Carboloy & Widia

Two competitive groups of metallurgist-salesmen chafed last week at industry's slow take-up of a scientific development--tungsten, carbon and cobalt so combined that they made a new material for cutting-tools. The men on one side were employed by the Carboloy Co., General Electric subsidiary; on the other by Thomas Prosser & Son, for 75 years U. S. selling agents for Krupp. Both Krupp and General Electric have independently developed similar metals. Krupp calls its widia (from wie diamant, "like diamond"); General Electric calls its carboloy.

Carboloy or widia, shaped into a cutting tool, carves through cast iron, steel, copper, glass, porcelain, bakelite, mica, rubber, their combinations and what not. Carboloy or widia does everything that the finest, hardest tool steel can do, and many another job. Also they cut at much faster speeds. So efficient are they in stepping up machine shop production and in reducing shop costs, that every machinist must use the new metal, even though its present price is $500 a pound, almost the price of platinum, almost twice the price of gold.