Evening star., 1942-01-01
Emergency Develops
New Products Of
Vast importance
Foundation for Property
After War Already
Being Greeted

BY Cambridge Associates
Creative imagination, touched on
by necessity in these days Of short
ages has lent respectability to the
word substitute" 1t is accelerating
the mechanical chemical and cleo
trical revolution already in progress
for years.
Strange new things are coming
off the production lines. and the
basis of a new prosperity is being
formed. Industry, at least, Is look
ing forward to postwar days with
confidence. Even agriculture will
feel the impetus of these new forces.
Chemical science is adding hor-
mones to seeds and soil, fortifying
foods for beast and man with COM
mercially prepared vitamins, enrich
ing our daily bread and milk, ar
resting bacterial growth in the hu-
man body as we'll as in the foods it
partakes.
Soybeans. tupg nuts. castor beans.
paprika and wine grapes are becom-
ing major crops instead of exotic
names or ship cargoes. Cotton,
wood, cornstalks and waste products
Of agriculture are finding their way
into industrial processes to become
high-grade writing paper. plastics.
| man made fibers and useful solvents
or other organic compounds.
New Sources of Power.
Conversion Of coal into crude Oil
and gasoline is rapidly becoming
economically possible, offering the
| prospect of extension of the useful
life of our internal combustion ma
chimes for 5000 years. Petroleum in
turn is forming the basis of impor-
tant chemicals for a variety of uses.
| Power from the sun, from the In.
terror of the earth. from the winds
| and the tides are daily approaching
more effective Harvesting. All these
processes are substitutes for present.
day custom, but have in them the
seeds of greatness which may revo-
lutionize many an accepted in
dustry.
Mechanical genius has produced
a flying wing" bird-shaped and
carrying its motive power and pay
load without any fuselage. This
may prove to be the stratosphere
liner of the future.
Meanwhile. the aircraft COM
panies, faced with the prospect OF
100 per cent increase in the pro-
ductive facilities of the industry
over 1889. are laying plans to get
John Public very much in the air
in foolproof "fivvers." Frequency
meditation and the much-heraldeo
: but recalcitrant television are enter
ing the air waves. Economical Diese
, power is finding its niche. Rail.
roading is streamlining and air.
conditioning as never before.
. Plastics an Important Field.
5 Refrigerators. bathroom fixtures
business machines and a host O
. products have appeared which ar,
. largely composed of plastics o
!. which there is an endless variety o
types. Automobile bodies which
spring back into shape after dent
ing and last indefinitely withou
!. need of polishing are a possibilit,
a because of a cheap new plastic
Such products bid fair to fill de,
. fenSe plants with peacetime activ
> tiles once the all-clear signal i
given.
All these new developments start
, ed as substitutes for existing goods
!. some because of material shortages
5 others as Improvements on tn
: original. In certain sense, the,
are children of war, yet nearly al
. of them will survive the presen
. hectic period and contribute to ou
= material prosperity after the war
1t is encouraging to note tha
Z many good ideas which have bee
. held in abeyance for several year
are now being taken from tn
: shelves, busted off and put into us,
4 Managers of business realize tina
: the current boom may be temporar,
but some of these new ideas wi
!. be the depression registers of tn
future. If wheels are kept turnin,
J. conditions may be ever so bad, bu
= the position of the producers wi
a be preferable to that of the idle
A national survey. conducted ju,
a before our entry into the war. re
= vealed that a majority of peopl
2 feel that opportunities to be avail
T. able to the children of today wi
% be fewer and less attractive tha
= their own. Every age has felt tn
= same way in times of national crisi
2 Yet there never was a time whe
/: so many new products were in de
Z. velopment. From this point. a pos,
. war boom seems more likely tina
: depression.