Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Diffusion of Crude Petroleum Through Fuller's Earth: Dissertation Submitted to the Board of University Studies of the Johns Hopkins University in Conformity With the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Maberyl states that It would seem that the small propor tion of these bodies2 in the Pennsylvania oil, as compared 'with the larger proportions in the limestone oils and California oils should be strong evidence in favor of a different origin, that the Pennsylvania oil came from organic vegetable remains, which should permit of the small amounts of sulphur and nitrogen compounds from this class of oils. Newberry, Peckham, Orton, and other geologists also favor the view that the Pennsylvania oil is of vegetable origin, and is derived from the organic matter of the bituminous shales of the Devo nian period.
The facts which have led to the association of this oil with a vegetable source are, first, that the oil is of a different charac ter from the limestone oils of Ohio, and those of Texas and California; second, that the Pennsylvania petroleum is found in strata that bear but few fossils; third, the belief that the Chemung and immediately overlying formations are barren of animal organic remains; fourth, the existence of large quan tities of microscopic fossils, whose origin many believe to be vegetable, in the black shales of the Lower and Middle Devo nian periods, to which formations many investigators are in clined to refer the origin of the Pennsylvania Oil.
It is generally recognized that the Pennsylvania 011 differs markedly from the Ohio, Texas, and California oils. Inves tigation has shown that the former contains a much larger proportion of the paraffin hydrocarbons, and a much smaller percentage of benzene and unsaturated hydrocarbons and sulphur and nitrogenous bodies, than the latter oils. It is further generally admitted that the Pennsylvania oil was not formed in situ. These two facts have aided strongly in as signing a vegetable origin to this oil. To what strata, then, should the source of the oil be referred? The great coal forma tions of Pennsylvania, lying above the Chemung, seem, at a first glance, to offer a solution of this problem. It is a notable fact, however, that these formations have not, up to the present time, been connected, either chemically or geologically, with the Pennsylvania oil. The possibility exists, however.
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