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Scientific American Supplement No. 360, November 25, 1882

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Title: Scientific American Supplement No. 360, November 25, 1882

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 360

NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 25, 1882

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XIV, No. 360.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

* * * * *

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I. ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--Soaking Pits for Steel Ingots.

--On the successful rolling of steel ingots with their own

initial heat by means of the soaking pit process. By JOHN GJERS.

6 figures.--Gjers' soaking pits for steel ingots.

Tempering by compression.--L. Clemandot's process.

Economical Steam Power. By WILLIAM BARNET LE VAN.

Mississippi River Improvements near St. Louis, Mo.

Bunte's Burette for the Analysis of Furnace Gases. 2 figures.

The "Universal" Gas Engine. 8 figures.--Improved gas engine.

Gas Furnace for Baking Refractory Products. 1 figure.

The Efficiency of Fans. 5 figures.

Machine for Compressing Coal Refuse into Fuel. 1 figure.--

Bilan's machine.

Hank Sizing and Wringing Machine. 1 figure.

Improved Coke Breaker. 2 figures.

Improvements in Printing Machinery. 2 figures.

II. TECHNOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY.--Apparatus for Obtaining

Pure Water for Photographic Use. 3 figures.

Black Phosphorus.--By P THENARD.

ads:

Composition of Steep Water

Schreiber's Apparatus for Revivifying Bone Black. 5 figures.--

Plant: elevation and plan.--Views of elevation.--Continuous

furnace.

Soap and its Manufacture from a Consumer's Point of View.

(Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 330).

Cotton seed Oil.--By S. S. BRADFORD.

On some Apparatus that Permit of Entering Flames.--Chevalier

Aldini's wire gauze and asbestos protectors.--Brewster's account

of test experiments.

III. ELECTRICITY, LIGHT. ETC.--On a New Arc Electric Lamp.

By W. H. PREECE. 6 figures--The Abdank system.--The lamp.--

The Electro-magnet.--The Cut-off.--The electrical arrangement.

Utilization of Solar Heat.

IV. NATURAL HISTORY.--The Ocellated Pheasant. 1 figure.

The Maidenhair Tree in the Gardens at Broadlands, Hants,

England. 1 figure.

The Woods of America.--The Jessup collection in the American

Museum of Natural History, Central Park, and the characteristics

of the specimens.

V. AGRICULTURE, ETC.--An Industrial Revolution.--Increase in

the number of farms.

A Farmer's Lime Kiln. 3 figures.

The Manufacture of Apple Jelly.

Improved Grape Bags. 4 figures.

VI. ARCHITECTURE, ETC.--The Building Stone Supply.--Granite

and its sources.--Sandstone.--Blue and gray limestone.--Marble.--

Slate.--Other stones.--A valuable summary of the sources and uses

of quarry products.

VII. ASTRONOMY. ETC.--How to Establish a True Meridian. By

Prof. L. M. HAUPT.--Introduction.--Definitions.--To find the

azemuth of Polaris.--Applications, etc.

VIII. MISCELLANEOUS.--A Characteristic Mining "Rush."--The

Prospective Mining Center of Southern New Mexico.

The Food and Energy of Man. By Prof. DE CHAUMONT.--Original

food of man.--Function of food.--Classes of alimentary

substances.--Quantity of food.--Importance of varied diet.

Rattlesnake Poison.--Its Antidotes. By H. H. CROFT.

The Chinese Sign Manual.--The ethnic bearing of skin furrows

on the hand.

Lucidity.--Matthew Arnold's remarks at the reopening of the

Liverpool University College and School of Medicine.

* * * * *

SOAKING PITS FOR STEEL INGOTS.

ON THE SUCCESSFUL ROLLING OF STEEL INGOTS WITH THEIR OWN INITIAL HEAT BY

MEANS OF THE SOAKING PIT PROCESS.

By Mr. JOHN GJERS, Middlesbrough.

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

When Sir Henry Bessemer, in 1856, made public his great invention, and

announced to the world that he was able to produce malleable steel from

cast iron without the expenditure of any fuel except that which already

existed in the fluid metal imparted to it in the blast furnace, his

statement was received with doubt and surprise. If he at that time had

been able to add that it was also possible to roll such steel into a

finished bar with no further expenditure of fuel, then undoubtedly the

surprise would have been much greater.

Even this, however, has come to pass; and the author of this paper

is now pleased to be able to inform this meeting that it is not only

possible, but that it is extremely easy and practical, by the means to

be described, to roll a steel ingot into, say, a bloom, a rail, or other

finished article with its own initial heat, without the aid of the

hitherto universally adopted heating furnace.

It is well understood that in the fluid steel poured into the mould

there is a larger store of heat than is required for the purpose

of rolling or hammering. Not only is there the mere apparent high

temperature of fluid steel, but there is the store of latent heat in

this fluid metal which is given out when solidification takes place.

It has, no doubt, suggested itself to many that this heat of the ingot

ought to be utilized, and as a matter of fact, there have been, at

various times and in different places, attempts made to do so; but

hitherto all such attempts have proved failures, and a kind of settled

conviction has been established in the steel trade that the theory could

not possibly be carried out in practice.

The difficulty arose from the fact that a steel ingot when newly

stripped is far too hot in the interior for the purpose of rolling, and

if it be kept long enough for the interior to become in a fit state,

then the exterior gets far too cold to enable it to be rolled

successfully. It has been attempted to overcome this difficulty

by putting the hot ingots under shields or hoods, lined with

non-heat-conducting material, and to bury them in non-heat-conducting

material in a pulverized state, for the purpose of retaining and

equalizing the heat; but all these attempts have proved futile in

practice, and the fact remains, that the universal practice in steel

works at the present day all over the world is to employ a heating

furnace of some description requiring fuel.

The author introduced his new mode of treating ingots at the Darlington

Steel and Iron Company's Works, in Darlington, early in June this year,

and they are now blooming the whole of their make, about 125 tons a

shift, or about 300 ingots every twelve hours, by such means.

The machinery at Darlington is not adapted for rolling off in one heat;

nevertheless they have rolled off direct from the ingot treated in the

"soaking pits" a considerable number of double-head rails; and the

experience so gained proves conclusively that with proper machinery

there will be no difficulty in doing so regularly. The quality of the

rails so rolled off has been everything that could be desired; and as

many of the defects in rails originate in the heating furnace, the

author ventures to predict that even in this respect the new process

will stand the test.

Many eminently practical men have witnessed the operation at Darlington,

and they one and all have expressed their great surprise at the result,

and at the simple and original means by which it is accomplished.

The process is in course of adoption in several works, both in England

and abroad, and the author hopes that by the time this paper is being

read, there may be some who will from personal experience be able to

testify to the practicability and economy of the process, which is

carried out in the manner now to be described.

A number of upright pits (the number, say, of the ingots in a cast) are

built in a mass of brickwork sunk in the ground below the level of the

floor, such pits in cross-section being made slightly larger than that

of the ingot, just enough to allow for any fins at the bottom, and

somewhat deeper than the longest ingot likely to be used. In practice

the cross section of the pit is made about 3 in. larger than the large

end of the ingot, and the top of the ingot may be anything from 6 in. to

18 in. below the top of the pit. These pits are commanded by an ingot

crane, by preference so placed in relation to the blooming mill that the

crane also commands the live rollers of the mill.

Each pit is covered with a separate lid at the floor level, and after

having been well dried and brought to a red heat by the insertion of hot

ingots, they are ready for operation.

As soon as the ingots are stripped (and they should be stripped as early

as practicable), they are transferred one by one, and placed separately

by means of the crane into these previously heated pits (which the

author calls "soaking pits") and forthwith covered over with the lid,

which practically excludes the air. In these pits, thus covered, the

ingots are allowed to stand and soak; that is, the excessive molten

heat of the interior, and any additional heat rendered sensible during

complete solidification, but which was latent at the time of placing

the ingots into the pit, becomes uniformly distributed, or nearly so,

throughout the metallic mass. No, or comparatively little, heat being

able to escape, as the ingot is surrounded by brick walls as hot as

itself, it follows that the surface heat of the ingot is greatly

increased; and after the space of from twenty to thirty minutes,

according to circumstances, the ingot is lifted out of the pit

apparently much hotter than it went in, and is now swung round to the

rolls, by means of the crane, in a perfect state of heat for rolling,

with this additional advantage to the mill over an ingot heated in an

ordinary furnace from a comparatively cold, that it is always certain to

be at least as hot in the center as it is on the surface.

[Illustration: Fig. 2]

Every ingot, when cast, contains within itself a considerably larger

store of heat than is necessary for the rolling operation. Some of this

heat is, of course, lost by passing into the mould, some is lost by

radiation before the ingot enters into the soaking pit, and some is lost

after it enters, by being conducted away by the brickwork; but in the

ordinary course of working, when there is no undue loss of time in

transferring the ingots, after allowing for this loss, there remains a

surplus, which goes into the brickwork of the soaking pits, so that this

surplus of heat from successive ingots tends continually to keep the

pits at the intense heat of the ingot itself. Thus, occasionally it

happens that inadvertently an ingot is delayed so long on its way to the

pit as to arrive there somewhat short of heat, its temperature will be

raised by heat from the walls of the pit itself; the refractory mass

wherein the pit is formed, in fact, acting as an accumulator of heat,

giving and taking heat as required to carry on the operation in a

continuous and practical manner.

[Illustration: GJERS' SOAKING PITS FOR STEEL INGOTS.]

During the soaking operation a quantity of gas exudes from the ingot and

fills the pit, thus entirely excluding atmospheric air from entering;

this is seen escaping round the lid, and when the lid is removed

combustion takes place.

It will be seen by analyses given hereinafter that this gas is entirely

composed of hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbonic oxide, so that the ingots

soak in a perfectly non-oxidizing medium. Hence loss of steel by

oxidation does not take place, and consequently the great loss of

yield which always occurs in the ordinary heating furnace is entirely

obviated.

The author does not think it necessary to dilate upon the economical

advantages of his process, as they are apparent to every practical man

connected with the manufacture of steel.

The operation of steel making on a large scale will by this process be

very much simplified. It will help to dispense with a large number of

men, some of them highly paid, directly and indirectly connected with

the heating department; it will do away with costly heating furnaces and

gas generators, and their costly maintenance; it will save all the coal

used in heating; and what is perhaps of still more importance, it will

save the loss in yield of steel; and there will be no more steel spoiled

by overheating in the furnaces.

The process has been in operation too short a time to give precise

and reliable figures, but it is hoped that by the next meeting of the

Institute these will be forthcoming from various quarters.

Referring to the illustrations annexed, Fig. 1 shows sectional

elevation, and Fig. 2 plan of a set of eight soaking pits (marked

A). These pits are built in a mass of brickwork, B, on a concrete

foundation, C; the ingots, D, standing upright in the pits. The pits are

lined with firebrick lumps, 6 in. thick, forming an independent lining,

E, which at any time can be readily renewed. F is a cast iron plate,

made to take in four pits, and dropped loosely within the large plate,

G, which surrounds the pits. H is the cover, with a firebrick lining;

and I is a false cover of firebrick, 1 in. smaller than the cross

section of the pit, put in to rest on the top of the ingot. This false

cover need not necessarily be used, but is useful to keep the extreme

top of the ingot extra hot. J is the bottom of the pit, composed of

broken brick and silver sand, forming a good hard bottom at any desired

level.

Figs. 4 and 5 show outline plan of two sets of soaking pits, K K, eight

each, placed under a 25 ft. sweep crane, L. This crane, if a good one,

could handle any ordinary make--up to 2,000 tons per week, and ought to

have hydraulic racking out and swinging round gear. This crane places

the ingots into the pits, and, when they are ready, picks them out and

swings them round to blooming mill, M. With such a crane, four men and a

boy at the handles are able to pass the whole of that make through the

pits. The author recommends two sets of pits as shown, although one set

of eight pits is quite able to deal with any ordinary output from one

Bessemer pit.

In case of an extraordinarily large output, the author recommends a

second crane, F, for the purpose of placing the ingots in the pits

only, the crane, L, being entirely used for picking the ingots out

and swinging them round to the live rollers of the mill. The relative

position of the cranes, soaking pits, and blooming mill may of course be

variously arranged according to circumstances, and the soaking pits may

be arranged in single or more rows, or concentrically with the crane at

pleasure.

Figs. 4 and 5 also show outline plan and elevation of a Bessemer plant,

conveniently arranged for working on the soaking pit system. A A are

the converters, with a transfer crane, B. C is the casting pit with

its crane, D. E E are the two ingot cranes. F is a leading crane which

transfers the ingots from the ingot cranes to the soaking pits, K K,

commanded by the crane, L, which transfers the prepared ingots to the

mill, M. as before described.

* * * * *

TEMPERING BY COMPRESSION.

L. Clemandot has devised a new method of treating metals, especially

steel, which consists in heating to a cherry red, compressing strongly

and keeping up the pressure until the metal is completely cooled. The

results are so much like those of tempering that he calls his process

tempering by compression. The compressed metal becomes exceedingly hard,

acquiring a molecular contraction and a fineness of grain such that

polishing gives it the appearance of polished nickel. Compressed steel,

like tempered steel, acquires the coercitive force which enables it to

absorb magnetism. This property should be studied in connection with

its durability; experiments have already shown that there is no loss of

magnetism at the expiration of three months. This compression has no

analogue but tempering. Hammering and hardening modify the molecular

state of metals, especially when they are practiced upon metal that is

nearly cold, but the effect of hydraulic pressure is much greater.

The phenomena which are produced in both methods of tempering may be

interpreted in different ways, but it seems likely that there is a

molecular approximation, an amorphism from which results the homogeneity

that is due to the absence of crystallization. Being an operation which

can be measured, it may be graduated and kept within limits which are

prescribed in advance; directions may be given to temper at a

specified pressure, as readily as to work under a given pressure of

steam.--_Chron. Industr_.

* * * * *

ECONOMICAL STEAM POWER.

[Footnote: A paper read by title at a recent stated meeting of the

Franklin Institute]

By WILLIAM BARNET LE VAN.

The most economical application of steam power can be realized only by

a judicious arrangement of the plant: namely, the engines, boilers, and

their accessories for transmission.

This may appear a somewhat broad assertion; but it is nevertheless one

which is amply justified by facts open to the consideration of all those

who choose to seek for them.

While it is true that occasionally a factory, mill, or a water-works

may be found in which the whole arrangements have been planned by a

competent engineer, yet such is the exception and not the rule, and such

examples form but a very small percentage of the whole.

The fact is that but few users of steam power are aware of the numerous

items which compose the cost of economical steam power, while a yet

smaller number give sufficient consideration to the relations which

these items bear to each other, or the manner in which the economy of

any given boiler or engine is affected by the circumstances under which

it is run.

A large number of persons--and they are those who should know better,

too--take for granted that a boiler or engine which is good for one

situation is good for all; a greater error than such an assumption can

scarcely be imagined.

It is true that there are certain classes of engines and boilers which

may be relied upon to give moderately good results in almost any

situation--and the best results should _always_ be desired in

arrangement of a mill--there are a considerable number of details which

must be taken into consideration in making a choice of boilers and

engines.

Take the case of a mill in which it has been supposed that the motive

power could be best exerted by a single engine. The question now is

whether or not it would be best to divide the total power required among

a number of engines.

_First_.--A division of the motive power presents the following

advantages, namely, a saving of expense on lines of shafting of large

diameter.

_Second_.--Dispensing with the large driving belt or gearing, the first

named of which, in one instance under the writer's observation, absorbed

_sixty horse-power_ out of about 480, or about _seven per cent_.

_Third_.--The general convenience of subdividing the work to be done,

so that in case of a stoppage of one portion of the work by reason of

a loose coupling or the changing of a pulley, etc., that portion only

would need to be stopped.

This last is of itself a most important point, and demands careful

consideration.

For example, I was at a mill a short time ago when the governor belt

broke. The result was a stoppage of the whole mill. Had the motive power

of this mill been subdivided into a number of small engines only one

department would have been stopped. During the stoppage in this case

the windows of the mill were a sea of heads of men and women (the

operatives), and considerable excitement was caused by the violent

blowing off of steam from the safety-valves, due to the stoppage of the

steam supply to the engine; and this excitement continued until the

cause of the stoppage was understood. Had the power in this mill been

subdivided the stoppage of one of a number of engines would scarcely

have been noticed, and the blowing off of surplus steam would not have

occurred.

In building a mill the first item to be considered is the interest on

the first cost of the engine, boilers, etc. This item can be subdivided

with advantage into the amounts of interest on the respective costs of,

_First_. The engine or engines;

_Second_ The boiler or boilers;

_Third_. The engine and boiler house.

In the same connection the _form_ of engine to be used must be

considered. In some few cases--as, for instance, where engines have to

be placed in confined situations--the form is practically fixed by the

space available, it being perhaps possible only to erect a vertical or a

horizontal engine, as the case may be. These, however, are exceptional

instances, and in most cases--at all events where large powers are

required--the engineer may have a free choice in the matter. Under

these circumstances the best form, in the vast majority of cases where

machinery must be driven, is undoubtedly the horizontal engine, and the

worst the beam engine. When properly constructed, the horizontal engine

is more durable than the beam engine, while, its first cost being less,

it can be driven at a higher speed, and it involves a much smaller

outlay for engine house and foundations than the latter. In many

respects the horizontal engine is undoubtedly closely approached in

advantages by the best forms of vertical engines; but on the whole we

consider that where machinery is to be driven the balance of advantages

is decidedly in favor of the former class, and particularly so in the

case of large powers.

The next point to be decided is, whether a condensing or non-condensing

engine should be employed. In settling this question not only the

respective first costs of the two classes of engines must be taken into

consideration, but also the cost of water and fuel. Excepting, perhaps,

in cases of very small powers, and in those instances where the exhaust

steam from a non-condensing engine can be turned to good account for

heating or drying purpose, it may safely be asserted that in all

instances where a sufficient supply of condensing water is available

at a moderate cost, the extra economy of a well-constructed condensing

engine will fully warrant the additional outlay involved in its

purchase. In these days of high steam pressures, a well constructed

non-condensing engine can, no doubt, be made to approximate closely to

the economy of a condensing engine, but in such a case the extra cost of

the stronger boiler required will go far to balance the additional cost

of the condensing engine.

Having decided on the form, the next question is, what "class" of engine

shall it be; and by the term class I mean the relative excellence of the

engine as a power-producing machine. An automatic engine costs more than

a plain slide-valve engine, but it will depend upon the cost of fuel at

the location where the engine is to be placed, and the number of hours

per day it is kept running, to decide which class of machine can be

adopted with the greatest economy to the proprietor. The cost of

lubricating materials, fuel, repairs, and percentage of cost to be put

aside for depreciation, will be less in case of the high-class than in

the low-class engine, while the former will also require less boiler

power.

Against these advantages are to be set the greater first cost of the

automatic engine, and the consequent annual charge due to capital sunk.

These several items should all be fairly estimated when an engine is

to be bought, and the kind chosen accordingly. Let us take the item of

fuel, for instance, and let us suppose this fuel to cost four dollars

per ton at the place where the engine is run. Suppose the engine to be

capable of developing one hundred horse-power, and that it consumes five

pounds of coal per hour per horse-power, and runs ten hours per day:

this would necessitate the supply of two and one-half tons per day at

a cost of ten dollars per day. To be really economical, therefore, any

improvement which would effect a saving of one pound of coal per hour

per horse-power must not cost a greater sum per horse-power than that on

which the cost of the difference of the coal saved (one pound of coal

per hour per horse-power, which would be 1,000 pounds per day) for, say,

three hundred days, three hundred thousand (300,000) pounds, or one

hundred and fifty tons (or six hundred dollars), would pay a fair

interest.

Assuming that the mill owner estimates his capital as worth to him ten

per cent, per annum, then the improvement which would effect the above

mentioned saving must not cost more than six thousand dollars, and so

on. If, instead of being run only ten hours per day, the engine is run

night and day, then the outlay which it would be justifiable to make to

effect a certain saving per hour would be doubled; while, on the other

hand, if an engine is run less than the usual time per day a given

saving per hour would justify a correspondingly less outlay.

It has been found that for grain and other elevators, which are not run

constantly, gas engines, although costing more for the same power,

are cheaper than steam engines for elevating purposes where only

occasionally used.

For this reason it is impossible without considerable investigation to

say what is really the most economical engine to adopt in any particular

case; and as comparatively few users of steam power care to make this

investigation a vast amount of wasteful expenditure results. Although,

however, no absolute rule can be given, we may state that the number

of instances in which an engine which is wasteful of fuel can be used

profitably is exceedingly small. As a rule, in fact, it may generally be

assumed that an engine employed for driving a manufactory of any kind

cannot be of too high a class, the saving effected by the economical

working of such engines in the vast majority of cases enormously

outweighing the interest on their extra first cost. So few people appear

to have a clear idea of the vast importance of economy of fuel in mills

and factories that I perhaps cannot better conclude than by giving an

example showing the saving to be effected in a large establishment by an

economical engine.

I will take the case of a flouring mill in this city which employed two

engines that required forty pounds of water to be converted into steam

per hour per indicated horse-power. This, at the time, was considered a

moderate amount and the engines were considered "good."

These engines indicated seventy horse power each, and ran twenty-four

hours per day on an average of three hundred days each year, requiring

as per indicator diagrams forty million three hundred and twenty

thousand pounds (40 x 70 x 24 x 300 x 2 = 40,320,000) of feed water to

be evaporated per annum, which, in Philadelphia, costs three dollars

per horse-power per annum, amounting to (70 x 2 x 300 = $420.00) four

hundred and twenty dollars.

The coal consumed averaged five and one-half pounds per hour per

horse-power, which, at four dollars per ton, costs

((70 x 2 x 5.5 x 24 x 300) / 2,000) x 4.00= $11,088

Eleven thousand and eighty-eight dollars.

Cost of coal for 300 days. $11,088

Cost of water for 300 days. 420

-------

Total cost of coal and water. $11,503

These engines were replaced by one first-class automatic engine,

which developed one hundred and forty-two horse-power per hour with a

consumption of _three pounds_ of coal per hour per horse-power, and the

indicator diagrams showed a consumption of _thirty_ pounds of water per

hour per horse-power. Coal cost

((142 x 3 x 24 x 300) / 2,000) x 4.00 = $6,134

Six thousand one hundred and thirty-four dollars. Water cost (142 x

3.00= $426.00) four hundred and twenty-six dollars.

Cost of coal for 300 days. $6,134

Cost of water for 300 days. 426

------

Total cost of coal and water. $6,560

The water evaporated in the latter case to perform the same work was

(142 x 30 x 24 x 300 = 30,672,000) thirty million six hundred and

seventy-two thousand pounds of feed water against (40,320,000) forty

million three hundred and twenty thousand pounds in the former, a saving

of (9,648,000) nine million six hundred and forty-eight thousand pounds

per annum; or,

(40,320,000 - 30,672,000) / 9,648,000 = 31.4 per cent.

--_thirty-one and four-tenths per cent_.

And a saving in coal consumption of

(11,088 - 6,134) / 4,954 = 87.5 per cent.

--_eighty-seven and one-half per cent_., or a saving in dollars and

cents of four thousand nine hundred and fifty-four dollars ($4,954).

