FUEL THE REAL PROBLEM
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Why Home-Production Must be Developed.
The fuel problem is the one real problem confronting the great motor industry ; beside it, all problems of trade organization, production, or distribution are Pliny and capable of being overcome. But it is difficult to secure proper appreciation of the fact. Discussion and consideration of this matter bring into dis.agrceable prominence the fact that there has been a total lack of provision, plan, or preparation against the present situation.
For twenty-one years the, giganticnew primary industry centring an the power-propelled road locomotive has gone on in geometrical progression without assuring itself of-its vital energizer. One would hatTe thought it absolutelyand, peremptorily necessary to enter upon determined preparation both against emergency and towards expansion. But, prescience in this a's in other matters has been lacking, and there has been no strong cohesion of units which by threatening an alternative would have provided a. safeguard. The task is obstinate and formidable, and it is now like rolling a roek uphill. Motorcars began on fuel which was a by-product, but the cry is ever more ! morel and ceaseless efforts are made to put petrol in the position of being the main output.
The import of file], for an industry of Universal convenience to an island nation has ramifications and colisequerices .which are most complicated to follow and difficult to correct; in any case this country's position is strategically and physically worse than tha,t, of a nation attached to land affording communication with the sources of supply.
On all counts we are in the hands. of the seller abroad, and we must pay with exports Tor what we should produce ,ourselves, depreciating OUT efficiency thereby.
The war has revised a number of our preconceptions, and our preoccupations have long been infirm. Tf this country intends to keep its place in the van of post-war progress, the home-production of an overample supply of motor fuel has to be successfully proceeded with.
The World's Oil Yield.
There are those who tender yearly statistics to shoW the rise of production" of mineral oil, but when one compares the ratio-increase of the figures with the progression of motor production, the shortage becomes obvious, and it must inevitably be serious even if at present it be not actual.
It is said that between 1907 and 1917 the mineral 41-get per annum had do:ublecl ; but it is probable that in 1917 a thousand times more oil fuel consuming engines and machines had been produced than in 1907.
It is pointed out that new properties keep developing, but it. should have been added that old ones keep drying up.
The bulk of liquid fuel comes -fromAmerica. but there are competent Americans who say, that. exhaustion is in sight, and, anyway, that continent will soon consume its whole production.
The geological and physical disabilities and obstacles to the getting of mineral oil are very different from those of the mineral coal and do not make for sure prophecy or certain yield, and it is not possible to have definite assurances of future outputs. But it is easy to make •calculation of increased demands by mere enumeration of the increases of oil-consuming appliances, from motor scooters to 30,000-ton battle ships using a thousand tons a day. Really the list of oil-using machines is inexhaustible, but the oil supply is definitely limited. • It cannot be permanently augmented, hut its uses can.
e38 One may make profitless statistical generalizations, for or against a rise in the get of oil, but, off hand, and by figures, it is a reasonable deduction to assume • that the supply cannot keep pace with the demand. The motor industry cannot be sustained on optimistic reports of far-distant oil fields, of promising explorations and extensions, or of possible submarine oil fields, about which there is no certainty. A supply has to be obtained at home, free of the risk of interruption of transport.
Fuels of the Future.
The future promises a choice of fuels—a logical. inference of failing petrol supply. One may easily drop into all kinds of conjectural analyses of possibilities, but there is a sequence-of developments that can be regarded as of the probable kind. The whole of our internal economic system is about to be overhauled, and the greatest changes. of all will be in the uses of home fuel, and we shall . provide ourselves with ample oil, as the petroleum technologists recom
mend us to do. • With us, as a nation, it is not whether alcohol can or should be prochic,ed and. used, or whether. petrol will be cheap and plentiful ; the question is whether we are to -repair the ravages of war by making the most we cannaut of our native fuel—and quickly: The gas engineers will attend to all our light and heavy oil requirements. They are already in. the/ position of producers arid can speedily become effi cient distributors. The fuels the motorist favours will be on tap and in tank at gas-works everywhere. . It is not a question as to whether" benzole" will be available ; it is a matter of being sure that there will be plenty of "light oil" to meet all requirements.
• It means stopping the outflow of imnort-fuel money and .capitalizing home production. The gas engineers are da■ily making progress, and are becom. ing liquid as well as gaseous-fuel men. With the Supply in the hands of the gas concerns, there is an improvement in every aspect of the fuel outlook, and there is a release from monopoly. Many fuels are possible from solids to liquids and compressed gasps, but there is unlikely, in our time, to be anything to beat the volatile liquid possible to be got in. quantity at. home and sold by gasworks.
And it is not a matter of building and waiting; plant is busy a-t work now, and the end of. the war will mark the commencement of a new fuel era. W.W.S.