Note 14 — BOOK XII.

[Pg 581][14] The substances referred to under the names bitumen, asphalt, maltha, naphtha, petroleum, rock-oil, etc., have been known and used from most ancient times, and much of our modern nomenclature is of actual Greek and Roman ancestry. These peoples distinguished three related substances,—the Greek asphaltos and Roman bitumen for the hard material,—Greek pissasphaltos and Roman maltha for the viscous, pitchy variety—and occasionally the Greek naphtha and Roman naphtha for petroleum proper, although it is often enough referred to as liquid bitumen or liquid asphaltos. The term petroleum apparently first appears in Agricola's De Natura Fossilium (p. 222), where he says the "oil of bitumen ... now [Pg 582]called petroleum." Bitumen was used by the Egyptians for embalming from pre-historic times, i.e., prior to 5000 B.C., the term "mummy" arising from the Persian word for bitumen, mumiai. It is mentioned in the tribute from Babylonia to Thotmes III., who lived about 1500 B.C. (Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians I., p. 397). The Egyptians, however, did not need to go further afield than the Sinai Peninsula for abundant supplies. Bitumen is often cited as the real meaning of the "slime" mentioned in Genesis (XI., 3; XIV., 10), and used in building the Tower of Babel. There is no particular reason for this assumption, except the general association of Babel, Babylon, and Bitumen. However, the Hebrew word sift for pitch or bitumen does occur as the cement used for Moses's bulrush cradle (Exodus II., 3), and Moses is generally accounted about 1300 B.C. Other attempts to connect Biblical reference to petroleum and bitumen revolve around Job XXIX., 6, Deut. XXXII., 13, Maccabees II., I, 18, Matthew V., 13, but all require an unnecessary strain on the imagination.

The plentiful occurrence of bitumen throughout Asia Minor, and particularly in the Valley of the Euphrates and in Persia, is the subject of innumerable references by writers from Herodotus (484-424 B.C.) down to the author of the company prospectus of recent months. Herodotus (I., 179) and Diodorus Siculus (I) state that the walls of Babylon were mortared with bitumen—a fact partially corroborated by modern investigation. The following [Pg 583]statement by Herodotus (VI., 119) is probably the source from which Pliny drew the information which Agricola quotes above. In referring to a well at Ardericca, a place about 40 miles from ancient Susa, in Persia, Herodotus says:—"For from the well they get bitumen, salt, and oil, procuring it in the way that I will now describe: they draw with a swipe, and instead of a bucket they make use of the half of a wine-skin; with this the man dips and, after drawing, pours the liquid into a reservoir, wherefrom it passes into another, and there takes three different shapes. The salt and bitumen forthwith collect and harden, while the oil is drawn off into casks. It is called by the Persians rhadinace, is black, and has an unpleasant smell." (Rawlinson's Trans. III., p. 409). The statement from Pliny (XXXI., 39) here referred to by Agricola, reads:—"It (salt) is made from water of wells poured into salt-pans. At Babylon the first condensed is a bituminous liquid like oil which is burned in lamps. When this is taken off, salt is found beneath. In Cappadocia also the water from both wells and springs is poured into salt-pans." When petroleum began to be used as an illuminant it is impossible to say. A passage in Aristotle's De Mirabilibus (127) is often quoted, but in reality it refers only to a burning spring, a phenomenon noted by many writers, but from which to its practical use is not a great step. The first really definite statement as to the use of petroleum as an [Pg 584]illuminant is Strabo's quotation (XVI., 1, 15) from Posidonius: "Asphaltus is found in great abundance in Babylonia. Eratosthenes describes it as follows:—The liquid asphaltus, which is called naphtha, is found in Susa; the dry kind, which can be made solid, in Babylonia. There is a spring of it near the Euphrates.... Others say that the liquid kind is also found in Babylonia.... The liquid kind, called naphtha, is of a singular nature. When it is brought near the fire, the fire catches it.... Posidonius says that there are springs of naphtha in Babylonia, some of which produce white, others black naphtha; the first of these, I mean white naphtha, which attracts flame, is liquid sulphur; the second or black naphtha is liquid asphaltus, and is burnt in lamps instead of oil." (Hamilton's Translation, Vol. III., p. 151). Eratosthenes lived about 200 B.C., and Posidonius about 100 years later. Dioscorides (I., 83), after discussing the usual sources of bitumen says: "It is found in a liquid state in Agrigentum in Sicily, flowing on streams; they use it for lights in lanterns in place of oil. Those who call the Sicilian kind oil are under a delusion, for it is agreed that it is a kind of liquid bitumen." Pliny adds nothing much new to the above quotations, except in regard to these same springs (XXXV., 51) that "The inhabitants collect it on the panicles of reeds, to which it quickly adheres and they use it for burning in lamps instead of oil." Agricola (De Natura Fossilium, Book IV.) classifies petroleum, coal, jet, and obsidian, camphor, and amber as varieties of bitumen, and devotes much space to the refutation of the claims that the last two are of vegetable origin.