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Colonist, Volume LXII, Issue 15238, 27 November 1919, Page 3

\ retired police constable named Patrick Stackpole committed suicide- the other day by cutting his throat with a razor, lie had been subject to hts ot depression.

Authorities on aeronautics predict that the use of the gas helium, which is very bouyant and non-innamma'bie, will revolutionise aerial navigation and assist in the realisation of transatlantic (light by dirigibles. Production of tins substance was once so expensive that its general use was prohibitive. Two processes for reducing the cost of manufacture have recently been perfected, but the method employed by i)r Cottrell is said to be even cheaper. In announcing his discovery, Dr Cottrell said in part: "■'i new process for tne producing of the gas helium in large quantities from the atmosphere, which is about to have its practical production test, opens up vast possibilities for metallurgy and allied industries. If it fulfils anticipations-its significance is far wider than the derivation of helium, useful as that hitherto rare gas may prove in aeronautics. U i« baled on the distillation of liquid an, and is connected with the recovery of ctie other gases which constitute the medium we breathe. It would, for instance, place vast quantities of oxygen at th«. disposition of manufacturers and of producers of copper, iron, and steel, lake the smelting industry alone. We now concentrate everything that goes into the furnace, such as coke ore, and fluxes, except the oxygen This we add 'with four times its vohime of aneit nitrogen. Thus we undo siica of the i effect of the concentration of the other I constituents. 'If wo could use pure cw«en, or at least a more concentrated air, a great saving could 'be effected, and avo could do in .combustion -furnaces; much that is now only possible m the olec trie1 far nace."