Bisbee, Arizona

Bisbee has always had a unique kind of charm and character. Photographers and artists have relished the photogenic and picturesque quality of garish mixture of stylish architecture, weathered buildings, narrow winding streets and gaily painted homes nestled in the Mule Gulch-Copper Queen country.

View of Bisbee in the early 1900's. Sent to ARIZONA HIGHWAYS MAGAZINE by D. Thompson, Whitehaven, England.

The biggest concern of the day was whether or not the bank was safe. Would the vault be safe from bandits? Would the vault be safe from fire . . . this was always a danger in a mining town! Were the banker and cashier honest and capable? Could they defend themselves and their customer's money against desperados? William Henry "Billie" Brophy and young Douglas must have met the test, the Bank of Bisbee was a success from the minute they opened the doors.

Mexican and U.S. gold and silver coin, as well as paper currency, drafts, and debentures flowed in and out of the Bisbee Bank. Small interest loans were given to prospectors, miners, cattlemen, ranchers and businessmen. The Bank was firmly established and the officers were trusted leaders of the busy and prosperous community.

By 1901 the Arizona Rangers were formed and some semblance of law and order began to show, however, other problems were developing in Bisbee. A water shortage was developing and the sulphur smoke from the Bisbee Smelter was making life impossible for the townspeople.

Territorial leaders W. H. Brophy, Dr. and J. S. Douglas, S. Meguire and E. R. Pirtle, all officers or sharehold ers in the Bank of Bisbee, decided to lay out the plans for a new town. A place with plenty of water and room for a new smelter.

It would be twenty-five miles south and east of Bisbee in Sulphur Springs Valley. This was not to be a town "that just grew," but rather a planned community, with schools, churches, an electric plant, an ice factory, water system, streetcars, telephones and a city park. The International Land and Improvement Company and the Douglas Investment Company was formed, and within months the city of Douglas, Arizona Territory, came into being.

Alert to the trend of the times, the banking and investment group also went into the hotel business. Their Gadsden Hotel at Douglas, was the most luxurious structure in the Territory. Visiting strangers and locals alike were awed by the pink marble lobby, the gilded pillars, and splendor and richness of the furnishings. They were also duly impressed with the formal dining room and excellent cuisine, prepared by a chef that had been brought all the way West from the famous Knickerbocker Hotel in New York.

The metropolitan atmosphere of the bar, stocked with only the finest wines and liquors, might well be responsible for much additional capital that went into the economy of the area. More than a hundred rooms boasted of bathrooms and telephones, an unheard of luxury anywhere in the country at that time.

There were no bank branches at the turn of the century. When the Bank of Douglas was established, it was a separate entity from the Bank of Bisbee, although W. H. Brophy was president, and J. S. Douglas, Vice President, and many of the officers and shareholders were the same.

In those days there was no strict banking code, very few regulations, and fewer bank examiners. The success or failure of the bank and its assets were directly governed by the men in charge. The President, Officers and employees of the Bank of Bisbee and the Bank of Douglas distinguished themselves as men of integrity.

W. H. Brophy's set of rules, drawn up to cover policy and banking procedure, were masterful. They were so outstanding that they were incorporated into the State Banking Regulations and Practices after Arizona was admitted to the Union in 1912.

Still influenced by the excitement and early beginnings in Bisbee, William Brophy had a painting of the pioneer prospector, George Warren hung above his desk at the Douglas Bank. When the official State Seal of Arizona was being designed, he provided the painting to E. E. Ellinwood, a director of the Constitutional Convention. Ellinwood, a distinguished intellectual and legal leader, had the figure of Warren, leaning on his shovel, incorporated into the Seal.

One of Brophy's basic concepts of banking was that the bank was a public trust. The Bank of Douglas never had to go to its shareholders, other banks, or to the Federal Government for assessments or borrowed funds in order to help it over periods of financial stress. This is a remarkable feat considering the many money crises in the banking world during the late 1800's and well into the twentieth century. There was the panic of 1893, 1907, the post-war depression of 1920-21, and the great depression of 1929 that reached its climax in the infamous Federally forced "bank holiday" in 1933.

