Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1857-07-24
TWO MILLIONS oF TONS OF SILVER.

aquarums-how ladies', grown weary of buy
ing and losing and re-buying their cats and
dogs, drowned their sorrows in salt water,
and transferred their affections TO lively
shrimp. But while they are exploring the
living wonders of the deep, scientific menhayo
been ransacking the sea for treasures, if not
as interesting, at least as valuable as the beau
tiful zoophytcs; and their experiments have
led them TO the conclusion that the ocean
holds dissolved two million tons Of silver.
To three French chemists the discovery is
due They took gallons of water from the
coast Of St. Malo, few leagues from land,
and analyzod it in two ways. a portion Of
the water they acted upon by the usual tests
on silver, and the presence of the precious
metal was clearly ascertained. The remain
der of the wator they evuporatcd, and the salt
they obtained they boiled with lead.
He gave them a button of impure lead,
which they subjected to what is called oupel-
lation. This rather grand word denotes
very simple process. The -6ut;sn'.4 placed
upon little tiny saucer made Of lime, and is
submitted to heat sufficient to melt lead but
not high enough to affect the silver, should
any be present The lead soon begins TO melt
and as it molts, it is sucked mp Boy the porous
little saucer or cupol it grows smaller and
smaller, until no lead remains and in It's place
.is brilliant spec, far brighter than the boil
ing lead. The cupol is then removed from
the fire, and as t cools the red-hot sparks
cool too, and you have a homeopathic globulo
of silver, very much like ono of those small
pills that druggists dcude smokers into buy
ing 90 take away the smell of the fragrant
weed. The operation, as / have said, is very
simple, and is the ordinary mode Of procuring
silver from the orc. Analyses are being made
in this way every day at the mint. When the
presence of silver is doubtful the work is most
exciting. | saw an English orc so tested the
other day, and sure enough, after a fow min
utes of anxious watching, shoua forth a bright
spark about the size of pins head, for which
our eyes were longing The orc proved
very rich one, and we shall most likely hear
more about it.
But we must not forget our French friends
Again and again they repeated the expert
meuts with the same success Then they sat
down and made the calculation that a cubic
mile of ocean contains two pounds and three
quarters weight of silver. After this they
made another series of experiments they
gathered soa-wceds, precrring those known
to botanists fuel because. ass those plants
have no roots TO insert into the rocks, they
must derive all their ailments from the sea-
These they analyzed, and found them twenty
six times richer than the water itself
The results attracted the attention of an
English chemist, Mr.. Frederick Field. who is
engaged in assaying silver in Chill; they in
duced him to commence a course Of expert
ments upon the copper ore or yellow metal
with which the huls Of vessels arc shcathcd.
His knowledge Of chemistry told him that if
the sea contained silver he would in all prob
.ahr1 As,l . D.
sells that had been at sea. He soon had an
opportunity to test the correctness of his sur
mise. Tho Ana Guimaraens. large vessels
under the Chilian flag, was hataed down to
be repaired near Coquimbo, where Mr.. Field
resides. The ship had been seven years at
sea, and trading the whole of tie time in the
Pacific Ocean so that if silver existed in any
ships bottom it certainly would in the Ana
Guimmeans A few ounces If the metal
shoathing were taken, and after a careful an-
alysis, Mr. Field obtained from 5000 grains
a trita more than two grains Of silver which
is equal to one pound, one ounce two penny
weights fifteen grains, in the ton. There was
no yellow metal on board the ship By which a
comparison could be made with that which
had been exposed to the salt water. But
shortly aiterward another vessel came into
dock, and from her cabin piece of metal was
taken which had never been exposed to sea
water, and another piece of equal weight was
removed from the hull, which had been three
years afoat. The metal from the hull yielded
eight times as much silver as that taken from
the cabin. Similar comparative analyses were
made on other vessels and a difference be-
tween the two metals was invariably found
the difference varying according TO the length
of the time the ship had been at sea. In those
ships that had been the shortest time at sea
, the difference was least, and rice versa.
But why should there be any silver in the
brass and copper used in the cabina Wen,
it appears that in these metals there is gener-
ally little siyer-two or three ponnyweights
per ton; and beyond this, Mr.. Field accounts
for it from the employment of masses of metal
/ melted from former voyages. One other eX-
, pertinent Mr.. Field is at present carrying out.
, He has granulatcd some very pure coppor-a
portion is reserved in bottle to be compared
at future period with the other portion,
, which is floating in a wooden box, perforated
on all sides, few feet below the surface Of
the Pacific. When a good humorcd captain
, puts into Coquimbo he takes the box in tow
and drags it at the stern of his vessel mp and
, down the coast of Chill. just as you have
tried to catch a mackcrcls tail, so is Mr.
Field trying to catch silver with his copper
bait.
The curious discovery of soa-watcr silver
J gives rise to one or two questions. Where,
for instance does the silver come from? Has
| it been extracted from the earth by artificial
means, the waste Of mans diggings, borne to
G the bosom of the ocean by rivers, which, like
giant arteries, burst from the heart of tho
: earth It could scarcely be that man, avari-
@ cious man, could have let two millions of tons
t of silver so slip through his fingers No!
@ we may acQuit the world of so ogrogious a
Z blunder That the presence of silver in the
7 sea is more ancient than human folly or Gu
= pidity, NJ. Duroucher and his friends, who
p first called attention to the subject, have prov
y cd by procuring the precious metal from
t crystals Of rock salt, which had been deposit
n ed anterior to the existence Of man upon this
C earth
e One experiment leads to another. If tho
i sea could be made to yield silver, where might
T. rot the metal be found The wood of tho
r oak, birch, beech, horn-boam, aspen, apple
}, and ash grown at long distances from the sea,
: and which had never been manured with salt
I. lttsu .,s,lt "a, 10, al,,..