Page 18 Advertisement 1

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 717, 10 April 1953, Page 18

FLUoRINE F ROM the famous Blue John mines in Derbyshire, comes a mineral called fluorspar: For generations this has been mined in the North of England for use as a fux in metal- lurgical processes and for making enamels and glass. Today fuorspar has assumed a new importance. It is the chief source of hydrofluoric acid, the compound from which the element fuorine is obtained. Fluorine is chemically SO active that it combines with glass and other materials normally used in chemical apparatus. Moissan, the famous French scientist who in 1886 first isolated it, used platinum apparatus which, though attacked; reacted sufficiently slowly to allow him to isolate some free fuorine gas. For over fifty years this elusive element remained a chemical curiosity, but during the war it was needed in large quantities for the manufacture of certain uranium compounds for the atomic energy projects. The result was So to intensify the research on Huorine chemistry (a great deal of it in LCI S laboratories that fuorine is now produced on an industrial scale. Certain fluorine compounds are aston- ishingly resistant to corrosion and decomposition, a property which is of great value commercially ICI: uses some of these in the manufacture of Arcton refri- gerants, which are non-toxic and non-inflammable, and 'Fluon 1 new plastic material ICL IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES (NZ) LTD: Gives a hotber | 0 W all RONSON PRODUCTS LTD , LONDON N Z Representatives: Ponsford, Newman & Benson 1948 Lcd: RONSONOL Wholesale Distributors Delopac (NZ:) Lcd,, 4o 1 0 Howes Lane, Wellington. lght in L lighters Michti VcHTER INSTANT Ats