WONDER METAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 October 1940, Page 8

WONDER METAL

DISCOVERY OF ALUMINIUM. MANY & VARIED USES. The air raids by the belligerents have brought aluminium to world notice, and it is a wonderful metal, states the “Mercantile Gazette.” That it existed was long known, but its cheap extraction was an accidental discovery. The story goes that a professor lecturing io his students in the Middle West of England said: “If one of you can find that way (cheap extraction.) you will soon become a millionaire!” One of the students, Charles Hall, did discover the methocl and he was only 22 years old at the time, and he did become a millionaire, for he died worth ,£5.000,000. After many experiments extending over about three years he ultimately discovered that by mixing a transmuting substance known as cryolite with clay and sand and subjected to an electric shock the clay melted away and aluminium emerged. Before this discovery was made aluminium was priced at £2 per ounce, and a few years, after Hall's discovery the price dropped to 3d per pound. It is said that the metal forms one-tenth of the earth's crust. It is found in rubies, emeralds, tea cups, paper, knife polish, emery powder, and clay, the best of such clays being bauxite found in quantities in France and Germany. Two pounds of bauxite yields one pound of the metal. In 1938 Britain alone consumed 1,000.000 tons of aluminium. In Britain coloured aluminium is being produced. The surface is converted to an oxide, and a beautifully lustrous surface is obtained by dyeing. It is being used for decorative purposes and for the manufacture of bedsteads and bath tiles. Alloyed with magnesium it becomes duralium, the lightweight substance used in aircraft. Warmed a little the metal produces an oxide which can be transformed into artificial rubies and emeralds. almost identical in chemical composition and properties with the real gems. Mixed with germanium, an aluminium as strong as steel is produced. A new form of aluminium mixed with chromium and steel produces a metal that can be made into drills that would never wear out, and metal plating that can never wear off. We are in the aluminium age, and the metal may even replace iron and steel. Wires 250th of an inch thick, rivets the size of a match head, toothpaste tubes, giant aeroplanes, fiftyton cranes, racing yachts are all made wholly or in part of this wonderful metal. For some years now it has been known in the homes of the people. Is the clay bauxite to be found in New Zealand?