ANTIMONY, a silver-white metal, slightly blue, and with a very brilliant lustre. Its hardness is as great as that of gold. It has a specific gravity of 6.7-6.8. It does not combine with oxygen at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, but is fused at a temperature a little below red-heat, and burns very vividly. It is a compact brittle metal, and is sometimes found pure in nature, but never abundantly. It occurs mixed with lead, silver, arsenic, and other metals, but its most important ore, and that from which it is obtained for commercial and medicinal purposes, is the sulpburet. It enters into composition with other metals of several alloys used in the arts. Type Metal is composed of one-fourth to one-twelfth of antimony, the rest being lead, tin, bismuth, and copper. Hard Pewter is made of 12 parts of tin and 1 of antimony ; Britannia Metal of antimony, tin, bismuth, and copper. The markets are supplied with the ores of antimony from Hungary, England, France, and lately from Borneo. The following are some of the forms in which antimony occurs as a mineral :— Natire Antimony, with a little silver. Stiblite is an antimoniate of antimony, the oxide of antimony acting as an acid. There are two oxides or acids of antimony, both of which are found native, and are called Antimonic Acid and Antimonious Acid. White Antimony is a
sesquioxide of antimony. Antimonophyllite is an impure oxide of antimony. Gray Antimony is a compound of three of sulphur and one of antimony. It occurs in masses or veins in Metamorphic and Igneous rocks. It fuses rapidly in the flame of a candle. It is often seen in long prismatic or acicular crystals with strong vertical striae. Zinkenite is a sulphuret of antimony and lead, containing 45 per cent. of antimony. Plagionite is the same, hut contains only 38 per cent. of antimony. Feather Ore is the same, with 31 per cent. Boulangerite the same, with 251 per cent. Jamesonite is a sulphuret of antimony, with iron and bismuth, containing 35 per cent. of antimony. Red Antimony is also called Kermes Mineral and Antimony Blonde, and is a mixture of the sulphuret and oxide of antimony, containing 75 per cent, of the latter. Antimoniate of Lead contains 31 per cent. of antimony. Arsenical Antimony contains 62 per cent. of arsenic and 37 per cent. of antimony. Berthierite or llardingerite is a sulphuret of antimony and iron. The following are sulphurets of antimony and lead :—Steinmannite, Killbrickenite, Kobellite, White Silver, Geokronite, and Boulangerite.
(Ansted, Elementary Course of Mineralogy, &c.)