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Awsfrrican Scientist
Arrested By G-men
Daily Mirror World Service
LOS ANGELES.— Dr. Fritz J.
Hansgirg, 50-year-old Austrian
inventor of a new magnesium
recovery process, was arrested
by rederal Bureau of Investiga
tion agents, at the Permanante
Magnesium plant, San Jose,
where he was acting in a sup
ervisory capacity. The agents
gave no reason for the arrest.
rFHREE explosions and a number of
minor accidents have occurred
recently at. the £7,000,000 plant, de
signed to produce 12,000 tons a year
of the vital defence metal.
Dr. Hansgirg was booked as "en
route to United States immigration
authorities." He came to the United
States in May, 1940, after six years
in the Orient, where he supervised
construction of a 2000-ton-a-year
magnesium plant in Korea for the
Nippon Magnesium Metals Company
Ltd., a subsidiary of the American
Magnesium Metals Corporation.
Dr. Hansgirg was a vice-president
of both the American and Japanese
magnesium corporations.
At Pcrmanente he was acting a3
technical adviser for the Henry J,
Kaiser interests, which expect to
have the new plant producing 12,009
tons of magnesium a year by next
summer.
The inventor of the carbothermic
process of recovering the metal from
the ore said it was slow work building
the Korean plant because the Japan
ese have a medieval mind.
The Hansgirg process recovers mag
nesium metal directly from magen-
site, which is abundant in the west.
This method is counted upon eventu
ally to make the strategic metal rela
tively plentiful and cheap for building
light, strong airplanes.
Dr. Hansgirg developed his process
in Austria in 1931. It was being used
there to some extent when the Nazis
moved in.
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