Nickel : An Historical Review

First published in 1963, Nickel presents a readable account of Nickel’s development from early times to the present day. Weapons and implements containing a small proportion of nickel have been found on the 3500-year-old sites of Ur and Kish in Sumeria; while in 1962 the first United States manned space capsule to orbit the earth made use of nickel alloys to withstand the effects of exposure to elevated temperature, dynamic and acoustical stress, and fatigue.

Nickel was identified as an element in the 18th century and the steps leading up to this are vividly described. New information on the origin of Kupfer Nickel, regarded with such disdain by early Saxon miners, is revealed as a result of a visit made by the author to the Freiburg Bergakademie in Eastern Germany. Nickeliferous occurrences in Europe, the South Pacific and North America are described; charts and flowsheets illustrate progress in production and methods of extracting this matter from its complex compounds. There are incidental portraits of the men who built up the industry. A survey of the applications of nickel today includes references to nickel silver, electroplating, the steel field, and it’s hundred and one uses in industry, architecture and the home. This account of the development of nickel, combining scientific and economic fact with the quirks of human history makes informative and imaginative reading.