GASOLENE 15 



the competitive drilling. At the other end of the pro- 

 cess, the consumption, at least half of the product is 

 wasted, either through burning the oil to make steam 

 when it might be used in internal combustion engines, 

 or by the careless use of the gasolene in automobiles. 

 On the other hand the intermediate part of the process, 

 the refining and transporting, being under unified 

 management and chemical control is carried on with 

 comparative efficiency and economy. Yet we hear 

 little complaint over the irreparable loss of some three 

 fourths of the world's supply in the drilling and the 

 using while there is furious and incessant denunciation 

 of those who carry on the distribution and distillation 

 because they have made so much money out of it. We 

 do not seem to care how much wealth is wasted but we 

 care dreadfully if somebody gets more than we do. 



Mineral oil therefore lends itself naturally to monop- 

 oly because it is found in but few places in the world 

 and there concentrated in small space; it is also irre- 

 placeable and indispensable. But why has petroleum 

 such a close connection with wealth ? Here the chemist 

 can give the answer. Wealth is produced by the ex- 

 penditure of energy, human, animal, or inanimate. 

 The unprecedented accumulation of wealth within the 

 last hundred and fifty years is due to the utilization of 

 external inanimate energy, chiefly the heat of combus- 

 tion of fossil fuel in the steam and gasolene engine. In 

 America the greatest use has been made of such sources 

 and therefore this country is the richest in the world. 

 If measured in the ancient way in terms of man-power 

 we would each of us on the average have a train of 



