HELIUM
The suggestion that the United States-‘should permit the export of helium,, directs attention to the lad that that country has a .practical monopoly of this non-inflammable gas, which at the present time replaces hrydrogen in American airships. The source of supply is natural gas, Mid the principal commercial plants have been one at Amarillo, in Texas, established \vf tlie United States Government during the War, and another in Kansas, but by accident there has been found a source oi’ natural gas in ‘t>u'heastorn Colorado said to he the nclu-st, helium discovery ever made. The gas from the ordinary wells tains about 1 per cent of helium, but the new well where the latest supply is being exploited is estimated to cmtain 7 per cent, and with a gas (low of 3,000,000 cubic Meet a day the helium content is said to he 210,000 cubic feet. The capacity of the plant is u t sufficient to deal with the full supply from the latest discovery, hut the production of this valuable gas in die United States is well over i 000 POO cubic feet a month.
So cheaply is the plant in Colorado run that sufficient helium to fill one of .the greatest dirigibles under construction would cost no more, than £IO,OOO. Helium itself is an inert gas slightly heavier than hydrogen, but possessing tlie invaluable quality that it is non-inflammable. It occurs widely in the world, hut rarely in commercial quantities. Recent research in the: United States, however, : r.s shown another supply of helium in the
manay,h" sand, the source of thorta fronn which gas mantles are made, < d as this sand is available in large quantities in the British Empire, especially in Ceylon, and Travancore in India, investigations into the possibility of obtaining supplies from this source might profitably be made. One phase of tile recent disaster to TUOT emphasises the need for helium replacing hydrogen in airships, and 'f Great Britain continues the constructthe change will undoubtedly be made, ion of dirigibles, as she probably will,
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Hokitika Guardian, 11 October 1930, Page 6
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339HELIUM Hokitika Guardian, 11 October 1930, Page 6
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