New Ulm weekly review., 1881-05-04

Mystical, rhythmic,.l, weaving I'LL into COM
For its wide, harmonious measures
| Not one earthly note let fall;
Sorrows 70 raptures, pains and pleasures
OF earth's music the ennobler, of it's discord
the refiner,
Pipe of Pan was once it's naming, now it hath
-Scribney's Monthly.
| THE METALS.
! Intrinsic Value Of Iron-Color Opacity
Welght-Ductlllty-II Iardness-POtassIum-
ANOys-VVlre-2Alllmln
If the question were put to nine men
out of ten, ''What are the metals found
| or extracted from foreign substances
| on this earth of ours, and what is their
number?" most probably an accurate
reply would not be instantly given.
After a little thinking over it, it is prob
able that nine different metals might be
named namely, gold, silver, iron,
copper, lead, tin, zinc. mercury and
platinum. Instead of nine there are
over forty metals. Indeed, it is be-
lieved that there may be as many as
| ss1ty-ss1. OF these, gold, silver, plat
mum and mercury are known as the
precious or noble metals; so called, be-
cause they do not rust in the air at or
dinary temperature.
Next come the more important base
(or readily oxydizable) metals, among
which iron, which can least be spared
by civilized nations, takes the lead. In
valuable as gold is for currency, it is
far less useful than iron.
With the exception of mercury, all
metals are solid at the usual tempera-
ture of the air. With the exception of
gold, copper, calcium and strontium,
the metals are more or less white, with
a tendency to blue or gray. When re-
duced to state of minute division, the
| metallic luster is lost. but the color re-
mains. All metals are good conductors
of heat and electricity, although in very
unequal degrees. .
The opacity of metals is remarkable,
| and gold excepted, they do not <Grans-
NIT light, even when reduced to very
gold-leaf, which is the two-hundred
thousandth part of an inch thick, suffers
light to pass through it, and it has a
green color.
All the metals are heavier than water,
| except sodium, potassium and allumi-
mum. Platinum is the heaviest, and
gold ranks next.
Some metals (such as lead, tin, cop
per and irony emit a peculiar and disa-
greeable smell. One-half of them are
ductile and malleable, and the other
| half brittle. Gold is the most duotile
and the most malleable; iron is the most
tenacious, and titanium the hardest of
| metals in their native state. Titanium.
| discovered in 1891, is rare and little
used in science or industry.
The elasticity and sonorousness of
metals are generally associated with
their degree of hardness. But there
are not many metals which by them
selves are either very elastic or sonor-
GUS. Some alloys, as those of copper
and tin, possess these properties in a
! high degree.
All the metals are fusible, though at
widely different degrees of tempera-
| ture. Some of them, such as mercury,
arsenic, zinc, cadmium, etc., are also
volatile.
There is no uniformity in metals, as
regards weight or specific gravity.
While platinum and osmium, which are
the heaviest bodies known in nature,
are twenty times heovier than water,
lithium, potassium and sodium are light
er. You may kpead potassium and
sodium with the finger, and mark lead
with the fnger-nail. Nearly all the
other metals are hard. Then, while
iron, gold, silver and copper require
great force for their disintegration, an
timony, bismuth and arsenic are so brit
tie that they can easily be pulverized in
a mortar. Taking iron and lead as rep
resenting the two extremes OF tenacity,
an iron wire will sustain weight twen-
ty-six times as heavy as a leaden wire
of the same diameter.
| Potassium, one Of the alkaline met
ais, was discovered early in the present
century by Sir Humphrey Davy, who
thus proved that potass was not SIM
pie body, as previously supposed. 1t is
of a bluish-white color, and has 8
strong metallic luster. It's affinity for
oxygen is SO great that on exposure to
the air it instantly becomes covered
with a film of oxide. Potassium. as
already mentioned, floats on water. alb.
sorbing oxygen therefrom, and break
ing into brilliant, violent flame. The
burning metal rapidly swims about in
the water, finally exploding with an ex-
plosion of steam. It has to be kept in
some fluid, such as purified petroleum
or naphtha, which contains no oxygen.
Sodium, also discovered by Davy, is a
metal obtained from soda.
None of the metals can be dissolved
without undergoing a chemical change.
Sulphur, iodine, phosphorus, etc., may
be dissolved, and after the evaporation
of the solvent, may be re-obtained with
all their original properties, but this is
impossible with metals. When they enter
into combination with one another, by
fusion, they are called alloys, excepting g
when mercury is one of the combining.
metals, in which case the resulting
compound is termed amalgam. In our
gold coin, there is small portion of
silver or copper, to harden the nobler
metal. Jewelry, including gold watch
cases, invariably contains alloy. When
.'eighteen-carat gold'' is mentioned, or
is stamped upon a watch-case, it inti-
mates that-twenty-fo -four carats repre-
senting pure gold-there are six parts
Of alloy to eighteen of gold in the arti-
Gle.
The ductility of some metals is very
great. Gold, silver and platinum are
prc-eminently ductile, and are nearly
approached in this by copper and. iron.
j Zinc and aluminium can be drawn out
into tolerably thin wire; but lead and
tin have so little cohesion that they can
not be drawn beyond very limited de-
gree Of iineness. Doctor Wollaston.
the distinguished scientist, who first
made platinum useful for the. arts, oh