Heavy metal

“ The exciting arch may be constructed with two or three metals, or even one metal only; with alloys, amalgams, or other metallic or mineral combinations, carbonated substances, &c. It is observed, that metals, which are in general the most powerful exciters, induce contractions so much the more as they have an extent of surface. Metals are all more or less excitants; and it has been noticed that zinc, gold, silver, and pewter, are of the highest rank; then copper, lead, nickel, antimony, &c. ”

“ Metal is a mineral body, by nature either liquid or somewhat hard. The latter may be melted by the heat of the fire, but when it has cooled down again and lost all heat, it becomes hard again and resumes its proper form. In this respect it differs from the stone which melts in the fire, for although the latter regain its hardness, yet it loses its pristine form and properties. Traditionally there are six different kinds of metals, namely gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and lead. ”

“ Point X. Every imperfect Metal, without the mixture of other Metals, may be ripened by this Secret alone in the fire, in an hours space, so that it will yield Gold and Silver, but without profit; an indication that the viler Metals, may by Art be promoted into the Nature of the perfect, to the great profit of Metallurgists. ”

“ For if any imperfect Metal, as Iron, or Tin, or Copper, be adjoyned thereunto, and held in such a Vessel, as in which, that Water cannot by means of its fugaciousness vanish away, nor through its subtile and penetrating power run out, and that it be digested for a while in such a Vessel, this Saturnine Bath seizeth upon, washeth, and purgeth the Metal, and transmuteth it into a better and more pure Metal, but yet with no great profit, for it onely shews the possibility. ”

“ It dissolveth Metals and Minerals into a penetrating spirituality, so that the Metal is not separated from the Menstruum, but a solution is made of both, either by the dry or moist way, from which the more pure part of the Metal, or that which is Gold or Silver, after the premised fixation, is precipitated by Art, especially if many were jointly dissolved. ”

“ Whether the Metal, being brought to fusion, affords any Recrements? (As Iron-stone affords store of a dark Glass or Slagg) And, if it do, what those Recrements are? How they are separated from the Metal; and to what Uses they are employed?
90. Whether, after the Metal has been once melted, the remaining part of the Ore being exposed to the Air, will in tract of time be impregnated, or ripen'd, so as to afford more Metal? ”

“ MOCK GOLD Fuse together 16 parts of copper, 7 of platinum, and 1 of zinc. When steel is alloyed with 1/500 part of platinum, or with 1/500 part of silver, it is rendered much harder, more malleable, and better adapted for all kinds of cutting instruments. Note.—In making alloys, care must be taken to have the more infusible metals melted first, and afterwards add the others.
151. BRITANNIA METAL Take 4 parts of brass, and 4 parts of tin; when fused add 4 parts of metallic bismuth, and 4 parts of metallic antimony. ”

“ And if something else to be put to the melted malleable metal were known to us, to take away in the melting, the redundant, crude, combustible sulphur, questionless it would yet be made purer; which thing being unknown, metals remain in their impurity. And indeed God hath done well in this as in all other his works, that he hath concealed his knowledge from us: for if it were known to the covetous, they would buy up all lead, tin, copper and iron, to turn into gold, so that rurall and poor Labourers could hardly buy metallick instruments for their use, for the scarcity ”

“ Hence arises the superiority of this metal for making mechanics’ instruments or tools, by which all other metals, and even itself, are filed, drilled and cut. The various degrees of hardness given to iron, depend on the quantity of ignition it possesses at the moment of being tempered, which is manifested by the succession of color exhibited on the surface of the metal, in the progress of its receiving the increasing heat. These are, the yellowish white, yellow, gold-color, purple, violet, and deep blue; after the exhibition of which the complete ignition takes place. ”

“ If I mistake not, there is such a relation between the amount of useful metals and the wants of society as could have resulted only from divine benevolence. The metal most widely diffused, and the only one occurring in all the rock formations, from the oldest to the newest, is iron;—the metal by far the most important to civilized society. This is also by far the most abundant, and easily obtained. It often forms extensive beds, or even mountain masses upon the surface. All the other metals are confined almost exclusively to the older rocks. ”