W. H. "Billie" Brophy was dead by the time the "bank holiday" arrived, having drowned in a storm in the Gulf of Baja California, but James S. Douglas, well schooled in the Brophy method of banking, refused to close the doors of the Bank of Douglas. He was outraged at the thought of suspending traditional services of the bank to its customers. Only after a direct order from the Governor of Arizona, and the threat of use of the National Guard, did Douglas consent to closing the bank temporarily.

W. H. Brophy's son, Frank C. Brophy, born and raised in Bisbee, graduated from Yale and, having served in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, succeeded his father in Banks of Bisbee and Douglas.

With Frank Brophy's arrival, the bank began to expand. Offices were opened in Phoenix, Tucson, Scottsdale and Yuma. The little corner safe in the Copper Queen store had grown into the Bank of Bisbee, the Bank of Douglas, and decades later merged its statewide branches and became the Arizona Bank. Born of copper, the Arizona Bank is now symbolized by the Kachina of the Hopi... "always looking forward to a new day with new ideas, fresh vigor and a rededication for a brighter tomorrow."

COPPER ...the metal of the ages!

Looking for a new axehead, a late Stone Age hunter was probably the first to discover copper. Place: the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys, cradle of civilization. Time: about 8000 в.с.

Until then, man's major achievements were the discovery of fire and invention of the bow and arrow. His materials: stone, bone, clay, shell and wood. Progress had paused.

Then the discovery of copper opened a new door. Stone Agers learned to form the strange "red metal" into axes, tools, trinkets and jewelry. Next step was the discovery of copper ore embedded in rocks which could be extracted by heating. This process, today called smelting, was the birth of metallurgy. Copper became one of the most valuable commodities in the ancient world. The Sumerians, who invented the first copper alloy bronze, which marries copper, zinc, and tin then the Egyptians, who built their pyramids with the help of bronze saws. then the Phoenicians, whose ships carried copper ore to Egypt and Babylonia from Spain and England back in 1200 в.с. these peoples developed and turned over to the Greeks and Romans a complete copper technology.

As the centuries passed, men learned more about the properties of copper and multiplied the ways of using it. Its principal alloys, bronze and brass, extended the applications of this wonder metal and the end is not in sight.

The U.S. copper industry was born in 1664 at Lynn, Mass., and much of its early development centered in New England. Ore was imported until 1844 when the great copper deposits around Lake Superior were unearthed. As the Industrial Revolution reached the United States, its swift-paced development relied heavily on copper. But copper's starring role in which it has never been replaced came with the age of electricity.

Copper's preeminence as the most efficient and practical conductor of electricity was recognized by Franklin (remember his brass key), by Volta with his copperactivated storage battery, and by Faraday with his prototype dynamo whose heart was a 12-inch copper disc. Samuel Morse sent the first telegram over 1700 feet of copper wire. Then Bell's epochal words, "Mr. Watson, come here! I want you," resounded over a copper circuit.

For thousands of years, copper has served us well, from the tools of prehistoric cavemen to the spacecraft and communications networks of the 20th century. Today, in the nuclear and space age with industrial productivity expanding to new levels, technology becoming ever more sophisticated via automation and computerization, and requirements for materials highly demanding and specialized our old friend copper faces a bright future wherever we look.

What makes copper so essential is its unique combination of properties unmatched by any other metal or material. Copper's superior electrical and thermal conductivity, its resistance to many corrosive agents harmful to other materials, its adaptability for joining, and its natural, warm colors.

Copper protects our homes, contributes to our health and helps build our industries. Copper and its alloys are working for us every minute of the day. The electric lamp we read by. The telephone close at hand. The television set, the radio and hi-fi, the wall clock, the thermostat, most likely the bathroom plumbing, even the coins in our pockets.

The modern miracle of electricity depends on copper's unequaled conductivity, from generating plant to your home wiring. And the wave of automation now changing the face of our industrial complex relies in large measure on copper's ability to transmit undistorted signals to recording instr instruments, control devices, and feedback circuits.

Copper's excellent heat conductivity assures efficient operation of modern radiant-heating and air conditioning systems. Roofs and roofing products of copper outlast others by centuries. Just as outstanding are copper's workability and ease of installation. No other commercial metal lends itself so readily to so wide a variety of manufacturing operations; drawing, forming, shaping and stamping.

Copper is mighty fast on the pickup in the vast U.S. transportation industry. Its use in the automotive, aircraft, marine, and rail and rapid transit markets is rising. 70% of this copper winds up in the auto business cars, trucks, taxis, trailers, ambulances and buses.

