The mirror., 1919-07-10
THE HELIUM AIRSHlP
Great Advance in Afrship Construction is the In
vention of Non nnfammable Cas-
| Il. RussMB Bond in
Il. RusseU Bond, in Euerybody's

the scarcity of helium lay in its ap-
parent uselessness. There has
always been a certain amount of
romance about the gas. 1t was
discovered first in the atmosphere
of the sun, by means of the spec
troscope. For years it remained
a mystery until, in 1895, Sir Will
liam Ramsay discovered it here on
earth when studying the spectrum
of the mineral cleveite. But after
he found the gas he could do moth
ing with it. Next to hydrogen it
was the lightest gas known, with
a lifting-power only eight per cent
less than that of hydrogen. But
the gas would not burn and it
would not freeze. Only when
Onnes, the Dutch scientist, sue
ceeded in getting it down to a
temperature of four hundred and
fifty degrees below zero, Fahren-
heit, did the gas yield to the chill
and condense into liquid.
Just before the war it was dis
covered that about one per cent. of
helium exists in the natural gas of
Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
But what could be done with it; it
would not combine with any other
element. And so it might have re-
NAMED a worthless member of the
chemical community had it not
been drafted into the service by
the needs of the war. Our chem.
lists were given the job of finding
a way of producing the gas in
enormous quantities and at a rea-
sonably low cost. This meant no
end of research and experiment.
Helium's resistance to liquefac-
ton furnished a good means of
separating it from the other ele-
ments with which it was mixed.
The natural gas was frozen and as
the temperature was lowered, the
various cOmponents would sue
cumb to the cold and condense in
to liquids, until finally, at a tenn
perature of some three hundred
degrees below zero, Fahrenheit,
no gas remained but helium. To
obtain the requisite degree of
frlgidity, refrigerating apparatus
and powerful compressors of the
type used in obtaining liquid air
we're employed.
But the war came to close be-
fore the helium-filled airship had
been produced. Some helium had
been manufactured, enough to fill
some of our observation balloons
on the other side. But the most
astonishing fact was that our
chemists had brought down the
cost of manufacture from fifteen
hundred dollars to ten cents per
cubic foot! And the prospects are
that even this figure may be
lowered when the two-million dol
lar plant. which was completed in
April this year, and is operated in
full swing.
When the armistice was signed
preparations were under way to
build fleet of helium airships to
conduct bombing raids over Ger.
many. These airships would not
feel the sting of the battle-plane's
incendiary bullets. Had the Ger
mans continued the fight, the Zep-
pelln raids on London would have
been amply avenged.
Now that we have no use for war
airships it is interesting to specu-
late upon what is to be done with
the quantity of helium that is to be
manufactured. Undoubtedly great
airships will be built which can
travel all over the world. Bal
loon fabrics have now reached
such a stage of perfection that
there would not be q loss of more
than six per cent. of the buoyancy
of a large airship in month, and
with tanks of compressed helium
fCovvs;nuar1 IN po % q nolumn aN