Nickel

“ NICKEL. This metal is of a white color and very difficult to melt, it is about eight times heavier than water and is chiefly obtained from the ore known as kupfer-nickel, found very plentifully in Germany; this kupfer-nickel is a native arseniuret of nickel, that is, nickel in chemical combination with arsenic. It is very difficult to separate these two metals, but an effectual and cheap process has lately been devised to do so.
Nickel is attracted by the magnet similar to iron but in an inferior degree. ”

“ In other furnaces sheets of nickel from which Argentine coins had been punched were being melted, surrounded by a marvelous radiance of green and golden fire. All about you are great ingots of copper, silver, nickel and boxes of queer little nickel nuggets, formed by dropping the hot liquid into ice water. It is a place in which one would willingly spend a whole day watching the wonders which those accustomed to them take so calmly. In the vault just outside the furnace room I was shown between eighteen and nineteen million dollars' worth of gold bars stacked up on shelves. ”

“ The ores of nickel are not very common. Kupfernickel and chloanthite are arsenides of nickel with, generally, more or less iron and cobalt. Noumeite and garnierite are hydrated silicates of nickel and magnesia. The chief sources of nickel are these silicates, which are found in large quantity in New Caledonia; and a pyrites found in Norway, containing three or four per cent. of the metal. In smaller quantities it is more widely distributed, being frequently met with in copper ores; consequently, commercial copper is rarely free from it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is less malleable when it contains carbon than when pure. Besides its application for the production of German silver, nickel is largely used as anodes for nickel plating, and for coinage in many countries. Its oxide is used in the Potteries for giving a soft brown tint to china and earthenware, and it is also employed for the production of nickel salts for plating. The German Government in 1873 adopted nickel alloy for coinage, and the exceptional demand advanced the price from 4/- to 16/- per lb. ”

“ The nickel was the ideal coin to tempt the counterfeiter, for its intrinsic value was not so great as to require the employment of a large amount of capital, and yet its face value was sufficient to pay for the labour and time expended. ”

“ It is not only in the form of an alloy that nickel is used in coinage. Improvements in the metallurgy of the metal have rendered possible a coinage of pure nickel, and it is interesting to note that Switzerland, which was the first to adopt a nickel-alloy coinage, was also the first to issue coins of the pure metal, the Swiss twenty-centime pieces coined in 1884 being pure nickel. ”

“ It thus appears that nickel is gaining in favor for subsidiary coinage, and not without cause. It is superior to copper in color, and, being more valuable, smaller coins are obtained; both the pure metal and the alloy are hard and thus wear well, and they possess the additional advantage that they can be manipulated only by skillful workmen. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nickel, according to Deville, is more tenacious than iron. It is magnetic at ordinary temperatures. Many of the copper coins of the European continent and the United States are alloys containing various proportions of nickel. Nickel-plating has become an industry of great importance in the United States. ”

“ Nickel gives a certain degree of whiteness to iron. It is used, with advantage, by some of the Birmingham manufacturers, in combination with that metal, and by others in combination with brass. If 209it were possible to discover an easy method of working nickel, there can be little doubt but it would be found a very valuable metal for surgical instruments, for compass needles, and other articles, as it is not, like iron, liable to rust. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nickel is largely used as an alloy with other metals. Alloyed with copper it forms coin metal from which five-cent pieces are made, with copper and zinc it forms German silver, and when added to steel in small quantities nickel steel is formed which is much superior to common steel for certain purposes. When deposited by electrolysis upon the surface of other metals such as iron, it forms a covering which will take a high polish and protects the metal from rust, nickel not being acted upon by moist air. ”

“ Nickel, while present in the average igneous rock in greater [Pg 182] amounts than copper, lead, or zinc, is apparently not so readily concentrated in nature as the other metals and is rarely found in workable deposits. The few ore bodies known have been formed as the result of unusual segregation of the nickel in highly magnesian igneous rock of the norite or gabbro type, at the time of its solidification or soon after; and in some cases, in order to produce the nickel ore, still further concentration by the agency of weathering has been necessary. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Several countries, including Japan, Spain, and Poland, use coins of cupro-nickel and aluminum in sizes which are closer to one another than the U.S. cent is to the nickel. If an aluminum alloy is selected for the penny, there is not expected to be any problem in distinguishing the cent from the dime or nickel.
Most machines which utilize cents require no modification to utilize aluminum cents alone or in combination with present cents. This is true of counting machines, cash registers, change dispensing machines, parking meters, and simple vending devices like bubblegum machines. ”

