. Journal. nto the market i the opening of a well in a new district upon the market may be mentioned the well at Butler,which in August last was running ome 700 barrels aday. The discovery-of this well can ed the price oferode petroh urn to drop suddenly from about a dollarto 70 cents a barrel, and no one could tell what mighthappen next. The Bradford field is the most extensive at presentknown. Discovered in 1875, and covering some 400square miles, it continues to be very productive. Ln1880 tin- output amounted to about live-sixths of theyield of all Pennsylvania. The town possesses manysubst
. Journal. nto the market i the opening of a well in a new district upon the market may be mentioned the well at Butler,which in August last was running ome 700 barrels aday. The discovery-of this well can ed the price oferode petroh urn to drop suddenly from about a dollarto 70 cents a barrel, and no one could tell what mighthappen next. The Bradford field is the most extensive at presentknown. Discovered in 1875, and covering some 400square miles, it continues to be very productive. Ln1880 tin- output amounted to about live-sixths of theyield of all Pennsylvania. The town possesses manysubstantial buildings, a busy petroleum exchange,andcontains upwards of inhabitants. Thecourse of my own journey took me frm Pittsburgby the line which follows the*Allegheny river to OilCity. A great deal of business is don t the exchange : at this place, and the head office of the (Jnited PipeLines is there ; but very little, if any, oil is n< I from the wells, and the derricks stand in black. lUcthf Cht6 bit t. ITrmpcr 3CI, Fig. 2. as wildly as ever; and there is probably no commodityin the world, the price oi which is liable to suchexaggerated fluctuations as j etroleum. As an exampleof the sort of excitement which follows upon thediscovery of a new field, the case of the Cherry Grovedistrict may be recalled. In May, 1882, this regionwas covered by a dense forest, almost without humaninhabitant. A well was bored,apparently at random,and oil obtained in abundance. Thereupon boringwas carried on in every direction. In about twomonths several hundred wells were sunk ; near upon10,000 people gathered together, and two small towns,Farnsworth to the north and Garfield to the south,into existence. But the yield of oil soon beganto decline, and by the following spring the majorityof the wells were abandoned. As an instance of the decay upon the hill sides. From Oil City throughTidioute, Warren anil Kinzua, and thence by thenarrow gauge line owr the hills to Bradford, 1 passedth
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectchemist, bookyear1882