In this city, Philadelphia, no allowance for the consumption of water is

made in the case of first class engines, such engines being charged the

same rate per annum per horse-power as an inferior engine, while,

as shown by the above example, a saving in water of _thirty-one and

four-tenths per cent_. has been attained by the employment of a

first-class engine. The builders of such engines will always give a

guarantee of their consumption of water, so that the purchaser can be

able in advance to estimate this as accurately as he can the amount of

fuel he will use.

* * * * *

RIVER IMPROVEMENTS NEAR ST. LOUIS.

The improvement of the Mississippi River near St. Louis progresses

satisfactorily. The efficacy of the jetty system is illustrated in the

lines of mattresses which showed accumulations of sand deposits ranging

from the surface of the river to nearly sixteen feet in height. At Twin

Hollow, thirteen miles from St. Louis and six miles from Horse-Tail Bar,

there was found a sand bar extending over the widest portion of the

river on which the engineering forces were engaged. Hurdles are built

out from the shore to concentrate the stream on the obstruction, and

then to protect the river from widening willows are interwoven between

the piles. At Carroll's Island mattresses 125 feet wide have been

placed, and the banks revetted with stone from ordinary low water to a

16 foot stage. There is plenty of water over the bar, and at the most

shallow points the lead showed a depth of twelve feet. Beard's Island, a

short distance further, is also being improved, the largest force of men

at any one place being here engaged. Four thousand feet of mattresses

have been begun, and in placing them work will be vigorously prosecuted

until operations are suspended by floating ice. The different sections

are under the direction of W. F. Fries, resident engineer, and E. M.

Currie, superintending engineer. There are now employed about 1,200 men,

thirty barges and scows, two steam launches, and the stern-wheel steamer

A. A. Humphreys. The improvements have cost, in actual money expended,

about $200,000, and as the appropriation for the ensuing year

approximates $600,000, the prospect of a clear channel is gratifying to

those interested in the river.

* * * * *

BUNTE'S BURETTE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF FURNACE GASES.

For analyzing the gases of blast-furnaces the various apparatus of Orsat

have long been employed; but, by reason of its simplicity, the burette

devised by Dr. Buente, and shown in the accompanying figures, is much

easier to use. Besides, it permits of a much better and more rapid

absorption of the oxide of carbon; and yet, for the lost fractions of

the latter, it is necessary to replace a part of the absorbing liquid

three or four times. The absorbing liquid is prepared by making a

saturated solution of chloride of copper in hydrochloric acid, and

adding thereto a small quantity of dissolved chloride of tin. Afterward,

there are added to the decanted mixture a few spirals of red copper, and

the mixture is then carefully kept from contact with the air.

To fill the burette with gas, the three-way cock, _a_, is so placed that

the axial aperture shall be in communication with the graduated part, A,

of the burette. After this, water is poured into the funnel, t, and the

burette is put in communication with the gas reservoir by means of a

rubber tube. The lower point of the burette is put in communication with

a rubber pump, V (Fig. 2), on an aspirator (the cock, _b_, being left

open), and the gas is sucked in until all the air that was in the

apparatus has been expelled from it. The cocks, _a_ and _b_, are turned

90 degrees. The water in the funnel prevents the gases communicating

with the top. The point of the three-way cock is afterward closed with a

rubber tube and glass rod.

If the gas happens to be in the reservoir of an aspirator, it is made

to pass into the apparatus in the following manner: The burette is

completely filled with water, and the point of the three-way cock is

put in communication with a reservoir. If the gas is under pressure, a

portion of it is allowed to escape through the capillary tube into the

water in the funnel, by turning the cock, _a_, properly, and thus all

the water in the conduit is entirely expelled. Afterward _a_ is turned

180 deg., and the lower cock, _b_, is opened. While the water is flowing

through _b_, the burette becomes filled with gas.

_Mode of Measuring the Gases and Absorption_.--The tube that

communicates with the vessel, F, is put in communication, after the

latter has been completely filled with water, with the point of the

cock, _b_ (Fig. 2). Then the latter is opened, as is also the pinch cock

on the rubber tubing, and water is allowed to enter the burette through

the bottom until the level is at the zero of the graduation. There are

then 100 cubic centimeters in the burette. The superfluous gas has

escaped through the cock, _a_, and passed through the water in the

funnel. The cock, _a_, is afterward closed by turning it 90 deg.. To

cause the absorbing liquid to pass into the burette, the water in the

graduated cylinder is made to flow by connecting the rubber tube, s, of

the bottle, S, with the point of the burette. The cock is opened, and

suction is effected with the mouth of the tube, r. When the water has

flowed out to nearly the last drop, _b_ is closed and the suction bottle

is removed. The absorbing liquid (caustic potassa or pyrogallate of

potassa) is poured into a porcelain capsule, P, and the point of the

burette is dipped into the liquid. If the cock, _b_, be opened, the

absorbing liquid will be sucked into the burette. In order to hasten

the absorption, the cock, _b_, is closed, and the burette is shaken

horizontally, the aperture of the funnel being closed by the hand during

the operation.

If not enough absorbing liquid has entered, there may be sucked into the

burette, by the process described above, a new quantity of liquid. The

reaction finished, the graduated cylinder is put in communication with

the funnel by turning the cock, _a_. The water is allowed to run from

the funnel, and the latter is filled again with water up to the mark.

The gas is then again under the same pressure as at the beginning.

After the level has become constant, the quantity of gas remaining is

measured. The contraction that has taken place gives, in hundredths of

the total volume, the volume of the gas absorbed.

When it is desired to make an analysis of smoke due to combustion,

caustic potassa is first sucked into the burette. After complete

absorption, and after putting the gas at the same pressure, the

diminution gives the volume of carbonic acid.

To determine the oxygen in the remaining gas, a portion of the caustic

potash is allowed to flow out, and an aqueous solution of pyrogallic

acid and potash is allowed to enter. The presence of oxygen is revealed

by the color of the liquid, which becomes darker.

The gas is then agitated with the absorbing liquid until, upon opening

the cock, _a_, the liquid remains in the capillary tube, that is to say,

until no more water runs from the funnel into the burette. To make a

quantitative analysis of the carbon contained in gas, the pyrogallate of

potash must be entirely removed from the burette. To do this, the liquid

is sucked out by means of the flask, S, until there remain only a few

drops; then the cock, _a_, is opened and water is allowed to flow from

the funnel along the sides of the burette. Then _a_ is closed, and

the washing water is sucked in the same manner. By repeating this

manipulation several times, the absorbing liquid is completely removed.

The acid solution of chloride of copper is then allowed to enter.

As the absorbing liquids adhere to the glass, it is better, before

noting the level, to replace these liquids by water. The cocks, _a_ and

_b_, are opened, and water is allowed to enter from the funnel, the

absorbing liquid being made to flow at the same time through the cock,

_b_.

When an acid solution of chloride of copper is employed, dilute

hydrochloric acid is used instead of water.

Fig. 2 shows the arrangement of the apparatus for the quantitative

analysis of oxide of carbon and hydrogen by combustion. The gas in the

burette is first mixed with atmospheric air, by allowing the liquid to

flow through _b_, and causing air to enter through the axial aperture of

the three way cock, _a_, after cutting off communication at v. Then, as

shown in the figure, the burette is connected with the tube, B, which is

filled with water up to the narrow curved part, and the interior of the

burette is made to communicate with the combustion tube, v, by turning

the cock, a. The combustion tube is heated by means of a Bunsen burner

or alcohol lamp, L. It is necessary to proceed, so that all the water

shall be driven from the cock and the capillary tube, and that it shall

be sent into the burette. The combustion is effected by causing the

mixture of gas to pass from the burette into the tube, B, through the

tube, v, heated to redness, into which there passes a palladium wire.

Water is allowed to flow through the point of the tube, B, while from

the flask, F, it enters through the bottom into the burette, so as to

drive out the gas. The water is allowed to rise into the burette as far

as the cock, and the cocks, _b_ and _b_, are afterward closed.

[Illustration: DR. BUeNTE'S GAS BURETTE]

By a contrary operation, the gas is made to pass from B into the

burette. It is then allowed to cool, and, after the pressure has been

established again, the contraction is measured. If the gas burned is

hydrogen, the contraction multiplied by two-thirds gives the original

volume of the hydrogen gas burned. If the gas burned is oxide of carbon,

there forms an equal volume of carbonic acid, and the contraction is the

half of CO. Thus, to analyze CO, a portion of the liquid is removed from

the burette, then caustic potash is allowed to enter, and the process

goes on as explained above.

The total contraction resulting from combustion and absorption,

multiplied by two-thirds, gives the volume of the oxide of carbon.

The hydrogen and oxide carbon may thus be quantitatively analyzed

together or separately.--_Revue Industrielle_.

* * * * *

THE "UNIVERSAL" GAS ENGINE.

The accompanying engravings illustrate a new and very simple form of gas

engine, the invention of J. A. Ewins and H. Newman, and made by Mr. T.

B. Barker, of Scholefield-street, Bloomsbury, Birmingham. It is known as

the "Universal" engine, and is at present constructed in sizes varying

from one-eighth horse-power--one man power--to one horse-power, though

larger sizes are being made. The essentially new feature of the engine

is, says the _Engineer_, the simple rotary ignition valve consisting of

a ratchet plate or flat disk with a number of small radial slots which

successively pass a small slot in the end of the cylinder, and through

which the flame is drawn to ignite the charge. In our illustrations Fig.

1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2 an end view of same; Fig. 3 a plan; Fig. 4

is a sectional view of the chamber in which the gas and air are mixed,

with the valves appertaining thereto; Fig. 5 is a detail view of the

ratchet plate, with pawl and levers and valve gear shaft; Fig. 6 is

a sectional view of a pump employed in some cases to circulate water

through the jacket; Fig. 7 is a sectional view of arrangement for

lighting, and ratchet plate, j, with central spindle and igniting

apertures, and the spiral spring, k, and fly nut, showing the attachment

to the end of the working cylinder, f1; b5, b5, bevel wheels driving

the valve gear shaft; e, the valve gear driving shaft; e2, eccentric to

drive pump; e cubed, eccentric or cam to drive exhaust valve; e4, crank to

drive ratchet plate; e5, connecting rod to ratchet pawl; f, cylinder

jacket; f1, internal or working cylinder; f2, back cylinder cover; g,

igniting chamber; h, mixing chamber; h1, flap valve; h2, gas inlet

valve, the motion of which is regulated by a governor; h3, gas inlet

valve seat; h4, cover, also forming stop for gas inlet valve; h5, gas

inlet pipe; h6, an inlet valve; h8, cover, also forming stop for air

inlet valve; h9, inlet pipe for air with grating; i, exhaust chamber;

i2, exhaust valve spindle; i7, exhaust pipe; j6, lighting aperture

through cylinder end; l, igniting gas jet; m, regulating and stop valve

for gas.

[Illustration: IMPROVED GAS ENGINE]

The engine, it will be seen, is single-acting, and no compression of the

explosive charge is employed. An explosive mixture of combustible gas

and air is drawn through the valves, h2 and h6, and exploded behind

the piston once in a revolution; but by a duplication of the valve and

igniting apparatus, placed also at the front end of the cylinder, the

engine may be constructed double-acting. At the proper time, when the

piston has proceeded far enough to draw in through the mixing chamber,

h, into the igniting chamber, g, the requisite amount of gas and air,

the ratchet plate, j, is pushed into such a position by the pawl, j3,

that the flame from the igniting jet, l, passes through one of the slots

or holes, j1, and explodes the charge when opposite j6, which is the

only aperture in the end of the working cylinder (see Fig. 7 and Fig.

2), thus driving the piston on to the end of its forward stroke. The

exhaust valve, Fig. 9, though not exactly of the form shown, is kept

open during the whole of this return stroke by means of the eccentric,

e3, on the shaft working the ratchet, and thus allowing the products of

combustion to escape through the exhaust pipe, i7, in the direction of

the arrow. Between the ratchet disk and the igniting flame a small plate

not shown is affixed to the pipe, its edge being just above the burner

top. The flame is thus not blown out by the inrushing air when the slots

in ratchet plate and valve face are opposite. This ratchet plate or

ignition valve, the most important in any engine, has so very small a

range of motion per revolution of the engine that it cannot get out of

order, and it appears to require no lubrication or attention whatever.

The engines are working very successfully, and their simplicity enables

them to be made at low cost. They cost for gas from 1/2d. to 11/2d. per hour

for the sizes mentioned.

[Illustration: Fig.9.]

* * * * *

GAS FURNACE FOR BAKING REFRACTORY PRODUCTS.

In order that small establishments may put to profit the advantages

derived from the use of annular furnaces heated with gas, smaller

dimensions have been given the baking chambers of such furnaces. The

accompanying figure gives a section of a furnace of this kind, set into

the ground, and the height of whose baking chamber is only one and a

half meters. The chamber is not vaulted, but is covered by slabs of

refractory clay, D, that may be displaced by the aid of a small car

running on a movable track. This car is drawn over the compartment that

is to be emptied, and the slab or cover, D, is taken off and carried

over the newly filled compartment and deposited thereon.

The gas passes from the channel through the pipe, a, into the vertical

conduits, b, and is afterward disengaged through the tuyeres into the

chamber. In order that the gas may be equally applied for preliminary

heating or smoking, a small smoking furnace, S, has been added to

the apparatus. The upper part of this consists of a wide cylinder

of refractory clay, in the center of whose cover there is placed an

internal tube of refractory clay, which communicates with the channel,

G, through a pipe, d. This latter leads the gas into the tube, t, of the

smoking furnace, which is perforated with a large number of small holes.

The air requisite for combustion enters through the apertures, o, in the

cover of the furnace, and brings about in the latter a high temperature.

The very hot gases descend into the lower iron portion of this small

furnace and pass through a tube, e, into the smoking chamber by the aid

of vertical conduits, b', which serve at the same time as gas tuyeres

for the extremity of the furnace that is exposed to the fire.

[Illustration: GAS FURNACE FOR BAKING REFRACTORY PRODUCTS.]

In the lower part of the smoking furnace, which is made of boiler plate

and can be put in communication with the tube, e, there are large

apertures that may be wholly or partially closed by means of registers

so as to carry to the hot gas derived from combustion any quantity

whatever of cold and dry air, and thus cause a variation at will of the

temperature of the gases which are disengaged from the tube, e.

The use of these smoking apparatus heated by gas does away also with the

inconveniences of the ordinary system, in which the products are soiled

by cinders or dust, and which render the gradual heating of objects to

be baked difficult. At the beginning, there is allowed to enter the

lower part of the small furnace, S, through the apertures, a very

considerable quantity of cold air, so as to lower the temperature of the

smoke gas that escapes from the tube, e, to 30 or 50 degrees. Afterward,

these secondary air entrances are gradually closed so as to increase the

temperature of the gases at will.

* * * * *

THE EFFICIENCY OF FANS.

Air, like every other gas or combination of gases, possesses weight;

some persons who have been taught that the air exerts a pressure of 14.7

lb. per square inch, cannot, however, be got to realize the fact that a

cubit foot of air at the same pressure and at a temperature of 62 deg.

weighs the thirteenth part of a pound, or over one ounce; 13.141 cubic

feet of air weigh one pound. In round numbers 30,000 cubic feet of air

weigh one ton; this is a useful figure to remember, and it is easily

carried in the mind. A hall 61 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 17 feet high

will contain one ton of air.

[Illustration: FIG. 1]

The work to be done by a fan consists in putting a weight--that of the

air--in motion. The resistances incurred are due to the inertia of the

air and various frictional influences; the nature and amount of these

last vary with the construction of the fan. As the air enters at the

center of the fan and escapes at the circumference, it will be seen that

its motion is changed while in the fan through a right angle. It may

also be taken for granted that within certain limits the air has no

motion in a radial direction when it first comes in contact with a fan

blade. It is well understood that, unless power is to be wasted, motion

should be gradually imparted to any body to be moved. Consequently, the

shape of the blades ought to be such as will impart motion at first

slowly and afterward in a rapidly increasing ratio to the air. It is

also clear that the change of motion should be effected as gradually as

possible. Fig. 1 shows how a fan should not be constructed; Fig. 2 will

serve to give an idea of how it should be made.

[Illustration: FIG. 2]

In Fig. 1 it will be seen that the air, as indicated by the bent arrows,

is violently deflected on entering the fan. In Fig. 2 it will be seen

that it follows gentle curves, and so is put gradually in motion. The

curved form of the blades shown in Fig. 2 does not appear to add much to

the efficiency of a fan; but it adds something and keeps down noise. The

idea is that the fan blades when of this form push the air radially from

the center to the circumference. The fact is, however, that the air

flies outward under the influence of centrifugal force, and always tends

to move at a tangent to the fan blades, as in Fig. 3, where the circle

is the path of the tips of the fan blades, and the arrow is a tangent to

that path; and to impart this notion a radial blade, as at C, is perhaps

as good as any other, as far as efficiency is concerned. Concerning the

shape to be imparted to the blades, looked at back or front, opinions

widely differ; but it is certain that if a fan is to be silent the

blades must be narrower at the tips than at the center. Various forms

are adopted by different makers, the straight side and the curved sides,

as shown in Fig. 4, being most commonly used. The proportions as regards

length to breadth are also varied continually. In fact, no two makers of

fans use the same shapes.

[Illustration: FIG. 3]

As the work done by a fan consists in imparting motion at a stated

velocity to a given weight of air, it is very easy to calculate the

power which must be expended to do a certain amount of work. The

velocity at which the air leaves the fan cannot be greater than that of

the fan tips. In a good fan it may be about two-thirds of that speed.

The resistance to be overcome will be found by multiplying the area of

the fan blades by the pressure of the air and by the velocity of the

center of effort, which must be determined for every fan according to

the shape of its blades. The velocity imparted to the air by the fan

will be just the same as though the air fell in a mass from a given

height. This height can be found by the formula h = v squared / 64; that is to

say, if the velocity be multiplied by itself and divided by 64 we have

the height. Thus, let the velocity be 88 per second, then 88 x 88 =

7,744, and 7,744 / 64 = 121. A stone or other body falling from a height

of 121 feet would have a velocity of 88 per second at the earth. The

pressure against the fan blades will be equal to that of a column of air

of the height due to the velocity, or, in this case, 121 feet. We

have seen that in round numbers 13 cubic feet of air weigh one pound,

consequently a column of air one square foot in section and 121 feet

high, will weigh as many pounds as 13 will go times into 121. Now, 121

/ 13 = 9.3, and this will be the resistance in pounds per _square foot_

overcome by the fan. Let the aggregate area of all the blades be 2

square feet, and the velocity of the center of effort 90 feet per

second, then the power expended will bve (90 x 60 x 2 x 9.3) / 33,000

= 3.04 horse power. The quantity of air delivered ought to be equal in

volume to that of a column with a sectional area equal that of one fan

blade moving at 88 feet per second, or a mile a minute. The blade having

an area of 1 square foot, the delivery ought to be 5,280 feet per

minute, weighing 5,280 / 13 = 406.1 lb. In practice we need hardly say

that such an efficiency is never attained.

[Illustration: FIG. 4]

The number of recorded experiments with fans is very small, and a great

deal of ignorance exists as to their true efficiency. Mr. Buckle is one

of the very few authorities on the subject. He gives the accompanying

table of proportions as the best for pressures of from 3 to 6 ounces per

square inch:

--------------------------------------------------------------

| Vanes. | Diameter of inlet

Diameter of fans. |------------------------| openings.

| Width. | Length. |

--------------------------------------------------------------

ft. in. | ft. in. | ft. in. | ft. in.

3 0 | 0 9 | 0 9 | 1 6

3 6 | 0 101/2 | 0 101/2 | 1 9

4 0 | 1 0 | 1 0 | 2 0

4 6 | 1 11/2 | 1 11/2 | 2 3

5 0 | 1 3 | 1 3 | 2 6

6 0 | 1 6 | 1 6 | 3 0

| | |

--------------------------------------------------------------

For higher pressures the blades should be longer and narrower, and

the inlet openings smaller. The case is to be made in the form of an

arithmetical spiral widening, the space between the case and the blades

radially from the origin to the opening for discharge, and the upper

edge of the opening should be level with the lower side of the sweep of

the fan blade, somewhat as shown in Fig. 5.

[Illustration: FIG. 5]

A considerable number of patents has been taken out for improvements

in the construction of fans, but they all, or nearly all, relate to

modifications in the form of the case and of the blades. So far,

however, as is known, it appears that, while these things do exert a

marked influence on the noise made by a fan, and modify in some degree

the efficiency of the machine, that this last depends very much more on

the proportions adopted than on the shapes--so long as easy curves

are used and sharp angles avoided. In the case of fans running at low

speeds, it matters very little whether the curves are present or not;

but at high speeds the case is different.--_The Engineer_.

* * * * *

MACHINE FOR COMPRESSING COAL REFUSE INTO FUEL.

The problem as to how the refuse of coal shall be utilized has been

solved in the manufacture from it of an agglomerated artificial

fuel, which is coming more and more into general use on railways and

steamboats, in the industries, and even in domestic heating.

The qualities that a good agglomerating machine should present are as

follows:

1. Very great simplicity, inasmuch as it is called upon to operate in

an atmosphere charged with coal dust, pitch, and steam; and, under such

conditions, it is important that it may be easily got at for cleaning,

and that the changing of its parts (which wear rapidly) may be effected

without, so to speak, interrupting its running.

2. The compression must be powerful, and, that the product may be

homogeneous, must operate progressively and not by shocks. It must

especially act as much as possible upon the entire surface of the

conglomerate, and this is something that most machines fail to do.

3. The removal from the mould must be effected easily, and not depend

upon a play of pistons or springs, which soon become foul, and the

operation of which is very irregular.

The operations embraced in the manufacture of this kind of fuel are as

follows:

The refuse is sifted in order to separate the dust from the grains of

coal. The dust is not submitted to a washing. The grains are classed

into two sizes, after removing the nut size, which is sold separately.

The grains of each size are washed separately. The washed grains are

either drained or dried by a hydro-extractor in order to free them from

the greater part of the water, the presence of this being an obstacle to

their perfect agglomeration. The water, however, should not be entirely

extracted because the combustibles being poor conductors of heat, a

certain amount of dampness must be preserved to obtain an equal division

of heat in the paste when the mixture is warmed.

After being dried the grains are mixed with the coal dust, and broken

coal pitch is added in the proportion of eight to ten per cent. of the

coal. The mixture is then thrown into a crushing machine, where it is

reduced to powder and intimately mixed. It then passes into a pug-mill

into which superheated steam is admitted, and by this means is converted

into a plastic paste. This paste is then led into an agitator for the

double purpose of freeing it from the steam that it contains, and of

distributing it in the moulds of the compressing machine.

[Illustration: IMPROVED MACHINE FOR COMPRESSING REFUSE COAL INTO FUEL.]

Bilan's machine, shown in the accompanying cut, is designed for

manufacturing spherical conglomerates for domestic purposes. It consists

of a cast iron frame supporting four vertical moulding wheels placed at

right angles to each other and tangent to the line of the centers. These

wheels carry on their periphery cavities that have the form of a quarter

of a sphere. They thus form at the point of contact a complete sphere

in which the material is inclosed. The paste is thrown by shovel, or

emptied by buckets and chain, into the hopper fixed at the upper part

of the frame. From here it is taken up by two helices, mounted on a

vertical shaft traversing the hopper, and forced toward the point where

the four moulding wheels meet. The driving pulley of the machine is

keyed upon a horizontal shaft which is provided with two endless screws

that actuate two gear-wheels, and these latter set in motion the four

moulding wheels by means of beveled pinions. The four moulding wheels

being accurately adjusted so that their cavities meet each other at

every revolution, carry along the paste furnished them by the hopper,

compress it powerfully on the four quarters, and, separating by a

further revolution, allow the finished ball to drop out.

