the first outburst, which occurred on the 1st of September. In the middle of November it was still spouting 240,000 gallons a day, and a three-inch iron boiler plate was ground to pieces in an attempt to divert the stalk of the fountain.

This was not the first case of the kind at Baku, although exaggerated reports of the incident penetrated even to England. When the oil is projected, it carries with it grit with such force as to convert its volume into a sort of liquid grindstone. If an iron plate be placed in contact with the stream the sand in the oil literally grinds it to pieces in a few hours. The first caps that were used at Balakhani were completely destroyed in this manner. Nobel Brothers have one at their office in Baku, preserved as a curiosity, which was worn into holes in a few hours, although three inches thick. It was this circumstance that led to the invention of a special kind of cap fitted with sliding valves, which is capable of gagging the strongest fountain, if only it can be fitted on the tube in time.

A gagged fountain has now become one of the sights of Baku. The visitor is shown a deserted derrick, in which, he is told, a kalpak keeps down, with the grip of a vice, millions of gallons of oil in the cellular basin 600 or 700 feet below. On removing the slide of the cap there is a furious blast of gas, followed by an out-rush of petroleum a considerable height; which is suppressed with equal ease by gradually closing the slide again. When Admiral Shestakoff, the Minister of Marine, visited Baku last autumn, he was taken to see one of Nobel Brothers' gagged fountains. For ten minutes the gas roared so loudly that nobody could hear each other speak, and then the oil spouted higher than the derrick. When the Minister's curiosity was gratified the oil fountain was turned off as easily as the water fountains of Trafalgar Square.

A MILLION'S WORTH OF OIL FROM ONE WELL. 231

With regard to the Droojba, in consequence of the prodigious outflow of oil, the crude article lost its value for the moment. Fedoroff filled his reservoirs with 2,800,000 gallons of oil for 300 roubles, or £30. No one would give more than copeck the pood for what had previously fetched 2 or 3 copecks. Thousands of tons were burnt outside the district to get rid of it; thousands were led towards the Caspian; huge lakes of oil were formed near the well, and on one occasion the liquid suddenly flowed into a distant engine-house, and, but for the promptness of the engineer in extinguishing his petroleum furnace, the whole locality would have been ablaze. Houses were completely buried by the sand cast up by the oil; all efforts to stop the fountain on the part of Baku experts were fruitless. The indignation in Russia at the waste of oil was unbounded; at Baku all the well-owners formed themselves into a congress to decide upon means for checking the fountain. Finally, the Government at St. Petersburg was appealed to, and 2,000 roubles were assigned to equip two engineers to Baku. On the 10th of December the fountain suddenly stopped of its own accord the pipe had got blockedbut after three hours it burst out afresh with increased violence. At length, on the 29th of December, Zorgé, a neighbouring well-owner, succeeded in fixing a cap, and, in spite of a strong filtration round the tube, the oil remained under control the whole winter. Directly the outburst was stopped a great disturbance took place in Nobels' No. 14 well, showing a connection of both with the same reservoir. The depth of the Droojba well was 574 feet. The quantity of oil spouted is reckoned to have ranged between 220,000 and 500,000 tons; which in America would have yielded from £616,000 to £1,400,000 sterling.*

The following is the calculation made by Zorgé and Stehastlivtseff two neighbouring well-proprietors, of the quantity ejected :

Such a prodigious outflow of oil was without parallel, not only in the annals of commerce, but in the records of science. The old Eternal Fire, and the blazing water at Baku, sink into insignificance compared with such a marvel. To the man of science the oil fountains of the Apsheron peninsula promise to become a source of permanent interest. Now the oil fields are more developed there are plenty of curious facts that need elucidation. One of the most striking of these is, that the fountains always play the fiercer after a north wind. Why this should be the case no one has yet satisfactorily explained.

men.

But if the oil fountains of Baku are likely to prove a magnet to the savants of Europe, they may be expected to exercise a more powerful influence upon commercial Ten thousand pounds a day wasting itself on the desert air, and a railway close by to take the oil to the ships of Europe-what a tempting bait to the cupidity of the world! The owners of the Droojba, for want of capital to grip their good fortune, let a million sterling slip through their fingers. Gariboff the engineer, appalled by the havoc, and vainly trying to check it, broke his heart. But had the Armenian firm been a rich European company, with the engineering resources of the West at its command, the result would have been very different.

Poods.

Aug. and Sept. (O.S.), 43 days at 200,000 poods a day = 8,600,000

Or, about 55,000,000 gallons, or 220,000 tons of crude oil. This was the lowest estimate, and avowedly fell short of the reality. The quantity spouted varied. Thus, in November it frequently rose to 80,000 gallons a day. The average for that month was struck by basing calculations on the quantity pumped away from the well by the Baku Mining Company.

APPALLING WASTE OF PETROLEUM.

233

The Droojba oil well would have been more valuable than many a gold mine.

These are the scientific and commercial aspects, but there is another and a higher one. Such a waste of the world's resources ought not to be tolerated for a moment. Oil fountains promise to become a permanent feature of Baku; in fact, they are that already, for with the commencement of the season of 1884 several fountains have had their caps removed, and are spouting afresh as lustily as ever. Among them is the irrepressible Droojba, which recommenced playing on the 22nd of March. Bureaucratic supervision is always to be deprecated: officials in every country are a nuisance. Were there any guarantee that the oil would be as little wasted as in the case of Nobels' wells I should be the last to support the agitation that has been set on foot at Baku to place the fountains under Government supervision. But when a single man pricks the earth and wastes for ever 50,000,000 or 100,000,000 gallons of good oil-enough to supply London for years-then there is an end to the common sense of the laisser faire doctrine, and the State ought to step in and suppress the outburst at the owner's cost, even though that cost be confiscation.

234

CHAPTER XV.

THE CASPIAN OIL REFINERIES.

The Black Town of Baku-The 200 Refineries of the Caspian-The Smokelessness of Petroleum Fuel depends upon the Apparatus, and Care in Using it-A Lesson in Geography for English Statesmen -The Refinery of Nobel Brothers-Consumption of Kerosine in America-The Growth of the Trade-Qualities of the Various Kinds of Refined Petroleum Manufactured at Baku-Agitation for a Uniform Standard-Mode of Refining Petroleum-Table Showing the Productibility of 100 Gallons of Russian Crude Petroleum-The American and Baku Oil Compared-Mr. Boverton Redwood's Analysis of Russian Kerosine-Condition of the Industry at Baku-The Fittings of a Refinery at Baku-Russian Lubricating Oil-Export of Kerosine to Europe-Future of the Lubricating Oil Trade- Medical Properties of PetroleumOzokerit Deposits East of the Caspian-Barbarous Waste of the Lighter Oils - Petroleum Dyes and Colours-Hydro-Carbon Gas at Surakhani-Natural Gas Stoves.

ONE of the most striking portions of Baku is the district lying on the bay to the north of it, called the Black Town (Tchorni Gorod). It is here that the crude petroleum, sucked up or allowed to spout from the bowels of the earth at Balakhani, and pumped thence from reservoirs through pipes to the shore of the bay, is distilled into burning oil and other products for the markets of Europe. Altogether there are nearly 200 refineries in the Black Town, and as almost all of them, except Nobels' Works, emit vast volumes of oil-smoke, life in that locality is as bad as confinement in a chimney-pot. All day long dense clouds of smoke, possessing the well