Evening star. [volume], July 21, 1918, Page 12, Image 47

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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Chemist Fights the Hun With Valuable Patents
BT JAMBS B. MORROW.
PNWITTINGLY. back In 1*05,
Frederick O. Oottrell began
fighting the Prussians. The
battle entered upon thir
teen years ago stm rages.
It opened with what Dr.
Cottrell then called a potboiler. He
had returned from Berlin and Lelpslg,
where he obtained his degree, had
married Miss Jessie M. Fulton of San
Francisco and was teaching physical
chemistry at the University of Cali
fornia.
The summer vacation was at hand
and the young doctor of philosophy
needed money. Instead, therefore, of
seeking change and rest he remained
in his laboratory. He had been toiling
over problems connected with the
manufacture of sulphuric acid and had
noted certain phenomena.
Before the summer ended the Cot
trell process; as it was later named
by scientists, had been worked out
and its practicability demonstrated.
By this process, now employed, In
scores of large smelting and manu
facturing establishment* gases and
imoke from the throats and stacks of
furnaces are separated into such ele
ments as arsenic; sulphur and potash.*
Separation is brought about by the
means of electricity. To state the
matter plainly and concisely, smoke
and gsses are filtered by the Cottrell
process and both dust and liquids of
great value commercially are thereby
prevented from escaping into the air
land lost permanently.
*
* *
The discovery and the subsequent
patents would have made Dr. Cottrell
and his associates wealthy men. They
donated their rights to thto Smith
sonian Institution, however, under an
arrangement by which all the money
received for licenses was to be used
in the carrying on of technical and
scientific researches The surrender,
perhaps* was without parallel, either
in this country or in Europe.
Sulphuric acid and potaslt obtained
"by the Cottrell process, are being em
ployed in the war against the Ger
mans?the acid in the manufacture of
explosives and the potash in the grow
ing of cotton for shells and clothing
and of food for the soldiers and civil
ians of this country and its allies.
Heretofore the United States has
procured its supply of potash from
the German monopoly which has con
trolled that industry. Hereafter, as ?
is the case at present, the United
States will manufacture its own pot
ash and mainly, it is thought, by the
method of electrical precipitation dis
covered and developed by Dr. Cot
trell.
Dust from cement works is now
being caught and converted into pot
ash by the process. It is said that
the profit of one company through
that by-product alone amounts to
about $6,000 a week. All of this value
used to escape in the air in the form
of white particles, which settled for
miles around on fields, orchards and
houses, to the loss and annoyance of
the owners. ' ?
Daily, also, from morning until
evening, Dr. Cottrell is personally
battling against the Prussians at his
desk in Washington. He now fills
the office of chemist at the bureau of
mines. Gases are one of his special
ties?deadly .ones and other kinds.
Likewise, he is an expert in the ad
ministration of patents, having thor
oughly studied the subject before he
gave his own patents to the Smith
sonian Institution.
Thousands of German patents have
been taken over by A. Mitchell Bal
mer, custodian of alien property.
Many of them are medical. Others
are mechanical. They are to be
utilised in this country during the
war, and accounts will be kept of the
profits and royalties. At the restora
tion of peace there will be a settle
ment, presumably. Dr. Cottrell is
assisting in formulating a policy for
the control and administration of
these patents.
But his pot-boiler, as he describes
It; will be his chief contribution to
the war, for it is steadily and help
fully working to defeat the Huns,
although, as has been shown, it has
passed out of his possession. Its con
ception, together with its application
and disposal, is one of the most ro
mantic events in the history of Amer
ican science.
"I was newly wed," he said, with
a smile to the writer, "and needed a
few hundred dollars. The destructive
gases occasioned by the smelting of
copper on the Pacific coast had de
forested mountains, ruined crops and
caused many lawsuits. Farmers were
suing the proprietors of the smelters,
and in some instances smelters were
shut down.
