Nickel plating

“ Nickel-steel does not expand or contract as much as common steel, and for this reason it is made into clock pendulums, which must be of the same length the year round in order to keep the right time. As nickel does not rust in air or water, and resists the action of many acids, it is133 much used in plating other metals. It is in demand for cooking utensils, household articles, and plumbing equipment, as well as for automobile parts. Practically all the nickel contained in our five-cent pieces is from the Canadian mines. They are only one quarter nickel, however, the remainder being copper. ”

“ To obviate this difficulty, a plate of nickel presenting considerable surface is suspended from the rods by which the objects to be plated are held in the bath, to divert the surplus of the current from them. Other things being equal, the slower the rate of deposition, the more adherent and tenacious the coating of deposited metal will be. Success in plating depends very largely upon the perfect cleansing of the articles before they are immersed in the bath; and this is more important in case of plating with nickel than with other metals, for which the solutions are generally more alkaline. ”

“ Nickel-plating annually calls for a large amount of the metal. The process is said to have been invented by Böttcher about 1848, and was first applied to firearms in order to prevent them from rusting, but is now applied to every description of iron and steel work. The effect, as is well known, is very fine, as the nickel, coating is white, bright, and hard, and, since it shows but very little tendency to oxidation, it retains its brightness for a long time. ”

“ The electrolytic processes are not the mere experiments a brief description of them would indicate, but are among the important processes for the mechanical products of modern times. The extensive nickel-plating that became a permanent fad in this country on the discovery of a special process some years ago, is all done by electrolysis. The silver plating of modern tableware and table cutlery, as beautiful and much less expensive than silver, and the fine finish of the beautiful bronze hardware now used in house-furnishing, are the results of the same process. ”

“ Nickel steel, being especially hard and tough is used for armor plate, special machinery and wire rope. Nickel is extensively used for cheap electro plating.
Nickel and nickel oxide are exported to Holland and England from the United States and ores and matte are imported from Canada.
Petroleum (or coal oil) is obtained from wells in the United States, Russia, Dutch East Indies, Galicia, Roumania and other countries. More than half of the world’s output is from the United States, the leading districts being (1) Kansas and Oklahoma, (2) California, (3) Illinois, (4) Pennsylvania and (5) Texas. ”

“ Before silver plating, such metals as iron, lead, pewter, zinc, must be coated with copper in the alkaline copper bath described, and then treated as copper. On brass, copper, German silver, nickel and such metals, silver can be plated direct. The deposit of silver will be dull and must be polished. The best method is to use a revolving scratch brush; if one does not possess a buffing machine, a hand scratch brush is good. ”

“ Many metals and alloys are plated with gold or silver, and iron is frequently nickel-plated. The operation is performed most frequently by placing the object to be plated in an appropriate solution and causing the metal to be deposited by means of an electric current. In silver-plating a bath of silver cyanide dissolved in potassium cyanide is commonly used, while an anode of silver supplies this metal as fast as it is deposited upon the objects forming the cathode. Copper and zinc may be deposited at the same time upon iron objects, thus producing brass plating. ”

“ It occurs in veins along with pyrite, galena, cinnabar, and realgar, with quartz, calcite or barite as gangue minerals.
Stibnite has been found in Arkansas, California, Nevada, and Utah.
The Nickel Group
Nickel as a metal is silvery-white in color, rather hard, and does not tarnish when exposed to the air. When pure it is malleable and fairly ductile. It is highly useful for plating other metals to protect their surfaces. Alloyed with steel, it makes a product of extreme hardness. Copper, zinc, and nickel make the well known German silver. ”

“ Large deposits of nickel have been discovered in Canada, where the ore (as nickelous pyrites) is free from arsenic. Cobalt is principally worked up into cobalt compounds, but nickel is generally reduced to the metallic state, in which it is now often used for alloys—for instance, for coinage in many European States, and for plating other metals, because it does not oxidise. ”

“ In other words, 41,000 tons of ore produced matte containing 650 tons of nickel, and which was associated with 910 tons of copper, thus showing that the ore smelted averaged about one and a half per cent of nickel together with two and a quarter per cent of copper. All the nickel produced in this district finds a ready market, being used principally in the manufacture of guns and armor plate. It thus appears that the discoveries of the extensive Canadian deposits of nickel, and of the valuable qualities of nickel steel, are complementary one to the other. ”

“ Tin forms an important part of many alloys such as babbitt, Britannia metal, bronze, gun metal and bearing metals.
Nickel is important in mechanics because of its combinations with other metals as alloys. Pure nickel is grayish-white, malleable, ductile and tenacious. It weighs almost as much as steel and, next to manganese, is the hardest of metals. Nickel is one of the three magnetic metals, the others being iron and cobalt. The commonest alloy containing nickel is german silver, although one of its most important alloys is found in nickel steel. ”

“ They are considered more valuable as a curiosity than as material for manufacturing purposes. The metallurgist, chemist, or geologist can readily distinguish them from other masses, because they invariably contain considerable nickel, which seldom appears in any of the ordinary iron ores. They are usually found in a mass containing crystals and are nearly always covered with a thin coating of oxide, which protects the metal from further oxidation. ”

“ It will not corrode or blacken under ordinary atmospheric conditions, it takes a high polish, and its soft white luster, with a faint tinge of yellow in it, is exceptionally pleasing to the eye. The modern world has a genuine need of nickel, and so the production will increase, but it is never likely to become as common a metal in the arts as copper or lead or zinc. ”

