If now we wish to represent the variations in some property, such as fusibility, we determine the freezing-points of a number of alloys distributed fairly uniformly over the area of the triangle, and, at each point corresponding to an alloy, we erect an ordinate at right angles to the plane of the paper and proportional in length to the freezing temperature of that alloy.
Charcoal is valuable for its infusibility and low conductivity for heat (allowing substances to be strongly heated upon it), and for its powerful reducing properties; so that it is chiefly employed in testing the fusibility of minerals and in reduction.
Gowland has shown that, whatever may have been the practice of Japanese bronze makers in ancient and medieval eras, their successors in later days deliberately introduced arsenic and antimony into the compound in order to harden the bronze without impairing its fusibility, so that it might take a sharper impression of the mould.
With mercury it forms amalgams. Bismuth is a component of many ternary alloys characterized by their low fusibility and expansion in solidification; many of them are used in the arts (see Fusible Metal).
When diluted down to 4.8%, it assumes the colour and fusibility of bronze, but, unlike it, is tenacious and ductile like iron.