"I approached the subject, then,
from Its noxious side. .Men working
In copper were not concerned very
much at first with the values that
might be contained In smoke, dust
sna mist. The removal of suspended
particles from* gases by the aid of
electrical discharges was by no
means a new idea.
/ ?
* *
*7t was suggested as early as 1824
t*y Hohlfeld, a teacher of mathe
at the Thomas School, in Leip
Oermany. He found that if he
a wire hung in a bottle
filled with smoke the smoke rap
JUy cleared and left a deposit on
t&e sides and bottom of the bottle.
The discovery made no Impression on
the minds of scientific men and was
soon forgotten. Sixty years after
ward Sir Oliver Lodge, the English
physicist, re-discovered . the same
phenomenon, and in 1IM made it
public In a lecture before the Society
ox Chemical Industry "*
He urged that the prl
plied for smoke and fame ?
vJUnd the clearing of fo^
"Patents were taken out In Kngland
end several other countries by A, O.
/ Walker, who carried on experiments
frith the lead fumes at his smelter
h Wales. The electrlnal apparatus
then available, however, could not
meet the requirements of industrial
application, and the work had to be
abandoned.
^'During the next twenty years oc
casional attempts seem to have been
made here ana there to apply the
principle In a practical manner, but
apparently no permanent commercial
installation occurred. I had a slight
knowledge of "the work of Hohlfeld
and Lodge, and after making some
experiments of my own I became
convinced of the feasibility of pre
cipitating the suspended matter in
.gases and liquids by means of eleo
tricity.
"I would, if possible. Invent an ap
paratus for doing this. I said to myself,
as a side issue, thereby perhaps obtain
the few hundred dollars T required. The
result that followed may fairly be
described as the reduction to engi
neering practice of the fundamental
processes revealed to the world by
the splendid pioneer work of Sir
Oliver Lodge.
"Well, I spent the summer vaca
tion of 1905 in experimentation, and
at the suggestion of Dr. Harry East
Miller, a consulting chemist, set up a
laboratory in ?|an Francisco. Dr.
Miller, like myself, had graduated at
the University of California. He put
some money into the enterprise, and
X continued my college duties at
Berkeley.
"I would spend the mornings in our
San Francisco laboratory and teach
at the university in -the afternoon.
Then occurred the earthquake and
Are of 190f, and we lost all of our
equipment. Dr. Miller had gone as
far financially, with me as was prn
rent for himself, and so we were glad
when E. 8. Heller, also an alumnus
of the University of California, ex
pressed a desire to loin us. He was
a man of means and had strong bank
ing connections.
?"I have no extravagant habits.' he
said, 'and neither own a yacht nor a
ranch.'
"So we hailed him with delight and
gave him an interest. I worked five
years on the invention- and spent
about $20,000. There were many
difficulties and disappointments. Our
first practical test. It might be said,
was made at the du Pont Powder
FREDERICK G. COTTREIX*
A ekealat wit Is flgfctla* the Hum.
Works on San Francisco bar. where
we nsed the gases of sulphuric acid.
The experiments attracted the atten
tion of the Selby Smelting and Lead
Company, farther up the bay. Farm
ers whose property and crops bad
been damaged by the gases from
lead furnaces and roasters had begun
injunction proceedings against the
company.
"Invisible sulphur dioxide, sulphuric
acid, arsenic and lead salts from
three stacks were being poured over
the surrounding country. Our ma
chinery met the situation at this
plant, and appears to have been the
first commercially successful installa
tion of electrical precipitation ever
carried out.
"Slowly we made progress elsewhere,
and always we pointed to the stacks
of the Selby company as witness of
what could be done. Professionally I
was not an inventor. Nor had I an
ambition to be a manufacturer. 1 had
no desire to use in my own behalf the
process that I had developed. Dr.
Miller and Mr. Heller shared my feel*
ing in this matter.
