344 
METHOD OF DRAWING FINE WIRES. 
An answer to the above queries, if they are deerned of suffi» 
cient importance for philosophical discussion, will oblige. 
Sir, 
Your most obedient Servant, 
T. DICK. 
Methuen, Perthshire, 
ISIov. \6th, IS 13. 
II. 
A Method of '{rau’ing extremely fine Wires. By William 
Hyde Wollaston, M. D. Sec, R. S. From the Philoso- 
phital TransuLliou'i for 1813. 
Wire of .500 Musschenbroek, that an artist of Angsburgh 
fectto agr..in Ji- drew a wire of gold so slender, that five hundred feet of it 
V. eiglied only one grain ; but the method by which this was 
cflected is not mentioned j and indeed it has been doubted 
whether it could really have been done. I shall, however, 
shew, that a wire of gold may, without much diflSculty, be 
obtained finer than that spoken of by Musschenbroek, and that 
wires of platina may be drawn much more slender, with the 
utmost facility. 
Process for Those who draw silver w’ire in large quantities for lace and 
“'/‘"'■‘S. "ire embroidery, sometimes begin with a rod that is about three 
that fineness, inches in diameter, and ultimately obtain wires that are as 
small as of an inch in thickness. If, in any stage of this 
process, a rod of silver wire be taken, and a hole be drilled 
through it longitudinally, having its diameter one-tenth pari 
Gold wire. of that of the rod j and if a wire of pure gold be inserted, so 
as to fill the hole, it is evident, that by continuing to draw the 
rod, the gold within it will be reduced in diameter exactly in 
the same proportion as the silver ; so that if both be thus 
drawn out together till the diameter of the silver is of an 
inch, then that of the gold will be only j and of suc^ 
wire five hundred and fifty feet would be requisite t© weigh 
one grain. 
For 
