NEW PEODUCTS OF THE PETKOLEUM INDUSTRY 



By Hugh W. Field 

 The Atlantic Refining Co. 



The headlines of the Nation's newspapers have been filled with 

 accounts of the critical reconversion problems of most of our great in- 

 dustries. The petroleum industry, however, has been conspicuously 

 quiet, yet it is well known that the wartime developments in this indus- 

 try were tremendous. It is known that our forces, armed with mech- 

 anized equipment of a quality vastly superior to that of our enemies, 

 never lacked the all-necessary petroleum supplies either in quality or 

 quantity to do the critical job at hand. Very little is generally known 

 of the nature of these war-born advances in petroleum refineries and 

 their incorporation into a peacetime economy at a speed and efficiency 

 that restored the motorist to a prewar basis almost overnight and 

 will, we believe, shortly raise the standard of enjoyment of petroleum 

 products well beyond all preconceived levels. 



It is the purpose of this discourse to take you through the gates of 

 the refinery and give you a first-hand glimpse of what has been hap- 

 pening during the last decade. The operations of petroleum refining 

 have changed from those involving mainly rovigh physical separa- 

 tion by distillation to a complex well-integrated series of physical 

 and chemical manufacturing operations involving the highest levels 

 of modern chemistry and chemical engineering. 



WHY THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY GREW 



In order to get a clear understanding of what has happened in 

 our industry, it is necessary to understand why it has happened, and 

 to accomplish this we will do well to look back into history to trace 

 the development pattern. Fortunately, our browsing through history 

 will not take long because the industry does not have much history 

 as measured by years. Most of the significant items have occurred 

 within the lifetime of tliose of us who are old enouah to vote. 



* Presented hefore The FrankUn Institute, December 18, 194G. Reprinted by permission 

 from the Journal of The Frunlcliu Institute, vol. 243, No, 2, February 1947. 



235 



