168 ON THE TRADE OF MARSEILLES. 



This alloy, or aluminium bronze, as it is termed, is a discovery of 

 Dr. John Percy, F.R.S., and appears to be a tine chemical compound. 

 Copper is melted in a plumbago crucible, and after being removed from 

 the furnace, the solid aluminium is added. The union of the two 

 metals is attended with such an increase of temperature, that the whole 

 becomes white hot, and unless the crucible containing the mixture is of 

 refractory material, a vessel which has resisted a heat sufficient to effect 

 the fusion of copper melts when the aluminium is added. 



Mr. Gordon was the first, it is believed, who detected and determined 

 the amount of tension wire of aluminium bronze was capable of resist- 

 ing, which he found to be between that of the best iron and the best 

 steel wire. Colonel Strange, of the Royal Astronomical Society, inves- 

 tigated its properties, which were given in a very able paper in the 

 Transactions of that body. Its malleability, ductility, and capability of 

 being finely divided and engraved upon, along with its great strength, 

 induced the Colonel to recommend its adoption in the theodolite used 

 in the Trigonometiical Survey of India. 



At the Elswick Ordnance "Works, Captain Noble, R.A., confirmed 

 previous experiments on the capability of aluminium bronze to resist 

 longitudinal and transverse fracture, and in addition to this he ascer- 

 tained that its position to withstand compression stood halfway between 

 that of the finest steel and the best iron. 



The bronze, containing ten parts of aluminium and ninety of copper, 

 affords an alloy endowed with the greatest strength, malleability, and 

 ductility. The colour of the copper is affected by a very trifling addi- 

 tion of the other constituent, and the alloy gradually improves in the 

 valuable qualities just mentioned, until the proportions given above are 

 reached. After this, i.e, when more than ten per cent, of aluminium 

 enters into the composition of the bronze, the alloy gradually becomes 

 weaker and less malleable, and at length is so brittle that it is easily 

 pounded in a mortar. 



Washington Chemical Works. 



THE TRADE OF MARSEILLES. 



BY MR. CONSUL MARK. 



A very large importation of wheat and grain was effected at this port 

 during 1861. In the last six months of the year, A\ millions of hecto- 

 litres (1,547,640 quarters) arrived here from the Black Sea and Sea of 

 Azof. The short crop of 1861, and the abolition of the sliding scale in 

 France, conduced to this large importation of wheat, which, under the 

 circumstances, it was expected would have been much larger. But, about 

 the month of November, the Marseilles merchants found, much to their 

 •urprise, that very large quantities of wheat were being poured into 



