Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-10-10
TUNGSTEN AND ITS USES.
An Unusual and Important Mineral
Widely Employed.


Last year there was a sharp de-
crease in the production of tungsten
ore owing to the decrease in the de-
mand for tool steel, in which the
bulk of the tungsten produced is
used, according to Frank l.. Hess, in
a report on this metal just issued by
the United States Geological Survey.
The production of domestic tungsten
ore in 1911 amounted to 1,139 short
tons of concentrates, carrying 60 per
cent of tungsten trioxide, valued at
$4O7,9S5; in 1910 the production
amounted to 1921 short tons, valued
at $S32,992.
Tungsten is used chiefly in MAX
ing steels that will hold their tenn
per when heated, but it is most gen
orally known as supplying the fila
ment of tungsten incandescent
lamps. The great improvements in
drawing tungsten wire and further
notable improvements in the size of
the globe of the tungsten lamp and
in other mechanical details that add
greatly to its efficiency are making
it encroach upon the carbon-filament
lamp and the arc lamp, and it is
rapidly driving from the market the
tantalum lamp, which was the first
good incandescent lamp having a
metallic filament. Diamonds are
used for dies in drawing tungsten
wire. At first it did not seem posi-
BILE to drill small enough holes
through the diamonds to make wire
sufficiently fine for lamps of small
candlepower, but wire 0.0006 inch
in diameter can now be drawn in
quantity. The total quantity of
tungsten ore used for electric lights,
however, amounts to only few tons
year. New uses of tungsten, in
making electric furnaces, electric
contacts, and targets for Roentgen
rays, have been developed, and the
last two products are being actively
manufactured
Even for purposes of war tungsten
may have its uses, and Investigations
are now being made with view to
its application in the manufacture of
projectileS.
The present small-arm service pro-
jectile is made of lead with a jacket
of copper-nickel alloy The princi-
pal advantage of lead over iron,
which would of course be cheaper, is
that it has a higher specific gravity.
Because of this fact a lead bullet
will have smaller cross section and
will therefore encounter less air re-
sistance to its flight than will an iron
bullet of the same weight, and it will
consequently give a flatter trajectory
and longer range. An iron bullet of
the same diameter as the lead bullet
could of course be made of the same
weight by increasing its length, but
this would at once necessitate giving
it higher rotational velocity to keep
its axis tangential to its flight. To
impart this added rotational velocity
would call for the expenditure of en-
ergy and so leave less for velocity of
translation. With the exception OF
tungsten, lead is the densest metal
which can be considered for this pur-
pose, for gold is the cheapest of the
other elements having higher spe-
cific gravity than lead
For military purposes the softness
of lead is not an advantage, a soft.
nosed bullet being tabooed in civil
lied warfare. For this reason ant
because of the fact that it is toe
weak to hold the rifling it has to bt
jacketed with copper-nickel alloy
To take the rifling and to act as {
gas check the tungsten bullet will
require a copper band or its equiva
lent at the base.
The hardness and high tensil,
strength of wrought tungsten viii
give high penetrating power. TIL,
high melting point of tungsten will
prevent the projectile from beins
harmfully upset at the base by tn,
combined action of the high temper
ature and rapid impact due to tn,
combustion of the powder charge.