December 30, 1922] 



NA TURE 



867 



in the number of motor vessels during the same interval : 



July 1914 

 July 1919 

 July I'UO 

 July 1921 

 July 1922 



297 

 912 

 117S 



M73 

 1620 



234. 2S 7 



752,606 



955.8io 



1,248,800 



i,54 2 > l6 ° 



These statistics, it must be understood, are those re- 

 corded in the Register books of the society, and are 

 probably an underestimate of the growth which has 

 actually occurred throughout the world. They are, 

 nevertheless, highly significant and instructive, and 

 serve to illustrate what is a great factor in world-wide 

 progress, and eminently characteristic of our own age. 



The book under review may be recommended as a 

 concise and well-informed account of the rise and growth 

 of this important industry. It is well arranged and 

 well written, and considering its limitation as to space, 

 deals in sufficient detail with its more important phases. 

 It is divided into nine main sections, or parts, each of 

 which is further subdivided into several subsections. 

 The classification is rational, and conduces to a logical 

 treatment of the subject-matter. 



Part I. is introductory, and treats of the termino- 

 logy of petroleum products and of the history of the 

 petroleum industry; of the chemistry, geology, and mode 

 of origin of natural petroleum. Part II. is concerned 

 with natural gas, its occurrence, distribution, com- 

 position, and applications. Part III. treats of crude 

 petroleum, its occurrence, distribution, and character ; 

 of drilling and mining operations, and of the storage 

 and transport of crude oil and its liquid products. 

 Part IV. describes the manufacture of shale oils and of 

 the various tars obtained as by-products. Part V. 

 deals with asphalts. Part VI. with the natural mineral 

 waxes. Part VII. with the working up of crude oils, 

 their distillation, fractionation, and chemical treatment; 

 the manufacture of paraffin wax and lubricating oil ; 

 " cracking " and hydrogenation processes ; and refinery 

 waste products. Part VIII. describes the characters and 

 uses of petroleum products, and Part IX. gives some 

 account of the methods of testing and standardising them . 



As regards the origin of petroleum, in spite of much 

 discussion and the voluminous literature to which the 

 subject has given rise, we know nothing with certainty. 

 The volcanic or inorganic theory, although advocated 

 by such authorities as Humboldt, Berthelot, and 

 Mendeleeff, is inconclusive, and there is an increasing 

 body of evidence against it. On the other hand there 

 are many objections to the assumption that petroleum 

 has been produced from organic remains, although the 

 geological evidence, at least in the case of certain oil- 

 bearing districts, lends a certain measure of support to it. 

 The question is fairly discussed by the author in the light 

 NO. 2774, VOL. IIO] 



of the most recent contributions to it, and, on the whole, 

 he is inclined to consider that the majority of crude oils 

 are probably of vegetable origin, although he advances 

 no surmise as to the mechanism of their formation. 



One of the most important developments connected 

 with the petroleum industry is the utilisation of the 

 natural gas which is evolved in enormous quantities in 

 certain oil-bearing regions. This utilisation has mainly 

 occurred on the American continent owing to the 

 circumstance that certain of the oil wells are not too 

 remote from centres of population. Many towns in 

 America are supplied with this gas at a very low cost. 

 Much of the gas is consumed in the manufacture of 

 so-called carbon-black, an extremely fine form of soot 

 far superior to ordinary lamp black as a pigment and for 

 the manufacture of printing-ink. It is calculated that 

 one pound of carbon black suffices to print 2250 copies 

 of a sixteen-page newspaper. Upwards of fifty million 

 pounds of this material were produced in the United 

 States in 1920. from thirty-nine operating plants in 

 various States, mainly in West Virginia and Louisiana. 

 Considerable quantities are used in the rubber tyre 

 industry, for the manufacture of stove polishes. Chinese 

 and Indian ink, paper manufacture, tarpaulins, etc. 

 But even when the gas cannot be immediately utilised 

 it is now liquefied and stored under pressure by modern 

 compression and refrigerating plant, and can be trans- 

 ported. 



Mr. Kewley is to be congratulated on the production 

 of a valuable contribution to the literature of an industry 

 which is pre-eminently characteristic of our own epoch. 



Unified Human History. 



A Short History of the World. By H. G. Wells. Pp. 

 xvi + 432. (London: Cassell and Co., Ltd.. 1922.) 

 15.S. net. 



THIS is a new work covering the same ground as 

 the " Outline of History " and in the same 

 spirit, but re-written and better written, and correcting 

 many of the faults of judgment and proportion which 

 disfigured the earlier book. Mr. Wells has digested his 

 material in the interval and writes now with ease and 

 mastery. The arrangement and general division of the 

 space is quite satisfactory, and the production and 

 illustrations are excellent. It is a great feat, following 

 so quickly on the labours of the " Outline," and all who 

 are interested either in history, in education or in the 

 social progress of the world as a whole, are under a 

 deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Wells for carrying it out. 

 Nothing has done so much to awaken the public to the 

 social importance of history, and the readers of history 

 to the unity of their subject. The books are a prodigy 

 of industry and skill and in the realm of literature the 



