146 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
especially in automobiles, accounts for the first, and 
the increasing use of fuel oil, chiefly for steam raising 
purposes, accounts largely for the second. Lubricating 
oils are, of course, of prime importance, as machinery 
must be lubricated if it is to operate. 
To help make up the deficit in our supply of petro- 
leum we can expect to draw on the enormous potential 
petroleum supplies of Mexico at an increasing rate, and 
by the use of new and improved processes of manufacture 
a greater percentage of the petroleum products for which 
there is the greatest demand will undoubtedly be obtained 
from petroleum. The more efiicient utilization of these 
products, as for example, through the development and 
use of the Diesel engine and the gradual change in the 
design of our present internal combustion motors, enab- 
ling them to use lower grade fuels will perhaps tend to 
relieve the growing shortage. Hydroelectric power or 
electricity otherwise produced can be expected to take 
the place, to a certain extent at least, of fuel oil instal- 
lations on land; but all these expedients have ‘their 
practical limitations, and it is to be expected therefore 
that in the comparatively near future, new sources of 
products similar to those now being derived from oil well 
petroleum will have to be developed. As a matter of 
fact, some are already being developed. 
These are possibilities of importance in the develop- 
ment of the production and use of benzol as a motor fuel 
and other coal tar products as Diesel engine fuels and 
as substitutes for other petroleum products. There are 
also important possibilities in the commercial production 
of alcohol as a motor fuel. In fact, blends of alcohol, 
benzol, and petroleum distillates are being marketed in 
the east at the present time as motor fuels, and are giving 
satisfaction in use. Taking all these considerations into 
ccount, however, it is the opinion of many, including 
myself, that the oil shales of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming 
and Nevada and possibly other states are extremely 
important as new sources of products similar to those 
now obtained from petroleum. These states contain 
enormous deposits of oil shales which by proper treat- 
ment yield gas, oil, and also if desired, ammonia, of value 
as a fertilizer. The oil in many respects is similar to oil 
