The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-10-19
TUNGSTEN AND ITS USES.
An Unusual and important Mineral
Widely Employed In Various In
dustries.

Last year there was a sharp de-
crease in the prohibition of tung-
stem ore owing to the decrease in
the demand for tool Heels, il 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 Ito 1889 short
tons of concentrates carrying so
per cent of tungsten tlioxide. valued
lat $407, 1886; IN 1910 the production
Ianounted to- tons, valued
at sS32,992.
Tungsten Is used chiefly In making
stee1s that will hold their temper
when heated, but ID is most generally
known as supplying the filament of
tungsten incandescent lamps. The
great Improvements in drawing tung-
stem wire and further notable i'm
proyements in the size of the globe
of the tungsten lamp and in other
mechanical details that add great
ly to its efficiency are making it en-
croach upon the carbon filament lamp
and the arc lamp, and it is rapidly
driving from the market the tantal-
I'm lamp, which was the first good
|incandescent lamp having a metallic
fllament Diamonds are used for dies
in drawing tungsten wire. At first
| it did not seem possible to drill
small enough holes through the dia-
monds 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 a few tons a 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 a 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 principal
advantage of lead over iron, which
would of course be cheaper, is that
it has a higher specific gravity. Be
cause of this fact lead bullet will
have smaller cross section and will
therefore encounter less air resist
ance to its flight than will an iron
bullet of the same weight, and it will
consequently give q flatter trajectory
%, Jnr "a lot 1f
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 a higher rotational velocity to
keep its axis tangential to its flight
To impart this added rotational We
locity would call for the expenditure
of energy and SO leave less for We
Iocity of translation With the excep-
! ton of tungsten, lead is the densest
metal which can be considered for
| this purpose, for gold is the cheapest
| Of the other elements having a high
er specific gravity than lead.
( For military purposes the softness
Of lead is not an advantage, a soft
nosed bullet being tabooed in civil
/ lized warfare. For this reason and be-
| cause Of the fact that it is too weak
to hold thesrifling it has to be Jacket
\ ed with copper-niekel alloy 10 take
the rifling and to act as a gas check,
/ the tungsten bullet will require a
copper band or its equivalent at the
| base.
The hardness and high tensile
/ cTrnv, otff rf mrsaT, oI1f tungsten will