92 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



BRITISH GOLD. 



UNDER this title we are not about to describe the really precious 

 metal of this country, or the produce of a home California ; but sim- 

 ply an ingenious and interesting discovery in the manipulation of met- 

 alliferous substances, by which an alloy is produced that is likely to 

 come into very general use for numerous articles hitherto manufac- 

 tured in gilt-work, ormolu, and other more expensive metals. It is a 

 mixture in certain proportions of copper, tin, zinc, &c., perfectly 

 homogeneous, close in texture, highly ductile ; it rolls into sheets, and is 

 manufactured with the greatest facility. It can be had of various tints, 

 to represent gold of different degrees of color and purity, takes a high 

 degree of polish, and cleans easily when tarnished. We have in- 

 spected some small articles, pencil-cases, &c., manufactured from 

 this alloy, and it would indeed be difficult for the most practised eye to 

 discover that they were not gold, without having recourse to the acid- 

 test, or ascertaining the specific gravity, which is of course less than 

 that of the precious metal. Mining Journal. 



GERMAN SILVER. 



FEW of our readers are probably aware how many applications are 

 now-a-days made of this useful composition. We call it composition, 

 although the majority of the people imagine that it is a metal sui 

 generis ; but such is not the fact. It is composed of one part of nick- 

 el, one part of spelter or zinc, and three parts of copper ; but all 

 these substances have to be pure, and must be exposed to a great heat 

 before they mix among themselves. The zinc metal, which is of 

 a volatile nature, is not put in the pot until the first two metals are 

 well united together. The refractory nature of nickel, and the diffi- 

 culty of obtaining the metal free from arsenic, iron, and cobalt, are 

 the causes that not unfrequently we see German-silver spoons of gold- 

 yellow color, while German silver prepared from pure metals will 

 equal in whiteness sterling silver, and will not tarnish. Upwards of 

 50,00lbs. of this composition are manufactured in this country an- 

 nually, for which the nickel is imported from Germany and England. 

 There are but three localities of nickel ore in this country: an ore 

 from Chatham, in Connecticut, yields about three per cent, nickel; 

 another ore from the mine La Motte, in Missouri, yields about ten per 

 cent, nickel ; and lately a nickel ore has been discovered among the 

 copper ore on Lake Superior. 



German silver was first introduced into the United States by Dr. 

 Feuchtwanger, of New York, who was obliged to pay on his arrival 

 in this country, the custom-house duties of silver, the inspectors not 

 knowing any difference. He is the first manufacturer of the German 

 silver in the United States, and he is justly entitled to the paternity 

 of this useful composition. He received, in 1834, '35, and '36, silver 

 medals from the American Institute for the crude material, and for 

 his exhibition of over a hundred different useful articles. We regret 

 much that he has not realized that remuneration which his perceptive 



