rupted citizenry, I dropped my watch, the case of which held two small but genuine diamonds, as payment for the loss I had caused these bug-plagued peoples, and then went streaking upward to my rendezvous with the SPACEQUEEN.
The cook's uniform was waiting. However, weary as I was, I must state emphatically that the spacegram I received about the 976th potato was in no way the surprise Captain Smith insists it was.
The spacegram was from my immediate superior, one Harmon T. Dee, Manager of Interplanetary Sales, TJneek Fliers, Inc., and it read:
You (deleted) bonehead. Burning coal-road stopped Bum Bugs. Grain fields saved. Aveston thrown off carbon-compound standard by influx of diamond merchants. Road was worthless. Birds now on rubber standard. King Pog returning remains of your watch. Has appointed you honorary colonel of Champion Eaters Squad. Uneek Fliers deluged with orders. Main factory now featuring new 3-ton, 40-jet, heavy-duty air truck. Mr. Karp last seen crashing out of control in northern Forest Area. Office of Sales Manager, Martian Division, reopened and available to you with salary readjustments upward . . . Oh, you great, big, gorgeous (deleted)!
Harmon T.
CATALYST FOR POWER!
THE possibility of gasoline rationing for civilian use and even a threatened shortage for military use has caused scientists to look around for methods to increase the gasoline yield from crude petroleum. Latest reports indicate that the work has progressed very rapidly and successfully so that now it might be possible, not only to get a high gasoline output but also a higher octane gasoline from crude petroleum.
One of the newer fuels produced will sell for less than our premium brands now sell for and will be of a better quality. It can be produced from tar, asphalt, and from the "left-overs" in producing gasoline under the old methods, This greater gasoline output has been made possible by the discovery that aluminum silicate will act as a catalyst to crack crude petroleum into gasoline. The presence of the catalyst enables the crude petroleum to be cracked at a lower temperature with about 1⁄50 of the pressure needed under present day methods. Not only does the catalyst produce more gasoline but also a gasoline with an eighty octane rating, which is equal to premium gasoline. This gasoline is being used to produce 100 octane gas that is needed by airplane engines. This was indeed good news for our Army and Navy, who were threatened with a possible gasoline shortage for their air forces.
This new process also will have a deep significance for the automobile industry once this war is won. For years the automotive engineers have been hampered in their development of efficient, high compression engines since the average gas available would detonate too quickly and the small supply of high octane gas was too expensive. With this new discovery, the automotive engineers will have a wide open field in developing high compression engines knowing that the necessary fuel will be within the reach of "Mr. Average Man's" purse.