"While studying: in Germany I had
observed the racier close relations that
existed between the small colleges
there and the business men of the
country. Professors, working: in ob
scure laboratories, often made dis
coveries of great value to the manu
facturing: industries. These discoveries
helped Germany at home and abroad,
and I believe that the same sort of
co-operation in this country between
science and business would be of equal
value to our people. But there were
dangers to be avoided. Our colleges
and universities, I thought, would not
be strengthened were they to be domi
nated or Influenced by business cor
porations or by certain industries.
"8ctence, as I saw the case, should
work in freedom and its discoveries
given to the public. In that way our
national development would be pro
moted and the workers in our college
and university laboratories would be
detached from all particular Interests.
"At first we thought that we would
turn our patents over to the Univer
sity of California. Later we decided
that some other and larger plan
would be better. So the subject was
brought to the attention of the Smith
sonian Institution, a really national or
ganisation, and after two years of de
liberation Its officers accepted our,
proposal.
"We had spent, as I said, about
$20,000. Our patents were on a paying
basis. The future was lull of promise.
On our part we asked that we be re
imbursed for our outlay and that the
money received for the use of the
patents be devoted to the carrying on
of the work of scientific research. A
corporation was organised by the
Smithsonian Institution. Eminent
men of business and of science agreed
to act as officers and directors. They
are administering the patents with
energy and ability and have already
accumulated a fund of more than
$200,000.
"The Smithsonian Institution,
through its Research Corporation, con
Alaska Helps Uncle Sam to Win the War
I a tnere a country In the whole
world not touched by the war?
As a nation It haa seemed nntll
lately that the real war tone was
'ap removed. Three thousand miles.
In the language of the street, la
?*ome distance." Add three thousand
more and. still more, visualise Alaska,
and the reader may well ask himself
If the Eskimos, the white bears and
the gold hunters have any part in
this war. The land of "Seward's
Folly" Indeed Is helping the United
States win the war.
The Department of Agriculture has
been experimenting up there for
years. Stations devoted to the rais
ing" of certain breeds of cattle, to cer
tain varieties of vegetables and other
things have been In operation, under
the direction of agricultural experts,
for a long time. Bat Alaska la three
weeks away from the Atlantic sea
board and agriculture In Norway or
Sweden or Scotland seems closer.
*
* *
Alaska, however, has a food conser
vation division all her own. She sent
a delegate from Juneau last Febru
ary to attend the conference of home
economics directors of various states
In Washington. This was Mrs. Allen
Shattuck, and the federal food ad
ministrator for the northern penin
sula Is R. A. Gunnison. There are no
agricultural schools In Mrs. 'ghat
tuck's part of the world, she says,
and only six teachers df domestic
science. Every woman In Alaska,
however, is a homemaker. - There are
ao apartments or hotels to mention,
and each household, large orfsmall.
Is a definite link, counting for juat
so much conservation of food.
With dwelling places sq, far apart,
this dose to fne Arctic circle, it Is
surprising that the next-door neigh
bor of 8iberia, the desolate, should
have systematized war work of any
kind. "States' rights" are not con
sidered, either, for food administra
tion In Alaska waits uponmOeral au
thority, then goes about its local
problems as it knows best to do.
Considering the small population, the
saving In food has been very large.
The gTeat diversity of the popula
tion, too, is said to add to the difficul
ties of the' situation. Explaining In
Eskimo, Russian,' Chinese, Japanese,
half-breed Bfeench and a. few other
languages, to say nothing of customs
among such polyglot people, Is like
going up against the Tower of Babel.
No complaint haa reached the office
in Juneau from any one person. Mrs.
Shattuck reports, adding that this
has proved to her that patriotism and
hnmanltarianlsm make a universal
appeal, whatever the type approacned.
?
