, -22 THE SATURDAY EVENING POST March J. 1928

I I ~ o

N VIEW of the now familiar oil over· The difficulty in making any estimate of the produetion, with its unnecessary drain on invisible supply of petroleum grows out of the the natural reserve, the question of future fact that the discovery of crude is not yet an supply becomes increasingly acute. People are beginning Each year has witnessed some new inroad upon oil. Its exact art, although oil science has made many great to wonder if the carriage manufacturer is coming back growing employment in the home is only one of many advances during the last five years. Oil is hidden and pro­ to his former prestige, and whether the faded letters instances. The manufacture and sale o( oil burners to duction therefore becomes a finding industry. Favorable­ IIL-i-v-.e-r-y S-t--a-b-l-e," now supplanted by the more warm the American household has increased more than looking lands become oil fields when the drill has proved ~thetic "G-a-r-a-g-e," on endless buildings, will have to 6000 per cent in the last three years. They warm every the area, and only then. It means that all estimates must be restored. Is a nation on wheels, as it were, going back class, from cottage dweller to lodger in skyscraper hotel necessarily be conjectural. to the hoof so far as daily transport is concerned? and apartment house. Following the constitution of the Federal Oil Conserva­ There is mOTe truth than idle speculation in this sur­ Behind all this is the expanding maw of the American tion Boa'rd by President Coolidge at the end of 1924, the mise. Although it may be postponed longer than we think, motor car. The high-powered vehicle is the demand of the American Petroleum Institute named a committee of the time is inevitable when we shall be obliged to depend public, let gasoline consumption be what it may. In 1918 eleven, which made an exhaustive investigation of the for 'motor fuel on imported crude or a synthetic liquid dis­ we had just passed the 1,000,000 mark with automobiles. petroleum resources of the United States. Their report tilled from coal, lignite or shale. This concluding article Today we have 23,225,000. Optimists in the business forms the best basis for ascertaining just how much oil is therefore will deal with still available. The the vital matter of oil committee estimated exhaustion and, what that the well. and is more important, the fields then producing agencies available to would yield a future stave off the era of sub-- production, by ordi­ stitutes. Into it must nary Clowing and also enter an answer pumping methods, o( to the pregnant inter- 5,300,000,000 barrels rogation: After petro- , of oil. These fields had leum- what? aireadyyielded a grand It is part of the total of 8,000,000,000 chronic paradox which barrels. is oil that in an hour when superabundance The Surplus gluts the market and depresses the price, in T WAS lurther most instances below I pointed out that for cost of production, the each barrel that had specter of famine been produced, and (or should arise. This ap­ each barrel that would prehension, however, be obtained by the I is both timely and well methods then in vogue, I founded, Check the at least two barrels re­ flow of petroleum and mained in the ground. you paralyze power Owing to the haste Ilnd progress all the that ~arks the oil op­ way (rom (arm to (ac­ eration, a maximum of tory and ship. Petro­ only 25 per cent of the leum has become crude in the well is re­ increasingly indispen­ covered. Manyexperts sable to civilization on (eel that the ratio of land and water. two barrels recoverable In the preceding for each barrel already paper you saw how produced is too small, the current crisis, born and that three and , 01 excess, bas brought possibly four will even­ tbe need of conserv­ tually be available. ancy home as never Using the minimum before, and that BOme recovery of two barrels kind of safeguard, for one means that ac­ whether voluntary or cording to the 1924 7h . N ew V . ntura A u"nu . Field California. 'n calcu lation 16,000,- involuntary, will • emerge. This is only 000,000 barrels are in one phase of a bigger problem. No matter how we bulwark predict that we shall double this number in ten years. the reserve, This is based on the 8,000,000,000 barrela Nature's store, we must be prepared eventually to sup­ Whether the prediction comes true or not, the fact remains produced up to that time in the proved areas. Add to this plant her gift with a manufactured product. Conservation tqat for motor transport, as for nearly every other major the crude recoverable by the same ratio from the known can merely prolong the life of an essential raw material line of human activity, we must have more and more oil reserve o( roughly 5,300,000,000 barrels and you have a doomed to ultimate extinction within our confines. to keep the wheels turning. total of 26,600,000,000 barrels. Not all this ocean of liquid The first step in this final appraisal is a recapitulation If we had an inexhaustible reserve of oil underground, gold can be salvaged economically, but the oil is there and of the big facts, notably concerning production. We can­ there would be no commentary on this expanding consump-­ is obtainable in some way. not probe into the future without knowing something tion. The reverse is true, because the store is highly prob­ The committee of eleven report naturally took no cog­ about the past. Oil and its products have become 80 cheap lematical. You cannot block out oil in the same way that nizance of the flush fields brought in after its work ended. and accessible that few people stop to wonder about their our reserves of coal, iron and copper are surveyed. Fur­ Since then new· areas with gush yields have combined to source. In the same way they fail to appreciate the grow­ thermore, coal stays put and oil does not. A testator is bring about the existing overproduction. At the same time ing depletion of the hoard. never certain that his bequest of oil land will be productive they will leave a wider area for recovery through intensive at that distant time when it is drilled by his heirs. This effort. Assets With the Wanderlust results from the nature of crude. It has the wanderlust. Chief among these recent bonanzas is Seminole in Okla­ , Because of its roving disposition, it must be garnered, once homa, whose five pools produced 108,572,461 barrels in INCE Colonel Drake put down his first well in 1859, the the oil well begins to flow. Otherwise adjacent areas take fourteen months. While this series is being written four SUnited States hB8 produced nearly 10,500,000,000 bar­ toll, big wildcat wells in the same area have been brought in, rels of petroleum. The annual output has grown from 209,- Any analysis of the situation must start with an inquiry adding more pools to the field. Under the curtailment 557,000 barrels in 1910 to900,000,000, which WB8 the record into how much oil is left in the ground for our future needs. agreement they have been pinched to 100 barrels a day of last year. We supply70 per cent of the entire world yield. Like every other feature of the business, this is uncertain. each, awaiting the time when the older pools in the district There are many men in the business who believe that if All predictions 80 far have been in error. For forty years shall have had a considerable drop in output. Drilling will our present prodigality continues, this percentage will be dire forecasts of imminent exhaustion ruled. not be delayed long, however, and by early summer these exactly reversed and we sh.n be holding the short end, As recently as 1921 statisticians maintained that our prospective areas, unless drastically held in check, may With increased production bas come a big advance in domestic output would be at its peak when 500,000,000 repeat the 1927 overproduction. use. We consume, with exports, 1,000,000 barrels of gaso­ barrels were obtained. Yet last year, as you have just There appears to be no end to new discoveries and line a day. In 1927 the per capita absorption in the United seen, we produced 900,000,000 barrela, and the figure would production in the West Texas field. In the now famous States WB8 93,9 ganons, while lor the rest 01 the world the have been higher but for the curtailment program at Yates pool two 20,OOO-barrel wells and one 65,OOO-barrel rate was 3.3 gallons. Seminole and Yates, well were discovered late in November. It is estimated 23 THE SIlTURD.IlY EVENING POST•

