"THE CINDERELLA OF METALS."

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2031, 16 March 1907, Page 1

"THE CINDERELLA OF METALS."

THE ROMANCE OF COPPER. N(H. Tlio (mormons and over-lasting demand for copper made by the worldwide oxtonsion of electricity has already boon dealt with. But there 11*0 numerous other industrial uses for which copper is largely demanded, and like electricity, these are now but in their infancy. It will be* interesting to describe briefly some of these :—- Next to its electrical uses, copper is most extensively employed in engineering; every modern engine has brass oil cups; brass and copper tubing is used in many boilers; brass, gun-metal, bronze and composition copper bearings are a necessity.* Copper and brass boiler tubes are used in locomotives and other liigli type boilers, having ability to withstand enormous .pressures, and being excellent conductors of boat. Copper tubes aro used also almost exclusively in marine condensers, and another development in connection with steamers is bound shortly to arise in the direction of plating copper directly on the stool bottoms of vessels, to avoid the necessity of frequent dry-docking. In architecture, copper issued most extensively, as also in builders’ hard-ware, brass, bronze and copper locks, knobs, .'.scutcheons, butts, bolts, catches and drawer pulls are in steadily increasing favor and use, and from the superior durability and appearance of copper and its alloys, will continue to displace iron in a greater ratio as the nations increase in wealth, and the standard of living is raised. The domestic uses of copper and brass are varied. Brass beds and furniture attract by their cleanliness, beauty and durability. Brass or copper lamps, for kerosene oil, are more durable and ornamental than those of glass and other

materials, and also far safer. The consumption of high grade brass piping and castings, for gasoliers and electroliers, is enormous, and constantly increasing, displacing the crude iron pipes and castings of the preceeding generation. Copper and its alloys have been employed for coinage from time immemorial and the annual consumption to-day of copper for coinage is much greater than would be anticipated by anyone who has not given the subject a little investigation. Brass and copper cartridge cases cold stamped from tough sheets, are consumed annually to the extent of hundreds of millions by the world’s armies for machine guns and small arms. In the arts and manufactures copper plays a highly important part. The great vacuum pans of the sugar factories and refineries are made of copper. There are copper vats in pulp and paper factories; the worms and stills of distilleries are of copper, and tho copper browing kettles in which beer is made are of size and numbered by thousands. There is scarcely a manufacturer that does

not make more or less use of copper, or brass in some one or more of the processes employed. In tho manufacture of scientific instruments, otc., copper plays a most important part. Under many forms of sheets, tubes, rods, wires anil castings it makes up the bulk of tho construction of microscopes and telescopes of surveyors’ transits, and draughtsman’s protractors and of the many strange instruments of marvellous complexity and variety that do human work without the element of human fallibility. The textile manufacturers use copper rolls for stamping patterns upon calicoes and print cloths. Brass platens upon typewriters are used to aid in manifolding. Signs of copper and brass stare at us from every corner of European city streets. Copper leaf is used by slgnwriters and in other ways, and comminuted copper is used for bronzing. But it is not only the metal itself that enters so largely and in such an increasing manner into the varied industries of the world. Tho most important copper mineral, for other uses than the

production of metal therefrom by smelting, is sulphate copj>er, the common blue vitriol of commerce. This is occasionally found in nature as chalcanthite, but it is almost invariably- a product of manufacture. This compound is one of tho most important chemical agents known to science, and industry. It is a necessity in the electrolytic refining of crude copper. It is a component part of all wet batteries, and as such rings our door-bells, transmits our telegrams, and is the energising agent that permits the transmission of human voice over tho wires of the telephones. In electro-plating, electro-typing, and . kindred industries, it is the prime factor. As an insecticide it stands without an equal; dilutes solutions of sulphate of copper stays the ravages of phylloxera when the vine-yards of France seems doomed. It is probable that not less than one hundred thousand tons of copper sulphate, containing a quarter of its weight in metallic copper, is consumed every year in spraying the vines and fruit trees of Europe and America. The consumption of sulphate of copper is not confined to viticulture and the electrical industries, as it is consumed by the

thousands of tons monthly in the textile factories, in the chemical industries, and in manufactures of all kinds. All this goes to prove most conclusively that so far from the demand for copper being likely to slacken, it is certain to go on increasing in such a ratio as to make the development of the new copper mines quite an era in the history of the world, because the demand is so far ahead of the production and likely to continue so ; whilst iron and steel are not only holding their own, but gaining ground in phenomenal strides, another metal has arisen to claim at least a portion of the honors of the twentieth century civilisation,

and copper is the foundation of the dectric age, just as was the fundamental metal in. the Age of Bronze.