Am.  Jour.  Pharm,  ) 
Jan.  1, 1872.  } 
Nickel  Plating. 
31 
phuric  acid  method  is  costly,  and  yields  a  product  which  does  not  keep 
well,  and  is  difficult  of  transportation.  The  new  salt  of  phosphate 
.and  sulphite  of  lime  may  have  uses  in  hospitals  as  a  disinfectant,  and 
its  medicinal  properties  ought  to  be  studied.  Phosphate  of  magnesia 
is  also  readily  decomposed  by  sulphurous  acid ;  in  the  case  of  silver, 
lead  and  barium  phosphate,  the  sulphurous  acid  dissolves  the  salts  and 
yields  free  phosphoric  acid.  Sulphurous  acid  has  no  action  on  phos- 
phates of  bismuth  and  tin ;  the  arsenites  and  arsenates  of  lime  and 
vanadate  of  copper  behave  toward  sulphurous  acid  very  much  as  the 
phosphates.  Oxalate  of  lime  is  only  slightly  attacked  by  sulphurous 
&cid.  in  conclusion,  we  advise  manufacturers  of  artificial  manures  to 
try  the  decomposing  action  of  sulphurous  acid  upon  phosphates,  to  see 
if  it  can  replace  sulphuric  acid,  and  also  whether  an  economic  prepara- 
tion of  the  double  salt  of  phosphate  and  sulphite  of  lime  is  feasible.—- 
Jour.  Applied  Chemistry,  Bee.,  1871. 
NICKEL  PLATING. 
A  small  square  bar  of  steel  coated  with  nickel  has  been  repeatedly 
immersed  in  water  for  hours  together  without  showing  any  signs  of 
rusting;  and  John  Spiller,  F.  C.  $.,  states,  in  the  Photographic  News, 
that  he  finds  it  possible  to  bury  it  in  flowers  of  sulphur  for  several 
days  without  tarnishing  the  lustre  of  the  nickel  surface.  Neither  has 
this  latter  severe  test  any  effect  upon  the  copper  and  brass  bars  upon 
which  the  nickel  coating  has  been  applied,  and  these  metals  may  even 
be  immersed  in  an  aqueous  solution  of  nitrate  of  silver  without  effect- 
ing the  reduction  of  that  metal.  In  one  of  the  angles  only,  where  the 
coating  seemed  to  be  imperfect,  was  there  any  indication  of  silver- 
reduction  in  the  case  of  the  brass  tube,  the  steel  bar  being  perfectly 
protected  over  the  whole  surface  against  the  action  of  silver  and  copper 
solutions.  Here,  then,  is  a  most  valuable  property  in  electro-deposited 
nickel.  A  metal  of  the  zinc  and  iron  group  is  proof  against  the  action 
of  nitrate  of  silver ;  the  experiment  proves  it  to  be  so,  and  we  must 
regard  pure  nickel  as  belonging  (from  this  point  of  view)  to  the  class 
of  noble  metals,  resisting,  like  gold  and  platinum,  the  attack  of  sul- 
phur and  of  highly  corrosive  metallic  solutions. 
The  nickel  facing,  when  burnished,  has  a  whiter  color  than  polished 
steel,  although  not  equal  to  silver  itself,  its  aspect  being  rather  that 
of  rolled  platinum.    It  withstands  the  action  of  heat  also  remarkably 
