Weizmann Institute Announces Plan for Castor Oil Conversion and Desalting of Water

The manufacture of plastics from castor oil and the desalting of water in huge quantities are two of the many important achievements revolutionizing industry and agriculture throughout the world which have been developed by scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science, it was revealed today.

The desalting process will permit the use of vast quantities of subterranean water and make available for farming huge areas of the Negev, Meyer W. Weisgal, executive director of the American Friends of the Weizmann Institute, and David Bergmann, its scientific director, told a press conference at Rehovoth. They also declared that the cultivation of castor trees on large tracts of land in the Negev and the conversion of the oil into plastics will give employment to thousands of Israelis.

They revealed that a plant has been established near Rehovoth to convert the oil into plastics and that a company has been capitalized at $3,000,000 in the United States to exploit the products of the castor bean. In addition, Weisgal and Bergmann said, organizations in the U.S. and France had sent technicians to assist in the promotion of various products ranging from nylon stockings to electrical insulators.

Israeli capital is also interested in the project, they said. The chairman of the plastics corporation will be an American industrialist, Harold Goldenberg of Minneapolis. National Plastics Company of Baltimore and Concern Orgenice of Paris are already making use of the Institute’s plastics. Three million dollars has been invested in the Institute itself, Weisgal and Bergmann revealed, adding that its annual budget for the maintenance of the plant and staff, including 200 scientists, is $2,000,000.