SCIENCE. 



1 1 



terms, before making his analysis. His own analysis con- 

 founded him ; he frankly certified the three metals found 

 in the deposit ; and in his subsequent lectures has re- 

 ferred very pointedly to undiscovered possibilities in the 

 philosophy of metals. Undiscovered — for it is the good 

 fortune of the solitary discoverer that the mediating agent 

 vanishes in his thaumaturgic-metallurgic act into thin air, 

 leaving no clue by which the scientific detective can 

 shadow him as yet. Hence it is impossible for the metal 

 worker, or even the chemist as yet, to recast certain of 

 the Wessell metals ; since it is too much to ask of him to 

 give away the " combination " that locks his own hard- 

 earned reward against the rapacity of mankind. Science 

 itself must be content for the piesent with the accom- 

 plished facts shown, and with what their author can afford 

 to disclose of methods and principles. Thus, it has be- 

 come possible to give the necessary alloy to silver and gold 

 with more suitable ingredients than could be used here- 

 tofore ; ingredients which but imperceptibly deteriorate 

 either the color or the incorruptibility of the precious 

 metals, and, so far as silver is concerned, effect even a re- 

 markable improvement. Stranger results' have followed 

 and are still progressively following, from the same dis- 

 covery, in building up towards gold and silver from the 

 basis of alloys. All of Mr. Wessell's novel compositions 

 — already sufficient to constitute an era in the history of 

 the art — have their origin and their constant method of 

 development in that stroke of genius ; for I know not 

 what else to call it in view of the systematic unfoldings 

 and correlations of it in the hands of the same master. 

 The depositing battery, instead of the crucible, is the in- 

 strument by which the practicability and the effect 

 of every combination conceived by him is tested 

 in the first instance. As a consequence, partly of 

 this scientific certainty in method, partly of practiced 

 genius in adjusting heat and other delicate conditions ac- 

 cording to bulk, weather, color, radiance, fumes, and the 

 hundred unspoken mysteries of his art, Mr. Wessell's 

 matured mixtures, from common brass and German sil- 

 ver upward, come out uniformly and infallibly what they 

 are intended to be ; astonishing to veteran manufacturers 

 of metals who have associated him with them in their 

 affairs, and a fact which I hazard little in opining to be 

 without precedent in mixed metallurgy. 



In the course of his novel processes of research, Mr. 

 Wesson discovered, probably first, or at least long before 

 it was promulgated elsewhere, the secret of making nickel 

 pure and malleable, and not ODly so, but also of keeping it 

 pure and malleable, throughout all combinations, pro- 

 cesses and proportions, in which he chooses to introduce 

 it. Magnesium was first or independently tried by him ; 

 but discarded for a more practical and economical agency, 

 incidentally discovered in experimenting on qualifying or 

 auxiliary mineral ingredients. The means also by which 

 it turns out that the gases so fatal to nickel are kept out 

 after being once eliminated, were a part of the general 

 precautions of an extremely vigilant and, as it were, sen- 

 sitive operator, rather than preconceived expedients for 

 that express purpose. The methods and results are no 

 worse, perhaps all the better, that their theory was 

 learned from them, rather than they from the theory. It 

 became a significant observation to Mr. Wessell, that 

 various metals, malleable in the original smelter's ingot, 

 grow unmalleable by remeltings. He reasoned that in 

 the large smelting furnaces, from which the metal is 

 drawn off at the bottom, the most of the mass is secluded 

 from unfriendly influences, whatever these may be, until 

 it is suddenly poured into close moulds and cooled : 

 whereas, in the small open furnace or crucible of the 

 foundry, the metal is poured off from a freely exposed sur- 

 face; suggesting that to his own closely-covered processes 

 was due the continued freedom of the metal from the re- 

 fractory temper once extracted. 