that the potential daily output of Yates is more than being bucketed- that is, 300,000 barrels. As at Seminole, it is curtailed through actually dipped for oil- in agreement among producers. The limit here is 30,000 these countries . . barrels a day. The Winkler field, also in Texas, would have Colonel Drake used a a daily output of 100,000 barrels if the wells, now shut drill and set casing in a down, were being operated. hole. It was the first time California has come to the front with a fresh spurt. At that this had been done in Long Beach a prolific deep sand has been uncovered in the oil finding. One afternoon oil Signal Hill section. By December first more than 100 in August, 1859, the well reached a depth of sixty­ wells were being drilled. Signal Hill is a town-lot area • where lease owners cannot delay operation. nine feet and the crew To these fields must be added Ventura Avenue and Seal' stopped work lor the day. Beach, both in California, as well as the reborn Spindletop When they returned the in T exas. They strengthen the reserve (or future use. The next morning the well was wells drilled during the last three years have already yielded nearlyful1 of oil. The Drake considerably more than 1,000,000,000 barrels of oil and discovery had been made • their productive life is still largely in the futUre. This and the American petro­ makes the total reserve from all actuaUy proved sources leum industry was born. nearly 30,000,000,000 barrels. At the 1927 rate of produc­ In the early days of the tion, this would last thirty-three years. Appalachian de­ Moreover, the oil store of the United States lies in 1,100,- velopment wells 000,000 acres of land not fully explored in which geology were seldom indicates oil is possible. Here and elsewhere the geologist drilled deeper is on the job with instruments that are taking the mystery than a few hun~ and elusiveness out of oil finding. dred feet. As result that drilling became increasingly shallow sands­ deep. Three Miles Down to Oil all oil is found in It is interesting to contrast that first sands-became sixty~nine foot Drake well with the 8000- T IS not until the finding of new fields lags that we shall exhausted, the foot wells now to be found in California, I concentrate on production in old areas. The period drill, in following • where the operation is on a deeper scale of prolific discovery in Pennsylvania, the mother state of the dip of the pro­ than in any other state. The California petroleum, culminated in 1890. Production declined until ducing horizon, fields provide the latest evidence that deep 1915, when it was only 25 per cent of the peak reached in as it is called, or drilling can harvest two crops of oil. This 1891. Today the output in Pennsylvania is actually in searching for is notably true in the Ventura Avenue greater than it was ten years ago. Efficient operation, once new horizons, field just outside the city of Ventura and it became worth while, not only arrested the decline hut had to go to sixty miles northwest of Los Angeles. In enhanced the yield and held it lor a decade, with the like­ greater depths. 1915 prospectors drilled to 2250 feet- a lihood that it will continue for some time to come. This penetration deep wen for those days. It was not n With this statement we come to what might be called opened up new paying producer and work stopped. Eleven the reclamation processes. They comprise one of the bul­ areas, with the years later commercial oil was brought in warks of the future natural oil at 6000 feet. The field is now producing supply in the United States. 60,000 barrels a day. Another instance of the efficacy oC deep There are four operations- • namely, deeper drilling, water drilling, this time with a romantic back­ • flooding, air and gas lift pres- ground, is furnished by the revived Spindle­ sure, and mining. Each has top. The wells in this spectacular field, demonstrated its ability either which made oil history, never got below to restore old and abandoned A Dynamite EJtplodon 1000 feet. It was long before the deep-drilling era. When areas or increase-the output in to Create an Earth _ they fizzled out the region was practical1y abandoned. active fi elds. We will take quake in 011 Plndlng In 1926, and within stone's throw of the original pro­ them in order. ducing section, oil was discovered in big quantities at At Top - JI Shell Hole Deeper drilling is just what 5000 feet. It is estimated that 60,000,000 barrels of R e~ul tl.nJ( Prom a Syn _ the name implies. T o under­ • thetic Earthquake oi l are now recoverable at Spindletop. Without deep stand it you must know that drilling this might have remained forever locked in the Col. E. L. Drake borrowed Jlt Left-The Irak W e ll sands. Seminole was not proved until the operators the idea for the pioneer oil well Jud After i t Blew In, went down as far as the first prospectors. from salt drillers operating Flooding the Country_' Deep drilling therefore becomes a definite first aid to along the Kanawha River in .Ilde With Oil. It Now our future oil needs. It is altogether likely that the oil Flows 92,OOOBarrel. a • • West Virginia. Before that ' Day well of tomorrow may be Crom 10,000 to 15,000 Ceet in time oil wells had been dug by depth. The development of old areas through this im~ hand in Poland, Rumania and. Below - The Iralt W e ll proved method of production will be tantamount to the . Russia. Even today wells are . B efore It Blew In discovery of fresh fields. • The second method of recovering oil from old wells is by flooding them with water at high pressure. It has been successful1y employed in the old Bradford field of Pennsylvania and elsewhere in that state. The cost is • high and the system cannot be operated economically on low~pri ce d oil on land giving a meager yield.

Scrubbing the Sands With Gas • UCH more has been gained in a practical way from • M gas and air lift. Oil underground is heavily impreg~ nated with natural gas, which helps to propel it to the surface once the hole is made. Unless the operator ex­ I" ercises care, much gas is wasted in the air. Hence the gas-conservancy movement now in full swing. By the gas-lift principle the gas is returned into the well to aid and extend its flowing life. The sands are scrubbed with gas, as the phrase goes, and the gas per- . meates to adjacent areas, accelerating the oil movement. The process is called recycling, because the gas is literal1y recycled back to its original home. It brings about a restoration of pressure. The system has been so perfected that it is now widely employed. At Sem· inole, for example, it increased output by 150,000 barrels a day. It has been known to swell the daily production of a single well Crom 300 to 5000 barrels. In connection with natural gas is a fact that few lay­ men appreciate. The utilization of natural gas lor the making of gasoline constitutes one of the most impor­ tant conservation efforts of the industry. Formerly ( Continued on Page 146)

• • 146 THE SRTURDRY EVENING POST March 3,1928

TRADE • ( Contlnuftd from POlle 23 ' most of the gas coming out of oil wells was The vast army of gold seekers attracted permitted to escape unused. In recent by the superficial gold deposits in the Far years the building of natural gasoline West during the thirty years succeeding plants to take care of the gas has become an the discovery or gold in California in 1849 integral part of operations throughout the became miners by occupation and pros­ country. pectors by in clination. Never had such a Natural gas is an increasingly important pursuit been so favored. A great unde­ , source of gasoline, supplemen ting the supply veloped country with temperate climatic from petroleum. In 1926 the production conditions, abundance of water, .ample of natural gasoline amounted to 32,000,- timber, adequate lines or communication-- -'- - - ( 000 barrels, as against 7,000,000 barrels in accessible to supply bases, combined to 1918. The development of this source of advance their adventurous explorations. supply ranks second only to cracked gaso­ What attracted them to ravine and canyon line, derived from fuel oil and gas oil. in its were the fabulously rich placer deposits • importance in supplying the voracious containing gold that had been washed appetite of the motor car and forestalling a down by erosion from the mother lodes in shortage. the mountains. The gas from petroleum and natural gas When these superficial deposits became wells is treated by two principal methods­ exhausted it was natural that the miner • • absorption and compression. The raw gaso­ should turn his attention to the discovery • line derived is a·very volatile product. New and development of the SOUfCes of the

