NUMBER III.
To make the best kind of Amalgam for exciting Electrics.—
Any metal dissolved in mercury or quick-silver will answer the purpose very well, thus two parts of quick-silver with one of tin-foil, or Aurum Mosaicum, have been used to advantage. But the most powerful composition for an amalgam, is zinc and mercury, in the proportion of one part of the latter, with five of the former, to which may be added a little bee’s-wax or tallow, the proper way of preparing this amalgam is the following.—Let the quick-silver be heated, to about the degree of boiling water, and let the zinc also be melted in an iron ladle. Pour the heated quick-silver into a wooden box, and immediately afterwards pour the melted zinc into it likewise. Then shut the box, and shake it about for some time. You must now wait till the amalgam is cool, or nearly so, and then mix a little bee’s-wax, or mutton-suet with it, by trituration.