HELIUM GAS FROM THE AIR

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 16 January 1926, Page 11

HELIUM GAS FROM THE AIR

/ANE more of the great secrets of nature lias been successfully probed by British scientists and exploited by a British firm. For the first time —ex-eept, perhaps, in the laboratory of men like Sir William Ramsay—the British Oxygen Company, at their North Wembley works, claim to have extracted pure helium from the air. The company has employed a power engine, with a flywheel of huge dimensions, sucking in the atmosphere, to be afterwards separated into its various gases. Helium is regarded as the one nonflammable gas available for inflation of dirigibles. It is said that one might place a lighted match m a volume of it and the flame would be extinguished. “We have not got very far,” one. cf the British Oxygen Company’s representatives told The Daily Chronicle. "It is really a by-product of our work at Wembley, where we extract five different gases from the air—oxv- ‘ gen, nitrogen, argon, neon .and helium. The helium we obtain is 95 per cent, pure.,, "A mixture of neon and helium is withdrawn from the main oxygc.i plant, and separated in special apparatus, concerning which, of course, we an not anxious to give much information.

TRIUMPH FOR BRITISH FIRM

"The known uses of helium, iu addition to inflation of airships, are at present few. Recently it has been employed in diving operations, as noticed in The Daily Chronicle. A mixture of helium and oxygen is preferable to air for breathing at great depths, while danger from wnat is known as caisson sickness is loss serious. "A commercial use has been found for the other rare gases we arc getting from the air. Neon is being increasingly used in ‘glow’ lamps, in which the gas itself becomes luminescent. Examples of the beautiful and attractive glow from which they are named may be seen in Piccadilly and many parts of London, where the newest signs are used. "The light from what is known as the Neon Tube can be seen at great distances, indeed it is said to be visible at a distance of 40 miles.

"It is also capa..-~ of greater penetration through fogs than any other form of light, and is being installed in lighthouses along the English Channel. At Croydon aerodrome neon lights are placed in glass-covered trenches in the ground to help aeroplanes to land safely in foggy weather.” The United States and Canada have I the only considerable supply of helium I which is produced from natural gas.