Evening star., 1942-10-17
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, field
And Study
BIZ Thomas Il. Henry.


effects are felt in such minute amounts
as one part in 100000 900 ,0O0-soon may
be cheap and plentiful.
This is biotin-now given the formida-
BILE name of 34-imidazolido-2-
rahydrothiophenavaleric acid "a mem
ber of the vitamin B complex, which
naturally occurs in human liver and kid
neys, can be extracted from milk, eggs
and molasses, and probably is essential
to animal life.
Up to now it has been the rarest, cost
liest, and one of the most mysterious
substances known to man. It would cost
about 100000 an ounce, but only few
thousandths of an ounce ever have been
produced. Final determination Of its
chemical structure recently has been
announced by DR.. Vincent Du Vigneaud,
professor of bio-chemstry at Cornell
University. This was the great hurdle
to be crossed before it would be possible
to synthesize biotin out of common
chemicals
The functions it serves in animal life
are unknown but psychologists, impressed
by its extreme potency, are certain that
these must be extremely important and
the substance may be a keystone of the
basic processes of living. At present only
two effects are known. Rats fed large
amounts of white of eggs rapidly de-
velop fatal skin disease. They can be
cured by ultra microscopic traces of
biotin. Certain bacteria which are found
in the nitrogen-fixing nodules of clover
roots will not multiply If the vitanin is
not present.
The substance first was isolated six
years ago by Prof. F. Kogl of Utrecht,
Holland. who extracted a few hundred
thousandths of an ounce from more
than quarter Of ton of dried egg yolks
imported from China. 1t was found to
be identical with the material known to
be present in various foods, which pro-
tected animals from the egg-white dis
ease.
The almost microscopic amount of the
vitamin obtained by the Dutch professor
was distributed to laboratories through
out the world. 1t was so scarce and pre-
cious that the distribution was in gam
mas"-thousandths of a milligram.
-Four years later Prof. Du Vigneaud
first isolated biotin in crystalline form
from liver and found it identical in its
properties with the egg yolk material
Ever since he and his collaborators have
worked on it's chemical structure-the
precise atoms which enter into its mole
cule and precisely how they are put to-
gether-which is the necessary prelim-
mary step for synthesizing anything.
Perhaps the greatest difficulty was due
to the extremely small amounts which
the chemists could obtain. They always
were microscopic. The successful con-
clusion of the work places in the hands
of siologists-perhaps eventually of
Notwithstanding so powerful, at
least in its effects on certain forms
of life, that its possibilities battle the
imagination.
X X
After exhaustive tests of more than go
mixtures of copper, magnesium and
silver, metallurgists of the United States
Bureau of Mines have found a small
group Of such alloys from which can be
made "nickelless nickels," and have
reported their results to the Treasury
Any one of these alloys, which differ
from each other only in slightly different
proportions of the three metals, can be
used to make flve-cent pieces which will
be essentially indistinguishable from
those which have been coined in the
past.
A few months ago it was thought that
the problem was solved but Mint experts
were not entirely satisfied since, they
pointed out, the nickel is one of the
most complicated of coins from a metal
lurgical viewpoint.
1t was agreed that tie chief con-
stituent must be copper. Mixture with
magnesium produced a white metal
which, however, was considerably lighter
than the alloy desired. The Bureau of
Mines scientists since have been trying
to produce balance by adding various
amounts of the heavy and non-strategic
metal, silver
1t is expected that the Treasury will
select one of the satisfactory substitutes
offered it in a short time.
The flve-cent coin now in use contains
Is per cent nickel, an essential in the
manufacture of stainless steel and armor
plate.
At the end of 1941 about $50 tons of
this metal were being consumed aslnu-
ally to produce coins. If this could have
been diverted to military use it would
have meant $4,000 extra tons of armor
plate.
In their investigations the Bureau of
Mines metallurgists have recognized that
the new nickel should look like the old,
that it should have a ring" when
dropped and should be white. 1t should
be of comparable hardness so that the
present presses can be used. If it were
harder the dies would wear out too fast,
If it were too soft the money would wear
out too fast.
The nickel is the chief coin used in
vending machines. These machines
reject spurious ones in various ways
some OF them if they do not have exactly
the right diameter and thickness and
some II they do not have exactly the
same contour on their faces Other ma
chimes operate through such factors as
magnetic properties, density and electric
resistance. These three properties are
inherent in the metal and can be OBJ
tanned only by using the proper alloying
constituents. Iron, for example, must be
discarded because it so increases the
magnetic properties.
Some metals which might fill the speci-
hcations are not used because they are