The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 11, 1926, Page 13

—- td _ ever, Why Is She Back and What Does It Mean? By N. SPARKS. “T ET’S all heave a sigh of relief. Ethyl is back! There are big signs up around the Standard Oil fill- ing stations telling us so. It looked pretty bad at one time with the news- papers kicking up all that fuss and. calling it “looney gas.” But now, thank goodness, the trouble’s all over! They had an investigation and now everything is sitting pretty. Ethyl is back. “Of course, if you're a garage worker, maybe it ism’t so good, And if you. work in one of the stations where they mix that stuff into the gasoline you may have to be pretty careful. And if you work in one of the plants where they actually make the tetraethyl lead—but there’s only a bunch of bohunks work there, and they don’t matter. What does matter ig the great automobile-owning public that you get the profits out of. Ethyl gasoline gives them more miles for their dollar, and that’s what counts.” Being rather scantily represented in the great automobile-owning public (to the tune of a few second-hand Fords here or there) we fail to burst into cheers at this information. In fact we are still inclined to ask: “What is the necessity for inflicting a new and deadly poison upon society— @ poison to which thousands of work- ers will be particularly exposed? Why can’t people go on using ordi- nary gasoline to drive their cars? Well, the answer is: Tetraethyl lead (which is the substance that is mixed into ordinary gasoline to make ethyl gasoline) is an anti-knock. Unfor- tunately most of us don’t even know what a knock is—let alone an anti- knock, So let us go back to the be- ginning and find out just to what ex- tent tetraethyl lead is indispensable to the advance of industry and civili- zation, Let us assume that you know some member of the great automobile-own- ing public—know him well enough to get him to take you for a ride. No- tice the sound of his engine as you travel at medium speed. And now no- tice it as you travel fast, especially when climbing a hill. Besides the or- dinary sound of the engine you will hear a distinct “Ping!” in every cyl- inder. Now we have it! That is the knock! That “Ping!” sounds just as tho something were knocking inside the cylinders, and if your friend cares much for his car he will slow down and maybe shift gears. Now, of course, the next thing we want to know is: What causes the knock and what harm does it do? An automobile is driven by the com- bustion of a mixture of gasoline vapor and air in each of the cylinders. This combustion is very rapid, so that it is often called an explosion. But this is not really correct. The flamie takes a small but distinctly appreciable amount of time to travel the length of the cylinder. An explosion, how- is practically instantaneous. And right here is where the knock comes in. When the machihe is going at high speed, the mixture no longer burns quietly, the flame no longer travéls uniformly thru the length of the cylinder. Instead, the mixture starts to burn, but then the rest of it explodes, making that “Ping!” or knock that we heard. So we see that the knock is caused by the fact that part of the fuel explodes instead of burning. And an anti-knock is some- thing we can a@d to The fuel which will have the property of preventing that explosion, slowing it down into a uniform combustion. Now what harm does the knock do? First, it causes excessive wear on the engine, Second, it reduces the ef- ficiency (i. e., makes necessary more fuel for a given distance), for the sud- den impact of the explosion on the piston and cylinder walls is not nearly as effective as the steady push on the piston caused by @ proper combustion. These things are bad, but we must find soreething. worse yet if we are to explain the common stafément that the knock stands in the way of prog- ress. Even the best automobile is not a very efficient machine—that is, only a small percentage of the energy con- tained in the fuel used is actually trans- mitted to the wheels. Increasing ef- ficiency means saving fuel, and the There is a tendency among automo- bile engineers today to believe that the first great step towards increasing efficiency ig to increase the compres- sion in the cylinders. And, true enough, when very much higher com- pression is used in the motor much more power is obtained from the same quantity of fuel. But the knock! Alas! with increased compression the knock also increases. So much so that all talk of higher compression becomes useless unless the knock can be eliminated. And so the automobile engineer’s dream of conserving oil by producing only high-compression mo- tors has to wait for the production of an effective anti-knock compound, So now we can see the setting of the scene into which tetraethyl lead, this