NICKEL  LINNJEITE. 
357 
hydrogen  and  mercury  can  be  formed,  and  that  hydrogen  is  really 
a  metal.  It  would  also  throw  some  doubt  upon  the  existence  of 
the  amalgam  of  ammonium  and  mercury,  and  offer  an  explana- 
tion of  that  compound  on  the  basis  of  its  being  the  same  amal- 
gam of  hydrogen  and  mercury  that  is  prepared  in  the  way  now 
pointed  out  by  Dr.  Loew.  The  smell  of  escaping  ammonia  must 
be  traced  to  some  other  source  than  the  existence  of  that  radical 
in  combination  with  mercury. — Chem.  News,  Lond.,  May  Vdth, 
1870,  from  Scientific  American. 
NICKEL  LINNiEITE. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute  : 
Sir, — The  valuable  metal,  nickel,  now  employed  extensively  in 
preparing  various  alloys  resembling  silver,  for  table  use,  and  in 
making  the  coins  of  the  United  States  and  other  countries,  has 
been  but  seldom  found  in  this  country.  In  small  but  not  paying 
quantities,  there  are  several  localities  of  it;  and  the  only  one 
which  promises  to  yield  it  in  abundance  is  the  deposit  of  Mine  la 
Motte,  Missouri,  so  celebrated  already  for  its  copper,  lead,  iron, 
and  other  ores.  A  specimen  of  nickel  linnseite  or  siegenite  has 
been  received  at  the  Geological  and  Mineralogical  Cabinet  of 
the  Greneral  Land  Office,  yielding  over  30  per  cent,  of  nickel. 
Nickel  was  discovered  in  1751,  by  Cronstedt,  in  Sweden.  It  is 
a  metal  of  a  color  not  much  differing  from  that  of  silver ;  it  is 
magnetic,  soft,  and  malleable ;  may  be  forged,  rolled,  bored, 
drawn  into  wire,  &c.;  it  is  more  tenacious  than  iron,  and  less 
subject  to  oxidation  than  silver.  In  the  year  1824  (the  state- 
ment may  yet  be  found  in  Thenard's  Traite  de  Chemie),  it  was 
stated  that  the  metal,  nickel,  could  not  be  put  to  any  use.  How- 
ever, it  was  long  before  this  that  nickel  was  employed  by  the 
Chinese  for  the  preparations  of  an  alloy  termed  by  them  "  Pack- 
fong;"  and,  although,  in  1776,  Englestroem  had  analyzed  this 
composition,  no  practical  application  of  this  metal  was  made  for 
some  time. 
The  separation  of  nickel  from  its  ores  is  exceedingly  difficult 
and  complicated.  The  crude  material  is  the  cobalt  speiss  and 
the  matt  obtained  in  lead  and  copper  smelting  works.    In  order 
