VALUE OF NICKEL

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 112, 5 February 1941, Page 6

VALUE OF NICKEL

Italy Calls Up Coinage WARTIME USE OF METAL Reports of Italy’s withdrawal from circulation of nickel coins of one aud two lire, thereby recovering 1600 tons of nickel for use in war industries, spotlights an internationally-recognized emergency source of the strategic metal, vital as a hardening component of high-quality steels, states the "Christian Science Monitor.’’ More than 4,000.000,000 pure nickel pieces of 77 denominations were recently estimated to have been in circulation iu 28 countries, according to a bulletin from the National Geographic Society, which points out that the United States ‘‘nickel” coin really is made of an alloy, one-fourth nickel and three-fourths copper.

Nickel was discovered by prospectors searching for silver and copper. The power and invincibility of the fabled warriors of China aud Persia is traceable, according to legend, to their superior swords, forged from meteors with high nickel content. While innumerable nou-military’ uses for this metal have been developed, nickel plays a more important role iu a warring and rearming world, because such materials as armour plate, projectiles, gun barrels, bullet jackets, and acid and weather-resisting alloys depend on nickel for much of their hardness and strength. Canada Supplies U.S. Because nickel is essential to national defence, and because it is obtained almost exclusively outside the United States, the metal has been classed as a stategic material by the United States Army and Navy Munitions Board. Canada’s Sudbury district of Ontario supplies about 85 per cent, of the world’s nickel. The United States, the world’s largest consumer of nickel, imports practically all of its nickel from Canada. Though nickel is used for some purposes iu its pure state, it has the invaluable attribute of ‘‘willingness” to mix with a long list of metals and metallic alloys, toughtening the blends, increasing their heat resistance, and improving their non-corrosive qualities. Ear and away its most important union is with steel, to which it gives the extra “heart” required for special uses in the stressed members and revolving parts of machines and motors. Stainless steels, too, have a relatively high content of nickel and chromium. Nickel also forms important alloys with copper, silver, and aluminium. High quality welding rods of nickel-steel and Monel metal, largely nickel, have been developed. Nickel, nickel alloys, and products of nickel machinery are in constant everyday use. In modern homes they may be found in many articles ranging from kitchen sinks to door knobs. Silver plated ware usually is nickel alloy covered with a film of silver. One Sees It Everywhere.

Alloyed with copper and zinc, nickel appears as nickel silver —or German silver —in signs, hardware, and other fixtures and decorative trim. About one-twelfth of the gleaming metal tower of the Chrysler Building in New York City and also the metallic ribbons adorning the walls of the lofty Empire State Building are nickel. Embedded in the asphalt paving of city streets, huge nickel alloy “thumb tacks” liank pedestrian lanes, and underground telephone wires “wear” small nickel-alloy loading coils to make telephone conversation clearer and to speed transmission. Many modern steamships are equipped with nickel-alloy hardware and fittings because the metal resists salt water corrosion. Small pleasure boats feature nickel-alloy hulls and appointments that need no paint to preserve them. Because of its non-contaminat-ing and non-corrosive properties, nickel is widely used in the dye aud chemical industries, and its clean appearance, and readiness to take a polish, make it popular among manufacturers of display containers, and restaurant, bakery and dairy equipment. Invisible applications of .nickel are even more impressive than the visible uses. Because of the extra strength it puts in steel, nickel is a vital component of the metal employed for the movable parts of all kinds of machines from steam shovel arms to carefully fitted turbine blades. Makes Travel Safer, Nickel helps make travel safe. Frames and engine parts of many automobiles and trucks contain nickel. Tough nickel alloys go into locomotive and car parts, and often into the moulding of tracks. Modern streamline highspeed trains are built largely of nickelbearing stainless steels and nickelaluminum alloys. Nickei alloys are playing a spectacular part in increasing the efficiency of dependability of aeroplane engines. Rotor hubs of autogiros are made of nickel-steel. Machine tools, marine shafting, and die blocks contain nickel. 'The petroleum industry has special needs for nickel-steel machinery where materials are subjected to great shocks and strains, and high temperatures. In mining, crushers, ears, mine skips, pumps and drills are built of nickelsteel.

War anil rearmament helped to raise world production and consumption of nickel to all-time high levels in 1939; United .States consumption in that year showed an increase of 13G per cent, over 1938. However, despite speeding up of military and naval construction, most of the nickel used for steel continued to be absorbed in the automobile industry, in niekel-ehroni-iuui stainless steels, and in uickel-alloy steels for a wide variety of other industrial uses. The steel, industry absorbs more than half of the world nickel output.