The external crown of the wheels carrying the moulds consists of four

segments, which may be taken apart at will to be replaced by others when

worn.

This machine produces about 40 tons per day of this globular artificial

fuel.--_Annales Industrielles_.

* * * * *

HANK SIZING AND WRINGING MACHINE.

We give a view of a hank sizing machine by Messrs. Heywood & Spencer,

of Radcliffe, near Manchester. The machine is also suitable for fancy

dyeing. It is well known, says the _Textile Manufacturer_, that when

hanks are wrung by hand, not only is the labor very severe, but in

dyeing it is scarcely possible to obtain even colors, and, furthermore,

the production is limited by the capabilities of the man. The machine

we illustrate is intended to perform the heavy part of the work with

greater expedition and with more certainty than could be relied upon

with hand labor. The illustration represents the machine that we

inspected. Its construction seems of the simplest character. It consists

of two vats, between which is placed the gearing for driving the hooks.

The large wheel in this gear, although it always runs in one direction,

contains internal segments, which fall into gear alternately with

pinions on the shanks of the hooks. The motion is a simple one, and it

appeared to us to be perfectly reliable, and not liable to get out of

order. The action is as follows: The attendant lifts the hank out of the

vat and places it on the hooks. The hook connected to the gearing then

commences to turn; it puts in two, two and a half, three, or more twists

into the hank and remains stationary for a few seconds to allow an

interval for the sizer to "wipe off" the excess of size, that is, to

run his hand along the twisted hank. This done, the hook commences to

revolve the reverse way, until the twists are taken out of the hank.

It is then removed, either by lifting off by hand or by the apparatus

shown, attached to the right hand side. This arrangement consists of a

lattice, carrying two arms that, at the proper moment, lift the hank off

the hooks on to the lattice proper, by which it is carried away, and

dropped upon a barrow to be taken to the drying stove. In sizing, a

double operation is customary; the first is called running, and the

second, finishing. In the machine shown, running is carried on one side

simultaneously with finishing in the other, or, if required, running

may be carried on on both sides. If desired, the lifting off motion is

attached to both running and finishing sides, and also the roller partly

seen on the left hand for running the hanks through the size. The

machine we saw was doing about 600 bundles per day at running and at

finishing, but the makers claim the production with a double machine to

be at the rate of about 36 10 lb. bundles per hour (at finishing), wrung

in 11/2 lb. wringers (or I1/2 lb. of yarn at a time), or at running at the

rate of 45 bundles in 2 lb. wringers. The distance between the hooks

is easily adjusted to the length or size of hanks, and altogether the

machine seems one that is worth the attention of the trade.

[Illustration: IMPROVED HANK SIZING MACHINE.]

* * * * *

IMPROVED COKE BREAKER.

The working parts of the breaker now in use by the South Metropolitan

Gas Company consist essentially of a drum provided with cutting edges

projecting from it, which break up the coke against a fixed grid. The

drum is cast in rings, to facilitate repairs when necessary, and the

capacity of the machine can therefore be increased or diminished by

varying the number of these rings. The degree of fineness of the coke

when broken is determined by the regulated distance of the grid from the

drum. Thus there is only one revolving member, no toothed gearing being

required. Consequently the machine works with little power; the one at

the Old Kent Road, which is of the full size for large works, being

actually driven by a one horse power "Otto" gas-engine. Under these

conditions, at a recent trial, two tons of coke were broken in half an

hour, and the material delivered screened into the three classes of

coke, clean breeze (worth as much as the larger coke), and dust, which

at these works is used to mix with lime in the purifiers. The special

advantage of the machine, besides the low power required to drive it and

its simple action, lies in the small quantity of waste. On the occasion

of the trial in question, the dust obtained from two tons of coke

measured only 31/2 bushels, or just over a half hundredweight per ton.

The following statement, prepared from the actual working of the first

machine constructed, shows the practical results of its use. It should

be premised that the machine is assumed to be regularly employed and

driven by the full power for which it is designed, when it will easily

break 8 tons of coke per hour, or 80 tons per working day:

500 feet of gas consumed by a 2 horse power

gas-engine, at cost price of gas delivered s. d.

in holder. 0 9

Oil and cotton waste. 0 6

Two men supplying machine with large

coke, and shoveling up broken, at 4s.

6d. 9 0

Interest and wear and tear (say). 0 3

-----

Total per day. 10 6

-----

For 80 tons per day, broken at the rate

of. 0 11/2

Add for loss by dust and waste, 1 cwt.,

with price of coke at (say) 13s. 4d. per

ton. 0 8

-----

Cost of breaking, per ton. 0 91/2

As coke, when broken, will usually fetch from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per ton

more than large, the result of using these machines is a net gain of

from 1s. 3d. to 1s. 9d. per ton of coke. It is not so much the actual

gain, however, that operates in favor of providing a supply of broken

coke, as the certainty that by so doing a market is obtained that would

not otherwise be available.

[Illustration: IMPROVED COKE BREAKER.]

It will not be overstating the case to say that this coke breaker is by

far the simplest, strongest, and most economical appliance of its kind

now manufactured. That it does its work well is proved by experience;

and the advantages of its construction are immediately apparent upon

comparison of its simple drum and single spindle with the flying hammers

or rocking jaws, or double drums with toothed gearing which characterize

some other patterns of the same class of plant. It should be remarked,

as already indicated, lest exception should be taken to the size of the

machine chosen here for illustration, that it can be made of any size

down to hand power. On the whole, however, as a few tons of broken coke

might be required at short notice even in a moderate sized works, it

would scarcely be advisable to depend upon too small a machine; since

the regular supply of the fuel thus improved may be trusted in a short

time to increase the demand.

[Illustration: IMPROVED COKE BREAKER.]

* * * * *

IMPROVEMENT IN PRINTING MACHINERY.

This is the design of Alfred Godfrey, of Clapton. According to this

improvement, as represented at Figs. 1 and 2, a rack, A, is employed

vibrating on the pivot a, and a pinion, a1, so arranged that instead of

the pinion moving on a universal joint, or the rack moving in a parallel

line from side to side of the pinion at the time the motion of the table

is reversed, there is employed, for example, the radial arm, a2, mounted

on the shaft, a3, supporting the driving wheel, a4. The opposite or

vibrating end of the radial arm, a2, supports in suitable bearings the

pinion, a1, and wheel, a5, driving the rack through the medium of the

driving wheel, a4, the effect of which is that through the mechanical

action of the vibrating arm, a2, and pinion, a1 in conjunction with the

vibrating movement of the rack, A, an easy, uniform, and silent motion

is transmitted to the rack and table.

[Illustration: IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY. Fig. 1]

[Illustration: IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY. Fig. 2.]

* * * * *

A CHARACTERISTIC MINING "RUSH."--THE PROSPECTIVE MINING CENTER OF

SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO.

A correspondent of the _Tribune_ describes at length the mining camps

about Lake Valley, New Mexico, hitherto thought likely to be the central

camp of that region, and then graphically tells the story of the recent

"rush" to the Perche district. Within a month of the first strike of

silver ore the country was swarming with prospectors, and a thousand or

more prospects had been located.

The Perche district is on the eastern flanks of the Mimbres Mountains,

a range which is a part of the Rocky Mountain range, and runs north and

south generally parallel with the Rio Grande, from which it lies about

forty miles to the westward. The northern half of these mountains is

known as the Black Range, and was the center of considerable mining

excitement a year and a half ago. It is there that the Ivanhoe is

located, of which Colonel Gillette was manager, and in which Robert

Ingersoll and Senator Plumb, of Kansas, were interested, much to the

disadvantage of the former. A new company has been organized, however,

with Colonel Ingersoll as president, and the reopening of work on the

Ivanhoe will probably prove a stimulus to the whole Black Range. From

this region the Perche district is from forty to sixty miles south. It

is about twenty-five miles northwest of Lake Valley, and ten miles west

of Hillsboro, a promising little mining town, with some mills and about

300 people. The Perche River has three forks coming down from the

mountains and uniting at Hillsboro, and it is in the region between

these forks that the recent strikes have been made.

On August 15 "Jack" Shedd, the original discoverer of the Robinson mine

in Colorado, was prospecting on the south branch of the north fork of

the Perche River, when he made the first great strike in the district.

On the summit of a heavily timbered ridge he found some small pieces of

native silver, and then a lump of ore containing very pure silver in the

form of sulphides, weighing 150 pounds, and afterward proved to be worth

on the average $11 a pound. All this was mere float, simply lying on the

surface of the ground. Afterward another block was found, weighing 87

pounds, of horn silver, with specimens nearly 75 per cent. silver. The

strike was kept a secret for a few days. Said a mining man: "I went up

to help bring the big lump down. We took it by a camp of prospectors who

were lying about entirely ignorant of any find. When they saw it they

instantly saddled their horses, galloped off, and I believe they

prospected all night." A like excitement was created when the news of

this and one or two similar finds reached Lake Valley. Next morning

every waiter was gone from the little hotel, and a dozen men had left

the Sierra mines, to try their fortunes at prospecting.

As the news spread men poured into the Perche district from no one knows

where, some armed with only a piece of salt pork, a little meal, and a

prospecting pick; some mounted on mules, others on foot; old men and men

half-crippled were among the number, but all bitten by the monomania

which possesses every prospector. Now there are probably 2,000 men in

the Perche district, and the number of prospects located must far exceed

1,000. Three miners from there with whom I was talking recently owned

forty-seven mines among them, and while one acknowledged that hardly one

prospect in a hundred turns out a prize, the other millionaire in embryo

remarked that he wouldn't take $50,000 for one of his mines. So it goes,

and the victims of the mining fever here seem as deaf to reason as the

buyers of mining stock in New York. Fuel was added to the flame by

the report that Shedd had sold his location, named the Solitaire, to

ex-Governor Tabor and Mr. Wurtzbach on August 25 for $100,000. This was

not true. I met Governor Tabor's representative, who came down recently

to examine the properties, and learned that the Governor had not up to

that date bought the mine. He undoubtedly bonded it, however, and his

representative's opinion of the properties seemed highly favorable.

The Solitaire showed what appeared to be a contact vein, with walls of

porphyry and limestone in a ledge thirty feet wide in places, containing

a high assay of horned silver. The vein was composed of quartz, bearing

sulphides, with horn silver plainly visible, giving an average assay of

from $350 to $500. This was free milling. These were the results shown

simply by surface explorations, which were certainly exceedingly

promising. Recently it has been stated that a little development shows

the vein to be only a blind lead, but the statement lacks confirmation.

In any case the effect of so sensational a discovery is the same in

creating an intense excitement and attracting swarms of prospectors.

But the Perche district does not rest on the Solitaire, for there has

been abundance of mineral wealth discovered throughout its extent. Four

miles south of this prospect, on the middle fork of the Perche, is an

actual mine--the Bullion--which was purchased by four or five Western

mining men for $10,000, and yielded $11,000 in twenty days. The ore

contains horn and native silver. On the same fork are the Iron King and

Andy Johnson, both recently discovered and promising properties, and

there is a valuable mine now in litigation on the south fork of the

Perche, with scores of prospects over the entire district. Now that one

or two sensational strikes have attracted attention, and capital is

developing paying mines, the future of the Perche District seems

assured.

* * * * *

THE SOY BEAN.

The _British Medical Journal_ says that Prof. E. Kinch, writing in the

_Agricultural Students' Gazette_, says that the Soy bean approaches more

nearly to animal food than any other known vegetable production, being

singularly rich in fat and in albuminoids. It is largely used as

an article of food in China and Japan. Efforts have been made to

acclimatize it in various parts of the continent of Europe, and fair

success has been achieved in Italy and France; many foods are made from

it and its straw is a useful fodder.

* * * * *

ON A NEW ARC ELECTRIC LAMP.

[Footnote: Paper read at the British Association, Southampton. Revised

by the Author.--_Nature_.]

By W.H. PREECE.

Electric lamps on the arc principle are almost as numerous as the trees

in the forest, and it is somewhat fresh to come upon something that is

novel. In these lamps the carbons are consumed as the current flows, and

it is the variation in their consumption which occasions the flickering

and irregularity of the light that is so irritating to the eyes. Special

mechanical contrivances or regulators have to be used to compensate for

this destruction of the carbons, as in the Siemens and Brush type, or

else refractory materials have to be combined with the carbons, as in

the Jablochkoff candle and in the lamp Soleil. The steadiness of the

light depends upon the regularity with which the carbons are moved

toward each other as they are consumed, so as to maintain the electric

resistance between them a constant quantity. Each lamp must have a

certain elasticity of regulation of its own, to prevent irregularities

from the variable material of carbon used, and from variations in the

current itself and in the machinery.

In all electric lamps, except the Brockie, the regulator is in the lamp

itself. In the Brockie system the regulation is automatic, and is made

at certain rapid intervals by the motor engine. This causes a periodic

blinking that is detrimental to this lamp for internal illumination.

[Illustration: FIG. 1. FIG. 2.]

M. Abdank, the inventor of the system which I have the pleasure of

bringing before the Section, separates his regulator from his lamp.

The regulator may be fixed anywhere, within easy inspection and

manipulation, and away from any disturbing influence in the lamp. The

lamp can be fixed in any inaccessible place.

_The Lamp_ (Figs. 1, 2, and 3.)--The bottom or negative carbon is fixed,

but the top or positive carbon is movable, in a vertical line. It is

screwed at the point, C, to a brass rod, T (Fig. 2), which moves freely

inside the tubular iron core of an electromagnet, K. This rod is

clutched and lifted by the soft iron armature, A B, when a current

passes through the coil, M M. The mass of the iron in the armature is

distributed so that the greater portion is at one end, B, much nearer

the pole than the other end. Hence this portion is attracted first, the

armature assumes an inclined position, maintained by a brass button, t,

which prevents any adhesion between the armature and the core of the

electromagnet. The electric connection between the carbon and the coil

of the electromagnet is maintained by the flexible wire, S.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.]

The electromagnet, A (Fig. 1), is fixed to a long and heavy rack, C,

which falls by its own weight and by the weight of the electromagnet and

the carbon fixed to it. The length of the rack is equal to the length of

the two carbons. The fall of the rack is controlled by a friction break,

B (Fig. 3), which acts upon the last of a train of three wheels put

in motion by the above weight. The break, B, is fixed at one end of

a lever, B A, the other end carrying a soft iron armature, F,

easily adjusted by three screws. This armature is attracted by the

electromagnet, E E (whose resistance is 1,200 ohms), whenever a current

circulates through it. The length of the play is regulated by the screw,

V. The spring, L, applies tension to the break.

_The Regulator_.--This consists of a balance and a cut-off.

_The Balance_ (Figs. 4 and 5) is made with two solenoids. S and S',

whose relative resistances is adjustable. S conveys the main current,

and is wound with thick wire having practically no resistance, and S'

is traversed by a shunt current, and is wound with fine wire having a

resistance of 600 ohms. In the axes of these two coils a small and light

iron tube (2 mm. diameter and 60 mm. length) freely moves in a vertical

line between two guides. When magnetized it has one pole in the middle

and the other at each end. The upward motion is controlled by the

spring, N T. The spring rests upon the screw, H, with which it makes

contact by platinum electrodes. This contact is broken whenever the

little iron rod strikes the spring, N T.

The positive lead from the dynamo is attached to the terminal, B, then

passes through the coil, S, to the terminal, B', whence it proceeds to

the lamp. The negative lead is attached to terminal, A, passing directly

to the other terminal, A', and thence to the lamp.

[Illustration: FIG. 4]

The shunt which passes through the fine coil, S', commences at the

point, P. The other end is fixed to the screw, H, whence it has two

paths, the one offering no resistance through the spring, T N, to the

upper negative terminal, A'; the other through the terminal, J, to the

electromagnet of the break, M, and thence to the negative terminal of

the lamp, L'.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.]

_The Cut-off_.--The last part of the apparatus (Fig. 4) to be described

is the cut-off, which is used when there are several lamps in series. It

is brought into play by the switch, C D, which can be placed at E or D.

When it is at E, the negative terminal, A, is in communication with

the positive terminal, B, through the resistance, R, which equals the

resistance of the lamp, which is, therefore, out of circuit. When it is

at D the cut-off acts automatically to do the same thing when required.

This is done by a solenoid, V, which has two coils, the one of thick

wire offering no resistance, and the other of 2,000 ohms resistance. The

fine wire connects the terminals, A' and B. The solenoid has a movable

soft iron core suspended by the spring, U. It has a cross-piece of iron

which can dip into two mercury cups, G and K, when the core is sucked

into the solenoid. When this is the case, which happens when any

accident occurs to the lamp, the terminal, A, is placed in connection

with the terminal, B, through the thick wire of V and the resistance, R,

in the same way as it was done by the switch, C D.

_Electrical Arrangement_.--The mode in which several lamps are connected

up in series is shown by Fig. 6. M is the dynamo machine. The + lead is

connected to B1 of the balance it then passes to the lamp, L, returning

to the balance, and then proceeds to each other lamp, returning finally

to the negative pole of the machine. When the current enters the balance

it passes through the coil, S, magnetizing the iron core and drawing

it downward (Fig. 4). It then passes to the lamp, L L', through the

carbons, then returns to the balance, and proceeds back to the negative

terminal of the machine. A small portion of the current is shunted off

at the point, P, passing through the coil, S', through the contact

spring, T N, to the terminal, A', and drawing the iron core in

opposition to S. The carbons are in contact, but in passing through

the lamp the current magnetizes the electromagnet, M (Fig. 2), which

attracts the armature, A B, that bites and lifts up the rod, T, with the

upper carbon, a definite and fixed distance that is easily regulated

by the screws, Y Y. The arc then is formed, and will continue to burn

steadily as long as the current remains constant. But the moment the

current falls, due to the increased resistance of the arc, a greater

proportion passes through the shunt, S' (Fig. 4), increasing its

magnetic moment on the iron core, while that of S is diminishing. The

result is that a moment arrives when equilibrium is destroyed, the iron

rod strikes smartly and sharply upon the spring, N T. Contact between T

and H is broken, and the current passes through the electromagnet of the

break in the lamp. The break is released for an instant, the carbons

approach each other. But the same rupture of contact introduces in the

shunt a new resistance of considerable magnitude (viz., 1,200 ohms),

that of the electromagnets of the break. Then the strength of the shunt

current diminishes considerably, and the solenoid, S, recovers briskly

its drawing power upon the rod, and contact is restored. The carbons

approach during these periods only about 0.01 to 0.02 millimeter.

If this is not sufficient to restore equilibrium it is repeated

continually, until equilibrium is obtained. The result is that the

carbon is continually falling by a motion invisible to the eye, but

sufficient to provide for the consumption of the carbons.

[Illustration: FIG. 6]

The contact between N T and H is never completely broken, the sparks are

very feeble, and the contacts do not oxidize. The resistances inserted

are so considerable that heating cannot occur, while the portion of the

current abstracted for the control is so small that it may be neglected.

The balance acts precisely like the key of a Morse machine, and the

break precisely like the sounder-receiver so well known in telegraphy.

It emits the same kind of sounds, and acts automatically like a skilled

and faithful telegraphist.

This regulation, by very small and short successive steps, offers

several advantages: (1) it is imperceptible to the eye; (2) it does not

affect the main current; (3) any sudden instantaneous variation of the

main current does not allow a too near approach of the carbon points.

Let, now, an accident occur; for instance, a carbon is broken. At once

the automatic cut-off acts, the current passes through the resistance,

R, instead of passing through the lamp. The current through the fine

coil is suddenly increased, the rod is drawn in, contact is made at G

and K, and the current is sent through the coil, R. As soon as contact

is again made by the carbons, the current in the coil, S, is increased,

that of the thick wire in V diminished, and the antagonistic spring,

U, breaks the contact at G and K. The rupture of the light is almost

invisible, because the relighting is so brisk and sharp.

I have seen this lamp in action, and its constant steadiness leaves

nothing to be desired.

* * * * *

APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING PURE WATER FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC USE.

Our readers are well aware that water as found naturally is never

absolutely free from dissolved impurities; and in ordinary cases it

contains solid impurities derived both from the inorganic and organic

kingdoms, together with gaseous substances; these latter being generally

derived from the atmosphere.

By far the purest water which occurs in nature is rain-water, and if

this be collected in a secluded district, and after the air has been

well washed by previous rain, its purity is remarkable; the extraneous

matter consisting of little else than a trace of carbonic acid and other

gases dissolved from the air. In fact, such water is far purer than any

distilled water to be obtained in commerce. The case is very different

when the rain-water is collected in a town or densely populated

district, more especially if the water has been allowed to flow over

dirty roofs. The black and foully-smelling liquid popularly known as

soft water is so rich in carbonaceous and organic constituents as to be

of very limited use to the photographer; but by taking the precaution of

fitting up a simple automatic shunt for diverting the stream until the

roofs have been thoroughly washed, it becomes possible to insure a good

supply of clean and serviceable soft water, even in London. Several

forms of shunt have been devised, some of these being so complex as

to offer every prospect of speedy disorganization; but a simple and

efficient apparatus is figured in _Engineering_ by a correspondent who

signs himself "Millwright," and as we have thoroughly proved the value

of an apparatus which is practically identical, we reproduce the

substance of his communication.

A gentleman of Newcastle, a retired banker, having tried various filters

to purify the rain-water collected on the roof of his house, at length

had the idea to allow no water to run into the cistern until the roof

had been well washed. After first putting up a hard-worked valve, the

arrangement as sketched below has been hit upon. Now Newcastle is a very

smoky place, and yet my friend gets water as pure as gin, and almost

absolutely free from any smack of soot.

[Illustration]

The sketch explains itself. The weight, W, and the angle of the lever,

L, are such, that when the valve, V, is once opened it goes full open. A

small hole in the can C, acts like a cataract, and brings matters to a

normal state very soon after the rain ceases.

The proper action of the apparatus can only be insured by a careful

adjustment of the weight, W, the angle through which the valve opens,

and the magnitude of the vessel, C. It is an advantage to make

the vessel, C, somewhat broader in proportion to its height than

represented, and to provide it with a movable strainer placed about half

way down. This tends to protect the cataract hole, and any accumulation

of leaves and dirt can be removed once in six months or so. Clean soft

water is valuable to the photographer in very many cases. Iron developer

(wet plate) free from chlorides will ordinarily remain effective on the

plate much longer than when chlorides are present, and the pyrogallic

solution for dry-plate work will keep good for along time if made with

soft water, while the lime which is present in hard water causes the

pyrogallic acid to oxidize with considerable rapidity. Negatives that

have been developed with oxalate developer often become covered with a

very unsightly veil of calcium oxalate when rinsed with hard water, and

something of a similar character occasionally occurs in the case of

silver prints which are transferred directly from the exposure frame to

impure water.

To the carbon printer clean rain-water is of considerable value, as he

can develop much more rapidly with soft water than with hard water;

or, what comes to the same thing, he can dissolve away his superfluous

gelatine at a lower temperature than would otherwise be necessary.

The cleanest rain-water which can ordinarily be collected in a town is

not sufficiently pure to be used with advantage in the preparation of

the nitrate bath, it being advisable to use the purest distilled water

for this purpose; and in many cases it is well to carefully distill

water for the bath in a glass apparatus of the kind figured below.

