Show beryllium little known metal in defense role NEW YORK behind the official secrecy that enfolds unfolds details of the national defense program a metal called beryllium is daily playing a more and more important role a role so vital that army officials believe it may help break the bottleneck in the machine tool industry caused by a shortage of skilled workers army ordnance men reveal that beryllium alloys have been successfully tested for use in mass prodoc tion of parts for the new garand rifles cornelius vanderbilt whitney board chairman of pan american airways sponsored research in the metal at a cost of more than in the past seven years and helped make possible the timely graduation of the substance from a laboratory toy to an instrument of commerce and defense whitney saw huge potentialities in beryllium largely in aviation because of the metals resistance to fatigue and corrosion its extraordinary light weight and electrical conductivity the metal is only two thirds as heavy as aluminum until recently he said the great problem of beryllium was its high cost of production half a century or so ago the pure metal would have cost about a gram today it sells in quantities at about 15 a pound scientific achievement that is a scientific achievement wn which ich some day I 1 believe will make possible volume use in in the hulls of seaplanes sea planes and ships because it is non corrosive whitney also revealed that henry ford once seriously considered building airplanes entirely out of beryllium alloys the metal is only two thirds as heavy as aluminum launching of the national defense program however brought beryllium into the military eye because of another of its properties a characteristic act called surface tension in the molten state that is where aid to the bottleneck in the machine tool industry comes in A pinch of beryllium added to copper aluminum magnesium and other metals increases the fluidity of the mixture when it is melted so that the alloy fills every tiny crevice in a casting mold steel and other materials used for manufacture of gun parts must be subjected to long processes of forging machining and finishing with cutting tools before they finally arrive in a rifle this work needs skilled machine tool artisans when the test castings of garand rifle parts were made of beryllium copper alloy according to army ordnance men the resultant pieces were found to be accurate with a minimum of machine tooling As a result of these tests the war department asked immediately for sample castings beryllium alloys have the highest tensile strength known beryllium nickel 2 per cent beryllium and 98 per cent nickel for instance has a tensile strength of pounds to the square inch but structural steel only and stainless steel A beryllium copper spring can be flexed times before it will break compared with 2 or 3 million times for one which is constructed ted out of steel it beryllium becomes a prime war necessity there will be no lack of it in this country deposits are found along the eastern seaboard from maine to georgia in the black hills of the dakotas and in colorado utah wyoming nevada california new mexico and arizona beryllium is an element just like iron or copper it is extracted from beryl familiar to many people as a stone used in jewelry A pure beryl contains about 14 per cent of beryllium oxide and is white and fairly transparent when mixed with chromium it is an emerald |