Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 196, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1915 — Page 3

The DISCOVERY of VANADLUM

HE credit for discovering the T 1 metallic element vanadium, al--8 most, but not quite, belongs to Andres Manuel Del Rio, 1 professor of mineralogy in the ■ Royal School of Mines of the KSSsSkSsJI City of Mexico. The honor would be wholly his had he EkSKhBI no t himself repudiated his own discovery.

Del Rio was bom in Madrid, November 10, 1764, and graduated from the University of Alcala de Henares in 1780. On account of his extraordinary aptitude in the natural sciences, and particularly in chemistry, he was pensioned and sent by the government to study in Germany, France, and England. He spent about twelve years in those countries, principally in the study of mineralogy and mining, and was associated with the leading scientists, among others Lavoisier. After his return to Spain he was named, in 1794, by royal order as one of the group of professors to establish the Royal School of Mines in Mexico City. The royal order named Del Rio as professor of chemistry, but on his request this was changed to mineralogy. The school was opened in April, 1795. In 1820 Del Rio was sent as deputy to the Spanish Cortes, where he championed the cause of Mexican independence. He returned to Mexico in 1824, but in 1829 on the expulsion of the Spaniards he went to the United States. He afterwards returned, and died in the City of Mexico on May 23, 1849. The district of Andres Del Rio, in the state of Chihuahua, where the city of Batopilas and the mines of the same name are located, is called after the distinguished (scientist. In 1801 Prof. Del Rio In examining some brown lead ores from the mines of Zimapan, in what is now the state of Hidalgo, believed that he had discovered a new element different from chromium and uranium and this he named erithronium. It was in reality what we now know as vanadium. The discovery was a genuine one, and had the matter rested there the name that Del Rio gave the new element would have been its name now, and he would have been the undisputed discoverer thereof. But unfortunately the Mexican professor was a little too much under the glamour of the French school, and so when Collet Descostils published an article in which he stated that Del Rio’s erithronium was nothing more than impure chromium Del Rio accepted the French professor’s judgment and in the Anales de Ciencias Naturales of Madrid in 1804 disavowed his former claim of discovery and stated that the substance was a lead chromate. Del Rio had been right and the French school wu>ng, for the element does not even belong in the chromium group. So the matter rested until in 1830 the Swedish scientist, N. G. Sefstroem, rediscovered the element among the slags of the Taberg iron ores and named it vanadium, which name it still bears. It is sometimes stated that the name chosen by Sefstroem * was in honor of the Scandinavian goddess Vanadis. This is not strictly correct. In the Norse mythology the gods were divided into two stocks, Aesir and Vanir, or Asa and Vana. NJoerd, Frey and Freyja were of the stock Vanir, hence Vanadis. The word may be taken as the surname of a number of gods and goddesses, although perhaps most often used in connection with Freyja, the Norse Venus. Neither Del Rio nor Sefstroem, nor later Berzelius, obtained the pure element, although Berzelius published what he thought to be its atomic weight, 137 and the formlae for its oxides. The English chemist, Sir Henry E. Roscoe, in 1868 demonstrated that Berzelius was incorrect; that ' he and other prior Investigators had dealt with nitrides or oxides of the element; and that instead of belonging to the chromium group of elements vanadium should be placed in the group with arsenic and phosphorus. Vanadium is a silver-white metal and readily oxidized. It has an atomic weight of 51.2, is nonmagnetic, has a very high electrical resistivity, and melts at about 1,680 degrees C. It is one of the most difficultly reduced and hardest of the metallic elements. Fortunately for its use in the arts, it is not necessary to reduce the metal to its pure state. Such a reduction would be too costly. It can be reduced, however, quite easily as an alloy, particularly as an alloy of iron, ferrovanadium, containing approximately one part of vanadium and two parts of iron. Again, fortunately, this alloy has a melting point 1,300 degree C. to 1,340 degrees C., sufficiently low to further alloy with,molten steel, which would be difficult in the pure, vanadium having a melting point over 300 degrees C. higher. Vanadium is one of the most widely disseminated of all the elements, although commercially available deposits are comparatively rare. It is found in most of the rocks, in clays and shales, and in the ashes of plants. In addition to Mexico, where it was first discovered, vanadium has been found in Colorado, Utah, Oklahoma, Nevada, New Mexico, and other parts of the United States; in Peru, Sweden, Australia, Spain, England, Turkestan, Chili and Argentina The chief ores from which vanadium Is or may be derived are patronite, carnotlte, roscoelite, vanadinte and asphaltite. Coal 1b a source of vanadium. Ash from the Rockvale Colorado coal gave 27 per cent vanadium oxide. Coal from the Mendoza district in Argentina contains five pounds of vanadic add per ton. It It * . i •

