April 3, 191 3] 



NATURE 



"5 



golfers may gain by contemplating the Heiligen- 

 schein when they are searching in the lengthen- 

 ing shadows for a missing ball; Mr. G. A. 

 Shakespeare, of Birmingham University, also 

 refers to Cellini and to the subjective effect at 

 the edge of a shadow, and to the peculiar effective- 

 ness of the leaves of the white pink in producing 

 Heilig'enschein ; Mr. G. Merrick, of Newcastle, 

 states that he has observed Heiligenschein around 

 the head of a person 4 ft. from him — an unusual 

 occurrence — and along the shadow of an overhead 

 tram-wire ; Mr. G. M. Davies, of Croydon, 

 describes an observation of a " glory " on Snow- 

 don at 3 p.m. in September, 1905; Mr. Howard 

 Fox, of Falmouth, relates an experience in Corn- 

 wall forty years ago as he was driving along the 

 road, when he saw a glory on a low fog, followed 

 later by a white "fog-bow." A note has also 

 been received of a "halo" of about 15 diameter 

 seen on the surface ot Lake Suwa in Central 

 Japan by Viscount Tanaka. In this case the 

 phenomenon might be attributed to diffraction by 

 minute water-drops condensed in the air just 

 above the surface of the lake, but such an ex- 

 planation would fail if, as stated, the colour-bands 

 were radial. The phenomenon is discussed in an 

 article (in Japanese) in the Journal of the Meteoro- 

 logical Society of Japan (December, 191 2). 



" H. Y. G." refers to the radial appearance of 

 dust on the surface of a mirror owing to the 

 particles of dust and their images presenting to 

 the eye the appearance of short straight lines. 



E. G. 



THE OIL-SHALES OF THE LOTI1IAXS.- 



THE memoir on the oil-shales of the Lothians 

 published by the Geological Survey of Scot- 

 land in 1906 contained so much valuable informa- 

 tion that the first edition was exhausted in 191 1, 

 and the second edition, brought thoroughly to 

 date, has now been issued, and forms a most 

 welcome and valuable addition to our knowledge 

 at a time when the Scotch shale-oil industry is 

 exciting so much interest as a possible asset to 

 the Fmpire in the supply of fuel oil. 



Nearly the whole of the industry is confined to 

 a belt of land some six miles in breadth, which 

 stretches from near Dalmeny on the Firth of Forth 

 in a southward direction to the moorlands around 

 Cobbinshaw and Tarbrax. The first portion of 

 the memoir is devoted to the geology of this shale- 

 oil field, the survey of which was commenced by 

 Sir Archibald Geikie in 1857, carried on by Mr. 

 H. M. Cadell and the late Mr. James S. Grant 

 Wilson, and is now brought up to date by 

 Mr. R. G. Carruthers. The second part deals 

 with the methods of working the oil-shales, and 

 has been entrusted to Mr. W. Caldwell, whose 

 wide experience as mining engineer to the 

 Pumpherston district makes this section of special 



1 Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Scotland. The Oil-shales of the 

 Lothians. Part 1., The Oeoloey of the Oil-shale Fields. By R. G. 

 Carruthers, hased on the work- of H. M. Cadell and I. S. Grant Wilson. 

 Part II., Methods of Working the Oil-shales Bv W. Caldwell. Part III 

 The Chemistry of the Oil shales. By II. R. Struart. Second Editioi 

 (Edinburgh : Morrison and Gihh, Ltd., 191a.) Price zs. 61/. 



NO. 



2266, VOL. gi] 



value : whilst in the third and concluding portion 

 of the work Mr. D. R. Steuart describes the 

 treatment of the shale from the time it leaves the 

 mine until its products are ready for marketing. 



The history of the shale-oil industry is one that 

 always appeals strongly to the imagination as 

 an illustration of how every obstacle can be sur- 

 mounted by dogged perseverance and determina- 

 tion, and the fact that to-day the industry still 

 holds its own after a forty years' war with the 

 powerful oil combines of America and the East 

 is one of which every British subject should be 

 proud. 



The late Lord Playfair often declared that he 

 was the founder of the Scotch shale-oil industry, 

 and certainly it was he who in 1847 directed the 

 attention of James Young to a trickle of oil from 

 the shale in the Riddings Colliery, near Alfreton. 

 On distilling this oil Young produced an excel- 

 lent lubricant, the demand for which soon ex- 

 hausted the supply, and imbued with the idea that 

 the oil had been formed by a low temperature 

 distillation of the coal, he experimented with many 

 varieties and found that boghead cannel from 

 West Lothian was best suited for his purpose. 

 In 1850 the Bathgate works were started by 

 Messrs. Young, Meldrum and Binny, and for 

 twelve years the boghead coal, or Torbanehill 

 mineral as it was often called, yielded an ample 

 supply of oil for illuminating and lubricating pur- 

 poses, as much as 120 gallons of crude oil per ton 

 being obtained from it. 



The supply of this material becoming exhausted, 

 in 1862 shale was used in its place, but yielded 

 only a third of the volume of crude oil ; in spite 

 of this, the expiry of Young's patent in 1864 

 led to a rapid expansion of the shale-oil industry, 

 which, however, received a severe check 

 soon after. In 1859 Drake had discovered how 

 to obtain natural oil in enormous volumes by 

 boring in Pennsylvania, and by 18(14 it began to 

 be imported into England in large quantities, with 

 the result that lamp oil, which during the existence 

 of Young's patent had varied from 35. 6d. to 

 2S. 6d. per gallon, fell to is. 3d. to is. t whilst, 

 to make matters worse, the Americans began to 

 import into this country lubricating oils and 

 paraffin wax, which before had been practically 

 a monopoly with the Scotch distillers. 



In 1873 the Russian fields also entered into the 

 competition, and for a time it appeared as if the 

 Scolch industry must succumb, but by amal- 

 gamating the small works with the larger, 

 by organisation, the adoption of labour-saving 

 appliances, and the introduction of every form of 

 economy the crisis was survived, and the manu- 

 facture of sulphate of ammonia from the nitrogen 

 in the shale helped the Scotch oil industry to hold 

 its own in spite of the overwhelming odds. 



In 1871 there were fifty-one works in Scotland, 

 producing 23,000,000 gallons of crude oil per year, 

 but in 1894 these had been reduced to thirteen oil 

 companies, and at the present time there are only 

 seven, but the production of crude oil has risen 

 to 70,000,000 gallons. 



