THE NATURE AND OCCURRENCE OF PETROLEUM years ago more than half the world lived in darkness for want of a suitable light. Coal gas for illuminating purposes had come into more or less general use in the cities and some of the larger towns, and burning oils for lamps had been suc cessfully manufactured from coal and shale rocks in several European countries, as well as in the United States. But the great mass of the country folk of the world were still restricted to the use of dim candles, or vile-smelling, spluttering lamps which burned animal or vegetable oils. Hordes of people in India, China, and Russia were trying pitifully to make light with tallow fats in an open cup, and rude wicks fashioned from plant fiber. Little wonder it is that in the days of our grand fathers " early to bed " was the rule, for there was no pleasure to be found in spending an evening with only the fitful flickering of a candle to light the dreary hours.
Now all is changed. Night is turned into day by the powerful gas and electric lamps of the great city, where the stream of life never ceases throughout the twenty-four hours. Great, indeed, is the service which these lights perform for the cornnlp4 lifp pf the modern metropolis. But great .: :er fhi service which has been done by the hinbie leerOsene lamp in the quiet homes of the _ 41iin.:p:eoplv.whp bear the brunt of the world's " hti cried the light of civilization into every corner of the earth. It has literally made life longer for the millions, by turning hours of darkness into hours of profitable pleasure and en joyment. Common as it is, the ordinary kerosene lamp is one of the greatest inventions of the world in its service and benefits to mankind. Yet kero sene is only one of a hundred necessities of every day life which come from the world-wide deposits of petroleum.
If a hundred people were asked to name the most valuable of all the riches taken from the earth, probably half of them would promptly name one of the precious metals or gems, such as gold or diamonds, simply because a given small amount costs many dollars. The more practical minds of the other half would likely place iron first, and rightly so, perhaps, because it occupies such a vital position in relation to modern industry. Few, in deed, would be the answers giving petroleum an important place; yet, iron alone excepted, no other mineral product can rival petroleum in real value to all the peoples of the earth, without regard to class or condition. Using some of its products
constantly in every-day affairs, year in and year out, hardly one person in a hundred knows whence or how the product comes, or what petroleum is. Kerosene, gasoline, benzine, naphtha, machine oil, paraffin waxof course, everyone knows what they are. Absurd to ask such a question! Their relation to petroleum? That is not so familiar.
This general lack of familiarity with crude pe troleum may be the real reason why it is known by so many different names. Mineral oil, rock oil, stone oil, coal oil, and naphtha are some of the more common terms used for this one and the same substance. The first three of these names can be readily accounted for from the fact that petroleum is a natural oily product occurring in the crust of the earth ; in fact, the word petroleum itself is derived from the Greek words meaning rock oil.
But the name coal oil, very commonly used in some places, is entirely wrong, since petroleum has no connection with coal, either in origin or any other way. The use of this term, however, arose through a perfectly natural combination of cir cumstances. Long before petroleum was generally known, oil was observed trickling down from seams of coal in the Shropshire mines, England. The miners, of course, supposed that the oil was de rived from the coal, instead of coming from the rocks above, as was really the case, and so called it coal oil. Later, when the manufacture of oils from coal by distillation was well established, a striking resemblance was noticed between petro leum and the oils produced artificially. This sim ilarity still further advanced the belief that petro leum and coal were of the same origin, and that the former was really a coal oil. Finally, when the first large deposits of petroleum in this country were found in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Vir ginia, the region was already commonly associated with the idea of important coal deposits. It was soon demonstrated, both here and in other coun tries, that the rocks including the coal beds were entirely distinct from the rocks in which the oil was found, and that petroleum was not in any sense a " coal oil." By that time, however, the name was so firmly rooted in popular usage that no amount of argument has been able to dis place it.