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Show uu NEARLY 150,000 OIL WELLS IN OPERATION. There are now 1-18,440 oil wells in operation in the United States. They average about four barrels a day. but in Pennsylvania and New York old wells In some districts yield a -profit on an output of less than one-fifth of a barrel a day. The original Drake well, drilled in 1S59, would probably. If it were cleaned, be capable of yielding one-third of a barrel a day. Another well close to the Drake well is forty-five years old and Is still being pumped. Over 8,500.000 ncres of land are leased for oil and 700,000 acres arc owned in fee by oil operators. The use of fuel oils is steadily increasing. in-creasing. "Railroads consumod 24,-5SG.108 24,-5SG.108 barrels In 1910, against 19,-939.394 19,-939.394 barrels in 1909 Tho advantages advan-tages of oil over coal have been clearly clear-ly recognized by the United States navy. In new construction fuel-oil burners are being more and more extensively ex-tensively used; torpedo boat destroyers destroy-ers Nos. 20 to 50 buru oil exclusively and the battleships Delaware, North Dakota, Colorado. Utah, Wyoming, Arkansas, Texas and New York burn oil as an auxiliary to coaL Battleships Battle-ships Nos. 3tG and 37, authorized by the last congress, will burn oil exclusively, ex-clusively, and it is probable that subsequent sub-sequent battleships will be oil burners. burn-ers. Dr Day believes It to bo probable prob-able that within a few years henvy oil engines of the Diesel type will be extensively adopted for marine propulsion, pro-pulsion, particularly for naval vessels, ves-sels, owing to recent improvements of these engines in Europe In which 1,000 to 2,000 horsepower can be developed de-veloped from a single cylinder. Geological Geo-logical Survey. |