MINERAL ORES AND WATER POWER 



express the same thought. But quite recently we have 

 acquired a new standard of values. 



"Some day we shall free ourselves from the load of 

 gravity by appreciating the merits of levity/' That 

 prophecy was made twenty-five years ago by the man 

 who led the fight to make magnesium so plentiful and 

 so cheap that it might become a common structural 

 metal. 



It was in May, 1919, the spring after the First World 

 War ended, and Herbert H. Dow and I were sitting, 

 after lunch, in comfortable rustic chairs in his Michigan 

 garden. In the distance stretched his experimental or- 

 chard, row after row of apple trees in full bloom, 

 ordered clumps of pink and white blossoms beneath 

 billowy white clouds against a sapphire sky. The peace- 

 ful beauty of the spring afternoon enveloped us and 

 that big, benign engineer, so vigorously exacting as a 

 manufacturer, so militant as a competitor, relaxed and 

 became an industrial philosopher. 



"It takes twice as much energy," he said, "to move 

 two pounds as it does to move one. Slowly we are be- 

 ginning to learn that by the right choice of materials 

 and through better design, lightness can be achieved 

 without sacrifice of strength or durability. Why waste 

 both energy and materials struggling against gravity? 

 After all, levity has positive virtues. It is certainly a 

 great convenience. 



"Once we get this idea we will be off on a new line 

 213 



