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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (March 28, 1915)
s THE STTXDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, MARCH 28. 1915. i7rf ri Di5covcryDr. Cittman Greatest Ml J J -tl A 4 II t ' U j i x - i lip " ! ' f'fl-y Economic Importancje.. Problem fridqcndcnt Supply United Sidles Also Solved. "" Cona'u a dear r't'r UsVv ft l v WASHINGTON'. D. C On March 1 Secretary Lane, of the Depart ment of the Interior, announced the discovery by Dr. Walter F. Rltt niann. a chemist of the Federal Bureau of Mines, of a process whereby the product of gasoline from petroleum ctuid be tripled that Is. a process that yielded 200 frxm a given quantity of petroleum, th5 raw material from which kerosene, gasoline, bensine and similar products are made. Within tl hours after the publication of this startling statement by the head of the treat Department of the Inte rior jnore than 60 telegrams had been received at the Bureau of Mines, ask ing fop detailed information in regard to the discovery, and offering huge sums of money for rights to use it. The telegrams ca,me from every sec tion of the United States, most of those sending them being independent refiners of petroleum, and in every case the offer was for the strictest Govern ment supervision of plants proposed to be built, the absolute vesting of the .patent rights In the Federal Govern ment rather than in any Individual or corporation, and the payment of all ex penses for building and Installation of the plants by private capital. .All that was wanted was the privi lege of constructing, equipping and operating the plants for the sake of obtaining the products Immediately. of the biggest refining interests of lh United States to be permitted imme diately to avail themselvees of the discovery. To Dr. Walter R. Rittmann, chemical engineer of the bureau of mines, the credit for this great discovery is due. per cent more gasoline To Dr. Rittmann's unceasing and un tiring investigations, experiments and laborious research is due the fact that tremendous Industries of the United States are to be no longer at the mercy of foreign countries, and that the Na tion's power to defend itself against attack or aggression may continue un abated, even though .foreign powers hold within their own borders aril of the materials they produce for the manu facture of today's terrible agents of destruction. Dr. Rittmann. who Is attached to the Pittsburg laboratories of the bureau of mines. Is a young man perhaps one of the youngest scientists in the service of the Department of the Interior. Rather short, stockily built, with a square, aggressive chin and Jaw, he looks like a football player rather than a man who has just completed a labor that Is destined to revolutionize a gi gantic industry and place the Nation for which he works in a position of In dependence of any other country In cer tain tremendously vital lines. And he does not belle his appearance. Football, baseball and other athletics of a strenuous character are the diver sions to which he is devoted and to which he gives a large share of the credit for the physical ability to com plete the work which he has Just fin ished. "To football, baseball and other forms of outdoor athletics," Dr. Ritt mann says, "I attribute the physical strength without which I should never have been able to complete this work. Athletics of the most strenuous kind, out In the open, have been solely re sponsible for the physical condition and the vigor necessary to carry on for eight years since 1907 without Inter ruption, the work that is briefed In the statement Issued by Secretary Lane. "Most of this work has been done in the laboratories of Columbia Univer sity. In New York, and at Swarthmore College. The laboratories at these places have been at my disposal, and the time and expense required to bring the work to completion wcyild have been far greater had It not been for this aid and co-operation. The process has been perfected on a laboratory scale; It has not as yet received the test of operation on a ' commercial scale. "But the results have been so care fully checked and every step, every phase of the process has been the sub ject of such minute scrutiny that, even before a single foundation stone has been laid for the first plant that will make use of the new process, it is scientifically safe to say that the proc ess of producing gasoline from pe troleum has been revolutionized, and that methods have been found of as suring the United States of Its own domestic supply of toluol and benzol for the manufacture of explosives, dyes and the medicines that are also made from the so-called coal tar derivatives. "These medicines Include phenacetin and kindred products; saccharin, all the synthetic products related to phe nacetin, such as antipyrin and the like; and the entire list of chemicals used In One of these telegrams offered the sun of $300,000, to be available! as a whole Immediately the sanction of the Government was given to the plan for constructing and operating a huge plant. This offer came from one of the biggest independent refining con cerns in the United States a concern amply able to meet every obligation it entered Into. - These offers Illustrate graphically the economic Importance of the discov ery announced by the Secretary of the Interior. They