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Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 392

NEW YORK, JULY 7, 1883

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XVI, No. 392.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

* * * * *

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I. ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM.--Improved Dynamo Machine.

Eight figures.

An Improved Manganese Battery.--By GEO. LEUCHS.

The Cause of Evident Magnetism in Iron, Steel, and other Magnetic

Metals.--By Prof. D. E. HUGHES. Neutrality.--Superposed

Magnetism.--Elastic Nature of the Ether Surrounding the Magnetic

Molecules. 3 figures.

II. ENGINEERING.--The Westinghouse Brake. 2 figures.

Hydraulic Elevators and Motors.--By B. F. JONES.--Bearing

upon the Water Supply of Cities.--Cost of Water used.--Objectionable

effects on Water Works.--Best method of arranging water

supply.--Cause of Accidents.--Advantages of Water Motors over

Steam Engines.--Rates for Water Motors.

Water Supply of Small Towns.--Process of Softening Hard

Water. Six figures.

Improved Water Meter. Several figures.

III. TECHNOLOGY.--Washing Machine for Wool. 1 figure.

Increasing the Illuminating Power of Gases, etc.--By V. POPP.--

3 figures.

Preventing Iron from Rusting.

An Elastic Mass for Confectioners' Use.

Caoutchouc.

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Photographic Action Studied Spectroscopically.

Salt and Lime.

Renewing Paint without Burning.

A Green or Golden Color for all Kinds of Brass.--By E. PULCHER.

Vinegar.

The Preservation of Meat by Carbonic Acid.

On the Adulteration of Soap.--By Dr. H. BRACKEBUSCH.

IV. CHEMISTRY.--Testing Olive Oil.--By Dr. O. BACH.

On the Theory of the Formation of Compound Ethers.

The Alizarine Industry.

Reduction of Oxidized Iron by Carbonic Oxide.

V. MEDICINE AND HYGIENE.--Bovine and Human Milk; the Difference

in its Action and Composition.--By C. HUSSON.

Cereal Foods in their Relation to Health and Disease.--By F. R.

CAMPBELL.

Moist Air in Living Rooms.

The Developmental Significance of the Human Physiognomy.--

By E. D. COPE.--Numerous illustrations.

VI. NATURAL HISTORY.--The Diamond Fields of South Africa.

Sponges at the Bahamas.

Testing Fish Ova for Impregnation.

VII. MISCELLANEOUS.--The Production of Fire. 4 figures.

St. Blaise.--The winner of the Derby. 1 illustration.

* * * * *

IMPROVED DYNAMO MACHINE.

The continuous current and the alternating current generators invented

by Dr. J. Hopkinson and Dr. Alexander Muirhead are peculiarly

interesting as being probably the first in which the bobbins of the

armature were wound with copper ribbon and arranged on a disk armature

much in the same way as was afterward done by Sir William Thomson and by

Mr. Ferranti. In the Muirhead-Hopkinson machine the armature coils are

attached to a soft iron ring, whereas in the Ferranti the iron core is

dispensed with, and a gain of lightness in the armature or rotating part

effected; this advantage is of considerable importance, though Messrs.

Hopkinson and Muirhead can of course reduce the weight of this iron core

to insignificant proportions.

[Illustration: HOPKINSON & MUIRHEAD'S DYNAMO-ELECTRIC GENERATOR.]

The general form of this generator is clearly shown by the side and end

elevation.

The armature is made by taking a pulley and encircling it with a rim of

sheet-iron bands, each insulated from the other by asbestos paper. On

one or both sides of the rim thus formed, radial slots are cut to admit

radial coils of insulated copper wire or ribbon, so that they lie in

planes parallel to the plane of the pulley. In the continuous current

machine coils are placed on both sides of the iron rim and arranged

alternately, that on the one side always covering the gap between two on

the other side. In this way, when a coil on one side of the rim is at

its "dead point" and yields its minimum of current, the corresponding

coil on the other side is giving out its maximum.

The field magnets are made in a similar manner to the armature and run

in circles parallel to the rim of the latter. The cores may be built up

of wrought iron as the rim of the armature is; but it is found cheaper

to make them of solid wrought or cast iron. To stop the local induced

currents in the core, however, Messrs. Muirhead and Hopkinson cut

grooves in the faces of the iron cores, and fill them up with sheet-iron

strips insulated from each other, similar to the sheet-iron rim of the

armature.

