Show THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING JULY 26 1936 of America’s - ) nese Economists Predict r a New “Steel Age” From a a Discovery That Will Assure an Ample Supply of the Valued Metal ally reducing the rate of deposition to zero It was the ingenuity of the Inventor 8 M Shelton which finally has solved this baffling problem He has assigned the patent right for his perfected process to the Secretary of the Interior to be administered by him “In the interests of the Americtn people ” In its simplest form the process use) nothing but sulphur dioxide for “leaching” the ore thus clearing the electric current for deposition of the metal Less favorable ores require limestone in addition Basically the secret of the entire method is the ability to maintain an absolutely constant acidity of the manganese solution during the electrolytic process That was the point which had escaped so many other metallurgical experts who strove to extract manganese by the electrolytic process Their consistent failures might well be ascribed to the fact AMERICA’S NEW INDUSTRY MAY CENTER HERE An Air View of Colorado’ Mighty Boulder Dam The U 8 Bureau ot Mines Has Already Erected a “Pilot" House or Experimental Station for Making: Manganese by the ( heap Electrolytic Method on the Brink of the Dam Vast Lowgrade Ore Deposits Are Available Near By has scored another ten- the complete economic of America A new discovery in the field of electricity is hailed as assuring the United States ot d an ample supply of as every scimanganese! Manganese entific ty- - - knows Is one of the most Important minerals In modern Industry today Its shortage In the United States has long given American manufacturers — particularly the makers and users of steel — something to worry about For it is the manganese in steel which gives It its tensile strength and that amazing quality of flexible indestructibility without which the Age of Steel could hardly exist Automobile axles railroad tracks and couplings the framework of giant airplanes building steel armor plate for battleships — these are but a few of the products in which the use of manganese is essential SCIENCE home-produce- Through the work of a ed inventor the United States Bureau of Mines was able of late to announce that at last it had possession of a new electrolytic process that Will serve to unlock millions of tons of the precious e ore deposits metal from vast right in America Until the present these deposits were unavailable for use And manganese had defied all efforts at cheap production ever since it was first isolated by the scientist J G Gahn in 1774 public-spiri- t- low-grad- The sensational new discovery of priceless significance to steel makes manganese the last of the common metals to be conquered by metallurgical science But in its broader aspects the discovery has vastly more import-- ' ance than that Economists realizing the irony of the fact that the greatest steel-usin- g nation was dependent mainly on other nations for this essential supply long have speculated upon the plight of the United States should its Imported quota of indispensable manganese be cut off in the eventuality of war This mineral has been called the backbone of the Steel Age Cast manganese teel Attaining over 7 per cent of manganese is the toughest material that the world ever has produced ® lea’s manganese supply comes from Caucasian Russia Deposits of commercial importance are known In only a few other countries: India Brazil and West Africa Countries listed as minor producers are Japan Italy Spain and Cuba and there are known deposits of the metal in Germany Greece Egypt Mexico Colombia Chile and Queensland What has been needed is a method of recovering the metal In commercial quantities from the lower-grad- e ores and this is precisely what has been achieved It means that the manganese ore reserves right in this country amounting to millions in total tonnage will provide a virtually Inexhaustible supply It will mean that American steel manufacturers will no longer have to depend on the Importation and use of ores from foreign lands Heralding the new era for the American steel industry la the U S Bureau' of Mines experiment station at Reno Nevada There daily shining sheets of manganese metal 998 per cent pure are being turned out by the process of electrolysis R 8 Dean the Bureau’s Chief smiles as he Metallurgist watches them And well he may For the production of manganese in that manner has defied the efforts of scientists from Sir Humphrey Davy — who fathered electrolysis 130 years ago— to the present time Electrolysis of course has been responsible for the cheap production of copper zinc lead tin magnesium and aluminum But manganese continued to resist every effort of puzzled scientists and chemists who strove to apply this method The reason was simple enough They couldn’t work out a process t it would be continuous in its operation Because of a chemical condition metal "trees” formed around the cathodes used to carry the current and they were responsible for gradu - that their man- ganese solutions suffered from common everyday “acidosis” In human beings this condition is recognized as an extremely weak acid condition of the blood fluid By overcoming "acidosis” in his manganese