Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-11-27
ALUMINIUM.
The New Metal and it's Possibilitfss-Tts
Adaptation to Important Uses.

Aluminium, aside from its lightness
and strength, is malleable. ductile. does
not rust is as beautiful as silver. and is
much more abundant in its state than
any metal in use. Coyolite or Iceland
spar. is the mineral from which it has
been mostly obtained, but it is con-
stituent of clay and of other earths,
and prevails almost everywhere. The
statement has been made that it COM
poses more than a twentieth part of
the crust of the globe. The difficulty
is to secure it in pure state at a
moderate cost. Much has yet to be
learned also as to the methods of using
it, and there remains some doubt as to
its adaptation tocertain important uses.
But within the last half-century it's
cost has been reduced from over thirty
dollars a pound to less than three dol
lars. and it is now being put to prac-
teal use as an alloy. Recently a
series of tests to determine the virtues
of aluminium bronze was made by gov
eminent naval officers at the Water
town Massachusetts Arsenal. A ten
sile strength of 10000 pounds to the
square inch was shown, which is large
ly in excess of anything before devel-
Oped. The TRAVERSE strength of the
composite metal was found to be $500
pounds to the square inch-a result
that has been only equalled by the
finest quality of crucible steel.
There are busy brains and hands
constantly at work to reduce the ex-
pense of manufacturing the pure metal;
and as the incentive to success is very
powerful, their labors are not likely to
be discontinued. Its capabilities soon
er or later, are very sure to be ex-
haustively tested. If they prove as
satisfactory as there is reason to hope
they will, and the laboratory processes
give way to mill production at low
cost, a wonderful revolution in works
of construction will have been entered
upon. How far in the future the de-
sired end may be there is no telling.
Remove two-thirds of its own weight,
without diminution of strength, from
the vast structure that connects New
York and Brooklyn. and its effective
ness for service provided room were
supplied, would be correspondinglv in
creased. Bridges of aluminum-sup-
posing always its qualities are truly
epresented--could be thrown across
streams and ravines to span which is
now impossible. The capacity of
steamships would be similarly enlarged.
Not only would cargoes take the
place of the lesser weight of the body
of the vessels, but also Of that of their
machinery. Enough coal could be
stored to indefinitely lengthen voyages
without fresh supplies. The cost of
transportation would be lowered in
many ways, foreseen and unforeseen,
and speed and safety increased as well.
The calculations of competent en-
gineerS as to the advantages to be
gained would produce showing diff
cult of belief at first. The Eiffel Tow
Ell as constructive feat would sink in
to insignilicance. The field for archi-
tcctural advance would be all but I'M
limited. Air navigation would leap
forward with a bound-if feasible at
all-when its great desideratum, IA ma
terial combining strength and light
ness in degree never known before,
or even Appropriated, had been Sc
cured. Street-cars wagons, carriages,
etc. would be improved, and save i'm
mensely in draught power and wear
and tear. Machines and instruments
would partake in the benefits of the
change, and new ones invented that
are now unthought of. These are but
sugge lions which experts in each
particular branch OF mechanics can
seize the meaning of and amplify.
Should the reasonable hopes of the
aluminium workers be realized, man
kind would seem to have been enamel
pated from a burden of heavy material
which it had been wrestling with for
ages, and posterity would talk of the
unspeakaDie waste of human energy
that had been involved in the use of
iron.
There is an aesthetic side to the pros
pect a> we'll as II material one. Aumi-
mum not only does not rust, either in
air or water but is easily polished.
Transform in imagination the elevated
roadways of New York, the ratings
and balconies before the houses or
even the houses themselves, the lamp
posts, the roofs, spires, and domes, the
Brooklyn and other bridges, to bur
nished silver, and glimpse may be
had of the coming effect of aluminium
in our cities indicated by the qualities
now claimed for it. The like has not
been pictured since Saint John spoke
of the golden streets and pearly gates
of the New Jerusalem. Amos W.
Wright, IN Harper's Weekly.