AGE OF ALUMINIUM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 10167, 23 July 1924, Page 5

AGE OF ALUMINIUM.

PROBLEM OF CONSTRUCTION* Dr AA r . Rosen ham, E.R.S., in as memo, prepared for the Brituh Science Guild, looks forward to the time uhe the uses to which aluminium be put- will be so enormously extended to constitute a period that can ia y be called an age of aluminium. Thm metal is now frequently used foi maK ing domestic, and particularly <?ookin*. utensils. In many kinds of stiuctui it is the weight of the structure itself which constitutes the principal leadin a great bridge like that over the; Firth of Forth, for instance', the useful weight to be carried consists of one or two railway trains, but their weight is really insignificant compared with the > weight of the girders of the bridgeitself, so that the greatest part of the; steel in that huge structure is used mainly to support its own weight. D we could reduce the weight of the metal employed, the whole problem ot constructing these great bridges would he enormously simplified. The use o a lighter metal than steel is very important. Aluminium and its ahoys meet this requirement of reduced weight to a very marked extent. suppose, for instance, that an object of 1 <nven size and shape made m steel weighs 101 b, the same object made in; aluminium or one of its alloys wouldweigh from 3*lb to 3)lb, according to' the alloy that was used, or just a little more than one-third as much. Lighter weight, however, would he of little or no use were it not accompanied by at, least equivalent strength. It is in this* direction that very great progress hasbeen made in recent veal's. It has been found that aluminium can be rendered enormously stronger and tougher by incorporating or “alloying” with it certain other substances. Comer and zinc have been widely used for this, purpose.