Word: beryllium
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Just as molybdenum and tungsten were obscure metals until it was found that they alloyed with steel to make a superlatively hard cutting material, so beryllium, discovered in 1797, has until recently remained unnoticed...
...Beryllium, next to lithium, is the lightest metal, only 1.84 times as heavy as water, two-thirds as heavy as aluminum. Re-search into means of producing it for less than $100 per Ib. has been spurred by aviation's need of light, strong metals. If a statement last week by Alfred Schwarz, Manhattan businessman, one-time Green Cananea Co. metallurgist, proves true, a great new metal industry may be launched. His statement: that he can, by a process of his invention, make pure beryllium...
Immediate significance suggested by Metallurgist Schwarz: ''A proper alloy with aluminum, consisting of 50% to 70% beryllium, will make a structural material for airships and airplanes which, because of its lightness and strength, can be used in smaller cross-sections, thus reducing the weight of any given ship by about one-half...
...This will . . . afford more payload capacity. . . . Beryllium seems to be the metal that will make commercial airplanes out of the present day flying gasoline tanks...
...Fang Lai, Chinese research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, last week reported that he had found a good use for beryllium, one of the rare earth metals. By substituting beryllium oxide for soda lime silicate he has produced a harder, more refractory, more transparent glass than the usual kind. It lets the sun's ultraviolet light pass through...