The Adair County news., 1921-02-02

Of Great Wealth That Men Have
Just Begun to ExpIore-source of
Power.
If you want to provide handsomely
for your grandchildren, you could not
do better than to purchase some 'front.'
age on the ocean, which is of no pres
ent value for wharfage or anything
like that, but will give control of a
considerable area of the sea, writes
Frederic j. Haskin in Chicago News.
For the sea is rapidly becoming val
liable. A careful scientific look of
thousand years or so into the future,
such as H. G. Wells is addicted to,
would undoubtedly show men depend
ing upon the sea as much as upon the
land, if not more, for the materials by
which they live. Indeed il will be Inn
possible to support the enormous pop J
ulation of the future without drawing
heavily upon the ocean, which is now
a wilderness of great wealth that men
have just begun to explore.
Fish, of course, are the most obvious
and readily available product of the
sea, and the only one that we use to
any considerable extent. And we use
only a fraction of what We might.
There are whole families of fishes that
are never caught, vast levels Of the
ocean swarming with life that fisher
men have never reached.
But the interesting new develop
ments are not in obtaining food from
the sea, but the raw materials of in
dustry, and fertilizers for agriculture.
The Department of Agriculture, for
example, has an experimental kelp-
potash plant at Summertield, Cal,
which is said already to have proved
self-supporting. Not only the inval-
liable fertilizing element, potash, is
obtained, but also a number of by
products, including iodine, common
salt, ammonia and bleaching carbon.
This bleaching carbon was formerly
imported from Europe and sold for
20 cents a pound, but has been pro-
duced at this plant at 10 cents
pound and is said to pay for its own
production and that Of the potash.
Some nitrogen, most precious ferti-
lizer of all, is also recovered in the
form of ammonia, and a kind of tar,
kelp oil and creOsOte are minor by
products.
Here is what promises to be con-
siderable industry, with a variety of
products, founded on a single class of
sea plants. And it has enormous re-
sources to draw upon, for the giant
kelp grows in great groves all through
the Pacific waters, and is far richer
in potash than the Atlantic kelps,
which have been reduced by burning
in small quantities for some time.
A Norwegian scientist has made an
elaborate study of the sea water as
a source of raw material for Norwe-
gian industry, and he is said to have
shown that it is practicable to ex-
tract metallic magnesium from the sea
water on a commercial scale, as well
as gypsum, common salt and other
minerals.
All Minerals in Solution.
You must remember in this connec-
ton that the sea water contains all
minerals in solution as an inevitable
result of the way the oceans were
formed. The earth, according to the
scientists, was originally a hot mean
descent mass of vapor containing all
the elements Of which earth, sea and
atmosphere are now composed As it
cooled. the earth formed in a molten
mass. water formed and fell upon this
in boiling torrents, making the seas,
which therefore had all Of the ele-
ments in solution in them. Three
fourths of these salts are common salt
or-sodium chloride All of the Eu-
ropean continent that lifts above the
sea level is only one-third in bulk
what the common salt in the sea alone
would be if it were taken out. There
is a mass, therefore, nearly as large
as Europe, of other salts, including
those of an the minerals.
There are, for, example, only 40 OF
so milligrams of gold TO the ton Of sea
water, but it has been estimated that
If all Of the gold in the sea could be
extracted there would be about $4,000
pounds of it for each inhabitant OF
the earth.
Tie sea5in a word, is a vast mass
of raw materials of all kinds-organiC
and inorganic. 1t contains forests and
meadows, and vast quantities of life
The sea produces meat as well as
fish, for the whales and porpoises, mo-
to mention the great family of seals
and sea lions which spend practically
their whole lives in the water, are
warm blooded animals.
AS far as we can learn, none Of tht
vegetable products of the sea is uset
for food, but there must be edible sc;
vegetables and, if this is SO, man coul'
sustain himself entirely on diet de
rived from the sea- He could also OBJ
tain from it almost all of the inorgani
and many Of the organic materials 70
his industry.
II Supplies Power, Too.
Furthermore. it win supply him wit
the power needed to manufactur