The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-06-07
THE COMING AGE OF ALUMINIUM.
Doom of the Copper Industry Fore
shadowed and the Ultimate Down
fall of Iron.

Doom of the Copper Industry Fore
shadowed and the Ultimate Down
fall OF Iron.
Nicola Tesla in the Century Magazine.
The coming age will be the age of alum
inium. 1t is only seventy years since this
wonderful m tai was discovered by Woeh-
Ter, and the aluminium industry, scarcely
forty years old, commands already the
attention of the entire world. Such rapid
growth shassnot been recorded in the his
tory of civilization before. Not long ago
aluminium was sold at the fanciful price
of $50 or $40 per pound; to-day 1t can be
had in any desired amount for as many
cents. What is more, the time is not far
off when this price, toc, will be considered
fanciful; for great improvements are pos
sible in the methods of it's manufacture.
The absolutely unavoidable consequence
of the advance of the aluminium industry
wi be the annihi,ation of the copper In
duslry. They cannot exist and prosper
together, and the latter is doomed be-
You'd any hope of recovery. Even now 1t
is cheaper to convey an electric current
through aluminium wires than through
copper wires; aluminium castings cost less
and in many domestic and other uses
copper has no chance of successfully COM
DeLlnR. A IuGInGT material ItQuitiOh u
the price of aluminium cannot but be
fatal to copper. But the progress of the
former will not go on unchecked, for, as
it ever happens in such cases. the larger
industry will absorb the smaller one; the
giant copper interests will control the
p.gmy aluminium interests, and the slow
pacing copper will reduce the lively gait
Of aluminium. This will only delay, not
avoid, the impending catastrophe.
Aluminium, however, will not stop at
downing copper. Before many years have
passed it will be engaged in fierce
struggle with iron, and in the latter 1t
will find an adversary not easy TO con-
quer. The issue of the contest will large
ly depend on whether iron shall be in
dispensable in electric machinery. This
the future alone can decide.
While it is impossible to tell when this
Industrial revolution will be consummated
there can be no doubt that the future be-
longs to aluminium and That in times to
come it will be the chief means of in
crsasing human peri rmanee. 1t has in
this respect capacitie greater by far than
those of any other metal. l should esti-
mate its civilizingr potency at fully one
hundred times that of iron. This estimate,
though it may aStonish, is not at all eX-
aggerated. First of all, we must remem-
Der that there is thirty times as much
| aluminium as iron in bulk available for
the uses of man. This ip itself offers
great possibilities. Then. again, the new
metal is much more easily workable, which
| adds to its value. In many of its proper
ties it partakes of the character of pre-
| c.ous metal, which gives 1t additional
| worth Its electric conductivity, which,
for a given weight, is greater than that
of any other metal, would be alone suf-
fcient to make it one of the most import
ant factors in future human progress. Its
extreme lightness makes it far more easy
to transport the objects manufactured. By
virtue of this property it will revolution
lie naval construction, and in facilitating
transport and travel it will add enor-
mously to the useful performance of man
kind. But its greatest civilizing potency
will be, believe, in aerial travel, which
is sure to be brought about by means OF
st. Telegraphic instruments will slowly en-
tighten the barbarian electric motors and
lamps will do it more quickly, but quicker
than anything else the flying machine will
do it, BY rendering travel ideally easy
It will be the best means for unifying
the heterogeneous elements of humanity.