Abstract
SO long ago as 1896 the late Sir Boverton Redwood examined a sample of oil from Ashwick Court, near Shepton Mallet, and reported that it was straw-coloured, transparent, and free from fluorescence. The odour was reminiscent of refined petroleum, the specific gravity was 0.816, and the flash point (Abel) 175° F. In 1906 he wrote: “A considerable number of other districts where petroleum similarly occurs are known, and, although it has been suggested that some at least of the deposits may have been produced by a natural process of distillation from coal or bituminous shales, there is no reason to doubt that most of them are true petroleum, and are quite distinct from the oils which are obtained by known processes of distillation from either coal or shale.” Later, in 1911, Sir Boverton examined and reported on an oil from a well at Kelham, and stated that the material should be regarded as a “true normal petroleum,” and in 1914 he advocated that the bore hole should be deepened, believing that “more productive strata might be found at greater depth.” It is a strange coincidence, not untouched by the irony of fate, that the last piece of work carried out before he died, was the analysis of the Hardstoft oil.
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British Petroleum . Nature 103, 306–307 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/103306b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/103306b0