The Romance of War Inventions / A Description of Warships, Guns, Tanks, Rifles, Bombs, and Other Instruments and Munitions of Warfare, How They Were Invented & How They Are Employed

by Thomas W. Corbin

It consists of tungsten and oxygen, but is not an oxide since there is also iron in the partnership. This

fact is very useful, however, since it enables the particles of wolfram to be picked out from the mass of other stuff among which they are found by a magnet.

There are some very wonderful machines called magnetic separators, made for this express purpose. In one, with which I am familiar, there is an endless band stretched horizontally upon two rollers. One of the rollers being driven round the belt travels along so that the mineral being fed on to it in a stream is carried along under several magnets. These magnets are very different from the ordinary magnet, inasmuch as they are revolving. We might almost describe them as small magnetized flywheels. As they spin round they pick up slightly the particles of ore which contain iron, but have no effect at all upon those which do not contain iron. They do not actually lift the particles up on to themselves: they just exercise a slight pull upon them, and by virtue of the fact that they are revolving, pull them off the band and throw them to one side. The wheels can be set closer or farther from the belt at will so as to make them act more or less strongly, and thus the most magnetic particles can be separated from those less magnetic, these latter being still kept separate from the wholly non-magnetic particles. Thus by simple and purely mechanical means are the precious bits of wolfram obtained from the other less valuable or worthless minerals with which they are mixed.

The same method is used with other minerals besides wolfram: it can be applied to all those which

exhibit in some small degree the magnetic properties which we usually associate with iron.

This sorting out of one mineral from others continually crops up in connection with nearly all the metals except iron. Iron is practically the only one whose ore occurs in vast masses which need simply to be dug up and thrown into the furnace. The others, where they occur as rock in veins, have to be crushed to detach what is wanted from what is not wanted, and then the two have to be sorted in some way. Magnetic separation is but one of these ways. Another takes advantage of the fact that we seldom find two things together which have precisely the same specific gravity. Consequently, if we throw the mixture on to a shaking table the heavier particles will behave differently from the lighter ones and the two will separate. The same result can be obtained by throwing the mixture into a stream of water, the water acting differently upon the lighter and upon the heavier particles. Another way which may be mentioned is founded upon the fact that some things can be readily wetted with oil while others throw the oil off and refuse to be wetted by it. If a mixture of these two sorts of thing be stirred violently in a suitable oily liquid the former will be found eventually in the froth, while the latter will sink to the bottom. All these different methods are employed, as they are found necessary in preparing the ores of the various metals to which we have been referring.

Except in the case of alluvial ores which have been broken already by the action of ancient streams of

water, nearly all ores (except iron) have to be crushed before the ores can be separated out. Some of this work is done by the very simplest contrivances, showing how in some cases invention has almost come to a stop through the machines having been reduced to their simplest form. A notable instance of this is the stamp mill, in which heavy timbers are lifted up by machinery and then allowed to slide down upon the ore, just like gigantic pestles. More elaborate grinding machines are sometimes used, however, but it is impossible to mention them all here.

The action of sorting out the fragments of ore from the miscellaneous assortment of crushed rocks is termed "concentrating," and the sorted ores are called "concentrates."

Another metal which has proved itself of immense importance in war is aluminium, and it fittingly comes at the close of the list since it is dealt with in a manner peculiar to itself. Practically all the others are obtained from their ores by means of heat and heat alone. Aluminium is obtained by electricity acting in the process called electrolysis.