The Romance of Chemistry 739 



chemical element, it is wholly indifferent to them all. This means 

 that helium cannot be burned. In this connection a curious story 

 is told. It is the next lightest gas to hydrogen, and unlike hydro- 

 gen it is non-inflammable. In the late war the belligerents 

 anxiously searched for a gas to fill airships which would be light 

 and non-inflammable. The great drawback to the German Zep- 

 pelins was that they were filled with the highly inflammable hydro- 

 gen. The Allies made a discovery, thanks to a wide-awake 

 enthusiast who suggested helium, but helium was enormously 

 expensive to produce. However, there are in Texas certain 

 gas wells which yield helium. Large plants were constructed 

 with haste to recover helium from the natural gas by means of 

 liquefaction, with successful results. Mr. C. G. Abbot tells the 

 sequel : 



The matter was, however, kept a well-guarded secret. Even 

 the name was hidden. Photographs of the plant taken were 

 labelled "argon" manufactories. The idea was spread that 

 the purpose of the experiments was to produce a new variety 

 of poisonous gas for warfare, or perhaps a special variety of 

 gasoline for use in airplanes. All sorts of camouflage were 

 adopted to prevent the enemy from learning the true pur- 

 pose of the experiments. So far had the work progressed 

 that at the time the Armistice was signed a consignment of 

 150,000 cubic feet of helium was on the dock at New York, 

 waiting to be sent to France to be used by the Allies for 

 their balloons. Plans were on foot for increasing the output 

 of helium enormously, so that it is probable that had the war 

 lasted until the summer of 1919 the Allies could have em- 

 ployed helium gas for observation balloons and for Zeppelins 

 with entire immunity from all possibility that they could be 

 shot down with incendiary bullets. 



This may serve as a final diagrammatic instance of the end- 

 less ways ever increasing in subtlety in which the chemical 

 world intersects that of human life, both in its heights and in its 

 depths. 