standard-bearer of progress, burst in the years 1924 and 1925, poisoning, paralyzing and killing workers, driv- ing them into convulsions and fright- ful insanity. . Tetraethyl lead, as an anti-knock, was discovered by Thomas Midgely, Jr., a chemist on the staff of the Standard Oil, A new concern was created, the Ethyl Gasoline Corpora- tion, half of the stock owned by the General Motors and the other half by Standard Oil. The Ethyl Gasoline Cor- poration was thus a child of both Mor- gan and Rockefeller. To the vice- presidency of this million-dollar cor- poration, Thomas Midgeley, Jr., a young man well under thirty, was ele- vated, Thomas Midgeley, Jr., could congratulate himself that his position for a young man of his age was abso- lutely unique, and his fortune was made. Standard Oil could congratu- late itself that it would soon drive all competing gasolines off the market. General Motors could congratulate it- self that it would soon introduce high- compression motors and all other makes of cars would become utter back numbers. Into these happy dreams, however, burst from time to time a rude inter- ruption; the report of a death here and there in the Du Pont plant at Deepwater, N. J., where the tetraethy) was being manufactured, or in the Ohio district where it was being unos- tentatiously distributed, a couple of cases of insanity, a few paralyses. It was not the accidents that mattered so much (the company was fully aware of the deadliness of the sub- stance it was handling), but the fact conservation of oil fuel is becoming a| A view among the Tower Crude Stills problem of tremendous tmportance. at Whiting. that despite all precautions, rumors would leak ont and get into the pa- pers. The company began a half- hearted, uneasy investigation into the accidents. It approached prominent experts on physiological chemistry and then drew back again. If the ‘thing ever got into the papers it would be all up, with a vengeance, Suddenly came the Bayway tragedy. A dozen or so men Working in the Bayway refinery of the Standard Oil suddenly went into hideous convul- sions and violent insanity and had to be removed..to the hospital. The whole affair burst into publicity. The doctors were forced to admit that the victims were suffering from acute lead poisoning due to inhalation of tetraethyl lead fumes, The New York World scented a good thing, took up the name “looney gas,” which the workers had christened it, spread it all over the front page and announced that it was beginning a campaign against it. Other papers were forced to come along. Thomas Midgeley, Jr., and his staff made heroic efforts to stem the tide. Time and again they announced that the only hazard was in manufacture, that it was only work- ers who would go insane; but the great automobileowning public saw themselves going into convulsions and dying frém using this gasoline in their cars and grew hysterical with fear. In vain Thomas Midgeley, Jr., gave an impressive demonstration to the re- porters. To show its harmlessness to the user he called for a can of his beautiful red ethyl gasoline and washed his hands in it (carefully dry- ing them off at once). All to no avail, Maybe it was only red ink he had washed his hands in. Maybe getting it on your hands didn’t matter. The hysteria mounted. Ethyl gasoline was barred in New York. Thomas Midge- ley, Jr., Standard Oil, General Motors, saw their dreams vanishing. To fore- stall complete prohibition, the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation announced that they would voluntarily discontinue the sale of their product pending the re- sult of an investigation. On all sides the ery-of. “investigation!” was taken up, The surgeon-general of the United States was instructed to call a pre- paratory conference. The Ethyl Gas- oline Corporation breathed freely again. At last they were on safe and familiar ground. Before adjournment to the surgeon- general’s conference, let us consider the different varieties of lead poison- ing offered to its makers, distributers and users by tetraethyl lead. Until the advent of tetraethyl only the chronic form of lead poisoning had been known. This is the form to which painters, typesetters and others who work with ordinary compounds of lead are exposed. Lead is what is known as a “cumulative poison.” That is, a small amount of lead taken once does not act as a poison; but if even a tiny amount is taken into the body day by day, it accumulates in the tissues and gradually in the course of months or years, produces “lead drop,” “lead colic,” paralysis and ster- ility. With the tetraethyl, however, one exposure is plenty. Tetraethyl lead is a liquid and is readily absorbed by the skin. Furthermore, tetraethy!l lead presents Jead in a highly volatile form, i, e., it easily turns into vapor. In this form it can be inhaled