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Show Lightweight Helium Has Little Commercial Value Practical commercial utility of the "lightweight" helium discovered in the air by University of California Califor-nia scientists remains extremely doubtful, the scientists have reported. report-ed. Dr. Luis W. Alvarez, assistant professor of physics, who, with Robert Rob-ert Cornog, graduate student from Denver, detected suhmicroscopic quantities of the lightweight helium in ordinary air, reported the discovery dis-covery is considered important to the science of physics, but its pos-rible pos-rible use in commercial form, such as in lighter than air craft, is very much in doubt. Reason why the commercial utility util-ity of lightweight helium is extremely extreme-ly doubtful is that no method has yet been devised to extract any type of helium from the air in usable commercial quantities. The scientists made their discovery discov-ery with the aid of the university's 225-ton atom smashing cyclotron. The United States has a monopoly monop-oly on heavy helium which has a lifting power 92.3 per cent that of hydrogen, the lightest known gas. |