Chemistry in the Industries 269
opens to us new horizons.” These words, spoken by the late
Andrew W. Mellon, will bear repeating in these troubled
times. This American industrialist realized that “improve-
ment in the standard of living can come about only by reason
of new discoveries and inventions.”
The new nation, which appeared on this continent follow-
ing 1918, would have seemed a fantastic wonderland in 1914
had anyone then had the imagination to foresee it. The auto-
mobile came of age; aviation was established as an industry;
and the wireless of war became radio. When, on December 7,
1941, we found ourselves again at war on a global scale, we
were living on a plane that bore little resemblance to the
pre-war period of a quarter century earlier. Our clothes, our
food, our homes, and our industry were all different. Furni-
ture and hosiery alike were being made from coal, water, and
air; dresses from wood, farm fertilizers from the atmosphere,
and camphor from pine stumps.
This is a war of many metals, for we live in the age of
alloys. An American bomber, fourteen tons of fiber and
metal, waddles to the head of the long runway, poises for a
moment, there is a thunderous roar, and she takes off. Her
aluminum skin is dark with war paint, a camouflaging coat
of dull black, dirt brown, and forest green. This metal marvel
is answering the terrific pull of 4,800 mechanical horses. And
yet each of these horses weighs barely over a pound. This
wonder is achieved by modern chemical and mechanical
genius working with new lightweight metals and new high-
strength alloys. Here are aluminum, magnesium, and beryl-
lium along with tungsten, vanadium, and molybdenum.
Here are plastics, fabrics, and alloys, each efficiently doing
its important part. The metals and alloys are fibers of
strength in a great industrial nation. In this war of many
metals the lack of a single one may be a blow worse than the
loss of a battle.