Word: petroleum
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...recent years when an oil man has a nightmare, he sees a sea of petroleum. vaster than the Pacific, with dark green oleaginous billows rolling before a wind that moans "Overproduction, overproduction." Yet last week when 2,941,550 barrels of oil swelled up each day from the bowels of the U. S., a greater secretion than ever at any one time before, there was comparatively little disturbance to the peaceful slumbers...
...Sinclair plan is but a symptom of a major movement in the industry: to sell more oil, more cheaply. Master service stations of various types are already erected or projected by Standard Oil of Ohio, Beacon Oil Co., Pierce Petroleum Co., even by Firestone Tire Co. (TIME, Aug. 19). Shell Union Oil Co. recently obtained $40,000,000 by new financing to enlarge its service station outlets...
...refusal of independent oil producers to enter any limitation agreement until a duty is placed upon petroleum imports. They contend that the major oil companies will reduce their domestic production only to increase their imports from Mexico and South America, thus nullifying the effect of any conservation agreement. In this position the independents were joined by Louisiana, to which most U. S. oil imports come. Crude oil imports are now about one-tenth of domestic production...
Separating crude oil into its several constituents is the function of the oil refinery. The crude oil is put into a still and heated. The molecularly lighter substances are given off, beginning with petroleum ether. Then comes natural gasoline, then the naphthas (from which come motor gasolines), then kerosene, then fuel oil, then gas oil, finally lubricating oil. Coke or asphalt are left as a residue.* Efficiency of the process, of course, depends upon the physical fact that the substances mixed in the crude oil come out separately in the distillation. Before the arrival of the automobile, the distillation process...
...explorers and geologists pointed out that there was good reason to believe that the Aztecs used and exploited petroleum. The immense, ornate 17th Century cathedral was built on the site of the great sacrificial pyramid destroyed by Cortez in 1521. New evidence points to the fact that the pyramid had covered a primitive oil well. While the scientists talked and planned, pious Mexicans visioned in shocked silence the desecration of one of America's oldest and holiest shrines...