The copper in the average car is largely accounted for in the radiator, heater, and electrical systems. Copper's high heat conductivity and corrosion resistance make it ideal for radiators and heaters, while copper alloys provide the high strength and long wear required of certain transmission parts, bushings, sleeve bearings, hardware.

All signs point, moreover, to even greater use of copper in cars. Air-conditioning systems need it. Power accessories use it in motors and connectors. Safer braking could result from the higher fade resistance of copper disc brakes and the greater corrosion resistance in exposed hydraulic brake lines which must resist attack by salt. One interesting development is the use of copper inserts in combustion chambers where experiments show important reduction in harmful engine deposits.

Another area of promise for copper is decorative trim where the rich tones of bronze, for example, add warmth and beauty to a car's interior.

Copper's riding high in aviation, too. A modern jet airplane contains as much as 11½ tons of copper and copper alloys. More complex electrical and electronic systems will need more copper.

Copper, brass and bronze have long been welcome aboard all types of boats and ships from day-sailers to aircraft carriers. A large naval ship may use as much as 200 tons of copper in piping alone. And don't overlook the railroad and rapid-transit uses of copper. Here, too, the future looks bright for the new disc brake of copper alloys.

A remarkable thing about copper it's used extensively both in its pure form and as partner in more than 200 commercial alloys. Many of copper's alloys are irreplaceable in critical applications.

Some copper alloys, for example, are stronger than steel. Others can withstand even the violent, corrosive action of boiling sea water. Some are ideal for cryogenic (extreme low temperature) applications. Of special importance where appearance counts is the wide variety of natural colors provided by copper alloys ranging through gold, pink, red, and even silver.

Best-known alloys are brass (copper and zinc) and bronze (copper, zinc and tin), but today's bronzes also include silicon, beryllium, aluminum and manganese. Other important copper alloys in wide use include the copper-nickels (copper, nickel and sometimes iron) and the copper-nickel-zinc alloys known as nickel silver.

Copper also gets along with other metals in other ways. It is often bonded or "clad" to steel and aluminum to add strength or lightness to copper's superior thermal and electrical conductivity. You probably have an example of "cladding" in your pocket right now. The U.S. Government mints dimes and quarters of a sandwich of copper clad with copper-nickel alloy. Result: The cost of minting is lower, silver is conserved for other important applications. The coins are just as long-lasting and vending machines can easily accept them.

Why Copper? Perhaps the Pharaoh Cheops asked the same question of his master builder when his specifications for the royal bath listed copper water pipes. The builder was right, however. That pipe was still in good condition when found 50 centuries later!

Copper does not rust. It resists abrasion, conducts heat and electricity better and more efficiently than most metals. It is non-sparking and non-magnetic. Its alloys are strong, and they also take and hold a sharp point.

Copper is also remarkably easy to work with. With its 1981°F melting point, this amazing red metal can be worked hot or cold. It's so ductile that you can draw it into a wire thinner than a human hair. You can roll and hammer copper into very thin sheets without cracking. Stamp it, form it, draw it, bend it, forge it. Copper can be easily welded, soldered, brazed, even joined to vulcanized rubber. And it's just as easy to plate, lacquer and polish this remarkable metal.

Thousands of tons of copper chemicals are consumed every year by U.S. agriculture and industry. One of the most versatile of these chemicals, copper sulfate, is used in mining, leather tanning, rayon manufacture, and in paints and dyes. It also helps preserve wood and destroys

America's most advanced electric vehicle, a CDA prototype town car with a range of 120 miles at a cruising speed of 40 mph and a top speed in excess of 55 mph, was unveiled recently in Washington, D.C. Called the "Copper Electric Town Car," this dramatic new electric vehicle is an advanced prototype of the kind Congressmen had in mind when they introduced earlier this year legislation for a three-year government funding program to make electric cars a viable alternative to gasoline-driven vehicles for urban use.

LEFT: CDA'S "Copper Electric Van III" demonstrates anew the benefits of electric powered vehicles for urban transportation, now more relevant than ever. Developed by the copper and brass industry as a commercial vehicle for metropolitan areas, Van III is designed to meet the speed and cruising range norms of start-and-stop city traffic.