[Illustration]

A, thin glass flask serving as a retort. The tube, T, is fitted

air-tight to the flask by a cork, C.

B, receiver into which the tube, T, fits quite loosely.

D, water vessel intended to keep the spiral of lamp wick, which is shown

as surrounding T, in a moist condition. This wick acts as a siphon, and

water is gradually drawn over into the lower receptacle, E.

L, spirit lamp, which may, in many cases, be advantageously replaced by

a Bunsen burner.

A small metal still, provided with a tin condensing worm, is, however, a

more generally serviceable arrangement, and if ordinary precautions are

taken to make sure that the worm tube is clean, the resulting distilled

water will be nearly as pure as that distilled in glass vessels.

Such a still as that figured below can be heated conveniently over an

ordinary kitchen fire, and should find a place among the appliances

of every photographer. Distilled water should always be used in the

preparation of emulsion, as the impurities of ordinary water may often

introduce disturbing conditions.--_Photographic News_.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

BLACK PHOSPHORUS.

By P. THENARD.

The author refers to the customary view that black phosphorus is

merely a mixture of the ordinary phosphorus with traces of a metallic

phosphide, and contends that this explanation is not in all cases

admissible. A specimen of black or rather dark gray phosphorus, which

the author submitted to the Academy, became white if melted and remained

white if suddenly cooled, but if allowed to enter into a state of

superfusion it became again black on contact with either white or black

phosphorus. A portion of the black specimen being dissolved in carbon

disulphide there remained undissolved merely a trace of a very pale

yellow matter which seemed to be amorphous phosphorus.--_Comptes

Rendus_.

* * * * *

COMPOSITION OF STEEP WATER.

According to M. C. Leeuw, water in which malt has been steeped has the

following composition:

Organic matter. 0.56 per cent.

Mineral matter. 0.52 "

----

Total dry matter. 1.08 "

----

Nitrogen. 0.033 "

The mineral matter consists of--

Potash. 0.193 "

Phosphoric acid. 0.031 "

Lime. 0.012 "

Soda. 0.047 "

Magnesia. 0.016 "

Sulphuric acid. 0.007 "

Oxide of iron. traces.

Chlorine and silica. 0.212 "

* * * * *

SCHREIBER'S APPARATUS FOR REVIVIFYING BONE-BLACK.

We give opposite illustrations of Schreiber's apparatus for revivifying

bone-black or animal charcoal. The object of revivification is to render

the black fit to be used again after it has lost its decolorizing

properties through service--that is to say, to free its pores from the

absorbed salts and insoluble compounds that have formed therein

during the operation of sugar refining. There are two methods

employed--fermentation and washing. At present the tendency is to

abandon the former in order to proceed with as small a stock of black as

possible, and to adopt the method of washing with water and acid in a

rotary washer.

Figs. 1 and 2 represent a plan and elevation of a bone-black room,

containing light filters, A, arranged in a circle around wells, B. These

latter have the form of a prism with trapezoidal base, whose small sides

end at the same point, d, and the large ones at the filter. The funnel,

E, of the washer, F, is placed in the space left by the small ends of

the wells, so that the black may be taken from these latter and thrown

directly into the washer. The washer is arranged so that the black may

flow out near the steam fitter, G, beneath the floor. The discharge of

this filter is toward the side of the elevator, H, which takes in the

wet black below, and carries it up and pours it into the drier situated

at the upper part of the furnace. This elevator, Figs. 3 and 4, is

formed of two vertical wooden uprights, A, ten centimeters in thickness,

to which are fixed two round-iron bars the same as guides. The lift,

properly so-called, consists of an iron frame, C, provided at the four

angles with rollers, D, and supporting a swinging bucket, E, which, on

its arrival at the upper part of the furnace, allows the black to fall

to an inclined plane that leads it to the upper part of the drier. The

left is raised and lowered by means of a pitch-chain, F, fixed to the

middle of the frame, C, and passing over two pulleys, G, at the upper

part of the frame and descending to the mechanism that actuates it.

This latter comprises a nut, I, acting directly on the chain; a toothed

wheel, K, and a pinion, J, gearing with the latter and keyed upon the

shaft of the pulleys, L and M. The diameter of the toothed wheel, K, is

0.295 of a meter, and it makes 53.4 revolutions per minute. The diameter

of the pinion is 0.197 of a meter, and it makes 80 revolutions per

minute. The pulleys, M and L, are 0.31 of a meter in diameter, and

make 80 revolutions per minute. Motion is transmitted to them by other

pulleys, N, keyed upon a shaft placed at the lower part, which receives

its motion from the engine of the establishment through the intermedium

of the pulley, O. The diameter of the latter is 0.385 of a meter, and

that of N is 0.58. They each make 43 revolutions per minute.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--ELEVATION OF BONE-BLACK REVIVIFYING PLANT

(SCHREIBER'S SYSTEM.)

FIG. 2.--PLAN VIEW.

FIG. 3.--LATERAL VIEW OF ELEVATOR.

FIG. 4.--FRONT VIEW OF ELEVATOR.

FIG. 5.--CONTINUOUS FURNACE FOR REVIVIFYING BONE-BLACK.]

The elevator is set in motion by the simple maneuver of the gearing

lever, P, and when this has been done all the other motions are effected

automatically.

_The Animal Black Furnace_.--This consists of a masonry casing of

rectangular form, in which are arranged on each side of the same

fire-place two rows of cast-iron retorts, D, of undulating form, each

composed of three parts, set one within the other. These retorts, which

serve for the revivification of the black, are incased in superposed

blocks of refractory clay, P, Q, S, designed to regularize the

transmission of heat and to prevent burning. These pieces are kept in

their respective places by crosspieces, R. The space between the retorts

occupied by the fire-place, Y, is covered with a cylindrical dome, O, of

refractory tiles, forming a fire-chamber with the inner surface of the

blocks, P, Q, and S. The front of the surface consists of a cast-iron

plate, containing the doors to the fire-place and ash pan, and a larger

one to allow of entrance to the interior to make repairs.

One of the principal disadvantages of furnaces for revivifying animal

charcoal has been that they possessed no automatic drier for drying the

black on its exit from the washer. It was for the purpose of remedying

this that Mr. Schreiber was led to invent the automatic system of drying

shown at the upper part of the furnace, and which is formed of two

pipes, B, of undulating form, like the retorts, with openings throughout

their length for the escape of steam. Between these pipes there is a

closed space into which enters the waste heat and products of combustion

from the furnace. These latter afterward escape through the chimney at

the upper part.

In order that the black may be put in bags on issuing from the furnace,

it must be cooled as much as possible. For this purpose there are

arranged on each side of the furnace two pieces of cast iron tubes, F,

of rectangular section, forming a prolongation of the retorts and making

with them an angle of about 45 degrees. The extremities of these tubes

terminate in hollow rotary cylinders, G, which permit of regulating the

flow of the black into a car, J (Fig. 1), running on rails.

From what precedes, it will be readily understood how a furnace is run

on this plan.

The bone-black in the hopper, A, descends into the drier, B, enters the

retorts, D, and, after revivification, passes into the cooling pipes, F,

from whence it issues cold and ready to be bagged. A coke fire having

been built in the fire-place, Y, the flames spread throughout the fire

chamber, direct themselves toward the bottom, divide into two parts to

the right and left, and heat the back of the retorts in passing. Then

the two currents mount through the lateral flues, V, and unite so as to

form but one in the drier. Within the latter there are arranged plates

designed to break the current from the flames, and allow it to heat all

the inner parts of the pipes, while the apertures in the drier allow of

the escape of the steam.

By turning one of the cylinders, G, so as to present its aperture

opposite that of the cooler, it instantly fills up with black. At this

moment the whole column, from top to bottom, is set in motion. The

bone-black, in passing through the undulations, is thrown alternately to

the right and left until it finally reaches the coolers. This operation

is repeated as many times as the cylinder is filled during the descent

of one whole column, that is to say, about forty times.

With an apparatus of the dimensions here described, 120 hectoliters

of bone-black may be revivified in twenty four hours, with 360 to 400

kilogrammes of coke.--_Annales Industrielles_.

* * * * *

[Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 330, page 5264.]

SOAP AND ITS MANUFACTURE, FROM A CONSUMER'S POINT OF VIEW.

In our last article, under the above heading, the advantages to be

gained by the use of potash soap as compared with soda soap were pointed

out, and the reasons of this superiority, especially in the case of

washing wool or woolen fabrics, were pretty fully gone into. It was also

further explained why the potash soaps generally sold to the public were

unfit for general use, owing to their not being neutral--that is to say,

containing a considerable excess of free or unsaponified alkali, which

acts injuriously on the fiber of any textile material, and causes sore

hands if used for household or laundry purposes. It was shown that the

cause of this defect was owing to the old-fashioned method of making

potash or soft soap, by boiling with wood ashes or other impure form of

potash; but that a perfectly pure and neutral potash soap could readily

be made with pure caustic potash, which within the last few years has

become a commercial article, manufactured on a large scale; just in

the same manner as the powdered 98 per cent. caustic soda, which was

recommended in our previous articles on making hard soap without

boiling.

The process of making pure neutral potash soap is very simple, and

almost identical with that for making hard soap with pure powdered

caustic soda. The following directions, if carefully and exactly

followed, will produce a first-class potash soap, suitable either for

the woolen manufacturer for washing his wool, and the cloth afterward

made from it, or for household and laundry purposes, for which uses it

will be found far superior to any soda soap, no matter how pure or well

made it may be.

Dissolve twenty pounds of pure caustic potash in two gallons of water.

Pure caustic potash is very soluble, and dissolves almost immediately,

heating the water. Let the lye thus made cool until warm to the

hand--say about 90 F. Melt eighty pounds of tallow or grease, which must

be free from salt, and let it cool until fairly hot to the hand--say

130 F.; or eighty pounds of any vegetable or animal oil may be taken

instead. Now pour the caustic potash lye into the melted tallow or oil,

stirring with a flat wooden stirrer about three inches broad, until both

are thoroughly mixed and smooth in appearance. This mixing may be done

in the boiler used to melt the tallow, or in a tub, or half an oil

barrel makes a good mixing vessel. Wrap the tub or barrel well up in

blankets or sheepskins, and put away for a week in some warm dry place,

during which the mixture slowly turns into soap, giving a produce of

about 120 pounds of excellent potash soap. If this soap is made with

tallow or grease it will be nearly as hard as soda soap. When made by

farmers or householders tallow or grease will generally be taken, as it

is the cheapest, and ready to hand on the spot. For manufacturers, or

for making laundry soap, nothing could be better than cotton seed oil. A

magnificent soap can be made with this article, lathering very freely.

When made with oil it is better to remelt in a kettle the potash soap,

made according to the above directions, with half its weight of water,

using very little heat, stirring constantly, and removing the fire as

soon as the water is mixed with and taken up by the soap. A beautifully

bright soap is obtained in this way, and curiously the soap is actually

made much harder and stiffer by this addition of water than when it is

in a more concentrated state previously to the water being added.

With reference to the caustic potash for making the soap, it can be

obtained in all sizes of drums, but small packages just sufficient for

a batch of soap are generally more economical than larger packages, as

pure caustic potash melts and deteriorates very quickly when exposed

to the air. The Greenbank Alkali Co., of St. Helens, seems to have

appreciated this, and put upon the market pure caustic potash in twenty

pound canisters, which are very convenient for potash soft soap making

by consumers for their own use.

While on this subject of caustic potash, it cannot be too often repeated

that _caustic potash_ is a totally different article to _caustic soda_,

though just like it in appearance, and therefore often sold as such.

One of the most barefaced instances of this is the so-called "crystal

potash," "ball potash," or "rock potash," of the lye packers, sold in

one pound packages, which absolutely, without exception, do not contain

a single grain of potash, but simply consist of caustic soda more or

less adulterated--as a rule very much "more" than "less!" It is much

to be regretted that this fraud on the public has been so extensively

practiced, as potash has been greatly discredited by this procedure.

The subject of fleece scouring or washing the wool while growing on

the sheep, with a potash soap made on the spot with the waste tallow

generally to be had on every sheep farm, seems recently to have been

attracting attention in some quarters, and certainly would be a source

of profit to sheep owners by putting their wool on the market in the

best condition, and at the same time cleaning the skin of the sheep. It

therefore appears to be a move in the right direction.

In concluding this series of articles on practical soap making from a

consumer's point of view, the writer hopes that, although the subject

has been somewhat imperfectly handled, owing to necessarily limited

space and with many unavoidable interruptions, yet that they may have

been found of some interest and assistance to consumers of soap who

desire easily and readily to make a pure and unadulterated article for

their own use.

* * * * *

COTTON SEED OIL.

By S.S. BRADFORD, Ph.G.

Having had occasion during the last six years to manufacture lead

plaster in considerable quantities, it occurred to me that cotton seed

oil might be used instead of olive oil, at less expense, and with as

good results. The making of this plaster with cotton seed oil has been

questioned, as, according to some authorities, the product is not of

good consistence, and is apt to be soft, sticky, and dark colored;

but in my experience such is not the case. If the U. S. P. process is

followed in making this plaster, substituting for the olive oil cotton

seed oil, and instead of one half-pint of boiling water one and one-half

pint are added, the product obtained will be equally as good as that

from olive oil. My results with this oil in making lead plaster led me

to try it in making the different liniments of the Pharmacopoeia, with

the following results:

_Linimentum Ammoniae_.--This liniment, made with cotton seed oil, is of

much better consistency than when made with olive oil. It is not so

thick, will pour easily out of the bottle, and if the ammonia used is of

proper strength, will make a perfect liniment.

_Linimentum Calcis_.--Cotton seed oil is not at all adapted to making

this liniment. It does not readily saponify, separates quickly, and it

is almost impossible to unite when separated.

_Linimentum Camphorae_.--Cotton seed oil is far superior to olive oil in

making this liniment, it being a much better solvent of camphor. It has

not that disagreeable odor so commonly found in the liniment.

_Linimentum Chloroformi_.--Cotton seed oil being very soluble in

chloroform, the liniment made with it leaves nothing to be desired.

_Linimentum Plumbi Subacetatis_.--When liq. plumbi subacet. is mixed

with cotton seed oil and allowed to stand for some time the oil assumes

a reddish color similar to that of freshly made tincture of myrrh. When

the liquor is mixed with olive oil, if the oil be pure, no such change

takes place. Noticing this change, it occurred to me that this would be

a simple and easy way to detect cotton seed oil when mixed with olive

oil. This change usually takes place after standing from twelve to

twenty-four hours. It is easily detected in mixtures containing five

per cent., or even less, of the oils, and I am convinced, after making

numerous experiments with different oils, that it is peculiar to cotton

seed oil.--_American Journal of Pharmacy_.

* * * * *

THE FOOD AND ENERGY OF MAN.

[Footnote: From a lecture delivered at the Sanitary Congress, at

Newcastle-on-Tyne, September 28, 1882.]

By PROF. DE CHAUMONT, F.R.S.

Although eating cannot be said to be in any way a new fashion, it has

nevertheless been reserved for modern times, and indeed we may say the

present generation, to get a fairly clear idea of the way in which

food is really utilized for the work of our bodily frame. We must not,

however, plume ourselves too much upon our superior knowledge, for

inklings of the truth, more or less dim, have been had through all ages,

and we are now stepping into the inheritance of times gone by, using the

long and painful experience of our predecessors as the stepping-stone

to our more accurate knowledge of the present time. In this, as in many

other things, we are to some extent in the position of a dwarf on the

shoulders of a giant; the dwarf may, indeed, see further than the giant;

but he remains a dwarf, and the giant a giant.

The question has been much discussed as to what the original food of man

was, and some people have made it a subject of excited contention. The

most reasonable conclusion is that man is naturally a frugivorous or

fruit-eating animal, like his cousins the monkeys, whom he still so

much resembles. This forms a further argument in favor of his being

originated in warm regions, where fruits of all kinds were plentiful. It

is pretty clear that the resort to animal food, whether the result of

the pressure of want from failure of vegetable products, or a mere taste

and a desire for change and more appetizing food, is one that took place

many ages ago, probably in the earliest anthropoid, if not in the latest

pithecoid stage. No doubt some advantage was recognized in the more

rapid digestion and the comparative ease with which the hunter or fisher

could obtain food, instead of waiting for the ripening of fruits in

countries which had more or less prolonged periods of cold and inclement

weather. Some anatomical changes have doubtless resulted from the

practice, but they are not of sufficiently marked character to found

much argument upon; all that we can say being that the digestive

apparatus in man seems well adapted for digesting any food that is

capable of yielding nutriment, and that even when an entire change is

made in the mode of feeding, the adaptability of the human system

shows itself in a more or less rapid accommodation to the altered

circumstances.

Food, then, is any substance which can be taken into the body and

applied to use, either in building up or repairing the tissues and

framework of the body itself, or in providing energy and producing

animal heat, or any substance which, without performing those functions

directly, controls, directs, or assists their performance. With this

wide definition it is evident that we include all the ordinary articles

recognized commonly as food, and that we reject all substances

recognized commonly as poisons. But it will also include such substances

as water and air, both of which are essential for nutrition, but are not

usually recognized as belonging to the list of food substances in the

ordinary sense. When we carry our investigation further, we find that

the organic substances may be again divided into two distinct classes,

namely, that which contains nitrogen (the casein), and those that do not

(the butter and sugar).

On ascertaining this, we are immediately struck with the remarkable fact

that all the tissues and fluids of the body, muscles (or flesh),

bone, blood--all, in short, except the fat--contain nitrogen, and,

consequently, for their building up in the young, and for their repair

and renewal in the adult, nitrogen is absolutely required. We therefore

reasonably infer that the nitrogenous substance is necessary for this

purpose. Experiment has borne this out, for men who have been compelled

to live without nitrogenous food by dire necessity, and criminals on

whom the experiment has been tried, have all perished sooner or later in

consequence. When nitrogenous substances are used in the body, they

are, of course, broken up and oxidized, or perhaps we ought to say more

accurately, they take the place of the tissues of the body which wear

away and are carried off by oxidation and other chemical changes.

Now, modern science tell us that such changes are accompanied with

manifestations of energy in some form or other, most frequently in

that of heat, and we must look, therefore, upon nitrogenous food

as contributing to the energy of the body in addition to its other

functions.

What are the substances which we may class as nitrogenous. In the first

place, we have the typical example of the purest form in _albumin_,

or white of egg; and from this the name is now given to the class of

_albuminates_. The animal albuminates are: Albumin from eggs, fibrin

from muscles, or flesh, myosin, or synronin, also from animals, casein

(or cheesy matter) from milk, and the nitrogenous substances from blood.

In the vegetable kingdom, we have glutin, or vegetable fibrin, which is

the nourishing constituent of wheat, barley, oats, etc.; and legumin,

or vegetable casein, which is the peculiar substance found in peas and

beans. The other organic constituents--viz., the fats and the starches

and sugars--contain no nitrogen, and were at one time thought to be

concerned in producing animal heat.

We now know--thanks to the labors of Joule, Lyon Playfair, Clausius,

Tyndall, Helmholtz, etc.--that heat itself is a mode of motion, a form

of convertible energy, which can be made to do useful or productive

work, and be expressed in terms of actual work done. Modern experiment

shows that all our energy is derived from that of food, and, in

particular from the non-nitrogenous part of it, that is, the fat,

starch, and sugar. The nutrition of man is best maintained when he is

provided with a due admixture of all the four classes of aliment which

we have mentioned, and not only that, but he is also better off if he

has a variety of each class. Thus he may and ought to have albumen,

fibrine, gluten, and casein among the albuminates, or at least two of

them; butter and lard, or suet, or oil among the fats; starch of wheat,

potato, rice, peas, etc., and cane-sugar, and milk-sugar among the

carbo-hydrates. The salts cannot be replaced, so far as we know. Life

may be maintained in fair vigor for some time on albuminates only, but

this is done at the expense of the tissues, especially the fat of the

body, and the end must soon come; with fat and carbo hydrates alone

vigor may also be maintained for some time, at the expense of the

tissues also, but the limit is a near one, In either of these cases we

suppose sufficient water and salts to be provided.

We must now inquire into the quantities of food necessary; and this

necessitates a little consideration of the way in which the work of

the body is carried on. We must look upon the human body exactly as a

machine; like an engine with which we are all so familiar. A certain

amount of work requires to be done, say, a certain number of miles of

distance to be traversed; we know that to do this a certain number of

pounds, or hundredweights, or tons of coal must be put into the fire of

the boiler in order to furnish the requisite amount of energy through

the medium of steam. This amount of fuel must bear a certain proportion

to the work, and also to the velocity with which it is done, so both

quantity and time have to be accounted for.

No lecture on diet would be complete without a reference to the vexed

question of alcohol. I am no teetotal advocate, and I repudiate the

rubbish too often spouted from teetotal platforms, talk that is,

perhaps, inseparable from the advocacy of a cause that imports a good

deal of enthusiasm. I am at one, however, in recognizing the evils of

excess, and would gladly hail their diminution. But I believe that

alcohol properly used may be a comfort and a blessing, just as I know

that improperly used it becomes a bane and a curse. But we are now

concerned with it as an article of diet in relation to useful work, and

it may be well to call attention markedly to the fact that its use in

this way is very limited. The experiments of the late Dr. Parkes, made

in our laboratory, at Netley, were conclusive on the point, that beyond

an amount that would be represented by about one and a half to two pints

of beer, alcohol no longer provided any convertible energy, and that,

therefore, to take it in the belief that it did do so is an error.

It may give a momentary stimulus in considerable doses, but this is

invariably followed by a corresponding depression, and it is a maxim now

generally followed, especially on service, never to give it before or

during work. There are, of course, some persons who are better without

it altogether, and so all moderation ought to be commended, if not

enjoyed.

There are other beverages which are more useful than the alcoholic,

as restoratives, and for support in fatigue. Tea and coffee are

particularly good. Another excellent restorative is a weak solution

of Liebig's extract of meat, which has a remarkable power of removing

fatigue. Perhaps one of the most useful and most easily obtainable is

weak oatmeal gruel, either hot or cold. With regard to tobacco, it also

has some value in lessening fatigue in those who are able to take it,

but it may easily be carried to excess. Of it we may say, as of alcohol,

that in moderation it seems harmless, and even useful to some extent,

but, in excess, it is rank poison.

There is one other point which I must refer to, and which is especially

interesting to a great seaport like this. This is the question of

scurvy--a question of vital importance to a maritime nation. A paper

lately issued by Mr. Thomas Gray, of the Board of Trade, discloses the

regrettable fact that since 1873 there has been a serious falling off,

the outbreaks of scurvy having again increased until they reached

ninety-nine in 1881. This, Mr. Gray seems to think, is due to a neglect

of varied food scales; but it may also very probably have arisen from

the neglect of the regulation about lime-juice, either as to issue or

quality, or both. But it is also a fact of very great importance that

mere monotony of diet has a most serious effect upon health; variety

of food is not merely a pandering to gourmandism or greed, but a real

sanitary benefit, aiding digestion and assimilation. Our Board of Trade

has nothing to do with the food scales of ships, but Mr. Gray hints that

the Legislature will have to interfere unless shipowners look to it

themselves. The ease with which preserved foods of all kinds can be

obtained and carried now removes the last shadow of an excuse for

backwardness in this matter, and in particular the provision of a large

supply of potatoes, both fresh and dried, ought to be an unceasing care;

this is done on board American ships, and to this is doubtless owing in

a great part the healthiness of their crews. Scurvy in the present

day is a disgrace to shipowners and masters; and if public opinion is

insufficient to protect the seamen, the legislature will undoubtedly

step in and do so.