in large quantities. Whether absorbed thru the skin or the lungs, it distributes itself almost immediately thruout the body. The lead reaches the brain, and convulsions, insanity and death are the result, This is acute lead poi- | soning. The workers in the factory where the tetraethyl lead is made have a chance both at the acute poisoning from the product and chronic poison- ing from the other lead compounds and lead dust lying around. The work- ers in the blending stations where the tetraethyl is mixed with gasoline to make the ethyl gasoline have a good chance at both acute and chronic poisoning. The great automobile-own- ing public hag a fair chance at chronic poisoning, And should the use of ethyl become general even those who walk the streets and have to breathe the sweet air of innumerable automo. bile exhausts would stand a fair chance of chronic lead poisoning, Marx on Goethe (From Deutsche ‘Brusseler Zeitung, Nr, 95, November 28, 1847, on the oc- casion of a review of Kari Gruen’s “On Goethe from the Human Stand- point,” Darmstadt, 1846. The article was later reprinted In an article by M. Kriegel: Marx as a Journalist, in Die Zukunft (M. Harden), 1901, IX, 10; and still later in Max Gruenwaid’s “Goethe und Die Arbeiter,” Dresden, 1912.—A, L.) aetna we cannot speak at great length here about Goethe himself, We only draw attention to one point. Goethe in his works, con ducts himself in a twofold manner to- wards the German gociety of his time, Now he is hostile to it; he seeks to escape what to him is repulsive, as in Iphegenia and, in general, during the Italian Journey. He rebels against it as Goetz, Prometheus and Faust, and pours forth his bitterest derision upon it as Mephistopheles. Now, on the contrary, he is on friendly terms with it, “accomodates” himself to it as in the majority of fhe “Tame Xenia” and many prose works, ex- tols it as in the “Maskenzuegen,” in- deed, defends it against the onpress- ing historical movement as particu- larly in ali the works where he comes to speak of the French Revolution. It is not merely individual aspects of German life that Goethe recognizes as against others to which he is adverse; it is a continuous struggle within him between the gifted poet whom the mis- ere of his environment disgusts and the cautious child of the Frankfurt counsellor, respective Weimar privy counsellor, who sees himself forced to.conclude an armistice with it and te accustom himself to it. Thus Goethe is now a colossal, now a petty, now a defiant, mocking, world-disdain- ing genius, now a consideraté, con- tented, narrow philistine. Even Goethe was unable to overcome the German misere; on the contrary, it overcomes him, and this victory of the misere over the greatest German is the best proof that it canwnever be overcome “from within.”* Goethe was too universal, of too active a na- ture, too much of the flesh, to look for deliverance from the misere in a Schilleresque flight to the Kantian ideal; he was too keen net to see that this flight ultimately reduced itself to an exchange of the flat for the super abundant misere. His temperament, his powers, his entire spiritual dispo- sition, directed him to the practical life, and the practical life which he met with was miserable. In this dilemma—to live in a sphere of life which he had to disdain and still to be chained to this sphere as the only one in which he could partici- pate—in this dilemma Goethe contin- uously found himself, and the older he became the more the mighty poet, de querree lasse,** withdrew behind the insignificant Weimar minister. We do not reproach Goethe for not being liberal, a la Boerne and Menzel, but for the fact that at times he could also be a philistine; not for being in- capable of enthusiasm for German freedom, but for sacrificing his more correct esthetic sense, which broke through here and there, to a common philistine timidity before all great, contemporary historical movements; not for being a courtier, but for the fact that he could carry on the most insignificant affairs and menus plai- sirs*** of one of the most ‘insignifi- cant German courts with a solemn se- riousness at a time when a Napoleon was cleansing the great Augean stable of Germany. We reproach neither from the moral nor the party point of view, but, at the most, from an es- thetic and historical point of view; we measure Goethe neither by a moral nor by a political nor by a “human” standard. We cannot here enter into a portrayal of Goethe in relation to his time, to his literary predecessors and contemporaries, in his process of development and in his life-attitude. We therefore limit ourselves to sim- ply stating the fact, *Von Innen heraus, |. e., it cannot be reformed but must be shattered from ; without.—A. L. **Tired of war. ***Revels. ne ae eo a CONTERE Mi cakaitina nets ee = ae Pee oe eas