MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 79 



ciystalline state, in which, he says, " it exists originally in the ore, 

 to an amorphous state, in which it is readily eliminated from pig- 

 iron during conversion either into malleable ii'on or into steel." 

 The same gentleman alleges that iron may be entirely freed from 

 sulphur by means of lead. The lead " may be applied," he says, 

 " either to pig-iron which is to be puddled, either before or during 

 the puddling process ; or to iron which is to be refined, or in 

 process of being refined, in common refinery furnaces, or in re- 

 verberatory furnaces ; or to pig-iron for casting ; or to iron to be 

 treated by the pneumatic process, for the production of either 

 homogeneous iron or steel ; or to the materials used in making 

 cast-steel by the jiot or other process of melting." In any case 

 the lead is to be added to the iron while the latter is in a molten 

 state, and is to be "brought by any suitable means as much as 

 possible into contact with the whole of the melted iron." — Me- 

 chanics' Magazine. 



ON SODIUM AMALGAMATION. 



Mr. Henry Wurtz publishes, in '• Silliman's Journal" for March, 

 1866, a communication on the process of sodium amalgamation, 

 discovered and patented by himself, which is of great practi- 

 cal value in metallurgy and the arts. His invention consists in 

 imparting to quicksilver a greatly enhanced adhesion, attraction, 

 or affinity for other metals and for its own substance, by adding to 

 it a minute quantity of one of the highly electro-positive metals 

 sodium, potassium, etc. It is applicable in all arts and opera- 

 tions in which amalgamation by quicksilver can be made avail- 

 able to separate or extract gold, silver, or other precious metals 

 from their ores — in all operations in which amalgamation by 

 quicksilver, in conjunction with reducing metals, such as iron or 

 zinc, can be made available in recovering metals from their soluble 

 or insoluble saline compounds ; such as silver from its sulphate, 

 chloride, or hypo-sulphate ; lead from its suljihate or chloride ; 

 gold from its chloride or other solution — in the mercurializa- 

 tion of metallic surfaces in general : for instance, in the amalga- 

 mation of the surfaces. of zinc in voltaic batteries; of the surfaces 

 of copper plates, pans, etc., used in the saving of gold from its 

 ores — in the more convenient transportation of quicksilver, by the 

 reduction thereof into solid forms. 



From experiments made and reported by Prof. Silliman, this 

 discovery has proved of great value in the extracting of gold from 

 its ores. An interesting series of experiments with sodium-amal- 

 gam, in the treatment of auriferous ores, has been conducted under 

 the superintendence of Prof. Silliman, and the results obtained have 

 been highly satisfactory. He states that, having at his disjDosal a 

 considerable quantity of California gold quartz from a mine in Cal- 

 averas county, he proposed to Mr. Wurtz to subject these ores to 

 his method of amalgamation, under conditions subject to control, 

 both as expressing the actual value of the material experimented on, 

 as well as giving the value of the results and the loss in the process. 

 The crushing and grinding was effected in the apparatus of Mr. 

 Dodge, of New York ; which, doing its work dry, gives unusual 



