The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-12-18
PLENTY Of Cheap Copper.

The present price is about thirteen cents
a pound. The old price, few years
years ago. was eighteen to twenty cents,
and during the war it went up to fifty
cents. Curiously enough, as the price
Of copper has gone down, the uses of it
have increased, and hundreds of things
are now made of copper that were form
erly made Of cheaper metals, or not
made at all. Who has not noticed the
| sudden increase of articles made of
| brass--the beautiful plaques on which the
/ ladies paint, the tons of chandeliers,
| gas fixtures, frames and thousands of
| other things-aal resulting from cheap
| copper, for brass is Two-thirds copper
and one-third spelter or zinc?
chow do you account for all OF thisP"
was asked of manufacturer.
81 do not know exactly how to ac-
| count for it, y he said, ''but it is fact.
Here is a copper teakettle, such as /
used to pay 1926 to $3.50 to import. /
can now sell it for rs cents and make
| profit. The home manufacture has in
creased enormously. Thousands of
workmen are employed who are new at
| the business. Processes of manufacture
have improved. We are learning how to
make things to better advantage. We
can export instead of import. / do not
think the tariff has had much to do with
it. Here are seamless edge, planished
copper teakettles, extra heavy, spun
from the bottom up to the breast,
making body Of great strength.
! sell them to the trade at 1927 a dozen.
1t was not long ago that one of them
indeed, one not SO good as one of these
/ would cost almost the price of dozen.
| For a few cents more we sell them
nickel plated. They are used as orna-
ments for parlor stoves sometimes.
Here are urns, tumbler warmers, cUspi-
| dores, .jewelry boxes, brass mats,
umbrella stands, hat racks, stoyepipe
collars, stove legs, stove platforms, and
lots of things that could not have been
made few years ago, owing to the
high price of copper. Now they are be-
coming articles of everyday use.
/ In another store were more than
| sixty varieties of brass plaques imi-
tating hammered work, at prices vary
ing from 81. 80 dozen to $26 dozen.
This is comparatively new business.
of half q dozen patterns, basins,
closet pans, boilers, pipes, and copper
balls for water tanks. Walking up
Fulton street among the wire stores,
there We're copper and brass cages,
wire cloth, and other copper utensils
sparkling in the sun.
t'How do you account for the boom
in the copper and brass business?'
Easily enough; we can buy cheaper"
"What makes it cheaper?"
1.-THE coming in of Arizona and other
Western copper to compete with Lake
Superior copper, The price has kept
going down, but the demand for copper
has kept pace with it. New uses are
made for it every day. Formerly the
lake copper people had 1t all their own
way. They would calmly announce the
price of copper for the year, and all we
would have to do would be to pay it.
But now it is quite different. The Arr
iona copper is not quite so good, but it
answers Just as well for many purposes,
and keeps the price down. The lake
copper is about half a cent to cent
dearer, but the monopoly has gone.
The old high tariff on copper, from
which fortunes We're made, is no longer
of any account. We not only take no
account of foreign copper, but we are
now exporting plenty of it and plenty
of manufactured goods"
There is very considerable village
at Ansonia, Conn, that has grown out
of the manufactures of brass and cop
per. The place is named after Arson
G. Phelps, and at the office of the COM
panY in Cliff Street thousand copper
and brass products may be seen, frSfn
the crude copper in ingots to the deli
cate chandeliers and lamps that initiate,
If not excel, the finest French importa-
tons. There are tons upon tons of cop
per and brass in sheets, ready to be sold
! to manufacturers. There are copper
and brass nails and tacks, and weights,
gongs, rods, wash basins, wire cloth,
printers rules, about sixty varieties of
; sheet brass, and as many varieties of
, wire, sheathing, bolts, rivets, kettles,
!. seamless brass and copper tubing,
boiler fues, ferrules, gas fixtures,
chandeliers, and a thousand knick-
knacks.
The rapid progress of electrical in
ventions has required an immense con-
, sumption of brass and copper for cleo
trical machinery, 1t has been found
out that copper wire has many qualities
that make it desirable for telegraph,
lightning, and telephone lines, for
which, during the high price of copper,
it could not be used. Now the copper
wire trade is enormous and constantly
growing, and the varieties manufac-
tured are many and curious. Tons upon
tons of these varieties of wire are kept
! in stock, though only short time ago
such thing was unknown in the trade.
Immense quantities of brass and copper
are used in house hardware, water fix
lures, railroad supplies, clocks. and
fancy goods where other and cheaper
metals were formerly made to do, all
owing to the maryellously low price of
eopper.-N r San.