Fritz Johann Hansgirg

Early life

Hansgirg was born in Graz, Austria in 1891, married to Josephine Marie (née Heller), son of Josephine's first marriage, Peter Robert Hofstätter, graduated from the University of Vienna, served as a military psychologist in the Nazi Germany army during World War II. Fritz received his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in chemistry from the University of Graz.

Austria

In 1928, Hansgirg invented, and patented, the carbothermic magnesium reduction process while working in his Radenthein laboratory that was a less costly method of mass-producing magnesium of extremely high purity. After setting up a pilot plant in Radenthein to produce magnesium using his process, his senior partner, Emil Winter of The Pittsburgh Steel Company, urged him to sell the patent rights to the highest bidder, which he did in 1934 then leaving Austria for the Empire of Japan. A pilot plant never worked at full strength – it took a lot of accessories, in addition working with magnesium require sophisticated equipment and increased caution due to pyrophoricity magnesium dust and explosive gas mixtures.

Empire of Japan

In 1934, Hansgirg arrived in the Empire of Japan joining with Japanese industrialist Shitagau Noguchi to set up a magnesium plant at the Chosen Nitrogen Fertilizer Complex in what is known now as the northern Korea city of Hungnam. (Because of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, there was no country known at this time as Korea (either north or south) as it had been formally annexed into the empire.) Noguchi (company "Nichitsu) and Winter (American Magnesium Metals Corporation) established the subsidiary Japanese magnesium company. Hansgirg took the post of vice president of both American and Japanese magnesium companies. There were problems with financing. Magnesium production in the Empire of Japan was initiated only during of II World war.

But Hansgirg (Hansgierg) was not limited to magnesium. On his initiative in 1936 was founded a new firm Nitehiuu Gemstones, he himself owned 15 percent shares of this company. It was due to the fact that the increased demand for Jewel bearing for military purposes.

Hansgirg further aided the Empire by developing a cracking plant (used to break down crude oil into its various component parts). Before leaving Austria, he designed two applications for a method of producing heavy water using a water gas shift reaction. It is believed that he could help the Japanese in the production of heavy water in Konan, which was suspected by the United States of aiding the Japanese nuclear weapon program.

United States

In May 1940, Hansgirg left the Empire of Japan after its pro Axis mood became "hostile to foreigners" arriving in the United States where he joined with the American industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Before the war a demand aircraft engineering increased in the light magnesium alloys. Kaiser had paid $750,000 to Winter for the patent in the carbothermic process and received government credits about $22 million to build the defense plant of Permanente Metals Corporation (PMC) in California By the start of World War II, the first unit at Kaiser's plant was producing about 5 short tons (4.5 long tons) of magnesium per day.

However, starting Permanete plant in August 1941 was not pat and accompanied by explosions with human victims. As it turned out, in practice, the technology Hansgirg process remained the same imperfect as it was in Radenthein. In this process, there was a need to work with magnesium dust, which ignites in the air with an explosion. PMC engineers built a pilot plant urgently to improve the process. However, the yield of the heavy situation was found not to changes technology, but enlargement the use of dust. The PMC invented a new incendiary mixture of "goot" - paste of magnesium dust and gelled gasoline with additives. Special bomb was developed. Government price controls allowed the leadership of PMK stand the competition "goot" with napalm and avoid large financial losses. For September 1943 PMC leadership was ready to leave only 10% of the dust to produce magnesium in the form of ingots. For the entire war period PMC has issued 20 million lbs. of magnesium and 86 million lbs. of "goot". The proportion of bombs M74 and M76 with "goop." constituted about 8% of the total tonnage of incendiaries that were used in the bombing in Japan and Germany. After the war Permanete plan was stopped, and the end of 1945 ahead of schedule Kaiser paid on credits taken. Nine days after December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II, Hansgirg was arrested by the FBI on a Presidential Warrant accused of being "potentially dangerous to the public peace and safety of the United States", with fears that the Kaiser magnesium plant would be shut down because of his arrest proving to be unwarranted.

After being arrested, Hansgirg was first held at the jail in Santa Clara County, California, and during the war was held at U.S. alien internment camps in San Antonio, Texas and Stringtown, Oklahoma.

During Hansgrig's wartime internment, U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle denied permission for his wife, Josephine Marie, to visit him, with her then appealing in a woman-to-woman hand-written letter to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt seeking leniency and explaining that her husband could not criticize Adolf Hitler because their son was still in the German army and would be retaliated against if he did so. Josephine ended this letter by stating:

If it is within your jurisdiction to aid in reinstating my husband to his rightful place of usefulness, that his loyalty and integrity may again be recognized in this country, you may know you will have the undying gratitude of his wife.

Parole and death

Mrs. Hansgirg's letter on behalf of husband was forwarded by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director J. Edgar Hoover, who in turn consulted with the Director of the Alien Enemy Control Unit resulting in Hansgirg being paroled to the President of Black Mountain College, in North Carolina.The decision was taken on the advice of the famous Austrian scientist Karl Terzaghi. In college Hansgirg began to combine the teaching of chemistry and physics with research and business activities. Black Mountain College had a reputation of Art School, but under the leadership of Hansgirg were found on campus deposits mica and began their commercial use. In 1943, he had applied for a new modified method of producing magnesium The feedstock in this process are mineral rocks rich in olivine, a reducing agent - calcium carbide. The deposits of olivine were in North Carolina. In addition to magnesium, there are also obtained the cement and iron alloys. Hansgirg remade with the involvement of students old college bath in laboratory and built there pilot plant producing magnesium. He also created Corporation of North Carolina Magnesium Development Corporation, and gave 20% of the shares to the college. This project has not successful pilot installation producing magnesium burned in 1948, and a year earlier Hansgirg moved to New York. In 23 July 1949, Hansgirg died "unexpectedly" at the age of 58 with the cause of death unknown, but suspected to be due his decades ingestion of magnesium resulting in Hypermagnesemia.

Postwar use of Hansgirg technology

Immediately after the war, the Soviet Union invaded and occupied northern Korea taking possession of Hansgirg's magnesium and heavy water plants located in the city of Hungnam then transferring the technology back to Russia for integration into their own atomic bomb program. The U.S. Manhattan Project also utilized Hansgirg's CECE process for heavy water production during the war and many years thereafter too. Many aspects of the postwar history related to both the U.S. and Soviet (now Russian) use of Hansgirg's processes still remain classified.