The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-08-23
Underground Pools Going Dry so
Chemists are Evolving Products
from Crust on Earth's
Surface.
GOVERNMENT MEN BUSY
Chemists and Mineraaogists of the Y.
S. Bureaus Have Been Evolving
Methods Of DistiIla-
ton.
The oil wells are going dry.

.
Half of the entire supply Of the
hausted since the first commercial
1859.
The crust of the earth has been
thoroughly explored, and there are, in
all probability, no more such great
continental fields as those of Califor-
mia and Texas.
That is the real force behind the
fiaring words, Gasoline Shortage! !"
that have been shrieking out from
eight-column newspaper advertise
ments in type two inches high, and
which caused 100000 American au-
tomobile owners to reach for the
emergency brake.
The cry has brought the motor
driven, oil-lubricated 1920 model world
up with Jolt and set it's industrial
gears to grinding.
Economically America has gotten
something of a shock, for the country
cannot run without oil, whatever the
rest of the world might DO.
And with the oil wells going dry,
what's the answer?
of the United States Geological Sur
vey.
While Henry Ford has been SOW
ing the world with fiivvers, and the
oil men have been pumping out the
wells at the rate of three or four hun
dred million barrels year to keep
the flivvers moving, the unheralded
unsung and but slightly remunerated
field men of the governments bureau
have been poking into the painted
hills of the Uintah desert of northern
Utah and northwestern Colorado, and
found the answer to the gasoline prob
lem They have explored and mea-
sured and tested the oil shale beds OF
the nation, and they have found, first,
an untouched Oil supply that will guar
antee the nation an adequate supply
of gasoline and all it's allies for the
next 500 years, and, second, the mater
ials for a new industry certain in years
not far ahead to be one Of the great
est yet developed by man.
ShaIe is Salvation.
In the oil shale deposits of Utah.
Colorado and Wyoming lies buried
the motorists salvation, and bed of
unrealized wealth that is destined to
add a new and brilliant chapter to.
the romance of American development
and exploitation.
How nearly exhausted is the pres
ent oil supply of the world may be
seen from a few round figures.
Since the underground pools were
first tapped some 7,000,000,00o barrels
have been taken out, and it is esti-
mated that about as much remains
in the ground.
The consumption in America alone
is close to 100000 barrels year.
At, the present rate the whole sup
ply will be exhausted in a few years.
1t was this certainty that the OIL
wells were giving out that sent the
biologists into the des-
ert to explore the shale beds.
These beds were found to cover
some 5000 square miles in the two
states of Utah and Colorado.
OH shales contains no oil as such.
1t is consolidated mud or clay de-
post from which the petroleum is
obtained by distillation. In appear
ance the shale is black. or brownish
black, turning to gray or ashy white
where exposed to the weather Some
times it is mixed with lime and sand.
It is an argillaceous deposit from pre-
historic ages, caused by animal and
plant life. The American deposits
there are many deposits besides the
known large ones in Utah and Colo
from 20 to 80 gallons of
crude oil to the ton.
The extraction Of oil from shale
IS an old industry that was begun In
Scotland and has grown to consider
able proportions there. At present
some 100000 tons of shale are
worked each year from the deposits
in Midlothian and other countries.
Yet the Scotch deposits are not as
rich in oil as the American. The
Scotch maintain this industry against
he competition of the oil from foreign
wells and make it pay as high as 18
per cent dividends.
France also maintains a shale OIL
To extract the oil from shale the
'ock is heated in retorts, the fumes
driven off by the heat are condensed,
he ammonia is separated from the
and both residues are man
fractured.
VARIETY of produete