Mine & Metal Engineers

The American Institute of Mining & Metallurgical Engineers is enjoying vicarious profit from the oncoming U. S. Presidency of Mining Engineer Herbert Clark Hoover. He was, in 1920, president of the Institute.

Mr. Hoover recently declared that engineers could transform the national thought in 20 years.

That became the text of a fervid speech by Dr. George Otis Smith, retiring president of the Institute at its annual meeting in Manhattan last week. Cried Dr. Smith, who is also director of the U. S. Geological Survey: "It is the engineer who has given to the world of industry a new momentum. He it is who can best chart the trend of the new social order. The best engineering is necessary in erecting the city, of today. Why not in governing it? The whole structure should be built, equipped and operated by engineering standards."

Therewith the Institute officials unveiled a bronze bust of Mr. Hoover, their Phoebus, their Balder. It rests in their Manhattan sanctum.

Thus the happy prospect of the engineers. Concerning the present prosperity of their business they had a few hard facts to tell each other.

Gold. The U. S. still has $2,000,000,000 worth of gold underground. During the next 20 years $800,000,000 will be mined. --G. F. Loughlin, U. S. Geological Survey.

Tin is the most practical and economical metal for preserved food containers. The U. S. uses 8,000,000,000 tin cans yearly. They are made of sheet iron thinly coated with tin. Tin is getting rarer. It is subject to a peculiar corrosion which is contagious. One rotted piece of tin can infect another. Museum coins and other alloy articles frequently suffer an epidemic. The risk of human poisoning from tin's disease is very remote.--C. L. Mantell, Pratt Institute.

Potash. The Texas Panhandle and southeastern New Mexico contain great deposits of potash (fertilizer constituent) worth mining commercially. This was guessed, is now confirmed by W. B. Lang et al. of the U. S. Geological Survey.

Aluminum shaving cream tubes get sticky because the alkali of the creamed shaving soaps react with the aluminum containers. First the tubes swell, from the hydrogen evolved by the chemical reaction. Then as the corrosion continues tiny holes develop through the aluminum and the cream oozes out.--H. V. Churchill, Aluminum Co. of America.