Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-02-21
1.-THE ALUMINIUM AGE"
Progress of the New Metal Gradual
But Sure,

But Sure.
The following report of an address
made by DR.. Heroult, at the Chemists
club, on the occasion of the presenta-
tion of the Perkin medal to DR.. Chas.
H. Hall. is taken from Metallurgical
and Chemical Engineering:
There is a verse Of Kipling which
reads as follows:
ship me somewhere east of Suez,
Where the best is like the worst;
And there amt no ten commandments,
And a man can raise a thirst"
Il was in that particular mood when
1 made my first acquaintance with
aluminium in large quantities. At the
time 1 had friend who since then
became my partner, but for the time
being we were both dead broke. We
had pawned everything in sight and
also other things which were not in
sight.
FINALLY my partner had a bright
idea. He brought back from home a
stick of aluminium about six inches
long, which was valued very highly in
his family as a personal souvenir of
Saint Claire Deville.
LAS we handed it to the pawnbrok-
er, the latter said: What is that, bar
silver?' We said: Better than that;
that is aluminium Aluminium he
said; what is that?'
HE weighed it in his hand and said:
why, is this hollow We said: No,
that is aluminium and it is worth 12O
francs per kilo' After some thought
he said: We'll, will give you 2 francs
for it, say 40 cents in American money.
"On a hot summers day it was bet
ter than nothing, and we took the
money with the firm intention of buy
ing the stick back, which we never did.
Maybe that was one Of the reasons
why, later on, had to make good and
replace 1t.
mo material change took place in
the industry of aluminium for three
years after that event, but the actual
fact of the development Of said indus
try was preceded by rumors to the ef-
feet that something new was coming.
81 can remember there was a shop
on the Grand Boulevard in Paris where
there was a display of aluminium
goods, mostly thimbles, if remember
rightly, besides wedding rings, brooch
es, statuettes, few coils Of wire and
quite some interesting specimens OF
aluminium bronze in the form Of cof-
fee pots, sugar bowls, etc, none of the
cheap stuff which is sold nowadays. l
bought once a thimble for my mother
out of my savings. 1 was good boy in
those days. Every one of those arti-
cles had on the Paris finish and sold
like silverware.
I'm the '90's this same shop prac-
tised the same prices, although the
cost of ingots had come as low as 25
francs per kilo.
This was a wonderful time for the
aluminium makers; they were making
money hand over fist, at least on the
books. There was no use for any syn
dicate at that time. Aluminium was
being piled up in the store and the
stock of finished product reckoned at
above named price. But this did not
last long; customers were scarce and
finally the bankers got tired of lend
ing money to people who piled up
stock; it became necessary to sell.
Another price was established at s
francs per kilo, which did not prove
successful either. Then came the 5
marks which originated with the Swiss
company; finally it seemed to open the
bunghole of the cask.
Now, after various vicissitudes the
price in the old country looks pretty
near settled around 20 cents per pound
and will vary probably according to
the price of copper
Twenty five years ago the alumni
ium industry employed about 10 men;
the production was II tons year, the
total value of which was 100000.
Nowadays the same industry produces
sc, 900 tons at a value of $20,OO0,0O0
and employs from $1,000 to 10000 men.
IF we take the average consumption
of copper at 100000 tons a year at
value of 13 cents per pound, the total
value of ingot metal will be s234,OOo,0Oo
a year. comparing with the s2O,O00,OOO
for aluminium, say one-tenth. But
IL cents is pretty near the rock-bot-
tom price for copper. At 20 cents per
pound aluminium presents a great ad-
vantage for most uses.
Aluminium is slowly wedging its
way in the metal market. 1t looks
probable that in a course Of ten or fif-
teen years the consumption of the new
metal will be equal to that of copper,
and that after the golden age. the stone
age, the bronze age and the iron age
we will have the aluminium age"