The coils, both in the armature and electro-magnets, are packed as

closely as they may to each other, and have thus a compressed or

quadrilateral shape. The arrangement is shown in Figs. 1 and 2, which

represent, in side view and plan, the armature pulley with the soft iron

rim and coils attached. There a is the pulley which is keyed to the

shaft of the machine, and is encircled with bands of sheet iron, b,

insulated from each other by ribbons of asbestos paper laid between

every two bands. When the rim has been built up in this way, radial

holes are drilled through it from the outer edge inward, and the whole

rim is bound together by bolts, d, inserted in the holes and secured by

cottars, e. Radial slots are then cut on each side of the rim all round,

and the coils of wire mounted on them.

Figs. 3 and 4 show the armature of the continuous current dynamo, with

the coils on one side of the rim, half way between the coils on the

other side, so as to give a more continuous current. In the alternating

current machine the slots on the opposite faces are face to face.

Figs. 5 and 9 illustrate the complete continuous current machine, Fig.

9 showing the internal arrangement of the field magnets, and Fig. 5 the

external frame of cast iron supporting them. In these figures a is the

armature already described, b b are the cores of the electro-magnets

with a strong cast iron backing, c c; d d are the exciting coils or

field magnets, so connected that the poles presented to the armature are

alternately north and south, thus bringing a south pole on one side of

the armature opposite a north pole on the other side.

The commutator, e, is arranged to prevent sparking when the brushes

leave a contact piece. This is done by splitting up the brushes into

several parts and inserting resistances between the part which leaves

the contact piece last and the rest of the circuit. This resistance

checks the current ere the final rupture of contact takes place.

Figs. 6 and 7 will explain the structure of the commutator. Here a a a

are the segments or contact pieces insulated from each other, and b' b

b are the collecting brushes carried on a spindle, c c'. One of these

brushes, b', is connected to the spindle, c, through an electrical

resistance of plumbago, arranged as shown in Fig. 7, where d e are metal

cylinders, d being in contact with the brush, b', while e is in contact

with the spindle, c. The space, f, between these two cylinders, d e, is

filled with a mixture of plumbago and lampblack of suitable resistance,

confined at the ends by ivory disks. The brush, b', is adjusted by

bending till it remains in contact with any segment of the commutator

for a short time after the other brushes have left contact with that

segment, and thus instead of sudden break of circuit and consequent

sparking, a resistance is introduced, and contact is not broken until

the current has been considerably reduced.

The contact segments are supported at both ends by solid insulating

disks; but they are insulated from each other by the air spaces between

them, where the brushes rub upon them.

The alternating current dynamo of Drs. Hopkinson and Muirhead differs

little in general construction from that we have described; except that

the commutator is very much simplified, and the armature bobbins are

placed opposite each other on both sides of the rim. Instead of forming

the coils into complete bobbins, Dr. Muirhead prefers to wind them in a

zigzag form round the grooved iron rim after the manner shown in Fig. 8,

which represents a plan and section of the alternating current armature.

This arrangement is simpler in construction than the bobbin winding, and

is less liable to generate self-induction current in the armature. Sir

William Thomson has adopted a similar plan in one of his dynamos. In

Fig. 8, a is the pulley fixed to the spindle of the machine, b b is

the iron rim, and c c are the zigzag coils of copper ribbon. The field

magnets are also wound in a similar manner.

It will be seen from our description that Drs. Hopkinson and Muirhead

have scarcely had sufficient credit given them for this interesting

machine, which so closely approximates to the Ferranti. One of their

alternating dynamos has been built, and was shown at the Aquarium

Exhibition. It works well, and is capable of supporting 300 Swan lights,

while in size and appearance it resembles the Ferranti machine in a

very striking manner. Drs. Muirhead and Hopkinson have also designed

a magneto-electric alternating current machine; but as it closely

resembles the machines described, with the exception that permanent

magnets are employed as field magnets, we need not dwell upon it

further.--_Engineering_.

* * * * *

AN IMPROVED MANGANESE BATTERY.

By GEORGE LEUCHS.

The Leclanche battery is distinguished for its simplicity, its small

internal resistance (0.7 to 1.0 Siemens unit), and that all chemical

action ceases when the current is broken, that it is not sensitive to

external influence, and by the self-renewal of the negative electrodes.

