Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1900-06-16
COMING AGE OF ALUMINIUM.
Doom of the Copper Industry and the
Ultimate Downfall of Iron.

| The coming age will be the age of
aluminium. 1t is only seventy years
since this wonderful metal was discov-
cred by Woehler, and the aluminium in
dustry, scarcely forty years old, com
/ mands already the attention OF the en-
tire world. Such rapid growth has not
been recorded in the history of civiliza.
ton before. Not long ago aluminium
was sold at the fanciful price of $50 OF
| $40 per pound; today it can be had in
| any desired amount for as many cents.
| What Is more, the time is not far off
when this price, too, will he considered
| fanciful, for great improvements are pos.
slnle IN the methods of its manufacture.
The absolutely unavoidable conse-
Quehce or the advance of the aluminium
industry will be the humiliation of the
copper industry. They cannot exist and
| prosper together. and the latter is
doomed beyond any hope of recovery.
Even now it is cheaper to convey an
electric current through aluminium wires
than through copper wires: aluminium
castings cost less and in many domestic
ana other, uses copper has no chance of
successfully competing. 4 further ma
terlaI reduction Of the price OF aluminium
cannot hut be fatal to copper. But the
progress of the former win not 90 on I'M
checked, for as ii ever happens in such
Slnailer one; the giant copper interests
VIII control the pigmy aluminium inter-
| eSts, ana the slow-pacing copper will re-
duCe the lively gait of aluminium. This
VIII only delay, not avoid. the impending
! catastrophe
Aluminium. however. will not stop AZ
downing copper. Before MANY wears
have passed it will be engaged in fiercc
struggle win iron. and i'll the latter il
VIII md an adversary not easy to con.
quer. The issue of the contest will large
~ depend on whether iron shall be indis.
pensabie. in electric machinery. This the
future alone can decide
While it is impossible to tell when this
| industrial revolution will be consum-
| mated, there can be no doubt that the
future belongs to aluminium. and that in
| times to come it will be the chief means
OF increasing human performance II
has IN this respect capacities greater hv
Tar than those of any other metal. |
should estimate its civilizing potency at
fully 100 times that of iron This esti-
| mate, though it may astonish, is not at
all exaggerated. First of all. we must
remember that there is thirty times as
/ much aluminium as iron in bulk avail
able for the uses of man. This in itself
offers great possibilities Then. again.
| the new metal is much more easily work
able. which adds TO its value. In many
OF lis properties it partakeS of the char
acter or a precious metal, which gives t
additional worth. Its electric conductiy-
ity. which. for a given weight, is greater
than that of any other metal. would be
alone sufficient to make it one Of the
most important factors in future human
progress. Its extreme lightnesS makes
1t FAR more easy to transport the objects
manufactured. BY virtue of this prcn-
erty it will revolutionize naval construc-
ton. and in facilitating transport and
travel it will add enormously to the use
full performance of mankind. But its
greatest civiliZing potency will be, | be-
lievc, in aerial travel. which is sure 70
be brought about by means of it, Telc-
graphic Instruments will slowly enlighten
the barbarian. Electric motors and
| lamps will do it more quickly. but quick
er than anything else the flying machine
will do it. BY rendering travel ideally
easy ii will he the best means for unity
ing the heterogeneous elements of hu.
manity.-Nicola Tesla in the Century
NTa.ya