And now let me close by pointing out that the study of this commonplace

matter of eating and drinking opens out to us the conception of the

grand unity of nature; since we see that the body of man differs in no

way essentially from other natural combinations, but is subject to

the same universal physical laws, in which there is no blindness, no

variableness, no mere chance, and disobedience of which is followed as

surely by retribution as even the keenest eschatologist might desire.

* * * * *

RATTLESNAKE POISON.

By HENRY H. CROFT.

Some time since, in a paper to which I am unfortunately unable to refer,

a French chemist affirmed that the poisonous principle in snakes, or

eliminated by snakes, was of the nature of an alkaloid, and gave a name

to this class of bodies.

Mr. Pedler has shown that snake poison is destroyed or neutralized

by means of platinic chloride, owing probably to the formation of an

insoluble double platinic chloride, such as is formed with almost if not

all alkaloids.

In this country (Texas) where rattlesnakes are very common, and persons

camping out much exposed to their bites, a very favorite anecdote, or

_remedia_ as the Mexicans cull it, is a strong solution of iodine in

potassium iodide.[1]

[Footnote 1: The solution is applied as soon as possible to the wound,

preferably enlarged, and a few drops taken internally. The common

Mexican _remedia_ is the root of the _Agave virginica_ mashed or chewed

and applied to the wound, while part is swallowed.

Great faith is placed in this root by all residents here, who are seldom

I without it, but, I have had no experience of it myself; and the

internal administration is no doubt useless.

Even the wild birds know of this root; the queer paisano (? ground

woodpecker) which eats snakes, when wounded by a _vibora de cascabel_,

runs into woods, digs up and eats a root of the agave, just like the

mongoose; but more than that, goes back, polishes off his enemy, and

eats him. This has been told me by Mexicans who, it may be remarked, are

not _always_ reliable.]

I have had occasion to prove the efficacy of this mixture in two cases

of _cascabel_ bites, one on a buck, the other on a dog; and it occurred

to me that the same explanation of its action might be given as above

for the platinum salt, viz., the formation of an insoluble iodo compound

as with ordinary alkaloids if the snake poison really belongs to this

class.

Having last evening killed a moderate sized rattlesnake--_Crotalus

horridus_--which had not bitten anything, I found the gland fully

charged with the white opaque poison; on adding iodine solution to a

drop of this a dense light-brown precipitate was immediately formed,

quite similar to that obtained with most alkaloids, exhibiting under the

microscope no crystalline structure.

In the absence of iodine a good extemporaneous solution for testing

alkaloids, and perhaps a snake poison antidote, may be made by adding a

few drops of ferric chloride to solution of potassium of iodide; this

is a very convenient test agent which I used in my laboratory for many

years.

Although rattlesnake poison could be obtained here in very considerable

quantity, it is out of my power to make such experiments as I could

desire, being without any chemical appliances and living a hundred miles

or more from any laboratory. The same may be said with regard to books,

and possibly the above iodine reaction has been already described.

Dr. Richards states that the cobra poison is destroyed by potassium

permanganate; but this is no argument in favor of that salt as an

antidote. Mr. Pedler also refers to it, but allows that it would not be

probably of any use after the poison had been absorbed. Of this I

think there can be no doubt, remembering the easy decomposition of

permanganate by most organic substances, and I cannot but think that the

medicinal or therapeutic advantages of that salt, taken internally, are

equally problematical, unless the action is supposed to take place in

the stomach.

In the bladder of the same rattlesnake I found a considerable

quantity of light-brown amorphous ammonium urate, the urine pale

yellow.--_Chemical News_.

Hermanitas Ranch, Texas.

* * * * *

THE CHINESE SIGN MANUAL.

[Footnote: Dr. D. J. Macgowan, in Medical Reports of China. 1881.]

Two writers in _Nature_, both having for their theme "Skin-furrows on

the Hand," solicit information on the subject from China.[1] As the

subject is considered to have a bearing on medical jurisprudence and

ethnology as well, this report is a suitable vehicle for responding to

the demand.

[Footnote 1: Henry Faulds, Tzukiyi Hospital, Tokio, Japan. W. J.

Herschel, Oxford, England.--_Nature_, 28th October and 25th November,

1880.]

Dr. Faulds' observations on the finger-tips of the Japanese have an

ethnic bearing and relate to the subject of heredity. Mr. Herschel

considers the subject as an agent of Government, he having charge for

twenty years of registration offices in India, where he employed finger

marks as sign manuals, the object being to prevent personation and

repudiation. Doolittle, in his "Social Life of the Chinese," describes

the custom. I cannot now refer to native works where the practice of

employing digital rugae as a sign manual is alluded to. I doubt if its

employment in the courts is of ancient date. Well-informed natives think

that it came into vogue subsequent to the Han period; if so, it is in

Egypt that earliest evidence of the practice is to be found. Just as the

Chinese courts now require criminals to sign confessions by impressing

thereto the whorls of their thumb-tips--the right thumb in the case of

women, the left in the case of men--so the ancient Egyptians, it

is represented, required confessions to be sealed with their

thumbnails--most likely the tip of the digit, as in China. Great

importance is attached in the courts to this digital form of signature,

"finger form." Without a confession no criminal can be legally executed,

and the confession to be valid must be attested by the thumb-print

of the prisoner. No direct coercion is employed to secure this; a

contumacious culprit may, however, be tortured until he performs the

act which is a prerequisite to his execution. Digital signatures are

sometimes required in the army to prevent personation; the general

in command at Wenchow enforces it on all his troops. A document thus

attested can no more be forged or repudiated than a photograph--not so

easily, for while the period of half a lifetime effects great changes

in the physiognomy, the rugae of the fingers present the same appearance

from the cradle to the grave; time writes no wrinkles there. In the

army everywhere, when the description of a person is written down, the

relative number of volutes and coniferous finger-tips is noted. It

is called taking the "whelk striae," the fusiform being called "rice

baskets," and the volutes "peck measures." A person unable to write, the

form of signature which defies personation or repudiation is required in

certain domestic cases, as in the sale of children or women. Often when

a child is sold the parents affix their finger marks to the bill of

sale; when a husband puts away his wife, giving her a bill of divorce,

he marks the document with his entire palm; and when a wife is sold, the

purchaser requires the seller to stamp the paper with hands and feet,

the four organs duly smeared with ink. Professional fortune tellers in

China take into account almost the entire system of the person whose

future they attempt to forecast, and of course they include palmistry,

but the rugae of the finger-ends do not receive much attention. Amateur

fortune-tellers, however, discourse as glibly on them as phrenologists

do of "bumps"--it is so easy. In children the relative number of volute

and conical striae indicate their future. "If there are nine volutes,"

says a proverb, "to one conical, the boy will attain distinction without

toil."

Regarded from an ethnological point of view, I can discover merely that

the rugae of Chinamen's fingers differ from Europeans', but there is so

little uniformity observable that they form no basis for distinction,

and while the striae may be noteworthy points in certain medico-legal

questions, heredity is not one of them.

* * * * *

LUCIDITY.

At the close of an interesting address lately delivered at the reopening

of the Liverpool University College and School of Medicine, Mr. Matthew

Arnold said if there was one word which he should like to plant in the

memories of his audience, and to leave sticking there after he had gone,

it was the word _lucidity_. If he had to fix upon the three great wants

at this moment of the three principal nations of Europe, he should say

that the great want of the French was morality, that the great want of

the Germans was civil courage, and that our own great want was lucidity.

Our own want was, of course, what concerned us the most. People were apt

to remark the defects which accompanied certain qualities, and to think

that the qualities could not be desirable because of the defects which

they saw accompanying them. There was no greater and salutary lesson for

men to learn than that a quality may be accompanied, naturally perhaps,

by grave dangers; that it may actually present itself accompanied by

terrible defects, and yet that it might itself be indispensable. Let him

illustrate what he meant by an example, the force of which they would

all readily feel. Seriousness was a quality of our nation. Perhaps

seriousness was always accompanied by certain dangers. But, at any rate,

many of our French neighbors would say that they found our seriousness

accompanied by so many false ideas, so much prejudice, so much that was

disagreeable, that it could not have the value which we attributed to

it. And yet we knew that it was invaluable. Let them follow the same

mode of reasoning as to the quality of lucidity. The French had a

national turn for lucidity as we had a national turn for seriousness.

Perhaps a national turn for lucidity carried with it always certain

dangers. Be this as it might, it was certain that we saw in the French,

along with their lucidity, a want of seriousness, a want of reverence,

and other faults, which greatly displeased us. Many of us were inclined

in consequence to undervalue their lucidity, or to deny that they

had it. We were wrong: it existed as our seriousness existed; it was

valuable as our seriousness was valuable. Both the one and the other

were valuable, and in the end indispensable.

What was lucidity? It was negatively that the French have it, and he

would therefore deal with its negative character merely. Negatively,

lucidity was the perception of the want of truth and validness in

notions long current, the perception that they are no longer possible,

that their time is finished, and they can serve us no more. All through

the last century a prodigious travail for lucidity was going forward

in France. Its principal agent was a man whose name excited generally

repulsion in England, Voltaire. Voltaire did a great deal of harm in

France. But it was not by his lucidity that he did harm; he did it by

his want of seriousness, his want of reverence, his want of sense for

much that is deepest in human nature. But by his lucidity he did good.

All admired Luther. Conduct was three-fourths of life, and a man who

worked for conduct, therefore, worked for more than a man who worked for

intelligence. But having promised this, it might be said that the Luther

of the eighteenth century and of the cultivated classes was Voltaire.

As Luther had an antipathy to what was immoral, so Voltaire had an

antipathy to what was absurd, and both of them made war upon the object

of their antipathy with such masterly power, with so much conviction,

so much energy, so much genius, that they carried their world with

them--Luther his Protestant world, and Voltaire his French world--and

the cultivated classes throughout the continent of Europe generally.

Voltaire had more than negative lucidity; he had the large and true

conception that a number and equilibrium of activities were necessary

for man. "_Il faut douner a notre ame toutes les formes possibles_"

was a maxim which Voltaire really and truly applied in practice,

"advancing," as Michelet finely said of him, in every direction with

a marvelous vigor and with that conquering ambition which Vico called

_mens heroica_. Nevertheless. Voltaire's signal characteristic was his

lucidity, his negative lucidity.

There was a great and free intellectual movement in England in the

eighteenth century--indeed, it was from England that it passed into

France; but the English had not that strong natural bent for lucidity

which the French had. Its bent was toward other things in preference.

Our leading thinkers had not the genius and passion for lucidity which

distinguished Voltaire. In their free inquiry they soon found themselves

coming into collision with a number of established facts, beliefs,

conventions. Thereupon all sorts of practical considerations began to

sway them. The danger signal went up, they often stopped short, turned

their eyes another way, or drew down a curtain between themselves and

the light. "It seems highly probable," said Voltaire, "that nature has

made thinking a portion of the brain, as vegetation is a function of

trees; that we think by the brain just as we walk by the feet." So our

reason, at least, would lead us to conclude, if the theologians did not

assure us of the contrary; such, too, was the opinion of Locke, but he

did not venture to announce it. The French Revolution came, England grew

to abhor France, and was cut off from the Continent, did great things,

gained much, but not in lucidity. The Continent was reopened, the

century advanced, time and experience brought their lessons, lovers of

free and clear thought, such as the late John Stuart Mill, arose among

us. But we could not say that they had by any means founded among us the

reign of lucidity.

Let them consider that movement of which we were hearing so much just

now: let them look at the Salvation Army and its operations. They would

see numbers, funds, energy, devotedness, excitement, conversions, and

a total absence of lucidity. A little lucidity would make the whole

movement impossible. That movement took for granted as its basis what

was no longer possible or receivable; its adherents proceeded in all

they did on the assumption that that basis was perfectly solid, and

neither saw that it was not solid, nor ever even thought of asking

themselves whether it was solid or not.

Taking a very different movement, and one of far higher dignity and

import, they had all had before their minds lately the long-devoted,

laborious, influential, pure, pathetic life of Dr. Pusey, which had just

ended. Many of them had also been reading in the lively volumes of that

acute, but not always good-natured rattle, Mr. Mozley, an account of

that great movement which took from Dr. Pusey its earlier name. Of its

later stage of Ritualism they had had in this country a now celebrated

experience. This movement was full of interest. It had produced men to

be respected, men to be admired, men to be beloved, men of learning,

goodness, genius, and charm. But could they resist the truth that

lucidity would have been fatal to it? The movers of all those questions

about apostolical succession, church patristic authority, primitive

usage, postures, vestments--questions so passionately debated, and on

which he would not seek to cast ridicule--did not they all begin by

taking for granted something no longer possible or receivable, build on

this basis as if it were indubitably solid, and fail to see that their

basis not being solid, all they built upon it was fantastic?

He would not say that negative lucidity was in itself a satisfactory

possession, but he said that it was inevitable and indispensable, and

that it was the condition of all serious construction for the future.

Without it at present a man or a nation was intellectually and

spiritually all abroad. If they saw it accompanied in France by much

that they shrank from, they should reflect that in England it would

have influences joined with it which it had not in France--the natural

seriousness of the people, their sense of reverence and respect, their

love for the past. Come it must; and here where it had been so late in

coming, it would probably be for the first time seen to come without

danger.

Capitals were natural centers of mental movement, and it was natural for

the classes with most leisure, most freedom, most means of cultivation,

and most conversance with the wide world to have lucidity though often

they had it not. To generate a spirit of lucidity in provincial towns,

and among the middle classes bound to a life of much routine and plunged

in business, was more difficult. Schools and universities, with serious

and disinterested studies, and connecting those studies the one with the

other and continuing them into years of manhood, were in this case the

best agency they could use. It might be slow, but it was sure. Such

an agency they were now going to employ. Might it fulfill all their

expectations! Might their students, in the words quoted just now,

advance in every direction with a marvelous vigor, and with that

conquering ambition which Vico called _mens heroica_! And among the many

good results of this, might one result be the acquisition in their midst

of that indispensable spirit--the spirit of lucidity!

* * * * *

ON SOME APPARATUS THAT PERMIT OF ENTERING FLAMES.

[Footnote: A. de Rochas in the _Revue Scientifique_.]

In the following notes I shall recall a few experiments that indicate

under what conditions the human organism is permitted to remain unharmed

amid flames. These experiments were published in England in 1882, in the

twelfth letter from Brewster to Walter Scott on natural magic. They are,

I believe, not much known in France, and possess a practical interest

for those who are engaged in the art of combating fires.

At the end of the last century Humphry Davy observed that, on placing a

very fine wire gauze over a flame, the latter was cooled to such a

point that it could not traverse the meshes. This phenomenon, which he

attributed to the conductivity and radiating power of the metal, he soon

utilized in the construction of a lamp for miners.

Some years afterward Chevalier Aldini, of Milan, conceived the idea of

making a new application of Davy's discovery in the manufacture of an

envelope that should permit a man to enter into the midst of flames.

This envelope, which was made of metallic gauze with 1-25th of an inch

meshes, was composed of five pieces, as follows: (1) a helmet, with

mask, large enough, to allow a certain space between it and the internal

bonnet of which I shall speak; (2) a cuirass with armlets; (3) a skirt

for the lower part of the belly and the thighs; (4) a pair of boots

formed of a double wire gauze; and (5) a shield five feet long by one

and a half wide, formed of metallic gauze stretched over a light iron

frame. Beneath this armor the experimenter was clad in breeches and a

close coat of coarse cloth that had previously been soaked in a solution

of alum. The head, hands, and feet were covered by envelopes of asbestos

cloth whose fibers were about a half millimeter in diameter. The bonnet

contained apertures for the eyes, nose, and ears, and consisted of a

single thickness of fabric, as did the stockings, but the gloves were of

double thickness, so that the wearer could seize burning objects with

the hands.

Aldini, convinced of the services that his apparatus might render to

humanity, traveled over Europe and gave gratuitous representations with

it. The exercises generally took place in the following order: Aldini

began by first wrapping his finger in asbestos and then with a double

layer of wire gauze. He then held it for some instants in the flame of

a candle or alcohol lamp. One of his assistants afterward put on the

asbestos glove of which I have spoken, and, protecting the palm of his

hand with another piece of asbestos cloth, seized a piece of red-hot

iron from a furnace and slowly carried it to a distance of forty or

fifty meters, lighted some straw with it, and then carried it back to

the furnace. On other occasions, the experimenters, holding firebrands

in their hands, walked for five minutes over a large grating under which

fagots were burning.

In order to show how the head, eyes, and lungs were protected by the

wire gauze apparatus, one of the experimenters put on the asbestos

bonnet, helmet, and cuirass, and fixed the shield in front of his

breast. Then, in a chafing dish placed on a level with his shoulder, a

great fire of shavings was lighted, and care was taken to keep it up.

Into the midst of these flames the experimenter then plunged his head

and remained thus five or six minutes with his face turned toward them.

In an exhibition given at Paris before a committee from the Academic

des Sciences, there were set up two parallel fences formed of straw,

connected by iron wire to light wicker work, and arranged so as to leave

between them a passage 3 feet wide by 30 long. The heat was so intense,

when the fences were set on fire, that no one could approach nearer than

20 or 25 feet; and the flames seemed to fill the whole space between

them, and rose to a height of 9 or 10 feet. Six men clad in the Aldini

suit went in, one behind the other, between the blazing fences, and

walked slowly backward and forward in the narrow passage, while the fire

was being fed with fresh combustibles from the exterior. One of these

men carried on his back, in an ozier basket covered with wire gauze, a

child eight years of age, who had on no other clothing than an asbestos

bonnet. This same man, having the child with him, entered on another

occasion a clear fire whose flames reached a height of 18 feet, and

whose intensity was such that it could not be looked at. He remained

therein so long that the spectators began to fear that he had succumbed;

but he finally came out safe and sound.

One of the conclusions to be drawn from the facts just stated is that

man can breathe in the midst of flames. This marvelous property cannot

be attributed exclusively to the cooling of the air by its passage

through the gauze before reaching the lungs; it shows also a very great

resistance of our organs to the action of heat. The following, moreover,

are direct proofs of such resistance. In England, in their first

experiment, Messrs. Joseph Banks, Charles Blagden, and Dr. Solander

remained for ten minutes in a hot-house whose temperature was 211 deg.

Fahr., and their bodies preserved therein very nearly the usual heat. On

breathing against a thermometer they caused the mercury to fall several

degrees. Each expiration, especially when it was somewhat strong,

produced in their nostrils an agreeable impression of coolness, and the

same impression was also produced on their fingers when breathed upon.

When they touched themselves their skin seemed to be as cold as that of

a corpse; but contact with their watch chains caused them to experience

a sensation like that of a burn. A thermometer placed under the tongue

of one of the experimenters marked 98 deg. Fahr., which is the normal

temperature of the human species.

Emboldened by these first results, Blagden entered a hot-house in which

the thermometer in certain parts reached 262 deg. Fahr. He remained therein

eight minutes, walked about in all directions, and stopped in the

coolest part, which was at 240 deg. Fahr. During all this time he

experienced no painful sensations; but, at the end of seven minutes, he

felt an oppression of the lungs that inquieted him and caused him to

leave the place. His pulse at that moment showed 144 beats to the

minute, that is to say, double what it usually did. To ascertain whether

there was any error in the indications of the thermometer, and to find

out what effect would take place on inert substances exposed to the hot

air that he had breathed, Blogden placed some eggs in a zinc plate in

the hot-house, alongside the thermometer, and found that in twenty

minutes they were baked hard.

A case is reported where workmen entered a furnace for drying moulds, in

England, the temperature of which was 177 deg., and whose iron sole plate

was so hot that it carbonized their wooden shoes. In the immediate

vicinity of this furnace the temperature rose to 160 deg.. Persons not of

the trade who approached anywhere near the furnace experienced pain in

the eyes, nose, and ears.

A baker is cited in Angoumois, France, who spent ten minutes in a

furnace at 132 deg. C.

The resistance of the human organism to so high temperatures can be

attributed to several causes. First, it has been found that the quantity

of carbonic acid exhaled by the lungs, and consequently the chemical

phenomena of internal combustion that are a source of animal heat,

diminish in measure as the external temperature rises. Hence, a conflict

which has for result the retardation of the moment at which a living

being will tend, without obstacle, to take the temperature of the

surrounding medium. On another hand, it has been observed that man

resists heat so much the less in proportion as the air is saturated

with vapors. Dr. Berger, who supported for seven minutes a temperature

varying from 109 deg. to 110 deg. C. in dry air, could remain only twelve

minutes in a bagnio whose temperature rose from 41 deg. to 51.75 deg.. At the

Hammam of Paris the highest temperature obtained is 87 deg., and Dr. E.

Martin has not been able to remain therein more than five minutes. This

physician reports that in 1743, the thermometer having exceeded 40 deg. at

Pekin, 14,000 persons perished. These facts are explained by the cooling

that the evaporation of perspiration produces on the surface of the

body. Edwards has calculated that such evaporation is ten times greater

in dry air in motion than in calm and humid air. The observations become

still more striking when the skin is put in contact with a liquid or a

solid which suppresses perspiration. Lemoine endured a bath of Bareges

water of 37 deg. for half an hour; but at 45 deg. he could not remain in it more

than seven minutes, and the perspiration began to flow at the end of six

minutes. According to Brewster, persons who experience no malaise near

a fire which communicates a temperature of 100 deg. C. to them, can hardly

bear contact with alcohol and oil at 55 deg. and mercury at 48 deg..

The facts adduced permit us to understand how it was possible to bear

one of the proofs to which it is said those were submitted who wished

to be initiated into the Egyptian mysteries. In a vast vaulted chamber

nearly a hundred feet long, there were erected two fences formed of

posts, around which were wound branches of Arabian balm, Egyptian thorn,

and tamarind--all very flexible and inflammable woods. When this was set

on fire the flames arose as far as the vault, licked it, and gave the

chamber the appearance of a hot furnace, the smoke escaping through

pipes made for the purpose. Then the door was suddenly opened before the

neophyte, and he was ordered to traverse this burning place, whose floor

was composed of an incandescent grating.

The Abbe Terrason recounts all these details in his historic romance

"Sethos," printed at the end of last century. Unfortunately literary

frauds were in fashion then, and the book, published as a translation of

an old Greek manuscript, gives no indication of sources. I have sought

in special works for the data which the abbe must have had as a basis,

but I have not been able to find them. I suppose, however, that

this description, which is so precise, is not merely a work of the

imagination. The author goes so far as to give the dimensions of the

grating (30 feet by 8), and, greatly embarrassed to explain how his hero

was enabled to traverse it without being burned, is obliged to suppose

it to have been formed of very thick bars, between which Sethos had care

to place his feet. But this explanation is inadmissible. He who had the

courage to rush, head bowed, into the midst of the flames, certainly

would not have amused himself by choosing the place to put his feet.

Braving the fire that surrounded his entire body, he must have had no

other thought than that of reaching the end of his dangerous voyage as

soon as possible. We cannot see very well, moreover, how this immense

grate, lying on the ground, was raised to a red heat and kept at such a

temperature. It is infinitely more simple to suppose that between the

two fences there was a ditch sufficiently deep in which a fire had

also been lighted, and which was covered by a grating as in the Aldini

experiments. It is even probable that this grating was of copper,

which, illuminated by the fireplace, must have presented a terrifying

brilliancy, while in reality it served only to prevent the flames from

the fireplace reaching him who dared to brave them.

