Metals. 
MINERALOGY. Metals, 505 
with great difficulty, but affirming a green colour when 
heated, and acquiring a purple tinge if the heat be con¬ 
tinued ; melting with borax into a glafs of a hyacinth 
colour; foluble in all acids, giving the folution a green 
colour; and in ammonia, to which it gives a bluiffi-green 
colour. There are three fpecies. 
1. Niccolum ochraceum, or nickel-ochre : green, with¬ 
out luftre, of a common, form. Found in Saxony, Bo¬ 
hemia, and Silefia, on the furface of other ores of nickel, 
in the form of powder or indurated. Colour apple-green, 
rarely grafs-green, dark-green, or bluifh-green : has an 
earthy appearance, and is very friable; gives an earthy 
fmell when breathed on, and ilightly ftains the fingers : 
does not melt before the blowpipe, but gives a reddifh or 
yellowilh tinge to borax. It appears to originate from the 
decompolition of native nickel ore. 
2. Niccolum metallinum, or arfeniat of nickel: with 
metallic luftre, entirely foluble in nitric acid, emitting 
arfenical vapours before the blowpipe. Found in the 
mines of Bohemia, Saxony, and the Hartz, in irregular 
mafles, and often mixed with fulphat of barytes. Colour 
pale grey, with often a mixture of pale green ; fra6Iure 
compaft, partly earthy, partly fplintery, with a white 
ftreak : gives an earthy fmell when breathed on, and ad¬ 
heres (lightly to the tongue : it contains fome cobalt and 
alumine, and often fulphat of barytes, befides the arfeni¬ 
cal acid. 
3. Niccolum fulphuratum, fulphurated nickel, or kup- 
fer-nickel: with metallic luftre, not quite foluble in ni¬ 
tric acid, emitting arfenical vapours and fulphurous flame 
and vapours before the blowpipe. Found near Triego in 
Cornwall; in Siberia, Sweden, Saxony, Hungary, Bohe¬ 
mia, &c. maflive or difleminated, never cryftallized, in a 
matrix of calcareous or heavy fpar, and often coated with 
nickel-ochre. Colour coppery-red with variations of 
reddifh-white or grey. Texture compaft, conchoidal, 
foliated, or ftriated, with often curved lamellar concentric 
concretions. Specific gravity, 6'6 ; it frequently con¬ 
tains bifmuth, cobalt, and iron ; but always a portion of 
pyrites. 
Under the article Chemistry, vol. iv. p. 269. it is 
hinted that frefh experiments would be defirable, and 
were expected, upon this fubftance. After an almoft to¬ 
tal exclufion from the continent for about feven years, all 
the kingdoms of Europe have been fuddenly thrown 
open ; and at has been in our power, by importing the 
different foreign journals, to make ourfelves acquainted 
with the various additions which the fciences have re¬ 
ceived during this eventful period. But thefe journals 
amount to fo many volumes, that we find ourfelves over¬ 
whelmed with matter ; and the only difficulty is how to 
feleft.—Of the experiments made upon nickel by Mr. 
W. A. Lampadius, the refults have been communicated 
to the public in Schweigger’s Journal far Chemie und 
Phyfik, 1814. of which the following is. a tranflation. 
“ Afi;er having in 1796 difcovered a method of obtain¬ 
ing pure malleable nickel by means of an oxygen-gas fire, 
either from Freyberg bleifpeife, or from the common re- 
gulus of nickel obtained from kupfer-nickel by the ufual 
procefs, I occafionally made a number of accurate experi¬ 
ments on many of the properties of this metal, which had 
been hitherto examined only in a curfory manner : 124 
grains of J’peife gave me 43 grains of nickel, while 123 
grains of kupfer-nickel ore gave me 63 grains of the pure 
metal. 
Alloy of Nickel and Platinum. —This, as well as all the 
fubfequent alloys, was made upon charcoal kept intenfely 
hot by a ftream of oxygen gas, according to the method 
defcribed in my Manual for the Analyfis of Minerals. A 
grain of each of the two bodies, nickel and platinum, was 
put upon the charcoal. After they had been foftened by 
the application of the heat for about half a minute, both 
bodies incorporated together in a very ftriking manner. 