• methodsof rectification have been developed mineralization that had yielded such which make it possible to produce natural profitable results. Silver, next to gold, was , gasoline suitable for high-compression air­ most eagerly sought. Except in a few plane engines. The major portion of the cases, these Ofes were found associated natural gasoline is employed for blending with the baser metals. The development , • with petroleum gasoline of low volatility . of our complex mines of gold, silver, cop- It thus makes available for motor use a per, lead and zinc followed in natural Quantity of fuel in excess of its production sequence. Coincident with this intensive from crude. search for minerals was the rapid expansion MBOLS OF PROTECTION of the country, offering an extraordinary Mining for 011 market for all metal products. During this time the United States became the chief The air lift uses compressed air instead source of supply of the mineral wealth of AND SECURITY IN A WORLD of gas. It was originally devised to clear the world. Oil vied with copper for premier water out of flooded mines. The presence place. of so much gas in oil fields, however, makes When the period of pioneering had its service preferable to air. passed and the mineral districts of the WHERE TEMPTATION HAS The mining process has been developed United States had been thoroughly sur­ to restore semidepleted oil fi elds. It is veyed, developed and finally c06rdinated considered operable in the majority of into corporate ownership and management, older areas in the United States and has it became necessary to prospect outside INCREASED IN PROPORTION been practically demonstrated in Texas. our confines. The modern copper develop­ Engineers believe that it should recover ments in Mexico, Chile, Peru and other two to three times the oil already obtained countries followed. Happily, we have a big from the wells, and at much lower cost. share of these alien domains. Here you TO PROSPERITY. Because this operation is the latest inner have another parallel with oil, as you will vation in oil recovery and is likely to have presently see. The Latin-American coun­ wide employment in the future, it is well tries, however, were not so favorably condi­ worth explaining in some detail. A shaft tioned for mine-prospecting enterprises as is sunk as in metal mining to a point ten or was the United States. Transport was fifteen feet below the oil sands. At this difficult, progress slower and much more depth tunnels seven feet high are dug fr om capital necessary. the bottom of the shaft out under the sand. It follows that the copper-ore reserves of Cross tunnels are then excavated, so that the United States have been faer more an underground picture of the workings heavily drawn upon than the more recently would resemble the streets of a city. Tun­ developed stores of obner countries. They nels are never driven in the oil sand itself, will have an abundant· supply when we so gas is not a serious fire hazard. Along shall be obliged ,to depend upon the im­ these tunnels small wells are drilled upward ported commodity: Again you have a kin­ into the bottom of the oil sand, one well ship with oil. Persia, Russia and South every ten feet. A pipe is placed in the America will be flush when we are depend­ mouth of each mine well and connected to ing upon the synthetic product . . • • the main pipe line in each tunnel. More • • • There ;$ only one maker of Yale Locks and Keys. than 500 of these little mine wells are From Biblical Day. drilled for each forty acres. Oil flows from • The mark Yale means the tlame of the maker. the bottom of the sand through the mine What a diminished supply of copper • wells to a pump at the bottom of the shaft, might mean to us, both from the industrial whenee it is lifted by pressure to the surface. and political standpoint, is obvious. Cop­ A different mining method is used at per is indispensable to civilization, forming Pechelbronn in Alsaee. There the tunnels an essential element in communication and are dug within the oil sand and the oil al­ electrical development. It is likewise a lowed to seep from the roof, walls and floor vital requisite to national defense. During of the tunnels. The oil then collects in the World Waf it was regarded by all gov­ pools and is pumped to the surface. Ap­ ernments involved as important as TNT. The Yale & Towne Mfg. Co. • proximately 350,000 barrels are recovered In the matter of substitution oil scores on • Stamford, Conn., U. S. A. a year by this method. The Pechelbronn copper. When the petroleum reserve is field was first drilled in the usual manner eventually finished, we shall be able to Canadian Branch at St. CalharineJ, On/. and 16 per cent of the oil obtained. Mining manufacture a substitute from coal, lignite • salvages approximately 50 per cent of the or shale. Science so far has found no - • • remaining crude. Gravity is the principal understudy for copper. • • expulsive force of the Pechelbronn method . Resuming the oil narrative, we can pro­ This reference to mining projects a serious ceed to the most fascinating phase of the situation with regard an essential raw • to subject. It is the new science of petroleum . material that is seldom discussed because it Through what is known as geophysics­ does not figure in the spotlight like oil. I that is, the study of the physics of the - VA refer to the depletion of the copper reserve. earth- the search for crude is becoming • Amazing as it will seem to people not di­ easier and the results more certain. Ap­ rectly connected with the business, we have plied geology has largely contributed to the , only a twenty-year supply remaining in the existing disastrous overproduction. United States. At the present rate of ex­ Oil occupies a paradoxical position among haustion it is even doubtful if there is a minerals in that new researches and de­ store sufficient to cover this period. The velopments have tended to increase rather YALE MARK- ED I -S -Y ALE --MAD E reason is interesting. (C.ntlnu." .n Po•• 149) I

