The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-05-01
The Age Of Aluminium.


Have we really entered upon the age
of aluminium? AS is well known. alumni
mum is the most abundant of all the me-
tails OH the earth's crust, and ever since
it's discovery almost every leading metal
lurgist and chemist has been working TO
find cheap process for reducing it, In
a large measure they have succeeded.
Only few years ago this metal cost
more than gold. To-day, thanks to the
enterprise OF Americans, it has been re-
duced to the price, block for block, of
nickel. At So per pound aluminium is
cheaper metal to use than nickel, and will
sc, therefore, nearly four times as far.
Aluminium has only been on the mar
ket in a commercial way for about a
year. In thai time the applications to
which this metal can be economically
put have been found to be so numerous
that The Press predicts it's introduction
will mark great step in the advance of
human progress. Aluminium at twenty
five cents per pound, and it will surely
reach that price, will take the place of
iron and steel in many important lines
of manufacture. It's adaptability to
shipbuilding becomes at once apparent.
The use of aluminium for this purpose
would change the mighty black racers
of the Atlantic into bright silver vessels
which would inspire the marine poets to
flights of hitherto unheard- of fancy in
describing how Eighty the silver ships
rode the blue billows.n Seriously, there
is a possibility that ocean racers in the
course of time will be constructed of
aluminium.
Its chief advantages is its lightness. At
present one of the great difficulties in
ocean navigation is the weight of vessels.
1t is impossible to get engine power suf1i-
Gent to obtain more than twenty miles
an hour. 1t has been estimated that if
an Atlantic liner were built of alumni
mum, or that the weight of the material
out of which ships are construed be re-
duced by one-half, and their sides coated
with highly polished non-corrosive
substance, it would have less than one
third the draught, and be propelled with
the same engine power at double the
speed which characterizes the iron-built
steamships of the present day
Commenting on this matter, the Lon
don Spectator in a recent issue said edi-
torily:
sit is calculated that a ship which, if
entirely constructed of iron, would draw
tWa xyciy Of tnr
made of aluminium, not draw more than
four or five. Practically then the
light metal would treble or quadruple
the number of miles of navigable river
in the world, and we should think moth
ing of vessels crossing the Atlantic in
seventy-two hours
What boon to humanity this change
| would be? Houses can be built of alumni
mum; and, as this metal never rusts, and
is as fire proof as iron, house construc-
ted of it would not only survive great
conflagration, but always exhibit ID sill
very, glistenning surface. Passenger
cars made of aluminium would be incom-
bustible and would not be readily crum-
bled by collisions. The ductiity of
aluminium will render it the best of all
possible materials for bridges.
Pure aluminium melts and becomes
fluid at about 1900 Fahrenheit, and is
most malleable at temperature be-
tween 200o and 5000 Fahrenheit, although
it can be rolled cold with frequent an
healing. In malleability it ranks next
to gold and silver. and may be easily
drawn, it's tensile strength varying
from twelve to fourteen tons to the inch.
1t can be hammered into foil as thin as
any gold leaf, and rolled into sheets of
five thousandths of an inch in thickness.
Whether the bright and beautiful
aluminium will sooner or later replace
the black and ugly iron in most of the
latter's uses remains to be seen. There
Is aluminum in every clay bank, in every
plain, in every mountain side, and when
it reaches a cost of say twenty-five cents
pound it is safe to predict that'we shall
have entered on an age of aluminium