Ductility

(dük-til'e-te.) [From L. ductilis, that may be drawn out.) (Phys.) A property belonging chiefly to certain metals, by which they are capable of being drawn out into wire; that is, of being increased in length and diminished in thickne without fracture. The most ductile substances with which we are familiar, are gold, silver, platinum, iron, and softened gla . Wollaston obtained a platinum wire of 0.00003 of an inch in diameter, by first coating a fine platinum wire with silver, and drawing the cylinder thus formed into as fine a wire as po ible, and then di olving the silver in dilute nitric acid. By this means a platinum wire was obtained having a diameter so fine that 1060 yards of it weighed only 3/4 of a grain. See MALLEABILITY. [s. 305]