Show FA fascinating S CINA TING FL FLUID black gold proves valuable friend to nations farmers black gold in its many forms has added immeasurably to the comfort and joy of living of americas millions of farm dwellers every day of their existence the farmer and members of his family depend on petroleum and its derivatives to help them ease their labors and brighten their days from the raw petroleum mined from the bowels of the earth come thousands of substances made possible by refining and nowhere are the products of petroleum more widely used than on the farm shortly after rising in the morning the farm homemaker prepares breakfast for her brood in some three million homes breakfasts are prepared on ranges or cook stoves using petroleum products as fuel kerosene heats the water in many thousands of homes the cold cream which the farm wife daubs on her face is a petroleum product the salves and ointments with which she treats bruises and burns have the same origin manifold uses the list of petroleum products which are used on the nations farms Is an ever increasing one petroleum is responsible for the gasoline which runs the farm tractor the family automobile and the laborsaving labor saving gasoline engine it provides the oil and grease so necessary to the maintenance of farm machinery its an ingredient of many stock sprays its the basis of the wax with which the farm wife fortifies her newly canned fruits and vegetables against seepage the candles which grace the dining room table the asphalt used tor for paving soaps paints lacquers cleaning fluids inks and tires all contain ingredients wholly or partially linking them with crude petroleum tr from biblical times mankind knew that there was something wonderful yet mysterious about the black viscous fluid which seeped from the earth the story of petroleum of necessity ces sity must begin with the dawn of history itself there are many biblical references made to substances now believed to have been petroleum derivatives the zoroastrians of P persia ersia bowed in religious awe before the sacred fires that rose from the earth fed by seepages see pages of oil lamps in the temple of jupiter at corinth were lighted by oil the american indians were acquainted with petroleum through seepages see pages and springs long before the coming of the white man black gold was discovered in the united states 10 years after the rush tor for yellow gold in california in 1859 edwin L drake sank the first oil well ell at Titus titusville ville pa three months later crude oil was coming in at the rate ot of 30 barrels a day ten years before the sinking ot of the drake well an english chemist had discovered a way ot of refining crude oil and distilling illuminating oil from it for many years refining methods were simple and they yielded only tour four products gasoline kerosene fuel oil and lubricants actually the principal product for which crude oil was refined was kerosene used chiefly in the lamps which had replaced the whale oil lamps gasoline at this time was a drug on the market with development of the motor car demand tor for gasoline soared and petroleum chemists worked day and night devising means of providing greater and greater quantities of it the burton cracking process patented in 1912 made possible separation of the lighter constituents used in production of gasoline from kerosene or fuel oil this resulted in increased gasoline production As demand tor for gasoline mounted demand for kerosene as an illuminating oil diminished as a result of gas and electric lighting but the J aa ul f Z 4 z x M x M more than three million american homemakers use petroleum derivatives to do their cooking V 1 I fuel for the tractor Is one of the manifold uses of petroleum on the nations farms decline in use of illuminat illuminating illumination in 0 oil 1 1 I was matched by tin an increased increased demand d e for oil for foi use in cooking and heating boon to farmers the blessings of 0 oil are particularly apparent to those farm dwellers who live outside of the gas and electric areas modern oil burn ing equipment ranges cook stoves refrigerators water heaters beaters and furnaces have made it possible for the most remote rural dweller to live in surroundings as modern as the most modern urban home no more for americas farm residents the old wood stove the rooms shut off during the winter months for lack of beat icy cold bath water and the cold cellar storage of perishable food oil today is responsible tor for hundreds of substances once considered waste products since proved 1 valuable by chemical rese research arch the residues of petroleum refining are widely used on farms and in industry used as road oils rooting roofing satu rants emulsion bases paving asphalts asp halts paint bases and rubber substitutes truly this Is the age of oil almost daily petroleum research is turning up new uses for the byproducts of the close to two billion bar bels of at petroleum produced annually in the united states recent research has proved that petroleum oils are useful in all branches ol of applied entomology sprays in which oil alone Is the toxic agent are being used effectively against such parasites as the codlin moth and the greenhouse spider new type soap granules so different from the old bar soap of grandmas grandeas grand mas day a new type of wood preservative and fungicide carbon 13 used in medical research for tracing chemical reactions a new low cost pure oxygen valuable to medicine all are very recent developments of petroleum research promising future although the oil industry has come a long way since the sinking of the drake well it gives promise ot of making even greater contributions to the american way of life for american farmers in particular there is heartening news in the tact fact that the research staffs of a number of the nations largest oil companies currently are working in close cooperation with the agrical jurists of the country for the farmer it seems there are still more blessings destined to flow from that fascinating viscous fluid sometimes called black gold |