But on the opposite side the action is not very great (= 1.20 or 1.48

D.), and the zinc as well as the sal ammoniac are converted into

products that cannot be utilized.

I replace the solution of sal ammoniac by one of caustic potash or

soda (12 to 15 per cent.), and the thin zinc rods by zincs with larger

surfaces. In this manner, I obtain a powerful and odorless battery,

having all the valuable qualities of the Leclanche, and one that

permits of a renewal of the potash solution as well as of the negative

electrode.

The electromotive power of this element may be as high as 1.8 D. The

same pyrolusite (binoxide of manganese) cylinder used with the same thin

rod of zinc will precipitate 75 per cent. more copper from solution in

an hour when caustic potash is used than when sal ammoniac is employed.

But by replacing the thin zinc rod by a zinc cylinder of large surface,

21/2 times as much copper is precipitated in the same time.

The more powerful action of such a pair is explained by the stronger

excitation and more rapid regeneration that the negative electrodes

undergo from the oxidizing action of the air in the potash solution, as

well as by the fact that this solution is a better conductor than the

sal ammoniac solution. The potash solution does not crystallize easily,

hence the negative electrode remains free from crystals and does not

require filling up with water. Zinc dissolves only while in contact

with negative bodies, hence there is no unnecessary consumption of zinc

either in the open or closed circuit.

When the potash lye has become useless, I regenerate it by removing the

zinc in the following manner: I pour the solution from the cells, put

it in a suitable vessel, where I add water to replace that already

evaporated, and then shake it up well at the ordinary temperature with

hydrated oxide of zinc (zincic hydrate). Under this treatment the

greater portion of the zinc that had been chemically dissolved by the

potash is precipitated in the form of zinc hydrate, along with

some carbonate. The liquid is now allowed to settle, and the clear

supernatant solution is poured back again into the battery cells. The

battery has rather greater electromotive force when this regenerated lye

is used, because certain foreign matters from the carbon, like sulphur,

chlorine, sulphuric acid, etc., are removed by this treatment.

The regeneration of the (brown coal) carbon goes on of itself, beneath

the lye, through the oxidizing action of the atmospheric air; it is

advantageous to have a part of the carbon sticking out of the liquid. Of

course the regeneration takes place much more quickly if the electrodes

are taken out and exposed to the air. In this case the carbon electrode

need not be very thick, and can be flat or of tubular form. In the

former case it must have a large volume, and the massive cylindrical

form is recommended. The zinc electrode must be kept covered deeply with

potash. The cells must have free access of air, and the potash must be

replaced as soon as it is exhausted.--_Chem. Zeit_.

* * * * *

[Concluded from SUPPLEMENT No. 390, page 6217.]

THE CAUSE OF EVIDENT MAGNETISM IN IRON, STEEL, AND OTHER MAGNETIC

METALS.

[Footnote: Paper lately read before the Society of Telegraph Engineers

and Electricians.]

By Professor D. E. HUGHES, F.R.S., Vice-President.

NEUTRALITY.

The apparatus needed for researches upon evident external polarity

requires no very great skill or thought, but simply an apparatus to

measure correctly the force of the evident repulsion or attraction; in

the case of neutrality, however, the external polarity disappears, and

we consequently require special apparatus, together with the utmost care

and reflection in its use.

From numerous researches previously made by means of the induction

balance, the results of which I have already published, I felt convinced

that in investigating the cause of magnetism and neutrality I should

have in it the aid of the most powerful instrument of research ever

brought to bear upon the molecular construction of iron, as indeed of

all metals. It neglects all forces which do not produce a change in the

molecular structure, and enables us to penetrate at once to the interior

of a magnet or piece of iron, observing only its peculiar structure

and the change which takes place during magnetization or apparent

neutrality.

The induction balance is affected by three distinct arrangements of

molecular structure in iron and steel, by means of which we have

apparent external neutrality.

Fig 1 shows several polar directions of the molecules as indicated

by the arrows. Poisson assumed as a necessity of his theory, that

a molecule is spherical; but Dr. Joule's experimental proof of the

elongation of iron by one seven-hundred and-twenty-thousandth of its

length when magnetized, proves at least that its form is not spherical;

and, as I am unable at present to demonstrate my own views as to its

exact form, I have simply indicated its polar direction by arrows--the

dotted oval lines merely indicating its limits of free elastic rotation.

