I/EC POINTING
Forecast THE E D I T O R I A L
FINGER
Diversify and Increase Your Earnings One way to make your stock go up is to diversify. This is the pattern for the future and more and more companies are using this formula to higher earnings (13 A). To be fruitful, diversification must not be for growth per se. Rather, the objectives should be to improve earnings and to stabilize them. Another objective is to diversify so that the well-being of a company is not too dependent on any one area of the country or its product dependent on a single end use. There are different ways of diversifying. Outright purchase of a company already producing a product is one way. Taking advantage of research's discoveries by putting new products into volume production is another. Acquiring of manufacturing rights by licensing agreements will be getting a lot more attention. Atomic Reactors on the M o v e Look for a big upswing in the export of U. S.produced atomic reactors. Precedent was set in 1955 when a pool-type reactor built at AEC's Oak Ridge National Laboratory was sold to the Swiss Government. This was the same reactor exhibited by the U. S. at Geneva during the International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. Now the AEC has issued a license for the export of a research reactor to Japan. Atomics International is manufacturing the reactor which is to be fueled by an aqueous solution of uranyl sulfate and will have an operating capacity of 50 kilowatts. The reactor will go to the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute which is supported both by the Japanese Government and private interests. Three additional applications for licenses for research reactors are under consideration : a pool-type reactor to Munich, Germany; a light water, moderator reactor to be erected at an international exhibition in Amsterdam, Holland ; a pool-type reactor for the University of Sâo Paulo, Brazil. W a r on Air Pollution Air pollution control will be easier when engineers understand more about the reactions that air pollutants undergo. Haagen-Smit's article (page 65 A) points the way to reducing air pollution by determining what the basic reactants are and where they come from. One of the major pollutants contributing to smog formation is a
AT T O M O R R O W ' S
PROGRESS
high concentration of hydrocarbons and their partial oxidation products. The source—automobile exhaust gases. Industrial plants and refineries contribute to the hydrocarbon problem, but they have undertaken the task of controlling pollution on a large scale. Improving the efficiency of auto engines would help cut down on pollutants from auto exhausts. Hot Controversy Likely over N e w Atomic Theory There will be a good deal of controversy over a new atomic theory advanced by Robert L. Carroll, of the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River, Md. Carroll theorizes that, if an atom becomes cold enough, the electrons will gravitate to the nucleus and disintegrate it, releasing the entire energy of the nucleus. Key to the whole concept is a way to produce the extreme low temperature (below —459.7° F.) required for the reaction. Carroll has filed for a patent on an electronic heat pump used to reach the extremely low temperature. The Air Force is interested in the theory and has been granted a license by Carroll to have his calculations reproduced. They will soon distribute copies of the manuscript to scientists all over the country, with the idea in mind that enough discussion will be stimulated to determine whether this is a valid idea or not. Although newspaper articles have said that the Air Force has agreed to conduct an experiment proposed by Carroll into the nuclear effects of extremely low temperatures, the only plans the Air Force has is the distribution of the manuscript. N e w Process Can M e a n Wider Use for Thermoplastic Coatings A process similar in principle to the fluid catalytic beds used in petroleum refineries looks like it may give plastic manufacturers an added boost in the protective coatings field.. The process, licensed from a German firm by Polymer Corp. of Pennsylvania, involves heating micron-sized plastic particles in a porous-bottomed vessel and blowing air through the porous bottom at the right velocity to suspend the plastic particles. The object to be coated is heated and then immersed. Polyethylene has been tried and it looks as if Teflon can be adapted to give a general allpurpose, resistant coating. VOL. 48, NO. 12
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DECEMBER 1956
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