Arizona republican., 1920-07-06
THE MELLON MYSTERIES
He Found the Answer

And we have,' said the young man, running his finger over the heavy cor rugated lining of the fiber board box,
 although we had to invent new
 machine to do it." He pointed to queer looking apparatus on nearby table. That's our new Webb paper tester, endorsed by the United States
 bureau of standards he explained. ''It shows that fiber board can easily stand
 up under 100 pound shipments, and even heavier ones.''
 Besides contributing this important
 invention. the fiber board research men at the institute have discovered sew eral substitute materials to be used in
 the manufacture of fiber board which
 are much cheaper and just as good as
 the ones originally used. For in
 stance, in place of the former expensive cambric tape used in sealing the joint
 of a corrugated fiber box, a new tape,
 half paper and half cloth, has been de-
 vised which costs just about 6 fraction
 as much and answers the purpose
 equally as well.
 Sometimes the results obtained from
 the research at the institute are not
 so satisfactory to manufacturers. but
 at least they are gratifying to know the truth. For example, not long ago, the manufacturers Of butter substi- tutes endowed fellowship at the h- stitute, in the hope of proving false the charge of physicians concerning oleomargarine and other vegeta ble but ters-namely. that they did nsSt possess
 the important vitamines contained in butter. The scientists engaged on this work have not been able to refute this charge, but they have proved that 1 butter substitutes are as good as but ter if the lost citamines are replaced by some other item in the diet, such as milk and green vegetables. It is also possible that before they finish their work they may succeed in cap turing an elusive vitamine or two and 1 injecting it into the recipe for butter substitutes.
 The quest for important industrial secrets is q long and tedious business, often requiring years of research work l to demonstrate what, in the ends ap- pears as 9 simple. common sense fact. Months oi preliminary investigation must often go by before the research man even starts his work on a new l process Thus, as one of the directors i of the institute points out, patience is 1 a cardinal virtue in the manufactures who wants to profit as much as pos sible from research work. The world was not made in a day. although to l look at ii anyone might think so, and 1 industrial mysteries are not solved in 1 q week or two This statement is rather humorously corroborated by a
 manufacturer endowing a fellowship at l the institute for some dental research l work. What was wanted was a new dental cement which would fulfill the requirements laid down by prominent 1 dentist. dean of one of the large medi- cal colleges.
 Workers Cannot Hurry
 After signing the contract for the i research this manufacturer says, T l expected in two or three weeks that i the chemist assigned to our undertak- l ing would begin to show signs Of life. l But when I went out to the laboratory about month later to find out what l progress he was making. where do you suppose I found him? He was squat 1 ted in the library, surrouned by a stack
 of books that he couldn't see over.
 'He told me he hadn't the remotest idea in the world whether or not he
 was going to be able to produce a material even as good as others all
 ready on the market. much less fill 1 the large order we had given his chief. ! but he also told me to go back to my