24 SCIENCE REMAKING THE WORLD 



bon dioxide and steam. The heat of combustion raises 

 both these gases to a high temperature and therefore to 

 a high pressure and the piston is pushed out and turns 

 the wheel, and there we are. We have done away with 

 the big boiler, the tall smokestack, the fiery furnace, the 

 pile of coal, the skilled engineer and the fireman. We 

 can have a range of temperature two or three times as 

 great in the gas engine as in the steam engine and so get 

 two or three times the efficiency. That is, more than 

 twice the percentage of the total energy in the fuel may 

 be got out in the form of usable energy by the gasolene 

 engine besides its advantages in compactness, clean- 

 liness and convenience. No wonder then that it has 

 transformed the conditions of modern life. 



The steam engine and the gas engine passed from 

 peaceful competition to armed conflict in 1914 and the 

 newer motive power won the war. Senator Berenger 

 of France said that the Germans expected to win be- 

 cause they had the advantage over France in coal. 

 But the Allies won with the aid of oil. "It was a vic- 

 tory of the automobile over the railroad," he says. 

 This is confirmed by Lord Curzon, who said: "The 

 Allied cause was floated to victory on a wave of oil." 



We first realized the possibilities of the new military 

 machine in September, 1914, when we read that the 

 taxicabs and omnibuses of Paris had been mobilized 

 to carry Gallieni's army out from the capital to attack 

 Von Kluck's invading forces in the rear and aid in 

 driving them back from the Marne. 



From that time on both parties relied more and more 

 upon the mobility of the motor. Germany, having no 



