Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-08-25

More than 100000 passenger
cars and trucks throughout the
world use various forms of gas
generators. Recently reports have
come that the oil-famished Nazis
are operating war machines, includ-
ing training tanks on gasogenes. In
this country the army and other gov
eminent branches bureau of stand
ards, Forest service of the depart
ment of agriculture, Tennessee VAL
ley authority have made or still
are conducting exhaustive tests.
When the German submarine
campaign threatened to cut the sea
lanes to our fronts the army stepped
up the gasogene experiments it
had started three years ago. Seek
ing a satisfactory gasoline sub
stitute, nearly every conceivable
fuel was subjected to tests, even
dried camel dung, which worked
OK.
Now, with shipping lanes opened,
the army is not so interested. But
it did find that the gasogene gas
was satisfactory substitute for
gasoline under certain conditions, al
though it gave less power and the
mechanism was harder to main
tain. The possibility of using the
gasogene when the Burma road is
reopened is not yet definitely ruled
out.
Army and other experiments, plus
some Canadian research, produced
reports of varying degrees of ap-
proval and disapproval. Some held
the horsepower loss was too great,
gasogenes were too dirty, and so on.
Numerous in Sweden.
Under the wartime gas shortage
there are several thousand gaso-
genes now operating on wood, espe-
cially in countries such as Sweden
where lumber is plentiful. I'm
doubleday most will go back to gaso-
line after the war Wood does not
give as good a performance as
charcoal; it is dirtier in its gas con-
tent and therefore more apt to foul
an engine. Since coke or hard coal
operate satisfactorily, in hard-coal
regions where fuel is cheap, coal
burning gasogene trucks might be
feasible. A group of farmers, too,
might band together to make char
coal for use on their machinery and
trucks. All in all, any widespread
postwar use in the United States is
unlikely and what there is probably
will be local and mainly in agricul-
ture, industry, and businessmen
private driving.
Gasogene's proponents point out
that the history of the use of sub
stitutcs is replete with stories of i'm
provcments and lower costs. such
as in synthetic nltratcs, rubbers and
tbers. For this reason they antici-
pate further improvements. But be-
cause of the gasogene's Limitations,
the oil companies, though highly
interested in watching experiments,
do not expect any serious COMPETE
ton.
The results thus far in these tests
confirm that the gasogene is a
satisfactory substitute for gasoline
where the standard fuel is IN
available or where Transportation
or other factors make its price pro-
hibitivc. The relationship between
the cost of gasoline and the cost of
the substitute fuel is the main fac
tor which will control the gasogene' S
future. For instance. gasoline at 25
to so cents a gallon in remote
sections of South America could
make it feasible to use charcoal,
which is plentiful and cheap, as it is
home product sold everywhere for
cooking. In the United States gaso-
genes may be used in the lumber
industry. With plenty of waste lum-
ber-especially in the far north
where transportation makes gaso-
line costs high, it might be feasible
to turn waste into charcoal "a simple
process requiring two or three days.
or even burn the wood as it is.