Excerpt from The Petroleum and Allied Industries: Petroleum, Natural Gas, Natural Waxes, Asphalts and Allied Substances, and Shale Oils The development of the oilfields of the British Empire and the question of home supplies of liquid fuel have become matters of national importance. The possibilities of augmenting petroleum supplies or of partially replacing them by means of oils derived from the distillation of oil shales and even of coals, are receiving serious attention. This great industry employs a multitude of men a large porportion of whom are necessarily engaged in non-technical work. Among these men there exists a very commendable desire to know something of the great industry with which they are associated, a desire which is shared by many others whose connection with the industry is indirect. This book has been written in the hope that it will appeal to such, and to many university graduates to whom a knowledge of the outlines of an industry may be of assistance in determining their choice of a career. An effort has been made to make the book up to date as far as possible, and to include not only crude petroleum and its products but also some account of the closely related subjects, such as natural gas, the naturally occurring bituminous substances, the pyrobitumens and oil shales. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.