Science: Ingenious Waves

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Curious new uses for familiar vibrations :

> Sound waves from an ordinary auto horn can be used to increase the rate of gasoline distillation by agitating the air in which the condensing molecules and droplets hang. Hence smaller cracking equipment and lower costs are claimed by the patentee of the process, Shell Development Co. of San Francisco. If the blare hurts nearby ears, inaudible supersonics will serve as well.

> Radio waves can be used to dry artificial silk as it is spun out of cellulose and reeled into hollow spools. Dried formerly with heat, the outer fibers would dry first and contract upon the inner ones, causing nonuniform drying and shrinkage. But high-frequency radio waves emanating from an antenna in the center of the reel dry the fibers uniformly, avoid shrinkage.