APPLICATION OF ALUMINIUM TO PRACTICAL PURPOSES. 207 



received. Deville, whose name is everywhere familiar for his many 

 valuable labours, however, in his investigations of its characters, found that 

 it possessed peculiar and curious properties, and he unhesitatingly stated his 

 impression that it was a metal destined to occupy an important position in 

 the requirements of mankind, as soon as the means could be found of obtain- 

 ing it in manufacturable quantities. 



In his first statements (1855) he drew attention to its power of resist - 

 ance to all acids save hydrochloric, to its fusibility, its beautiful whitish- 

 blue colour, and the fact of its undergoing no change of lustre or colour 

 by the action of the atmosphere or of sulphuretted hydrogen. Its density 

 as low as glass, he foresaw would insure for it many special applications, 

 while superior to the common metals in respect to the innocuousness of its 

 compounds with the feebler acids, and intermediate between them and the 

 precious metals it was evidently a fitting material for domestic purposes. 

 " And when it is further remembered," he added, then, " that aluminium 

 exists in considerable proportions in all clays, amounting in some cases, to 

 one-fourth of the weight of a very widely-diffused substance, one cannot do 

 otherwise than hope that sooner or later this metal may find a place in the 

 industrial arts." 



This prevision seems to be realising itself every day, and a forcible proof 

 of the rapid strides made in its economic production is afforded by a com- 

 parison of its past and present commercial prices. A few years ago it cost 

 601. per lb., while from the Aluminium Works recently established at New- 

 castle, in our own country, it is now supplied at less than sixty shillings. 

 Every step taken in the reduction of the prime cost of a raw material 

 widens the range of its adaptability to ornamental purposes in the arts, or 

 useful applications in the manufactures. It is malleable and ductile, being 

 reducible to very thin sheets, or capable of being drawn into very fine 

 threads. In tenacity, it is superior to silver, and in a state of purity it is as 

 hard. It files readily, and is an excellent conductor of electricity, and 

 combinations of it, with other metals, have already been used with 

 advantage. The most important of these compounds is aluminium-bronze, 

 formed of one part of aluminium with nine of copper. This bronze 

 possesses great malleability and strength, Professor Gordon's experiments 

 giving the following relations of wires of the same diameter : iron, 100 ; 

 aluminium-bronze, 155 ; copper, 68. This immense tenacity and strength 

 confer on this bronze admirable qualities for the working parts of 

 machinery where great durability is required, and notwithstanding its 

 higher price than that of the ordinary metals, the quantity of aluminium 

 required is so small, that it is said that practically the cost of the bronze 

 does not exceed that of ordinary brass or gun-metal bearings. 



Another property of aluminium is its extreme sonorousness, and this has 

 also had very serviceable application in the construction of musical 

 instruments. So highly sonorous is it, that a mere ingot suspended by a 

 fine wire emits, when struck, a clear and ringing sound. 



The metal can be beaten out into leaves for gilding, or rolled in the 



