Читать книгу Henley's Formulas, Recipes and Processes (Applied Chemistry) - Various - Страница 258

—Alloys consisting of 2 parts of copper and 1 of tin can be very brilliantly polished, and will serve for mirrors. Good speculum metal should have a very fine-grained fracture, should be white and very hard, the highest degree of polish depending upon these qualities. A composition to meet these requirements must contain at least 35 to 36 per cent of copper. Attempts have frequently been made to increase the hardness of speculum metal by additions of nickel, antimony, and arsenic. With the exception of nickel, these substances have the effect of causing the metal to lose its high luster easily, any considerable quantity of arsenic in particular having this effect.

The real speculum metal seems to be a combination of the formula Cu₄Sn, composed of copper 68.21 per cent, tin 31.7. An alloy of this nature is sometimes separated from ordnance bronze by incorrect treatment, causing the so-called tin spots; but this has not the pure white color which distinguishes the speculum metal containing 31.5 per cent of tin. By increasing the percentage of copper the color gradually shades into yellow; with a larger amount of tin into blue. It is dangerous to increase the tin too much, as this changes the other properties of the alloy, and it becomes too brittle to be worked. Below is a table showing different compositions of speculum metal. The standard alloy is undoubtedly the best.