[USMA:24498] Translation - Automatic

[John Nichols]

curious unity, not at all belonging to the IF, dominates the industry of the oil: the barrel (barrel, symbol bl or bbl - why two b?). One rediscovers it in the estimation of the reserves - one speaks then in billion barrels or Bbbl (three b!), in the production capacity and of refining - in barrel day or bbl/d, and of course in prices quotations - always associated with the dollar, in dollar a barrel or $/bl. But what therefore that this fine barrel? Nothing to see with the barrel of galère, that used fresh water provision in the navy to veils, despite his name. Nothing to see non more with the capacity former measure that was worth to Paris about 235 liters. Nothing to see again with the metallic fût (drum) of 208 often used liters in the industry. Indeed, the barrel of oil never has existed physiquement, this is a purely potential unity, being worth 42 American gallons be about 159 liters.
And of which one does not know actually the origin. One says that in 1866 certain producers in Virginie of the west did a commercial gesture in favor of the customers that came to supply themselves in oil gulping directly to the well: they added 2 free gallons to all order of 40 gallons. Or that, in Ohio, leader of the oil production in the middle of the XIXe century, one transported it in fûts some drinks of 50 gallons on pulled carts by horses: to the arrival the fûts did not contain more than 42 gallons in average, to causes escapes and evaporation. Certain researchers in historic métrologie arrive even to show that the 42 gallons of the barrel of oil a reminiscence of the progression based on the figure 7, very presents in the me English sures.





John Nichols BE, Ph.D. (Newcastle), MIE (Aust), Chartered Professional Engineer
Assistant Professor
Texas A&M University
Department of Construction Science
Langford AC
Rm: A414 MD 3137
College Station, TX 77843-3137

Electronic mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Telephone: 979 845 6541
Facsimile: 979 862 1572
-----------------------------------------------------------------
a fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi

in front a precipice, behind a wolf
-----------------------------------------------------------------