In Fig. 1, at A, we have neutrality by the mutual attraction of each

pair of molecules, being the shortest path in which they could satisfy

their mutual attractions. At B we have the case of superposed magnetism

of equal external value, rendering the wire or rod apparently neutral,

although a lower series of molecules are rotated in the opposite

direction to the upper series, giving to the rod opposite and equal

polarities. At C we have the molecules arranged in a circular chain

around the axis of a wire or rod through which an electric current

has passed. At D we have the evident polarity induced by the earth's

directive influence when a soft iron rod is held in the magnetic

meridian. At E we have a longitudinal neutrality produced in the same

rod when placed magnetic west, the polarity in the latter case being

transversal.

In all these cases we have a perfectly symmetrical arrangement, and I

have not yet found a single case in well-annealed soft iron in which I

could detect a heterogeneous arrangement, as supposed by Ampere, De la

Rive, Weber, Wiedermann, and Maxwell.

We can only study neutrality with perfectly soft Swedish iron. Hard

iron and steel retain previous magnetizations, and an apparent external

neutrality would in most cases be the superposition of one magnetism

upon another of equal external force in the opposite direction, as shown

at B, Fig. 1. Perfectly soft iron we can easily free, by vibrations,

from the slightest trace of previous magnetism, and study the neutrality

produced under varying conditions.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

If we take a flat bar of soft iron, of 30 or more centimeters in

length, and hold it vertically (giving while thus held a few torsions,

vibrations, or, better still, a few slight blows with a wooden mallet,

in order to allow its molecules to rotate with perfect freedom), we find

its lower end to be of strong north polarity, and its upper end south.

On reversing the rod and repeating the vibrations, we find that its

lower end has precisely a similar north polarity. Thus the iron is

homogeneous, and its polarity symmetrical. If we now magnetize this rod

to produce a strong south pole at its lower portion, we can gradually

reverse this polarity, by the influence of earth's magnetism, by

slightly tapping the upper extremity with a small wooden mallet. If

we observe this rod by means of a direction needle at all parts, and

successively during its gradual passage from one polarity to the other,

there will be no sudden break into a haphazard arrangement, but a

gradual and perfectly symmetrical rotation from one direction to that of

the opposite polarity.

If this rod is placed east and west, having first, say, a north polarity

to the right, we can gradually discharge or rotate the molecules to

zero, and as gradually reverse the polarity by simply inclining the rod

so as to be slightly influenced by earth's magnetism; and at no portion

of this passage from one polarity to neutrality, and to that of the

opposite name, will there be found a break of continuity of rotation or

haphazard arrangement. If we rotate this rod slowly, horizontally or

vertically, taking observations at each few degrees of rotation of an

entire revolution, we find still the same gradual symmetrical change

of polarity, and that its symmetry is as complete at neutrality as in

evident polarity.

In all these cases there is no complete neutrality, the longitudinal

polarity simply becoming transversal when the rod is east and west.

F, G, H, I, J, Fig. 1, show this gradual change, H being neutral

longitudinally, but polarized transversely. If, in place of the rod,

we take a small square soft iron plate and allow its molecules freedom

under the sole influence of the earth's magnetism, then we invariably

find the polarity in the direction of the magnetic dip, no matter in

what position it be held, and a sphere of soft iron could only be

polarized in a similar direction Thus we can never obtain complete

external neutrality while the molecules have freedom and do not form an

internal closed circle of mutual attractions; and whatever theory we may

adopt as to the cause of polarity in the molecule, such as Coulomb's,

Poisson's, Ampere's, or Weber's, there can exist no haphazard

arrangement in perfectly soft iron, as long as it is free from all

external causes except the influence of the earth; consequently these

theories are wrong in one of their most essential parts.

We can, however, produce a closed circle of mutual attraction in iron

and steel, producing complete neutrality as long as the structure is not

destroyed by some stronger external directing influence.

Oersted discovered that an external magnetic needle places itself

perpendicular to an electric current; and we should expect that, if the

molecules of an iron wire possessed inherent polarity and could rotate,

a similar effect would take place in the interior of the wire to that

observed by Oersted. Wiedermann first remarked this effect, and it has

been known as circular magnetism. This circle, however, consists really

in each molecule having placed itself perpendicular to the current,

simply obeying Oersted's law, and thus forming a complete circle in

which the mutual attractions of the molecules forming that circle are

satisfied, as shown as C, Fig. 1. This wire becomes completely neutral,

any previous symmetrical arrangement of polarity rotating to form its

complete circle of attractions; and we can thus form in hard iron and

steel a neutrality extremely difficult to break up or destroy. We have

evident proof that this neutrality consists of a closed chain, or

circle, as by torsion we can partially deflect them on either side; thus

from a perfect externally neutral wire, producing either polarity, by

simple mechanical angular displacement of the molecules, as by right or

left handed torsion.

