Subsurface Laboratory Methods 



115 



or economic), the personnel, the expenditure permitted, and the work out- 

 put. Methods applied in a laboratory of one area may vary considerably 

 from those followed in a laboratory of another. Laboratory procedures of 

 various companies may differ widely within the same area. Some com- 

 panies support only a one-man laboratory; others support laboratories 

 having personnel up to 120 men working in three eight-hour shifts. Op- 

 erations for a medium-sized laboratory are shown in figure 50. 



Routine operations of oil-company laboratories are much the same in many 

 parts of the world in spite of considerable diversity in the nature of the 



PRELIMINARY LABORATORY EXAMI 



NATION [- 



FIELODESCRIPTION 



LOCALITY MAP 



PORTION FOR 

 EXAMINATION 



I PORTION FOR 

 STORAGE 



SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES 



Ul 



I SIEVES 1-'^ 



'l ' ■ ' ' 



'MEDIUM I I FINE 1 ICOARf^Fl- 



OFFICE SUMMARY 



MINUTE ORGANISMS 



I discardI 



LARGE ORGANISMS 



(Sm^// AToUtJScs, 



Ori/Axc/s, etc ) 



JFi lterHoven kIconcentratorI I 



T \ _JL_, L , 



I ICONCENTRATESl | TAILINGS^ 



|_ "-H MICRO-EXAMINATIONS I 



PETROGRAPHIC 

 EXAMINATION 



RECORD 



OF 



DATA 



Figure 50. Flow chart of operations in a medium-sized micropaleontologic laboratory. 



(After Driver.) 



problems confronting the paleontologists and their differences in viewpoint. 

 Whatever the area and whatever the details of procedure, the operations of 

 these laboratories may be divided into two parts: the preparation of material 

 for examination, and the work of the microscopist in studying and reporting 

 on the material. Systematic orderliness, fine equipment, and special techniques 

 help speedily to achieve the primary objective — the accurate correlation of 

 strata. 



The procedure in a commercial laboratory is not automatic, stereotyped, 

 unthinking mass production of data. It is, on the contrary, research by trained 



