November 4, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



421 



tillation, improvements have been introduced 

 from time to time. For instance, tlie interme- 

 diate treatment with sulphuric acid, then later 

 the destructive distillation at higher tempera- 

 tures or the so-called " cracking " processes 

 which break up the more complex hydrocarbon 

 molecules of the heavier distilling liquids and 

 thereby increase the yield of the lighter and 

 more valuable gasoline. 



Nevertheless, the fact remains that aside 

 from a relatively small proportion of lubri- 

 cants, the bulk of raw or refined petroleum is 

 burnt as a fuel. This burning may be done 

 directly in oil burning furnaces, or as refined 

 kerosene in our lamps, or as gas from our gas 

 works, or by a much more efficient way, in our 

 internal combustion motors, varying from the 

 smallest motorcycle engine to the heaviest 

 Diesel generators. 



There was a time when coal also was exclu- 

 sively used as a fuel until the chemists suc- 

 ceeded in converting one of its least attractive 

 by-products, coal-tar, into a series of the most 

 startling syntheses, which opened an entirely 

 new field in chemistry. These coal-tar deriva- 

 tives include not only an endless variety of 

 dyes, but the many other valuable synthetic 

 substances used in the art of healing and sani- 

 tation, as well as the newer synthetic resinous 

 products which have opened new possibilities in 

 electrical insulation and numerous other indus- 

 tries, and the chemicals which are used in the 

 art of photography. Nor should I omit to men- 

 tion the new explosives obtained from the same 

 source, and which are safer and easier to handle 

 than dynamite or gunpowder, and which find 

 greater and more lasting applications in mi- 

 ning, agriculture and engineering than in war. 

 Agents of foreign interests had long ago started 

 a propaganda campaign among our teachers of 

 chemistry as well as among our congressmen 

 and manufacturers, making them believe that 

 the United States was not suited for this in- 

 dustry of coal-tar products, and that Germany 

 could better supply us. But the war awakened 

 us from our torpor when we were confronted 

 by the fact that the coal-tar derivatives were 

 the indispensable key to many of our most im- 

 portant industries and that the war could not 



be won without them, and that Germany had 

 lulled us into inaction until, in experience, we 

 were a full generation behind her. By supreme 

 efforts, our chemists and business men over- 

 came this fearful handicap; this achierement 

 remains one of the most brilliant pages of our 

 national history. And now it looks as if short- 

 sightedness and politics were about to destroy 

 what ^as been raised after so much effort. 



But let us return to the subject of the petro- 

 leum industry : The abundant existence of this 

 raw material, as well as natural gas, in America 

 is mainly due to the special geological history 

 of this continent. Geological changes here have 

 been less violent, less metamorphic than in 

 Europe or most other countries, so that the 

 geological deposits or stores of these rather 

 fugitive materials have been less disturbed, less 

 broken up by subsequent upheavals. 



Especially in natural gae do we possess a raw 

 material which almost exclusively belongs to 

 this country. When we reflect, however, that 

 this raw material cannot readily be trans- 

 ported, we should seek methods to convert it 

 into other commodities which lend themselves 

 to easier transportation. 



If we have acted as spendthrifts with our 

 coal and petroleum, we have behaved as barbar- 

 ians with our natural gas resources until there 

 is little left of it. Yet natural gaa contains 

 valuable substances which under the hand of 

 the chemist may be used as a starting point for 

 syntheses perhaps more valuable than what has 

 been accomplished with coal-tar. While the 

 period of brutal waste is not yet ended, the 

 dawn of a more enlightened utilization seems 

 to be in sight. I learned recently that at least 

 one of our more progressive and better organ- 

 ized industrial enterprises has undertaken the 

 problem of more methodical use of natural gas 

 along scientific and chemical lines. From the 

 results already obtained, there is good hope that 

 some day our natural gas resources may pro- 

 vide us with new synthetic products which may 

 open entirely new possibilities in various other 

 industries. I should add that the company in 

 question, notwithstanding the present busi- 

 ness depression, has not discharged its research 

 chemists. On the contrary it has recently added 