RIGHT: Mercer Cobra, a sports car - that demonstrates the aesthetic and functional uses of the copper metals in automotive design, including copper alloy brake discs for longer life for brake linings, copper alloy hydraulic brake tubing for high fatigue strength and superior corrosion resistance, plus decorative applications in both exterior and interior styling.

COPPER from page 7

algae in reservoirs and swimming pools. Other chemicals are copper carbonate, a major ingredient in insecticides, and copper oxide, used in agriculture.

Copper Development Association Inc. is the advanced market development arm of the copper and brass industry. CDA's primary objectives are to develop new applications and create new business opportunities for the copper and brass industry in end-use markets.

Organized in 1963, CDA now includes in its industry-wide group most major North American mining companies, smelters and refiners, brass mills, and wire and cable mills.

Under the leadership of George M. Hartley, President, and an industry-oriented staff of market development managers, CDA directs its activities in end-use markets through prototype development supported by strong technical and communications programs. Target markets for CDA include (1) electrical and electronic products, (2) consumer products (3) building construction products, (4) industrial machinery and equipment, and (5) transportation.

Included among a large number of CDA market development programs are these:

CONSTRUCTION

Decade 80 Solar House: The first practical solar home capable of fulfilling an American family's highest expectations of comfort and convenience has just been completed in Tucson by CDA. Almost everything in this innovative four-bedroom house can be run on stored-up solar energy from the hot water and sound system to the door chimes and kitchen clock. Designed to prove out alternative power sources, the CDA house is described as a "solar assisted" house in that solar energy will provide about 75% of the cooling and nearly 100% of the heating. Nucleus of the house is the first totally integrated solar collector-roof system that is readily accepted by the building industry, one capable of installation in the normal course of construction with the skills of today's craftsmen. This is a new system of copper sheets laminated to plywood combined with unique rectangular copper tubes to carry the solar energy storage medium, water. The CDA solar house also is the first home, as opposed to on-campus solar projects and experimental structures, to be fully climate-controlled through solar energy. Containing about 3400 square feet of living space, the home is expected to be fully instrumented for computerized analysis to produce hard data on solar energy technology in a normal home environment. In addition to the combination roof and solar panel system, the house also will incorporate silicon solar cells to convert the sun's energy directly to low voltage power. Backup power will be provided by a conventional electrical system. The Decade 80 Solar House is co-sponsored by major U.S. companies with specialized product interests in the building construction and home furnishings fields. Architect is Arthur Kotch, A.I.A., who also designed CDA's showcase house in Houston. Interior designer is Ving Smith, A.I.D.

The Decade 70 House of New Concepts: Designed as a trendsetter in both interior and exterior design, the CDA showcase house in Houston features new uses of the copper metals from copper-clad roofs to bronze floors. Hailed by "Home Furnishings Daily" as signaling a "return to the age of Bronze . . . a warm, mellow alternative to the white metals," the Decade 70 House also includes copper wall and counter-top coverings, a sculptured copper front entrance and doors panelled with an aged, green-brown patina, and a copper "water sculpture" in the pool, among dozens of other applications.

Taking a fresh, sparkling drink from the Gulf of Mexico - fresh from the desalting plant in the background, that is is this group of engineers celebrating the plant's success. It is located in Freeport, Texas, fifty miles south of Houston.

INDUSTRIAL

Copper Mariner: After three years of hard continuous service, the world's first barnacle-resisting copper nickel hulled shrimp boat is still barnacle free while a steel-hulled sister ship of identical design working the same waters has had to be drydocked, scraped, and painted five times during the same time period. Tests show the unique Copper Mariner, plying the highly-fouling Central American waters, is still fulfilling all expectations: no harmful marine growth, plus higher speed and greater fuel economy than her steel-hulled sister ships. Overall savings resulting from the copper-nickel hull are estimated by Booth Fisheries, a major international fishing firm, at from $5,000 to $10,000 annually in addition to the important bonus of expanded shrimping time through no drydocking for hull maintenance. Booth Fisheries believes these economies more than offset the additional cost of the 90% copper, 10% nickel alloy (Alloy No. 706) hull even during the early years of a trawler's life. In-service tests pitting the Copper Mariner against steel-hulled sister ships of the same design working the same waters revealed: No fouling, Twice the fuel economy at 7.5 knots per hour, 30% lower rpm at 7.5 knots and therefore less wear and tear on the engine, About 20% greater top speed at maximum rpm. The success of the Copper Mariner in reducing fuel and other costs, increasing shrimping time, and achieving greater speeds has prompted a big fishing firm and exporter in Southeast Asia - Ocean Foods & Trades (C & J) Ltd. to order four such copper-nickel hulled work vessels. "This is a straight commercial order, not a cooperative effort, and no tests will be run," explains CDA. "Ocean Foods' only motivation in placing this order was to buy a better boat for better shrimping." The Copper Desalting Plant: The recent completion of CDA's six-year desalting plant program in Freeport, Texas, has documented the performance reliability of selected copper-alloy tubing in a desalting environment. A producing facility converting hot seawater to 6,000 gallons-a-day of fresh water, the CDA plant was operated by The Dow Chemical Company in close cooperation with the Department of the Interior's Office of Saline Water. Recent Freeport progress reports had shown that the best copper alloy tested has a minimum service life exceeding 39 years, with most copper alloys exceeding 25 years.

