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 666 BISMUTH country, and the renown won by the army, put an end to the long parliamentary conflict, and a national endowment was conferred upon him by the chambers. The annexation of Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau, Frankfort, and ^Schles- wig-Holstein to Prussia, and the establishment of the North German confederation, with the adhesion of Saxony and other states, were con- sidered chiefly due to his ability. He averted war with France on the Luxemburg question by the treaty of London (1867) ; but the new diplomatic success achieved here by Prussia, in addition to the prestige gained by her previous- ly, increased the jealousy of France, especially as Napoleon's attempt at a coalition with Aus- tria was baffled by Bismarck's secret treaties with the South German states, and by his un- derstanding with Italy. The accession of a Hohenzollern prince to the Roumanian throne being followed in 1870 by a project of raising another prince of that house to the Spanish throne, Napoleon seized this incident as a pre- text for a declaration of war, which under Bis- marck's influence was met both by the North German confederation and the South German states, with Prussia at their head, with such an unprecedented spirit that France was utterly prostrated in the war, while King William, victorious from the beginning to the end, was proclaimed emperor of Germany at Versailles, Jan. 18, 1871 ; and he soon afterward pro- moted Count Bismarck, as the originator of the brilliant triumphs of Germany, to the rank of prince with the title of chancellor 'of the German empire. Throughout the war Bis- marck was by the side of the emperor, display- ing at every step new talents for executive and diplomatic affairs. In internal affairs his policy had in the meanwhile gradually assumed a more and more liberal complexion. In 1872 he took strong ground against the doctrine of papal infallibility, caused the expulsion of the Jesuits from Prussia, and insisted upon the sub- jection of the Roman Catholic church to the civil government. (See PRUSSIA, and GER- MANY.) Among the many recent works rela- ting to Prince Bismarck are Ludwig Bamber- ger's M. de Bixmarclc (Paris, 1868; German translation, Berlin, 1868) ; Dr. Konstantin Ross- ler's Graf Bismarck und die deutsche Nation (Berlin, 1871); and Hesekiel's "Life of Bis- marck, Private and Political," translated into English by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie (1870). BISMUTH, a metal which shines with such brilliant colors that the name is supposed to be derived from the German Wiesenmatte, or meadow lawn. The original word was con- tracted to Wissmat, and finally to Wismuth, which is its present German form. The an- cients make no mention of bismuth. It is not more than 100 years since a number of the most learned scientific men of Europe stoutly maintained that it could be made artificially, and was not therefore a simple body. After the properties of the metal became well under- stood search was made everywhere for it, and it was found native in a number of localities the principal mines being in Saxony, where it is associated with nickel and cobalt to the ex- tent of 7 per cent. Specimens of it have been found in Monroe county, N. Y. ; in South Caro- lina; in Haddam, Conn. ; in Virginia; and in several places in South America, especially on the Andes in Bolivia at a height of 15,000 feet. At the mines in Saxony the impure ore is eli- quated or subjected to a sweating process, and the drops of the metal, as they ooze out, run down the pipes into iron kettles. In this way the crude ingots are prepared for commerce. Pure bismuth is a reddish-white metal, closely resembling antimony. It is so brittle that it can be pulverized in a mortar, and yet at cer- tain temperatures it is more or less tenacious, and can be drawn into thin wires. By fusing large quantities of it, say 100 Ibs., in a kettle well covered, and then as soon as a thick crust has formed piercing two holes, pouring out the still liquid contents, and sawing off the upper crust, there will be disclosed magnificent crys- tals with cubical facets, and in clusters, resem- bling a ruined city. These crystals have all the iridescence and play of colors of the rain- bow. The specific gravity of the metal is 9'83, and it melts at 264 0. (507 F.). This point of fusion is used to adjust high-ranged thermome- ters. An alloy of antimony and bismuth, ar- ranged in a great number of small prisms, af- fords the most sensitive thermometer that has been constructed. We can measure the -j^VsT of a degree by this delicate instrument, and by it even the moon can be shown to afford some heat. The principle upon which it is based is the action of heat to produce an electric cur- rent which moves a carefully adjusted mag- netic needle. The passage of the hand before the instrument, or the faintest breath, or any radiating surface turned toward it, immediate- ly excites the electric current, and causes the needle to move around the graduated arc; and in this way the slightest change in tem- perature can be measured. Some celebrated experiments were performed with it by the Italian philosopher Melloni, and also by Dr. John W. Draper of New York, for the pur- pose of deciding many nice points in refer- ence to the transmission, radiation, and re- fraction of heat. Melted bismuth expands on cooling, following the same law as iron and water on its conversion into ice. Bismuth imparts brittleness to other metals, render- ing even gold and silver less malleable, and forming, it is said, a crystalline alloy with iron. The alchemists looked upon it as a bastard metal, and sometimes called it lead ashes, plum- bum cinereum, on account of its close resem- blance to antimony. They also spoke of it as antimoniitm femininium, or the female anti- mony. Its frequent occurrence in beautiful dendritic groups also suggested to the early miners that it could be cultivated the same as any tree or vegetable. Bismuth has the prop- erty of imparting fusibility to other metals ;