CHEMICAL TREASURE TROVE 



heat) and as chemical raw materials, are here in bounti- 

 ful supply. They are undoubtedly the strongest magnets 

 drawing chemical enterprises to the Gulf Coast area. 

 And quite recently this attraction has been made 

 stronger. 



A little cousin of the atom-smashing technique be- 

 hind the atomic bomb has appeared in Texas. For the 

 maker of chemicals it packs similar revolutionary ideas. 

 That same Professor Schoch who wants to see chemical 

 values established for natural gas has been subjecting 

 hydrocarbon gases to electrical discharges. He has per- 

 fected a process for turning methane into acetylene 

 which may blast the way to an entirely new kind of 

 chemical operation. 



Some chemicals react spontaneously. A bit of zinc 

 metal dropped into sulfuric acid fizzes like an opened 

 bottle of soda. Heat promotes reaction among more 

 stubborn molecules. Changes in pressure, greater or less, 

 also assist. For years these have been standard tools of 

 the chemical maker. More recently, catalysts, which 

 stimulate reactions but do not enter into them, have 

 been very useful, and an electric current passed through 

 a liquid or solution is the base of the flourishing electro- 

 chemical industry. Bombarding gases with electrical 

 charges is the newest idea in molecule making. 



In two of the big petroleum companies' laboratories, 

 men are rigging up tubes of various sizes and shapes, 

 filling them with different hydrocarbon gases, pelting 



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