Don't Knock The Blausteins You can thank these two for a quiet ride in your car. ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR CAMARO Z28 CONVERTIBLE BIG SELECTION! PERFORMANCE HEADQUARTERS Cauley Jack ■ .65 NNWOOWW 7020 Orchard Lake Rd. (between 14 & 15 Mile Rd.) (810) 855-9700 West Bloomfield, MI 48322 as ('Q (_) a) CC * .c. u_ tx • n. 32 a) c O N f**C V• 0 IN FOR THE SUMMER OF A LIFETIME TEENS 13- 1 7 YEARS ACTIVE TEEN TOURS • Combination Camping / Hotel / Dorm Tours. • Western U.S.A., Canada and Europe. CYCLING "PLUS" PROGRAMS: • For 1st time beginners to intermediate. • "Plus" ... much more than just cycling! • Cape Cod, Vermont, Pacific Coast and Europe. OUTDOOR ADVENTURES: • Ski, Raft, Rock Climb, Mountain Bike, Tennis ... • No experience required! • Canadian Rockies, Pacific Coast & Quebec. STUDENTS 17 - 21 YEARS • Cycling and Touring Europe or the Pacific Coast. • Outdoor Adventures in Canadian Rockies or Europe. CALL NOW FOR A FREE BROCHURE d i I MARK SEGAL, Director 800 767 0227 • Glacier Skiin • • Colorado White Water Raftiro • pa • •0 0• 9141 Lle Ci 617 ■ 110 a) kie Guy\ scetAP EA a) • Grand Canyon in Arizona • San Francisco's Alcatraz Q: Did two Jews create the first anti-knock gasoline? A: Yes. Louis Blaustein (1869-1937) was born in Russia and came in 1888 to the United States. He was 14 years old and he didn't speak a word of English. Louis began his career peddling kerosene, then found work in 1892 with the Standard Oil Company plant in Baltimore. In 1910, he left Standard and founded the American Oil Company. The business quick- ly became successful thanks to Blaustein's foresight in oil . dis- tribution at a time when cars, leading users of petroleum, were developing as the most popular means of transportation. Working with Louis was his son, Jacob (1892-1970), who co- founded American Oil and served in various leadership po- sitions, including president, with the company. Together the two created the tankwagon, which was leak proof and could release differing amounts of fuel, and the first •anti-knock gasoline. Their experiments on an anti- knock gas began in 1915 with a "blend of gasoline and benzol, a volatile byproduct from the coke ovens of steel mills," according to an Amoco newslet- ter. "For the first real-life test of this concoction, they gassed up a company car and began driving apprehensively down a Baltimore street. Jacob was at the wheel. (Ironically, Louis never learned how to dri- ve.)" The men, the article states, "were delighted that the engine didn't explode." They called their Q: Is it true that a Jewish actress creation "Amoco-Gas," and it be- came an overnight success. was the first choice to play Scar- The family in 1923 sold 50 lett in Gone With the Wind? percent interest in American A: "Oh, fiddle-dee- Oil to Pan dee, why didn't I American (the get that role?" cost: $5 mil- Paulette Goddard lion), and two (born Marion years later Levy) must have Standard Oil wondered time bought control- and again, because ling interest in she was, for a time, Pan American. producer David 0. Both became sub- Selznick's leading sidiaries of Standard Oil (today, choice for the role. the Amoco Corp.) in 1954. She might have gotten the In addition to their petroleum part, too, but for two things. The discoveries, both Jacob and first was a protest launched by Louis were leading philan- a women's group, angry that Ms. thropists. Jacob made numer- Goddard was having an out-of- ous donations — all of them wedlock relationship with Char- anonymously, while Louis lie Chaplin (the two later married, was active in a number of then divorced). The second issue Jewish and civic causes, includ- was actress Vivien Leigh. After ing the American Jewish her impressive screen test, every- Committee, the United Negro one was convinced she was the College Fund and the American only one to play Scarlett. Friends of the Hebrew Univer- sity. Q:News reports on the nerve-gas attack in the Tokyo subway system Q: Does Halachah include a right said the poison used, Sarin, was de- of privacy? A: Yes. It is derived from the veloped by Nazi Germany. Is that mitzvah, "And you shall love what was used in the gas chambers? your fellow as yourself." (Leviti- A: No. The gas used to kill mil- lions of Jews was Zyklon B, an in- cus 19:18). The commandment is wide- secticide produced by the giant ranging and has many applica- German chemical company, I.G. tions, including privacy. Most Farben. Under contract from Hitler, I.G. rabbis have interpreted it as for- bidding Jews from reading an- Farben helped develop new and other's mail, eavesdropping on extremely effective nerve gasses conversations, looking into called Soman, Sarin and Tabun. someone else's personal papers, Part of the development called for opening doors or drawers that testing. German physicians and are meant to be closed — in scientists at Auschwitz and other short, practically anything that death camps used Jewish prison- would violate another person's ers as their test subjects. The Germans also developed privacy. new and more lethal forms of an- thrax, cholera, malaria, plague and typhus, then tested them on Jews. In addition, I.G. Farben es- tablished in Auschwitz a plant, using slave labor, to produce syn- thetic gasoline and rubber. Thou- sands were worked to death. After World War II, President Harry Truman and Gen. Dwight Eisenhower ordered that the I.G. Farben company be dismantled. The orders were ignored, howev- er, and today I.G. Farben is one of the biggest chemical compa- nies in the world. El Not the standard guys in the gas business, Louis and Jacob Blaustein provided this and other drivers with a very different ride. Send questions to "Tell Me Why" c I o The Jewish News, 27676 Franklin Rd., Southfield, MI 48034 or send fax to 354-6069.