called rafaelite. At Talcuna, in the province of Coquimbo in Chili, vanadium is found as a yellow earth in connection with copper ore. The principal and almost the only commercial source of supply of vanadium at present is from Peru. There are numbers of asphaltite deposits in Peru, among the best known of which are those of Yauli. When burned, the ash from these deposits yields 24 to 40 per cent vanadium oxide. Other mines are located at Matucan and Casapalca, on the Central railroad of Peru near Callao, at Huari, and at Huancayo, but the greatest of all deposits, as now known and worked, are at Minas Ragra.

The Ragra mines are about fifty miles from the celebrated Cerro de Pasco copper mines and are in the same mining district. Minas Ragra had been frequently denounced and again abandoned as coal mines. The fuel was of so poor a quality as to be hardly worth the mining. Some years ago on the abandonment by C. Weiss & Co. of Lima, Senor Eulogio E. Fernandini, who was engaged in mining at Cerro de Pasco and who owned the Qulsque hacienda, about six miles from Minas Ragra, denounced the mines anew. Senor Fernandini had a new process for making coke in which he proposed to use the output of Minas Ragra. Senor Antenor Rizo Patron was the technical director of the Fernandini works, and on his attention being directed to a mass of black mineral which accompanied the coal he became interested and made a chemical analysis. He thereby discovered that it contained vanadium in a greater proportion than any of the theretofore known ores of this metal. The material looks like a slaty coal, is very hard, with 30 per cent or more free sulphur, 14 per cent silica, 4 per cent iron sulphide, and about 1% per cent each nickel and molybdenum sulphides, and about 40 per cent vanadium sulphide. After burning out the free sulphur the ore contains about 62 per cent vanadium oxide. The distinguished Peruvian scientist, Senor Jose J. Bravo, made a very thorough examination of the locality and published the results in a bulletin of the Society of Engineers. The sulphide of vanadium, not having been theretofore known as a natural product, was named rizopatronite by Senor Bravo in honor of the original discoverer of the mineral. This name it still bears, although ordinarily shortened to patronite. Rizo-patronite, according to Senor Bravo, appears in the-form of a compact mass, dark in color and some two meters thick (about 6 feet 6 inches), and in his opinion is disseminated over a large extent of country around Minas Ragra. The earth surrounding the rizo-patronite veins is highly impregnated with vanadium solutions, and in small catch basins this impregnated earth Is being extensively worked.

Until the recent development of vanadium in the steel industry its commercial use was more or less confined to ink making and coloring fabrics and leather. The ink is made of a mixture of neutral solution of ammonium vanadate, gum water, and a solution of gallic acid. This ink is not destroyed by acids or alkalines, nor can it be bleached out with chloride. The ink, however, is not very permanent. It dyeing fabrics vanadium chlorides combined with anallne hydrochloride form a brilliant and permanent black. In coloring leather a 1 per cent solution of neutral ammonium vanadate is used with leather which has been tanned with nutgalL The first recorded use of vanadium in steel was in 1896, in France, in the production of armor plates. Tests of these* showed that they were much tougher and more highly resistant

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND,

than like plates made without the use of vanadium. No immediate results, however, followed the French tests, owing perhaps to the fact that at this time no adequate supply of vanadium was in sight. About four years later Prof. J. O. Arnold of Sheffield in an address before the British Iron and Steel institute declared that vanadium was the master weapon of the steel metallurgist. At this timfe price of vanadium alloy was very high and the supply uncertain. The greatest advances, however, made in the use of vanadium in the steel industry have followed the experiments and practical applications of J. Kent Smith of Liverpool. Mr. Smith’s work has been principally in the production of the various grades of vanadium alloys, and he has supervised personally the initial use of vanadium in most of the leading steel mills of England and the continent and some in the United States. About 1905 the supply of vanadium began to increase to a large degree, due to the purchase of the Minas Ragra deposits in Peru by the American Vanadium company, also to the development of mines in other parts of Peru, Spain and elsewhere. From having been a rare metal, owing to the large output, it became available in quantities claimed to be unlimited, as a steelmaking element. The claims made by its users are that it has accomplished wonders in crucible steel and in open-hearth steel, that it gives cast iron greater strength and endurance, and that copper and aluminum are remarkably improved for certain purposes by its addition. It iB used in steel for engine axles and frames, in transmission shafts and gears, in wire springs, in piston rods, hydraulic cylinders, tires, tools, boiler plates, bolts, gun shields, projectiles, armor plates, gun barrels, watch springs, and in castings and forgings generally.

