Antilles, a term applied to the whole of the West India Islands (q.v.) except the Bahamas. A hypothetical island, Antiglia, had figured in old sea-charts as early at least as 1424; and that name was applied in 1493 by Peter Martyr d'Anghiera to the West Indies. The Greater Antilles are Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti, and Porto Rico; the others are known as the Lesser Antilles.
Antimony—syn. Sb (Lat. stibium); equiv. 120—is a brittle metal of a flaky, crystalline texture, and a bluish-white colour. It is readily reduced to powder by ordinary pulverisation; when heated to 842° F. (450° C.), it fuses, and thereafter being allowed to cool, it solidifies in rhombohedral crystals, which are isomorphous with those of arsenic. Heated in a retort, where the oxygen of the air is excluded, as in an atmosphere of hydrogen, antimony volatilises as the vapour of the pure metal. When raised in temperature in contact with the air, it burns with a white light—combining with the oxygen of the atmosphere, and forming copious white fumes of the sesquioxide of antimony, or 'flowers of antimony.' The metal is a bad conductor of heat and electricity, but may be used, in conjunction with bismuth, in the construction of thermo-electric piles. Exposed to the air at ordinary temperatures, antimony does not tarnish or rust; and this property, combined with the hardness of the metal and of its compounds, renders antimony of essential service in the useful arts, in the construction of alloys, such as Britannia metal, type metal, pewter, and white or anti-friction metal. Precipitated powder of antimony, called antimony black, is used for giving an iron-like appearance to casts.
Stibnite, or gray antimony ore, the impure sesquisulphide of antimony, , is the principal source of the metal. This substance has long been employed in the East for darkening the eyebrows. Native antimony is found, but rather sparingly, associated with a few other metals. Antimony is smelted in France, where ore is found abundantly, in Germany, and in England, which receives its supply of ore from Singapore and Borneo. But stibnite has formerly been mined at several places in Great Britain. Although the extraction of antimony from its ore is a simple matter, there are several processes employed. Sometimes 'crude antimony,' or purified sulphide of antimony, is produced by liquation as a first stage in the operation. From this there are two or three ways of obtaining the impure metal, called 'regulus of antimony.' This raw antimony, whether obtained from the purified sulphide or direct from the ore, requires a calcination to separate such impurities as arsenic, iron, lead, copper, and sulphur. In the English process of getting it direct, the ore is smelted along with some alkaline slag and old scrap-iron in crucibles. When the mixture is completely fused, it is poured into conical moulds, and the contents of these, after cooling, consist of impure antimony and a slag of sulphide of iron. There are several methods in use for purifying the raw antimony (regulus). One of the simplest is to charge each of a number of crucibles with this regulus along with some soda, common salt, and pure oxidised antimonial ore. When heat is applied, the foreign metals become oxidised and scorified, and nearly pure antimony or star metal is obtained.
The compounds of antimony are numerous: with oxygen it forms (1) the sesquioxide of antimony, or white antimony ore, , which enters into the composition of tartar emetic; (2) antimonious acid, , which forms one of the components of Dr James's powders; (3) antimonie acid, , a very insoluble compound, obtained by acting upon the metal with concentrated nitric acid. With sulphur, antimony forms the subsulphide, , already referred to as a natural ore of the metal, and which when roasted at a temperature sufficient to fuse it, passes into the mixed sesquioxide and subsulphide of antimony known commercially as the glass of antimony, used for colouring glass and porcelain yellow. A native oxy-sulphide, of a pretty red colour, is called red antimony ore. When the ordinary sulphide of antimony is boiled with potash, or the carbonate of potash, it dissolves; and thereafter, on boiling, deposits a reddish-brown substance, known as mineral kermes. The liquid from which the deposit has fallen, if treated with hydrochloric acid, throws down an orange precipitate of golden sulphide of antimony.
There is also a chloride of antimony, , prepared by heating sulphide of antimony and hydrochloric acid together, and which has the common name of butter of antimony. It is generally obtained as an oily liquid, of the consistence of melted butter, and of a golden-yellow colour. Mixed with olive oil, it is used by gunmakers as bronzing salt, to impart a yellow colour to gun-barrels.
Various compounds of antimony are used as medicinal agents, both in human and veterinary practice, especially the tartar emetic, a double tartrate of antimony and potash, , which is the active ingredient in antimonial wine, sherry constituting the bulk of the compound. Several cases have occurred where tartar emetic has been used criminally as a poison.
Basil Valentine, in his Triumphant Chariot of Antimony, says, 'the shortness of life makes it impossible for one man thoroughly to learn antimony, in which every day something of new is discovered.'