If we magnetize a wire placed east and west, it will retain this

polarity until freed by vibrations, as already remarked. If we pass an

electric current through this magnetized wire, we can notice the gradual

rotation of the molecules, and the formation of the circular neutrality.

If we commence with a weak current, gradually increasing its strength,

we can rotate them as slowly as may be desired. There is no sudden break

or haphazard moment of neutrality: the movements to perfect zero are

accomplished with perfect symmetry throughout.

We can produce a more perfect and shorter circle of attractions by the

superposition of magnetism, as at B, Fig. 1. If we magnetize a piece

of steel or iron in a given direction with a strong magnetic directing

power, the magnetism penetrates to a certain depth. If we slightly

diminish the magnetizing power, and magnetize the rod in a contrary

direction, we may reduce it to zero, by the superposition of an exterior

magnetism upon one of a contrary name existing at a greater depth; and

if we continue this operation, gradually diminishing the force at each

reversal, we can easily superpose ten or more distinct symmetrical

arrangements, and, as their mutual attractions are satisfied in a

shorter circle than in that produced by electricity, it is extremely

difficult to destroy this formation when once produced.

The induction balance affords also some reasons for believing that the

molecules not only form a closed circle of attractions, as at B, but

that they can mutually react upon each other, so as to close a circle

of attractions as a double molecule, as shown at A. The experimental

evidence, however, is not sufficient to dwell on this point, as the

neutrality obtained by superposition is somewhat similar in its external

effects.

We can produce a perfectly symmetrical closed circle of attractions of

the nature of the neutrality of C, Fig. 3, by forming a steel wire into

a closed circle, 10 centimeters in diameter, if this wire is well joined

at its extremities by twisting and soldering. We can then magnetize this

ring by slowly revolving it at the extremity of one pole of a strong

permanent magnet; and, to avoid consequent poles at the part last

touching the magnet, we should have a graduating wedge of wood, so that

while revolving it may be gradually removed to greater distance. This

wire will then contain no consequent points or external magnetism: it

will be found perfectly neutral in all parts of its closed circle. Its

neutrality is similar to C, Fig. 3; for if we cut this wire at any point

we find extremely strong magnetic polarity, being magnetized by this

method to saturation, and having retained (which it will indefinitely)

its circle of attractions complete.

I have already shown that soft iron, when its molecules are allowed

perfect freedom by vibration, invariably takes the polarity of the

external directing influence, such as that of the earth, and it does so

even with greater freedom under the influence of heat. Manufacturers of

electro-magnets for telegraphic instruments are very careful to choose

the softest iron and thoroughly anneal it; but very few recognize the

importance as regards the position of the iron while annealing it under

the earth's directing influence. The fact, however, has long since been

observed.

Dr. Hooke, 1684, remarked that steel or iron was magnetized when heated

to redness and placed in the magnetic meridian. I have slightly varied

this experiment by heating to redness three similar steel bars, two

of which had been previously magnetized to saturation, and placed

separately with contrary polarity as regards each other, the third being

neutral. Upon cooling, these three bars were found to have identical and

similar polarity. Thus the molecules of this most rigid material, cast

steel, had become free at red heat, and rotated under the earth's

magnetic influence, giving exactly the same force on each; consequently

the previous magnetization of two of these bars had neither augmented

nor weakened the inherent polarity of their molecules. Soft iron gave

under these conditions by far the greatest force, its inherent polarity

being greater than that of steel.

I have made numerous other experiments bearing upon the question of

neutrality, but they all confirm those I have cited, which I consider

afford ample evidence of the symmetrical arrangement of neutrality.

SUPERPOSED MAGNETISM.

Knowing that by torsion we can rotate or diminish magnetism, I was

anxious to obtain by its means a complete rotation from north polarity

to neutrality, and from neutrality to south polarity, or to completely

reverse magnetic polarity by a slight right or left torsion.

