406 Apparatus for distilling the Mercury from Amalgams. [No. 5, 



I have had occasion to show this apparatus to a gentleman who was 

 proceeding to Australia, and I may as well add here that I explained 

 to him that small pellets of amalgam, say as large as peas or buck- 

 shot may be introduced into a bent gun-barrel and care being taken 

 by turning the barrel over to send them down to the breech, this may 

 be placed with the bend resting on a little mud wall, and the breech 

 part nearly horizontal. If a little fire is now made round the breech 

 the mercury will quickly distil over through the muzzle end, which 

 should be kept cool by a wet rag and have its end dipping into any 

 vessel of water. The pellets of gold will remain separate unless the 

 fire is so hot as to melt them. 



The apparatus above described may be imitated by any contrivance, 

 such as the lid of an iron saucepan with the socket part of its handle, 

 or a small pistol barrel, driven through the middle of it for a pipe, and 

 an old pomatum pot or gallipot or china-cup coated with a little stiff 

 clay and dung, beat up together, or a small tin funnel with the tinning 

 scraped off and the pipe stopped up with clay would form a make- 

 shift for the crucible or bell ;* care being always taken to close any 

 cracks with the luting. In England I have no doubt that a capital 

 little cast and sheet iron apparatus might be manufactured for a few 

 shillings. No other precaution is necessary in using any of these 

 contrivances than not to breathe any of the vapour and not to meddle 

 with the apparatus till nearly cold, as while hot there is always some 

 vapour ready to escape and in the great Mexican mining establishment, 

 the workmen have been killed by the bursting of the Campanilla, 

 when of a faulty casting, from breathing the mercurial fumes. A 

 severe salivation would follow the incautious breathing of a very small 

 quantity, and thus care should be taken to avoid it, 



* A common house or sheep bell would be in effect a small " Campanilla" and 

 this might be obtainable at the diggings. 



