SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 35, 10 February 1926, Page 11

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

AUSTRALIAN EXPERIMENTS

SILK FROM WOOD PULP

NITEOGEN FEOM AIR.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, sth February,

This is the day when science is linked with industry to secure the maximum of production and the proper harnessing of natural resources to serve the needs of man. There is increasing evidence of recognition of this fact in Australia. The recent announcement of the manufacture of sniafll, the artificial wool that is expected to supplant the lower grades of natural wool, or at least complement the higher grades, brings emphasis to bear on the subject in this land where King Merino is the barometer of national prosperity. Although experts are fairly unanimous that sniafll will never damage the prestige of Australia as a wool-produc.ing country, underlying all their opinions is an undercurrent of belief that the position of low-er-class wools might suffer. We in Sydney have had actual opportunity of examining sniafil, a parcel having recently been landed.' A sample has been submitted to microscopic examination by Government scientists. This examination showed that though the fibres did not possess the characteristic features of wool, their general appearance indicated that they might be suitable for use in the textile industry by the same processes as those used for natural wool. Another interesting report released by the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry detail steps whi.h have been taken in this country to try out the suitability of wood pulp made from Australian timbers for the manufacture of artificial silk. By a modification of the sulphite process for making wood pulp for paper manufacture an officer of the Institute has proved that a remarkably good pulp for artificial silk can be produced from the light eucalyptus timbers of South-east-ern Australia. A quantity of this pulp is being prepared for dispatch to England in order to have experiments carried out to ascertain its suitability. Artificial (ilk firms in England have already been communicated with, and establishment of the industry here is not •beyond the possibility of achievement. LIQUEFACTION OF AIR. Another instance of the part science is playing in industry is afforded by the announcement that a factory is to be shortly established in Sydney for the liquefaction of air and the manufacture therefrom of nitrogen. From this, compounds; chiefly ammonia and nitric acid will be obtained. Nitrogen compounds play a vital part in the needs of agriculture, and the company with the Sydney project in hand has secured the Australian rights of German processes for the economic extraction of nitrogen from the air. These processes were perfected during the war, and enabled Germany to secure supplies of fixed nitrogen otherwise denied her by Britain's blockade. Combined nitrogen is a constituent of some of the most important chemical «ompounds in nature and industry. In addition to its functions in plant fer- j tilisation, it is a constituent of explos-1 ives, enters into the composition of numerous dyes and drugs, and has many other fields of application. The Sydney company has already purchased its land, and the first unit of the factory is expected to employ 3000 persons. The scientists in Australia are fighting their battle on a wide front; not "Only in' the secondary indui v.ries, but also in the primary industries. A continual battle is being waged, for instance, against the prickly pear that has already engulfed millions of acres of land; against the .bunchy-top distase in bananas that threatens to strangle that industry; against the blow-fly that kills thousands of sheep yearly; against plant diseases. They are harnessing our waters for electricity and irrigation purposes. In a hundred and one ways, Australia is benefiting by their work, and though perhaps the value of that work has not been fully recognised by the Governmental authorities, there at least has been some encouragement from these and the public too to enable' scientists, commerce, and agriculture^ to link forces in this country's march to prosperity.