do more than this, too; they show as nothing else could do the Importance of this one piece of re search work that has been completed by the Federal Bureau of Mines, a piece of work that, taken absolutely alone and disregarding anything else which that bureau has done, amply justifies its creation and Its existence. And it la not alone in the vastly more economical production of gaso line that the discovery la of Impor tance. Another phase of the newly discovered process perfected on a lab oratory scale by eight years of ex haustive tests and experiment work la that it has solved the problem of an independent supply of toluol and ben zol for the United States. Toluol and benzol have heretofore been derived, In German and English laboratories, from coal tar, and the two countries mentioned have up to the present time enjoyed a practical motfopoly of their manufacture. When It is stated that toluol and benzol are he bases from which are manufac tured all of the modern high explo sives used In the warfare of today, and that until this momentous discov ery was made the world's supply of Uioee two materials was In the hands of nations with which It Is conceiv able that the United States might be come Involved In war. It is easy to ap preciate the tremendous National im portance of the discovery. Circumstances might arise under which the lack of a supply of toluol photography, with the exception of the and benzol by the United States would force this country to enter upon a war in the conduct of which It would be compelled to depend on such explosives aa were used at the time of our Civil War. Against nations supplied with modern high explosives. It Is claimed, such a condition would mean nothing short of National humiliation, if National extinction. Nor is this all; the discovery has an other phase of economic importance which is ot far more value than that of making available a domestic sup ply f the materials from which to manufacture substances for the taking of human lives in untold numbers. Tuluol and benzol, besides being the bases from which lyddite and the other modern high explosives are made, are also the raw materials from whtch are derived all the so-called coal tar dyes, upon which our textile industries are absolutely dependent All of the ani line colors are derived from these two protean substances. basic silver salts. These photographic chemicals include all the modern de velopers, such as hydrochinon, metol and the like, for which the United States has heretofore been dependent upon German chemical works. "They are all derived, as are the ani lines and the high explosives, from not coal tar residues, and the new process makes available a supply of the basic materials from which they are made, petroleum reslduo instead of that of coal tar being the raw material." Explaining the new process, Dr. Ritt man said: "The process is so simple that it may be comprehended even by the layman with no techlnal training of educa tion whatever. But, simple as It Is. eight years of unremitting labor, in vestigation and experiment work have been required to complete it In the first place. It exactly reverses methods of distillation that have been followed since the first still was built "In every type or form of distilling Bearing In mind that as soon as the apparatus in use at the present time war in Europe broke out every pound tne same ancient fundamental prlncl X tuluol and benzol was seized to be P' are followed. The body of the converted into death-dealing explosives, 'H ' eome form of vessel for eon and the exports of dyes were abso- talning the liquid to be distilled. Some lutely cut off, thereby rendering every kind of tube leads from the upper part textile mill In the United States power- of the still to a condensing apparatus, less to renew supplies of dyes when and heat u PP" t0 the Hautd from stocks on hand were exhausted, the beneath. In this manner the tem importance to the immense spinning perature of the liquid is raised to a and weaving and dyeing Industries ofPint where it becomes partly vap the country of this discovery of a orized, the vapor passing out of the method of making our own dyes can- tube, or worm," to the condenser. not be estimated. These points are sufficient explana tion of the flood of telegrams of in quiry received at the bureau of mines within 24 hours ot the first public an In other words, the liquid itself is distilled. This means that tempera- . . r limitations hVa n AHaarmia Furthermore, the temperature limita- ,'oerJ ej'fj Gj'OJ-'Secion oOcZ Type 50s3r Hons render it impossible, under pres- Xs"j?trkie cjte a A&rors7c, j-ojine, ez. 71om GretaTa. pnt methods, to recover All thA nluaha . . -. . ... - nouncement of the discovery; they fur- products. S-teco&srn i6oper' A7y5y tl ezaCjon ofZ)i. sZj CCsn&a' nlsh a reason for the anxiety of some "In the new process no heat is ap- 7yj2& of j'fsi idfaPcl 2'c? V f V jV , - A ft ' , S f r r riffs i f . JtOAA- ' ST - --j's .' t.-hT ifi r II il I Hill I I I El- 4 i9" . 1 ,. tfr. Bill-.-' j"v. if. n. ! I. vujwuarw. i "ss s j - m. -wnvji i via m . or a . i j.j..c:- w "n in ml m j --w... SX-;SSf J Wiit? rl''lwj A tolenty high to vaporize the oil as Sfaj.i 'j'lif) . V j&fifJl lr.pjfe I jJj u flow over them from the Inlet tube. in. ,.,),, It. i f l lyyiTI I I Wd?7 f W) JSyi ,.JJ ' f jyi The vapor thus formed is forced down Compassed Jest. ' j -y -S- ; 1 T Creates sorsa air i if' " fittsavRE. . )) J 5TRcnx;ri- if ilii I TANIC ' f U o f (" 1 'Ml IK??"