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Story
February 22, 1894
The Record Union
Sacramento, Sacramento County, California
What is this article about?
Article speculates on aluminum's vast potential if commercially extracted from abundant clay sources, noting current high-heat extraction challenges and ongoing international experiments that could soon make it cheaper than steel, enabling imperishable cities and portable houses.
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Full Text
Possibilities of Aluminium,
If aluminum ever becomes available as a commercial product there will be no limit to its uses, for it is far more abundant than any metal or mineral. It is contained in common clay, of which it constitutes one of the chief ingredients. At present it cannot be got out of the clay except by burning the latter at a heat four times as great as that of the ordinary smelting furnace, a heat which cannot easily be produced except by electricity.
But the progress of chemistry is likely to discover some new and cheaper process of extraction. Some of the most alert minds in Germany, England and this country are concentrated on experiments with clay. Scores of patents have already been taken out in all countries. Any year may witness the solution of the problem and the creation of a metal which may relegate steel to the background.
We may live to see cities built of aluminum, incombustible, almost imperishable, and so portable that men, like snails, may carry their houses on their back when they change their quarters.-Scientific American.
If aluminum ever becomes available as a commercial product there will be no limit to its uses, for it is far more abundant than any metal or mineral. It is contained in common clay, of which it constitutes one of the chief ingredients. At present it cannot be got out of the clay except by burning the latter at a heat four times as great as that of the ordinary smelting furnace, a heat which cannot easily be produced except by electricity.
But the progress of chemistry is likely to discover some new and cheaper process of extraction. Some of the most alert minds in Germany, England and this country are concentrated on experiments with clay. Scores of patents have already been taken out in all countries. Any year may witness the solution of the problem and the creation of a metal which may relegate steel to the background.
We may live to see cities built of aluminum, incombustible, almost imperishable, and so portable that men, like snails, may carry their houses on their back when they change their quarters.-Scientific American.
What sub-type of article is it?
Curiosity
What themes does it cover?
Exploration
Triumph
What keywords are associated?
Aluminum
Clay Extraction
Chemical Progress
Future Uses
Scientific Experiments
Portable Houses
Story Details
Story Details
Aluminum is abundant in clay but hard to extract due to extreme heat needs; chemical progress and experiments in Germany, England, and the US may soon enable cheap production, surpassing steel and allowing incombustible, portable aluminum cities.