Evening star., 1926-10-03

L
before entering the gas business as an
| Office boy at the age of IL, the new
| system of conserving oil would mean
moderately higher gasoline prices for
! the public during the present period
| of superabundant supply, and much
| lower prices than would otherwise
prevail in the future when the threat
| ened shortage would develop If condi-
| tions were allowed to drift.
| Unit operation would benefit the
capable producers through higher
prices, but in the long run it would
| benefit the public still more. More
over, it would tend to assure an ade.
quate supply of oil for national de-
| fense purposes in case of war. If we
| should ever run short of oil, think
what an enormous tax on the product
foreign producers would slap on
/ against us. Consumption of oil is at
/ present exceeding all expectations.
| and is mounting at such prodigiouS
rates that there is bound to be a
shortage unless we conserve our re-
| sources"
| Mr.. Doherty pointed out that at the
| present rate of consumption the entire
output of Pennsylvania wells in 81
years would only supply the current
| demand for one year, and that all the
! production of the six Eastern States
since they first began to produce
| would only take care of current de-
mand for three years.
Stealing Is LegaIized.
Present laws now legalize steal
ing" Mr.. Doherty explained. You
are entitled to all the other fellows
oil you can drill. The conditions
which now prevail at oil camps are dis
| gusting. Virtually no sanitary provi-
| Il A. l.,:HJ 81,
! families who go to undeveloped COM
| munities which spring up overnight.
You would not care to serve your dog
! or your riding horse the food and
/ water which they take. Valuable
| gasoline Vapor is frittered away.
! Practically al! the natural gas is
wasted.
! Big companies. with stakes, oper-
| ate side by side with the wildcatters
| and follow the same uncivilized meth
/ DDS. The big companies Won't build
| paths and roads. because If they did
| all the others would use them and
| profit from them.
| Unit operation would unquestion-
| ably put many ill-equipped independ-
| ent drillers out of business, but in
| stead of wasting five-sixths of the OIL
| would tend to conserve all Of 1t"
Mr.. Doherty, who is an engineer
| had virtually no formal daytime
| schooling. He was the son of a poor
| inventor who died when Henry l.. was
q mere boy. He began to study his
profession in Columbus out of. a gas
catalogue at the age of 10. while an
office boy in a Columbus, Ohio, public
utility company. Being a technical
man, he frequently outthinks his lay
| associates by a decade or so. He first
! shocked the gas industry by advocat-
| ing the use of non-luminous gas and
| also the system of charging customers
! for readiness to serve. instead of eX-
| clusively for cubic feet consumed
| He was pioneer in introducing the
| customer ownership idea to the pub
| lie utility industry.
! Three years ago, when the city Off
cials of Toledo promulgated rules
which he felt would destroy the local
traction company which he owned,
! Mr. Doherty, in the dead of night. re-
| moved the cars from Toledo. over in
| terurban tracks across the Michigan
| lines. and for a while Toledo was troll
| leyless.
Gift for the Dramatic.
| Mr.. Doherty has a gift for the dra-
| matte, the spectacular.
I He lives atop an office building at
| the Battery. overlooking the harbor-
a 3 minutes walk from his Office at 60
! Wall street. The time other men de-
vote to transportation Mr.. Doherty
employs productivity. He does much
! of his work at home. He is free of
the Interruptions of family life and
has little taste for formal dinner
coat" society.
| Mr.. Doherty's home reflects his per-
| sonality. He invented an electric bed.
| which moves on tracks from his bed
! room to his porch. Thus he retires
| and rises in warm room. and sleeps
outdoors all night. He is a prodigious
| worker. and after toiling late into the
night. he frequently rises at Z to play
squash on his roof.
| Mr.. Doherty has never permitted
! the normal conservatism of business
| men to stem his advance. After he
| launched his Cities Service Company
| in 1910 and Wall Street financiers
were hesitant about furnishing him
with funds for the financing of his
novel ideas, Mr.. Doherty went to Eng
| land and Holland, and got the neces-
| sarY capital.
He regards himself as a student and
is happiest when experimenting in his
! laboratory. He gets his greatest
thrill in life from solving a scientific
| riddle-from wooing new secret
| from nature. In the last two years
| Mr.. Doherty discovered a new princi-
pie which he considers the most i'm
portant new idea ever applied to the
! production of OIL 1t is difficult to
state this law in terms which the nom
! engineering mind can grasp, yet it
| has a direct bearing on the unit op-
Grafton of oil wells proposition
Here is Mr.. Doherty's explanation of
| Lit oh 1o loc
unit operation scientifically impera-
| tive:
"Oil as it exists underground and
as an undisturbed pool is in a vastly
different condition from the oil after
we have raised it from the pool and
placed it in our tanks.
:" 1t was my belief that
| the gas dissolved with the Oil brought
about a marked reduction in the Wis
costly resistance offered by a fluid to
| the relative motion of its particles:
internal friction) Of the oil and also
| a. reduction in it's surface tension tor
| tendency to stick to SANDY. In other
words, that oil in a virgin pool was
| much more fluid, due to this dissolved
| gas. than when it had been raised to
| the surface and reduced to atmos-
pheric pressure, and that in a virgin
| pool the oil existed in a more liquid
state and could more readily flow
through the sands, and that It's affinity
for and it's tendency to adhere to the
sands was greatly reduced. l had
our engineers construct experimental
apparatus to test out this theory, and
we found there is most startling re
duction in viscosity and also great
reduction in surface tension.
| 1T is surprising to me that this
discovery was not sooner made by
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