Kansas Helium

2000/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

The University of Kansas, on its centenary anniversary, has received the award granted by the American Chemical Society for its important work and discoveries around helium gas. And it is that there they realized that natural gas was also helium. In 1903 an extractive company from the city of Dexter in Kansas wanted to show that natural gas could be a useful energy source.

To do this, he prepared a unique show, in which the most remarkable action was the gas faucet directed towards the sky. But when the time came, the gas faucet that could be seen in several kilometers was not lit. Erasmus Haworth and David F. Mc Farland, professors at the University of Kansas, knew of the inactivation and obtained samples of that strange fuel gas. The gas had an inert residue so it was not burned. Two years later it was discovered that the inert waste was helium gas, which until then had only been found in the Sun and rare minerals. Despite knowing that helium could be extracted from natural gas, until a decade later nothing special was used. Since 1917 the helium was used to take off balloons, the use of gases has been extended: pressurization of fuel tanks in space launchers, magnetic resonances, submarines, cooling of infrared detectors, etc.