The heating value of a billion feet of gas is equal to a million bushels of coal. If some great conflagration were sweeping away our coal fields steadily every day in the year, and destroying our best coal at the rate of a million bushels per day, how quickly we should all arise to aid in checking it! And yet this imaginary case is actually true in regard to the best fuel in this country, which is burning uselessly an equal value in coal, and our coal must some day be used to supply the loss.
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. Think of it, the equivalent of one hundred and sixty thousand barrels of oil, for which no price is paid and of which no use is made, for ever destroyed every day in every year! Would the oil companies permit it? Would we not all a.s.sist them in saving their property from destruction, and shall we not ask of them equal help in saving the fuel that in turn conserves our coal supply? Little objection can be made to the present method of using gas in the older regions. The waste in domestic use is comparatively small. Much is used for lighting with incandescent burners, and asbestos grates and gas ranges have replaced the open-burner stoves and grates.
These are all efficient methods of use, and but little could be done in the way of further conservation. In factories the gas-engine is in many instances replacing the open furnace, which requires many times as much gas to produce an equal amount of power. They should be used in every factory, and gas companies should also require the use of the best devices for saving gas in places where meters are not used.
Until last year but one state--Indiana--had an effective law preventing the waste of natural gas by oil companies. This law says in substance that a man can not take the oil from the ground where nature has safely stored it, unless he also provide a market for the gas which accompanies it. It also says that neither the producer nor the consumer shall be allowed to waste this valuable fuel, as such waste is against public policy.
Mr. I. C. White, of West Virginia, in discussing this question at the Conservation Congress said, "This Indiana statute should be enacted into law in every state where these fuels exist." Since that time Pennsylvania and Ohio have pa.s.sed laws, which are said to be effective, for the conservation of natural gas.
Much has been accomplished by gas companies, who, since they became alive to the danger of loss of their investment, have been extremely watchful of their property. In West Virginia the gas companies buy the gas which has been obtained in the drilling of oil wells, thus providing a market for the waste gas and making it possible to continue the oil business and at the same time to furnish cheap gas.
Another hopeful sign is the pumping of all of the product of a well.
Formerly as soon as a well dropped greatly in production it was abandoned, but now it is pumped until dry.
One method by which the gas from oil wells may be utilized consists in compressing it in steel cylinders for shipping. This in a small way has been found to be successful.
Experiments are being tried on a large scale in Ohio to prove that gas may be returned to reservoirs within the earth which are tight enough to hold it under heavy pressure.
Fuel gas made from low-grade coal is a satisfactory subst.i.tute for natural gas. Like the natural product it may be piped for long distances. Some natural gas companies have bought up the culm banks and heaps of refuse coal, so that if the natural gas becomes exhausted they can manufacture cheap gas at the mines and pipe it to the cities they now serve.
PETROLEUM
Petroleum, or rock oil, is a dark greenish brown liquid which when refined yields gasolene, naphtha, benzine, kerosene, lubricating oils, and paraffin. The name petroleum applies only to the crude petroleum as it comes from the ground, and the word oil is applied to the products obtained by refining.
The early history of the petroleum industry in this country is interesting as showing what great results spring from small beginnings.
From salt wells in Pennsylvania there was an occasional flow of petroleum, but it had had no commercial value. Samuel Kier, of Pittsburg, had salt wells at Tarantum from which he had acc.u.mulated so much petroleum (fifty barrels) that he decided to try to dispose of it, but there was no market. No one knew what to do with it. He then partly refined it, making a poor quality of kerosene, and introduced a lamp with a chimney. This proved so popular that A. C. Ferris, also of Pittsburg, undertook to sell this in other cities, and these two men not only sold the fifty barrels and the other petroleum that acc.u.mulated from the salt wells, but they had created such a demand for the new light that they could not supply enough oil, and in 1859 Colonel Drake drilled at t.i.tusville the first well solely for petroleum. In the half-century since that time nearly two billion barrels, or almost two hundred and fifty million tons, worth one and three-quarter billion dollars, have been produced.
Petroleum is now mined, or drilled, in many countries besides the United States, but the United States furnishes sixty-three barrels out of every hundred produced in the world. Russia produces twenty-one barrels, Austria four, and the East Indies three barrels, Roumania two, India and Mexico one each, Canada, j.a.pan, Germany, Peru, and Italy each less than one barrel; so we can see that the United States is the one great producer of petroleum, and that it is to this country that we must look for the princ.i.p.al world supply for the present, and as far as known, for the future. Let us see, then, what we may expect the United States to do to supply this demand.
