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It has little enough to see and it is nothing on the map of England, but twice, so far, have men found treasure hidden here.
The first time was in the middle of the 18th century, when they found 800 precious Roman coins; the second time was in the middle of the 19th century, when they found a thing a hundred thousand times more precious, from which has sprung one of the greatest industries in the world, bringing with it the motor-car and the aeroplane, and all the activities depending on the internal combustion engine. It is one of the greatest romances of commerce.
In 1847 James Oakes, a colliery proprietor and ironmaster in a small way at Riddings, discovered a mysterious flow of liquid on his property and called in his brother-in-law, Lyon Playfair, a scholar and man of affairs who happened to be one of the most brilliant practical scientists of his day. He tested the flow and found it to be petroleum, then an unknown product commercially, although as naphtha, salt of the earth as it had been known from Old Testament days. It was found that the spring was producing 300 gallons a day, but James Oakes was much too occupied with his coal and iron to give time to it.
At Glasgow University, Playfair had a friend, James Young, who was employed to repair instruments at the laboratory in which he afterwards became an assistant. Playfair remembered him when the petroleum came to light and wrote suggesting that Young should take over the product of the spring and manufacture useful oils from it.
Young had too much faith in his old friend to entertain any doubt of the feasilibity of the proposal, and began in a small way a business which was to grow to world-wide proportions. One day soon after, he went with dismay to his friend, showing him the oil in a turbid condition and fearing that some change had occurred which would ruin the enterprise.
It was obvious to the scientist that the condition was due to the presence of parafin, and Playfair induced Young to extract sufficient of the pataffin to make two candles. They were the first paraffin-wax candles ever produced. With one candle in his right hand and the other in his left, Playfair illuminated a lecture he gave at the Royal Institution.
From this small beginning dates the enormous petroleum industry and the rich trade in paraffin and its wide range of products. Young, ever after known as Paraffin Young, made a fortune, but when the knowledge of his work spread about, a world wide search for petroleum was instituted.
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