Arizona republican., 1920-08-22
(By Frederic J. IIasllin.)

WASHINGTON, D. C. Aug 21- Special attention is being given to the seriousness of the gasoline shortage, and the bureau of mines is becoming more optimistic about the possibility of producing the ten million or more gsi- Ions of gasoline used every day.in the motor cars of the United States.
 So rapid has been the increase in the numbers of motor driven vehicles in this country that, despite the stupend- ous production of gasoline, the con- sumption has surpassed it. The in crease in the output of oil is hy no means keeping pace with the increase in the machines which use it's most refined product, gasoline, and the ques- tion is anxiously asked where this ten dency will end.
 The bureau of mines holds the pros pect of greatest prominence is the de- velopment of a process which will re- duce a greater percentage of the crude oil to gasoline Crude oil, it should be understood, is subjected to a process of refinement in the production of gasoline. This treatment is little more than the application of heat to it. When the heat is applied the first part of the crude to De driven off is the gasoline. After a certain time the material driven off ceases to be gasoline and becomes kerosene. which is a quite different product. Further down the scale other products emerge.
 Cracking the MoIecule
 Now it happens that the difference between gasoline and crude oil lies in the formation of the molecule. If the molecule in crude oil can be cracked, additional gasoline can be secured from the crude. TFere is a process now in operation which actually cracks this molecuIe. Through snat process last year 15 per cent of the gasoline of the nation was procured. There are strong probabilities of this method being so improved and perfected that it may lead to the doubling of the gasoline possibilities of the crude oil of the na- tion If this hope develops into a fact the gasoline problem has been solved temporarily.
 The possibility of increasing the oil output of the nation, which is given second importance by the bureau of miles. is that of obtaining greater quan- titles of the fuel from the exhausted fields. When given field has been eX- hausted by the flow of it's wells, fol- lowed by their pumping until no more oil is procurable, not more than 20 per cent of the oil has been obtained. Eighty per cent still remains in the sands below the ground. The bureau of mines believes that greater atten- tion should be paid to the possibilities of procuring more of that so per cent. Great parts of sand remain saturated with oil, and if some method could be devised to extract it the desired result would be accomplished. If it could be economically mined, for instance. it could be retorted and the oil driven from the sand and recovered
 The possibility of third importance in increasing the oil supply lies in the treatment of the mountains of shale rock which are found in Utah, Colo rado, Wyoming, and elsewhere. In every ton of this shale rock there are about 40 gallons of oil. The method of its extraction is similar to that of getting oil out of sand. It must be subjected to heat thus driving out the oil and recovering it. In Scotland there has been in actual operation for 50 years a plant which successfully re- torts shale and profitably secures the oil from it.