Abstract
IT is difficult to say with what object this little book has been written, and so it would perhaps be rash to assert that its object has not been attained. It is, at any rate, to be regretted that Mr. Wilson's work ever saw the light, as it is distinctly inferior to each of the half-dozen accounts which have already appeared of the cyanide process for the extraction of gold from its ores, and can only mislead and confuse those who expect to learn something from it. It is evident, from his own statements in the preface and elsewhere, that the author has derived much of his acquaintance with the subject from Patent Office literature, although he also claims to have read extracts from technical journals and other periodicals. He has not touched on mechanical details, but has con fined himself to expounding the chemical principles of the process, which he appears to understand very imperfectly. The book is full of mistakes, such, for example, as that “the standard solution of cyanide contains from 0˙5 to 1˙5 per cent.,” and that mercury oxidises quickly in the air at ordinary temperatures. On p. 74 it is stated that “the gold positive dissolves to the cyanide solution negative, with the result that the gold cyanide solution is positive.... Whether this electrolyte becomes converted into an electrode by absorbing the gold we are unable to say, but when they become ‘cations’ the gold is in the metallic state and the potassium cyanide is immediately set free.” The book is well supplied with such statements as this.
Cyanide Processes.
By E. B. Wilson Pp. 116 (New York: John Wiley and Sons. London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1896.)
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ROSE, T. Cyanide Processes. Nature 54, 7 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/054007b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/054007b0