EROS KEEPS A SECRET

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 April 1937, Page 12

EROS KEEPS A SECRET

IMMUNE FROM TIME’S RAVAGES

LONDON, March 12.

The remarkable preservation of Eros, the famous statue in Piccadillycircus, and the first aluminium monument to be erected in England—in 1893 —was discussed yesterday at the annual meeting in London of the Institute of Metals.

In a joint paper two distinguished metallurgists, Professor R. S. Hutton, and Dr. R. Seligman, a past; president of the Institute, described how surprised the experts had been that Alfred Gilbert's beautiful figure should have survived so long without serious harm.

Its metallic ’ origin was a mystery, and despite research work, Eros had kept his secret. For 38 years he had been exposed to the atmospheric contamination of Piccadilly-eircus.

Metallurgists had been so curious to discover the reason for this immunity that pieces'of the statue have been subjected to spectographic examination and chemical analysis in an attempt to find out what the metal was made of and how it was made. They decided that it was made of unalloyed aluminium, but whether it was produced by the old chemical or new electrolytic process was undecided. Mr. William Boby, of Brook-street, W., who built the first electrical furnace for the production of aluminium in England in 1888, stated yesterday that so far as his memory went, the metal lor Eros was produced by the sodium chemical process. Dr. R. Seligman, commenting on Mr. Boby’s statement, last night, said: “I am very surprised that a metal made in 1893 was so pure. We are also surprised that there has been so little corrosion, but that is accounted lor by the fact that the metal was so pure. With regard to a suggestion that other monuments should be made of aluminium because of this experience with Eros, there is no reason to believe that aluminium would last for a. great period of time. Several hundred years would be a likely estimate.”