Bauxite and Aluminum

Bauxite, the ore of the widely useful metal aluminum, has also an important use in the manufacture of artificial abrasives, which are of wide application in all metal industries, at present particularly in the finishing of guns, cartridge cases, and motor parts. Bauxite is also the basis of an extensive chemical industry, being the crude material from which alum, aluminum sulphate, and several other chemicals used particularly in water purification, dyeing, and tanning are made. Owing to the greatly enhanced price of aluminum s\dphate, several municipal and industrial waterworks have recently installed small plants to make it for use in purifying their water supplies. A use for bauxite that is expanding at a rapid rate is in the manufacture of bauxite brick, more properly called, according to the United States Geological Survey, high-alumina refractories. For furnace linings, these refractories are reported to be replacing the more expensive magnesite and other refractory materials. The uses of aluminum are myriad, but as some are more essential than others, it is likely that the minor articles formerly made from aluminum will for the present be made in smaller quantity, because the available supply of aluminum will probably be diverted to more urgent uses. PRODUCTION.