EFFECT OF PRESSURE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 80, 5 April 1938, Page 11

EFFECT OF PRESSURE

From the land'of perpetual See and snow, where as second in command to Admiral Byrd he supervised research work of the second expedition, Dr. Thomas C. Poulter, now director of re.search at Armour Institute of Technology, is advancing towards the heart of a realm where tremendous pressures hold 'sway. So far, Dr. Poulter has succeeded in building a great press with which he can. produce 1,500,000 pounds per square inch. At this pressure, duplicated on earth only in laboratories at Harvard University and elsewhere at depths of several hundred miles. beneath the earth's surface, matter is changed to forms never before witnessed by men. A .tiny dab of graphite, for instance, a form of carbon valuable for lubrication, is worse than useless in its usual capacity under such pressure, for it becomes harder than a diamond. In fact it will scratch steel. Ice compressed as no Antarctic ice will ever be ' through natural sources, becomes so hot it cannot be held in the hand without burning the holder. Dr. Poulter seeks new worlds to conquer—right in ; Chicago. '