Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Petroleum Dictionary For a few months I was constantly astonished by the expressions that fell from the lips of near-infants Who had never known any life or language but that of the oil field. But gradually I came to accept the language as a legitimate and apt means of expression. Its freshness, its peculiarities, and its vividness. Fascinate me to this day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.