November 17, 1898] 



NATURE 



El'HEMERIUEs OK CoMKTS AM) Tl.AN ETS. — Many readers 

 of this column will be very glad to know that from the be- 

 ginning of next year it will not be necessary to turn up back 

 nuirbers of the Asly. Naili. to find the ephemerides of comets 

 and planets for observational purposes. Prof H. Kreutz tells 

 us (Aslr. Nach., No. 3527) that he has been asked from several 

 sides to supply this information separately ; that is, in addition 

 to that published in the numbers of that journal, and he has 

 made the following arrangements. Those who are subscribers 

 to that journal may, by paying an additional sum of ten marks 

 yearly, obtain such information, provided that notice of such re- 

 quirement is given directly, and applications are sufficient in 

 number to indicate a decided want in this respect. We hope 

 that many of our readers will think fit to take advantage of this 

 very useful change. 



We may mention that it would be a good opportunity for 

 keeping to one system of publication, and that the Right 

 Ascensions, for instance, might always be given in time, and not 

 in degrees, as is often the case. 



The Nebulous Reciox round 37 Cvc.ni.— Although there 

 may be countless nebulae in the heavens symmetrical in form, 

 there are others which seem to have absolutely no sense of regu- 

 larity. Such a nebulous region is that comprised between 

 2oh. 51m. 24s. and 2ih. om. 43s. in Right Ascension, and in 

 Declination between +42° sb'-f and -(-44 51' (epoch 1900). An 

 excellent reproduction of the greater part of this region ap- 

 pears in Knowledge for November, and is taken from a tine 

 negative obtained by Dr. Isaac Roberts in October 1S96. 

 A careful study of the photographic appearance of this large 

 cosmical mass shows, as Dr. Roberts remarks, several in- 

 dications of fission, as well as evidence of loci of vortical dis- 

 turbance in difi'erent regions ; but, for the main part, irregularity 

 is the striking feature. In his description of this nebulous region. 

 Dr. Roberts brings up the question of the connection between 

 the stars apparently immersed in the nebulous mass and the 

 nebula itself In regular, such as spiral, nebulae, Dr. Roberts 

 had previously come to the conclusion that many of the stars 

 immersed are not stars, as we ate generally acquainted with, 

 but star-like condensations, the result of condensations in the 

 nebula itself In the irregular nebula in question, in which the 

 whole surface area of this cloud of nebulosity is covered with 

 stars, ranging from the ninth to the seventeenth magnitude, very 

 few of the stars can be pronounced "as being actually involved 

 in, and forming part of, the nebulosity." Dr. Roberts' evidence 

 for assuming that those what he terms "apparently finished 

 stars" are between us and the nebulosity is, in his own words, 

 as follows; — "If the stars were beyond the nebulosity their 

 photo-discs would on the negative appear less bright, and their 

 margins be more or less nebulous; whereas only those stars 

 which appear involved in the nebulosity present these appear- 

 ances. Of course, itis a fair subject for argument that those nebu- 

 lous stars which appear to be involved in the nebulosity are 

 not so in reality, but seem thus because they are beyond it in 

 our line of sight. But this argument is much weakened, if 

 not entirely destroyed, when we find on examination of the 

 negative that those faint, star-like condensations are not only 

 nebulous themselves, but they follow the curvatures found in 

 various parts of the nebulosity : thus we are driven to infer that 

 the stars are the nearer bodies to us, and that the nebulosity lies 

 beyond the stars." 



Woi.siNiiiiA.M Observatory Circular, No. 4S. — Mr. T. E. 

 Espin in this circular informs us that a star, magnitude S'4, 

 Type I\'., not in B. D. was found on November 13 in Right 

 Ascension 4h. 19m. 49s., Declination + 39' 32' (55). The star 

 in the Andromeda Nebula was seen on November 10, clo.sely 

 following the nucleus. The one found in i886 was preceding. 



THE EXTRACTION OF NICKEL FROM ITS 

 ORES B Y THE MONO PROCESS} 



'piIE Mond process marked an entirely new departure in met- 

 allurgical practice and in the principles which had hitherto 

 guided it. It depended on the remarkable property possessed 

 by nickel of forming a volatile compound with carbon-monoxide, 



' Abstract of paper rc.-id M the Institution of Civil Engineers, on Novem- 

 ber S, by Prof \V, C. Roberts-Austen, C.B., F.R.S. 



NO. 15 16, VOL. 59] 



from which metallic nickel might be released if the gaseous 

 compound was heated to iSo' C. 



