n came the railroads. They provided iron tanks
in the shape of a cylinder fastened to freight cars, much like those
employed to-day. There was only one difficulty about sending oil by
rail, and that was that it still had to be hauled by team to the
railroad, sometimes a number of miles. At length, some one said to
himself, "Why cannot we simply run a pipe directly from the well to
the railroad?" This was done. Pumping engines were put in a few miles
apart, and the invention was a success in the eyes of all but the
teamsters. In spite of their opposition, however, pipe-lines
increased.

Before this it had been necessary to build the refineries as near the
oil regions as possible in order to save the expense of carrying the
oil; but now they could be built wherever it was most convenient.
To-day oil can be brought at a small expense from west of the
Mississippi River to the Atlantic seaboard, refined, and distributed
throughout that part of the country, or loaded into "tankers,"--that
is, steamships containing strong tanks of steel,--and so taken across
the ocean. The pipes are made of iron and are six or eight inches or
more in diameter. In using them one difficulty was found which has
been overcome in an ingenious fashion. Sometimes they become choked by
the impurities of the oil and the flow is lessened. Then a "go-devil"
is put into them. This is shaped like a cartridge, is about three
feet in length, composed of springs and plates of iron and so flexible
that it can turn around a corner. It is so made that as it slips down
the current of oil, it whirls around and in so doing its nose of sharp
blades scrapes the pipes clean.

The pipes go over hills and through swamps. They cross rivers
sometimes by means of bridges, and sometimes they are anchored to the
bed of the stream. If they have to go through a salt marsh, they are
laid in concrete to preserve the iron. If these lines were suddenly
destroyed and oil had to be carried in the old way, kerosene would
become an expensive luxury.

Getting the oil out of the ground and carried to the refineries is not
all of the business by any means. The early oils crusted on the lamp
wicks, their smell was unendurable, and they were given to exploding.
Evidently, if oil was to be used for lighting, it must be improved,
and the first step was to distil it. To distil anything means to boil
it and collect the vapor. If you hold a piece of cold earthenware in
the steam of a teaket