Scientists BREAKDOWN
RESOURCES
By HARRY D. FRUEALFF x — v " V/'
Everyday we hear of the wonders of the present age. N4v/ IKzsSr *
revelations are disclosed in scientific circles covering a multitude Ini >, £ I ■III WfffT
of discoveries to aid man progress towards a fuller realization of K f /Pp|J| j; jgj !$; § xfflr/’
civilization. ™"y ™
Every phase of human existence is
being studied to promote ways of
overcoming the frailities and unneces
sary movements attached to our be
havior, which tend to handicap us in
our desire to lead a fuller life with less
effort.
Today we hear of radio engineers
working feverishly to complete
the actual transmission of sound and
scene at the same time. It may be a
few years yet before we can actually
sit in our living rooms and sec the
reproduction of a scene, just as you
see it in the flesh, and hear them talk
at the same time. With the guiding
spirit of Senatore Guglielmo Marconi,
the great Italian radio genius and ac
tual inventor of the radio, we can look
forward to the development of trans
mission of televised scenes within a
short time.
In Japan, Dr. Tadasu Saiki. director
of the Imperial Government Institute
for Research in Nutrition, Tokio, has
tapped an undreamed-of-wealth of food
resources in “inedible” things—wild
flowers, the leaves, stems and roots
of weeds, and the waste portions of
known foods the heads, bones, fins and
internal organs of fish, and the peel
ings, leaves and stems of garden vege
tables. Dr. Saiki’s work is causing a
revolution in Japan, and has opened
the eyes of the outside world to the
possibilities of utilizing waste portions
of foods, and wild plants, in case of
emergencies. Food consumption is be
ing placed on a scientific basis. Cost is
being reduced to less than five cents
• day.
The time may not be far distant
when conveyances will operate by re
mote control, from central points
focusing right turns, left turns and
forward march. But today we live in
a mechanical age necessitating indi
vidual effort to operate our move
ments to get us where we wish to go.
In the short span of a quarter
century, the motor men of this coun
try have done a remarkable job in
transforming the automobile from an
anreliable, sputtering conveyance to
the powerful and dependable motor
car of to-day. Even more renjarkable
is the manner in which they have
improved cars while bringing down
prices to make the automobile avail
able to Mr. Average Man. To-day
more than 28,000,000 cars are on the
road and thousands more are being
sold daily—practically all America will
be living on wheels this summer. A
signal tribute is due the automotive in
dustry for its ingenuity and resource
fulness But hand in hand with automo
tive progress has come progress in the
industry which supplies the fuel for
automotive engines—the oil industry.
In this country are scores of closely
guarded laboratories where, behind
locked doors, hundreds of research
chemists move about in rooms crowd
ed with complicated apparatus, auto
mobile engines of various makes, hun
dreds of test tubes filled with mys
terious ingredients and labeled with
even more mysterious formulas. They
toil ceaselessly, night and day, seek
ing to *chieve better refining methods,
better gasolenes and other oil prod
acts.
Giant Cities Service Oil Refinery at Ponca City, Oklahoma
PIC
Indefatigably and relentlessly, these
chemists continue study and experi
mentation in the search to find the
gasolene to achieve perfect perform
ance in any and all types of motors,
and in all climates.
No Jenner, Lister or Pasteur, men
• whose names will ring down through
the ages for their discoveries in wip
ing out for all time dreaded scourges
of mankind, worked with greater zeal
and singleness of purpose than these
unsung and unheard of chemists.
Almost like the realization of a
Utopian dream, one group of chefcists
announced they believe they have dis
covered the long-hidden secret of mak
ing gasolene give perfect performance.
Following years of research tinder the
auspices of the Cities Service Power
Prover, these chejnists hold the an*
swer lies in hydrocarbon*.
To understand this more clearly, we
will define the process. When a barrel
of crude oil is run through a refinery,
as heat is applied, it breaks down into
a number of petroleum products. Chief
of these products is gasolene—which
is the first to be drawn off.
Now, gasolene itself is composed of
many types of hydrocarbons which en
joy distinct characteristics of their
own. Some of these hydrocarbons are
independent fellows and have to be
teamed up properly with other hydro
carbons or else they won’t work at all
when in an automotive engine. But,
once they are teamed up the result is
claimed to be astonishing.
So, it was the job of these research
men to find out what hydrocarbon*
were not v.~.l:ing—and why.
The first step was scrutinizing all
the hydrocarbons. Chief of them are
named butane, pentane, and hexane.
It is a common practise of refiners
to merely make straight-run and
cracked gasolene and to mix them up
for their final product. These research
mea went further—they wanted to
know why any part d’dn’t do its job.
They broke down the gasolene into
many fractions, each having a "definite
characteristic as to volatility and anti
knock. These fractions then were ad
ded together again in scientific pro
portions to give what these research
men contend is the right measure of
starting, acceleration, power and mile
age and anti-knock performance.
Wht.i the teaming process was
finally perfected by this group of
chemists, and designated as New
Koolmotor Bronze,' figures released
later for publication indicated that
ov f r a four-year period a million indi
vidual scientific tests were conducted
under all types of climatic conditions,
and on every make and model of motor
car known in America.
According to the chemists who per
ected the process, they studied care
lully the gasolene performance in a
million motor cars. It became apparent
o ’hem that many parts of gasolene
were not proportioned correctly. That
was the reason, they explained, why so
much unbumed gasolene was being
blown through the exhaust pipe—why
a car would not start quickly, or give
the proper power or pep.
While these chemists believe they
have found the solution to this
hitherto unexplained mystery, the
j y^ L and „ experimentation doesn’t
end. The advancement of all civiliza
tion is founded on constant improve
ment.