* *
There are'* many woman workers,
volunteer* mostly, who go about tn
the awful cold of a land so far nortK
carrying the message of the United
States Food Administration from
door to door. Trains of the storied
Eskimo dogs, and now and then a
team of reindeer, flash across the
white wastes that lie between family
groups, and there Is always a wel
come waiting. Now that navigation
is opening up, the matter of food
conservation along the Yukon will
ha.ve no geographical limit.
Under date of June 8 the United
State* Food Administration supple
mented Information given a .few
days before on the subject. - This
Is a typewritten report on food con
servation from the library director
of Alaska, a title In Itself which
opens one's eyes a bit wider. Inci
dentally, some of these little li
braries or reading rooms are con
nected with saloons or poolrooms
in one community and adjacent to
church or lodge in another. Some of
the addresses to which the library
directors and the food bulletins
which have come from Washington
give an idea of the novel situation
the man from home would find
there. In the town of Ketchikan
Father Kern, Catholic Church; Mr. A.
Anderson, Friendly Inn, and the Deep
Sea Fishermen's Club receive leaflets
to distribute. At Vald*?z the Pinzon
Billiard Hall is chief distributer.
"Recently I have had distributed
by hand throughout Indian village
a quantity of pamphlets relating to
fish, dried vegetables and milk, writes
the library director to Mr. Hoover.
"The natives, so I understand, were
very glad to get leaflets. I believe
this direct way of reaching the
native is more effectual than mail
tervice.
*
* ?
"During the month of February, I
sent to all of the native schools a
variety of bulletins sent to me from
the food administration office here.
Mr. Hawkeworth, the superintendent
of education for the natives, gave me
a list of these schools and said he
thought it a splendid idea to send all
information on the subject of food
to these points. The native Indians
are much interested In all patriotic
effort and endeavor to do their share,
he added.
"From my desk here In. the library
many leaflets are distributed, and a
file Is kept of all bulletins, etc.. on
the subject of food, as issued from
Washington. Packages of all such
bulletins have been sent to various
reading rooms and libraries through
out Alaska. Pictures received last
week from the head offloe here have
been pasted upon a large screen and
are now attracting the attention of
the reading public, especially the
children. Through them the home is
reached.
"I find that the Department of
Agriculture bulletins and those from
the bureau of fisheries, dealing with
food and its preparation, are valuable.
Alaskans are, of course, particularly
interested in fish as a food and a
substitute."
. Mr. Gunnison, as state food di
rector, has made an especial appeal to
the children of his territory. He has
put these public letters in newspa
pers and other agencies of far-reach
Ing information. He has talked to
them in their own language and ac
cording to a child's: understanding
He has told them at^ntervals of the
development of the world war, and
that, though they are far away, much
farther than most Americans, the
United States is their country and
its Jfcpart and hands are full of the
sorrows of battle. -
He .makes them Appreciate the big
fhctor that Uncle Sam is in the war.
They have come to believe that the
food supply of our friends across the
war-stricken- Atlantic depends upon
what ?ach individual living under
the Starts And Stripes will dor In turn,
the parenls'are better reached.
*
* *
All school children or the territory
have signed loyalty pledge cards.
Juneau fell in, as a city with a single
idea, and made a nine-week campaign
for pledge cards. When it is learned
'that 1,400 cards in the vicinity of
that city were signed it doesn't sound
big .to us, who are so used to big
numbers in everything; but these
four figures covered nearly every
home there. Eighty-five thousand
meatless and 42,000 wheatless meals
Were reported during the nine,weeks.
The saving in sugar and fats was
exceptionally large. In other towns
of south eastern Alaska, out to the
westward and even in the far Interior,
these pledge-card campaigns have
been active.
Returns from local chairmen of
food-saving committees, covering a
canvass of the restaurants, cafes and
boarding houses in twelve of the lead,
ing towns of the territory, as to the
amount of meat, wheat and sugar
saved, come into Mr. Gunnison s of
fice. The inadequate mail service is
blamed for the irregularity of these
reports.
This office has sent out to all bak
ers and dealers in foodstuffs excerpts
from the President's proclamation in
the matter of commodity licensing.