-!'' v . - " s AH- modern developers developing agents without which photography could never have attained to its present state it perfection. "The new process, by making avail able unlimited supplies of the raw or basic matcrluls from which all of th ae things, explosives, dyes, mt'diclnes, chemicals, etc., are made, strikes the shackles from the United States find places this country In a position of lndependencn of any other nation so far as th:se things are concerned." number of small Iron balls, . , . , . . . . . . new process have been applied for, and heated to a temperature suf- ,V, u i .. . UICBD JC IV, WlllIl Will KUIUIULOI prevent monopolization of the process or any part of It by private Interests, a,Aaa tail In lti rrv.pnni.nl Into the lower portion of the still by fof th benefu of th(( whol) peo)o of the continual formation of more va por above. "A series of wires conveying a pow erful electric ourrent wound about the lower portion of the cylindrical still, with reslstanco colls, furnishes the heat for distilling this vapor. The heat can be regulated to any desired temper ature. The fact that the expansion of vapor under heat is a definitely known the United States. Companies which desire to avail themselves of the new process may do so only on license from the Govern mentand under Government supervi sion. Every safeguard is to surround the granting of such license, so that the development of a monopoly will ba Impossible. equation, whereaa nobody ever knows of ,..,,. compftnle nd lnd'ivldu.l. W Hit V I111A.LU1 9 if ' a.tvi aiiu nuiu is going to do. Illustrates the value of the safety factor of the new pro cess. The vaporized oil, distilled at the proper temperature, passes Into the condensing apparatus and that la all there la to the process. "But when It comes to discussing the possibilities of this new process, that is another thing. By Its use we can utilize material that Is absolutely wasted under the old process of dis tillation. We can obtain a larger vol ume, therefore, of gasoline from given quantity of oil, and we can do It In a third of the time required by the old process, and without any of the danger attending the operation of old fashioned stills. "There remains the discovery that the new process brings about certain chenr have asked upon what terms the Gov ernment will permit them to build and operate refining and manufacturing plants under the patents covering the new process. As yet no plan has been perfected, but It Is expected that be fore the middle of the coming Bummer not one but a dozen or more big refin eries will be in process of construe tton. It may be that one or more such plants will be In actual operation be fore half of the summer has passed. There Is no toluol or benzol in th United States at least none worth mentioning. Foreign buyers, before the outbreak of the European war, bought practically every available pound, and shipped It back across the Atlantic. Perhaps knowledge of this fact coupled with the knowledge that the Government possessed no materials fur making the high explosives used In leal cnanges oy wn.cn .uo. ana pen- moUorn w.rfaI..t h. beBn responsible ol may be derived from the tar resl- ,n ,arre measure for the forbearance of due of oil distillation. The Importance th(j Qov,rnment ln ccrt(lln rei.ent of this may oe aummea up prion. Heretofore the tar residue from the International char- piled to the liquid Itself In th con1 distillation of petroleum has been uti lized, practically, only as materials nterlng Into the composition of cer tain types of paving materials. The United States has been dependent ab solutely, on foreign countries for the toluol and benzol necessary for the talner. neaklns- particular! of natroleum la used In warfare. contained in a feed tank, from which "The textile Industries of the United it is fed into the still. There It Is States have been just aesolutely de- , to ,,., vaporized, and the vapor, not the liquid pendent upon foreign chemical manu- j.a: la then distilled. facturas for tn ayes usea in ineir "The new form of still is. generally mills. Physicians and druggists have speaking, cylindrical in shape. An Inlet been absolutely dependent upon the tube leads into the still from the con- same foreign chemists for many of the tainer holding the liquid. This tuba drugs used for the alleviation of human is equipped with a cock by means of suffering. which the flow of the liquid petro- "Photographs of this country have leum is regulated. "In the upper part of the still is chemical worka tor many - Uut beat Dress ageub velopmsnts acter. Perhaps, too, certain problems loom ing grimly dark on the horizon of our International relations will bring about the speedy erection and equipment for operation of refineries using the new process. In no other way can th Government liquid to be distilled manufacture of modern high explosives upply Uielf w((h th w nmtl.rl. which, under modern conditions, are absolutely necessnry for success In an Admiration. (Washington Star.) "What do you think of my latest se ries of observations?" asked one sci entist. "Wonderfully interesting," replied thA rtther. "If you had nut bern a been absolutely dependent upon foreign ,centist, you would hav made a rt