In the land of cattle, cotton and citrus, Arizonans take particular pride in the fact that their state is the copper capital of the country and the free world.

this is copper country

by James K. Richardson, President Arizona Mining Association Nature has blessed Arizona with abundant mineral resources. Silver and gold were the lure in the pioneering days. Today, copper is its mainstay. From Arizona's open pit and underground mines comes over half of the nation's newlymined copper 842,300 tons in 1974. That is more than all other states combined and more copper than is produced by any other country in the free world. It has been that way since 1958.

Arizona also ranks second in U.S. production of silver and molybdenum, and fourth in gold, all largely by-products of copper mining. Even more remarkable is the fact that it all comes from the use of less than one-seventh of one per cent of Arizona's land surface. Of the State's 72,688,000 acres, the mines, mills, smelters, waste disposal areas, roads, etc., occupy around 102,000 acres. To put that in perspective, if you were the State of Arizona, the area used by mining would be less than that covered by your wristwatch! Winning over half the nation's newly-mined copper from today's low grade ores takes massive amounts of capital and technical know-how. It also takes plain old-fashioned ingenuity. Gone are the lusty bonanza days of the early 1900's when ores commonly contained five to 10 per cent copper. The grade of ore being worked in Arizona's mines today averages about 0.6 per cent copper.

Two tons of rock must be moved to get one ton of ore. That one ton of ore reluctantly yields about 10 pounds of copper! In the process, it's crushed, ground, separated, concentrated, smelted and finally refined to 99.99 per cent purity, ready for market. Before ever producing a penny's worth of copper, a lot must be done and done efficiently to find the minerals wherever nature put them, and then bring a new mine on line. Normally, five to ten years are spent in prospecting, exploration and mine development. Today, a mine producing 40,000 tons of copper a year costs around $200 million. That's about $5,000 per ton of annual copper capacity. To look at it another way, approximately $70,000 per employee is invested in equipment and facilities.

For instance, just one huge 20-cubic-yard capacity electric shovel used in an Arizona open pit copper mine carries a $1,000,000 price tag. A 150-ton capacity ore haulage truck costs around $400,000. A set of tires on the trucks costs about $36,000 and lasts about three months. A 6,000-ton refrigeration unit used in ventilating a small underground mine costs around $2,500,000. All things considered, today's typical copper mine in Arizona is as much an engineering marvel as the Golden Gate Bridge, the towering World Trade Center building, a nuclear submarine or any other man-made wonder.

Much is being done to minimize the effects of mining on the environment. Upwards of $400 million has been spent by Arizona's copper producers in the past ten years on smelter emission controls. Millions more are being committed to protect and improve air quality as rapidly as time and technology permit. Several Arizona copper companies have also been cited by the Governor's Advisory Commission on Arizona Environment for their environmental and ecological efforts.

Arizona's copper industry has given over a half million dollars to the University of Arizona to establish an Atmospheric Analysis Laboratory to study atmospheric constituents and air quality in the State, and another hundred thousand this past year to keep the program going. It also is contributing to the University of Arizona College of Agriculture to study possible beneficial uses of sulfuric acid in agriculture.

New practices are being developed and put in use on land reclamation. As an example, once-infertile mine waste piles are successfully being treated with manure and sewage effluent from cattle feed lots and planted with barley, rye, bermuda grass, mesquite, palo verde, cacti and other native desert plants. The vegetation cuts down on blowing dust, soil erosion and develops a natural wildlife habitat.

