Evening star., 1936-10-25
RESEARCH BRINGS
IMPRESSIVE LIST
OF NEW PRODUCTS
Chemical, Building, Textile,
Steel and Many Other
Industries Affected.
DEPRESSION ACTIVITIES
CUT FACTORY COSTS
Direct Rolling Of Aluminium Strip
From Molten Metal Attracts
Attention.
BY J. G. DONLEY.


Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK. October 24.-One oi
the compensations Of business depres.
sion Is that in dull days more time
and thought can be and usually is de.
voted to the development Of new prod.
ucts. In such times the regular execu.
tive and engineering stats can turr
In and give hand to research de-
partments.
Out Of the depression years have
come so many new products and new
methods that several volumes would
be required to tell the complete story
Just to run over some of the thing:
that come to mind is impressive.
Many continuous rolling mills for
the production of steel strip of widths
which have made possible the new
one-piece steel tops for automobiles
have been built and the technique oi
handling has been improved.
Glass Bricks Appear.
From other sources have come glass
bricks for building. spun glass fol
textiles and insulation; staple
rayon," chopped into lengths COM
parable to cotton f1bers and permitting
production Of better rayon textiles;
use Of specially woven cotton fabric
as durable binder in road building
increasing application OF air condi-
tioning along with broad progress In
the development of heating, cooling
humidifying and circulating apparatus
for household use; new plastics and
metal alloys, with marked accelera-
ton of automatic die casting machin-
cry; new cutting tools to speed up
metal working and greater speed and
accuracy over wide range Of ma
chine tool products: synthetic rubber
and no end of other new materials
from chemical laboratories; Diesel
powered, streamlined trains for our
transcontinenta railroads: q copper
alloy which may be hardened by heat
treatment to the strength Of steel;
such advances in oil refining methods
that large scale rebuilding Of plants
is under way, and improvements which
have doubled the operating efficiency
Of large transport airplanes.
Business may have its ups and
downs. but invention never sleeps
And lucky 1t Is for consumers, for as
new methods and new machines re.
duce the cost of manufacture and
hence the selling price. the old pay
envelope manages to encompass more
and more things that once were in
the luxury class A great many ia
miliar products would cost from to
10 times their present prices were
it not for the inventions which have
made their mass production possible
Power looms used by the textile
industry have been perfected to q
standard of precision unknown a few
years ago, reducing weaving costs
from Is to 80 per cent.
Aluminium strip Is now being pro-
duced by one concern by direct rolling
from the molten metal instead Of by
the old, laborious and time-consum-
ing method of rolling aluminium down
from ingots. The liquid metal Is
poured between a single set of rolls
and emerges as q continuous strip, "a
inches wide, 0.120 inch thick and al
speed of 18 feet per minute.
Steel Strip Also Made.
The same company is now expert
menting with a method Of producing
steel strip by direct roll. Preliminary
tests have shown that low-carbor
steel can be so produced at speed
Of 40 feet per minute.
In the Old World as in the new
new products are pressing forward
Germany is making a new rustless
steel containing no nickel. France
has a new synthetic wood product
made by COMPRISING wood fibers with
synthetic resins and an Italian COM
pany Is conducting experiments with
ammonia gas as a motor fuel.
fNn1vri0ht 1Q36l