6,000 Years of History

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 590, 16 February 1929, Page 19

6,000 Years of History

Some Facts About Petroleum

Written jor THE SVX Jiy C

LEM. H. EGGLETON.)

should I Do self-contained us fur us its demand for petroleum is concerned. Strange to say. however, up to tlic present our efforts have been practically fruitless. Sooner or later oil will be discovered in payable immunities and place us upon an independent footing. Twenty-live years ago. as a boy, I had occasion to pass weekly through bush country, part of which was what is known as a Pakee tpa-kee)—an ancient silver-pine forest, where only the stumps and square miles of “cuttygrass" abounded amidst i the swampy ground. This country i was located between Greymouth and Hokitika, and after rain the water pools were covered with all the colours of the rainbow. Who knows but that far beneath the surface abounded great petroleum reservoirs? Some day I am going South to have another look at the “lay of the land.” The history of petroleum begins with the history of mankind, for references to the members of the bitumen family are found throughout the records of the past.

Petroleum was first put to use by the ancient civilisation of Western Asia three thousand years before the Christian era. Old bitumen wells have been discovered in many places, while in the remains of the famous tower of Ackerouf, near the ruins of Bagdad, in ancient Chaldea, bitumen cemented walls are still visible after the lapse of at least 35 centuries. Wonderful mosaic pavements and beautiful inscribed panels were fastened in their places with this same material. Some of these structures, dating back into almost unknown antiquity, are still standing intact. Herodotus, the Greek historian, says that the bitumen used as mortar in building the walls of Babylon was brought from the Euphrates. The Egyptians also made use of bitumen two thousand years before Christ for embalming the dead. An historian of Caesar’s time, Diodorus, says that the inhabitants of the Dead Sea region collected the asphalt cast up on the shores of the sea, as one would collect ambergris at Auckland, and sold it in Egypt for embalming purposes. In Job XXIX we find that “The rock, poured me out rivers of .oil.” The Greeks and Romans, too, were familiar before the birth of Christ with numerous occurrences of natural earth oil.

Plutarch, records the discovery of petroleum on the bants of the Oxus River by a servant of Alexander the Great. Most Interesting of all Is the description of what was apparently a fairly regular Industry in collecting petroleum in a province in ancient Persia. This account by Herodotus, written about 450 8.C., says the oil was drawn up by man power and poured into a reservoir, it being black, and had a strong smell. The oil was unquestionably petroleum, and this account is entitled to the honour of being the first description of a regular petroleum industry. During the Dark Ages following the decline of the Roman Em-

pire, the history of petroleum lapses for several centuries, but toward the end of the period reference to its use appears in the records. For example, the oil occurring near Moauo was used for light by the people of the vicinity, and as early as 1400 a concession was secured for the more extensive collection of oil from wells from near that place. The celebrated petroleum from Modena was regularly worked with wells from 50 to 60 feet deep before tho middle of the seventeenth century, and oil from, the wells at Amiano was employed in lighting the city of Genoa at the begining of last century. Illuminating oil distilled from the crude petroleum is said to have, been used in Prague as early as ISIO, this making it the first ct.se on record where a refined oil was used for lighting. Early i;i the seventeenth century the natural oil spring!, near Gabian, in France, were discovered, and for many years the petroleum was skimmed from the surface of the springs to be sold as “Gabian Oil,” a remedy for every known ill. A company, formed later to produce oil on a large scale, never succeeded. The inhabitants of the Hanover district, in Germany, are said to have used petroleum for wagon grease and illuminating purposes since time immemorial. It was gathered by plunging bundles of long reeds into the water, and when the bundle was withdrawn, the oil was separated by twisting the reeds like a wet cloth. The ancient records of China describe the use of natural gas for both fuel and light, centuries before tl*i beginning of the Christian era. Japanese history says that the “burning water,” as petroleum was called, was first discovered and used in the Echigo district about 615 A.D. The primitive methods used until quite recently, however, produced small quantities of oil. Petroleum deposits in the Indian mainland, especially in British Burma, have been worked since remote antiquity, so remote, in fact, that they are often regarded as the oldest petroleum veils in the world. The one locality, however, which stands out prominently as an important oil-bearing country is thq vicinity of the Caspian Sea. Fire worshippers came for thousands of miles to worship the fire that had been burning for all time, apparently out of a rock. About the middle of the eighteenth century England sent a representative, John Hanway, of umbrella fame, to report on the condition of British trade in the Levant. According to Hanway, the Persians were then securing oil in great abundance from the springs, carrying it by means of troughs into pits or reservoirs, where it was allowed to settle. The supply was so abundant tliat every family, even to the poorest, could afford to use it. During the past 60 years, America has had a great share of the proceeds of oil production. Her oils have reached ports all over the civilised world. There are, however, many other countries to exploit. Money is needed, as prospecting on a large scale is necessary. May the time come when our own little country will be overflowing with oil as well as with milk and honey.