142 Compound which metis with little Heat. [Book V f .- 



leability and ductility, and increafes their difpofition to' 

 calcine j it alfo increafes their fufibility, hence its ufe in 

 foldering lead and tin. If added to a mixture of lead 

 and tin, in certain proportions, it produces a metallic 

 compound, which retains the flate of fluidity in the heat 

 of boiling water. 



Bifmuth is chiefly ufeful for mixing with tin to 

 produce pewter, rendering it harder, and better to be 

 caft into molds. It is alfo ufed in making printers' 

 types ; for by giving a greater tenuity to the fufed 

 mafs, it fits it for receiving a neater impreffion. An 

 amalgam for foiling glafs globules is made of ten parts 

 of mercury, two of bifmuth, and one of lead and tin. 

 It may be fubftituted inftead of lead in the art of cu- 

 pelling the perfect metals, becaufe, like that metal, it 

 has the property of flowing into a glafs which is ab- 

 forbed by the cupels. 



Bifmuth is often found native. It is alfo found 

 united with arfenic, fulphur, iron, and fometimes in 

 a calciform flate. The fulphureous ore of bifmuth 

 is of a whitifh grey, inclining to blue ; it has the bril- 

 liancy and colour of lead ore or galena, and almoft al- 

 ways exhibits fquare facets, but it is never found in 

 fragments truly cubical. It is very rare, and is found 

 at Baftnas, in Sweden, and at Schneeburg, in Saxony. 



