140 BULLETIN 102, VOL. 1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



in the vicinity of choice water-power sites or, as in the case of recent 

 atmospheric nitrogen fixation plants, subsidized by the Government. 

 But, by and large, electrochemical industries are grossly undeveloped 

 in this country, relative both to their intrinsic importance and to their 

 upgrowth abroad; and while a considerable expansion has resulted 

 under the stimulus of war prices, the course of progress is under the 

 handicap of power costs running far in excess of what is offered in 

 Canada and abroad. Since power is a large item of expense in most 

 electrochemical activities, its high cost in the United States is not 

 only preventing development, except along specialized lines of high- 

 value small-bulk products, but is causing an emigration and settle- 

 ment of such industries in other countries offering a more genial 

 atmosphere of power costs. Not only this, but the tide of emigra- 

 tion is actually affecting the industries already established at Ni- 

 agara Falls. On the whole, then, counting off war-time exuberance, 

 our electrochemical industries while growing in an absolute sense 

 are relatively stationary, if not actually retrograding. That is to 

 say, our electrochemical needs are growing faster than our electro- 

 chemical industries, which means that an increasing dependence 

 upon foreign developments is under way. 



If the high cost of electric power in the United States is blocking 

 adequate electrochemical developments, we should take time to ex- 

 amine the scope of the fields that are being retarded by this circum- 

 stance. Such a retardation, of course, is difficult to visualize, for its 

 most important area consists of what has not been accomplished; 

 or, rather, of the margin between current and possible attainments, 

 so far as determined by conditions of power supply. Yet the pros- 

 pect can be swept, even though we may turn aside before coming 

 up with it. 



In the realm of metallurgy, electricity opens to use a number of 

 metals not commercially extractable from their ores on any other 

 terms. The most conspicuous example is aluminum, which was a 

 chemical curiosity until thus made available; but such metals and 

 elements as magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, cerium, and sili- 

 con are also coming into prominence, although the applications of 

 these newer additions are still in their infancy. It is not unworthy of 

 note, although the bearing of the fact may not become conspicuous 

 for many years, that electrometallurgy offers a means for turning the 

 more common and leaner mineral materials to account when the ex- 

 haustion of the rather limited and rich concentrations heretofore ex- 

 ploited shall have been accomplished.^ For the manufacture of a 



1 In this connection it may be recalled that the valuable elements available solely by 

 electrochemical means constitute nearly half of the earth's crust, while such useful 

 elements as copper, lead, zinc, silver, nickel, tin, and the like, available before the advent 

 of electricity, comprise together less than 1 per cent. This takes no account of the 4i 

 per cent of Iron present, but electro-smelting may come to represent the only means for 

 handling the lean occurrences of this metal. 



