The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-20
Njl]Il 51lf
PROGRESS IN METALS.

DnOuRu Tile mines were extremely ITCH.
Enormous profits were made by the
producers, who were sufficiently linn
tied in number to regulate their COM
petition. The mines were perhaps a
little too rich in copper, for the pure
metal was often found in Masses too
large to handle without expensive cut
ting. At this time copper was not
much used where sheet-iron. with or
without a tin coating cast-iron, earth
enware or wood could be used in its
place. Brass house ornaments were
not often seen, and copper kitchen
utensils were to be found only in the
houses of the wealthy
Then copper mines were discovered
In. Montana, Arizona and other terri
tories, and the price of the metal slid
down the scale. Bronze hardware be-
gan to be common, copper kettles be-
came comparatively cheap, all sorts of
house decorations in brass began to fill
store windows Glass lamps gave way
10 brass and copper lamps, iron gas
fixtures put on brass and copper cover
ings, and decorative art broke out
with hammered goods, and amateurs
proceeded to fill up their houses with
homemade plaques. BY reason of
cheaper copper fre-places became ora
mented and higher grade of kitchen
ware came into use, and people of mod
crate means provided themselves with
tea-kettles and colfee-pots that were
fit to come to the ia BILE. The consump-
ton of copper increased immensely,
and a great many people were better
off than they were before. because they
had better things. The fact that tea
kettles had sold for two-dollars and
half, imported, were made in this
country and sold for seventy-fve
cents meant great deal
to hon sebeepers. The mines provided
employment for smany men at three
dollars to three and half dollars
day. and yet production was so cheap
that the great copper corner Of few
years ago was broken by the sale of Mon
s,na copper in London alta cent a pound
loss than Spanish copper mined by men
who got but seventy cents day. The
extraordinary development of electric
al invention would have been imposssi-
bic, but for the reduction in the cost of
wire. 1t would take long to follow out
all the ramifications of the good done
by the reduced price of copper
A century ago pewter appeared on
the tables of the rich. A silver tea
pot or wine tankard made its owner
conspicuous. Forks were of steel, and
real silver spoons were a housekeeper's |
treasures. In the search for some |
thing more dura bic and more lustrous |
than pewter the composition known |
as German silver came into use To- |
day the pewter has SO long been |
out of use that the old porringer |
and beer mug are snapped up by |
collectors of bric-a-brac, and German |
silver is heavily plated with real silver |
The silver-plated ware which banished |
pewter and German silver is now WELD |
ing to solid silver, the consumption of |
which in the arts is growing year by |
gear. The reduction of the cost of pro-
ducing silver, due to the employment |
of steam drills and hosting apparatus |
snd Cornish engines, and an increase |
Of incomes, have together brought men |
and women and silver into an intimate |
acquaintance undreamed of when the
constitution of the United States was
framed.
1.-THE demand for manufactured arti-
cles of silver increases every day."
said rthe representative of a firm
OF silversmiths the other day. eve |
are constantly learning to what new
valuable use it may be put" He added |
that the use of solid silver spoons and |
forks is daily becoming more common. |
of ho hid a1
nowadays are sterling, whereas for
several years heavily-plated goods were
In demand. With tableware the price /
always ffuctnates with the market |
value of silver
Much more important and more
marked, of course, was the cheapeuinr
of steel by the inventions of Sir Henry
Bessemer. Probably all the manu-
facturers of crucible steel were alarmed
lest cheap steel should mean their
ruin. But it did not. 1t meant better
bridges, better railroads, better ships
and greater rather than less use of
the finer grades of steel. Nearly coin
rident with the establishment of this
nation was the cheapening of iron by
the use of mineral coal instead of char
coal Even with the vast forests of
North America at their disposal, the
American ironmasters were alarmed.
Their abundant supply of charcoal had
before the revolution alarmed the En-
glish iron men. who got from parlia-
ment legislation highly injurious
to the iron industry of the colonies.
But the American iron men were in
turn alarmed by the English
Iron manufacturers supply of min
eral coal. and for their protection, got
congress to levy duties more burden
some on the cheaper than on the finer
iron. Yet the iron made from mineral
coal never misplaced that made from
charcoal, but it enabled industry of all
sorts 20 advance with leaps and bounds;
1t made the world of to-day q posi-
bility.
To the Roman brass or conner
was the synonym of money" as sill
yer afterward became in France and
gold now is in Germany. England and
the United States. A line from Pone
may be para phrased and we may saw
man never is, but always to be-
ruined by the progress Of the arts and
The reduced cost of production. f.sSome-
how or other, the man himself is not
sheapened. and his DAYS work Yields
him more of the comforts of life than
mis- grandfather was able to procure
With the same exertion.-N. y. jour
lal of Commerce.
A