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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 829




NEW YORK, November 21, 1891.

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XXXII, No. 829.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I.    ASTRONOMY.--The Sun's Motion in Space.--By A.M. CLERKE.--
      A very interesting article on the determination of this hitherto
      uncertain factor.

II.   BOTANY.--Hemlock and Parsley.--By W.W. BAILEY.--Economic
      botany of Umbelliferæ.

      Raphides--the Cause of the Acridity of Certain Plants.--By
      R.A. WEBER.--Effect of these crystals on the expressed juice
      from calla and Indian turnip and other plants.

      The Eremuri.--A very attractive flower plant for
      gardens.--1 illustration.

III.  DECORATIVE ART.--The Decorative Treatment of Natural
      Foliage.--By HUGH STANNUS. The first of a series of lectures
      before the London Society of Arts, giving an elaborate
      classification of the principles of the subject.--5
      illustrations.

IV.   ELECTRICITY.--The Independent--Storage or Primary Battery--System
      of Electric Motive Power.--By KNIGHT NEFTEL.--Abstract of a
      recent paper read before the American Street Railway Association
      on the present aspect of battery car traction.

V.    GEOGRAPHY.--The Colorado Desert Lake.--A description of the new
      overflow into the Colorado Desert, with the prognosis of its
      future.

VI.   GEOLOGY.--Animal Origin of Petroleum and Paraffine.--A plea
      for the animal origin of geological hydrocarbons based on
      chemical and geological reasons.

      The Origin of Petroleum.--By O.C.D. Ross.--A further and more
      lengthy discussion in regard to petroleum and theory of its
      production by volcanic action.

VII.  GUNNERY.--Weldon's Range Finder.--An instrument for determining
      distances, with description of its use.--3 illustrations.

VIII. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING.--Mercury Weighing Machine.--A
      type of weighing machine depending on the displacement
      of mercury.--1 illustration.

      Wheels Linked with a Bell Crank.--Curious examples of
      mechanical constructions in the communication of motion
      between wheels.--3 illustrations.

IX.   MEDICINE AND HYGIENE.--Cold and Mortality.--By Dr. B.W.
      RICHARDSON.--The effect of cold upon the operation of the
      animal system, with practical rules.

      On the Occurrence of Tin in Canned Food.--By H.A. WEBER.--A
      very valuable and important series of analyses of American and
      other food products for tin and copper.

      The Treatment of Glaucoma.--Note on the treatment of this
      disease fatal to vision.

X.    METALLURGY.--On the Elimination of Sulphur from Pig Iron.
      By J. MASSENEZ.--The desulphurization of pig iron by treatment
      with manganese, with apparatus employed.--5 illustrations.

XI.   MISCELLANEOUS.--The California Raisin Industry.--How raisins
      are grown and packed in California, with valuable figures
      and data.

      The Recent Battles in Chile.--The recent battles of Concon and
      Vina del Mar.--2 illustrations.

XII.  NATURAL HISTORY.--The Whale-headed Stork.--A curious bird,
      a habitant of Africa and of great rarity.--1 illustration.

XIII. NAVAL ENGINEERING.--A Twin Screw Launch Run by a Compound
      Engine.--The application of a single compound tandem
      engine to driving twin screws.--2 illustrations.

      Improvements in the Construction of River and Canal
      Barges.--By M. RITTER.--A very peculiar and ingenious system of
      construction, enabling the same vessel to be used at greater or
      less draught according to the requirements and conditions of the
      water.--5 illustrations.

      Reefing Sails from the Deck--An effective method of reefing,
      one which has been subjected to actual trial repeatedly in bad
      weather off Cape Horn.--3 illustrations.

XIV.  PHYSICS.--The Cyclostat.--An apparatus for observing
      bodies in rapid rotary motion.--5 illustrations.

XV.   TECHNOLOGY.--A New Process for the Bleaching of Jute.--By
      Messrs. LEYKAM and TOSEFOTHAL.--A method of rendering
      the fiber of jute perfectly white, with full details.

      A Violet Coloring Matter from Morphine.--The first true
      coloring matter obtained from a natural alkaloid.

      Liquid Blue for Dyeing.--Treatment of the "Dornemann"
      liquid blue.

      New Process for the Manufacture of Chromates.--By J. MASSIGNON
      and E. VATEL.--Manufacture of chromates from chromic
      iron ore by a new process.

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[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF CONCON, CHILE. August 21, 1891.

The Congressional troops advancing.
The river Aconcagua.
Balmaceda's troops retreating.
The Esmeralda.
Concon Point.
The Magellanes. ]

[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF VIÑA DEL MAR, CHILE, AUGUST 1891.

Esmeralda firing shell at Fort Callao.
Almirante Cochrane firing at Balmaceda's artillery behind Fort Callao.
Battery of Congress artillery trying to silence government troops at
  Viña del Mar.
Balmaceda's field batteries at back of Fort Callao.
Fort Callao.
Congress infantry firing at troops at Vina del Mar, Balmaceda's
  infantry returning fire of Congress troops opposite.
English, American, German, and French men-of-war watching the battle
  of Viña del Mar.]


THE RECENT BATTLES IN CHILE.


The battle of Concon took place Aug. 21, 1891. Nine thousand
Congressional troops advancing toward Valparaiso from Quinteros Bay,
where they had landed the day previous, were met by Balmaceda's troops
on the other side of the river Aconcagua. The Esmeralda and the
Magellanes, co-operating from the sea, made fearful havoc among the
Balmacedists with their machine guns and shell. After a stubborn fight
the Balmacedists were totally defeated, and were pursued by the
victorious cavalry, losing 4,000 out of 12,000 in killed, wounded and
deserters. All their field pieces were captured, and thus the road was
left open for the Congressionalists to advance on Viña del Mar.


THE BATTLE OF VIÑA DEL MAR, CHILE.

A general engagement took place on Aug. 23, 1891, between divisions of
Balmaceda's and the Congressional troops, with the Esmeralda and the
Almirante Cochrane aiding the latter by firing at Fort Callao,
endeavoring to silence the field batteries at the back. The
Congressional troops failed to capture Viña del Mar, but eventually
cut the railway line a few miles out, and crossed over to the back of
Valparaiso, which was soon captured.--_The Graphic._

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THE SUN'S MOTION IN SPACE.

By A.M. CLERKE.


Science needed two thousand years to disentangle the earth's orbital
movement from the revolutions of the other planets, and the
incomparably more arduous problem of distinguishing the solar share in
the confused multitude of stellar displacements first presented itself
as possibly tractable a little more than a century ago. In the lack
for it as yet of a definite solution there is, then, no ground for
surprise, but much for satisfaction in the large measure of success
attending the strenuous attacks of which it has so often been made the
object.

Approximately correct knowledge as to the direction and velocity of
the sun's translation is indispensable to a profitable study of
sidereal construction; but apart from some acquaintance with the
nature of sidereal construction, it is difficult, if not impossible,
of attainment. One, in fact, presupposes the other. To separate a
common element of motion from the heterogeneous shiftings upon the
sphere of three or four thousand stars is a task practicable only
under certain conditions. To begin with, the proper motions
investigated must be established with _general_ exactitude. The errors
inevitably affecting them must be such as pretty nearly, in the total
upshot, to neutralize one another. For should they run mainly in one
direction, the result will be falsified in a degree enormously
disproportionate to their magnitude. The adoption, for instance, of
system of declinations as much as 1" of arc astray might displace to
the extent of 10° north or south the point fixed upon as the apex of
the sun's way (see L. Boss _Astr. Jour._, No. 213). Risks on this
score, however, will become less formidable with the further advance
of practical astronomy along a track definable as an asymptote of
ideal perfection.

Besides this obstacle to be overcome, there is another which it will
soon be possible to evade. Hitherto, inquiries into the solar movement
have been hampered by the necessity for preliminary assumptions of
some kind as to the relative distances of classes of stars. But all
such assumptions, especially when applied to selected lists, are
highly insecure; and any fabric reared upon them must be considered to
stand upon treacherous ground. The spectrographic method, however,
here fortunately comes into play. "Proper motions" are only angular
velocities. They tell nothing as to the value of the perspective
element they may be supposed to include, or as to the real rate of
going of the bodies they are attributed to, until the size of the
sphere upon which they are measured has been otherwise ascertained.
But the displacement of lines in stellar spectra give directly the
actual velocities relative to the earth of the observed stars. The
question of their distances is, therefore, at once eliminated. Now the
radial component of stellar motion is mixed up, precisely in the same
way as the tangential component, with the solar movement; and since
complete knowledge of it, in a sufficient number of cases, is rapidly
becoming accessible, while knowledge of tangential velocity must for a
long time remain partial or uncertain, the advantage of replacing the
discussion of proper motions by that of motions in line of sight is
obvious and immediate. And the admirable work carried on at Potsdam
during the last three years will soon afford the means of doing so in
the first, if only a preliminary investigation of the solar
translation based upon measurements of photographed stellar spectra.

The difficulties, then, caused either by inaccuracies in star
catalogues or by ignorance of star distances may be overcome; but
there is a third, impossible at present to be surmounted, and not
without misgiving to be passed by. All inquiries upon the subject of
the advance of our system through space start with an hypothesis most
unlikely to be true. The method uniformly adopted in them--and no
other is available--is to treat the _inherent_ motions of the stars
(their so-called _motus peculiares_) as pursued indifferently in all
directions. The steady drift extricable from them by rules founded
upon the science of probabilities is presumed to be solar motion
visually transferred to them in proportions varying with their
remoteness in space, and their situations on the sphere. If this
presumption be in any degree baseless, the result of the inquiry is
_pro tanto_ falsified. Unless the deviations from the parallactic line
of the stellar motions balance one another on the whole, their
discussion may easily be as fruitless as that of observations tainted
with systematic errors. It is scarcely, however, doubtful that law,
and not chance, governs the sidereal revolutions. The point open to
question is whether the workings of law may not be so exceedingly
intricate as to produce a grand sum total of results which, from the
geometrical side, may justifiably be regarded as casual.

The search for evidence of a general plan in the wanderings of the
stars over the face of the sky has so far proved fruitless. Local
concert can be traced, but no widely diffused preference for one
direction over any other makes itself definitely felt. Some regard,
nevertheless, _must_ be paid by them to the plane of the Milky Way;
since it is altogether incredible that the actual construction of the
heavens is without dependence upon the method of their revolutions.

The apparent anomaly vanishes upon the consideration of the
profundities of space and time in which the fundamental design of the
sidereal universe lies buried. Its composition out of an indefinite
number of partial systems is more than probable; but the inconceivable
leisureliness with which their mutual relations develop renders the
harmony of those relations inappreciable by short-lived terrestrial
denizens. "Proper motions," if this be so, are of a subordinate kind;
they are indexes simply to the mechanism of particular aggregations,
and have no definable connection with the mechanism of the whole. No
considerable error may then be involved in treating them, for purposes
of calculation, as indifferently directed, and the elicited solar
movement may genuinely represent the displacement of our system
relative to its more immediate stellar environment. This is perhaps
the utmost to be hoped for until sidereal astronomy has reached
another stadium of progress.

Unless, indeed, effect should be given to Clerk Maxwell's suggestion
for deriving the absolute longitude of the solar apex from
observations of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites (Proc. Roy. Soc.,
vol. xxx., p. 109). But this is far from likely. In the first place,
the revolutions of the Jovian system cannot be predicted with anything
like the required accuracy. In the second place, there is no certainty
that the postulated phenomena have any real existence. If, however, it
be safe to assume that the solar system, cutting its way through
space, virtually raises an ethereal counter-current, and if it be
further granted that light travels less _with_ than _against_ such a
current, then indeed it becomes speculatively possible, through slight
alternate accelerations and retardations of eclipses taking place
respectively ahead of and in the wake of the sun, to determine his
absolute path in space as projected upon the ecliptic. That is to say,
the longitude of the apex could be deduced together with the resolved
part of the solar velocity; the latitude of the apex, as well as the
component of velocity perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic,
remaining, however, unknown.

The beaten track, meanwhile, has conducted two recent inquirers to
results of some interest. The chief aim of each was the detection of
systematic peculiarities in the motions of stellar assemblages after
the subtraction from them of their common perspective element. By
varying the materials and method of analysis, Prof. Lewis Boss,
Director of the Albany Observatory, hopes that corresponding
variations in the upshot may betray a significant character. Thus, if
stars selected on different principles give notably and consistently
different results, the cause of the difference may with some show of
reason be supposed to reside in specialties of movement appertaining
to the several groups. Prof. Boss broke ground in this direction by
investigating 284 proper motions, few of which had been similarly
employed before (_Astr. Jour._, No. 213). They were all taken from an
equatorial zone 4° 20' in breadth, with a mean declination of +3°,
observed at Albany for the catalogue of the Astronomische
Gesellschaft, and furnished data accordingly for a virtually
independent research of a somewhat distinctive kind. It was carried
out to three separate conclusions. Setting aside five stars with
secular movements ranging above 100", Prof. Boss divided the 279 left
available into two sets--one of 185 stars brighter, the other of 144
stars fainter than the eighth magnitude. The first collection gave for
the goal of solar translation a point about 4° north of [alpha] Lyræ,
in R.A. 280°, Decl. +43°; the second, one some thirty-seven minutes of
time to the west of [delta] Cygni, in R.A. 286°, Decl. +45°. For a
third and final solution, twenty-six stars moving 40"-100" were
rejected, and the remaining 253 classed in a single series. The upshot
of their discussion was to shift the apex of movement to R.A. 289°,
Decl. +51°. So far as the difference from the previous pair of results
is capable of interpretation, it would seem to imply a predominant set
toward the northeast of the twenty-six swifter motions subsequently
dismissed as prejudicial, but in truth the data employed were not
accurate enough to warrant so definite an inference. The Albany proper
motions, as Prof. Boss was careful to explain, depend for the most
part upon the right ascensions of Bessel's and Lalande's zones, and
are hence subject to large errors. Their study must be regarded as
suggestive rather than decisive.

A better quality and a larger quantity of material was disposed of by
the latest and perhaps the most laborious investigator of this
intricate problem. M. Oscar Stumpe, of Bonn (_Astr. Nach._, Nos.
2,999, 3,000), took his stars, to the number of 1,054, from various
quarters, if chiefly from Auwers' and Argelander's lists, critically
testing, however, the movement attributed to each of not less than 16"
a century. This he fixed as the limit of secure determination, unless
for stars observed with exceptional constancy and care. His discussion
of them is instructive in more ways than one. Adopting, the additional
computative burden imposed by it notwithstanding, Schonfeld's
modification of Airy's formulæ, he introduced into his equations a
fifth unknown quantity expressive of a possible stellar drift in
galactic longitude. A negative result was obtained. No symptom came to
light of "rotation" in the plane of the Milky Way.

M. Stumpe's intrepid industry was further shown in disregard of
customary "scamping" subterfuges. Expedients for abbreviation vainly
spread their allurements; every one of his 2,108 equations was
separately and resolutely solved. A more important innovation was his
substitution of proper motion for magnitude as a criterion of
remoteness. Dividing his stars on this principle into four groups, he
obtained an apex for the sun's translation corresponding to each as
follows:

          Number of         Proper motion.         Apex.
Group   included stars.       "      "              °              °
  I.        551             0.16 to 0.32      R.A. 287.4 Decl.  +42.
 II.        340             0.32 to 0.64       "   279.7  "      40.5
III.        105             0.64 to 1.28       "   287.9  "      32.1
 IV.         58             1.28 and upward    "   285.2  "      30.4

Here again we find a marked and progressive descent of the apex toward
the equator with the increasing swiftness of the objects serving for
its determination, leading to the suspicion that the most northerly
may be the most genuine position, because the one least affected by
stellar individualities of movement.

By nearly all recent investigations, moreover, the solar _point de
mire_ has been placed considerably further to the east and nearer to
the Milky Way than seemed admissible to their predecessors; so that
the constellation Lyra may now be said to have a stronger claim than
Hercules to include it; and the necessity has almost disappeared for
attributing to the solar orbit a high inclination to the medial
galactic plane.

From both the Albany and the Bonn discussions there emerged with
singular clearness a highly significant relation. The mean magnitudes
of the two groups into which Prof. Boss divided his 279 stars were
respectively 6.6 and 8.6, the corresponding mean proper motions 21".9
and 20".9. In other words, a set of stars on the whole six times
brighter than another set owned a scarcely larger sum total of
apparent displacement. And that this approximate equality of movement
really denoted approximate equality of mean distance was made manifest
by the further circumstance that the secular journey of the sun proved
to subtend nearly the same angle whichever of the groups was made the
standpoint for its survey. Indeed, the fainter collection actually
gave the larger angle (13".73 as against 12".39), and so far an
indication that the stars composing it were, on an average, nearer to
the earth than the much brighter ones considered apart.

A result similar in character was reached by M. Stumpe. Between the
mobility of his star groups, and the values derived from them for the
angular movement of the sun, the conformity proved so close as
materially to strengthen the inference that apparent movement measures
real distance. The mean brilliancy of his classified stars seemed, on
the contrary, quite independent of their mobility. Indeed, its changes
tended in an opposite direction. The mean magnitude of the slowest
group was 6.0, of the swiftest 6.5, of the intermediate pair 6.7 and
6.1. And these are not isolated facts. Comparisons of the same kind,
and leading to identical conclusions, were made by Prof. Eastman at
Washington in 1889 (Phil. Society Bulletin, vol. xii, p. 143;
Proceedings Amer. Association, 1889, p. 71).

What meaning can we attribute to them? Uncritically considered, they
seem to assert two things, one reasonable, the other palpably absurd.
The first--that the average angular velocity of the stars varies
inversely with their distance from ourselves--few will be disposed to
doubt; the second--that their average apparent luster has nothing to
do with greater or less remoteness--few will be disposed to admit.
But, in order to interpret truly, well ascertained if unexpected
relationships, we must remember that the sensibly moving stars used to
determine the solar translation are chosen from a multitude sensibly
fixed; and that the proportion of stationary to traveling stars rises
rapidly with descent down the scale of magnitude. Hence a mean struck
in disregard of the zeros is totally misleading; while the account is
no sooner made exhaustive than its anomalous character becomes largely
modified. Yet it does not wholly disappear. There is some warrant for
it in nature. And its warrant may perhaps consist in a preponderance,
among suns endowed with high _physical_ speed, of small or slightly
luminous over powerfully radiative bodies. Why this should be so, it
would be futile, even by conjecture, to attempt to explain.--_Nature._

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ANIMAL ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM AND PARAFFIN.


R. Zaloziecki, in _Dingl. Polyt. Jour._, gives a lengthy physical and
chemical argument in favor of the modern view that petroleum and
paraffin owe their origin to animal sources; that they are formed from
animal remains in a manner strictly analogous to that of the formation
of ordinary coal from wood and other vegetable debris. For geological
as well as chemical reasons, the author holds that Mendeleeff's theory
of their igneous origin is untenable, pointing out that the
hydrocarbons could not have been formed by the action of water
percolating through clefts in the gradually solidifying crust until it
reached the molten metallic carbides, as these clefts could only occur
where complete solidification had taken place, and between this point
and the metallic stratum a considerable space would be taken up by
semi-solid, slag-like material which would be quite impervious to
water. Under the conditions, too, existing beneath the surface of the
earth, such polymerization as is necessary to account for the presence
of the different classes of hydrocarbons found in petroleum is
scarcely credible.

On the other hand it is to be specially noticed that, with a few
unimportant exceptions, all bituminous deposits are found in the
sedimentary rocks, and that just as these are constantly changing in
composition, so the organic matter present changes, there being a
definite relationship between the chemical constitution of the
petroleum and the age of the strata in which it is found. It is almost
certain that in the most recent alluvial formations no oil is ever
found, its latest appearance being in the rocks of the tertiary
period, the place where the solid paraffin is almost exclusively met
with; thus helping to show that the latter has been formed from the
decomposition of the oil, and is not a residue remaining after the oil
has been distilled off. To this conclusion the fact also strongly
points, that the paraffin is much simpler in constitution, purer, and
often of far lighter color than the crude oil, which could not be the
case if it were the original substance.

On examining by the aid of a map the position of the chief oil-bearing
localities it will be noticed that the most prolific spots follow
fairly accurately the contour lines of the country, so that at one
time they formed in all probability a coast line whereon would be
concentrated for climatic reasons most of the animal life both of the
land and sea. During succeeding generations their dead bodies would
accumulate in enormous quantities and be buried in the slowly
depositing sand and mud, till, owing to the gradual alterations of
level, the sea no longer reached the same point. This theory is borne
out by the fact that oil deposits are usually found in marine
sediments, sea fossils being frequently met with. The first process of
the decomposition of the animal remains would consist in the formation
of ammonia and nitrogenous bases, the action being aided by the
presence of air, moisture, and micro-organisms, at the same time,
owing to the well known antiseptic properties of salt, the
decomposition would go on slowly, allowing time for more sand and
inorganic matter to be deposited. In this way the decomposing matter
would be gradually protected from the action of the air, and finally
the various fatty substances would be found mixed with large amounts
of salt, under considerable pressure, and at a somewhat high
temperature. From this adipocere, fatty acids would be gradually
formed, the glycerol being washed away, and finally the acids would be
decomposed by the pressure into hydrocarbons and free carbonic acid
gas. That many of these hydrocarbons would be solid at ordinary
temperatures, forming the so-called mineral wax, which exists in many
places in large quantities, is much easier to imagine, in the light of
modern chemical knowledge, than that the fatty acids were at once
split up into the simpler liquid hydrocarbons, to be afterward
condensed into the more complex molecular forms of the solid
substance.

In this way from animal matter are in all probability formed the vast
petroleum deposits, the three substances, adipocere, ozokerite, and
petroleum oil being produced in chronological order, just as lignite,
brown coal and coal are formed by the gradual decomposition of
vegetable remains.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM.[1]

  [Footnote 1: Abstract of a paper read before the British
  Association, Cardiff meeting, 1891, Section G.]

