South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-12-16
AUTOMOBILE NEWS

country. The total consumption Of
crude oils is apparently 5O.00O.OO(
bile. per year greater than the 70,
tai production OF crude oil in field,
now in commercial contact with tn,
civilized world. This in spite o.
the fact that passenger-vehicle use
is prohibited everywhere except in
North America"
OH for Transportation.
"Oil must be where we can use
it before il will help to solve our
daily transportation problems. II
will cost vast sums, and will take
some years to produce ships, pipe
line, and 20 make refinery improve
ments so that more than 10 per cent
Of the Mexican crudes can be used
for so-called gasoline"
''AlI cars now average less than
II miles per gallon OF gasoline
This average can be made nearer
is or 20 miles per gallon by better
carburetiOn means, using half-gaso-
line half-kerOsene mixtures. dis
tillates, or low-grade fuels"
Likewise, trucks average from
TO miles per gallon, and can be
made 10 20 8 to miles. Tractors
using 3 to gallons per hour can
be made TO run on 2 10 2la gallons
per hour. In England a one-plow
tractor on which great hope were
based recently in an hours test in
hard ground. required gallons of
fuel per acre, which is a prohibitive
cOnsu mption."
"All Of the English gasolines are
much better from carbureting stand
point than anything sold in large
quantities in America. One fire.
quently hears American engineers
Boosting OF following the
latest European engine practice
without realizing that the gasoline
now sold in Europe is something
like that used from 1900 TO 1907 in
this country"
Sooner or later, the absolute ne
cessity of producing more gasoline
for American consumption Will COM
pei oil refiners TO use here most
of the gasoline and napthas now
grade fuels. All the world must
be satisfied in due time if it gets
a supply of fuel as good as the
average in America This means
that European engine design must
follow American design in future,
rather than American designs will
be based on European practice, as
in the past"
Question of Engines.
THE present-day high speed,
low-compression,
four-stroke cycle engine throttle
is used in probably 95
per cent of all installations in which
the fuel is the refined material oil
known as commercial gasoline.
decided improvements in
the methods of carbureting mineral
oil and in engine design, all of
which will allow more of the crude
oil to be made into commercial gas
Oline. are desirable, unless existing
oil refineries. motor vehicles and
are radically changed"
The authors suggested remedy
the more general use OF superheated
fixed dry gases made
in vaporizing devices independent
Of engine cylinders-is advanced be
cause he realizes that even personal
interests are best served when the
entire industry best serves the pub
lie. He does feel, as result Of
many years of painstaking WORK
and expenditure of huge sums of
money investigating other meth
DDS. that this is the only com
practicable means that
can now be devised"
Fixing prices of srude oils be-
low commercially adjusted market
prices will curtail oil-well develop
nent, and defeat desired results.
Fixing prices of gasoline without
that most of the oil
refiners' profit comes from gasoline
sales, viii break down ability TO
improve refining methods, which
are costly at best. Arbitrarily cur
use of passenger cars or
trucks strikes at the basic fabric
Of the American transportation
system. these vehicles handle a lar
ger traffic than steam and electric
ines. as they perform local service
otherwise We must de-
pend on more trucks and vehicles
with better highways TO handle the
future increase of traffic that steam
ines cannot handle. Restricting
-apid expansion OF tractors is suici-
ial as regards the food question,
because millions of men and ami
mails lost in the war must be re-
placed by mechanical power on
farms in all the nations involved"