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Show ARTS OF PEACE Not all of the scientific energies of the time are being devoted to the production of atomic bombs, guided missiles and other instruments of world destruction. There are still laboratories which are concerned with the arts of peace, and with developing products which will contribute to the well-being and living standards of all the people. Present experiments in producing oil from coal presage something of ah industrial miracle. The enormous and virtually vir-tually limitless demand for oil products of hundreds of hinds has caused an acceleration of this work. As long ago as 1910 a German scientist worked on a process of hydro-genation hydro-genation of coal into oil. Important progress in this direction direc-tion was made by German and British scientists between World Wars I and II. However, in all of the methods developed, de-veloped, the cost of the product was several times greater than the cost of producing gasoline from petroleum. Now, however, recent American research and engineering engi-neering developments make it . appear that within a few years synthetic gasoline w7ill be produced from coal at a cost very close to that of production from petroleum or natural gas. An exploratory program has been completed, and the next step is to be a large-scale pilot plant program. The purpose of pilot plants is two-fold first, to obtain design de-sign data for commercial plants and, second, to work out operating factors and engineering methods that cannot be investigated within the limitations imposed by a laboratory. Commercial production is the final stage. This is an example of how American industry prepares for the future. One characteristic of free enterprise is that it never is content to stand still. It always looks far ahead. |