1114 INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY Vol. 17, No. 11

Price of Gasoline

The price of gasoline therefore is a very important factor in conservation. It is also a point on which the American public generally is very sensitive. The cost of everything else from pins to steam yachts may increase without ma- terially disturbing the equilibrium of our average citizen, but on the subject of carfare and the price of gasoline he is very much on the alert. The price of gasoline was laboriously investigated by the Federal Trade Commission in 1915, and Mr. LaFollette succeeded in filling many pages of testi- mony in 1923. Immediately after this investigation it was prophesied that gasoline would soon go to $1.00 per gallon.

What is the exact situation as to the price of gasoline, 6rst in relation to crude petroleum? In Figure 5 will be found curves for the average value of crude petroleum pro- duced in this country compared with the Chicago tank-

Figure 6-Gasoline Prices Compared with Cost of Living and Whole- sale Commodities Prices

wagon prices of gasoline. The value of the crude is obtained by dividing the total value of the production, as estimated by the Geological Survey, by the production in barrels, the tankwagon prices being the average for each year. These values have been plotted on the basis of taking the 1913 value as 100 per cent. It will be seen that the price of gaso-

line on this basis has been, with the exception of 1915, con- sistently below the price of crude petroleum on the same basis.

Let us next consider the price of gasoline as compared with commodities and the cost of living. From Figure 6,II i t will be seen that here the trend has, in general, been the same, with the exception of the years 1916 and 1917. The whole- sale prices, based upon 1913, have been above the cost of gasoline and the same thing holds true for the cost of living. In spite of this fact, however, endeavors are still being made by the states and municipalities to reduce the price of gasoline further by selling retail at wholesale prices and charging dis- tribution costs to state institutions, etc.

As long as our Government forces the law of supply and demand to operate with complete freedom, we may expect such a condition until the exhaustion of our oil reserves or very greatly increased production costs result in increase in the price of gasoline, which will bring about conservation in its use, and while the Government has taken no action against the combination of the producers of agricultural products to reduce production for the purpose of raising prices, although production of agricultural products is no drain upon our resources, it absolutely prohibits any com- bination which will tend to conserve these resources.

This is not intended as a criticism of the Government's attitude towards the producers of agricultural products, but if such combination is desirable in the case of farm products, it is even more desirable in the production of petroleum products, which cannot be reproduced each year from the soil and the atmosphere.

Acknowledgment

The writer desires to express his thanks to J. Edgar Pew, chairman of the Committee of Eleven of the American Petro- leum Institute, for permission to quote from the report of the committee, and to A. C. Hunter and J. Terry Duce, of The Texas Company, for assistance particularly in the matter of foreign production.

Wherever possible, statistics of the United States De- partment of the Interior have been used in figures on produc- tion, without being indicated in every case.

11 Taken from U. S. Department of Labor Statistics.

Preparation of an Ash-Free Wood Charcoal'

By L. H. Reyerson

SCEOOL OF CHEMISTRY, UNIV8RSlTY OF MINNESOTA, MINNBAPOLIS, MI".

N MANY uses to which wood charcoal is put in laboratory I operations the inorganic impurities interfere with the ac- tion of the charcoal. It is further known that prolonged washing of a wood charcoal does not free it completely from the inorganic salts. The following procedure was found to give .a coconut charcoal practically ash-free:

Coconut shells were first superficially cleaned, then broken up into convenient sizes and placed in a Soxhlet extractor having a diameter of 3 inches. The shells were then continuously ex- tracted with ether for about 96 hours, followed by a like extrac- tion with 96 per cent alcohol and finally by a similar one with distilled water. The shells were then removed from the extrac- tor, dried, and coked in the usual manner. Later experiments indicate that the time may be cut to half of that indicated with- out impairing the process.

1 Received August 5, 1025.

This charcoal gave an average ash content of 0.4 per cent, compared with 2.35 per cent for samples of an activated Dorsite. The charcoal was ashed to constant weight in a platinum crucible over a Meker burner. The water extract of the activated Dorsite was distinctly alkaline, whereas the extract from charcoal prepared in the manner described above was neutral. Qualitative examination of the ash from this charcoal showed it to be almost entirely silica, whereas a residue prepared by prolonged extraction of the activated Dorsite gave qualitative tests for the following ions: sodium, potassium, aluminium, iron, chloride, carbonate, sulfate, and phosphate.

The indicated method therefore seems to give a charcoal which is free from salt impurities which might interfere with its use in chemical work.