Abstract
THE National Research Council recently organised a five-day, 2,000-mile tour of industrial research laboratories for fifty-two leading business men. Science Service, of Washington, D.C., gives an account of their visit to the laboratories of the Gulf Refining Company and the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research. Dr. Paul Foote, director of the former concern, described how explosions of dynamite are used to send sound waves to a depth of 10,000 ft. into the earth where they encounter rock structures and are reflected; by their speed, reflecting and refracting behaviour they indicate the nature of the underlying deposits. He was also able to show the visitors a collection of new chemicals derived from oil products, some of which have powerful destructive qualities. Dr. E. R. Weidlein, director of the Mellon Institute, pointed out that employment had been provided there for 97 trained scientific workers and 48 assistants during the last year. Their work concerned chiefly industrial problems of manufacture, but had included specifically research into the use of carbon black as a colouring material for concrete highways to minimise the glare of lights, the use of chemical metaphosphate in laundering and the bonding of tile products to steel for exterior construction use.
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Oil-Finding Methods and Oil-Made Chemicals. Nature 137, 310 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137310b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137310b0