SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
years in Scotland make it difficult to disregard its use in this country 
without complete trial. A shale retort must be rugged enough to 
operate continuously for long periods at comparatively high tempera- 
tures handling an abrasive material. As has been the case in coal 
by-products plants, the engineer may be able to substitute ordinary fire- 
brick with other refractories, such as silica brick, and there may be a 
new field for the use of alloys and metals with protective coatings 
designed to resist oxidation at high temperatures. In the refining 
of the oils it is expected that while much of the ordinary petroleum- * 
refining equipment can be used, probably much of it may have to be 
modified, and there are distinctly seen the possibilities of new refining 
processes, equipment for which the chemical and mechanical engineer 
will be called upon to supply. : 
Success Annan. 
The future of an oil-shale industry is practically assured in this 
country by the increasing consumption here of petroleum and_ its 
products over domestic production of petroleum. Indications 
are that in the comparatively near future the United States must import 
the bulk of its petroleum or find a substitute or new source of hydro- 
carbon oils. While possibilities in the use of such substitutes as 
aleohol and coal-tar products cannot be disregarded, the writer sees 
in oil shale the natural and logical source of oils to make up in large 
part the coming deficit between domestic consumption and production 
of natural petroleum. It seems certain that motor fuels, burning oils, 
fuel oils and paraffin wax can be made from shale oil, but there is 
considerable doubt as to the possibility of producing more than mode- 
rately viscous lubricating oils from them. Between the knowledge 
that certain oils can be produced and their actual commercial produc- 
tion is a large gap which must be filled by properly directed research 
and investigational work. There are reasons to believe that a com- 
pany, well organized, with plenty of capital and well equipped with 
business and technical men, if situated favorably, would have a reason- 
able chance of establishing successful commercial shale-oil production, 
if not at the present time, at least in the near future. The necessity 
for technical investigations and control, however, cannot be too strongly 
emphasized, because the oil-shale industry, in its final analysis, is 
nothing but a low-grade raw material chemical manufacturing enter- 
prise, which, when economic conditions are right, depends on capital 
and business and technical ability for success. 
SBF SNS. 
7 INS 
760 