“ The nickeliferous ore deposits of the world may be divided into two main types—the sulphide type, in which weathering has not been of prime importance, and the garnierite or lateritic type, in which weathering has altered and concentrated the nickel as well as the chromium and iron of the original rock. In addition, nickel occurs in some places with ores of precious and semi-precious metals in veins. Nickel may be recovered from such ores as a by-product, but the ores are never mined primarily for their nickel content. ”

“ The reduction of the oxide of nickel with charcoal requires the heat of a powerful air furnace or smith’s forge.
Nickel possesses a fine silver white colour and lustre; it is hard, but malleable, both hot and cold; may be drawn into wire 1⁄50 of an inch, and rolled into plates 1⁄500 of an inch thick. A small quantity of arsenic destroys its ductility. When fused it has a specific gravity of 8·279, and when hammered, of 8·66 or 8·82; it is susceptible of magnetism, in a somewhat inferior degree to iron, but superior to cobalt. ”

“ NICKEL, when pure, is a fine white metal, somewhat resembling silver in appearance, but it is attracted by the magnet, and has itself the property of attracting iron.
It is ductile and malleable, difficult of fusion, and about nine times heavier than water. This metal is always mixed with arsenic (242) and iron.
Nickel is found in Cornwall, and in some other counties of England; in Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, and several parts of Asia. The Chinese employ it in making white copper; and, in conjunction with copper and zinc, they manufacture it into various kinds of children’s toys. ”

“ It also is used in common silver alloys, in order to keep up the whiteness of the latter element, the addition of too large a proportion of copper maintaining the tint of the latter metal, in too strong a degree to be altogether employed by the silver-worker. Nickel is sometimes specially employed, in combination with other metals, to replace or imitate silver in the manufacture of commercial wares, while with copper, zinc, tin, &c., it forms very useful alloys, producing great hardness. ”

“ In the second place, the past few years have witnessed the discovery and initial development on a large scale of what are said to be practically inexhaustible deposits of nickel ore in what is known as the Sudbury District, of Canada.
Nickel may be said to be a modern metal, for its history goes back no further than a century and a half, although the word is much older. The origin of the name is curious and interesting. The men working in the German copper mines often came upon an ore which, though looking like copper ore, did not yield copper when smelted. ”

“ The ammoniacal solution filtered from the precipitate of sesquioxide of iron (see f) is precipitated with pure solution of potassa, boiled for a few minutes, and, when cold, thrown on a filter; the precipitate is, lastly, washed with hot water, dried, ignited, and weighed. Every 371⁄2 gr. of the oxide thus obtained is equal to 291⁄2 gr. of metallic nickel.
Obs. The manufacture of nickel or German silver has of late acquired an importance which is second only to that of silver plate itself. ”

“ Nickel forms many valuable alloys. Steel containing 3 p.c. Ni is particularly valuable, its limit of elasticity is higher and its hardness is greater; it is used for armour plate and other large pieces. The alloys of nickel, especially with copper and zinc (melchior, see later) , aluminium and silver, although used in certain cases, are now replaced by nickel-plated or nickel-deposited goods (deposited by electricity from a solution of the ammonium salts) . ”

“ Nickel steel has remarkably good mechanical qualities when suitably heat-treated, and it is preeminently adapted for case-hardening. It is not difficult to machine low-nickel steel, consequently it is in great favor where easy machining properties are of importance.
Page 25 Nickel influences the strength and ductility of steel by being dissolved directly in the iron or ferrite; in this respect differing from chromium, tungsten and vanadium. The addition of each 1 per cent nickel up to 5 per cent will cause an approximate increase of from 4,000 to 6,000 lb. ”

“ Steel is dipped in a mixture of {588} nitrate of silver and mercury, each dissolved separately in the proportion of 5 parts, by weight, to 300 parts, by weight, of water, then wiped to remove the black film of carbon, and silvered till a sample dipped in a solution of blue vitriol ceases to turn red. According to H. Krupp, articles made of an alloy of nickel, copper, and zinc, such as knives, forks, spoons, etc., should be coated electrically with nickel, put into a solution of copper like that used for galvanic coppering, and then electroplated. ”

“ The nickel vat should be of glass, porcelain, or earthenware, or a case lined with impermeable gum. The best nickel bath is prepared by dissolving to saturation, in hot distilled water, nickel sulphate and ammonium, free from oxides or alkalies and alkaline earthy metals. The proportion of salt to dissolve is 1 part, by weight, to 10 of water. Filter after cooling and the bath is then ready for use. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is difficult to determine in a new machine the amount of the nickel deposit, or whether it is upon a copper base; hence it will be seen that the maker’s work in the past is the only standard from which such matters can be judged. With enamel and paint it is much more easy to determine the quality, though a glossy surface is not necessarily a true gauge of good work. It is the finish of the under surfaces that takes the labor. ”

“ The malleability of nickel is less than that of iron, standing tenth in the list of useful metals; and in ductility it also occupies the tenth position. Nickel is very infusible, and does not so easily oxidize or tarnish at ordinary temperatures as copper does. Several countries have tried to employ it in the manufacture of small coin for the currency, but its use has now been almost abandoned. ”

“ To the increased strength given by nickel there has been added a further gain through the application of face-hardening processes—such as that of the American, Harvey—which produce superficial carbonization, transforming the surface into a high grade of very hard steel, without the pronounced plane of demarcation between the two qualities of metal, as in the weld of the compound plate. ”

“ A small quantity of nickel added to steel increases its hardness, and renders it inoxidisable, while edge-tools made of the alloy stand better than those of ordinary steel. A nickel bell metal is also found to give good results. The Paris Exhibition of 1878 proved the action of a totally new system of metallurgy in connection with this beautiful metal, and that of 1879 showed its practical introduction into most branches of manufacturing industry.—Journal of the Society of Arts. ”