The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-22
I HERES HISTORY
 OF 'WOCO-PEP
Holt Tells What Industry
 Has Meant To City

 first derby atop of his knob on his twenty-first birthday, skins the downy fuz5 off his lip, and sashays forth to east his first ballot. Old epough to Nbtel
 This year the wofford oil company is 2l years old. Yes, q years ago the company was founded as a personal venture by c. T. Wofford. That was back in 1908. Fifteen years of that time were, spent in, laying the founda- fion for the phenomenal success of our famous Woco Pep Motor Fuel.
 For during that IS years we handled only inbricating oils and kersonene. And in that time we have lighted million lamps and greased thousands of indus trial wheels. $At
 AIt is rather hard to realize that the Wofford Oil company as an or- Ranization is three and a half times as old as Woco Pep. Perhaps it is be- cause Pep kicks over more Hywheels. in n day than Woco Lubricsants can grease in an industrial plant in. a year Hut it's that 21 years practical ex- perience in fabrication and knowledge of oils and of all the ins and outs and the in-between of the oil business that backs up every gallon of Woco Motor Oil that goes into your motor.
 Old enough to vote-N years of sue cessful fabrication are behind you when you are ''Wocomobiling," when you are crowding your tank with a power and mileage that no other motor fuel can give you, and when you are pouring into your crank case motor oil that bears the stamp of approval of the fore most fabrication specialists of the south. 5. s That is why you save money and motor by "Wocomobiling." ~. z The story. of Woco Pep is the story of the development of a market for benzol, hitherto unknown, unvalued, unrecognized product of the -Birming- ham district, and the fight that it took te win that market. The almost in snrmountable obstacles that had to be overcome, the final surge into popu- larity and consequent imitation, would make interesting reading that would fill a large volume on sThe Romance of Woco Pep"
 Benzol is a by-product, of the coke ovens. It used to go up the chimney in the sm0ke-and now it is running your motors. When coal is heated for conversion into coke for use in our industries, there arises from the glow ing coals certain gases and vapors which were formerly allowed to waste up through the chimney into the open air. Today these gases and vapors are caught and condensed and distilled, and there are recovered from them vari- ous by-products, including this motor benzol.
 { Technically, benzol is defined as a water-white distillate, crystal clear. In other words, it looks like gasoline. But 1t is heavier than gasoline, for one gallon of benzoI weighs 7.3 lbs, while one gallon of gasoline weighs only 6.5 lbs. There are 1000 more heat units per pound in benzol than in gasoline. Benzol begins to distill at 175 degrees B and it goes dry at 275 degrees F. Gasoline begins to distill at 1855 de- Rrees sF but it goes dry at 475 degrees E with 2 per cent residue left. These are technical points in which you may or may not be interested.
 q There are other uses for benZo1 be- sides in a motor fuel, but they are rath- CT limited ones. You have heard of it often as used in the dry cleaning of clothes, It is used commercially in the chemical arts, such as for engrav- ing work and, being distant cousin of the deadly TINT or Trinitrotoluol, it finds an enormous demand in war time for the manufacture of H. H. or high explosive shells.
 { It was this wartime use of benzol which brought it's production up to such a volume that its disposal be- came a serious problem to the manu- lecturers.
 sS Previous to the World war there were 100000 gallons of benzof pro- tIuced per year in the United States. This. was easily absorbed by such trades as used it, but the demand was not such as to make 1t profitable to build more plants for producing it. At the outbreak of the World war the cry then was for more benzol for the manufacture of munitions. The govern ment sought every possible source of benzol manufacture and encouraged and aided the installation of benzol-making plants. Almost overnight the production of benzol sprang up from 100000 gallons per year to about 70,000O00 gallons-and that was none too much. The benzoi manufacturers were re- claiming in enroumous quantities this by-product that formerly went up in snnoke. And they were getting $1 per gallon for it! .e Then the war stoppedABang! And the, benzol manufacturers were left stranded. Here they were piling up thousands and thousands of gallons of this benzol in their storage and no mar ket for it. They were begging for talk CTS, but nobody wanted it. It was gen. erally considered worthless. Some of the big gasoline companies, we know now, really knowing of its value as a motor fuel and fearing its possible com petition, steppe in and bought it for 2 song and shipped it to their refiners to mix with their gasoline to improve it. But they kept the facts from the benzol manufacturers.
 E It was just then that G. T. Wofford stepped into Birmingham. But as the movie people say, let's take a flash back to two years before that time.
 The Wofford Oil company was in the oil and kerosene marketing busi- ness then, selling no gasoline or motor fuel. The company had been established in 1003-13 years before that time and was successfully lubricating some of the biggest industrial plants of the Birmingham district, just as it is today.
 Mir. Wofford had been driven out of business once, just IA months after he first started, when his biggest com petitor bought out his packers and closed the plant down over his head. But he had moved his little tanks across the railroad tracks and started again, fighting harder than ever. And finally he maneuvered around until he had bought his plant back again, steal ing a march on his competitors.
 It was about 1916, eight years ago, that an insignificant little newspaper of the experiments which certain akpia sy.s At,,