Evening star., 1942-01-10
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
Bv Thomas r. Henry.

American public has become NICOTINE
acid conscious-with a vengeance.
This is the vitamin, essential to life
itself, which prevents pellagra. 1t is one
Of the ingredients now being added to
bread. Inadequacy Of 1t in the diet Of
the people as . whole is credited with
causing . general lack of well being
which cannot actually be diagnosed as
pellagra and which is manifested in .
constant irritability. Last spring one Of
the foremost specialists in the field char
acterized 1t as an "ant- divorce vitamin."
The result. according to an announce
ment Just made by tho Department Of
Agriculture, Is that this year about 20
times the 1910 production will be re-
quired- 100000 pounds for flour en-
richment and 10000 pounds for treat
ment Of actual pellagra in the South.
Nicotine acid originally was derived
from nicotine. 1t is not nicotine, how
ever, and constitutes only a minute frac-
ton Of the alkaloid in tobacco. 1t Is
absolutely non-poisonous. There has
been much misunderstanding on this
point and last spring sermons actually
were being preached denouncing the
Government for its attempts to put a
deadly poison" in bread. The National
Research Council was obliged to issue
special statement clarifying the matter.
It was all made synthetically out Of coal
tar products, much more cheaply than it
could be extracted from tobacco.
This condition. the Department Of
Agriculture announces, soon may be re-
versed and a possible market found for
from 100000 to 100000 pounds Of
tobacco.
In Western Kentucky and Tennessee
are thousands Of acres suitable for grow
ing only very heavy grades of tobacco for
which IS per cent of the market was in
Europe This outlet has been cut of.
No suitable replacement crop has been
found.
A few years ago the Department Of
Agriculture developed species of tobacco
very high in nicotine content. The plant
breeders actually were trying to produce
varieties low In the alkaloid and more
suitable for smoking.
Now 100 farmers have been set at work
growing experimental acres Of the new
plants which apparently thrive on their
Soils At the same time chemists Of the
new regional laboratory Of the depart
ment in Philadelphia have been set at
work to find cheap process Of extract
ing the nicotine acid from the nicotine.
At present this Is the most expensive
source. However, for the conversion Of
coal tar products into the vitamin. ex-
pensive chemicals are required. These
are becoming increasingly difficult to
obtain Some of them enter into other
branches Of national defense work. There
is q decided possibility that the Nation
may fall back largely on tobacco for the
essential vitamin.
The chemists at Philadelphia believe
they are on the track of methods which
will enable them to get the life-essential
acid-acid In chemical structure, but
without any corrosive power-from to-
bacco just as cheaply as from coal tars.
A new means of separating isotopes
Of elements has just been patented here
by two Government scientists and the
patent assigned to the Secretary of Agri-
culture.
The primary purpose, 1t is stated by
Drs. A. Keith Brewer and Arthur Bram-
ley, Is to obtain an abundant supply
OF forms Of potassium and the rare ele-
ment rubidium which are radioactive
and can be used as substitutes for
radium.
Another purpose set forth in the patent
application is to provide targets and
projectiles for nuclear disintegration.
This may have bearing on the separa-
ton from uranium of the rare form,
U235, which is believed to constitute
the greatest source of power known
to man If 1t ever can be obtained in
considerable quantities.
Nearly all the 90 elements are known
to possess. isotopes, forms differing
slightly in weight but with exactly the
same chemical reactions so there is no
possibility of separating them by any
chemical process.
In the past. say Brewer and Bramley.
there have been two known methods OF
thermal diffusion for separating such
isotopes. One is simply to place the
element, in the form Of a gas, in
glass tube one end of which is heated
and the other cooled. The molecules
of the gas containing lighter atoms
of the elements rise to the top and the
heavy ones sink to the bottom, where
they can be drawn off with special de-
vices. The other is to run heated wire
through a tube containing the gas. The
walls are kept cool. The lighter mole
cules will tend to concentrate by the
wire, the heavier ones by the wall. The
first will rise along the wire to Reservoir
at the top of the tube and the others
will fall along the walls to reservoir
at the bottom.
The new device is based on the princi-
pie that when gas is set in motion
within a tube the lighter molecules wi,
move faster than the heavier ones.
The apparatus consists of two con-
centric glass tubes, one inside the other.
The inner one is heated the outer