Mary Ellen King, age 10, of Warminster;

What is molybdenum?

Maybe you trip over your tongue whenever you try to say this word. So, lets learn how to pronounce it, First chop it up into four separate syllables, mo‑1yb ‑de ‑num, The accent is on the second syllable,  Say the first syllable softly, stress the second syllable and say the last two softly ‑ mo‑LYB‑de‑num. Pronounce it a few times as a separate word and then practice it in a few sentences. You cats say, molybdenum is a dark silvery met‑al. Or, molybdenum is used to make steel harder.

Molybdenum is a twentieth century metal and if you can pronounce it and use it correctly in‑‑a ‑antennae, you are right up to the minute, The name molybdenum, however, cones from an old Greek word for lead. In the dim past certain molybdenum ores were mistaken for lead. The valuable metal is never found in pure form, It is always hidden in rocks along with other materials such as sulphur. An ore is a rocky mixture containing a valuable material along with less valuable materials.

The best molybdenum ore is called molybdenite. And many a prospector has passed up a fortune just because he did not recognize a lump of this valuable ore. He may mistake it for graphite, the so‑called lead used in pencils. For it is a waxy, blue‑grey material, soft enough to write on paper. Graphite is usually mined in large quantities and a sensible prospector would think a few small lumps of it were not worth mining.

But molybdenum is worth mining, even when there is only a very small amount in the ore. Some of the useful ores have only 20 pounds of the pure metal in a whole ton of ore. Molybdenum is mined in several states, but most of America”s supply comes from a mine at Climax, Colorado. And about 90 per cent of the world’s molybdenum is mined in America.

The precious ore is champed up and sent to the furnaces. It is made hot enough to melt the sulphur. The molybdenum is left as a dark grey powder. The powder is pressed and heated to form solid bars. Now it is ready to go to work. Most of the molybdenum will be used in the making of steel. First it will be smelted along with iron and carbon: A small amount of this alloy will make a brew of tough, hard steel even tougher and harder.

There may be only two pounds of molybdenum in half a ton of steel or there may be as much as one pound in about 100 pounds of ateel4 In any case, the steel will be suitable for machine tools and tools used to cut through metal. It will stay hard and sharp‑edged where ordinary steel will bend and blunt.

Some of the molybdenum will find more glamorous uses. Some will make fine wires to be used as filaments in X‑ray and vacuum bulbs. Some will be combined with oxygen and these compounds will be used to color cloth., pottery and rubber. Some will be used to add colored glazes to the bath room tiles,