Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1890-12-06

We are, however, making great progress
toward cheap way.
Already in 1855 French chemist ais
covered q method for sepsrsting the
aluminium from the oley ana
sihce then inventors in all payts
Of the world have been at work on the
problem. The difficulty has not been
so much in making the metal as In
making It cheaply; for men do want
them cheap and struggle to make them
80, notwithstanding the assertions OF
the protectionst leader, that cheap and
nasty go together, and that cheapness ID
un-American. Some years after the
Frenchman's invention the price q the
metal wes $40 pound, and France
made most Of the worlds supply, Then
an Englishman invented much bstter
way Of making it, and the price ventfo
less than IS pound.
Some four or five years ago American
manufacturers began to make slumi-
mum; and Major Mckinley has jdst D4ts
duty Of IS cents 3 pound qn,Sbe n M sS MSsSl
t----4t-.> -s-.n1,,ras--- ---fvffp " choo0
faetnrers, but before the bill became,
law Chicago chemist announced the
invention Of process by which 1t can
be produced for less than Is cents
pound.
If this announcement proves true, we
are on the eve OF a great industrial
revolution. For what are the qualities
of this remarkable metal? The two
qualities that give 10 the preference
over other metals are its lightness and
its strength A pound of it Is about
three times the size of pound OF iron5
it is more than four times as bulky as
silver and more than seven times sS
bulky rs gold. The strength of this
metal is no less remarkable than its
lightnes Make an alloy OF it with
copper and the prod uct is what is called
aluminium bronze A beam of this alloy
will support as great weight as can be
borne by ohe made OF the finest crncible
steel Make a wire cable OF it, and no
no other metal will bear an eqnal
strain Make it red hot and 1t melts;
cast it then into mold and 1t Is soft
and as easily worked as silver. But ham
mer it or roll it and it becomes almost
as hard as iron 1t can be drawn out
into a wire as fine as a spiders web or
it can be beaten into leaf as thin as
god leaf. 1t neither rusts nor furnishes
under the influence of water or air.
With its great strength and lightness
la
ple.ely supersede steel in the building
OF steamboats,, in house construction in
rails for our railroads, and in a thou
sand other things. 1t has already been
arranged to construct railroads cars
with it, steam boat built with 1t will
have a tonnage only one-third as great
as one built of steel.
What will be the effect OF this on
existing industries like iron and steel
making? 1t is possible that eventually
most of them may be closed up And
what of the laborers employed in them?
1t will have to find employment in
other ways--a hardship to a few labor
ers, of course but far outweiged by the
general good to all laborers. The
greatest happiness to the greatest num-
ber will be attained in the shape OF
cheaper comforts, while few men may
lose their present employment just as
the freer admission of foreign cloth
would be a great blessing to thousands
of people, although small number
might lose their present work. The
rule of progress is the greatest possible
cheapness for the greatest possible num-
bnr