The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-02-05
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. q.
MORE ABOUT HELIUM.


States air service among its director
ate. At the same time the govern
ment is initiating a survey of the
helium resources of the United States.
1t is confidently believed that these
are very large, and they are the only
known helium fields IN the world.
Helium, you know, is the non-in-
flammable gas which is now used in
placeA of hydrogen for the filling of
dirigible balloons. A former Haskin
letter told how helium was made in
this country during the war. and was
ready for shipment to England to be
used in a great air raid on Germany
when the war came to an end.
The interesting thing about helium
now is the fact that it seems to afford
the safest means of flying yet dis
covered. If helium is found in the
quantities which experts believe to
exist, it is quite probable that all of
US will be safely travelling by air much
sooner than would have been possible
with only the heaYier-than-air ma
chimes to rely upon.
While believers in helium do not
underestimate the possibilities of the
airplane, they regard the helium-in-
flated balloon as the safest and most
practical airship. especially for long
voyages. They declare that the dirigi-
BILE can travel a much greater dis
lance than the airplane without stop
ping for fuel, that it affords a much
smoother way to travel the air, and
with helium substituted for hydrogen,
is practically indestructible.
Heretofore the greatest danger in
balloon travel as been the highly in
fIammable character of hydrogen. and
this one difficulty has been so great
as to practically eliminate the dirigi-
BILE as a common means of aerial
transportation A tiny spark from the
motor or flash of lightning has been
sufficient to destroy, in the twinklfng
of an eye, an airship costing hundreds
of thousands of dollars, sending the
machine with its crew and passengers
crashing to the ground in a mass of
flames.
Airplanes are dangerous, but COM
pared to the hydrogen-inflated air
ship, they are as safe as cradles in
fireproof building Scientists were at
a loss for a substitute for hydrogen,
for apparently it was the only gas
obtainable light enough for the pur-
pose.
The fire hazard practically elimi-
mated the dirigible from the war pro-
gram-the lighter than-air craft go
ing down to ignominious defeat before
the anti-aircraft guns of the enemy.
During the hostilities the United
States lost forty-four observation bal
looms with a replacement value reach
ing over a million dollars. and, as Maj.
Paul Pleiss declared in his report on
helium, the loss of observation time
was incalculable.
A dirigible can carry a much
greater load than the airplane, it be-
ing possible to construct an airship
with a lifting capacity reaching $780,
900 to 100000 pounds, while the
largest airplane ever built can carry
only about 5000 pounds.
The original discovery of helium in
America was made in little town
called Dexter in southern Kansas,
where the event of it's discovery was
regarded rather in the light of
Calamity than a blessing by the in
habitants of the town and the owners
of the well.
The men drilling for the natural
gas had been confident of securing
supply sufficient for the households
and industries of the community, SO
the event of opening the well was
made a holiday for the people of Dex-
ter A crowd collected and the well
was dramatically opened, the gas
rushed forth and, in order to make
the demonstration complete. lighted
torch was thrust into the mouth of
the we'll According to all rules, the
gas should have Immediately ignited
and blazed forth the news of the open
ing of the we'll to the community, but
it did nothing of the sort. The torch
promptly went out, and tho others
fused to flame, and the people re-
turned to their homes in a rage with
nature, who had cheated them OF
their promised supply of cheap fuel.
| y Samples of the mysterious gas were
sent to the state university, where the
secret of it's firepreof qualities was
disclosed when DIR. H. P. Cady, of the
university staff, announced that it con-
tanned n large quantity of nitrogen and
1S4 per cent of heiium, both gases
being incombustible. Other wells in
Kansas were asked to submit samples,
and a careful analysis disclosed the
fact that nearly all of them contained
helium. The gas was found to be par
| ticularly abundant in southern Kan
sas. whore for years it had been called
wind gas and allowed to waste INTO
the air on the theory that it had no
practical value. Probably many nils
lions of cubic feet of the now precious
substance was wasted in this manner.
| Not ouly had the gas been regarded
as useless, but drille-s for the deep
! oil-bearing sands and found it a great
hindrance to their work.
When the value of helium for flying
was discovered, experts from the army
and navy were called into the confer
ence and finally two small expert
mental plants were opened at Fort
Worth, Tex, to treat the gas in the
nearby Petrolia fields. Later a third
plant was opened in the field itself.
The history of the development OF
| the helium resources of this country
is the most wonderful of all, involving
4 experts from all over the nation and
finally bringing into the story chem
lists from overseas sent by the English
government to lend a hand in the
work
The principle of the helium process
can best be described in the words of
the late DR.. G. S. Rogers of the United
States geological survey. whose recent
death in South America was a great
blow to scie2ce.
1.-The details of the process of ex-
tracing helium are highly technical"
Doctor Rogers once said. but the gen.
eral scheme is easily understood.
"All the main constituents Of nat
ural gas. including nitrogen, become
tliquefied when cooled to about
i-32S degrees F; but the helium re-
mains a gas even at this exceedingly
I for nd lie "a sill