Santa Maria Rotarians were today more confirmed than ever in their opinion that "the best programs come from our own members."
This opinion followed a talk yesterday afternoon before the members in
[the] Santa Maria Inn by Irving Osborne on his work in the oil fields separating water from petroleum and his tour of duty in the parachute corps of the Army during the late World war.
Local representative of Tretolite company of California, Osborne told how the chemical made by his company is
used to separate water from oil taken from wells in this area. It causes the water to settle to the bottom where it can be drawn off, leaving the oil with less than three percent water content, pipeline requirements.
He said in some cases, in Southern California, the Dow Chemical Co. buys the water for manufacture into chemicals and that it brings the well owner as much as 6
1/2 cents a barrel.
In the Santa Maria field it is run to the ocean, through a salt water line owned by Union Oil Co. and its disposal costs the companies about
1 1/2 cents a barrel, he said.
Costs Cents a Pound
Treatment of the oil with the Tretolite substance costs an average of a cent a barrel. A gallon of the chemical is used to
treat about 200 barrels of oil. In some instances it is necessary to heat oil of heavy viscosity before water can be precipitated. His process, he explained, is used as an auxiliary to the Union Oil Co. electric dehydration process near La Purisima, but in Santa Maria field the electric process alone is used by Union. Purisima oil, he said, contains about 40 per cent water on the average.
Of his experiences as a parachute soldier, Osborne related service in the United States in training and in the Philippines and Japan in action. He said of 49 jumps he made during his Army career, none was in combat, though he served on Luzon island in the Philippines as a combat infantryman. |
He was among the first Americans parachuted onto Japan August 27, 1945. The first thing the paratroopers did, he said, was to take over the wharves so hospital ships could dock, then, to release and transport allied prisoners from Japanese prison camps to the hospital ships for removal to base hospitals.
Starting from a rookie in the 508th parachute division in 1942, he was a first sergeant within nine months and helped to train three outfits of jumpers before being sent to the Philippines when General MacArthur landed on Luzon. From there he did duty on Okinawa and flew into Japan from Okinawa. He was promoted to battalion sergeant-major before being returned home from Japan in January, 1946. He rejoined his company
[Tretolite] March 1. and came here March 15. and has remained here since that time.
The speaker, said it takes a parachute about 80 feet in a fall before it opens and that in low jumps a man is almost on the ground by the time his fall is broken. His highest jump was from 2,000 feet and his lowest under 300. There were many casualties among the trainees in the United States, he declared.
He related one incident in which, in a practice airport attack, the paratroopers missed a small field and mostly landed in a Negro village on Long Island,
New York, and caused the inhabitants to think "the Germans have come."
Ray Hardy, program chairman, introduced the speaker. President' Ed Adler announced there will be no meeting of the. club next Tuesday, but all members will attend the annual field day with Kiwanis club on the country club grounds. Thursday afternoon Morris Stephan, rules chairman, distributed copies of the rules. York Peterson called for baseball practice as often as possible before the field day and for practice by chess players in his home tomorrow night.
[Santa Maria Times
(Santa Maria, California)
09 Jun 1948, Wed • Page 6] |
