Evening star., 1920-03-28
EXPERT EXPLAINS
| WORRY ABOUT OIL
Great Increase in Use Has
| Turned Attention to Fu- {
f ture Sources.

why are We worried about OIL!
Our future oil supply is question
which is troubling captains OF indus
try and scientists: yet the reasons
for this concern are not generally
understood by the average citizen.
George Otis Smith. director of the
United States geological survey, ex-
plains, in a communication to the Ma
tional Geographic Societ-:
In the course OF the centuries the
raw material issue changes In the
longbow epoch of England's military
strength the conservationist feared a
depletion of the yewwood which might
give the Teuton. backed up by his
larger forests. an obvious advantage
in light ordnance. Later. when Great
Britain's naval power depended upon
her wooden ships of war. the anxious
naval chief foresaw a possible short
age of the oak which made the walls
that stood between England and her
enemies.
See No Adequate Substitutes.
To-day those who plan for the future
extent to which other raw materials
are essential to the general we'll
being, and for some of these we can
See no adequate substitutes.
Foremost among these most useful
and least abundant, if not, indeed, ir-
replaceable, commodities stands min
eral oil, or petroleum, and not only
the conservative Briton, but the most
optimistic American, may well ask
himself: Where will my children and
they may need in ever-increasing
RmountS?'
But while the United States has
contributed far more than half (61
per cent? of the oil that the world
has used for nearly sixty years, We
have already reached the point where
we are consuming more oil than We
produce. Is this position of the
worlds greatest user of petroleum as
safe as it is spectacular?
I'VE are the worlds greatest con-
sumers of petroleum.: but, impressive
as are the 1918 figures of consump-
tion-4I3.077,113 barrels-no mind can
easily grasp the idea of that quantity.
Truly it is a flood of oil; for. if spread
over the sixty square miles of the
District of Columbia these 413 million
barrels would cover the area to depth
of nearly foot and half.
Huge Network Of Pipes.
beginning with four miles of iron
pipe laid down in western Pennsyl-
vania at the close of the civil war,
work of buried pipes from four to
eight inches in diameter, trunk lines
and laterals, aggregating nearly 30,-
900 miles
when most of US were in school.
oil meant kerosene, and gasoline or
benzine was something to be bought
in a bottle at the drug store or the
paint shop
To-day oil has become the premier
motive power, not only on land and
sea. but even in the heavens above
and the depths below-truly the pest
servant of Mars and Mercury
Marshal Foch is quoted as saying
that a drop of gasoline was worth
in war drop of blood
The number and variety of uses
of petroleum and its products are
continually increasing. but even more
striking is our increased dependence
upon a few of the products OF the Oil
refinery, notably gasoline. kerosene,
the many types of lubricating oils,
and fuel oil.
Products of Petroleum.
"Theresare said to be 800 or more
products of petroleum. each with It's
own use Some of these products serve
merely our convenience. such as the
artificial vanilla favoring or the COW
er of parafiin on the jar Of jelly OF
marmalade: others were found durlni'
the war period to be absolutely es
sential to industry on large scale
for example. the heavy oil used IN
tempering steel plates.
1T is when we think of the mar
velous growth of the automotive In
dustry that we realize future de-
mand for fabrication that staggers
even the prophetic statistician- With
more than six million pleasure auto
mobiles operated in the United States
alone, we have an annual consump-
tion estimated. by the officials OF the
foremost company manufacturing
high-grade lubricants. at 120,006.000
gallons of lubricating oil. where
twenty years ago the demand for this
purpose was practically nothing