The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-08-05
HOW LONG NIL THE OH SUPPLY LAST!
By rederle q Haakin.


j auanittky i'm the bowel =nf the earth
Ion August ~, next, there is to be
/ Il ceaeb lon at He in COM
! memoE1 lion OF TIL event
/ The old Drake we'll IL still capable
1 of Yielding 6ne-t third OF barrel OF
la day. This means that it is still
4 a pretty good producer for there
Iare wellf IN New York yielding. but
lone -fortiefh Of q barrel. from which
wells are in decided contrast to the
EIsakeview, gusher in California which
produced 400 900 barrels a day and
\ still failed to yield profit to its
owners because 1t ran uncontrolled.
Uncle Sam Biggest Producer.
1 The United States today produces
two-thfrds of tho oil of the world.
lof all the oil that has ever been
produced. two-thirds has come from
the wells of Uncle Sam. Russia
supplies the majority Of the world
production that remains. and Mexico
ranks third. Aside from these ma
/ tons. the oil produced is of little
importance. But the boastful Amer
, lean may make the eagle scream to
his hearts content upon the subject
| OF the dominance or his country In
/ the oil markets OF the world.
The increase of the use of oil has
been steady since the Civil war. In
1870 there were five million barrels
| of it, in 1880 thirty million barrels,
in 1890 seYenty-hve millions. in
1900 there were $50 millions. in
1910 there were 327 millions and in
1914 the world prod was about
400 millions. So has this commo-
dtty grown within the life OF the
present generation:
With the Increase in the uses to.
which oil is put, there has come
alarm as to sources of permanent
supply. Many of the industries of
the world were developing them
selves upon the oil supply as basis.
What. for instance. would happen,
to the automobile business II the oil
supply should run out?
These questions. led scientists to
attempt to measure the latent oil
supply. for had not the old fields be
come exhausted. had not Spindle
Top, that spectacular nest OF gush-
ers in Texas. ceased to yield oil :
Had not great wells come In, spouted
oil for a season and passed out of
the reckoning?
Billions OF Barriers.
The scientists have their own way
lof measuring the contents of oil
llfelds. They study the formations
ligeo1ogically and determine the, size
liof the sand beds in them. OIL lies
only in these sand beds. Studying
| all known fields, they are able to
estimate their ultimate output. They
say that there are fifteen billion
barrels of oil in the known fields
lof the United States.
This oil should last hundred
years. and then it would be gone
forever. The agencies that produced
lit are not working now. and II they
were, it would take million years
| to replace 1t. and the automobiles
OF tomorrow cannot wait that long.
| There is the possibility of new fields.
4 but the best ones are probably all
ready found Therefore it looks as
Though the oil that comes from wells
i might be exhausted In q few genera
] tons.
Thus the possibility of making oil
/! from hay has great Importance. But
/ SO has the new source of supply
that the government has located.
Il The tip on this latter phase of the
lsubiect came from Scotland. In
THAT country is sort of shale. rock,
which is saturated with oil. and
Iron which the Hfgh1anders get the
LIQUID fuel by heating the shale and
driving the oil out OF it. There is
a large industry in Scotland based
upon the extraction Of oil from this
l shale.
American oil experts wondered il