C H A P. X.
Of the Combination of Combustible Substances with each other.
As combustible substances in general have a great affinity for oxygen, they ought likewise to attract, or tend to combine with each other; quae funt eadem uni tertium funt eadem inter fe; and the axiom is found to be true. Almost all the metals, for instance, are capable of uniting with each other, and forming what are called alloys*[1]., in common language. Most of these, like all combinations, are susceptible of several degrees of saturation; the greater number of these alloys are more brittle than the pure metals of which they are composed, especially when the metals alloyed together are considerably different in their degrees of fusibility. To this difference in fusibility, part of the phenomena attendant upon alloyage are owing, particularly to property of iron, called workmen
- ↑ *This term alloy, which we have from the language of the arts, serves exceedingly well for distinguishing all the combinations or intimate unions of metals with each other, and is adopted in our new nomenclature for that purpose.—A.
