Norwich bulletin., 1917-07-10
THE WAR PRIMER 5y National Geographic Society.

1 Niagara at the 6attIefront.-Tov- | America S greatest cataract has enlist ed for war service is told in a striking communication to the National Geo ' graphic society from William Joseph ShoWalter, part of which was issued today as one of the society's geosfa 1 phy bulletins. MT. Shopalter says: The story of Hiagara's role in the battle of the nations is an epic in tbn history of war.
 When Niagara power was first de veloped efforts to make artificial grind : ing materials were proving failure because of the lack of electric current at a price the new venture could afford to pay Those who backed the pro cess thereupon went to Niagara Falls. i Set up a plant, and founded the arti- fcial abrasive industry. How much it's success means to America cannot be oveTestiniated.
 Take the grinding ma chinery out of the automobile factories, remove it from the intuition plants, eliminate it from the locomotive works. car foun- try. and you would paralyze the ra- tion's whole industrial system And that would have happened ere now had not Niagaras artificial abrasives step ped in to save the day when the war shut out our natural supply of emery and corlundum from Asia Minor
 There is not a bearing in your au- tomobfle but Is ground on Niagara
 
 roughened and finished with them, pis- tons and cylinders are made true, camshafts likewise and a hundred crit ical parts of every car, whether of the cheapest or the most expensive make. It would be impossible to build any thing of tool steel on a commercial basis without Niagara's abrasives.
 No shell goes to Europe whose nose has not been ground into shape on Niagara made grindstones. Likewise it
 
 more than any one other thing to mas ter the hot box that -bete noire' of the American railroad man and the worst enemy of schedule time train transportation the world around.
 While the processes of carborun- dunn manufacturers were being perfect ed another lesson was learned. Quartz you remember, is the geologist's ther- moneter for 1t is formed between mar row ranges of temperature. If the ma terials from which nature makes ;t are subjected to more than so much heat they take on an entirely different char acter from quart The same is true if they are subjected to less than a certain amount or heat.
 50, also it is with carborundun1- Tn its man ufacture a large quantity of a of coke and sand, with touch of sawdust and a dash of salt. is put into an electric furnace A heavr cur rent Of electricity is passed through this for 4s hours, heating it to 1850 de- grees centigFade.
 If it is properly heated. there forms around the central core of coke a great array of crystals, large and small. ai- most as hard as diamonds If too much heat is applied instead of forming in to crystals the material breaks up into fine particles of black dust and you have graphite
 Therefore, largely by the same pro- cess the electric furnace produces from the same materials the near of the artificial Erindstone and the microscopic dust that becomes l lead for a pencil, color for ink. base fof. l lubricants. electrodes for furnaces and. death chairs, or a thousand other 1 things. under the n1anipulations of if- dustrial science.
 But Niasaras bit in behalf of Am | erican arms does not end with the | story of abrasives; indeed. it only we'll l begins The story of ferro- silicon is | another illustration of how beauty trn- 1 der the alchemy of science is trans | mHted into grim -visa3ed war.
 Last year this country made more | steel than the whole world reduced | when William Mckinley became presi- | lent of the United States. Nearly 1