“ Obviously the nickel resources of the world are controlled by a few companies. The chief one is the International Nickel Co., which has the largest holdings at Sudbury, and the second largest holdings in New Caledonia. The Mond and the British-America are the next most important, and La Société le Nickel is fourth in importance. E. J. Longyear Co. and associates do not aspire to become producers of nickel and are in the market to sell their properties. For a new concern to succeed it would have to develop a refining process of its own. ”

“ Each kind of money, as the penny, nickel, dime, has its own peculiar demand and its saturation point. For the smaller denominations the standard metal is not suitable. A gold dollar cannot well be cut into twenty or a hundred pieces. Thus copper, nickel, silver remain in restricted use. When these are issued at their bullion value, difficulties arise; not only are they too heavy, but as they vary in bullion value, some of them become worth more as bullion than as coin, and suddenly disappear from circulation. ”

“ The specific gravity of nickel reduced by hydrogen is 9·1 and that of cobalt 8·9. Fused cobalt has a specific gravity of 8·5, the density of ordinary nickel being almost the same. Nickel has a greyish silvery-white colour; it is brilliant and very ductile, so that the finest wire may be easily drawn from it. This wire has a resistance to tension equal to iron wire. The beautiful colour of nickel, and the high polish which it is capable of receiving and retaining, as it does not oxidise, render it a useful metal for many purposes, and in many ways it resembles silver. ”

“ The small coin of Belgium and Switzerland is now made of nickel instead of copper, and large quantities are employed in the fabrication of German silver, or Argentine plate, an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc, which, from its hardness and brilliant white colour, furnishes an excellent material for tablespoons and forks. Both the nickel and cobalt ores are produced chiefly by Sweden, Norway, and Germany; our own mines furnish but insignificant quantities. ”

“ The silver, nickel, and copper for American currency is bought by the mint and made into coins at a profit. This profit is called seigniorage and it is sufficient to make all the mints self-supporting. The amount of metal in a nickel, for instance, costs only a fraction of five cents. When coins are lost or destroyed—by shipwreck, fire, etc.—the government is just so much to the good, and a great many coins are permanently lost or destroyed every year. ”

“ 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 most important example is afforded by the mingled ores of nickel and copper which are developed in their largest form in the region of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, and are now the principal source of nickel for the world. ”

“ Nickel will not rust so it does not surprise one that with 22 per cent or more of nickel the steel is almost immune from ordinary corrosion. Steels containing from 25 to 46 per cent nickel are variously used for resistance wire, for valve stems, valves for motors, etc. The 36 per cent nickel steel is the alloy, “Invar,” which has such slight expansion and contraction with heat and cold that it is used for clock pendulums, watch parts and for parts of measuring instruments. ”

“ 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. ”

“ While competition is not to be feared (that is, for Ontario) , it would be futile to try to shut off the supply of nickel from almost any of the great nations. * * * Nearly every important country has supplies of nickel ore which can be worked if the demand is great, thus ensuring a high price.
It is thought probable that the nickeliferous metallographic province of eastern Canada, which includes the Sudbury district, contains the greatest unknown nickel deposits, just as it contains the greatest known one, and this for three reasons. ”

“ It is a “nickel on which no trust can place its hands”—and this nickel, when multiplied by the number of bushels of grain produced in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan, reaches the stupendous figure of ninety-eight million dollars! In the matter of iron ore the saving is still greater. Were it not for this saving all steel necessities, from rails to common kitchen forks, would advance tremendously in price, and the United States would not be able to control the steel markets of the world. ”

“ Those prepared from nickel are much more infusible than those made without it; consequently, if a piece of the nickel alloy, either by accident or design, gets intermixed with the other quality, in a subsequent melting, it will be found to float upon the surface of the molten metal for some considerable time, and thus retard the process. Alloys prepared in imitation of silver are harder and much more difficult to work than those of the true metal ”

“ Dr. Elliotson had said, that nickel was capable of retaining and transmitting the magnetic fluid in an extraordinary degree; but that lead possessed no such virtues. The effects of the nickel, he was confident, would be quite astounding; but that lead might always be applied with impunity. A piece of nickel was produced by the Doctor, about three quarters of an ounce in weight, together with a piece of lead of the same shape and smoothness, but somewhat larger. Elizabeth Okey was seated in a chair; and, by a few passes and manipulations, was thrown into the state of "ecstatic delirium." ”