Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-02
NEW USES FOUND
FOR PETROLEUM
Chemists Show Scientific
sway Out" for Troubles
of Gasoline Industry.
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associated Press Science Editor.

BUFFALO, N. Y, September 2. - A
scientific way out" for troubles OF the
gasoline industry was outlined at a
meeting Of the petroleum division of
the American Chemical Society today.
1t aims to give the producer more
money and yet try to hold down the
price of gasoline to the auto owner by
finding profitable uses for the present
waste or cheap by-products, which
comprise nearly half of the petroleum
output.
Prof. D. B. Reyes of the University
OF Illinois described the hopes and In
stroduced chemists who told of new APP
plications for petroleum. He said these
new uses all are only in their begin
tnings now.
{ T. N. r. the explosive, can be OBJ
tained from paraffln from petroleum
BY method described by E. p. Frey
and H. ]. Hepp of the Phillips Petro-
1elm Co. research laboratory at
Bartlesville. Okla. From parafin they
get both toluene, the base of T. N. T.,
and benzfne.
New Use For Methane.
A new method of using the methane
gas from petroleum to extract zinc
from ore was reported by Charles G..
Maier of the Pacific Experiment Station
of the United States Bureau of Mines.
The methane is substituted for carbon
ct present used for extracting zinc.
The pure grain alcohol ethylene,
which is made from petroleum not
having an outlet sufficient to its avail
abe volume Dr. Gustav Egloff of Chi
cago told of new refinements for some
of it.
The gas from this alcohol, ethylene,
Is converted by pressure of 725 pounds
q square inch at a temperature of TOO
degrees Fahrenheit into an anti-knock
motor fuel, colorless and odorless.
At twice as great pressure, but lower
temperature, it turns into a reddish
colored lubricant.
When squeezed up with trace of
aluminium, copper and nickel-which
are catalysts-it became a violent ex-
plosive and burst laboratory bomb set
square inch.
Comfort for Fat Persons.
A little comfort. for fat persons who
wish to reduce developed in a paper
by L. H. Newhurgh, M. D., of the Uni
versity of Michigan, entitled THE En-
ergy Exchange in Obesity"
1T is not uncommon" he said, "for
obese persons TO, maintain their weight
4OA oCNCAdL NCtho, CNCl LIlOuBA lIlSy al c
being rigidly underfed. This fact has
given rise to number of bizarre n.y.
potheses, all of which attempt to show
that the living creature is not con-
strained to obey the great natural law
Of the conservation of energy"
Under this law the food all goes some
place to be converted into various forms
of energy or waste. DR.. Newburgh
showed that in the case of mystifying
failure of weight to decrease the mis-
calculations are due to not accounting
energy lost in heat radiated by the body
and invisible loss of water by evapora-
ton. He presented mathematical meth
DDS of figuring upon this factor in diet.
Rubber "True Jelly"
Discoveries through X-ray that rub
Der is a true jelly" of two phases
were reported to the rubber division by
DR.. Wheeler P. Davey and Marshall F.
Ac,len of Pennsylvania State College.
Eucber is like jelly made of cooking
water with edible gelatin. The water
corresponds to a fluid which the X-rays
reveal in rubber while it is being
stretched. This fluid is shown being
squeezed out of the paths of the rubber
fibers during stretching. The fibeIs are
made of something corresponding to
the gelatin. The two forms are named,
scientifically, Alpha and Beta rubber,
and the Penn State work demonstrates
for the first time the existence of the
Alpha (or fluid rubber during stretching.