The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-01-25
O|LBfAR|NC ROCK
ABOUNDS IN WEST
THIRD ARTICLE

nected with the Bureau of Mines y
an endeavor to correct many popula
misconceptions. They explain that I'll
oil obtained from shale is manufat
tured. What is, in this age, called oil4
shale, is rock containing resins and
wakes from -disintegration of plant
remains. Rarely is there a trace OF
animal fat. Shale was formed In
water.
Oil-shale, as a matter of fact. is
found on many parts of the earth's
surface, in varying quantity and quail
ity. II is said that oil was made from
shale in the United States before the
discovery of petroleum in Pennsylva-
MIA. 1t has been manufactured in
Scotland. on a commercial scale, for
sixty years. Undoubtedly oil-shale, or
shale-oil, must sometime become a
greater industry in this country than
petroleum production has ever been.
Carl II. Beal of the Bureau of Mines
is quoted as saying: II think we have
about reached the zenith of our oil
production. Our oil fields have been
more completely worked than those of
any other country"
Mark L. Requa, oil expert connected
with the fuel administration, has been
quoted thus: 1.-THE Geological Survey
made a very interesting computation
which would indicate that w have
| exhausted about 40 per cent of the
entire known petroleum of
the country. The survey has made
another calculation, which shows that
the known oil-shales will produce a
quantity of oil much in excess of the
petroleum estimate | have quoted"
Travellers who have crossed the
State of Colorado on the Denver 4
Rio Grande railroad have looked at
many strata of oil-shale, among other
things, in the marvelOusly eroded
hills and mountains along that scenic
route. These strata are nearly al
ways horizontal. They are much the
same in Utah, although presenting
some evidences of eruptive forces. In
Nevada, however, the shale occurs, in
Elko county, in lodges generally in
clined about As degrees. plainly mark
ing a portion of the circumference of
volcanic ~upheavals which can only be
imagined.
Farther west, what were once shales
have been distilled by heat, and now
appear as chalk lodges.
Oversanguine promoters have an
nounced in the last year that shale
could be gathered from the surface
by means of steam shovels; that
cave-in or open-stope mining methods
might be used OF the horizontal
strata; and, in fact, some literature
now in circulation would seem to
indicate that to get oil from oil-shale
would be almost as simple a process
as picking berries.
III. r. j. Conacher, assistant manag-
ing director of the shale-oil works at
Pumpherston, Scotland, visited the
various shale fields in Colorado, Utah
and Nevada the first of last October,
as an expert. He believes it will be
found necessary, or at least advan-
tageous, to work the shale lodges by
common mining methods; that is, by
shafts and tunnels. He thinks the
various shales he examined will prove
to be richer than those worked in
Scotland.
Results Of experiments to date in
dictate that it is safe to say a barrel
of crude oil may be obtained from a
ton of fairly rich shale. So far as
experiments have gone, a loss of 40
to 60 per cent has been suffered in
refining this crude oil. (This fact is
never mentioned in literature of pro
moters.") Chemists say better results
will be obtained.
Oil-shale is queer stuff-to the man
who knows little about it. Some rather
poor specimens burn freely when
touched by the fire of a match; some
very rich pieces will not burn at all.
A regular old-time Nevada prospector
who has headquarters in Winnemucca
tells remarkable stories of a pros
pecting trip in northern Elko county.
in search of desirable shale lands.
He found shale, of course. There
are miles and miles of it in Nevada.
He found balls of pure paraffin in
sand strata under some shale. He
discovered springs that flow from gas
pressure one day and are quiet the
next. He brought in specimens of a
brown gum which came from under
a stratum of shale. Crushed. this gum
is easily reduced to im%palpable fine
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