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



made from coal, in order to enable the product to meet standards im- 

 posed by municipalities — standards in part a hold over from the days 

 when the flat-flame use of gas made luminosity a necessary feature. 

 While, broadly speaking, the use of oil in gas manufacturing is a 

 degradation, the practice is not only economically justifiable but actu- 

 ally desirable so long as the main outlet for fuel oil is for firing steam 

 boilers, a use still more degraded with the added disadvantage of 

 offering a smaller inducement for refining.^ 



In addition to the extension of " cracking " distillation, improve- 

 ments in motor design, and widespread use of the Diesel type of motor 

 to replace the oil-fired steam engine,^ an unlimited field of advance in 

 increased value extraction opens up in connection with the building 

 up of an oil by-products industry. But this matter has been em- 

 phasized in the preceding pages and need not be detailed again at 

 this point. The greatness of the opportunity, however, should not 

 be underestimated. 



Development of foreign sources of supply. — ^In addition to the 

 domestic production of petroleum, this country since 1911 has been 

 drawing upon the oil fields of Mexico at an increasing rate, so that 

 in 1917 that country supplied roughly one-tenth of our needs. The 

 pools of Mexico, accessibly situated in the Gulf Coastal Plain, are 

 the richest in the world and are capable of a much greater annual 

 production than has yet been taken from them. In fact, the output, 

 mainly under the control of British and American interests, is 

 held in check, especially at the present time. In the Central Ameri- 

 can region in general, there are other promising oil districts, though 

 none is developed in any way comparable to the Mexican deposits. 

 It is not unreasonable to expect that further exploration and develop- 

 ment will make available a reserve of oil in Mexico and Central 

 America equal to the total remaining in the United States.^ 



These deposits, accordingly, offer themselves in increasing meas- 

 ure to supplement a waning domestic output. Their aid should be 

 accepted, but their availability is incidental upon many uncertain 

 factors, and obviously it would be unwise to grow into dependence 

 upon them or permit their presence to offset action regarding the 

 efficient utilization of our own resource. At best, these deposits and 



* An interesting war-time development in connection with gas oil has heen the, installa- 

 tion of toluol-recovery plants in large municipal gas plants for the recovery of toluol 

 formed from the oil in the course of gas manufacture, thus adding to the supply of 

 toluol contributed by the by-product coke oven. It is a striking coincidence that both 

 coal and petroleum furnish the basis for the manufacture of one of the most effective 

 explosives known. 



» Coal and hydroelectricity should also assist in replacing the oil-fired steam engine. 



» Little in the way of petroleum imports may be expected from other parts of the 

 world ; South American needs will probably more than absorb the future output of that 

 continent. 



