The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1942-07-23
Connections With German
Firm Is Explained By
Representative


America an immeasurable SER
vice when it made an agreement
with Germany's dye trust Il. B.
Farbenindustrie), but got back
as thanks a smear to its name, R.
T. Hammett, of Charlotte, special
,rep1 esentative of the Standard
Oil company, told over 200 en-
ployees, dealers and invited
guests in this section at banquet
meeting held in Boone last week.
The delegation from Ashe coun-
ty attending the banquet includ-
ed Mrs. Cal Segraves, Joe Warren,
Paul Haynes, Mrs. Clarence Par
sons, Mrs. Burgwin Carter, Mrs.
Dale Paisley, Sheriff Roland,
Paul Jones, D. G. Hudler and Ed
M. Anderson.
L. M. Nelson, of North Wilkes
boro, acted as POSTMASTER and
introduced the speaker.
An outline of Mr.. Hammett's
speech is as follows:
The agreement between the
Standard Oil Company IN. J)
and the I. C. Farbenindustrie of
Germany was consummated in
1929, years before Nazism and
Hitler were of political conse-
quence in that country. At that
time Germany was at peace with
the United States and great efforts
were being made to effect its re-
Mobilization. The principal pro-
cess which was acquired by STAN
dard from I. C. was hydrogena-
ton. BY adapting and improving
this process in the years since
1929, we have been able to pro-
duce much larger quantities of
gasoline from crude oil than had
been possible before and to make
higher quality petroleum pro-
ducts. Out of this process orr
ginally purchased from the Ger
man Company has been develop
ed methods by which 100 octane
aviation gasoline can be furnish
ed in abundance for the armed
forces of the United Nations.
AS far as is known, Germany
and Japan have no such fuels a.
valuable. No planes which have
been shot down with gasoline
left in their tanks have been fuel
ed with gasoline better than 81
octane.
This fuel superiority of the u
nited Nations means that our
planes actually develop 300
more power with a 5000 fuel saw
ing and can climb higher, fly
faster, range further and bomb
heavier than can the planes of the
enemy.
Toluol from which TINT is
made is also being produced by
the petroleum industry by syn
thetic method based on these old
German processes and perfected
by Standard Oil. It is conserva-
tive to say that three out of every
five bombs used by our air fore
es will be made possible because
of this discovery.
Other special products, while
little known, are of extreme i'm
portance. Outstanding among
these is Paratone which is used in
every hydraulic system in every
fighting machine of the United
States: Battleships, cruisers, de-
stroyers, submarines, tanks, fight
ing planes, bombing planes, etc.
In connection with synthetic
rubber Standard Oil spent $12,-
100000 of its own money in re-
search to improve on the synthet-
ic rubber manufacturing process
SEES originating in Germany and
has from the beginning Of its re-
search endeavored to interest the
larger rubber companies IN this
product. Since January 1899 the
Standard Oil has worked very
closely with the Army and Navy
Munitions Board, the Chemical
Warfare Service, the National De-
tense Counsel and other Govern
ment agencies with the hopes of
finding a means by which syn
thetic rubber could be developed
on a larger scale than could pos
sibly be undertaken by any prl-
vate company.
The investigation required in
the plants to produce the raw
material for the estimated annual
military and minimum civilian
requirements of this country IS
nearly one billion dollars. NO
large scale program was under
taken by the Government because
no one believed that we would be
cut off from the supplies of ma
tural rubber in Malay and the
Netherlands East Indies where
rubber was available in large
quantities and could be delivered
to the United States at price
substantially lower than the cost
of manufacturing svnthetiCS.