El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-08-26
IT, S. To Make
HeLinnp From
Oil In Texas
Officer Directs Two
Experimental Plants for
Balloon Gas.

The oil fields Of Texas are to be
counted on by the government to fur
nish that strange new gas, called
heIium, which will not burn nor ex-
plode and is the next Iightest gas to
hydrogen. The government has
planned TO spend 100000 in pro-
ducing this gas, which II it had been
produced in quantity. might have
furnished the most spectacular fea-
ture Of the war A dirigible balloon
with helium instead Of hydrogen
could have sailed over Germany.
dropping bombs here and there. and
could not have been destroyed eX-
cept by collision
Fort Worth had two helium pro-
duction plants during the last IS
months Soldiers guarded them and
no one except the trusted employees
ever saw the making Of the then Sc
cret gas which was put into cylin-
ders. A large quantity OF it was on
the docks at New Orleans to be
shipped TO France when the armis-
tice was signed
Helium. developed commercially as
the government is now trying TO
demonstrate, will make possible gi-
gantic balloons travelling with great
speed and navigating the air for
passenger and other traffic. Its use
ton
The two plants built at Fort Worth
during the war have been torn down
and a new plant is being built to use
the secret Line process 50 called
This new plant will be operated by
and for the United states navy under
the direct supervision Of commander
H. n Jensen, U. S n.
The helium plant at Petrolia, con-
troled by the same naval authority,
is in the last experimental stages
and is using the Jefferies-Norton
process, developed by an Englishman,
z. A. W. Jefferies. and an American
engineer, Fred L. Norton
Van H. Manning, director Of the
United States bureau Of mines, insti-
gated the work which led TO develop
ment Of helium. He recently visited
the plant and he and his party had
come from Fort Worth and Petrolia
and an inspection Of these helium
operations when they passed through
FL Paso a few days ago
About AL that IS generally known
by the laymen about helium is that
is composed Of nitrogen, methane and
helium. BY freezing raw gas a.
temperature OF 318 degrees below
zero a liquid is formed, but helium
does not freeze at that point. It re-
mains a gas and can be drawn off
lium is considered very satisfactory.
The process looks very simple in
principle, that of refrigeration. but il
is a costly process as these figures
viii show. The first money spent by
the government was sL090,000 on the
first plants and the helium extracted
is valued at from S250,O00. 600 TO
400, 100000 at prewar prices This
was far too costly, for anything but
war purposes, for such a small guam
THY. The great effort is 10 reduce
the cost Of production of this non
burning and nOn-explosiye, which has
a quality Of not leaking through the
balloon fabric as fast as does hydro
gen It would probably have cost
100000 TO 100000 a year ago TO
have filled one good sized balloon
with helium-
As a gaseous element helium was
first isolated in 1885 by Sir VIM.
Ramsey from a mineral called cieve-
ite- The existence Of such an element
in the suns atmosphere had pre-
viously been discovered by LOckyer in
1858 and il has since been shown 70
exist in our own atmosphere and in
many natural waters and minerals. I
Il has been recently demonstrated /
hat radium slowly breaks up into he
lfum. and it is thought il may be I
BY some such action that it is formed /
n the minerals containing it