Buffon's Natural History. Volume 10 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 10 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
From these experiments of M. de Morveau there results, 1. That we may
expect to meet platina without addition, by applying the fire of it
several times successively, because the best crucibles might not resist
the action of so fierce a fire during the whole time that the complete
operation would require.
2. That by melting it with lead, and assaying them several times, we
should in the end vitrify all the lead and the platina; and that this
experiment would be able to purge it from a part of the foreign matters
it contains.
3. That by melting without any addition, it seems to purge itself
partly into the vitrescible matters it includes, since it emits to its
surface small drops of glass, which form pretty considerable masses,
and which we can easily separate after refrigeration.
4. That by making experiments on Prussian blue with the grains of
platina, which appeared to be most insensible to the loadstone, we were
not always certain of obtaining it; a circumstance which never fails
with grains that have more or less sensibility to magnetism.
5. It appears that neither fusion nor cupellation can destroy all the
iron with which platina is intimately penetrated; the pieces melted or
assayed, appeared, in reality, equally insensible to the action of the
loadstone; but having pounded them in a mortar, we found magnetical
parts; so much the more abundant as the platina was reduced to a fine
powder. The first piece, whose grains were only agglutinated, being
ground, rendered many more magnetical parts than the second and third,
the grains of which had undergone a stronger fusion; but, nevertheless,
being both ground, they furnished magnetical parts; insomuch that it
cannot be doubted that there is iron in platina, after it has undergone
the fiercest efforts of fire, and the devouring actions of the heat in
the cupel. This demonstrates, that this mineral is really an intimate
mixture of gold and iron, which hitherto has not been able to separate.
6. I made another observation with M. Morveau on melted, and afterwards
on ground platina; namely, that it takes in grinding precisely the same
form as it had before it had been melted; all the grains of this melted
and ground platina are similar to those of the natural, as well in form
as variety of size; and they appear to differ only because the smallest
alone suffer themselves to be raised by the loadstone, and in so much
the less quantity as the platina has endured the fire. This seems also
to prove, that, although the fire has been strong enough not only to
burn and vitrify, but even to drive off a part of the iron with other
vitrescible matter which it contains; the fusion, nevertheless, is not
so complete as that of other perfect metals, since, in grinding, it
retakes the same figure as it had before fusion.
EXPERIMENTS ON LIGHT, AND ON THE HEAT IT MAY PRODUCE.
INVENTION OF MIRRORS TO BURN AT GREAT DISTANCES.
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