THE CONSTANT QUEST

[Music] beside the p Pennsylvania turn bike at Harville is Gulf oil corporation's Research Center every year in these many chambered Halls of inquiry 12 millions of dollars are spent to keep more than 1,500 men and women in patient Relentless pursuit of Bam's Myriad Mysteries the people here represent every branch of science all the disciplines and skills necessary to a mechanized age what they do today profoundly affect your life tomorrow in a scant half century their quest for knowledge has helped men jump from Saddleback to satellite and their work has just begun the future can only be guessed at but on one point no speculation is required as far ahead as we can see men will need more and more petroleum to have it then they must find it now these these plaster shapes are scale models of salt domes their most likely explanation is that eons ago receding Seas left great beds of salt upon the Earth's surface through millions of years storm and flood blanketed the salt with layer upon layer of silt and sand which compacted and solidified while imprisoning countless tons of microscopic life laid down by the recurrently returning sea [Music] being lighter than its overburden the salt thrust upward in search of relief from its inexpressibly heavy confinement and in the process bunched itself into Dome likee shapes the salt dome's upward pressure fractured the overlying rock into a variety of faults which often became petroleum reservoirs [Music] to help find petroleum's buried vaults special probes are needed one is the flying magnetometer developed by Gulf suspended from an airplane a fiberglass bird measures variations in the Earth's magnetic fields signals by radar trucks locate the exact spot where each measurement is made while machines inside the plane record the [Music] data girls and ingenious gadgetry take over to transfer the readings recorded in the plane eventually the information becomes a magnetic map we can't ever hope to actually see how the inside of the earth is shaped but with informational AIDS such as the magnetometer we can make cross-sectional guesses that help the oil Hunters to visualize the infinitude of Tricks time and nature have played upon the interior of our planet then the wells go down for oil is always only where we find it shock waves too help give men Subterranean [Music] Vision Dynamite sends a shock wave down to the basement whence it bounces back strung out on the surface an equal number number of feet apart are seismographic detectors these microphonic devices are sensitive even to a feather's breath the detectors catch the returning waves and convert them into lines on a strip of film now the profile printer another Gulf development to help reduce the heavy costs of hunting oil takes on the task of transferring ing thousands of individual recordings onto one master [Music] strip until quite recently the work this machine can do in minutes required days of effort by people of skill and patience when done by people the job required the constant use of human judgment resulting nearly always in some incalculable amount of human error but the machine tirelessly impervious to the fatigue of tedium Faithfully transcribes every line and squiggle fed to it the result is another kind of map another way of taking a look see at Nature's buried secrets another indication of a likely place to drill for [Music] oil a drilling rig in a laboratory certainly yes a full-sized one at that to reach oil the drill must at times bore through Rock harder than granite would it work faster researchers wondered if it could be made to hammer while it turned to find out they created an engine powered by fluid pumped down the drill pipe and built it to scale it worked and so did the full-size model as well to become one of the most significant improvements in drilling equipment in 100 years by its lazy flow this crude shows that even when found oil sometimes stays hard to get when this happens pumps are summoned flu ws and sand are forced into the oil bearing Rock spreading out as far in every direction as the pressure of the pumps will take them the fluids called fracturing agents open new fissures which the sand keeps propped open now the oil can reach the well bore with this result fracturing is one way to coers The Reluctant Earth into giving up more of its liquid treasure another is water flow the flow of oil through Rock is always conditioned by the pressure behind it and water often is the pressure's instrument as the oil is pushed out the water pressure lessens the oil flow stops here is a 40 acre square a hole is drilled here and here and here and here to surround the oil well here now the pumps begin forcing water into the oil bearing formation under hundreds of pounds of pressure the water forces more oil toward the well and a depleted hole comes back to productive life Petroleum in nature buries as endlessly as its man-made products in some formations the crude is so sticky it won't flow in such cases fire can help air heated to 1,000° Fahrenheit is pumped into the producing strata until the impacted oil bursts into flame known as in situ combustion the value of this method is that it makes possible the recovery of millions upon millions of barrels of oil that up to now have defied man's best efforts to bring them to the surface the idea of using fire to recover or convert buried minerals is not new what is new is a method of using it it's both practical and controllable to put out the fire you simply shut off the air meanwhile as long as the air is pumped in the yellow flame which consumes only 15% of the oil will keep on moving outward from its core of Red Hot Rock converting the barrier of oil and water into a cloud of gas and steam billowing and searching through microscopic crannies of the impacted oil bearing sand the scalding Vapor melts the Molasses like crude so that like hot bubbly lard it begins to run right up the well pipe so man's inventive daring unlocks another of reluctant Nature's treasure [Music] trods it's beautiful it's expensive it's Platinum this too is platinum