i 
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
on. 2.] SEPTEMBER, 1920. [No. 9. 
EDITOR’S NOTES. 
The columns of this Journal are open to all scientific workers in Australia, 
whether they are or are not directly associated with the work of the Institute. ~ 
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Articles may be freely peared provided due acknowledgment is ne 
of their source. 
Australia’s Position in Regard to Liquid 
Fuels. 
J = oHE rapidly-increasing scarcity and dearness of ington fuel 
is forcing the attention of industrial countries to the problem 
of future supplies. Mr. G. O. Smith, the Director of the 
34} United States of America Geological Survey, recently pointed 
out, in an address given to the Iron and Steel Institute, that ten years 
ago the oil wells in America were adding to the reserve stocks about — 
15,000,000 barrels a year, but now the current is in the other direction, 
and stocks are being depleted to the extent of some 20,000,000. barrels a 
year. In 1919, America was obliged to import nearly 50,000,000 barrels of 
crude oil more than she exported. The official estimate of less than 
7,000,000,000. barrels of oil as the quantity remaining available in the 
ground in the United States of America, while the annual consumption 
is now nearly 500,000,000 barrels, shows that at the present rate ee con- 
sumption there are only fourteen years’ supplies available. : 
In America, so serious is the position that every effort is being mnie 
to supplement the supplies of petrol. Attention is being given, firstly, 
to the production of benzol from the distillation of coal; secondly, to the 
distillation of alcohol from molasses and from other sources; and, 
thirdly, to the oil-shale resources of the country. It is nyonanle 
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