Evening star., 1940-05-26
Eight Scientific Words
Hold Key 10 Victory
In Wartime
Military Men Turn
10 Laboratories
For Defense Means
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associated Press Science Editor.

thermodynamics, specific heats, en-
ergy levels and entropy They de-
scribe the actions of five laws of
nature, without whose use there
would be neither attack nor defense
ornaments of mechanical war
Soldiers never hear of the words,
technicians who make the fighting
machines seldom even know them,
but, nevertheless, it can be shown
that they are vital in the present
war, and that in the United States
they will be major factors in defense.
Equilibrium constants are the
rules of balance in chemical ener-
gies. Thermodynamics are the laws
of heat energy. Specific heat is the
quantity of heat required to raise
substance degree in temperature.
Energy levels are energies locked
within atoms. Entropy is mathe-
matical term without simple def
milton. but it deals with the way
energy scatters if left to itself.
Symposium Fascinates Scientists.
These were the terms, written
mostly in symbols on a blackboard,
at petroleum symposium in April,
which led fuel experts to predict
speedy American world leadership in
aviation.
The speakers were group of COL
lege professors gathered at Cincin-
natl from coast to coast. It was not
supposed to be an exciting meeting.
Before it met, DR.. Per K. Frolich,
who as chairman of the petroleum
division of the American Chemical
Society, sponsored the symposium,
said:
'It is likely to be over the heads
Of most of us practical chemists"
DR.. Frolich is director of the chem
istry research laboratory of the
Standard Oil Development Co. The
symposium drew large crowd, one
of the best in years. The audience
appeared fascinated.
Inquiry revealed why. These prac-
tical petroleum chemists were learn
ing how to derive the principles of
new gasoline power from the pro-
fessorial formulae. AS rule, they
had in their laboratories new brands
of gasoline yielding almost double
the power of present filling station
high test fuels.
Little Engines, Great Power.
A few claimed either to have seen
the test machines or paper designs
of aviation engines smaller than
anything now flying. yet much more
powerful. They talked of little en-
gines developing $500 horsepower
The biggest engine today rates about
1000 horsepower.
The physical principles which
showed the way to greater fuel power
also are necessary in design of the
new engines to fit the fuels. The
physical laws do not make engine
blueprints. But they are applied in
many ways, such as finding the new
alloys to stand the extra heat and
strains.
After engine design overtakes the
power fuels, the cycle of progress
will start over again.
Aviation happens to be only one
spectacular side of application of
these laws of science. At the SYM
postum one of the authorities quoted
was Prof. Aristide Won Crosse of Co.
lumbia University.
He recently left the Universal Oil
Products Co. of Chicago for Colum-
bia, exchanging practical work for
what most people would call abstract
theories. But it was one of these
abstract theories of his, before he
left the oil company, which de-
veloped into new method of cheap
1y converting gasoline into toluol,
and so into T. N. T.
This single discovery, if need be,
can produce enough toluol from the
Texas oil fields alone, to supply the
entire world with T. N. T.
u S. Manganese Can Be Used.
The eight words will help, also, to
produce the raw materials which
the United States will need for de-
tense.
Take manganese as an example.
This metal is essential in steel that
Is to be rolled and shaped for most
everything from armor plate, to To-
comotives and bridges. Only brittle
steel is made without manganese.
The United States deposits of man.
ganese are low grade; and the Ma
tion's steel mills have relied on i'm
ports, largely from Russia.
Now DR.. Colin G. Fink of Colum-
bia University, predicts that Amer
ica's low-grade manganese deposits
can be worked.
1t will be done, he says, through
using the methods of electrochem-
1stry, made more economical by the
fact that some of the manganese
deposits are located near hydroelec-
trio power projects.
Electrochemistry is one of the
most direct applications of the laws
of energy. DR.. Fink thinks this
branch of science will increase the
home output of other essential
minerals.
Minerals Available From Sea.
The minerals of the sea, dissolved
In the salt waters, were unlocked for
industrial use by American applca-
tions of the eight words. Manganese
for airplane alloys is one of these
salt water minerals.
1ilC S1IllC WOl uS d1c UCIllIlu NICT.
many's formulae for making gaso-
line from coal, edible sugar from
wood and more recently essential
fats from coal and shale. Except,
perhaps, gasoline, these processes
are too expensive to be useful for
more than the moments of emer-
gency when a nation is spending
its last bit of resources.
The United States Army possesses
. chemical which can be impreg-
mated in clothing to protect against
mustard gas, whose liquid droplets
burn the same as fire. What the
chemical may be is a secret. When,
two years ago Prof. Ralph H. Bull
lard Of Hobart College, New York,
published discovery of a chemical
which would neutralize mustard on
clothing, United States Chemical
Warfare officers said that their
l. -