Magnesium Plant in California Will Double U. S. Supply. Sidney Hillman (left), co-director of the Office of Production Management, is shown during a visit to the great, new Permanente magnesium plant here, which is expected by next March to be turning out 12,000 tons of magnesium a year, twice as much as was produced in this country last year, when a magnesium shortage appeared as a dangerous bottleneck in America's defence industries. With Mr. Hillman is Dr. Fritz Hangiro who invented the progress by which the magnesium will be manufactured. Dr. Hangiro's process uses ore brought from Nevada, petroleum coke from Los Angeles, natural gas piped in from Southern California oil fields and electric power from the high Sierra. Magnesium, king of the metals of war, is used in the manufacture of deadly incendiary bombs, for the casing of high-explosive missiles and in the construction of today's lightest, fastest and most powerful military airplanes. The Permanente plant, built in seven months with a loan of $9,250,000 approved by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, started full production Oct. 8.

Wide World Photos, Inc. · [ca. October 1941]

[Information from item housing] Magnesium ... Magnesium