The Bay of Plenty Times FRIDAY, MAY 3rd, 1940 WOOL-LIKE FIBRE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 13026, 3 May 1940, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Times FRIDAY, MAY 3rd, 1940 WOOL-LIKE FIBRE

It is reported from New York that the firm of E. T. dn Pont de Xemours, Incorporated, 3ms announced a patent covering- the production and processing: of a crimped wool-like fibre made of nylon. It is stated that the process creates ten crimps to an inch which approaches wool crimp for retentiveness and insulation of heat. Immediate; production of the fibre is not intended. It is further announced from England that a Mr Hall of Nottingham, has invented a process which makes wool unshrinkable, and what is more, a big firm has bought the invention a;ul intends to use it. Mr Hall is undoubtedly lucky, for most inventors don’t get past the front door commissionaire. Mr Hall’s invention is not really new, for it was first patented in 1884, and is probably an improvement on the earlier invention. But the hard-readed business men of the eighties dismissed it as a cranky dream. It takes about twenty-five years for most inventors to get out of the laboratory on to the mass market. *lt is said that every • new idea goes through three stages. First of all people say it is absurd, then they say there is no money in it, and finally they say they knew it all along.' Any man whose ideas are out of step with the times is a crank. We laugh at them, and mostly we are right to laugh. But every so often we are absolutely wrong. What is one to think of a man who is spending a large proportion of his personal fortune on finding out why grass is green. But this is something more than crank curiosity. It is in fact! the most important research problem in the world to-day. That is the considered opinion of Charles F. Kettering, the famous American inventor, who has spent much of his time and money on organising the research. When we know why grass is green, we shall know how grass captures and stores energy from the sun’s rays. This stored-up energy produces all the heat and power we get from coal, wood and oil. If we knew the secret we could tap the energy of the sun’s rays direct, and the Sahara might well become a green, fertile .land. It sounds crazy, but so did the aeroplane and the submarine. The first umbrellas were Apposed as attempts to interfere with God’s word that rain should fall on us. It took years to interest business men in installing the telephone. Some'iyears later a group of -promoters in the telephon'e business had' a new invention, the gramophone, demonstrated to them. They* turned it down as being worthless'. Patience is an essential qualification of an inventor,, and so is courage. Edison once said that every man who develops an idea works it up to a point where it looks impossible, and then 'becomes discouraged. That is the time for patience and courage. In view of the latest attack of the inventor on wool, well might the woolgrowers feel concerned. THOUGHT FOR THE DAY ' A man cannot have an idea of perfection in another which he was never sensible of in himself.—Steele.