"SUBSTITUTE" SHIP

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 89, 9 November 1939, Page 2

"SUBSTITUTE" SHIP

UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN JAPAN DEVELOPMENT OF SYNTHETIC MATERIALS Coal and lime are now being used to produce "cotton" and "wool." This is the latest advance developed by research workers into substitutes. These latest substitutes may replace the So-called "cotton" and "wool" now made from vegetables and dried milk, says the Christian Science Monitor. Even so European chemists are not so advanced in the theory and practice of improving on nature as some of those in the Orient. Japan is making wool from the seaweed with which its coasts are plentifully supplied. The Toha Artificial Fibre Company of Tokyo turns out five tons of artificial wool a day made from seaweed. The Japanese indeed seem to specialise in what might appear to be far-fetching substitutes. A leather is being made in Japan from human hair and the plastic material called: bakelite. Leather is also made from the skin of whales, sharks, and salmon. During 1938 Japan made 15,000,000 yards of synthetic leather iin addition to 50 tons from whale skin, 1,000,000 sheets from shark I skins, and 300,000 yards from salmon skins. Denmark is another country producing "fish" leather . A 13,000i-ton Japanese ship for a round-the-world service is now under construction which will have no steel except for the hull and the engine room. The pipes will be of plastics, and all other articles normally made' of metal will be of wood or glass. Textiles will replace leather and linoleum will serve instead of rubber. Substitutes for Gasoline A motor fuel made in Japan from fish oil and a chemical compound is said to be 90 per cent, as efficient as gasoline; using this oil, cars have reached a top speed of 44 miles an hour. Japan, as also Germany and Italy among others, is using charcoal as a substitute for petrol. Japan claims to have invented a process for making a new type of charcoal not only cheaper than ordinary charcoal but having a higher burning and heating content. This| is achieved by treating dried! branches of trees with a chemical compound and the resultant material starts an engine running within seven minutes as compared with the 17 minutes wait required for ordinary charcoal. Leaves from resinous trees are being dissolved in ether and then distilled out as fuel. Substitutes for gasoline of all kinds are of course being sought by countries lacking an oil supply and by those the source of whose supply might be difficult to reach in time of war. Oil is being obtained not only from coal, but from heather root and potatoes, and motor-cars are being driven by gas as well as charcoal. The latest development In this field is the transforming of liquid ammonia into a mixture of ammonia and hydrogen for use in the conventional type of gasoline engine. A substitute for the linoleum, which the Japanese are using, where possible in place of rubber on the "substitute" ship, has exercised German ingenuity. Linoleum is nor-

mally made of cork, jute, linseed oil, and colophony which have to be imported. All these needs are now said to be satisfactorily met by substitutes. Colophony, a natural material for linoleum, is like shellac, a natural type of resin required not only for manufacturing purposes, but as an insulating material in electrical engineering. Typewriter Made of Resin , German chemists and others have made great strides in the provision of many types of artificial resins, some of great hardness and durability! Synthetic resin ball bearings are being used instead of steel ball bearings. They are claimed not only to last longer but to need only water as a lubricant instead of the oil required by metal bearings. At the Leipzig Fair a portable typewriter made entirely of resins was on 'show; it was three inches high and weighed eight pounds. Resins run through a whole range from extremely hard to extremely soft. The newest is so flexible that in the form of tubing, useful for passing oils, it can be easily tied in knots. The international trade in these artificial resins is growing rapidly and prices are declining. Exports of the world's five leading producers—Germany, the United States, Great Britain, Belgium, and France —were worth £4,500,000 last year. In 1929 Germany supplied more than half the world's total exports, last year the share was only 30 per cent, and that of the United States not very much less. Germany's production of synthetic resins is now round 50,000 tons a yeari the chief aim being to use them as substitutes for various types of metal which have to be imported. Tons of Sugar From Wood In the realm of "personal" requirements, cleaning and? washing materials, without any appreciable amount of fat or oil, are available on the German market. So far 15,000 tons of sugar produced from many types of wood are also made available each year, but being a simple sugar it is mixed with feed for animals and is not yet offered at the table. Synthetic foods are not as far advanced as synthetic materials, though there is no knowing what surprises may be in store in this direction. In Germany attention is being given to using what would normally be regarded as unusable or waste materials. Thus vegetable plankton, the minute sea flora and fauna, on which fish feed, is regarded as having a good nutritive value for human beings and being an excellent cattle fodder. German natural scientists are now trying to find out the best way of harvesting plankton from the sea. With the German cry for "no waste," horses are being fed on cocoa pods, grape skins, grape pips, tomato skins, bran-siftings and by-products from the brewing of beer.