Imperial Valley press., 1943-01-14
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

] y SlI OIlSlllS array VI IltW. JOSl'
war industries may be a-bornin' il
-of all places-the war plants tha
are now devoted 10 turning out tons
Of poison gas. incendiary bombs
and the nOn-tOXic smokes which
will play an increasingly important
( part in this elobal ruckuS.
Take the gas masks themselves
At least 10 million of them will
have tC be made for the armed
services. to say nothing of the mil
lions made for civilians The i'm
rortant part of the gas mask is
the filter that absorbs the poison
gas The important element of
the filter-the stuff that goes in
the can that hangs below the mask
is activated carbon.
In the last war. that filtering
element had TO be high grade
charcoal and il was consider
able problem to produce this gas
absorbing material in sufficient
quantities Today this activated
carbon can be made from almost
anything, including coal or saw
dust. and there is no shortage.
When the war is over the plants
making this activatcd carbon may
be kept right on going, say the
chemists, in a new peacetime indus
try. The thought is not to provide
every cook with q GAS mask TO pro-
tect her from the fumes of her own
sauerkraut kidney stew or fried on
ions. but lis along that line
Since this actiVated charcoal will
absorb gas. chemists say it is en-
tirelv possible to make handy lit
tie kitchen dingus that will absorb
kitchen OdorS. make muSty cellar
small as sweet and clean as
mCCltain top. or even be able to
kill those fatal post-party night
club fumes concocted of face pow
der. stale perfume, la conga sweat.
cigar smoke, cigarette butts and
spilled BurbOn
Yea and moreover. the chemists
say this activated carbon stuff will
even take the stink Out of a gym
rasium locker room, than which
there is nothing huskier this side
Of a skunk.
BOON FOR GROWERS
New smoke producing units de-
signed TO throw smoke screens over
war plants or whole cities to cam
outage them and spoil the aim of
enemy bomber pilots may find a
practical application in peacetime
as frost professors for orange groves,
early vegetable patches and the
like.
The old method of beating
sudden freeze was to light smudge
fires and rouse every man, wom-
an and child in the countryside
to keep the smudge pots going
all night icng. Orange growers
even used to burn old rubber
tires because they produced a
heavy black smoke that protect
ed the trees like blanket.
These new e-producing
units. however, will make the job
OF protecting an orchard, an Or
ange grove or a truck farm as
simple as cigarette lighter. A
small battery of machines will
smoke up a square mile or more,
and. Being practically automatic.
only few men would be required
to keep the fires going all night.
A large part Of the poison gas
manufactured is chlorine or chic
rine compounds. Productive capac-
| itv for chlorine manufacture has
been stepped up tremendously, and
/ few processes have been developed
for its more economical manufac-
tl,-e. Here's another industry that
won's be Just a war baby Manu-
/ featuring chemists arc looking
ahesd to a big boom in the chic
rine bleaching business, and in
further purification of water sup
plies. whether you drink it or swim
in it. Brand-new cleaning agents
tnat will revolutionize the dry
c'eanine br5iness are to be found in
the chlorinated hydro carbonS
which also have q role some place
ir the complicated chemistry OF
synthetic rub2er, and of course thai
NAV be the biggest of the war-borI
industries.
iIGHIER, STRONGER