I have succeeded in doing this, and in obtaining strong reversal of

polarities, by superposing one polarity given while the rod is under a

right elastic torsion, with another of the opposite polarity given under

a left elastic torsion, the neutral point then being reached when the

rod is free from torsion. The rod should be very strongly magnetized

under its first or right-hand torsion, so that its interior molecules

are rotated, or, in other words, magnetized to saturation; the second

magnetization in the contrary sense and torsion should be feebler, so

as only to magnetize the surface, or not more than one-half its depth;

these can be easily adjusted to each other so as to form a complete

polar balance of force, producing, when the rod is free from torsion,

the neutrality as shown at B, Fig. 1.

The apparatus needed is simply a good compound horseshoe permanent

magnet, 15 centimeters long, having six or more plates, giving it a

total thickness of at least 3 centimeters. We need a sufficiently

powerful magnet, as I find that I obtain a more equal distribution of

magnetism upon a rod or strip of iron by drawing it lengthwise over a

single pole in a direction from that pole, as shown in Fig. 2; we can

then obtain saturation by repeated drawings, keeping the same molecular

symmetry in each experiment.

In order to apply a slight elastic torsion when magnetizing rods or

wires, I have found it convenient to attach two brass clamp keys to the

extremities of the rods, or simply turn the ends at right angles, as

shown in the following diagram, by which means we can apply an elastic

twist or torsion while drawing the rod over the pole of the permanent

magnet. We can thus superpose several and opposite symmetrical

structures, producing a polar north or south as desired, greatly in

excess of that possible under a single or even double magnetization, and

by carefully adjusting the proportion of opposing magnetisms, so that

both polarities have the same external force, the rod will be at perfect

external neutrality when free from torsion.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.]

If we now hold one end of this rod at a few centimeters distance from

a magnetic directive needle, we find it perfectly neutral when free

of torsion, but the slightest torsion right or left at once produces

violent repulsion or attraction, according to the direction of the

torsion given to the rod, the iron rod or strips of hoop-iron which

I use for this experiment being able, when at the distance of five

centimeters from the needle, to turn it instantly 90 deg. on either side of

its zero.

The external neutrality that we can now produce at will is absolute, as

it crosses the line of two contrary polarities, being similar to the

zero of my electric sonometer, whose zero is obtained by the crossing of

two opposing electric forces.

This rod of iron retains its peculiar powers of reversal in a remarkable

degree, a condition quite different to that of ordinary magnetization,

for the same rod, when magnetized to saturation under a single ordinary

magnetism, loses its evident magnetism by a few elastic torsions, as I

have already shown; but when it is magnetized under the double torsion

with its superposed magnetism, it is but slightly reduced by variations

or numerous torsions, and I have found it impossible to render this

rod again free from its double polar effects, except by strongly

remagnetizing it to saturation with a single polarity. The superposed

magnetism then becomes a single directive force, and we can then by a

few vibrations or torsions reduce the rod to its ordinary condition.

The effects of superposed magnetism and its double polarity I have

produced in a variety of ways, such as by the electro-magnetic influence

of coils, or in very soft iron simply by the directive influence of

the earth's magnetism, reversing the rod and torsions when held in

the magnetic meridian, these rods when placed magnetic west showing

distinctly the double polar effects.

It is remarkable, also, that we are enabled to superpose and obtain

the maximum effects on thin strips of iron from 1/4 to 1/2 millimeter in

thickness, while in thicker rods we have far less effect, being masked

by the comparatively neutral state of the interior, the exterior

molecules then reaching upon those of the interior, allowing them to

complete in the interior their circle of attractions.

I was anxious to obtain wires which would preserve this structure

against the destructive influence of torsion and vibrations, so that I

could constantly employ the same wires without the comparatively long

and tedious process of preparation. Soft iron soon loses the structure,

or becomes enfeebled, under the constant to and fro torsions requisite

where we desire a constant change of polarity, as described later in the

magnetic bells. Hard steel preserves its structure, but its molecular

rigidity is so great that we obtain but mere traces of any change of

polarity by torsion. I have found, however, that fine cast drill steel,

untempered, of the kind employed by watchmakers, is most suitable;

these are generally sold in straight lengths of 30 centimeters. Wires

1 millimeter in diameter should be used, and when it is desired to

increase the force, several of these wires, say, nine or ten, should be

formed into a single rod or bunch.

