tle holes in castings. Mixed with copper it makes
a beautiful bronze which has the yellow gleam of gold, but is hard to
work. When a piece of jewelry looks like gold, but is sold at too low
a price to be "real," it may be aluminum bronze, very pretty at first,
but before long its luster will vanish. Aluminum bronze is not good
for jewelry, but it is good for many uses, especially for bearings in
machinery. Aluminum mixed with even a very little silver has the color
and brightness of silver. The most common alloys with aluminum are
zinc, copper, and manganese, but in such small quantities that they do
not change its appearance.

With so many good qualities and so few bad ones, it is small wonder
that aluminum is employed for more purposes than can be counted. A
very few years ago it was only an interesting curiosity, but now it is
one of the hardest-worked metals. Automobiles in particular owe a
great deal to its help. When they first began to be common, in
1904-05, the engines were less powerful than they are now made, and
aluminum was largely employed in order to lessen the weight. Before
long it was in use for carburetors, bodies, gear-boxes, fenders,
hoods, and many other parts of the machine. Makers of electric
apparatus use aluminum instead of brass. The frames of opera glasses
and of cameras are made of it. Travelers and soldiers and campers,
people to whom every extra ounce of weight counts, are glad enough to
have dishes of aluminum. The accommodating metal is even used for
"wallpaper," and threads of it are combined with silk to give a
specially brilliant effect on the stage. It can be made into a paint
which will protect iron from rust; and will make woodwork partially
fireproof.

Aluminum has been gladly employed by the manufacturers of all sorts of
articles, but nowhere has its welcome been more cordial than in the
kitchen. Any one who has ever lifted the heavy iron kettles which were
in use not so very many years ago will realize what an improvement it
is to have kettles made of aluminum. But aluminum has other advantages
besides its lightness. If any food containing a weak acid, like
vinegar and water, is put into a copper kettle, some of the copper
dissolves and goes into the food; acid does not affect aluminum except
to brighten it if it has been discolored by an alkali like soda. "Tin"
dishes, so called, are only iron with a coating of tin. The tin soon
wears off, and the iron rusts; aluminum does not