Arizona's precious water is used and re-used for all it's worth. Although it takes about 240 gallons to process a ton of ore. Arizona's copper producers recycle the same water as many as eight and a half times before it finally evaporates!

Copper itself is one of the most recyclable of all metals. It's virtually indestructible and is re-used time after time. About two-thirds of all copper used by industry is melted and used over and over again. Recycled domestic scrap provided around 46 per cent of the nation's total copper supply in 1973. Nearly half, 49 per cent came from U.S. newly-mined copper with over half of that from Arizona. The remaining five per cent was imported.

Given copper's importance as an essential raw material, this high degree of self-sufficiency warrants maintaining. It's a matter of national economic well-being and security and lends international significance to Arizona's role as copper capital of the country and the free world.

Who needs all that copper? Good question! Every man, woman and child in the U.S. uses around 25 pounds of copper a year in some form or other. We use copper every time we pick up the telephone, turn on a light, watch TV, listen to the radio, use the dishwasher, drive the car, ride a plane or train, or make change at the supermarket. For instance, U.S. coins, mostly copper sandwiched between layers of nickel or silver, require some 50,000 tons of copper a year. That, alone, is equal to the annual output of one average-sized Arizona copper mine!

The mines also mean a lot to every Arizonan. Copper is one of the bright spots in the State's economy. While the Federal government and retirement are primary sources of income in Arizona, the basic industries are manufacturing, mining, agriculture, tourism and travel, in that order.

One whopping figure reveals how much copper mining is worth to Arizona $3.1 billion annually! This represents per-sonal, business and government income, as copper "dollars" circulate and recirculate throughout the State's economy. Even that figure is probably low today, because it is based on a 1970-72 average.

Approximately 27,000 workers are employed directly in the search for and production of copper in Arizona. Many thousands of people in other Arizona industries also have their jobs because of copper. As a result, the copper industry accounts directly and indirectly for approximately one out of every eight jobs in the State. About one-third of Arizona's copper workers live in the Tucson metropolitan area, where approximately one out of every four jobs is directly or indirectly linked to copper.

In terms of basic personal income wages, salaries, pensions, other benefits and dividends - Arizona copper accounts for one out of every eight dollars statewide and one out of every six dollars in the Tucson area.

Direct and indirect impact on other Arizona businesses, alone, is estimated at more than $2.0 billion annually. Arizona copper producers purchase more than 70 per cent of all goods and services from state business firms wholesalers, manufacturers, contract construction firms, utilities, local transportation companies, retailers, service industries and so on.

Tax revenues generated directly and indirectly by Arizona's copper industry amount to about one out of every four tax dollars paid to State and local governments. Revenues from the copper industry's direct tax payments are applied statewide. Major beneficiary is the State government. Every county, municipality and school district in the State also benefits from the industry's tax payments. Definitely, copper mining is an Arizona business. Out of every dollar's worth of copper mined in Arizona, an estimated 62 stays in the State in the form of payrolls, taxes, purchases, dividends and permanent facilities. Historically, dollars from copper have built towns, schools, hospitals, libraries and roads, opening up many areas of the State.

Traditionally, copper is linked to Arizona's past. It is a mainstay in today's economy. And it holds a bright outlook for Arizona's future.

Arizona copper industry, producing over half of the nation's newly mined copper.

Much of Arizona's history is linked to the search for and development of minerals. Without attempting to document every significant event, here are some historical highlights on the early beginnings of mining in Arizona, down to modern times.

COPPER in ANTIQUITY

Although the importance of native metals in the development of human technology can scarcely be questioned, there is little likelihood that the precise details of this important aspect of human prehistory will ever be known. The earliest appearance of worked metal was at Catal Hüyük in Turkey, where little tubes hammered from native copper were found in 1962, decorating the fringes of string skirts. The date of the Catal Hüyük culture, still very uncertain, is probably between 6000 and 5500 в.с.

