1923 | Energy
Energy
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall resigns March 4 under a cloud of suspicion related to the Teapot Dome and Elks Hill oil leases investigation (see 1922); it turns out that Edward L. Doheny loaned Fall $100,000 in cash, and Fall will be convicted of accepting a bribe. Harry F. Sinclair and Doheny lose their leases (see 1924). Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby resigns from President Coolidge's cabinet and leaves office March 10 as revelations about the Teapot Dome scandal continue to erupt (see 1922). He has signed every lease involved in the affair but will be cleared of all charges. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty resigns at President Coolidge's demand March 28 in the midst of a Senate investigation into his official acts. Oil magnate Harry F. Sinclair wins the Kentucky Derby with his horse Zev and sails for Russia with an offer to buy the Baku oil fields (see 1901). Laughing off the investigation of his role in the Teapot Dome scandal, Sinclair brings a retinue that occupies two decks of the S.S. Homeric and by some accounts his attempt to buy the Baku fields comes close to succeeding (see 1916; Sinclair, 1936). Sinclair will serve 6½ months in prison for contempt of court and contempt of Congress, but Edward L. Doheny will be acquitted in 1928 of charges that he bribed Secretary Fall.
Congress sets aside a 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska with provisions that it be tapped only in the most compelling circumstances.
Ethyl Corp. introduces tetraethyl lead as a fuel additive (see Midgley, 1921). The lead compound is mixed three parts to two with ethylene dibromide to eliminate engine "knock" and yet leave no lead deposit in an engine (see Dow, 1924).
Oilman Lyman Stewart dies at Los Angeles September 29 at age 83, having used his wealth to help launch the fundamentalist religious movement in America; General Electric consulting engineer Charles Steinmetz dies at Schenectady, N.Y., October 26 at age 58.