THE SIlTURDAY E V E NING POST 149 • (Con tinued , ,.om Page 146) is made. The samples oC rock taken out than decrease the possibilities of discovery. are analyzed in laboratories and producing It is now known that petroleum occurs in areas charted. An oil bed is distinguished sedimentary rocks of any age and in any by the presence oC fossils and sometimes by structural position. The greater part of the general appearance of rock particles. A the earth's surface is composed DC sedi­ diamond core drill is used in research work. mentary rocks, but not all formations of It is hollow and brings up samples, or cut­ this character contain oil. The aggregate tings, of the formations penetrated. This acreage of all the producing areas in the type oC drill was responsible for the dis­ United States is insignificant compared covery oC the Camous Tonkawa field in with the total area of sedimentary rock. Oklahoma. There are munerous examples in the past With the growing demand on the geolo­ hi~..-O L the industry where regions, once gist to find more and more oil, it became dnlled and abandoned, have been redrilled necessary to know in advance of drilling and found to contain valuable deposits. the general character ot the rocks to a Hence the pursuit DC oil has been a great depth oC several thousand feet. In conge.. adventure. Cold science is now taking the quence he has had to appropriate and adapt thrill out of it. various devices which are almost uncanny For ages oil finding was a haphazard in their operation. Chief among them is proposition. There was no incentive for the seismograph, which deciphers the organized research, because petroleum fig­ nature of deeply buried rocks. ured only incidentally in daily life. No geologist, for example, was required to .Artific ial Earthqu a kes locate the pitch that tightened the seams of boats back in Biblical days. This mate­ As most people are aware, the seismo­ rial, by the way, was used to waterproof graph is commonly employed to detect and the historic little basket in which the infant register earthquake tremors. It was made Moses was found in those well-known bul­ portable and adapted to determining rock rushes. Nor did a scientist discover the character and geologic structure by the Indian oil springs in Northwestern New Germans during the Worl~ War, although York which first introduced petroleum as a its use tor this purpose had long been antici­ lubricant and liniment in the United pated and discussed. States. The usual indication of a deposit Knowing the geology of the French bat­ such as this was through seepage. tlefields and the general character of the The application of science to oil location rocks beneath the terrain, they were able was slow. This means that it barely covers to record the vibrations which artillery fire , two decades. The pioneers worked on a set up in the earth and in the air. From 'j hunch, or used a divining rod made oC the this they were frequently able to locate Al­ forked branches oC a hazel tree. When the lied batteries. The seismograph became a geologist first appeared he was placed in range finder. the same category as the oil witches or the Baron Mintrop, a German nobleman, is oil smellers, who literally smelled out oil. largely responsible Cor the development or The first scientists in the business were the standard oi~-field apparatus now in use. dubbed rock hounds, pebble pups and His war experiences equipped him to em­ wrinkle chasers. The last-mentioned appel­ ploy it in geological formation. He made lation developed from the fact that those the first survey in this country, with his early geologists based some oC their esti­ own staff or operators and instruments. mates on earth wrinkles. Even aCter the Thus indirectly the great conflict has made geologist- or the geolog, as he is called­ a valuable contribution to the petroleum became a fixture, he was looked upon with industry. scorn and skepticism by the old-timers. The use oC the seismograph in oil finding has created a picturesque activity. Earth­ • .Rllied With Sc ie n c e quake waves are transm.itted through vari­ ous classes oC rock at different speeds, What practically amounted to a new depending upon the elasticity of the rocks science had to be developed. The a ccumu~ encountered. One important type of oil lated geologic lore of a generation ago was field in America is always associated with a a totany inadequate basis for an intelligent highly elastic rock- namely, rock salt. To search for new oil fields. Many things had find such an oil field it is necessary first to to be learned and as many unlearned. The locate the buried mass or rock salt with old hunch gave way to definite formulas which it is connected. It one could observe based on incessant probing into the bosom the passage oC an earthquake wave through HO can question your good taste if you present the oC the earth. Geology could not serve the such a rock-salt mass, it would be possible gift of gifts- the famous Mi Choice Package? Regal petroleum industry with the greatest effi­ to detect its presence by reason of the in its beauty- unequalled in its smooth chocolate coat­ ciency, however, until it literally became a accelerated velocity through the highly part of the business. elastic salt. ings and delightful surprise fillings. «Your dealer has In this respect an important advance has The geologist cannot sit down and wait the famous Mi Choice Package in one, two, three and five been registered. The original petroleum for an obliging earthquake to come along pound sIzes. If not, send the coupon and '/>1.50 for the geologists were long-haired and high~ to the particular area he is attempting to browed. They acted as consultants and sat explore. N ature'sordinary quota of destruc­ one pound Mi Choice or 25c for a MiniatureSamplePackage apart, dispensing their academic lore in tive shocks is fully adequate at all times. It packed with the pieces· that have made Mi Choice famous. guarded and jealous fashion. They directed is not sufficient, however, for the oil in­ operations, but did not condescend to be­ dustry in its current hectic search tor new BUNTE BROTHERS, 3301 Franklin Boulevard come part of the searching expedition. areas. For this purpose earthquakes must CH I CAGO, ILLINOIS Moreover, they spoke a totally different be created artificially, at a zero hour, timed language from that of the lowly driller. to the second and of a careCully calculated Neither understood the other. The big air intensity. jective could not be gained until these The oil business thereCore has become the two- the geologist and the driller- actu­ focus and source or an earthquake epidemic ally joined forces in a cooperative effort to of amazing proportions. It literally moves CANDIES locate oil. the earth in the frantic hunt tor more oil. Today this alliance has been effected. Synthetic earthquakes have become one oC The geologist is an active oil finder and the most finished accomplishments oC the BUNTE BROTH ERS , 330 I Franklin Blvd., Chicago, Ill. most oil producers have become geologists scientific end of the game. These are pro­ D 1 enclose $1.50 for a one 01 enc1osez5cfo)-[he Miniature oC parts. Geologists have invaded every duced by burying and exploding large branch of oil-search endeavor and become charges or dynamite. The instant of each pound Mi Choice Package. Mi Choice Sample Package. drillers, lease men, oil-field scouts and even explosion and the arrival of the resulting Name ...... production-department executives. Every wave, or shock, are recorded accurately by company has a highly organized geological a number of portable seismographs distrib­ AddreJJ...... City ...... , ...... staff. In consequence the discovery rate uted around the charge at known distances. has been accelerated tenfold since 1917, The size oC the dynamite charge varies Dealer'J Nafne Here ...... with only a 25 per cent increase in the num­ from 50 to 500 pounds and the distance ber or wells drilled. from charge to seismograph ranges from The first aspect or this new activity had two to five miles. to do with surface geology. More recently There results from this work a dynamite has come subsurface geology, carried on barrage over prospective petroleum lands principally through the study of logs oC reminiscent oC World War bombardments. • wells. A complete record of every well drilled The wildcatter has become one of the best 150 , THE SRTURDAY EVENING POST March S . 