Commercial Geography: A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business CollegesRedway, Jacques W. (Jacques Wardlaw)
General
Commercial Geography: A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges
Redway, Jacques W. (Jacques Wardlaw)
Commercial geography
Bauxite, the mineral from which the metal is now chiefly extracted, is
obtained in two localities. One extends through Georgia and Alabama;
the other is in Arkansas.
=Lead.=--Lead is neither so abundant nor so widely diffused as iron,
copper, and the precious metals, but the supply is fully equal to the
demand. Lead ores, mainly galena or lead sulphide, occur abundantly in
the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah, producing more than half
the total output of the United States. In these localities, in Mexico,
and in the Andean states of South America it is used mainly in the
smelting of silver ores.
Metallic lead is used largely in the manufacture of water-pipes, and for
this purpose it must be very nearly pure. It is also rolled into sheets
to be used as lining for water-tanks. The fact that the edges of
sheet-lead and the ends of pipes may be readily joined with solder gives
to lead a great part of its economic value. Alloyed with arsenic it is
used in making shot; alloyed with antimony it forms type metal; alloyed
with tin it forms pewter and solder.
The greater part, however, is manufactured into the carbonate or "white"
lead that is used as a pigment, or paint. Red lead, an oxide, is a
pigment; litharge, also an oxide, is used for glazing the cheaper kinds
of pottery. About two hundred and thirty thousand tons of lead are
produced in the United States and one-half as much is imported--mainly
from Mexico and Canada. The linotype machines, now used in all large
printing establishments, have increased the demand for lead.
=Other Metals.=--Most of the remaining economic metals occur in small
quantities as compared with iron, copper, gold, and silver. Some of
them, however, are highly important from the fact that in various
industrial processes no substitutes for them are known.
_Quicksilver_, or _mercury_, is the only industrial metal that at
ordinary temperatures is a liquid. It is the base of the substance
calomel, a chloride, and corrosive sublimate, a dichloride, both of
which are employed as medicines. It is essential in the manufacture of
thermometers and barometers, but is used chiefly, however, as a solvent
of gold, which it separates from the finely powdered ore by solution or
amalgamation. Quicksilver occurs in the mineral cinnabar, a sulphide.
Nearly one-half the world's product comes from California. The New
Almaden mines of Santa Clara County produce over five thousand flasks
(each seventy-six and one-half pounds net); those of Napa County nearly
nine thousand flasks; the mines of the whole State yield about
twenty-six thousand flasks, valued at $1,200,000. Almaden, Spain, and
Idria, Austria, produce nearly all the rest of the output. An average of
about fifteen thousand flasks are exported from San Francisco, mainly to
the mines of Mexico, and Central and South America.
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