Charlevoix county herald., 1919-11-07
FOOD FROM AIR,
LIGHT and WATER
Harvard Professor DiScIoSeS Way
to Make Sugar by Syn
thetic Process.
HIGH LIVING COST BEATEN
Plan Worked Out In Laboratory TO
Reduce Atmosphere Into Basic
Food Product-Other Ways
Of Making Sugar.

New York.-During the present agl'
tation over the high cost of living II
is interesting to note several recent
discoveries made in the field or syn
thetic chemistry. DR.. Winthrop John
Vanleuven Osterhout, Phi. d., professor
Of botany at Harvard university, has
hit upon a plan of making nutritious
food from sunlight, air and water.
Although this process of food max
ing is as yet confined to the laboratory
stage Prof. Osterhout points out that
many discoveries remained some time
in the laboratory stage before they
could be placed on commercial basis.
AS an instance he cites the many
doubters of the practical value of cleo
tricity, and the long uphill road Edison
had to travel before he gained recog-
milton commercially.
Anent the production of nutritious
food In the laboratory Prof. Osterhout,
who is in no sense visionary, but
whose manner would indicate a prac-
teal hardheaded business man, says:
"Analyzing food we learn that the
three chief components are sugar, fats
and protein. Until recently it was I'm
possible to manufacture sugar syn
thetically, but now we have solved the
riddle In several different ways. Iron
rust exposed to the prismatic rays or
the sun through water makes for
maldehyde, since the rays of the sun
acting upon the rust as q contact
agent mixed with the carbon dioxide
Of the air and water makes this power
full chemical. From formaldehyde GER
tain forms of sugar may be obtained.
Other ways Of making sugar syn
thetically are through the employment
Of ultraviolet rays, radium and cleo
trlcity.
part Of our research work at Har-
wards botanical laboratory has been
to observe the process by which the
plant transforms the carbon dioxide
gas and water together into sugar, and
later into starch, either of which forms
can be preserved.
$50 much for obtaining sugar. Pro-
TEN is composed of amino acids. II
has been found possible In the labora-
tory to take the carbon dioxide of the
air, water and ammonia, which is also
found In the air in small quantities, to
form a simple kind Of protein. Now
through the combination of sugar and
protein, both Of which have been man
ufactured in the laboratory, the neces-
sary fat is obtained, with the resultant
nutritious food.
The Great Obstacle.
"Of course one of the greatest OBJ
stacles standing in the way of the pro-
duction of food through this method
is in the present cost Of making sugar,
which can only be manufactured as
yet In small quantities. Our greatest
competitor in this important field is
the plant itself, which thus far under
sells the synthetic method"
Prof. Osterhout, who has taught at
many of the large universities through
out the United States, and has attain
ed an international reputation as
man of science, Is Fellow of the
American Association for the Advance
ment of Science and of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. In ad-
dition to many other scientific and re-
search societies he has been a profess
scr OF botany since 1913,