The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-04-24
FACTS ABOUT ZINC. !
ACarious Accouat u the Early tlanufactur
~ the Natal.

y Curious Account u the Early nianufncfur0
Of the Metal
The destruction by rust OF two Of QUIZ
great ironclad ships which were recently
found with their hulls corroded entirely
through, calls to mind an ingenious APP
piicationo Of Toitxic eicctricfty, bywhich
the English ironclads ares now success
1ur prot ctcd. u TAXING "a vantage xof
- f4ct nat asbatt3ry ID formed
y ir6n1or zinc n a coirbding so,utioh,
the zinc Is most, readily acted upon,
many ~ the Later ships have their iron
hulis cased With boards, over which are
nailed sheets OF zinc. At intervals,
through holes in the boards, connection
e made between thes.tvo metals. On
Exposure to the Al ton Of sea water II Is
found. that tho zinc = dissol we'd away
and must BE peri ideally replaced, hut
90 long as any zinc remains, the iron
under 1t is perfectly protected from
rust by the transfer Of the. chemical
action to- the zine. According TO fIc
Genie Civil, zinc Is rapidly taking tho
place OF copper for sheathing wooden
ships, Although much more readily
corToded in the air, it Is found that.
when submerged Hsea-water. zinc will
last at least as long as copper, while it
costs only one-fourth as much. The
same article gives curious account of
the early manufacture OF zinc. 1t seems
that although the various ores have
been in use since very ancient times,
the metal was only discovered in 1906,
and the discovery was made in obedience
to an order from the first Napoleon.
Since the Middle Ages, the mines of
Vieille-Montagne, in Belgium, had fur
nished calamine, native oxide of zinc,
which was used for making brass, by
heating copper, calamine and charcoal
together in crucibles. On the annexation
of the Belgian provinces to the Republic
Of France in 1906, the Vieille-Mon-
tagne mines were appropriated by
the Government, and worked, with very
indifferent success, until 1906, when the
Emperor handed them. over to Belgian
chemist, Daniel Dony, under a conces-
sion which made it obligatory to him to
-endeaper- to extract frem- the-ealamine
the metallic base which it was suspected
to contain. As zinc Is very volatile, all
Dony's attempts to reduce it from the
ore by melting with charcoal and fiuxes
in crucibles proved unsuccessful, for the
reason that the zinc few, unobserved,
up the chimney as fast as 1t formed in
the crucible. After trying in vain to do
what the Emperor required Of him, Dony
finally determined to arrange a reyer-
-heratory furnace, in which he could raise
the mass in the crucible to temperature
higher than any he had previously at
tanned, thinking that if he. could only
get it hot enough, he mightNstill sue
coed. hen all was readyssin order=to
be able to see what was going on in the
furnace, he made a hole in the side Of
the cupoia, and inserted a fower-pot
with the rim inward, SO that he could
use Tire hole in theskettom Of the pot as
a loophole for observation. The fire
was Nndleds and, as before, tho zinc,
when it became hot enough, began to
fly up the chimney, but, on the way,
some of the fumes drifted into the flower
pot, which, being exposed to the air,
was cooler than the rest of the furnace,
and there condensed, and Dony, on lock-
ing through the hole, to see if there was
any appearance of metal in the crucible,
was amazed TO find drops OF melted ziae
tricklipg down the sides of tho flower
pot, close to his nose. The mystery
being thus solved, the distillation OF
zine from the ere became an easy pro-
cess, and, evenyct, the list OF purposes
to which this cheap and useful metal
can be put is by no means exhausted
American Architect