Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-23
GREAT ARMY OF MEN
At ENDS OF EARTH
Strain and Sweat in Making
Telephone Apparatus.
QUEER MATERIALS USED
Where the Various Metals Are at
Home.
WHEN ALUMINIUM WAS BORN
The Story Of Rubber and the Civili-
cation Of the Wide-Eyed,
Useful Native.
QUEER MATERIALS USED
Where the Various Metals Are at
Home.
WHEN ALUMINIUM WAS BORN

Although thousands upon thousands of
Washington people use the absolutely in
Cispensable telephone system many times
a day, 1T is probable that a wonderfully
small proportion of this number ever stop
t. think, as they lift the receiver from
the hook and prepare to bark at the de-
fepseless central, that it took the best
efforts OF an army of 10000 men to COM
plete the apparatus in front of them. But
1t is true. nevertheless, and of an interest
quite extraordinary. And besides these
10000 hands the ends of the earth were
first searched by horde of men of many
tongues for the materials used in the
manufacture of the instruments.
The army of 2O,GOO skilled workmen is
employed all. the year round by the Cen
eral Electric Company. which makes this
familiar apparatus and uses in it's yearly
output of transmitters 800 tons of brass
alone. Michigan. Montana and Arizona
supply the copper and Missouri the zinc
OF which this compound metal is COM
posed.
The Great White Metal.
Aluminium is the metal used in the man.
ufacture of the diaphragm. that mysteri-
GUS little round disk in the transmitter,
whose uncountable vibrations in response
IL the varied tones of the human voice
carry the lightning of speech over the
wire TO it's connected receiver ALUMNI
mum is getting to be an old friend now,
In the kitchen and elsewhere, and is
similar in appearance to nickel. it isn't
even a second cousin in relationship or
characteristics. Way back yonder in the
early part of the sixteenth century a
Lon lx,,,e,
hailed from Switzerland and who was
famed for his knowledge of medicine and
alchemy. made a mighty good guess at
tnt presence OF aluminum-althOugh he
did not call 1t that-in some. of his lab
oratory materials. But it was not till
centuries later-fn 1928, to be exact-that
the metal was seen by human eyes. Then
IT was Isolated by che mcal means and
Fifty years ago aluminium sold for $500
a pound. Now. by reason of the dis
covery of the electroylic process of re-
duction, it can be bought for 35 cents
pound-something Of a drop. 1t is
comforting to think. too, that something
is cheaper this year than it was half
century ago. Beauxite, an ore containing
large, percentage of aluminium ana
found In abundance in northwe stern
Georgia. is the American source of this
Valsable white metal.
Old Nick's Material.
Some. miner in Canada or perhaps a
Malay laborer In Frances far-on colony
of New Caledonia took from the earth the
nickel which. duly refined, was used to
plate YOUR transmitter. The Malay, even
If armed with the murderous-looking
kris of his race would be. however, a
more welcome visitor than the fearsone
individual who was. in the Middle Ages
supposed to work nights manufacturing
nickel ore German copper miners in
those distant unsophisticated days. when
the telephone and the United States were
not. used to find mixed with Their copper
ore strange substance which they
named kupfernickel-that is. DEVILS cop
pert was SO termed because, though
apparently. ore of copper. none of that
metal could be extracted from it, This
Old Nick's material. nicknamed nickel,
was. comparatively scarce until New
York assayer, finding few pounds of i
in a shipment of copper from Sudbury,
Canada. credited the value of the white
metal In his return account. The aston
ished shippers instituted systematic
search. and immense deposits OF nickel
were revealed.
Pennsylvania furnished the steel used
for the springs found in the button OF
your transmitter. The powdered carbon
and the electrodes. also carbon, are Amer
lean products.
Rubber-WhatP
The rubber forming the neat case Of the
receiver may have come from some hot
humid district OF Brazil. where the dense
primevaT forests of the Amazon weave
their profuse foliage into sun-defying
roof. There Gnarani Indians. cutting their
way through thick underbush, perhaps in
terlaced with blood-red Llama vines. search
until a rubber grove is reached. The
trees being tapped and the water Of the
sap having been evaperated, the dried
residue IL Carried to the nearest trader
AS a white man lie feels entitled to ex-
plot mere Indians. and too often the
Guarani is beguiled into exchanging the
product of hts days labor for bottle of
colored wood alcohol facetously termed
rum. OEsperhaps the original rubber OF
your receiFer case was once the sole gar
ment ;Whaeh some Central African negro
wore onttber day which he paid his
weekly tax. the garment itself being the
payment IHqHired. Like a, certain biblical
charactAtt:Silver and gold have the ne
grOes noiie:Z therefore such as their for
ests provide they are forced to give.
Hail to the Swede.
Some brawny Swede drew from an iron
ore bog of his native country the raw ma
terial from which were nodded the re-
ceiver's magnet pole pieces For these
necessary little attachments no other iron
is regarded by electrical experts as the
equal Of this Swedish iron. raked from
beneath the water. The magnets them
selves are made OF. steel forged with spe-
cial care in Pennsylvania. Between the
magnets. there is plummet made of
America n lead. The United States now
produces more lead than any other nation.
The metal is found mixed with silver Ores
and is. Of course, separated in their reduc-
ton.
All OF the different parts of the tele-
phone instrument. fashioned out OF vari-
Gus metals by the army of 10000. are as
sembled and sent out needed to the
10000 cities, villages and haInletS of the
United States connected by the vast net
work of the Bell telephone lines.
PLAN GIFT FOR FATHERLAND.