The claim is made that in steel making it unites with the nitrides and oxides, and carries them into the slag. The quantity of vanadium that will remain in the slag is in proportion to the amount of scavenging thus done by it. In well-deoxidized steel it is said that the scavenging will consume about one-fifth of the vanadium. The alloy, ferrovanadium, is introduced into the steel by a very simple process. In the crucible process the alloys are broken into small bits and put into the charge with the second addition of the manganese. In the acid open-hearth process the alloy in larger pieces is dropped into the bath when the flame has been blanketed. In the basic open-hearth practice the alloy, broken small, is run through a spout that empties into the ladle in which the molten steel is being poured. A similar method is followed in the Bessemer and Tropenas practice and also In the cupola process for cast iron. In the latter, the alloy is crushed quite fine.

It is claimed that vanadium increases largely the resistance of metals to vibratory disintegration, that the steel is stronger and tougher and tempers more uniformly and to a greater depth than steel without vanadium. One of the principal advantages in the use of vanadium steel in the future will no doubt be that it will enable the steel man to reduce weight in such constructions as locomotives, cars, machinery, etc., through the use of a smaller amount of the stronger and tougher steel. The question of weight has become serious not only In locomotives but in other forms of machinery. Another great economy claimed for vanadium steel is its greater durability. If this can be established, it would at itself more than justify its more extensive use.

PAW’S EXPERIENCE.

Little Lemuel —Say, paw, does every man havi a bump of wisdom? Paw —He does before he gets married, son. After that the bump becomes a dent

THE REVERSE.

“A doctor reverses the usual order.” "How?’' “He must exercise resignation when he lacks patients.”

CAUSE AND EFFECT.

Hyker—Old Swiggs has stopped drinking. Pyker—Well, that is certainly to his credit Hyker—Don’t you believe it It's due to his lack of credit

A SURE CURE.

“Physicians have demonstrated that r&ttls snake venom does not cure epilepsy ” “It will cure It all right if the physicians wfit permit the rattlesnake to administer it"

STYLES FOR THE FALL

PARIB OPENINGS PUT OFF UNTIL FIRBT OF AUGUST. Flattened Hips Hinted at In Advance Models—Silver Lining to Overshadowing Cloud of Full Bkirts. The majority of the leading houses In Paris put off the dress openings of the season until the first of this month, although we were promised all the news of clothes by the second week of July. What the reason was for the change in dates —whether the paucity of American buyers in Paris early in the month of July, or the difficulty of getting ready a new set of models after the manufacturers had depleted the first set —is of little importance to the question at large; the result is very satisfying to those buyers and sellers who want new clothes for the winter and not for the summer. The one thing that the specialists strive for is to get their frocks before the public who wants the last thing from Paris and open the way for the manufacturers to copy these styles at once; the sooner the better, for the moment a French style is run to ground, the specialists have the chance to sell a new and complete set of fashions to the world of women who will no longer wear a style that

Wine Colored Cloth Suit Trimmed With Black Batin.

is selling for fifteen dollars through the cheaper ready-to-wear departments. There are manufacturers’ models in plenty in America already. Those who sell to the trade that pours into New York in July to get the fall materials, hats and gowns must be served. Why that flood does not wait until September is not a question for an amateur to settle by an answer. There are certain dressmakers, catering to a large trade that does not dwell in or near New York, who also hurry home with a few models, buy others from the manufacturers, and get their autumn business oft their hands almost before one knows that October is coming. This variety of clothes has been

NEW COLORS ARE PROMISED

Already Fashion Is Determining What Shade Shall Be Worn During Fall and Winter Months. From the Rodier collection of fabrics for fall and winter wear we find that the colors are quite as important as the fabrics. AH' the pansy shades to the lightest of the violet tones, with all the intermediate shades, including mauve and lavender, will be in demand. These Shades, it is said, are particularly beautiful in the new pile pabrics, especially the new velvet weave known as "panecia.”

