which, being in close contact with the rest of the mass, form voltaic combinations with it in a very active state: or, in the third place, it may result from the iron being mechanically divided by the platinum, so that its particles are more readily attacked by the acid, analogous to the case of protosulphuret of iron.
Although we have not been able to prove by such experiments, as may be considered strictly decisive, to which of these causes the action is owing, or how much is due to any of them, yet we do not hesitate to consider the second as almost entirely, if not quite, the one that is active. The reasons which induce us to suppose this to be the true cause of the action, rather than any peculiar and previous arrangement of the particles of steel and platinum, or than the state of division of the steel, are, that the two metals combine in every proportion we have tried, and do not in any case exhibit evidences of a separation between them, like those, for instance, which steel and silver exhibit; that when, instead of an acid, weaker agents are used, the alloy does not seem to act with them as if it were a series of infinitely minute voltaic combinations of steel and platinum, but exactly as steel alone would do; that the mass does not render platinum wire more negative than steel, as it probably in the third case would do; that it does not rust more rapidly in a damp atmosphere; and that when placed in saline solutions, as muriate of soda, &c., there is no action takes place between them. In such cases it acts just like steel; and no agent that we have as yet tried, has produced voltaic action that was not first able to set a portion of the platinum free by dissolving out the iron.
Other interesting phenomena exhibited by the action of acid on these steels, are the differences produced when they are hard and when soft. Mr. Daniel, in his interesting paper on the mechanical structure of iron, published in the Journal of Science, has remarked, that pieces of hard and soft steel being placed in muriatic acid, the first required fivefold the time of the latter to saturate the acid; and that when its surface was examined, it was covered with small cavities like worm-eaten wood, and was compact and not at all striated, and that the latter presented a fibrous and wavy texture.
The properties of the platinum alloy have enabled us to
