The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-09-02
ANNIVERSARY OF
 THE GASOLINE ERA

The age in which we live has witt messed many wonders and not the least of these was the discovery of gasoline. which made possible the con quest of the air and the invention of the automobile. The fluid plays an inn portant part in war as well as in peace for it is the motive power of submar- ines and air craft, as well as motor cars, boats, launches and machinery of hundreds of other varieties
 Half a century ago gasoline was con- sidered a waste product of petroleum and was thrown away. Then it was sold in small quantities to be used as a cleaning fluid.
 A Frenchman, a German, and an American share in the glory of the introduction of that fluid which has made this the gasoline era, and the Frenchman has the priority
 It was forty-six years ago today, Sept. 2, 1868. that the Frenchman, Pierre Joseph Ravol, filed in thee pat ent office of the French imperial gov ernue ent a description of a steam gen. erP heated by petroleum oils. It's purpose was to provide steam locomo- ton on public highways and in the development of this project M. Rava1 fitted his enginAA of three horsepower, to a carriage Raval was on the heels of the great discovery, but the FVranco-Prussian war broke out and | ter the conclusion, of that struggle, however, M. Raval continued his ex- periments, and helped to usher in the horseless age by cons structing a car in which petroleum oil was used for the direct generation of power.
 In 1876 a German engineer, Lentz. began working on the problem of the utilization of gasoline and other waste products of petroleum. This worthless mixture was called nasSout and was produced in large quantities l by the Russian oil refneries at Baku. -sentz invented the massout burner and massout was soon adopted to as | the fuel for nearly all the steamships 1 on the Casapian and adjacent waters Many years later the Kaiser's govern
 nent made use of Lentz's burner in it's naval vessels, with great success.
 It remained for George B.Sheldon, oi Rochester N. Y. to solve the problem Of the successful use of gasoline in Ieonnection with automobiles. German inventors who were working on the same problem used kerosine,s consider J ing gasoline to dangerous. but Seldor proved that they were mistaken. The proof of the correctness of his theory is to be found in the millions of ve- hicles now speeding over the land and on the water and through the tir.
 Gasoline production amounts tc about per cent. of the crude petroleum production The United States is fal in the lead in it's gasoline output, witk Russia a distant second. Other coun- Etries which produce gasoline in consid- erable quantities include Mexico, Rum | ania, Sumatra Java, Borneo, Ga1icfa India Japan. Peru, Germany and Can ada I Crude petroleum is divided into the iheavy oil used for lubricants; kerosent which is much the larger porportior and naptha. The latter are known a. A, B, c, and the lightest of them all i!
 gasoline. Once a waste product, the1 Ia cleaning fluid. later iilumfnan | gasoline has now become the power that turns millions of wheels anc sends vehicles and crafts of all sort
 hurling through air and water ant over highways at a speed greater thar
 man has ever travelled before The mel
 who invented it are the benefactors 0
 humanity. as John D. Rockefeller. vii
 soIemnly affirn-although pedestrian
 may deny it.
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