The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1886-08-25
ALUMINUM-HOW AND WHEN
IRONS GREAT RIVAL MAY BE
MADE AVAILABLE.

We have no authentic history of
the gradual introduction of iron into
the uses of civilized man; but given
the rough brown or gray stone
that we have in our ores, it is evil
dent that the whole was not trans
formed in an hour or a day into the
exquisite temper of the Damascus
blade. 1t is also probable that while
it was a still rare and expensive
metal, available only to those who
were high in wealth and rank, that
the possibilities of it's varied struc-
ture were we'll known. But to bring
all of these varied Uses to which it
has attained within the grasp Of the
ordinary man has taken untold CEN
turtles of pains and labor, and dis
covery upon discovery has been
required to develop it.
Now a new metal is coming upon
the field, which some claim will be
all it's own, and iron, the metal
heretofore without a peer, and the
greatest factor of human progress,
must step down and out. Alumni
mum, they say, can be hardened till
the diamond is it's only rival, it can
be drawn into wire so fine or ham
,mered into sheets so thin that the
gold beaten alone a do the work;
the tensile strength of it's wire rises
to 100000 pounds to the square
inch or section: waterandt the atmOs-
phere cannot corrOde it; it will bur
nish like silver; blows cannot crys-
tallize it, and it's conductivity Of
heat surpasses that Of copper. Then
its alloys made an anti-friction
metal that goes beyond the power
Of brass or babbit to produce.
Before such qualities as these iron
pales into the merest insignifcance.
But before we throw away our ham,
mer and chisel or break our loco
motives up let us look at what has
made iron the metal of the world.
1t is easily summed up in two words,
" it's cheapness." With crude iron
at one cent a pound all things seem
possible for it to accomplish, but
multiply it by ten and all u com.
monest conveniences will vanish
like breath.
Sixty years ago a drop of alum
mum was produced in a German
~labratory after a research of fifty
years with the best appliances of
the time, and twenty years more
were necessary to produce a larger
bead. Then in ten years more the
metal was placed on the market at
S32 per pound.
Since then chemistry has been
struggling with the task, and by it's
constant efforts the price has dropped
to s15 for a pound, and now a new
discoverer tells that it can be put
on the market at 81 to the pound.
We know the metal we'll, and the
chemist has tried it in his labratory;
he has hammered and drawn and
melted and hardened, until every
quality is known, but still the price
must make it rare. 1t costs one
eighth the price Of thirty years ago,
dIlU I'LL IL 10 " OIlllCS OIO COSC VI
iron. So that it matters little that
it stands third in quantity Of all the
substances of which the earth is
formed, that it lies about us in every
bed of clay, orshale, and that nearly
every rock is but an r bed with
wonderous possibilities 80 long as
nature holds the secret key by
which it can be unlocked and freed
from the combinations in which we
find it, it cannot take the place of
iron. That this may come in time
is not beyond the range of what
may be regarded as a possibility,
but it must come by slow and labored
steps, meanwhile our iron will hold
it's own and be used as heretofore,
while aluminium must be a labratory
metal for a while, and get occasional
application in the more expensive
implements of science.-New York
Times.