Donn Graham. age 10 of Lakewood. Colo

How much seawater holds a pound of magnesium?

There is a pound of magnesium salts in every 100 gallons of seawater  Imagine a square tank a mile wide on all sides. Fill it with seawater and you have 23 million tons of magnesium salts ‑ the stuff from which they make that silver‑white light‑weight metal.

This stuff is dissolved and suspended in the water. Getting it out is quite a trick. The first magnesium metal was taken from the sea in 1941. This was at the great checmical plant at Freeport$ Texas. Seawater was mixed with limey oyster shells. The lime caused magnesium hydroxide to settle. This substance was dried and treated with acid to form magnesium chloride.

This stuff was purified. melted and treated with special electric cells. The silver‑white metal sifted itself out and collected on cathodes. The process sounds simple when you explain it in a few words. But it was a difficult and complex job. Also. everyone was in a hurry. There was a war on and the lightweight metal was needed to make plane parts.