New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1908-10-28
VALUE OF VANAD|UM.
Will Reduce Vessels Weight and
Permit More Speed.
TO BE USED IN WARsHIPs.

Good For Big Guns Also, Preventing |
Erosion, Now Problem Before the
United States Navys Bureaus Of
orcinance-officers Much Interested.
Much interest Is expressed In naval
circles in the recent announcement
that the navy department had officially
adopted vanadium as means of in
creasing the resistance of steel used in
armor on warships. Experiments al
ready have been made with vanadium
in alleged steel, and ordnance officers
now admit that the use of vanadium
will mark an epoch in ordnance con-
struction.
Experiments have shown that armor
plate treated with process of vana-
dunn combined with chromium and
nickel will resist a projectile $50 per
cent greater than will the armor plate
made by the Krupp process. Plate of
every class has been tested and thor
oughly proved in the presence Of Rear
Admiral Mason, Chief Constructor
Capps and score of other navy Off
Gals, including Mr.. Newberry, assist
ant secretary of the navy. A deck
plate three and one-half inches in
thickness made of the yanadium hux
withstood test that smashed Krupp
plate three and seven-eighths inches In
thickness to bits, says a Washington
correspondent of the New York Her
aid That test was held at Indian Head
q few weeks ago.
The torpedo gun of Lieutenant Com
mander Davis is a product of vana-
dunn, and the great tensile strength Of
the new steel is shown by the fact that
the original Davis project1le, made Of
ordinary chrome nickel steel, weighed
a thousand pounds and could not be
foated to its objective point while the
successful projectile, made of vana-
dunn STEEL weighed only eighty pounds
and withstood the shock of forty
pounds of dunite without a crack or
warp.
1t is now the aim of navy officials to
use the vanadium fux in the manufac
ture Of steel work in the makeup Of
warship, including the big guns. BY
the use of vanadium the weight of the
vessel will be greatly reduced, thereby
increasing the speed without loss Of
fighting efficiency. Another advantage
of vanadium will be that it will pre-
vent erosion Of the big guns, which is
now problem before the bureau Of
ordnance.
In connection with vanadium it is
said that one of the mysterious things
which for years puzzled navy men and
makers of armor plate was the fact
that Krurp armor made at Essen prov
ed better than armor made under the
Krupp process elsewhere. It was not
until the experiments with vanadium
as fux began that the secret was dis
closed. All analysis of the Krupp plate
made in Pfttsburg showed that 1t con-
tanned a trace of vanadium. Since no
vanadium was mentioned In the Krupp
process, an investigation was begun
and the fact developed that small
quantity Of vanadium was in the Swiss
iron ores which are used In Essen.
The value of vanadium Is in the fact
| that 1t is what steel men call "Scav-
| enger"
| It clears out all the Impurities that
may be in the steel and gives the other
elements, chromium and nickel, a
chance to do the work for which they
| are intended without interruption by
| gases and other deleterious matter.
! The use Of vanadium prevents all pos
sibility Of the blowholes that caused
so much trouble and talk in navy cir
| cles few years ago.
While vanadium Is sometimes refer
red to as a new element it's value In
the making of steel has been shown to
some extent since 1886, when it was
| discovered by a French scientist. Lat
| er German scientist discovered 1t In
Switzerland, but not until recently
was 1t found in such quantities as to
make 1t commercial possibility. Fol-
years steel men have been searching
/. for vanadium, and the whole world
has been prospected over. Fortunes
have been spent In the search.
/ The mine from which the navy de
partment will get vanadium Is located
/ on top Of the Andes mountains, in
Peru. The deposit is three and a half
miles long and mile and half wide
It's depth is unknown