136 



IRIS IRON. 



iridiuin and 33.3 sulphur. Lead unites with this i 

 inelal easily, but is separated by cupellation, leaving 

 the iruliimi on the cupel, as a coarse black powder. 

 Copper forms with it a very malleable alloy, which, 

 after cupellation, with the addition of lead, leaves a 

 small proportion of the iridiuin, but much less than 

 in the preceding instance. Silver forms with it a 

 perfectly malleable compound, the surface of which 

 is merely tarnished by cupellation ; yet the indium 

 appears to be diffused through it in fine powder 

 only. Gold remains malleable, and little altered in 

 colour, though alloyed with a considerable propor- 

 tion ; nor is it separable either by cupellation or 

 quartation. Dr Wollaston has observed, that, 

 among the grains of crude platinum, there are 

 some scarcely distinguishable from the rest, but by 

 their insolubility in nitro-muriatic acid. They are 

 harder, however, when tried by the file, not in the 

 least malleable, and of the specific gravity of 19.5. 

 These he concluded to be an ore consisting entirely 

 of indium and osmium. 



IRIS ; daughter of Thaumas and Electra (daughter 

 of Oceanus), the sister of the Harpies, and the fleet, 

 golden-winged messenger and servant of the gods, 

 especially of Jupiter and Juno, who, in reward of 

 her services, as tradition runs, transported her to 

 heaven, in the form of a rainbow. She is repre- 

 sented as a beautiful virgin, with wings and a 

 variegated dress, with a rainbow above her, or a 

 cloud on her head exhibiting all the colours of the 

 rainbow. The physical appearance of the rainbow 

 is the foundation of this fable, conformably with the 

 custom of the Greeks. The rainbow was believed 

 to draw vapours up to the clouds from the sea and 

 land, and to drink up the rivers with the head of an 

 ox. The ring of the eye, or the coloured circle 

 around the pupil of the eye, is also called iris ; and 

 iris-stones are specimens of crystal or quartz, which 

 exhibit the colours of the rainbow. 



IRIS, FLAG, or FLOWER-DE-LUCE; a genus 

 of plants comprising upwards of eighty species, 

 remarkable for their pointed, sword-shaped leaves, 

 and their large and beautiful flowers. They con- 

 stitute one of the chief ornaments of the northern 

 regions of the globe, and usually grow in wet places, 

 bearing flowers of various colours, but the prevailing 

 tint of which is blue. Nine" species are natives of the 

 United States, some of which possess active cathartic 

 properties. 



IRKUTSK ; a Russian government in Asia, for- 

 merly containing two and a half million square 

 miles, with a population of from 5 to 600,000 

 inhabitants. The present government, formed in 

 1823, is the eastern part of the former government ; 

 it contains 400,000 inhabitants, and reaches from 95 

 40' E. longitude to the Northern Frozen ocean and 

 the Pacific ocean, forming the Russian frontier 

 towards China. The soil is chiefly sterile, the 

 climate cold. The mountain chains Sayanskie and 

 Stanovoi render the face of the country uneven. 

 The seas of Kamtschatka and Okotsk, into which 

 many promontories project, wash its coasts. In the 

 warmest summer months only is navigation possible, 

 and the communication with other countries is very 

 much interrupted. The rivers are the Lena, Olonek, 

 Anabara, Kolyma, Indigerka, which empty into the 

 Icy sea ; the Anadyr, Kamtschatka, Argoun, Schilka, 

 which empty into the Pacific ocean. The climate is 

 various, but the winter is every where long. In the 

 southern part, grain is raised, and some vegetables 

 are produced in every district. The woods abound 

 in bears ; few cattle are raised ; the reindeer are 

 numerous, as are also sables, foxes, and sea-otters. 

 Swarms of mosquitoes molest man and beast. The 

 waters contain many salmon, which make part of 



the fuud of the beats and wolves. The mineral 

 kingdom is not destitute of precious metals, but they 

 are little worked. The inhabitants are Russians 

 Tartars, Mongols, &c., in a low state of civilization. 

 A circle of the government is also called Irkutsk, 

 and the capital ot both bears the same name. It was 

 built in 1669, is situated on the Angara, and contains 

 thirty-three churches, a theatre, several schools (a 

 Japanese gymnasium, a garrison school, a seminary 

 for priests, a printing-office, a library with 3000 

 volumes, &c.), soap boileries, manufactories of 

 cloth, salt works, and has considerable commerce, 

 as the entrepot for the fur trade with China. 

 Population, 20,000. It is connected by its position 

 with three commercial routes that of Kiakta, that 

 of eastern Siberia and Kamtschatka, and that of 

 western Siberia and Russia. The commerce carried 

 on here is valued at 180,000 annually. The 

 furniture, ornaments, c., from China, give this 

 city a Chinese air. Lat. N. 52 16' 41" ; long. E. 

 104 11' 41." 



IRMINSUL (German Irmensdule); a statue 

 worshipped by the ancient Saxons, which repre- 

 sented a man completely armed in the fashion of 

 the ancient Germans, with a banner in his right 

 hand and a lance in his left. This statue was their 

 most sacred idol, and is said to have stood in a holy 

 grove at Eresburg, a principal fortress of the Saxons 

 (near the present Paderborn). Charlemagne demol- 

 ished this fortress in 772, and with it that monument 

 of antiquity. The history and meaning of the 

 Irminsul is very obscure ; according to common 

 opinion, it was erected in honour of Hermann, the 

 deliver of Germany (see Arminius) ; but it was 

 probably the image of some distinguished divinity, 

 perhaps of Woden himself, and the name of Irmin 

 or Hermann, which signifies man of war, was 

 attached to it, because Woden was the god of war. 



IRON is the most valuable of all the metals. 

 Though mentioned p the Pentateuch, we have 

 reason to believe, from the facts that the fabrication 

 of steel was unknown to the ancients, and that they 

 were wholly destitute of metallurgical skill, that its 

 uses were little known in the earlier periods of 

 society. The Romans employed, as a substitute for 

 it in their armour, an alloy of copper and tin. Its 

 use has followed the progress of civilization in the 

 world; and the amount of it consumed by any 

 nation, at the present day, indicates very truly the 

 degree of its advancement in the arts and sciences. 

 The alchemistical name of iron was Mars. In 

 treating of this metal, we shall adopt the following 

 order: its ores ; their reduction to the metallic state ; 

 the chemical history of iron. 



Ores of Iron. Iron exists in nature under four 

 different states the native state ; that of an oxide ; 

 in combination with combustible bodies, particularly 

 sulphur ; and, finally, in the state of salts, as the 

 sulphate, phosphate, and carbonate, of iron. 



1. Native Iron. Natural malleable iron is a rare 

 production of this globe, nearly all that has ever 

 been found upon it having come to us from the 

 atmosphere. It occurs in the form of a ramose 

 stalactite, covered by brown, fibrous oxide of iron, 

 mingled with quartz and clay, in a vein traversing a 

 mountain of gneiss, near Grenoble, in France ; also 

 with spathic iron and heavy-spar, at Kamsdorf, in 

 Saxony. More recently, it has been found in three 

 places in the United States at Canaan, in Connec- 

 ticut, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina; at the 

 latter place, it was found loose in the soil, in a mass 

 weighing more than twenty pounds. In neither of 

 these cases was the iron perfectly pure. That from 

 Saxony, besides 92.50 of iron, contained 6.0 of lead 

 and 1.5 of copper; that of Canaan was slightly 



