Great Discovery.

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXIII, Issue 3249, 6 February 1933, Page 6

Great Discovery.

Oil KM I CAL WHICH PREVENTS G BOUND FROM FREEZING. A remarkable discovery of the highest importance to all outdoor winter pastimes, and also to cities after heavy falls of snow, lias been made by Mr .1. Halbert, a chemist, of Whitley Bay, N orthumberlaml. Mr Halbert hsa produced a chemical which will not only prevent the ground from freezing, but will also take the frost out of it as well as , cause snow to molt in a few minutes. He claims, in fact, that lie can (dear a thoroughfare of snow in a quarter ( of nu hour, and that in the event of ; subsequent frost it will not freeze within three days. Kilfrost is the name which Mr Hal--I,ert Ims given to his magical fluid, I and it has been put to an exhaustive lest by an ice-manufacturing company in London. Two pieces of turf two inches thick : were put in an i< - e chamber registering ! ;ui degrees of frost. One was in its ; natural state, and the other was treat- ! cd with Kilfrost. At the end of 2:1 hours the untreated piece of turf was as hard as marble, whereas the piece which had been sprinkled with the chemical was as soft as when it was dug fr»m the ground. ; The turf which had been frozen was thou treated with the chemical and exi posed to 22 degrees of frost; in three I hours it was back to its normal state. | The second teat was of great aignifij cance, for it proved that a football I ground or racecourse which had be--1 come frozen could be thawed in a few j hours. i A block oT ice in a bottle with the temperature 27 degrees became liquid in two hours, and a bucket of snow in the same temperature melted in a quarto:’ or an hour. Mr Halbert stated that the cost of thawing a full-sized football giound would not exceed 5125. Toe work could be circled on the morning of a match, and the turf would not freeze again for at least seven days. Mr Halbert was a student of mining engineering at Armstrong College, Nowcast if. He started to experiment with a view of taking frost out of the gronn.l Ihr.m years ago, after having noticed how the erosion of rocks or. the Northumberland coast was hastened by the action of the frost. “I could never have carried out my experiments and succeeded without the encouragement and wonderful help of my wife,” air Halbert said. <‘ On me occasion it was necessary to watch the action going on in 80 test tuber* f t the same time, fomenting l wanted to find out would t,ake place in me of them, but I did net know whi *h one. “The experiment had to go an. for SO hours, and unless it were noted instantly the experiment would fail. “I was worn out and had to go to bed, but my wife, with wonderful courage and faith in my work, kept watch, and what we expected occurred in the 73rd. test tube. “Just before this important experiment, our boy, aged 14, had noon killed in a street accident, but despite the grief which this caused us. my wife helped me in all my work.”