The wire as sold is too rigid to give its maximum of molecular rotation

effect. We must therefore give it two entire turns or twists to the

right, and strongly magnetize it on the north pole of the magnet while

under torsion. We must again repeat this operation in the contrary

direction, after restoring the wire to its previous position, giving now

two entire turns to the left and magnetizing it on the south pole. On

restoring the wire to its original place, it will be extremely flexible,

and we may now superpose several contrary polarities under contrary

torsions, as already described.

The power of these wires, if properly prepared, is most remarkable,

being able to reverse their polarity under torsion, as if they were

completely saturated; and they preserve this power indefinitely if not

touched by a magnet. It would be extremely difficult to explain the

action of the rotative effects obtained in these wires under any other

theory than that which I have advanced; and the absolute external

neutrality that we obtain in them when the polarities are changing, we

know, from their structure, to be perfectly symmetrical.

I was anxious to show, upon the reading of this paper, some mechanical

movement produced by molecular rotation, consequently I have arranged

two bells that are struck alternately by a polarized armature put in

motion by the double polarized rod I have already described, but whose

position, at three centimeters distant from the axis of the armature,

remains invariably the same. The magnetic armature consists of a

horizontal light steel bar suspended by its central axle; the bells are

thin wine glasses, giving a clear musical tone loud enough, by the force

with which they are struck, to be clearly heard at some distance. The

armature does not strike these alternately by a pendulous movement, as

we may easily strike only one continuously, the friction and inertia of

the armature causing its movements to be perfectly dead beat when not

driven by some external force, and it is kept in its zero position by a

strong directive magnet placed beneath its axle.

The mechanical power obtained is extremely evident, and is sufficient to

put the sluggish armature in rapid motion, striking the bells six times

per second, and with a power sufficient to produce tones loud enough to

be clearly heard in all parts of the hall of the Society. As this is

the first direct transformation of molecular motion into mechanical

movement, I am happy to show it on this occasion.

There is nothing remarkable in the bells themselves, as they evidently

could be rung if the armature was surrounded by a coil, and worked by an

electric current from a few cells. The marvel, however, is in the small

steel superposed magnetic wire producing by slight elastic torsions from

a single wire, one millimeter in diameter, sufficient force from mere

molecular rotation to entirely replace the coil and electric current.

ELASTIC NATURE OF THE ETHER SURROUNDING THE MAGNETIC MOLECULES.

During these researches I have remarked a peculiar property of

magnetism, viz., that not only can the molecules be rotated through any

degree of arc to its maximum, or saturation, but that, while it requires

a comparatively strong force to overcome its rigidity or resistance to

rotation, it has a small field of its own through which it can move with

excessive freedom, trembling, vibrating, or rotating through a small

degree with infinitely less force than would be required to rotate it

permanently on either side. This property is so marked and general that

we can observe it without any special iron or apparatus.

Let us take a flat rod of ordinary hoop iron, 30 or more centimeters

in length. If, while holding this vertically, we give freedom to its

molecules by torsions, vibrations, or, better still, by a few blows with

a wooden mallet upon its upper extremity, we find, as is well known,

that its lower portion is strongly north, and its upper south. If we

reverse this rod, we now find it neutral at both extremities. We might

here suppose that the earth's directing force had rotated the molecules

to zero, or transversely, which in reality it has done, but only to the

limit of their comparatively free motion; for if we reverse the rod to

its original position, its previous strong polarity reappears at both

extremities, thus the central point of its free motion is inclined to

the rod, giving by its free motion great symmetrical inclination and

polarity in one direction, but when reversed the inclination is reduced

to zero.

In Fig. 3, D shows the bar of iron when strongly polarized by earth's

magnetic influence, under vibrations, with a sufficient force to have

rotated its elastic center of action. C shows the same bar with its

molecules at zero, or transversal, the directing force of earth being

insufficient without the aid of mechanical vibration to allow them to

change. The dotted lines of D suppose the molecule to be in the center

of its free motion, while at C the molecules have rotated to zero, as

they are prevented from further rotation by being at the extreme end of

its free motion.

If, now, we hold the rod vertically, as at C, giving neutrality, and

give a few slight blows with a wooden mallet to its upper extremity, we

can give just the amount of freedom required for it to produce evident

polarity, and we then have equal polarity, no matter which end of the

bar is below, the center of its free rotation here being perfect, and

the rod perfectly neutral longitudinally when held east and west. If, on

the other hand, we have given too much freedom by repeated blows of the

mallet, its center of free motion becomes inclined with the molecules,

and we arrive at its first condition, except that it is now neutral at

D and polarized at C. From this it will be seen that we can adjust

this center of action, by vibrations or blows, to any point within the

external directing influence.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.]

