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A metallic element of the alkaline group, occurring in several minerals, as petalite, spodumene, lepidolite, triphylite, etc., and otherwise widely disseminated, though in small quantities.

A metallic element separated from ytterbium in 1907, by Urbain in Paris and by von Welsbach in Vienna. Symbol, Lu; at. wt. 174.0.

, more or less complex, consisting of a combination of moving parts, or simple mechanical elements, as wheels, levers, cams, etc., with their supports and connecting framework, calculated to constitute a prime mover, or to receive force and motion from a prime mover or from another machine, and transmit, modify, and ap…

A light silver-white metallic element, malleable and ductile, quite permanent in dry air but tarnishing in moist air. It burns, forming (the oxide) magnesia, with the production of a blinding light (the so-called magnesium light) which is used in signaling, in pyrotechny, or in photography where a strong actinic illumi…

s in the arrangement of iron filings between the poles of a powerful magnet. -- Magnetic elements. (a) (Chem. Physics) Those elements, as iron, nickel, cobalt, chromium, manganese, etc., which are capable or becoming magnetic. (b) (Physics) In respect to terrestrial magnetism, the declination, inclination, and intensi…

by photography or otherwise, the states and variations of any of the terrestrial magnetic elements.

ces; also, less frequently, an instrument for determining any of the terrestrial magnetic elements, as the dip and declination.

ving manly excellence of any kind. Shak. This was the noblest Roman of them all . . . the elements So mixed in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world "This was a man! Shak.

An element obtained by reduction of its oxide, as a hard, grayish white metal, fusible with difficulty, but easily oxidized. Its ores occur abundantly in nature as the minerals pyrolusite, manganite, etc. Symbol Mn. Atomic weight 54.8.

Of, pertaining to, designating, those compounds of manganese in which the element has a lower valence as contrasted with manganic compounds; as, manganous oxide. Manganous acid, a hypothetical compound analogous to sulphurous acid, and forming the so-called manganites.

The metallic element iron, the symbol of which was the same as that of the planet Mars. [Archaic] Chaucer. Mars brown, a bright, somewhat yellowish, brown.

atter; not spiritual; corporeal; physical; as, material substance or bodies. The material elements of the universe. Whewell.

ituent substance; material; the material or substantial part of anything; the constituent elements of conception; that into which a notion may be analyzed; the essence; the pith; the embodiment. He is the matter of virtue. B. Jonson.

from, mercury; containing mercury; -- said of those compounds of mercury into which this element enters in its lowest proportion. Mercuric chloride, corrosive sublimate. See Corrosive.

A metallic element mostly obtained by reduction from cinnabar, one of its ores. It is a heavy, opaque, glistening liquid (commonly called quicksilver), and is used in barometers, thermometers, ect. Specific gravity 13.6. Symbol Hg (Hydrargyrum). Atomic weight 199.8. Mercury has a molecule which consists of only one ato…

The median vertical plate, or median element, of the ethmoid bone.

An elementary substance, as sodium, calcium, or copper, whose oxide or hydroxide has basic rather than acid properties, as contrasted with the nonmetals, or metalloids. No sharp line can be drawn between the metals and nonmetals, and certain elements partake of both acid and basic qualities, as chromium, manganese, bis…

Now, one of several elementary substances which in the free state are unlike metals, and whose compounds possess or produce acid, rather than basic, properties; a nonmetal; as, boron, carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, chlorine, bromine, etc., are metalloids.

Pertaining to, or denoting, any one of a series of compounds of certain metallic elements with organic radicals; as, zinc methyl, sodium ethyl, etc. [Written also metallorganic.]

Having the same elements united in the same proportion by weight, and with the same molecular weight, but possessing a different structure and different properties; as, methyl ether and ethyl alcohol are metameric compounds. See Isomeric.