MAGNESIUM FROM THE SEA: BEST IDEA OF 1944
■THE extraction of magnesium from •*■ the gea and. the growing use of this metal was voted the most notable step in scientific progress .in 1944 at the annual London luncheon of the patent agents. Each year this iittle gathering tries to settle the question: Which great idea of the past year can -be called the greatest? Magnesium from the sea was judged to ■ be the greatest scientific advance of last year, because it is the one likely to affect people's lives in alMands. Up till just before the war magnesium (Mg to chemists) was used mostly in the form of ribbon or powder for flashlight photography. It cost £5 per lb. It n9W costs about 1/6, because the sea is yielding up thousands of tons of it. Experts says it will soon cost 3d per lb, when its use for aeroengine,, incendiary bombs, and the pyrotechnics of v> can be turned to peace-time purposes, (the Daily Mail reported).
Every cubic mile of sea water contains 2800 tone of metallic magne-
sium, or, if those figures are difficult, your bath-tub full of sea water would yield a quarter of a pound of it. It is called the "Witch of Metals" with.-reason. It can play electrical tricks which we are just beginning to understand. It will soon be used in batteries. Your car battery will weigh 31b instead of the 251b or so of the present accumulator. Your torch battery will contain a pencil of it, and will last ten times longer than the present one. It will be the base of the metal current-carriers of the new electrified roads which may do away with unsightly and dangerous tram rails and overhead wires. - For the housewife, this metal will give her a baby-carriage which with one hand she will be ablo to carry up the iTont steps; kitchen pots and pans which, can be handled by the most delicate feminine wrist: furniture that can be moved and polished easily. , •
That is why in America and Britain in 'the last year its production has been trebled. New uses are being found for it ,every day.
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Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 76, 31 March 1945, Page 8
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360MAGNESIUM FROM THE SEA: BEST IDEA OF 1944 Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 76, 31 March 1945, Page 8
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