NICIAS 



NICKEL 



495 



Alcil>iades resolved on a great naval expedition 

 against Sicily. Nicias was appointed one of the 

 commanders, although he had strongly protested 

 against the undertaking. In the autumn of 415 

 he laid siege to Syracuse, and was at first suc- 

 cessful, but subsequently experienced a series of 

 disasters ; his fleet was destroyed, and his troops 

 began a retreat towards the interior of Sicily. 

 They were speedily forced to surrender, and Nicias 

 was put to death in 414. See the Histories of 

 Thirlwall and Grote, and Plutarch's Life of Nikias 

 (ed. by H. A. Holden, 1887). 



\ickel (sym. Ni ; atom. wt. 58 '6 ; sp. gr. 8'3 

 to 8 '7). This metal was discovered by Cronsted in 

 1751 ; but long before he isolated the metal, alloys 

 of it obtained from ore were used by the Chinese. 

 Within living memory it was considered a feat to 

 fuse a piece of nickel as large as a hazel-nut, no 

 that it may be said to be a comparatively recent 

 addition to the useful metals. It was shown by 

 Kichter in 1804, and again by Deville in 1856, that 

 the pure metal is malleable and ductile and of 

 higher tenacity than wrought-iron. Nevertheless 

 the only application of nickel previous to 1 879 was 

 as a constituent of certain alloys German Silver 

 (q.v.), for example usually for the purpose of 

 giving them a white colour. In that year Fleit- 

 niann of Iserlohn, having previously ascertained 

 that the brittle nature of all commercial nickel was 

 due to occluded carbonic oxide, discovered that 

 the addition of one-eighth ]>er cent, of magnesium 

 (which requires to be made with due precaution in 

 an atmosphere of carbonic acid) conferred upon it 

 the malleability of the pure metal. He was like- 

 wise successful in welding nickel thus refined to 

 wrought-iron so thoroughly that two pieces of these 

 metals Le. one of each joined in this way could 

 be rolled out into a very thin sheet without 

 any break in the continuity of cither surface. 

 Fleitmann's firm have turned this to useful 

 account by manufacturing cooking-pots and other 

 articles iron-plated with nickel on both sides. The 

 action of organic acids on nickel is so slight that 

 these cooking utensils may IM> safely used. Nickel 

 can also be made malleable by the addition of 

 metallic manganese in the proportion of 5 parts of 

 the latter to 100 part* of the former. This process 

 was patented by Messrs Wiggin of Birmingham on 

 llth March 1880, specification No. 1058. Wharton 

 in 1873 or earlier made vessels in America of pure 

 nickel rendered malleable by forging it in a spongy 

 state with a steam-hammer. 



Nickel is of a white colour, its peculiar hue l>eing 

 between that of silver and bright steel. It is not 

 altered by exposure even to moist air, and it is not 

 tarnished by sulphuretted hydrogen. Dilute sul- 

 phuric and hydrochloric acid attack it only slowly, 

 but it dissolves readily in nitric acid. Caust'ic 

 alkali lyes have no action upon the metal. Owing 

 to these properties and to its having the strength 

 and malleability of wronght-iron, nickel is a valu- 

 able metal for many purposes. Besides its use in 

 funning highly serviceable alloys with copper and 

 zinc, of which German silver and some of the white 

 compounds used for coinage on the continent of 

 Europe are the most important, it is employed alone 

 f"i nickel-plating, for chemical vessels, and, as has 

 len stated, for coating iron cooking-pots in thin 

 layers. An electro-deposit of nickel on steel instru- 

 incut*, each as those used in surgery, is specially 

 useful in preventing rust. Magnets are sometimes 

 made of nickel ; and now that it can rendily be made 

 pure enough to be welded, rolled into sheets, drawn 

 into wire, stamped, or raised by beating, it is likely 

 to receive new applications. In 1890 it was re- 

 ported that the Americans had proved by trials at 

 Annapolis that armour-plates of steel alloyed with 

 nickel are superior to uch plates made of steel 



itself ; and preparations were made in other coun- 

 tries to try this nickel-steel on a large scale. In 



1873 the price of nickel rose from 4s. to 16s. per Ib. 

 on Germany adopting a nickel alloy for coinage. 

