o

48

OUR  MINERAL  RESERVES.

oil,”  etc.  The  working  up  of  the  trade  for  these  oils  on  the  basis  of
Russian  raw  material  was  largely  a  matter  of  pure  chance,  but  not  of
necessity,  inasmuch  as  oils  of  the  same  character  can  be  readily  produced ­
  from  American  petroleum,  and  in  fact  have  been  produced
in  small  quantities  for  many  years.  Thus  vaseline  oil  is  a  by-product
in  the  manufacture  of  vaseline,  and  has  been  used  for  the  same
medicinal  purposes  for  many  years.  There  is  no  other  product  of
petroleum  manufactured  abroad  which  is  not  also  manufactured  in
the  United  States.  Arrangements  have  been  completed  whereby
American  alboline  will  be  on  the  United  States  market  in  quantity
before  the  end  of  the  present  calendar  year,  whether  hostilities
cease  or  not.
One  of  the  products  of  petroleum  that  has  been  exported  to  a
value  between  $9,000,000  and  $10,000,000  during  the  last  three  years
is  paraffin  wax.  In  spite  of  these  large  exports,  natural  mineral
wax  (ozokerite)  is  imported,  for  the  reason  that  its  melting  point
is  very  high,  and  although  the  paraffin  wax  from  petroleum  can  be
produced  with  this  high  melting  point,  the  process  is  difficult  and
costly.  Ozokerite  occurs  in  considerable  quantity  in  Utah  in  the
region  of  Soldiers  Summit,  and  has  been  produced  there,  but  the  cost
of  extracting  it  from  low-grade  material,  together  with  the  cost  of
transportation  to  the  market,  which  is  chiefly  in  the  Eastern  States,
has  made  it  possible  for  the  foreign  material,  which  comes  from
Galicia,  to  compete  with  it  successfully.  The  domestic  ozokerite
should  now  replace  the  foreign  material.
Another  material  related  to  petroleum  which  has  long  furnished
a  large  import  trade  is  asphalt  from  the  island  of  Trinidad.  This
trade  has  persisted  in  spite  of  the  very  large  developments  of  asphalt
from  the  residue  of  asphaltic  oils,  and  even  under  the  war  conditions
the  imports  will  undoubtedly  continue.
The  importation  of  one  product  of  asphalt,  however,  has  now  been
cut  off,  and  that  is  Ichthyol,  a  peculiar  asphaltic  material  found  in
Austria,  which  finds  application  after  appropriate  chemical  treatment ­
  as  a  very  important  medicament.  The  raw  material  comes
from  a  fossiliferons  deposit  near  Seefeld,  in  the  Austrian  Tyrol.  It
is  carefully  selected  and  subjected  to  dry  distillation.  The  distillate
thus  obtained  is  then  sulphonated  and  subsequently  neutralized  with
ammonia.  The  use  of  this  material  has  greatly  increased  in  the  last
few  years,  and  it  has  proved  very  beneficial.  Since  the  beginning
of  the  war  its  price  has  doubled,  going  to  over  GO  cents  an  ounce.
Already  a  firm  in  St.  Louis  has  a  material  on  the  market  which  has
been  favorably  recommended  as  an  efficient  substitute  closely  resembling ­
  ichthyol  itself.