GOLD PLATE FOR ALL

Hokitika Guardian, 5 October 1931, Page 2

GOLD PLATE FOR ALL

AS CHEAP AS NiCKEL. FRUIT OF A JOKE. LONDON, August 20. If the storyteller of the future is robbed of that favourite mystery, the discovery of a means of making gold, lie will lose one of his standard plots. Lt is not beyond possibility thtnt it will lose it, for this at leas has been discovered something ' which looks like go d and is actually cheaper to produce than eleotro-plated silver, actually at the price of nickel silver. Discoveries have often been due to accident, and this new metal, an aluminium alloy, is flic* outcome of a joke! Mr W. A. Turner .the senior partner of the firm of [Messrs W. Turner aitd Company, telling the story in Sheffield, said: “Wo had been wort ing with /the alloy for some time, when someone suggested that we con'd put it to this use, so more for the fun of the thing than anything else we made tho experiment. The result was these table articles (teaspoons and forks). We knew what they would look like, hut the surprise came when we found there was a demand for them. The demand is quite a steady one, and the possibilities of sales in Latin countries where we believe the articles may have a greater appeal than here, will probably he explored.” Although not absolutely stainless, this alloy does not stain readily. “People may like the feeling of eating off gold,” said Mr Turner, standing by examples of this gold production, which glittered just as if it were the real tiling. He remarked that it might mean the foundation of a new branch of the plating industry in Sheffield.

A metallurgist of long standing writ cs: “It has been known for a long time that small quantities af aluminium, say from 3.5 to 7 per cent mixed with copper produces alloys of a brassy

or almost gold colour. These alloys tarnish hut slowly in either air or water, and are ductile and malleable, that is, may be rolled out into thin sheet or drawn into wire form. They have considerable tensible strength. I have spoken of and shown some of these alloys in lectures quite 4!) years ago. and first made acquaintance with them when a student at tho Royal Schorl of Mines in the early 70’s of last century. Owing, possibly,, to the high cost of aluminium up to (comparatively) a. few years,ago they have not attracted much notice. They would make good coinage metal for pennies and halfpennies. An alloy of about 7 per cent aluminium and .03 copper stamps well and takes a fine impression and is a little lighter than the present alloy in use.”