The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-02-08
Prof. P. J. 0'Gara Suggests
Method Of Recovering Potash
Salts fFrom Bagasse
TELLS WHAT SHELTERS
HAVE DONE IN THE WEST
Protecting Farms From Poison
Gases and Saving Company
Hundreds of Thousands

An outgoing passenger in the Great
Northern last night was Prof. =. j.
O'Gara of Salt Lake City, who is in
charge Of the agricultural laboratories
of the American Smelling and Refining
Company. His title is that Of
Psychologist, but that does not con
vey a proper conception of the scope
of the important works under his direc-
ton.
The professor suggests that Hawai-
sugar planters profit by the experience
of the smelters and adopt some meth,
= OF recovering potash salts from thu
smoke of burning bagasse in the islam,
sugar mills.
Shelters and ore refners have always
had many complaints levied agains,
them by farmers on account of alleged
damages to growing crops as result
| OF the poisonous gases let loose from
the qore-treating plants. The mining
, men have often gone on "thc farmer be
damned" prime pie in operating their
plants, but back in 1909 the directors
of the Smelling Trust came to tn,
conclusion that that policy was entire
ly wrong.
TO Avoid Trouble
The ore refneTs began to look into
the subject a little more areful.y in
view of the fact that damage suits ag
gregating several millions had been
filed by farm RS in Che several western
states where mining and the extraction
of metals from refractory ores is car
ried on.
A preliminary investigation of the
1 subject led to the discovery that it was
a feM where no one really knew anv
thing about the exact effect of gaseou,
metallic compounds on growing plants.
There had been scattered investiga-
tions by scientists in Germany cover
ing various phases of the problem, but
no connected experiments or tests had
! ever been undertaken. The A. s. & r.
Company first tried to get the United
{ States department of agriculture and
( the state experiment stations 70 handle
the problem, but the agricultural
scientists were not metallurgists and
could not, therefore, do more than make
impracticable suggestions.
Wanted a Plant Doctor
Mr.. O'Gara was at that time employ
cd by the department of agriculture in
vestl2ating pear blight and other or
chard diseases in TIE Rogue River Val.
ley, i'll Oregon, and the smelters asked
him to help them out. They have built
great laboratories at Salt Lake City in
, the immediate neighborhood, where, it
was claimed, serious damage to crops
had resulted from smelter fumes, and
have placed eve : facility at Professor
O'Gara s disposal. The staff of chem
lists, bOtanists, metallu -gists, engineers
and agronomists now includes oven
twenty of the best scientific investiga
tcrs in their respective lines in the
United States.
Preventing Waste
These research investigations have
entered into every step in the manu-
featuring process in the extr9"tiun OF
! zinc, lead, copper, arsenic and other
metals from their ores, and the scien,
lists have considered every possible
waste gaseous, somd and liquid, which
ls liberated at any stage in roasting
and smelling, which might in any way
be injurious to plants, animals or human
beings.
The company. has an agricultural ex.
pertinent station where about thirty
crops are being tested. A great mass
of both positive and negative data is
accommodating which is going to be OF
far reaching Importance in settling
many dispute problems.
AmeriC an Wizards
Speaking of his work Mr.. O'Garu
sail yesterday that the American SCI
entists have had to crente methods and
devise means anew from the very begin.
ming Of their work.
1--WE tried to follow German methods
at first because all the available data
in this field ha3 been produced by Ger.
man scientists. 1t did not take us
very long to discover that they had
not the slightest conception of the
fundamentals involved. All the work
which they had done hal been III green
house tests with single pots, and there
/ were no records to show that the in
huence of air pressures, humidity, tenn
peratures or light had been considered.
"The German authorities stated that
air containing twenty five TO thirty
parts of sulphurous gases was poison,
GUS to plants. We found that under
the right conditions one part per
million was injurious while under other
conditions plants were not harmed by a
gas concentration many times greater
than the supposed limit fixed by the
German scientists.
eve had to invent our own stand
ards Mr. Cara said.
"There were no known methods OF
analysis for Dc tccting foreign gases in
air, beyond certain dilution. We
have developed al instantaneous test
and now have an automobile laboratory
by means Of which the presence OF
smrlter gases in d..ntiOns of one part
in ten millions can be detected as oul
men move about the country in the ii
rect on where the stack gases are blown
by the wind.
can the results on whiCh the theory
Of ] gal liability for damage to crop
rested before this laboratory wa,
started were based on highly artificial