SILVER 



5386 



SIMCOE 



ver coins contain 900 parts of silver to 100 

 parts of copper, while the British have 925 parts 

 of silver to seventy-five of copper. Sterling 

 silver, so popular for jewelry and tableware, is 

 of the same quality as the British coin. 



The most important compound is a white 

 solid called silver nitrate or lunar caustic. It 

 is produced by dissolving silver in nitric acid, 

 and is employed extensively in photography, 

 silver plating and in making indelible ink. 

 Silver chloride, another compound, is made by 

 adding hydrochloric acid to a solution of a sil- 

 ver compound. It, too, is used in photography. 



Sources. Mexico, Ontario, Nevada, Mon- 

 tana, Utah, Arizona, Norway, South America 

 and Australia are the chief sections from which 

 native silver is obtained. The most important 

 ores are the sulphides, that is, those containing 



Ontario 

 30 



Montana 

 13 



Nevada 

 15 



Utah 

 12 



Figures Represent Mi! lions of Fine Ounces 



LEADING STATES AND PROVINCES 

 There are four which produce more than ten 

 million ounces of silver each in average years. 



sulphur. The richest ore, found in several parts 

 of the United States, is argentite, a simple sul- 

 phide in which the proportion of silver is in- 

 dicated by the atomic symbol AgoS. The 

 other sulphides, found chiefly in Mexico, Peru, 

 Bolivia, Chili and Idaho, are complex. They 

 include light ruby silver (arsenic, sulphur and 

 silver), dark ruby silver (antimony, sulphur and 

 silver) and brittle silver (same combining ele- 

 ments as dark ruby). Other important ores are 

 horn silver, containing chlorine and silver, and 

 hessite, a combination of silver and tellurium. 

 Galena, the chief ore from which lead is ex- 

 tracted, often carries silver, and in the Coeur 

 d' Alene district of Idaho there is a valuable 

 mine worked both for lead and silver. In the 

 Butte (Mont.) district silver occurs in the cop- 

 per ores, and this is also true of the copper 

 ores of a famous mine in Mansfeld, Germany. 

 In Europe, however, the larger part of the 

 silver is obtained from galena ores. There are 

 various silver alloys, including those containing 

 gold, mercury and copper. Gold found in Cali- 

 fornia contains on an average twelve per cent 

 of silver. For methods of extraction, see METAL- 

 LURGY. 



Production. The richest silver mines on the 

 globe are in the two American continents. 



Mexico and the United States alone produce 

 nearly three-fourths of the world's supply of 

 that metal i Canada is also an important pro- 

 ducer of silver, the value of its annual output 

 averaging $19,000,000 (see CANADA, subhead 

 Silver and Lead, page 1108). In the United 

 States Nevada holds first rank (see NEVADA, 

 subhead Minerals'). In Europe the richest 

 mines are in Spain, Austria-Hungary, Germany 

 and Norway, with Germany usually ranking 

 first in amount produced. Silver ore has also 

 been found in large quantities in Australia (see 

 AUSTRALIA, subhead Mineral Resources] . E.B.P. 



Consult Clennell's The Cyanide Handbook; 

 Crane's Gold and Silver. 



Related Subjects. In addition to references 

 above the attention of the reader is directed to 

 the following articles : 

 Alloy Metals 



Lunar Caustic Photography 



SIMCOE, sim'ko, a town in Ontario, the 

 county town of Norfolk County. It is in the 

 southern part of Ontario, and is forty-six miles 

 southwest of Hamilton and seventy-three miles 

 southwest of Toronto. Port Dover, an impor- 

 , tant port on Lake Erie, is seven miles from 

 Simcoe. Simcoe is served by the Grand Trunk, 

 Wabash, and Lake Erie & Northern Electric 

 railways. It lies in the heart of one of the 

 richest agricultural sections in Ontario, and one 

 of its chief industries is the canning of fruits 

 and vegetables. It has the largest exclusive 

 lithographing plant in Canada. There are also 

 a large woolen mill and other smaller factories. 

 Simcoe owns its water works (since 1906), sew- 

 erage system (1913) and hydroelectric plant 

 (1914). Its Carnegie Library was erected in 

 1912. Simcoe was founded early in the nine- 

 teenth century, and was incorporated in 1851. 

 It was named for John Graves Simcoe (which 

 see). Population in 1911, 3,227; in 1916, esti- 

 mated, 4,160. 



SIMCOE, JOHN GRAVES (1752-1806), a Brit- 

 ish general and colonial administrator, first gov- 

 ernor of Upper Canada. Simcoe was bora at 

 Northamptonshire, England. After receiving 

 his education at Eton and Merton College, 

 Oxford, he entered the army in 1771. He 

 served throughout the Revolutionary War in 

 America, was wounded at Brandywine and 

 Monmouth, and with Cornwallis surrendered 

 at Yorktown in 1781. From 1791 to 1796 he 

 was the first governor of Upper Canada. As 

 governor he made every effort to induce the 

 i'mmigration of those Americans who were 

 loyal to Great Britain but had been unable to 



