Synopsis of Recent Chemical and Metallurgical Literature Automatic Heating Furnaces.-Figs. 1 and 2 show sections of an automatic heat-treating furnace described by A. F. MITCHELL, metallurgical engineer, ordnance department, U. S. Steel Corporation, in the January, 1919, issue of the Blast Furnace and Steel Plant. Shells are fed into and through this furnace automatically, being rotated during their forward travel; while in the furnace they are supported upon cast iron plungers operating through the bottom of the furnace and are not only kept separated, but are held several inches above the floor, thus insuring perfectly uniform heat in the minimum time. The furnace itself is quite substantially built, as is evident from Fig. 3. It is heated by means of side gas burners, whose flame impinges directly upon a mass of refractory material shown in the cross-section. Careful regulation of the gas composition is important so that the non-oxidizing atmosphere within the furnace may be under complete control and so that there will be no fuel loss due to imperfect combustion. Indirect heating by reverberation has eliminated heavy metal losses by surface oxidation, and in conjunction with an enlarged heating chamber has insured a much better distribution of heat. It has also been completely demonstrated that money spent in adequate insulation of roof and side walls is soon recovered by the largely increased fuel efficiency. FIG. 1. Solders for Aluminum.-Bureau of Standards circular No. 78 notes that aluminum is easily welded by oxy-gas processes, but ordinary soldering methods are somewhat difficult to apply. It is essential Working Results of a Rennerfelt Electric Steel Furnace. In the course of the discussion of a paper on the "Prospects of the Electric Steel Furnace in Sweden," by Mr. OTTO FRICK, Mr. I. RENNERFELT and Chief Engineer H. VON ECKERMANN put in the figures as actual results, with a 11 ton Rennerfelt furnace (arc-type), at Ljusne in Sweden, during the five days, from Nov. 21 to 25, 1916. According to them, 12 charges were dealt with in the furnace in question, the average net time per charge being 6 hr. 39 min. The average input was 1.27 metric tons, of which 19.5 per cent consisted of common Swedish gray pig iron, 6.5 per cent of billet croppings, 64.5 per cent of bar croppings, and 9.5 per cent of scrap. The additions were in eleven of the charges, ferromanganese and ferrosilicon, plus, in five charges, small doses of aluminum, LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF SHELL HEATING FURNACE some flux being added (Kiiruna ore 1.8 per cent average of the charge) in every case, plus a small quantity of lime in one case. The average output (including scrap left) was 1236 metric tons per charge; hence the loss was 2.44 per cent. The scrap left over represented 10.12 per cent of the weight of the ingots and direct castings produced. The consumption of electrodes was 5.1 kg. (11.22 lb.) per metric ton (2.205 lb.), and the energy consumed 1010 kw.-hr. per metric ton of steel (with 0.21 per cent carbon) produced. The work of the furnace was intermittent, hence the larger consumption of energy. With continuous working and producing steel FIG. 3. AUTOMATIC HEATING FURNACE with a carbon content of 1.20 per cent the chief engineer thought the average current consumption could be reduced to 800 kw.-hr. per ton of steel produced.Indian Engineering, March 16, 1918, p. 149. Volatilization of Gold.-Literature contains many efforts to determine the volatility of gold, and from this contradictory evidence Sir THOMAS K. ROSE, in a paper presented before the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Mar. 20, 1919, deduces the following factors affecting volatilization: Time, temperature, amount of exposed surface, composition of bullion, composition of atmosphere, and movement of atmosphere. Preliminary experiments to harmonize the pub lished information gave the most inconsistent results. The apparatus consisted of a quartz tube, gas heated, discharging into a condensing system. Microscopic examination of the condensed films showed them to consist of a multitude of spheres, of the order of 0.001 mm. diameter. Larger spheres sectioned, polished and etched gave polygonal crystalline grains, and no trace of concentric structure. Considerable experimentation was necessary before the true blame for divergent experimental results was placed upon an inconstant atmosphere. When pure gold, or its alloys with silver or copper, are kept molten in a reducing or oxidizing atmosphere, the surface of the gold remains as a bright, motionless mirror. Under these circumstances the loss of gold is very small, being due to true volatilization. If there is a strong draught passing over the surface the loss by volatilization is naturally greater than in a still atmosphere, but is even then almost negligible at the ordinary temperatures of industrial furnaces. Under all such conditions, however, gases are being absorbed by the metal. If the atmosphere above the gold now undergoes a change, say from an oxidizing to a reducing