By O.C.D. Ross, M.Inst.C.E.


Petroleum is one of the most widely distributed substances in nature,
but the question how it was originally produced has never yet been
satisfactorily determined, and continues a problem for philosophers.
In 1889 the total production exceeded 2,600,000,000 gallons, or about
10,000,000 tons, and, at fourpence per gallon, was worth about
£44,000,000, while the recognition of its superior utility as an
economical source of light, heat, and power steadily increases; but,
notwithstanding its importance in industry, the increasing abundance
of the foreign supply, and the ever-widening area of production,
practical men in England continue to distrust its permanence, and
owing to the mystery surrounding its origin, and the paucity of
indications where and how to undertake the boring of wells, they
hesitate to seek for it in this country, or even to extend the use of
it whenever that would involve alterations of existing machinery. The
object of this paper is to suggest an explanation of the mystery which
seems calculated to dissipate that distrust, since it points to very
abundant stores, both native and foreign, yet undiscovered, and even
in some localities to daily renovated provisions of this remarkable
oil.

The theories of its origin suggested by Reichenbach, Berthelot,
Mendeleeff, Peckham, and others, made no attempt to account for the
exceeding variety in its chemical composition, in its specific
gravity, its boiling points, etc., and are all founded on some
hypothetical process which differs from any with which we are
acquainted; but modern geologists are agreed that, as a rule, the
records of the earth's history should be read in accordance with those
laws of nature which continue in force at the present day, e.g., the
decomposition of fish and cetaceous animals could not now produce oil
containing paraffin. Hence we can hardly believe it was possible
thousands or millions of years ago, if it can be proved that any of
the processes of nature with which we are familiar is calculated to
produce it.

The chief characteristics of petroleum strata are enumerated as:

    I. The existence of adjoining beds of limestone, gypsum, etc.

    II. The evidence of volcanic action in close proximity to
    them.

    III. The presence of salt water in the wells.

I. All writers have noticed the presence of limestone close to
petroleum fields in the United States and Canada, in the Caucasus, in
Burma, etc., but they have been most impressed by its being
"fossiliferous," or shell limestone, and have drawn the erroneous
inference that the animal matter once contained in those shells
originated petroleum; but no fish oil ever contained paraffin. On the
other hand, the fossil shells are carbonate of lime, and, as such,
capable of producing petroleum under conditions such as many limestone
beds have been subjected to in all ages of the earth's history. All
limestone rocks were formed under water, and are mainly composed of
calcareous shells, corals, encrinites, and foraminfera--the latter
similar to the foraminfera of "Atlantic ooze" and of English chalk
beds. Everywhere, under the microscope, the original connection of
limestone with organic matter--its organic parentage, so to speak, and
cousinship with the animal and vegetable kingdoms--is conspicuous.
When pure it contains 12 per cent. of carbon.

Now petroleum consists largely of carbon, its average composition
being 85 per cent. of carbon and 15 per cent. of hydrogen, and in the
limestone rocks of the United Kingdom alone there is a far larger
accumulation of carbon than in all the coal measures the world
contains. A range of limestone rock 100 miles in length by 10 miles in
width, and 1,000 yards in depth, would contain 743,000 million tons of
carbon, or sufficient to provide carbon for 875,000 million tons of
petroleum. Deposits of oil-bearing shale have also limestone close at
hand; e.g., coral rag underlies Kimmeridge clay, as it also underlies
the famous black shale in Kentucky, which is extraordinarily rich in
oil.

II. As evidence of volcanic action in close proximity to petroleum
strata, the mud volcanoes at Baku and in Burma are described, and a
sulphur mine in Spain is mentioned (with which the writer is well
acquainted), situated near an extinct volcano, where a perpetual gas
flame in a neighboring chapel and other symptoms indicate that
petroleum is not far off. While engaged in studying the geological
conditions of this mine, the author observed that Dr. Christoff
Bischoff records in his writings that he had produced sulphur in his
own laboratory by passing hot volcanic gases through chalk, which,
when expressed in a chemical formula, leads at once to the postulate
that, in addition to sulphur, _ethylene_, and all its homologues
(C_{n}H_{2n}), which are the oils predominating at Baku, would be
produced by treating:

  2, 3, 4,  5 equivs. of carbonate of lime (limestone) with
  2, 3, 4,  5   "        sulphurous acid (SO_{2}) and
  4, 6, 8, 10  "         sulphureted hydrogen (H_{2}S);

and that marsh gas and its homologues, which are the oils
predominating in Pennsylvania, would be produced by treating:

  1, 2, 3, 4, 5 equivs. of carbonate of lime with
  1, 2, 3, 4, 5   "        sulphurous acid and
  3, 5, 7, 9, 11  "        sulphureted hydrogen.

Thus we find that:

  Carbonate of lime, 2CaCO_{3},  }         { 2(CaSO.H_{2}O) (gypsum),
  Sulphurous acid, 2SO_{2}, and  }  yield  { 4S (sulphur), and
  Sulphureted hydrogen, 4H_{2}S, }         { C_{2}H_{4}, which is
                                           { _ethylene_.

And that:

  Carbonate of lime, CaCO_{3}    }         { (CaSO_{4}.H_{2}O) (gypsum),
  Sulphurous acid, SO_{2}, and   }  yield  { 3S (sulphur) and
  Sulphureted hydrogen, 3H_{2}S, }         { CH4, which is marsh gas.

So that these and all their homologues, in fact petroleum in all its
varieties, would be produced in nature by the action of volcanic gases
on limestone.

But much the most abundant of the volcanic gases appear at the surface
as steam, and petroleum seems to have been more usually produced
without sulphurous acid, and with part of the sulphureted hydrogen
(H_{2}S) replaced by H_{2}O (steam) or H_{2}O_{2} (peroxide of
hydrogen), which is the product that results from the combination of
sulphureted hydrogen and sulphurous acid:

    (H_{2}S + SO_{2} == H_{2}O_{2} + 2S).

It is a powerful oxidizing agent, and it converts sulphurous into
sulphuric acid. Thus:

  CaCO_{3}  }         { CaSO_{4}.H_{2}O (gypsum)
  H_{2}S,   }  yield  { and
  2H_{2}O,  }         { CH_{4}, which is marsh gas.

And

  2CaCO_{3},    }         { 2CaSO_{4}.H_{2}O
  2H_{2}S,      }  yield  { and
  2H_{2}O_{2},  }         { C_{2}H_{4}, which is _ethylene._

Tables are given showing the formulæ for the homologues of ethylene
and marsh gas resulting from the increase in regular gradation of the
same constituents.

   _Formulæ Showing how Ethylene and its Homologues
   (C_{n}H_{2}{n}) are Produced by the Action of the Volcanic
   Gases H_{2}S and H_{2}O_{2} on Limestone._

Carbonate  Sulphureted Peroxide of                 Ethylene and
 of lime.   hydrogen.   hydrogen.      Gypsum.    its homologues.

 2CaCO3  +   2H2S  +   2H2O2 yield 2(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C2H4  ethylene
                                                         (gaseous).
 3CaCO3  +   3H2S  +   3H2O2   "   3(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C3H6
 4CaCO3  +   4H2S  +   4H2O2   "   4(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C4H8
 5CaCO3  +   5H2S  +   5H2O2   "   5(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C5H10
 6CaCO3  +   6H2S  +   6H2O2   "   6(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C6H12
                                                             Boiling
                                                             point.
 7CaCO3  +   7H2S  +   7H2O2   "   7(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C7H14     --
 8CaCO3  +   8H2S  +   8H2O2   "   8(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C8H16    189°C.
 9CaCO3  +   9H2S  +   9H2O2   "   9(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C9H18    136°C.
10CaCO3  +  10H2S  +  10H2O2   "  10(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C10H20   160°C.
11CaCO3  +  11H2S  +  11H2O2   "  11(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C11H22   180°C.
12CaCO3  +  12H2S  +  12H2O2   "  12(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C12H24   196°C.
13CaCO3  +  13H2S  +  13H2O2   "  13(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C13H26   240°C.
14CaCO3  +  14H2S  +  14H2O2   "  14(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C14H28   247°C.
15CaCO3  +  15H2S  +  15H2O2   "  15(CaSO4.H2O)  +  C15H30    --

It is explained that these effects must have occurred, not at periods
of acute volcanic eruptions, but in conditions which maybe, and have
been, observed at the present time, wherever there are active
solfataras or mud volcanoes at work. Descriptions of the action of
solfataras by the late Sir Richard Burton and by a British consul in
Iceland are quoted, and also a paragraph from Lyall's "Principles of
Geology," in which he remarks of the mud volcanoes at Girgenti
(Sicily) that _carbureted hydrogen_ is discharged from them, sometimes
with great violence, and that they are known to have been casting out
water, mixed with mud and _bitumen_, with the same activity as now for
the last fifteen centuries. Probably at all these solfataras, if the
gases traverse limestone, fresh deposits of oil-bearing strata are
accumulating, and the same volcanic action has been occurring during
many successive geological periods and millions of years; so that it
is difficult to conceive limits to the magnitude of the stores of
petroleum which may be awaiting discovery in the subterranean
depths.[2]

  [Footnote 2: Professor J. Le Conte, when presiding recently at the
  International Geological Congress at Washington, mentioned that in
  the United States extensive lava floods have been observed,
  covering areas from 10,000 to 100,000 square miles in extent and
  from 2,000 to 4,000 feet deep. We have similar lava flows and
  ashes in the North of England, in Scotland, and in Ireland,
  varying from 3,000 to 6,000 feet in depth. In the Lake District
  they are nearly 12,000 feet deep. Solfataras are active during the
  intermediate, or so-called "dormant," periods which occur between
  acute volcanic eruptions.]

Gypsum may also be an indication of oil-bearing strata, for the
substitution in limestone of sulphuric for carbonic acid can only be
accounted for by the action of these hot sulphurous gases. Gypsum is
found extensively in the petroleum districts of the United States, and
it underlies the rock salt beds at Middlesboro, where, on being
pierced, it has given passage to oil gas, which issues abundantly,
mixed with brine, from a great depth.

III. Besides the space occupied by "natural gas," which is very
extensive, 17,000 million gallons of petroleum have been raised in
America since 1860, and that quantity must have occupied more than
100,000,000 cubic yards, a space equal to a subterranean cavern 100
yards wide by 20 feet deep, and 82 miles in length, and it is
suggested that beds of "porous sandstone" could hardly have contained
so much; while vast receptacles may exist, carved by volcanic water
out of former beds of rock salt adjoining the limestone, which would
account for the brine that usually accompanies petroleum. It is
further suggested that when no such vacant spaces were available, the
hydrocarbon vapors would be absorbed into, and condensed in,
contiguous clays and shales, and perhaps also in beds of coal, only
partially consolidated at the time.

There is an extensive bituminous limestone formation in Persia,
containing 20 per cent. of bitumen, and the theory elaborated in the
paper would account for bitumen and oil having been found in Canada
and Tennessee embedded in limestone, which fact is cited by Mr.
Peckham as favoring his belief that some petroleums are a "product of
the decomposition of animal remains."

Above all, this theory accounts for the many varieties in the chemical
composition of paraffin oils in accordance with ordinary operations of
nature during successive geological periods.--_Chem. News._

       *       *       *       *       *




THE COLORADO DESERT LAKE.


Mr. J.J. Mcgillivray, who has been for many years in the United States
mineral survey service, has some interesting things to say about the
overflow of the Colorado desert, which has excited so much comment,
and about which so many different stories have been told:

"None of the papers, so far as I know," said Mr. McGillivray, "have
described with much accuracy or detail the interesting thing which has
happened in the Colorado desert or have stated how it happened. The
Colorado desert lies a short distance northwest of the upper end of
the Gulf of California, and contains not far from 2,500 square miles.
The Colorado River, which has now flooded it, has been flowing along
to the east of it, emptying into the Gulf of California. The surface
of the desert is almost all level and low, some of it below the sea
level. Some few hundreds of years ago it was a bay making in from the
Gulf of California, and then served as the outlet of the Colorado
River. But the river carried a good deal of sediment, and in time made
a bar, which slowly and surely shut off the sea on the south, leaving
only a narrow channel for the escape of the river, which cut its way
out, probably at some time when it was not carrying much sediment.
Then the current became more rapid and cut its way back into the land,
and, in doing this, did not necessarily choose the lowest place, but
rather the place where the formation of the land was soft and easily
cut away by the action of the water.

"While the river was cutting its way back it was, of course, carrying
more or less sediment, and this was left along the banks, building
them all the time higher, and confining the river more securely in its
bounds. That is the Colorado River as we have known it ever since its
discovery. Meantime, the water left in the shallow lake, cut off from
the flow of the river, gradually evaporated--a thing that would take
but a few years in that country, where the heat is intense and the
humidity very low. That left somewhere about 2,000 miles of desert
land, covered with a deposit of salt from the sea water which had
evaporated, and most of it below the level of the sea. That is the
Colorado desert as it has been known since its discovery.

"Then, last spring, came the overflow which has brought about the
present state of affairs. The river was high and carrying an enormous
amount of sediment in proportion to the quantity of water. This
gradually filled up the bed of the stream and caused it to overflow
its banks, breaking through into the dry lake where it had formerly
flowed. The fact that the water is salt, which excited much comment at
the time the overflow was first discovered, is, of course, due to the
fact that the salt in the sea water which evaporated hundreds of years
ago has remained there all the time, and is now once more in solution.

"The desert will, no doubt, continue to be a lake and the outlet of
the river unless the breaks in the banks of the river are dammed by
artificial means, which seems hardly possible, as the river has been
flowing through the break in the stream 200 feet wide, four feet deep,
and flowing at a velocity of five feet a second.

"It is an interesting fact to note that the military survey made in
1853 went over this ground and predicted the very thing which has now
happened. The flooding of the desert will be a good thing for the
surrounding country, for it does away with a large tract of absolutely
useless land, so barren that it is impossible to raise there what the
man in Texas said they mostly raised in his town, and it will increase
the humidity of the surrounding territory. Nature has done with this
piece of waste land what it has often been proposed to do by private
enterprise or by public appropriation. Congress has often been asked
to make an appropriation for that purpose."

Mr. McGillivray had also some interesting things to say about Death
Valley, which he surveyed.

"It has been called a _terra incognita_ and a place where no human
being could live. Well, it is bad enough, but perhaps not quite so bad
as that. The great trouble is the scarcity of water and the intense
heat. But many prospecting parties go there looking for veins of ore
and to take out borax. The richest borax mines in the world are found
there. The valley is about 75 miles long by 10 miles wide. The lowest
point is near the center, where it is about 150 ft. below the level of
the sea. Just 15 miles west of this central point is Telescope peak,
11,000 ft. above the sea, and 15 miles east is Mt. Le Count, in the
Funeral mountains, 8,000 ft. high. The valley runs almost due north
and south, which is one reason for the extreme heat. The only stream
of water in or near the valley flows into its upper end and forms a
marsh in the bed of the valley. This marsh gives out a horrible odor
of sulphureted hydrogen, the gas which makes a rotten egg so
offensive. Where the water of this stream comes from is not very
definitely known, but in my opinion it comes from Owen's lake, beyond
the Telescope mountains to the west, flowing down into the valley by
some subterranean passage. The same impurities found in the stream are
also found in the lake, where the water is so saturated with salt,
boracic acid, etc., that one can no more sink in it than in the water
of the Great Salt lake; and I found it so saturated that after
swimming in it a little while the skin all over my body was gnawed and
made very sore by the acids. Another reason why I think the water of
the stream enters the valley by some fixed subterranean source is the
fact that, no matter what the season, the flow from the springs that
feed the marsh is always exactly the same.

"The heat there is intense. A man cannot go an hour without water
without becoming insane. While we were surveying there, we had the
same wooden cased thermometer that is used by the signal service. It
was hung in the shade on the side of our shed, with the only stream in
the country flowing directly under it, and it repeatedly registered
130°; and for 48 hours in 1883, when I was surveying there, the
thermometer never once went below 104°."--_Boston Herald._

       *       *       *       *       *




HEMLOCK AND PARSLEY.

By W.W. BAILEY.


The study of the order Umbelliferæ presents peculiar difficulties to
the beginner, for the flowers are uniformly small and strikingly
similar throughout the large and very natural group. The family
distinctions or features are quite pronounced and unmistakable, and it
is the determination of the genera which presents obstacles--serious,
indeed, but not insurmountable. "By their fruits shall ye know them."

The Umbelliferæ, as we see them here, are herbaceous, with hollow,
often striated stems, usually more or less divided leaves, and no
stipules. Occasionally we meet a genus, like Eryngium or Hydrocotyle,
with leaves merely toothed or lobed. The petioles are expanded into
sheaths; hence the leaves wither on the stem. The flowers are usually
arranged in simple or compound umbels, and the main and subordinate
clusters may or may not be provided with involucres and involucels. To
this mode of arrangement there are exceptions. In marsh-penny-wort
(Hydrocotyle) the umbels are in the axils of the leaves, and scarcely
noticeable; in Eryngium and Sanicula they are in heads. The calyx is
coherent with the two-celled ovary, and the border is either obsolete
or much reduced. There are five petals inserted on the ovary, and
external to a fleshy disk. Each petal has its tip inflexed, giving it
an obcordate appearance. The common colors of the corolla are white,
yellow, or some shade of blue. Alternating with the petals, and
inserted with them, are the five stamens.

The fruit, upon which so much stress is laid in the study of the
family, is compound, of two similar parts or carpels, each of which
contains a seed. In ripening the parts separate, and hang divergent
from a hair-like prolongation of the receptacle known as the
gynophore. Each half fruit (mericarp) is tipped by a persistent style,
and marked by vertical ribs, between or under which lie, in many
genera, the oil tubes or vittæ. These are channels containing aromatic
and volatile oil. In examination the botanist makes delicate cross
sections of these fruits under a dissecting microscope, and by the
shape of the fruit and seed within, and by the number and position of
the ribs and oil tubes, is able to locate the genus. It, of course,
requires skill and experience to do this, but any commonly intelligent
class can learn the process. It goes without saying, and as a
corollary to what has already been stated, that these plants should
always be collected in full fruit; the flowers are comparatively
unimportant. Any botanist would be justified in declining to name one
of the family not in fruit. An attempt would often be mere guesswork.

In this family is found the poison hemlock (Conium) used by the
ancient Greeks for the elimination of politicians. It is a powerful
poison. The whole plant has a curious mousy odor. It is of European
origin. Our water hemlock is equally poisonous, and much more common.
It is the _Cicuta maculata_ of the swamps--a tall, coarse plant which
has given rise to many sad accidents. _Æthusa cynapium_, another
poisonous plant, known as "fool's parsley," is not uncommon, and
certainly looks much like parsley. This only goes to show how
difficult it is for any but the trained botanist to detect differences
in this group of plants. Side by side may be growing two specimens, to
the ordinary eye precisely alike, yet the one will be innocent and the
other poisonous.

The drug asafetida is a product of this order. All the plants appear
to "form three different principles: the first, a watery acid matter;
the second, a gum-resinous milky substance; and the third, an
aromatic, oily secretion. When the first of these predominates they
are poisonous; the second in excess converts them into stimulants; the
absence of the two renders them useful as esculents; the third causes
them to be pleasant condiments." So that besides the noxious plants
there is a long range of useful vegetables, as parsnips, parsley,
carrots, fennel, dill, anise, caraway, cummin, coriander, and celery.
The last, in its wild state, is said to be pernicious, but etiolation
changes the products and renders them harmless. The flowers of all are
too minute to be individually pretty, but every one knows how charming
are the umbels of our wild carrot, resembling as they do the choicest
old lace. Frequently the carrot has one central maroon colored floret.

Though most of the plants are herbs, Dr. Welwitsch found in Africa a
tree-like one, with a stem one to two feet thick, much prized by the
natives for its medicinal properties, and also valuable for its
timber. In Kamschatka also they assume a sub-arboreous type, as well
as on the steppes of Afghanistan.

As mistakes often occur by confounding the roots of Umbelliferæ with
those of horse radish or other esculents, it is well, when in doubt,
to send the plants, _always in fruit_, if possible, for
identification. None of them are poisonous to the touch--at least to
ordinary people. Cases of rather doubtful authenticity are reported
from time to time of injury from the handling of wild carrot. We have
always suspected the proximity of poison ivy; still, it is unwise to
dogmatize on such matters. Some people cannot eat strawberries--more's
the pity!--while the rest of us get along with them very happily.
Lately the _Primula obconica_ has acquired an evil reputation as an
irritant, so there is no telling what may not happen with certain
constitutions.

Difficult as is the study of Umbelliferæ, it becomes fascinating on
acquaintance. To hunt up a plant and name it by so scientific a
process brings to the student a sufficient reward.--_American
Naturalist._

       *       *       *       *       *




THE EREMURI.

[Illustration: EREMURUS HIMALAICUS. (Flowers white.)]


