Science: Inventions of the Month

Announced:

¶ By Monsanto Chemical Co.: a featherweight insulating material, called Santocel, which will make possible blankets and sleeping bags weighing only a few ounces.

¶ By Arrow Safety Device Co.: a photoelectric device which will dim headlights automatically when struck by rays from approaching headlights or street lights.

¶ By Britain’s Imperial Chemical Industries: a new synthetic-wool fiber, called Ardil, made from peanuts. Cheaper than sheep’s wool, Ardil can be mixed with wool, cotton or rayon, is shrinkproof, mothproof, woolly-warm.

¶ By Eureka Vacuum Cleaner Co.: a cordless electric flatiron, heated while standing on a base. The base, instead of the iron, is plugged into an electric outlet.

¶ By the A.A.F.’s Wright Field laboratories: a solar still, now widely used on life rafts, which distills sea water by the sun’s heat in a transparent plastic bag, produces a pint of fresh water a day on a sunny day.

¶ By American Cyanamid & Chemical Corp.: a chemical filter which converts ordinary water into “distilled” water in double-quick time. Besides its many industrial uses, it offers an easy way to prepare water for storage batteries.

¶ By U.S. Government chemists: a new weed killer, “2-4-D.” Sprayed on a lawn, it kills most of the weeds, leaves the grass unharmed.

¶ By the War Department: a plastic artificial eye which, besides being unbreakable, has been found by the Army to be superior in many ways to the best custom-made glass eyes. Carefully made to duplicate a patient’s natural eye shape and coloring, the plastic eye is lighter than glass, fits better, can be moved by the eye muscles, costs less than $5 (against $300 for a custom-made glass eye).