Checking the Waste: A Study in Conservation

. All the many articles of iron and steel, our tools, our machinery, our vehicles, our bridge

ld always have an abundant supply of it; but when it occurs in small quantities, as is usually the case, it can not of course be

resent production is in two states, Minnesota and Michigan. We can see that iron is very

substances: clay, shale, slate, quartz, sulphur, phosphorus, etc. These must all be removed, some by washing, but most of them by

t of iron in the country. If ore yields a large per cent. of iron in smelting, with a small amount of waste, it i

wer is exactly the same whether ore yields fifty-five tons of pure iron to the hundred,

tons of iron that the low-grade ore would yield. So the lands that produce only thirty tons to the hundred will never be

tons or less. There are vast quantities, billions of tons, of iron ore in the United States, that would yield less than thirty tons of iron to the hundred. These low-grade ores and the ones known to lie so deep in the earth that the cost of mining them is more than the finished pro

mined much more easily, more safely, more cheaply, and with far less loss than that which requires deep mining. Such conditions are found in the Lak

mines, pillars are left to support the rock above. A roof of the iron ore is often left also. The low-grade ore is left

rcoal, which is still used in Sweden. The latest method is to employ electricity manufactured by water-power, but most of the iron smelting in this country has been done by coal.

bly, when, if it be far from an abundant fuel supply, it must be shipped to distant blast furnaces. T

h and hardness. If these can be mixed to produce a medium grade by adding a small amount of

the work is too great to be attempted with a small amount. So if iron mines are owned by a small company much ore may be classed

t Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1645, using the low-grade bog-o

ns now lies in upper Michigan and Minnesota. This furnishes eighty tons out of every one hundred mined in the United States, but the smelting is done along the southern shores of Lake Michigan. The reason for this is that the iron region itself is far

ided into distr

necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio, supplies

astern Kentucky, and Tennessee, North and South Carolina, G

e northern parts of Michigan, Minnesota and W

and Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. This regio

ah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, western Texas, Washington, Oregon and Califor

y subject to mistakes, gives the amount of available iron, that is, that

this may be expected

s were mined, from 1870 to 1889 nearly 154,000,000 tons, and from 1889 to 1907, 475,000,000 tons, or altogether nearly 680,000,000 tons. The product

1925, 208,000,000, and by 1934, 416,000,000 tons, and if the same rate of increase should continue, by 1940 we should have required for our use in the meantime, six billion tons. But we have less than five billion tons of what is now classed a

and so varied, and the supply of high-grade ores which can be cheaply mined is so small in proportion to the needs of the fut

frogs, spikes, etc., which will weigh more than four hundred tons. Thus we see that to move a thousand tons of freight requires the use of an equal weight of iron. The same freight may be moved by water by means of from one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons of metal, so that if freight were sent by water instead of by rail the amount

ther. Cement is made from slag, or the refuse of iron ore-the clays and shales-and the cost of this valuable product is little more than the former cost

great nations of the world would agree to reduce their armament, one of the great drains on the w

g purposes. The construction of battleships differs greatly year by year, and the older ships are discarded to make place for newer and larger ones. It

ted that within ten years or less the new types will in turn become obsolete, and will be useless against the type of vessel certain to be evolv

xed with nickel and silicas. Many other alloys have been discovered within the last few years, and each makes possible new uses for iron requiring greater strength. One of the best of these is a mixture of iron and silicon, called ferro-silicon. Silica is one of the cheape

, to be used with the new, and this will lessen each year the demand on the ores. It is also possible that new deposits of iron or

ground is very uncertain. It may be more, o

of increase continues, all the high-grade ores will be exhausted by

e of steel in buildings; (d) Lessening the amount used for war; (e) The use of alloys. This opens a large and promising field for invention. (f) More care in preserving articles made of iron. This is a practical thing for every person in our country to do. Ever

ERE

Home and Abroad.

ated Minerals. (Carnegie.) R

al Conservati

Geologic

he U. S. in 1908. Adva