It has often been a matter of astonishment to me that eremuri are not
more frequently seen in our gardens. There are certainly very few
plants which have a statelier or more handsome appearance during the
summer months. Both in point of brightness of color and their general
habit and manner of growth they are very much to be recommended. For
some reason or other they have the character of being difficult
plants, but they do not deserve it at all, and a very slight attention
to their requirements is enough to ensure success. They can stand a
good many degrees of frost, and they ask for little more than a soil
which has been deeply worked and well enriched with old rotten manure.
Give them this, and they are certain to be contented with it, and the
cultivator will be well rewarded for his pains. Only one thing should
perhaps be added by way of precaution. If an eremurus appears too soon
above ground, it is well just to cover it over with loose litter of
some sort, so that it may not be nipped by spring frosts; and one
experienced grower has said that it answers to lift them after
blossoming, and to keep them out of the ground for a few weeks, so
that they may be sufficiently retarded. But I have not yet been able
to try this plan myself, and I do not speak from experience about it.
My favorite is Eremurus Bungei, which I think is one of the handsomest
plants I have in my garden. The clear yellow color of the blossom is
so very good, and I like the foliage also; but of course it is not the
most imposing by any means and if height and stateliness are
especially regarded, E. robustus or E. robustus nobilis would carry
off the palm. This commonly rises to the height of eight or nine feet
above the ground, and on one occasion I have known it to be greatly in
excess even of that; but such an elevation cannot be attained for more
than a single year, and it afterward is contented with more moderate
efforts. E. Himalaicus is of the purest possible white, and the spike
is very much to be admired when it is seen at its best. It can be very
easily raised from seed, but a good deal of patience is needed before
its full glory has come. E. Olgæ is the last of all, and it shows by
its arrival that summer is hastening on. It is of a peach-colored hue,
and very pretty indeed. Altogether it is a pity that eremuri are not
more commonly grown. I think they are certain to give great
satisfaction, if only a moderate degree of attention and care be
bestowed upon them.--_H. Ewbank, in The Gardeners' Magazine._

       *       *       *       *       *




RAPHIDES, THE CAUSE OF THE ACRIDITY OF CERTAIN PLANTS.

By R.A. WEBER, Ph.D.


At the last meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, Prof. W.R. Lazenby reported his studies on the occurrence of
crystals in plants. In this report he expressed the opinion that the
acridity of the Indian turnip was due to the presence of these
crystals or raphides. This opinion was opposed by Prof. Burrill and
other eminent botanists, who claimed that other plants, as the
fuchsia, are not at all acrid, although they contain raphides as
plentifully as the Indian turnip. Here the matter was allowed to rest.

The United States Dispensatory and other works on pharmacy ascribe the
acridity of the Indian turnip to an acrid, extremely volatile
principle insoluble in water, and alcohol, but soluble in ether.
Heating and drying the bulbs dissipates the volatiles principle, and
the acridity is destroyed.

At a recent meeting of Ohio State Microscopical Society this subject
was again brought up for discussion. It was thought by some that the
raphides in the different plants might vary in chemical composition,
and thus the difference in their action be accounted for. This
question the writer volunteered to answer.

Accordingly, four plants containing raphides were selected, two of
which, the _Calla cassia_ and Indian turnip, were highly acrid, and
two, the _Fuchsia_ and _Tradescantia_, or Wandering Jew, were
perfectly bland to the taste.

A portion of each plant was crushed in a mortar, water or dilute
alcohol was added, the mixture was stirred thoroughly and thrown upon
a fine sieve. By repeated washing with water and decanting a
sufficient amount of the crystals was obtained for examination. From
the calla the crystals were readily secured by this means in a
comparatively pure state. In the case of the Indian turnip the
crystals were contaminated with starch, while the crystals from the
fuschia and tradescantia were embedded in an insoluble mucilage from
which it was found impossible to separate them. The crystals were all
found to be calcium oxalate.

Having determined the identity in chemical composition of the
crystals, it was thought that there might be a difference of form of
the crystals in the various plants, from the fact that calcium oxalate
crystallizes both in the tetragonal and the monoclinic systems. A
laborious microscopic examination, however, showed that this theory
also had to be abandoned. The fuchsia and tradescantia contained
bundles of raphides of the same form and equally as fine as those of
the acrid plants. At this point in the investigation the writer was
inclined to the opinion that the acridity of the Indian turnip and
calla was due to the presence of an acrid principle.

Since the works on pharmacy claimed that the active principle of the
Indian turnip was soluble in ether, the investigation was continued in
this direction. A large stem of the calla was cut into slices, and the
juice expressed by means of a tincture press. The expressed juice was
limpid and filled with raphides. A portion of the juice was placed
into a cylinder and violently shaken with an equal volume of ether.
When the ether had separated a drop was placed upon the tongue. As
soon as the effects of the ether had passed away, the same painful
acridity was experienced as is produced when the plant itself is
tasted. This experiment seemed to corroborate the assumption of an
acrid principle soluble in ether. The supernatant ether, however, was
slightly turbid in appearance, a fact which was at first ignored.
Wishing to learn the cause of this turbidity, a drop of the ether was
allowed to evaporate on a glass slide. Under the microscope the slide
was found to be covered with a mass of raphides. A portion of the
ether was run through a Munktell filter. The filtered ether was clear,
entirely free from raphides, and had also lost every trace of its
acridity.

The same operations were repeated upon the Indian turnip with exactly
similar results.

These experiments show conclusively that the acridity of the Indian
turnip and calla is due to the raphides of calcium oxalate only.

The question of the absence of acridity in the other two plants still
remained to be settled. For this purpose some recent twigs and leaves
of the fuchsia were subjected to pressure in a tincture press. The
expressed juice was not limpid, but thick, mucilaginous and ropy.
Under the microscope the raphides seemed as plentiful as in the case
of the two acrid plants. When diluted with water and shaken with
ether, there was no visible turbidity in the supernatant ether, and
when a drop of the ether was allowed to evaporate on a glass slide,
only a few isolated crystals could be seen. From this it will be seen
that in this case the raphides did not separate from the mucilaginous
juice to be held in suspension in the ether. A great deal of time and
labor were spent in endeavoring to separate the crystals completely
from this insoluble mucilage, but without avail. With the tradescantia
similar results were obtained.

From these experiments the absence of acridity in these two plants, in
spite of the abundance of raphides, may readily be explained by the
fact that the minute crystals are surrounded with and embedded in an
insoluble mucilage, which prevents their free movement into the tongue
and surface of the mouth, when portions of the plants are tasted.

The reason why the Indian turnip loses its acridity on being heated
can be explained by the production of starch paste from the abundance
of starch present in the bulbs. This starch paste would evidently act
in a manner similar to the insoluble mucilage of the other two plants.

So also it can readily be seen that when the bulbs of the Indian
turnip have been dried, the crystals can no longer separate from the
hard mass which surrounds them, and consequently can exert no irritant
action when the dried bulbs are placed against the tongue.--_Jour. Am.
Chem. Soc._

       *       *       *       *       *




THE WHALE-HEADED STORK.


[Illustration: THE WHALE-HEADED STORK--BALÆNICEPS REX.]

Of all the wonders that inhabit the vast continent of Africa, the most
singular one is undoubtedly the _Balæniceps_, or whale-headed stork.
It is of relatively recent discovery, and the first description of it
was given by Gould in the early part of 1851. It is at present still
extremely rare. The Paris Museum possesses three specimens of it, and
the Boulogne Museum possesses one. These birds always excite the
curiosity of the public by their strange aspect. At first sight, says
W.P. Parker, in his notes upon the osteology of the balæniceps, this
bird recalls the boatbill, the heron, and the adjutant. Other birds,
too, suggest themselves to the mind, such as the pelican, the toucan,
the hornbills, and the podarges. The curious form of the bill, in
fact, explains this comparison with birds belonging to so different
groups, and the balæniceps would merit the name of boatbill equally
well with the bird so called, since its bill recalls the small fishing
boats that we observe keel upward high and dry on our seashores. This
bill is ten inches in length, and four inches in breadth at the base.
The upper mandible, which is strongly convex, exhibits upon its median
line a slight ridge, which is quite wide at its origin, and then
continues to decrease and becomes sensibly depressed as far as to the
center of its length, and afterward rises on approaching the anterior
extremity, where it terminates in a powerful hook, which seems to form
a separate part, as in the albatrosses. Throughout its whole extent,
up to the beginning of the hook, this mandible presents a strong
convexity over its edge, which is turned slightly inward. The lower
mandible, which is powerful, and is indented at its point to receive
the hook, has a very sharp edge, which, with that of the upper
mandible, constitutes a pair of formidable shears. The color of the
bill is pale yellow, passing to horn color toward the median ridge,
and the whole surface is sprinkled with dark brown blotches. The
nostrils are scarcely visible, and are situated in a narrow cleft at
the base of the bill, and against the median ridge. The tongue is very
small and entirely out of proportion to the vast buccal capacity. This
is a character that might assimilate the balæniceps to the pelican.
The robust head, the neck, and the throat, are covered with
slate-colored feathers verging on green, and not presenting the
repulsive aspect of the naked skin of the adjutant. As in the latter,
the skin of the throat is capable of being dilated so as to form a
voluminous pouch. Upon the occiput the feathers are elongated and
form a small crest. The body is robust and covered upon the back with
slate-colored feathers bordered with ashen gray. Upon the breast the
feathers are lanceolate, and marked with a dark median stripe.
Finally, the lower parts, abdomen, sides, and thighs, are pale gray,
and the remiges and retrices are black. According to Verreaux, the
feathers of the under side of the tail are soft and decompounded, but
at a distance they only recall the beautiful plumes of the adjutant.
The well-developed wings indicate a bird of lofty flight, yet of all
the bones of the limbs, anterior as well as posterior, the humerus
alone is pneumatized. The strong feet terminate in four very long toes
deprived at the interdigital membrane observed in most of the
Ciconidæ. The claws are powerful and but slightly curved, and that of
the median toe is not pectinated as in the herons.

The balæniceps is met with only in or near water, but it prefers
marshes to rivers. It is abundant upon the banks of the Nile only
during the hot season which precedes the rains and when the entire
interior is dried up. During the rest of the year it inhabits natural
ponds and swamps, where the shallow water covers vast areas and
presents numerous small islands, of easier access than the banks of
the Nile, which always slope more or less abruptly into deep water. In
such localities it is met with in pairs or in flocks of a hundred or
more, seeking its food with tireless energy, or else standing
immovable upon one leg, the neck curved and the head resting upon the
shoulder. When disturbed, the birds fly just above the surface of the
water and stop at a short distance. But when they are startled by the
firing of a gun, they ascend to a great height, fly around in a circle
and hover for a short time, and then descend upon the loftiest trees,
where they remain until the enemy has gone.

Water turtles, fish, frogs and lizards form the basis of their food.
According to Petherick, they do not disdain dead animals, whose
carcasses they disembowel with their powerful hooked beak. They pass
the night upon the ground, upon trees and upon high rocks. As regards
nest-making and egg-laying, opinions are most contradictory. According
to Verreaux, the balæniceps builds its nest of earth, vegetable
debris, reeds, grass, etc., upon large trees. The female lays two eggs
similar to those of the adjutant. It is quite difficult to reconcile
this opinion with that of Petherick, who expresses himself as follows:
"The balæniceps lays in July and August, and chooses for that purpose
the tall reeds or grasses that border the water or some small and
slightly elevated island. They dig a hole in the ground, and the
female deposits her eggs therein. I have found as many as twelve eggs
in the same nest."

The whale-headed stork is still so little known that there is nothing
in these contradictions that ought to surprise us. Authors are no more
in accord on the subject of the affinities of this strange bird. Gould
claims that it presents the closest affinities with the pelican and is
the wading type of the Pelicanidæ. Verreaux believes that its nearest
relative is the adjutant, whose ways it has, and that it represents in
this group what the boatbill represents in the heron genus. Bonaparte
regards it as intermediate between the pelican and the boatbill. If we
listen to Reinhurdt, we must place it, not alongside of the boatbill,
but alongside of the African genus Scopus. The boatbill, says he, is
merely a heron provided with a singular bill, which has but little
analogy with that of the balæniceps, and not a true resemblance. The
nostrils differ in form and position in those two birds, and in the
boatbill there exists beneath the lower mandible a dilatable pouch
that we do not find in the balæniceps. An osteological examination
leads Parker to place the balæniceps near the boatbill, and the
present classification is based upon that opinion. The family of
Ardeidæ is, therefore, divided into five sub-families, the three last
of which each comprises a single genus.

Ardeidæ.--Ardeineæ (herons).
          Botaurineæ (bitterns).
          Scopineæ (ombrette).
          Cancomineæ (boatbill).
          Balænicepineæ (whale-headed stork).

All the whale-headed storks that have been received up to the present
have come from the region of the White Nile; but Mr. H. Johnston, who
traveled in Congo in 1882, asserts that he met with the bird on the
River Cunene between Benguela and Angola, where it was even very
common. Mr. Johnston's assertion has been confirmed by other travelers
worthy of credence, but, unfortunately, the best of all confirmations
is wanting, and that is a skin of this magnificent wader. We can,
therefore, only make a note of Mr. Johnston's statement, and hope that
some traveler may one day enrich our museums with some balæniceps from
these regions. The presence of this bird in the southwest of Africa
is, after all, not impossible; yet there is one question that arises:
Was the balæniceps observed by Mr. Johnston of the same species as
that of the White Nile, or was it a new type that will increase this
family, which as yet comprises but one genus and one species--the
_Balæniceps rex_?--_Le Naturaliste_.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE CALIFORNIA RAISIN INDUSTRY.


Fresno County, for ten miles about Fresno, furnishes the best example
of the enormous increase in values which follows the conversion of
wheat fields and grazing land into vineyards and orchards. Not even
Riverside can compare with it in the rapid evolution of a great source
of wealth which ten years ago was almost unknown. What has transformed
Fresno from a shambling, dirty resort of cowboys and wheat ranchers
into one of the prettiest cities in California is the raisin grape.
Though nearly all fruits may be grown here, yet this is pre-eminently
the home of the raisin industry, and it is the raisin which in a
single decade has converted 50,000 acres of wheat fields into
vineyards. No other crop in California promises such speedy returns or
such large profits as the raisin grape, and as the work on the
vineyards is not heavy, the result has been a remarkable growth of the
infant industry. It is estimated that in this county, which contains
5,000,000 acres and is nearly as large as Massachusetts, there are
400,000 acres that may be irrigated and are specially adapted to the
grape. As the present crop on about 25,000 acres in full bearing is
valued at $6,000,000, some idea may be formed of the revenue that will
come to the Fresno vineyardists when all this choice valley land is
planted and in full bearing. And what makes the prospect of permanent
prosperity surer is the fact that nine out of ten new settlers are
content with twenty-acre tracts, as one of these is all which a man
can well care for, while the income from this little vineyard will
average $4,000 above all expenses, a larger income than is enjoyed by
three-quarters of the professional men throughout the country.

The raisin industry in California is very young. To be sure, dried
grapes have been known since the time of the Mission Fathers, but the
dried mission grape is not a raisin. The men who thirty years ago sent
over to Europe for the choicest varieties of wine grapes imported
among other cuttings the Muscatel, the Muscat of Alexandria, and the
Feher Zagos; the three finest raisin grapes of Spain. But the raisin,
like the fig, requires skillful treatment, and for years the
California grower made no headway. He read all that had been written
on the curing of the raisin; several enterprising men went to Spain to
study the subject at first hand; but despite all this no progress was
made. Finally several of the pioneer raisin men of Fresno cut loose
from all precedent, dried their grapes in the simple and natural
manner and made a success of it. From that time, not over ten years
ago, the growth of the industry has eclipsed that of every other
branch of horticulture in the State, and the total value of the
product promises soon to exceed the value of the orange crop or the
yield of wine and brandy.

It required a good deal of nerve for the pioneers of Fresno County to
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in bringing water upon what the
old settlers regarded as a desert, fit only to grow wheat in a very
wet season. In other parts of the State the Mission Fathers had dug
ditches and built aqueducts, so that the settlers who came after them
found a well devised water system, which they merely followed. But in
Fresno no one had ever tried to grow crops by irrigation. When Fremont
came through there from the mountains he found many wild cattle
feeding on the rank grass that grew as high as the head of a man on
horseback. The herds of the native Californians were almost equally
wild. The country was one vast plain which in summer glowed under a
sun that was tropical in its intensity. As late as 1860 one could
travel for a day without seeing a house or any sign of habitation. The
country was owned by great cattle growers, who seldom rode over their
immense ranches, except at the time of the annual "round-up" of stock.
About thirty years ago a number of large wheat growers secured big
tracts of land around Fresno. At their head was Isaac Friedlander,
known as the wheat king of the Pacific Coast. Friedlander would have
transformed this country had not financial ruin overcome him. His
place was taken by others, like Chapman, Easterby, Eisen and
Hughes--men who believed in fruit growing and who had the courage to
carry on their operations in the face of repeated failures.

The great development of Fresno has been due entirely to the colony
system, which has also built up most of the flourishing cities of
Southern California. In 1874 the first Fresno colony was started by
W.S. Chapman. He cut up six sections of land into 20-acre tracts, and
brought water from King's River. The colonists represented all classes
of people, and though they made many disastrous experiments, with poor
varieties of grapes and fruit, still there is no instance of failure
recorded, and all who have held on to their land are now in
comfortable circumstances. Some of the settlers in this colony were
San Francisco school teachers. They obtained their 20-acre tracts for
$400, and many of them retired on their little vineyards at the end of
five or six years. One lady, named Miss Austen, had the foresight to
plant all her property in the best raisin grapes, and for many years
drew a larger annual revenue from the property than the whole place
cost her. The central colony now has an old established look. The
broad avenues are lined with enormous trees; many of the houses are
exceedingly beautiful country villas. What a transformation has been
wrought here may be appreciated when it is said that 150 families now
produce $400,000 a year on the same land which twenty years ago
supported but one family, which had a return of only $35,000 from
wheat. The history of this one colony of six sections of old wheat
land is the key to Fresno's prosperity. It proves better than columns
of argument, or facts or figures, the immense return that careful,
patient cultivation may command in this home of the grape. Near this
colony are a half-dozen others which were established on the same
general plan. The most noteworthy is the Malaga colony, founded by
G.G. Briggs, to whom belongs the credit of introducing the raisin
grape into Fresno.

Fresno City is the center from which one may drive in three directions
and pass through mile after mile of these colonies, all showing signs
of the wealth and comfort that raisin making has brought. Only toward
the west is the land still undeveloped, but another five years promise
to see this great tract, stretching away for twenty miles, also laid
out in small vineyards and fruit farms. Fresno is the natural railroad
center of the great San Joaquin Valley. It is on the main line of the
Southern Pacific and is the most important shipping point between San
Francisco and Los Angeles. The new line of the Santa Fe, which has
been surveyed from Mojave up through the valley, passes through
Fresno. Then there are three local lines that have the place for a
terminus, notably the mountain railway, which climbs into the Sierra,
and which it is expected will one day connect with the Rio Grande
system and give a new transcontinental line. Here are also building
round houses and machine shops of the Southern Pacific Company. These,
with new factories, packing houses, and other improvements, go far to
justify the sanguine expectations of the residents. There has never
been a boom in Fresno, but a high railroad official recently, in
speaking of the growth of the city, said: "Fresno in five years will
be the second city in California." This prediction he based on the
wonderful expansion of its resources in the last decade and the
substantial character of all the improvements made. It is a pretty
town, with wide, well-paved streets, handsome modern business blocks,
and residence avenues that would do credit to any old-settled town of
the East. The favorite shade tree is the umbrella tree, which has the
graceful, rounded form of the horse chestnut, but with so thick a
foliage that its shadow is not dappled with sunlight. Above it is an
intensely dark green, while viewed from below it is the most delicate
shade of pea green. Rivaling this in popularity is the pepper tree,
also an evergreen, and the magnolia, fan palm, eucalyptus, or
Australian blue gum, and the poplar. All these trees grow luxuriantly.
It has also become the custom in planting a vineyard to put a row of
the white Adriatic fig trees around the place, and to mark off ten or
twenty acre tracts in the same way. The dark green foliage of the fig
is a great relief to the eye when the sun beats down on the sandy
soil. Leading out of Fresno are five driveways. The soil makes a
natural macadam, which dries in a few hours. Throughout the year these
roads are in good condition for trotting, and nearly every raisin
grower is also an expert in horseflesh, and has a team that will do a
mile in less than 2:30. The new race course is one of the finest in
the State. Toward the west from Fresno has recently been opened a
magnificent driveway, which promises in a few years to rival the
Magnolia ave. of Riverside. This is called Chateau Fresno ave. It has
two driveways separated by fan palms and magnolias, while along the
outer borders are the same trees with other choice tropical growths,
that will one day make this avenue well worth traveling many miles to
see. This is the private enterprise of Mr. Theodore Kearney, who made
a fortune in real estate, and it is noteworthy as an illustration of
the large way in which the rich Californian goes about any work in
which he takes an interest. Probably the finest avenue in Fresno is
the poplar-lined main driveway through the Barton vineyard. It is a
mile in length, and the trees, fully fifty feet high, stand so thickly
together that when in full leaf they form a solid wall of green. The
vineyard, which is a mile square, is also surrounded by a single row
of these superb poplars.

A visit to one of the great raisin vineyards near Fresno is a
revelation in regard to the system that is necessary in handling large
quantities of grapes. The largest raisin vineyard in the State, if not
in the world, is that of A.B. Butler. It comprises 640 acres, of which
a trifle over 600 acres is planted to the best raisin grapes. Butler
was a Texas cowboy, and came to Fresno with very little capital. He
secured possession of a section of land, planted it to grapes; he read
everything he could buy on raisin making, but found little in the
books that was of any value. So he made a trip to Spain, and inspected
all the processes in the Malaga district. He gathered many new ideas.
One of the most valuable suggestions was in regard to prunings and
keeping the vine free from the suckers that sap its vitality. When he
returned from this trip and passed through Los Angeles County he saw
that the strange disease which was killing many hundred acres of vines
was nothing else than the result of faulty prunings--the retention of
suckers until they gained such lusty growth that their removal proved
fatal to the vine. His vineyard is as free from weeds and grass as a
corner of a well kept kitchen garden. The vine leaves have that deep
glossy look which betrays perfect health. When my visit was made the
whole crop was on trays spread out in the vineyard. These trays had
been piled up in layers of a dozen--what is technically known as
boxed--as a shower had fallen the previous night, and Mr. Butler was
uncertain whether he would have a crop of the choicest raisins or
whether he would have to put his dried grapes in bags, and sell them
for one-third of the top price. Fortunately the rain clouds cleared
away. The crop was saved and the extreme hot weather that followed
made the second crop almost as valuable as the first.

