1913 - Energy

Energy

Hudson, Mass.-born General Electric physical chemist William D. (David) Coolidge, 39, receives a patent on "tungsten and method for making the same for use as filaments of incandescent electric lamps" (see Langmuir, 1912). Coolidge produced the first ductile tungsten 5 years ago by using high temperatures to draw the metal into fine filaments; long-burning tungsten filament bulbs will replace the Swan-Edison carbon filament bulbs in use until now (see 1879; Owens, 1903; frosted bulbs, 1925).

Germany produces 34 percent of the world's electrical equipment, the United States 19 percent.

The Keokuk Dam completed June 5 north of St. Louis on the Mississippi River is the world's largest hydroelectric dam yet; 5,627 feet long, 52 feet high, 42 feet wide at its base, it delivers power 180 miles to St. Louis beginning July 1, and replaces 1,000 tons of coal per day.

An International Geological Congress at Toronto estimates world coal reserves, taking one foot as the minimum workable thickness of seams down to depths of 4,000 feet and two feet as the minimum for seams at lower depths. North America is judged to have more than 5 trillion metric tons of coal, Asia 1.3 trillion, Europe 784 billion, South America 33 billion, Africa 58 million, Oceania 170 million.

Oklahoma wildcatters strike oil in the Healdton Field, drilling a well in 18 days that brings in a gusher at 920 feet (see Slick, 1912). The Garber, Oilton, Sholem-Alechem, Tatum, and Velma fields will come in next year, but the Cushing and Healdton fields alone will be credited with making Oklahoma the leading U.S. oil producer, and it will remain among the top five states in terms of oil production (see Phillips, 1917).

World petroleum production reaches 407.5 million barrels per year, up from 5.7 million in 1870. Most comes from wells in the United States and from Russia's Caspian Sea and Caucasus Mountain oil fields (see Persia, 1908; Persia, 1914; Venezuela, 1914).

German chemist Friedrich Bergius, 28, extracts a liquid from coal through hydrogenation and publishes a paper describing his research on the conversion of coal into liquid hydrocarbons. He has added large amounts of hydrogen to coal under high pressure at high temperatures in the presence of a catalyst. I. G. Farben will acquire patent rights to the process in 1926, but when world oil prices collapse in the 1930s making Leunabenzin (synthesized gasoline} will prove much costlier than refining petroleum pumped out of the ground.

A thermal cracking process for petroleum receives a U.S. patent. Developed by Cleveland-born Standard Oil Co. chemist William M. (Merriam) Burton, 47, it uses chemical means to transform many of petroleum's less volatile components into gasoline, thereby doubling the yield of petroleum.

High-speed turbine (and cream separator) inventor Carl de Laval dies at Stockholm February 2 at age 67. The flexible shaft he has devised to eliminate wobbling and his special double-helical gear will be the basis for most steam turbines.