Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-08-05

these warnings:
Don't Waste your kerosene. Turn
down your lamps when you go out of an
evening.
Don't use fuel oil where coal will do
the same work equally we'll
Be close with your lubricants in all
sorts of machinery, and economic on
every drop of oil and on every petro-
leum by-product.
Keep your eyes on the gasoline tank
of your "hivver" and save all the
Juice you possibly can.
These are among the demands of the
nation in these trying war times, and
they come from both the field and the
factory.
producing more petroleum than ever
before. The output last year was al
most three hundred million barrels, but
even 1t that the prices have risen and
the supply is all used. We now need
all of these things as never before. and
every patriot will aid the government
In trying to save them.
This is especially true as to gasoline,
which is such a vital necessity to the
Industrial life of the nation. The de-
mands for it on account of the war
have reached enormous proportions, and
1t is now as important as gunpowder
and shells. Great supplies are needed
in France for carrying the troops,
transporting the guns and taking NUM-
employed for the airplanes and subma-
rines. and It is the only motor power of
the automobiles in the field
The Germans would have already been
do aa fna H.I
supply of motor car fuel In some Of
their engagements they transferred
large numbers of troops from the east
ern to the western front by motor cars
ard trucks. and even now the automo-
bi'es are aiding the railroads
am told here at Port Arthur that
there is practically no gasoline in stor-
age. and that the United States is not
making more than enough to supply it's
0wn needs This is so. Notwithstanding
the rapid growth in motor trucks and
automobiles. Last year we had in
operation just about three million auto
cars and this was the growth of only
twelve years. In 1905 the number was
less than one hundred thousand. Dur
ing the first nine months of last year
the cars increased in number more
than three-ouarters of a million, and
there will probably be more than four
million cars in use by the time this let
ter is published. At the same rate of
growth there will be million more by
the end of 1918.
Now. at low average the annual
consumption of every automobile is
about five hundred gallons of gasoline,
and at that figure it will take two bill
lion gallons to supply the four million
cars have now. That is we shall
need about half billion gallons more
gas for this purpose than we were
making in the whole country three
years ago. and the demand for export
is constantly growing. Some new motor
car fuel will have to be discovered, and
they are now planning to increase the
gasoline product from natural gas, and
by number of processes which have
of late been installed. In the meantime
1t behooves US all to save wherever we
can.
The demand for fuel oil is increasing
rapidly on account Of the war and
much of this is sold in so near a crude
state that many of the by-products of
Fuel oil is now used by our largest bat
tleships. and it is employed also in the
navies of Great Britain and France. 1t
is being consumed by many of our in
dustries at home. Right near here are
sulphur mines which use in the neigh
ly. and the railways of Texas and
Louisiana are now burning up eleven
million barrels of such oil every year.
The consumption of the whole country
in 1916 was upward of thirty million
barrels. The war demand for fuel oil
mand for gasoline, and the exports of
such oil were about a billion gallons
last year. The oil is easily supplied to
the ships, both at sea and in the har-
bors. 1t is also used on the torpedo
boats and destroyers to make smoke,
or "smudge." which conceals the fleet
from the enemy.