The method of drying and packing the raisin is peculiar and well worth
a brief description. When the grape reaches a certain degree of
ripeness and develops the requisite amount of saccharine matter a
large force is put into the vineyard and the picking begins. The
bunches of ripe grapes are placed carefully on wooden trays and are
left in the field to cure. The process requires from seven days to
three weeks, according to the amount of sunshine. This climate is so
entirely free from dew at night that there is no danger of must. The
grape cures perfectly in this way and makes a far sweeter raisin than
when dried by artificial heat. When the grapes are dried sufficiently
the trays are gathered and stacked in piles about as high as a man's
waist. Then begins the tedious but necessary process of sorting into
the sweat boxes. These boxes are about eight inches deep and hold 125
pounds of grapes. Around the sorter are three sweat boxes for the
three grades of grapes. In each box are three layers of manila paper
which are used at equal intervals to prevent the stems of the grapes
from becoming entangled, thus breaking the fine large bunches when
removed. The sorter must be an expert. He takes the bunches by the
stem, placing the largest and finest in the first grade box, those
which are medium sized in the second grade, and all broken and ragged
bunches in the third class. When the boxes are filled they are hauled
to the brick building known as the equalizer. This is constructed so
as to permit ventilation at the top, but to exclude light and air as
much as possible from the grapes. The boxes are piled in tiers in this
house and allowed to remain in darkness for from ten to twenty days.
Here they undergo a sweating process, which diffuses moisture equally
throughout the contents of each box. This prevents some grapes from
retaining undue moisture, and it also softens the stems and makes them
pliable.

From the equalizing room the sweat boxes are taken to the packing
room. Here they are first weighed. The first and second grades are
passed to the sorter, while the third grade raisins are placed in a
big machine that strips off the stems and grades the loose raisins in
three or four sizes. These are placed in sacks and sold as loose
raisins. The higher grades are carefully sorted into first and second
class clusters. After this sorting the boxes are passed to women and
girls, who arrange the clusters neatly in small five pound boxes with
movable bottoms. These boxes are placed under slight pressure, and
four of them fill one of the regular twenty pound boxes of commerce.
The work of placing the raisins in the small boxes requires much
practice, but women are found to be much swifter than men at this
labor, and, as they are paid by the box, the more skillful earn from
$2 to $3 a day. It is light, pleasant work, as the room is large, cool
and well ventilated, and there is no mixing of the sexes, such as may
be found in many of the San Francisco canneries. For this reason the
work attracts nice girls, and one may see many attractive faces in a
trip through a large packing house. One heavy shouldered,
masculine-looking German woman, who, however, had long, slender
fingers, was pointed out as the swiftest sorter in the room. She made
regularly $3 a day. The assurance of steady work of this kind for
three months draws many people to Fresno, and the regular disbursement
of a large sum as wages every week goes far to explain the thrift and
comfort seen on every hand.

The five pound boxes of grapes are passed to the pressing machine,
where four of them are deftly transferred to a twenty pound box. The
two highest grades of raisins are the Dehesa and the London layers. It
has always been the ambition of California's raisin makers to produce
the Dehesa brand. They know that their best raisins are equal in size
and quality to the best Spanish raisins, but heretofore they have
found the cost of preparing the top layer in the Spanish style very
costly, as the raisins had to be flattened out (or thumbed, as it is
technically called) by hand. In Spain, where women work for 20 cents a
day, this hand labor cuts no figure in the cost of production, but
here, with the cheapest labor at $1.50 a day, it has proved a bar to
competition. American ingenuity, however, is likely to overcome this
handicap of high wages. T.C. White, an old raisin grower, has invented
a packing plate of metal, with depressions at regular intervals just
the size of a big raisin. This plate is put at the bottom of the
preliminary packing box, and when the work of packing is complete the
box is reversed and the top layer, pressed into the depressions of the
plate, bears every mark of the most careful hand manipulation. Mr.
Butler used this plate for the first time this season, and found it a
success, and there is no question of its general adoption. Every year
sees more attention paid to the careful grading of raisins, as upon
this depends much of their marketable value. The large packing houses
have done good work in enforcing this rule, and the chief sinners who
still indulge in careless packing are small growers with poor
facilities. Probably the next few years will see a great increase in
the number and size of the packing houses which will prepare and
market most of Fresno's raisin crop. The growers also will avail
themselves of the co-operative plan, for which the colony system
offers peculiar advantages.

Geometrical progression is the only thing which equals the increase of
Fresno's raisin product. Eighteen years ago it was less than 3,000
boxes. Last year it amounted to 1,050,000 boxes, while this year the
product cannot fall below 1,250,000 boxes. New vineyards are coming
into bearing every year, and this season has seen a larger planting of
new vineyards than ever before. This was due mainly to the stimulus
and encouragement of the McKinley bill, which was worth an
incalculable sum to those who are developing the raisin industry in
California. Besides raisins, Fresno produced last year 2,500,000
gallons of wine, a large part of which was shipped to the East. The
railroad figures show the wealth that is produced here every year from
these old wheat fields. The dried fruit crop last year was valued at
$1,123,520; raisins, $1,245,768; and the total exports were
$8,957,899.

The largest bearing raisin vineyard in Fresno is that of A.B. Butler,
who has over 600 acres in eight year-old vines. The pack this year
will be fully 120,000 boxes. As each box sells for an average of
$1.75, the revenue from this vineyard will not fall far below a
quarter of a million. One of the finest places in the county is
Colonel Forsythe's 160-acre vineyard, from which 40,000 boxes are
packed. Forsythe has paid so much attention to the packing of his
raisins that his output commands a fancy price. This year he wanted to
go to Europe, so he sold his crop on the vines to a packing house,
receiving a check for $20,000. These, of course, are the great
successes, but nearly every small raisin grower has made money, for it
costs not over 1½ cents per pound to produce the raisin, and the price
seldom falls below 6 cents per pound. Good land can be secured in
Fresno at from $50 to $200 per acre. The average is $75 an acre for
first-class raisin land that is within ten miles of any large place.
It costs $75 an acre to get a raisin vineyard into bearing. In the
third year the vines pay for cultivation, and from that time on the
ratio of increase is very large. Much of the work of pruning, picking,
and curing grapes is light, and may be done by women and children. The
only heavy labor about the vineyard is the plowing and cultivating.
Fresno is a hot place in the summer, the mercury running up to 110
degrees in the shade, but this is a dry heat, which does not enervate,
and, with proper protection for the head, one may work in the sun all
day, without any danger of sunstroke.

The colony system, which has been brought to great perfection around
Fresno, permits a family of small means to secure a good home without
much capital to start with. Where no money is paid for labor, a
vineyard may be brought to productiveness with very small outlay. At
the same time there is so great a demand for labor in the large
vineyards, that the man who has a five or ten acre tract may be sure
of work nearly all the year. In some places special inducements have
been held out to people of small means to secure a five-acre vineyard
while they are at work in other business. One colony of this sort was
started eighteen months ago near Madera, in Fresno County. A tract of
3,000 acres was planted to Muscat grapes, and then sold out in five
and ten acre vineyards, on five years' time, the purchaser paying only
one-fifth cash. The price of the land was $75 an acre, and it was
estimated that an equal sum per acre would put the vineyard into full
bearing. Thus, for $750, or, with interest, for $1,000, a man working
on a small salary in San Francisco will have in five years a vineyard
which should yield him a yearly revenue of $500. From the present
outlook there can be no danger of over-production of raisins, any more
than of California wine or dried fruits. The grower is assured of a
good market for every pound of raisins he produces, and the more care
he puts into the growing and packing of his crop, the larger his
returns will be. For those who love life in the open air, there is
nothing in California with greater attractions than raisin growing in
Fresno County.--_N.Y. Tribune._

       *       *       *       *       *




COLD AND MORTALITY.

By Dr. B.W. RICHARDSON.


During the seven weeks of extreme atmospheric cold in which the last
year ended and with which the present year opened, every one has been
startled by the mortality that has prevailed among the enfeebled and
aged population. Friends have been swept away in a manner most painful
to recall, under the influence of an external agency, as natural as it
is fatal in its course, and over which science, as yet, holds the most
limited control.

In the presence of these facts questions occur to the mind which have
the most practical bearing. Why should a community wake up one day
with catarrh or with the back of the throat unduly red and the tonsils
large? Why, in a particular village or town, shall the medical men be
summoned on some particular day to a number of places to visit
children with croup? What is the reason that cases of sudden death, by
so-called "apoplexy," crowd together into a few hours? Why, in a given
day or week, are shoals of the aged swept away, while the young live
as before? These are questions which curative and preventive medicine
have not yet mastered as might be desired. Curative medicine, at the
name of them, too often stands abashed, if her interpreter be honest;
and preventive medicine says, if her interpreter be honest, "The
questions wait as yet for full interpretation."

Still, we are not altogether ignorant; some circumstances appear to be
followed by effects so definite, that we may almost consider we have
before us, in true position, cause and effect. Let us look at this
position in reference to _the simple influence of temperature on the
value of life_.

If we observe the fluctuation of the thermometer by the side of the
mortality of the nation at large, no calculable relationship seems, at
first sight, to be traceable between the one and the other. But if, in
connection with the mortality, care be taken to isolate cases, and to
divide them into groups according to the ages of those who die, a
singular and significant series of facts follow, which show that after
a given age a sudden decline of the temperature influences mortality
by what may be considered a definite law. The law is, that variations
of temperature exert no marked influence on the mortality of the
population under the age of thirty years; but after the age of thirty
is reached, a fall of temperature, sufficient to cause an increased
number of deaths, acts in a regular manner, as it may be said, in
waves or lines of intensity, according to the ages of the people. If
we make these lines nine years long, we discover that they double in
effect at each successive point. Thus, if the, fall in the temperature
be sufficient to increase the mortality at the rate of one person of
the age of thirty, the increase will run as follows: 1 death at 30
years of age will become 2 deaths at 39 years of age, 4 at 48 years, 8
at 57 years, 16 at 66 years, 33 at 75 years, and 64 at 84 years.

In these calculations nothing seems to be wanting that should render
them trustworthy; they resulted from inquiries conducted on the
largest scale; they were computed by one of our greatest authorities
in vital statistics, the late Dr. William Farr, and they accord with
what we gather from common daily observation. They supply, in a word,
the scientific details and refinements of a rough estimate founded on
universal experience, and they lead us to think very gravely on many
subjects which may not have occurred to us before, and which are as
curious as they are important.

We often hear persons who know little about vital phenomena, by which
term I mean nothing mysterious, but simply the physics embraced in
those phenomena which we connect with form and motion under the term
life, harping on the one string, that man knows nothing of the laws of
life and death. But what an answer to such presumption do the facts
rendered above supply. Life and death are here reduced, on given
conditions, to reasonings as clear and positive as are the reasonings
on the development of heat by the combustion of fuel. It is not
necessary for the vital philosopher to go out into the towns and
villages to take a new census of deaths to enable him to give us his
readings of the general mortality under the conditions specified. He
may sit in his cabinet, and, as he reads his thermometer day by day,
predict results. There is a fall of temperature that shall be known by
experience to be sufficiently deep and prolonged to cause an increase
of one death among those members of the community who have reached
thirty years. Then, rising by a definite rule, there have died
sixty-four, in proportion to that one, of those who have reached
eighty-four years. This is sound calculation, and it leads to
reflection. It leads one to ask, what, if the law be so definite, are
curative and preventive medicine doing meanwhile, that they shall not
disturb it? I fear that they hardly produce perturbations, and I do
not see why they should; because, as the truth opens itself to the
mind, the tremendous external change in the forces of the universe
that leads to the result, is not to be grappled with nor interfered
with by any specific method of human invention. The cause is too
general, too overwhelming, too grasping. It is like the lightning
stroke in its distance from our command; but it is widely spread, not
pointed and concentrate; prolonged, not instantaneous; and, by virtue
of these properties, is so much the more subtile and devastating.

At first it seems easy to explain the reason why a sudden fall in
temperature should lead to an increase in the number of deaths, and it
is to be admitted that, to a certain extent, the reason is clear.


ANIMAL POWER AT DIFFERENT PERIODS OF LIFE.

Without entering on the question whether heat is the animating
principle of all living organisms, we may accept that in the evolution
of heat in the body we have a measurement of the capacity of the body
to sustain motion, which is only another phrase for expressing the
resistance of the body to death. For example, if we assume that a
healthy man of thirty respires sufficient air per day to produce as
much heat as would raise fifty pounds of water at 32° Fahr. to 212°
Fahr., and if we assume that a man of sixty in the same temperature is
only able to respire so much air as shall cause him to evolve so much
heat as would raise forty pounds of water from 32° to 212°, we see a
general reason why the older man should feel an effect from a sudden
change in the temperature of the air which the younger would not feel;
and if we assume, further, that a man of eighty could in the same time
produce as much heat as would raise only twenty pounds of water from
32° to 212°, we see a good reason why the oldest should suffer more
from a decrease of external temperature than the other two. It is
necessary, however, to know more than this general statement of an
approximate fact; we ought to understand the method by which the
reduction of temperature influences, and the details of the
physiological process connected with the phenomena. When a human body
is living after the age when the period of its growth is completed and
before the period of its decay has commenced, it produces, when it is
quite healthy, by its own chemical processes, so much heat or force as
shall enable it, within given bounds, (1) to move its own machinery;
(2) to call forth, at will, a limited measure of extra force which has
been lying latent in its organism; and (3) to supply a fluctuating
loss that must be conveyed away by contact with the surrounding air,
by the earth, and by other bodies that it may touch, and which are
colder than itself. There is thus produced in the body, _applied_
force, _reserve_ force, and _waste_ force, and these distributions of
the whole force generated, when correctly applied, maintain the
perfect organism in such balance that life is true and steady. So much
active force carries with it the power to perform so much labor; so
much reserve force carries with it the power to perform a measure of
new or extra labor to meet emergencies; so much waste force enables
the body to resist the external vicissitudes without trenching on the
supply that is always wanted to keep the heart pulsating, the chest
breathing, the glands secreting or excreting, the digestive apparatus
moving, and the brain thinking or absorbing.

Let us, even in the prime of manhood, disturb the distribution of
force ever so little, and straightway our life, which is the resultant
of force, is disturbed. If we use the active force too long, we become
exhausted, and call on the reserve; if we continue the process, the
result is failure more or less perfect, sleep, and, in the end, the
last long sleep. Let us, instead of exhausting the force, cut it off
at the sources where it is generated; let us remove the carbon or coal
that should go in as fuel food, and we create prostration, and in
continuance a waning animal fire, sleep, and death; or let us, instead
of removing or withdrawing the supply of fuel, cut off the supply of
air, as by immersion of the body in water, or by making it breathe a
vapor that weakens the combination of oxygen with carbon--such a vapor
as chloroform--and again we produce, at once, prostration, sleep, or
death, according to the extent to which we have conducted the process.
Lastly, if instead of using up unduly the active and reserve force, or
of suppressing the evolution of force by the withdrawal of its
sources, we expose the body to such an external temperature that it is
robbed of its heat faster than it can generate it; if to supply the
waste heat we draw upon the active and reserve forces, we call forth
immediately the same condition as would follow extreme over-exertion,
or suppression of the development of force; we call forth exhaustion
and sleep, and, if we go far enough, death.

We have had in view, in the above description, a man in the prime of
life, in the center of growth, and decay. In regard to the force of
animation in him, let us look at him now retrospectively and
prospectively. In the past his has been a growing, developing body,
and in the course of development he has produced an excess of force
commensurate with the demands of his growth; this has enabled him
gradually to bear more fatigue and more exposure, without exhaustion,
and even with ease, until he has reached his maximum. When he has
stopped in development, when he stands on a fair level with the
external forces that are opposed to him, then his own force, for a
short time balanced, soon stands second in command. He feels cold more
tenderly; if his rest be broken, the demand for artificial heat is
more urgent; if he lose or miss food, he sinks quickly; and, returning
to our facts, as to the influence of the external temperature on
mortality, these are the reasons why a fall in the thermometer sweeps
away our population according to age so ruthlessly and decisively.

If we analyze the facts further by the side of the diseases which kill
the old, we find those diseases to be numerous in name, but all of two
types. They are diseases which of themselves tend either to produce
undue loss of force, or that tend to prevent the development of force
at its origin. Thus affections which are accompanied with exhaustive
loss of fluids from the body, such as diabetes, dropsies, and
hæmorrhages, are of the first class; affections in which due supply of
air to the lungs is prevented are of the second class, especially
bronchitis, a disease so commonly assigned as the cause of the deaths
among the members of the aged and enfeebled population, that succeed
immediately on an extreme fall of the thermometer.


FALL OF TEMPERATURE--MODE OF ACTION.

In what has been written above I have stated simply and in open terms
the fact that the fall of temperature produces a specified series of
results, by reducing the force of the living organism, and disposing
it to die. We may from this point investigate, from a physiological
point of view, the mode by which the effect is produced in the
economy. How does the decline of temperature act? Is the process
simple or compound?


EXTRACTION OF HEAT.

The process is compound, and into it there enter three elements. In
the first place, the body is robbed rapidly of its waste force, and
the reserve and active elements of force are, consequently, called
upon to the depression of the organism altogether. This obtains
because the medium surrounding the body, the air, unless it be
artificially heated, removes from its contact with the body a larger
proportion of heat than can be spared; and it might be possible to
produce such an influence on the body by sudden extraction of its heat
as to destroy it at once by the mere act. If a man could be surrounded
with frozen mercury he would die instantaneously, as from shock, by
the immediate extraction of his heat. But in ordinary cases, and under
ordinary circumstances, the mere rapid extraction of waste heat is not
sufficient to account for all the mischief produced by a low
temperature; for by artificial warmth and non-conducting garments, we
counteract the influence, and that, too, in a manner which proves
pretty successful. We may, therefore, leave this element of extraction
of heat as a most important, but not as the sole, agent of evil.


SUPPRESSED OXIDATION.

The second element is the effect on the process of oxidation of blood
under the influence of cold. We all are aware that if a portion of
dead animal or vegetable matter be placed at a low temperature, it
keeps for a considerable time; and we have evidence of dead animals
which, clothed in thick ribbed ice, have been retained from
putrefaction for centuries. Hence we say that cold is an antiseptic as
alcohol is, and chloroform, and ammonia, and other similar bodies.
Cold is an antiseptic then, but why? Because it prevents, even in the
presence of a ferment, the union of oxygen gas with combustible
matter. The molecules of oxygen, in order that they shall combine, and
in their combination evolve heat, require to be distributed, and to be
distributed by the form of motion known as heat; deprive them of this
activity, and they come into communion with themselves, are attracted
to each other, and lose to the extent of this attraction their power
of combining with the molecules of other bodies for which they have an
affinity. In an analogous, but more obvious way, we may see the same
effect of motion in the microscopic examination of blood. In the
blood, while it is circulating briskly in its vessels, there are
distributed through it, without contact with each other, the millions
of oxygen carriers called blood corpuscles. In the circulation in the
free channels of the body, the arteries and veins, it is motion that
keeps these corpuscles apart; we draw a drop of blood and let it come
to rest on the microscope glass, and as the motion ceases the
separated corpuscles run together, and adhere so firmly that we cannot
easily separate them without their disintegration. If we were able to
drive them in this state round the body, through the vessels, they
would not combine readily with the tissues; they have, in fact,
forfeited the condition necessary for such combination. So with the
oxygen they carry; when its invisible molecules are deprived of the
force called heat, which is motion, they do not readily combine with
new matter. But perfect combination of oxygen and carbon in the blood
is essential to every act of life. In the constant clash of molecule
of oxygen with molecule of carbon in the blood lies the mainspring of
all animal motion; the motion of the heart itself is secondary to
that. Destroy that union, however slightly, and the balance is lost,
and the animal body is, in a plain word, _ill_.

Cold or decreased temperature, below a given standard, which for sake
of comparison we may take at a mean of 40° Fahr., reduces this
combination of oxygen and carbon in blood. In my Lettsomian lectures
to the Medical Society of London, delivered in 1860, I entered very
fully into this subject, and illustrated points of it largely by
experiment. Since then I have done more, and although I have not time
here to state the details of these researches, I will epitomize the
principal facts. I found then that, by exposing blood in chambers into
which air can pass in and out, the blood could be oxidized at
temperatures of 70° if the distribution of air and blood were
effectually secured, and I also found a proper standard of oxidation
from a proper temperature. Afterward I proceeded to test for
combination at lower temperatures, and discovered a gradually
decreasing scale until I arrived at 40° Fahr., when efficient
combination ceased. Of course, my method was a very crude imitation of
nature, but it was sufficient to show this fair and reliable result,
that the oxidation of blood decreases as the temperature of the oxygen
decreases.

From this point I went to animal life itself. I exposed animals to
pure cold oxygen and to cold atmospheric air, and compared the results
with other experiments in which animals of similar weight were exposed
to warm air and warm oxygen. The facts gleaned were most important,
for they proved conclusively that the products of combustion, that is
to say, the products resulting from the union of oxygen and carbon,
were reduced in proportion as the temperature of the oxygen was
reduced. In the course of this inquiry another singular and
instructive fact was elicited. It has been long known that at ordinary
temperature, say 60°, pure neutral oxygen does not support animal life
so well as oxygen that is diluted with nitrogen. In the nitrogen the
molecules of oxygen are more freely distributed under the influence of
motion, that is the meaning of the observed fact. What, then, would be
the respective influence of low and high temperatures on the
respiration of pure oxygen? To settle this question, animals of the
same size and weight were placed in equal measures of oxygen gas and
common air at a temperature of 30° Fahr., and with the inevitable
result that the animal in the pure oxygen ceased to respire one-third
sooner than did the animal in common air. Carrying the inquiry
further, I found that if the oxygen gas were warmed to 50° Fahr., the
respiration was continued six times as long as in the previous
experiment, while if the warming were carried to 70°, it was sustained
twenty-four times as long. I reversed the experiment; I made oxygen
with cold produce anæsthetic sleep in a warm-blooded animal.

