Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-23
PRODUCTION OF ALUMINIUM.
Increasing Applicability of the Metal
to Various Uses.

lncreUS1nE AppI1c0D1l1ty OF the Metal
to Various Uses.
| From the Review of Reviews.
In reply to the query Of practical men as
to the uses of this new rnetal the manufac-
| turers say that it is adapted to a thousand
purposes for which strength and durability
combined with extreme hghtness, are es-
sential requirements. 1t serves, for ex-
ample, as a sheatbing Of vessels. 1t will
be remembered that on the American rae
ing yacht Defender aluminium plates. -
feet long. 5-16 inch thick, and from % to
30 inches in width, were used above the
water line; these Plates had very slight
alloy of copper. The serviceability of alu-
minum in salt water has not been fully
tested. Owing to the action of alkalis On
the pure metal. an alloy is required. Alu-
minum is also well fitted to serve as roof
ing material Bulk for bulk, it is already
as cheap as copper and cheaper than nickel
or tin. 1t lends itself readily to the vari-
Gus processes of stamping or spinning. The
greater part of last years output was sold
in sheet form. Aluminium has entered to a
considerable extent into the manufacture
of bicycles having been successfully used
for almost every part OF the bicycle in
which metal is employed at ALL One COM
pany casts the entire frame of the machine
of an aluminium alloy, and it Is said that
the strength of the frame thus made is
only surpassed by that of the highest grade
of nickel-steel frames. The various parts
and fittings of bicycles are made from alu-
minum by several manufacturers, and
many tons of the metal have been con-
sumed in bicycle factories.
Probably the most important use to
which aluminium will be put, at least in the
immediate future, will be for culinary and
household utensils. Besides being very
light, and hence far less cumbersome than
any other metal of equal strength and du-
rability now used in cookery, aluminium is
practically incorrodible; Prof. Jameson as
serts that no food now known to man can
affect this metal in the slightest degree. 1t
is wholly free from every form of poison,
and it will not faint food These are quail
ties that are possessed by neither iron cop
per. tin, nor lead Furthermore it Is a bet
ter conductor of heat than either of the
other metals.
The innocuous nature of the metal is an
earnest of its future usefulness in surgery
1t is already substituted for silver as the
material of which tubes are made to be in
serted in the windpipes of patients on
whom the operation of tracheotomy has
been performed. For dental plates. also,
aluminium is particularly we'll adapted.
Ten years ago, as we have Seen, no pure
aluminium was produced in the Uni'ed
States, and in Europe it was produced only
at cost which virtually prohibited it's use
in the arts. Today it is the rival of copper
and steel in scores of manufactures, and in
a single day more of it Is rolled into sheets
than went to make UP the whole world
stock a few years since. A round million
of dollars will not express the value of the
American product of 1897. notwiths landing
its cneapneSS as measured by former stand
ards. No industry has undergone a greater
Transformation than this within the decade
And yet We are told that this is only a be-
ginning.