For an understanding of the role played by native copper in such very early cultures, we can turn to a culture half a world away that has survived nearly to our own time. When, in 1776, an English adventurer, Samuel Hearne, penetrated the wilderness northwest of Hudson's Bay, he found a tribe of Eskimos skilled in making fish hooks, ice chisels, gaff hooks and weapons from lumps of pure copper found in the glacial debris. In 1919 an anthropologist visited these "Copper Eskimos" and learned how they fashioned their tools and weapons. Their smiths hammered out the irregular nuggets on a beach pebble held as an anvil in the hand. After rough shaping in this way, the object was finished by rubbing and grinding on a large stone. Although nearly 150 years had passed since Hearne's visit, this highly conservative culture has not significantly modified their treatment of the copper nuggets.

Neolithic communities, like those of Anatolia in the sixth millenium B.C., had no effective way of mining or cutting large masses of copper, even when such masses were available. Consequently they were restricted, like the Copper Eskimos, to small masses, which they probably worked by a cold-hammering technique. This method is not very satisfactory, since the copper becomes hardened and rather brittle after only a moderate amount of hammering. The hardening imparts more durable qualities to the finished tool, but the object being fashioned is likely to crack unless annealed by periodic heating. There is a good probability that the discovery of annealing and hence of hot working, melting, and casting took place before smelting of ores was discovered. The finds of metal hoards in Iran at Sialk, in Iraq at Tell Halaf, and in Egypt, indicate the prevalence during the fourth millenium B.C. of melting and casting of gold, silver and copper.

There is a great gulf between the simple process of rendering liquid a metal that otherwise retains its identifiable characteristics and the magical transmutation of a green, blue or black ore mineral by fire into metal. Thus before man could win metal from those ore minerals there was a long interval, perhaps of thousands of years duration, in which native metals, chiefly copper, furnished man's best tools and most cherished adornments. Not all cultures attained the art of smelting at the same time. If a survey could have been made in 1000 в.с. it would have found that some people like the Hittites had entered the Iron Age; others like the Greeks were in the Bronze Age; whereas many were in a condition of Neolithic barbarism. Indeed, some otherwise highly developed cultures never did attain the arts of metallurgy; for them native metals continued to suffice. The outstanding examples of this arrested development are the cultures of the American Indians.

Indians of the Lake Superior region learned to use and value of the copper found in abundance on Isle Royale and on the Keweenaw peninsula at an early date. A typical Indian mine on Isle Royale was a trench some two hundred feet in length and as much as twenty-five feet deep from which chunks of copper were won by primitive methods. Fires were burned against the face of the rock and then cold water cast on the heated rock to crack it, after which the loosened material was dug and battered away with stone mauls. This copper was widely traded and artifacts made from it have been found at such distant points as Oklahoma, Georgia and the Pacific coast. Great Lakes copper is recognizable in analysis by its high purity and silver content, and can be distinguished readily from Mexican or South American copper, which contains arsenic and other impurities. Among these artifacts are copper "breastplates" or ornamental sheets, sometimes elaborately embossed with human or animal designs. Knives, arrowheads, fishhooks, earplugs, and votive or ceremonial objects were made from Great Lakes copper and are found in Indian burials throughout the central and southern the United States. Although these objects are beautifully finished and show great skill in cold-working, there is no evidence that North American Indians ever learned to melt and cast metals like the Indians of Peru. It is probable that the Peruvian Incas were in the early stages of a true Bronze Age when their culture was extinguished by Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century.

It is interesting to note that in the recently excavated tombs of the kings and queens of the First Dynasty of Egypt, about 3000 в.с., copper tools were found, but no bronze, and no evidence of extractive metallurgy. The manicure set of Hetep-Heres, a queen of the Sixth Dynasty, was of copper with ivory handles. This adherence to copper, much of it no doubt native copper imported from Asia Minor or Cyprus, was partly the result of backwardness in technology, but perhaps also of traditional Egyptian conservatism. We will probably never learn from the plundered tombs of Egypt's kings the secrets of metallurgy of the humble artisans whose bones lie in unmarked graves in Egypt's sands. ☐ ☐ LEFT: Transamerica Corporate Headquarters building in San Francisco, the West's tallest tower, is equipped with all-copper "Life Safety" sprinkler system.

BELOW: "Copper Mariner," Booth Fisheries barnacle resisting, copper-nickel hulled shrimp boat, means higher speed and greater fuel economy than steel hulled ships.

Largest single span of copper in the world is the four-an-a-half acre copper roof crowning Mexico City's "Palace of the One Hundred Suns," arena for sports, cultural events, and conventions.