1928 , • and largest customers of our explosives in­ known as an electric insulator and offers dustry. Thousands of tons of dynamite are great resistance to the passage of electric detonated annually over the swamps and currents. Recently developed portable woods 01 the Gull Coastal area, The ex­ generators permit the sending of small elec­ plored terrain takes on the aspect of the trical currents, and the induced magnetic shell-pitted No Man's Land 01 trench lines of force, to great depths in the earth warfare. and measuring or following their paths. If So much for the technical explanation of these paths encounter a body of oil­ a performance unique in practical investi­ saturated sand, they will depart from their gation. Now for the results. Earthquake usual arrangement and so reveal the pres­ waves move through ordinary rocks at a ence and posi tion of the oil barrier. speed of something like one mile a second, These aids have not only' proved their whereas through rock salt they hurry along efficacy but their use and value aJ: e... l~ at more than three miles a second. The to be enhanced. An intensive scientific - .- rock-salt masses, with which salt-dome oil study of petroleum has just been inaugu­ fields are associated, are usually a mile or rated under the auspices of the Central more in horizontal dimensions. Therefore Petroleum Committee of the National Re­ if a rock-salt mass occurs beneath the sur­ search Council through the generosity of face between the dynamite charge and any John D. Rockereller and the Universal Oil of the seismographs, its presence will be Products Company, Each gave $250,000 proclaimed by the velocity record which for the purpose. the apparatus makes. Twenty-one subjects for fundamental The seismograph crew moves about over research have been outlined. Five are the country, sending out earthquake waves . along geographical lines, seven deal with over a closely intersecting pattern so that physics and the rest with chemical prob­ no buried salt dome or any other mass of lems in the industry. elastic rocks with which oil might be asso­ ciated can escape it. Once a salt dome is .on OIl.Jnsurance Policy found in this fashion, the drill is set to work to deter1'Qine if there is any oil The first phase will be a study of the gen­ around it. eration of petroleum, seeking to discover The seismograph is .peculiarly useful in the process by which and the source from the' search for salt domes on the Gulf Coast. which it accumulates in the earth. This Berore geophysical methods were intro­ embraces studies of fossil organic matter to duced, there were seventy-five known determine what is really the mother sub­ domes in the region, everyone a possible stance of oil. Once this is learned, geolo­ oil field. or this number a dozen were al­ gists will be better equipped to locate pools, ready prolific producers. By the use of the You cannot wonder at the uncertainty of geophysical instruments six more have been the oil business when you are told that its discovered and the search has only started. very origin is in doubt. One theory is that 01 the new dom.. already located, 85 per it is inorganic- that is, the development cent are credited to the seismograph. from chemical action on rocks forming ecommend? The Gul! Coast region 'ends itsel! to part or the earth's crust. Another holds • seismographic investigation because of the that oil is organic, resulting from the decay elasticity of the rock. Elsewhere this elas. of animal and vegetable matter, both land ticity is less differentiated, as the scientist and marine. expresses it. In such areas seismic work is Another line or investigation covers oil , more complex and difficult. For these re­ structures. Sometimes when apparently gions the apparatus known to the physicist promising structures are round, efforts to as the torsion balance is employed. This locate oil prove fruitless. With better brings us to the second or the modern knowledge of the mother substance, drilling • divining rods. of favorable formations which do not con­ tain the proper source rocks, would be The Mode rn Divining Rod avoided. More important to our future oil needs A torsion balance is a precise instrument is a forthcomi ng survey of shale deposits, ucces for measuring the strength of the ordinary because out of shale may be distilled the lorce 01 gravity, It will be recalled that motor fuel of tomorrow. gravity is the form of attraction which Science is being mobilized not only to every bit of matter in the universe exerts on increase the petroleum supply hut to make every other. lC an ordinary pendulum is set it go farther. This is being done in two swinging, it will eventually come to rest at ways. One is by means of improved refin­ the central or lowest part of the path of its ing processes, principally cracking, which swing, because the force o( gravity alone have steadily increased the yield of gaso­ finally holds it as close as p06Sible to the line, now the major product of petroleum. earth. Twenty years ago only 4.5 gallons of gaso­ The torsion balance is a pendulum which line were derived from a forty-two-gallon For 75c you can quickly m ak e on e of the most important repairs swings in a horizontal plane instead of in a barrel of crude. Now nearly fifteen gallons in your autom obile. Simply pour a can of Warne r Liquid Solder vertical plane. In its simplest form it is a are obtained. It is possible that through into th e radiator. It circulates w ith the water h armlessly, w ithout metal rod or bar with weighted ends, sus­ further refining advance such complete use clogging circulation. It qu ickly finds and stops the leak or m on ey pended at the center by a wire from a fixed will be made 01 luel oil that it will cease to back. Makescom plete and perman ent repair. G uara nteed absolutely support. As the bar swings around, the compete with coal. harmless. Million s of users ,e ndorse it; that is w h y dealers ever y­ wire is twisted until its resistance finally The other economy is being achieved where recomme nd it. Get a can at on ce, b ut be sure it is the green swings it in the other direction. It goes through structural mechanical changes in can of Warner Liquid Solder, because there is nothing else" just as back and forth until it finally comes to rest. the automobile so that more mileage will It The application to oil finding is made in be gotten (rom gasoline than is obtained good ". Avoid substitutes; they m ay be dan gerous. could not this way: It has been observed that the today. This saving in fuel comes from re­ enjoy its nation·wide sales leadership if it did not deserve it. rocks in which petroleum is found are often duction in the size or the engine, less horse denser or more compact than the surround­ power and more flexibility of operation. ing rocks at the same depth. By moving a All this scientific advance haS a distinct torsion balance from point to point over virtue. At the same time it embodies what the surrace it is possible to detect the pres-­ might be construed as something of a de-­ ence of very heavy rocks beneath and thus recto Geology makes oil discovery easier, locate points at which it may be worth to be sure, but it also accelerates the drain while to drill a well. on the reserve. This store must find reen­ The third geophysical method involves forcement if the age of substitutes is to be measuring the strength of the earth's mag­ deferred. netic field from place to place with a deli­ Long before the present overproduction cately balanced magnetic needle. The conjured up the vision of scarcity, the earth's magnetism is often abnormal in oil AmerIcan oil industry began to write an fields. By magnetometric survey it is pO&­ insurance policy in the shape of producing sible to locate an area or abnormal mag­ lands abroad. We are now intrenched in Di&; Truck and Tractor SI:e $ 1.00 CANADI AN PRICESz 100:. can SSe 160:. can $ 1.25 netic force, thus giving a possible clew to a practically every great petroleum domain Pallen"er Car 8i:e 7 Sc buried pool. overseas, notably Latin America, and are WARN ER-PA'IIERSON C.Q. A fourth rather widely used apparatus increasing our holdings every year. The General Oflicu: ChlcallO, 111., 920 S. Michil'on Ave. New York ,17W. 60th St. Lo. An"ele.. ZSOW. 15th. utilizes the property of petroleum which sun never sets upon the Yankee driller , C(lnadian O/ficu: Montreal, JS St. Nichola. St.,Win nipq, 208 Kennedy Bid,.. Export Deportment: 549 W. W •• hinkton BI",d., Chic."". III. C.hk Add,eu: "WllIplar¥ Clnc.io," Bmrk, Wwnn UnIOn Q,d" . makes it impermeable to the flow of an operating on Yankee owned properties. ,,1..tO WAUU or W.. ,,," LlqUid M",fc ,",AT PEIf""""TW, ..au. aUfT ""0 WUJC"TU. electric or magnetic force. Oil is well ( Conti nue d on P o •• 153)

