The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-11-06

tleidS, with the necessity Oh Delng
too technical. I'm going to tell you
one or two things about ordinary
every day materials. The first is
the corn cob. You all know the
corn cob pipe, but probably that is
about the only use you are familiar
with. But there are 10 to IL mil
lion tons of cobs produced in the
corn belt every year. The State
College, of Iowa started an investi-
cation to find profitable uses. Here
is the result so far.
By cooking the cobs under pres
sure with superheated water for
few moments, so-called pentosan
is extracted. This is one of the
best all-around adhesives known, is
cheaper than glue, and is already in
use FASTING up the pasteboard and
fiber boxes so rapidly replacing
wood in all sorts of goods.
Wood alcohol, acetic and oxalic
acids are also produced by distilla-
ton. The resulting char or char
coal is very active, and is used for
clarifying and bleaching beet sugar.
But by boiling the cobs about two
hours with steam and a little ssul-
phuric acid at about 1876 lbs. pres
sure, an entirely new product re-
suits, called furfural This is a
pleasant smelling liquid that is a
fair motor fuel, is also a disinfect-
ant, paint and varnish remover and
commercial solvent. 1t was in de-
mand during the war at about $50
pound. Iowa now makes it for
about six cents.
After the cobs have been dis
charged from their treatment they
are ground up and made into a good
wall board. This is a pretty good
example of what good research work
will do.
Here is another: At the University
of Wisconsin. at Madison a research
organization exists which is of espe-
cial interest to this northern coun-
try of ours. 1t is called a forestry
station, and it's work covers all pos
sible uses of timber and forest pro-
ducts. So far what has been pub
lished lies largely along the line Of
getting better results from lumber,
as for example in building stronger
crates and packing boxes using less
lumber. But they are also working
toward more complete utilization
of the tree, including sawdust,
branches, leaves and roots. As in
the case of corn cobs, very good adj
hesives have been obtained, and
through distillation processes, the
usual wood alcohol, acetic acid,
acetone, and other products. It is
also found that sugar can be pro-
.duced, although it does not. look
commercial as yet. But another
"roduct is available called galalith
This is much like Bakellite, but
easier to handle and probably cheap
er. 1t is originally much like case
in, obtained from milk, but by spe-
cial treatment can be made into a
material like amber or hard rub
Der. Buttons, door handles, UNI
brella handles, pipe mouthpieces,
billiard balls. telephone receivers
radio dials and switch boards, re.
| cords and hundreds of other uses
have been found.
This material can also be made
from straw, waste paper, cotton
cloth waste, etc. 1t has several
trade names, and the patents are in
litigation which seems likely to con.
tinue several years. You see, other
people we've working independently
along the same lines and claim pri.
ority over the University station.
And in an entirely different field
that of pure science, here is another
| illustration. In 1895 Sir William
Ramsey discovered a new element in
| the sun by means of a delicate in
CTR O1,f al Aln
He named it Helium from the Greek
word meaning sun. Scientists be.
| gan to look for it on the earth. II
is gas, nearly as light as hydrogen
and was found in certain mineral
springs and in very minute quaint
ties in the atmosphere. Hydrogen
had always been used to fill bal
| looms and dirigibles, but because OF
its burning or exploding so easily
was always dangerous. Especially
did this become important during
the war. Two men connected with
the Bureau of Mines, DR.. r. B
Moore and Dr.. F. G.. Cottrell. start.
| ed to find a real source of Helium
which is nearly as good as Hydro.
gen, and does not burn. They fin.
ally found it in the gas from Ger.
tain natural gas wells near Fort
Worth, Texas, and the Shenandoah
was travelling on this gas when she
recently met her sad end in Ohio
Had she been filled with hydrogen
not man would have escaped.
Who could have predicted in 1895
that man examining the sun 3d.
100000 miles away, with a spectre
scope would have saved lives thirty
years later in an air disaster.
| could go on and tell of humid
reds of such things, but time does
not permit, and it gets monotonous
anyway.
If you should ask me what | con-
sidered to be the one activity big
gest with romise. l would brush
aside all the commercial exorts, and
select biology-the science of life
itself. We are alive but we want
to know what that means. Your
first idea is that you are an entity;
you exist as whole-you live and
will die as complete and separate
man. But wait moment! About
1910, DR.. Alexis Carrel, born in
France, but a graduate of Columbia
School of Medicine. began a long
series of experiments on living It's
sue. Omitting the details, just be-
fore the war began he put a small
piece of the heart of a chicken in
to bottle containing certain solu-
tons. For more than ten years
that piece of heart tissue has gone
on beating. The cells proliferate
and grow as long as fresh solution
is provided. The original chicken
has long since gone the way of all
chickens, but that little piece of It's
sue is still alive. What does that
mean? All DR.. Carrel, or any other
good scientist will modestly say is