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Calendar of discovery and invention
March, 1927.]
U.S.
BUREAU OF MINES NOTES.
469
develop and standardize reliable apparatus and methods for distilling shale, and to adapt to the testing of shale oils some of the methods the Bureau of Mines uses for testing petroleum. The methods employed by the Scottish shale-oil manufacturers were also studied, but most of them have been superseded by methods which give more comprehensive and accurate results and employ more convenient apparatus. Bulletin 249, just published, is a manual of apparatus and methods that the Bureau had developed for work on oil shale and found satisfactory for routine tests and for research. Explanation and discussion of the principles underlying the methods of testing are included wherever necessary for a clearer understanding. OIL-FIELD EMULSIONS. By D. B. Dow.
OIL-FIELD water trouble is probably the most perplexing technical problem the producer must solve. The presence of water directly affects the quantity of oil recovered and the life of a field. Water also increases the cost of operating, as it augments lifting costs and also corrodes equipment, necessitating frequent replacement, to prevent permanent injury or complete destruction of wells. Furthermore, water may lower the market value of the oil produced by helping to form detrimental waterin-oil emulsions, such as B. S. and cut oil. The results of a recent investigation by the writer are presented in Bulletin 25o, of the Bureau of Mines. This bulletin deals entirely with the cause and removal of water emulsified in crude petroleum and the colloidal theories involved. The results of investigations of other phases of the water problem by the Bureau of Mines have been published. IN ITS weekly " Calendar of Discovery and Invention " Nature, Jan. 29, 1927, says, " February 5, I87°.--At the Academy of Music, l~hiladelphia, on February 5, 187o, before an audience of more than 1500 people, Henry Heyl publicly exhibited on the screen a series of posed pictures showing the movements of a couple waltzing. The effect was obtained by placing photographs around the edge of a disc which was driven step by step in strict time with the music of the orchestra. This was the first public motion picture show, and the Academy has been popularly called ' the birthplace of the movie.' " Mr. Heyl was for many years a prominent member of The Franklin VOL. 203, No. 1215--33
47 °
CUI¢RI.:NT T o m e s .
[J. l". 1.
Institute. To his son, Dr. Paul R. Heyl, now engaged in determining the constant of gravitation at the Bureau of Standards, the Institute awarded a part of the Boyden Premium. G.F.S.
Special Weather Reports for Commercial Airways.--in carrying out the provisions of the Air Commerce Act of I926 the \.Veather Bureau of the 1)epartnmnt of Agriculture since July of this year has inaugurated special service at seventeen places selected by the Department of Conmlerce, the Post Office Department and the Departnmnt of Agriculture as those best located to furnish information concerning weather conditions to fliers along commercial airways. The service includes observations of upper winds by means of small " pilot balloons, and these observations are as a rule taken a short time before the planes are schedule4 to make their flights. The information enables pilots to select the most favorable altitude for flight, or the least unfavorable altitude in case head winds prevail at all levels. An important feature of the service is the transmission of weather reports from point to point along the airways. The pilot is, if anything, more interested in conditions at places toward which he is about to fly than he is in those at the place from which he starts. Obviously the information, to be of most value, should reach the pilot as short a time before his departure as possible. Thus, if a pilot starts out on a two-hour flight, and a report tells him as he leaves that the weather at his destination is good and that the outlook for the next two or three hours is favorable, he proceeds with a much greater degree of confidence than if he had no such information. Changes during a flight, even of that short duration, may and do occur, and it is planned ultimately to extend the weather reporting service to include special observations, when advisable, which will be sent to emergency landing fields en route, equipped to set up warning signals, upon seeing which the pilot will either land or turn back. For the present, however, the service will be limited to reports at stated hours, shortly before the departures of planes. It will be organized along all commercial airways where flying is on a regular schedule basis. Instructions to put it into effect along two of the airways have recently been issued. These are the Chicago-St. Louis and the Chicago-Dallas Airways. Along the former, special reports are exchanged between Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis, and along the latter, between Chicago, Moline, Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City and Dallas. The reports give upper wind conditions, height of clouds, visibility, the occurrence of fog, rain, thunderstorm or any other unfavorable or threatening condition. As the service develops, it seems likely that, as in other countries, so in this, the weather reports will be a large factor in determining whether or not a scheduled flight shall be made, and, if made, what height will be selected as the safest and most economical. "
U.S.
