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Show BROMINE AT LAST GETS ITS REVENGE Once Defamed Chemical Comes Into Its Own. Washington. The Ethyl has gonn down to sea for automobiles. The Ethyl Is a specially constructed shin for robbing sea water of bromine. "Bromine, In the last few years, has been getting revenge for defamation of character," says a bulletin from the National Geographic society from Its headquarters In Washington. "In 1906 a popular author divided all people into two kinds, bromides and sulphites. The sulphites, transferring trans-ferring chemical character to men. were the effervescent, eager, bright, original sort; the 'Illuminati.' The bromides were the conservatives, the mild bores, people who were always saying the same things In the same old way. "Most people are formally introduced intro-duced .to bromine, the element which forms a part of all bromides. In their high school days, and they remember It as a distinctly unpleasant smelling, dark brown, heavy liquid that gives off nn ugly brown gas readily. "How little does the world know its chemicals! In less than ten years bromine stepped out of the role assigned as-signed It. 'Mild, conservative, meek,' bromine was one of the first poisonous poison-ous gases used in the World war. Bromine Bro-mine made civilization gasp in horror. And by a still more recent feat of chemical acrobatics bromine has taken to serving automobile engines. The Ethyl has gone for bromine to help In the making of an 'antiknock' aid. While It does not enter Into the compound com-pound used, It has a finger in the fuel for those explosions which make it possible to describe an automobile engine en-gine as 'a Gatling gun firing 9,000 shots per minute.' High Seas a Producing Area. "The entrance of the 'high seas' In the bromine market divides the production pro-duction between three major sources. The United States and Germany have been the chief producers. The Ethyl, which has been transformed into a floating chemical laboratory, is prepared pre-pared to treat 7,000 gallons of water per minute. So small Is the bromine content that this large amount of water wa-ter will only yield between four and five pounds of bromine. Chlorine is employed to treat the water and the extraction process is fairly simple. The chlorine can be used over and over again. "The Ethyl Is sent to sea because of the Impurities that might occur In shore waters. A further reason suggested sug-gested Is that water taken from the ocean at a great depth contains chemicals chem-icals more highly concentrated and therefore with more bromine. "Bromine Is now obtained chiefly from Michigan and from Stassfurt, Germany. Michigan and Strnssfurt hnppen to be the sites of large salt deposits and with the salt are other chemicals, such as iodine, bromine and potassium. , "In these deposits world history Is salted down and preserved for our knowledge. It Is possible to reconstruct recon-struct prehistoric geography from an exploration of the extent of the beds and the strata recorded in rock salt. At some distont time a great area of the Prussian plain wa3 a bay of the ocean. It was a bay like some of those found today on the east shore of the Caspian sea where a shallow depression is practically cut off by a sand bar. Drawing the necessary water wa-ter from the Caspian sen these bays crystallize tons upon tons of salt annually, an-nually, gradually filling themselves up. When salt crystallizes a mother liquor of other minerals, highly concentrated, con-centrated, remains. If the feeder channel is deep this Is drawn off as lighter water (lows in. But If the stopper Is firm In nature's huge crystallization crys-tallization vat, the mother liquors themselves crystallize out and leave Iodine, bromine, potassium and other substances.. "In places the salt deposits in the Strnssfurt region are nearly 4,000 feet thick. It is estimated that at least 3,000 years were required for such a leposit. A basin of normal sea water would have to be 30 miles deep to form such n deposit, so It is cerlnin that north Germany was once the site of a Caspian sea or a Dead sea. In Medicine and Photography. "Ilromine Is extracted from the mother liquor after the salt Is taken out of the brine from the deposit. The process Is simple chemically, but the percentage of bromine Is so small that t tip price has long been high. "In medicine and in photography bromine fulfills the part given It by the humorist. Certain bromides are considered excellent sedatives. In the dark room bromides hold back the silver sil-ver salts in the emulsions on paper and fllm-s which are as sensitive to light as the eye of a bat. Bromine Is also important to. the dye industry. "But It Is hard to deny the irony of bromides In their newest roles of speeding enemies to destruction and speeding up automobile engines." |