The Cordova daily times., 1923-01-17

, and the like. Some of these cOmpan.
 ies were only getting started when the
 American petroleum industry came
 into being, reducing the price of kero
 sene to such an extent that shale oil operations became unprofitable, and
 the plants were abandoned or adapted
 for use in refining petroleum.
 In 1916 there developed in the Unit
 ed States remarkable interest in oil
 shales and the year marked the begin
 ming of an attempted development of
 an oil shale industry. Since then an
 increasing amount of work has been
 done, but no commercial operations
 have yet been started and the indus
 try does not exist except in the litera-
 ture of promotion organizations.
 In this connection the Bureau of l Mines warns against fake develop ments and says the true industry has suffered greatly from the fake pro- moter and his companies. Tt is req sonable to say that over 100 compan- ies have been organized, ostensibly for the purpose of developing oil shales in some way or another but really for the purpose of fattening the pocket books of the promoters" it was added.
 Oil shale deposits have been worked ] in a small way in the county of Dor | set, England, for centuries. Deposits of importance are found in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia provinces, Canada, and in New South Wales and l Queensland, Australia. In the prov inces of Allier and Saone ct Loire, France, deposits have been worked for half century. Others have been found in Jugo-Slavia, Spain, Sweden, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Esthonia Brazil and elsewhere.
 In this country the largest oil shales are in the Rocky Mountains, and be- long to the Green River formation in northwestern Colorado, southwestern Wyoming and northeastern Utah. This formation contains beds up to 49 feet in thickness that will yield at least 35 gallons of crude oil to the ton. More thorough surveying and sampling is expected to discover thick CT areas of equal or even greater richness. A recently discovered 20- foot seam yielded over 60 gallons of oil to the ton, by laboratory test.
 In Colorado, however, the formation attains maximum thickness of about 2 600 feet
 Some bars too thin to be worked commercially have yielded up to 80 gallons of oil to the ton in laboratory tests, and the Green River formation is declared to contain enough oil shale to yield oil for many years to come. These shades will also yield per ton upwards of 20 pounds of am monium sulphat, valuable for fertil- izer purposes.
 The Nevada shales occur mostly near Elko and Carlin, they differ phys cally from the Green River shale and are lighter in color for the same yield of oil.
 There are deposits in California, but these were said to be hardly true oil shales as the greater part of the oil contained can be extracted by suitable solvents The average yield per ton is not high, the highest being about 20 gallons and their nitrogent con- tent is very low. However, these de- posits are thick and accessible, so that despite their low yield they have commercial possibilities.
 Near Dillon, Montana, there are shales three or more feet in thickness that will probably yield up to 30 gal Ions to the ton. The phosphate beds associated with these shades are pos siblv of future commercial importance as a commercial source of phosphateS, the bureau adds.
 Black shales of DevOnian formation capable of yielding possible economic quantities of oil are known in h. diana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Tennessee. Shales of the same formation, yielding notable quantities. of oil, have been reported in Missouri Kansas. Oklahoma and Texas. While shale oil can be produced Ill quantities in laboratory tests, Of the many small plants erected, mostly for | experimental and demonstrative WorK in various sections of the country none can be considered yet as having operated commercially and they are not large enough to be considered l