The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-11
MIRACLES IN STEEL
NEW MINERAL DISCOVERY or
 vANADIUM.
Same ThlngN Used of ola in Toledo Steel, and Ancient Copper Uten. sfls--Greatly HaFdens
 Steel.

it's resisting powers, thus relieving pat tleships of sufficient weight to enable them to carry coal enough to last over night, and the family carving knife may be (though 1t probably never will be) tempered hard enough to cut nice soft butter by the use of vanadium ir the manufacture of steel hereafter Other things may be done with thls same vanadium so wonderful that i, seems quite within bounds to predict that the discovery of the new metal may have as revolutionary an enec' upon the manufacture of steel as the discovery by Sir Henry Bessemer of the process that bears his name. More than this aluminium may be hardened and toughened by vanadium until Il gains the strength of ordinary steel without adding to Its weight Copper in castings may be given the proper ties of steel in addition to its own by combining with 1t small quantity of vanadium. Indeed. 1t fairly takes ones breath away to hear of the mechanical miracles that can be wrought with vanadium. It was vanadium in minute quantities that made the famous old Toledo blades, the finest swords that ever were wrought. Those old Span iards probably did not know that vana- dium was Mere; but Seqstrom. a Swed- ish scientist. found it out in 1880. Be- ing in the throes of love affair al the time he christened the new metal vanadium. from vanadis. which is what the scandinavians say when they mean Venus. Also it has been found that the copper chisels discovered in an old Roman mine near Tisovitsa. Hungary, were hardened with vanadium. Re- gently the mineral from which vana- dium is extracted was defined by Pro- lessor William P. Blake of the School of Mines at Tuscon, Arix. Then A. B. Frenxel of Denver. Col. went out and discovered mines of vauadium ore and the method of extracting it. MT. Frenzel Is @ specialist in rare minerals. He was commissioner of rare miner als for the State of Colorado at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. and is a member of the Societie d'Encourage- sment of Paris, the Society of Chemical Industry Of Great Britain. the Electro Chemical Society of New York and the Colorado Scientific Society of Denver. He makes frequent trips to Europe, where he keeps in touch with the mineralogists and metallurgists, who are conducting original research and whom he supplies with mineral to work upon. For instance. he furnishes the Curies with the material that enables them to conduct their researches into the properties of radium.
 Mir. Frenzel has large laboratory in Denver, where in a chaos of curi- ous contraptions of zinc, wood, hre- brick, glass, clay. iron and rubber. he assays, analyzes and classifies unknown mineral substances for other people and makes discoveries for himself. All this is Interesting because he is the only man in the United States who follows this particular line of business and alsp because they are finding so many new things fin Colorado to be identified that he has been obliged to begin the com struction of a larger laboratory, where he will be able to handle fifty tons of freak minerals 0 day.
 It cost Mir. Frenzel five and a half years of labor and s15,000 in cold cash to produce his first pound of vanadium. Since then he has found out how he might have saved s14.999 of that sum for cigars and automobiles. But his modification over this last discovery is much mollified by the prospect of be- ing awarded the Bessemer medal of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Bri- tain for 1t. For the discovery of Q process of producing vanadium at a cost not exceeding $1 a pound means that the way is now open for its use In the manufacture of steel and other metals. Hitherto vanaadium has cost SIP a pound, including duty. and it was only obtainable from Europe in very small quantities. Mir. Frenzel is further consoled by the possession of a mine near Telluride, Col, in which 125,000 tons of vanadium ore is un- covered.
 vanadium. when added to steel in the proportion of 10 to 15 pounds to the ton of steel. imparts to the latter some most extraordinary qualities. It gives the steel tensile strength of 2SS,OO0 pounds at an elongation of 19 per cent The average tensile strength of low. carbon steel Is 10000 pounds, or less than half that of the vanadium steel. Tools made of vanadium steel retain their temper and hardness at red heat. This means that planers and other metal working machines can turn out an increased output, for it will make no difference now if the machines are crowded until the friction heats the tools red hot. &s
 Large projectiles are heated by inn pact with armor plates so that they lose in penetrating power. If they are made of vanadium steel they may be heated to redness by the vlolence of impact. yet they will not mushyoom, but will retain their maximum pene- trating power. Big guns made of vanadium steel will be so must strong CT that greatly increased powder charges may be used In them. But If the other fellow protects his ships with vanadium steel the armor will be so very much harder and tougher that its increased resisting power will offset the hard projectile and the increased charge. and there you are.
 Soldiers. Southern editors, Colorado mine bosses and others frequently un- der fire can have helmets and breast plates. or even armor covering the en- tire body. made of vanadium steel so strong that it will afford complete pro- teetion. yet soc light that 1t may be worn without inconvenience. Stamps for stamp mills in mining regions. if made of vandaium steel would wear very much longer. Locomotive tires of vanadiun. steel would last as long as the locomotive itself. Boilers made of vanadfum steel could carry largely increased pressure without reducing the margin of safety. Skyscrapers with skeleton of vanadium steel would be in far less danger of coll lapse in case of fire. even If the terra. cotta protection should be destroyed. than Is now the case. for the steel even if red hot would be as stable as at the