The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-08-05
SHORTAGE OF GASOLINE
SEEKING SUBSTITUTES
SITUATION AS VIEWED BY HEAD
OF UNITED STATES GEO.
LOGICAL SURVEY.

W mere snail we obtain gaSOlene {
its power equivalent to run the car
of joy? Everybody is asking tina
these days with gasolene in the 80
and going in the direction of tn
roaring 4Os, says the New York SUI
sun and Herald.
Ten million automobiles will b
rolling up mileage in the Unite,
States before the end of this year
according to the estimates of experts
but no matter how high the price o
fuel goes there always seems to b,
plenty of persons who are willing t.
pay it. In the period from 1909 t.
1918 it is estimated that the number
of cars and trucks in the country in.
creased LOO per cent. In the first
of these years gasOlene was being ex-
ploded and burned up by engines al
the rate of 100000 barrels a year
and nine years later the annual rate
was S5,OO0,000 barrels, which is nearly
600 per cent. increase. According to
official statistics, the production of
petroleum gained only IS per cent.
Question of Priority.
"The ever increasing demand for
gasolene and fuel" said Dr. George
Otis Smith, director of the United
State geological survey in a recent ad-
dress before the American Iron and
Steel institute, lis the outstanding
feature of the oil situation, so that the
question of priority must soon arise
With an estimate of 1000. 900, 900 bar
rels of oil in the ground. and the 1920
consumption closely approaching half
billion barrels this rapid pace can
not long be maintained"
When the petroleum industry in the
United States was coming into its own
after the civil war the gushers of
Pennsylvania were considered to be
doing their fun duty if they produced
a few million barrels. AS late as 1870
the petroleum was only 100000 bar
rels of crude oil a year. and last year
the scant supply, as it has been con-
sidered, was only SSO,OOO,OOO barrels.
Even with all the gushers in the
new fields of Texas and other regions
in operation the need is not being
met. Operators are turning more and
more toward Mexico, and the quest
for gasolene. for such it may be called
because the light fluid is what is
most desired these days in petroleum.
is being carried into economies which
in the flush days of Coal Oil Johnny
would never have been within the
dreams of the most saving.
Petroleum is capable of being split 1
mp into many distillates such as
naptha, benzine and gasolene all of |
which were considered at one time of |
little or no account. Naptha was once
only a cent or so a gallon and was
often thrown away. Gasoline was
looked upon as a good cleaning fluid,
and it served well as an illuminant
for circus flares in the night perform
lnces. 1t lighted the street medicine
yender by night on the village market
OTIS, and performed the homeliest and
he explosive type of engine did much
10 bring about a new era for gaso-
enc manufacture and now it is hail
I'd as a source of power.
The splitting up of the molecules
through the processes of chemistry has
,een increasing the supply of gaso-
enc somewhat The So called light
Ill which is used in the manufacture
ii Illuminating gas was once only
IT 6 cents a gallon. It was regarded
- more or less of a product which
vas regarded as the peculiar property
# the gas companies, just as naptha
vas in its time.
When it was found that it could be
racked further and gasolene got from :
t the gas companies and the automo- 8
lie interests came into collision. d
fence bitter words of gas presidents .
bout the inconsiderate joy riders who Il
o out of a Sunday to course upon i
he roads when they might better be ,
Ding to church or playing golf. Il
'welve cents a gallon is a low price
DR. light oil. of which four and one
enth gallons are required to enrich
900 feet of gas sold at even 81, if p
he company is lucky The automo- a
Hist, who is now paying "a cents for f.
asoiene and will probably give 40 f
ents before long. is a hard competi- g
Dr. for the gas companies to face. v
The chemists are carrying the quest $.
,r gasolene still further by extracting Of
ie fluid from natural gas. There are C;
,ur processes for accomplishing this Of
at the one in most common use it
cling the absorption method. This a
insists in bringing the natural gas n'
contact with a heavy mineral oil, II
hich absorbs a portion of the hydro
lrbons present in the vapor. When
lie mixture is heated a gas is liberat-
! which condenses into a good quail &c
Y of commercial gasolene. to
AS industry is dependent upon many IN
ctors in this country, the maker of &C
irbon black is very much disturbed tn
rer these gasolene quests in natural FIR
Is, as he makes lampblack by collect in
g the SCOT from the burning of nat gr
al gas. di
The national committee on natural so