Results of the interaction of mercury with alloys of other metals

Abstract

It is well known that alloying metals with each other often modifies in a remarkable way their several relations to acids and other non-metallic reagents. Examples of this are afforded by the addition of silver to platinum, rendering the latter soluble, along with the former, in nitric acid —by the great resistance to the action of aqua regia on platinum when alloyed with rhodium or iridium—and by the solubility in cold, somewhat dilute sulphuric acid, of copper in alloy with nickel and zinc as common “German silver.” It seemed interesting to see what the behaviour of fluid metallic mercury would be in relation to alloys of metals solid at common temperatures. For instance, if an alloy of two metals—one of them when alone amalgamating readily with mercury and the other not—should be exposed to the action of mercury, would the former resist amalgamation or the latter be rendered amalgamable, or would each continue to behave as though the other were absent and the mercury take up the one and leave the other intact?