34 
BULLETIN 102, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
upon lubricants made from petroleum. 1 For purposes of reducing 
friction (i. e,, conserving energy), few substitutes are in sight for 
mineral oils; 2 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. 3 
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, 4 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. * * * ” 
2 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. 
3 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. 
4 The use of petroleum products in medicaments and of paraffin in treating burns 
are interesting examples. 
