The Colorado statesman., 1912-11-02
Valuable Discoveries Not Always
Result of Thought.
History Records Many Cases Where
Mere Chance Has Directed Groper
After improvements to Pursue
the Proper Course.

1t is repetitive history that many a
person who has spent hours upon
hours upon combining and recombin-
Ing the factors of his problem, has had
the solution thrust upon his attention
by some casualty of daily life. Such
occurrences are the spice of research
and lead on many a weary investi-
gator in hard and exacting labor. Here
is the field where the trained observ-
er has all the advantage. For how
many fortunes may never have been
realized only because no one had eyes
to behold the revelation.
In our own time every beet-sugar
factory was confronted with these
two problems: How most cheaply to
move the beets from the storage
sheds to the sllcers; and how to
cleanse the beets from the dirt small
stones, and rubbish carried from the
earth silos. A German factory hap
pened to have a considerable quantity
OF beets piled alongside an open drain.
very heavy rainstorm came on, and
when 1t was over 1t was found that the
beets had not only been carried to the
very door of the factory, but were
cleaned as well. From that time on
every factory has flushed its beets
along pipe from storage to plant and
saved money by combining the two
operations of transportation and wash
ing.
Thomas Kingsford discovered the
process of making starch from Indian
corn by chance. Starch could be made
from potatoes and from wheat, but 1t
had always been found impossible to
separate cornstarch from the accom-
panying gluten. The wheat starch
methods did not answer. Kingsford
was mechanic working long hours,
and all his experiments were made in
his own kitchen with his wife's pans,
tubs, and buckets as his laboratory
utensils.
The unsatisfactory result of one OF
his experiments-a mush of cornmeal
and water-he disgustedly threw into
garbage tub. little later his wife
threw into the same tub some lye
wastes (potash solutions) Upon
emDtying the tub the next day, Kings
ford was surprised to find small
amount of fairly pure starch at the
bottom. His wife fortunately remem-
bered throwing in the lye. and thus
the basic principle was discovered
hingsford soon worked out practical
process for making cornstarch COM
mercially, and made a great fortune
In 1742, Thomas Bolsover, a me-
chanic. of Sheffield, discovered the art
of silver-plating. He was repairing
the handle of a knife in which both
copper and silver were used. Acct
dentally the two metals were fused
together. Based upon this observation
he developed the new process. Upon
thick ingot of copper he bound by
iron wire thinner ingot of silver
The whole was then heated in re-
verberatory furnace until the edges of
the silver ingot were observed to be-
gin to melt. The two ingots were
cooled and picked, cleaned and rolled
to the desired thickness. The result
was a plate of copper more or less
thinly covered with silver on one side.
This was the first Sheffield plate For
fifty years following, the copper was
plated on one side only. and the cut
edges showed the copper. Later. the
process was so perfected that no cop
per was left exposed. All the silver.
plate of the world was made by this
process, until electroplating was dis
covered and made commercial.