Mail Box – March 2012

Alloys

Dear Editor,

I am a great fan of Mike Lawrence’s column; it is often my favorite part of the magazine, as with the current issue (January 2012). I do feel that a comment on “aluminum” and “alloy” is in order, however. Of course, he is correct that the one is an element and the other a combination of elements and one should normally specify the combination by name. However, it is also true that virtually all of the things we recognize as aluminum (surprised Mike did not write aluminium!) are alloys, albeit usually 92-98 percent aluminum and only a few percent tin, zinc, magnesium or other, to improve hardness and tensile strength. Autocar magazine’s use of “alloy” to refer to these aluminum things is commonplace, it is correct, and not at all confusing (especially in England) since no other alloy is commonly called by anything but its proper name. My ’34 MG NA came with “alloy” water pump, water manifold and valve cover. But the sump, which looks as though it were made of aluminum, is “elektron,” which I think means an alloy of aluminum with a greater percentage of magnesium.