Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/495

Rh Freiberg, smelted from the ore in which indium was first discovered, containing very nearly one-half part of indium, per one thousand parts of zinc. A considerable quantity of indium extracted from this zinc, was shown in the Paris Exhibition of 1867; and an ingot from the Freiberg Museum, weighing two hundred grammes, or over seven ounces, has within the last few days been kindly forwarded by Dr. Richter himself, for inspection on the present occasion. To Dr. Schuchardt, of Goerlitz, also, the members of the Institution are indebted for his loan of nearly sixty grammes of metallic indium; and of fine specimens of other rare chemical products, prepared with his well-known skill, in a state of great purity and beauty.

When zinc containing indium is dissolved not quite completely in dilute sulphuric or muriatic acid, the whole of the indium originally present in the zinc is left in the black spongy or flocculent residue of undissolved metal, with which every one who has prepared hydrogen gas by means of zinc and acid is so well acquainted. Besides some zinc, this black residue is found to contain lead, cadmium, iron, and arsenic, less frequently copper and thallium, and in some cases, as that of the Freiberg zinc, a small proportion of indium. From the solution of this residue in nitric acid, the indium is separated by ordinary analytical processes, based chiefly on the precipitability of its sulphide by sulphuretted hydrogen from solutions acidulated only with acetic acid, and on the precipitability of its hydrate both by ammonia and carbonate of barium. From its soluble salts, metallic indium is readily thrown down in the spongy state by means of zinc. The washed sponge of metal is then pressed together between filtering-paper, by aid of a screw press, and finally melted under a flux of cyanide of potassium.

Thus obtained, indium is a metal of an almost silver-white color, apt to become faintly bismuth-tinted. It tarnishes slowly on exposure to air, and thereby acquires very much the appearance of ordinary lead. Like lead, it is compact and seemingly devoid of crystalline structure. Moreover, like lead and thallium, it is exceedingly soft, and readily capable of furnishing wire, by the process of "squirting" or forcing. The specific gravity of indium, or 7.4, is very close to that of tin, or 7.2; and much above that of aluminum, 2.6, and below that of lead, 11.4, and that of thallium, 11.9. In the lowness of its melting-point, namely, 176° C, indium occupies an extreme position among the metals permanent in air; the next most fusible of these metals, namely, tin and cadmium, melting at 228°; bismuth at 264°; thallium at 294°; and lead at 235°. Though so readily fusible, indium is not an especially volatile metal. It is appreciably less volatile than the zinc in which it occurs, and far less volatile than cadmium. Heated as far as practicable in a glass tube, it is incapable of being raised to a temperature sufficiently high to allow of its being vaporized, even in a current of hydrogen.