NECESSITY FOR RESEARCH IN OIL-SHALE INDUSTRY. 
The problem of those working in oil shale seems to be the production 
and subsequent refining of the best possible quality of shale oil consistent 
with economic practice. Once these conditions have been determined, 
they must be controlled and held as uniform as possible in commercial 
practice. The quality of oil produced will perhaps depend on the kind 
and amount of products desired, but it seems that the crude oil should 
be obtained in as undecomposed or uncracked a state as possible. This 
has plainly been the aim of the Scotch operators. Hyery ‘successful 
change in Scotch retort design can be noted in the greater production 
of burning oils and wax from the Scotch erude, a plain indication of 
less cracking. : 
Perhaps, in the United States, it may be desired to obtain a greater 
yield of gasoline or light oils by cracking the crude shale oil. Even 
then it would appear that the crude should be obtained from the retort 
in as uncracked a state as possible, and only those fractions of the crude 
most. adapted for cracking be so treated. Cracking the crude itself, 
either during production or subsequently, can reasonably be expected 
to yield more light oils, but at the expense of some of the desirable 
heavy fractions of the crude. The production of a crude yielding a 
maximum amount of gasoline directly from the retort is thus apt to be 
a decidedly wasteful and uneconomical practice and, moreover, likely 
to yield-a very unsatisfactory grade of gasoline, since the cracking of 
the crude during production cannot be so easily controlled ‘as the 
cracking of a selected fraction in a separate apparatus designed .solely 
for cracking, where exact control is possible. 
Py 
As a rule, American shale oils thus far examined differ from the 
Seotch crude in that the former are heavier (specific gravity 0.900 to 
0.980) than the latter (specific gravity 0.875), fractions from the former 
“are more highly unsaturated and the odour more disagreeable than 
those from the Scotch crude. ‘The American shale oils thus far 
examined were of a mixed paraffin and asphalt base, while. the Scotch. 
* oil is distinctly of a paraffin base. It may not bé possible to make as 
good oils from American shales as from Scotch shales, possibly because 
of the nature of the shales themselves, but undoubtedly better oils can 
be made than are being produced here to-day once the proper study 
of retorting methods has been conducted. 
Oil production from oil shale is a process of destructive distillation 
which is not a haphazard affair, but one which must be properly con- 
trolled if good results are to be obtained. Obviously there are certain 
factors influencing oil production from shale, and for any shale the 
proper thing to do is to determine optimum conditions for producing 
an oil which will yield the greatest profit. : 
Facrors Inrfiuencine Ysups. 
The Bureau of Mines, in co-operation with the State of Colorado, 
is investigating certain of these factors in its investigation at Boulder, 
Col., on Colorado oil shales, with the idea that best conditions, as 
determined from small-scale experiments, will later be applied commer- 
cially in so far as commercial considerations permit. Some of the 
753 