BUREAU OF MINES NOTES.
469
develop and standardize reliable apparatus and methods for distilling shale, and to adapt to the testing of shale oils some of the methods the Bureau of Mines uses for testing petroleum. The methods employed by the Scottish shale-oil manufacturers were also studied, but most of them have been superseded by methods which give more comprehensive and accurate results and employ more convenient apparatus. Bulletin 249, just published, is a manual of apparatus and methods that the Bureau had developed for work on oil shale and found satisfactory for routine tests and for research. Explanation and discussion of the principles underlying the methods of testing are included wherever necessary for a clearer understanding. OIL-FIELD EMULSIONS. By D. B. Dow.
OIL-FIELD water trouble is probably the most perplexing technical problem the producer must solve. The presence of water directly affects the quantity of oil recovered and the life of a field. Water also increases the cost of operating, as it augments lifting costs and also corrodes equipment, necessitating frequent replacement, to prevent permanent injury or complete destruction of wells. Furthermore, water may lower the market value of the oil produced by helping to form detrimental waterin-oil emulsions, such as B. S. and cut oil. The results of a recent investigation by the writer are presented in Bulletin 25o, of the Bureau of Mines. This bulletin deals entirely with the cause and removal of water emulsified in crude petroleum and the colloidal theories involved. The results of investigations of other phases of the water problem by the Bureau of Mines have been published. IN ITS weekly " Calendar of Discovery and Invention " Nature, Jan. 29, 1927, says, " February 5, I87°.--At the Academy of Music, l~hiladelphia, on February 5, 187o, before an audience of more than 1500 people, Henry Heyl publicly exhibited on the screen a series of posed pictures showing the movements of a couple waltzing. The effect was obtained by placing photographs around the edge of a disc which was driven step by step in strict time with the music of the orchestra. This was the first public motion picture show, and the Academy has been popularly called ' the birthplace of the movie.' " Mr. Heyl was for many years a prominent member of The Franklin VOL. 203, No. 1215--33
47 °
CUI¢RI.:NT T o m e s .
[J. l". 1.
Institute. To his son, Dr. Paul R. Heyl, now engaged in determining the constant of gravitation at the Bureau of Standards, the Institute awarded a part of the Boyden Premium. G.F.S.
Special Weather Reports for Commercial Airways.--in carrying out the provisions of the Air Commerce Act of I926 the \.Veather Bureau of the 1)epartnmnt of Agriculture since July of this year has inaugurated special service at seventeen places selected by the Department of Conmlerce, the Post Office Department and the Departnmnt of Agriculture as those best located to furnish information concerning weather conditions to fliers along commercial airways. The service includes observations of upper winds by means of small " pilot balloons, and these observations are as a rule taken a short time before the planes are schedule4 to make their flights. The information enables pilots to select the most favorable altitude for flight, or the least unfavorable altitude in case head winds prevail at all levels. An important feature of the service is the transmission of weather reports from point to point along the airways. The pilot is, if anything, more interested in conditions at places toward which he is about to fly than he is in those at the place from which he starts. Obviously the information, to be of most value, should reach the pilot as short a time before his departure as possible. Thus, if a pilot starts out on a two-hour flight, and a report tells him as he leaves that the weather at his destination is good and that the outlook for the next two or three hours is favorable, he proceeds with a much greater degree of confidence than if he had no such information. Changes during a flight, even of that short duration, may and do occur, and it is planned ultimately to extend the weather reporting service to include special observations, when advisable, which will be sent to emergency landing fields en route, equipped to set up warning signals, upon seeing which the pilot will either land or turn back. For the present, however, the service will be limited to reports at stated hours, shortly before the departures of planes. It will be organized along all commercial airways where flying is on a regular schedule basis. Instructions to put it into effect along two of the airways have recently been issued. These are the Chicago-St. Louis and the Chicago-Dallas Airways. Along the former, special reports are exchanged between Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis, and along the latter, between Chicago, Moline, Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City and Dallas. The reports give upper wind conditions, height of clouds, visibility, the occurrence of fog, rain, thunderstorm or any other unfavorable or threatening condition. As the service develops, it seems likely that, as in other countries, so in this, the weather reports will be a large factor in determining whether or not a scheduled flight shall be made, and, if made, what height will be selected as the safest and most economical. "