, •

THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 153 •

(Contln"." from Page 150) ownership rights for a concession . Thus First let us visualize the world output, the retroactive and confiscatory feature or because it will show how we dominate the the constitution of 1917 remains effective. situation. In 1900 the entire production It is likely to continue so long as Calles • from all sources was less than 150,000,000 and his type of government persist. barrels. In sixteen years it had grown to The decline in Mexican output consti­ only 457,500,000 barrels. The motor car tutes the strongest possible indictment oC had not become the factor in consumption communistic meddling in big industry. In that it is today. By 1926 it reached 1,095,- 1922 the yield waa 182,278,000 barrels. In 934,000 barrels. To this the United States 1927 it had shrunk to 65,000,000 barrels. contributed 70 per cent. Mexico was sec­ Though intrusion of salt water had depre­ ond with 8.a" per cent, Russia third with ciated some of the older fields, the output 5-.'?'!· p~r ... ~:cen t, Venezuela fourth with 3.41 would have been much bigger if socialistic per cent and Persia fifth with 3.27 per cent. adventuring had not well-nigh paralyzed These were the big five. Last year the total operation and begot uncertainty of actual world output expanded to 1,243,000,000 ownership. barrels andour share was again 70 per cent . In still another Latin-American field the Russia moved up to second place and American oil man is booked for possible Mexico dropped to third because of gov­ trouble. We own practically the entire ernmental interference with operation. productive area of Colombia, which last Venezuela and Persia remained fourth and year added 15,000,000 barrels to the world fifth respectively. supply. Legislation is now pending in the The fact that Russia now ranks second Colombian congress to nationalize the oil in output justifies comment for a variety industry. The effect is not, however, 80 • oC reasons. From the late 90's until 1901 Car-reaching or destructive as the Mexican she led the world in petroleum production, program. producing a little more than 50 per cent of the total. H er two great fields- Baku on The Ame rican Gro up the Caspian Sea, which is the oldest in the world, and Grozny in the Northern Cau­ A refreshing exception is Venezuela. casus- were regarded as the greatest of all Here American interests control nearly 40 reserves. The decline to less than 6 per per cent of the fields, where output in 1927 cent of the world output shows how her oil was 62,000,000 barrels. The oil offensive prestige is dimmed. We supplanted her radiates from Maracaibo, once the haunt and have led for twenty-six years. and rendezvous of pirates like Morgan and We have- or rather had- a definite Lafitte, who infested the Spanish Main. stake in Russian oil and it unfolds a sad Political and legal conditions in Vene­ tale of expropriation and loss. When the zuela are much more favorable to industrial Bolsheviks came into power they seized all development than in Mexico. Dictator private property and nationalized every Gomez is a shrewd business man and has industry, with disastrous results for the gi ven every possible aid to alien enter­ victims. In most cases the business also prises. Oil has become the foremost meal suffered. Oil furnishes perhaps the one ticket of the country. M oreover, it is exception, because during last October pr~ changing the face of the country, because duction was brought to the prewar level it means good highways, increased wages for the first time. and a higher standard of living for the Before sovietism became confiscation, natives. • the Standard 01 New Jersey bought a hall Conditions similar to those in Venezuela Yellowstone only $4. 75 extra interest in the Nobel oil concern, which had prevail in Peru. Here American companies Free tnp to Colorado extensive holdings in all the Russian areas. own 81.16 per cent of the oil area. Like These included wells, pipe lines, refineries Gomez, the Peruvian president, who is the and marketing facilities. The total invest­ . masterful little Leguia, encourages the for­ A trip to three great sceni c Hills and the Big H orn Moun­ ment involved was not less than $60,000,- eigner. American-controlled development wonderlands, for only slightly tains areon the way- reached 000. These immense interests were com­ has redeemed the Talara region from the mandeered by Moscow and placed in desert and given it an annual production more than the cost of your by short side trips. Then home, charge of what is called the Naphtha Syn­ 01 more than 10,000,000 barrels. Glacier Park ticket alone! by an en ti rely differen t rou te! dicate. In Russia every industrial undertak­ Our oil exploitation extends from Canada, That's what Burlington And famous Burlington ing is operated through a syndicate which where it affects 69.13 per cent of the busi­ the government both owns and operates. ness, by way of Rumania, with holdings of service makes possible for you service all the way. The only nearly 7 per cent, to Poland, with 6.58 per this summer. through trains to Glacier Park. Trouble In 011 cent. It has a share in the Trinidad output Firs t, Glacier National Burlington Escorted TOllrs and a small Coothold in Argentina. The Park-overwhelming in its The net result is that the Standard and Dutch Indies, preeminently the horne of A new, carefree way to see the Nobels have lost their properties. the vast Royal Dutch combine, have also vastness and grandeur, the •• • the Rockies. Defini te cost Meanwhile the Bolsheviks are producing been invaded by the Yankee. most ImpressIve m ountain covering all necessary ex­ and selling the oil throughout the world One American oil interest overseas is in a scenery in all America. Trails and the rightful owners do not receive any class by itaelf. It involves the participa­ penses. Everything planned compensation. It is just one more com­ tion of what is known ' as the American to ride, glaciers to climb, in advance. Travel expertwith group in the Turkish Petroleum Company, mentary on the economic injustice- I use lakes to explore, beautiful each party. Mark the c upon the most amiable expression- of the Bol­ which has begun an extensive development mountain highways- and the shevik business creed. in Irak, the one-time Mesopotamia. The for Tours Book. The recent experiences oC American oil concession is more bound up with romance solid co mfort of great hotels producers in M exico show how complica­ and political adventure than any similar and cozy chalets ... FREE BOOK tions pursue operation abroad as well as at modern undertaking. It has survived two Then you can go on to Yel­ horne. \Ve own 66 per cent oC the Mexican empires- the German and the Turkish­ lowstone-only $4.75 extra Send /M coupon /01' oil fields, representing an investment or and was originally linked with the departed /1''', iI/us/rated Book $600,000,000. American capital and initia­ T eutonic ambition to rule the East. I have rail cost. Any Yellowstone 0/ Glacier Park Va­ tive made the republic at one time the already told the story of this enterprise in tour may include the famous second most important productive area in detail in these columns. A brief summary caliOn!. Full deJails on bargain voea/ionJ U " ... the world. Tampico emerged from a small is necessary to bring it up to date. Cod y Road free. C.. _w.""'" """ town into a thriving city as a direct result In the early days of the twentieth cen­ Then to Scenic Colorado at 0/2 weeks or longer. of the oil effort. More than 60 per cent or tury the Germans discovered oil in the no extra rail fare. The Black the national revenue was derived from 1;he Mosul area, which was then a part of petroleum taxes. Turkey. They wanted an economic foot­ • There is no need of rehearsing the Mex­ hold there, because the German-conceived ican oil muddle save to say that the Su­ Berlin-to-Bagdad Railway ran through the preme Court decision, ostensibly favorable "Sultan's domain and was part oC the Hohen­ to the American interests, handed down zollern spearhead· aimed at British rule in The Most Popular Route late in November, did not solve the Cunda­ India. The British and Dutch also aspired to the Rockies mental problem involved. The alien land­ to control the area, with the result that in Burlington Travel Bureau Dept. 5-1 owner is still obliged to exchange his actual 1912 the late Sir Ernest Cassel, who owned 547 We" Jackson Blvd., Chicago, III. Send me your (ree illustrated book about Glacier National Park vacations.

...... - ......

.Addr~/s ...... Mark an X here if you wish the book on Burlington Escorted Tours. 154 THE SJlTURD.IlY EVENING POST March J,192l1

