Boiler rooms

A tanker.

BALLAST AND STORES

pipelines as fast as the workers could lay them. Men were beaten up and shot, and soon there were pitched battles between teamsters and oil men. The war raged until at last the railroads reached Titus-ville with spur lines to the oil fields so that the oil barrels could be shipped on flatcars. Later big steel tanks were mounted on the flat-cars, and soon the great teams and wagons, and the flatboats were things of the past.

Today tankers, barges, tank cars, pipelines and trucks are used for oil distribution. These transport the crude oil to the refineries from the oil fields, and later carry the finished products to bulk plants located in or near large cities. These are simply big tank farms where the various oil products are stored until needed. Then they are shipped out by tank trucks to the thousands of service stations, local dealers, factories, bus lines, and railroads. Most of us don't even realize how smoothly this distribution works, and how much we all depend upon oil.

Chapter Five

A railroad tank car.

A tank truck.

exercise