What Shall We Do for Gasoline? 



THERE are about two and one-half 

 million automobiles in use at the 

 present time. By the end of the 

 year their number will be well over three 

 million. All of them consume gasoline. 

 There are also three hundred thousand 

 motor-boats, forty-five thousand motor- 

 trucks, thirty thousand gasoline farm 

 tractors, and an untold number of 

 stationary engines, all dependent on 

 gasoline. Over thirty-five million barrels 

 of gasoline are annually required to meet 

 the demands of these many motors. 



The total gasoline content of all the 

 oil produced in this country in 191 5 is 

 estimated at 1,892,500,000 gallons. 



According to the preliminary report 

 on the investigation of the rise in the 

 price of gasoline, prepared by the 

 Federal Trade Commission, the 191 5 

 exports of gasoline amounted to fifteen 

 per cent of the entire gasoline content 

 of all the crude petroleum produced in 

 the United States within the year 191 5, 

 Exports for the year of gasoline, naphtha, 

 and benzene totaled eight hundred and 

 twenty-four million, five hundred and 

 fifty thousand gallons, as against two 

 hundred and thirty-eight million, five 

 hundred thousand in 1914. 



We are burning up gasoline faster 

 than we can distill it from the crude oil 

 which we pump out of the earth. In 

 past years so much gasoline was pro- 

 duced that some of it could be set aside 

 • for possible later emergencies. But 

 even these stocks are now practically 

 exhausted and we are living almost from 

 hand to mouth. 



It has been suggested that benzol be 

 used. Not until the war began did the 

 United States of America make any 

 serious attempt to recover benzol as a 

 by-product of coke making. 



Benzol is not greatly different from 

 gasoline. Motorists object to it because 

 it requires adjustments in the motor. 

 Moreover, the quantity of it available 

 will always be so limited as to preclude 

 widespread distribution. 



What is known as casing-head gasoline 

 has been finding increasing favor. 

 Casing-head gasoline is literally squeezed 

 out of natural gas just as you squeeze 



water out of a sponge. The output of 

 gasoline thus extracted is about one 

 million and a half barrels a year. 



In the ordinary method of distill- 

 ing petroleum, heat is applied. At 

 low temperatures the vapors of the 

 lighter constituents of the oil are distilled 

 off and condensed. As the temperatures 

 increase the heavier vapors rise; finally 

 a heavy mass is left from which no fuel 

 at all can be distilled. The line of 

 demarcation between gasoline and kero- 

 sene is ill-defined. Hence in the days 

 when the kerosene lamp was in vogue 

 and when gasoline could not be sold for 

 lack of automobiles, the oil refiner 

 retained as much gasoline in his kerosene 

 as he dared. Nowadays the situation is 

 reversed. Gasoline contains as much of 

 the kerosene element as possible. From 

 year to year, gasoline is becoming 

 heavier and heavier. But even this 

 device of the refiner, made necessary by 

 the enormous demand for motor fuel, 

 has failed to meet the situation. So, 

 for years oil chemists have been trying 

 to devise plans whereby kerosene itself 

 could be subjected to further heat 

 treatment — a heat treatment which is 

 known as "cracking," and which serves 

 to break up the kerosene molecules into 

 gasoline molecules. One of the most 

 successful of these processes is that 

 invented by Dr. Burton. Thanks to 

 him at least three hundred thousand 

 automobiles are now running on cracked 

 gasoline. More recently Dr. Rittman 

 has come to the public notice as the 

 inventor of a cracking process for which 

 marvelous things are claimed. Dr. 

 Rittman believes that the cracking 

 process will solve the gasoline problem. 



A cheap motor fuel is a vital neces- 

 sity to the automobile industry. The 

 cheapest at present available is kerosene. 

 But unlike gasoline it demands a special 

 type of carbureter — an apparatus which 

 will perform its function far more scien- 

 tifically and accurately than is neces- 

 sary with gasoline. If present indica- 

 tions mean anything at all they mean 

 that motor car manufacturers will de- 

 velop a type of carbureter which can be 

 successfully used with kerosene. 



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