THE PIPE-LINE AND THE BARREL. 199 causes its owner ten times the loss in leakage. Meerzoeff's pipe-line was erected immediately after Nobel had demonstrated the system to be a financial success; but some ultra-technical Russian engineer thought he could improve on the lesson taught Baku by the practical Swede, and in his anxiety to construct a handsome and regular work forgot all about expansion. Six pipe-lines run from Balakhani to the Black Town of Baku. Another extends from Balakhani to Surakhani, and thence to the outer part of Baku Bay, close to Sultan Point, to the kerosine refinery of the Zikhski Association. This belongs to the Baku Petroleum Company, and not being always required for oil, is often employed by Nobel Brothers for pumping water from the bay to their wells. The total length of the seven pipe-lines amounts to over 60 miles. Pipe-lines are quite a modern institution at Baku, having only been introduced by Nobel Brothers during the last few years. Previous to that the oil used to be conveyed in barrels down to the coast. Mr. Arthur Arnold, M.P., who visited Baku in 1875, gives an interesting account in his "Through Persia by Caravan," of what the system was then :-"All day long petroleum rolls into Baku in carts of the most curious pattern imaginable. A Neapolitan single-horse two-wheeled carriage for fifteen people is unique, but it is commonplace in comparison with an oil cart of Baku. Few men would have the courage to import a Baku oil cart and drive it even for a very high wager through Regent Street or Pall Mall. Where is the man who would dare to pose himself there, perched and caged in a little rail cart big enough to hold one barrel of petroleum, and lifted so high on wheels seven feet in diameter, that another tub can be slung beneath the axle, the whole thing being painted with all the colours of the rainbow, and creaking loudly as it is drawn by a diminutive horse, the back of which is hardly up to a level with the axle? Yet the exploiteurs say that already they pay collectively not much less than £100,000 a year for the cartage of oil in carriages of this sort." When Nobel Brothers commenced refining operations in 1875, thousands of arbas or carts were employed in this operation. To diminish the expense, and insure a larger and more rapid supply, the Swedes endeavoured to persuade the Baku firms to combine and lay down a pipe. But jealousy and want of enterprise have always been the characteristics of the Russian and native firms of Baku. They refused. Thereupon the Swedes laid down the pipe-line themselves, at a cost of £10,000, and recovered the outlay the first year. This was the death knell of the arbas. Other lines were laid down in rapid succession by rival firms, or combinations of them, and the oil carts almost entirely disappeared from Baku. Pipe-lines have now become a recognized institution in the district. Not only is all the crude oil conveyed from the wells to the refineries by them, but they also join the 200 refineries one with the other and with the piers in the present runs riot the other way. constantly being discussed for Europe. One of these, in favour a pipe-line a thousand miles long, running from Baku across the Caucasus to the railway system in South-East Russia. Another extended from Baku to the Black Sea at Poti or Batoum. This may be regarded as the most practicable, and if any pipe-line ever be laid down from Baku, this will inevitably be the one. At present there is a deal of talk of running a pipe-line from Baku to the Persian Gulf, with the idea of securing Baku the exclusive control of the markets of Asia. This would be 1,200 miles long, and could only be constructed with foreign capital. bay. Local feeling at Grandiose schemes are conveying the oil to several years ago, was Before ridiculing such schemes, it should be borne in THE PROJECTED OLEODUCT THROUGH PERSIA. 201 mind that in America the Standard Oil Company controls nearly 4,000 miles of pipe-line, or enough not only to pump the oil from Baku to the Persian Gulf, but beyond to the principal bazaars of India. A section of the Standard Oil Company's pipe-line, 2,500 miles long, would be sufficient to pump the oil from Baku to London. The average diameter of the pipe-lines at Baku is six inches. The average cost of a six-inch pipe-line is reckoned at 8,000 roubles a verst, or £800 for two-thirds of a mile. Nobel Brothers' two pipe-lines, with pumping stations, cost collectively £76,000 to lay down. The pipes are made in Russia or Germany, and are conveyed by rail to the Volga, whence they are despatched by steamer to Baku. Now that the Batoum railroad is open, it ought to be cheaper to buy them in Western Europe and send them to Baku by that route. The duty on iron pipes of foreign manufacture however is very heavy, and an estimate has been made that the duty on pipes for a line 500 miles long, from Baku to the Black Sea would, amount to more than half a million sterling. A six-inch pipe should stand, I am told, a pressure of at least 1,000 lbs. to the inch, but none at Baku are worked above 200 lbs. Petroleum fuel is used in all the pumping stations; Blake's pumps have the preference, and many Tangye boilers are at work in the district. The Balakhani wells being situated 175 feet above the level of the sea, no intermediate stations are needed between the wells and the refineries. The total capacity of the seven pipe-lines is estimated at two million gallons of oil every twenty-four hours. The railway possesses two stations, east and west of the Balakhani wells, and a third at Surakhani, thus enabling it to convey crude oil in tank-cars from the wells to the refineries, or, if necessary, direct to the Black Sea. In 1882 the following quantity of crude oil was pumped through the pipe-line or conveyed by tank-car to Baku |