OCR Text |
Show UNIVERSAL SOLVENT LS NEARLY ATTAINED LINCOLN Nb.. Mar j New prop-crtlos prop-crtlos of a liquid described before the students f the department of chem- iH Istry of tho Unlvcralty of Nebraska. siiow that it almost realizes the dream of the alchemists of old who sought the universal solvent. As described by Dr. Victor Lenher, professor of chemistry at the Unlver-aity Unlver-aity of Wisconsin, who has come here 10 deliver a sirlcn of nddrcaaes on the subject, further tests have shown that selenium oxy chloride, as the aolvent is called, la more powerful oven than u 1, Indicated In hla prelim la ary an-rtouncamtnt an-rtouncamtnt mad before the Amerl-can Amerl-can chemical society. H it dbuolvea rubber, gluea. enamels. hydrocarbons and many other aub-stances aub-stances which hitherto have bMP re-'.in re-'.in t to all he tn 1-cal 1-cal agencies except fire. H Such products as redmanol. hake-lit-, and coiidciiife. which arc used us substitutes for amber In the making of tobacco pipes and for many othor industrial purposes and have been until now regarded as insoluble in all rH known solvents, are readily dissolved bv selenium oxy chloride, according to (he announcement of Dr. Lenher. By Its use ordinary' paints, varnishes and shellacs can be removed from furnl-ture furnl-ture and carriages nnd other objects 'without injuring tho wood und cnam-la cnam-la can b taken from automobiles without affecting the steel body. "Its solvent power are so vlgoruua," said Mr. Lenher, "that it will remove the bitumen from soft coal but will nut attack ihe pure carbon of an-thractte." an-thractte." e , I Dr Lenher als.) sees a mlliLary l . ..M r in this powerful solvent, oa It H can be employed In making more porous charcoals contained in the fit-ter fit-ter material of war gas musks, a pro-cess pro-cess known aa activation. |