But experiments have proved that the gas is capable of condensation into motor spirit, and the general yield of such spirit may be taken as fully 2 gallons per 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas treated. What wonderful possibilities lie in the direction of the conversion of this vapour into motor spirit! The oil-producers in the United States have not been slow to appreciate this, and to-day there are hundreds of plants in the United States which have been erected solely to condense these oil-well gas vapours. Some of these plants are dealing with as much as 3,000,000 cubic feet of gas a day. The most recent official returns available from the United States show that the production of gasoline (motor spirit) from this process of oil gas condensation is, approximately, 150,000,000 gallons per annum, and even this substantial figure is being steadily increased. There is also another phase of the oil-refining industry which, during recent years, has materially altered. I refer to the production of solar oil during distillation. It is an apt saying that we can scarcely look to any section of our commercial or domestic life without being confronted with the fact that oil products play some part therein: there are few, however, who, without reflection, would agree that when they light their gas they are dependent upon petroleum for much of the light the gas gives. It is, nevertheless, a fact, as I will proceed to show. Many years ago, the oil refiners in Baku were confronted with a problem which appeared for some time to be insurmountable. After the distillation of their kerosene, or illuminating oil, and before they could commence to take off the lubricating oil fractions, there was an intermediary product which, while being of no use for lamp oil, did not possess the necessary constituents of viscosity to make it acceptable as a lubricant. It was a fairly decent volume of something for which there was no market at the time.