one, the quiet metal begins to effervesce due to the expulsion of certain of the occluded gases, possibly as new chemical combinations formed with the new atmospheric components. Showers of globules of gold of all dimensions are thus thrown up, and the smaller sizes carried away by the current of gas. After a time, usually about 30 sec., if the reducing atmosphere is maintained, the action dies away, and the gold again becomes motionless and remains so until the reducing atmosphere is converted into an oxidizing one, when the same phenomena reappear. As molten metals occlude more hydrogen with increase of temperature, the greater losses observed at higher temperatures than at lower ones are readily explained. Other observed anomalies are due to the fact that pure gold does not occlude oxygen, hydrogen or nitrogen, while its alloys do. It is evident that losses of really volatilized gold are extraordinarily small in industrial furnaces. Under constant atmospheric conditions, the author finds variations in weight between a loss of 0.052 to a gain of 0.017 per 1000. As a matter of fact the Royal Mint records a gross loss of between 0.2 to 0.25 per 1000, which is reduced to a net loss of 0.1 to 0.15 per 1000 after crediting the recovery from flue dust, ground crucibles and furnace bricks, ashes and sweepings. In less well conducted establishments the loss is of course much larger and may aggregate a half-million dollars per year. Under most rigid atmospheric conditions this can be enormously lessened, even granting the inevitable spirting loss which occurs when metal melted under charcoal is poured through air. Maxima Magnetic Susceptibilities.-At the meeting of the Interallied Chemical Confederation held in Paris in April, 1919, Prof. HENRY LOUIS read a paper on the treatment of low-grade iron ores by magnetic concentration. The following table is abstracted from this paper (Chimie et Industrie, May, 1919). MAXIMA MAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITIES PER VOL. C. G. S. Recent Chemical and Metallurgical Patents British Patents Extracting Ammonia From Gases.-Ammonia is extracted from hot gases, for example from furnace gases or gas producers, by a solution of a salt such as calcium chloride, or zinc chloride, possessing the property of forming a double compound with ammonia, which is delivered as a shower or spray by one or more distributing devices provided with spraying nozzles into a vessel through which the gases are caused to rise. The apparatus comprises a vessel a, having a gas inlet e and a gas outlet h, and provided at the top with a liquid distributing box b fitted with spraying nozzles d. The vessel a is without internal projections, and is formed with a sloping bottom, so that solid matter, for example calcium carbonate, formed when the gas treated contains carbon dioxide, is washed out of the vessel. The heated liquid containing the absorbed ammonia leaves the vessel by a pipe c and enters a box m, where the dust and solid matter taken up from the gases, and which float on the solution, are separated by a scraper or filter, for example by a vertical plate i, a lateral opening M, being provided in the side of the box for the removal of the separated matter. The liquid then passes through a settling tank u to a tank v where it is treated with milk of lime to liberate the ammonia, and the residual solution is returned by a pump z to the vessel a. The ammonia may be absorbed in water in a vessel y, or a plant for producing an acid or an acid anhydride may be provided, the ammonia and acid or acid anhydride being led into a vessel to form a salt, for example ammonium nitrate may be formed from the ammonia, water vapor and nitric anhydride made by the electric arc process. When the hot gases contain tar in addition to carbon dioxide, a portion of the tar will be washed out of the gas and will mingle with the calcium carbonate, the mixture is removed in the separating box m and is burned for the recovery of the lime. The remainder of the tar passes off with the treated gas and may be separated by known means. The hot solution before treatment to liberate the ammonia may be utilized for producing steam, or for heating water or other fluids. In a modification, the hot gases are washed or scrubbed by a water spray in a separate vessel before entering the vessel a. The washing may be carried out to such a degree that the whole of the tar is removed from the gas. (British Patent No. 121,754-1918. E. L. PEASE, Darlington, Durnham. Feb. 26, 1918.) Welding Different Metals to Steel or Iron.-Different metals are welded to steel or iron to form a composite ingot with a thin continuous sheet or strip of copper or other metal interposed between the welding surfaces, the sheet metal chosen being capable of alloying with a constituent of the metals to be welded. The metal to be welded, if of considerable thickness, may be in the form of thick sections alternating with thin sections. When a steel ingot is to be welded to another metal, the welding surfaces of the steel are first covered with tin or other easily fusible metal. (British Patent No. 122,365-1918. A. G. C. PITTEVIL, High Holborn, London. March 19, 1919.) Refractory Bricks.