The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-15
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, ID. c.
THE NOBEL SCIENTIST

4
has produced and continued to work
for the modest stipend of a federal
employe,-has been appointed the chief
of one of the governments greatest
scientific agencies-the bureau of
mines.
In that group of scientists wnich re-
wolves around the Cosmos club in
Washington, there is much satisfaction
over this appointment. Too often the
man at the head of a government
scientific bureau is more of a politician
than a scientist. But this cannot be
said of Doctor Cottrel.
He has many claims to the apprecia-
ton of his fellows He is a man who
does things and says little. He is that
rare thing, an American who cares lit
tie for either money or publicity.
The clearest proof of the possession
of the qualities of the true scientist
that this man has ever given, a demon
stration deemed a model to be followed
by those of his kind, came a decade
ago when he made a discovery of such
practical value that it was obviously
capable of being made to yield all the
riches any man might desire. After
having demonstrated its possibilities
Doctor Cottreu gave it away. He gave
it to the cause of science. He gave it
as an endowment to be used to aid
other scientific research. He gave
away these millions despite the fact
that he had never known more pros
perity than that which comes to a
modest college professor or a govern
ment scientist. He continued his work
for. the government.
Doctor Cottrelrs invention is a de-
vice which may be put into a smoke
stack of a factory, or a smelter, or
even the chimney of your own house
and which precipitates the particles
that make up smoke, thus preventing
them from emerging to smirch the
country, and also obtaining valuable
by-products.
He Made Good
The first demonstration of Doctor
Cottrelis invention came more than
a decade ago when he was a young
professor at the University of Cali
fornia. There was\a smelter nearby,
and the fumes from this smelter were
a nuisance to the community, making
it unpleasant for the residents and
blighting the vegetation. Doctor Cot.
trell worked in his laboratory and de-
veloped his plan for preventing this
offense on the part of the smelter. The
device which he invented was cleo
trical and consisted of metal plate,
and near it and parallel to it, metal
wires These were charged with cleo
tricity, one being positive, and the
other negative. As the fumes passed
up between these electrodes the result
was that all suspended particles in
them were deposited upon these plates
Doctor Cottrell won local fame by
this invention. At Riverdale, a town
not far away, there was a huge ce-
ment factory, which had likewise be-
come a nuisance in the community be-
cause the dust from it found it's way
into the blossoms of orange groves
nearby and interfered with the devel-
opment of the fruit. The orange
growers brought suit against the ce-
ment factory and the litigation which
ensued is said to have cost a million
dollars. Eventually the cement peo-
pie heard of the local renown of the
scientist at the University OF. California
and of his ability to precfpitate the
materials in smokestacks. Doctor
Cottr6l went to Riverdale and INSTALL
ed his apparatus The result was that
necessary that the community sacrifice
neither its cement plant nor its
oranges.
4 Smoke Trap.
The electrodes in the smokestacks of
this company yielded every day a
hundred tons of the minute particles
which would otherwise have been
spread out on the community. At the
suggestion of Doctor CottreT, this com
pany examined into the quality of the
material thus precipitated.> They
found that it contained large quanti-
ties of potash, and potash is the basis
of one of the most valuable fertilizers
in the world. 1t is for potash that
America has paid tribute 10 Germany
for many decades past. = So valuable
became the potash produced by this
cement company that at one time dur
ing the war it considered itself in real
ity potash factory and cement its
by-producr. The value of it's potash
amounts to millions of dollars a year.
L.
him when the young scientist gave up
his work as a teacher and came to
Washington to enter the government
service. The idea of an application
of his findings slumbered for years;
but today this device has been in
stalled in scores of great plants thru
out the United States. Many of them
are shelters; but oil companies, zinc
companies, steel companies. copper
works and other factories have found
it to their advantage to equip them
selves with this trap for the materials
that would otherwise go up their
chimneys.
He Gave Away Millions.
=, Doctor Cottre1l gave his patents on
this process to science. He turned
them over to the Smithsonian Institu-
ton to demonstrate. A research cor
poration was afterward formed ana
this corporation is marketing the pat
ents and realizing royalties from
them The war materially interfered
with the installation of these devices,
but as far back as 1915 the net profits
were running up to 100000 a year.
Now that the war is over it is thought
that the device will be generally APP
piled turnout industry and there
would be no surprise on the part OF
the research corporation if it should,
in a year or two. be yielding a mill
lion dollars a year in clear profits.
The scientist, like the artist, is pro-
verbally poor. and those ideas in
which he is most interested usually
languish for lack of funds with which
to develop them. The purpose of the
corporation which Doctor CottreIl has
endowed is to furnish funds for re-
search work and research scholar
ships. The vision of the future is an
abundance of money for these pur-
poses because of the action of one
of scianca and I,i. raf,,sal :