No other process than that has hitherto been adopted for the purpose of
obtaining this substance from the particles by solution, precipitation,
ignition, and welding. It certainly is a very fine thing to see that we
may so fully depend upon the properties of the various substances we have
to deal with; that we can, by carrying out our processes, obtain a
material like this, allowing of division and extension under a rolling
mill--a material of the finest possible kind, the parts being held
together, not with interstices, not with porosity, but so continuous that
no fluids can pass between them; and, as Dr. Wollaston beautifully shewed,
a globule of platinum fused by the voltaic battery and the oxy-hydrogen
blowpipe, when drawn into a wire, was not sounder or stronger than this
wire made by the curious coalescence of the particles by the sticking
power that they had at high temperatures. This is the process adopted by
Messrs. Johnson and Matthey, to whose great kindness I am indebted for
these ingots and for the valuable assistance I have received in the
illustrations.
The treatment, however, that I have to bring before you is of another
kind; and it is in the hope that we shall be able before long to have such
a thing as the manufacture of platinum of this kind, that I am encouraged
to come before you, and tell you how far Deville has gone in the matter,
and to give you illustrations of the principles on which he proceeds.
Pages:
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151