The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-07-05
NATIONS JUNK PILE
A VALUABLE ASSET

The value of the secondary met
ais, exclusive of gola. silver, plati.
mum, iron and aluminium, recovered in
1912 reached the enormous total
of $77,395, ,s43, compared with $50, ,5s5,.
800 in 1911, according to J. p Dunlop
of the United States Geological Sur.
vey, an increase of nearly $25,000,000
Secondary metals are those re-
covered from scrap metal, sweepings
skimmings, dross, etc, and are so
called to distinguish them from the
metals derived from ore, which are
/ termed ''primary metals" The
/ United States Geological Survey Is
/ figures do not include the very large
quantity of old iron and steel remelt-
ed,neither do they include the precious
metals. The quantity of aluminium
/ scrap returned to secondary smelters is
increasing rapidly, owing largely to
the rise of the automobile, and the
survey reports next year will probab-
4 ly include secondary aluminium.
The value given for the secondary
metals are arbitrary and are based on
the approximate average value of the
primary metal for the year. While
junk dealers and collectors frequently
/ pay low prices for small quantities of
scrap metals, competition results in
! good prices being obtained for care
fuzzy sorted scrap and other waste
metal products sold in large quanti-
ties. After remelting or refining, the
metals are sold at only slightly lower
prices than new metal These secon-
dairy metals displace an equivalent
/ quantity of primary metals and must
/ be considered in any estimate of
stocks available for consumption in
any year. For few special purposes
requiring especial purity of material,
it is necessary to employ primary or
virgin pig metal, but as a general rule
secondary metals can be used in whole
or in part. In fact most foundries,
in order to compete for business sue
cessfully, must use secondary materi-
al at least in part, and hence scrap
metal is purchased by them and re-
melted with primary pig metal or with
composition ingot The secondary
smelters, by handling large quantities
of all kinds of scrap, are able to clas-
sify their material so as to produce
composition suitable for use in work
of different classes. Such composition
ingots are being purchased and used
in increasing quantities by many foun-
dries and other manufacturers in place
of primary metals or mixtures of new
and scrap metals. The higher prices
prevailing in 1912 for all metals 9th
er than lead had the effect of causing
more than a normally increased de
mand for and recovery of metals from
scraps, dross, etc.
| IT has so far proved impossible to
/ separate the statistics for secondary
metal recovered from clean scrap made
1 in the ordinary course of manufacture
/ from the statistics of metal recovered
| from dross and ashes and from scrap
or old metal that had entered the
trade as manufactured articles and
/ been discarded. An estimate has been
made of the clean copper and brass
scrap, but no distinction is made by
many of the dealers or smelters.
I Conservation That Pays.
/ There was a notable increase in the
use of magnetic separators to obtain
tscrap free from iron filings, and at
some plants concentrating tables were
| introduced by means of which cinders
and moldinr sand from brass foun-
dries containing as little as per
cent of metal were treated successful
! ly. The general tendency is TO save
all waste metal of every kind and OBJ
i tain more for it by better grading and
classification. Copper wire and heavy
copper and brass scrap are kept sepa-
Il 80 Irrh4 o.,l md
small scrap is briquetted to reduce
the loss in remelting. Few metallic ar
ticles are wasted; old clocks, bases of
electric lamps, light wire and springs
are all gathered and sold, though such
articles are not desirable scrap and
have limited market compared to
heavy copper, brass, babbit, etc. 1t is
impracticable to segregate the rein
ing. remelting and refuse of secondary
metals according to states, but over 80
per cent of the refining and smelling
of Dresses and scrap metals in the
United States is confined to the terri
tory east of st. Louis and north of the
Ohio river. Reports were made by
approximately 500 users of secondary
metals. of which about $50 were in
Pennsylvania and West Virginia, 120
in New York, New Jersey, Connect
cut, Maryland and Massachusetts. and
about 100 in Ohio, Indiana Illinois
and Michigan. Some of the largest
plants that remelt or refine secondary
metals are at Philadelphia, Chicago
New York City, Pittsburg, Detroit
and st. Louis and at Tottenville, n
". and Rome, n. Y.