Evening star., 1926-04-23
OIL CONSERVATION
URGED At MEETING
Experts Also Discuss Need of
Research to Find Cheaper
Auto Fuel.

Conservation of the Nations pc
troleum resources must be main
tanned ana technical petroleum re
search encouraged if the United
States is to continue its present use
of oil and It's by-products. speakers
technical and governmental organ
iZations at the Cosmos Club last
night, arranged as part of nation
wide program to focus attention on
oil and gas primary power sources.
Scores of national organizations
have joined IN promoting the meet
ingS in progress in every city for
several days past.
William Taylor Thom, jr., of the
Geological Survey saw the day not
much more than a decade hence
when operation of motor cars and
household use of fuel oil will be be
yond the price reach of the average
consumer unless fuel engineers in
the realm OF research find cheaper
production and GisJillation methods
than are now used He foresaw a
synthetic fuel oil and pointed TO alec.
hol as Il possible replacement for
Future OF Auto Industry.
Improved carDuretors, lighter cars,
higher compression engines and Il
general change in automobile en-
2ineering will enable twice as many
c@rs rs are now on the roads of the
| N.tcd States 10 run on about the
same gasoline consumption. Julian D.
Sears of the Geological SurVey de
..l.a l, = it.a
To see petroleum Withdrawn from
competition with coal. and added that
no tar-reachlng Improvement can be
brought about in production methods
until each oiltield is developed as a
unit, and not by accidents of own
ership."
"Ohviously, our oil production cal;
be enormously increased" he said,
pointing out that present methods eh-
tract but about 20 per cent of the
petroleum in the ground and are eX-
tremely wasteful in loss of gas. our
oil supply is strictly limited" he said,
while our coal reserves are prac-
tiCally ineXhaustible. Coal should be
used instead of oil wherever prac
ticable"
Bituminous .coal was declared to be
the cheapest fuel for heating homes
by Prof. Julian c. Smallwood of
Johns Hopkins University. Artificial
gas, he said. is at one and the same
time the most convenient and the
most expensive. Prof. SmallWOod said
carrying charges must be figured in
the cost of any heating plant.
He placed the cost OF heating a ten
room house for six months of the
year in Baltimore al 1924, figuring the
cost of coal. percentage of the heat
ing plant installation cost, deprecia-
clun. repairs and firing charges.
Anthracite coal, he said cost S3G9 a
year: oil, S437 and gas, S595.
Need Better Insulation.
Heating of Homes" he said, ''is
primarily not a question of efficiency,
but of individual preference. How
ever, we know. that the costs of coal
and oil are going up, while the cost
of gas in decreasing. Manufacturers
are working toward elimination of
smoke in burning bituminous coal and
better insulation of homes and fur
naces to preserve the heat produced.
Research work on oil injection en-
gineS for airplane use with heavy
fuels was described by William F.
Joachim of the Langley Memorial
Aeronautical Laboratory. The work is
being done, Mr.. Joachim said, in con-
junction with the National Advisory
Committee for AeronauticS and the
Navy Department.
Use of heavy fuel of low volatility
will reduce the number of fires after
plane crashes" he said