Fire-Proof Gas

High-octane gasoline is a mixed blessing. Without it modern aviation would be impossible, but as every airman knows, its touchy inflammability makes it more dangerous than dynamite. Last week the Standard Oil Development Co. demonstrated a new high-octane fuel which it hopes will greatly reduce the fire hazard. They tested it by dropping a flaming match into the stuff. The match went out.

The secret of this "safety fuel" is a blend of added materials which raises the gasoline's flash point, i.e., the point at which it vaporizes and forms an explosively inflammable mixture with air. Ordinary high-octane gas vaporizes to this degree at temperatures as low as 40DEG F. below zero. The flash point of Standard's new fuel is 105DEG above zero. Thus at normal temperatures it gives off no inflammable vapors, is safe as kerosene.

Since modern aircraft engines demand a very volatile fuel, Standard's fuel would seem to make about as much sense as dousing firewood with water. But Standard's engineers believe that their fuel has been made feasible by recent experiments with new types of engines in which liquid fuel (instead of vapor) is injected directly into the cylinders. At the high temperatures inside a cylinder (well above 105DEG) the new fuel vaporizes readily and develops as much power as straight 100-octane gasoline.

It is not usable in military aircraft (when hit by an incendiary bullet, it may atomize and explode -- explode-something like a dust explosion). Standard Oil thinks its most likely use will be in postwar, civilian, long-range flights: the fuel is so safe that it will make feasible the refueling of planes in the air.

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