* * * * *

THE BUILDING STONE SUPPLY.

The use of stone as a building material was not resorted to, except to

a trifling extent, in this country until long after the need of such a

solid substance was felt. The early settler contented himself with the

log cabin, the corduroy road, and the wooden bridge, and loose stone

enough for foundation purposes could readily be gathered from the

surface of the earth. Even after the desirability of more handsome and

durable building material for public edifices in the colonial cities

than wood became apparent, the ample resources which nature had afforded

in this country were overlooked, and brick and stone were imported by

the Dutch and English settlers from the Old World. Thus we find the

colonists of the New Netherlands putting yellow brick on their list

of non-dutiable imports in 1648; and such buildings in Boston as are

described as being "fairly set forth with brick, tile, slate, and

stone," were thus provided only with foreign products. Isolated

instances of quarrying stone are known to have occurred in the last

century; but they are rare. The edifice known as "King's Chapel,"

Boston, erected in 1752, is the first one on record as being built from

American stone; this was granite, brought from Braintree, Mass.

Granite is a rock particularly abundant in New England, though also

found in lesser quantities elsewhere in this country. The first granite

quarries that were extensively developed were those at Quincy, Mass.,

and work began at that point early in the present century. The fame of

the stone became widespread, and it was sent to distant markets--even to

New Orleans. The old Merchants' Exchange in New York (afterward used as

a custom house) the Astor House in that city, and the Custom House in

New Orleans, all nearly or quite fifty years old, were constructed of

Quincy granite, as were many other fine buildings along the Atlantic

coast. In later years, not only isolated public edifices, but also whole

blocks of stores, have been constructed of this material. It was from

the Quincy quarries that the first railroad in this country was built;

this was a horse-railroad, three miles long, extending to Neponset

River, built in 1827.

Other points in Massachusetts have been famed for their excellent

granite. After Maine was set off as a distinct State, Fox Island

acquired repute for its granite, and built up an extensive traffic

therein. Westerly, R.I., has also been engaged in quarrying this

valuable rock for many years, most of its choicer specimens having been

wrought for monumental purposes. Statues and other elaborate monumental

designs are now extensively made therefrom. Smaller pieces and a coarser

quality of the stone are here and elsewhere along the coast obtained in

large quantities for the construction of massive breakwaters to protect

harbors. Another point famous for its granite is Staten Island, New

York. This stone weighs 180 pounds to the cubic foot, while the Quincy

granite weighs but 165. The Staten Island product is used not only for

building purposes, but is also especially esteemed for paving after both

the Russ and Belgian patents. New York and other cities derive large

supplies from this source. The granite of Weehawken, N.J., is of the

same character, and greatly in demand. Port Deposit, Md., and Richmond,

Va, are also centers of granite production. Near Abbeville, S.C., and

in Georgia, granite is found quite like that of Quincy. Much southern

granite, however, decomposes readily, and is almost as soft as clay.

This variety of stone is found in great abundance in the Rocky

Mountains; but, except to a slight extent in California, it is not yet

quarried there.

Granite, having little grain, can be cut into blocks of almost any size

and shape. Specimens as much as eighty feet long have been taken out and

transported great distances. The quarrying is done by drilling a series

of small holes, six inches or more deep and almost the same distance

apart, inserting steel wedges along the whole line and then tapping each

gently with a hammer in succession, in order that the strain may be

evenly distributed.

A building material that came into use earlier than granite is known as

freestone or sandstone; although its first employment does not date back

further than the erection of King's Chapel, Boston, already referred to

as the earliest well-known occasion where granite was used in building.

Altogether the most famous American sandstone quarries are those at

Portland, on the Connecticut River, opposite Middletown. These were

worked before the Revolution; and their product has been shipped to many

distant points in the country. The long rows of "brownstone fronts" in

New York city are mostly of Portland stone, though in many cases the

walls are chiefly of brick covered with thin layers of the stone. The

old red sandstone of the Connecticut valley is distinguished in geology

for the discovery of gigantic fossil footprints of birds, first noticed

in the Portland quarries in 1802. Some of these footprints measured

ten to sixteen inches, and they were from four to six feet apart. The

sandstone of Belleville, N.J., has also extensive use and reputation.

Trinity Church in New York city and the Boston Atheneum are built of the

product of these quarries; St. Lawrence County, New York, is noted also

for a fine bed of sandstone. At Potsdam it is exposed to a depth of

seventy feet. There are places though, in New England, New York, and

Eastern Pennsylvania, where a depth of three hundred feet has been

reached. The Potsdam sandstone is often split to the thinness of an

inch. It hardens by exposure, and is often used for smelting furnace

hearth-stones. Shawangunk Mountain, in Ulster County, yields a sandstone

of inferior quality, which has been unsuccessfully tried for paving;

as it wears very unevenly. From Ulster, Greene, and Albany Counties

sandstone slabs for sidewalks are extensively quarried for city use;

the principal outlets of these sections being Kingston, Saugerties,

Coxsackie, Bristol, and New Baltimore, on the Hudson. In this region

quantities amounting to millions of square feet are taken out in large

sheets, which are often sawed into the sizes desired. The vicinity of

Medina, in Western New York, yields a sandstone extensively used in that

section for paving and curbing, and a little for building. A rather poor

quality of this stone has been found along the Potomac, and some of it

was used in the erection of the old Capitol building at Washington.

Ohio yields a sandstone that is of a light gray color; Berea, Amherst,

Vermilion, and Massillon are the chief points of production. St.

Genevieve, Mo., yields a stone of fine grain of a light straw color,

which is quite equal to the famous Caen stone of France. The Lake

Superior sandstones are dark and coarse grained, but strong.

In some parts of the country, where neither granite nor sandstone

is easily procured, blue and gray limestone are sometimes used for

building, and, when hammer dressed, often look like granite. A serious

objection to their use, however, is the occasional presence of iron,

which rusts on exposure, and defaces the building. In Western New York

they are widely used. Topeka stone, like the coquine of Florida and

Bermuda, is soft like wood when first quarried, and easily wrought,

but it hardens on exposure. The limestones of Canton, Mo., Joliet and

Athens, Ill., Dayton, Sandusky, Marblehead, and other points in Ohio,

Ellittsville, Ind., and Louisville and Bowling Green, Ky., are great

favorites west. In many of these regions limestone is extensively used

for macadamizing roads, for which it is excellently adapted. It also

yields excellent slabs or flags for sidewalks.

One of the principal uses of this variety of stone is its conversion, by

burning, into lime for building purposes. All limestones are by no

means equally excellent in this regard. Thomaston lime, burned with

Pennsylvania coal, near the Penobscot River, has had a wide reputation

for nearly half a century. It has been shipped thence to all points

along the Atlantic coast, invading Virginia as far as Lynchburg, and

going even to New Orleans, Smithfield, R.I., and Westchester County,

N.Y., near the lower end of the Highlands, also make a particularly

excellent quality of lime. Kingston, in Ulster County, makes an inferior

sort for agricultural purposes. The Ohio and other western stones yield

a poor lime, and that section is almost entirely dependent on the east

for supplies.

Marbles, like limestones, with which they are closely related, are very

abundant in this country, and are also to be found in a great variety of

colors. As early as 1804 American marble was used for statuary purposes.

Early in the century it also obtained extensive employment for

gravestones. Its use for building purposes has been more recent than

granite and sandstone in this country; and it is coming to supersede the

latter to a great degree. For mantels, fire-places, porch pillars, and

like ornamental purposes, however, our variegated, rich colored and

veined or brecciated marbles were in use some time before exterior walls

were made from them. Among the earliest marble buildings were Girard

College in Philadelphia and the old City Hall in New York, and the

Custom House in the latter city, afterward used for a sub-treasury. The

new Capitol building at Washington is among the more recent structures

composed of this material. Our exports of marble to Cuba and elsewhere

amount to over $300,000 annually, although we import nearly the same

amount from Italy. And yet an article can be found in the United States

fully as fine as the famous Carrara marble. We refer to that which comes

from Rutland, Vt. This state yields the largest variety and choicest

specimens. The marble belt runs both ways from Rutland County, where

the only quality fit for statuary is obtained. Toward the north it

deteriorates by growing less sound, though finer in grain; while to

the south it becomes coarser. A beautiful black marble is obtained at

Shoreham, Vt. There are also handsome brecciated marbles in the same

state; and in the extreme northern part, near Lake Champlain, they

become more variegated and rich in hue. Such other marble as is found

in New England is of an inferior quality. The pillars of Girard

College came from Berkshire, Mass., which ranks next after Vermont in

reputation.

The marble belt extends from New England through New York, Pennsylvania,

Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia, Tennessee, and the

Carolinas, to Georgia and Alabama. Some of the variegated and high

colored varieties obtained near Knoxville, Tenn., nearly equal that of

Vermont. The Rocky Mountains contain a vast abundance and variety.

Slate was known to exist in this country to a slight extent in colonial

days. It was then used for gravestones, and to some extent for roofing

and school purposes. But most of our supplies came from Wales. It is

stated that a slate quarry was operated in Northampton County, Pa., as

early as 1805. In 1826 James M. Porter and Samuel Taylor engaged in the

business, obtaining their supplies from the Kittanninny Mountains. From

this time the business developed rapidly, the village of Slateford being

an outgrowth of it, and large rafts being employed to float the product

down the Schuylkill to Philadelphia. By 1860 the industry had reached

the capacity of 20,000 cases of slate, valued at $10 a case, annually.

In 1839 quarries were opened in the Piscataquis River, forty miles

north of Bangor, Me., but poor transportation facilities retarded the

business. Vermont began to yield in 1852. New York's quarries are

confined to Washington County, near the Vermont line. Maryland has

a limited supply from Harford County. The Huron Mountains, north of

Marquette, Mich., contain slate, which is also said to exist in Pike

County, Ga.

Grindstones, millstones, and whetstones are quarried in New York, Ohio,

Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other States. Mica is found at Acworth and

Grafton, N. H., and near Salt Lake, but our chief supply comes from

Haywood, Yancey, Mitchell, and Macon counties, in North Carolina, and

our product is so large that we can afford to export it. Other stones,

such as silex, for making glass, etc., are found in profusion in various

parts of the country, but we have no space to enter into a detailed

account of them at present.--_Pottery and Glassware Reporter_.

* * * * *

AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

The most interesting change of which the Census gives account is the

increase in the number of farms. The number has virtually doubled within

twenty years. The population of the country has not increased in like

proportion. A large part of the increase in number of farms has been due

to the division of great estates. Nor has this occurred, as some may

imagine, exclusively in the Southern States and the States to which

immigration and migration have recently been directed. It is an

important fact that the multiplication of farms has continued even in

the older Northern States, though the change has not been as great in

these as in States of the far West or the South. In New York there has

been an increase of 25,000, or 11.5 per cent, in the number of farms

since 1870; in New Jersey the increase has been 12.2 per cent., and in

Pennsylvania 22.7 per cent., though the increase in population, and

doubtless in the number of persons engaged in farming, has been much

smaller. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois also, have been considered fully

settled States for years, at least in an agricultural point of view, and

yet the number of farms has increased 26.1 per cent, in ten years in

Ohio, 20.3 percent, in Indiana, and 26.1 per cent, in Illinois. The

obvious explanation is that the growth of many cities and towns has

created a market for a far greater supply of those products which may be

most advantageously grown upon farms of moderate size; but even if this

fully accounts for the phenomenon, the change must be recognized as one

of the highest importance industrially, socially, and politically. The

man who owns or rents and cultivates a farm stands on a very different

footing from the laborer who works for wages. It is not a small matter

that, in these six States alone, there are 205,000 more owners or

managers of farms than there were only a decade ago.

As we go further toward the border, west or north, the influence of the

settlement of new land is more distinctly felt. Even in Michigan, where

new railroads have opened new regions to settlement, the increase in

number of farms has been over 55 per cent. In Wisconsin, though the

increase in railroad mileage has been about the same as in Michigan, the

reported increase in number of farms has been only 28 per cent., but in

Iowa it rises to 60 per cent., and in Minnesota to nearly 100 per cent.

In Kansas the number of farms is 138,561, against 38,202 in 1870; in

Nebraska 63,387, against 12,301; and in Dakota 17,435, against 1,720. In

these regions the process is one of creation of new States rather than a

change in the social and industrial condition of the population.

Some Southern States have gained largely, but the increase in these,

though very great, is less surprising than the new States of the

Northwest. The prevailing tendency of Southern agriculture to large

farms and the employment of many hands is especially felt in States

where land is still abundant. The greatest increase is in Texas, where

174,184 farms are reported, against 61,125 in 1870; in Florida, with

23,438 farms, against 10,241 in 1870; and in Arkansas, with 94,433

farms, against 49,424 in 1870. In Missouri 215,575 farms are reported,

against 148,228 in 1870. In these States, though social changes have

been great, the increase in number of farms has been largely due to new

settlements, as in the States of the far Northwest. But the change in

the older Southern States is of a different character.

Virginia, for example, has long been settled, and had 77,000 farms

thirty years ago. But the increase in number within the past ten years

has been 44,668, or 60.5 per cent. Contrasting this with the increase in

New York, a remarkable difference appears. West Virginia had few more

farms ten years ago than New Jersey; now it has nearly twice as many,

and has gained in number nearly 60 per cent. North Carolina, too, has

increased 78 per cent. in number of farms since 1870, and South Carolina

80 per cent. In Georgia the increase has been still greater--from 69,956

to 138,626, or nearly 100 per cent. In Alabama there are 135,864

farms, against 67,382 in 1870, an increase of over 100 per cent. These

proportions, contrasted with those for the older Northern States, reveal

a change that is nothing less than an industrial revolution. But the

force of this tendency to division of estates has been greatest in the

States named. Whereas the ratio of increase in number of farms becomes

greater in Northern States as we go from the East toward the Mississippi

River, at the South it is much smaller in Kentucky, Tennessee,

Mississippi, and Louisiana than in the older States on the Atlantic

coast. Thus in Louisiana the increase has been from 28,481 to 48,292

farms, or 70 per cent., and in Mississippi from 68,023 to 101,772 farms,

or less than 50 per cent., against 100 in Alabama and Georgia. In

Kentucky the increase has been from 118,422 to 166,453 farms, or 40 per

cent., and in Tennessee from 118,141 to 165,650 farms, or 40 per cent.,

against 60 in Virginia and West Virginia, and 78 in North Carolina.

Thus, while the tendency to division is far greater than in the Northern

States of corresponding age, it is found in full force only in six of

the older Southern States, Alabama, West Virginia, and four on the

Atlantic coast. In these, the revolution already effected foreshadows

and will almost certainly bring about important political changes within

a few years. In these six States there 310,795 more farm owners or

occupants than there were ten years ago.--_N.Y. Tribune_.

* * * * *

A FARMER'S LIME KILN.

For information about burning lime we republish the following article

furnished by a correspondent of the _Country Gentleman_ several years

ago:

[Illustration: Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. A (Fig. 1), Railway Track--B B B,

Iron Rods running through Kiln--C, Capstone over Arch--D, Arch--E, Well

without brick or ash lining.]

I send you a description and sketch of a lime-kiln put up on my premises

about five years ago. The dimensions of this kiln are 13 feet square by

25 feet high from foundation, and its capacity 100 bushels in 24 hours.

It was constructed of the limestone quarried on the spot. It has round

iron rods (shown in sketch) passing through, with iron plates fastened

to the ends as clamps to make it more firm; the pair nearest the top

should be not less than 2 feet from that point, the others interspersed

about 2 feet apart--the greatest strain being near the top. The arch

should be 7 feet high by 51/2 wide in front, with a gather on the top

and sides of about 1 foot, with plank floor; and if this has a little

incline it will facilitate shoveling the lime when drawn. The arch

should have a strong capstone; also one immediately under the well of

the kiln, with a hole 2 feet in diameter to draw the lime through; or

two may be used with semicircle cut in each. Iron bars 2 inches wide by

1/8 inch thick are used in this kiln for closing it, working in slots

fastened to capstone. These slots must be put in before the caps

are laid. When it is desired to draw lime, these bars may be

pushed laterally in the slots, or drawn out entirely, according to

circumstances; 3 bars will be enough. The slots are made of iron bars

11/2 inches wide, with ends rounded and turned up, and inserted in holes

drilled through capstone and keyed above.

The well of the kiln is lined with fire-brick one course thick, with a

stratum of coal ashes three inches thick tamped in between the brick

and wall, which proves a great protection to the wall. About 2,000

fire-bricks were used. The proprietors of this kiln say about one-half

the lower part of the well might have been lined with a first quality of

common brick and saved some expense and been just as good. The form of

the well shown in Fig. 3 is 7 feet in diameter in the bilge, exclusive

of the lining of brick and ashes. Experiments in this vicinity have

proved this to be the best, this contraction toward the top being

absolutely necessary, the expansion of the stone by the heat is so

great that the lime cannot be drawn from perpendicular walls, as was

demonstrated in one instance near here, where a kiln was built on that

principle. The kiln, of course, is for coal, and our stone requires

about three-quarters of a ton per 100 bushels of lime, but this, I am

told, varies according to quality, some requiring more than others; the

quantity can best be determined by experimenting; also the regulation of

the heat--if too great it will cause the stones to melt or run together

as it were, or, if too little, they will not be properly burned. The

business requires skill and judgment to run it successfully.

This kiln is located at the foot of a steep bluff, the top about level

with the top of the kiln, with railway track built of wooden sleepers,

with light iron bars, running from the bluff to the top of the kiln, and

a hand-car makes it very convenient filling the kiln. Such a location

should be had if possible. Your inquirer may perhaps get some ideas

of the principles of a kiln for using _coal_. The dimensions may be

reduced, if desired. If for _wood_, the arch would have to be formed for

that, and the height of kiln reduced.

* * * * *

THE MANUFACTURE OF APPLE JELLY.

[Footnote: From the report of the New York Agricultural Society.]

Within the county of Oswego, New York, Dewitt C. Peck reports there are

five apple jelly factories in operation. The failure of the apple crop,

for some singular and unexplained reason, does not extend in great

degree to the natural or ungrafted fruit. Though not so many as common,

even of these apples, there are yet enough to keep these five mills and

the numerous cider mills pretty well employed. The largest jelly factory

is located near the village of Mexico, and as there are some features in

regard to this manufacture peculiar to this establishment which may be

new and interesting, we will undertake a brief description. The factory

is located on the Salmon Creek, which affords the necessary power. A

portion of the main floor, first story, is occupied as a saw mill,

the slabs furnishing fuel for the boiler furnace connected with the

evaporating department. Just above the mill, along the bank of the pond,

and with one end projecting over the water, are arranged eight large

bins, holding from five hundred to one thousand bushels each, into which

the apples are delivered from the teams. The floor in each of these has

a sharp pitch or inclination toward the water and at the lower end is a

grate through which the fruit is discharged, when wanted, into a trough

half submerged in the pond.

The preparation of the fruit and extraction of the juice proceeds

as follows: Upon hoisting a gate in the lower end of this trough,

considerable current is caused, and the water carries the fruit a

distance of from thirty to one hundred feet, and passes into the

basement of the mill, where, tumbling down a four-foot perpendicular

fall, into a tank, tight in its lower half and slatted so as to permit

the escape of water and impurities in the upper half, the apples are

thoroughly cleansed from all earthy or extraneous matter. Such is the

friction caused by the concussion of the fall, the rolling and rubbing

of the apples together, and the pouring of the water, that decayed

sections of the fruit are ground off and the rotten pulp passes away

with other impurities. From this tank the apples are hoisted upon an

endless chain elevator, with buckets in the form of a rake-head with

iron teeth, permitting drainage and escape of water, to an upper story

of the mill, whence by gravity they descend to the grater. The press

is wholly of iron, all its motions, even to the turning of the screws,

being actuated by the water power. The cheese is built up with layers

inclosed in strong cotton cloth, which displaces the straw used in olden

time, and serves also to strain the cider. As it is expressed from

the press tank, the cider passes to a storage tank, and thence to the

defecator.

This defecator is a copper pan, eleven feet long and about three feet

wide. At each end of this pan is placed a copper tube three inches in

diameter and closed at both ends. Lying between and connecting

these two, are twelve tubes, also of copper, 11/2 inches in diameter,

penetrating the larger tubes at equal distances from their upper and

under surfaces, the smaller being parallel with each other, and 11/2

inches apart. When placed in position, the larger tubes, which act as

manifolds, supplying the smaller with steam, rest upon the bottom of the

pan, and thus the smaller pipes have a space of three-fourths of an inch

underneath their outer surfaces.

The cider comes from the storage tank in a continuous stream about

three-eighths of an inch in diameter. Steam is introduced to the large

or manifold tubes, and from them distributed through the smaller ones at

a pressure of from twenty-five to thirty pounds per inch. Trap valves

are provided for the escape of water formed by condensation within the

pipes. The primary object of the defecator is to remove all impurities

and perfectly clarify the liquid passing through it. All portions of

pomace and other minute particles of foreign matter, when heated,

expand and float in the form of scum upon the surface of the cider. An

ingeniously contrived floating rake drags off this scum and delivers it

over the side of the pan. To facilitate this removal, one side of the

pan, commencing at a point just below the surface of the cider, is

curved gently outward and upward, terminating in a slightly inclined

plane, over the edge of which the scum is pushed by the rake into a

trough and carried away. A secondary purpose served by the defecator

is that of reducing the cider by evaporation to a partial sirup of the

specific gravity of about 20 deg. Baume. When of this consistency the liquid

is drawn from the bottom and less agitated portion of the defecator by a

siphon, and thence carried to the evaporator, which is located upon the

same framework and just below the defecator.

The evaporator consists of a separate system of six copper tubes, each

twelve feet long and three inches in diameter. These are each jacketed

or inclosed in an iron pipe of four inches internal diameter, fitted

with steam-tight collars so as to leave half an inch steam space

surrounding the copper tubes. The latter are open at both ends

permitting the admission and egress of the sirup and the escape of the

steam caused by evaporation therefrom, and are arranged upon the frame

so as to have a very slight inclination downward in the direction of

the current, and each nearly underneath its predecessor in regular

succession. Each is connected by an iron supply pipe, having a steam

gauge or indicator attached, with a large manifold, and that by other

pipes with a steam boiler of thirty horse power capacity. Steam being

let on at from twenty five to thirty pounds pressure, the stream of

sirup is received from the defecator through a strainer, which removes

any impurities possibly remaining into the upper evaporator tube;

passing in a gentle flow through that, it is delivered into a funnel

connected with the next tube below, and so, back and forth, through the

whole system. The sirup enters the evaporator at a consistency of from

20 deg. to 23 deg. Baume, and emerges from the last tube some three minutes

later at a consistency of from 30 deg. to 32 deg. Baume, which is found on

cooling to be the proper point for perfect jelly. This point is found to

vary one or two degrees, according to the fermentation consequent upon

bruises in handling the fruit, decay of the same, or any little delay in

expressing the juice from the cheese. The least fermentation occasions

the necessity for a lower reduction. To guard against this, no cheese

is allowed to stand over night, no pomace left in the grater or vat, no

cider in the tank; and further to provide against fermentation, a large

water tank is located upon the roof and filled by a force pump, and by

means of hose connected with this, each grater, press, vat, tank, pipe,

trough, or other article of machinery used, can be thoroughly washed and

cleansed. Hot water, instead of cider, is sometimes sent through the

defecator, evaporator, etc., until all are thoroughly scalded and

purified. If the saccharometer shows too great or too little reduction,

the matter is easily regulated by varying the steam pressure in the

evaporator by means of a valve in the supply pipe. If boiled cider

instead of jelly is wanted for making pies, sauces, etc., it is drawn

off from one of the upper evaporator tubes according to the consistency

desired; or can be produced at the end of the process by simply reducing

the steam pressure.

