A Valuable Discovery near Waimate.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 104, 19 September 1901, Page 2

A Valuable Discovery near Waimate.

GIL SHALE DEPOSIT AT WAIHAO DOWNS. Oft Wednesday afternoon the announcement of the discovery of an extensive deposit of oil shale . near. Waihao Downs - caused soma little excitement in Waimate. The disco vet y was mtkid by Mr D. A. Morgan, which just gerve3 ro illasttatft the fact that valuable deposits may lie unheeded for years, although within sight all , the time-. For a number of years brown lignite has been mined in the Waihao Downs district quantities soming to Waimate* besides what was usecl locally. Of late tne mining has keen carried on vigorously, and deeper leVels bm Ifeen exposal. One day a miner casually mentioned to-" Mr Morgan that they had struck good coal, so good that ft could be' lit' with a match. M* Morgan visited the place, and finding the maw's story to be correot,bes(vwtbafc fheshalewasoii-' bearing, To Endout wiiftthwitw^v

ta ;Q>d a payable quantity, he sent tw< - gamplea to Professor Black, o puaedin, who found-that by dis tilktioa the first yielded crude oi! at the rate of 4$ gallon's to the ton, au dthe ; second 65 gallons 'to the ion- •■•,'.' "t» ' Remarking oh his analysis, P-ro-«e,3or Black »ys:—"This No. 2 j 3 ft splendid srfßiplo of most valujble shale should be used on lv for the production of oil and nftcafiiQ or--tor enriching the -gas at Jbe gasworks for the supply of I Jwns, for mining, that is, 'with the -oal in making coal gas. The No. 2 sample is far and away richer than the very best oil shales so lon- worked in Scotland, and is

as rich as tha oil shale now law worked at Orepuki on la , g o scale. It is a great waste to j,„ burning it for brown coal." professor-Black also advised Mr Morgan to go to Dunedin and to bring further samples. The latter on thi3 advice, and handed in • ft hundredweight to the Dunedin city analyst, Mr A. G. K. Hunter, •tfhasa report •showed that it would •yield 51..6 gallons per ton. This, hssaid, was a splendid result,-and iu hi- ; opinion equal to that obtam*»blo from any shale in the colony. Ite.ii.k3. it eontained equal to •32.5!b3 of sulphate ammonia per %m, and the proportion of Sulphur fa 3 very low. Oq these reports Mr Morgan had ■no difficulty in interesting mem4»ir3 o?'a wealthy syndicate, who irQ "representatives to injppct the field at an early date. Should they consider it satisfactory, fon2"?.ii?ns to develop the find will "sot long be delayed.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DISCOVERY. •SOMETHING ABOUT THE PRODUCTS.

AH'tjOTigh the products of bitu•niinoos a bale in the form Of ■paij/:';: are in 'every-3'ay f,i,v wonis'relative to them may bo of i-reat interest at the present jiir.'.-iy.;-.*. Uar-.ffin was cbpraicalTy discowi'l by Reichenbach about IW;;, but it not till same y.'uie-.u'-er it vvas fonnd that an oil riiii:i!ar fo the petroleum Which exist: In immense natural springs ii) A.'rutica coitM be produced by the dry disliihttioii at alow tenvper.i /;« of coal and other fiinil.'.rmatemlß. The material fie!lively drstilied'in 'tlie early •Jav:: of the industry in Scotland was iir& Boghead canuel, but the 'Bin-ply was Ifrnrted, and-in 1865 til; coal, whicJfa had risen to '903*pcr ton, failed. Bat bituminous ! 3haii;»'!iacl meanwhile come into notice, and by 1861 several shale 'distilling works were in operation. While, however, the \mw cannei had yielded J3t> grilir-js of crude oil per ton, the ordinary bituniinons'shales yield only 85 gallons, while the average yield i 3 not more than 32 gallons, jjijf t. ii. (This will go further to show that the Waihao Downs. shal: is very rich in oiL) The variety of mixed .paraffins which the oil distiller produces mav ;>j arranged under the foliow-iughe-i'Js :-*(!) Oils too volatile to I;;: available for domestic -illu-Bjin-ition, serving chiefly assilvonN; (2) burning oils, as required for house lamps ; (3). oils of vorv high boiling point, availably und used chiefly,, for b'briCiitimj purposes"; (4) solid paraffin. Id tii.'. Varly years of the industry the hw> classes of oil —heavy ■(!ui).ic;mt)and light (illuminating) were the products to which attention was -principally .-di-' reefed, but with the improved methods and eager competition

'of the preterit day-, everything •obfainable from the alial'J3, except -the incombustible ash, is turned to pr.iiit ible account. The conamer<e".ai products embrace sulphate of a;i)inoui*, illaminating and heatiujr gasoline and naphtha, volatile oils, several grades of burning oils and of lubricating oil, heavy green oil used for making oilgas, and solid paraffin. Bituminous shale, as brought from the pit?, is passed through powerful toothed cylinder machinery, tedocing it to fragments "not larger than a man's fist. In this state it is conveyed in hutches to the retorts, in which it undergoes "destructive distillation.*' The form of vertical retort originally in general nse consisted of a cast-iroti cylinder, circular or : \>val, in cross sections, eight or ten ftfet in height and about two feot in diameter. It tapered Jit the top, where it was provided with a hopper for charging, the material to be distilled, and a vnlve for closing the retort mouth. Throe retorts stood on each side [ of a xjoal-fed furnace, the heat [ from which passed to each aide I into the chatafrer or oven .in, winch the witort stood* The di.-uilled vapours passed away by; a pipe at tbw npper end of the retort. Tiiis passed through a system of ' condensing , pipes, > thence throogh a set of " scrubbers," where the gas is first ; washed with water and Btripped ; of ajnuionia> and* after several i further processes, passes away to ! be stored as illaminating .gas. t or used- -directly as a fuel. The ! erode oil hias meaiiwlnie collected jLia the condensers-, whence i* is'

fining. Paraffin, t'he last product/is largely useft iu the manufacture of candles, and in the coating of the stems of lucifer matches.

In the early "Says of the industry, Wales, Germany and 1 Scotland had large distilling works, but the two former were practically crushed by Auieiicau. competition. The Scottish industry, however, was able to hold its own, and to extend its-pro-duction. In 1884, the Scottish industry had '£2,000,000 of capital invested, 'the capacity of the works in operation being-equal to the distillation of 5920 tons per dtfy. A year's output at present represents 55,411,300 gallons of crude oil, 567,965 gallons of burning oil, 31,767 tons lubricating oil, 21,7(19 tons paraffin, and 18,842 tons sulphate of ammonia.