I need not carry this argument further; it is the easiest of the
demonstrative facts of physiological science that reduction of
temperature lessens the combining power of oxygen for blood, and
therewith causes a reduction of animal force, and a tendency to arrest
of that force, which, in the end, means _death_.


MECHANICAL COLD.

The third element in the action of cold is more purely mechanical, and
this, though in a sense secondary, is of immense import. When any
body, capable of expansion by heat, that is to say, by radiant motion
of its own particles, is reduced in temperature, it loses volume,
contracts, or shrinks. The animal body is no exception to this rule; a
ring that will fit tightly to the warm finger will fall off the same
finger after exposure to cold. The whole of the soft parts shrink, and
the vessels contract and empty themselves of their blood. Cold applied
to the skin in an extreme degree blanches the skin, and renders it
insensible and bloodless, so that if you prick it it does not bleed,
neither does it feel. In cases where the body altogether is exposed to
extreme cold this shrinking of the external parts is universal; the
whole surface becomes pale and insensible; the blood in the small
vessels superficially placed is forced inward upon the heart and
vessels of the interior organs; the brain is oppressed with blood;
sleep, or coma, as it is technically called, follows, and at last life
is suspended.

In exposure to the lowest wave of temperature in this country these
extreme effects are not commonly developed; but minor effects are
brought out which are most significant. In particular, the effect on
the lungs is strongly marked. The capillary vessels of the lungs,
making up that fine network which plays over the computed six hundred
millions of air vesicles, undergo paralysis when the cold air enters,
and in proportion as such obstruction from this cause is decisive, the
blood that should be brought to the air vesicles is impeded, and the
process of oxidation is mechanically as well as chemically suppressed.
The same contraction is also exerted on the vessels of the skin,
driving the blood into the interior and better protected organs. Hence
the reason why on leaving a warm room to enter a cold frosty air there
is an immediate action of the visceral organs from pressure of blood
on them, and not unfrequently a tendency to diarrhoea from temporary
congestion of the digestive tract. Three factors are at work, in fact,
whenever the low wave of temperature affects the animal body;
abstraction of heat from the body, beyond what is natural; arrest of
chemical action and of combustion; paralysis of the minute vessels
exposed to the cold.


COMBINED EFFECTS.

We cannot view the extent of change in the organic life induced by the
low wave of heat without seeing at once the sweep of mischief which
exposure to the wave may effect. It exerts an influence on healthy
life in the middle-aged man, and I know of no disease which it does
not influence disastrously. Is the healthy man exhausted, it favors
internal congestion; has he a weak point in the vascular system of his
brain, it renders that point liable to pressure and rupture, with
apoplexy as the sequence; is he suffering from bronchial disease, and
obstruction, already, in his air passages, here is a means by which
the evils are doubled; has he a feeble, worn-out heart, it is unable
to bear the pressure that is put upon it; has he partial obstruction
of the kidney circulation, he is threatened with complete obstruction;
is he indifferently fed, he is weakened generally. It is from this
extent of action that the mortality of all diseases runs up so fast
when the low wave of heat rolls over the population, affecting, as we
have seen, the feeblest first.

Another danger sometimes follows which is remote, but may be fatal,
even to persons who are in health. It is one of the best known facts
in science that when a part of the surface of the body has been
exposed long to cold, the greatest risk is run in trying suddenly to
warm it. The vessels become rapidly dilated, their coats relax, and
extreme congestion follows. But what is true of the skin is true
equally, and with more practical force, of the lungs. A man, a little
below par, goes out when the wave of temperature is low, and feels
oppressed, cold, weak, and miserable; the circulation through his
lungs has been suppressed, and he is not duly oxidizing; he returns to
a warm place, he rushes to the fire, breathes eagerly and long the
heated air, and adds to the warmth by taking perchance a cup of
stimulant; then he goes to bed and wakes in a few hours with what is
called pneumonia, or with bronchitis, or with both diseases. What has
happened? The simple physical fact of reaction under too sudden an
exposure to heat after exposure to cold. The capillaries of the lungs
have become engorged, and the circulation static, so that there must
be reaction of heat, inflammation, before recovery can occur. Nearly
all bronchial affections are induced in this manner, not always nor
necessarily in the acute form, but more frequently by slow degrees, by
repetition and repetition of the evil. Colds are often taken in this
same way, from the exposed mucous surfaces of the nose and throat
being subjected first to a chill, then to heat.

The wave of low temperature affecting a mixed population finds
inevitably a certain number of persons of all ages and conditions on
whom to exert its power. It catches them too often when they least
expect it. An aged man, with sluggish heart, goes to bed and reclines
to sleep in a temperature, say, of 50° or 55°. In his sleep, were it
quite uninfluenced from without, his heart and his breathing would
naturally decline. Gradually, as the night advances, the low wave of
heat steals over the sleeper, and the air he was breathing at 55°
falls and falls to 40°, or it may be to 35° or 30°. What may naturally
follow less than a deeper sleep? Is it not natural that the sleep so
profound shall stop the laboring heart? Certainly. The great narcotic
never travels without fastening on some victims in this wise, removing
them, imperceptibly to themselves, into sleep ending in absolute
death.


SOME SIMPLE RULES.

The study of the physiological influence of the wave of low
temperature, and of its relation to the wave of mortality, suggests a
few rules, simple, and easily remembered.

1. Clothing is the first thing to attend to. To have the body, during
variable weather, such as now obtains, well enveloped from head to
foot in non-conducting substance is essential. Who neglects this
precaution is guilty of a grievous error, and who helps the poor to
clothe effectively does more for them than can readily be conceived
without careful attention to the subject we have discussed.

2. In sitting-rooms and in bedrooms it is equally essential to
maintain an equable temperature; a fire in a bedroom is of first value
at this season. The fire sustains the external warmth, encourages
ventilation, and gives health not less than comfort.

3. In going from a warm into a cold atmosphere, in breasting the wave
of low temperature, no one can harm by starting forth thoroughly warm.
But in returning from the cold into the warm the act should always be
accomplished gradually. This important rule may readily be carried in
mind by connecting it with the fact that the only safe mode of curing
a frozen part is to rub it with ice, so as to restore the temperature
slowly.

4. The wave of low temperature requires to be met by good, nutritious,
warm food. Heat-forming foods, such as bread, sugar, butter, oatmeal
porridge, and potatoes, are of special use now. It would be against
science and instinct alike to omit such foods when the body requires
heat.

5. It is an entire mistake to suppose that the wave of cold is
neutralized in any sense by the use of alcoholics. When a glass of hot
brandy and water warms the cold man, the credit belongs to the hot
water, and any discredit that may follow to the brandy. So far from
alcohol checking the cold in action, it goes with it, and therewith
aids in arresting the motion of the heart in the living animal,
because it reduces oxidation.

6. Excessive exercise of the body, and overwork either of body or of
mind, should be avoided, especially during those seasons when a sudden
fall of temperature is of frequent occurrence. For exhaustion, whether
physical or mental, means loss of motion in the organism; and loss of
motion is the same as loss of heat.

One further consideration, suggested by the subject of this paper, has
reference to the bearing of the public toward the labors of the
medical man in meeting the effects of the low wave of heat. The
public, looking on the doctor as a sort of mystical high priest who
ought to save, may often be dissatisfied with his work. Let the
dissatisfied think of what is meant by saving when there is a sudden
fall in the thermometer. Let them recall that it is not bronchitis as
a cause of death, nor apoplexy, nor heart disease, as such, that the
doctor is called on to meet; but an all-pervading influence which
overwhelms like the sea, and against which, in the mass, individual
effort stands paralyzed and helpless. When the doctor is summoned the
mischief has at least commenced, and, it may be, is so far over that
treatment by mere medicines sinks into secondary significance. Then
he, true minister of health, candid enough to bow humbly before the
great and inevitable truth, and professing no specific cure by nostrum
or symbol, can only try to avert further danger by teaching elementary
principles, and by making the unlearned the participators in his own
learning.--_The Asclepiad._

       *       *       *       *       *


THE TREATMENT OF GLAUCOMA.

As this disease is so fatal to vision, any remedy that may be
suggested to diminish the frequency of its termination in blindness
cannot fail to be read of with interest. M. Nicati, in the _Revue
generate de clinique et de therapeutique_, has had marked success in
the treatment of glaucoma by drainage of the posterior chamber, either
by sclerotomy or by sclero-iritomy, as the conditions of the
individual case may require.--_N.Y. Med. Jour._

       *       *       *       *       *




A TWIN SCREW LAUNCH RUN BY A COMPOUND ENGINE.


[Illustration: TWIN SCREW STEAM LAUNCH GEMINI.]

The launch shown in our illustration was built in New Westminster,
British Columbia, Canada. She is 42 ft. keel and 7 ft. beam, and has 4
ft. depth of hold. She has an improved Clarke compound engine, also
shown in an accompanying illustration, with a high pressure piston
four inches in diameter, and a low pressure piston eight inches in
diameter, the stroke being six inches, and the engine driving two
twenty-six inch screws. With 130 pounds of steam, and making 275
revolutions per minute, the launch attains a speed of nine miles per
hour, thus fully demonstrating the adaptability of this engine to the
successful working of twin screws.

[Illustration: THE CLARKE COMPOUND TWIN-SCREW OPERATING ENGINE.]

In the Clarke engine, the exhaust pipe from the high pressure cylinder
leads to the steam chest of the low pressure cylinder, while the
piston in the upper cylinder is secured on a piston rod extending
downward and connected with a piston operating in the lower cylinder,
the exhaust pipe from the latter leading to the outside. On the piston
rod common to both cylinders is secured a crosshead pivotally
connected by two pitmen with opposite crank arms on crank shafts
mounted to turn in suitable bearings on the base, which also supports
a frame carrying the low pressure cylinder, on top of which is a frame
supporting the high pressure cylinder. The valves in the two steam
chests are connected with each other by a valve rod connected at its
lower end in the usual manner with the reversing link, operated from
eccentrics secured on one of the crank shafts.

The crank arms stand at angles to each other, so that the crank shafts
are turned in opposite directions, and the position of the link is
such that it can be readily changed by the reversing lever to
simultaneously reverse the motion of the crank shafts. On the crank
shafts are also formed two other crank arms pivotally connected by
opposite pitmen with a slide mounted in vertical guideways, supported
on a frame erected on the base, the motion of the crank shafts causing
the vertical sliding motion of the slide traveling loosely in the
guideways, and thus serving as a governor, as, in case one of the
propellers becomes disabled, the power of the shaft carrying the
disabled propeller is directly transferred to the other shaft through
the crank arms, pitmen, and slide, and the other propeller is caused
to do all the work. All the parts of the engine are within easy reach
of the engineer, and there are so few working parts in motion that the
friction is reduced to a minimum.

It is said that the plan of construction and the operation of this
engine have been carefully observed by practical engineers, and that,
considering the dimensions of the boat, her speed, the smallness of
the power, the ease with which she passes the centers, the absence of
vibration while running, and the very few working parts in motion, the
engine is a notable success. She can be run at a very high velocity
without injury or risk, and is designed to be very economical in cost
and in weight and space. This engine has been recently patented in the
United States and foreign countries by Mr. James A. Clarke, of New
Westminster.

       *       *       *       *       *




IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RIVER AND CANAL BARGES.

By M. RITTER (KNIGHT) VON SZABEL, late Austrian Naval Officer, of
Vienna.


This innovation consists essentially in an arrangement by which two
distinct vessels, on being revolved round their longitudinal axis to
an angle of 90°, can be combined into one single duplex vessel, or, to
put it in different words, a larger vessel is arranged so that it can
be parted into two halves (called "semi-barges"), which can be used
and navigated with equal facility as two distinct vessels, as if
combined into one. By the combination of the two semi-barges into one
duplex barge the draught of the vessel is nearly doubled, the ratio
existing between the draught of a loaded semi-vessel and the equally
loaded duplex vessels being 5:8 (up to 8.5)

The advantage of the invention consists:

    1. In this difference of draught.

    2. In the smaller width of the semi-vessel as compared with
    the duplex vessel.

    3. In the fact that the combination and separation of the
    vessels can be effected, without the least disturbance of the
    cargo, in a minimum of time.

It facilitates the utilization, to the highest possible extent, of the
varying conditions and dimensions of canal locks and rivers.

The transition from rivers to canals, and from larger canals to
smaller ones, is expedited by the possibility afforded of, on the
arrival at the locks, dividing the vessel in a space of a few minutes;
of passing with the semi-vessel, singly, the various smaller locks or
the shallow canal, after which the two sections may be re-combined and
navigated again as one vessel. The process of "folding up" the two
vessels will of course take longer than that of separation.

On rivers, the channels of which are interrupted by sand banks and
rapids, the same operation may be carried out, thus avoiding the
expense and delay necessitated by, perhaps, repeated "lightering,"
i.e., reduction of the cargo.

Thus, the through traffic on large rivers like the Danube, with its
repeated obstacles to navigation, such as the "iron gate," and several
sand-banks known and dreaded by bargemen, would be materially
facilitated, any necessity for unloading part of the cargo being
obviated; moreover, such a duplex vessel composed of two semi-vessels
affords the advantage of utilizing to a fuller degree the power of
traction, and one large vessel will be more convenient for traffic
than two smaller ones.

Further, the mode of construction of the semi-vessels--both ends of
which are of a similar pattern--allows of their being navigated up and
down a water channel without the necessity of turning them round;
provision having also been made for the fixing of the rudder at either
end, which would therefore merely require exchanging. This is of some
advantage in narrow river beds and canals, and applies equally to the
duplex vessel as to the single semi-vessels.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.]

[Illustration: FIG. 3.]

[Illustration: FIG. 4.]

[Illustration: FIG. 5.]

Each semi-barge on its part is also constructed of two equal
halves--which are, however, inseparable--and as there is no distinct
stem or stern, any one of these semi-vessels will fit any other
semi-vessels of the same dimensions, and can be attached to the same
by means of the coupling apparatus, and the two "folded up" into one
duplex vessel. This process does not present any material
difficulties. The two single boats on being coupled together can be
made to lean over toward each other, by filling their lateral water
compartments, to such an extent that the further closing up can be
easily effected by means of specially constructed windlasses. In the
case of petroleum vessels the "folding up" operation is facilitated by
the circumstance that the petroleum may be made to serve the purposes
of water ballast.

As regards the size and tonnage of the new vessels, this will of
course depend on the local condition of the rivers and canals to be
navigated. Thus a vessel destined for traffic on canals with locks of
varying dimensions will have to be adapted to the dimensions of the
smallest existing lock.

Supposing the size of the latter to be such as found in the case of
the Rhine-Marne or the Rhine-Rhone Canal, or on the Neckar down to
Cannstadt, or in the Danube-Main Canal and some smaller canals in the
Weser district, etc., viz.:

    Length of lock     34.5 meters.
    Width               5.2   "
    Depth               1.6 to 2.0 meters.

The semi-barge may be made 32 meters in length, 4 meters in breadth
and 2.5 meters total depth, and with a draught of 1.5 meters will be
capable of carrying a load of 100 tons (of 1,000 kilos each).
Correspondingly the duplex vessel will be able to carry 200 tons, with
a minimum draught of 2.4 meters and a width of 5.4 meters, but, with a
favorable height of the water level, the draught of the semi-barge may
be increased to 1.65 and that of duplex vessels to 2.7 meters.

Where not limited to certain proportions by the dimensions of the
locks to be passed, the vessel may in the first place be made longer;
the width and height may also be increased accordingly (provided that
the proportion of breadth to width is kept within the ratio 4:2.5), so
that the semi-barges may be constructed for a single burden up to 300
tons, or 600 for the duplex vessel.

As regards the nature of the cargo, parcels would not be admissible in
this instance, but any kind of homogeneous cargo would be suitable
which would bear laying over on one side.

Thus this style of vessel would be well adapted for petroleum tank
vessels, for the transport of all kinds of cereals, flour, coffee, and
sugar in sacks--these latter being held in position by an arrangement
of planking and boards so as to prevent any overturning of the goods
on the vessels being folded up or taken apart. Similarly in the case
of a cargo of loose grain or other loose produce, the same must be
prevented from being upset by a kind of wooden casing.

Two semi-vessels loaded with different cargoes may be coupled
together, provided that there is not too much difference between their
respective draughts. Slight differences may be balanced by the water
compartments being filled to a greater or smaller extent.

The peculiar position of the hatches allows of loading the
semi-vessels separately as well as when coupled together.

If there is for the time being no necessity for using the vessels in
their capacity of separate and duplex barges, any kind of cargo might
be loaded that does not require large hatches.

The vessels, on account of their more complicated construction, will
be somewhat more expensive, but wherever the advantage offered by them
outweighs the extra expenditure, they can be used with success.

The innovation might be of particular importance where a new canal
system is being constructed, since the latter might be subdivided into
main canals and branch canals--similarly as in the case of ordinary
and narrow gauge railways--the main canal being built of a larger
section and with larger locks to suit the duplex barges, while the
branch canals could be planned of smaller dimensions calculated to
suit the semi-barge. Thus the first cost of such a canal system would
be materially reduced as compared with a canal installation of one
uniform section throughout.

Likewise in mountainous districts with rock soil it would be an
important consideration whether a canal had to be blasted out of the
solid rock or a tunnel cut, in dimensions suitable for a vessel of 6
or of 14 square meters section below the water line.

In this case, even in certain portions of a main canal--where rendered
desirable by the rocky nature of the ground--a smaller section might
be adopted, which would only be large enough for single semi-barges,
so that the duplex vessel would in these instances have to be taken
apart in the same way as in a branch canal.

The saving to be effected by constructing a canal on this principle,
as compared with a canal of one uniform section throughout, must be
considerable, and the advantages of the arrangement are apparent.

The appended figures will further illustrate the arrangement. Fig. 1
shows two separate semi-barges ready to pursue their journey
independently. Fig. 2 shows two semi-barges coupled together ready to
be "folded up" by means of ropes and specially constructed
windlasses--their lateral water compartments having previously been
filled. Fig. 3 shows the duplex vessel after the "folding up"
operation just described; and Figs. 4 and 5 show the cross section of
two loaded semi-barges as outlined in Figs. 2 and 3.

These Figs. 4 and 5 will also serve to illustrate the manner in which
sacks and loose produce should be loaded. Fig. 4 also shows the filled
water compartments, and the effect of their weight in making the boats
lean toward each other.

The materials most suited for this new style of vessel will be iron
and steel such as generally used in the construction of canal and
river vessels.

The new ship can be moved by any motor or driving implement, nor could
there technically a great difficulty be found for making the boilers
move on a quadrant-like rail base in the shape of a circle segment's
quarter, or for building a double screw steamer by combining two
single screw propellers.

May be a ship owner is willing to submit the innovations to an
attempt, so much the more as there is running no great risk by doing
so; for in case the ships should not answer the expectations, both
separable as well as joinable, they can be used like single ships,
without any further alteration being made, except as to the loading
gaps.

The above invention is covered by United States patent No. 435,107.
Any further information may be had by addressing M. v. Szabel, ix
Bezirk, Beethovengasse 10, Wien, Austria.

       *       *       *       *       *




WELDON'S RANGE FINDER.


Colonel Weldon has recently considerably modified and improved his
ingenious range finder, and we illustrate herewith from _Engineering_
the form in which it is now manufactured. It consists of a metal box,
the lid of which is shown open in the engraving, and on this lid are
fitted three prisms which are the essential constituents of the
instrument. When the lid is closed, these, with the compass and level,
also attached to the lid, lie inside the metal box, and are thus
thoroughly protected. The upper prism marked 1 is a right-angled one
and is mounted with the right angle outward; looking into the
left-hand corner of this prism one will see in it, by double
reflection, objects lying on one's right hand. Below this is a second
prism with a principal angle of 88 deg. 51 min. 15 sec., and below
this a third with a principal angle of 74 deg. 53 min. 15 sec.

A level and a compass are also mounted on the lid as shown. To use the
instrument the observer stands so that the object the range of which
is required lies on his right hand, and looking into the left-hand
corner of the upper prism views it there by double reflection from the
internal faces of the prism. At the same time looking through the
opening shown in the lid below the prism he selects some object, which
appears nearly in line with the image seen in the prism. He then
shifts his position till these two images coincide, in which case
lines joining him with the two objects will make right angles with
each other. In Fig. 2, O is the object whose range is required, D the
object seen by direct vision, and A the position of the observer. The
observer now marks his position on the ground, and shifting the
instrument looks into the left-hand corner of the second prism, when
he again sees the image of the object, whose range is required, by
double reflection, but lying now to the right of the object, D. He
then retires, keeping in line with A and D, till he reaches B, when
the two images again coincide; the lines joining them and the observer
now make an angle of 88 deg. 51 min. 15 sec. Then in the triangle,
OBA, OA = tan 88 deg. 51 min. 15 sec. X A B = 50 AB. The length AB is
easily paced, and the distance OA is 50 times this length.

A longer base, and probably greater accuracy, can be obtained by using
the second prism only, as indicated in Fig. 3, in which case the
distance of the object is 25 times the distance BC. This second prism
is, however, best adapted for predicting the range of moving objects.
Three observers are required. Two of them have finders, while the
other measures the distance between the two. The first two observers
separate, and No. 2 takes a position such that the object is reflected
to one side of observer No. 1, whom he views by direct vision. As the
object continues to move, its image gets nearer and nearer No. 1, who
during the whole of the time moves a little to one side or the other,
so as to keep the image of the object constantly in line with No. 2.
Just as the image of the object gets very near No. 1, No. 2 calls out
"Ready," the distance between the two observers is taken by the third,
and when the image of the object actually falls on No. 1 its distance
is just 25 times the distance between them, and the guns set to this
range are fired by word of command from No. 2.

