AN ALUMINIUM STORY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN ALUMINIUM STORY.

The. world's production of aluminium is advancing by leaps- and bounds. TV c are all familiar With the light, white metal; which can be produced now, it seems for about a shilling a pound. It was isolated eighty years ago, and sixty years ago chemists showed that it could be manufactured m sufficient quantities to be utilised commercially. . But :t is only m recent years that the industrial value of the metal has been appreciated. The- process of manufacture commonly described is electrolytic, but a purely chemical process is being exploited both m Germany and m Great Britain, and. the competition of German, Swiss, British and American manufacturers is -fapidly cheapening the commercial article. The first practical use to which aluminium was put m America was certainly a strange one. General Davis, who supervised- the erection of the Washington Monument was, at a loss to fiud a suitable "cap." He wanted a good conductor'of electricity, which would be of approximately the, same color as marble, which would be durable, and whi.h would not rust, stain, or drip. Nickel, silver, copper, and zinc were all subjected to experiment, but all were'rejected, and it seemed probable that son_e kind of plating on steel would have to be adopted. It was suggested to General' Davis that he should try aluminium, then spoken of as a new metal. Ordnance officers' at the navy yard were experimenting with it for gun sights. Tb<>y obtained their material from a German chemist named Freshchmuth, who had a small laboratory at Frank. ord, one of the suburbs of Philadelphia. He had learned to make it m Germany, and was furnishing a little for experimental purposes to scientific men arid model-makers m Philadelphia. General Davis went to Frankford and found Freshchniiith ir great poverty. Money had to be ad.vanced to him before he could supply the quantity needed, and- General Davis had to wait some months before the little metal pyramid was ready. The lightness of the cap was an obvious advantage. " A solid pyramid was cast, nine inches high and with a section six inches square and its weight was only six pounds. Freshchmuth, m spite of this advertisement for his metal, made no progress. A few inventors used aluminium for making models of machines, but there was no regular demand for it, and the German died m poverty.