Nevada County picayune., 1889-01-30
THE AGE OF ALUMINIUM.

The most startling scientific an- nouncement of the present century, judging from all it's bearings and possible effects upon the commercial domestic and artistic interests of the world, is that which comes from Germany through correspondent cf the Chicago I'riblne. II Is mat fer oI no less moment than the dls- coyeTy of new methods and pro ces,es hy which the hitherto rare and expensive metal, aluminium, can act ua.Iy DOW De produced at cost not exceeding twenty-five cents pound. At this price it is nearly as cheap as the best steel, bulk for bulk, it be- ing but one-third its weight, while 1t is vastly superior to steel for innnm- erable purposes and inferior to it for very few.
 In one essential respect aluminium is the monarch of all metals, being more plentiful in nature and more widely distributed through all sec tion. of the earth surface than all other metals combined. 1t Is an cs- scntial component of clay. which Is found nearly everywhere, as well as of granite and many other rocAs- good, compact clay, such as Is found on almost any farm. having been proved by chemical analysis to con- tain from ten to twenty per cent. of the pure metal. This fact has been known since its original discovery by Wohler some sixty years ago, though up to present time no cheap peoces' for separating all this metal from clay has been discovered. Hence thl. metal nas hitherto been used exclu- sively for jewelry, almost on par with gold.
 When Prof. Wohler first aston ished the world by extracting few silvery grains from this then m known metal from lump of common clay, little did he suppose that he had inaugurated the most gigantic commercial and civilizing revolution the world has ever witnessed.
 Aluminium was then regarded as metal of no general value, save as al addition to the elemental substances known to science, it's enormous cost of extraction from clay precluding It as supposed, from any general com mercial or domestic uses. But II less than a score of years thereafte the same investigator, aided by oth CTS, had so cheapened the proceese of separating this remarkable meta | from it's base that it could be ob tained about at the cost of pure sil yer, ounce for ounce, or at maxi mum of sixteen dollars pound. These successive announcements encouraged later metallurgists whose experiments were constantly re warded with still cheaper and mor' expeditions methods of extraction till the apparent climax has, as stated at the commencement, been reached near Cologne, at the town of Essen Germany, where this hitherto prec ious metal is being melted out O clay into hundred-pound ingots a not much greater cost than steel bar of the same size were produced fort. or fifty years ago. And judgin! from these prodigious strides O progress since its discovery, ever within the memory of men still living at Essen, occupied with the univer sal presence of this metal in all tho clay-banks of the world, it is but ; rational anticipation to expect to SCI in the near future aluminium hollow bricks, turned out from improved furnaces, of the same building ca. pacity and approximately at as little cost as the best pressed bricks art now produced from the same source.
 Aluminum is a shining white metal, with bluish tint approach ing that of pla tinum, these two met als occupying the eXtrems of weight in the range of metallurgy, the spe- citic gravity of the former being but 2.6, while that of the latter is 2l.5, or SI times times heavier than alum inum
 In view of the low cost at which this invaluable metal is now ob- tained, it is almost bewildering to ones senses to contemplate the pos abilities involved in such a revolu. tipparV IiSnOvarv Eyan at fbp