Volume 2, Slice 2 Part 19 (2/2)
ANTI-MASONIC PARTY, an American political organization which had its rise after the mysterious disappearance, in 1826, of William Morgan (c.
1776-c. 1826), a Freemason of Batavia, New York, who had become dissatisfied with his Order and had planned to publish its secrets. When his purpose became known to the Masons, Morgan was subjected to frequent annoyances, and finally in September 1826 he was seized and surrept.i.tiously conveyed to Fort Niagara, whence he disappeared. Though his ultimate fate was never known, it was generally believed at the time that he had been foully dealt with. The event created great excitement, and led many to believe that Masonry and good citizens.h.i.+p were incompatible. Opposition to Masonry was taken up by the churches as a sort of religious crusade, and it also became a local political issue in western New York, where early in 1827 the citizens in many ma.s.s meetings resolved to support no Mason for public office. In New York at this time the National Republicans, or ”Adams men,” were a very feeble organization, and shrewd political leaders at once determined to utilize the strong anti-Masonic feeling in creating a new and vigorous party to oppose the rising Jacksonian Democracy. In this effort they were aided by the fact that Jackson was a high Mason and frequently spoke in praise of the Order. In the elections of 1828 the new party proved unexpectedly strong, and after this year it practically superseded the National Republican party in New York. In 1829 the hand of its leaders was shown, when, in addition to its antagonism to the Masons, it became a champion of internal improvements and of the protective tariff. From New York the movement spread into other middle states and into New England, and became especially strong in Pennsylvania and Vermont. A national organization was planned as early as 1827, when the New York leaders attempted, unsuccessfully, to persuade Henry Clay, though a Mason, to renounce the Order and head the movement. In September 1831 the party at a national convention in Baltimore nominated as its candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency William Wirt of Maryland and Amos Ellmaker (1787-1851) of Pennsylvania; and in the election of the following year it secured the seven electoral votes of the state of Vermont. This was the high tide of its prosperity; in New York in 1833 the organization was moribund, and its members gradually united with other opponents of Jacksonian Democracy in forming the Whig party. In other states, however, the party survived somewhat longer, but by 1836 most of its members had united with the Whigs. Its last act in national politics was to nominate William Henry Harrison for president and John Tyler for vice-president at a convention in Philadelphia in November 1838.
The growth of the anti-Masonic movement was due to the political and social conditions of the time rather than to the Morgan episode, which was merely the torch that ignited the train. Under the name of ”Anti-Masons” able leaders united those who were discontented with existing political conditions, and the fact that William Wirt, their choice for the presidency in 1832, was not only a Mason but even defended the Order in a speech before the convention that nominated him, indicates that simple opposition to Masonry soon became a minor factor in holding together the various elements of which the party was composed.
See Charles McCarthy, _The Antimasonic Party: A Study of Political Anti-Masonry in the United States, 1827-1840_, in the Report of the American Historical a.s.sociation for 1902 (Was.h.i.+ngton, 1903); the _Autobiography of Thurlow Weed_ (2 vols., Boston, 1884); A.G. Mackey and W.R. Singleton, _The History of Freemasonry_, vol. vi. (New York, 1898); and J.D. Hammond, _History of Political Parties in the State of New York_ (2 vols., Albany, 1842).
ANTIMONY (symbol Sb, atomic weight 120.2), one of the metallic chemical elements, included in the same natural family of the elements as nitrogen, phosphorus, a.r.s.enic, and bis.m.u.th. Antimony, in the form of its sulphide, has been known from very early times, more especially in Eastern countries, reference to it being made in the Old Testament. The Arabic name for the naturally occurring stibnite is ”kohl”; Dioscorides mentions it under the term [Greek: stimmi], Pliny as _stibium_; and Geber as _antimonium_. By the German writers it is called _Speissglanz_.
Basil Valentine alludes to it in his _Triumphal Car of Antimony_ (circa 1600), and at a later date describes the preparation of the metal.
Native mineral antimony is occasionally found, and as such was first recognized in 1748. It usually occurs as lamellar or glanular ma.s.ses, with a tin-white colour and metallic l.u.s.tre, in limestone or in mineral veins often in a.s.sociation with ores of silver. Distinct crystals are rarely met with; these are rhombohedral and isomorphous with a.r.s.enic and bis.m.u.th; they have a perfect cleavage parallel to the basal plane, c (111), and are sometimes twinned on a rhombohedral plane, e (110).
Hardness 3-3 specific gravity 6.63-6.72. Sala in Sweden, Allemont in Dauphine, and Sarawak in Borneo may be mentioned as some of the localities for this mineral.
Antimony, however, occurs chiefly as the sulphide, stibnite; to a much smaller extent it occurs in combination with other metallic sulphides in the minerals wolfsbergite, boulangerite, bournonite, pyrargyrite, &c.
