II. By comparing those substances which we term semi-metals and metallic minerals, which want ductility, we shall perceive, that the order of their density is emery, zinc, antimony and bismuth, and that in which they receive and lose heat, is antimony, bismuth, zinc, and emery; and which does not in any measure follow the order of their density, but rather that of their fusibility. Emery, which is a ferruginous mineral, although as dense again as bismuth, retains heat longer. Zinc, which is lighter than antimony or bismuth, retains heat longer than either. Antimony and bismuth, receive and keep it nearly alike. There are, therefore, semi-metals, and metallic minerals, which, like metals, receive and lose heat nearly in the same relation as their fusibility, and partake very little of their density.
But by joining the six metals, and the four semi-metals, or metallic minerals, which I have tried, we shall find the order of the densities of these ten mineral substances to be emery, zinc, antimony, tin, iron, copper, bismuth, silver, lead and gold. And that the order in which these substances heat and cool, is antimony, bismuth, tin, lead, silver, zinc, gold, copper, emery and iron, in which there are two things that do not appear to perfectly agree with the order of fusibility.
First, Antimony, which, according to Newton, should heat and cool slower than lead, since by his experiments it requires ten degrees of the same heat to fuse, of which eight are sufficient for lead; whereas by my experiments antimony is found to heat and cool quicker than lead. But it should be observed that Newton made use of the regulus of antimony, and that I employed only melted antimony in experiments. Now this regulus of antimony, or native antimony, is much more difficult to fuse than antimony which has already undergone a first fusion, therefore that does not make an exception to the rule. On the whole, I do not know what relation native antimony, or regulus of antimony, may have with the other matters I have heated and cooled; but I presume, from the experiments of Newton, that it heats and cools slower than lead.
Secondly, it is pretended, that zinc fuses more easily than silver, consequently it should be found before silver in the order indicated by experiments, if this order were in all cases relative to that of fusibility; and I own that this semi-metal seems, at the first glance, to make an exception to the law which is followed by all the others; but it must be observed, that the difference given by my experiments between zinc and silver is very trifling. The small globe of silver which I made use of was of the purest silver, without the least mixture of copper; but I had my doubts whether that of zinc were entirely free from copper, or some other metal less fusible; and therefore, after all my experiments, I returned the globe of zinc to M. Rouelle, a celebrated professor of chemistry, requesting him carefully to examine it, which having done, after several trials, he found a pretty considerable quantity of iron, or saffron of steel in it.
I have, therefore, had the satisfaction of seeing that not only my own supposition was well founded, but also that my experiments have been made with sufficient precision to evince a mixture. Thus zinc exactly follows the order of fusibility, like the other metals and semi-metals, in the progress of heat, and does not make any exception to the rule. It cannot therefore, in general, be said that the progress of heat in metals, semi-metals, and metallic minerals, is in the same ratio, or even nearly to that of their fusibility.
III. The Vitrescible and Vitreous Matters, which I tried, being ranged according to their density, are, pumice-stone, porcelain, oker, clay, glass, rock-chrystal, and gres, for I must observe, that although chrystal is not set down in the table of the weight of each matter but for six drachms 22 grains, it must be supposed one drachm heavier, because it was sensibly too small; and it was for this reason that I excluded it from the general table of relations; nevertheless, as the general result agrees with the rest, I can present the following as the order in which these different substances are cooled:
Pumice-stone, oker, porcelain, clay, glass, crystal and gres, is according to that of their density, for the oker is here before the porcelain only because, being a fusible matter, it diminished by the friction it underwent in the experiments, and, besides, their density differs so little that they may be looked upon as equal.
Thus the law of the progress of heat in vitrescible and vitreous matters is relative to the order of their density, and has little or no relation with their fusibility but by the heat required to fuse those substances being in an almost equal degree, and the particular degree of their different fusibility being so near each other that an order of distinct terms cannot be made; thus their almost equal fusibility making only one term, which is the extreme of this order, we must not be astonished that the progress of heat here follows the order of density, and that these different substances, which are all equally difficult to fuse, heat and cool more or less quick in proportion to the matter they contain.
It may be objected to me that glass fuses more easily than clay, porcelain, oker, and pumice-stone, which, nevertheless, heat and cool in less time than glass; but the objection will fail when we reflect, that to fuse glass it is requisite to have a very fierce fire, the heat of which is so remote from the degrees which glass receives in our experiments on refrigeration, that it cannot have any influence on them. Besides, by powdering clay, porcelain, and pumice-stone, and by giving them their analogous fusers, as we give to sand to convert it into glass, it is more than probable that we should fuse all the matters in the same degree of fire, and that, consequently we must look upon it as equal, or almost equal, with their resistance to fusion; and it is for this reason that the law of the progress of heat in these matters is found proportionable to the order of their density.