. the National Bank of Turkey, a British In consequence the entire countryside was THE SHIRT- or- THE - MONTH institution, coordinated all the conflicting awash with oil. Two American drillers elements and organized the Turkish Petro­ were Catally gassed. This spectacular dis­ FOR MARCH ... A new Fruit.'of-the-, leum Company. This same name had been covery temporarily focused world oil at­ Loom shirt in the handsomest pattern you used by the original German prospectors. tention on the Mosul area. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company got 50 Irak is now added to the list of petro­ ever saw .. , Diamond-flecked in neat de­ per cent of the stock and the Dutch-Shell leum fields. 9ther wells have been brought sign ... Trim-tailored collar and cuffs, , . and the'Deutsche Bank, which represented in and there is promise of a huge produc­ the Germans, 25 per cent each. tion. The country is so isolated that ex· Because of the vagaries oC Turkish rule pansion is invested with hardship as wen as the validity of the concession was more or great expense. Among other things, a pipe • less in doubt. The World War galvanized line 700 miles in length will have to be built it into new liCe and integrity, but not with­ across Syria to link Irak with thtflllMedite.r.· out almost endless complications. For one ranean. What has often been called the thing the Turks lost a great deal oC their cradle of the world, where stalked the fig­ territory, including Mosul. It became part ures oC an immortal age, will soon be har­ of Mesopotamia, which, in turn, emerged nessed up to modern industrial needs. as the independent country oC Irak under Oil has become a world issue of vital and British mandate. increasing interest, because essential raw It was not until the San Remo Confer­ materials are the new incentives (or gov­ ence in 1920 that the Turkish Petroleum ernmental control everywhere. The asso­ concession once more became a live inter­ ciation of the American group in the national issue. At this meeting of the Turkish Petroleum venture thereCore means Allied Supreme Council the oil spoils of much more than a quarter share in a new • war were distributed. The German inter­ flush field. It signifies that we are part and est of 25 per cent in the Turkish Petroleum parcel of a petroleum internationale, which Company was given to a French group in can only make Cor political and economic consideration oC the right to build a pipe amity between the four countries involved. So essentially smart that you'll take co it at line across Syria, where France hns a man­ With kindred interesm, they will be dis­ date, to the Mediterranean. This left the posed to keep the peace. once, and wear it as often as you can ... Anglo-Persian with 60 per cent and the Dutch with the remainder. The Shortage Solution This shirt comes in three tones-green, The United States suddenly woke up to blue or tan-and has all the thorough­ the Cact that it had been leCt out in the cold. At this point the question arises: How After diplomatic representations by the can the existing American machinery of oil bred quality long associated with Fruit-of­ State Depar.tment, the Anglo-Persian transport be adapted to a foreign supply'! the-Loom .. , See it today in leading scores! turned over half its share to what is known Several years ago I put this query to the as the American group, composed oC the head of one oC the greatest oil companies in Standard oC New Jersey, tbe Standard oC the United States. His reply, as applicable New York, the GulC Refining Company, today as then, was as Collows: FRUIT OF THE LOOMj the Atlantic Refining Company and the ., If the source of a considerable part oC Neclc.band StYle With rwo Swched Pan·American Petroleum Company. Amer· the American people's crude oil require­ or Collar AttaChed Collan (0 Match ican entrance meant the open door in Irak ments be transCerred. from domestic to on an equitable basis for everybody con­ foreign fields, the American petroleum ma­ cerned. We perCormed the same operation, chine can go into reverse without much by the way. for trade in China. more effort than throwing out the clutch. A wide assortment of other patterns to choose from The Turkish Petroleum Company was It was built to do that. not able to drill until last year. Many ob­ U The trunk pipe lines Crom the interior ECLlPSE·NEEDLES COMPANY. PHILADELPHIA stacles intervened. First the Mosul terri­ to Atlantic and ·Gulf ports will carry crude torial problem had to be settled by the as cheaply to the interior ns away from it. League oC Nations and lrak stabilized Should the American producing field be as a functioning country. A formal agree- · changed into a consuming market, the ment between the Irak Government and problem oC supplying the refineries depend~ the company was then necessary. It was ent upon it would present no great diffi­ signed in 1925. There was still a difficulty. culties, and the cost need not necessarily A picturesque Armenian, C. S. Gulbenkian, be much higher. Once afloat and in large who had been financial adviser to Abdul bulk, crude oil can be transported in tank· Hamid, last of the Turkish Sultans, owned ers at a surprisingly cheap rate as compared a 5 per cent interest in the company. When with any other method. his claim was adjudicated in 1926 with a "The big tankers with which the in­ royalty arrangement, the way was finally dustry has equipped itself, and which are open to exploitation. now engaged in the movement oC crude oil from California and Gulf ports to various I oR Gu.her Blow. In seaboard refinery points, could be used for the movement of crude from, say, a Medi­ Late in September, 1926, it was decided terranean port, which would be the terminus I to drill ten wells in an area including five of a pipe line from Irak, at a lower cost districts. Four ~re in the wild country of than is now incurred in moving crude the Kurds, which lies toward the eastern through the Panama Canal from California border of Irak, adjacent to the Persian to 8 North Atlantic port. The longer the frontier. It is a hilly region, merging grad­ water route, the cheaper the cost per ton ually into the Kurdish mountains which mile. It is as Ceasible to bring crude by overlook the ancient Tigris River. The water from foreign fields to be refined in Kurds are descendants of the Saracens, the Atlantic, GulC or Pacific Coast refiner· A Few of the Users of BULL DOG Products whose gallant and warlike leader, Saladin, ies, exporting the surplus, as to refine the was the implacable Coe oC Richard the Lion­ crude at the point of origin and be under Aluminum Co. of America E. t. du Pont de Nemours Libbey GlaM M(g. Co. Amo:.rlcan Radiator Co. &. Companv. Inc. McCllndc-Mauhall Co. Hearted in the days of the Crllsades. the necessity of exporting all the variety oC American Telephone &. Firettone Ti.re &. Rubber Co. Nalional Carbon Co., Inc. The remaining district to be developed finished products derived Crom it. Telearaph Co. Ford Motor Company New York Central R. R.Co. is on the west bank of the Tigris, forty .. Given access to Coreign producing fields, Atchiton. Topcka&Santa FeRy, General Motor. Corp. Packard MOlor Car Co. miles BOuth oC Nineveh, renowned in his­ the industry could protect American con· Baldwin Locomotive Woru H. J. Helnt Company Solva" Procell Co. Baldmore &. Ohio R. R. HudJOn MOlOr Car Co. Srandard Oil Company tory as the scene oC the great Assyrian sumers of petroleum products against Bethlehem 8tHi Co. Jone. &. Lauahlin Steel The Studebaker Corp. battle raid. This section differs from Kur­ danger of shortages, and hold and increase Oodifl Brothers Corporation U. S. Rubber Company distan in that it is flat desert and sand. The its· foreign trade. It would not matter in oil seepage is so rich that it can be smelled what remote corner oC the globe the fields miles away. were situated if American tankers could The Kurdistan area has produced the tank them. Diminution oC our native first big strike. In October last a great crude supply would not in the slightest de­ gusher, which flows 92,000 barrels a day, gree mean the impairment oC America's was discovered. On the night oC the (our­ position as the greatest petroleum exporting Sa( 10 FUM: FusenletJ Panelboard. Sa(ety Swhchet teenth work was suspended at a depth of country in the world." OVER 25 YEARS of Research and Development 1500 feet. The camp was in repose and no Despite imports from foreign fields and sound was heard save tbe cballenges oC the the salvaging of old areas. it is obvious that sentries. This land is still so primitive that some day our petroleum supply will be BULLDOG ELECTRIC PRODUCTS CO. armed guards must be maintained. At inadequate. How are we to meet the (MU'Il'UAL EL£CTIlUO &. MACHINE co.) three o'clock in the morning the place was deficiency? DETROIT MICH. U.SA. awakened by a crack Collowed by a terrific The answer is simple. Foreign nations, roar. The monster well had blown itself in. especially Germany, have already solved

For si. days it defied 811 efforts to shut it. • (Con,'n.,_" .n Pa•• 167)

