120 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 708 



More tlian seventeen million pounds (17,- 

 211,000) of metallic aluminum were consumed 

 in this country during last year, according to 

 Mr. W. C. Phalen, of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey, whose statistical report on the 

 production of aluminum and bauxite has just 

 been published by the survey as an advance 

 chapter from Mineral Resources of the United 

 States, Calendar Tear 1907. This is an in- 

 crease of 2,301,000 pounds over the consump- 

 tion in 1906. The great increase in domestic 

 production that was predicted in the early 

 part of 1907 was not realized, and the failure 

 of the predictions is attributed by Mr. Phalen, 

 in large part at least, to the falling off in 

 demand toward the close of the year as a 

 result of general business depression. The 

 output of bauxite, which finds its most im- 

 portant use as raw material for the production 

 of metallic aluminum, increased almost 30 

 per cent, in quantity and a little over 30 per 

 cent, in value in 1907 as compared with the 

 quantity and value of the output in 1906. In 

 the earlier year 75,332 tons, valued at $368,- 

 311, were produced; in the later, 97,776 tons, 

 valued at $480,330. Although Arkansas still 

 leads in the total production, the output from 

 Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee increased in 

 1907 over 50 per cent., as compared with an 

 increase of perhaps 20 per cent, in Arkansas. 

 Bauxite ore to the amount of 25,066 tons, 

 valued at $93,208, was imported during the 

 year, making the consumption of bauxite in 

 1907 amount to 122,842 tons, valued at $573,- 

 538. In addition to its use in the production 

 of metallic aluminum, bauxite is in demand 

 for the manufacture of aluminum salts, arti- 

 ficial abrasives (alundum) and bauxite brick. 

 This last use is of very recent date. The 

 chief value of the bricks lies in their resist- 

 ance to the corrosive action of molten metal 

 at high temperatures, and hence they find 

 application in basic open-hearth steel fur- 

 naces, in furnaces for refining lead, in copper 

 reverberatory furnaces, and in the linings of 

 rotary Portland cement kilns. 



The need for conserving the mineral fuels 

 of the country for the use of future genera- 

 tions has been emphasized many times during 

 the last few years, not only in numei'ous mag- 



azine and newspaper articles, but in a number 

 of reports emanating from the government 

 bureau especially charged with the investiga- 

 tion of the mineral resources of the national 

 domain — the Geological Survey. The state- 

 ments that the coal supply of the country is 

 far from being inexhaustible, that the amount 

 available is susceptible of measurement, and 

 that no very long look into the future is re- 

 quired to see the end of the present known 

 deposits are graphically supported by a map 

 that has just been published by the Geological 

 Survey. A somewhat similar map was issued 

 by the survey in 1906, but the work of the 

 geologists in the western coal .fields in the last 

 two years has added so much to the known 

 extent of those fields that a new and revised 

 edition has become necessary. The map now 

 presented to the public is unique in several 

 particulars. It not only shows the location 

 and extent of the coal deposits of the United 

 States, but also, by variation in color and 

 depth of shading, the character of the coals in 

 each of the great fields and the depth at which 

 they occur beneath the surface. For the first 

 time an attempt has been made to represent 

 the coal in the deep basins, or " synclines," 

 as the geologists term them, of the Rocky 

 Mountain states, where there is every reason 

 to suppose that coal exists, although it is so 

 deeply covered by later sediments as to be 

 accessible with great difficulty if at all. Other 

 new features of the map are the explanation 

 printed on the side margins, describing the 

 character and geologic age of the coals, and 

 the accompanying tables, which give estimates 

 of the amount of coal originally present in 

 the deposits, the quantity that has been re- 

 moved, and the amount still available, sub- 

 divided into deposits easily reached and those 

 accessible with difficulty. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 Under the Minnesota state law of 1865 cer- 

 tain swamp lands were set aside to be sold for 

 the benefit of state institutions. The state 

 constitutional amendment which was adopted 

 in 1881 acted to repeal the law of 1865 and 

 the law of 1907 was passed to make effective 

 the plain intent of the constitutional amend- 



