Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-15
THE ALUMINIUM AGE,
What it will be Like-Houses, Boats,
Cars, Bridges. Flying Ships.


From the New York Journal of Commerce.
The world has had its ages of stone and
bronze. We are now passing through the iron
age. Will this be succeeded by an age of alu-
minum? We believe that it will. II taxes ones
imagination little, we confess, but not ones
credulity, to see, in the minds eye, the bright
and beautiful aluminium replacing black and
ugly iron in most Of the latter's present uses.
Fancy houses built of aluminium instead of
iron. The weight Of the new metal is only q
third as much as iron, with equal or greater
tensile strength. The Orders and the plates
could be cast and readily handled in sizes far
larger than those to which architectural iron is
now confined. Perhaps whole fronts of mode
rate-sized houses could be nodded in a single
piece. This would greatly facilitate building
operations, which are now slow. Aluminium is
as tire-proof as iron. The larger the plates of
the metal composing the side of the house, the
less liable are they to be warped and curled by
intense heat building with aluminium walls
such as we have described-would survive a
great confagration in which iron structures Of
existing patterns would wither and crumble to
the ground. As aluminium never rusts, house
constructed of it would always exhibit sill
very glistening surface. 1t would require no
cleaning, except as smoke or dust might grad
ually dim its native beauty. A sponge and
water WOulu Drlng all that back.
Whenever aluminium is cheap enough for
house-bullding, steamships will be made of it.
This viii be revolution in ocean commerce.
Hulls OF aluminium ships will weigh only a
third as much as iron ones of equal tonnage.
Ihey Will be as strong and secure against dam
age from collision as iron vessels now are.
Their far greater buoyancy will be to that ex-
tent an increase of safety.
Passenger cars made Of aluminium in light
and graceful patterns-including wheels of the
same metal-need weigh no more than the
wooden cars OF our day, and they would be in
combustible and would not be readily crumped
up or smashed into splinters by collisions
The perils of railroad travelling in the age of
aluminium will be much less than now
The ductility of aluminium will render it the
best of all possible materials for bridges. The
weight of the wire ropes. as also of the bridge
Itself, for given span, being but one-third
that OF iron, engineers will perform feats of
brldge-building now wholly beyond their pow-
ers. The age of aluminium will be the age of
bridges. They will probably be thrown over
the East and North rivers at intervals of every
few blocks
With the sufficient cheapening of aluminium
may come the realization of the flying ma
chine. One great obstacle to the success of
@rlal navigation is the difficulty of supplying
practical motor either to propel or to steer the
balloon. The want is still more seriously felt
If the design is to dispense with gas and imi-
tate merely the movement of a birds wings or
a fishs tail in cleaving the air. The small
weight of an aluminium engine, driven by COM
pressed air, gas or electricity compared with
its iron equivalent, undoubtedly makes the I'LL
innate success of air ships more probable than
before.
The sources ofsupply are inexhaustible. Iron,
copper, silver, gold are found only in locali-
ties geographically small. But one of the most
universally distributed materials of the earth
beneath our feet is clay, the metallic base of
which Is aluminium Having boundless faith in
the ingenuity of man to overcome difficulties
we confidently expect him to wrest this now
stubborn metal from its superabundant combi-
nations, and enable the world soon to enter on
the age of aluminium,