Evening star., 1940-04-10
Kew Fiber Is Seen
As Product Of
Liquefying Wood
Cunudiun Chemist Also
SpeeuIotes on Clue
To Cancer Growths
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star Staff Correspondent.

Prof. Harold HILBERT of McGill
University told the American Chem
ical Society here today how he takes
whole logs and converts them into
fluid without losing anything in the
- process.
Within the last few weeks, he said,
he has been able to duplicate the
accomplishment of German chem
lists in liquefying coal in order to
convert it to gasoline. This is now
the chief source of Germany'S mo-
tor fuel, and upon the process de-
pends to large extent the Reich's
ability to remain at war.
Visions New Type of Fiber.
DR.. Hibbert's liquid wood, how
peace. He has not even explored its
possibilities as a fuel, he said. His
process is similar to that of the Ger
man coal-liquefying technique. The
logs are reduced to saWdust and
treated with hydrogen gas under
high pressures. They then undergo.
Prof HILBERT said, complete trans
which can be separated by distilla-
ton without decomposition. These
separate parts hold great promise as
raw materials for future new syn
thetic organic chemical industry.
one OF them, in particlu
lar, is so closely related to the
raw material from which the
new fiber nylon is made that 1t
should prove readily possible to OBJ
tain from it a new variety of this
synthetic fiber, the raw material be-
ing wood instead of coal"
Last year Prof. HILBERT announced
that he had extracted vanillin, the
f1avoring material hitherto obtained
from the vanilla bean, from the wood
Of. Canadian spruCes. Now, he says,
an experimental factory is turning
out about 300 pounds of vanilla
extract day.
The Canadian chemist and his
collaborators have been working for
the past 10 years to find some use
for lignin, the part of wood which
must be discarded in making paper
or rayon. 1t constitutes nearly half
the weight of the wood. His in
vestlgations now show, Prof. HILBERT
said, that this substance is formed
as product of plant respiration, or
in the course of "disgestion' of the
carbohydrate footstuffs consumed
in the plant and from which it OBJ
tains the energy necessary to grow.
Similar Respiration.
Prof. HILBERT also presented new
theory of the manner in which a
plant derives its growth energy, and
it is very similar to modern theories
of animal cell respiration. 1t is now
known, he said, that one part of
this plant-breathing mechanism is
= occupied by vitamin C, used to pre-
vent scurvy in human beings, and
that certain other products with
similar groupings in their molecules
are known to function in the same
way in plant respiration.
He now has found, he said, that
the original substance from which
hgnin is derived is member of the
same class, although it is not known
whether it has any vitamin prop
critics. All these substances, upon
exposure to air, are readily converted
into brownish substances. They are
responsible for the brown discolora-
ton of freshly cut apples or bananas
and probably for the fact that news
papers turn brown with age.
Prof. HILBERT also found that in
tumors which appear on sugar beets
the amount of lignin is greatly in
excess of the normal for plant cells.
Thus. he believes, growth of tumors
on plants is due to some disturbance
in normal breathing processes. The
same also has been suspected with
respect to animal tumors Thus,
Prof. Hilbert pointed out, a whole
new field may be opened up on the
mechanisms of abnormal types of
animal cell growth, such as result
in cancers.
. Waste Being Utilized.
Meanwhile, five industrial uses
have been found in the United
States for some of the 100000 tons
OF Hgnin in saWdust, shavings and
other forms of wood waste. In addi-
ton to this, said DR.. Edwin c. jam
of the New York State College of
Forestry, the millions of tons of
waste straw, corncobs and grain
husks contain from Is to 25 per cent
Of lignin.
The Department of Agriculture
laboratories, he said, have developed
ways of solidifying the lignil sclu-
ton from pulp plants, which now
goes to contaminate rivers, by COM
bining with it carbon dioXide from
factory smokestacks, and making
from it various forms of plastics.
A molding powder has been de-
veloped from ignin which can be
used in building up boards from
fiber sheets. Some of these plastlcs
have extraordinary strength and
water resistance. They are all black
some reaching the color of ebony
Other laboratories have developed
means of obtaining from ignin vari-
GUS hydrocarbons, acids and aro-
matte substances.
Growth Vitamin Discovered.
Existence in nature of hitherto
unknown growth vitamin which
works in almost unbelievably small
quantities in promoting the growth
of certain bacteria was described
by DR.. A. E. oxford of the Uni.
versity of Wisconsin. 1t is a twir
of biotin, the essential growth factor
for yeast, for soil bacteria and fol
the bacteria in milk which conver
e,1oor into 1aptic arid AS little q
q thirty -thousandth of an ounce il
SUFFICIENT to bring about the other
wise impossible fermentation O
sugar. The new substance, DR.. Ok
ford said, works in even more mi.
mute amounts, but must be added tt
the biotin to make possible the in
crease of bacteria used in an ace
producing process.
Methods similar to those used b,