Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-12-19
PROPOSE FREE
ENTRY OUT STATE
AUTOS AND BOOST
IN GASOLINE TAX
GREAT CHEMICAL
DISCOVERY MADE BY
JUNIOR At BOWDOIN
Especial to Kennebec JournaD

SPSClul 10 hcNHSUoC JOuIuult
Brunswick. Me-. Dec. ls-An-
nouncement was made today that
Benjamin r. Burbank, junior at
Bowdoin College. had made a discoy-
cry of such importance that every
branch Of the Chemical Industry
will be affected as we'll as many al
lied Industries by its application. The
discovery itself being of such vast
ami far reaching proportions, Mr..
Burta nk has not attempted to obtain
any patents or retain any strict right
over 1t, his idea being to give the
public the benefit Of his discovery by
publishing 1t. The discovery ms ra-
Their accidental being made while do.
ing research work at Bowdoin. IT
explains and provides a method with
mathematical precision for finding
"accelerators" for any chemical re-
action, these accelerators being call
ed "catalysts" have been shown for
years but Mr.. Burbank's discovery
enables the chemist to do what no
never could do before. find them by
some means other than chance or Ito
result of accident. NV chemist
can take paper and pencil and with
tho aid of a few figures from tables
already compiled find the best "ac.
| celerator" for his reaction In a mat
ter Of hours. So ar reaching is this
! discovery that Hundreds" of chem
ical processes will be made to take
place in less than one half u the
time formC ely required and thous-
ands of chemicals will be cheaper in
price. yet the manufacturer will en-
l1,s IVs- a. lao Ia
creased time of reaction ami the
smaller amount of labor required.
Mr.. Burbank can see no industrial
chemical process that his discovery
cannot be applied to.
Tho discovery will mean millions
Of dollars annually to the manufac-
turing chemists and to the allied in
dustries. The public VIII benefit
greatly by II as there Is almost no
article of commerce that does not ut
some stage Of fits Manufacture de-
pend upon some chemical process.
che simplicity Of the discovery is
Its keynote" and Mr.. Burbank won
ders why some one else has not
stumbled onto 1t as he did. Tho dis
cover'y has been tried out in over one
hundred cases during the last six
months and not one single instance
Of failure has appeared. For years
chemists have sought some such
method of finding these "accelera-
tors" for their reactions but they
have had to content themselves with
chance" and "accidentnr' discover
les of accelerators for n few of their
reactions. Some processes depend
almost entirely upon these ''cata-
lysts" or accelerators for their work.
ing, for instance the 'Tixation of III
trogen" from the air md the Manu-
facture of Sulphuric Acid" both so
important in peace and war, better
and more efficient accelerators may
be predicted for these processes by
Mr.. Burbank's discovery. Where
chemical processes now take days"
to complete they may be made to
take place in a matter Of few hours
by using the proper acceierator
which may be readily found by any
chemist in short time by applying
this discovery.
Mr.. Burbank has completed near
~ all the chemistry given ut Bow
doin in two years and Is now engage
ed as assistant to DR.. +. n. Whittier
of Bowdoin and is incidentally doing
a Joint piece Of research on 1.-THE
death rate of the Partridgy with
DIR. Gross of Bowdoin. Nr. Bur-
banks father was one time professor
Of Chemistry at the University Of
Maine and Is listed among the Am
erican Men Of Science as O result Of
some discoveries made on Atmos-
pheric Electricity and Earth quakes.