[Illustration: FIG. 2. & FIG. 3.]

By using the third prism in conjunction with the second a still longer
base of one-fourth the distance of the object can be employed. The
range finder can also be used as a depleidoscope for transit
observations. For this purpose it is mounted on a block of wood by
means of elastic band and leveled by the level on its lid, being at
the same time set in the meridian of the place. The lid is opened to
make an angle with the horizon equal to the latitude of the place of
observation. On looking into the upper prism two images of the sun
will be seen on each side of the apex of the prism, which gradually
approach each other as the sun nears the meridian, and finally
coincide as it passes it, the time of which being noted gives the
longitude of the place.

Extensive trials of the instrument have been made both in this country
and in India, which agree in showing that the average error in using
the instrument is about 2½ to 3½ per cent.

       *       *       *       *       *




WHEELS LINKED WITH A BELL CRANK.


[Illustration: FIG. 1]

There are four ways in which a connecting rod is made use of in
machine work. The first is in linking two wheels together that stand
in the same position, but a slight distance off centers. The rod in
this case has only to lead the driven wheel around by connecting it
with the driver, and consequently has only to endure a pulling strain
in the direction of its length. The second is when the rod is called
upon to stand a pull and a push at every revolution. The third takes
in the matter of the twisting strain that a rod can manage; but the
fourth brings the hardest usage that a connecting rod can be called
upon to endure, and that is by making a lever of the rod to get a
driving action by prying on a fulcrum in the center. In Fig. 1 is seen
a case of this kind taken from a machine in which a disk engine was
made use of. The rod has a chance to turn about on its center from a
ball and socket joint, and engages with both wheels in nicely fitted
journals, and boxes set in line with the center of the socket joint,
so that when one wheel turns, the rod pries the other around by using
the rod as a lever and the ball joint for a fulcrum, giving a uniform
leverage all the while, with no dead centers.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.]

To set this arrangement around at right angles, or where the shafts
will bring the wheels together, as for bevel gears, a bent lever arm
would need to be used, as shown in Fig. 2, but the bend in the
connecting arms brings in another feature that must be provided, as it
allows the wheels to turn either with or against each other, and
leaves two places where the bent arms will come to a dead center. What
is needed here is another element that will take all the twisting
strain on the rod and keep the pitch of both arms alike in every
portion of a revolution. To do this the ball and socket joint will
need to be replaced by a gambrel joint like a ship's compass, and
arranging the bent driving arms as shown in Fig. 3; then the driving
end of the connecting frame will move about in a true circle,
producing as great a tendency to turn the driving wheel in one
position as another. In this arrangement there must be at least six
nicely fitted journals and their bearings, four of which will be
required to take care of the forked connecting rod that joins the
wheels together. Besides all this the bearings must all line up with
the same center that the shafts are centered from or there will be a
"pinch" somewhere in the system. It may seem at first that there must
be more or less end-on movement provided for, and that the bearings
should be spherical; but that it is not the case will be noticed when
all the points are understood to be working from one center similar to
that provided for in bevel gears.--_Boston Journal of Commerce._

[Illustration: FIG. 3.]

       *       *       *       *       *




THE DECORATIVE TREATMENT OF NATURAL FOLIAGE.[1]

  [Footnote 1: Lectures before the Society of Arts, London, 1891.]

By HUGH STANNUS.


_Lecture I._


§ 1.--THE ELEMENTS OF DECORATION.

The chief impelling Motives which have caused that treatment of
objects which is now termed _Decorative_, have been:

    (a) That necessitated by the Usage, which is FUNCTIONAL;

    (b) That resulting from the Instinct to please the eye, which
    is ÆSTHETIC;

    (c) That arising from the Desire to record or to teach, which
    is the DIDACTIC motive;

The ÆSTHETIC instinct of the early peoples was gratified by:

    (a) The _forms_ of their weapons or tools;

    (b) The _patterns_ with which they are decorated;

    (c) The _imitation_ of the surrounding animals, e.g. the Deer
    scratched on the horn at the British Museum.


Imitation was afterward applied to the vegetable creation; and much of
what is termed Ornament was derived from that class of elements.

The ELEMENTS OF DECORATION are the material used by the Artist. They
might be considered to include everything that is visible; but since
Decoration is a result of the æsthetic instinct, the field is narrowed
to such as are pleasing _at the first glance_. And the selection is
further limited to such as are suitable to the shape and size of
objects.

They may be classified according to their relative Dignity, as
follows:

   The Human form,
   Animal forms,
   Natural foliage,
   Artificial objects,
   Artificial foliage, and
   Geometrical figures.


§ 2.--THE TWO KINDS OF FOLIAGE.

A Distinction is made between natural and artificial foliage. They
have much in common; and consequently many have supposed that our
Western artificial foliage is merely a very-much-conventionalized
version of natural foliage. The supposition is correct with regard to
Eastern Pattern work, but not in Western Architectural ornamentation.

A simple generalization may make this clear. The ordinary stock
foliage of the Ornamentist was evolved in connection with:

  (In the West)         (In the East)
  ARCHITECTURE,          TEXTILES,
  as in Greece.          as in Persia.

Hence the primary Elements of decoration were derived from:

  (In the West)                     (In the East)
  GEOMETRICAL LINES,                NATURAL FLOWERS and LEAVES,
  e.g. the meander, spiral, etc.    e.g. the pine, pomegranate, etc.

Further, it may be observed that the Method of treating these Elements
has been different:

  (In the West)                        (In the East)
  The Geometrical lines                The natural foliage was
  were enriched by the introduction    codified by the introduction
  of the details of                    of Geometrical arrangement;
  Natural vegetation; thus             thus becoming
  becoming gradually more              gradually more
  _naturalesque_.                      _artificial_.

An APPROXIMATION between the two treatments, sometimes appears; but
the two kinds--Artificial, and Natural--are essentially different in
origin; and should be kept distinct in their application.

This approximation may be shown, in a tabular arrangement, thus:


GEOMETRY...........................................................NATURE

The patterns are merely                         The plants are copied as
 straight lines, dots, and                     accurately as possible.
  portions of circles.

   The lines become stems.                   The plant is applied
                                            without repetition.

      Leaves are added to the             Repetition is used with the
       stems.                            plants.

        Serration is added to the       Weaving economy induces
         leaf-edge.                    symmetry.

         Similarity of serrated       Symmetry induces Geometrical
         leaf-edge to the Akanthos    Severity, and the Omission
         plant, is observed;          of all details of the
         Imitation becomes more       original plant which are not
         direct; and this artificial  easily worked in connection
         foliage becomes termed       with geometrical
         "Acanthus."                  arrangement.

         Flowers generally circular   The Flowers and Leaves
         in mass-shape, are added     (_only_) survive; the growth
         at the ends of the spiral    of the stems is forgotten;
         stems.                       and tradition does the rest.



§ 3.--APPLICATION OF THE TWO KINDS.

Each of these two kinds of foliage has its own proper use. Artificial
foliage is appropriate to the enrichment of Architecture; and Natural
foliage to those objects which are not architectural, but are termed
"movables," including under this term, Furniture, and more especially
Hangings and other applications of the Textile art.

This may be seen on comparing the two columns below, of which the L.H.
one refers to Architecture, and the R.H. one to Natural foliage.

  (Architecture)                       (Natural foliage)
                         RULES:
  Governed by severe                   Exhibits _apparent_ playful
  rules of Repetition,                 Freedom. There _are_
  Axiality, Symmetry, etc.,            underlying Rules, which
  which are apparent to                are detected by the scientific
  the passer-by. Hence                 Botanist; but these
  Artificial foliage, being            are not seen by the casual
  regular in its structure,            observer.
  is more appropriate than
  the (apparently) irregular
  growth of Natural
  foliage.
                       CHARACTERISTICS:
  Rigidity and Stability.              Elasticity and Tremulousness
                                       in every breeze.

                     LINES OF COMPOSITION:
  Geometrical lines.                   In determinate curves,
  The geometrical lines                which are very subtile,
  and spirals of Artificial            and varied, and therefore
  foliage demand an unmoving           suitable to a hanging and
  surface for proper view.             swaying material.

                                       The curves of Nature
  They would generally be  spoiled     are not spoiled when on a
  if not on a plane surface.           folded material.

                       DISTRIBUTION:
  Symmetrical. The                     Balanced. The growth
  symmetry of artificial               of natural foliage is generally
  foliage is appropriate to            symmetrical; but
  that of Architecture.                this is not apparent.

                          BEAUTY:
  Depends on _form_, with              More appropriate to objects
  color as a secondary adjunct.        which depend on _color_ for
                                       their principal charm.

There have been waves of the desire to introduce Natural foliage into
Architecture (e.g. in the "Decorated period" of Gothic architecture);
but the Artificial elements have always proved too strong, and the two
have never mixed. In Architecture, everything has three dimensions;
and the artificial foliage is carved with leaves, etc., of a suitable
thickness: in Natural foliage the tenuity of leaves, etc., is such
that it cannot be reproduced. Even in the architraves round the
glorious doors of Florence the natural foliage is not always a
success; and where Ghiberti has stopped short in the ductile bronze,
it is not probable that the modern carver will succeed in stone. It
may therefore be suggested that the close imitation of Natural foliage
should be confined to objects of _two_ dimensions, i.e., to plane
surfaces and figured materials.

This selection of the Elements of Decoration, according to their
association, is analogous to the selection made use of by the Poet,
from the words and ideas, which are his Materials. It will be observed
that, as on a Classic or Heroic subject, the choice is of learned
words and classical ideas, and on a Domestic or Pastoral one, simple
words and homely similes are used--so, in conjunction with the severe
forms of Architecture, the formal character of artificial foliage is
suitable; and for decorating Textiles and other movable Accessories,
the Natural foliage, with which the earth is clothed and beautified,
is appropriate.

ENRICHMENT OF SURFACE may be beautiful for one reason; IMITATION OF
NATURE is beautiful for another. When imitations of natural foliage
are introduced decoratively on a surface, then may it be twice
beautiful--first, in the _principles_ according to which the
distribution is arranged; and secondly, because of the _elements_
which are worked in being beautiful in themselves. Geometrical
elements might be so used as to serve the first end, but can never
fulfill the second: Storiation fulfills the second; but its increase
of interest absorbs the first.

This course of Lectures is intended to treat of Natural foliage,
leaving Artificial foliage to be dealt with at another opportunity. It
is not Historical. The History of the Decorative treatment of Natural
foliage, showing its evolution in the past, is a large and interesting
theme; but, unless this were accompanied by critical remarks based on
given principles, the method might be barren of results. Tradition is
not to be undervalued; but the student should be led to Tradition
through Principles.

It is further intended more especially to apply to the æsthetic use.
When natural foliage is used Æsthetically (i.e., decoratively), then
the Shape of the surface should govern the Mass shape of the foliage,
and there should be Parallelism between them (see § 29). When used
Didactically (i.e., symbolically), then the foliage may be treated
more freely.


§ 4.--THE FOUR TREATMENTS.

There are, broadly speaking, four methods of treating Natural foliage.
These may be arranged in a Chart, according to their relation to the
two poles of Art and Science; from Realism (which is all Art and no
Science) to the "Botanical Analysis" method (in which is a little
Science but no Art), thus:

The first two of these methods are Artistic and legitimate: the others
are inartistic and misleading. Before treating of the artistic methods
it will be well to clear the ground by dismissing the others.

  ART POLE..........................................SCIENCE POLE

      Realism   | Conventionalism |   Disguised   | Botanical
    (See § 10). |  (See § 14).    | Artificialism |  Analysis
                |                 |  (See § 6).   | (See § 5).


§ 5.--THE BOTANICAL ANALYSIS TREATMENT.

In this method the student was taught (i) to draw each plant with the
Stem _straightened out_, the Leaves _flattened out_, and the Flowers
represented as in _side elevation_ or _plan_. (ii) The Flowers were
further _pulled in pieces_, and the Petals were _flattened out_ in a
manner similar to the Entomologists' practice of displaying their
"specimens" scientifically. Often, also (iii) the Stems and Buds were
_cut through_; and "patterns" were made with the Sections.

With regard to the first of these practices (i): it should be observed
that much of the beauty of appearance of natural foliage results from
the variety of view, the subtile curvature, and the foreshortening, as
seen in perspective; and that to sacrifice all these for the sake of a
_diagram_ would be a wasted opportunity.

With regard to the other practices (ii) and (iii): it is obvious that
these statements of the facts of the plant are useful as a part of the
Science of Botany; but can no more be considered as making Decoration
than Anatomical diagrams can be looked upon as Pictures. Some
knowledge of external Botany is useful to a Pattern artist as some
knowledge of external Anatomy is useful to the Pictorial artist. In
each of these cases, the Science, which discovers and records facts,
is subservient to its sister, Art, which uses the facts to interpret
appearances; and, when scientific diagrams are put forth as Art, the
Science is in its wrong place: it has then been treated as if it were
the Building instead of being only the Scaffolding; and the results of
such attempts cannot be considered as complete or final.

Examples of this method are given in Figs. 1 and 2. It was officially
encouraged about twenty-five years ago; and books like "Plants, their
Natural Growth and Ornamental Treatment," and "Suggestions in Floral
Design," both by F. Edward Hulme, F.L.S., etc., show it at its best.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

In criticising this method, there is no desire to cast any slight upon
those who were responsible for it. They were groping in the dark, and
did the best they knew, according to their lights. But Japanese work
was not known at that time, and, but for that, the Pattern artist of
to-day might still be occupied in pinning leaves and flowers against
the wall. It was, moreover, a protest against the Cabbage Rose on the
Hearth rug, that some may still remember with shuddering.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.]


§ 6.--THE DISGUISED ARTIFICIALITY TREATMENT.

In this method the student was taught to sketch out what he considered
to be good Curves and Spirals; and then (i) to bend the selected plant
so that its stem might coincide with them, regardless of its own
proper natural growth; or (ii) to deck out the first drawn spirals
with the leaves and flowers of the selected plant.

With regard to the first of these practices: it is much more foolish
than the Analysis method; and is little short of blasphemy against the
Great Designer. He has determined how each plant shall grow: how,
within limits of cultivation, its stems and branches shall separate,
each to seek its own share of air and sunshine; how its leaves shall
stand erect or droop, each according to its function; and always in
perfect beauty. And further: how each family of plants shall have its
own method of branching; which is as much a part of its character and
often of its beauty as are the Flowers and Leaves.

The second practice, which generally produces a result similar to the
first, is quite as unthinking. It is more often practiced; and is
responsible for many of the labored and uninteresting designs which
are common. If the Pattern-artist deck-out the old worn-out and common
place spirals with leaves and flowers borrowed from Nature--the result
is like the "voice of Jacob and the hands of Esau;" it is merely a
Disguise of Artificiality.

An example of this method is given in Fig. 3. It was generally
practiced in Germany; and books like "Das Vegetabile Ornamente," by K.
Krumbholz, show it at its best.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.]

If this treatment were universally followed--there would soon be an
end to design with natural foliage. The spectator might observe one
border which appeared to be a Rose, another a Tulip, the third a
Thistle, and the fourth a Fuchsia; and, on examination, discover that
these were not Rose, Tulip, Thistle, and Fuchsia; but merely that very
artificial old friend--the Spiral-scroll--_in disguise_.

An apologist for this method remarks:--" ... In such matters as the
ramification of plants, ... nature is always making angles and elbows
[_sic_] which we are obliged, in decorative treatment, to change into
curves for our purpose;...". This opinion needs only to be applied to
animals in order to exhibit its absurdity; and with regard to plants,
it will be seen that this tampering has not even the poor merit of
success.


§ 7.--NOTE ON SYMMETRY.

A desire for Symmetry often accompanies these two treatments. This is
a quality to be avoided whenever possible in Natural foliage design.
The so-called "Turn-over patterns" are an economy in Weaving-design,
but the economy is of the wrong kind. An artist should spend his
thought to spare material or cost in working. When he spares his
_thought_--making the least amount of thought cover the greatest
amount of surface--then is his work worth to the world just what it
has cost him, i.e., very little.

So injurious is the influence of Symmetry in Natural foliage design,
that it might almost be a test question--"Is the design symmetrical?"
When the exigencies of Machine-reproduction necessitate this with
Natural foliage--it is a hardship which the Artist regretfully accepts,
and no one would willingly make a design for Hand-reproduction which
was symmetrical; rather would he spend himself to insure the worthier
result which ensues from Balance.

An example of Symmetry is given in Fig. 4; and of Balance in Fig. 5.
Each panel contains two classes of Elements:--Natural foliage (i.e.,
two branches of the Bay tree), and an Artificial object (i.e., a
Ribbon which ties them). The lower Element (i.e., the Ribbon) is
treated symmetrically in both panels: the higher Element (i.e., the
Branches) are _symmetrical_ in the former panel, and _balanced_ in the
latter. This latter treatment, will be seen to be not only the more
interesting, but the more like the infinite variety of Nature; while
the former is a wasted opportunity, and contrary to Nature.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.]

The Student will observe by experience that the mind soon tires of
Artificiality, both in Curvature and in Symmetry; the lines of Nature
have a pleasant freshness and inexhaustible variety; and the _Natural_
method of treating Nature is not only the most true, but also the most
beautiful.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.]


§ 8.--REALISM AND CONVENTIONALISM: DEFINITIONS.

REALISM--the result of _Realistic_ treatment, i.e., the attempt to
render the reproduction as like the reality as is possible, even to
the verge of deception--is the aim of the Pictorial-Artist. In
Pictures the surface appears to have been annihilated, and the
spectator beholds the scene as if there were a hole through the wall.
It is not the highest, and should not be the only aim in Art; but it
has always been sought for and admired. It requires perfect
conditions, of materials and tools; i.e., _complete Technical
appliances_.

CONVENTIONALISM--the result of _incomplete Technical appliances_, and
the attempt to render so much of the Beauty of the original as is
possible, with due regard to their capabilities--is the aim of the
Decorative-Artist. It is not the highest aim; though a necessary curb
in Decorative-Art, both for the technical reason, and also as a result
of the Position or Function of the object.

It will thus be seen that the two words, when used with regard to
foliage of any kind, refer to the _Method of representing it_, and not
to its Kind or its manner of Growth.


§ 9.--SCALES FROM REALISM TO CONVENTIONALISM.

These two methods, when applied absolutely, form the two
extremes:--The most complete REALISM being at one end, and the most
limited CONVENTIONALISM at the other. There are scales of gradual
reduction between them, which may be shown on two charts:

(i) Reduction in the NUMBER OF PARTS which preserve their Realistic
rendering.

(ii) Reduction in the DEGREE OF REALISM through all parts.

(i) According to the number of the features or parts of the design
which are treated with less than realism. Thus there might be a panel
representing a Window-opening with an architectural framing, with a
Flower-vase on the sill, and a Landscape-background. The first part to
be reduced in realistic rendering would be the Background, the second
would be the Framing, leaving the third, the Flower-vase, as the
survival. This is a Scale of reduction in _Number of Parts_.

It may be shown, in tabular arrangement, thus:--

  REALISM............................................CONVENTIONALISM.


    COMPLETE PICTORIAL REALISM, in which all parts are realistically
    represented (see § 10).

      SEMI-PICTORIAL REALISM, in which the Back-ground is reduced to
      a flat-tint, while all the remaining parts are realistically
      represented (see § 11).

        DECORATIVE REALISM, in which the chief Feature (_only_)
        is realistically represented, and all the other parts are
        reduced to conventional renderings (see § 12).

          COMPLETE CONVENTIONALISM, in which all parts are reduced to
          conventional renderings (see Conventionalism).

Inasmuch as there is some realistic part remaining in each of the
first three methods--these are classified under the heading of
REALISM.

(ii) According to the Degree in which color, gradation, or shading, is
sacrificed, in consequence of the limited Means at the disposal of the
Artist; resulting in the gradual departure from Realism to the most
severe Conventionalism. The reduction is applied to all parts of the
work. This is a scale of reduction in _Degree_. There are two
Varieties in each degree; and they are marked with italic letters.

It may be shown, in tabular arrangement, thus:--

  REALISM.............................................CONVENTIONALISM.

  COMPLETE REALISM, in which all parts are represented, in
  proper colors, and perfect gradation, with correct light and
  shade (see § 10).

    FIRST DEGREE OF CONVENTIONALISM, in which all parts are
    represented: (a) By a reduced number of Pigments, the other
    qualities remaining; (b) By reduction in gradation and
    shading to Flat-tints of several pigments (see § 15).

      SECOND DEGREE OF CONVENTIONALISM, in which all parts are
      represented: (c) By a reduction to Monochrome of color, with
      Gradation (_only_) remaining; (d) By reduction to Monochrome
      of White and Black, with Gradation (_only_) remaining (see §
      16).

        THIRD DEGREE OF CONVENTIONALISM, in which all parts are
        represented: (e) By reduction to a Flat-tint of one pigment
        on a ground of another; (f) By reduction to a Flat-tint of
        White on Black, or _vice versa_ (see § 17).

          ULTIMATE CONVENTIONALISM, in which all parts are
          represented; (g) By reduction to Outline of several
          pigments; (h) Reduction to Outline of one pigment (see §18).


Inasmuch as Realism ceases so soon as any reduction in the three
qualities (of color, gradation, and shadow) is introduced; and the
treatment becomes more Conventional in each method after the
first--these are classified under the heading of CONVENTIONALISM.

[There is an analogous scale of reduction in Form, from the
Complete-relief of an isolated Statue to the Flatness of a
Floor-plate; but this does not belong to the present subject.]


       *       *       *       *       *




THE CYCLOSTAT.


The various processes commonly employed for the observation of bodies
in motion (intermittent light or vision) greatly fatigue the observer,
and, as a general thing, give only images, that are difficult to
examine. We are going to show how Prof. Marc Thury, upon making
researches in a new direction, has succeeded in constructing an
apparatus that permits of the continuous observation of a body having
a rapid rotary motion. The principle of the method is of extreme
simplicity.

