NICKEL

the world’s chief source of nickel is canada: in 1913 she contributed 69% of the world’s produc- tion. the great need of nickel for armaments during the world war caused the canadian output to increase, and by 10918 it had risen from 20,000 tons in 1914 to 41,000 tons in 10918, which latter figure represented 87°% of the world’s production for that year. the highest percentage was reached in 1920, when canada produced 88% of the world’s supply. as a result of the market being congested with large stocks and accumulated scraps at the end of the war, canadian production declined, reaching its lowest ebb in 1922, when less than 8,000 tons of canadian nickel were mined. when the congested supplies had been absorbed, the industry quickly revived; demand soon exceeded production, and a steadily increasing output has since been maintained. the world’s output in 1923 was estimated at about 30,000 tons, of which approximately 27,000 tons was produced from the nickel mines in canada, including a relatively small quantity of nickel recovered as a by-product from the cobalt-silver ores in that dominion. with regard to foreign producers of nickel, the most impor- tant is the island of new caledonia, a french possession about 1,250 m. northeast of australia. this island’s output, in spite of the increased demand for the metal between 1914 and 1918, has since then gradually fallen, being in 1921 only about 14% of the world’s output. norway, which in the earliest days of the industry held a monopoly of the world’s supply, closed down her mines in 1921 for economic reasons. in the united states the nickel deposits are nowhere being worked for the metal, though a small quan- tity is incidentally recovered there each year in the process of electrolytic refining of blister copper. under the exigencies of war germany produced from her own low-grade mines a small tonnage of nickel ore, but since the close of hostilities she has reverted to the practice of importing refined metal. besides the above, there have been obtained from time to time small supplies of ore from greece, tasmania, sweden, etc. practically the whole of the canadian output is obtained from the sudbury district in the province of ontario, relatively nicholson, w. g. n.—nigeria small quantities being obtained from the deposits 150 m. due north of sudbury in the temiscaming district, and from the cobalt-silver area in the same province. other occurrences are known in the townships of macart, munro, strathy and near lake shebendowan in the district of thunder bay, ontario, and nickeliferous pyrrhotite associated with copper occurs in the gabbro copper mines, vancouver island, british columbia. world's production of nickel ore long tons canada germany greece norway sweden p : new caledonia? 2 u. saa. 1exports. * produced as by-product in electrolytic refining of copper. * ore, nickel content not stated. ‘italy produced 44 tons in this year. brsltrocraphy.—a. p, coleman, “ the nickel industry,’’ rep. mines branch, ottawa, canada, no. 170 (1913); b. dunstan, ‘‘ queensland industrial minerals: nickel,"’ queensland government min, journ., vol. 18 (1917) and vol. 22 (1921); report of the royal ontario nickel commissten (toronto, 1917); t. g. trevor, ‘' nickel,” south african journ. industry, vol. 1 (1918); w. versfield, ‘‘ the base metal resources of the union of s. africa,’ afem. dept. mines and industry, union of s. africa, no. 1 (1919); l. gillet, ‘* le nickel, sa metallurgie, ses emplois,’’ le genie civil, vol. 75 (1919); c. w. knight, ‘“ windy lake and other nickel areas,” ann. report ontario bureau of afines, vol. 42 (1921); g. v. wilson, ‘‘ the lead zine copper and nickel ores of scotland.” special reports on the mineral resources of great britain. afemoirs geol. surv. scotland, vol. 17 (1921). for bibliography see imperial mineral resources bureau, the mineral industry of the british empire and foreign countries, 1913-20, pp. 46-55 (1922); w. g. rumbold, nickel ores, imperial institute afonographs on mineral resources (1923). (n. m. pe.) nicoll, sir william robertson (1851-1923), scottish nonconformist divine and man of letters (see 19.663), died at hampstead, london, may 4 1923. after 1910 he published the problem of edwin drood (1912); dickens’ own story (1923); memories of mark rutherford (1924); as well as a devotional work, reunion in eternity (1918). niederle, lubor (1865- ), czechoslovak archaeologist and anthropologist, studied at prague, munich and paris. in 1891 he became a lecturer and in 1904 a professor of archaeology and ethnology at the charles university in prague. in rgo5 he organised the collections in the czechoslovak ethnographical museum. by his work slavonic antiquities (prague, 1904) niederle became the recognised leader of czech research on the history of the ancient slavs. among his other works are jfan- kind in the prehistcric period (prague, 1893-4), and on the origin cf the slavs (prague, 1896). in 1898 he founded and directed the bulletin of slavonic antiquities, and, from 1901 onwards, the bulictin of slavonic anthropclogy and antiqutties. professor niederle became a member of many slavonic learned societies, and received numerous forcign distinctions.