The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-07-27
THE DIVERSIFIED
USES OF COPPER

The average man, il asked to name
offhand the uses of copper, would be
likely to reply that the metal was
used mainly for coming pennies and
making wire, yet these uses employ
| barely more than a quarter of the
copper that is produced. On second
thought he might smile at naming
copper coinage as an important con-
sumner of the metal, yet his first
thought would be nearer right than
his second, for the Chinese empire
has used fifty thousand tons of cop
per for making new coins, within the
past two years, thereby increasing
the circulating medium of the coun-
| try to the extent of four ounces for
each inhabitant-for while fifty
thousand tons of copper is large
quantity of metal, sufficient to load
thousand freight cars of the heavi-
est type used on American railroads,
it is but quarter of an avoirdupois
pound per capita, when divided
among four hundred million people.
Only the expert, or those engaged
most actively in the copper industry,
have the slightest idea of the d.
versified uses to which copper is put,
as shown by chapter on the uses of
the metal in the new edition of the
Copper Handbook, published by Hor-
ace J. Stevens, of Houghton, Mich.
According to this book copper enters
into almost every form of human ac-
tivity, and the multiplicity of it's uses
| Is most surprising. Electric light,
power and traction are immense con-
sumers of the metal in the form Of
wire, and telephones and telegraphs
find 1t indispensable, yet electricity
requires only trifle more than a
quarter of the metal made. The en-
cheering trades consume more than
one half of all the copper produced,
mainly in the form of brass, but
there are about score of friction
metals and alloys, each having its
specific use, into which copper enters
as a component part.
The building trades are enormous
consumers of copper, and this sort
of consumption Is increasing rapidly
Copper roofs, cornlces, and fronts
adorn the exteriors of business build
ings in thousands of towns. while for
interior work the majority of mod
ern buildings use copper, brass or
bronze locks, knobs and butts. Brass
pipes, nickeled are in modern bath
rooms and lavatories, and brass and
bronze chandeliers, gas and electric
fixtures are almost invariable. A
dozen or more other very common
domestic uses of copper are men
toned.
In the manufacturing world the
uses of copper and brass are innum-
cradle. One concern In the Manga
tuck valley of Connecticut buys cop
per in ten-ton lots, monthly, solely
for the making of watch dials, all
of the better dials being of copper,
enameled. The common pin requires
hundreds of tons of copper yearly,
insignificant as "a single pin may
seem. Balls for shoes and tips for
shoe-laces require metal by the
scores of tons, and the thin metallic
tips on rubber-tipped lead-pencils
are responsible for surprising de-
pletion in the stock of metal.
In addition to the consumption of
the metal itself, tens of thousands
of tons of copper sulphate are re-
quired for the arts and manufactures
and for horticultural purposes, in
spraying trees, bushes and vines. 1t
is very evident, from perusal of the
book in question, that copper plays
vital, and a far more important
part than commonly supposed, in
Twentieth century civilization.