Daily Yellowstone journal., 1885-11-01
Sunday, November /. 1885.
ONE OF NATURES CHOICEST SECRETS
UNLOCKED.

ONE OF NATURES CHOICEST SECRETS
UNLOCKED.
To those of US who are not chemists,
aluminium is but a name. Yet 1t is the
most plentiful of metals-a thousand
times more so than iron. The diff
Guilty has been TO set IL loose from the
ores and combinations in which il is
found-from the clay, the slate, the
alum, the granite, the corundum, etc.,
of which it forms so large part. 1t
has never been found native and un-
combined, Napoleon got enough of it
TO make the eagles of his standards OF,
but the rich rewards he offered failed
to secure process which would make
it plentiful enough and cheap enough
to be used for field artillery. His rea-
son for wanting ii is easily understood
wheI we know that aluminium,
though stronger than iron, is lighter
than glass. 1t is also of a more bril-
liant luster than silver, as untarnish-
able as gold, and more sonorous and
sweet Of tone. than bell-metal. Alloyed
with copper, its tensible strength is
greater than that Of steel. 1t is
metal which Lntolds world of posi-
bilities whenever IL can be secured at
anything like moderate cost. Never
until recently was it to be had except
at cost almost as great gold. After
thirty years of experimenting a Mr..
Webster, of Birmingham, England, a
couple of years ago invented a process
which has enabled him to produce il
in week instead Of six months aud
at tenth the former cost or at abou.
s. or S. pound, but he sells il at SIS.
With iron at cent pound and alumt
mum at 800 times as much of
course the latter metal could be only
curiosity Of laboratories and jewellers.
IL has been used a little tor watch
chains and pencil-cases, but has al
most no use in the mechanical arts.
AT last it seems hat this remarkable
me tai will be made available to man.
n young American, Il son of Mr.. Ed
win Cowles, the veteran editor of the
Cleveland Leader, has by an applica-
tion Of the electrical current evolved "a
heat which the most refractory ores
cannot resist. Ii makes limestone
yield up its calcium, sand its silicon,
and corundum and clay their alumni
mum. Mr.. Cowles estimates that by
the new process aluminium can be pro-
duced at forty cents pound, and ulti-
mately il is hoped that this may be re-
duced to fifteen cents. AS its bulk,
weight for weight, is three times that
Of iron, this would bring IL near
enough in price TO iron TO make 1t a
competitor. But even at forty cents
pound IT will he an article of COM
merce and general utility, and in a Is
per cent alloy with copper, which is
now worth about lOl cents pound,
most valuable metal, stronger aud
lighter than steel, as lustrions as sill
yer, and imperyious To rust aud tar
nish, will be pat on the market at
cost Of about fifteen cents pound.
Nobody can question the immense
commercial possibilities of such pro-
duet rs this. This alloy 1t is which
the Cowles Company propose prOduc-
ing at Lockpnrt on "A rather extensive
scale. They have paid S23 900 for a
300 horse watcr-pOwer, aud have
broken ground for extensive works.
They contemplate buying other water
powers and building other works AS
the demand for the product grows. II
they can produce the metal of the
quality and in the quantities and at
the cost which they expect, IL would
not be easy 90 set limit to the results
which will dow from the invention.
IL means revolution In the manufac-
ture OF ordnance, machinery, table
ware and man other things. IL may
mean, rs the poet Stedman hoped when
Webster's process was announced, the
construction of machinery so light
that balloons may be controlled aud
propelled by It. The Cowles process
has been long experimental with, and
chemists Of renown have pronounced
IL the most important chemical dis.
covery since Bessemer's node Of max.
ing steel. There will certainly be
general and hearty good wishes fol-
the success Of an enterprise which
promises such vast aud valuable re.
suits Buffalo Express.
THE New York Grant monument