The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1921-10-05
or the safety in balloon construc-

ton.
! "a am inclined to think hAlium
never will come into general use for
commercial airships, if such vehicles
become common. The limited guam
tity of the material, its high cost, and
its value in war balloons will prob
ably make it imperative for the gov
crnment to reserve all hclium for it's
own USE"
;, DR.. Cady explained that even
the best balloon covers did not pre-
vent entirely the escape of the lift
ing gases, and it is necessary con-
stantly to supply fresh gas. This
is more true of hydrogen than of
helium, but tie ,wactagc, is there,
and the continued operation of even
q small fleet of swar- balloons would
demand a constant supply of fresh
helium. Experiments at the Uni
vcrsity of Kansas showed that the
helium must be nearly 90 per cent.
pure in order to be- safe. Similar
| experiments in Canada showed COM
| pC:ratively small explosions when
mixtures containing only rs per cent.
! of helium were ignited.
i The attempts to produce helium in
commercial quantities in the United
States date from 1916. The year be-
fore, the English government had
| sought samples of gas from Amer
lea iir its search for hclium for use
in airships. The United States was
| not then at war, and proceeded eau
tiously. Dr.. e.. B. Moore of the
| United States bureau of. mines, who
! had received the British communica-
tion, recalled that DR.. Cady and his
assistant, De. Mcfarland. had dis
covered the gas in unusual quaint
ties, in the mid-contncnt natural
gas, and later Dr.. Cady and C. w.
Seibcl, also Of the University of
for the construction later Of three
! helium nlants in Texas.
Two small plants were completed
in March and May, 1918, and began
| the production Of helirm. Their out
| feet of hclium had been produscd and
much Of it had been compressed into
| cylinders for shipment to France
when the signing of the armisticc
made that unnecessary. A third
| plant at Pctrolia, Texas, near Fort
Worth, was completed few days be-
] fore the armisticc, and experimental
| ton was continued there after the
war until halted by diminished ap-
preparations.
Washington. Sept 2.-Exception
was taken today by Dr. Richard B.
Moore, chief chemist of the United
States bureau of mines, to the state
ment of Prof. Fl. p. Cady Of the
University of Kansas, that all the
hclium now available in the world
would have been inadequate to lift
the ilfatcd IR-2
CDR. Cady's statement is perfectly
correct if he refers to the hclium
which has actually been extracted
ity and made available for actual
operation" said q statement issued
by Dr.. Moore. "Thc amount of helium
available has nothing, however, to
40 with the amount Of potential
hclium in the natural gas pools of
the United States.
at the present time nearly 5O0,-
600 cubic feet Of hclium is going to
waste each year and as it would
have tak ken less than 100000 cubic
feet to have filled the XR-2, one can
readily see that if necessary plants
had been available it would have
been very easy to have filed the
Llt-2 with the new non nnamablc
| EaS. inc government Is acquainted
with ono on two gas fields in the
United States which alone can sup
ply all the gas required for con
Servativc progressive program in
lighter than air craft for the next
20 years, and, therefore, there need
be no fear of a lack of holum for
the adcquHte needs Of the nation
along this line. This country posses
ses the only supplies of hclium