Show SANDLESS GLASS IS discovered evolved from rare element by scientist ithaca N T Y sandless glass glasa Is being mode made in the chemistry laboratory at cornell coraell university the substitute for sand in the process of manufacture to Is the dioxide of germanium a rare mysterious and costly element which prof L U M dennis head bead of the department of chemistry Is 1 now able to produce in quantity after years of experimentation en tation whether the glass has hag properties that will make it of great value for optical purposes Is stul still undetermined but the results thus far obtained indicate that it has unusual refractive qualities chemists still are puzzled by germanium they frankly admit that tha t until it was put to work making glass class they had not known what to do with it even now they are confident it has other and more important husos to which science some do day will apply it it at present professor dennis to la studying its compounds with a view to determining whether the element has medicinal properties that w will III make it of inestimable value to mankind germanium Is extracted from crude zinc oxide in crystalline form it la is a glossy flaky substance resembling I 1 zinc liard hard and extremely brittle it Is worth many dollars a 4 gram and cornell exhibits the largest mass of the element ever assembled a round piece beautifully crystalline about the size of a silver dollar and we weighing 1 0 gh 1 n 0 4 g grams r 1 it t b has a s abi been e e n le learned arns e d that C rude crude zinc oxide can be heated with strong add acid under such conditions that a volatile compound of germanium of high purity distills over this Is decomposed by water so as to produce pure germanium oxide a white powder professor dennis further discovered that ingots ingols of the pure metal could be obtained by fusion of the powder under ordinary salt laboratory tests disclosed that it gram of germanium could be extracted from a pound of zine zinc and the prodoc tion has proceeded on this basis |