IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 29* 



BRICK AND OTHER CLAYS OF DES MOINES. 



BY CHARLES R. KEYES. 



(ABSTRACT.) 



In the absence of extensive exposures of grood building stone, in the immediate- 

 vicinity of many of the largrer cities of the State, architectural materials must be 

 derived in large part always from other sources. Fortunately, in and about these 

 towns there are exhaustless supplies of good clays from which may be manufac- 

 tured easily the ordinary structural and ornamental materials. These clays, how- 

 ever, as is well known, have diverse properties, certain ones being better adapted 

 for particular purposes than others, while some may be used more advantageously 

 in different ways. Hence the indiscriminate working of the deposits is not attended 

 by the highest economic results, and often ends disastrously. This does not appl 

 to one locality, but to the entire State. Clay is constantly being put to a multi- 

 tude of uses which were undreamed of a decade ago. Everywhere this material 

 is becoinmg more and more important, economically, in draining farm lands, in 

 sewering, in paving, in all kinds of building. And there are still countless other 

 ways in which it might be used with great profit. Manufactured clay is daily 

 replacing other building material, such as granite and similar rocks, on account of 

 its cheapness, its practically equal durability, and its great range of artistic effect 

 with a requirement of much less labor than is possible in the case of the natural 

 rock. 



ALUMINUM IN IOWA. 



BY CHARLES R. KEYES. 



(ABSTRACT.) 



Attention is called to the birth of an industry in Iowa that promises to be one of 

 the greatest industries of the State in the near future. It is the establishment of 

 a plant for the production of aluminum. As is well known, this metal is soon to 

 be the metal of the world — replacing largely iron, steel and other metallic sub- 

 stances used in the arts. The properties of aluminum need not be dwelt upon 

 here. The cost of producing the metal has hitheno been the great drawback to 

 its general usage. A few years ago the price was 115.00 or more a pound. Now 