They formed an alloy pofleffing nearly the fufibility of 
copper, although nickel by itfelf is nearly as infufible as 
Vol. XV. No. 1061. 
platinum. The alloy was completely malleable, acquired 
a fine poliffi, and had a light yellowiflt-white colour, not 
unlike that of fterling filver. Its magnetic energy was 
(till 35, as noticed under Magnetism, vol. xiv. p. 118, 
Gold and Nickel (equal parts). —Both metals very rea¬ 
dily melt into one round button ; pretty hard, harder 
than the preceding alloy ; externally malleable ; capable 
of a fine poliffi ; colour yellowilh-white, a little darker 
than the preceding alloy. The magnetifm continued — 3 5. 
Silver and Nickel (equal parts). —When I attempted to 
alloy thefe two metals, I made the following obferva- 
tions. The filver melted in two feconds, and the nickel 
remained for fome time unmelted upon the filver. In 
about a minute the filver, it is true, took up the nickel, 
but did not diffolve it. When the heat was continued 
fome time longer, the two metals appeared to unite; but 
at that inftant the filver burnt away with a blue flame, 
and left the malleable nickel behind it; but about one- 
half of the nickel likewife was burnt. 
Copper and Nickel (equal parts). —Both metals melted 
together in four feconds. The alloy was brittle and gra¬ 
nular ; the colour reddiffi-white; and the frafture porous. 
It exhibited no trace of magnetifm,. 
Nickel and Iron. —Iron and nickel eafily melted toge¬ 
ther into a round bead. The nickel was firft melted, and 
the iron added to it, to prevent the laft metal from being 
burnt by the heat. By continuing the heat, the greater 
part of the iron feparated from the nickel in the ftate of 
a black oxyd, ftill attrafted by the magnet. By weighing 
the alloy, I found that it confifted of ten parts of nickel 
and four parts of iron, or the iron amounted to rather 
lefs than one-third of the alloy. This alloy was mode¬ 
rately hard, quite malleable, and had the colour of fteel. 
Its magnetifm was =: 35. 
Phofphorus and Nickel. —The bead of nickel was heated 
red-hot, and then a fmall piece of phofphorus placed in 
contaft with it. They melted together in a few feconds. 
Thirty-four parts of nickel thus treated increafed in 
weight five parts; fo that 100 nickel had combined with 
15 phofphorus. The button externally was tin-white, 
and Lad the metallic luftre. It ivas moderately hard, anti 
very brittle. Its fradture was foliated and cryftalline, 
partly dull, and partly with the metallic luftre. Its mag. 
netifm was gone. 
Nickel and Sulphur. —Eafily united together, when 
treated in the fame way as the nickel and phofphorus 
had been. Externally the button was dull, (welled, and 
grey in colour. Its magnetifm likewife was gone. Twenty 
parts of nickel had taken up two parts of fulphur ; fo 
that 100 of the metal combine with 10. The mafs was 
elaftic, not very hard, the fradture uneven, and the 
colour yellowiffi-white, fimilar to that of native copper 
hickel ore. 
From thefe experiments we learn, 1. The readinefs with 
which nickel and platinum unite together. 2. The little 
affinity between filver and nickel, as the filver rather com¬ 
bines with oxygen and is diffipated, than remains united 
to the nickel. 3. The Angular eftedt of combining it 
with copper, in which w f e fee two malleable metals pro¬ 
duce a brittle alloy. 4. The permanence of the magnetifm 
of nickel when it is alloyed with gold and platinum; and 
its complete deftrudtion when alloyed with copper. Per¬ 
haps a farther profecution of thele experiments might 
have a tendency to throw fome light upon magnetifm. 
At prefent I lay afide all hypothefes, and fatisfy myfelf 
with dating Ample fadls.” 
The colour of metallic nickel, when cleared of every 
alloy, is intermediate between filver-white and fteel-grey; 
its lpecific gravity is then 8 38 ; and, after hammering, 
8‘82. It is coniiderably dudtile and malleable, will bear 
bending backwards and forwards feveral times; and, 
when at length it breaks, the fracture-furface is more or 
lefs fibrous. When the nickel has been freed from ail 
the other metals wfith which it was alloyed, yet, during 
the procefs of reduction, it combines with a fmall and 
6 N variable 