[Illustration: FIGS. 1, 2, AND 3.--DIAGRAMS EXPLANATORY OF THE
PRINCIPLE OF THE CYCLOSTAT.]

Let us consider (Fig. 1) a mirror, A B, reflecting an object, C D, and
revolving around it: when the mirror will have made a half revolution,
the image, C' D', of the object will have made an entire one. The
figure represents three successive positions of the mirror, distant by
an eighth of a revolution. The structure of the image shows that it
has made a quarter revolution in an opposite direction in each of its
positions. But if (Fig. 2) the body itself has revolved in the same
direction with an angular velocity double that of the mirror, its
image will have described a circle in remaining constantly parallel
with itself. The image will be just as insensible as the object
itself; but it is very easy to bring it back to a state of rest.

Let us suppose (Fig. 3a) the observer placed at O, the revolving
object at T, the axis of rotation being this time the line O F. Let us
place a mirror at A B and cause it to revolve around the same axis;
but, instead of looking at the image directly in the mirror, let us
receive it, before and after its reflection upon A B, upon two
mirrors, C D and D E, inclined 30° upon the axis of rotation of the
system; the image, instead of being observed directly in the mirror, A
B, will always be seen in the axis, O F, and will consequently appear
immovable.

The same result may be obtained (Fig. 3b) with a rectangular isosceles
prism whose face, A B, serves as a mirror, while the faces, A C and B
D, break the ray--the first deflecting it from the axis to throw it on
the mirror, and the second throwing it back to the axis of rotation,
which is at the same time the line of direction of the sight.

The principle of the instrument, then, consists in causing the
revolution, around the axis of rotation of the object to be observed,
of a mirror parallel with such axis, and in observing it in the axis
itself after sending the image to it by two reflections or two
refractions. In reality, the entire instrument is contained in the
small prism above, properly mounted upon a wheel that may be revolved
at will; and, in this form, it may serve, for example, to determine
the rotary velocity of an inaccessible axis. For this it will suffice
to modify its velocity until the axis appears to be at rest, and to
apply the revolution counter to the wheel upon which the prism is
mounted, or to another wheel controlling the mechanism.

But Mr. Thury has constructed a completer apparatus, the _cyclostat_
(Fig. 4), which, opposite the prism, has a second plate whose
actuating wheel is mounted upon the same axis as the first, the
gearing being so calculated that the prism shall revolve with twice
less velocity than the second plate. This latter, observed through the
prism, will be always seen at rest, and be able to serve as a support
for the object that it is desired to examine.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--THE CYCLOSTAT.

1. General view of the apparatus.
2. Section of the ocular, O.]

The applications are multitudinous. In the first place, in certain
difficult cases, it may serve for the observation of a swinging
thermometer, which is then read during its motion. Then it may be
employed for the continuous observation of a body submitted to
centrifugal force. Apropos of this, we desire to add a few words. Most
of the forces at our disposal, applied to a body, are transmitted from
molecule to molecule, and produce tension, crushing, etc. Gravity and
magnetic attraction form an exception; their point of application is
found in all the molecules of the body, and they produce pressures and
slidings of a peculiar kind. But these forces are of a very limited
magnitude; but it might nevertheless be of great interest to amplify
them in a strong measure. Let us, for example, suppose that a magician
has found a means of increasing the intensity of gravity tenfold in
his laboratory. All the conditions of life would be modified to the
extent of being unrecognizable. A living being borne in this space
would remain small and squat. All objects would be stocky and be
spread out in width or else be shattered. Viscid or semi-solid bodies,
such as pitch, would rapidly spread out and take on a surface as
plane and smooth as water under the conditions of gravity upon the
earth. On still further increasing the gravity, we would see the soft
metals behaving in the same way, and lead, copper and silver would in
turn flow away. These metals, in fact, are perfectly moulded under a
strong pressure, just like liquids, through the simple effect of the
attraction of the earth applied to all their molecules. Upon causing
an adequate attractive force to act upon the molecules of metals they
will be placed under conditions analogous to those to which they are
submitted in strong presses or in the mills that serve for coining
money. The sole difference consists in the fact that the action of
gravity is infinitely more regular, and purer, from a physical
standpoint, than that of the press or coining mill. Through very
simple considerations, we thus reach the principle which was
enunciated, we believe, by the illustrious Stokes, that our idea of
solid and liquid bodies is a necessary consequence of the intensity of
gravity upon the earth. Upon a larger or smaller planet, a certain
number of solid bodies would pass to a liquid state, or inversely. Let
us return to the cyclostat. In default of gravity, centrifugal force
gives us a means of realizing certain conditions that we would find in
the laboratory of our magician. The cyclostat permits us to observe
what is going on in that laboratory without submitting ourselves to
forces that might cause us great annoyance. We have hitherto been
content to put poor frogs therein and study upon them the effect of
the central anæmia and peripheral congestion produced on their
organism by the unrestrained motion of the liquids carried along by
centrifugal force. The results, it seems, have proved very
curious.--_La Nature_.

       *       *       *       *       *




MERCURY WEIGHING MACHINE.


We illustrate herewith a novel type of weighing machine. Hitherto the
weighing machines in common use have either been designed with some
kind of steelyard apparatus, upon which weights could be moved to
different distances from a fixed fulcrum, or springs have been so
applied as to be compressed to different degrees by different weights
put upon the scale pan, or table, of the machine. In other instances
more complicated mechanism is used, and various movable counterpoises
are usually required in order to balance the moving parts of the
machine.

[Illustration]

The type of machine which we now illustrate has been recently brought
out by Mr. G.E. Rutter, and the system has given very satisfactory
results with platform weighing machines. The engraving illustrates a
form of balance which may be applied to strength testing machines, or
for any work where an apparatus of the type of a Salter's balance
would be of use. It is simple in construction, and consists of a tube
A closed at the bottom and forming a reservoir for mercury. The body
which it is required to weigh is hung upon the hook B carried by the
crossbar C, which is connected by rigid rods to the upper part of the
tube, and by means of the internal rods D is attached to the cross
head E, which works freely inside the tube A. The top part of the tube
is, as will be clearly understood from the illustration, cut away to
allow of the descent of the rods. To the cross head E is attached the
piston F, which may be made of wood or of a hollow metal tube closed
at the end, or other suitable material. It will be easily understood
that when a weight is hung upon the hook B, the piston F is caused to
descend into the mercury which rises in the annular space between the
piston and the tube. The weight of the volume of displaced mercury is
proportional to the weight of the body hung upon the hook, and the
buoyancy of the piston in the mercury forms the upward force which
balances the downward pull of gravity. When the apparatus is at rest
the piston F descends into the mercury to such a distance as will
balance the weight of the rods, hook, and piston itself. If, now, the
cross bar G, provided with a pointer H, be fixed to the rods, it
should at that time register zero, upon the scale J fixed to the
outside of the tube, and as the descent of the piston into the mercury
is directly proportional to the weight of the body attached to the
hook B, the divisions of the scale will all be equal. It will thus be
seen that the apparatus is extremely simple in theory, and it only
remains to construct it in such a form that the mercury may not easily
be spilt in moving the instrument from place to place. This is
effected by causing the cross head E to fill the tube while working
freely therein, and a small valve is arranged to allow for the passage
of air. The cross bar G can be regulated upon the rods by means of set
screws.--_Industries._

       *       *       *       *       *




REEFING SAILS FROM THE DECK.


While this method may be applied to topsails and top-gallant-sails, I
especially apply it to courses, which, being so difficult to reef the
old way, may by this method be reefed from the deck in a few minutes.

After several years of trial by myself and others, on voyages around
Cape Horn under all circumstances of weather, of sleet and snow, this
method has always given the utmost satisfaction.

[Illustration: REEFING SAILS FROM THE DECK. Front View. Rear View.]

The average time required for reefing and setting was noted for five
years, being seven and one-half minutes.

This trial was made on a mainsail, the yard being seventy-one feet
long, and reefyard sixty-six feet long, eleven inches diameter at
center and nine at yard-arms.

By reference to the drawing it will be seen that it is not necessary
to have clewgarnets or buntlines in reefing. The operation is
performed by easing of the sheet and hauling the lee reef-tackle
first, also the midship reef tackle.

When the yardarm of the reefspar is up at the lee side, the sail
cannot sag to leeward when the tack is eased away. Now haul the
weather reef-tackle likewise midship, snug up to the yard, belay all
down the tack, and sheet aft.

As all the reef-tackles lead to the slings of the yard, there is no
impediment in swinging the yard when the reef-tackles are taut and
belayed.

The slack sail will not chafe, as it remains quiet, but if so desired
may be stopped up at leisure with only a few hands with stops provided
for that purpose.

In case of a sudden squall the sail may be hauled up the usual way.
The buntlines will draw the part of the sail below the reef well up on
the part above the reefyard, and remain becalmed, while the weight of
the reefspar will prevent any slatting or danger of losing the sail
any more than any other sail clewed up.

In case there is steam power at hand, all three reef-tackles may be
hauled simultaneously, easing sheet and tack sufficiently to let the
wind out of the sail without shaking.

There are other advantages gained by this method; while its
essentials are positive, quick reefing from the deck in all weathers,
it is also better reefed than by the old method. For by this new
method the sail is not strained or torn, and the sail will wear
longer, not being subject to such straining.

It may be carried longer, as the spar supports the sail like a band,
especially an old sail.

This method does not interfere with the use of the so called
midship-tack, but change of putting on bands, from the leech of the
sail at the reef to the center tack would be necessary.

The weight of the spar may be considered by some as objectionable, (an
old argument against double-topsail yards). The spar used for the reef
may be about one-half the diameter of the yard on which it is to be
used.

Such critics do not consider that a crew of men aloft on the yard are
several times heavier than such a spar.

L.K. MORSE.

Rockport, Me., Oct. 28, 1891.

       *       *       *       *       *




A NEW PROCESS FOR THE BLEACHING OF JUTE.

By Messrs. LEYKAM and TOSEFOTHAL.


Jute is well known as a very cheap fiber, and its employment in
textile industry is consequently both extensive and always increasing.
Accompanying this increase is a corresponding one in the amount of old
waste jute, which can be employed for the manufacture of paper.

Up to the present time, only very little use has been made of jute for
the manufacture of thread and the finer fabrics, because the
difficulty of bleaching the fiber satisfactorily has proved a very
serious hindrance to its improvement by chemical means. All the
methods hitherto proposed for bleaching jute are so costly that they
can scarcely be made to pay; and, moreover, in many cases, the jute is
scarcely bleached, and loses considerably in firmness and weight,
owing to the large quantities of bleaching agents which have to be
applied.

In consequence of this difficulty, the enormous quantities of jute
scraps, which are always available, are utilized in paper making
almost entirely for the production of ordinary wrapping paper, which
is, at the best, of medium quality. In the well known work of Hoffmann
and Muller, the authors refer to the great difficulty of bleaching
jute, and therefore recommend that it be not used for making white
papers.

Messrs. Leykam and Tosefothal have succeeded in bleaching it, and
rendering the fiber perfectly white, by a new process, simple and
cheap (which we describe below), so that their method can be very
advantageously employed in the paper industry.

The jute fiber only loses very little of its original firmness and
weight; but, on the other hand, gains largely in pliability and
elasticity, so that the paper made from it is of great strength, and
not only resists tearing, but especially crumpling and breaking.

The jute may be submitted to the process in any form whatever, either
crude, in scraps, or as thread or tissue.

The material to be bleached is first treated with gaseous chlorine or
chlorine water, in order to attack the jute pigment, which is very
difficult to bleach, until it takes an orange shade. After having
removed the acids, etc., formed by this treatment, the jute is placed
in a weak alkaline bath, cold or hot, of caustic soda, caustic potash,
caustic ammonia, quicklime, sodium or potassium carbonate, etc., or a
mixture of several of these substances, which converts the greatest
part of the jute pigment, already altered by the chlorine, into a form
easily soluble in water, so that the pigment can be readily removed by
a washing with water. After this washing the jute can be bleached as
easily as any other vegetable fiber in the ordinary manner, by means
of bleaching powder, etc., and an excellent fibrous material is
obtained, which can be made use of with advantage in the textile and
paper industries.

The application of the process may be illustrated by an example:

One hundred kilos. of waste jute scraps are first of all treated in
the manner usually employed in the paper industry; 15 per cent. of
quicklime is added, and they are treated for 10 hours at a pressure of
1½ atmospheres. The scraps are then freed from water by means of a
hydro-extractor, or a press, and finally saturated with chlorine in a
gas chamber for 24 hours or less, according to the requirements of the
case. Every 100 kilos. of jute requires 75 kilos. of hydrochloric acid
(20° B.) and 20 kilos. of manganese peroxide (78-80 per cent.).

The jute then takes an orange color, and is subsequently washed in a
tank, a kilo. of caustic soda being added per 100 kilos. of jute; this
amount of alkali is sufficient to dissolve the pigment, which colors
the water flowing from the washer a deep brown. After washing, the
jute can be completely bleached by the use of 5-7 kilos. of bleaching
powder per 100 kilos. of jute.--_Mon. de la Teinture_.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE INDEPENDENT--STORAGE OR PRIMARY BATTERY--SYSTEM OF ELECTRIC MOTIVE
POWER.[1]

  [Footnote 1: Abstract of a paper read before the American Streel
  Railway Association, Oct. 23, 1891.]

By KNIGHT NEFTEL.


Owing to a variety of causes, the system which was assigned to me at
the last convention to report on has made less material progress in a
commercial way than its competitors.


PRIMARY BATTERIES.

So far, primary batteries have been applied only to the operation of
the smallest stationary motors. Their application in the near future
to traction may, I think, be entirely disregarded. Were it not a
purely technical matter, it might be easily demonstrated, with our
knowledge of electro-chemistry, that such an arrangement as an
electric primary battery driving a car is an impossibility.

In view of the claims of certain inventors, I regret to be obliged to
make so absolute a statement; but the results so far have produced
nothing of value.


SECONDARY BATTERIES.

The application of secondary or storage batteries to electrical
traction has been accomplished in a number of cities, with a varying
amount of success. Roads equipped by batteries have now been
sufficiently long in operation to allow us to draw some conclusions as
to the practical results obtained and what is possible in the near
future. The advantages which have been demonstrated on Madison Avenue,
in New York; Dubuque, Iowa; Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, may be
summarized as follows:

_First_. The independent feature of the system. The cars independent
of each other, and free from drawbacks of broken trolley wires;
temporary stoppages at the power station; the grounding of one motor
affecting other motors, and sudden and severe strains upon the
machinery at the power station, such as frequently occur in direct
systems; the absence of all street structures and repairs to the same,
and the loss by grounds and leakages, are also very considerable
advantages, both as to economy and satisfactory operation.

_Second_. The comparatively small space required for the power
station. Each car being provided with two or more sets of batteries,
the same can be charged at a uniform rate without undue strain on the
machinery of the power station, and as it can be done more rapidly
than the discharge required for the operation of the motors, a less
amount of general machinery is necessary for a given amount of work.

Another and important advantage of the system is the low pressure of
the current used to supply the motors, and the consequent increased
durability of the motor, and practically absolute safety to life from
electrical shock.

It has been demonstrated also that the cars can be easily handled in
the street; run at any desired speed, and reversed with far more
safety to the armature of the motor than in the direct system. The
increased weight requires simply more brake leverage.

The modern battery, improved in many of its details during the last
year, is still an unknown quantity as to durability. There is the same
doubt concerning this as there was at the time incandescent lamps were
first introduced. At that time some phenomenal records were made by
lamps grouped with other lamps.

Similarly, some plates appeared to be almost indestructible, while
others, made practically in the same manner, deteriorate within a very
short time. It is, consequently, very difficult to exactly and fairly
place a limit on the life of the positive plates as yet. Speaking
simply from observation of a large number of plates of various kinds,
I am inclined to put the limit at about eight months; though it is
claimed by some of the more prominent manufacturers--and undoubtedly
it is true in special cases--that entire elements have lasted ten
months, and even longer.

It must be remembered, however, that the jolting and handling to which
these batteries are subjected, in traction work, increases the
tendency to disintegrate, buckle and short circuit, and that the
record for durability for this application can never be the same as
for stationary work. A serious inconvenience to the use of batteries
in traction work is the necessary presence of the liquid in the jars.
This causes the whole equipment to be somewhat cumbersome, and unless
arranged with great care, and with a variety of devices lately
designed, a source of considerable annoyance.

The connections between the plates, which formerly gave so much
trouble by breaking off, have been perfected so as to prevent this
difficulty, and the shape of the jars has been designed to prevent the
spilling of the acid while the car is running. The car seats are now
practically hermetically sealed, so that the escaping gases are not
offensive to the passengers.

The handling of the batteries is an exceedingly important
consideration. Many devices have been invented to render this easy and
cheap. I have witnessed the changing of batteries in a car, one set
being taken out and a charged set replaced by four men in the short
space of three minutes. This is accomplished by electrical elevators,
which move the batteries opposite the car, and upon the platforms of
which the discharged elements are again charged.

The general conclusions which the year's experience and progress have
afforded us an opportunity to make may be summarized as follows:

Storage battery cars are as yet applicable only to those roads which
are practically level; where the direct system cannot be used, and
where cable traction cannot be used; and applicable to those roads
only at about the same cost as horse traction.

I feel justified in making this statement in view of the guarantees
which some of the more prominent manufacturers of batteries are
willing to enter into, and which practically insure the customer
against loss due to the deterioration of plates: leaving the question
of the responsibility of the company the only one for him to look
into.

       *       *       *       *       *




ON THE ELIMINATION OF SULPHUR FROM PIG IRON.[1]

  [Footnote 1: Paper read before the Iron and Steel Institute.]

By J. MASSENEZ, Hoerde.


If in the acid and the basic Bessemer processes the molten pig iron is
taken direct to the converter from the blast furnace, there is the
disadvantage that the running of the individual blast furnaces can
hardly ever be kept so uniform as it is desirable should be the case
in order to secure regularity in the converter charges. In the
manufacture of Bessemer steel the variable proportions of silicon and
of carbon here come chiefly under consideration, while in the basic
process it is chiefly the varying proportions of silicon and of
sulphur; and in cases where either ores containing variable
percentages of phosphorus, or puddle slags, are treated, the varying
proportion of phosphorus has also to be considered. This disadvantage
of the irregular composition of the individual blast furnace charges
is obviated in a simple and effective manner by W.R. Jones's mixing
process. In this as much pig iron from the various blast furnaces of a
works as is sufficient for a large number of Bessemer charges, say
from seven to twelve charges, or, in other words, from 70 to 120 tons
of pig iron, is placed in a mixing vessel. Only a portion of pig iron
placed in the mixer is taken for further treatment for steel, while
new supplies of pig iron are brought from the blast furnace. In this
way homogeneity sufficient for practical purposes is obtained.

In the treatment of phosphoric pig iron, which is employed in the
production of basic steel, it is, however, not sufficient merely to
conduct the molten pig iron in large quantities to the converter in a
mixed condition, but the problem here is to render the proportion of
sulphur also independent of the blast furnace process to such an
extent that the proportion of sulphur in the finished steel is so low
that the quality of the steel is in no way influenced by it. The
question of desulphurization has, especially of late years, become of
the utmost importance, at any rate for the iron industry of the
Continent. By the great strike of 1889, the German colliers have
succeeded in greatly improving their wages; and with this increase in
wages not only is there a distinct diminution in the amount of coal
wrought, but, unfortunately, the coal produced since then is raised in
a much less pure condition than was formerly the case. Consequently
the proportion of sulphur in the coke has considerably increased.
Whereas formerly this proportion did not exceed one per cent., it has
now in many cases risen to 18 per cent.; so that an unpleasant ratio
exists between the wages of the workmen and the amount of sulphur in
the coal raised. It is therefore not remarkable that, even when ores
fairly free from sulphur are treated, it easily happens that a
sulphureted pig iron is obtained.

In order to effect satisfactory desulphurization, attention has been
bestowed on the fact that iron sulphide is converted by manganese into
manganese sulphide and iron. If sulphureted pig iron, poor in
manganese, is added in a fluid condition to manganiferous molten pig
iron, poor in sulphur, the metal is desulphurized, and a manganese
sulphide slag is formed. It may be urged that it does not seem
necessary to effect the desulphurization by means of the reaction of
the manganese and iron sulphide outside of the blast furnace, as it is
possible, by suitably directing the blast furnace, by the employment
of manganiferous ores or highly basic slag, so to desulphurize the
iron in the blast furnace itself that it would be unnecessary further
to lower the percentage of sulphur. Every blast furnace manager,
however, will have observed that, even with every precaution in the
blast furnace practice, pig iron will often be obtained with so high a
percentage of sulphur as to render it useless for the Bessemer acid or
basic processes. If the desulphurization in the blast furnace is
carried sufficiently far, it is always necessary to work the furnace
hot, and thus to obtain hotter iron than is desirable for further
treatment in the converter. On the other hand, the method of further
desulphurization outside the blast furnace, described in this paper,
presents the double advantage that part of the blast furnace can be
kept cooler, and thus lime and coke be saved, and that there is a
certainty that no red-short charges are obtained in the treatment in
the converter, while the pig iron passes to the converter at a
suitable temperature.