The known petroleum lands cover an area of about 8,500 square miles and are in six large fields and several smaller ones. The largest and best is the Appalachian, of which the best known is the Pennsylvania field.
It has a grade of petroleum that differs from any other thus far found in the world. It is most easily converted into kerosene or lamp oil, and contains a larger proportion of such oil. It is the finest petroleum in the world, except that found in Indiana and Ohio, and that costs more to refine.
The Appalachian field includes, besides Pennsylvania, western New York, West Virginia, a narrow strip in eastern Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
These southern oils are of a much lower grade, but are better than the Russian or other foreign oils.
The next great field is called the Lima-Indiana, and covers a considerable portion of northwestern Ohio and eastern Indiana. This petroleum contains less gasolene and less lamp oils, and more sulphur, which makes refining difficult. The Illinois field lies next. Here, in a strip about thirty miles long and six miles wide on an average, an enormous quant.i.ty of petroleum is produced. This oil is slightly lower in quality and contains considerable asphalt.
The mid-continent field lies in Kansas and Oklahoma. This petroleum also contains asphalt and other chemical products. Such immense amounts are produced here that it has not been possible to care for all of it, either in the matter of storage tanks or cars for transporting it, and as a result large amounts have been wasted. In Oklahoma within a s.p.a.ce of less than two square miles one million barrels of forty-two gallons each of petroleum were wasted in the year 1906.
The Gulf field lying in Texas and Louisiana has been developed entirely since 1901. The first well was drilled near Beaumont, Texas, as an experiment to determine whether oil could be found. Small storage tanks were provided and it was hoped to find oil enough to make drilling profitable. The well proved to be a "gusher" of such magnitude that before sufficient tanks could be provided, or the flow checked, more than half a million barrels were wasted on the ground.
The Gulf petroleum contains a large amount of asphalt and a small amount of gasolene and lamp oil. It has been used princ.i.p.ally for burning as crude oil in locomotives and has sold as low as ten cents per barrel; but lately methods of refining have been perfected which produce good lubricating oil and a gasolene of high value from these low-grade oils.
The last great field is found in California. The oil is similar to the Gulf oil, and investigation has shown that the quant.i.ty is greater in this field than in any other. It is used largely for fuel and power on account of lack of other fuels in that region.
In addition to these fields there are small ones in Colorado and Wyoming, and promises of fields in New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.
Estimates of the amounts of petroleum yielded are made by computing the amount usually produced per acre, which varies from eight hundred barrels produced in Pennsylvania, to eight thousand barrels per acre produced in Illinois. In most of the fields it is about a thousand barrels per acre. Even then the amount is extremely difficult to estimate. The Geological Survey concludes that the lowest probable calculation of the entire amount stored in the rocks of the United States is ten billion, and the highest a little less than twenty-five billion barrels. The last report officially published shows that we are producing one hundred and seventy million barrels per year. If the same rate of production continues, we might expect our petroleum to last from fifty-five to one hundred and thirty-five years, according to the amount found; but tables of statistics show that throughout the life of the petroleum industry, as much has been produced each nine years as the entire product before that time. For example, up to the present, we have produced one billion eight hundred million barrels and if the present rate continues, in the next nine years alone we shall produce an equal quant.i.ty again. The causes of such rapid growth are many. One is the great increase in the use of some of the products, such as gasolene, which has increased many fold since the automobile became popular.
Another, and the greatest cause, is the ease with which any quant.i.ty of oil can be sold for cash at any time, and at prices much above the cost of production.
Another reason is based upon the nature of the product. In pumping from one well oil is apt to flow in from other leases, under other farms, and exhaust them without the holders of those leases having received any compensating benefit. It is therefore necessary for each lessee to get his share before it flows away. Under these circ.u.mstances, it is impossible to prevent an entire field from being drilled over very rapidly, unless there is a combination of all the interests; or unless the law limits the amount that each producer shall extract per acre within a given time.
Pennsylvania and New York have declined to one-third their former value and yet it is only seventeen years since they reached their highest point. This would seem to indicate that the life of that field will not exceed ten years. West Virginia is producing only a little more than half its former yield and is rapidly declining. Ohio and Indiana are declining more rapidly than Pennsylvania. Texas is also in the rapidly declining cla.s.s, and in Kansas the production is only a fraction of what it was formerly. On the other hand, Illinois, Oklahoma, and California can be expected to increase steadily for several years.
Taking into account all these factors, it is estimated that the entire supply now known to exist would be exhausted before the middle of the present century. It appears more probable, however, that increasing prices long before that time will help to conserve the supply; and that petroleum will be produced for a long time to come, though not in sufficient quant.i.ties for industrial and general use.
