QUICKSILVER. 



A POPULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE METAL, ITS EXTRACTION FROM 



ORES, AND ITS USES. 



BY DR. G. F. BECKER. 



There can be no doubt that the most prominent characteristic of 

 quicksilver is its fluidity at the ordinary temperatures of the atmosphere. 

 This is, indeed, so striking a peculiarity that, except to a mind somewhat 

 used to generalizing, mercury seems almost a substance apart, and not, 

 in the ordinary sense, one of the metals. A moment's reflection, how- 

 ever, shows that there is nothing generically peculiar about quicksilver. 

 The relation between the prevailing temperature of the surface of the 

 globe and the melting point of the metals is an accidental and probably 

 a temporary one; there is much less difference between the melting point 

 of mercury and that of lead than between the temperatures at which 

 lead and copper become fluid. The globe has certainly once had a tem- 

 perature at which all these metals were permanently liquid, and a re- 

 duction of a hundred degrees more would familiarize us with a soft, 

 ductile metal, much resembling lead, though with a tin-white color, for 

 which the name of quicksilver would be a misnomer. 



THE USES TO WHICH WE PUT MERCURY 



Depend to a great extent upon its fluidity under ordinary conditions; 

 gold, for example, would be even better than mercury for barometers 

 were it only liquid. It is frequently a matter of great convenience to 

 be able to bring water in contact with melted metal, and, with the ex- 

 ception of an alloy or two which melt just below the boiling point of 

 water, mercury is, of course, the only metallic body available in such 

 cases. I tried in my last lecture to bring into especial prominence the 

 similarity of the action of quicksilver in the amalgamation process with 

 that of other metals in a fluid state, and showed that the main difference 

 is in the replacement of the melted slag of the furnace by a watery 



