harnessed to the thousand wheels of industry. We even find trains fitted with cylinders carrying natural gas stored under high pressure to furnish light for the convenience of passengers, and to enable dainty meals to be cooked in the kitchens of the dining-cars.
The oil refineries, upon receiving the crude petroleum, set out to recover as much paraffin as they could. ”

“ Fuel oil is that portion of crude oil which is incapable of giving off by the process of ordinary distillation those lighter products of petroleum known as motor spirit, illuminating oils, or lubricants. It is, in a word, the residue of distillation which is unsuitable for refining purposes. It represents a black, tarry liquid, and is, of course, minus those fractions that go to produce the refined products. Many there are who refer to crude oil as fuel oil, but this is a misnomer, though crude oil, in many instances, is utilized for the purposes of fuel. ”

“ We are apt to ignore the greatness of this loss because the gas escapes into the air and we can not see it, or it burns and we see only its effect, not the loss of fuel, but if we could see it in the form of oil we should find that a billion feet of gas is equal to more than a hundred and sixty thousand barrels of petroleum. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The great increase in the consumption of petroleum is ascribable partly to the more extensive use of it as a fuel, in substitution for coal, but mainly to the greater use of gasoline which is directly attributable to the automobile. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Given the one allowance that oil fuel can be procured at anything approaching a reasonable figure—and there is no reason why, in normal times, this reasonable price should not be prevalent all over the world—then petroleum offers many advantages over its older competitor, coal. The ease with which large quantities can be handled, the simple method of operating anything which is fired by petroleum as fuel, and the fact that its heat-giving units are far higher than those of coal, will ever be the chief factors governing its popularity. ”

“ The case of petroleum is peculiarly instructive. When it became apparent, in the early years of the present century that oil burning ships, motor vehicles and air craft were bound to play a determining part in the economic life of the immediate future, various interests such as the Shell Transport, Royal Dutch and the Standard Oil, with the open or tacit backing of their respective state departments, entered on a campaign to secure the world's supply of petroleum. ”

“ The carrying of large quantities of petroleum products over the seas of the world is a subject which has taxed the minds of experts quite as much as that of land transport. For many years it was the rule to ship petroleum products overseas in the ordinary barrels (approximately, 42 gallons each) to the consuming countries. ”

“ Petroleum in its crude or semi-refined state is used as fuel under locomotive and marine boilers and as a lubricant. The principal use of petroleum, however, is in the manufacture of numerous refined products. ”

“ 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. ”