=Nickel, Cobalt and German Silver.=--[ALFRED S. JOHNSTONE.]--(B. 673.) Many of the original sources of nickel have become exhausted. It is now found plentifully in Norway (in magnetic pyrites, containing about 4 or 5 per cent.) Hungary still supplies ore. The South African supply of ore, (an arsenide of over 25 per cent cobalt) has fallen off. South America and her desert of Atacama was a great source of nickel or cobalt, some of its hydrated arseniates reaching as much as 25% in the ores of nickel, and 17% in the ores of cobalt. The sole mine in Connecticut has been worked for many years. Sweden has yielded nickel from the Klefra and other mines. Germany supplies nickel from the Mansfeld mines. About 1874 nickel was discovered in the Island of New Caledonia, and large quantities of the ore were shipped to this country and to France. There appears now to be a constant supply from this source. The ore is a double silicate of nickel and magnesia, averaging 7 to 10% nickel. Later still nickel and cobalt have been discovered in Nevada. Passing over the history[57] of the production of nickel, which is already, to some extent, described in “Birmingham and Midland Hardware District,” it should be mentioned that nickel, though brittle under the hammer, has been successfully rendered malleable by treatment in which manganese is employed. The process of rendering nickel malleable is due to Messrs. Wiggin & Co., who patented the process in 1880. About the same time Dr. Fleitman, in Germany, succeeded also in rendering nickel malleable by using magnesium instead of manganese. The nickel thus produced may be rolled into plates and drawn into wire, or be stamped, beaten or raised into any article of common use, and it may be welded to itself or to iron. 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. At the present time, owing to the extensive supplies from all parts of the world, and the keen competition in the trade, nickel is reduced to 2/- per lb.