The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-07-08
GASOLINE. FUEL,
POWER Goes
] TO WASTE
- N1H ,----
Research Expert Says Con-
servation System Must Be
Discovered

Enormous increase Of automo-
biles will, force the. United States
either to build more Efficient motors
or to get more work out OF fuel,
according to G. r. Kettering, oresi
dent Of the General Motors Re-
search Corporation.
eve. are getting today about five
per cent Of the energy out of gaso-
line; Iiinety-five per cent OF It is
thrown away" says Mr.. Kettering,
outlining, for Surgeon General Cum
ming economic Developments In the
quest for an improved motor fuel
which resulted in the discovery of
sthyl gasoline. now under Federal
investigation.
It is possible. however, Mr.. Kat
tering, former president of the So
eiety of Automotive Engineers,
points out, "to push up on full
load so that, as in the aeroplane
engine or the motor boat engine, a
maximum Of thirty per cent can be
I obtained with fairly normal opera
ton at around 20 per cent
Motors can be built, he declares
that will give at least SO per cent
in efficiency. He does not think
e Is at about OF the range of good
engineering to double the economy
Of gasoline.
l..That Is the problem. he ex-
plains, (which we are working at
.entirely from the economics Of the
situafioE. recognizing that today
with the enormous increase in au-
tomobfles We viii use 1900, 00O, 900
gallons Of gasoline this year, and
'15.00e. 900 600 gallons next year.
SAT this increasing rate we mHst
-Duild motors OF very much smaller
size and sacrifice many advantages
we now enjoy in the motor industry
or do something which win allow
al to get more work out of the
Anti-Knock Fuel.
InAthe search for an anti-knock
fuel, Mr.. Ketterfng discIoses, a
wide variety Of chemical expert
ments, unique in research, were
made. After the possibilities OF an
crease Z in engine efficiency had
been developed the chemists attack.
ed the problem WHISTLER anything
could be Introduced into the fuel
to stop Knocking.
Compounds accomplishing this
were readily found, but all, in prac-
tice, revealed disabilities that out
weighed their advantages ana made
their general use impracticable>
Iodine was first used and them ant
line, on which and its kindred COM
pounds great deal of work was
done. Various selenium compounds
ana terrurium compounds were tried
out.
we finally took the table OF atom
10 weights continues Mr.. Ketter.
ing. "and went over the thing IN
this way, because, while there are
compounds which you can add 10
gasoline to stop its defamation, there
are others you can add that make
Il worse. ~.
Almost as last resort we start
ed q study Of the properties of Leaf.
We tried for long while to gro.
duce various organic lead com
pounds which would be soluble in
gasoline. We did that without very
much success and finally, and ii
was only after long period of
time that we were able to get the
tetra-ethyf lead compound which Is
soluble in gasoline.
when we tried this out we
naturally had the factor Of around
two or three per cent. in our minds,
50 when we got a small quantity
we put It in a gasoline Of the
same equivalents we were dealing
with.
There was no indication Of a