Thomas O'Conor Sloane

“ If powdered aluminium is mixed intimately with chromium oxide, manganese oxide or iron oxide, the application of high heat to any portion of it, which may be very minute, will start a violent combustion of the aluminium and a reduction of the other metal, which reaction will automatically go through the mass, producing a very high temperature. It has been estimated that it will go as high as 5,000 degrees F. The oxide of chromium or of manganese or of iron as the case may be, is reduced to the metal, the aluminum taking up the oxygen and floating on top as a slag. ”

“ The expansion of metals under the influence of heat is very slight. A mile of iron rails, for an elevation of temperature of 100° Fahr., only expands two feet eight and one half inches. This is so little as to be readily taken up by the one hundred and seventy-six joints that exist in that length of rails. If the rails were laid in very cold weather, in solid contact with each other, then, on a warm, sunny day, a consider-able disalignment could be produced. ”

“ One is glucose, with which sugar products are adulterated. It has less than two-thirds the sweetening power of sugar. The other is saccharine. This is the sweetest substance known; it is 230 times sweeter than sugar. It may be regarded as practically harmless. Sugar itself is generally pure. Meat is not much adulterated. It is generally only open to adulteration with preservatives, and cold storage causes these to be little used. It is sometimes dusted over with a preservative while in the piece, and sausages and similar products are often treated with preservatives and colouring matter. ”

“ Thus alumina or clay or rubies are formed by the addition of oxygen to the metal aluminium.
It was in the early days of the nineteenth century that the great English chemist, Sir Humphrey Davy, was using the primary electric battery to attack and decompose oxides. At one of the poles of his battery he had a globule of mercury, having a very correct idea that this would amalgamate as we now call it, so that an amalgam or “alloy” of mercury and of the metal would be produced by the current, and the mercury would act as a sort of collector of metal. ”

“ The fantastic element apparent in such desires operated to give alchemy a bad reputation, and it is not always accorded the place in the history of science to which it is entitled. As the belief in the possibility of the transmutation of metals was almost universal, much of the work of the alchemists was directed to the production of gold. ”

“ Chromium goes far to prevent this, but aluminum is subject only to superficial oxidation. The oxidizing of the surface protects the interior. Our metallurgists have produced rustless steel by alloying it with chromium as one constituent. The futility of attempting to lighten it is of course perfectly obvious. But the common clay of mother earth gives us this metal which does not perish by oxidation, which is very strong, very light and a good conductor of electricity, so that the lecturer we have alluded to very happily predicted the age of aluminum as due within ten years. ”

“ Political considerations, such as the desire to protect the food-producers of a country, may affect legislation. Thus adulteration may be so defined as to include foreign products, which otherwise might be treated as unobjectionable. Food-preservatives have a very extensive use, which often constitutes adulteration. ”

“ If we go right down the line, aluminium will impress us as a very wonderful substance. It does all sorts of things according to the temperature and other conditions. The metal, when it approaches its temperature of fusion, is very brittle and can be easily reduced to powder. This powder mixed with a varnish-like vehicle constitutes aluminum bronze paint. It can also be beaten out until it is almost as thin as gold leaf. And now we come to a mechanical operation based on its affinity for oxygen. ”

“ The books are very prolific of instances of expansion by heat, and always speak of the expansion of rails. They do not, however, allude to the geometrical element of danger; they concern themselves only with the physical one. ”

“ England and France early passed laws to guard against the adulteration of bread, and as far back as the days of Edward the Confessor public punishment was provided for the brewers of bad ale. The legal status of adulteration is largely a matter of statute, varying with each governmental body which attacks the subject. Food is declared adulterated if there is added to it a substance which depreciates or injuriously affects it ”

“ There are many deposits of magnetic oxide or iron in nature which are almost chemically pure. By applying the thermit process to this, it may be as little as a pound or two mixed with powdered aluminum in a crucible and starting the ignition, the metal oxide will be reduced and made liquid, so that it can be cast in a mold, and you can have a piece of almost chemically pure iron, so soft, because of its purity, that, as the metallurgist says, it can be cut with a knife—but if you will believe the writer, it cannot be cut to any considerable depth. ”