As the jelly emerges from the evaporator it is transferred to a tub

holding some fifty gallons, and by mixing a little therein, any little

variations in reduction or in the sweetness or sourness of the fruit

used are equalized. From this it is drawn through faucets, while hot,

into the various packages in which it is shipped to market. A favorite

form of package for family use is a nicely turned little wooden

bucket with cover and bail, two sizes, holding five and ten pounds

respectively. The smaller packages are shipped in cases for convenience

in handling. The present product of this manufactory is from 1,500 to

1,800 pounds of jelly each day of ten hours. It is calculated that

improvements now in progress will increase this to something more than a

ton per day. Each bushel of fruit will produce from four to five pounds

of jelly, fruit ripening late in the season being more productive than

earlier varieties. Crab apples produce the finest jelly; sour, crabbed,

natural fruit makes the best looking article, and a mixture of all

varieties gives most satisfactory results as to flavor and general

quality.

As the pomace is shoveled from the finished cheese, it is again ground

under a toothed cylinder, and thence drops into large troughs, through a

succession of which a considerable stream of water is flowing. Here it

is occasionally agitated by raking from the lower to the upper end of

the trough as the current carries it downward, and the apple seeds

becoming disengaged drop to the bottom into still water, while the pulp

floats away upon the stream. A succession of troughs serves to remove

nearly all the seeds. The value of the apple seeds thus saved is

sufficient to pay the daily wages of all the hands employed in the whole

establishment. The apples are measured in the wagon box, one and a half

cubic feet being accounted a bushel.

This mill ordinarily employs about six men: One general superintendent,

who buys and measures the apples, keeps time books, attends to all the

accounts and the working details of the mill, and acts as cashier; one

sawyer, who manufactures lumber for the local market and saws the slabs

into short lengths suitable for the furnace; one cider maker, who grinds

the apples and attends the presses; one jelly maker, who attends the

defecator, evaporator, and mixing tub, besides acting as his own fireman

and engineer; one who attends the apple seed troughs and acts as general

helper, and one man-of-all-work to pack, ship and assist whenever

needed. The establishment was erected late in the season of 1880,

and manufactured that year about forty-five tons of jelly, besides

considerable cider exchanged to the farmers for apples, and some boiled

cider.

The price paid for apples in 1880, when the crop was superabundant, was

six to eight cents per bushel; in 1881, fifteen cents. The proprietor

hopes next year to consume 100,000 bushels. These institutions are

important to the farmer in that they use much fruit not otherwise

valuable and very perishable. Fruit so crabbed and gnarled as to have no

market value, and even frozen apples, if delivered while yet solid, can

be used. (Such apples are placed in the water while frozen, the water

draws the frost sufficiently to be grated, and passing through the press

and evaporator before there is time for chemical change, they are found

to make very good jelly. They are valuable to the consumer by converting

the perishable, cheap, almost worthless crop of the bearing and abundant

years into such enduring form that its consumption may be carried over

to years of scarcity and furnish healthful food in cheap and pleasant

form to many who would otherwise be deprived; and lastly, they are of

great interest to society, in that they give to cider twice the value

for purposes of food that it has or can have, even to the manufacturer,

for use as a beverage and intoxicant.

* * * * *

IMPROVED GRAPE BAGS.

It stands to reason that were our summers warmer we should be able to

grow grapes successfully on open walls; it is therefore probable that

a new grape bag, the invention of M. Pelletier, 20 Rue de la Banque,

Paris, intended to serve a double purpose, viz., protecting the fruit

and hastening its maturity, will, when it becomes known, be welcomed in

this country. It consists of a square of curved glass so fixed to

the bag that the sun's rays are concentrated upon the fruit, thereby

rendering its ripening more certain in addition to improving its quality

generally. The glass is affixed to the bag by means of a light iron wire

support. It covers that portion of it next the sun, so that it increases

the amount of light and warms the grapes without scorching them, a

result due to the convexity of the glass and the layer of air between it

and the bag. M. Pelletier had the idea of rendering these bags cheaper

by employing plain squares instead of curved ones, but the advantage

thus obtained was more than counterbalanced by their comparative

inefficacy. In practice it was found that the curved squares gave an

average of 7 deg. more than the straight ones, while there was a difference

of 10 deg. when the bags alone were used, thus plainly demonstrating the

practical value of the invention.

Whether these glass-fronted bags would have much value in the case of

grapes grown under glass in the ordinary way is a question that can only

be determined by actual experiment; but where the vines are on walls,

either under glass screens or in the open air, so that the bunches feel

the full force of the sun's rays, there can be no doubt as to their

utility, and it is probable that by their aid many of the continental

varieties which we do not now attempt to grow in the open, and which are

scarcely worthy of a place under glass, might be well ripened. At

any rate we ought to give anything a fair trial which may serve to

neutralize, if only in a slight degree, the uncertainty of our summers.

As it is, we have only about two varieties of grapes, and these not the

best of the hardy kinds, as regards flavor and appearance, that ripen

out of doors, and even these do not always succeed. We know next to

nothing of the many really well-flavored kinds which are so much

appreciated in many parts of the Continent. The fact is, our outdoor

culture of grapes offers a striking contrast to that practiced under

glass, and although our comparatively sunless and moist climate affords

some excuse for our shortcomings in this respect, there is no valid

reason for the utter want of good culture which is to be observed in a

general way.

[Illustration: GRAPE BAG.--OPEN.]

Given intelligent training, constant care in stopping the laterals, and

checking mildew as well as thinning the berries, allowing each bunch to

get the full benefit of sun and air, and I believe good eatable grapes

would often be obtained even in summers marked by a low average

temperature.

[Illustration: GRAPE BAG.--CLOSED.]

If, moreover, to a good system of culture we add some such mechanical

contrivance as that under notice whereby the bunches enjoy an average

warmth some 10 deg. higher than they otherwise would do, we not only insure

the grapes coming to perfection in favored districts, but outdoor

culture might probably be practiced in higher latitudes than is now

practicable.

[Illustration: CURVED GLASS FOR FRONT OF BAG.]

The improved grape bag would also offer great facilities for destroying

mildew or guarantee the grapes against its attacks, as a light dusting

administered as soon as the berries were fairly formed would suffice for

the season, as owing to the glass protecting the berries from driving

rains, which often accompany south or south-west winds in summer and

autumn, the sulphur would not be washed off.

[Illustration: CURVED GLASS FIXED ON BAG.]

The inventor claims, and we should say with just reason, that these

glass fronted bags would be found equally serviceable for the ripening

of pears and other choice fruits, and with a view to their being

employed for such a purpose, he has had them made of varying sizes and

shapes. In conclusion, it may be observed that, in addition to advancing

the maturity of the fruits to which they are applied, they also serve to

preserve them from falling to the ground when ripe.--J. COBNHILL, _in

the Garden_.

* * * * *

UTILIZATION OF SOLAR HEAT.

At a popular fete in the Tuileries Gardens I was struck with an

experiment which seems deserving of the immediate attention of the

English public and military authorities.

Among the attractions of the fete was an apparatus for the concentration

and utilization of solar heat, and, though the sun was not very

brilliant, I saw this apparatus set in motion a printing machine which

printed several thousand copies of a specimen newspaper entitled the

_Soleil Journal_.

The sun's rays are concentrated in a reflector, which moves at the

same rate as the sun and heats a vertical boiler, setting the motive

steam-engine at work. As may be supposed, the only object was to

demonstrate the possibility of utilizing the concentrated heat of the

solar rays; but I closely examined it, because the apparatus seems

capable of great utility in existing circumstances. Here in France,

indeed, there is a radical drawback--the sun is often overclouded.

Thousands of years ago the idea of utilizing the solar rays must have

suggested itself, and there are still savage tribes who know no other

mode of combustion; but the scientific application has hitherto been

lacking. This void this apparatus will fill up. About fifteen years ago

Professor Mouchon, of Tours, began constructing such an apparatus, and

his experiments have been continued by M. Pifre, who has devoted much

labor and expense to realizing M. Mouchou's idea. A company has now come

to his aid, and has constructed a number of apparatus of different sizes

at a factory which might speedily turn out a large number of them. It is

evident that in a country of uninterrupted sunshine the boiler might be

heated in thirty or forty minutes. A portable apparatus could boil two

and one-half quarts an hour, or, say, four gallons a day, thus supplying

by distillation or ebullition six or eight men. The apparatus can be

easily carried on a man's back, and on condition of water, even of the

worst quality, being obtainable, good drinking and cooking water is

insured. M. De Rougaumond, a young scientific writer, has just published

an interesting volume on the invention. I was able yesterday to verify

his statements, for I saw cider made, a pump set in motion, and coffee

made--in short, the calorific action of the sun superseding that of

fuel. The apparatus, no doubt, has not yet reached perfection, but as it

is it would enable the soldier in India or Egypt to procure in the field

good water and to cook his food rapidly. The invention is of especial

importance to England just now, but even when the Egyptian question is

settled the Indian troops might find it of inestimable value.

Red tape should for once be disregarded, and a competent commission

forthwith sent to 30 Rue d'Assas, with instructions to report

immediately, for every minute saved may avoid suffering for Englishmen

fighting abroad for their country. I may, of course, be mistaken, but

a commission would decide, and if the apparatus is good the slightest

delay in its adoption would be deplorable.--_Paris Correspondence London

Times_.

* * * * *

HOW TO ESTABLISH A TRUE MERIDIAN.

[Footnote: A paper read before the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia.]

By PROFESSOR L. M. HAUPT.

INTRODUCTORY.

The discovery of the magnetic needle was a boon to mankind, and has been

of inestimable service in guiding the mariner through trackless waters,

and the explorer over desert wastes. In these, its legitimate uses, the

needle has not a rival, but all efforts to apply it to the accurate

determination of permanent boundary lines have proven very

unsatisfactory, and have given rise to much litigation, acerbity, and

even death.

For these and other cogent reasons, strenuous efforts are being made to

dispense, so far as practicable, with the use of the magnetic needle

in surveying, and to substitute therefor the more accurate method of

traversing from a true meridian. This method, however, involves a

greater degree of preparation and higher qualifications than are

generally possessed, and unless the matter can be so simplified as to be

readily understood, it is unreasonable to expect its general application

in practice.

Much has been written upon the various methods of determining, the

true meridian, but it is so intimately related to the determination of

latitude and time, and these latter in turn upon the fixing of a true

meridian, that the novice can find neither beginning nor end. When to

these difficulties are added the corrections for parallax, refraction,

instrumental errors, personal equation, and the determination of the

probable error, he is hopelessly confused, and when he learns that time

may be sidereal, mean solar, local, Greenwich, or Washington, and he is

referred to an ephemeris and table of logarithms for data, he becomes

lost in "confusion worse confounded," and gives up in despair, settling

down to the conviction that the simple method of compass surveying is

the best after all, even if not the most accurate.

Having received numerous requests for information upon the subject, I

have thought it expedient to endeavor to prepare a description of the

method of determining the true meridian which should be sufficiently

clear and practical to be generally understood by those desiring to make

use of such information.

This will involve an elementary treatment of the subject, beginning with

the

DEFINITIONS.

The _celestial sphere_ is that imaginary surface upon which all

celestial objects are projected. Its radius is infinite.

The _earth's axis_ is the imaginary line about which it revolves.

The _poles_ are the points in which the axis pierces the surface of the

earth, or of the celestial sphere.

A _meridian_ is a great circle of the earth cut out by a plane passing

through the axis. All meridians are therefore north and south lines

passing through the poles.

From these definitions it follows that if there were a star exactly at

the pole it would only be necessary to set up an instrument and take a

bearing to it for the meridian. Such not being the case, however, we are

obliged to take some one of the near circumpolar stars as our object,

and correct the observation according to its angular distance from the

meridian at the time of observation.

For convenience, the bright star known as Ursae Minoris or Polaris, is

generally selected. This star apparently revolves about the north pole,

in an orbit whose mean radius is 1 deg. 19' 13",[1] making the revolution in

23 hours 56 minutes.

[Footnote 1: This is the codeclination as given in the Nautical Almanac.

The mean value decreases by about 20 seconds each year.]

During this time it must therefore cross the meridian twice, once above

the pole and once below; the former is called the _upper_, and the

latter the _lower meridian transit or culmination_. It must also pass

through the points farthest east and west from the meridian. The former

is called the _eastern elongation_, the latter the _western_.

An observation may he made upon Polaris at any of these four points,

or at any other point of its orbit, but this latter case becomes too

complicated for ordinary practice, and is therefore not considered.

If the observation were made upon the star at the time of its upper or

lower culmination, it would give the true meridian at once, but this

involves a knowledge of the true local time of transit, or the longitude

of the place of observation, which is generally an unknown quantity; and

moreover, as the star is then moving east or west, or at right angles to

the place of the meridian, at the rate of 15 deg. of arc in about one hour,

an error of so slight a quantity as only four seconds of time would

introduce an error of one minute of arc. If the observation be made,

however, upon either elongation, when the star is moving up or down,

that is, in the direction of the vertical wire of the instrument, the

error of observation in the angle between it and the pole will be

inappreciable. This is, therefore, the best position upon which to make

the observation, as the precise time of the elongation need not be

given. It can be determined with sufficient accuracy by a glance at the

relative positions of the star Alioth, in the handle of the Dipper,

and Polaris (see Fig. 1). When the line joining these two stars is

horizontal or nearly so, and Alioth is to the _west_ of Polaris, the

latter is at its _eastern_ elongation, and _vice versa_, thus:

[Illustration]

But since the star at either elongation is off the meridian, it will

be necessary to determine the angle at the place of observation to be

turned off on the instrument to bring it into the meridian. This angle,

called the azimuth of the pole star, varies with the latitude of the

observer, as will appear from Fig 2, and hence its value must be

computed for different latitudes, and the surveyor must know his

_latitude_ before he can apply it. Let N be the north pole of the

celestial sphere; S, the position of Polaris at its eastern elongation;

then N S=1 deg. 19' 13", a constant quantity. The azimuth of Polaris at the

latitude 40 deg. north is represented by the angle N O S, and that at 60 deg.

north, by the angle N O' S, which is greater, being an exterior angle

of the triangle, O S O. From this we see that the azimuth varies at the

latitude.

We have first, then, to _find the latitude of the place of observation_.

Of the several methods for doing this, we shall select the simplest,

preceding it by a few definitions.

A _normal_ line is the one joining the point directly overhead, called

the _zenith_, with the one under foot called the _nadir_.

The _celestial horizon_ is the intersection of the celestial sphere by a

plane passing through the center of the earth and perpendicular to the

normal.

A _vertical circle_ is one whose plane is perpendicular to the horizon,

hence all such circles must pass through the normal and have the zenith

and nadir points for their poles. The _altitude_ of a celestial object

is its distance above the horizon measured on the arc of a vertical

circle. As the distance from the horizon to the zenith is 90 deg., the

difference, or _complement_ of the altitude, is called the _zenith

distance_, or _co-altitude_.

The _azimuth_ of an object is the angle between the vertical plane

through the object and the plane of the meridian, measured on the

horizon, and usually read from the south point, as 0 deg., through west, at

90, north 180 deg., etc., closing on south at 0 deg. or 360 deg..

These two co-ordinates, the altitude and azimuth, will determine the

position of any object with reference to the observer's place. The

latter's position is usually given by his latitude and longitude

referred to the equator and some standard meridian as co-ordinates.

The _latitude_ being the angular distance north or south of the equator,

and the _longitude_ east or west of the assumed meridian.

We are now prepared to prove that _the altitude of the pole is equal to

the latitude of the place of observation_.

Let H P Z Q, etc., Fig. 2, represent a meridian section of the sphere,

in which P is the north pole and Z the place of observation, then H H

will be the horizon, Q Q the equator, H P will be the altitude of P,

and Q Z the latitude of Z. These two arcs are equal, for H C Z = P C

Q = 90 deg., and if from these equal quadrants the common angle P C Z be

subtracted, the remainders H C P and Z C Q, will be equal.

To _determine the altitude of the pole_, or, in other words, _the

latitude of the place_.

Observe the altitude of the pole star _when on the meridian_, either

above or below the pole, and from this observed altitude corrected for

refraction, subtract the distance of the star from the pole, or its

_polar distance_, if it was an upper transit, or add it if a lower.

The result will be the required latitude with sufficient accuracy for

ordinary purposes.

The time of the star's being on the meridian can be determined with

sufficient accuracy by a mere inspection of the heavens. The refraction

is _always negative_, and may be taken from the table appended by

looking up the amount set opposite the observed altitude. Thus, if the

observer's altitude should be 40 deg. 39' the nearest refraction 01' 07",

should be subtracted from 40 deg. 37' 00", leaving 40 deg. 37' 53" for the

latitude.

TO FIND THE AZIMUTH OF POLARIS.

As we have shown the azimuth of Polaris to be a function of the

latitude, and as the latitude is now known, we may proceed to find the

required azimuth. For this purpose we have a right-angled spherical

triangle, Z S P, Fig. 4, in which Z is the place of observation, P the

north pole, and S is Polaris. In this triangle we have given the polar

distance, P S = 10 deg. 19' 13"; the angle at S = 90 deg.; and the distance Z

P, being the complement of the latitude as found above, or 90 deg.--L.

Substituting these in the formula for the azimuth, we will have sin. Z =

sin. P S / sin P Z or sin. of Polar distance / sin. of co-latitude, from

which, by assuming different values for the co-latitude, we compute the

following table:

AZIMUTH TABLE FOR POINTS BETWEEN 26 deg. and 50 deg. N. LAT.

LATTITUDES

___________________________________________________________________

| | | | | | | |

| Year | 26 deg. | 28 deg. | 30 deg. | 32 deg. | 34 deg. | 36 deg. |

|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|

| | | | | | | |

| | deg. ' " | deg. ' " | deg. ' " | deg. ' " | deg. ' " | deg. ' " |

| 1882 | 1 28 05 | 1 29 40 | 1 31 25 | 1 33 22 | 1 35 30 | 1 37 52 |

| 1883 | 1 27 45 | 1 29 20 | 1 31 04 | 1 33 00 | 1 35 08 | 1 37 30 |

| 1884 | 1 27 23 | 1 28 57 | 1 30 41 | 1 32 37 | 1 34 45 | 1 37 05 |

| 1885 | 1 27 01 | 1 28 351/2 | 1 30 19 | 1 32 14 | 1 34 22 | 1 36 41 |

| 1886 | 1 26 39 | 1 28 13 | 1 29 56 | 1 31 51 | 1 33 57 | 1 36 17 |

|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|

| | | | | | | |

| Year | 38 deg. | 40 deg. | 42 deg. | 44 deg. | 46 deg. | 48 deg. |

|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|

| | | | | | | |

| | deg. ' " | deg. ' " | deg. ' " | deg. ' " | deg. ' " | deg. ' " |

| 1882 | 1 40 29 | 1 43 21 | 1 46 33 | 1 50 05 | 1 53 59 | 1 58 20 |

| 1883 | 1 40 07 | 1 42 58 | 1 46 08 | 1 49 39 | 1 53 34 | 1 57 53 |

| 1884 | 1 39 40 | 1 42 31 | 1 45 41 | 1 49 11 | 1 53 05 | 1 57 23 |

| 1885 | 1 39 16 | 1 42 07 | 1 45 16 | 1 48 45 | 1 52 37 | 1 56 54 |

| 1886 | 1 38 51 | 1 41 41 | 1 44 49 | 1 48 17 | 1 52 09 | 1 56 24 |

|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|

| | |

| Year | 50 deg. |

|______|_________|

| | |

| | deg. ' " |

| 1882 | 2 03 11 |

| 1883 | 2 02 42 |

| 1884 | 2 02 11 |

| 1885 | 2 01 42 |

| 1886 | 2 01 11 |

|______|_________|

An analysis of this table shows that the azimuth this year (1882)

increases with the latitude from 1 deg. 28' 05" at 26 deg. north, to 2 deg. 3' 11"

at 50 deg. north, or 35' 06". It also shows that the azimuth of Polaris at

any one point of observation decreases slightly from year to year. This

is due to the increase in declination, or decrease in the star's polar

distance. At 26 deg. north latitude, this annual decrease in the azimuth

is about 22", while at 50 deg. north, it is about 30". As the variation in

azimuth for each degree of latitude is small, the table is only computed

for the even numbered degrees; the intermediate values being readily

obtained by interpolation. We see also that an error of a few minutes of

latitude will not affect the result in finding the meridian, e.g., the

azimuth at 40 deg. north latitude is 1 deg. 43' 21", that at 41 deg. would be 1 deg. 44'

56", the difference (01' 35") being the correction for one degree of

latitude between 40 deg. and 41 deg.. Or, in other words, an error of one degree

in finding one's latitude would only introduce an error in the azimuth

of one and a half minutes. With ordinary care the probable error of the

latitude as determined from the method already described need not exceed

a few minutes, making the error in azimuth as laid off on the arc of an

ordinary transit graduated to single minutes, practically zero.

REFRACTION TABLE FOR ANY ALTITUDE WITHIN THE LATITUDE OF THE UNITED

STATES.

_____________________________________________________

| | | | |

|___________|______________|___________|______________|

| | | | |

| 25 deg. | 0 deg. 2' 4.2" | 38 deg. | 0 deg. 1' 14.4" |

| 26 | 1 58.8 | 39 | 1 11.8 |

| 27 | 1 53.8 | 40 | 1 9.3 |

| 28 | 1 49.1 | 41 | 1 6.9 |

| 29 | 1 44.7 | 42 | 1 4.6 |

| 30 | 1 40.5 | 43 | 1 2.4 |

| 31 | 1 36.6 | 44 | 0 0.3 |

| 32 | 1 33.0 | 45 | 0 58.1 |

| 33 | 1 29.5 | 46 | 0 56.1 |

| 34 | 1 26.1 | 47 | 0 54.2 |

| 35 | 1 23.0 | 48 | 0 52.3 |

| 36 | 1 20.0 | 49 | 0 50.5 |

| 37 | 1 17.1 | 50 | 0 48.8 |

|___________|______________|___________|______________|

APPLICATIONS.

In practice to find the true meridian, two observations must be made at

intervals of six hours, or they may be made upon different nights. The

first is for latitude, the second for azimuth at elongation.

To make either, the surveyor should provide himself with a good transit

with vertical arc, a bull's eye, or hand lantern, plumb bobs, stakes,

etc.[1] Having "set up" over the point through which it is proposed to

establish the meridian, at a time when the line joining Polaris and

Alioth is nearly vertical, level the telescope by means of the attached

level, which should be in adjustment, set the vernier of the vertical

arc at zero, and take the reading. If the pole star is about making its

_upper_ transit, it will rise gradually until reaching the meridian as

it moves westward, and then as gradually descend. When near the highest

part of its orbit point the telescope at the star, having an assistant

to hold the "bull's eye" so as to reflect enough light down the tube

from the object end to illumine the cross wires but not to obscure the

star, or better, use a perforated silvered reflector, clamp the tube in

this position, and as the star continues to rise keep the _horizontal_

wire upon it by means of the tangent screw until it "rides" along this

wire and finally begins to fall below it. Take the reading of the

vertical arc and the result will be the observed altitude.

