Hydro-oxygen Bloivpipe. 39 



Maungham at the Adelaide gallery in 1836, he treated this instru- 

 ment as mine, in another form. I was surprised afterwards to 

 learn that he had obtained a premium for this modification from 

 the British Society for the Encouragement of Arts, without any 

 allusion to the original inventor. 



After my return from Europe in 1836, I was very much in 

 want of a piece of platinum of a certain weight, while many 

 more scraps than were adequate to form such a piece were in my 

 possession. This induced new efforts to extend the power of 

 my blowpipe ; and after many experiments, I succeeded so as 

 to fuse twenty-eight ounces of platinum into one mass. 



Although small lumps of platinum had been fused by many 

 operators, with the hydro-oxygen blowpipe, as well as myself, it 

 had not, up to the year 1837, been found sufficiently competent 

 to enable artists to resort to this process. I am informed by Mr. 

 Saxton, that some efforts which were made while he was in Lon- 

 don were so little successful, that the project was abandoned. 

 There was an impression that the metal was rendered less mal- 

 leable when fused upon charcoal, as in the experiments alluded 

 to. This is contradicted by my experiments, agreeably to which 

 fused platinum is as malleable as the best specimens obtained by 

 the Wollaston process, and is less liable to flake. The celebrated 

 Dr. Ure, on seeing the platinum in the form of wire, of leaf, 

 and plate, said that there was no one in Europe who could fuse 

 platinum in such masses. He also alledged that it had been found 

 so difficult to weld platinum, that no resort was had to that pro- 

 cess. In this I concur, having had the welding tried by a skillful 

 smith, both with a forge heat, and with a heat given by the hy- 

 dro-oxygen blowpipe. An incorporation of two ingots was ef- 

 fected on their being hammered together, when heated nearly to 

 fusion; but on hammering the resulting mass cold, a separation 



took place along the joint by which the ingots were united. 



The difficulty seems to arise from the rapidity with which the 

 platinum becomes refrigerated. It seems to have a less capacity 

 for heat than iron, and, not burning in the air as iron does, has 

 not the benefit of the heat acquired by iron from its own com- 

 bustion with atmospheric oxygen. . . 



Lately, by means of the instrument and process which it is 

 my object here to describe, I have been enabled to obtain mal- 

 leable platinum directly from the ore, by the continued applica- 

 tion of the flame. From some specimens of platinum 1 have 

 procured as much as ninety per cent, of malleable metal. 1 he 

 malleability is not inferior to that of the best specimens obtained 

 by reducing it to the state of sponge, through the agency of 

 , D _ ™ sal-ammoniac. There is, however, a greater lia- 

 bility to tarnish, arising, probably, from the presence of a minute 

 portion of palladium. 



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