Even mining and canning companies
which make bread for their men. and
who. in doing so. consume as much
as ten barrels of flour per month,
must apply for, and obtain, a license
direct from the United States Food
Administration in Washington. Every
effort is being made to prevent hoard
ing.
The maximum prices of raw salmon
in Alaska, and the Pacific coast gen
erally. were made public on May 21,
1918. This action was taken after the
United States Food Administration
had received the recommendations of
the federal food administrators of
Washington, Oregon and Alaska. A
reasonable profit was at the same
time assured the fishermen and fish
companies. It is hoped that another
year will find salmon cheaper to the
consumer.
*
a *
In canned salmon, which constitutes
the major part of the shipments from
Alaska;'jthere has been an Increase
of 14 per cent in three' years. During
the past year there was received from
Alaska a- total of 265.452.t07 pounds
of canned salmon. The greatest in
crease in shipments of sea food Is
seen in clams, which showed In 1917
a pack of little less than two mil
lion pounds an increase, this, of ?10
per cent over the previous year. A
large increase is shown in shipments
of pickled fish, which rose from 18,
849 barrels in 1916 to 27,9<4 barrels in
1917. Other substantial Increases are
shewn in canned herring and fresh
fish.
And now. In nowise related to fish,
nor -even particularly toothsome to
serve with fish, comes the' turnip as
a product of Alaska. Shall we hear
of turnip soup served in- the arctic
regions as well as In the prison camps
of Germany? The Department of Ag
riculture has experimented with many
vegetables among, the gold seekers
and the fishermen and round-faced
Indians of our most northern pos
session. Turnips, according to the
food administration, appear to stand
at the diead of the garden variety.
Who eats 'em? The United States
proper. And almost as many as in
1916 came sailing down the Pacific
coast last year for distribution
throughout the states.
Some little boy, more parrot than
thinker, might say in a school com
position that the turnip was a hardy
animal, not requiring much atten
tion. In this way there would be* a
relationship between a turnip and a
reindeer. And, at that, the United
States Food Administration talks of
them in the same breath. It says that
we hkve been eating reindeer meat.
Whether In veal loaf, hamburg balls
or restaurant croquettes, is not stated.
Nevertheless, almost 40,000 pivrads of
that animal of romance accompanied
the turnip peasantry to our iKrbors
last year.
A rain of dear steaks is constant,
but a reindeer steak is rare. Perhaps
they are in cold storage. Perhaps they
went to France, since Mr. Hoover's
office says that the large amount
shipped is explained largely by the
campaign for meat-saving in Alaska.
trol. the patents In all f
zbjsa
In Washington, Oregon, Cam
Arizona, Nevada and Idaho .Also in ^
control the applicationofth P ^
to the cement industry through
?In explaining the remarkably
selfish and unique action of Dr. <-?
trell and his associates the
Corporation recently said, "^n
an offer was made to tra??'?Ttlltioa
gift to the Smithsonian Institution
extensive rights In the CottreU P
ents covering the Processes Known
as the electrical precipitation of ra?
pended particles. In order that uie
profits resulting from the appjlcayfj*
of the patents, already well assnrea.
might be applied to
of scientific research and investiga
""Naturally." the corporation went on
to say. "this proposition was at once
recognized as both generous In spirit
and highly original in c?i??Dtlon.
The idea, which origlnated wlth Dr.
Cottrell. was to ren?"d'^?*e,^dts
ready made the mother of new ??
y. and thus contribute to the
scientific and technical development
of the Industrial arts. ??.nts
The profits derived from the patents
are to form "an endowment fund to
be used for the Intensive study, of
scientific and industrial nwdsand^to
provide the means, through the tern
in* of new discoveries and througa
study, investigation and expefomenta
tion, of applying such needs.
