The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-14

$sf41NBUSJJ 8g11nSt $s3<0s49Z-1l0 tor the corresponding month last year. This compared with imports of $324, ,OO0, GOO Irf April year ago imports were $364- 252544
 Gold exports for April were valued at S1 ,390.5 .531 against S655,2 ,231 for April, 1923. Gold imports of April, 1924. were $45.41S,115 against S9,1SS,- 470 for April 1923.
 lieses his product has an increased re- sistance to electrolysis.
 He is definite and emphatic in his assertion that the use of chromium not onlE prevents corrosion, but that it produces metal of greater physical strength than ordinary carbon steel.
 Predicts New Era
 @I believe that the economic changes which will result from the use of rust less steel and iron will be overwhslm- inx.H he said. -The replacement of rusted. iron and steel represents not only the actual value of the steel but also the loss caused by the slowing down of industry, the cost of labor and the time spent in replacement. 1t often happens that. the rusted member is a key part in complex system in con- tinuOus operation. and its replacement means the disruption of the entire sys- tenn. For instance. the rusting of the great iron towers which carry high voltage power wires is constant source. of waste and inconvenience.
 .ATt should De understood that the use of chromium for rustless steel is not a new discovery. The chemistry of the. process has for considerable time been clearly understood The i'm portance eff the new process lies In the fact that it Obviates the problem of pro hibitive cost. N0n-Fusting steels were sold at from 90 to . cents per pound compared with a price of 115 to 3 cents per pound for common steels and 4 to 6 cents per pound for high grade alloy steels. F to 15 cents for copper and IS to 70 cents for aluminium. This prevented any general use of rustiess steel
 Cost Main Factor
 My problem was to find a means of making and marketing rustless steel at the price of it's competitive non- ferrous relatives, such as copper, nickel and aluminium. The pathway lay in the same direction as that which brought other valuable metals and alloys into everyday use Aluminium was under stood and produced for q long time but was of little importance because of its high price. until Hall discovered a cheap process for it's manufacture. For more than 100 years vanadium was known. but it did not come into gen. eral use until processes were disc0Nered to extract it from its deposits at low cost. 1t is today a most valuable com ponent of steels. Similarly. magnesium processes are going through an evolu- ti0n which will result in commercially possible process.
 The same historical processes have taken place with regard to rustless iron fexr0-ehromium alloy has been elimi- mated and they, are now in the same category, as regards price. as ordinary engineering nastnla and alloys.
 -aThe field for the use of these metals is endless in extent. Rnstless steel and iron taken together reveal wide range of physical properties, from the require ments fDr the hard articles of cutlery maeA1ne valves and internal combustion engines, to soft material for stampings
 Serves Many Needs
 A suitable grade of rustleSs steel or iron can be substituted for almost any material that is now manufactured of ordinary steel, iron, brass or alIimi- mum. whether in the engineering indus try or in the domestic arts. As com pared with brass, it should be noted that the rTStless metals do not require eny protective eOatings, such as lacquer, and it is also important that a greater economy is attained in tensile strength, thns relucing the amounts of material t0a be specified to attain the safety fac tur in construction.
 SThere is no field of industry, wheth- CT it be domestic, such as for cooking rnnges.. utensils and hardware, or in the industrial arts. for mine machinery, purnpzs turbines. wire ropes. roofing materials and structural members ex- posed to the clements. or in marine work for ship plates, refrigerator pipes, etc, or railroad engineering, or in the aukom0tiFe industry, including aero nanticss that rustless iron and steel cannot be used to great economic ad- vantage. With the production of these metnls on a large scale, at low cost, there is no doubt that rustlesS metal mrxy makes possible industrial devel- opment previously impossible"
 Changing Modern Life
 While the rust-resiSting qualities of the new steel OVershadOw its other ad- vantnGess it is of tremendous impOr- tanes in supplying a hard, heat-resist- ing alloy for use in machine operations. According to careful estimates, Henry Eorl's plant would have to be seven times its present size to maintain its production without the use of high speed tools, which are made with a small pereentase of chromium alloy. The manufacture of such tools has been complicated and expensive, but science has now brought to hand the means of equihping all industry with this pre- ei8Rs alloy at only a slightly increased coss above that of ordinary steel. ChrO- mium and vanadium alloys have played a lending part in reyolutiOnizing mod ern industry life, in fact. For the automobile would be primitive. heavy and clumsy machine without them and the aeroplane would have been impossible. With this new phil Osopherss stone" available, science has endlesS e0nqueSts ahead. in hardening. strengthening. intensifying and widen- ing the vast steel fabric which fOrn.5 the matrix of the material civilization