Evening star., 1953-01-09
Neur-UniversuI Solvent
Found in Strange Liquid
Will Eat Its Way Through
HuIf Inch Of Steel in Night
By Thomos R. Henry

By Thomas R. Henry
A strange kind of pure water"
colorless, invisible steam which weighs
about third more than ordinary liquid
water and which has played notable
part in the formation of the earth's
crust, Is being produced at the Geo.
physical Laboratory OF the Carnegie
Institution of Washington.
It was described offhand as stuff
that will eat its way through half
inch of stainless steel overnight" but
this description requires some mod1hca-
tions.
This water, however, comes very
close to being natures universal solvent.
the most potent material in her rock
making chemical laboratory in the
earth's dark. hot depths. 1t is ordinary
distilled water at temperatures as high
as 1000 F. under pressure as great as
10000 pounds square inch. Thus 1t Is
far outside the bounds of any possible
engineering problem, which never will
need to consider the effects of water
at temperatures above 500 F. and pres
sure above 1000 pounds to the square
inch.
Method of Production.
The queer "stuff" is produced, ac-
cording to DR.. George c. Morey. act
ing director of the laboratory, by pump
ing ordinary distilled water under
whatever pressure is desired into red
hot bombs" made of a special sort
Of synthetic metal which will with
stand the solvent action of the new
kind of water which is produced.
Due to the enormous heat the water
becomes, of course, steam. That is, it
changes from a liquid into a gas. The
liquid "stays put" Its molecules stick
together. Gas molecules fly apart
until they fill all available space.
But the same amount of liquid water
which would fill the bomb would be
much lighter than the steam into
which it is converted in the bomb.
This high-presSure steam will take
about all the 90 elements into solu-
ton, just as sugar can be dissolved
in ordinary water. Its corrosive ac-
ton depends on what happens to be
in the solution. Thus, for example, it
would take stuff out Of the walls OF
a stainless-steel bomb in few hours.
This solution, in turn, would so weaken
the crystal structure of the steel that
1t would crack. At any rate, such q
bomb wouldn't hold the steam over
night. The steam wouldn't actually
eat through the steel, but the end
result would be about the same.
Great Solvent.
It will dissolve practically everything
that goes to make up the crustal rocks
of the earth.
This probably explains to q consid-
cradle degree, DR.. Morey says. the dis
tribution Of the elements, particularly
the metals. through the earths crust.
This Is the kind Of water" which
exists at great depths, where every.
thing is molten and under enormous
-pressures. The constituents of this
liquid rock are dissolved in the hot,
heavy steam.
But this steam still is gas. It can
diffuse freely through the minutest
cracks in the earth's crust above it. It
carries with 1t the materials it holds in
solution. Finally. as it moves toward
the surface and pressure and tempera-
ture are reduced, it changes to ordinary
steam and then to liquid water. It can
no longer hold the materials in solution
and they are deposited in the crustal
rocks.
Iron Deposits Explained.
There is iron. for example. almost
everywhere. Some places there are bare
traces while in other places, as in the
Appalachians of Western Pennsylvania
or the MeSabi range in Minnesota.
there are enormous deposits. Probably
all Of the iron originally was in the
molten depths and was carried by the
steam to the places where it now is
found near the surface.
ut would not be too far-fetched,"
says DR. Morey," to assume that all the
iron in the Mesabi range was brought
there in just this way"
For that matter, there Is uranium
almost everywhere-probably in any
Washington back yard-brought there
by the same cooling steam. The
amounts are so minute, of course, that
they have no significance whatsoever.
If anybody could look at this steam,
says DR.. Morey, it would be completely
transparent and invisible. The white
ness Of the vapor that comes from the
spout of tea kettle is the whiteness
of droplets of water, not steam itself.
There are no droplets left in the super
steam. .. -
Presumably. says DR.. Morey, the
supersteam would take on something Of
the color of whatever was dissolved In
it. If this were cobalt it probably would
look like a blue gas. If copper were
dissolved it might look like green gas.
When the bombs at the geophysical
laboratory are cooled and the pressure
turned of, the supersteam reverts to
water again. It went in as pure water.
1t comes out full of all sorts Of things
which it has taken into solution.