Weizmann House decoration over that of Mendelsohn. The house now displays the art and objects that the Weizmanns had collected. The design of the house was met with praise early on. One guest, the niece of Arthur Balfour described it as "a modern, aristocratic house, in harmony with its surroundings, well suited to its purpose, fully expressing the soul of its owners, and, like them, a national treasure." Beginning in 1949 until Chaim Weizmann's death three years later, the years Weizmann served as President of Israel, the house functioned as the official residence of the President. The house was adapted into a
Chaim Weizmann fermentation. He used the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum (the "Weizmann organism") to produce acetone. Acetone was used in the manufacture of cordite explosive propellants critical to the Allied war effort (see Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath). Weizmann transferred the rights to the manufacture of acetone to the Commercial Solvents Corporation in exchange for royalties. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill became aware of the possible use of Weizmann's discovery in early 1915, and Minister of Munitions David Lloyd George joined Churchill in encouraging Weizmann's development of the process. Pilot plant development of laboratory procedures was completed in 1915 at