Dust Trap

Mountain-clear air must be used in the sealed rooms where bombsights are made and serviced. There can be no dust in the powdered milk that feeds civilian populations abroad, no dirt in the blood plasma needled into wounded soldiers. For war use, raw air must be processed like any other crude material--laundered, filtered, electrified to remove impurities. From war experience with industrial air cleaning will come, after the war, a home-size electric dust-catcher that will cost no more to buy and run than an electric refrigerator.

Called the Precipitron, this electrostatic air cleaner developed by Westinghouse now stands silent guard in the plants where binoculars, range finders and periscopes are made, in arsenals where ammunition is loaded. It keeps unsullied the polished surfaces of precision gauges, whisks away the stench of welding. Newest use, revealed last week by Westinghouse, is purifying the air for the blast furnaces at a new steel plant, where fumes and grit could quickly erode the high-speed blades of the blowers.

The Precipitron came out of "a successful failure" in research, and a hopeful house-cleaning experiment in Pittsburgh. Some six years ago a young research engineer, Gaylord W. Penney (now manager of the electrophysics laboratories), sought a conclusion to German experiments with ionized air, found a clue to cleaner air. With a wire, a couple of aluminum plates and a burning oily rag, he rigged his first crude electrostatic dirt trap. The modern unit is as simple in principle: air entering it travels over fine tungsten wires carrying 12,000 volts which impart a positive charge to passing particles of dust. Then parallel steel plates charged with negative electricity snatch and hold the electrified particles, removing from them 95% of the airborne dirt.

Into the Penney cellar went a home-size experimental Precipitron. Willing helpers in any attempt to lessen Pittsburgh grime were Mrs. Penney and daughter Marjorie Elizabeth, who became the first field-test observers. Quickly they found daily dustings were unnecessary--once a week was enough. Curtains which formerly turned dark in a few days stayed fresh for several months. At the end of two weeks, Engineer Penney filled a quart milk bottle with the black, powdery rubbish from the air. Experience with other installations (about 150 in homes of Westinghouse workers) has improved performance. Manager Penney last week reported that his installation adds only 60-c- to $1 to his monthly electric bill.

"After the war," promises George F. Begoon, manager of Precipitron sales, "the cost will be little if any more than an electric refrigerator. Westinghouse already has made a two-cell unit selling for $300 that will clean the air in the average six-room home." Savings on cleaning and replacements are substantial; savings on health cannot be figured although the Precipitron catches pollen and bacteria. Not even tobacco smoke, which has the finest particles found in the air (16,000 side by side are no wider than a pinhead), escapes its electrical filter.

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