Gas and Oil 



WORLD WAR II pitchforked the petroleum companies 

 into the chemical business. They are there to stay. So 

 the day may come, not too far off, when you will drive 

 up to your pet filling station and buy a box of aspirin 

 tablets, a set of plastic window panes, or a new spare 

 tire all of them made by the producer of your favorite 

 gasoline. 



For the South this raises critical questions. Since 

 crude oil and natural gas have become raw materials 

 of a new and greater chemical industry, will that in- 

 dustry establish itself in the South where most of these 

 rich supplies originate? Or shall these continue to be 

 piped away to enrich the overcrowded industrial areas 

 of the North and East? 



The petroleum companies do not plan to go into the 

 chemical business. But they are surely on that road. 

 Their refineries turned out incredible quantities of three 

 vital war munitions as chemical as sulfuric acid: avia- 

 tion gas, butadiene, and toluene. 



Aviation gasoline is a tailormade synthetic fuel, not 

 232 



