196 Miracles Ahead! 



Owens-Corning-Fiberglas has developed a glass thread for 

 surgical sutures. This suture is stronger than silk and avoids 

 the danger of infections sometimes caused by catgut and by 

 silk. Then, too, there is a fibrous glass tape used to strain for- 

 eign matter from blood plasma. 



Optical glass has given us "eyes" to see stars billions of 

 miles away, and the minute germs and other organisms all 

 about us. The full story of the manufacture of optical glass 

 for military purposes cannot be told now. Bausch & Lomb 

 and the other optical manufacturers have blasted the myth of 

 German superiority in precision optical instruments. The 

 efficiency of American range finders, detection devices, and 

 aerial cameras has been greatly increased. Furthermore, in- 

 struments that once were produced by hand now are turned 

 out by mass-production methods to tolerances as fine as a 

 ten-thousandth of an inch. 



Many newcomers have been producing optical instruments 

 for the Army and Navy. Among them aic Westinghouse, 

 Mergenthaler Linotype, Nash-Kelvinator, and Minneapolis- 

 Honeywell. 



"One of the examples in American development cited by 

 Minneapolis engineers," said the New York World-Telegram, 

 "is the control of humidity. One bottleneck in the production 

 of fine optical ware was the effect of humidity on glass, 

 which on inclement days sometimes halted production com- 

 pletely. . . . 



"An engineering study was made of water and glass, and 

 it was discovered that glass is hydroscopic, meaning it ab- 

 sorbed moisture and exuded it, depending on the humidity. 

 When humidity fell the water oozed out and deposited par- 

 ticles of soluble salts which made the glass sticky. Rising 

 humidity kept the water in the glass. After that the solution 

 was simple. The company controlled the humidity to permit 

 uninterrupted production." 



