The Portland daily press., 1893-11-22
THE WHITE METAL.
Many Novel Uses Found for Aluminium

There is big news to be told about
aluminium. 1t is now Oil the market at
65 cents pound, andaa thousand fresh
uses for it have been discovered. AL
ready it hsa driven silver out of the arts
to some extent. 1t has almost suppressed
ed the latter metal as foil for" gilt" work
because it is quite as beautiful and can
be beaten into leaf nearly as thin as gold
leaf The production of it has surpassed
that of nickel, and will soon exceed that
of copper and lead.
In fact, aluminium is destined soon to
take the place of lead and copper to a
large degree, as well as that of iron when
it becomes cheap enough. Economical
processes for it's reduction alone are need
ed. There is more of it in the world than
there is of iron. 1t forms seven per cent.
of the material of the earth S crust. Every
clay bank is a mint of it. and nearly all
rocks are literally beds of it. At present
it is comparatively dear because no
method has as yet been discovered for
obtaining it at small cost from common
clays. The minerals from which it is now
derived are comparatively rare.
This country produced SO pounds of
aluminium in 1883. In 1892 the output of
the United States was 26O,OOO pounds,
Last year one concern in Germany at
the falls Of the Rhine turned out 70. 900
pounds of it. The domestic production
is to be largely increasd by works at Nj
agara Falls, which will utilize the power
of the Niagara tunnel. Up to January |,
1898, the total worlds output of the
metal has been only about 1000 tons.
But it is not long since aluminium was
regarded only as curious experiment.
al creation of the laboratory. Its history
is all for it.
Some Uses of the Metal.
Slate pc ncils are among the novelties
made of it. The soft aluminium wire.
with sharpened point, works admirably
upon school states. Such pencils are
much more durable than the old fash
toned kind, suffering less wear and tear.
Shoes of this metal are now employed
for race horses. Not only do they pos
sess the advantage of lightness, but they
are said to preserve the feet of the ami
mails remarkably. Racing shells are
formed of single sheets of aluminium,
one-nineteenth of an inch thick, weigh
four oarsmen, lowered the mile record
nine seconds on the Schuyikill river last
summer.
Aluminium is beginning to be utilized
for roofing in sheets like tin, the cost of
it for that purpose being about the same
as copper. 1t may be rolled down to a
thickness of $4,000 of an inch. The
beaten "leaf" is now employed to a con-
siderable extent in decoration. 1t is
thus used i'll leading hotels of New York
and other cities. All the ornamental
work of the transportation building at
the Worlds Columbian Exhibition was
on base of thin aluminium foil. The
metal takes colors we'll and sheets and
plaques OF 1t are being manufactured in
great quantities for artists.
One of the most important IF future
uses of aluminumsis for kitchen utensils.
The heavy iron pot, which the cook can
scarcely lift off the fire, will be super
seeded by a vessel of the white metal that
while. equal in capacity and strength,
may be raised with a finger This new
material, emember, is as light as oak
AT the same time it is SO strong that
any kind of hollow ware formed of it