-Separate portions of siliceous material, consisting chiefly of silica, one in relatively coarse powder and the other in a very finely divided condition, are mixed wet with animal or vegetable fiber, or both, to form a composition for molding. Both materials may be flint, chert stone, silica rock, quartz, sand, or stone rich in silica, calcined and the coarser is ground to 16 to 100 mesh. The fine material may or may not be calcined and will pass through a 250-mesh sieve. The fiber may be straw, chaff, peat, wool, hair or the like. The mixture of the two siliceous materials and fiber is mixed with water until the fiber is finely subdivided, molded, and the articles dried and fired at a temperature above 1500 deg. C. (British Patent No. 122,388-1918. C. H. SANKEY WILDCROFT, Chislehurst, Kent, and J. E. FOSTER, 48 Gilman St., Hanley, Stokeon-Trent. March 26, 1919.) Preparation of Dimethyl Sulphate.-Dimethyl sulphate is prepared by the reaction of sulphur trioxide on dimethyl ether in the presence of a solvent or diluent, preferably dimethyl sulphate itself. The sulphur trioxide used is preferably diluted with an indifferent gas; thus a current of air may be passed through hot fuming sulphuric acid and the resulting mixture of air and sulphur trioxide used, or the mixture of air, sulphur dioxide and sulphur trioxide resulting from the contact process of making sulphur trioxide may be used. The product of the reaction is treated either with ice or preferably with a reducing agent such as iron filings to destroy any sulphur trioxide present, and is purified by vacuum distillation. (British Patent No. 122,498 -1918. W. N. HAWORTH and J. C. IRVINE, University, St. Andrews, Fifeshire. March 26, 1919.) Sulphuryl Chloride.—A mixture of sulphur dioxide and chlorine in equimolecular proportions is passed over charcoal which acts as a catalyst to produce the combination with evolution of heat. The temperature should preferably be kept down to about 30 deg. C. (British Patent No. 122,516-1918. W. J. POPE, Holmesdale, Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, March 26, 1919.) Electrolytic Detinning Process.-An electrolyte for the recovery of tin from scrap and waste consists of a 7 to 10 per cent solution of caustic soda or potash in which is dissolved 1 per cent of stannous chloride. It is preferably heated to 180 deg. F. by a steam pipe. The scrap may first be washed in a caustic alkali or other solution to remove paper, etc., and placed in a perforated drum. (See British Patent No. 122,025-1918, for detailed description of this drum.) The drum is re moved to the electrolytic vat and rotated or oscillated. After electrolysis, the drum is washed in water and the liquid is concentrated for restoration to the electrolyte. Two vats are preferably used alternately for washing and evaporating. The drum is next removed to a solder-recovery plant, and the residual scrap is discharged into baling presses. (British Patent No. 122,618-1918. Sir H. GREVILLE LODGE, Sir Harry's Road, Edgbaston; M. L. LANCASTER, Arden House, Stechford; C. M. WALTER, Lichfield Road, Four Oaks, and J. JACKSON, 70 Oxford Road, Moseley, all in Birmingham. March 26, 1919.) Book Reviews METALLURGY OF LEAD. By H. O. Hofman, Professor of Professor Hofman's earlier work on "The Metallurgy of Lead and the Desilverization of Base Bullion" has not been revised since 1899. Originally published in 1892, it at best now represents details of practice since largely changed in modernized and recently-built American plants. The character of the ores treated has gradually changed due to the constant exhaustion of older mines and discovery of new, while the universal adoption of blast roasting is not only one phase of the trend toward economy of man power but has profoundly affected the entire lead-plant economy, from a metallurgical viewpoint. Consequently this new book devotes 330 pages to a chapter on Blast-Furnace Smelting and 170 more to Desilverization of Bullion, a total of 500. Short chapters on smelting in the ore hearth, and in the reverberatory, on lead smelting, and on the properties of lead, its ores, compounds and alloys, make up the remainder of the book, exclusive of a comprehensive index. In style the book follows the author's monumental “General Metallurgy" published a few years ago. Professor Hofman has been reviewing the pyrometallurgy of lead for "The Mineral Industry" annually since 1892, and the abstracts of contemporary literature contained in great numbers give both these books an encyclopædic value. However, the style is discontinuous and extremely difficult to read, giving the impression at times that the book is a compilation of dictated and card-indexed notes rather than that of a deliberate commentator on an intricate subject. Thus, there are illustrated and briefly described a large number of equilibrium diagrams of binary systems of compounds present in slags, mattes and other furnace products, but little