 Owing to the now abundant supply, it has fallen 

 to 2s. per Ib. In 1889 it was announced by the 

 German chemist Kruss that he had succeeded in 

 splitting up nickel and cobalt each into two parts, 

 and that both these metals have one component in 

 common ; but this has not l>een confirmed by subse- 

 quent research. See the Chemical News ( 1889). 



Ores of Nickel. Till about 1875 the most import- 

 ant ore was kit pfer -nickel (false copper). This 

 mineral is arsenide of nickel, and contains from 

 35 to 45 per cent, of the metal. It is found in 

 Norway, Germany, Hungary, France, and the 

 United States. It is abundant in some districts of 

 South America, and sometimes is found in Corn- 

 wall. Ma'ttietic pyrites or jiyrrhotite, a compound 

 of iron and sulphur, often contains from 3 to 5 per 

 cent, of nickel. When it does so it is used as an 

 ore of that metal. It has been largely smelted for 

 nickel at New Jersey, and ( a nickeliferous ore 

 of this kind is now found plentifully in Norway. 

 Nickel glance is a compound of nickel with arsenic 

 and suTphur, in which the percentage of nickel 

 varies from 25 to 35 per cent. It is found in 

 Sweden, in the Harz, in Thuringia, and one or 

 two other places. Pentlamlite is a sulphide of iron 

 and nickel, found in Norway and in Argyllshire. 

 It has from 14 to 20 per cent, of nickel. Millerite, 

 a sulphide of nickel, rich in the metal, is found in 

 Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Ullmanite is a 

 compound of sulphur, antimony, and nickel ; and 

 Annubergite is an arseniate of nickel. Garnicrite 

 is an ore of nickel, which was first discovered about 



1874 in New Caledonia, and is now the most im- 

 portant source of the metal. It is a hydrosilicate 

 of magnesia and nickel, and contains on an average 

 from 7 to 10 per cent, of the latter. Its value as 

 an ore is increased by the fact that it is without 

 either arsenic or sulphur. Large quantities of 

 it have been shipped to England and France, and 

 in some years the total production of the island 

 amounted to 12,000 tons, representing 850 tons of 

 nickel. An ore similar to that from New Caledonia 

 has been discovered in Oregon and in North Caro- 

 lina, apparently in rich deposits in the former state. 

 Discoveries of nickel ore have also leen made in 

 Texas and Nevada. Extensive deposits of mixed 

 nickeliferous pyrrhotite and copper pyrites have 

 within the last four years been found' in Canada 

 (Sudbury district), and some are now being vigor- 

 ously worked. Knpfer-nickel or nickeline and a 

 rich amorphous nickel ore are known to occur on 

 Michipicoton Island. The nickel ore raised in 

 Canada in 1888 amounted to 1,220,000 Ib. 



Nickel is not found separately in the native 

 state, but it is always present in meteoric iron. 

 Cobalt is very frequently associated with nickel in 

 ores. In the smelting of arsenical ores the product 

 obtained in the first instance is called speiss, but 

 in one smelting operation reguliis, metal, and slag 

 may be obtained as well as speiss. Nickel speiss 

 is a mixture chiefly of the arsenides and sulphides of 

 nickel, iron, and copper, left as a residue in the pot 

 used in the preparation of Smalt (q.v.), from com- 

 plex arseniferous nickel and cobalt ores previously 

 roasted. In this process the cobalt practically all 

 passes into the blue glass of which smalt consists. 



Smelting. At the older nickel-works in different 

 parts of Europe much of the nickel produced is 

 extracted from speiss or from regulus, in either 

 of which the metal has l>ecome concentrated, and 

 may amount to from 30 to 60 per cent. A good deal 

 of secrecy has been observed regarding the smelting 

 of nickel, but accounts of some of the processes in 

 use have been published. Briefly stated, one of 