? * ,
Such. then, is the romantic story or
Dr. Cottrell's potboiler. The few
hundred dollars that he hoped to earn
never came into his possession. Dur
ing the years that he~ toiled over his
inventions he earned his livelihood by
teaching. And when wealth was at
hantt- be turned It away. The great
foundations of Rockefeller and Car
negie. In some respects, seem com
mon by comparison.
The precipitation process was first
in the cement industry at River
side. CaL Kilns of a large company
there were raining clouds of *tojj
and clay particles on fruit and
orange orchards in the vicinity. Li
gation was threatened. The com
pany spent $1,000,000 in the^ purehajis
of surrounding land and
ery to abate the nuisance. Practically
the money had been thrown away.
It cost the cement company
to install the Cottrell process, but ths
outlay resulted in the coilectionot
nearly 100 tons of dust a day-?oj
keeping that quantity of ll?J
clay out of the air?and of pacifying
the owners of fruit and orange troes.
And enough potash was obUUnej
from the dust to pay a large dividen?
on the money invested in the new
machinery.
Since then the process has been
adopted by many cement woitl in
other part of the country. n?tablyln
the east and owners of iron furnaces
are Sing it for the "tlllxatIon of
smoke and gases. The nonnal need
of this country is for a "J111""1???
of potash yearly. Before the war the
supply, as has been stated. c*me f ram
Germany. Iu. ,?P?ej;A.v'Uae 10
Oermam was $13,000,000^
The cotton crop depends on potasu.
and potash Is a ferulixer lor ?nany
other cropj. Since the auturn:
1914 this country, deprived ot ,he G"?
man supply, has been searching for
?votash deposits on the surfacc of th#
Srth a?Tbeneath it. Tlerear.
mountains of potash l^ed uP ^n
rocks, but the cost of extraction
makes Its use impossible.
Against a requirement of a million
ton! yearly the United States is now
producing about V7,?#
vested oft"the Pacific ,
varying from 50 to 120 ieeu i
cutting is done from schooners and is
a. laborious undertaking. .
Less than a thousand tons are ob
tained from ulunite, a Utah mineral
and the rest is made from the dust
5f cement mills and blast
Potash taken from the waters of sa
lino lakes in the west costs too much
successfully to compete with German
potash in times of P?ace Frel*hta
alone would shut it out of the domes
tlKi'S?rtksetiay that the only sources
for a cheap and permanent supply of
American potash seem to be the
iSfkUns and the iron furnaces.
?>m the dust of whl<*. b^.the Cot
tiui
ii,;-Extracted, as has been shown,
ErSe growing ofootton?
and cotton supplies the
t?nts and many other articles ana is
BMnnry in the manufacture of ex
?S& iST ta tbe^Beid and
wi&z a t#?sws
tateW of peace that
aritoSJne the CpttreUprocess wM
add immensely to the ?re*J3L_?
country. Dr. Charles H. FuJton the
metallurgist of Case School of Applied
Science, says that it h" ^IJje^Sant
at the Great Falls copper plant
tatt? westthat the dailyk-s there
in dust has amounted l? ?iejpest to
3 775 pounds of copper, 108 ouuoes of
silver and seven-tenths of an ounce of ^
g?vThere are many smelters in the
SSSJa."!? BEST'S
mnira three torus of concentrated sin
SS?rtc add and six of superphosphate
& Th acid is not only thrown
nwav but it does immense damages^*
the surroundIng country by getting Into
^The^wairte in metallurgical smoke-?
which means gases, vapors and fine dust
?that issues from blast, smelting a**d
roasting furnaces runs into hundre<*?
of millions in money. To preY?nL??J5
waste was the real problem to which
-j-w pottrell addressed himself when he
?t town wi?h hi. pot-boiler. Allthat
he saw at the time, however, was a.
?moke and vapor nuisance. Soon his
vision was enlarged and thence
he tolled with a true altruistic purpose.
(Copyright, 1918, bj Jsaes B. Horrow.)