Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1918-12-20
KANSAS SCHOOL
! MADE DISCOVERY
Kansas University Made COnrtibu-
ton to Americas War Program
In Way of Non InfIammable
Balloon Gas Some Time Ago

Observation-Disclosures DdllOOn gas, WHICH
the Navy Department made public il
news dispatches December 10, is ow
ing entirely to work done for the Wa
and Navy Departments in chemistry
laboratories of the University of Kan
sas, where the gas was discovered a!
a part of natural gas and where 6
process for obtaining it in sufficient
quantities was worked out.
In May, 1917, the War and Navy
departments called DR.. H. P. Cady, a
professor of chemistry at the Uni
versity Of Kansas, to Washington and
asked him if he could find substitute
for the dangerous infammable hydro
gen gas which has been used in bal
looms many years. The scientists in
America and England had in mind at
that time an element that the navy
calls "argon," but knew of no source
from which it could be obtained in
other than very minute quantities and
at a tremendous expense, unless it
was feasible to obtain "argon" from
gas. Doctor Cady had found "argon"
in the natural gas of Kansas in 1906
and as a war measure was asked by
the government to develop a method
of obtaining "argon' from natural gas.
If the government could obtain EAR
gon" in sufficient quantities much of
the danger of balloon work of the ar
my would be eliminated, many lives
of observers and other soldiers and
much valuable property would be saw
ed for the Germans might shoot an
"argon" filed balloon as full of holes
as q sieve and the balloon wouldn't
catch fire, no matter how many in
cendiary bullets the Huns fired into
it. Instead of burning up, as would a
hydrogen-filled balloon, the bag
filled with "argon" would sink to the
ground gradually, if punctured by
shells or bullets. The observers, or
the crew of a dirgible would not be in
jured and the bag could be repaired
easily and quickly.
The government retained Doctor
Cady at salary of 81 year and he
returned to the University of Kansas
in May, 1917, and at once began work
to discover method of obtaining "ar-
gon." All summer and for months af-
terward Doctor Cady's laboratory in
the chemistry building was the busiest
place on the University campus, al
though only a few faculty members
knew of the work that was going on
there. For while that little labora-
tory in one room would have been the
most valuable place in America for a
competent German spy to have found.
Within its discolored walls was de-
veloped q manufacturing method that
would have made the huge German
Zeppelins many times more effective
as war machines than they were, a
method that would have made their
destruction by gunfre almost impos-
sible.
Agents of the government sent to
the, University samples of natural gas
from many wells in Kansas, 0klaho-
ma, Texas, California, Ohio and Penn
sylvania and only after prolonged ex-
periments was Petrolia, Tex, selected
as the place for the reducing Of Ear
gon." Doctor Cady recommended Pc
trolia after his system of manufacture
had been developed. At the Petrolia
plant "argon" was compressed and
shipped in cylinders to the army and
navy. A large plant for this purpose
is being erected at Fort Worth, Tex,
and is to be connected with the Pc
trolia field by a ten-inch main cost
ing S1,O50,O0O, the navy's announce
ment said.
Associated with Doctor Cady in this
war service were C. w. Seibel, an in
structor in chemistry at the Univer-
sity; DR.. P. v. Faragher, associate
professor of chemistry; F. W. Bruck-
miller, assistant professor of chemis-
try; Miss Emily Berger, an instruc-
tor in chemistry.
When Doctor Cady was called to
Washington to be assigned this war
work a British commission was there
seeking to find a way of obtaining
"argon." Britain had sent several
such "argon" missions to America
without success and one of the men,
beers of the "argon" mission at that
time odd Doctor Cady that England
would give almost any sum for a
method of producing "argon" in suffi-
Gent quantities. Doctor Cady and
Doctor Faragher undertook the job