The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1920-03-24
KEROSENE is SAID
TO Be GROWING SCARCER
Forward Lockers Worried Over The
Future Supply.
Way ere we worried about oil -?

| WY i'ie we worried about oil!
Our future oil supply is question
which is troubling captains of indus
try and scientists, yet ,he reasons for
this concern are generally understood
by the average citizen. George Otis
Smith, director of the U. S. GcologicaI
Survey explains in communication
to the Nctional Geographic Society:
"In The course of the centuries the
raw-matcrial issue changes. In the
long-bow epoch Of England's military
strength the conscrvationist feared
depletion of the yew wood which
might give the Teuton, backed 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
enmies.
"Today htosc who plan for the fu-
ture prosperity of their nation realize
|
ials are ESSENTIAL to the general we'll
being and for some of these we can
sec no adequate substitutes.
| Foremost among these useful and
least abundant, if not, indeed ire
placeable commodities, stands miner
al oil, or petroleum, and not only the
conservative Briton, but the most op-
timistic American. may we'll ask him
self, Where will my children and
children's children get the oil that
they may need in ever-increasing
amounts?
"But while the United States has
contributed far more than half (61 per
cent? of the oil that the world has
used for nearly GO years, we have al
ready 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 consumption
-413,077 1873 barrels-no mind can
easily grasp the idea Of that quantity.
Truly it is flood Of oil; for, if spread
over the GO square miles of the Dis
trict of Columbia, these 413 million
barrels would cover the area to a
depth of nearly a foot and half.
"Beginning with four miles of iron
pipe laid down in western Pennsyl-
vania at the close of the Civil War,
this system now embraces huge net
work of buried pipes from four to
eight inches in diameter, trunk lines
and laterals, aggregating nearly 3d.
900 miles.
when most of us were in school,
| 'oiP meant kerosene. and gasoline or
bcnZnc was something to be bought
nj bottle at the drug store or the
paint shop.
'Today oil has become the premier
motive power, not only on land and
sea, but even in the heavens above
an dthe depth below--truly the best
servant of Mars and Mercury.
marshal Foch is quoted as saying
that q drop of gasoline was worth a
drop Of blood
"Thc number and variety of uses of
petroleu and its products are contin-
ually increasing, but even more strik-
ing is our increased dependence upon
a few of the products of the oil refin-
cry, notably gasoline, kerosene, the
many types of lubricating oils, and
fuel OIL
There are said to be 300 or more
products of petroleum each with it's
own use. Some Of these products
serve merely our convenience, such as
the artificial vanilla flavoring or the
cover of paraffine on the jar of jelly
or marmalade; others were found dur
ing the war period to be absolutely
essential to industry on large scale
for example the heavy oil used in
tempering steel plates.
"Ic is when we think Of TIE marvel
crs growth Of the automotivc indus
tr> that we realize a future demand
f'f fabrication that staggc s even the
prophetic statistician. With more
than six million pleasure automobiles
operated in the United States alone.
We have an annual consumption esti.
mntcd, by the officials of the fore
most company manufacturing high
garde lubricating oil, where twenty
| wears apO the demand for this MR.