INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23739, 10 September 1942, Page 6

INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE

TECHNICAL PROGRESS DURING WAR (Hec. 8 p.m.) NEW YORK. Sept. 8. "The fantastic progress of science under war pressure has made the world of 1940 already an antiquity,” said Dr. Charles Stine, in an address to the American Chemical Society. He said the war was compressing into months developments which otherwise would take half a century. “So much progress has been made under war pressure to create better fuels for aeroplanes,” he said, “that petroleum chemists now see all existing motors being outmoded, for fuels can now be made beyond the octane scales. Post-war cars will have half the present weight, while new fuels will yield 50 miles.-to the gallon. “When the war is won we shall have 10 to 100 times more than we had-be-fore in new materials. be available beyond all previous-**?®-' ceptions. New fertilisers of unprecedented power will entirely change trends of agriculture. The high pressure synthesis of ammonia will take on an industrial status in terms of producing capacity, comparable to the discovery 1 of a sixth continent. “Pre-war wonders such as hosiery derived from air. coal, and water, are only the forerunner of sensational innovations already possible—for example, better shoes not containing leather, complete machines not containing metal, and unbreakable glass that will float—while astounding wartime progress in medicine might ultimately outweigh even the most staggering war losses.”