When FBI's roundup of aliens last week caught Austrian-born, magnesium-wise Dr. Fritz J. Hansgirg at the Permanente Magnesium plant near San Francisco, rumors spread at once that Permanente 's magnesium-making might have to cease. They were false.
Fritz Hansgirg was the inventor of the Permanente process (TIME, March 3), and his arrest caused Permanente inconvenience. But he was only one of a staff of 180 technicians, consultants, engineers. Production, said Permanente Owner Henry J. Kaiser, would go on. But, he added, "we feel that it is important that Dr. Hansgirg's status be promptly developed. . . ." Fritz Hansgirg had built Hansgirg-process plants in Austria and Korea before coming to the U.S. in 1940. After making his patents available to Henry Kaiser, he helped to plan the West Coast concern. An Austrian citizen, he was high on the FBI roundup list as an enemy national employed in confidential U.S. defense work. At week's end he was still in the protective custody of the county sheriff in San Jose, but was allowed to attend Permanente production conferences.