The early engines were not regarded as suitable for plants requiring more than fifty or sixty horse power, but at the present time the multiple cylinder types are built to develop hundreds of horse power. Big industrial establishments now find gasoline en gines economical in many ways, the advantages being no less marked than in the case of petroleum fuel for locomotives and steamers. Gasoline engines have invaded almost every trade and every country in the world. The modern system of distributing oil affords, even in the small country town, a ready means of securing the necessary fuel, and, on all sides, from the modern factory down to the rough mill in the backwoods, from the needs of the great manufacturer to those of the modest farmer, the gasoline engine has proved its usefulness. In the old days the sawmill or gristmill had to wait for the water to turn its wheel, now power is always ready at a minute's notice. Old-fashioned wood sawing and churning laboriously by hand have given way to a small "motor," which performs both services equally well, besides supplying power for pumping water, threshing and grinding grain, turning a lathe or grindstone, and any other need that may rise. So it is all through the modern industrial world, with thousands of engines, especially the small ones of a few horse power, performing a service which cannot be overestimated. The small steam engine and boiler has almost entirely disap peared and in its place the gasoline engine does the same work more conveniently, more cheaply, and more satisfactorily.
The marine gasoline engine has just as com pletely revolutionized the character of small craft.
No one who has watched the enormous growth of the fleets of " power boats " for pleasure pur poses can doubt the value of the gasoline engine. To the thousands of fishermen using small boats in the shore fisheries up and down our coast, it has come as a wonderful boon. These men who were so sorely vexed by wind and tide ten years ago, now calmly make their way to and from the fishing grounds irrespective of the weather. Head winds no longer cause troublesome delays; to get be calmed on the way to market with a valuable catch is no longer feared. The small engine now carries the fishermen out and brings him back at his will independent of the fickle breeze. By scores and by hundreds the fishermen everywhere have adopted this auxiliary power, which has opened a new era for them. Larger sailing vessels, too, especially in the coastwise trade, are installing gasoline engines, even up to several hundred horse power, for the advantage of auxiliary power is very great when entering port, or when the wind is light. The time is probably not far distant when the major pOrtion of the big coastwise fleet will be so equipped.
Yet most significant of all perhaps is the place occupied by the gasoline engine in the develop ment of submarine torpedo boats to which so much attention is now being given. The economies of space offered by this type of engine and its fuel supplies, and especially the much less intense heat emanating from the engine, are the real factors on which submarine craft depend for their success.
The lubricating oils, from the standpoint of pres ent-day mechanical processes, fill a need which is hardly less important than the need for artificial light or for fuel. No other lubricating oils in the world can rival those obtained from the best grades of paraffin petroleum from the Appalachian fields. Their reputation extends to every part of the world, and nine tenths of the world's machinery at the present time uses petroleum lubricants. These oils are superior in every way to the old ani mal or vegetable lubricants, safer, cheaper, more likely to be pure, and do not gum so readily. It is not surprising, therefore, that millions of dol lars worth in sum total is being exported annually with consignments going to every country where modern machinery is used.
An innumerable number of special brands or grades of straight petroleum lubricants are made for different purposes and sold under trade names. At the same time, a constantly increasing number of compound oils, mixtures of petroleum oil with some vegetable or animal oil, are coming to be pre ferred for certain uses. Other oils or greases are commonly made by grinding graphite, mica, or some insoluble soap with a petroleum lubricator, for use in heavy, slow-moving machinery.
Every conceivable grade of oil, from the very thinnest and lightest down to the heaviest axle grease, finds a place in the list of petroleum lubri cants, while the single use of certain grades in steam cylinders makes their manufacture indis pensable. High-pressure steam decomposes animal oils and causes the formation of fatty acids which act on all common metals thus injuring the engine. Pure petroleum oils, however, are unaffected by high-pressure steam and consequently fill an ex tremely important place in all big power plants.
A much used form of lubricating oil, though not usually regarded as such, is the familiar compound known as vaseline. Vaseline is solely a trade name for a product of petroleum originally introduced by the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company, of New York. In its character it is more closely re lated to the lubricating oils than any other of the products. The Chesebrough Company, now a part of the Standard organization, controls the name, vaseline, through its patent rights, but other con cerns are manufacturing essentially the same thing under such names as—petrolatum, petrolene, pe troleum jelly, cosmolene, and so on. Vaseline finds its principal use in the drug industry where it fills a long-felt want. It can be mixed with most drugs without any chemical action taking place, thereby making it possible to compound salves and similar remedies, mainly for external use, which will keep unaltered for a long time. This use of vaseline is now the only important medicinal application of any petroleum product.