The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1916-03-13
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ALL ABOUT IRON.



Truly this is indeed the iron age,
especially for the housewife whose
MANY household articles are made
from iron or it's modified metals. The
natural iron ore is converted by dlf-
ferent processes into almost different
metals which differ considerably IN
strength. finish and hardness. For IN
stance. we have the wrought iron, as
in andirons and some other household
nieces. which is actually shaped by
the anvil.
Again there is the far more brittle
cast iron which is holded to meet the
conditions of definite shapes, such as
the treadle of sewing machine, or
there is both mild and hard steel,
most familiar il scissors, bed springs
and certain parts OF stoves and much
house hardware. Steel is very hard
and elastic, and is therefore the par
ticular kind of iron used for cutting
surfaces or where any resilency IS
needed. as in a spring either or
watch or bed.
The housewife may not recognize
in her familiar enamel ware, or So
called agate" kitchen utensils a prod
net of iron. but this is true that enam-
ell ware is nearly iron covered with
a blaze similar to that used on por-
celain or china The shaped piece OF
iron is dipped into the molten glaze
which solidifies on cooling, and which
should make an imperviouS coating.
1t does this until sle coating is Clipped
off, when it is easy to see the iron
underlying metal.
The common galvanized bucket or
pail or foot tub is another mOdifica-
ton of iron ore Here we baN\ the
sheets of iron rolled very thin and
then immersed in molten zinc, after
the method of dipping enamel ware.
This sheet of iron covered with zinc
is then passed between rollers, al
lowed to cool, and is then called gal
vanized.'
The many dippers, colanders and
other pieces OF tin, so-called, are made
of sheet iron covered with tin by a
similar process to that with which it
is covered with zinc This finished
product is technically not tin but tin
plate. Nickel is generally plated on
to iron as in the cheaper kind of fau-
Gets and many other nickeled fin-
ishes to stoves and other metal parts.
The nickel is welded to the iron, be-
coming part of it.
The one peculiar quality that all
iron or its products presents is the
manner of its furnishing by the air.
or rather the moisture and oxides of
the air This tarnisb. unlike that of
bther metals, does not adhere close
ly to the iron, but scales off, and is
commonly called rust Thus, any OBJ
ject made of iron which rusts is con-
staItiy exposing new surfaces Of
metal, so that the process goes on
and on, unless it is checked There
are two methods of preventing iron
rust One is to keep the metal dry
and highly polished, as a polished
surface does not give place for any
moisture PARTICLES to adhere. Knives,
tinware, stoves, pipes, etc, which are
kept polished will not rust The other
method to prevent rusting is to cover
the metal with a coating of OIL wax,
paint, or similar substance For in
stance, metal parts that are treated
with oil or that are lacquered or COW
cred with vaseline, will not rust be-
cause this oily coating prevents the
air from coming in contact with the
iron. The way to avoid rust is, as it
were, to begin with its grandfather
and not let it be born, or to take pre-
cautionary methods beforehand so
that no rust can FORM