MKTALS. 



AST 



i jjo (iii and complete it* road, which 



How -ii Well justifies \vh;it his expectations 



!. moment of IN depreMton. !! 



! Worcester in tlu- llonsr in ls-_'7. 



the county in the Senate in ls.">l, and 



: iiii|iiirt:int places of public trust. 



lawyer and u judge tliat .Ind-_v 



,- most Iviiown to tin- public. For 



many years he was one of the leading members 



of tin- Woiv.-stiT bar, going often to other 



ties in the perfonnanoe of proftadonal du- 

 ll is ivinarkalil'.' mental activity enabled 

 liini to accomplish an immense amount of 

 work; reaching conclusions, almost instanta- 

 neously, that were generally correct, and that 



iiim ;in advantage over others who arrived 

 at the same points only by the slow process of 

 deduction, lie was well informed in the prin- 

 ripl.-s and precedents of the law ; never at a 

 loss to avail himself of them on the occasions 

 when they were required ; and with a fortu- 

 nate command of the language best adapted 

 for the statement of his case, and to illustrate 

 his argument and enforce his logic. He served 

 his clients with honorable fidelity, and thus won 

 their confidence, and tbat recompense which is 

 the object of professional ambition. Having 



ied his judgeship in 1848, he was called 

 on to conduct, as senior counsel, the defence of 

 Professor Webster for the murder of Dr. George 

 Parkman. This duty he discharged with great 

 ability, and with a nice sense of professional 

 honor which won from the leading English law 

 review unusual praise for his pow-ers as an ad- 

 vocate. He continued to preside over the Su- 

 preme Court from 1853 till 1864, when an at- 

 tack of paralysis obliged him to resign. His 

 mind, however, remained unclouded until a 

 second attack in January, 1867, which termi- 

 nated fatally in a few days. He was distin- 

 guished for urbanity and courtesy both in pub- 

 lic and private life ; just, honorable, and mag- 

 nanimous in all the relations of life. His 

 powers of conversation were great, and his in- 

 formation unusually wide and various. He was 

 an overseer of Harvard College from 1852 to 

 1856, and he received there in 1853 the degree 

 of Doctor of Laws. A very considerable por- 

 tion of his largo property was bequeathed to 

 the city of Worcester, in which he had so long 

 resided, for the establishment of schools of 

 high grade. 



M KTALS. (See also INDIUM, MAGNESIUM, and 

 THALLIUM.) Extracting Silver from Lead by 

 Zinc. The essential conditions under which 

 lead can be completely desilvered by the small- 

 est quantity of zinc, consist in this that the lead 

 must have a temperature of from 600 to 700 

 0., or a complete alloy of silver* with zinc will 

 not take place. The process lately patented 

 by Flack, of Prussia (Mechanics'' Magazine, Au- 

 is substantially as follows: the lead is 

 plac.-d in a pot furnished at the bottom with 

 tube and cock, and heated to the temperature 

 mentioned, after which from to 1 per cent, of 

 zinc, according to the amount of silver in the 



lead, is put in, and the metals are thoroughly in- 



corporal. -d by stirring. After three h'.nr*' rest, 

 and cooling, the alloy of lead, /inc. .-mil 

 floating on the top is taken off, and the opera- 

 tion is repeated two or three times, with the 

 addition of a small amount of zinc. The fol- 

 lowing are the proportions of the total quan- 

 tities of zinc used : 



Pr c*nt. ilnc. 



1,000 grama silver in a ton of load It 



1,600 It 



8,000 It 



5,000 If 



0,000 2 



If the alloy has been carefully taken off, the 

 remaining lead will be entirely fret from silver. 

 The desilvered lead is then run down in a blast 

 furnace, with a silicious blair containing about 

 83 per cent, of silicioos earth, after which it is 

 melted in a pot, and green wood placed in it, 

 whereby the last remaining trace of zinc and 

 iron is removed. The alloy of lead, zinc, and 

 silver is likewise run down in a small blast fur- 

 nace, with slag containing about 36 per cent, of 

 silicious earth. The rich lead obtained is then, 

 as usual, refined in the cupel, and the zinc 

 oxide taken oil' by a comb or water apparatus. 

 The separation of the metal alloy may be ac- 

 complished in the wet way by means of sul- 

 phuric or muriatic acid, but the blast-furnace 

 process is considered preferable. 



Iridium in Canada. Mr. Meves, of Madoc, 

 Canada, states that iridium exists along with 

 the other materials with which gold has been 

 found in the Richardson mine. The report of 

 Dr. Hunt and Mr. Michel does not mention it, 

 but, as Mr. Meves obtained his specimens since 

 their statement was prepared, they may have 

 been taken from parts of the vein or pocket 

 which the previous investigators had not exam- 

 ined. Iridium has been found in California gold, 

 and its presence in that connection has caused 

 the destruction of several valuable dies in the 

 United States mint, which led to the detection 

 and removal of the refractory metal. The 

 same substance has also been discovered in the 

 gold of the Chajidi^re, with platinum, and 

 sometimes alloyed with osmium. The latter 

 alloy is known as iridosmine, is very hard and 

 durable, and is used to advantage in pointing 

 gold pens and jewelling. Platinum, osmium, 

 and iridium. are usually found in company. 



Chemically pure Silver. At a recent meet- 

 ing of the California Academy of Sciences, M. 

 Gutzknow exhibited a sheet of chemically pure 

 silver, 3 ft. in diameter, about 3 oz. in weight, 

 and as thin as fine paper. The color was 

 beautifully white, and the texture like fine lace. 

 This silver was obtained by mixing solutions 

 of protosulphate of iron and sulphate of silver 

 in a large dish, when the silver rose to the sur- 

 face, and there formed into a sheet. Successive 

 sheets rise with each stripping. 



Copper in Powder. The metal copper is 

 easily found in a powdered state by the method 

 of Lowe. To a saturated s.Jfftion of sulphate 

 of copper is added an equal volume of hydro- 



