The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-11-06

INoDeTl Aenneuy duncan, Professor or
Industrial Chemistry at the University
of Kansas, in November Harpers.
wv ways and ever toward the con-
servation of natural products to
the uses more valuable than those for
which they were originally employed.
For example, Next to air, perhaps the
cheapest and most abundant gas in Amer
lea is what is called natural gas-that
gas, essentially methane, or marsh gas,
which, arising from the EARTH furnishes
light and heat and power to so many of
our people. 1t has been a vast pity in
the past that this gas, so abundant and
so ready at hand, should be good only for
burning. 1t ought, one thinks, to be pos
sible of conversion into valuable sub
stance. And, indeed, it is today partially
so convertible. The methane of natural
gas may to a slight extent be transformed
with air into methyl alcohol, formalde-
hyde, or formic acid. Were it capable of
complete conversion a thousand cubic feet
Of gas would furnish at least 20 pounds
of methyl alcohol or Sc pounds of
formaldehyde, or 101 pounds of formic
acid. 1t is particularly interesting, there
fore, to find certain contemporary pat
ents ambitious of solving the problem.
They are in origin, most of them, French.
One states that a mixture Of methane
and nitrogen in excess is capable of trans
formation into ammonium cyanide. This
cyanide so formed, is in its turn easy
of Transformation into ammonium sui
H. 4 s,x4N sfteiH
Another patent states that methane is
convertible into methyl alcohol, formal
dehyde and formic acid by oxidation
with hydrogen peroxide or ozone In the
presence of ferrous sulphate. Still an
other makes chloroform from methane
and chlorine i'll the presence Of large
excess of nitrogen and under the infiu-
ence of an arc lamp. 1t is extremely
doubtful that these patents have solved
the problem, but the trend of effort Is
perfectly apparent, and we may be GER
tain that in some tomorrow some man
will surely begin the process OF convert
ing the vast millions of cubic feet of nat
ural gas, which, so far as chemical prod
ucts are concerned, now go entirely to
waste into valuable adjuncts of our civ
ilization
There exists in Germany q wide area
of peat boys that heretofore have been
of little use; this for the reason that the
amount of fuel required to evaporate the
water in the peat is almost as large az
the amount of dry peat obtained. But
the discovery of this new process OF cleo
trio osmosis, as it is called, suddenly
raises the value of these great peat fields
to a. high potential. To obtain the dry
peat it is only necessary to convey the
neatly water to a metallic caldron con-
nected with one pole of dynamo and to
insert into the water metallic rod con-
nected with the other terminal. Under
these circumstances, the particles of peat
rapidly migrate to the central rod, where
they form hard caked mass which may
be lifted out practically dry--and all this
with the expenditure of an insignificant
amount of energy Recent patents by the
aggressive experimenting industrial firms
of Germany, such as Meister, Lucius and
Bruning of Hochst, foreshadow a wide
general application of this entirely inter-
esting phenomenon.
Ever since the dawn of the age of iron,
men have desired to weld one metal
with another-to weld, for example, iron
and copper for the making of weapons
and for the use of husbandry and build
ing Unable to accomplish this directly
they had to resort to the art of brazing,
by which copper and iron might be Joined
In
of brass and zinc. But such joint was
always imperfect, and soonore or later
gave way to severe stress. Through the
advance of knowledge several processes,
mostly electrical, have been devised, but
they are special processes requiring skill
and complicated 1t would seem almost
incredible that men through all these ages
should have overlooked simple device by
which this welding might be accomp-
lished According to Professor Simpson
of London, and the writer observed the
actual demonstration of the method, in
order to weld bar of iron to sheet of
copper it is only necessary to wrap the
| uncleaned copper closely about the bar, to
| bury the bar so wrapped in a crucible
| containing a little sugar water to make
| it binding, and finally to heat the crucible
| in furnace for half an hour to temper
| allure somewhere between the melting
point of copper and iron. The result OF
this simple operation is a weld of exera-
| ordinary perfection and tenacity, tougher
| than either of the metals that coustl-
| tute 1t.
l Out side Of the significance which is