The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-03-11
vANADIUM AND IT'S USES.

Tor the youthful lOgic1an and pnlioSo-
pher, but the developments of mod
ern warfare have almost made it a
practical question. The efforts to
| produce an irresistible steel projectile
have, at least until very recently, been
pretty well counterbalanced by those
seeking to produce an indestructible
armor to resist them. Our of this sit
uatfon first grew the Importance of
what a few years ago was a compare
lively little known substance. This
substance is the metallic element
known as vanadium. In 1896 vana-
dunn steel was used in the production
of some armor plates in France.
Tests of these plates demonstrated
that they were much tougher and
more highly resistant than like plates
made without the use of vanadium.
At once the element became impor-
tant and the demand for it grew;
further uses for it were discovered
and now vanadium steel is one of the
most important products of the iron
industry.
According to an instructive article
in the March number of the Monthly
Bulletin of the Pan American Union.
Washington. D. c., vanadium is not
sons think. 1t seems that had he
not himself repudiated his own dis
covery, the honor of finding the new
Andres Manuel Del Rio. professor
of mineralogy in the Royal School of
Mines of the City of Mexico. In 1901
the professor, in examining some
brown lead ores from the mines Of
ZimanaO in what 10 now known a the
state of Hidalgo, believed that he had
from chromium and uranium, and
this he named eritronium. 1t was in
reality what we now know as vana-
dunn. The discovery was genuine
one, but unfortunately the Mexican
professor was a little too much under
the glamor of the French school, and
when Collet Descostils published an
article in which he stated that Del
Rios eritronium was nothing more
than impure chromium Del Rio ac-
cepted the French professors judg-
ment and in 1904 disavowed his claim
of discovery and admitted that the
substance was lead chromate. Sub
sequent events showed that Del Rio
had originally been right and that the
does not even belong in tho |
chromium group. 1t was not until |
1880 that the Swedish scientist, n. G.. |
Sefstrom, rediscovered the element i
among the slags of the Taberg iron |
ores and gave it the name of vana- |
dunn, a name probably derived from |
what might be termed a family name |
in Morse mythology, Vanir or Vana, to |
which group Freyja, the Morse Venus, |
belonged.
Vanadium is a silver white metal |
which readily oxidizes; it has an
atomic weight of SIP, is non-mag-
netic, has a very high electrical re-
and melts at about 1850 de- /
grees c. AS an alloy of iron, however, l.
its melting point is about 800 de- |
grees lower. 1t is one of the most |
widely disseminated elements, al
though commercially available depos
It's are comparatively rare. 1t has |
been found in several of the western
states of the United States, in Sweden,
Australia, Spain, England, Argentina,
Chile and in Peru. 1t is upon the last
named county, however, that the
worlds commercial supply depends.
The asphaltite deposits from which
he Peruvian vanadium is obtained
ire located at YauH, Matucan, Casal-
ipca, Huari, Huancayo, and last and
argest, at Minas Ragra. The ore
rom the Ragra mines. which looks
ike hard slaty coal, contains about
10 per cent vanadium sulphide, 80 per
cent free sulphur, IA per cent SILICA,
ser cent iron sulphide, etc, and after
burning out the free sulphur the ore
contains about so per cent vanadium
,xide.
Until the recent development of
-anadium in the steel industry it's
commercial use was largely confined
o ink making and coloring fabrics
md leather. The ink is made of
mixture of a neutral solution of
monium vanadate. gum water and a
olution of gallo acid. Neither acids
Tor alcalies can destroy it, nor can it
Re bleached out with chloride. About
905 the supply of vanadium, owing
o the development of the Minas
sagra and other mines in Peru, began
o increase. From having been a rare
METAL, it became available in quaint I
les claimed to be unlimited as a steel
making metal. The claims of its users
re that it has accomplished wonders
n crucible and in open hearth steel.
hat it gives cast iron greater strength :
nd endurance, and that copper and
luminun, are remarkably improved
or certain purposes by it's addition. '
t is used in steel for engine axles and
rames, in transmission shafts and
ears in wire springs, piston rods
ydraulic cylinders. tires. tools, boiler ,
lates, gun shields, projectiles, armor ,
lates, gun barrels, watch springs, and
n castings and forgings generally
me of the great advantages of the use )
f vanadium steel in the future will ]
% doubt be in enabling the steel fac
ors to reduce weight in such con- ,