The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-09 00:00:00

SOLUTION OF QUARTZ.

The Australian papers just received from Melbourne
report the discovery, by Count Dembinski, of a process by
which quartz or silica is chemically dissolved, and all the
gold, metallic oxides, and metals contained in it precipi-
tated. His method is the following :—One part of quartz
in small pieces is, together with two-and-n-half or three
parts of carbonate of soda, brought to a red heat and
melted. Cast iron tubes are perhaps the best vessels in
which this process can be done. Silicate of soda is now
formed, deliquescent in air, and perfectly soluble in cold
water, the carbonic acid of the soda being, of course, given
off by the reaction. This silicate of soda is dissolved in
water, in wooden vessels, and thus left for a few hours,
during which time the gold and all other foreign sub-
stances contained in the quartz are precipitated. After
the precipitate has been formed the solution of silicate of
soda is, by means of a syphon, decanted into another
wooden vessel, in which, by the inflation of carbonic acid,
the soda is separated from the silicio acid, and regained as
carbonate of soda. By decanting it again and evaporating
the water it is made fit for another dissolving process. Be
obtains the carbonic acid, which is used for regenerating
the soda, from the same fire which he makes use of in com-
bining the quartz and soda. This he does by employing
the well-known centrifugal air-pump, and follows up in all
particulars the method of Melsens in the decomposing of
saccharato of lime. By inflating carbonic acid into the
solution of silicate of soda he separates the silicio acid from
the soda. This latter remains in water, the silicic acid has
been precipitated in the form of a transparent, nebulous,
jelly-like substance, which cannot be separated from water
by filtration. He now decants the solution of carbonate of
soda, which by means of evapnration, he obtains again as
dry carbonate of soda. As such it can be made use of in
further operations.

Ma. COEN'S CLAIMS.—The following is an extract
from the eighth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
by Mr. William Fairbairn, :—lt would be a dif-
ficult task to enumerate all the services rendered by Mr.
Cort to the iron industry of the country sufficiently to
express our sympathies with the descendants and rela-
tives of a man to whose mechanical inventions we owe so
much of our national greatness. It is perhaps not gene-
rally known that Mr. Henry Cort expended a fortune
of upwards of 20,0001. in perfecting his inventions
for puddling iron and rolling it into bars or plates,
that he was robbed of the fruit of his discoveries by
the villany of officials in a high department of Govern-
ment, and that he was ultimately left to starve by the
apathy and selfishness of an ungrateful country. When
these facts are known, and it has been ascertained that
Mr. Henry Cort's inventions have conferred an amount
of wealth upon the country equivalent to 600,000,0001.
sterling, and have given maintenance and employment to
600,000 of the working population of the land for the
last three or four generations, we are surely justified in
referring to services of such vast inaporpauce, and in ad.
vocating the principle that substantial proofs of the
nation's gratitude should be afforded to rescue from
penury and want the descendants of such a benefactor."