--part1_bd.3cc4e69.2667130c_boundary
--part1_bd.3cc4e69.2667130c_boundary
Content-Disposition: inline
Return-path: <IfixMGs@aol.com>
From: IfixMGs@aol.com
Full-name: I fixMGs
Message-ID: <35.5dd42bd.26666fcc@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 09:38:20 EDT
Subject: price of gas....
To: FastmetalBDF@aol.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 106
Bruce,
When I was in engineering school (early 70's) I minored in tech
journalism, and industrial history - right up there in employability with
art history... I did a paper on a similar subject, and uncovered an
interesting fact about the cost of fuel in France during WWII.
In the darkest days of Nazi occupation, the underground needed to
charge batteries for their radios, but the Germans had confiscated virtually
all of the diesel and mogas stores, and made possession of fuel an executable
offence.
Having dug deep pits and rather clever air and exhaust schemes, they could
run their generators right under the German's' noses, but soon ran out of
fuel. They found that mixing parfum with diesel or parafin, they could keep
the engines turning, and the exhaust scent was actually pleasing. After
liberation, warehouses were ransacked and expensive perfumes were used for
heating and cooking; DeGaulle realized that the perfume industry was all that
they had remaining to generate cash for reconstruction, and nationalized all
supplies of French perfumes. Once industrualization returned, the stores were
returned to their owners. A huge tax was imposed to raise revenues, and
servicemen bought millions of dollars worth to send back home. Given 1944's
average retail price of Chanel # 5 (.13 ounce = $6/oz = $2500 gallon!) In a
90/10 fuel/parfum mix with diesel at $.50 a gallon, that still runs about
$250.00 a gallon, the cost of the diesel being rather inconsequential in the
grand scheme.... Today, the cost of Chanel #5 is $8000 per gallon.
During my medical career, I found one of the all time high-enders:
DDAVP, a drug which runs $250 per bottle for a total of 750 micrograms of
delivered product. However, the delivery system is only accurate up to 500
micrograms. After that, the bottle is to be tossed, with 1/3 of the product
remaining in a sealed bottle.
round dollars: at 1000 ugs per bottle, the cost would be about $300. At
1000 bottles per gram: $3000 per gram.... at 8 pounds per gallon (roughly
4kg) that's $12,000,000 per gallon for the active ingredient, synthesized
pituitary hormone of which $4,000,000 out of every gallon goes into the
garbage ....
I'm in the wrong business..... Mark Childers
--part1_bd.3cc4e69.2667130c_boundary--
|