A NEW SOURCE OF WEALTH.—THE METAL MAGNESIUM.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 797, 20 June 1865, Page 3

A NEW SOURCE OF WEALTH.—THE METAL MAGNESIUM.

(From the Otago Daily Times!)

It is not quite correct to term magnesium a new discovery, since long ago Sir Humphrey Davy succeeded in obtaining a few grains of it from one of the many ores in which it abounds in nature. The new discovery consists in the finding out a process by which the metal can be cheaply manufactured. It would be too much to say that the result is fully arrived at as yet. The metal can be produced sufficiently cheap to make it useful for lighting purposes, where intense brilliancy is required. But for ordinary uses, it is somewhat costly. But the manufacture is yet in its infancy—it is confidently announced that very shortly magnesium will be produced as cheaply as zinc, or at about £25 a ton. Seeing that it is now sold by the grain, one may realise how immensely extended will be its ait when it comes to be procurable at anything like the figure we have named. To Mr. Sonstadt is due the discovery that mig* nesium is capable of being obtained quantity. Already two plans of manufac ture are patented, and a company has established a manufactory, and professes itself ready to supply the metal for consumption. It is sold in the shape of wire, weighing about two grains to the yard. It will light in the open air, and burn with a brilliancy that can only be realized by comparison. Wire of the substance referred to gives as much light as seventy-four stearine candles of five to the pound. It burns with great rapidity, at the rate, as far as can be ascertained from the published accounts, of about three feet per minute. So intense is its light that photographs can be taken by it. This alone will afford an immense scope for its use.

It is yet too early to predicate a tithe of the other purposes for which it may be found available. It is stated in a magazine which we have before us:— " Apart from photography, it was very plain that in magnesium anew signal light was discovered, which, for handiness at least, sets the lime and electric lights at defiance. Any one with a bit ot magnesium v/ire and a lucifer match can, in an instant, produce a light which may be discerned miles off; indeed, the light has been plainly discerned at a distance of twentyeight miles at sea —how much further remains to be determined. In rockets and fireworks, the filings of magnesium scintillate with a dazzling, far-reaching, and unequalled power. Already several Governments have taken magnesium in hand, and are diligently prosecuting experiments which, if satisfactory, will result in magnesium being entered as a stock commodity in all their arsonals. Theatrical managers are also experimenting, with a view to new sensations in Christmas pantomimes and Easter pieces. Surgeons find the light highly convenient in examinations with the speculum, and chemists discover a hundred uses for it in the laboratory. It is said some shopkeepers will astonish the Londoners with the light in the course of the winter. Already two patents have been taken out for magnesium lamps, and others are promised. The purposes to which the light may be applied are manifold, and every month reveals new ones." Besides the problem of cheapening its production, another will absorb attention —that of modifying its light sufficiently to make it serviceable for domestic use. Already it is found that its brilliancy can, to some extent, be regulated by alloying it with other metals; and there is no room to doubt that, ultimately, the means will be found of utilising it for ordinary household purposes. The discovery is peculiarly interesting to the inhabitants of the Middle Island of New

Zealand, for it so happens that a large portion of the formation of the island is of magnesium ore. The whole of the Dun mountain, (in Nelson Province,) and most of the ranges of the West Coast, are of serpentine, —an ore that contains over 40 per centof magnesia/whilst the magnesian limestone, which is found in great quantity at home, contains little more than a third of the same quantity. Magnesium, in one form or another, abounds over the world. It enters into the composition of innumerable substances. It is so largely present in seawater that Mr. Sonstadt calculates "the ocean contains 160,000 cubic miles of it—a mass so great that it would cover the entire surface of the globe, both sea and laud, to a thickness of eight feet." The greenstone so prized by the Maoris is a species of serpeutine, into the composition of which, as before stated, magnesium largely enters. The serpentine, which is bo abundant, is not the same kind as the greenstone, although containing the same components. Another substance of very general use, but of wholly different hardness—meerschaum-—has magnesium as one of its principal constituents. In short, there is no prescribed limit to the occurrence of magnesium, in one shape or another.

Quartz Crushing in Victoria.—The latest telegram in tlie Argus says: —" We learn from the Crooked River that the Pioneer and Jeff- Davis claims are both crushing. Tba last return of the former was eight ounces to the ton ; the latter pay their second dividend in a week or two. The news from ihe Koh-i-noor 19 to the effect that the reef is improving. A trial crushing will take place in a few weeks. The Royal Albert is looking well. Tlie reef is 1 bout nino feet thick. The Catherine look* splendid."