Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-09-26
Wonders of Aluminium.
Chicago Evening Journal.

1t is possible that the aluminium age
will follow the iron age, just as the iron
age followed the bronze age. and the bronze
spect 1t Is interesting to note that the dis
coverer of the only cheap method of OBJ
tanning the metal has just died, and the
carefully-kept secret has died with him.
Once more the entire world is a sufferer
through the avarice of single individual
The secret has been sought by thousands
of scientists unsuccessfully, and will con-
tinue to be- Some day. sooner or later. it
will be again found, and the use of the
metal aluminium will follow the use of
iron as rapidly as electricity is supplant-
ing steam
The results that will follow the substi-
tuition of aluminium for iron are enough to
astound even the educated thinkers of the
nineteenth century 1t is obtained from
common clay and is the great constituent
of the earth s surface. In other words, the
whole earth is an immense aluminium
mine. The mills that produce it will be
located In the most convenient place, any
where, everywhere, and the ore without
mining or freighting will be found at
their doors. It's cost will eventual
" become absolutely trihing ItOkeighs
but a third as much as iron, and about
three times as much as wood-it is in fact
the lightest metal capable of resisting the
action of air or the presence of mois-
ture. 1t is the most sonOrous of metals.
1t is as beautiful as silver and does not
tarnlsh. Fused with copper it will form a
compound as beautiful as gold and at the
same time as strong as iron it is as hard
as zinc, and less easily affected by acids
than any metals except gold and platinum.
Thus it will be seen to possess nearly every
desirable quality that metal can have
The question what will it be used for ?"
can be most readily answered by replying
what will 1t not be used for?"
The favored child of the aluminium
age will probably live In a gorgeous
aluminium house that is both lighted and
heated by electricity. He will probably
walk on an aluminium pavement if he
deigns to walk at all. He will ride in an
aluminium carriage drawn not by horses
but by thunderbolts, which will be but a
small edition of the palatial train that
will take him to the ends of the world in
space of time now hardly to be mag
ined. His ornaments will be aluminium
and his tools will be aluminium. His
boats, which will be infinitely stronger
and swifter than our famous iron steamers,
will be aluminium He will be able to
bridge Lake Michigan as easily as we
bridge the Mississippi. He will possess a
musical instrument whose tones will be
more exquisite than any we have ever
heard. His artillery officers will fire an
aluminium ball from an aluminium cannon
that will attain range that will make
the thirteen mile range of our great Krupp
guns look perfectly insignificant.
In fact it battles the imagination to
picture the possibilities of this metal that
we have been treading under foot all our
lives. Verify our nineteenth century
civilization is backwoods existence COM
pared to what is to come. Time S
noblest offspring is the last. ="