224 HIST4LS. 



WHITE ANTIMONY. 



In white, grayish, or reddish rectangular crystals, with 

 perfect cleavage, affording a rhombic prism of 136° 58'. 

 Also in tabular masses, and columnar and granular. H = 

 2*5 — 3. Gr = 6'57. Luster adamantine to pearly. From 

 Bohemia, Saxony, Hungary, Dauphiny. It is an oxyd of 

 antimony containing 84'3 per cent, of antimony. 



The antimonic and antimonous acids have been observed in a 

 white pulverulent form. Slibliie is the name of a compound of oxyd 

 of antimony and an antimony acid, (an antimonate of antimony.) 



Red antimony is a compound of oxyd and sulphuret of antimony 

 Occurs usually in tufts of capillary crystals, or in flakes. Color cherry- 

 red ; streak brownish-red. Luster adamantine. H=l — 1*5. Gr=4*4 — 

 4'6. From Hungary, Dauphiny, Saxony, and the Hartz. 



Romeine is an antimonate of lime. It occurs in Piedmont in groups 

 of minute square octahedral crystals, of a hyacinth or honey-yellow 

 color. Scratches glass. 



Antimonate of lead. A rare mineral consisting of antimonic acid 

 31'7, oxyd of lead 61*8, water 65. Amorphous, compact. Color yel- 

 low ; also grayish, green, or black. Luster resinous. Gr=4.6— 476 

 From Nertschinsk, Russia. 



Senarmontite is the same compound as white antimony in octahe- 

 drons. Gr=52 — 53. From Algiers. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON ANTIMONY AND ITS ORES. 



The antimony of commerce is obtained from the sulphuret of anti- 

 mony. This ore is worked at Schemnitz and Kremnitz in Lower Hun- 

 gary, where it is associated with ores of silver, copper, lead, zinc, and 

 manganese, and some gold. This region affords 6000 quintals of an- 

 timony annually. It has also been brought in considerable quantities 

 from Borneo to Boston and then reduced. Several mines have been 

 opened and abandoned in Auvergne and Dauphiny, but they are not now 

 worked. There are also mines in France and Great Britain. 



To obtain the crude antimony of the shops, the ore is placed in 

 crucibles having a hole at bottom, and these are inserted in other ves- 

 sels : heat is applied above, and the ore melts from its gangue and flows 

 into the vessel below, where it becomes solid. It is not altered in com- 

 position. It is reduced by carefully roasting the crude antimony in a 

 reverberatory furnace, and thus obtaining a gray oxyd. This oxyd is 

 then mixed with a tenth of its weight of crude tartar, placed in large 

 melting pots, and heated in a wind furnace. The metal antimony 

 (called regains of antimony) is thus obtained pure, excepting generally 

 Borne little iron. By melting it again with one-fourth its weight of the 

 oxyd of antimony, the impurities separate and form a slag above, leav- 

 ing the metal beneath. It is a silver-white, brittle metal, coarsely crys- 

 talline in texture. It fuses at about 800° F. 

 *•* 



What ore affords the antimony of commerce ? Where is it mostly 

 obtained ? How is crude antimony obtained, and how reduced 1 



