1892.] on Metallic Carhomjls. 679 



plant is automatically kept in motion by means of an electric 

 motor, the gearing of which you see here. 



By means of this apparatus we have succeeded in extracting the 

 nickel from a great variety of ores, in a time varying, according to the 

 nature of the ore, between a few hours and several days. 



Before the end of this year this process is going to be established 

 in Birmingham on a scale that will enable me to place its industrial 

 capacity beyond doubt, so that I feel justified in the expectation that 

 in a few months nickel carbonyl, a substance quite unknown two years 

 ago, and to-day still a great rarity, which has not yet passed out of 

 the chemical laboratory, will be produced in very large quantities, 

 and will play an important role in metallurgy. 



The process possesses, besides its great simplicity, the additional 

 advantage that it is possible to immediately obtain the nickel in any 

 definite form. If we deposit it in tubes we obtain nickel tubes ; if we 

 deposit it in a globe we obtain a globe of nickel ; if we deposit 

 it in any heated mould we obtain copies of these moulds in 

 pure, firmly coherent, metallic nickel. A deposit of nickel reproduces 

 the most minute details of the surface of the moulds to fully the same 

 extent as galvanic reproductions, so that all the very numerous objects 

 now produced by galvanic deposition, of which Mr. Swan exhibited 

 here such a large and beautiful variety a fortnight ago, can be pro- 

 duced by this process with the same perfection in pure metallic nickel. 

 It is equally easy to nickel-plate any surface which will withstand the 

 temperature of 180° C. by heating it to that temperature and exposing 

 it to the vapour, or even to a solution of nickel carbonyl, a process 

 which may in many cases have advantages over . electro-plating. I 

 have on the table before me specimens of nickel ores we have thus 

 treated, of nickel tubes and plates we have obtained from these ores, 

 and a few specimens of articles of pure nickel and articles plated with 

 nickel which have been prepared in my laboratory. These will give 

 you some idea of the prospects which the process I have described 

 opens out to the metallurgist, upon whom, from day to day, greater 

 demands are made to supply pure nickel in quantities. The most 

 valuable properties of the alloy of nickel and iron, called nickel-steel, 

 which promises to supply us with impenetrable iron-clads, have made 

 an abundant and cheap supply of this metal a question of national 

 importance. The inspection of the few specimens of articles of pure 

 nickel, and of nickel-plated articles, will, I hope, suffice to show you 

 the great facilities the process ofi*ers for producing very fine copies, 

 and for making articles of such forms as cannot be produced by 

 hydraulic pressure, the only method hitherto available for manufac- 

 turing articles of pure nickel. 



I have also here a small coiled pipe made by my process, and 

 kindly lent by Prof. Eamsay, which is interesting as being the first 

 article made in this way for use in a chemical laboratory. 



I began my lecture by bringing under your notice an idea of 

 Liebig's, which he published fifty-eight years ago. I have shown 



