NA TURE 



401 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1922. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



The Supply of Petroleum Products. By H. B. M. . 401 



The Ways of Insects 402 



Chemistry of the Plant Cell 403 



Scientific Management of Farming .... 404 



An Ideal Text-book of Physics. By N. R. C. . . 405 



Science Primers. By C. L. Bryant .... 406 



Atmospheric Electricity. By G. C. S. . . . 406 



Forest Policy and Management . .... 407 



Thoughts on Scientific Advance. By W. M. B. . 409 



Our Bookshelf 400 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Primitive Crust of the Earth. — John Parkinson 413 



Action of Cutting Tools. — H. S. Rowell . . 413 



The Smoke of Cities. — Prof. A. E. Boycott. 



F.R.S., and Prof. J. B. Cohen, F.R.S. . . 413 

 Waterspouts. (Illustrated. ) — Dr. G. D. Hale 



Carpenter and D. Brunt 414 



Periodic Structure of Atoms and Elements. — H. 



Newman Allen 415 



Transmission of Sound of Explosions. — Sir Napier 



Shaw, F.R.S 415 



Research and Razors. — Prof. J. R. Partington . 415 

 Human Geography : First Principles and some 



Applications. By Marion I. Newbigin, D.Sc. . 416 

 Educational and School Science. By Sir Richard 



Gregory 420 



The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (Illustrated) . 423 

 Obituary : — 



Dr. R. H. Codrington 425 



Current Topics and Events 426 



Our Astronomical Column 428 



Research Items 429 



Potato Trials at Ormskirk 431 



International Reunion of Chemists at Utrecht. By 



F. G. D 431 



Summary of the Theory of Relativity. By Prof. 



H. T. H. Piaggio 432 



Kitchen Ranges. By J. B. C 434 



University and Educational Intelligence . . . 435 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers 436 



Societies and Academies 436 



Official Publications Received 436 



Editorial and Publishing Offices : 



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Advertisements and business letters should be 



addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial communications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address : PHUSIS, LONDON. 

 Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. 



The Supply of Petroleum Products. 



MR. SYDNEY BROOKS contributes to the 

 Fortnightly Review for September 1 an article 

 entitled " A British Oil Victory," from which the 

 reader might at first infer the discovery of a large 

 British oilfield or at least a sudden remarkable flow 

 from the Hardstoft well in Derbyshire. Nothing quite 

 so startling has happened, however ; Mr. Brooks's 

 " victory " is of a far less sensational character, being, 

 in fact, the opening of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company's 

 refinery at Llandarcy, Swansea. The author regards 

 this event as the piece de resistance of a series of British 

 achievements in the " international war of industry," 

 and mentions in the same breath the opening of the 

 Manchester Ship Canal Oil-Dock, the discovery of oil 

 in Papua, and the securing by a British Company of the 

 oil rights of Macedonia. 



It seems a pity to have to disillusion Mr. Brooks and 

 his readers, but while one admires his natural pride in 

 British commercial successes, and also the patriotic 

 zeal with which he writes, there is in his article an 

 optimism apparently born of an inadequate knowledge 

 of the facts and a clouded sense of proportion. The 

 Llandarcy refinery is admittedly a sound industrial 

 proposition for this country, but one can scarcely 

 recognise yet in its existence a really serious competitor 

 with the Shell or Anglo-American Oil Companies' 

 interests, as Mr. Brooks suggests. Even if the Anglo- 

 Persian Oil Company agreed to distribute their petro- 

 leum products solely in the British Isles, this would 

 only represent a relatively small percentage of the 

 total annual consumption of such commodities in this 

 countrv. The bulk of imports of petroleum products 

 come from the United States and Mexico ; they are 

 controlled by the Dutch and American organisations 

 referred to and together constitute more than twenty- 

 five times the amount of such products obtained from 

 Persia, based on recent statistics of production and 

 importation. 



There is always the possibility — indeed, the proba- 

 bility — that the Anglo-Persian Oil Company's interests 

 will expand considerably in the next few years, but a 

 refinery, however large and well-equipped, is dependent 

 on an abundant supply of crude oil, and this must 

 come to us from overseas. So long as the LTnited States 

 and Mexico together produce more than 85 per cent 

 of the world's supply of crude petroleum, so long shall 

 we be dependent on those countries and their repre- 

 sentatives for the bulk of our supplies of petroleum 

 products. 



The construction of the Llandarcy refinery is indeed 

 an industrial event of no mean importance, but at least 

 let us preserve a clear perspective in the matter. The 



NO. 2760, VOL. I IO] 