mixed with clay and formed into pills for use as a catalyst but the development of more efficient ways to get crude out of the ground is only one phase of petroleum research in Pilot plants like this research becomes a matter of seeking ways to reform the inner structure of petroleum itself in quest of better products this pilot plant is a miniature Refinery and what's being done here constitutes one step in the development of another Gulf Advance a new refining process called hydroisomerization petroleum charge stocks flow through the Platinum Catalyst under heat and pressure long hydrocarbon molecules are magically split then spliced by the Catalyst into a shorter more complicated structure helping to produce more powerful higher octane gasolines time was not long ago when Improvement m ments in refining processes were largely a matter of trial and error carried on amidst guesswork and even curse wordss in commercial refineries today the pilot plant embodying all the processes and controls of a multi-million dollar Refinery is a shortcut to Better Living what can be done with one barrel of petroleum in a pilot plant that costs mere thousands can be repeated with a 100,000 barrels a day in a big refin costing hundreds of millions of dollars time was too when the oil that went into your home heating furnace looked like this oh to be sure it burned and it gave off heat all right but it also left the furnace clogged with blobs and Crags of oily carbon that choked the stack or the firing mechanism or in some other way resulted in a heatless house on a frigid day when that happened you could work up quite aead of steam at the telephone being told that the repair man was too busy with other furnaces in other homes where the same thing had happened and so you stayed with friends or relatives or went to a hotel your anguish and frustrations are also of concern to the researcher because of this another new process called Gulf finding which uses hydrogen to remove dirty burning sulfur compounds has been developed to make home heating oils like [Music] this in your home now the result will be far less furnace trouble this oil burns as cleanly as it looks gulf's Research Center consists of 40 buildings each housing its quarter of scientists and skilled technicians and each containing its share of Highly specialized equipment necessary to the performance of very special studies in many instances such as the work of a pilot plant samples of the materials to be studied are measured in pounds and gallons but inquiries must also be made into materials that are available only in extremely small samples this is the function of the microanalytical section here the samples to be analyzed are sometimes so minute that even a speck of alien dust in the tub of a finger sized Crucible could by its sheer weight alone cause an error in the calculations on which the analyst must base important conclusions for the basic value of research is that the researcher is constantly adventuring into unknown areas whence he sometimes returns with substances never before envisioned or made to get his job done the scientist needs tools that can't be bought readymade they have to be created to order making some of these tools is the function of a glass blowing section in which the fragility of an ancient art is wedded to the heavy demands of modern industry for for craftsmanship for spare forthright functional art a special purpose flask like this or an intricate handblown condenser like this can buy with any Museum's possessions for sheer surpassing [Music] Beauty these shimmering samples of the glass blowers art are also valuable tools of the petrochemical industry a new business that is still an infant and and already a giant every day upwards of 3 million gallons of crude petroleum about 1 in every hundred the United States produces are made into petrochemicals for the Plastics industry to be useful for such purposes fantastically high standards of Purity must be maintained the bubbling in these tubes is a step in a test so sensitive that a tell Telltale change of hue is revealed by even one unwanted part in a million and makes possible an ever expanding line of new Plastic Products that can and will be used to help improve man's way of life glass tools are not the only kind scientists must have to carry on their Explorations much of what they do can be done only with the help of hard polished steel hence gulf's Research Center also has its own machine shop here skilled machinists manufacture necessary equipment that can't be purchased anywhere at any price in doing so they perform a double service at the same time they cut and shape new and sometimes incredibly intricate tools for researchers they also provide an invaluable testing ground for such Company products as specialized lubricants and cutting oils in this shop these men have built many things from motors for racing cars to bubble-free fuel pumps for warplanes here the flying magnetometer was translated from blueprint to working metallic reality but in nothing else they've been called upon to do have these artists in steel so graphically proven their skill as in The Cutting shaping and turning of fine Precision Instruments and parts that men of science need to move forward on Uncharted courses toward unpredictable discoveries as with the blowers of glass here again is a fruitful wedding of Art and Industry to help man carry on his Restless Quest For Greater [Music] knowledge every product golf makes must prove itself in rigid continuous tests in this building a hall of instruments dials and roaring internal combustion the motor fuels and lubricants of today and of the future meet the automotive engines for which they were [Applause] developed each engine is linked to a dynamometer capable of simulating every driving condition known to motoring experience and of measuring the engine's performance in every simulated circumstance dials impartially report the dynamometer impartial findings in standard engineering ter terms such as revolutions per minute for fuels lubricants and Motors the tests are continuous