1918] on The Romance of Petroleum 387 



vast area of presumably oil-ljearing territory ^vhich the Company 

 controls only a small part has been brought into active development, 

 but this has proved to be remarkably rich, one of the wells Ijeing 

 reported at the meeting to have so far yielded about 1,750,000 tons 

 of oil, and to be still producing as freelv as ever, with practically no 

 diminution in the gas-pressure governing the flow. 



In the British Isles, as is well known, there is a flourishing 

 industry in the mining and distillation of Scottish shales as a source 

 of mineral oil and ammonia. This industry owes its existence tu 

 James Young, of Kelly. In 1847, Young's attention was directed 

 by Plavfair to a stream of oil flowing' from the top of a coal-workim^r 

 at Alfreton, in Derbyshire. From this oil he succeeded in extractiny-, 

 on a commercial scale, paraffin-wax, lubricating -oil, r.nd burning-oil. 

 The supply of the raw material being soon exhausted, Young 

 attempted to imitate the natural processes by which he believed the 

 oil to have been produced, by the action of gentle heat on coal, and 

 in 1850 made his invention the subject of his celebrated patent for 

 " obtaining paraffine oil, or an oil containing paraffine. and paraffine 

 from bituminous coals by slow distillation."" The process was ex- 

 tensively carried out in the United States, under licence from Young, 

 until crude petroleum was produced in that country in such abun- 

 dance, and at so low a cost, that the distillation of bituminous 

 minerals became unprofitable. 



In this connexion it is interesting to note thfit in consequence of 

 the approaching exhaustion of the oil-fields of the United States, 

 attention is now being actively given to the utilisation as a source 

 of oil of the immense deposits of bituminous shales known to exist 

 in that country. 



The discovery of valuable seams of oil-shale in the early days of 

 the Scottish oil-industry was not characterised by as intense an 

 excitement as prevailed during the development of the older oil-fields 

 of the United States, when sedate business men often suff'ered from 

 an attack of " oil-fever," but was, nevertheless, not unattended by 

 features of interest. This block of shale, carved into the form of a 

 book, was presented to me twenty years ago by Mr. Stewart S. 

 Robertson, with the following account of its history : "Some forty 

 years ago my father had one morning a visit from a notorious 

 poacher, who undertook, on payment of one sovereign, and the 

 promise of fifty more, to show him something, and never again to 

 poach on our property. The sovereign vv^as paid, and I was deputed 

 to accompany him. On arriving at a certain point where a burn 

 runs between high steep banks, he began picking up bits of what he 

 told me was shale, and showed me a part of the burn which flowed 

 over a smooth black surface of shale. At this time everybody was 

 going shale mad, as Young had just commenced his now well-known 

 works at Addiewell, about 3J or 4 miles, as the crow flies, from 

 Tarbrax. the place of which I am writing. The poacher received 



