186 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



line, kerosene, the many types of 

 lubricating oils, and fuel oil. 



There are said to be 300 or 

 more products of petroleum, each 

 with its own use. Some of these 

 products serve merely our con- 

 venience, such as the artificial 

 "vanilla" flavoring or the cover 

 of paraffine on the jar of jelly or 

 marmalade ; others were found 

 during the war period to be ab- 

 solutely essential to industry on 

 a large scale — for example, the 

 heavy oil used in tempering steel 

 plates. 



One picture of the demand for 

 the principal petroleum products 

 can be seen in a recent statement 

 of United States Army peace- 

 time requirements, which in- 

 cluded 74 million gallons of fuel 

 oil, 1 1 million gallons of gasoline, 

 two million gallons each of lubri- 

 cating oil and grease, and one 

 million gallons of kerosene. Not 

 only will the size of this single 

 order open some eyes, but its 

 make-up is significant and dis- 

 concerting. 



Taking the figures ot the Bu- 

 reau of Alines on refinery pro- 

 duction last year, we find that 

 the output of gasoline was not 

 quite double that of kerosene, 

 and the output of lubricants was 

 less than half that of kerosene, 

 and here the army wants eleven 

 times as much gasoline as kero- 

 sene, and twice as much lubri- 

 cating oil. The discord between 

 demand and supply in this one 

 order is even worse for fuel oil, 

 of which the output last year 

 was about five times that of kero- 

 sene ; and yet the army wants 

 74 times as much. 



LUBRICANTS ARE THE BAROMETER 

 OF BUSINESS 



Too broad an inference from 

 any one set of figures is unwise, 

 but other statistics point in the 

 same direction : Fuel oil is used 

 on 357 vessels of our navy, and 

 the Shipping Board has an- 



