Hot-Dip Galvanizing-Zinc's Biggest Consumptive Use

OF all the zinc that the world consumed in 1936-'38 the United States took about 31 per cent, and almost 14 per cent of the world's zinc supply in that period was used for galvanizing purposes in the United States. Further examination of the statistics shows that about 71/2 per cent (147,500 tons in 1939) of the world zinc consumption goes into the galvanizing of sheets in the United States, which is what I am going to talk about in this paper. There is nothing especially new about galvanizing; in every year since 1921 somewhere between 41 and 49 per cent of the country's zinc consumption has been used for this purpose, and yet few people not specialists in its manufacture know much about how it is made. You take an iron or steel sheet and dip it in molten zinc and there you have a galvanized sheet-that about epitomizes popular knowledge of the subject even among engineers.