indication how these studies may bear upon successful lead smelting. On the other hand a most excellent discussion of the chemistry of the blast-furnace is given on pages 339 to 345, which could readily have been expanded in many points and the connection between physicochemical theory and metallurgical practice pointed out at some length. Another contrast in style is unexpected of an author who uses the terms "smeltery," "wedge kiln," and puts a period after "per cent," yet uses through the running text chemical symbols of all metals and common compounds as well as such hybrids as "S-ides." But enough of this side of the book. It is a monument to the extraordinary industry of the author, in that it contains a brief statement of all the scattered technical literature down to the time of going to press. Apparently the notable smelters and refineries in the United States were toured at intervals, and a lively correspondence maintained with their operators on technical matters, since the book abounds with observations culled from private notes and communications. Most notable is the excellent metallurgical and thermal balance sheet of blast-furnace practice at Herculaneum, Mo. Again, two very good general layouts of complete and modern plants are given, one of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan smelter at Kellogg, Idaho, and a second design by Mr. H. V. Croll. The latter is accompanied by a somewhat detailed estimate of the cost of construction-in fact, the author should be praised for uniformly including in his estimates the quantities of materials used, in honorable contradistinction to others who apparently think that $100 worth of brick are $100 worth of brick! It would be difficult to justify criticism as to the relative amount of space devoted to various divisions of the subject. Thus Professor Hofman passes by mechanical roasters with a brief mention, to devote a great deal of space to the almost extinct hand-reverberatory. However, in his very thorough discussion of blast-roasting (well worthy of the attention it is given) he returns to the subject of mechanical roasting in an adequate manner. The size of the book under discussion and the limits accorded a reviewer forbid any more than casual mention of the most striking features of the major chapter, and entirely preclude detailed analysis and discussion of the few controversial points left by our somewhat standardized American practice. Enough has been said, however, to indicate the grounds of the reviewer's opinion that the book will be of tremendous value to the studious workers in lead metallurgy, primarily because of its minute review of literature and present plant practice-as a compilation it is wonderful! On the other hand it will be as difficult a book to teach, having the same failing as has his earlier "General Metallurgy"; that is, in his mass of detail of various plants, appliances and citations, there are too few cases where the author leads the young student to form correct opinions by pointing out the principles underlying a design, or discussing the relative advantages for the particular problem in hand-as a critique it is a disappointment! Perhaps it is as difficult to write in a manner instructive at once to the expert and the student as it is to purchase a single suit wearable on all occasions! Personal E. E. THUM. MR. LESTER E. ARMSTRONG has accepted a position as advisory engineer with the Powdered Coal Engineering & Equipment Co., Chicago, Ill. Prior to his service in the Air Branch of the Army, Mr. Armstrong was associated with Babcock & Wilcox. The duPont scholarship for the year 1919-20 at the College of the City of New York, Department of Chemistry, has been awarded to FELIX BRAUDE. MR. A. G. GREENAMYER, formerly of the Pittsburgh Crucible Steel Co., Pittsburgh, Pa., has accepted the position of metallurgist with the Donner Steel Co. DR. GEORGE ELLERY HALE, director of the Mount Wilson Observatory and foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, who has been for the last ten years a correspondent of the Academie des Sciences, Institut de France, has received the unusual honor of election as Associé Etranger, taking the place of Adolph von Baeyer, declared vacant by the Academy. The Foreign Associates are limited to twelve, and the high distinction has been held by only two Americans-Simon Newcomb and Alexander Agassiz. The National Research Council, upon the presentation and acceptance of Dr. Hale's resignation as its chairman and the election of James R. Angell as his successor, created and bestowed in perpetuity upon Dr. Hale the title of honorary chairman in recognition of his services to the National Research Council and to science and research by indefatigable efforts that have contributed so largely to the organization of science for the assistance of the Government during the war, and the augmentation of the resources of the United States through the newly intensive cultivation of research in the reconstruction and peace periods that follow. DR. ARTHUR W. HIXSON has been appointed associate professor