48 BULLETIN 102, VOL. 1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



400,000,000 



J50,000,000 



iOO.OOO.OOO 



150,000,000 l_ _ 



mand for the light products of distillation, the liquids now sold under 

 the commercial name of gasoline, which were, therefore, largely waste 

 products in an economic sense and even in some instances physically- 

 destroyed for want of any ade- 

 laqo^ iqo4- ^ i^op _ iqi* quate demand for their utiliza- 

 ; ' ■ I tion. Gasoline for a long time, 



then, was a by-product of little 

 value turned out in the manufac- 

 ture of kerosene. (See fig. 6.) 



Toward the close of the nine- 

 teenth century, however, the com- 

 mercial application of the incan- 

 descent mantle in gas lighting and 

 the development of the electric 

 light introduced a type of illumi- 

 nation so superior to the kerosene 

 lamp in convenience that the use 

 of the latter was gradually rele- 

 gated, in large part, to the small 

 town, the country, and foreign re- 

 gions, where the introduction of 

 gas and electricity was not pos- 

 sible. Accordingly, in spite of a 

 most aggressive campaign for 

 foreign trade on the part of the 

 petroleum industry, the refinery 

 faced the restrictions of a slowing 

 demand for kerosene which pre- 

 saged a limit to the output of the 

 whole set of petroleum products. 

 But the menace of this limiting 

 circumstance was destroyed, be- 

 fore it became effective, by the 

 introduction and rapid advance 

 of the internal-combustion engine. 

 The phenomenal growth in the 

 use of the automobile built up 

 such a heavy demand for gasoline 

 that this product came into the 

 lead and took up the burden of 

 justifying the increasing refinery consumption of crude petroleum — 

 a burden which kerosene, even with the aid of a growing market for 

 fuel oil, lubricants, and other oil products, was scarcely longer able 



zoo, 000,000 



150,000,000 



IOO,000,OQO 



50,000,000 



Fig. 6. — Chart showing the eelativb 



VALUES OF the PRINCIPAL PETROLEUM 



products manufactured in the united 

 States from 1899 to 1914. Note the 

 decreasing importance of kerosene 

 in sustaining the cost of refining, 

 and the necessity of exports for 

 maintaining a balanced outlet of 

 PRODUCTS. Data from Story B. Ladd, 

 Petroleum Refining. Census of 

 Manue actures : 1914, Bureau of the 

 Census, Washington, 1917, p. 10. 



