910 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 494. 



hours of desperate effort finally stood on 

 the summit of the seemingly impregnable 

 butte, only to find an easy trail leading up 

 on the other side. 



The most abundant materials in nature 

 are the fixed, difficultly transposable com- 

 pounds of the strong metals, and their con- 

 quest and utilization are the peculiar and 

 special province of electrochemistry. 



According to the estimate of the inde- 

 fatigable chemist of the Geological Survey, 

 F. W. Clarke, silicon oxide forms 58.3 per 

 cent, of the contents of the solid crust of 

 the earth, aluminium oxide 14.7 per cent., 

 iron oxide 7.8 per cent., calcium oxide 5.3 

 per cent, and magnesium oxide 4.5 per 

 cent. ; or, expressed in another way, silicon 

 27.2 per cent., aluminium 7.8 per cent., iron 

 5.5 per cent., calcium 3.8 per cent, and 

 magnesium 2.7 per cent. 



With these figures in mind, may I not 

 ask whether we fully realize the signifi- 

 cance of one of the latest electrometal- 

 lurgical triumphs, the production of 

 metallic silicon on a large scale in the 

 electric furnace by one of our Niagara Falls 

 members, Mr. F. J. Tone? While the 

 catalogues of dealers in rare chemicals are 

 still listing silicon at dollars an ounce, an 

 electrochemist has two barrelfuls of it 

 which he is wondering if any one will buy 

 at a fraction of a dollar a pound ! Could 

 anything better illustrate the revolutionary 

 character of electrochemistry? While the 

 electrochemist is the reverse of a nihilist, 

 we must admit that he is a typical and con- 

 victed revolutionist. 



To say a word or two more about silicon. 

 I had a somewhat uncanny feeling when 

 Mr. Tone introduced me to his half a ton 

 of silicon. "Here is," I soliloquized, "the 

 first chance which mankind has had to 

 utilize the most abundant solid element on 

 earth. What will be made of it? Can it 

 become as useful as iron? Probably not. 

 Can applications be found for it which will 



bring it among the ordinary metals of 

 every-day life? Possibly. In any event, 

 here is the material, ready to hand, and no 

 one but the electrochemist could have made 

 it." 



Something of the same feeling must have 

 arisen in the mind of the chemist who first 

 made aluminium a commercial possibility, 

 but his expectations, based on his chemical 

 process, -were only actually realized when 

 the electrochemist gave his solution of the 

 problem. This very element illustrates 

 one of the chief characteristics of electro- 

 chemical processes, viz., their potentiality 

 for improvement. Chemically produced 

 aluminium was out of the race when the 

 metal sold for one dollar per pound, yet the 

 present market price is only one third of 

 that. After the chemical process has done 

 its utmost, has said its last word, the 

 electrochemical process, which supersedes 

 it, has only begun its march of improve- 

 ment. 



In the metallurgy of iron, a direct re- 

 placement of the ordinary manufacture of 

 pig iron by electrical processes is very far 

 from a possibility, even in countries where 

 coal is most expensive and water power 

 most abundant. However, in the manu- 

 facture of that higher-priced product, steel, 

 the case is different, and already some of 

 the finer qualities, such as replace crucible 

 steel, are being made electrically in France, 

 Switzerland and SAveden. It is only a 

 question of some more inevitable improve- 

 ments being made in the electric furnaces 

 used to make possible the manufacture in 

 them of the more common and cheaper 

 varieties of steel. This will come at first 

 in countries where fuel is dear and power 

 cheap, and afterwards in localities where 

 very cheap power is being generated by 

 gas-engines using either the waste gas from 

 blast furnaces or producer gas made from 

 coal waste or culm. 



Even before that time the auxiliary use 



