The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-01-11
0|L-SHALE Will BE
IMPORTANT Thing
FIRST ARTICLE

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creasing demands for and lessened
supply of petroleum and its products.
Salt Lake City, Utah, seems the nat
ural center for experimentation and
exploitation of an industry which is
not yet born in this country, although
manufacture of oil from shale has
been on a commercial basis in Scot
land for sixty years.
In Colorado, Utah and Nevada, east,
west and south of Salt Lake City, are
shale deposits of unknown magnitude,
and of richness surprising that of
shales known elsewhere. Oil-shale is
a common and general term for sew
eral different geological formations
different in appearance and in gum
content
Without attempting any elaborate
description, it will be sufficient to say
that the Colorado deposit is found in
dense masses of black rock, often with
a considerable fossil content. Some
southern Utah shale appears in broad
strata two or three inches thick, light
gray in color, and may be extracted
and handled like great planks; while
the Nevada deposit pronounced rich
est of ALI appears in sheets rarely
more than half an inch thick, of fine,
ever texture resembling an oil-stone,
and dark brown in color. 1t is readily
broken, even with the fingers.
Chemists say different methods of
reduction will be necessary in the
utilization of these various forms of
gum-containing rock. A greater part
of all experimentation by competent
persons in the United States has &C.
Cured in the chemical laboratory of
the University of Utah, in Salt Lake
City. Here, DR.. w. D. Bonner, con-
sulting chemist to the Bureau of
Mines, Department of the Interior, in
charge of laboratory investigation, is
the authority. DR.. Quinn is his as
sistant.
A fact which has been widely her.
aided by certain persons, but which
is pronounced OF no Importance by
the chemists, is that a small shale-
reduction plant was built at the uni
versity about a year ago. 1t is not
used now, nor did its use ever have
any special significance. To be even
more plain, the fact of this small
retort having been built at the uni
versity was seized upon by some pro-
moters of "shale-oil' companies, and
considerable advertising matter has
been circulated regarding an indus
try" which does not exist.
The proper method of reduction
destructive distillation is the chemi-
cal term) of oil-shales of the United
States has not been determined. Re
filming of the resultant crudes has not
been satisfactorily accomplished. The
chemists anticipate no difficulty in
perfecting these processes-but it has
not yet been done.
The product of oil-shale after ode
~structive %distillation" and retorting is
a heavy, thick, dark oil, resembling in
many ways the petroleum known as
fuel oil; and it may be used as such.
These crude oils vary, as may be sup
posed, according to the shales from
which they are produced. They smell
moro like asphalt than petroleum.
An immense amount of gas is lib
Grated by the distillation. Some en-
thusiasts believe this gas will be a
sufficient fuel supply for the retort
fornaces, but in this the chemists do
not agree. 1t savors too much of per-
petual motion. Important ~bi-proiucts
are paraffin and ammonium sulphAte.
1t is also considered probable some
form of commercial fertilizer will &c
obtained.
Several bona fde experimental
shale-reduction plants are now being
constructed in the three states men,
toned. Representative among these
are the plants of the American Shale
Refining Company at Debeque. Colo
RADIO; the Ute Oil Company, on the
White river, near Watson, Utah; and
two at Elko, Nevada, one of the Catlin
Oil Shale Reduction Company; and
another which Is being constructed by
DR.. David T. Day, who also is a con-
sulting chemist to the Bureau OF
Mines. The latter will use shale from
a certain Southern Pacific Railway
section near by.
Chemists of the Bureau of Mines
are agreed that the greatest him
drance that could occur to the legiti-
mate development of a shale-oil in
dustry in the United States would be
any extensive "wildcatting"-that is,
selling of stock In imaginative shale-
z{l -1o.f. ~ axy1n - 1a- A. L.