Morris tribune., 1889-12-11
THE ALUMINIUM AGE.
THE CHILD IS BORN THAT WILL
SEE IT FULLY REALIZED.

Handie--But In Time Inventors VIII DO
Even BETTER Than the seymour Method.
To aluminunl enthusiasts the death of
Fred j. Seymour win be most keenly
felt, For the man who believed, and
believes. that It il the metal of the
future, and that it Is being developed
through slow stages. there is some con-
ISOLATION left
Others are at work at this moment
perhaps hundreds Of them-as many, no
doubt, as are at work on any other one
thing, striving by night and by day to
usher in the aluminium millennium at the
earliest possible date, with every chance
of success in their favor.
The metal is known to exist in every
clay bank and in every rock, great and
nnall; it is more plentiful than all other
metals combined; the modus operandi
whereby it is separated is well known to
chemists and nineralogists already; the
objective point of all this research is
cheapness. The Seymour process did the
work more cheaply than any other yet
devised; hence the lamentations over his
death.
CONFLICTING STORIES.
Even with the Seymour process the
cost of producing aluminium has been SO
great as to exclude it from general use.
1t has been announced at least half
dozen times that anew and cheaper mode
of chemically extracting the precious
metal from its earthly base had "just
been discovered" Still it was worth
$4,000 ton, according to Maj. Powell,
of the geological survey.
The newspapers reported the shipment
of $50 pounds of chemically pure alumni
mum. manufactured under a new pro
cess, from Newport, KY, to London,
England, in August, 1883. .,..-- "a.
The same account, besides telling us ii
was the first of the metal ever extracted
from clays for the purpose of shipment
in the United States, tells US how it sold
for fifty cents per pound. Both allega,
tons mist he untrue, as the Engineering
Journal Of March this year gives a tabu,
lar exhibit of the value Of rare metals
in which it classes aluminium as being
worth $3.50 per pound The Journal is
good authority. too.
About the time of this reported ship
ment of aluminium from Kentucky an
other and more startling story was cabled
from Germany. According to the Ger
man Don Quixote aluminium was being
rapidly turned out in 100 pound bars al
the Krupp gun works at cost of less
than twenty cents per pound. Teutonic
"goaheadness" did not cast bar and q
half and then make shipment like they
did in the land of blue grass, but they
turned them out in great bars as rapidly
as wood chopper would sticks of wood
and piled them up for future use, per
haps with view to cornering the alumni
mum agel ---...-..- --...---, -,~s .-.-
i This metal of the future, of which SO
much has been said, was discovered b5
Professor Wohler in 1928. While seek
ing to settle in his own mind the ques
ton as to what were the component
parts of common clays, and while fusine
a mass of the yellow mud at white heat
under the blow pipe, he accidently OBJ
tanned single minute globule or bead Of
what was to him and the rest of the
scientific world at that time a new metal
Subsequently by various chemical tests
he proved the drop to be the precious
aluminium. He surely did not consider
his discovery of grave Importance, other
wise he would have given it more atten
ton than he did; as it was, it appears
that he did not experiment with the
aluminium idea in view again for some
thing like eighteen years. In 1648 he re-
discovered it in mixture of cloride Of
aluminium and common salt. This tims
the metal was obtained in quantities suf
ficient for more extensive examination
It was found to be white metal between
! the color of zinc and silver, but with {
more blush tinge than that found in thu
J last named metal.
4 Its specific gravity is from s.5 to a.67
4 according to purity, that of the average
grade being about "a times heavier thar
water. 1t is four times as light as sill:
ver-in other words, a coin the size of {
silver dollar made of aluminium would
weigh about the same as a twenty CEN
piece in silver. It has great Rightly and
tenacity; is nearly as hard as iron, bu
Z can be wrought into wire as fine as spi
. der webs after being thoroughly an
4 nealed. re-
4 WONDERFUL QUALITIES.
By being subjected to the goldbeater'
art, piece of aluminium the size of ];
dime may be beaten into sheet severa
feet square, so great is its tenacity. Only
two metals known can be rolled into
sheet as thin as it can, and they are golt
I, and silver. When it does at last com.
into general use, and the advent Of that
era will not he retarded much by the
man whose death furnishes the text fol
this article, it will be used for every
thing and put to every purpose to which
iron, steel and wood are now put. tt
adaptability to ship building is very ap
parent.
Great steamships, the size of the larg
est Cunards, with the same tonnage and
: the same number of exposed linear feet
If constructed of aluminium from kee
to the top of the masts, instead of draw
ing eighteen to twenty-six feet, woule
not draw more than four or five. In tn,
days of the future aluminites deep waite
conventions will be useless assemblages
It holds a polish the best Of any meta
. known, there being but few element
that will cause it to tarnish or turn
black. Rust, too, is quality unknown
i to this wonderful white metal Boiling
water win not affect its luster, which i
retained fer an indefinite period in an,
atmosphere. Strong nitric acid raven
ously attacks silver, but has no effec
whateyer upon aluminium. Gold Of
platinum viii be ruined if plunged inte
abath Of sulphuret Of potassium or melt
ed inter; aluminium comes out brigh
and shiny as if from bath Of pure COLI
water John w. Wright in st. Loui
Republic.