The Farm Home

By Mrs. A.J. Wilder, Rocky Ridge Farm

The affairs of the world are moving swiftly and nowhere is the advance more rapid than in the field of invention. No sooner do we realize that an improvement is needed on something already in use than it comes to hand; no sooner is something entirely new and different desired than it appears as tho in answer to the waving of a magicians wand.

A great many of these are to the credit of Americans for Americans apparently have more inventive minds than people of other nations. No doubt this is because we are a younger nation and a people who were compelled to make a new country habitable. We were like the Yankee boy who had only his jack knife but with it supplied himself with all the other playthings he cared for.

One problem which has been given to the grownup Yankee boys to solve, was a threatened shortage in gasoline. Altho there is a present abundance, scientists and chemists have for years been trying to find a substitute, for they believe that we cannot go on forever using in ever increasing quantities without coming at last to the end of the supply.

Quite a few substitutes have been found tho nothing which combines all the various qualities, including efficiency and cost of gasoline. The most promising substitute so far found is the benzol blend. Benzol is a byproduct in the manufacture of coke from coal and was used during the war in the manufacture of the high explosive TNT. It was found that benzol could be made very cheaply but its explosive power was too great to permit it to be tried in motor engines, and the problem was to so weaken its power that it would not injure the machine using it. To do this benzol is mixed with California napthas, Oklahoma distillates, and other fractions of petroleum and is being sold as fuel for motors. The petroleum industry is making this fuel oil and it is being sold under trade names. It is said that the benzol mixture makes less carbon and gives more mileage than straight gasoline.

The making and selling of benzol is becoming a large business. One great steel company is making 1,250,000 gallons of benzel every month as a byproduct in making from coal the coke needed for the furnaces of the plant. It is said that the manufacture of benzel in this way makes the cost only a few cents a gallon, probably not more than 5 cents and it has been selling at 18. Oil companies are buying it and without doubt are blending it with their gasolines. In fact it is said, they have been doing so for the last two years.

Besides the invention of this substitute a new source of real gasoline has been discovered in natural gas and several millions of gallons have been made from it during the last six years.

Dr. Cottrell, the inventor of the process of precipitating the gases and floating particles in smoke fumes, thus abolishing the damage done by smoke from smelters and factories, has become a benefactor of inventors. When his invention had become a financial success he had an understanding with his backers that when the receipts had repaid the investments with interest, a large part of the patent rights should be turned over to some institution the receipts from which should be used to advance the work of invention. This is now being done, the Smithsonian Institution handling the fund.

Mrs. A.J. Wilder. "The Farm Home." Missouri Ruralist (February 20, 1920): 40.  CLICK HERE to see this article as it originally appeared in the Missouri Ruralist.

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