Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1874-11-06
Seven Metals.

In the discovery of the metals men
first asserted their mastery over nature;
yet the discovery is still progressing.
Before the fifteenth century only seven
were positively known. They were each
held sacred among the ancients to some
ruling deity d-indestructible, NAL
leable, the richest in coloring, the most
precious of decorations-was consecrated
to Jupiter, or the sun, and had already
assumed the supremacy which it has
never lost. 1t was coined into the heavy
darics of Persia and the aureus of impe-
rial Rome. 1t was used to gild temples
and statues, was wrought into rich jewel
ry and woven in delicate threads that en-
livened the fiowered stuffs of Babylon.
Gold mines and gold-bearing streams
were found in Arabia, Syria, Greece,
Italy and Spain, and the pursuit of the
precious metal was carried on with vari-
Gus success by countless throngs of
miners. The richest mines, at least in
later ages, were those of Spain, and the
enormous productiveness of the Spanish
soil was slowly exhausted by the success
sive labors of the Carthaginians and the
Romans. So successful wastheir indus
try that but little gold or silver can now
be found in territory where the pre-
cious metal once lay scattered in bound
less profusion on the surface of the
earth.
Silver ranked next to gold, and was
named from the soft light of the moon.
The richest silver mines were those of
Spain. 1t was wrought into cups, vases,
lamps; adorned the helmets and shields
of warriors; and formed the costly mir
rors with which the Roman ladies
shocked the austerity of Lactantius or
Jerome. The beautiful silver coins of
the Greek and Roman cities fill modern
collections. Five other metals-iron,
copper, mercury, lead and tin-were en-
ployed by the ancients for various pur-
poses they made steel by arude process,
and brass without discovering zinc.
For many ages no addition was made
to the sacred seven. Three thousand
years passed away before it was sus-
pected that the number could be in
creased-a memorable example of the
slowness of human apprehension. At
length, in 1890, antimony was added to
the metallic family; and not far off from
the period of the discovery of new
world the chemists were about to enter
upon fresh fields of science scarcely less
boundless or inviting.
A second metal, bismuth, came in al
haps the most important of the new fam
ily, may have preceded the others; twas
certainly described long before. 1t is,
indeed, quite curious to notice how the
bright metal had been constantly forcing
itself upon the attention of careful OBJ
servers, and had yet been wholly over
looked; had been used by the ancients,
in the form of an earth, to color copper
into brass, and give it shining surface
like gold; was seen dropping from the
furnaces of the Middle Ages, or melted
in rich flakes from their walls.
Two magicians, or philosophers, at
last detected the error of ages; and AL
bertus Magnus and Paracelsus proba-
bly, both discovered that zinc was as in
destructible and as free from foreign
substances as gold. 1t seemed a pure
element. Paracelsus, who was fond Of
penetrating to the source Of things, ad-
mits that he could not tell how the
bright metal grew; nor in the height Of
their magic renOwn was it ever foreseen
that the rare substance the sorcerers had
discovered would one day shed knowl-
edge, in tongues of fire, from London to
Japan.
Two centuries followed during which
no metallic substance was discovered
Paracelsus found no successor; Albertus,
almost the first man of science in Europe,
was remembered only as sorcerer. 1t
was not until 1888 that the vast field OF
metallic discovery began to open upon
man. Two valuable and well-known
metals-platinum and nickel - among
several others, first appeared about the
middle of the eighteenth century. The
number of the metals now rapidly en-
larged; galvanism lent it's aid to dissolve
the hardest earths; and at length, in the
opening of the nineteenth century, a
cluster of brilliant discoveries aroused
the curiosity of science.
Each eminent philosopher seemed to
produce new metals. Berzelius discov-
cred three; Davy, the Paracelsus of his
age, is the scientific parent of five-po-
tassium, sodium, barium, strontium, cal
cium. The number advanced until
already more than fifty metals of various
Importance have been given to the arts.
The new experiments in light have added
cgsium and rubidium; and no limit can
now be fixed for the metallic family,
which for so many ages embraced only
seven members, the emblems OF the rul-
ing gods-Once q Week.