[Footnote 1: A sextant and artificial horizon may be used to find the

_altitude_ of a star. In this case the observed angle must be divided by

2.]

ANOTHER METHOD.

It is a little more accurate to find the altitude by taking the

complement of the observed zenith distance, if the vertical arc has

sufficient range. This is done by pointing first to Polaris when at

its highest (or lowest) point, reading the vertical arc, turning the

horizontal limb half way around, and the telescope over to get another

reading on the star, when the difference of the two readings will be the

_double_ zenith distance, and _half_ of this subtracted from 90 deg. will be

the required altitude. The less the time intervening between these two

pointings, the more accurate the result will be.

Having now found the altitude, correct it for refraction by subtracting

from it the amount opposite the observed altitude, as given in the

refraction table, and the result will be the latitude. The observer must

now wait about six hours until the star is at its western elongation,

or may postpone further operations for some subsequent night. In the

meantime he will take from the azimuth table the amount given for his

date and latitude, now determined, and if his observation is to be made

on the western elongation, he may turn it off on his instrument, so

that when moved to zero, _after_ the observation, the telescope will be

brought into the meridian or turned to the right, and a stake set by

means of a lantern or plummet lamp.

[Illustration]

It is, of course, unnecessary to make this correction at the time of

observation, for the angle between any terrestrial object and the star

may be read and the correction for the azimuth of the star applied at

the surveyor's convenience. It is always well to check the accuracy of

the work by an observation upon the other elongation before putting in

permanent meridian marks, and care should be taken that they are not

placed near any local attractions. The meridian having been established,

the magnetic variation or declination may readily be found by setting

an instrument on the meridian and noting its bearing as given by the

needle. If, for example, it should be north 5 deg. _east_, the variation is

west, because the north end of the needle is _west_ of the meridian, and

_vice versa_.

_Local time_ may also be readily found by observing the instant when the

sun's center[1] crosses the line, and correcting it for the equation of

time as given above--the result is the true or mean solar time. This,

compared with the clock, will show the error of the latter, and by

taking the difference between the local lime of this and any other

place, the difference of longitude is determined in hours, which can

readily be reduced to degrees by multiplying by fifteen, as 1 h. = 15 deg..

[Footnote 1: To obtain this time by observation, note the instant of

first contact of the sun's limb, and also of last contact of same, and

take the mean.]

APPROXIMATE EQUATION OF TIME.

_______________________

| | |

| Date. | Minutes. |

|__________|____________|

| | |

| Jan. 1 | 4 |

| 3 | 5 |

| 5 | 6 |

| 7 | 7 |

| 9 | 8 |

| 12 | 9 |

| 15 | 10 |

| 18 | 11 |

| 21 | 12 |

| 25 | 13 |

| 31 | 14 |

| Feb. 10 | 15 |

| 21 | 14 | Clock

| 27 | 13 | faster

| M'ch 4 | 12 | than

| 8 | 11 | sun.

| 12 | 10 |

| 15 | 9 |

| 19 | 8 |

| 22 | 7 |

| 25 | 6 |

| 28 | 5 |

| April 1 | 4 |

| 4 | 3 |

| 7 | 2 |

| 11 | 1 |

| 15 | 0 |

| |------------|

| 19 | 1 |

| 24 | 2 |

| 30 | 3 |

| May 13 | 4 | Clock

| 29 | 3 | slower.

| June 5 | 2 |

| 10 | 1 |

| 15 | 0 |

| |------------|

| 20 | 1 |

| 25 | 2 |

| 29 | 3 |

| July 5 | 4 |

| 11 | 5 |

| 28 | 6 | Clock

| Aug. 9 | 5 | faster.

| 15 | 4 |

| 20 | 3 |

| 24 | 2 |

| 28 | 1 |

| 31 | 0 |

| |------------|

| Sept. 3 | 1 |

| 6 | 2 |

| 9 | 3 |

| 12 | 4 |

| 15 | 5 |

| 18 | 6 |

| 21 | 7 |

| 24 | 8 |

| 27 | 9 |

| 30 | 10 |

| Oct. 3 | 11 |

| 6 | 12 |

| 10 | 13 |

| 14 | 14 |

| 19 | 15 |

| 27 | 16 | Clock

| Nov. 15 | 15 | slower.

| 20 | 14 |

| 24 | 13 |

| 27 | 12 |

| 30 | 11 |

| Dec. 2 | 10 |

| 5 | 9 |

| 7 | 8 |

| 9 | 7 |

| 11 | 6 |

| 13 | 5 |

| 16 | 4 |

| 18 | 3 |

| 20 | 2 |

| 22 | 1 |

| 24 | 0 |

| |------------|

| 26 | 1 |

| 28 | 2 | Clock

| 30 | 3 | faster.

|__________|____________|

* * * * *

THE OCELLATED PHEASANT.

The collections of the Museum of Natural History of Paris have just been

enriched with a magnificent, perfectly adult specimen of a species of

bird that all the scientific establishments had put down among their

desiderata, and which, for twenty years past, has excited the curiosity

of naturalists. This species, in fact, was known only by a few caudal

feathers, of which even the origin was unknown, and which figured in the

galleries of the Jardin des Plantes under the name of _Argus ocellatus_.

This name was given by J. Verreaux, who was then assistant naturalist at

the museum. It was inscribed by Prince Ch. L. Bonaparte, in his Tableaux

Paralleliques de l'Ordre des Gallinaces, as _Argus giganteus_, and a

few years later it was reproduced by Slater in his Catalogue of the

Phasianidae, and by Gray is his List of the Gallinaceae. But it was not

till 1871 and 1872 that Elliot, in the Annals and Magazine of Natural

History, and in a splendid monograph of the Phasianidae, pointed out

the peculiarities that were presented by the feathers preserved at the

Museum of Paris, and published a figure of them of the natural size.

The discovery of an individual whose state of preservation leaves

nothing to be desired now comes to demonstrate the correctness of

Verreaux's, Bonaparte's, and Elliot's suppositions. This bird, whose

tail is furnished with feathers absolutely identical with those that

the museum possessed, is not a peacock, as some have asserted, nor an

ordinary Argus of Malacca, nor an argus of the race that Elliot named

_Argus grayi_, and which inhabits Borneo, but the type of a new genus of

the family Phasianidae. This Gallinacean, in fact, which Mr. Maingonnat

has given up to the Museum of Natural History, has not, like the common

Argus of Borneo, excessively elongated secondaries; and its tail is not

formed of normal rectrices, from the middle of which spring two very

long feathers, a little curved and arranged like a roof; but it consists

of twelve wide plane feathers, regularly tapering, and ornamented with

ocellated spots, arranged along the shaft. Its head is not bare, but is

adorned behind with a tuft of thread-like feathers; and, finally, its

system of coloration and the proportions of the different parts of its

body are not the same as in the common argus of Borneo. There is reason,

then, for placing the bird, under the name of _Rheinardius ocellatus_,

in the family Phasianidae, after the genus _Argus_ which it connects,

after a manner, with the pheasants properly so-called. The specific name

_ocellatus_ has belonged to it since 1871, and must be substituted for

that of _Rheinardi_.

The bird measures more than two meters in length, three-fourths of which

belong to the tail. The head, which is relatively small, appears to be

larger than it really is, owing to the development of the piliform tuft

on the occiput, this being capable of erection so as to form a crest

0.05 to 0.06 of a meter in height. The feathers of this crest are

brown and white. The back and sides of the head are covered with downy

feathers of a silky brown and silvery gray, and the front of the neck

with piliform feathers of a ruddy brown. The upper part of the body is

of a blackish tint and the under part of a reddish brown, the whole

dotted with small white or _cafe-au-lait_ spots. Analogous spots are

found on the wings and tail, but on the secondaries these become

elongated, and tear-like in form. On the remiges the markings are quite

regularly hexagonal in shape; and on the upper coverts of the tail

and on the rectrices they are accompanied with numerous ferruginous

blotches, some of which are irregularly scattered over the whole surface

of the vane, while others, marked in the center with a blackish spot,

are disposed in series along the shaft and resemble ocelli. This

similitude of marking between the rectrices and subcaudals renders the

distinction between these two kinds of feathers less sharp than in many

other Gallinaceans, and the more so in that two median rectrices are

considerably elongated and assume exactly the aspect of tail feathers.

[Illustration: THE OCELLATED PHEASANT (_Rheinardius ocellatus_).]

The true rectrices are twelve in number. They are all absolutely plane,

all spread out horizontally, and they go on increasing in length

from the exterior to the middle. They are quite wide at the point of

insertion, increase in diameter at the middle, and afterward taper to

a sharp point. Altogether they form a tail of extraordinary length and

width which the bird holds slightly elevated, so as to cause it to

describe a graceful curve, and the point of which touches the soil. The

beak, whose upper mandible is less arched than that of the pheasants,

exactly resembles that of the arguses. It is slightly inflated at the

base, above the nostrils, and these latter are of an elongated-oval

form. In the bird that I have before me the beak, as well as the feet

and legs, is of a dark rose-color. The legs are quite long and are

destitute of spurs. They terminate in front in three quite delicate

toes, connected at the base by membranes, and behind in a thumb that is

inserted so high that it scarcely touches the ground in walking. This

magnificent bird was captured in a portion of Tonkin as yet unexplored

by Europeans, in a locality named Buih-Dinh, 400 kilometers to the south

of Hue.--_La Nature_.

* * * * *

THE MAIDENHAIR TREE.

The Maidenhair tree--Gingkgo biloba--of which we give an illustration,

is not only one of our most ornamental deciduous trees, but one of the

most interesting. Few persons would at first sight take it to be a

Conifer, more especially as it is destitute of resin; nevertheless,

to that group it belongs, being closely allied to the Yew, but

distinguishable by its long-stalked, fan-shaped leaves, with numerous

radiating veins, as in an Adiantum. These leaves, like those of the

larch but unlike most Conifers, are deciduous, turning of a pale yellow

color before they fall. The tree is found in Japan and in China, but

generally in the neighborhood of temples or other buildings, and is, we

believe, unknown in a truly wild state. As in the case of several other

trees planted in like situations, such as Cupressus funebris, Abies

fortunei, A. kaempferi, Cryptomeria japonica, Sciadopitys verticillata,

it is probable that the trees have been introduced from Thibet, or

other unexplored districts, into China and Japan. Though now a solitary

representative of its genus, the Gingkgo was well represented in the

coal period, and also existed through the secondary and tertiary epochs,

Professor Heer having identified kindred specimens belonging to sixty

species and eight genera in fossil remains generally distributed through

the northern hemisphere. Whatever inference we may draw, it is at least

certain that the tree was well represented in former times, if now it

be the last of its race. It was first known to Kaempfer in 1690, and

described by him in 1712, and was introduced into this country in the

middle of the eighteenth century. Loudon relates a curious tale as

to the manner in which a French amateur became possessed of it. The

Frenchman, it appears, came to England, and paid a visit to an English

nurseryman, who was the possessor of five plants, raised from Japanese

seeds. The hospitable Englishman entertained the Frenchman only too

well. He allowed his commercial instincts to be blunted by wine, and

sold to his guest the five plants for the sum of 25 guineas. Next

morning, when time for reflection came, the Englishman attempted to

regain one only of the plants for the same sum that the Frenchman had

given for all five, but without avail. The plants were conveyed to

France, where as each plant had cost about 40 crowns, _ecus_, the tree

got the name of _arbre a quarante ecus_. This is the story as given by

Loudon, who tells us that Andre Thouin used to relate the fact in his

lectures at the Jardin des Plantes, whether as an illustration of the

perfidy of Albion is not stated.

The tree is dioecious, bearing male catkins on one plant, female on

another. All the female trees in Europe are believed to have originated

from a tree near Geneva, of which Auguste Pyramus de Candolle secured

grafts, and distributed them throughout the Continent. Nevertheless, the

female tree is rarely met with, as compared with the male; but it is

quite possible that a tree which generally produces male flowers only

may sometimes bear female flowers only. We have no certain evidence of

this in the case of the Gingkgo, but it is a common enough occurrence in

other dioecious plants, and the occurrence of a fruiting specimen near

Philadelphia, as recently recorded by Mr. Meehan, may possibly be

attributed to this cause.

The tree of which we give a figure is growing at Broadlands, Hants, and

is about 40 feet in height, with a trunk that measures 7 feet in girth

at 3 feet from the ground, with a spread of branches measuring 45 feet.

These dimensions have been considerably exceeded in other cases. In 1837

a tree at Purser's Cross measured 60 feet and more in height. Loudon

himself had a small tree in his garden at Bayswater on which a female

branch was grafted. It is to be feared that this specimen has long since

perished.

We have already alluded to its deciduous character, in which it is

allied to the larch. It presents another point of resemblance both to

the larch and the cedar in the short spurs upon which both leaves and

male catkins are borne, but these contracted branches are mingled with

long extension shoots; there seems, however, no regular alternation

between the short and the long shoots, at any rate the _rationale_ of

their production is not understood, though in all probability a little

observation of the growing plant would soon clear the matter up.

The fruit is drupaceous, with a soft outer coat and a hard woody shell,

greatly resembling that of a Cycad, both externally and internally.

Whether the albumen contains the peculiar "corpuscles" common to Cycads

and Conifers, we do not for certain know, though from the presence of 2

to 3 embryos in one seed, as noted by Endlicher, we presume this is the

case. The interest of these corpuscles, it may be added, lies in the

proof of affinity they offer between Conifers and the higher Cryptogams,

such as ferns and lycopods--an affinity shown also in the peculiar

venation of the Gingkgo. Conifers are in some degree links between

ordinary flowering plants and the higher Cryptogams, and serve to

connect in genealogical sequence groups once considered quite distinct.

In germination the two fleshy cotyledons of the Gingkgo remain within

the shell, leaving the three-sided plumule to pass upward; the young

stem bears its leaves in threes.

We have no desire to enter further upon the botanical peculiarities of

this tree; enough if we have indicated in what its peculiar interest

consists. We have only to add that in gardens varieties exist some with

leaves more deeply cut than usual, others with leaves nearly entire, and

others with leaves of a golden-yellow color.--_Gardeners' Chronicle_.

[Illustration: THE MAIDENHAIR TREE IN THE GARDENS AT BROADLANDS.]

* * * * *

THE WOODS OF AMERICA.

A collection of woods without a parallel in the world is now being

prepared for exhibition by the Directors of the American Museum of

Natural History. Scattered about the third floor of the Arsenal, in

Central Park, lie 394 logs, some carefully wrapped in bagging,

some inclosed in rough wooden cases, and others partially sawn

longitudinally, horizontally, and diagonally. These logs represent all

but 26 of the varieties of trees indigenous to this country, and

nearly all have a greater or less economic or commercial value. The 26

varieties needed to complete the collection will arrive before winter

sets in, a number of specimens being now on their way to this city from

the groves of California. Mr. S. D. Dill and a number of assistants are

engaged in preparing the specimens for exhibition. The logs as they

reach the workroom are wrapped in bagging and inclosed in cases, this

method being used so that the bark, with its growth of lichens and

delicate exfoliations, shall not be injured while the logs are in

process of transportation from various parts of the country to this

city. The logs are each 6 feet in length, and each is the most perfect

specimen of its class that could be found by the experts employed in

making the collection. With the specimens of the trees come to the

museum also specimens of the foliage and the fruits and flowers of the

tree. These come from all parts of the Union--from Alaska on the north

to Texas on the south, from Maine on the east to California on the

west--and there is not a State or Territory in the Union which has not a

representative in this collection of logs. On arrival here the logs are

green, and the first thing in the way of treatment after their arrival

is to season them, a work requiring great care to prevent them from

"checking," as it is technically called, or "season cracking," as the

unscientific term the splitting of the wood in radiating lines during

the seasoning process. As is well known, the sap-wood of a tree seasons

much more quickly than does the heart of the wood. The prevention of

this splitting is very necessary in preparing these specimens for

exhibition, for when once the wood has split its value for dressing for

exhibition is gone. A new plan to prevent this destruction of specimens

is now being tried with some success under the direction of Prof.

Bickmore, superintendent of the museum. Into the base of the log and

alongside the heart a deep hole is bored with an auger. As the wood

seasons this hole permits of a pressure inward and so has in many

instances doubtless saved valuable specimens. One of the finest in the

collection, a specimen of the persimmon tree, some two feet in diameter,

has been ruined by the seasoning process. On one side there is a huge

crack, extending from the top to the bottom of the log, which looks as

though some amateur woodman had attempted to split it with an ax and

had made a poor job of it. The great shrinking of the sap-wood of the

persimmon tree makes the wood of but trifling value commercially.

It also has a discouraging effect upon collectors, as it is next to

impossible to cure a specimen, so that all but this one characteristic

of the wood can be shown to the public in a perfect form.

Before the logs become thoroughly seasoned, or their lines of growth at

all obliterated, a diagram of each is made, showing in accordance with

a regular scale the thickness of the bark, the sap-wood, and the heart.

There is also in this diagram a scale showing the growth of the tree

during each year of its life, these yearly growths being regularly

marked about the heart of the tree by move or less regular concentric

circles, the width of which grows smaller and smaller as the tree grows

older. In this connection attention may be called to a specimen in the

collection which is considered one of the most remarkable in the world.

It is not a native wood, but an importation, and the tree from which

this wonderful slab is cut is commonly known as the "Pride of India."

The heart of this particular tree was on the port side, and between it

and the bark there is very little sap-wood, not more than an inch.

On the starbord side, so to speak, the sap-wood has grown out in an

abnormal manner, and one of the lines indicative of a year's growth is

one and seven-eighths inches in width, the widest growth, many experts

who have seen the specimen say, that was ever recorded. The diagrams

referred to are to be kept for scientific uses, and the scheme of

exhibition includes these diagrams as a part of the whole.

After a log has become seasoned it is carefully sawed through the center

down about one-third of its length. A transverse cut is then made and

the semi-cylindrical section thus severed from the log is removed. The

upper end is then beveled. When a log is thus treated the inspector can

see the lower two-thirds presenting exactly the same appearance it did

when growing in the forest. The horizontal cut, through the sap-wood

and to the center of the heart, shows the life lines of the tree, and

carefully planed as are this portion, the perpendicular and the beveled

sections, the grain of the wood can thus be plainly seen. That these may

be made even more valuable to the architect and artisan, the right half

of this planed surface will be carefully polished, and the left half

left in the natural state. This portion of the scheme of treatment is

entirely in the interests of architects and artisans, and it is expected

by Prof. Bickmore that it will be the means of securing for some kinds

of trees, essentially of American growth, and which have been virtually

neglected, an important place in architecture and in ornamental

wood-work, and so give a commercial value to woods that are now of

comparatively little value.

Among the many curious specimens in the collection now being prepared

for exhibition, one which will excite the greatest curiosity is a

specimen of the honey locust, which was brought here from Missouri.

The bark is covered with a growth of thorns from one to four inches

in length, sharp as needles, and growing at irregular intervals. The

specimen arrived here in perfect condition, but, in order that it might

be transported without injury, it had to be suspended from the roof of

a box car, and thus make its trip from Southern Missouri to this city

without change. Another strange specimen in the novel collection is a

portion of the Yucca tree, an abnormal growth of the lily family. The

trunk, about 2 feet in diameter, is a spongy mass, not susceptible of

treatment to which the other specimens are subjected. Its bark is an

irregular stringy, knotted mass, with porcupine-quill-like leaves

springing out in place of the limbs that grow from all well-regulated

trees. One specimen of the yucca was sent to the museum two years ago,

and though the roots and top of the tree were sawn off, shoots sprang

out, and a number of the handsome flowers appeared. The tree was

supposed to be dead and thoroughly seasoned by this Fall, but now, when

the workmen are ready to prepare it for exhibition, it has shown new

life, new shoots have appeared, and two tufts of green now decorate the

otherwise dry and withered log, and the yucca promises to bloom again

before the winter is over. One of the most perfect specimens of the

Douglass spruce ever seen is in the collection, and is a decided

curiosity. It is a recent arrival from the Rocky Mountains. Its bark,

two inches or more in thickness, is perforated with holes reaching to

the-sap-wood. Many of these contain acorns, or the remains of acorns,

which have been stored there by provident woodpeckers, who dug the holes

in the bark and there stored their winter supply of food. The oldest

specimen in the collection is a section of the _Picea engelmanni_, a

species of spruce growing in the Rocky Mountains at a considerable

elevation above the sea. The specimen is 24 inches in diameter, and the

concentric circles show its age to be 410 years. The wood much resembles

the black spruce, and is the most valuable of the Rocky Mountain

growths. A specimen of the nut pine, whose nuts are used for food by the

Indians, is only 15 inches in diameter, and yet its life lines show its

age to be 369 years. The largest specimen yet received is a section of

the white ash, which is 46 inches in diameter and 182 years old. The

next largest specimen is a section of the _Platanus occidentalis_,

variously known in commerce as the sycamore, button-wood, or plane tree,

which is 42 inches in diameter and only 171 years of age. Specimens of

the redwood tree of California are now on their way to this city from

the Yosemite Valley. One specimen, though a small one, measures 5 feet

in diameter and shows the character of the wood. A specimen of

the enormous growths of this tree was not secured because of the

impossibility of transportation and the fact that there would be no room

in the museum for the storage of such a specimen, for the diameter of

the largest tree of the class is 45 feet and 8 inches, which represents

a circumference of about 110 feet. Then, too, the Californians object to

have the giant trees cut down for commercial, scientific, or any other

purposes.

To accompany these specimens of the woods of America, Mr. Morris K.

Jesup, who has paid all the expense incurred in the collection of

specimens, is having prepared as an accompanying portion of the

exhibition water color drawings representing the actual size, color,

and appearance of the fruit, foliage, and flowers of the various trees.

Their commercial products, as far as they can be obtained, will also be

exhibited, as, for instance, in the case of the long-leaved pine, the

tar, resin, and pitch, for which it is especially valued. Then, too, in

an herbarium the fruits, leaves, and flowers are preserved as nearly as

possible in their natural state. When the collection is ready for public

view next spring it will be not only the largest, but the only complete

one of its kind in the country. There is nothing like it in the world,

as far as is known; certainly not in the royal museums of England,

France, or Germany.

Aside from the value of the collection, in a scientific way, it is

proposed to make it an adjunct to our educational system, which requires

that teachers shall instruct pupils as to the materials used for food

and clothing. The completeness of the exhibition will be of great

assistance also to landscape gardeners, as it will enable them to lay

out private and public parks so that the most striking effects of

foliage may be secured. The beauty of these effects can best be seen in

this country in our own Central Park, where there are more different

varieties and more combinations for foliage effects than in any other

area in the United States. To ascertain how these effects are obtained

one now has to go to much trouble to learn the names of the trees. With

this exhibition such information can be had merely by observation, for

the botanical and common names of each specimen will be attached to

it. It will also be of practical use in teaching the forester how to

cultivate trees as he would other crops. The rapid disappearance of

many valuable forest trees, with the increase in demand and decrease in

supply, will tend to make the collection valuable as a curiosity in

the not far distant future as representing the extinct trees of the

country.--_N.Y. Times_.

* * * * *

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