University celebrates discovery of helium

By By Frank Tankard

Wednesday, December 7, 2005



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Helium — the lighter-than-air substance fills that balloons and makes you sound like Mickey Mouse — was discovered in natural gas 100 years ago today in the basement of Bailey Hall.

The events leading to the discovery began inconspicuously in 1903 when residents of Dexter found natural gas in a newly dug well. They were initially thrilled by the prospect of industry that the natural gas could bring to their town. Their spirits soon dropped when the gas wouldn’t burn.

The gas intrigued Erasmus Haworth, a KU geology faculty member and now the namesake of Haworth Hall. He brought a large steel cylinder filled with the gas from Dexter to the University of Kansas and asked a chemistry professor named David F. McFarland to analyze the gas.

McFarland and chemistry professor H.P. Cady used the University’s liquid air machine in Bailey Hall, the only such machine west of the Mississippi River, to discover the presence of helium in the gas. The machine liquefied air by cooling it to minus-310 degrees Fahrenheit.

On Dec. 7, 1905, Cady and McFarland immersed charcoal in the Dexter gas and liquid air. The charcoal absorbed much of the Dexter gas, but not the helium. Cady and McFarland looked at the helium with a spectroscope, an instrument that splits light coming from gases into separate colors. Cady and McFarland saw the signature yellow light that comes from helium gas.

An astronomer had discovered helium in the sun years earlier, in 1868, and it was isolated on earth in 1895, but it wasn’t found in natural gas until Cady’s and McFarland’s discovery.

“They weren’t expecting to find it,” said Henry Fortunato, project director and editor in chief of the KU History Project. “They were just trying to find what was in this gas from Dexter that wouldn’t burn.”

At first, no one knew what to do with helium. The Kansas City Star reported in 1906 that it appeared to have “no practical value beyond its scientific interest.”

“It was not yet recognized that it could be used for lighter-than-air airships, let alone balloons, let alone the other things it’s used for today,” Fortunato said.

For 10 years, the United States’ supply of helium sat in three glass vials on a shelf in Bailey Hall. Then, in 1917, the United States government called on Cady and one of his students, Clifford W. Siebel, to research and develop uses for helium.

The government was interested in using the substance as a noncombustible alternative to hydrogen for filling air balloons. They would use helium to fill these balloons in World War II.

The Great Plains became the world’s leader in helium production. In 1963, the National Helium Plant, the largest helium plant in the world, was built near Liberal. Today the Duke Energy-owned plant is still one of the largest in the world though it only employs 21 people.

Clay Butterfield, the plant manager, credited the plant with bringing jobs and money to the area for more than 40 years.

Helium is commonly used in rubber balloons, air balloons, deep-sea air tanks for scuba divers and in MRI machines.

Marlin Harmony, professor emeritus of chemistry, said, “That initial finding 100 years ago really provided the opportunity to utilize helium in some very important applications.”

— Edited by Becca Evanhoe

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