[Illustration: FIGS. 1 through 5]

A further advantage presented by the direct process described in this
paper is that the Bessemer works is independent of the time at which
the individual blast furnaces are tapped, as the pig iron required for
the Bessemer process can be taken at any moment from the
desulphurizing plant. In Hoerde, where the mixing and desulphurizing
process has for a considerable time been regularly in use, it has been
found that all the chief difficulties formerly encountered in the
method of taking the fluid pig iron direct from the various blast
furnaces to the converter have been obviated. At Hoerde the mixing and
desulphurizing plant shown in the accompanying engravings is employed.
This apparatus holds 70 tons of pig iron. It is, however, advisable to
have an apparatus of greater capacity, say 120 tons. The apparatus has
the shape of a converter, and the hydraulic machinery by which it is
moved is simple and effective. An hydraulic pressure of eight
atmospheres is sufficient to set it in motion. The vessel is provided
with a double lining of firebricks of the same quality as those used
for the lining of blast furnaces. This lining is gradually attacked
only along the slag line, and does not require repair until it has
been in use for some six weeks. Further repairs are then necessary
every three weeks. Only the few courses of spoilt bricks are renewed,
and for the repairs, including the cooling of the vessel, a period of
two or three days is required. At the end of the week the vessel is
kept filled, so that its contents suffice for the last charge to be
blown on Saturday. On Sunday night the vessel is again filled. The
consumption of manganese is very low; theoretically, it is the
quantity required for the formation of manganese sulphide, and in
practice it has been found that this amounts to about 0.2 per cent.
The proportion of manganese which the desulphurized pig iron coming
from the vessel should contain is best kept at about 1.5 per cent. in
order to render the desulphurization as complete as possible. Thus, a
mean proportion of 1.7 per cent. of manganese in the pig iron passing
into the vessel is more than sufficient to effect a thorough
desulphurization. Indeed, 1 to 1.2 per cent. of manganese is
sufficient to effect a satisfactory desulphurization. For the extent
of the removal of the sulphur, the temperature and the duration of the
reaction are of importance. It has been found that if highly
sulphureted pig iron is poured from the blast furnace into the
desulphurizing vessel, fifteen to twenty minutes are sufficient to
effect the desulphurization requisite for the steel process. The part
played by the duration of the process is seen from the results
obtained with the last charges, if the vessel is emptied at the end of
the week without fresh pig iron being added from the blast furnace.
If, for example, 60 tons of pig iron with 0.065 per cent. of sulphur
remain in the vessel, the proportion of sulphur with the last charges
falls to 0.03 per cent. The iron in the vessel remains sufficiently
fluid for several hours. When necessary, a little wood is thrown in.
It has been found quite unnecessary to obtain heat by passing and
burning a current of gas above the bath of metal.

A number of results, showing the separation of sulphur at the Hoerde
Works, was published a few months ago[2] by Professor P. Tunner, one
of our honorary members.

  [Footnote 2: "Oesterreichische Zeitschrift fur Berg und
  Huttenwesen," 1891, No. 19.]

The totals represent, respectively, 138,500 kilogrammes of pig iron
and 98,654 kilogrammes of sulphur.

Thus, from 138,500 kilogrammes of pig iron there has been eliminated
179,577-98,654 = 80,923 kilogrammes of sulphur, or, in other words,
45.063 per cent.

The proportion of sulphur in the slags rises with that in the iron
from the blast furnace to 17 per cent., an inappreciable portion of
the sulphur of the slag being oxidized to sulphurous anhydride by
access of air. An analysis of the slag yielded the following results:

                                Per cent.
  Sulphur                        17.07
  Manganese                      30.31
  Phosphoric anhydride            0.61
  Iron                            7.13
  Bases                          35.04

An analysis of an average sample gave:

                                Per cent.
  Manganese sulphide             28.01
  Manganous oxide                20.23
  Ferrous oxide                  25.46
  Silica                         18.90
  Alumina                         5.00
  Lime                            3.53
  Magnesia                        0.43

The great convenience and certainty presented by the method described
in this paper will in all probability lead to its general adoption. As
a matter of fact, several works are now occupied with the installation
of this mixing and desulphurizing plant.

       *       *       *       *       *




ON THE OCCURRENCE OF TIN IN CANNED FOOD.

By H.A. WEBER, Ph.D.


The following investigation of the condition of foods packed in tin
cans was prompted by an alleged case of poisoning, which occurred at
Mansfield, Ohio, in April, 1890. A man and woman were reported to the
writer as having been made sick by eating pumpkin pie made from canned
pumpkin. The attending physician pronounced the case one of lead
poisoning. The wholesale dealer from whose stock the canned pumpkin
originally came, procured a portion of the same at the house where the
poisoning occurred, and sent it to the writer for examination.

The results of the examination as reported in Serial No. 552, below,
showed that the canned pumpkin contained an amount of stannous salts
equivalent to 6.4 maximum doses and 51.4 minimum doses of stannous
chloride per pound. On being notified of this fact, the dealer sent a
can of the same brand of pumpkin from his stock. The inner coating of
the can was found to be badly eroded, and upon examination, as
reported in Serial No. 563, below, one pound of the pumpkin contained
tin salts equivalent to 7 maximum and 56 minimum doses of stannous
chloride.

The unexpected large amount of tin salts in such an insipid article as
canned pumpkin, and the claimed ill effects of the consumption of the
same, suggested the advisability of extending the investigation to
other canned goods in common use. Accordingly a line of articles was
purchased in open market as sold to consumers, no pains being taken to
procure old samples. The collection embraced fruits, vegetables, fish
and condensed milk. With the exception of the condensed milk, every
article examined was contaminated with salts of tin. In most cases the
amount of tin salts present was so large that there can be no doubt of
danger to health from the consumption of the food, especially if
several kinds are consumed at the same meal.


METHOD.

The method employed in the determination of the tin was simply as
follows:

The contents of each can were emptied into a large porcelain dish, and
the condition of the inner coating of the can noted. After thoroughly
mixing the contents, fifty grammes were weighed off and incinerated in
a porcelain dish of suitable size. The residue was treated with a
large excess of concentrated hydrochloric acid, evaporated to dryness,
moistened with hydrochloric acid, water was added, and the mass was
filtered and washed, the insoluble matter being all washed upon the
filter. After drying the filter with its contents, the whole was again
incinerated in a porcelain dish and the residue treated as before. The
solution thus obtained was properly diluted and saturated with
hydrogen sulphide. After standing about twelve hours in a covered
beaker the precipitate was filtered off and the tin weighed as stannic
oxide.


RESULTS OF EXAMINATION.

_Serial No. 552._--Sample of canned pumpkin, received of F.A.
Derthick, April 22, 1890, sent by Albert F. Remy & Co., Mansfield,
Ohio. Pie made from it supposed to have made a man and woman sick. The
attending physician pronounced the case one of lead poisoning.

                                      Per cent.
  Tin dioxide with trace of lead       0.0424
  Grains per pound                     2.97
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      3.74
  Minimum doses                       51.4
  Maximum doses                        6.4

_Serial No. 563._--Sample of canned pumpkin, received of Edward
Bethel, June 27, 1890. Labeled: Choice Pie Pumpkin, packed at Salem,
Columbiana County, Ohio, by G.B. McNabb, sent by A.F. Remy & Co.,
Mansfield, Ohio.

                                      Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                          0.0444
  Grains per pound                     3.11
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      3.91
  Minimum doses                       56
  Maximum doses                        7

  Can eroded.

_Serial No. 565._--Sample of canned pumpkin, bought of T.B. Vaure,
July 11, 1890. Labeled: Belpre Pumpkin, Golden. George Dana & Sons,
Belpre, Ohio.

                                      Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                          0.0054
  Grains per pound                     0.38
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      0.48
  Minimum doses                        7.7
  Maximum doses                        1.0

  Can eroded.

_Serial No. 566._--Sample of canned Hubbard Squash, bought of T.B.
Vaure, July 11, 1890. Labeled: Ladd Brand, L. Ladd, Adrian, Michigan.

                                      Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                          0.026
  Grains per pound                     1.85
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      2.33
  Minimum doses                       37.00
  Maximum doses                        4.7

  Can badly eroded.

_Serial No. 567._--Sample of canned tomatoes, bought of T.B. Vaure,
July 11, 1890. Labeled: Extra Fine Tomatoes. Blue Label. Curtice Bros.
Co., Rochester, N.Y.

                                      Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                          0.012
  Grains per pound                     0.84
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      1.06
  Minimum doses                       16.00
  Maximum doses                        2.00

  Inner coating eroded.

_Serial No. 568._--Sample of canned tomatoes, bought of T.B. Vaure,
July 11, 1890. Labeled: Fresh Tomatoes, Curtice Bros. Co., Rochester,
N.Y.

                                      Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                          0.014
  Grains per pound                     0.98
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      1.23
  Minimum doses                       19.00
  Maximum doses                        2.5

  Can eroded.

_Serial No. 569._--Sample of canned peas, bought of T.B. Vaure, July
11, 1890. Labeled: Petites Pois, P. Emillien, Bordeaux.

                                      Per Cent.
  Copper oxide                         0.0294
  Grains per pound                     2.06
  Equivalent to copper sulphate        3.95
  Tin dioxide                          0.0068
  Grains per pound                     0.48
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      0.6
  Minimum doses                        9.6
  Maximum doses                        1.2

  No visible erosion.

_Serial No. 570._--Sample of canned mushroom, bought of T.B. Vaure,
July 11, 1890. Labeled Champignons de Choix. Boston fils. Paris.

                                      Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                          0.02
  Grains per pound                     1.40
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      1.76
  Minimum doses                       28.00
  Maximum doses                        3.50

  Inner coating highly discolored.

_Serial No. 571._--Sample of canned blackberries, bought of T.B.
Vaure, July 11, 1890. Labeled: Lawton Blackberries. Curtice Bros. Co.,
Rochester, N.Y.

                                      Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                          0.0114
  Grains per pound                     0.80
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      1.01
  Minimum doses                       16.00
  Maximum doses                        2.00

  Inner coating eroded.

_Serial No. 572._--Sample of canned blueberries, bought of T.B. Vaure,
July 11, 1890. Labeled: Blueberries. Eagle Brand, packed by A. & R.
Loggie, Black Brook, N.B.

                                      Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                          0.03
  Grains per pound                     2.10
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      2.64
  Minimum doses                       42.00
  Maximum doses                        5.30

  Can badly eroded.

_Serial No. 574._--Sample of canned salmon, bought of T.B. Vaure. July
11, 1890. Labeled: Best Fresh Columbia River Salmon, Eagle Canning
Co., Astoria Clatsop Co., Oregon.

                                      Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                          0.0134
  Grains per pound                     0.94
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      1.18
  Minimum doses                       18.90
  Maximum doses                        2.30

  Inner coating eroded.

_Serial No. 578._--Sample of canned pears, received of Mr. Edward
Bethel, July 29, 1890. Labeled: Bartlett Pears. Solan's Brand, packed
in Solano Co., California.

                                      Juice.    Fruit.
                                      Per Ct.   Per Ct.
  Tin dioxide                          0.0074    0.0074
  Grains per pound                     0.5180    0.5180
  Equivalent to stannous chloride      0.65      0.65
  Minimum doses                       10.40     10.40
  Maximum doses                        1.30      1.30

  Can eroded.

_Serial No. 579._--Sample of canned peaches, received of Edward
Bethel, July 29. 1890. Labeled: Peaches, Wm. Maxwell, Baltimore,
U.S.A.

                                    Juice.    Fruit.
                                    Per Ct.   Per Ct.
  Tin dioxide                        0.0324    0.0414
  Grains per pound                   2.2680    2.8980
  Equivalent to stannous chloride    2.85      3.65
  Minimum doses                     45.60     58.40
  Maximum doses                      5.70      7.30

  Can badly eroded.


_Serial No. 580._--Sample of canned blackberries, received of Edward
Bethel, July 29, 1890. Labeled: Blackberries, Clipper Brand, Wm.
Munson & Sons, Baltimore, Md.

                                   Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                        0.06
  Grains per pound                   4.20
  Equivalent to stannous chloride    5.28
  Minimum doses                     84.00
  Maximum doses                     10.60

  Can badly eroded.


_Serial No. 581._--Sample of canned cherries, received of Edward
Bethel, July 29, 1890. Labeled: Red Cherries, Cloverdale Brand, G.C.
Mournaw & Co., Cloverdale, Va.

                                    Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                        0.0414
  Grains per pound                   2.8980
  Equivalent to stannous chloride    3.65
  Minimum doses                     58.40
  Maximum doses                      7.30

  Can badly eroded.


_Serial No. 582._--Sample of canned pumpkin, received of Edward
Bethel, July 29, 1890. Labeled: Royal Pumpkin, Urbana Canning Co.,
Urbana, O.

                                   Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                        0.0184
  Grains per pound                   1.2990
  Equivalent to stannous chloride    1.62
  Minimum doses                     25.90
  Maximum doses.                     3.20

  Can eroded.


_Serial No. 583._--Sample of canned baked sweet potatoes, received of
Edward Bethel, July 29, 1890. Labeled: Tennessee Baked Sweet Potatoes,
Capital Canning Co., Nashville, Tenn.

                                   Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                        0.0132
  Grains per pound                   0.92
  Equivalent to stannous chloride    1.16
  Minimum doses                     18.50
  Maximum doses                      2.30

  Can eroded.


_Serial No. 584._--Sample of canned peas, received of Edward Bethel,
July 29, 1890. Labeled: Marrowfat Peas, Parson Bros., Aberdeen,
Maryland.

                                   Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                        0.0044
  Grains per pound                   0.30
  Equivalent to stannous chloride    0.38
  Minimum doses                      6.20
  Maximum doses                      0.80

  Can slightly eroded.


_Serial No. 585._--Sample of string beans, received of Edward Bethel,
July 29, 1890. Labeled: String Beans. Packed by H.P. Hemingway & Co.,
Baltimore City, Md.

                                   Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                        0.0154
  Grains per pound                   1.08
  Equivalent to stannous chloride    1.36
  Minimum doses                     21.70
  Maximum doses                      2.70

  Can eroded.


_Serial No. 586._--Sample of canned salmon, received of Edward Bethel,
July 29, 1890. Labeled: Puget Sound Fresh Salmon, Puget Sound Salmon
Co., W.T.

                                   Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                        0.0044
  Grains per pound                   0.30
  Equivalent to stannous chloride    0.38
  Minimum doses                      0.20
  Maximum doses                      0.80

  Can slightly eroded.


_Serial No. 587._--Sample of condensed milk, received of Edward
Bethel, July 29, 1890. Labeled: Borden's Condensed Milk. The Gail
Borden Eagle Brand, New York Condensed Milk Co., 71 Hudson Street, New
York.

  Tin dioxide none.

  No visible erosion.


_Serial No. 592._--Sample of canned pineapples, bought of Mr. Brown,
Fifth Avenue, August 4, 1890. Labeled: Pineapples, First Quality.
Packed by Martin Wagner & Co., Baltimore, Md.

                                    Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                         0.0098
  Grains per pound                    0.6860
  Equivalent to stannous chloride     0.8640
  Minimum doses                      13.6
  Maximum doses                       1.7

  Can eroded


_Serial No. 593._--Sample of canned pineapples, bought of Mr. Brown,
Fifth Avenue, August 4, 1890. Labeled: Florida Pineapple, Oval Brand.
Extra Quality. A Booth Packing Co., Baltimore, Md.

                                   Per Cent.
  Tin dioxide                        0.0158
  Grains per pound                   1.11
  Equivalent to stannous chloride    1.40
  Minimum doses                     22.40
  Maximum doses                      2.80

  Can eroded.

--_Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc_.

       *       *       *       *       *




NEW PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CHROMATES.

By J. MASSIGNON and E. VATEL.


The ordinary method of manufacturing the bichromates consists in
making an intimate mixture of finely pulverized chrome ore, lime in
large excess, potash or soda, or corresponding salts of these two
bases. This mixture is placed in a reverberatory furnace, and
subjected to a high temperature, while plenty of air is supplied.
During the operation the mass is constantly puddled to bring all the
particles into contact with the hot air, so that all the sesquioxide
of chromium of the ore will be oxidized. After the oxidation is
finished, the mass is taken from the furnace and cooled; the
bichromate is obtained by lixiviation, treated with sulphuric acid and
crystallized. This method of manufacture has several serious
objections.

The authors, after research and experiment, have devised a new
process, following an idea suggested by Pelouze.

The ore very finely pulverized is mixed with chloride of calcium or
lime, or carbonate of calcium, in such proportions that all the base,
proceeding from the caustic lime or the carbonate of calcium put in
the mixture, shall be in slightly greater quantity than is necessary
to transform into chromate of calcium all the sesquioxide of chromium
of the ore, when this sesquioxide will be by oxidation changed into
the chromic acid state. The chloride of calcium employed in proportion
of one equivalent for three of the total calcium is most convenient
for the formation of oxychloride of calcium. If the mixture is made
with carbonate of lime (pulverized chalk), it will not stiffen in the
air; but if lime and carbonate of calcium are employed at the same
time, the mass stiffens like cement, and can be moulded into bricks or
plates. The best way to operate is to mix first a part of the ore and
well pulverized chalk, and slake it with the necessary concentrated
chloride of calcium solution; then to make up a lime dough, and mix
the two, moulding quickly. The loaves or moulds thus formed are
partially dried in the air, then completely dried in a furnace at a
moderate temperature, and finally baked, to effect the reduction of
the carbonate of calcium into caustic lime. It is only necessary then
to expose the loaves to the air at the ordinary temperature, for the
oxidation of the sesquioxide of chromium will go on by degrees without
any manipulation, by the action of the atmospheric air, the matter
thus prepared having a sufficient porosity to allow the air free
access to the interior of the mass. Under ordinary conditions the
oxidation will be completed in a month. The division of this
work--mixing, slaking or thinning, roasting or baking, and subjection
to the air--is analogous to the work of a tile or brick works. The
advance of the oxidation can be followed by the appearance of the
matter, which after baking presents a deep green color, which passes
from olive green into yellow, according to the progress of calcium
chromate formation. When the oxidation is completed, the mass
contains: Chromate of calcium, chloride of calcium, carbonate of lime
and caustic lime in excess, sesquioxide of iron and the gangue, part
of which is united with the lime. This mass is washed with water by
the ordinary method of lixiviation, and there is obtained a
concentrated solution containing all the chloride of calcium, and a
small quantity only of chromate of calcium, the latter being about 100
times less soluble in water.

This solution can be used in the following ways:

1. It can be concentrated and used in preparing a new charge, the
small quantity of calcium chromate present being an assistance, or:

2. It can be used for making chromate of lead (chrome yellow), by
precipitating the calcium chromate with a lead salt; this being a very
economical process for the manufacture of this color.

The mass after lixiviation, being treated with a solution of sulphate
or carbonate of potash or soda, will yield chromate of potash or soda,
and by the employment of sulphuric acid, the corresponding
bichromates. The solutions are then filtered, to get rid of the
insoluble deposits, concentrated, and crystallized.

If, instead of chromate or bichromate of potash or soda, chromic acid
is sought, the mass after lixiviation is treated with sulphuric acid,
and the chromic acid is obtained directly without any intermediate
steps.

This process has the following advantages:

1. The oxidation can be effected at the ordinary temperature, thus
saving expense in fuel.

2. The heavy manual labor is avoided.

3. The loss of potash and soda by volatilization and combination with
the gangue is entirely avoided.

4. It is not actually necessary to use rich ores; silicious ores can
be used.

5. The intimate mixture of the material before treatment being made
mechanically, the puddling is avoided, and in consequence a greater
proportion of the sesquioxide of chromium in the ores is
utilized.--_Bull. Soc. Chem._ 5, 371.

       *       *       *       *       *




A VIOLET COLORING MATTER FROM MORPHINE.


A violet coloring matter is formed, together with other substances, by
boiling for 100 hours in a reflux apparatus a mixture of morphine
(seven grammes), p-nitrosodimethylaniline hydrochloride (five
grammes), and alcohol (500 c.c.). The solution gradually assumes a red
brown color, and a quantity of tetramethyldiamidoazobenzene separates
in a crystalline state. After filtering from the latter, the alcoholic
solution is evaporated to dryness, and the residue boiled with water,
a deep purple colored solution being so obtained. This solution, which
contains at least two coloring matters, is evaporated almost to
dryness, acidulated with hydrochloric acid, and then rendered alkaline
with sodium hydrate, the coloring matters being precipitated and the
unchanged morphine remaining in solution. The precipitate is collected
on a filter, washed with dilute sodium hydrate, dried, and extracted
in the cold with amyl alcohol, which dissolves out a violet coloring
matter, and leaves in the residue a blue coloring matter or mixture of
coloring matters. The violet coloring matter is obtained in a pure
state on evaporating the amyl alcohol. Its platinochloride has the
formula PtCl_{4}.C_{25}H_{29}N_{3}O_{4}.HCl, and has the
characteristic properties of the platinochlorides of the majority of
alkaloids. The coloring matter, of which the free base has the
formula--

    (C_{6}H_{4}N(CH_{3})_{2})--N==(C_{17}H_{19}NO_{4})

forms an amorphous mass with a bronze-like luster; it is sparingly
soluble in water, freely so in alcohol, its alcoholic solution being
strongly dichroic; its green colored solution in concentrated
sulphuric acid becomes successively blue and violet on dilution with
water; it dyes silk, wool, and gun cotton, but is not fast to light.

Morphine violet is the first true coloring matter obtained from the
natural alkaloids, the morphine blue of Chastaing and Barillot (Compt.
Rend., 105, 1012) not being a coloring matter properly so called.
--_P. Cazeneuve, Bull. Soc. Chim._

       *       *       *       *       *




LIQUID BLUE FOR DYEING.


The new liquid blue of M. Dornemann is intended to avoid the formation
of clots, etc., which lead to irregularity in shade, if not to the
formation of spots on the textile. In addition to accomplishing this
end, the process is accelerated by subjecting the blue to a previous
treatment.

In this preliminary treatment of the blue, the object is to remove the
sulphur which retards the solution of the color.

The liquid is prepared as follows: The pigment, previously dried at
150° C., is crushed and finely ground, and contains about 47 per cent.
of coloring matter; to this is added 53 per cent. of water.

To this mixture, or slurry, the inventor adds an indefinite quantity
of glucose and glycerine of 43° B., having a specific gravity of
1.425. It is then ready for use.--_Le Moniteur de la Teinture_.

       *       *       *       *       *


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