494 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 22, 1917 
produces upwards of 70 per cent, of the steel of 
that country. That army was brought to action 
and defeated at the battle of the Marne, but, 
owing to the trench war which developed shortly 
afterwards, it remained in possession—and still 
does—of by far the greater part of that par- 
ticular area in France which produced steel before 
the war. In. other words, Germany, though 
defeated in a military sense, achieved a metal- 
lurgical victory of stupendous value. Metallurgists 
have never been in any doubt why Germany in- 
vaded France through Belgium. By obtaining 
possession of nearly three-fourths of the French 
production of steel, Germany struck a blow 
from which it must be considered as very re- 
markable that France was able to recover. The 
price in blood has been terrible; in money, enor- 
mous. But under M. Albert Thomas, the 
Minister of Munitions, a new steel industry has 
been created. Ores in the fields remaining to 
France have been exploited to the utmost, new 
works have been erected, and the most modern 
methods adopted. The results are such as to 
elicit the highest admiration for the way in 
which, under the stress of necessity, very great 
difficulties have been overcome. 
Can it be wondered at if France is deeply 
anxious as to the future of that portion of Lor- 
raine which was annexed by Germany in 1871? 
If she recovers it she obtains almost complete 
possession of the most important iron-ore deposits 
in Europe that are being worked at the present 
time, a source of enormous wealth both in steel 
and in phosphate fertiliser. Thereby also she 
becomes second in the list of the steel-producing 
countries of the world, with most pregnant con- 
sequences to her future as an industrial nation. 
Limits of space do not permit any reference to 
the other metallurgical industries with which Dr. 
Guillet’s lectures deal. They will repay study 
by those who are interested in the future of 
French metallurgy. 
H. C. H. CARPENTER. 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH OIL- 
SHALE RESOURCES. 
loses rapid expansion in the use of liquid and 
gaseous fuels during recent years, as a result 
of the introduction of the internal-combustion 
engine and the replacement of coal by oil and gas 
in many of the industries, has easily kept pace 
with the world’s production of these materials. 
There is no doubt that this production will con- 
tinue to expand for some time as new sources 
are tapped in excess of those which are giving 
out; but it is equally certain that the world’s needs 
will continue to grow enormously. Thus the pro- 
duction of hydrocarbon fuels is becoming a more 
and more vital factor in the industries as their 
utilisation is extended, and those countries which 
are well favoured in the possession of fuels of 
these types are extremely fortunate. 
Although the British Isles have been plentifully 
endowed with coal and iron, our resources in free 
NO. 2469, vor. 98] 
liquid and gaseous fuels are poor in the extreme; — 
one might almost say they are non-existent. How- | 
ever, if there are practically no commercial sup- 
plies of free hydrocarbons, there are abundant 
stores of materials from which these fuels can be ~ 
produced, and it is our business to see that these 
resources are developed to the utmost and with 
rigid economy in the near future. There is no 
doubt that the day is not far distant when an 
important step will be taken in the conservation 
of our coal supplies; the present wasteful method 
of burning in open fires will be abandoned, and 
the energy of the coal will be utilised in the form 
of oil, gas, coke, and other valuable products. 
Similarly the large areas of peat, at present of 
so little value, are immense reservoirs of energy 
which will be utilised in the same way. But it is 
to the question of the extent’and utilisation of our 
oil-shale resources that attention is here directed.? 
Oil-shales—that is to say, shales which when 
subjected to destructive distillation will yield oil 
and gas (as well as other products like ammonia)— 
have been worked in Scotland for more than fifty 
years. It is not our intention to follow the his- 
tory of the industry through its various vicissi- 
tudes; it is the future that matters: This 
Scotch shale industry has maintained its own, and 
is producing almost 2,000,000 barrels of crude oil 
per annum. Yet when we realise that the world’s 
output of oil in. 1912 was approximately 
351,000,000 barrels, the smallness of Britain’s 
quota becomes painfully obvious. The shale 
bands which form the source of the products in 
Scotland occur in the Lower Carboniferous of 
the Lothians, and the ultimate extent of the pro- 
ducing areas is limited. No great expansion of 
the output in the future can be foreseen, and it 
behoves-us to look farther afield. 
A survey of the geological column will suggest 
some of the measures of the Carboniferous, as 
well as the Jurassic beds of the North of Scot- 
land as possible oil-producers, but at present the 
most probable horizons lie in the Kimmeridge 
shales of England. These series of shales extend 
as a belt of discontinuous outcrops from Dorset- — 
shire to Yorkshire, varying in thickness up to — 
1ooo ft. or more. Eastward and south-eastward 
they dip gently under the overlying Upper Jurassic 
and Cretaceous horizons, so that, apart from the 
effects of early Cretaceous erosion, which has 
locally removed the series, they extend as a broad 
sheet under the eastern and south-eastern counties. 
However, it is only a very small proportion of the 
whole thickness which is economically valuable as 
a possible source of oil, probably not more than 
12 ft.; and, in addition, the lateral extent of these 
rich beds is at present unknown. They have been 
located over more or less widespread areas in 
South Dorsetshire and West Norfolk, and have 
been proved in some of the Wealden borings; but 
in each case the lateral extent of the proved area 
is limited not so much because the shales do not 
exist farther afield as that they have not been 
1 “The Norfolk Mil-Shales.” By W. F. Leslie. Read before the Institu- 
tion of Petroleum Technologists on October 17, 1916. 
