The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-28
EXPLAINED AT LAST.
The True Inwardness of Metals, and the
"IiQuefactiOn of the Elementary Gases,


school hydrogen was gas
"Well, it is a gas replied the conservatory of
scientific information but that doesn't interfere
with its being metal The fact is, we have no
strong set line to separate the metals from the
non-metals. The line is generally drawn between
arsenic and anthony, however. The word
metal is a conventional term vaguely used
because expressing vague idea. For instance,
the metals would all be solid were not mercury
and perhaps c@sium fluid at ordinary tempera-
lures. Mercury freezes at 40' below zero, and
boils at 1902 Then, again, the metals are
usually all thought to be heavy bodies, but
lithium, sodium and potassium float on water
The two latter set hydrogen free from water
with such energy that the hydrogen takes fire
and burns, with a yellow fame if sodium is
used and violet if potassium.
Then, again, the metals do not alone possess
the so-called metallic lustre, graphite, pyrte or
fools gold, and the common sulphite of lead
the 'galena' which gave name to Gen. Grants
former town, all exhibit similar lustre. All is
not gold that glitters. The metals, too, are
usually opaque, but gold may be beaten out so
thin to transmit greenish light"
'How thin does it have to be TO let the day
light through" timdy inquired the seeker after
metallic knowledge.
''Oh six ounces Of it can be drawn into a wire
that will reach easily the whole length of In
diana, and an ounce of it can be beat into
sheet of 100 square feet. 1t takes 300, 900 such
leaves to make a pile an inch high. You see
little of it will go good ways and cover good
deal of ground"
The reporter reflected that little of it had to
go good ways with him, but he gave no sign
which should stop the flow from the reservoir of
scientific information from which he had so
thoughtlessly and so successfully removed the
bung.
Moreover, the yellow color of gold is not its
true color gurgled forth the erudite reservoir Of
chemical and physical knowledge. Like all the
metals gold loses its lustre being finely di-
vided and assumes it again when FURNISHED to
coherent film. The rays which come to the eye
from that gold d4!ar, for instance are the result
of but one reflection but if light be successfully
reflected from ten surfaces of gold, the metal
will appear of bright red color. Under the
same circumstances, copper is scarlet, zinc is in
digo iron is violet and silver is pure yellow. The
metals, generally speaking, are good conductors
of heat and electricity, and have metallic
luSlF6' ADbluOuy IueelS LueS6 COhuiIlOuS, anu
is usually put as metal by chemical writer's
though not by the eminent French chemist
Adolphe Wurtz, who classes with arsenic phos
phorus and nitrogen, because of its chemical
afinties, and the nature and constitution of its
compounds. Anthony, to be- sure has
striking physical properties; it is brilliant white
highly crystalline melts at 450, and makes a
hard alloy with lead. Such an ALLOW is common
type metal which is eighty parts lead and
twenty parts anthony. But the fact that
this metal forms oxides and acids allied to those
of arsenic. nitrogen and phosphorus balances
the scale with the chemist, and he is in doubt as
to whether anthony goes with the metals or
the metals"
The scientific alembic here paused to take
breath for new start; but before he got his
| second wind the reporter mildly called his at
tention to clipping from the December Popu.
lar Science Monthly in regard to the 'Lquefac-
ton of the Elementary Gases. by Jules Jamin,
of the French Institute, to the effect that m
Olzewsk was able to report to the French
Acadamy of Science. on the 2lst of
July, 1884 that by placing lique-
fled nitrogen in vacuum he had
succeeded in producing temperature of 213 de-
grees below the centgrade Zero equal to 35l de-
grees below zero Fahrenheit, lower tempera-
ture than has ever before been attained" The
great cold produced by the sudden expansion
of the liquefed nitrogen, and under the influence
of this cold hydrogen gas was iquefed. Con-
trary to the suggestions founded on the metallic
behavior of this clement that it would present
the appearance of a molten metal, like mercury
the liquid hydrogen had the mobile behavior and
the transparency of the hydrocarbons
"That is extremely interesting" remarked the
chemist; that is a prodigious degree of cold
comes pretty near the absolute zero of the
physiclsts-thatis, 273 degrees below the cent?
grade Why, Captain Kane only met with
a cold of Go degrees below, and mercury freezes
at 40 degrees Such cold is beyond our compre-
hension, and would freeze mans marrow In a
few moments. Seems to me they must have let
off small ocean of liquefed nitrogen in the
arctic zone to produce the late cold
wave 1 remember that Cailletet, of Paris, in
December 1878, got greater degree of cold
than had eyer before been attained, by letting
oxygen escape from an orlhce at temperature of
-29 c.. and pressure of 300 atnospheres to
the square inch; he changed hydrogen to a
liquid form. Raoul Pictet, III the same month
cooled oxygen to -l40 G. from pressure of 600
atmospheres, and thought he got his hydrogen
in a solid form. Pictet described hydrogen as a
teel-6Iue liquid jet at the instant it escaped
from the strong iron cylinder in which it was
condensed The cold produced from its passage
to the liquid state was great that portion of
the liquid was soidifed, aud fell to the ground
in metallic grains producing a shrill sound as it
struck the floor When Dumas heard of Pictet's
great success, by telegraph from Geneva to Paris,
he remarked to the Academy Now, gentlemen,
you may be assured of what we have long
believed that when you pour glass
of water down your throat, you are swallowing
the oxide of metal. and that metal is hydro
gen. Cailletet made a member of the
French Academy because of his great discovery,
the significance of which is that there is no such
thing as permanent gases that cohesion is a
universal law Of matter, and that with sufficient