“ In the Duren district, Germany, an alloy of the metal with copper, manganese and magnesium was produced which had such good qualities, that it is replacing other aluminium alloys, especially for the frames of dirigibles. The name duralumin is familiar to everybody, it is so frequently spoken of in the daily press. It is fair to say that very little unalloyed aluminium is used in a practical way; it is almost always alloyed with some other metal. ”

“ As if to render it more susceptible to the rays of the sun, it was painted of dark color. On cold or cloudy days it lay in its normal position. On sunny days, the writer has frequently seen it bowed outward nearly or quite a foot out of line. ”

“ Chemists have never given up the belief that the transmutation of elements might yet be effected, and recent work in radio-activity goes to prove its possible accomplishment in the case of radium and helium. ”

“ A great number of jars were required for real power, and it was a long and tedious affair to set them up and fill them with solutions. From the moment the solution entered them, the zinc plates began to deteriorate, the copper or other negative plate would begin to polarize, as it is called, so that to get anything like power, even as much as every automobile uses in its starting, a very large battery would be required, and to get the good out of it there should not have been the least delay in starting work with it, because of this automatic and rapid deterioration in power. ”

“ Boric acid and borax are typical preservatives, and sulphurous acid salts are used to restore a fresh appearance to stale meat. Starch is added to sausages. It is claimed that it prevents them from shrinking in cooking. Flour is adulterated by the addition of lower-grade meals, such as rye flour, corn meal, or potato starch; their use is not very common. Alum is employed to disguise the presence of damaged flour, and to prevent decomposition. Alum is a still more frequent adulterant of bread; it is considered injurious to the animal system. Coffee is much adulterated, when sold ground. ”

“ Nothing can seem cheaper than a flower pot, but the identical aluminium oxide, crystalized and colored, it may be by chromium or some other element, gives us the ruby, the oriental emerald, the sapphire and other jewels, the ruby being practically at the head of the list in value. ”

“ Dishonest men practised on the greed of rulers. If discovered to be guilty of fraud, capital punishment was sometimes administered. Henry IV of England exhorted the learned men of his kingdom to study alchemy, and pay off the debts of the country by discovering the philosopher's stone. In the sixteenth century practically all rulers patronized alchemists. ”

“ Aluminum has already played a part in the manufacture of steel. The metal from the open hearth or Bessemer converter is liable to contain oxides or oxygen gas. By adding aluminium to the melted metal, it takes up most or all of the oxygen forming iluminium oxide which goes off with the slag. ”

“ If such a building as the Empire State were constructed of masonry, the walls of the lower stories would be so thick, in order to resist the crushing strain, that there would be hardly any room for occupants and the very object of the height would be lost. By using steel the walls are kept so thin that the lower stories are as open to use and of as good an area as the upper ones. ”

“ Some preservatives have been conclusively shown to be injurious when used for long periods, although their occasional use may be attended with no bad effect. Boric acid is pretty definitely condemned, after experiments on living subjects. ”

“ The reduction of price of aluminium, putting this very light metal within the reach of large mechanical structures, gives a cause for very radical changes, but one which has required some seventy years to reach its present development and which is still increasing very fast in varied uses. Enormously tall structures such as we have in this city in their perfection would be impossible except for the use of steel instead of masonry in their construction. ”

“ Iron, as we know, perishes by rust, if pure. Cast iron, which contains a quantity of carbon, is almost exempt from destruction by oxidation, but the so-called steel as used in the past is subject to relatively quick destruction. ”

“ Coal-tar colours are employed a great deal, and have received legal recognition in Europe. In the United States the tendency is rather to favour vegetable colours. Pickles and canned vegetables are sometimes coloured green with copper salts ”

“ It is said that the world’s copper will be exhausted inside of fifty years—apparently aluminium will have to take its place. It is a good conductor of electricity, but it is so light that it has to be about double the diameter of copper wire of the same resistance. ”

“ With all its interesting properties, one is impressed by the definite limitations to which it is subject. Its soldering is not very impressive; it is done with considerable difficulty and is apt to be imperfect, but two or three workmen can go out on a railroad and using the thermit reaction can weld the joints of the heavy rails into a solid mass, carrying all the required material in a wheelbarrow. ”

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