Tombstone epitaph., 1915-05-02

Nc'NAAto oi
 importance. One. it Was
 announced. will greatly in crease the production of gasoline; the announcement stated that the other VIII make the United States indepen- ueht or the rest of the world in the proouction of materials necessary for the dye industry and the manufacture 'I nish explosives. These discoveries nave the double importance of being or the highest interest scientifically ana probably of the highest value com mercially.
 The old method of refining petro- ieum was to heat up the material in a still and condense the vapors coming on. Gasoline is all of the vapor which passes of up to 15O degrees cen. tlsrade. This was a simple distilla- tion process. The experimental work Of Doctor Rittman has been done at Varlous ranges or pressure rom up to nearly 500 pounds per square inch down to partial vacuum ana at ranges Of temperature from 1000 degrees cen tigrade down to the lowest tempera- ture at which the apparatus could be worked.
 In his laboratory at Havemeyer hall at Columbia university he has an ex- perimental apparatus which occupies one end of small room and in which he can make experiments upon any oil under any conditions he chooses. The results are carefully tabulated and the products produced are analysed. Be fore carrying out these actual experi- meuts, however, the problem was at tackled from the purely theoretical side.
 Working from a theoretical stand point. the expected results were mapped out and then the experiments were tried under the chosen condi- tions in order to either verify or dis prove the prognostications. Using this general method of procedure, the re- search was carried on and the discov- cry made of the conditions necessary to produce larger yields of gasoline from petroleum. Later were found the conditions necessary for the produc- tion of toluol and benzol from petro- , leum.
 The consumption of gasoline by au- tomobiles, motor cycles. aeroplanes, motor boats, and the various types of internal combustion engines used for power has increased enormously in the last few years. The increase in the number of motor vehicles shows this, for, according to the best estimates. there were. in 1910, 350000 such ve- hicles; in 1912 there were 990,000, while at the present time the number has reached 1,500,000. Upon the as- sumption that each motor vehicle uses ten barrels of gasoline per year. the demand from this source alone would be 15 ,000 900 barrels of 42 gallons each. The gasoline exported and that used for other purposes makes our annual consumption reach a total of about g, ,0OO, 900 gallons, which is the pres ent production.
 The supply has not been increasing as fast as the demand. however. and even now 1t would be inadequate were 1t not for the fact that in the last three years many new processes have been patented for increasing most Of the production. These have had no com mercial value, however. except one. the Burton process, which is con trolled by the Standard oil company.
 The situation which developed when this process was brought out three years ago was an interesting one. The supply of gasoline was so nearly eX- l ceeded by the demand that the situa- ton was very critical and the price was high. There was real gasoline problem" It seemed impossible to meet the increasing demand with an l adequate supply.
 Benzol was also put forward as a substitute. It was found possible to use this material for motor vehicles in Europe to a certain extent by en- ploying special carburetors, although it was not entirely satisfactory. After all, nothing was really able'to take the place of gasoline in being en- tirely satisfactory. nor was there an adequate supply of any other material. | It was at this time that the Standard oil company solved the gasoline problem" by utilizing the Burton proc ess, which gave prospect of an abun- dance of gasoline for some years at | least,
 However, the independent refin- CTS, who were prevented by the patents from using this superior meth cd of distilling their crude oil. could not materially increase their output