ANTI-MASONS, the name of a political party in New York and other states, organized in 1827-28. It was the result of a remarkable excitement over the fate of William Morgan, a tailor of Batavia, N. Y., who was said to be about to publish, or betray, the secrets of the masonic order, of which he was a member. He disappeared suddenly, and his fate has never been satisfactorily explained. There was a search, and he was traced to the Niagara river, near which it was discovered that he had been temporarily in prison. The opponents of freemasonry declared that he had been murdered, and sunk in the river or lake. Legal inquiries followed, but proved nothing. At or about that time the governor of the state was a mason of the most advanced degrees, and probably a majority of all public officers were members of the order. A wild excite ment grew up in western New York, and the anti-masonic party was formed, casting 33,000 votes in 1828, about 70,000 in 1829, and 128,000 in 1830, though many in the latter year were anti-Jackson men, without reference to masonry. In 1832, the party nominated William Wirt for president, hut carried only one state, Vermont. In 1835, through a democratic split, they elected the governor of Pennsylvania. After this the party fell as rapidly as it rose, and has not since made any conspicuous figure in politics. A great majority of the anti-masons became members of the Whig party.
Sb (Lat. Stzbium) equiv. 122—is a brittle metal of a flaky, crys talline texture and a bluish-white color. It is readily reduced to powder by ordinary pulverization: when heated to 840' F. it fuses, and thereafter being allowed to cool, it solidifies in rhombohedral crystals, which are isomorphous with those of arsenic. Ileated in a retort, where the oxygen of the air is excluded, as in an atmosphere of hydrogen, A. volatilizes as the vapor of the pure metal. When raised in temperature in contact with the air, it burns with a white light—combining with the oxygen of the atmosphere,. and forming copious white fumes of the teroxide of A., or " flowers of A." The metal' is a bad conductor of heat and electricity, but may be used, in conjunction with bomuth, in the construction of thermoelectric piles. Exposed to the air at ordinary temperatures, A. does not tarnish or rust; and this property, combined with the hardness of the metal and of its compounds, renders A. of essential service in the useful arts, iu the construc tion of alloys, such as britannia metal, type metal, and plate pewter. It is likewise employed in the preparation of the large concave mirrors used in astronomical observa tions; and in the casting of bells, to make them harder and whiter, and to give them a clearer and stronger sound.
Tlv principal natural sources of A. are—gray or crude A. of commerce, which impure tersulphuret of A. (SbS3); and natire A., in which it occurs in the metallic state
associated with silver, iron, and other metals. The extraction of A. from its ores is mainly carried on at Linz in Germany, where the sulphide of A. is found extensively, and in Great Britain, which receives its supply of ore from Singapore and Borneo, com monly as ballast. The process consists in heating the crude ore, covered with charcoal, on the bed of a furnace, when the sulphide of A. fuses, leaving unmelted the earthy impurities; and thereafter the liquid is drawn off into iron molds, where it solidifies into cakes or loaves. The latter are reduced to coarse powder, placed on the bed of a rever beratory furnace, and fielded with access of ordinary air containing oxygen, when the sulphur passes sway as gaseous sulphurous acid leaving behind the A. as the ter oxide The roasted mass is now mixed with one sixth of its weight of powdered charcoal, the whole moistened with a solution of carbonate of soda, and raised to bright redness in crucibles, when the metal A. trickles to the bottom, and the impurities are left above in the spent fiux or scoria, which is known in the arts by the name of crocus of A.
The compounds of A. are numerous: with oxygen it forms (1) the to-oxide of A., or white d. ore which enters into the composition of tartar emetic; (2) antimonious acid (Sh0,), which forms one of the components of Dr. James's powders; (3) antimonie acid (SUN, a very insoluble compound, obtained by upon the metal with concen trated nitric acid. With sulphur, A. forms the tersulphide(ShS3) already referred to as a natural ore of the metal, and which, when roasted at a temperature sufficient to fuse it, passes into the mixed teroxide and tersulphide of A. known commercially as the glass of A. A native oxysulphide, of a pretty red color, is calle6 red A. ore. When the ordinary sulphide of A. is boiled with potash, or the carbonate of potash, it dissolves, and there after, on boiling, deposits a reddish-brown substance known as mineral kermes. The liquid from which the deposit has fallen, if treated with hydrochloric acid, throws down an orange precipitate of golden sulphide of A.
There is also a chloride of A prepared by heating sulphide of A. and hydro chloric acid together, and which has the common name of butter of A.. It is generally obtained as an oily liquid, of the consistence of melted butter, and of a golden yellow color. Mixed with olive oil, it is used by gunmakers as bronzing salt, to impart a yellow color to gun-barrels. The surface of the metal is afterwards polished by a burnisher, or coated with a varnish.
The various compounds of A. are used as medicinal agents, both in human and veter inary practice, especially the tartar emetic, a compound of teroxide of A., potash, and tartaric acid