The methods hitherto employed for extracting the metal 

 from its ores involved concentrating the nickel either as a 

 sulphide (matte or regulus), or as arsenide (speise), followed by 

 either dry or wet treatment ; and the metal had to be refined, 

 mainly with a view to separate it from associated carbon. 



In 18S9 Dr. Ludwig Mond, in collaboration with Dr. Carl 

 Langer, had been engaged upon a method for eliminating the 

 carbon-monoxide from gases containing hydrogen. They had 

 been guided by the observation that finely-divided nickel re- 

 moved carbon from carbon-monoxide at a temperature of 350" 

 C, converting it into carbon-dioxide, whereas the dissociation 

 of carbon-monoxide by heat alone, according to N'ictor Meyer 

 and Carl Langer, remained incomplete at the high temperature 

 of i6go° C. The experiments were carried out in conjunction 

 with Dr. Friedrich Quincke ; finely-divided nickel, formed 

 by reducing nickel oxide at 350° C. by hydrogen, being 

 treated with pure carbon-monoxide in a glass tube at vary- 

 ing temperatures. The gas escaping from the apparatus was 

 ignited, and while the tube containing the nickel was cooling, 

 the flame became luminous, and increased in luminosity as 

 the temperature sank below 100° C. Metallic spots were 

 deposited on a cold plate of porcelain held in this luminous 

 flame, and on heating the tube through which the gas was 

 escaping a metallic mirror was obtained, while the luminosity 

 of the flame disappeared. These metallic deposits were found 

 to be pure nickel. Nickel carbonyl was then isolated in a 

 liquid state, and it was possible to produce it with facility in 

 any desired quantity. It could be readily distilled without 

 decomposition, but on being heated to 150° C, the vapour was 

 completely dissociated, pure carbon-monoxide being obtained 

 and the nickel being deposited in a dense metallic film upon the 

 sides of the vessel. 



No other metals which were submitted to investigation 

 showed indications of combining directly with carbon-monoxide 

 except iron. The discovery that in a mixture of metals only 

 nickel and iron would form volatile conipounds with carbon- 

 monoxide, and that they could, therefore, be separated from 

 the other metals, induced Dr. Mond to arrange experiments 

 with ores containing nickel, cobalt, iron and copper, such as 

 " kupfer- nickel " and " pyrrhotine." The experiments afforded 

 such promising results that apparatus of considerable size, 

 though still within the limits of the resources of a laboratory, 

 was set up, and in it several pounds of ore could be treated 

 with carbon-monoxide. The principal nickel ores which were 

 inelallurgically treated contained the nickel in combination 

 with arsenic and sulphur, besides other metals and gangue. 

 These ores had first to be submitted to calcination, in order 

 that the nickel might be present in the form of oxide, and 

 to drive oft', as far as practicable, the arsenic, sulphur, and 

 other volatile bodies. The resulting oxide of nickel was treated 

 with reducing fgases, such as water-gas or producer-gas, in 

 order to convert the oxide of nickel into finely divided metallic 

 nickel, and the material containing it was cooled to about 

 50' C, and was treated with carbon-monoxide. 



In 1S92 an experimental plant on a large scale had been 

 erected at Smethwick, near Birminghan. The process began 

 with " Besseinerised ■' matte; it ended with the market pro- 

 duct, commercial nickel. The Bessemerised matte proceeded 

 to the first operation of dead roasting, after which the matte 

 contained 35 per cent, of nickel, 42 per cent, of copper, and 

 about 2 per cent, of iron. It then passed to the second opera- 

 tion for the extraction of ]iart of the copper (about two-fifths) by 

 sulphuric acid, the copper being sold .is crystallised sulphate of 

 copper. The residue from this process contained about 51 per 

 cent, of nickel, and it passed to the third operation for re- 

 ducing the nickel. Incidentally, the remaining copper was 

 reduced to the metallic state, care being taken to avoid 

 reducing the iron. This was elTected in a tower provided with 

 shelves, over which mechanical rabbles passed, the reducing 

 agent being the hydrogen contained in water-gas. The tem- 

 perature did not exceed 300' C, and should be kept lower 

 when much iron was present. Krom this tower the ore was 

 conveyed continuously to the fourth operation of volatilisation, 

 in which part of the nickel was taken off by carbon-monoxide 

 and formed the compound nickel carbonyl. The lormation of 

 this volatile compound was effected in a tower similar to the 

 reducing tower, but the temperature was much lower, and did 

 not exceed 100' C. Erom the volatiliser, the ore was returned 



