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Show AN AGE OF ALUMINUM. A Chloijo !rt nn ISe'lievM Ho is About to ChrP"n MVlnl. Aluminum at ltfteen cents a pound! Such a condition of affairs would revo-lutionizo revo-lutionizo a hundred of the useful arts and make the Twentieth century m age of aluminum, just a the Nineteenth has been an age of iron. J. M. flinch, a German chemist of Chicago, says he has discovered 8 process by which he can extract the aluminum from common clay at a cost of fifteen cents or less for each pound. If Mr. Hindi is right, then his secret is worth many millions of dol- Aluminum is the perfect metal. It is so plentiful that it composes the metallic base of the earth's crust. The soil under our feet is full of it. . It is as bright as silver and it weighs only ono-fourth as much-in fact, it is only two and one-half one-half times as heavy as water. It is both malleable and ductile, and may be drawn into fine wires or beaten into sheets as thin as paper. Water does not corrode it. It does not tarnish or change eolor when long exposed to the air. It is not affected by any acid except hydrochloric. It is superior in lightness, strength and resistance to destructive forces to any other metal. And yet it i scarcely known to the general public and is used very little. Why? Because it costs too much to extract the metal from the tenacious tena-cious grasp of the clay which contains it. IMPORTANCE OP THE DISCOVERY. At $5 a pound aluminum is found only in the chemical laboratories as a sort of curiosity. At fifteen cents a pound its uses would be endless. It would be employed in the manufacture of thousand of articles from collar buttons up to freight can. Since aluminum alu-minum was discovered, fifty years ago, the one great problem in chemistry has been to cheapen the process of separating it from clay. If the Chicago chemist has solved this problem the most extravagant ex-travagant statement will scarcely exaggerate ex-aggerate the far reaching results of his achievement. Professor Joseph M. Hirsch is not a moneyless adventurer and he is not proclaiming the , importance of his discovery; dis-covery; in fact, he is very reticent in regard re-gard to the matter. He is not after subscriptions of stock, for the entire stock of the company which he has organized has been quietly taken up by a few capitalists, except the great slice of $1,000,000 retained by the discoverer of the process. , Professor Hirsch, a Btudious, pleasant faced, spectacled German of 45, was found at his office. "I have a process by which aluminum may be extracted for fifteen cents a pound," sajd he. "It is not a matter of supposition, but an established fact. I have already, with my small experimental apparatus, made, from thirty to fifty pounds in a single day, and there is nothing noth-ing to prevent the same process from being applied to secure Indefinitely large amounts of the metal." , tHE PROCESS A SECRET. "Can you give some idea of your process?" pro-cess?" was asked. , . , K "That is my secret and I prefer to say nothing about it. I have been working with the aluminum problem since 1865, and my process is my own. I know that I can produce the metal for fifteen cents a pound. If the public does not believe this it cannot accuse me of any ulterior motive in saying so, for I do not ask any-thing any-thing in the way of assistance." "Under the cheapened process to what uses can the aluminum be profitably applied?" ap-plied?" - "Well, to freight cars, for instance. Owing to the lightness of the metal fifteen fif-teen cents a pound is almost as cheap aa steel, and the metal can be used for building materials, roofing and anywhere, any-where, in fact, that zinc, iron or tin can be used. The metal can be made as soft as foil or tempered harder than steel. Aluminum cutlery will bo better than steel and silver, for it will not rust or tarnish. I already have an order for as many pocket knives as I can turn out A bicycle can be made of aluminum rolledpipe that will weigh only fifteen pounds, and will be as strong as any one could wish. Water pipes made of the metal will last forever. All kinds of machinery, everything made of any metal, will be improved in appearance, efficiency and wear if made of the new metal." Professor Hirsch has put much of his own money into the company and evinces no tear that his discovery' will prove to be practicable, applied upon the largest scale. If Chicago is soon to have cheap aluminum alu-minum there is no reason why the main exhibition hall of the Columbian exposition exposi-tion should not be built of the bright metal, which is lighter than an equal bulk of either brick, stone, iron or glass. Chicago News. ' |