The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-06-13

L OIL sulphur III Tie 5"OI40 IL Se@AS<10
4 leu Parish, La, are great deposits
/ OF sulphur lying 1000 feet below
4 the surface, and covered by layer
OF qu1cksand 500 feet in thickness.
4 Never was greater wealth more In
/ geniously defended from the hand
| of man a French company, an
Austrian company and several Amer
1 lean companies had tried varied In
\ genious ways of getting at these SUI
phur deposits, and all had ended IN
failure, il not in disaster. Then
Frasch conceived the idea OF melting
the sulphur where it lay, and pump
ing it to the surface He forced
super-heated water through pipe
| to the sulphur beds and brought the
melted sulphur to the surface through
an inner rube. Twenty boilers OF
| $50 horse power each were used IN
the initial experiment, and 1t was a
success. One of these wells alone
was recently producing $50 tons OF
sulphur a day.
The temper of the American peo-
| pie is una1terably practical. Ameri-
cans cannot appreciate science for
| sciences sake. Therefore. the fu-
ture Of scientific research in this
| country is bound up with industry
| Our scientific achievements in the
future will undoubtedly take place
| in the splendid laboratories of our
great industrial concerns With the
need for utilizing our resources to
the fullest, and Of supplying our
selves with products which we can
no longer obtain from Europe. OPP
portunity and necessity are conspir-
ing to give industrial research IN
this country tremendous Impetus
Therefore, the question of how bus
mess and Industry can best cooper
ate Is Of the greatest Importance
The relations OF these two diverse
but complementary elements are by
no means ideal. The manufacturer
usually regards the scientist as a
wizard ande xpects him to produce
magica1 results in short time Then
too, cooperation between the univer-
sites. which are the established
fonts Of scientific knowledge. and
the great industries. is rendered dir
ficult by the fact that the manufac-
turer desires to keep secret all that
he learns. while the prime object OF
the universities is to dihuse knowl-
edge.
difficulty is embodied In the Mellon
institute of industrial research of the
University OF Pittsburg A manu-
facturer having an industrial prob
| lem to solve becomes the donor OF a
| Fellowship in this institute The
manufacturer pays the salary of the
chemist who is engaged in the IN
yestiratSon. and the institute fur
nishes the facilities The Mellon in
| stitute, although part of the uni
yersity. has its own endowment and
expends over S15o,000 year for sal
aries and maintenance The manu-
facturer has the advantages of this
organization for a relatively small
| expenditure All OF the dicoveries
made by the chemist are the prop
erty of the company and may be pat
ented by the company. Furthermore
the chemist is bound to keep such
discoveries secret II the company de-
| By this arrangement the Mellon
! institute is conducting chemical re-
search FOR a number OF large indus
trial concerns. and the chemists con-
nected with it are having splendid
opportunity 70 do advanced research
work and to form valuable connec-
lions with the Industrial world
4 Despite sits promising beginning.
Industrial research in tins country IS
in its infancy Mum erous problems
confront it For example, the exact
chemical constitution OF glass has
never been discovered, and many OF
the problems Of our glass manufac-
turers depend upon the solution OF
this problem Few industries have
received more aid from science than
lour sugar reineries. Yet American
sugar manufacturers do not use
their by-products They neglect the
opportunity to manufacture alcohol