Milford chronicle., 1905-07-28
THE CAPITAL METALS.
What WIN Become of Civilization
without Iron and COppers

What VIII Become of Civilization
without Iron and COppers
Professor n S. Shaler of Harvard
university contributes to the Interna-
tional Quarterly significant paper on
The Exhaustion of the Worlds Net
ais OF these metals two are car
dinal in impOFtance-irOn and copper.
The rest may be of great utility, but
they are not absolutely necessary to
civilization and do not materially af-
feet its course. The ''mainstays of our
existing civilization among the metals
are iron and copper"
Now, how about the supply? In Eu-
rope the deposits of minable iron ores,
'lOng in service, are beginning to be
exhausted" Great Britain has prac-
tically consumed its store" and now
practically all the supply for its fur
naces is imported. The Mediterranean
supply. Professor Shaler computes.
cannot last for many decades to come.
The ore beds Of central Europe are
mot likely to meet the demands Of
a hundred years" Extensive deposits
of rich ores in Scandinavia and in Bel
gium and France have hardly begun to
be drawn ON yet at anything like the
present rate of increase in the con-
sumption Of metallic iron. Professor
Shaler estimates that even with these
the European sources of supply will
not hold out for a century.
In this country the conditions for
long continuance Of iron production are
more promising, and the 'best placed
field" for it in North America or in
the world, save northern China, is the
central section of the Mississippi val
ley, mainly between the great river and
the Appalachian system Of mountains
and nOrthward beyond the great lakes
to the headwaters of the streams flow
ing into Hudson bay" yet lit Is
question" if even this store will supply
the demands Of the future, and 1T is in
a high measure improbable that within
the United States any new fields of
notable value remain to be discovered"
in addition to those which have been
known for thirty years and more.
The only other known field in the
other continents than Europe and
America Is in China under conditions
of climate and of labor which promise
a cheaper product than has been OBJ
tanned in any other district" and it is
this condition which, to Professor
Shaler's mind, gives TO the japanese
Russian war its greatest Importance
to the world for on the control of these
resources depends in large measure
the economic mastery of the Pacific
ocean," He computes that the de-
posits other than those of China which
can produce iron at the present low
labor cost will almost certainly be ex-
hausted within 100 years"
The sources of supply of copper are
much rarer and more restricted. The
total amount of the metal in the crust
of the earth is probably not a thou
sandth part that Of iron. and accord
ingly Professor Shaler is of the opinion
that "the supply of copper will be re-
duced to a point where its service to
the arts will be seriously limited be-
fore there is a like reduction in the sup
ply of iron"
What will become Of civilization
without iron and copper? There may
succeed an aluminium age" which
will carry. us almost as far beyond
that of iron as we advanced when that
metal replaced bronze in the mechanic |
arts" Within fifty years the market !
price of aluminium has fallen till 1t is |
now only about one-tenth Of what it |
was, yet Professor Shaler says that ''he |
would be a confident man who on this |
basis Of computation looked forward |
to a time when aluminium could be |
produced for less than
$500 ton" and he reaches the conclu-
sion that with any methods now con-
we have to reckon that, while |
aluminium is likely in time to take the
dominant place now held by iron, it
will do so at cost in terms OF labor
far higher than what men now pay for
their capital metal"