With the chronic intractability of the superior metal 

 has been removed the hitherto insurmountable obstacl t . 



to its introduction in sufficient force to impart its noble 

 qualities to a workable composition. It can now be used 

 in any percentage necessary, and the Wessell process for 

 malleability, unlike the German, is one that adds no extra 

 expense. Its remarkable lustre and beauty of color are 

 now as familiar as those of silver, through extensive use 

 in electro-plating, and are rapidly approaching equal 

 favor in the public taste. What is not so familiar to most 

 minds, is the palpable superiority of nickel, at all points, 

 for fine utensil service, such as we require of spoons, 

 forks, knives, &c, for the table. Color is a matter of taste ; 

 but there is no disputing the superior durability of lustre 

 and polish as well as of form, that belongs to the harder 

 metal. It yields only to gold in point of resistance to 

 oxidation and corrosion, and defies the attacks of organic 

 acids, sulphur, &c, that instantly mar the beauty and 

 cleanliness of the best silver. Still less commonly under- 

 stood is the force of character, so to speak, with which 

 this metal suppresses the meaner colors and weaker sus- 

 ceptibilities of lower metals united with it, by its own 

 noble qualities, even when the odds in quantity are largely 

 against it. To this we already owe solid Wessell-silver 

 table ware, not noticeably inferior in any respect to pure 

 nickel, yet at no greater cost than the perishable sham of 

 plated goods. Manufacturers of the latter may not look 

 with favor on the substitution of goods that would last 

 four generations for goods that must be renewed four 

 times in a generation. But such a revolution as this 

 comes of its own weight and carries all before it. The 

 present vast production of plated ware must in a few 

 years become a mere reminiscence, in all its numerous de- 

 partments. 



To an important class of readers and interests, the 

 bearing of Mr. Wessell's discoveries on the metallurgy 

 of gold and silver will seem most worthy of attention. 

 Alloys are necessary to these metals, both for mechani- 

 cal and commercial reasons. It is no longer necessary, 

 however, to impair their properties or appearance in 

 making them workable or saleable. All grades of gold 

 treated with the Wessell alloys are of uniform color and 

 lustre with eighteen-karat gold, and require more than 

 usually severe and expert testing to detect any differences 

 whatever, between them. By way of illustration, it may 

 be stated that the alloying compositions themselves c'o 

 not oxydize perceptibly when exposed to the action of 

 the atmosphere in cooling from the molten state, nor yet 

 in the process of granulation. Manufacturing jewellers 

 pronounce the alloy for gold in all respects equal to eight- 

 karat gold itself, although there is not a particle of 

 gold in it. The alloy for silver is a specially important 

 improvement in the non-tarnishing quality. This may 

 be illustrated by an incident in the experience of a lead- 

 ing manufacturer of sterling silver ware— the celebrated 

 Whiting Manufacturing Company. A quantity of sterling 

 had been made up wkh Wessell alloy, according to 

 standard, 925-ioooths fine. Of the goods manufactured 

 from this lot, a few were wrapped up with others of the 

 same standard (uniform in all the goods of these manu- 

 facturers) but made with the usual copper alloy. Alter 

 lying some twelve months forgotten and undisturbed, the 

 parcel was met with ir taking account of stock and 

 opened. The regularly alloyed metal was found coated 

 with the inevitable black oxide, while the original bril- 

 liancy of the W'essell-alloyed metal had barely acquired 

 a warm tint. The writer is indebted for this information 

 to one of the chief managers of the Whiting Manufac- 

 turing Company. The alloyed silver, electro-deposited 

 on a spoon by Mr. Wessell, was declared pure by the 

 testing chemist of one of our large plating establishments, 

 who hotly called the metallurgist a fool to his face for in- 

 sisting that it was or could be otherwise. Being request- 

 ed to expose the spoon to the action of sulphuretted hy- 

 drogen in company with another of chemically pure elec- 

 tro-plate, the chemist was non-plussed by finding that 

 while, of course, the latter was instantly blackened, the 