solution Inventor Shelton made an important new discovery ganese higher than 35 became increasingly brittle But Hadfield took nothing for granted and continued experiments until he eventually realized success One Result Is the bullet-proo- f and armor plate of today Du to Its tensile strength and ductility such steel resisted th penetration of a bullet by bulging Mors peaceful applications of high manganese steel ar th Jaws of rock crushers and dredges railroad switches and “frogs” that are subjected to terrific battering woven ecreens subject to great-weaand a group of many other uses due to its character Hadfield’s steel Incidentally became the nemesis While a burglar's torch served to draw the temper locally In carbon or chromium steels Bp it could be punctured easily by a drill similar treatment served only to harden Hadfield’s high manganese steel shell-pro- He found that by maintaining the solution at a point on the acidity scale similar to that of a person in perfect health he could obtain a continuous deposit of the manganese molecules! In order to demonstrate the commercial practicability of electrolytic manganese the Bureau of Mines recently began to erect an experimental "pilot” plant at the Boulder Dam site in Colorado For within 10 mites of Boulder Dam are extensive deposits of manganese ore Boulder Dam electricity is cheap and plentiful The possibilities if the demonstration succeeds seem endless— nothing less than a cheap and rapid manganese output that will supply the requirements of r io low-gra- ’s IT COME OUT HERE An Experimental Batch of Steel Containing the Pure Electrolytic Manganese Being Poured The New Discovery Means That -- American Manufacturers May No Longer Be Compelled to Import Manganese Ore From Abroad and 137 psr cent for beets Those wer but two of several amazing Increases Some agriculturists predict that the future consumption of manganese in agriculture will gradually exceed that used in the Iron and steel Industry Physicians and dieticians have announced also that manganese is ot vital lmportahce to human health While ita function in the human body Is still imperfectly understood It is known that the absence of elements containing manganese results in various physical disorders both agriculture and Industry throughout this country for an indefinite period Statistics showing the tremendous manganese consumption each year demonstrate the importance of this olllion eventuality More than one-ha- lf pounds of the mineral are consumed in the United States alone every year in the manufacture of iron and steel In addition agricultural manganese is in ever increasing demand since biologists discovered that its application to otherwise barren soils resulted in bumper crops The alkaline glade soils of southern CoDviisht 1336 A NATION’S BACKBONE Her’ the Last Pour of a Batch of Manganese Steel From la Furnace In One of America’s 25-T- cn Gigantic Steel Foundries ‘ florida unproductive in the past yielded phenomenal outputs of everything from beans to potatoes after a generous application of manganese In Rhode Island carefully conducted tests disclosed that after manganese treatment soils yielded an increased output per acre of 133 per cent for spinach Kins Fiaturcs Syndii-at- inr But tthe steel supply today Is th foremost consideration Due to Its extreme toughness “high manganese" steel (10 to 13 perfeanf) although It accounts for but a small amount of the world's manganese production plays a role In modem civilization out of all proportion to the amount made Discovery of “high manganese” steel was made by the Inventor Hadfield a little more than thirty years ago Had-flel- d steel is now hailed as an outstanding example of persistent research Other inventors had abandoned attempts to produce steel containing suclt a high manganese percentage for by the older processes steel containing a percentage of man While the commercial use of manganese steel dates back only to a little before the American Revolution it is known to have been used more or less Bclen-tis- ts unwittingly by ancient smith today say manganese was the secret of the famous old Damascus steel that has been glorified in song --and story It Wm the world-wid- e fame of Damascus tteel which was largely responsible for the East India Company’s act in establishing its steal Industry in India Today India Is among th foremost producer of manganese According to' statistics th bulk of th world’ output of manganese in 1930 was in th control of three group: Soviet Russia 41 per cent Great Britalh 32 per cent United States including mines in Brazil and on the African Gold Coast! 20 pir cent Russia perhaps will be the hardest hit by th commercial repercussions that will be felt throughout th sntir world as tha electrolytic process developed by th U 8 Bureau of Mines get definitely under way Th U 8 8 R which had little Use for its manganese In the past had by 1934 so increased Its domestic consumption that it finally relieved the pressure of price competition 8ome who have studied the new process believe that pure manganese can be made to sell at the price of the form now imported by steel manufacturers Should this be true it may mean a new era of abundant steel at lower price-levethan ever has been the case In the past se ls |