METALLURGY. 



523 



improved and cheapened the operation of re- 

 fining the nickel and toughening it, and has re- 

 duced the liability to the presence of blow- 

 holes in castings, by adding to the molten charge 

 when ready to pour a very small quantity of 

 magnesium. Dr. Fleitmann has also succeeded 

 in welding sheet-nickel upon iron and upon 

 steel plates, so as to coat them equally on each 

 face with a layer of nickel. He claims to have 

 produced steel wire similarly coated, and pro- 

 poses to make nickeled boiler-plates. Up to 

 this time the most direct uses of such nickeled- 

 iron sheets seem to be in making hollow-ware, 

 particularly culinary vessels, and the manufac- 

 ture has already begun at Schwerte by Dr. 

 Fleitmann. This ware is believed to be far su- 

 perior to tinned iron or tinned copper for cook- 

 ing in. The nickel is not only less liable to 

 corrosion, but is harder, will wear longer, and 

 can not be melted off by overheating. The 

 ware is lighter and stronger than tin or cop- 

 per ware ; is susceptible of a high polish and 

 is not easily tarnished. The coating of nickel 

 applied by welding is stronger and tougher 

 than that deposited by electrolysis, and ap- 

 pears to be less liable to scale off. 



The general use of nickel in solid articles 

 has heretofore been impracticable on account 

 its expensiveness and of its brittleness, mak- 

 it hard to work. A French company now 

 )btain it from New Caledonia so cheaply as to 

 3rmit them to use it at half the cost of a few 

 ago ; and they have adopted methods of 

 luction that enable them to roll and forge it 

 id adapt it to the manufacture of many useful 

 tides. Mixed with zinc, copper, or tin, in 

 ich a proportion that 20 per cent, of nickel 

 lall be present, it forms a nickel bronze of a 

 isired color and inoxidable. All articles that 

 ire now made of brass or copper and nickel- 

 elated may be made of nickel bronze at prac- 

 ically the same cost, and will be one fifth 

 tronger, and may be as much lighter. Added 

 steel, nickel increases its hardness, renders 

 inoxidable, and makes it more suitable for 

 Ige-tools. 



Pure nickel, after melting and casting, gen- 

 Brally holds more or less of oxygen incombina- 

 L ion, and is brittle. This has to be remedied 

 )y incorporating in the melted metal some sub- 

 nice which has a strong affinity for oxygen, 

 id also for the nickel itself. M. J. Gamier 

 ias found that phosphorus answers this pur- 

 pose very satisfactorily, and that it produces 

 effects analogous to those of carbon in iron. 

 If the phosphorus does not exceed three tenths 

 )f one per cent., the nickel is soft and very 

 malleable; with more than that proportion, 

 the hardness increases at the expense of the. 

 malleability. Phosphorized nick el, when alloyed 

 with copper, zinc, or iron, gives results which 

 are far superior to those that are obtained from 

 the same nickel when not phosphorized. By 

 means of the phosphorus, Gamier has been 

 able to alloy nickel and iron in all proportions, 

 and always to obtain soft and malleable prod- 



ucts. The contradictions of chemists, some of 

 whom say that such alloys are brittle, and 

 others that they are malleable, are thus ex- 

 plained by supposing the results to have varied 

 according as the iron contained or did not con- 

 tain phosphorus. 



Tin. A bed of tin-ore has been discovered 

 in Pennington county, Dakota, in the central 

 part of the Black hills, on a mountain rising 

 about 4,300 feet above the sea, which has been 

 named the Tin mountain. The cassiterite oc- 

 curs near the top of the mountain, in two dis- 

 tinct forms a massive form, in close associa- 

 tion with spodumene, feldspar, and quartz ; and 

 in a granular form, disseminated in a massive 

 micaceous albitic rock or greisen, which trav- 

 erses the coarse granite in irregular veins. 

 The outcrops or exposures of the ore at the 

 surface are " extensive and decidedly encour- 

 aging " ; and the percentage of ores to mineral 

 compares favorably with the percentage of tin- 

 stone in the ores of other and well-known tin 

 regions, ordinary hand-samples of the greisen, 

 rejecting the richer portions, having yielded 

 from 6 to 10 per cent, of clean tin-stone, or 

 black tin, of high grade. 



Quicksilver. The qnicksilver-mines of the 

 Amiata mountain, in the province of Siena, 

 Tuscany, have undergone an extensive devel- 

 opment in late years. The ore, the sulphuret, 

 or cinnabar, is found in the valley of the Siele 

 in an argillaceous lode in the forms both of 

 almost invisible particles and of very rich red 

 masses, sometimes of large size. Two shafts 

 have been sunk, one 170 metres (or 552 feet), 

 and the other 57 metres (or 185 feet) deep, 

 with horizontal workings cutting the lode at 

 three different heights. The ore, having been 

 brought to the surface, is separated from the 

 stone and is also sorted into two different 

 classes, rich and poor, by a screen. It is then 

 run down a self-acting incline, in trucks, to 

 the works, and is reduced by women into small 

 pieces, which are kept as dry as possible. The 

 works are furnished with twelve half-moon 

 retorts of cast-iron for treating the rich ore, 

 and three vertical furnaces for the poor ore. 

 The retorts are arranged horizontally, three 

 by three in four ovens, their mouths being 

 closed by covers luted with clay and kept in 

 place by screws and straps. They are charged, 

 each with from two to two and a half hundred- 

 weight of ore and quicklime, in the proportion 

 of one of the latter to eight of the former, 

 every eight hours, the operation being per- 

 formed very quickly and the closing effected 

 immediately, to prevent loss of metal, and in- 

 jury to the men's health from the escaping 

 vapors, for distillation begins at once. The 

 distilled mercury escapes by -the neck of the 

 retort, and passes into a receiver, in which 

 cold water is constantly circulating. The va- 

 pors from six retorts are condensed in one and 

 the same tank filled with cold water, and the 

 metallic mercury is drawn off from inclined 

 channels at the bottom. This treatment is 



