He has, moreover,
succeeded in producing artificial petroleum by a reaction that he
describes, and he states that it is impossible to detect any difference
between the natural product and the manufactured article. His theory is
as follows: [Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'Infilration']
Infiltration of water, reaching a certain depth, come into contact with
incandescent masses of carburets of metals, chiefly of iron, and are at
once decomposed into oxygen and hydrogen. The oxygen unites with the
iron, while the hydrogen seizes on the carbon and rises to an upper
level, where the vapors are condensed in part into mineral oil, and the
rest remains in a state of natural gas. The petroleum strata are
generally met with in the vicinity of mountains, and it may be granted
that geological upheavals have dislocated the ground in such a way as to
permit of the [Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'admistoin']
admission of water to great depths. If the center of the earth contains
great masses of metallic carburets, we may, in case this theory is
verified, count upon an almost inexhaustible source of fuel for the day
when our coal deposits shall fail us.
How Vaseline is Purified.--The residuum from which vaseline is made
is placed in settling tanks heated by steam, in order to keep their
contents in a liquid state. After the complete separation of the fine
coke it is withdrawn from these tanks and passed through the bone
black cylinders, during which process the color is nearly all removed,
as well as its empyreumatic odor.
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