IRON. 
sulphur is fused by the contact of the bar 
of iron. According to Proust the native 
sulphuret, or pyrites, contains 47.36 per 
cent, of sulphur, the artificial sulphuret but 
37.5. Mr. Hatchett however has found, 
that the magnetica! pyrites contains the 
same proportion as the artificial sulphuret. 
Phosphorus may be combined with iron 
by adding it cut into small pieces to fine 
iron wire, heated moderately red in a cru- 
cible : or by fusing six parts ot iron clip- 
pings, with six of glacial phosphoric acid, 
and one of charcoal powder. This phos- 
phuret is magnetic ; and Mr. Hatchett re- 
marks, that iron, which in its soft or pure 
state cannot retain magnetism, is enabled 
to do so when hardened by carbon, sulphur, 
or phosphorus, unless the dose be so great 
as to destroy the magnetic property, as in 
most of the natural pyrites and plumbago. 
The combination of carbon with iron, is 
of all the most important, under the names 
of cast iron and steel. We shall just ob- 
serve here, that according to Mr. Mushet 
of the Calder iron-works, who has investi- 
gated the subject very extensively in the 
large way, soft cast steel capable of welding 
contains J-g of carbon, common cast steel 
.L c , cast steel of a harder kind ^ steel too 
hard for drawing white cast iron ^V, 
melted cast iron -i, black cast iron T ’ s -. He 
conceives, however, that in steel the car- 
bon is more intimately united with the iron. 
When iron is saturated with carbon it be- 
comes what is commonly called plumbago. 
Iron unites with gold, silver, and platina. 
When heated to a white heat, and plunged 
in mercury, it becomes covered with a 
coating of that metal. Long trituration 
of mercurial amalgams likewise causes a 
coating to adhere to the ends of iron pestles ; 
small steel springs, kept plunged beneath 
the surface of mercury in certain baro- 
meters, become brittle in process of time ; 
and the direct combination of iron and 
mercury in the form of an amalgam may 
be obtained, according to Vogel, by tri- 
turating the filings with twice their weight 
of alum, then adding an equal weight or 
more of mercury, and continuing the fric- 
tion, with a very small quantity of water, 
till the union is completed. Mr. A. Aikin 
unites an amalgam of zinc and mercury 
with iron filings, and then adds muriate of 
iron, when a decomposition takes place, 
the muriatic acid combining with the zinc, 
and the amalgam of iron and mercury as- 
suming the metallic lustre by kneading, 
assisted with heat. Iron and tin very 
readily unite together, as is seen in the art 
of tinning iron vessels, and in the fabrica- 
tion of those useful plates of iron, coated 
with tin, which are generally distinguished 
by . the simple name of tin alone. The 
chief art of applying these coatings of tin 
consists in defending the metals from oxida- 
tion by the access of air. After the Ron 
plates are scraped, or rendered very clean 
by scouring with an acid, they are wetted 
with a solution of sal ammoniac, and plung- 
ed into a vessel containing melted tin, the 
surface of which is covered with pitch or 
tallow, to preserve it from oxydation. The 
tin adheres to, and intimately combines 
with, the iron to a certain depth, which 
renders the tinned plates less disposed to 
harden by hammering than before; as 
w ell as much less disposed to alter, by the 
united action of air and moisture. The 
process for tinning iron vessels does not 
essentially differ from that which has al- 
ready been described for copper vessels. 
Iron does not unite easily with bismuth, at 
least in the direct w r ay. This alloy is brittle, 
and attractable by the magnet even with 
three fourths of bismuth. As nickel cannot 
be purified from iron without the greatest 
difficulty, it may be presumed that these 
substances would readily unite, if the ex- 
treme infusibility of both did not present 
an obstacle to the chemical operator. Ar- 
senic forms a brittle substance in its com- 
bination with iron. Cobalt forms a hard 
mixture with iron, which is not easily bro- 
ken. The inflammability and volatility of 
zinc present an obstacle to its combination 
with iron. It is not improbable, lfbwever; 
but that clean iron filings would unite, with 
zinc, if that metal were kept in contact 
with them for a certain time, in a heat not 
sufficient to cause it to rise ; for it has been 
found, that zinc may be used in the opera- 
tion of coating iron in the same manner as 
tin. Antimony unites with iron, and forms 
a hard brittle combination, which yields in 
a slight degree to the hammer. The sul- 
phuret of antimony is decomposed by vir- 
tue of the greater affinity of the iron to the 
sulphur. For this purpose, five ounces of 
the points of nails from the farriers may be 
made red hot in a crucible, one pound of 
pulverized ore of antimony must then be 
thrown into the crucible, and the' heat 
quickly raised to fuse the whole. When 
the fusion is perfect, an ounce of nitre iu 
powder may be thrown in, to facilitate the 
