'Scottish Shale Oil Industry', Harry Knox

Our speaker was Harry Knox whose subject was the Scottish Shale Oil industry. Harry had been brought up in West Calder in the heart of the industry. Most of his working life had been spent on the railways. He has written several books on the subject of the Scottish shale oil industry. The area where shale oil exists in Scotland covers 75 square miles, much of which has never been extracted. 

Many useful chemicals can be extracted from shale including crude oil and paraffin. In the 19^th century London was lit by paraffin manufactured in West Lothian and paraffin wax was also used to make candles. One of the pioneers of the industry was James Young, later nicknamed James Paraffin Young. 

The waste product from the industry was placed in ‘bings’ many of which can still be seen. In modern times it has found to be most useful for road construction and is still being used today. At the height of the industry a large number of people were employed many of them moving to West Lothian from Ireland and the Highlands. This caused problems with the infrastructure in the area.

The industry finished in 1962 when the government abolished the subsidy making it much cheaper to import crude oil from abroad. 10,000 people lost their jobs.

Harry then proceeded to show a number of most interesting slides showing what the area was like during the period, production plants and the underground works.

The club’s vote of thanks was given by Graham Low.