of chemical engineering at Columbia University. He entered on the duties of his new position July 1. Prof. Hixson was formerly associate professor of industrial chemistry and metallurgy at the University of Iowa, but for the last year he has been in the Ordnance Department at Washington. MR. E. R. LEDERER, formerly superintendent of the Petroleum Refining Co. of Texas, has accepted a position with the Home Oil Refining Co. of Texas, Fort Worth, Tex., as general superintednent. Leland Stanford, Jr., University has recently created a graduate department of mining and metallurgy which will be under the direction of THEODORE J. HOOVER. The chair of metallurgy will be held by JAMES M. HYDE. MR. A. LUSSKIN is now research chemist with the International Oxygen Co., Newark, N. J. Mr. Lusskin was formerly on the chemical engineering staff of the Air Nitrates Corporation, Muscle Shoals, Ala. DR. J. J. MORGAN, assistant professor of chemistry at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N. J., has been appointed assistant professor of chemical engineering at Columbia University, New York City. Professor Morgan will enter on the work of his new position the coming September. MAJOR STERLING TEMPLE has received his discharge from the Service at Edgewood Arsenal and is now research chemist for the Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Co., Perth Amboy, N. J. COL. WILLIAM H. WALKER has been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for exceptionally meritorious and conspicuous service. His extraordinary technical ability, untiring industry and great zeal enabled remarkable results to be achieved in the production division of the Chemical Warfare Service in the face of many obstacles. DR. E. W. WASHBURN, acting chairman of the division of chemistry and chemical engineering, National Research Council, and DR. CHARLES L. PARSONS, chief chemist of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, sailed June 30 for London to attend the meeting of the International Chemical Union beginning July 15. Dr. Washburn will then go to Brussels as chairman of the American delegation of the International Chemical Union to attend meetings of the International Research Council and affiliated organizations beginning July 18. MR. GEORGE J. YOUNG of the editorial staff of Engineering and Mining Journal has been transferred from New York City to San Francisco, where he will serve in the capacity of Western editor for the Journal. Obituary LORD RAYLEIGH (John Williams Strutt) died on June 30 in London. Born on Nov. 12, 1842, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was graduated as senior wrangler in 1865 and obtained the first Smith's prize of the year. From 1879 to 1884 he was Cavendish professor of experimental physics in Cambridge University, and in 1887 he accepted the post of professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1904. Many years ago his name became well known throughout Europe by his mathematical and physical papers written under the name of "J. W. Strutt." He used plain and usually homemade apparatus, the accessories being crude and rough, but essentials thoughtfully designed so as to insure in the most perfect manner the object in view. His work was the most productive in chemical physics, theory of gases, flow of liquids, photography, optics, color vision, wave theory, and in electric and magnetic problems of all kinds. It was said of him at the time of his election as Chancellor of Cambridge University in 1908 that "since the death of Lord Kelvin he is the most eminent chemist in Christendom." MR. BOVERTON REDWOOD, one of the world's foremost authorities in the petroleum industry, died on June 6, 1919. Mr. Redwood was well known in this country as the author of many papers and books on petroleum and allied subjects and as a consultant of high standing on petroleum questions. MR. WILLIAM G. SHARP, president of the United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co. since its organization in 1916, died on July 1 at his home in Wenham, Mass. MR. EUGENE WAUGH, president of the Waugh Chemical Corp., New York City, died recently at New Rochelle, following an operation. Mr. Waugh had been with the General Chemical Co. for fifteen years. MR. WILLIAM THUM, superintendent of the electrolytic lead refinery of the United States Metals Refining Co., East Chicago, Ind., died on June 28, 1919, at his home in Hammond, Ind., after a brief illness from pneumonia. Mr. Thum was born in Germany in 1863 and received his early education there preparatory to the university. In 1879, however, he came to the United States with his father, F. A. Thum, who was a graduate mining engineer of the Clausthal School of Mines. In 1883 William Thum was made assistant superintedent of the electrolytic copper refining department of the Balbach Smelting & Refining Co., Newark, N. J., and there, in association with his father, he laid the foundation of electrolytic refining in the United States. At that time the Balbach company was using the Parkes process of lead refining, which was superseded