64 Scientific Intelligence. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



I. Chemistry and Physics. 



1 . On the Extraction of Nickel by the Mond Process. — A paper 

 by Roberts- Austen has recently appeared giving an account of 

 the application of the volatile nickel-carbonyl, discovered by 

 Mond, to the extraction of nickel from its ores. Mond's discovery 

 was that metallic nickel forms a volatile compound with carbon 

 monoxide, which he called nickel-carbonyl, which boils at 150° 

 and from which the nickel may again be regenerated by heating 

 to 180°. Iron, while not as active, acts similarly. The sugges- 

 tion was an obvious one, that by means of these volatile com- 

 pounds, these metals might be separated from cobalt, copper and 

 the others with which they are associated in their ores. An 

 experimental plant was erected in 1892 near Birmingham. The 

 material used was Bessemerized matte, which after roasting con- 

 tained 35 per cent nickel, 42 per cent copper and about 2 percent 

 of iron. By treatment with sulphuric acid, about two-fifths of 

 the copper was removed, the residue containing 51 per cent of 

 nickel. The remaining copper was reduced to the metallic state 

 by means of water gas at 300°. The ore was then treated in a 

 volatilizing tower with carbon monoxide, the temperature being 

 kept below 100°. The volatile nickel carbonyl passed to a 

 decomposer — a horizontal retort heated to 180° — where the nickel 

 was released in the metallic form and the carbon monoxide 

 returned to the volatilizer to be again used. The unused metallic 

 residue was returned to the roasting furnace. The nickel produced 

 was 99 -8 per cent pure. Up to the time Professor Roberts- Austen 

 visited the plant, about 80 tons of nickel had been thus prepared, 

 with quite satisfactory results. — Nature, lix, 63, November, 1898. 



G. F. B. 



2. On ^Jtherion* — A note on aetherion has been published by 

 Ceookes, giving some of his old researches made from 1873 to 

 1881, tending to show that the new gas may be nothing more 

 than aqueous vapor. Early in his investigations he noticed that 

 a little aqueous vapor thrown into the vacuum [of a radiometer], 

 converted into attraction the repulsion due to radiation. In 1880, 

 he observed that aqueous vapor was found to retard the force of 

 repulsion to a great extent and carbonic acid acted in a similar 

 way, though less in degree. " The presence of even a trace of 

 aqueous vapor was found to have a strong action in diminishing 

 the sensitiveness of the radiometer and other instruments," he 

 says. As to the absorption of aetherion by glass and its evolution 

 again on heating, the author gives an experiment made in 1879 

 showing that air-dry glass condenses on its surface a considerable 

 quantity of water and carbonic acid which does not come off 



*This Journal, IV, vi, 431, November, 1898. 