• THE SIlTURD.IlY EVENING POST 157

(Continued from Paxe 154J patents made last summer by Walter the problem on a commercial basis at exist­ Teagle, president of the company, but the ing prices for oil products. We can dupli­ American rights to the original Bergius cate their effort and on a bigger scale. We patents, seized during the war, now repose will make our oil and gasoline when it be­ in the archives ot our Chemical Founda~ comes worth while out of carbon and hydro­ tion. It will be necessary only tor an Amer­ gen, the same ingredients that Nature uses ican concern to get a license to use them. in her laboratories. Meanwhile our chemical research will un­ _ We possess these elements in literally doubtedly devise some new operation. inexhaustible Quantities. They are the two What concerns us is the date when we fundamental constituents- in (act, the only shall be obliged to turn to synthetic oil. essentials pf' petroleum and petroleum de­ Contrary to popular beliet, it will arrive :' i va~lv el:f. By heat and pressure we can considerably before the exhaustion of our combine them to form our various neces­ native petroleum supply. The artificial sary oil and liquid fuels. They occur product is likely to compete with the real throughout the earth and over as much of thing. the universe as it is possible to observe with The general opinion among American oil any degree of precision. The ocean- that men is that when gasoline sells from twelve is, water itself- is hydrogen in large part. to fifteen cents a gallon at the refinery- at Every woody plant is essentially carbon. this rate the cost at the filJing station would Our coal, lignite and shale are carbon and range from twenty-five to thirty cents- it hydrogen susceptible of conversion into will be time to turn to the manutacture of fuel and lubricants in such quantities as to oil out of coal, lignite or shale. The Ger­ furnish gasoline in adequate volume for mans are now trying to demonstrate that • centuries to come. they can sell gasoline made from brown It is not surprising that the Germans coal at the equivalent of twenty-five cents should have been the first to find the for­ a gallon. TIll: ROLLS mula for synthetic oil. Their research in .'·"Ie. M· 2HI substitutes leads the world. Self-sufficiency .R Look Into th. Future in raw materials dictated an intensive drive during the war, when the country was The important point is that whenever under rigid Allied blockade. They were the era of substitutes arrives we shaH not not pushed for oil, because the Rumanian only be equipped with formulas but have supply was available. . vast supplies of available raw material. It • Their chief anxiety, after tood and cop­ so happens that our great coal fields are per, was for rubber, which was artificially adjacent to oil-producing areas. This is C ave JP Il'ea rlllR ~ ./ produced during the last two years ot the notably true in Pennsylvania, West Vir­ conflict . The product was especially useful ginia, Indiana, Illinois, Texas and Okla­ on truck tires so long as they remained in homa. The value ot this proximity is that FLORSHEIM SHOES a temperate climate. Exposed to the rigors the equipment for both transport and re­ 'ou get vu lue for whut you pay. in Fl.OUSU EI M SHO ..:S. of Russia and Poland, they failed to stand fining is near at hand. We possess immense Lung weur has mudt' fumou-i. Their leathers. the strain. Besides, the process was highly deposits of shale in Colorado, Wyoming, them fint' expensive• . Washington and elsewhere. Half the Amer­ t:nduri nf;!; tfuulil y servt' and sav' uver (\ long periOlI of It is interesting to interpolate that dur­ ican states could easily become sources time. They p;ive you money's worth unci more in every pl\ir. ing November the Chemical Trust- the of oil. famous I. G.- which is the biggest indus­ This transition will work a tremendous MO$l tylC$ '10 trial aggregation in Germany, announced change. For one thing, oil finding becomes that its chemists had finally manufactured a mining proposition. Coal, lignite and THE Fr.ORSHEIM S,IOE COMI'ANY' Mo. t u rtrs . CHI C AGO synthetic rubber that could be commer­ shale must be dug, requiring much more cialized. No explanation was made save manual labor than the present drilling op­ that a new catalyzer had been found unit­ eration. It would mark the end of the land­ ing the elements ot rubber contained in coal owne~'s hectic rush to have his holding c A N tar. If this discovery is practical it will explOIted the moment oil is struck. What­ mark an era in industriallHe. For decades ever the other economic consequences, the the conquest of artificial rubber has been synthetic epoch will doom overproduction. the dream of chemists the world over. One final query remains. How can the existing refmeries be adapted to an arti­ .flU From Coal fi cial product? This will offer no difficult problem. Since 1918 improvements in The I. G. controls the Bergius patent for refining, notably to increase gasoline ex­ synthetic oil now being used in Germany. traction, have been 80 constant that most Under it bituminous or subbituminous of the big establishmen ts are remade every coal is milled, or pulverized, to a fine few years. The conversion to coal or shale powder, to which 30 per cent coal tar or oil distilled oil would therefore be just another residue is added, torming a thick paste. step in what has become a continuous This mixture is heated to a temperature of evolution. not less than 400 degrees centigrade while All this means that the motor car should • terrific pressure is applied. This carbon in be able to continue its triumphant march. its pasty state takes up tbe hydrogen to The oil industry, which gave U8 a new world create the oil. The first-run oil is then industrial supremacy, is equipping itself to distilled. meet the emergency ot a depleted natural According to official reports made to the crude reserve and remain a dominant factor Department ot Commerce, a ton ot coal in our productive lire. with 6 per cent ash content yields 1000 Editor'. Note-Thi. i. the fourth and lal t of a pounds of oil. This, in turn, is productive IC rie. of article. by Mr. MarCOllon dealina with Whip the streams; land your speckled beauties­ 01 300 pounds 01 gasoline, 400 pounds 01 the oil l ituat ion. and then what ? Karnpkook them. For wholesome, Diesel and impregnated oils, 120 pounds of hunger satisfying camp meals, nothing quite equals lubricants and 160 pounds of tuel oil. The The Reagan County Oil Field Kampkookin g. And if your luck has been poor, rest is lost. By this process the cost ot a ton ot oil N ONE of Mr. Marcosson's articles in substitute whatever your appetite demands-but products is Irom $20 to $23. The price of I the present series he repeated a story you can't substitute for Kampkook. the natural article in Germany, with im­ about the location of the Big Lake Field This sure fire camp stove is going full tilt in two port tax, varies from $35 to $47.50. During in Reagan County which in BOrne ot its minutes; your meal is half done before you can this year the I. G. expects to produce 100,- details is incorrect. According to Frank T. gather fuel for an open camp fire. Burns ga soline, 000 tons of synthetic oil, which will be an Pickerell, Vice President ot the Texon Oil works in any wind or weather. Bakes and broils as important contribution to the country's and Land Company, Dr. Hugh H. Tucker requirements. drove the stake at the present site of the well as it fries and boils. M ost experienced campers Not only are the I. G. oil processes avail­ Santa Rita, the discovery well ot Reagan use Kampkook. Take a tip from them. Your able tor the Standard of New Jersey County, Texas, and it was upon his recom­ dealer can supply you. through an arrangement tor interchange ot mendation that this well was drilled. AMII"ICAN G AS M ACHiN!. Co., I NC. D I!.PT. D. 2, Aul!.u LEA, M INN. Folder describing five popular models sent Send me full parucwra about Amer)an on request. Kampkoo .... Name ...... American Gas Machine Co., Inc. Addte...... ALBERT LEA. MIN NESOTA Town and Sute...... Ntw You:, N. Y. O"J:LAND, CO'\UP.