Show p v I OIL SHALE HANDLING j Valuable Pointers Given by Amer American Amerlean j i lean ican Consul at Consul Rufus Fleming writes from EdInburgh that shale distillation has been carried on an In Scotland for more than halt half n a century He lie detail details the operations oP I 4 for the benefit of or American merlean inquirers as asI I t follows ii 4 j This Industry is practically confined to ij 4 I I the two counties of and andI I Edinburgh The Tho output of oil all shale In re recent reo recent o cent years has bas varied from to toI i I tons per por annum In 1004 the lat latest 4 1 I est cst year for lor which trustworthy statis statistics 1 tics lies arc are obtainable Scotland produced tons The marketable products J t I of the Industry were Burning DurnIng oil I Ii 4 i H 74 gallons naphtha gallons gas J S aI oil tons lubricating oil tons tOils it paraffin wax 2247 tons sulphate of am ammonia amS S monia flonIa tons The Thc value alue of total products has not been ben officially stated 1 but hut it Is 11 estimated at somewhat above aboe i I tho the figures for 1003 In 1903 l and andi i a I there thero was It Is believed a consider considerable considerable i I able advance In the output of shale and andi j i the tho quantities of the various arlous products Of dr drI I manufacture The Tho mineral minerai oil Industry i lies lias las experienced many vicissitudes due dueI I 1 chiefly to foreign competition and to lack lackI I of proper organization Within the last lasto 1 o i decade seven Scottish oil companies have hae I I gone Kono out of or business hut but production has not ot diminished the remaining six sta com corn companies I J panics having extended their operations Improved and cheapened their processes 0 i and established the Industry on a fairly fair fairI I I secure and profitable basis basist 1 t I Technical Information I L OH Oil are found In several sec see sections I 1 I lions of or the tho United States Now and ir then I have received letters from persons I or firms In America wishing to know the ii I nature of Scottish oil on shale how It is IsI isI I 1 worked the methods of ot distillation etc 1 Some Bome years yeans ago I for a mineral e oil company In a n western state blue blueprints blueprints prints of retorts used in oil shale works 5 1 4 j here from which the engineer en ineer i I constructed retorts that I am told have been in successful operation To anyone anOne I interested in the discovery dl and utilization utilizationS S 1 l of or oil shale a government publication Just justI j I issued by the geological survey SUITe office I I London will be of or value alne It treats of the I Oil of or the Lothian dealing 1 with 1 the geology of the shale fields I CZ 2 methods of o working the seams an 3 I the chemistry of the mineral mineraI An Jn adequate summary of or this detailed and technical report la is I Impracticable but buta a few tew facts of special Importance to Americans who have hae been giving atten attention at attention ten j tion to oil oU shale may ma be stated 4 The workable seams scams of or oil shale in I i Scotland all nil occur In the calciferous sand sandstone sandI I l I t stone series which has two subdivisions I i II The upper r known as the oil oU shale group 4 1 Is over feet In thickness and con contains I 1 in its higher parts beds of or coal I usually of Inferior quality and farther down about six main seams of oil shale with Ith beds beda eds of sandstone j shale fire tire clay cia marl and estuarine lime limestone j stone The Tho lower grouP croup In which no oil oU 1 hal I of economic Importance have hae yet yeti 1 I i l been cen found consist of white sandstone i i i passing downward into gray gra e t teen green en and red clays cla s marl and nd sandstones with beds of or argillaceous limestone or cement stone 1 Physical Character of Shale 1 Tn In regard to the physical characters 1 L of oil shale the report says that good 1 hale ahab J can as a Ii rule be distinguished by b l 1 1 its brown streak toughness and resist resistance 4 1 ance to ta disintegration by the weather Ordinary carbonaceous shale is Js more or orr j r less lez brittle and often gritty and when I I exposed to the th air It cracks and cram crum bles ides Into fragments which ultimately be become bej become j come clay day or mud OH Oil shale on the oth othor i I if i or r hand resembles hard dark wood or ordry ordry I dry leather and its quality in the field t t 1 I is 15 measured by bythe the degree of or facility with 1 i jfe which it can be cut and curled up with t 1 t the edge of ot a sharp knife It is free Cree from il f grIttiness and is often flexible as well as asU U i 1 tough Variable Qualities of Shale Tr t j Miners draw a distinction between I plain and curly curl shale the former c t variety arlet being flat Clat and smooth and the t I latter lA t tt r contorted or curled and polished I jI or ur on the squeezed faces The 11 same Ram seam may ma be portly partly plain and part 4 l I ly 11 curly and the curly curl beds are often I t richer in oil than the plain portions It Itis Iti I i t 1 is said that shale is curly because luse It is Isi I i rich cli as the hIgher percentage of or hydro hydra hydrocarbons L LI carbons earbon in some beds may have rendered 1 1 a 1 them hem more easily crumpled than the j 4 I stronger but poorer bands along alone side of or wl rJ 1 them In internal structure oil shale is IsI I minutely laminated which Is apparent In i I the spent s t shale after distillation when j tJi 1 H t Is thrown out in fragments composed S I 1 of extremely thin t hi n sheets hetts S like the tho leaves lea CS i I I cf of a a book or flakes flaker In a pec pl of ot pastry I I In thickness the shale hae seams vary Tat lS J greatly r Uy At certain localities they ther dis S appear and pass into ordinary ordinal carbon carboni i j shale and at nt others oth rs they swell seU f fI I l I Ii I to six ten or perhaps fifteen feet teet In thickness With reference to the yield of at crude oil and sulphate of ot ammonia the experts have found a remarkable variation in the character of or different seams and of the same shale in different places It seems to be a general law that deteriorate with depth The highest shale In the Scottish series Is the richest In crude oil supplying 13 10 gallons per pcr ton but only a few Cew pounds phate of ammonia while the lowest shale yields only about eighty gallons gallo per ton tOil but th the sulphate of oC ammonia amounts to sixty pounds or double the amount of or ammonia of the higher |