by the electrolytic developments of Mr. Thum and his father. In 1904 Mr. Thum was made superintendent of the DeLamar Copper Refining Co., Chrome, N. J., and in 1906 he was sent to Chicago by the United States Metals Refining Co. in the capacity of superintendent of the electrolytic refinery at East Chicago, Ind. This was the first plant of its kind in the United States, although there were others at Trail, B. C., and at Newcastle-on-Tyne. It was at East Chicago that Mr. Thum developed a number of metallurgical processes, some of which he patented. These related to the recovery of bismuth, tellurium and antimony as by-products in electrolytic lead refining; other patents related to apparatus for use in the Pattersonizing process and electrolytic cell for parting Doré bullion. In addition to his attainments in metallurgy Mr. Thum showed unusual versatility in the arts. He painted in oils and water colors. He spoke French, German and English with equal fluency and read Latin with ease. His interest in outdoor life led him to acquire an extensive knowledge of birds and animals and took him to the hunting grounds of Maine. His sympathy with all good movements was shown during the war by his activity in Liberty Loan campaigns, and in the work of patriotic societies of the East ChicagoHammond district of Indiana. Current Market Reports The Non-Ferrous Metal Market Wednesday, July 9.-Prices have continued to rise during the past fortnight. Anticipation of orders from Central Powers has aided in strengthening the market. Aluminum:-To be in equilibrium with the other metals on'a pre-war basis, aluminum should decline; however, the holders are strong and can be induced to lower prices only to meet foreign competition. A price of 32c. lb. is quoted on 98-99 per cent ingot. Scrap has advanced: Cast 20-24c.; sheet, 21-24c., and clippings, 23-26c. Sheets, 18 gage and heavier, 41c., with some munition offerings at 36c. Powder, 5-ton lots, 45c. Antimony:-Spot quotations continue at 8c., futures at 81c., and small job lots at 8gc. It is believed that no immediate changes will occur. Copper:-Small sales have been made on electrolytic spot at 193c., casting at 19c., but lake July and August price is at 20c. September futures are reported at 20 c. The Government has liquidated its surplus of 114,000,000 lb. The aggregate sales per week are large. Wire-drawers are the principal buyers, with brass foundrymen a close second. Japan has been buying heavily, the domestic output there last year having been lower than usual, 95,000 tons, Lead: The price remains at 5.4c. for New York and 5.15c. at East St. Louis. Lead sheets cut, 8.5c. lb. Tin-It is difficult to gage the market. Spot tin is still quoted at prices around 68c. and 70c., but with importations of tin now free after Sept. 1 and ores that have been shipped on or after June 8 due to arrive here almost any day from South America, the chances are that before long we shall have prices which will come substantially nearer the figures now quoted for shipment tin, which is at about 52c. lb. Zinc: Spot spelter at East St. Louis is tending to advance from 71 to 71c. lb., New York, 7.4c. The Iron and Steel Market Steel mill operations during the first half of July averaged between 65 and 70 per cent of capacity, against an average of about 60 per cent in June and a low point of approximately 50 per cent at the middle of May. As the increase in production has not altogether kept pace with the increase in buying that began just before the middle of May, it is clear that the recovery in the steel market is of very substantial character. Demand has been distributed far from uniformly among the various lines of finished product, the divergence being due, of course, to varying conditions among the different classes of consumers consequent upon the war ending so recently. Some consumers were free buyers during the war, others have since become large buyers and still other prospective buyers, chiefly of the investment class, have not yet been ready to act. Easily the most active line in finished steel products is oil country goods, the chief product of the lap weld departments of the pipe mills. This demand was rather heavy in the early months of the year and has lately been of such large volume as to fill the lap weld departments far ahead, a few mills being now sold up practically to the end of the year. Judged by all precedents, this demand is abnormally large, its expansion being due to the heavy demand for oil and oil products, the high market price and the increased number of wells necessary to produce the required output. AUTOMOBILE TRADE ACTIVE Next in point of activity is the automobile trade, which requires a somewhat larger tonnage of steel than at any time in the past. The automobile trade's demand is reflected most clearly in the sheet and cold drawn industries. Sheet mills are operating at more than 80 per cent of capacity, chiefly by reason of the demands of the automobile trade, as the demand for sheets for building purposes is relatively light. Makers of cold drawn shafting and screw |