THE ODOUR OF METALS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 6 May 1911, Page 10

THE ODOUR OF METALS.

—: f- | Several German scientists have been \ turning their attention to the question I of the origin of metallic odors. Those : people whose everyday observation has ; shown that each metal gives out a : characteristic odor will be surprised to • learn that eminent scientists have con- '• tended that metallic bodies are really j without smell. In view of the fact that ! the metal loses no calculable part of its weight, the theory has been advanc- j ed that the scent arises from volatilised atoms mingled with the atmospheric air.; This explanation does not satisfactorily account for the phenomena in the ' opinion of the German investigators. \ Experiments have shown that a piece of metal at ordinary temperatures gives out only a slight smell, which is i not apparent to many noses, while if , it is heated above a lamp the smell is j easily detected. But if the metal is kept heated for a period of time the j odor gradually decreases in intensity ' until it becomes little different from I that which is exhaled in the cold state. ' Then when the heating process is dis- I continued and the metal is cooled it fails to give off any* odor whatever.) Neither will a further heating renew I the smell, making it apparent that the metal soon exhausts its powers in this • direction. Since these results always j occur m the same way the Germans have come to the conclusion that the matter given off during the heating is not identical with the metal. Their deduction, based on a knowledge of what occurs in the case of radium, is that every metal is discharging gaseous matter composed not of atoms of the metal itself, but rather of a product of the transformation of the atoms. The metal appears to possess the power of storing the gaseous emanations, much m the way that carbonic acid gas is stored in water. The amount that can be retained decreases with a rise in temperature, and when the metal is cooled after heating, no gas is given off until the loss sustained during the process of heating has been replaced. One of the German professors claims that he has succeeded in isolating in a vessel the smell of copper. The statement suggests strange possibilities. 1 here should be a great demand among people of means for bottled scent of gold, while the aroma of diamonds would be just the thing for the boudoir of the millionaire's wife.