256 Correspondence of J. Nicklés. 
salt or an alkali, His first attempts date from 1850. In 1851 he made 
some trials in the awe Forges of Ariége. Having been denounced 
ier the events of Dec r, 1851, as a suspicious person by a jealous 
superintendent of iron wit M. Chenot w was taken from his labors and 
thrown into pri an an, so use tals: mild, loyal and honest, 
process the sulphuret of iron is transformed into chlorid of iron w which 
is volatilized and sulphuret of sodium which flows off with the scoria ; 
but this practice is evidently es for at a high temperature sulphuret 
of sodium is decomposed b 
Another invention, full of tare due to M, Chenot, is the appli- 
eation of the hydraulic mane to the compression and molding of me- 
tallic substances, By compressing the sponges in the cold, he ‘obtained 
results which dispense with the employment of high temperatures and 
produce an economy of combustible amounting nearly to 75 per cent. 
He was convinced ae with sufficient force, the moulding of metals in 
the cold would become almost universal, even for forms the most com- 
plicated, and with various combinations of metals whatever art may 
require, so that copper, ssa steel, gold, silver, etc., may be combined 
in any way that may be 
There are endless pas teeiane | in the inventions of M. Chenot. Un- 
fortunately, this inventor had not the talent to see his true interests. In- 
stead of exhibiting in his writings the importance of the metallic sponges 
and their many uses, he indulged i in long discursions on the physics of 
the globe, and in throwing out philosophical views far more appropriaie 
fooli sh eo rprises put in train ari men of adroiiness: ere i tact 
nef-acience. ‘To hin geuerl pr the American Journal 4 
Science may claim rightly t an exception, Men of genius, . 
an one example has ees wn, may be ignored or even contemne 
and justice has ofien first come, as in the case of Chenot, 
Fre nce} 
through 
sition.’—If the reader will run over the list na 
the Paris — he will find many names whic ich the 
Me . 
