Page 26 Advertisement 1

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 536, 30 September 1949, Page 26

Te SHELL} NEWS COLUMN Nearly twenty years ag0 Shell set uP a research programme with the aim of establishing and developing new materials based on petroleum chem- icals: The results of this work have been enormous and have had a notable effect on many of the world' $ key industries. Last month a fresh achievement was brought to fruition when Shell opened the world'$ first synthetic glycerine plant in the United States: Glycerine is an industrial raw mater- ial of the first importance and is used in the manufacture of very many everyday products. The largest single consumer is the paint and varnish industry, but glycerine is also widely used in cellophane, tobacco, films, paper and soap manufacture: The annual consumption throughout the world runs into many hundreds of millions of pounds: Up till now; however; it has only been obtainable as 1 by-product of other industries, and because of this serious shortages have frequently occurred: By providing this new independent supply Shell are now in a position to make a considerable contribution to the correction of this position. During the last two decades Shell had introduced new oil-based chemi- cals into many fields of industry and agriculture; but the synthetic pro- duction of So vital 4 product as glycerine certainly ranks among its major attainments. Fifteen years ag0 it was thought impossible that this could be done. But to paraphrase the well-known saying: Shell scien- tists perform the difficult immediate- Iy; the impossible takes just a lictle longer. El3.9 Another in the Series The SHELL COMPANY OF NZ: LTD (Incorporated in England)