Abstracts of Recent Technical Papers from Bell System Sources (01 January 1927)

The Problem of Secondary Metals in World Affairs. 3 F. W. WILLARD. Preliminary to the discussion of the secondary metal industry, the author gives a brief statistical survey of the rate of depletion of the world's primary metal resources along with a study of metal production in the United States. The rapid rate of exhaustion of known resources is emphasized. 

Graphs also show the relation of prices and production of copper and lead in the United States over a period of 40 years. Each important economic metal is discussed briefly showing how its present commercial uses affect its return through the secondary market. Attention is directed to the degradation of metals in use, forever eliminating them for re-use. Platinum, though not generally classified among economic metals, is treated briefly because of its key importance in certain industries. The seriousness of the present trend of using platinum in jewelry is indicated. 

The growing importance of the secondary metal industry is shown graphically and briefly discussed, leading to an emphasis of the need To be published in the Proceedings of the Telephone and Telegraph Section of the American Railway Association. 2 Trans. American Soc. Steel Treat., p. 782, Nov. 1926. 3 Industrial and Eng. Chemistry, p. 1178, Nov. 1926. Presented at the Round Table Conference on the role of chemistry in the world's affairs at Williamstown, Mass., Aug. 1926. 181 1 182 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL for encouragement of scientific research to increase metal recovery.