American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-11-07
Seven Metals.

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. ld-indcstructible, NAL
leable, the richest in color;ng, the most
precious of decorations-wasc onsecrated
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
nv and woven in delicate threads that en-
livencd the lowered stutls 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 was their 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 austcrty of Lactantius or
jerome. The beautiful silver coins OF
the Greek and Roman cities fill modern
collections. Five other metals-iron
| Il
ployed by the ancients for various pur
poses; they made steel by arudc 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
crcased-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 IA 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
most with the Reformation. Zinc, per
haps the most important of the new fam
| lily, may have preceded the others; it was
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 a 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, al
| 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 pure
| element. Paracelsus, who was fond OF
penetrating to the source of things, adj,
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 sorcercrs had
| discovered would one day shed knowl-
| edge in tongues of fire, from London tC
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 a sorcerer. Il
was not until 1888 that the vast field OF
metallic discovery began to open upon
man. Two valuable and well-knowr
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 its aid to dissolve
the hardest earths; and at length, in the
| opening of the nineteenth century,
cluster of brilliant discoveries aroused
the curiosity of science
! Each eminent philosopher seemed Il
produce new metals. BcrZelius discov
cred three; Davy, the Paracelsus of hi:
age, is the scientific parent of fve-po
| tassium, sodium, barium, stront,um, cal
cium The number advanced unit
already more than fifty metals of various
importance have been given to the arts
The new experiments in light have adde,
c;usium and rubidium; and no limit cal
now be fixed for the metallic family
which for so many ages embraced onl.
seven members, the emblems of the rul
| ing gOds.-OHce Week.