Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-11-03
Second Page of tte Automobile Section

burn the heavier parts of the gasollne; in other words, that the heavier ends would not vaporize and burn in the cylinders, and that their addition would add only complications and not miles.
 Heavier Gasoline Better
 "The important thing which the re- search has established so far is that the heavier parts of gasoline, even Hess volatile than those now in use, do add miles ;an dthe question whether those heavy constituents of less vol atile gasoline will add miles under winter driving conditions, and wheth- CT the tendency to dilute crank case lubricants is too great to compensate for the more abundant supply of fuel, remains to be fully investigated and answered
 "One must feel encouraged to be- lieve that it is probable that the au- tomobile engineer will solve any of these subsidiary problems.
 Que recognition has not been given the automobile engineer for what he has already done. When automobiles first made their appearance gasoline was so volatile that no one hesitted to use it for cleaning spots from the finest fabric, because, evaporation was rapid and complete. No one would think of using ordinary gasoline for that purpose now.
 "The oil industry in order to meet the demand was compelled in the period from 1915 to 1920 to make heavier and heavier fuel, and the auto motive engineer adapted the internal combustion engine to it.
 However, even in. 1921, the oil re- finer got only about 25 per cent of gasoline from the crude run through the refineries. The yield ought to be increased if possible because the great CT the yield the lower the cost of production and therefore the price.
 "The whole subject first command ed national attention in 1916 and 1a17. A conference on the subject was held under the auspices of the bureau of standards at Washington.
 Need More Gas :. i Even then, when gasoline was some what more volatile than that now sold, the question was being seriously asked whether as practical matter the limits as to volatility had not been reached; but the automobile engineers there present furnished the answer.
 "One of their leaders dominated the meeting when he said:
 What we want is gasoline in large quantities, at the cheapest possible price. If the automotive engineer knows somewhat in advance the char acter of the fuel that will be avail able, he will succeed within reasonable imits in adapting his engine to it."
 "How wei the automotive engineer has succeeded will be illustrated by the fact that after the complete re- suits of the research program are an nounced, no one will ask questions as to the efficiency and economy of the ordinary grades of motor fuel sold by oil companies throughout the United States.
 "The only question will be whether it is desirable for the automotive and oil engineers to go further, and if so, how far. ,.
 "It will also be proven that the few states and municipalities that have attempted to get so-called quality gasoline by the adoption of rigid spec ifications have been misguided, to say the least
 | "The research programs being car ried on under the auspices of the Bureau of Standards at Washington, with the cooperation of the American Petroleum institute, the Society of Automotive Engineers and the nation al automobile chamber of commerce. Four Fuels Get Test
 -Four special fuels were selected so far as to have the same starting char acteristics, but different in the vola- tility of their heavier constituents, the | lightest or most volatile of the four Expert---GA 1.-TWO
 being more readily vaporized than commercial gasoline and the heaviest much less readily voporized than any grade marketed as motor fuel. The other two fuels represent the medium grades. -Four typical models of passenge, cars were selected, representing near. ly 75 per cent of all passenger cars on the road.
 "A special schedule of road tests was carefully laid out in advance ir order to represent as nearly as pos. sible the conditions of operation tc which the average passenger car is subjected in service. This schedule included accelerations, decelerations slo wand moderate speeds, as in traf fic as we'll as touring conditions. A special set of instruments was de signed for observing the behavior o1