Description |
26552 Big still shipped to Virgin, Utah to be used in refining Utah's first oil output. 1924. Salt Lake Tribune June 25, 1924. Gift of the Musser Family. BIG STILLS SHIPPED TO "DIXIE" TO BE USED IN REFINING UTAH'S FIRST OIL OUTPUT The photograph shows the first contingent of the oil refinery being erected at Virgin, Utah, by the Gustaveson Oil company, and incidentally the first refinery to treat Utah oils exclusively. The tanks are known as the first run crude stills, and weigh about 18,000 pounds each. They were made by the Salt Lake Boiler & Sheet Iron works of this city, and will be followed by about six other carload shipments leaving Salt Lake within the next two weeks. Other material to follow will consist of a steam still, agitator, condenser boxes, run of tanks, pumps, piping, firebrick, cement, etc. About eighteen tons of piping will be used in the plant, according to the management of the company. The present plant is designed as a "topping" plant to take off from the crude oil the lighter fractions -gasoline and kerosene, which form about 42 per cent of the crude. The company now has six wells with a daily output of nearly three hundred barrels, the sixth well having been brought in the last week. It is expected that the refinery will be in operation near the first of August, when the great army of tourists traveling the Arrowhead Trail and Zion Park highway will be introduced for the first time to Utah gasoline made from Utah oil. (Reprint from Salt Lake Tribune, June 25, 1924.) |