Excerpt from Metals and Their Chief Industrial Applications: Being, With Some Considerable Applications<br><br>1. BY various chemical processes the numerous animal, vegetable, and mineral products found in nature can be Split up into certain definite constituents, which have hitherto resisted all attempts to decompose them further to these bodies the term elements is applied, substances, into the composition of which two or more elements enter, being designated as compounds. Thus by strongly heating a fragment of marble or chalk, the mineral is split up into quicklime and a heavy irrespirable gas known as carbon dioxide; by special chemical means the quicklime can be shown to be compounded of a brilliant substance termed calcium, resembling silver or tin, but rusting much more readily in the air, together with a gas, oxygen, lighter than carbon dioxide, and capable of being breathed and of supporting the combustion of inflam mable substances with great ease; whilst the carbon dioxide can be similarly split up into charcoal or lamp 5 I H B.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.