Janet Chancy, age 11, of Tucson, Ariz,,, for her questions
What is zinc?
Some metals, like gold and silvers are glamorous and beautiful. Others, like iron and steel, are sturdy workers that prop up our bridges and make our everyday machines. Zinc is not a handsome metal and far too soft to prop up a bridge. Nevertheless, it does a lot of very reliable work for us, often behind the scenes.
Take a look at your garbage can, the one you keep outdoors. This sturdy servant is made of iron, steel or some other durable metal. These durable metals, however, era helpless in damp weather. Rain and even moist air tend to rust them. This is where zinc comes to the rescue. The basic can of iron or steel is dipped into a bath of molten zinc. And zinc is no sissy in wet weather. Moisture, in facts gives it a protective coating and it never rusts. Steel and iron objects coated with zinc are said to be galvanized.
Zinc is also a valuable alloy metal and it is in this role it often blossoms forth with glossy glamour. Alloyed with copper, zinc becomes shiny brass. Alloyed with tan, it becomes bronze and alloyed with nickel;, zinc becomes German silver. Certain compounds of zinc work behind the scenes every day of our lives. They help to paint the walls, print newspapers, and even occur in our toothpastes and other tbi3bt goods. Zinc is also mixed with tires and other rubber goods to prevent overheating.
Apart from a few beady crystals] zinc is never found in pure form. It occurs in ores, mixed with other minerals. Some of these ores are far more attractive looking than the finished metal. These ores are plentiful all over the world, though North Axnerloa out produces the rest of the world.
The most common zinc ore is sphaleritep an interesting compound of zinc and sulphur. It is a waxy rock or stone, mottled with reddish browns and black and frosted with flecks of silvery white. Some sphalerites contain fluorescent material and if you scratch them in a dark room they give off a flash of glimmering light.
Zincite, smithsonite, franklinite and willemite all of them very pretty stones are also zinc ores. Zinciteo a compowid of zinc and oxygen, is a waxy black rock frosted with red and pale green. Smithsonite is a compound of zing carbon and oxygen. When whitish in color, it is called dry bone. It also comes in pastel shades of yellow, green or blue.
The pure zinc is separated from its ores either by heat or by electrolysis. The zinc melts at 787 degrees and turns to vapor at 1,665 degrees Fahrenheit. The rising vapor is trapped and condensed into a liquid. The liquid is poured into molds and left to set in solid slabs called spalter. The U. S. produces about 520,000 tons of spelter and Canada abrnut 400, 000 tons each year.