Ranging from the deep, rich shade of bordeaux to the old-fashioned wine color are the reds that will brighten the dull winter months for the many who prefer the warm colors. In the new Rodier fabrics that combine both silk and velvet these red hues are particularly successful. From the beginning of the war it was almost impossible to keep enough soldat blue to supply the demand, and it is said that America has had very little of this Boft and beautiful Bhade of blue. Every tone that bore the slightest resemblance to the soldiers’ uniform was so much in demand that there is little reason to doubt that it will be a most popular color for winder. In panecia this shade is charming. All the varying shades of marine and soldier blue will be obtained in the new fabrics. There are many browns, with a new one in the market that will be sure to be desired. It Is a light brown resembling, it is said, the color of hazelnuts. The novelties in oolor combination* include stripes of two colors, with

on the market since July and the people who copy each acceptable fashion in large quatities are already at work. Soon the shops will offer them as the first and most authoritative ideas in winter fashions. Whether or not they prove to be all that their agents'claim for them is a doubt that will hot deter hundreds of women from buying them, because they are at hand and fall clothes are always needed as soon as the first chill makes it* appearance, except by those lucky ones who always find a suit or a frock left over from the preceding season, which happens to fill the first necessity* There is a strong tendency in each of the fashions that are advanced as forerunners of what is to come in October toward flattened hips. For the last few months we have grown quite large in that spot; we have avoided any appearance of slimness and given ourselves over to gathers and plaits at the waist line. This fashion was deplored by all but the excessively slender, yet as all the models called for a certain amount of fullness from waist to ankles there seemed no other way to arrive at it except through a wide circular skirt, a cut to which the majority of women objected. The latter method of cutting the skirt, however, is the one that is advanced today and the unevenness of the hem, which is sure to result, is offset by accentuating it and using cord or plaiting as an edge. To quiet the rebellion against this kind of skirt among the larger number of women the Spanish flounce has been revived on all kinds of skirts, or rather on skirts made of various materials. Organdie, broadcloth, gaberdine, velvet, batiste nad satin are thC fabrics that show this deep ruffle; it gives the necessary fullness at the knees without increasing the girth around the hips.

It may not matter very much how one achieves that line of slimness at the hips and width at the ankles; the main thing is to be well assured of the silhouette and then work it out through any channel one desires. It is in just this divergence of method makers have a chance of success. There is a silver lining to the cloud of full skirts if these individual treatments are welcomed; especially will the incoming of the deep flounce with the smooth hip line please the women who have looked unpleasantly abnormal in the skirts that were gathered about the waist. As to the frankly circular skirt which is growing in favor among those who decide on the fashions, there is a silver cloud to It also. A band of some kind of opposing, fabric is dropped below the uneyen edge of the hem which frames It in, or rather gives it a straight selvedge. The introduction of this redeeming feature has turned discouragement into optimism. It may be possible, after all, say many, to wear a circular skirt with confidence in its behavior, something that has been impossible since circular skirts were invented.

In the prevailing taffeta frocks that will be worn without coats on warm days and with them on chill days, the skirts are scalloped, not unduly, the edges corded, and the uneven line held together by a five-inch band of double net which is slightly gathered and steadied on its lower edge by a thick cord of the taffeta. If you are not familiar with this method of finishing an uneven skirt hem it is quite worth your while to try it. The effect is good because the skirt has the appearance of being actually finished; the ragged edge does not always give this. (Copyright, 1915, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) ~

He Gets It All.

_ Now that it no longer is good form s to whip the children, father takes all the punishment that is administered to the family—Topeka Capitol.

black and white, the always popular combination, black and sulphur, chartreuse and blue, marine and black in many interesting new weaves. The staple navy blue we have with us always, and with the addition of soldat blue as trimming it is expected that it will take on an added following.— Philadelphia Ledger.

BLUES OF SOFTEST COLOR

Easy to See That That Bhade la Doing to Be the Most Popular for the Summer. The prevalence of tender blues in summer dresses is very welcome, and in the soft crepons, linons, mousselines and fine cloth which arb being used so generously nothing could look better. The coat with a loose back, partly bolero, partly jacket, is one to have, and the skirt, with side plaits is in great favor with good makers. The question of the high neckband is still burning. Any and every kind of front, guimpe, collar or cravat can be found and worn, but nice as many look in the shop window only a very few are entirely satisfactory. No woman who understands dress at its best will consent to being uncomfortable again' about the throat, yet many realise that , a high-necked blouse is more becoming to them. The real secret for such as these is the importance of soft draperies. Only the young or the very classic featured can bear completfi bareness or unbending stiffness. When the average girl arrives at the age of about sixteen she is usually surprised to find out how little her mother knows.