The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-08-06
ABOUT ALUMIMUM.
How sad Whsn Iroa's Great Rival Nay -
Mnda Availablo,


How and Whsa Irea's Great Rival Nay -
Msds 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 evident that the whole
was not transformed in an hour or .
day into the exquisite temper Of tho
Damascus blade. 1t is also probable
that while it was still rare and cx-
pcnsive metal. available only to those
who were high in wealth and rank. that
the possibilities of its varied structures
were we'll known. But to bring all Of
these varied uses to which it has at
tanned within the grasp of the ordinary
man has taken untold centuries of pains
and labor. and discovery upon discovery
has been required tn develop it.
Now new metal is coming upon the
field, which some claim will soon be all
its own, and iron, the metal heretofore
without peer. and the greatest factor
of human progress. must step down
and out. Aluminium. they say. can be
hardened till the diamond Is its only
rival; it can be drawn into . wire so
fine or hammered into sheets SO thin
that the gold.beater alone can do the
work; the tensile strength of its wire
rises to 100000 pounds to the square
inch of section; water and the atmos-
phere can not corrode it. it will FURNISH
like polished silver. blows can not crys-
ta!izc it and its conductivity of heat
surpasses that of copper. Then its al
Toys make an anti-fr:ctiOn metal that
goes beyond the power of brass or bab-
bitt to produce.
Before such qualities as these iron
palcs into the merest insignificance.
But before We throw away our hammer
and chiscl or break our locomotives up,.
let us look at what has m ,de iron the
metal of the world. 1t is easily summed
up in two words, ''its cheapness."
With crude iron at one cent a pound
all things seem possible for it to accom-
plish, but multiply it by ten and all Of
our cOmmonest cOnveniences will van
ish like breath.
Sixty years ago a drop of aluminium
was produced in a German laboratory
after a research of fifty years with the
best appliances of tho time. and twenty
years more were necessary to produce
q larger bead. Then in ten years more
the metal was on the market at thirty
two dollars per pound.
Since then chemistry has been strug-
Cling with the task and by its
constant efforts the price has dropped
to Si5 for pound, and now new dis
coverer tells that it can be put upon the
market at 81 to the pound. We know
the metal well. and the chemist has
tried it in his laboratory: he has ham
mered and drawn, and melted and
hardened. until every quality is known.
hut still the price must make it rare.
1t costs onc-eighth the price of thirty
years ago, and still it is 400 times the
cost of IRON So it matters little that it
stands third in quantity of all the sub
stances of which the earth is formed,
that it lies about us in every bed of
clay, or shale, and that nearly every
rock is but an ore bed with wOndrOus
possibilities; SO long as nature holds
the secret key by which it can be un-
locked and freed from the combinations
in which we find it, it can not take the
place of iron. That this may come in
time is not beyond the range of what
can be regarded as possibility. but it
must come by slow and labored steps;
our iron will hold its own
and be used as heretofore. while alumni
mum must be a laboratory metal for
and get occasional application
in the. more expensive implements OF
scianro - Pacer