“ It is not more difficult for the mineralogist to define a metal, than for the critic to define a classic. No attribute or property of metal can be mentioned,—hardness, brittleness, malleability, magnetism, lustre,—but some acknowledged metal can be found which lacks it. ”

“ Very few metals are used alone in the various arts and manufactures. For every purpose some combination has been found which makes the product better. Even coins are so alloyed. Silver and gold in the form of money would be entirely too soft, unless alloyed with some hardening metal. Some substances, like arsenic, antimony and bismuth, are too brittle to be used alone. The only metals which can be used alone are aluminum, zinc, iron, tin, copper, lead, mercury, silver, gold and platinum."
"What is bronze, of which all the ancient guns were made?" ”

“ Man then began to make weapons and implements of metal, and found them better than the weapons of stone. We may infer this from the fact that the stone implements, of sharp and shapen flint, become less numerous as we come to higher strata, or layers, in the ground, and the metal implements are more numerous.
The metal of which the earliest metal implements were made is either pure copper or bronze, which is a mixture of copper and tin. Copper is not a very hard metal. ”

“ Returning to the eleven well-known true metals, viz., aluminum, copper, gold, iron, lead, mercury, nickel, platinum, silver, tin and zinc, wonderful progress has been made during recent years in the matter of their production. Few of us appreciate the extent to which we are absolutely dependent on some of these substances which, a generation ago, were so rare. It is quite impossible now to conceive of a metal-less civilization, or one in which they were so costly as to be practically unavailable for the ordinary affairs and circumstances of life. ”

“ As to the metal in which the type was cast, we find mention made of almost every metal, several of which, however, refer to the punches and matrices, leaving tin, lead, and antimony as the staple ingredients of the type-metal. Of the types themselves, we find these in most essential particulars to be the same as those cast at a later date. We see, however, evidence of perforated, mould-cast type, and, in the absence of a nick, a “shamfer” at the foot, from which the jet appears to have been sawn or cut, instead of being broken. ”

“ That compound minerals consist of stone and metal is sufficiently proved by their hardness; that some are made of ’ earth ’ and metal is proved from brass, which is composed of copper and calamine; and also proved from white brass, which is coloured by artificial white arsenic. Sometimes the heat bakes some of them to such an extent that they appear to have flowed out of blazing furnaces, which we may see in the case of cadmia and pyrites. A metallic substance is produced out of ’ earth ’ when a metallic juice impregnating the ’ earth ’ solidifies with cold, the ’ earth ’ not being changed. ”

“ The ore of a metal is the state in which it is generally met with in the earth, when it is so mixed with stony and other matters, as not to show its proper qualities as a metal.
Har. How do people know it, then?
Tut. By experience. It was probably accident that in the early ages discovered that certain fossils by the force of fire might be made to yield a metal. The experiment was repeated on other fossils; so that in length of time all the different metals were found out, and all the different forms in which they lie concealed in the ground. ”

“ The alloy is usually formed by fusing metals together; when molten they dissolve in each other and form an intimate union, often (as in industrial uses) producing a new metal with qualities quite different from those of the separate elements of the mixture. ”

“ Metal itself implied metal-working; and metal-working brought about, not only the arts of smelting and casting, but also endless incidental arts of design and decoration. The bronze hatchets, for example, to take our typical implement, begin by being mere copies of the stone originals; but, as time goes on, they acquire rapidly innumerable improvements. First, metal is economized in the upper part which fits into the handle, while the lower or cutting edge is widened out sideways, so as to form an elegant and gracefully curved outline for the whole implement. ”

“ The different metals are malleable, ductile and tenacious in the following order; white metal or britannia, aluminum, zinc, copper, low brass, high brass, German silver, steel, tin plate. White metal does not harden in spinning, but it requires special skill in handling, or the metal will be of very uneven gage. The best metal for an amateur to start on is copper, as it is both tenacious and ductile, and will stand much abuse in the fire and on the lathe. ”

