Evening star., 1942-02-07

great chemical industry. 1t is
largely a development Of the past
quarter century. The last war found
chemistry largely enlisted on the
side OF the enemy. The United
States had to depend mostly on the
products Of nature.
Today the tables are turned. There
are relatively few necessities OF war
or peace that man cannot make
better and quicker and cheaper
than nature. Here at Wilmington
are the headquarters and labora-
tories of the largest Of all Ameri-
can chemical makers-E. I. du Pont
de Nemours & Co. Its factories are
spread over the country. They, are
enlisted In an all-out war effort
necessary for final victory.
From Peace to War Products.
For a generation now its chemists
have been at work On development
and practical utilization of thou
sands of thing@synthetic and
otherwise-for daily living. Some Of
these have become so necessary and
so commonplace they are taken for
granted. Others still are novelties
and some are just coming into pro-
duction. In their development
hardly q thought was given to their
use in war.
Now, often to the surprise Of the
chemical companies themselves. 1t
is found that many Of them not only
At perfectly into the war pattern
but are essential. They have been
designed to make all aspects Of life
more efficient, and this war seems to
include all aspects Of life.
The Du Pont company alone, 1t is
estimated, makes about 10000 sep
arate products. Nearly all Of them
are materials from which other
manufacturers make a great variety
Of other articles. There Is hardly
q single one Of them, 1t now de-
velops, that does ont enter into the
war picture. This means that the
bulk Of the resources Of the company
must be devoted to military and
naval production and that civilians
must learn to get along without
countless Of these articles which
they have taken for granted.
Neoprene Is IN Example.
In some ways 1t may mean going
back to the horse-and-buggy age
with q vengeance. since the chem
ical materials are essential in hun
dreds of fields where their presence
is seldom suspected by the general
public.
A good example is neoprene. In
the last war only q few chemists
had fantastic dreams of anything
that would look and act like rubber
except rubber itself. It was not,
until about dozen years ago that
formula was found for making, out
Of coal, limestone and salt an elastic,
bouncing material which had most
Of the characteristics OF natural
rubber.
1t was not rubber. 1t could hard
ly be described as synthetic rub
ber." 1t was considerably more ex-
pensive than rubber. But the es-
sential point was that 1t was better
than rubber for many of the pur-
poses for which rubber only had
been used in the past.
1t was something new in the
world. Starting 10 years ago the
Du Pont company started to make it
on commercial scale. The last
production figure that can be cited
present production is a military
secret-was 100000 pounds .
month. 1t was the first synthetic
product to be placed on the priori-
ties hst-in March, 1941. Even the
production which can be assumed
today is only q drop In the bucket
Of Americas rubber needs. Motor
lists need not hope that neoprene
will relieve the tire shortage very
much, at least for time, but very
good neoprene tires are now in use.
Use Common, Nevertheless.
Folks don't 60 to . store and buy
. pound Of neoprene. Few ever
have realized that they had any
use for 1t, yet in the past few years
few housewives have been able to
get along without 1t. It forms the
lining Of most Of the hose used at
gas stations, Of the hose used to f1l
the tanks Of oil heating systems
and the holds Of the tanker feet.
The soles Of rubber shoes used by
factory workers are made Of it. SO
are gloves used by housewives In
their Kitchens. These uses are due
to its far greater resistance than
natural rubber to certain chemi-
Gals and greases. It has about 500
known civilian uses. All these
civilian uses. and probAblv mauy: