ALUMINIUM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2719, 14 December 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

ALUMINIUM.

Many scientists beliovo that the iron age is drawing to a close, and will bo succeeded by the ago of aluminium. If this ever conr.es about there will be a revolution indeed. For, as an English paper says, it would not merely act as a substitute for iron, it would enable a thousand things to be done that cnuuot now be accomplished. In the first place, aluminium is very malleable, and very ductile, and oau be wrought into wire aa fine as a spider's web, or beaten out into sheets as thin as gold leaf. It is also rigid and tenacious, and can be made as hard as iron. Exposed to dry or moist air, it is alike unalterable, and is as little likely to become oxidised or tarnished as the finest gold. That which tarnishes silvor has no effect on aluminium. It is wonderfully light, too, its specific gravity beiug less than glass and only a quarter that of silver. Our contemporary goes on to speculate what may bo accomplished by thp aid of such a metal in the case of steamboat and railway travelling aud predicts that a speed of 50 miles an hour at sea will be attained when steamers aud their engines are built of aluminium. Steamers would draw five or six times less water than those built of iron, and the railways would gain evon more than tho ships. Made of metal that never rusts, never requires painting, and half as light again as iron, a very high rate of speed would result. How much might be saved in bridge-making with such a metal! To begin with, the labour of fixing girders would be immensely lessened, for the same amount of energy now employed to lift and place one portion of the frame would do tho work necessary for three or four. And aluminium, unlike iron, is everywhere. It does not ruu in lodes but is the basis of all clays, and is in slato and felspar and many kinds of rocks. Many practical and theoretical workers are now engaged striving to solve the aluminium problem —that is, how to easily and cheaply separate it from its matrix, aud, if they succeed, it will be a glorious triumph to produce in abundanco a metal strong, i tough, light and that defies oxidation.— < Now Zealand Time?, i