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ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION.
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a
solution of sulphide of potassium, and established a communication
between the two liquids by the aid of a silver wire. Silver was
deposited on the left-hand wire, and crystals of the double sulphide of
silver and potassium on the right; but the sulphide of potassium being
rapidly destroyed by the nitric acid, there remained on the wires in
the clay, and on the walls of the tube, perfectly defined crystals of
sulphide of silver, presenting all the characteristics of natural crystals. As the current was very weak, the crystals took long to form; some of them from seven to eight years.
The
method by direct fusion could only be expected to produce fusible
minerals. The electric method had given neither a silicate nor an
alumi-nate; and, as crystallized bodies belonging to these classes are
by far the most important, Ebelman set himself to solve the problem of
their production.
Every
one knows that if crystalline substances— such as salt, for
instance—are dissolved in water, and the solution is allowed to stand
in the open air, the water will disappear after a time, and the
substance that was dissolved in it will be left in the shape of solid
crystals.
Reasoning
by analogy, then, Ebelman came to the conclusion that he must find some
body capable of dissolving infusible combinations without
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