Aluminium  is  used  regularly  by  many  of  the  largest  steel
companies  in  the  country.  It  is  added  to  the  steel  in  propor-
tions of  one-half  pound  to  several  pounds  of  aluminium  to
the  ton  of  steel,  the  purpose  of  the  addition  being  largely  to
prevent  the  retention  of  the  occluded  gases  in  the  steel,  and
give  thereby  the  production  of  solid  ingots.
According  to  Alfred  E.  Hunt*,  the  product  of  aluminium
in  the  United  States  has  been  as  follows :


Pounds.
Pounds,

1883

63            1

1888

19,000

1884

150

1889

47,468

1885

263

1890

61,281

1886

3,000

1891

160,000

1887

18,000

1892

259,885

*  Mineral  Resources  of  the  United  States,  1892.
ALUMINIUM.  249

These  figures  include  the  production  of  aluminium  in  al-
loys, in  which  form  the  largest  share — ^probably  at  least  21,000
pounds— of  the  metal  in  1885,  1886,  and  1887  was  turned  out.
The  world's  product  of  alumnium  up  to  the  b^inning  of
the  year  1893  is  estimated  as  follows :

Great  Britain 222,000  pounds.
France 226,000       "

Switzerland  and  Germany 1,243,120        **

Total  European  product 1,691,120  pounds.
United  States 559,130        "

Total  for  the  world 2,250,250  pounds.
Or  about  1,125  short  tons  of  pure  aluminium  metal,  of
which  probably  just  about  the  odd  125  tons  was  made  in  the
form  of  aluminium  bronze  or  ferro-aluminium  alloys,  so  that
the  probable  production  of  aluminium  in  the  world  has  been
about  1,000  tons  up  to  the  above  mentioned  date.
In  1893,  339,629  pounds  of  aluminium  were  made  in  the
United  States,  chiefly  by  the  Pittsburgh  Reduction  Company.
It  was  valued  at  $266,963  in  the  producer's  hands.
