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



upon lubricants made from petroleum.^ For purposes of reducing 

 friction (i. e., conserving energy), few substitutes are in sight for 

 mineral oils;^ vegetable and animals oils, although preferable for 

 certain highly specialized purposes, are unsuited for general employ- 

 ment, as they oxidize and thicken with use, and tend to become rancid 

 and attack the metal bearings which they cover. With the passing of 

 petroleum, mineral lubricants will be manufactured from oils dis- 

 tilled from shale and from coals, according to methods in operation 

 to-day in countries lean in petroleum, as Scotland and Germany.* 

 At the present time, in the United States, petroleum is produced and 

 manufactured into products far in advance of lubricating needs, 

 which means that the lubricating portion of the resource is being 

 exhausted at a rate dictated by the demand for oil for power genera- 

 tion. Thus the exhaustion of our principal lubricant resource is being 

 accomplished with much greater dispatch than is justified by true 

 necessity, since part of the fuel demand could be filled by means 

 (i. e., coal and hydroelectricity) not involving a sacrifice of potential 

 lubricants. 



Finally, in regard to the large array of by-product substances which 

 are manufactured from crude petroleum, it is evident that these 

 products, which to-day have an aggregate value of scarcely 10 per 

 cent of the total output of the petroleum industry, represent a wealth 

 of raw materials, one step removed from the parent, which together 

 have literally an infinite field of growth, except for limitations of 

 supply. Apart from the present importance of oil by-products, 

 which concern such fundamental matters as paint manufacture, road 

 construction, food preservation, and life conservation,* petroleum 

 holds out reasonable prospects of supplying in important amounts 

 edibles, synthetic rubber, and dyestuffs at no distant date, while an 

 intense focus of chemical research on the matter may be expected to 

 yield a flattering return in many additional directions which now can 

 not be wholly foreseen. The accomplishments to date of this kind 

 in the field of coal products are already well known, although even 



1 Writes M. L. Requa (Senate Doc. 363, 64th Congress, 1st session, Mar. 9, 1916, p. 5) : 

 " For it [petroleum] there is no satisfactory substitute as a lubricant ; its exhaustion 

 spells commercial chaos or commercial subjugation by the nation or nations that control 

 the future source of supply from which petroleum will be derived. There Is but one 

 escape, and that is the discovery of some substitute, now unknown, that will as effica- 

 ciously and economically lubricate the machinery of the Nation. • • * " 



* Roughly, one-half pint of lubricating oil is required for each ton of coal made Into 

 power. Castor oil offers interesting possibilities as a lubricant. 



* There is reason to believe that Germany is suffering a serious shortage in lubricating 

 oils, a dearth which she Is only In part relieving by the use of oils made from the dis- 

 tillation products of coal. (See Nature, Jan. 24, 1918, p. 414.) Should circumstances 

 arise under which the petroleum fields of the Caucasus are threatened, the critical bear- 

 ing of this juncture, as offering to Germany the prospect of an adequate supply of 

 lubricants and other petroleum products, should be held clearly in mind by the allied 

 countries. 



* The use of petroleum products in medicaments and of paraffin in treating burns 

 are interesting examples. 



