Governmental Research and the Corporate State: The Rittman Refining Process

Abstract

In 1913 major sections of the United States suffered the first modern energy crisis. Gasoline prices in the Midwest rose from 6.5 to 12.5 cents per gallon as consumption increased and the production of motor fuel could not keep pace. Automobile owners quickly formulated theories of conspiracy by the old Standard Oil Trust, since the Standard Oil Company had split into fifty-five entities only two years before. The area hardest hit by the gasoline shortage was the Midwest, and many independent refiners there screamed about unfair competition. While popular science magazines explored the feasibility of alternatives to gasoline, many oilmen, along with a newly created U.S. Bureau of Mines, believed science and technology could solve the gasoline shortfall.' Leaders of the Bureau of Mines sought to capitalize on this temporary crisis. They promoted an innovative refining process devised by Walter F. Rittman, a recent Ph.D. in chemical engineering, and sold a scientific creed that they wrapped in Progressive ideals. DR. MERNITZ is assistant professor at the State University College of New York at Buffalo and is currently writing a book-length manuscript on businessmen's strategies in the American and German liquid-fuel industries, 1910-1933. This article is a