COPPER IN WAR

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3125, 4 May 1915, Page 7

COPPER IN WAR

ITS SUPREME IMPORTANCE

Although the Chancellor of the Exchequer happily chose the simile of "silver buliets" to explain the economic pressure by which Germany must ultimately be defeated, he might (observes n correspondent of the "Times") with even greater force have used copper for his illustration, for as' the war progresses it becomes more and more evident that lack of copper will cause Germany the greatest embarrassment. Why this should bo so appears when wo consider the uses of copper in war material, for which no possible alternative exists. First and foremost, of course are the cartridge cases for rifles. The alloy of copper and zinc from which rifle cartridge cases are drawn is so thin that the metals must be very pure to ensure aginst flaws. Then there are the cartridge cases for the quick-firing guns. These abo require the highest quality copper and zinc, since they must be exact to a 500 th part of an inch and gas-tight. On shells there are copper bands encircling the steel to ensure close fitting in the rifling. Pure copper is the only substance known that gives satisfactory results. HELD TELEPHONES. ETC. For field telephones copper wire is indispensable. Indeed, in the electrical industry generally there is an enormous consumption ot copper. The windings on dynamos, for instance, are all copper. Thousands of experiments with alternative substances have been tried, but all have failed. Aluminium, perhaps, comes nearest, but aluminium cannot be depended upon, and certainly for war purposes its use would not be risked, though aluminium-coated steel wire tor transmission purposes has in America been partially successful. Still, aluminium could never be used for dynamos, since electrolysis takes place, when it breaks almost at once.

One might continue the list almost indefinitely, but enough has been said to indicate the supreme importance of copper to every nation in time of war, and to explain why it is possible to get £l6O paid down in gold for a ton of copper in any form delivered over the German frontier, although its value in the United Kingdom is only £6O.