Abstract
THE following observations on the minute structure of metals, which have been hammered into thin leaves, are instructive. Notwithstanding the great opacity of metals, it is quite possible to procure, by chemical means, metallic leaves sufficiently thin to examine beneath the microscope by transmitted light. Silver leaf, for instance, when mounted upon a glass slip and immersed for a short time in a solution of potassium cyanide, perchloride of iron, or iron-alum, becomes reduced in thickness to any required extent. The structure of silver leaf may also be conveniently examined by converting it into a transparent salt by the action upon it of chlorine, iodine, or bromine. Similar suitable means may also be found for rendering more or less transparent most of the other metals which can be obtained in leaf.
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ELSDEN, J. Microscopic Structure of Malleable Metals . Nature 23, 391 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/023391a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023391a0