Bobby Adair, age 11, Nashville Tenn., for his questions
What is manganese?
Manganese is named from the word magnet: When discovered in 1774, it was thought to be a form of magnetized iron. Magnesium was also named from magnetism. The two names may be confusing. Manganese and magnesium are both metals and both elements. But they are as different from each other as gold is different from silver. Neither of them are magnets.
Magnesium is the light‑weight, silver‑white metal now reclaimed from sea water, Manganese is a hard, heavy metal of brownish grey. It is a workaday element and as vital as one of the steel age metals, It‑also has a glamorous side. As an element manganese is a very good mixer, It teams up with other elements to form countless substances and compounds.. It is plentiful in nature, though widely spread and always in combination with other substances, It is found as a metal only in fallen meteors. We must obtain it the hard way by extracting it from ores.
In small amounts, manganese is everywhere. It is present in the soil and necessary to growing plants. It is even in our bodies. It is present in many rocks, though in North America, these traces are usually so slight that mining these ores is uneconomical. Russia produces about half the world's manganese ores, Other worthwhile ores are shipped from North Afrioa, the Gold Coast India and Brazil. Pyrolusite, braunite, hausmannite and manganese spar are some of the rich manganese ores.
Extracting the pure metal is no easy job. Sometimes the ore is powdered and dissolved with certain chemicals. The element floats and is skimmed off the top of the solution. Sometimes the ore is dissolved and metal separated by electrolysis. In the making of steel, rich manganese ore may be used unrefined.
This ore is smelted with rich iron ore to make spiegeleisen, This is the magic stuff that turns brittle iron into tough steel. A small amount of spiegeleisen is added to. the seething, molten iron. It burns out the oxygen and sulphur and turns the iron to steel.
In its workaday roles manganese is an alloy metal. An extra quantity added to steel makes the tough manganese steel used to make hardworking boiler so About 3 percent of manganese added to bronze forms manganese bronze. This alloy is tough enough to make propellors for boats and planes. Manganese is used in glass making and to make the dry cells for electric batteries.
The salts and compounds of manganese are also put to work. potassium permanganate has been used as a germicide and disinfectant. It is a beautiful shade of amethyst, Other compounds are pink, red, green or black. Here the shy and workaday element breaks down and becomes a glamour‑puss. For these beautiful colored compounds are used as dyes and paints. Some of them are gentle enough to be used to print pretty designs on cotton calico,