Antimony

a brilliant, bluish-white, brittle, crystalline metal, found in nature in combination with sulphur. Ores of antimony are found in California and Nevada, Mexico, New Brunswick, Bavaria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Corsica, Sardinia, Asia Minor, Japan, Borneo, Cape Colony, Australia, and New Zealand. Antimony is obtained by melting the ores with iron, in which case the sulphur deserts the antimony for the iron, leaving the antimony free. Only about 4,000 tons a year are required for the arts. Its principal use is in alloys, particularly with lead and tin, to form type metal, to which antimony gives the required degree of hardness. Antimony is used in medicine. The alchemists called it regulus, from the readiness with which it acted on gold, the royal metal. Ground antimony is much used by the women of Turkish harems for painting the eyebrows and eyelashes, and to give luster to the eyes. See Alloy; Bell; Poison