The Washington herald., 1922-03-19
DMPOUND USED
with GASOLINE
A BOOM TO AUTO
Discovery. Made by Use
Of High Compression
Motor Car.
EXHAUSTIVE TRIALS
Could Produce 125, 900 Pounds
A Year, Says Expert
Chemist.
EXHAUSTIVE TRIALS

Automobile mileage can be in
creased 100 pe- cent by the use of tel
lurium compound in gasoline. accord
ing to<a bulletin of the American
Chemical Society. which discloses the
tesults Of experiments made at Day
ton. Ohio. by Thomas Midgley and
Thomas A. Boyd. chemists in the lab
oratories OF the General Motors
Corporation.
Tellurium has for years been con-
sidered a useless metal" II Is said.
The new discovery has been made by
the use of an automobile equipped
with a high compression motor and
gear ratio altered to fit, says the bull
letn, which quotes a report to the
engineering division of the National
Research Council by the committee
on the uses of selenium and tellu-
rum.
Exhaustive Experiments.
For some time" it continues,
''Messrs- Midgley and Boyd have been
experimenting with these by-product
metals in an endeavor to find an anti
knock material for use in gasoline
motors They found that the teIluri-
um compounds were more efficient
than any other agents for addition to
gasoline to prevent the knock which
is so familiar to motorists when a
motor is laboring on a grade with the
Throttle open The favorable results
obtained indicate that with anti
knock compounds much higher COM
preston can be used in internal COM
bustion engines than has been pos
sibie with the present low grade of
gasoline in general use.
Moreover, high compression re-
suits in very great increase in
power and higher efficiency Of the
fuel To make the best use of this
material and obtain increased mile
age per gallon of gasoline. motor car
engines would have to be changed
into higher compression motors.
The selenium and telluriun COM
mittee is now engaged in making
a resurvey of the amount of tel
lurium. particularly. available in
the country. DR.. Victor Lenher, of
the american Chemical Society, De-
partpent of Chemistry of the UTi-
Yersity Of Wisconsin, is chairman
Of thN committee. DIR. Lenher esti-
mates that as small an amount as
one-hundredth Of per cent of tel
@ lurium. used in the 10000. .OO0. 900
pounds of gasoline consumed annu-
ally in the United States would be
1.5OO tons. In 1920 DR.. Lenher esti-
mated that, without further plant
equipment, the United States could
produce about 125.OOO pounds annu-
ally.
StilI Working on PrsbIem.
oh. Lenher calls attention to the
"crar cre research has Just be-
gun and that a great deal more ex-
per1mental work will be necessary
TO determine whether there are OBJ
jectionable features connected with
the uses of tellurium and selenium
compounds. and, IL so, how they
can be overcome. This work will
be justified said he. if sufficient
Of these elements can be found to
render their general use in motor
gasoline possible
Tellurium is recovered from the
tank shines Obtainable in the cleo
trio refining of copper and lead. It
has been hitherto considered as a
waste by-product and as an obiec-
tionable impurity in the commercial
metal. The compounds of selenium
and telluium which have been ex-
Perimented with in the gasoline
are selenium oxychloride and
diethyl telluride"