Theres another thread About how many units of oil was considered Heavy, Medium and Light. I'll see if I can find the link. Here it is-
http://www.ballreviews.com/Forum/Replies.asp?TopicID=228158&ForumID=16&CategoryID=5

Well I remembered reading about this in some of my books and magazine, So I looked it up. So here's some of what I found.

First what is a unit of oil defined as, I found this in a 04/05 Spec. manual. (It's in the "Computerized Lane Inspection Program Manual" you can find it on bowl.com)

"A "unit" of oil is defined by the American Bowling Congress (ABC) and Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) as 0.0167 cubic centimeters of oil evenly spread over a 1 sq. ft. surface, which equates to a film of oil about 7 millionths of an inch thick."

Now in In USBowler Magazine Vol.2, No.3 Spring 2007 Page 12 Coach's Corner They have a article "Everything you wanted to know about lane conditions" In it they say,

Example: a piece of typing paper is about 400 units thick.
(.000007*400=.0028"  A 16# bond paper is .0032" thick so that's pretty close.)

"A layer of oil 100-plus units would be considered "Heavy oil" and anything less then 50 units probably would be "Light oil".

Now in from other source's Oil, Medium and Dry is looked at in terms of length.

In the book "Revolutions 2" they define it this way,

Oil (long oil) were lanes oiled 35 to 45 feet.
Med. were lanes oiled 25 to 35 feet.
Dry (very short oil) was 18 to 25 feet.

Now in In USBowler Magazine Vol.2, No.3 Spring 2007 Page 12 Coach's Corner They have a article "Everything you wanted to know about lane conditions" In it they show it as,

Long oil as 40 feet or longer
Medium oil as 35' to 45' feet or more
Short oil 35 feet or less

Now in Bowling This Month magazine they rate ball's for Oil, Medium and Dry, the current issue is showing these patterns being used.

Oily is a 44' oil (High Street)
Medium 41' oil (Main Street)
Dry 38' oil (Easy Street)

High Street, Main Street and Easy Street, These are the Kegel Navigation Recreation Series of patterns. you can see them here.
http://www.kegel.net/patternlibrary/default.asp

Now for a comment it's not how much oil on the lane, but where it's at. Pattern's can be adjusted to make short ones appear long and long ones appear short.

Heres a quote from a article called- "Lane Pattern Basics: An Overview of Blend, Taper & Application".
Click here for the article

"the overall volume of the shot probably has the least affect, as the length that the conditioner is applied can make the "volume" almost meaningless."

When it comes to Oil and Oil patterns there are many factor's that come into play about lane condition's and how to play them. The amount of oil is one of the smaller factor's involved.

It seems to boil down to the Ratio and Length of oil are the most important factors and then Volume. The descriptions of lanes as dry or wet are not accurate, because you can have a long pattern, low volume and it could seem like "Heavy oil" and a short pattern, high volume and it could seem "Dry" depending on how its layed.



Edited on 4/5/2009 9:59 AM