Arizona silver belt., 1903-11-05
THE AGE OF COPPER
Growing Consumption of Red Metal, Arirons and Northern Mexico the Coming Pro uucefs

The fortunes or the WOTlu Undt cOule and go and are disSipated as fast as accumulated may be made on Wall street, but the fortunes of the world that have come to stay have been made in ministering to the worlds wants. The Vanderbilts, the GouldS and the HuntingtonS saw early that the world needed railroads, ROckefel- Ter that the world needed light in the shape of Illuminating oil and gas, Car negie that the world needed iron and steel, and others of lesser note saw other needs and supplied them,
 The world never had need before so great as its need of copper now. The nineteenth century opened as an age of steam and the steam age is of necessity an iron age. For a hundred years the steam engine and the iron foundry kept pace together, so that the century ended with the world us- ing hundred times as much iron as when it commenced, ,and with the uses of steam multiplied a hundred times,
 The twentieth century opens as an age of electricity and electricity in. wolves the use of copper quite as much as steam involved the use of iron, Copper is not the only electrical con ductor, but 1t is the best and the cheapest. Aluminium has about two thirds the conducting power Ot copper and iron about two.tifthS, but alumi- nun lacks in tensile strength so that 1t is not we'll adapted to wiring, and iron is almost as subject to destruction by water as wood is by fire. Copper is the metal of the highest conducting power of all metals except silver it has tensile strength nearly equal to iron, and is almost as indeStructble as gold and silver, which it most reSem- bles. Moreover copper is the one uni. versal alloy and in it's pure state as we'll as in brass, bronze, German silver and other alloys, it plays an important and constantly increasing part in area itecture and the arts. For inside flu ishing it is fast taking the place of iron and steel for roofing of tin, and for manifold purposes of other metals.
 The twentieth century is certain to be an age of copper aud the use of copper is likely to increase during the early part of the century, while elec- tric railroads are being rapidly con structed, as much as the use of iron increased in the part of the last cen. tury when steam railroads were being built most rapidly.
 But the sources from which the world must get its future copper sup ply are much more limited than the sources of its iron supply. Iron ore is much more common and far more widely distributed than copper ore. Iron is found in practically nexhaust. ible quantities in all the general divi- sionS of the earth'S surface. It has no geographical limitations. Copper is found in paying quantities in only comparatively few places. Besides, iron ore when found averages 90 per cent iron, while copper ore hardly ay- erages 5 per cent copper. It takes twenty tons of ore to make one ton of copper and only two tons to make ton of iron. If the world should come tO use even 10 per cent as much cop per as it does irOn-ard it is very like ly to use mOre-it will find it dinicult to get it.
 The increase in the consumption of copper during the next ten years is likely to beat all recOrds.
 Before 1913 the trolley will be run ming on all important city streets and country roads. Inc railroads now US. ing steam will have substituted cleo tricity-certainly in part and probably altogether-and electricity will have taken the place of steam as a motive power in the larger part Of the indus trial establishments of the country. The waterfalls will have been har messed to the factories of the land and it will be a copper harness. Copper wires will have taken the place of iron wires on the telegraph and telephone poles and new cables with copper cores will be laid in all directions under the sea. New skyscrapers will be covered with copper roofs, and homes and of- Aces, railroad cars and steamships, adorned with copper or brass finish ings. Merchant ships and battle ships alike will be using more and more copper in their construction, and the manifold tools of industry and uten. sils of the household will come to he made more and more in whole or in part of copper, for copper is fast crowding out other metals in an inf. ni5e variety of uSes. In industry, in art and in the home, copper is claim ing the field with more and more ex. cluSiVpnpSa avery yaar u,l. ....t