Evening star., 1942-11-17
BY NORMAN KAHL.

By NORMAN KAHL.
You think YOU had trouble filling
out your fuel oil rationing applica-
ton? Then maybe you would be in
terested to know that the people at
the ratloning boards who are trying
to figure out just how much oil
you're going to get are having not
eXectly a Mardi Gras festival these
days.
For the last few weeks several
hundred volunteer workers, most of
them women, have been qualifying
themselves for at least Distinguished
Service Medals by translating more
than 10000 applications into ration
ing coupons. Those who helped sign
up applicants for sugar and gasoline
ratlonlng really had primer course
compared to what the fuel oil volun-
teers are enduring valiantly.
Whoever conceived the intricate
mathematical formula on which the
oil rationing program is based prob
ably is standing widely on his con-
stitutional rights and refuses to let
himself be identified. There also is
a widespread theory that the for
mula is the work of collaborators-
that no single mind could have con-
ceived SO diabolical system of
trimming oil consumption.
Many Variable Factors.
The point of the whole program,
in case you've forgotten, is to provide
for an overall cut of 33K, per cent
in the use of fuel oil. To the simple
mind, it appeared that this could
have been achieved by telling every
one he could have only two-thirds
of the oil he used last year. But the
Office of Price Administration got
to thinking about the whole matter
and decided there were a lot of
variable factors" involved.
So the first thing it did was to tell
apartment house owners they could
have only half as much oil this
winter as they had year ago. That
was to encourage them to convert at
least half of their heating facilities
to coal.
Next the OPA decided laudably
that the person who used his oil
efficiently last year should be re-
warded by getting higher percent
age of fuel than one whose heating
methods were wasteful. And so the
formula and countless thousands of
headaches were born.
Up to IS Per Ceut.
With the formula in operation,
householders will get somewhere be-
tween 66 2/3 per cent and IS per
cent of the oil they burned last year,
depending on the efficiency of their
heating plants and methods. If
their heating is especially inefficient,
they may get even less than 66 2/3
per cent.
This is the way Paul M. OLeary,
deputy OPA administrator in charge
of rationing, puts it: "One function
of the floor area heat loss formula is
to classify houses according to their
thermal efficiency by setting a ration
range which defines normal burner
and insulation efficiency"
Now hold on tight. Here's how
the formula works:
The first figure needed is the total
floor area of the house to be heated.
This is the one that had you crawl
ing under beds and wrapping your
self around lamps, yardstick or tape
measure in your your hand.
The next one is tougher. This, the
OPA says, involves a combination
of the calendar, the thermometer
and the thermostat." The combina-
ton gives you a degree day." which
is the number OF degrees, in one day,
by which the outside temperature
must be raised to produce the 65-
degree temperature for inside. For
instance, If the mean temperature
outside Is 80 degrees, 1t takes an
other IS degrees to bring the inside
temperature up to IS. These IS de-
grees are designated as degree days.
You keep adding the degree-days
as the season rolls along so that II
the mean temperature outside were
to stay at 30 degrees for 10, days, the
degree days every "a hours would be
IS and the degree day after 10 days
would add up to $50.
Two Mysterious Figures.
After you have the floor area and
the degree-days, you are given two
constants 800 and $500. Where
they came from, only the OPA
knows. But there they are and
presumably they enable you to work
out ration range maximum and
minimum between which every
consumers actual oil allotment
should fall.
Now you're ready to start using
the formula. You multiply the floor
area By the degree days in IN