A "SCARLET PIMPERNEL"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 30, 4 August 1923, Page 14

A "SCARLET PIMPERNEL"

INVENTOR WHO BLUFFED

FRENCH TROOPS.

A scientific romance of the Ruhr is revealed by Mrs. Philip Snowdeu in a letter to the "Daily Chronicle." It concerns an invention by a German chemist—Dr. Hermann Wolf—by which the yield of benzine and motor petrol from raw oils is doubled. This invention, it is understood, is to be exDloited by a British firm which has recently purchased the Munitions Ministry's explosive store and refining plant near Chester. ' How the invention was narrowly saved from seizure by the French is told by Mrs. Snowden :—

"So romantic has been the incident" she says, "and so elusive, that the inventor might well be called the Scien- ™ ,1iJ IVP e, rnel- From 1914 onwards Dr. \\olt had his apparatus installed, and was working towards its perfection, at Neuss, on the left bank of the Rhine. Owing to the exigencies of the war he was unable to obtain raw oil, so work was retarded until recently. Soon after this difficulty was overcome, however, a more formidable one sprang up in its place. The sudden appearance of the 1-reach troops on the hills outside the town necessitated its instant dismantling. This was carried out successfully, but not without recourse to ruse. In order to persuade the French troops to forego seizure or destruction it was deemed necessary to persuade them that the plant was nothing more interesting, or leas like a war machine, than a bootblacking manufacturing apparatus. A transfer to Dusseldoff followed; Unfortunately the French followed also. More inquiries ensued, more investigations, more suspicion, and eventually, under cover of the same tale, Dr. Wolf spirited his invention into the quiet of the Hinterland away from French interference. If the French had not been deceived in this matter, this invention would have been lost, and the enormous potential benefits to industry with it. Is not the conclusion signification?"