The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1907-08-08
TIE USES OF COPPER.

The average man, IT dshtu " NUM-
ofhand, the uses Of copper, would DE-
: likely 10 reply that the metal wa;
fused mainly for coming pennies aht
making wire, yet these uses emplo!
barely more than quarter of the COZ
per that is produced. On SECOND
thought he might smile at naming
copper coinage as an important con
sumer of the metal, yet his mrs.
/ thought would be nearer right thar
, his second, for the Chinese Empire
/ has used fifty thousand tons OF copper
for making new coins, within the pas'
two years. thereby increasing the cir
cuating medium of the country tc
the extent of four ounces for each in
habitant-for while fifty thousand
tons of copper is large quantity OF
metal. sufficient to load thousand
freight cars of the heaviest type used
on American railroads, it Is but a
quarter of an avoirdupois pound per
capita. when dividend among four
hundred million people.
only the expert, or those engaged
most actively in the copper industry
have the slightest idea of the diversi-
fed 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 Horace j.
Stevens, of Houghton, Michigan. Ac-
cordng to this book copper enters into
almost every form of human activity,
and the multiplicity Of its uses is most
surprising. Electric light, power and
otion orn ;Y,u,onga cnncun1prg Of thp
metal in the form of wire, and tele-
phones and telegraphs find 1t indispen-
sible, yet electricity requires only a
uiile more than quarter of the
metal made. The engineering trades
consume more than half of all the
copper produced, mainly in the form
of brass, but there are about score
of friction metals and alloys, each hav-
ing 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
adorn the exteriors of business build
ings in thousands of towns, while for
interior work the great majority of
modern buildings use copper, brass or
bronze locks, knobs and butts. Brass
pipes, nickeled, are in modern bath
rooms and laboratories, and brass and
bronze chandeliers, gas and electric
fixtures are almost invariable. A dozen
or more other very common domestic
uses of copper are mentioned.
In the manufacturing world the uses
of copper and brass are innumerable.
One concern in the Naugatuck valley
of Connecticut buys copper in ten.ton
lots, monthly, solely for the making
of watch-dials, all Of the better-grade
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 a surprls.
ing depletion in the stock of the metal.
In addition to the consumption of
the metal itself, tens of thousands of
tons of copper sulphate are required
for the arts and manufacturers, and
for horticulture purposes, in spraying
fruit trees, bushes and vines. 1t is
very evident, from a perusal of the
book in question, that copper plays a
vital. and far more important part
than commonly supposed, in Twentieth
Century civilization.