CHEMICAL TREASURE TROVE 



focused on markets for twenty-five billion gallons of 

 gasoline and five hundred million barrels of fuel oil, 

 cannot see such microscopic figures as one hundred 

 thousand pounds of some chemical with a tongue- 

 twisting name. Yet rubber and plastics are not peanuts 

 and popcorn on anybody's sales counter, and these men 

 are not blind to the figures on a balance sheet. The dol- 

 lar sign says that petroleum companies earn two, four, 

 six, sometimes eight per cent on their net worth, while 

 chemical companies earn ten, twelve, sometimes more 

 than fifteen per cent. That is language any company 

 president understands. And the petroleum companies 

 have the raw materials, the apparatus, the technical 

 staffs to launch forth as chemical manufacturers. 



Shell, a virile pioneer in petro-chemicals, already 

 makes a lot of products not sold at their familiar yellow 

 gas stations: acetone, several fancy alcohols, some out- 

 landish-sounding items like methyl-isopropyl ketone 

 and mesityl oxide. Many of these could be quite simply 

 converted to consumer goods. Gulf has long made a 

 flyspray out of its own kerosene. Standard of California 

 markets its mineral oil through the drug trade. 



From making synthetic rubber to fabricating tires 

 and tubes is a step that does not need seven-league 

 boots. Both would be "naturals" for sale at the gas sta- 

 tions where already you can buy antifreeze, touch-up 

 finishes, body polishes, radiator cleaners. Even before 

 gas rationing, these sidelines were frequently the rent- 



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