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Gale, Thomas; Ethyl Corporation : The Wonder of the Nineteenth Century! Rock Oil, in Pennsylvania and Elsewhere

Ethyl Corporation, New York, 1952

Limited edition. Original publisher's slipcase with black 1/4 leather binding and brown cloth boards. Gilt lettering on the spine. Slipcase is made to look like a book. The slipcase contains two pamphlets in orange and white wrappers. The orange pamphlet is a facsimile of the book represented by the slipcase. The white pamphlet contains explanatory notes that explain the contents of the orange pamphlet and the original book it was modeled after. The white pamphlet is placed in a pocket. The orange pamphlet is presented in a fitted space. Slipcase measures 5 1/2" x 7 1/4." Orange pamphlet measures 3 7/8" x 5 3/4." White pamphlet measures 4 1/2" x 6 1/2." Orange pamphlet: eighty pages, complete. White pamphlet: twenty unnumbered pages, complete. Slipcase and pamphlets are very clean and intact. Slight wear and rubbing to the joints and spine of the slipcase. Pamphlets have a few wrinkles on the covers. A Fine copy. The publisher of the original book is listed as Sloan & Griffith in Erie, Pennsylvania with an original publication date of 1860. Printed on the last page is the following: "Reprinted in 1952 by Ethyl Corporation, New York." Title on the white pamphlet: "Explanatory Notes to the First Book Written About Petroleum." The white pamphlet was authored by the Ethyl Corporation which includes a preface and a list of explanatory footnotes for the facsimile book in the orange pamphlet. Excerpt from the preface of the notes: "Not by the wildest stretch of the imagination could Thomas Gale have realized, when he put down his pen on June 1, 1860, that he had written a book destined to become one of the rarest of all oil books. Entitled "The Wonder of the Nineteenth Century: Rock Oil in Pennsylvania and Elsewhere," it was finished less than 10 months after the Drake well was drilled near Titusville. All available evidence indicates that it was the first book ever written about petroleum. Only three copies of it are known to exist. ... Ethyl has reproduced a limited number of copies of a facsimile edition because it feels that a volume so rare should be made available to the industry. Until now, the scarcity of copies has prevented all but a few historians from giving the book the attention it deserves. Gale wrote his book to satisfy a public desire for more information about petroleum. ... As for Gale himself, no trace of him can be found. Perhaps he left Pennsylvania after writing this book and followed the changing tide of oil fortune to other areas; perhaps he wrote under a nom de plume. In any event, a comprehensive search into county histories and other historical records of northwestern Pennsylvania has failed to reveal one iota of information about him.". Book. Book Condition: Fine. Binding: Hardcover

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