WAR EXPLOSIVE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16806, 20 November 1928, Page 10

WAR EXPLOSIVE

NOW PAINTS CAR CHEMISTS' ACHIEVEMENT How the chemists, bending ovei" their reports and lest tubus, have brought about sayitigs of hundreds of millions of dollars its the result of (he perfecting of a single industrial process has just, been recounted at the annual meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry here.

Iri addition to this saving, it was said. the eh Wilis! Jias idso rewritten the familiar story of "beating swords into plowshares." 'Die modern industi'ial version is that of "chapging gun pbvt'der into paint.'' Without the pro cess that has made this possible, fchn chemists declare, the automobile industry could not have attained its present proportion* of volume production.

The chemical around which this research centred is called cellulose nitrate. How it nas developed as a basis for the new lacquer finishes used in motor cars, furniture and "for other purposes was explained in a technical paper delivered before the Anglo-American chemical group by A'l. J. Callahan, chemical superintendent of the I'hrlin (N..T.) plant of E. J. du Ponl do Nomours and Co. "It can be safely, slated."' Mr. Callahan said, "thai (he tremendous mass production of automobiles in the types of body design that have prevailed over the! last Hive years would have been prar•ticaUy impossible under the older systems '-of painting bodies/'

The Use of lacquer finishes on automobiles alone, he pointed out, has reduced the time required to complete the painting of one car from seven or nine days to two days. Plant capacity, his figures show, has been doubled, while the actual number of hours of labor required to finish one body has been reduced from 336 to 13.5. The savings to the general public and the purchasers of automobiles has aggregated fully £5,000,000 a year because of the wearing qualities of the new lacquer finishes and the fact that it. is now necessary to repaint 400.000 fewer motor cars each year. Mr. Callahan oiled examples of one automobile concern which saved a capital investment of £200,000 through adopting the lacquer process of body finishing, while a calculating machine concern saved £2OOO a year through eliminating the delays occasioned by older methods. Current inveslment in the manufacture of lacquers has grown from £2.000,000 in 1910 to more than £10,000,000; "A factor of chemical importance, was the after-war presence of tremendous quantities of cellulose nitrate in the form of smokeless cannon powder," lie explained "In surb form it was of no economic value to ,the country and its storage and maintenance provided a hazard and a constant burden of expense to the (lovorrmient. "This was a challenge to the chemist which was accepted, and methods of recovering and utilising the cellulose nitrate of the smokeless cannon powder were worked out, further assuring the lacquer industry of available' aiid cheap sources of supply of a basic raw I material," j