The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-04
CHEAP HYDROGEN AS
 NEW ENERGY SOURCE
French Scientist After Twenty Years Labor Announces Process Which He Believes Will Revolutionze Industry
 And Prove Boon To Agriculture

reaction. In other words, we know how to induce flow of free energy rather than wrest it loose by the old wasteful processes. sa'
 q think any scientific man, partic- ularly any industrial chemist, will agree with me that there is no field of research more important in it's bear ing on everyday living problems of every-day people than that of catalysis. It is the crux of innumerable basic in- dustrial processes and it is a simple fact that the present processes. are clumsy and wasteful in the extreme. They are as irrational as trying to in- yoke music from a piano by lying down on the keys. If you kept it up long enough, you might accidentally strike chord. We have struck few chords in manganese, nickel, etc. But the rational method would be to learn harmony. Just as the vibrations of the musical scale have been determined, so are observable certain uniform properties of matter, upon which we results in chemical reactions. Tlbs is the basis of my method. |
 Importance Demonstrated
 Germany has convincingly Jlemon- strated the importance of catalysis in industrial and military organization. In 1914, when England blocked the seas, and Germany had, to have syn thetic nitrates, she turned to the scien- marks for anyone who could produce | IloI, f "A a catalyser. He made nitrates in such quantities that, after the war, they had them for export, instead of being de- pendent upon supplies from Chile. Haber also made ammonia, using tung- sten and yanadium as catalysers. By using aluminium, as a catalysing agent on heavy oil, Americans now make light gasoline, of a density of not above ..
 Il cite these instances to indicate the tremendous practical importance of present-day chemical research. One can readily see the profound economic importance of having available limit less supply of liquid hydrogen, kept in vacuum-jacketed containers, and yielding three times the energy of gas oline. z.. '.
 Present Methods Crude .
 1AtiCiy dSluc ITOul IHe WOrk with water, there is work enough for fully equipped laboratory and staff for 100 years, in rubber, dyestuffs, fertilizers, etc. The present methods of manu- facture are crude and wasteful in the extreme. The application of the ra- tional, rather than the blundering em- pirical method in industrial chemistry. will, I am convinced, literally work miracles of economy and new achieve. ments. In agriculture, the results promised by intelligent use of scatalyl- tic methods are endless. r Such mineral fertilizers as calcium, silicum, zinc. magnesium, sulphur, boron, potassium, etc., reactivate the life processes of plants and lower the temperature of reactions, by which the formation of larger nutritive masses is accelerated. We have found the key to these pro- cesses. We can now apply it to our every day work, and get new energies and new products.
 As scientist, my work is done when l announce my findings and make them available for practical use. But amIdeeply concerned in the wise application of scientific knowledge to social use, rather than selfish and i,n- sound exploitation, and for this reason l would be pleased to cooperate with any joint representation of the Amer
 ican and French governments, or with