and grueling they're also rigidly controlled not only to ensure the accuracy of the findings here but to make sure that the gasolines and motor oils you put in your automobile will Faithfully fulfill every claim of superiority Gulf makes for them even the men who read the dials have been insulated against the nervous effects of noise they work in a quiet instrument line Corridor that is a miracle of soundproofing this is a stock engine taken from a popular medium priced car and modified only by the installation of two carburetors and two mechanically controlled throttles what you will see is a test between a highquality gasoline and an inferior fuel using the same combustion Chambers and the same spark plugs the ear alone can tell the difference but in research you don't just play it by ear you use Electronics to measure your results [Music] [Applause] though their actual use may be years away the motors of the future are already being used to develop and test the fuels and lubricants they'll need this is a turbine engine such revolutionary advances in power plants can only be perfected through months and years of experiment someday the automotive Engineers may make it good enough to replace the conventional type of piston engine that now Powers your automobile while they pursue their own kind of perfection fuel researchers must also keep busy to guarantee that when and if this new engine goes into your car the right fuel for it will be ready and available at your neighborhood service station the true test of any gasoline or oil is what it does under actual Road and weather conditions in this room stock models of all manufacturers put Gul gasolines through rigorous tryouts the drum under the drive Wheels is independently controlled so that both uphill and downgrade road conditions may be simulated at [Applause] will as in the case of the demounted motors every measurable aspect of the automobile's performance is unfailingly reported by the instruments and is Faithfully recorded then more problems are set up and the process goes unremittingly on test after test for it is only in this empirical way that men can learn the things they need to know in order to make the best products even better but this painstaking and elaborate testing equipment can do far more than merely recreate a variety of road conditions it's also capable of simulating all the variant climatic ordeals to which any car is apt to be exposed from Torrid desert heat to Arctic cold it can for example be made into what is possibly the world's biggest deep freeze a place so cold it disturbs the picture by freezing the camera and causing the flickering effect you see on the screen what is hard on a camera can be equally hard on a car and on the fuel and lubricants it uses for all the hardship this one gets off to a smooth start accelerating easily to 55 mph in a matter of seconds no matter how adverse the circumstances may be gul's gasolines and oils must be able to give smooth quick starts in any weather anyone for [Music] Florida this man is an entomologist a student of insects one more in the long list of specialists at work in gul's Research Center we have been told that unless men can conquer the destructive insect hordes the insects Will Conquer men this is a war in which Gulf has enlisted for the duration on man's side and these repulsive little organisms are carpet beetles busily cutting up a rug rugs are their favorite food and since they must eat to survive with them rug cutting is no Recreation but a life and death proposition possibly because flies are so common no other insect exceeds their ability to arouse the desire for violent destruction the urge to kill but this is a war that cannot be won by single combat men must have weapons of mass destruction in developing a line of insecticides Gulf has undertaken to provide as effective an Arsenal as research can [Music] create the Flies just released were hatched and grown in cultures for the particular purpose of being put to death under scientifically controlled conditions in this specially designed execution chamber the cubicle makes it possible to compare the killing power of of different insecticides the Flies are the guinea pigs of gulf's efforts to develop more effective sprays capable of killing increasing numbers of insects with each burst of mist always however the payoff is in numbers after 10 minutes the Flies are collected with a vacuum device called with brilliant Simplicity a picker upper they're then transferred to a light box that facilitates counting them the only way to determine the comparative effectiveness of the experimental materials used research begins with mystery and sometimes mystery is all it yields never was this more true than now since new tools of nuclear physics such as this vandag graph particle accelerator have become available this versatile Atom Smasher is essentially a gun using three ion volts of electrical energy it bombards substances under investigation with streams of protons neutrons and other of the most minute forms of energy in nature this is sodium chloride ordinary table salt being placed in position under the gun and this is a petroleum product oil that would serve acceptably as a lubricant in the crank case of your automobile to see what takes place in this chamber of mysteries tell us vision is necessary because the radiation is more than any man could take and stay [Music] alive the voltmeter slowly cranks up to full power and the accelerator begins to let go its invisible charges under the bombardment Fantastic things happen on the turntable white table salt turns [Music] black black changes into [Music] yellow even more spectacularly liquid oil becomes a solid what's happening here no man yet knows chemically the solid that was Liquid is still oil and the black that was white is is still ordinary salt from a beaker full of mystery we have moved to a universe full of mysteries and the new petroleum products their solution may bring are Beyond Man's power to foretell incontestably the constant quest for knowledge has hardly yet begun [Applause] the