ABSTRACT
Among the most striking of the remarkable series of discoveries by which Sir Humphrey Davy penetrated the mysteries of matter was the isolation of the alkali metals—a circumstance which marks an important era in history of chemistry. That the alkalies were oxides of unknown metals had indeed been previously surmised by chemists, from fact of their behaving like metallic oxides in neutralizing and combining with acids to form the class of compounds called salts. The great attraction of metals for oxygen, and for chlorine and other similar bodies, induces the chemist to employ them for separating such bodies from their combination with other metals. Sodium is generally employed for this purpose, as being far cheaper than potassium. Some difficulty in working metal has occurred from the want of any suitable solder. This difficulty has been overcome by electrolytically coating the metal with copper at place where it has to be united with others, and then soldering copper in ordinary manner.