“ If, without any reference to history, we should seek to determine which of the two metals, copper or iron, was first discovered and used for weapons and tools, we should very readily come to a conclusion in favour of that which is most easily recognised as a metal when in the earth. ”

“ Power Presses in Metal Working.
From glass let us now turn to metals. It is their tenacity that chiefly gives them value; this tenacity is usually accompanied by a hardness which disposes us to regard nickel, for example, as of a solidity quite unyielding. But the coins in our pockets prove that under the pressure of minting machinery they are as impressible as wax. In molds and dies, each the counterpart of the other, brass, bronze, iron, steel, and tin-plate take desired forms as readily as if paste. Solid though these metals appear they yield under severe stress with a semi-fluid quality. ”

“ Other metals employed are copper, brass, tin, zinc, phosphor-bronze, lead, antimony, bismuth, pewter, Muntz metal, aluminium, sodium, potassium, platinum, gold, silver, nickel, and a great variety of the bronzes, which are valuable compounds varying in tenacity and hardness from the hardest steel to that of soft copper. Most of the above are manufactured into wire, sheets, tubes, rods, &c., and can in addition be cast into any form from a crucible. Copper can be forged but not welded; joints in it are generally brazed or soldered. ”

“ Their naked bodies, covered only with small trunks, shone like copper in the glare of the red-hot chunks of iron they were snatching from the mouths of the flaming monsters. From time to time the steam rising from the water thrown on the hot metal would completely envelop the men ”

“ Next to gold, platina, and mercury, it is the heaviest of the metals, being eleven times heavier than an equal bulk of water. This metal loses its malleability in proportion as it is heated: as soon as it melts it calcines, and greyish-colored ashes are formed on its surface; when returning from a fluid to a solid state, it is easily divided into small grains or powder, or formed into shot, &c. Lead was in common use among the ancients. ”

“ Whether they have any Signs, whereby to know whether the Fusion have been well or ill perform'd; and the Metal have obtain'd the perfection, to be expected from such Ore, melted in such a Furnace?
84. Whether they observe any great difference in the goodness of the Metal, that first melts, from that of the rest of the Metal which comes afterwards in the same or another operation? And whether the Rule holds constantly? (For, though they observe in Tin-Mines, the best Metal comes first, yet in the works of an Industrious friend of mine, he informs me, that the best Metal comes last.) ”

“ Well, they seemed to find out a way of making weapons of metal. Soon after this I seemed to see them covering their bodies with metal to resist the weapons—"
"But, look here,' said William, "would it not have saved trouble, had you originally dreamed them as naturally coated with metal from birth?"
"No!" said James curtly, "the earth has to be enriched somehow. Do hold your tongue, and let me go on! I perceived their bodies coated with metal. Then, a little later, they began to perceive that the weapons needed improvement in order to keep up the proper supply of blood to the soil ”

“ Acetic acid precipitates the red lake of lichen.
ORES (Mines, Fr.; Erze, Germ.) ; are the mineral bodies which contain so much metal as to be worth the smelting, or being reduced by fire to the metallic state. The substances naturally combined with metals, which mask their metallic characters, are chiefly oxygen, chlorine, sulphur, phosphorus, selenium, arsenic, water, and several acids, of which the carbonic is the most common. Some metals, as gold, silver, platinum, often occur in the metallic state, either alone, or combined with other metals, constituting what are called native alloys. ”

“ In a solid metal, it cannot be perceived of what parts it is compounded, but being resolved, it’s parts are discovered, and it being by extraction deprived of its proper Soul, wherein its life and whole dignity lodgeth it is no more a metal, but resembles an unshapen brittle earth, without metallick Liquability, and its whole goodness consists in a very little quantity of soul, and starry masculine seed, the remaining body being a dead and vile earth. ”