SOME CHEMISTRY OF EVERYDAY LIFE 



197 



no utensils of metal in our homes, and no builder's hardware 

 such as screws and nails and bolts for the construction of our 

 houses. An index of the industrial activity, enlightenment, 

 and advance of a nation in civilization, is the extent of its 

 metal products. It was the mineral resources of Alsace- 

 Lorraine wrung from a defeated France in 1871 that has made 

 this territory so valuable to Germany, and the coal and iron 

 mines of northern France and of Belgium were an immediate 

 objective of Germany's forces at the outbreak of the World 



COUHTRY 



Production of Iron Ore m Million 73/?j 



10 to JO 40 fO 60 



United States 

 German Empire 

 France, 

 Great Britain 

 Sweden 

 Aus trig- Hungary 



FIG. 63. Iron ore mined in different countries in 1913. 



War in 1914. An enormous output in metals, together with 

 the fuel required for their production and for marketing them 

 as finished products, is required for industrial and commercial 

 supremacy in world affairs. 



In its wide range of usefulness iron may be counted chief 

 among the metals. In the production of iron ores the United 

 States leads the world, and in 1913 it reached the enormous 

 total output of sixty-two millions of tons. Its chief iron ore 

 deposits are in the districts west and south of Lake Superior, 

 and in northern Alabama about Birmingham. 



Chemically considered the metals are elements, but they 

 commonly occur as compounds of definite chemical composi- 

 tion, usually as oxides, sulphides, and carbonates. These 

 compounds are mixed with rock and earthy materials, and 



