The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-27

are connected with almost every indus try which is now working along the lines of the war.
 A large part of our army of scientists one kind or another, based upon the needs of the war. In 1916 a national re- search council was established by the direction of President Wilson through the National Academy of Scientists. This has worked on all sorts of problems re- lating to the war and to American in- dustry as affected by 1t. The council of national defense has its scientists, ana the food administration has A chemical division which deals with war foods and food supplies. The agricultural depart ment is doing research work of many kinds. It has a staff of more than 20,- 0O0 people, many of them highly trained experts and connected with it are the | land grant colleges and experiment sta tions, which have a student body of 7o,- 1 coo. This agricultural branch of the gov ernment deals not only with crops and | food supplies, but it has biological bracnh which experiments with every | kind of life from beasts to insects | Among its latest war investigations, for instance, are those of the "cooties," or | body lice, which so worry our boys in the trenches. The bureau of entomology is studying this tiny parisite under the 1 microscope, watching it as it passes through it's various stages of existence. and testing certain chemicals to find some poison that will destroy it and still | not affect the human being on whom 1t 1 feeds.
 | As to the results of the new researcn 1 work they are leading not only to the development of the resources We had in the past but to the production of vast number of products formerly monopolies ] Of the Germans. It Is especially so as l to the fertilizers, which Germany has 1 to such an extent that one of it's emil nent doctors said that the United States
 dared not make war lest the Kaiser shut off our potash supply and starve us to | death. In 1916 we produced only about l 10000 tons of potash, and before the war most of our supply of that salt came | from the mines of Stassfurt in Germany. I Now one of our scientists Dr. Frederick l G. Cottrell, has invented a process by which we can save potash from the dust which has been floating away on the air l of our cement plants and blast furnaces.
 It is said we can get 100000 tons a year | from that source alone, and we have discovered other sources which will make us independent of the rest of the world. This year we shall take 23,00o tons Of potash out of the hriny lakes of western Nebraska, and we are developing Searles lake in California, which is said to con-
 tain 20.0000o0 tons. We are also finding
 vast quantities of potash in certain rocks and are taking it out of the seaweed orr the Pacific coast.
 iG a with nifrateS- Of which
 we imported from Chile in 1917 salts
 valued at $60, ,0oo,o00. The war has driven us to build great hydroelectric plants by
 which we shall get this material out or
 the air. It is said that the chemists of
 the geological survey have discovered
 caves in the southern states in one o1
 which is 100000 tons of nitrous earth.
 Another element used both in explo- sives and fertilizers, Is sulphuric acid. Before the war we made the most of l this product from pyrites, mineral l which exists in vast quantities In Spain. and was shipped here as ballast. Now ] our geologists have discovered pyrites ] in the southern states. There are five
 mines there which have been producing
 400 tons a day. and they will soon have an output of 1000 tons daily.
 l The need for explosives has caused us | 1000 feet under the earth near the shores | of the Gulf of Mexico. We melt the sui- | phur with superheated water and pump | it out so cheaply that We can compete l with all the volcanoes on earth. We have already driven the Italian monop- olists of this product out of our coun- try, and are making 98 per cent of all the | sulphur we use.
 Our army of scientists has greatly in
 creased our product of the most impor
 tant minerals used in the war. We arr | getting from our own mines mineral
 which we formerly imported by the mil
 lions of tons. and our output of copper
 zinc, iron and other valuable metals
 greater than ever before. Secretary Ian says we can now supply all the mineral we need for the war.
 l Our army of scientists is making us Tn
 dependent of Germany, as to many thing in the glass industry. Before the wa
 optical glass of allfkinds was made b 1 the Germans and shipped to our facto 1 ries When the war broke out we had t
 have field glasses for the army and spy
 glasses for the navy. There was no on
 who could furnish the glass for tn lenses, but the scientists of the geophys
 ical laboratory and the glass men of tn | country went to work and we are nov
 making enough optical glass for all o 1 our needs At that time we were import ing curved crystals for our watches an
 clocks from the glassworks of Thurini