A Radio Talk by Charles F. Kettering One can never tell when this information will be valuable until an emergency develops. The same is equally true in a research project. Many of the apparently new and amazing things produced in the war are just new uses of old peacetime products. As an illustration, mechanical household refrigeration was in the kindergarten stage before World War I. But we had been at it long enough to appreciate the necessity for a more suitable gas. Those in use were toxic and irritating. During this time, our Organic Chemistry Department was making laboratory experiments on new gases, along with studies on synthetic rubber and high octane fuel. When the War was over, we finished the fuel job first by putting Ethyl gas on the market. This same material is still one of the essentials in most high octane gasoline. |