The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-07-28
Lewisite Gas, ,Neoprene Originated At C.U.A.
Experiments of Young Priest Now EIighIghted By Cur' rent War Problems Research Efforts Reviewed

Washington, D. C., July 2e-Spec- ial-Two developments in Chemistry which have distinct war uses and which are mentioned in recent news of the present global warfare had their beginning in the chemical lab- oratories of the Catholic University of America. Their discovery began forty-one years ago at the Univer- sity, when a young, bespectacled priest was introduced to acetylene gas.
 The priest, Father Julius Arthur Nieuwland, had come to the United States from Belgium at the age of 2 and had settled with his parents at South Bend, Ind. It was natural for him to enter Notre Dame University where he had been ordained to the priesthood just before taking up graduate work at Catholic Univer- sity here in 1903.
 Artificial Rubber
 His discoveries - process for making artificial rubber, and pois- onous substance later to be known as Lewisite gas-have recently come back into the news. The one in connection with the Russian gov- ernment, and the other in connec- ton with the war in China.
 Father Nieuwland's process for the manufacture of artificial rubber, developed by the Du Pont chemists into the product known as necprene, recently was handed the Russians to be used without charge while the war lasts. The other and more son1- Der of his discoveries, Lewisite, is reported to have been used recently by the Japanese in the Hengyang section of China.
 Father Nieuwland was interested only in acetylene gas. He knew that 1t would require longer than one lifetime to learn all of its proper ties, and so many of the reactions were recorded only briefly as he continued to experiment with his favorite gas. These side reactions, he reasoned, could be studied by other men. Thus it was that one day while in the laboratory at Catholic University he noted an extremely poisonous substance was formed by acetylene and arsenic trichloride. Fourteen years later Capt. W. Lee Lewis. as he was engaged in Army research at the University. chanced on Father Nieuwland's paper Some Reactions of Acetylene," and one of the most deadly gases known to man made its appearance on the European battle fronts.
 Likewise, IA years elapsed between the day in 1906 that Father Nieuw- land passed his favorite gas through a solution of chlorides of copper and the alkali metals and the day in Rochester, N. Y.. when he condes- cended to mention this reaction in a lecture before a group of chemists. Du Pont. which had been striving for a synthetic rubber, became in. terested. and the result was neo- prene, a product superior to natural rubber in many ways.
 Jigsaw Mystery
 To realize the full impact of Father NieuwIand's discovery it is necessary to recall that since rubber first became economically important in the world scientists had tried in vain to fathom its elusive structure. Men in laboratories had toiled years to synthesize the milk of the hevea tree, only to be met time after time with failure. That rubber was Q combination of hydrogen and car- bon they knew. but how these ele- ments were fitted into the jigsaw structure of natural rubber remain ed a mystery.
 Father NieuWland, however, was not a seagcher for a synthetic Eubs Der. The way he passed his gas through the solution Of copper and alkaii metals he was propelled tn. voluntarily into the group of seagch- CTS for the philosophers stone Years passed, and Father Nleuwland who meantime had become profess sor of organic chemistry at Notre Dame, one day in 1920 hit upon . way of trapping the gas that was liberated by the experiment. He found a yelloWish oil in addition to the gas, and tn 1928 he treated this oil with sulphur dichlogide to pro. duee an elastic substance resembling rubber, The priest now knew what he had. but ehaFacteFistieally failed to mention his discovery for two years,
 pr, Elmer x, Bolton Of the Du Popt laboratories, who was then en- gagged in research for q rubber syn, thetie, was bored that day tp Rochester when the little Notre Dame professor arose to deliver . lecture before the group Of Organie ehmlsts, His boredom soon disap' peared, however, when this profess or mentioned the substance formed