CHEMISTRY. Go 9 



of aluminium oxide, is washed and dried. At the Aluminium Crown 

 Metal Works, in Hollywood, under the direction of Mr. Webster, another 

 method is said to be employed. The mineral beauxite, an aluminium- 

 ferric hydrate, is ignited with sodium carbonate, and the sodium alumin- 

 ate formed is decomposed with carbonic anhydride, yielding pure alu- 

 mina ; this is then heated with charcoal in a current of chlorine, forming 

 a double chloride of sodium and aluminium, which is finally decomposed 

 by sodium, furnishing aluminium. It is said that a ton of the metal 

 costs by this process only $500, whereas it formerly cost $5,000. At 

 Webster's works, it is said that the output of metal amounts to 20(!) 

 tons per week, a manifest exaggeration. 



J. Morris, of Uddiugton, near Glasgow, has obtained a patent for man- 

 ufacturing aluminium by treating an intimate mixture of alumina and 

 charcoal with carbonic anhydride at a low red heat, a reaction which is 

 regarded as doubtful by many chemists. Morris claims that the car- 

 bonic anhydride is reduced to carbon monoxide by the charcoal, and that 

 in turn reduces the alumina. The metal is obtained by this process as a 

 porous, spongy mass which is melted and poured into molds. 



At Salindres, France, about 2,400 kilogrammes of aluminium are man- 

 ufactured annually. The process is the old one of decomposing the 

 double chloride of aluminium and sodium by metallic sodium, some cry- 

 olite being added as a flux. 



The chief value of aluminium at present is in tempering or giving 

 strength and a surface or body to alloys, bronzes, or metals so they will 

 not corrode. In the bronze yyoix P ai> t of aluminium tends to soften the 

 brittle and hard nature of the baser metal. The tensile strength of alu- 

 minium bronze is great ; it bears a strain of 42 tons to the square inch, 

 or 12 tons more than the best Bessemer steel. It is said to be une- 

 qualed for pianos and telegraph wires. Dr. Gegring, of Land street, is 

 reported to have invented an inexpensive process for coating ordinary 

 iron with aluminium, and the coating can be given any color desired. 

 (Dingler's polytechnisches Journal, and other sources.) 



Present Condition of the Soda Industry in Europe. — Mr. Walter Weldon 

 read an important paper on the above subject before the London section 

 of the Society of Chemical Industry, on January 8, 18S3. He stated that 

 in recent years manufacturers of soda by the Leblanc process had failed 

 to reap satisfactory profits and in some cases had met with financial ruiu. 

 Of twenty-five alkali works which were in operation in the neighbor- 

 hood of Xewcastle-on-Tyne a very few years ago only thirteen are in 

 operation now, and of the other twelve, not fewer than eight have been 

 actually dismantled, in utter despair of its ever again being possible to 

 manufacture soda in them by the Leblanc process except at an absolute 

 loss. In Belgium the industry has entirely ceased ; inFrance, Germany, 

 and Austria the industry still exists, being protected by impost duties. 

 Aided by manufacturers in all parts of the world Mr. Weldon has 