The princ.i.p.al 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; so that a large amount of oil must always be conserved for lubricating purposes.
Coal oil, or kerosene, may be regarded as absolutely necessary for the lighting of houses or other establishments not connected with gas or electric supply.
Gasolene is sometimes used for lighting, though such use is not common.
It is largely used for cooking, and still more largely used in the various types of gasolene engines.
Naphtha is used for power, especially for motor-boats, and for cleaning, in which it is very valuable by reason of its power to dissolve dirt.
Paraffin is used in polishing, in laundry work, for waxing floors, and as a covering to exclude air in preserving articles.
Waste has been markedly absent in the petroleum industry. It is necessary that oil drilling outfits shall contain steel storage tanks for holding the oil when it is reached. Usually the supply is large enough, but sometimes, as in the case of the big well at Beaumont, Texas, the oil gushes forth in such volume that the drillers are not prepared to take care of the overflow, and much is wasted before the well can be capped. In general there is no waste in storage in this country. In European countries where there is oil, the loss through lack of tanks and by using wooden tanks which leak, is very great.
Another form of waste which is common in foreign countries, but which has been avoided in the United States, is evaporation of gasolene and similar light products when the petroleum is exposed to the air in open tanks. This is the most valuable part of petroleum, and if it be exposed to the sun a single day it loses greatly in value.
The refining processes of the petroleum industry are probably carried out with better system and less waste than in any other resource, owing to the fact that the business is controlled by large companies. There is no waste material in its manufacture, except some slight residue that might be used for oiling roads, instead of using the crude oil. The princ.i.p.al waste lies in its use. In view of the fact that the supply is not unending, is, indeed, rapidly disappearing, the uses should be confined only to the necessary lines for which there are no subst.i.tutes at similar prices. These are for lubricating oils and for the lighting of homes. The unnecessary uses are for burning in locomotives and for the development of power.
Whenever new petroleum fields are opened up, there is a corresponding drop in price. In order to dispose of it quickly such petroleum is usually sold for the lowest grade uses, and the price for this crude petroleum is not more than one hundredth as much as for high grade petroleum products. The report of the National Conservation Commission is so excellent that it is quoted almost word for word.
"At present more petroleum is being produced than is necessary for the demands of the industry. Within ten years the present fields will be unable profitably to produce enough for these requirements. The only direction in which production can be checked is with the petroleum contained in public lands.
"Offering such public lands for entry at a low price is nothing more than temptation to the private citizen to waste petroleum by over production, since lands yielding hundreds of dollars per acre in this product can be obtained for a small sum. Every acre of public land, believed to contain petroleum or natural gas, should be withdrawn from public sale and leased under conditions that regulate production.
"Its use for power is justified on the Pacific coast, if used in gas-producer engines."
ALCOHOL
As a subst.i.tute for other fuels, wood, or denaturated alcohol, will probably come into greater use each year, and is regarded by many as the great fuel of the future, because the materials of which it is made are waste vegetable products and will always be plentiful.
It is made from cellulose, the woody part of plants, and may be manufactured from sawdust when freshly cut from live trees, from small, and refuse potatoes, from inferior grain that is not worth marketing, and from low-grade fruits and vegetables of all kinds. It is even said that the hundreds of acres of sage-brush in the West that have always been considered worse than useless can be made into wood-alcohol and thus become a valuable product.
It can be used for any purpose that gasolene can, although a different style burner is required. It must be made much hotter before it is changed into vapor, and on account of this it has been difficult to make satisfactory burners for all the kinds of heating, lighting, and power work; the machinery being far from perfect as yet. Wood-alcohol can not yet be made cheaper than gasolene, and is not so easy to burn, so that it is slow in reaching an important place in the industrial world; but gas and gasolene prices will advance, and better methods of manufacturing and burning alcohol will be found, and then we shall have a fuel that can take the place of either coal or petroleum for lighting or power.
It is thought that wood-alcohol will be of especial use to the farmer, since he has so many waste vegetable products, has so much need of power in small quant.i.ties and is far from the sources of public service power, such as electric and gas plants. Alcohol-driven motors can be used to take the place of the labor of both horses and men on the farm.
On level farms they can run the heavy machines, such as mowers, reapers, and binders, plows and cultivators. On any farm they may be used to run stationary engines, to chop and grind food for live stock, to pump water, churn, run sewing-machines, operate fans, drive carriages and wagons and do many other things.
Wood-alcohol produces ammonia as a by-product, is used in the manufacture of dyes and coal-tar products, of smokeless powder, of varnishes, and of imitation silks made from cotton.
REFERENCES