474 



NATURE 



[December 9, 1920 



Messrs. Creed and Co. have also developed an 

 improved form of printer, in which com- 

 pressed air is dispensed with, and the type 

 characters are mounted on a circular disc 

 and hit from behind by a little selecting 

 hammer which is caused to stop at the part 

 of the revolution corresponding to a letter by 

 a circular group of selecting levers. This 

 form of the apparatus is much more compact 

 than the original instrument, and has a much 

 higher printing speed ; but we understand 

 that it has not yet been adapted to wireless 

 reception. 



The Creed system with compressed-air working, 

 as adapted to wireless reception, is capable of a 

 speed of transmission of about i8o words a 

 minute, which is in excess of the speed of the 



printer ; so that, in order to obtain the full capa- 

 city, two printers would have to be installed for 

 one receiving jjerforator. The improved printer, 

 however, will be capable of keeping up with the 

 receiver, even in its improved form, and will be 

 able to deal with something like an increase of 

 50 per cent, in the speed of transmission. Apart 

 from considerations of traffic, high transmission 

 speeds present advantages in that there is more 

 chance of the message being completed without 

 interruption by atmospherics or other extraneous 

 effects. Very successful experimental working 

 has been carried out between Cologne and the 

 War Office station at Aldershot, and a wireless 

 printing equipment of this kind is to be adopted 

 between Brussels and a large station in the Congo 

 district. 



The New Oilfield of Northern Canada. 



By W. 



CONFIRMATION has now been received from 

 Canada of the news that an important oil- 

 well has been obtained in the North-West Terri- 

 tory of Canada. The full significance of this 

 event is only gradually being realised by the 

 public. It is probable that this is the commence- 

 ment of the development of the largest oilfield 

 in the British Empire — possibly one of the largest 

 in the world. 



For several years it has been known that geo- 

 logists had found a land of much promise in the 

 north, but until now, owing to the difficulties of 

 transportation, no drilling operations had been 

 attempted. The well, which is situated on the 

 banks of the Mackenzie River, 48 miles beyond 

 Fort Norman, within a few miles of the Arctic 

 Circle, is about 1000 miles N.N.W. from Edmon- 

 ton. It is 1300 miles journey by water beyond 

 the northern limit of the railroads. This is the 

 "farthest north" oil-well in the world, and is 

 some 500 miles distant from any previous drill- 

 ing. (The nearest producing oil-wells are those 

 in Alaska.) 



Little detailed geological information about this 

 part of the North-West Territory is available, but 

 it will be remembered that a geological explora- 

 tion of the Mackenzie River basin was conducted 

 by a party of English geologists, led by Dr. T. O. 

 Bosworth during the year 1914, on behalf of a 

 Canadian syndicate. On the return of the ex- 

 pedition it was reported that a great oilfield region 

 had been determined. At ihat time much interest 

 was aroused by the discovery, but, owing to the 

 war, less attention was paid to the pipspects than 

 they would otherwise have received. The present 

 development is the long-delayed sequel, for, 

 according to the particulars now received from 

 Canada, the well is located on the oil-claims 

 which were " staked " by the Bosworth expedition. 

 These claims have since been acquired by the 

 Imperial Oil Co., the geological department of 

 which has been headed by Dr. Bosworth for a 

 number of years. 



NO. 2667, VOL. 106] 



Jones. 



The drilling machinery was sent north in 1919, 

 and the well has been drilled on the site which 

 was chosen in 1914 for the crucial test. The 

 drillers stayed at their post throughout last winter, 

 and the actual drilling commenced in the spring 

 of this year. In the first 200 ft., useful quantities 

 of a very high grade oil were struck, and at 

 800 ft., according to the report of the drilling 

 party, the oil gushed up from the 6-in. casing in 

 a column which rose 15 ft. above the top of the 

 derrick. After half an hour the drillers capped 

 the well, so that the oil may be preserved until 

 storage tanks can be constructed. Until that 

 time the well's exact yield will not be measured, 

 but it is probable that it will produce a thousand, 

 and possibly several thousand, barrels of oil a 

 day. 



According to the brief statement made in 191 5 

 by Dr. Bosworth to the Institution of Petroleum 

 Technologists (Journ. Inst. Pet. Tech., March, 

 1915), and also in the Petroleum World (February, 

 191 5), abundant seepages of oil were found 

 throughout a very large region occupied by the 

 Devonian rocks, and " in that region all the geo- 

 logical evidences of oil conspicuously occurred." 

 The source of the oil was a thick deposit of "black 

 bituminous shales and limestones, which cover an 

 area of enormous extent." "In some places the 

 black shales were actually undergoing combustion 

 at the present time, and in several places oil was 

 seeping out into the water for distances of several 

 miles." The structure also was favourable, for 

 the region is traversed by a system of mountain 

 building anticlines. In Dr. Bosworth 's opinion 

 " the discoveries which had been made were of 

 the greatest importance," and "fields of the 

 utmost promise had been marked out, bearing all 

 the indications and evidences that an unexploited 

 field could be expected to show." 



The foregoing remarks, together with the 

 splendid result of the first test well, are signifi- 

 cant. On studying a geological map of North 

 .America it will be seen that the Devonian forma 