For the preparation of metallic antimony the crude stibnite is first liquated, to free it from earthy and siliceous matter, and is then roasted in order to convert it into oxide. After oxidation, the product is reduced by heating with carbon, care being taken to prevent any loss through volatilization, by covering the ma.s.s with a layer of some protective substance such as potash, soda or glauber salt, which also aids the refining. For rich ores the method of roasting the sulphide with metallic iron is sometimes employed; carbon and salt or sodium sulphate being used to slag the iron. Electrolytic methods, in which a solution of antimony sulphide in sodium sulphide is used as the electrolyte, have been proposed (see German Patent 67973, and also Borcher's _Electro-Metallurgie_), but do not yet appear to have been used on the large scale.
Antimony combines readily with many other metals to form alloys, some of which find extensive application in the arts. Type-metal is an alloy of lead with antimony and tin, to which occasionally a small quant.i.ty of copper or zinc is added. The presence of the antimony in this alloy gives to it hardness, and the property of expanding on solidification, thus allowing a sharp cast of the letter to be taken. An alloy of tin and antimony forms the basis of Britannia-metal, small quant.i.ties of copper, lead, zinc or bis.m.u.th being added. It is a white metal of bluish tint and is malleable and ductile. For the linings of bra.s.ses, various white metals are used, these being alloys of copper, antimony and tin, and occasionally lead.
Antimony is a silvery white, crystalline, brittle metal, and has a high l.u.s.tre. Its specific gravity varies from 6.7 to 6.86; it melts at 432 C. (Dalton), and boils between 1090-1600 C. (T. Carnelley), or above 1300 (V. Meyer). Its specific heat is 0.0523 (H. Kopp). The vapour density of antimony at 1572 C. is 10.74, and at 1640 C. 9.78 (V.
Meyer, _Berichte_, 1889, 22, p. 725), so that the antimony molecule is less complex than the molecules of the elements phosphorus and a.r.s.enic.
An amorphous modification of antimony can be prepared by heating the metal in a stream of nitrogen, when it condenses in the cool part of the apparatus as a grey powder of specific gravity 6.22, melting at 614 C.
and containing 98-99% of antimony (F. Herard, _Comptes Rendus_, 1888, cvii. 420).
Another form of the metal, known as explosive antimony, was discovered by G. Gore (_Phil. Trans._, 1858, p. 185; 1859, p. 797; 1862, p. 623), on electrolysing a solution of antimony trichloride in hydrochloric acid, using a positive pole of antimony and a negative pole of copper or platinum wire. It has a specific gravity of 5.78 and always contains some unaltered antimony trichloride (from 6 to 20%, G. Gore). It is very unstable, a scratch causing it instantaneously to pa.s.s into the stable form with explosive violence and the development of much heat. Similar phenomena are exhibited in the electrolysis of solutions of antimony tribromide and tri-iodide, the product obtained from the tribromide having a specific gravity of 5.4, and containing 18-20% of antimony tribromide, whilst that from the tri-iodide has a specific gravity of 5.2-5.8 and contains about 22% of hydriodic acid and antimony tri-iodide.
The atomic weight of antimony has been determined by the a.n.a.lysis of the chloride, bromide and iodide. J.P. Cooke (_Proc. Amer. Acad._, 1878, xiii. i) and J. Bongartz (_Berichte_, 1883, 16, p. 1942) obtained the value 120, whilst F. Pfeiffer (_Ann. Chim. et Phys._ ccix. 173) obtained the value 121 from the electrolysis of the chloride.
Pure antimony is quite permanent in air at ordinary temperatures, but when heated in air or oxygen it burns, forming the trioxide. It decomposes steam at a red heat, and burns (especially when finely powdered) in chlorine. Dilute hydrochloric acid is without action on it, but on warming with the concentrated acid, antimony trichloride is formed; it dissolves in warm concentrated sulphuric acid, the sulphate Sb2(SO4)3 being formed. Nitric acid oxidizes antimony either to the trioxide Sb4O6 or the pentoxide Sb2O5, the product obtained depending on the temperature and concentration of the acid. It combines directly with sulphur and phosphorus, and is readily oxidized when heated with metallic oxides (such as litharge, mercuric oxide, manganese dioxide, &c.). Antimony and its salts may be readily detected by the orange precipitate of antimony sulphide which is produced when sulphuretted hydrogen is pa.s.sed through their acid solutions, and also by the Marsh test (see a.r.s.eNIC); in this latter case the black stain produced is not soluble in bleaching powder solution. Antimony compounds when heated on charcoal with sodium carbonate in the reducing flame give brittle beads of metallic antimony, and a white incrustation of the oxide. The antimonious compounds are decomposed on addition of water, with formation of basic salts.
Antimony may be estimated quant.i.tatively by conversion into the sulphide; the precipitate obtained is dried at 100 C. and heated in a current of carbon dioxide, or it may be converted into the tetroxide by nitric acid.
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