Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-31

~ The savings of the average
| iii &Mt3 man In the United States ir
1 a whole year would not suf.
s44119 flee to buy pound of 1t. The
yellow metal is so valuable
| that worth its weight in gold" has be-
come the expression of the acme OF
value. Yet gold is as dross compared
with some of the other metals that
exist Some of them are indeed as
many times more valuable than gold
as gold is more valuable than ordinary
iron. Some of them are so valuable
that nineteen men out of every twenty
In the world could not save enough
money in q lifetime to buy a pound.
There are at least twenty-six of the
metals which are more valuable than
the basic metal of our currency sys-
tenn.
OF course, about the most valuable
substance known is radium. Search
ing for needle in haystack is but the
task of few minutes as compared
with the work of finding a pound of
radium. 1t is estimated that it takes
1912 tons of uranium residue to make
one pound of the light-giving substance
and that 1t costs $4,000 to gather the
radium out of a single ton of uranium.
But after it is gotten it pays well for
the trouble. If square centimeter,
which is just about one-third of an
inch square, We're covered over with
chemically pure radium it would lose
only about 150-1000 of a grain in weight
in 100000 years. How tedious the
task in getting radium is shown by
the fact that there is more gold in sea
water than there is radium in pitch
blende or uranium residue.
Gallium is the rarest of metals, II
radium be excepted. 1t is worth
$6S,600 per pound, or nearly 229 times as
much as gold. The melting point of
this metal is below 81 degrees. so that
it will melt when held in the hand. 1t
was discovered by French chemist in
1875 and was named in honor of
France.
The next rarest metal is vanadium.
1t is valued at S10.7S0 per pound. 1t
Is closely allied to arsenic, phosphorus,
and nitrogen in it's general chemical
behavior. 1t is used to make salts.
one Of which in turn, ammonium me-
tavanadiate, is used to make analine
black dye and yanadium ink. Vana-
dunn is said to be present in small
quantities in nearly all clays. but its
most abundant source is vanadiate of
lead, found in Scotland, Peru and
Chile. The next most valuable metal
known is rubidium. 1t is valued at
$4,000 q pound, though few of our ac-
quantances have bought that much
lately. 1t is soft as wax even at low
When thrown in water
1t decomposes that fluid with the evo-
luton of. hydrogen, which takes fire
because of the heat produced in the
Rubidium is widely diffused
In nature, but occurs in such small
quantities as to make 1t extremely
rare. After rubidum on the scale of
metals comes thorium. Its
value is sS3S0 per pound. A compound
Of this element, thoria, is used in the
manufacture of incandescent gas man.
ties, and gives them the white bril-
liancy they possess. It Is found prin-
cipally in North Carolina and Brazil.
is valued at $500 per pound.
It is used in chemistry as the base of
several salts.
There are three metals-calcium, Ian
thanum, and lithium-which are each
valued at $4,000 a pound. Calcium has
1 hardness about equal to that of
gold. In solution it is shat element
which makes water hard. It's presence |
IS illustrated by the deposits which
form in the tea kettles OF milady's |
household. 1t may be obtained by |
passing a powerful current of voltaic
electricity through fused chloride of
when the metal separates into
minute globules. 1t is a yellowish-
white metal, and may be rolled into
sheets or hammered into leaves. To
De kept bright ii has to be immersed /
n naphtha. Lanthanum is said to have
little practical value, however great It's
worth. Lithium is the light
st of metals, outranking even alumi-
lum in that particular. It's specific
gravity is but little more than half
hat of water.
Another group-indium, tantalum.
ytarium and didymium--are valued at
4410 per pound. Indium is of rare oc-
urrence, and not of as great import
Ince as it's value would indicate. In
his case, as well as in that of most of
he other metals mentioned, the value
S fixed by the cost of obtaining 1t
ather than by any demand for it.
rhe same is true of the other three
# the $4416 class.
Strontium is worth $4,000 a pound.
is salts are used in the making of fire.
works. and the refining of sugar. Many
ives have been lost in both the maxi
ng and preserving of fireworks into
Which the salts of strontium enter. 1t
5 freely liable to spontaneous combus-
ion. Arium and erbium are each said
o be worth $3675 per pound though the
ally newspapers do not, as a rule,
AIRY market quotations on them.
is worth $2695 per pound,