ALLOT 



101 



repeatedly made, and always with equal success. Various cutting tools havo been 

 made from it of the best quality. This alloy is, perhaps, only inferior to that of stool 

 and rhodium, and it may be procured at small expense ; the value of silver, where 

 the proportion is so small, is not worth naming ; it will probably bo applied to many 

 important purposes in the arts." 



Messrs. Faraday and Stodart show from their researches that not only silver, but 

 platinum, rhodium, gold, nickel, copper, and even tin, have an affinity for steel suffi- 

 ciently strong to make them combine chemically. 



IKON and NICKEL unite in all proportions, producing soft and tenacious alloys. 

 Some few years since, Mr. Naemyth drew attention to the combination of silicon with 

 steel. Fresh interest has been excited -in this direction by the investigations of a 

 French chemist, M. St. -Claire Deville,- who- has examined many of the alloys of 

 silicon. For other alloys of iron, see IRON. 



IEON and SIIJCON combine to form an alloy, which is a sort of fusible steel in which 

 carbon is replaced by silicon. The- siliciurets -are all of them quite homogeneous, and 

 are not capable of being -separated by liquation. 



COPPEH and Saicox united in various proportions, according to the same chemist. 

 A very hard, brittle, and white alloy, containing 12 per cent of silicon, is obtained 

 by melting together three parts silico-fluoride of potassium, one part sodium, and one 

 part of copper, at such a temperature that the fused mass remains covered with a very 

 liquid scoria. The copper takes up the whole of the silicon, and remains as a white 

 substance less fusible than silicon, which may serve as a base for other alloys. An 

 alloy with 5 per cent, silicon has a beautiful bronze colour, and will probably receive 

 important applications. 



Mr. Oxland and Mr. Truran have given, in ' Metals and their Alloys,' the follow- 

 ing useful tabular view of the composition of the alloys of copper. In addition to 

 those given, the alloy of copper and aluminium is now most important. See ALU- 

 MINIUM BBONZE. 



The principal alloys of copper with other metals are as follows : 



Some valuable researches on the nature of alloys were undertaken by the late 

 Dr. Matthiessen, the results of which are embodied in his ' Eeport on the Chemical 

 Nature of Alloys ' (Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 1863, p. 37), and in a discourse ' On Alloys ' delivered before the Chemical Society 

 (Journal of the Chem. 9oc., 1867, p. 201). 



