Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/263

 Mabgs 20. 1885.1

��SCIENCE.

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��TuK quarto volumes <»mprisiug tUe Html le- merous and latter, and contain more detailed and perfect statistical exhibits of the )>opulation and products of tlie United States, than those of tie ninth census, but they are also less purely statistical ; the statistics being, in most (Uses, accompanied by elaborate discussions. which add much to the interest and usefulness of the figures. This statement is applicable to the whole of the tentli vohime, but espe- cially to the report on petroleum, by Professor Pttokhani. The stalistios of the productiou, manafncture. and uses of petroleum, although set furlh nilh all the fulness and detail desira- ble, are by no means the most prominent fea- ture of this monograph of three hundred solid pages. The literature of petroleum, prior to IStiO, was verj- scanty; but it has kept pace with the phenomenally rapid growth of this industry, being at the present lime verj' volu- minous and very fragmentary. Hence it waa considered adrisable to make this report an authority upon the subject by embodying the results of a careful examination of the entire literature of petroleum, supplemented by the results of the author's own researches before and during the census year. Fortunately, the work was placed in charge of a man well equipped by previous study and investigation ; and the outcome is a mon<^rsph which the future student of petroleum will not ignore. And a feature not to be overlooked in this connection is the bibliography of petroleum, including more than eight hundred titles chron- ologically arranged, the earliest dating back to 4.^0 B.C.
 * X)rl of the tenlli census are not only more nn-

Although this work is, in its plan, a compre- hensive treatise on the native bitumens of the globe, yet the author has not forgotten that it is in realitj' a part of the census rejiort ; and for this reason, and because of their prepon- derating importancci it is devoted mainly to the liquid bitumens of the eastern United States. ll is conveniently divided into three parts, — the natural history, technology, and uses of petroleum. Part i. is the most important in point of size and general interest, including every thing relating to the mode of occurrence, distribution, origin, and production of petro- leum. The ge<^raphical distribution of bitu-

Prndyi-Oen, Uckialngy. aid airi of pttroltwn and (M irnd- MtU, br e. V. PafKHin. The mam^cturt ofaikr, by Juskph D. WiRKJ. BnUdtat-'ImitofA'VhlUdSlalti.UTidilaliMtlri ^t\ty a series of maps, which show, among other important facts, that east of the Mississippi River the localities afford- ing petroleum — in Canada, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsyl- vania, and New York — describe an ellipse upon the border of the Cincinnati antichnal. This correlation of the distribution with the geological structure of the region introduces the very important chapter on the mode of oc- cuneuce of bitumens. It is shown here that the statement that hilumcus arc found in all formations, from the Cambrian to the tertiaiy. is misleading ; since the really productive deposits occur chiefly at two horizons, — the tertiary in Europe, Asia, West Indies, South America, and California ; and the Silurian and Devonian in eastern North America. For obvious rea- sons, the interest centres in the precise geologi- cal position of the petroleum in the last-named r^ion; and Professor Peckham, after quoting the views of Hunt, Carll, and Andrews, con- cludes with the statement that each of these gentlemen is right in his own district ; that the petraleum of Canada and West Vii^nia cer- tainly does, and that of Pennsylvania does not, occur along anticlinal axes.

The scientific student of petroleum will turn eagerly to the chapter on the origin of bitumens, to find each theory explained by coious quo- tations, and the author's own conclusion, that while the asphalts and oils of California are of animal origin, and indigenous in the strata from which they are obtaiued, the petroleum of Pennsylvania and West Virginia is clearly of vegetable origin, and a distillate from for- mations below those in which it is fouud-

Tbe practical side of the subject next claims attention in the sections on the development of oil territory; the drilling, pnmping. blast- ing, flooding, and general management of wells ; and the transportation and commerce of the crude petroleum, with the accompanying statistics. The unpoelical aspect of this in- dustry is very vividly portrayed in the frontis- piece and in the following paragraph : —

"The development of the oil territory proceeds wittiout reganl lo any other Interest. The derrick comcB like an army of occnpnlion. In the towna a dooryard or a garden alike surrenders its claims. The farms, flelds, orchards, or garden)! alike are lost u> agriculture, and given to oil; and on the forest- covered hitis the uioit beautiful and valuable timber ia ruihleasly cut, and left In rot in huge heapa, wher- ever a road or a derrick denianits room. Pipe-lin^s are run over the hills and through the vallej's, tlirough dooryarcis, along streets, across streets and railroads; and here and there the vast alorage-Uinks stand, a perpetual menace to every thing near Ihem tlial will burn. Nothing that 1 ever beheld reminded

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