ROMANCE OF PETROLEUM.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 April 1917, Page 3

ROMANCE OF PETROLEUM.

VP.OGRESS OF INDUSTRY IN HALF CENTURY. William Drake "struck oil" in 1809, less than 60 years ago. In those early days of the industry the oil wells and the refineries were close together. The oil was transported in wooden barrels, carried jn barges on the waterways, or in horse'wagons by road, and at a later date by rail. As the industry extended, and shipments to Europe increased, the discovery was made that transport through pipes to large refineries near the coast was feasible and economical.

The battle of vested interests waft' fiercely fought over this revolutionary change, but the pipe-line won the day oyer the transport wagon. Thousands of miles of trunk pipes, ranging from 4iu to Sin in diameter, exist for the transport of petroleum, while tens of thousands of miles of smaller feeder pipes have been laid to collect the oil from its various sources and lead it to the delivery or trunk mains. Although the trans> sport of oil through pipes on land had made such progress, yet its transport across the Atlantic continued in barrels for many years. This old system of sending oil in barrels in sailing vessels was in full swing in the'eighties, and in.' ■the port of Dublin, until ISO,!), whenttie Anglo-American Oil Company optmed then- tank storage depot. From a lecture by Sir J, P. Griffith, reported in Engineering, onte learns that the first tank steamer entered the port of Dublin in February of that year. The, effect was startling. Instead of a sailing vessel with from I'OOO t0,2000 tons of oil in barrels occupying the harbor quays for weeks, the tank steamer with from 5000 to 10,000 tons of oil was diV' charged, and the oil pumped ashore j-v,,! stored in the depot tanks within W J 48 hours from the arrival of #„>?.£ steamer. -io wniv

The shortage of torow„ e o{ tank STM 1 ?* wa.ha.tlS QoLZt • th V"glo-American Oil STZr rr a a ,- cGrta ; namom , ,tof >,-,,„. r* W J sailing ships, and we vIuTV rcibl * «»Wi Dublin saili»« " ni3 means - The Norwegian b'ftfr" s,lip Nordfl,rer 'Brought 18,500 y , mof petroleum in August of last

jar. approximately equal to 3000 tons of oil. Tiiis vessel, even with the aid of electric cranes, took 10 working days to discharge, whereas if that amount of oil bad been imported by tank steamer, it would have been discharged in one day —a saving to the port of nine working