May 7, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



469 



ney Powers on "The Sabine uplift," and by Dr. 

 Irving Perrine on "Some problems of the Louisi- 

 ana oil fields. ' ' A paper on ' ' The geological struc- 

 ture of Eastland and Stephens counties, Texas," 

 was read by H. H. Adams, one of the ' ' Position of 

 the EUenberger formation in north central Texas"; 

 by Dr. E. H. Sellards, and one on ' ' Unconformities 

 in the Texan Permian," by Dr. J. W. Beede. A 

 paper by Dr. J. A. Udden, director of the Texas 

 Bureau of Economic Geology, on "Suggestions of 

 a new method of making underground observa- 

 tions, ' ' was read by Dr. Sellards. 



On Thursday evening a public meeting was held 

 in the City Temple, and the citizens of Dallas had 

 the privilege of hearing Dr. George Otis Smith, di- 

 rector of the United States Geological Survey, in 

 a lecture on "The public service opportunity of 

 the oil geologist. ' ' Dr. Smith emphasized the re- 

 sponsibility of the oil geologist as a public servant 

 and educator, and held that while it is the first 

 duty of the oil geologist to find the oil, it is no less 

 his duty to see .that it is protected from the effects 

 of improper operations in its recovery, and to raise 

 his voice against the practise of mining oil with 

 total disregard of underground property rights. 

 He urged that membership in the association should 

 carry its guaranty of both professional ability and 

 moral reliability. The lecture was followed by an 

 informal reception and smoker, to give members 

 and visitors an opportunity to meet Dr. Smith. 



A technical session was held in the municipal 

 auditorium Friday morning, and most of the 

 papers were illustrated by figures and diagrams. 

 Dr. B. A. Stephenson and H. E. Bennett had pre- 

 pared diagrams showing the decline of the Eanger 

 oil field, and Glenn H. Alvey gave "Decline curve 

 predictions. ' ' Papers were read by Charles V. 

 Millikan on ' ' The interrelation of the folds of 

 Osage county, Oklahoma; J. L. Tweedy gave "A 

 criticism of the 10 to 1 increase in Barrel Day 

 prices ' ' ; and Professor Eoswell H. Johnson and 

 Alden W. Eoster one on "Barrel Day" versus 

 "One Day costs." Professor Johnson also gave 

 a paper on ' ' The cementation process in sand- 

 stone. ' ' A summary of the work of the California 

 State Mining Bureau in petroleum and gas was 

 given by E. P. McLaughlin. Mr. McLaughlin 

 brought to the convention a very interesting model 

 of a California oil field. This model was described 

 and illustrated in the Literary Digest of February 

 28, 1920. 



Friday afternoon was given to a consideration of 

 the Kansas and Oklahoma fields. Dr. Eliot Black- 

 welder gave ' ' Origin of the domes of central Kan- 



sas, " Dr. Eaymond 0. Moore and F. L. Martin 

 "The relation of granite to oil production in 

 Kansas," and Dr. Moore and Dr. Winthrop P. 

 Haynes ' ' The outcrop of 'basic igneous rock in 

 north central Kansas." Dr. J. W. Merritt's sub- 

 ject was : ' ' Pennsylvania sedimentation around 

 Healdton Island, Oklahoma, ' ' and Fritz Aurin gave 

 ' ' Pre-Pennsylvanian oil and gas horizons in Kay 

 county, Oklahoma." A paper on "New oil de- 

 velopment in Oklahoma," was given by C. W. 

 Shannon, state geologist of Oklahoma, at an earlier 

 session. 



A preliminary business meeting followed the 

 Friday afternoon program. The reports of officers 

 and committees were presented, new business in- 

 troduced, and nominations made. The business 

 session was concluded Saturday morning, and this 

 was followed by a regional session wihich was car- 

 ried over into the closing session on Saturday after- 

 noon. A paper by David A. Eeger on ' ' Eecent oil 

 developments in West Virginia," was read by 

 Eay V. Hennen, and ' ' Notes on the Canadian foot- 

 hills belt," by Wesley Purdy, was read by E. De- 

 Golyer. F. W. DeWolf, state geologist of Illinois, 

 gave one paper on ' ' The new Trenton develop- 

 ment, " illustrating it by maps and diagrams, and 

 one on the "Blue sky laws of Illinois," showing 

 that laws are being enacted for the protection of 

 the public against unscrupulous promoters. A 

 paper on the "Development of oil and gas in 

 Wyoming," was given by C. H. Wegemann. Dr. 

 Edward Bloesch gave a resume of "Petroleum in- 

 vestigations in Switzerland, ' ' showing that the 

 drill would have to decide -whether oil was present 

 in commercial quantities. 



The engineer's side of the petroleum problem 

 was given by A. W. Ambrose, head of the Petro- 

 leum Experiment Station at Bartlesville, Okla- 

 homa, in a paper on "The petroleum production 

 engineer and his relation to future production. ' ' 

 Mr. Ambrose said that by present processes only a 

 small percentage of the oil is recovered, and em- 

 phasized the necessity of more effective methods. 

 The last paper of the session and of the convention 

 was one read by Earl A. Trager, who gave a re- 

 HiiTTiA of "The oil shale industry, with an outUne 

 of methods of distillation." This is a subject 

 that will be given more attention as the demand 

 for oil increases and the supply from wells di- 

 minishes. 



The following papers were read by title: 

 ' ' Types of structures in Chaves county, Texas, ' ' 

 J. W. Merritt; "Problems of production and 

 methods of solving them," T. E. Swigart; "Oil 



