VANISHING TEASPOONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1939, Page 2

VANISHING TEASPOONS

VALUABLE NEW METAL. USEFUL FOR AIRCRAFT. They gave me a cup of tea at a London laboratory. In the saucer was a bright new metal teaspoon, and when I stirred the tea, the spoon disappeared into my cup, writes a reporter of the "Daily Mail.” In this way I was introduced to cerrobend —the metal which melts in hot water and is being used by aircraft manufacturers to speed up the production of Britain’s bombers and fighters. Foreign firms are already seeking supplies of this metal, which was first used in America. It is harder and heavier than lead, but it is also tensile a»d plastic. I wrote a few words on a sheet of notepaper, and a metallurgist poured some molten metal over it. When the metal cooled, the paper was undamaged, but the cerrobend took a perfect impression of the thin film of ink, and even of the watermark. When melted at the amazing low temperature of 160 deg. F. —water boils at 212 deg. F. —cerrobend is so “thin” that it will seep through the smallest hole or crack. That is a valuable property in aircraft construction. It is used as' a medium for bending the frame tubes and petrol and oil feeds. Formerly the thin tubes were packed tightly with sand or resin before bending, and there was a danger of particles remaining in the tubes. “A fleck of sand or resin in a petrol or oil pipe could choke the flow to the engine. British ’planes are now safe from that danger,” I was told. . Tubes are also tested with cerrobend for flaws. It expands slightly as it cools, and will force its way through the minutest flaw in the tubing. Flaws burnished over or plugged with metal are instantly revealed.