We can perceive this effect of free rotation in a limited space in all

classes of iron and steel, being far greater in soft Swedish iron than

in hard iron or steel. A similar phenomenon takes place if we magnetize

a rod held vertically in the direction of earth's magnetism. It

then gives greater polarity than if magnetized east or west, and if

magnetized in a contrary sense to earth's magnetism, it is very feebly

magnetized, or, if the rod is perfectly soft, it becomes neutral after

strong magnetization. This property of comparative freedom, and the

rotation of its center of action, can be demonstrated in a variety of

ways. One remarkable example of it consists in the telephone. All those

who are thoroughly acquainted with electro-magnetism, and know that

it requires measurable time to charge an electro-magnet to saturation

(about one-fifteenth of a second for those employed in telegraphy),

were surprised that the telephone could follow the slightest change of

timbre, requiring almost innumerable changes of force per second. I

believe the free rotation I have spoken of through a limited range

explains its remarkable sensitiveness and rapidity of action, and,

according to this view, it would also explain why loud sounding

telephones can never repeat all the delicacy of timbre that is easily

done with those only requiring a force comprised in the critical limits

of its free rotation. This property, I have found, has a distinct

critical value for each class of iron, and I propose soon to publish

researches upon the molecular construction of steel and iron, in which

I have made use of this very property as a guide to the quality of the

iron itself.

The elastic rotation (in a limited space) of a molecule differs entirely

from that known as mechanical elasticity. In perfectly soft iron we have

feeble _mechanical_ elasticity, while in tempered steel we have

that elasticity at its maximum. The contrary takes place as regards

_molecular_ elasticity. In tempered steel the molecules are extremely

rigid, and in soft iron its molecular elasticity is at its maximum. Its

free motion differs entirely from that given it by torsion or stress. We

may assume that a molecule is surrounded by continuous ether, more of

the nature of a jelly than of that of a gas; in such a medium a molecule

might freely vibrate through small arcs, but a rotation extending beyond

its critical limit would involve a much greater expenditure of force.

The discovery of this comparatively free rotation of molecules, by means

of which, as I have shown, we can (without in any degree disturbing the

external mechanical elasticity of the mass) change the axes of their

free motion in any direction desired, has led me into a series of

researches which have only indirectly any relation with the theory of

magnetism. I was extremely desirous, however, of finding an experimental

evidence which in itself should demonstrate all portions of the theory,

and the following experiment, I believe, answers this purpose.

Let us take a square soft iron rod, five millimeters in diameter by

thirty or more centimeters in length, and force the molecules, by aid

of blows from a wooden mallet, as previously described, to have their

centers of free motion in one direction; the rod will (as already shown)

have polarity at both ends, when held vertically; but if reversed, both

ends become completely neutral.

If now we turn the rod to its first position, in which it shows strong

polarity, and magnetize it while held vertically, by drawing the north

pole of a sufficiently powerful permanent magnet from its upper to its

lower extremity, we find that this rod, instead of having south polarity

at its lower portion, as we should expect from the direction of the

magnetization, is completely neutral at both extremities, but if we

reverse the rod its fullest free powers of magnetization now appear in

the position where it was previously neutral. Thus, by magnetization, we

have completely rotated its free path of action, and find that we can

rotate this path as desired in any direction by the application of a

sufficient directing power.

If we take a rod as described, with its polarities evident when held

vertically, and its neutrality also evident when its ends are reversed

in the same magnetic field, we find that its polarity is equal at both

ends, and that it is in every way symmetrical with a perfect magnet. If

we _gradually_ reverse the ends and take observations of its condition

through each degree of arc passed over, we find an equal symmetrical

diminution of evident external polarity, until we arrive at neutrality,

when it has no external trace of inherent polarity; but its inherent

polarity at once becomes evident by a simple return to its former

position. Thus the rod has passed through all the changes from polarity

to neutrality, and from neutrality to polarity, and these changes have

taken place with complete symmetry.

The limits of this paper do not allow me to speak of the numerous

theoretical evidences as shown by the use of my induction balance. I

believe, however, that I have cited already experimental evidences to

show that what has been attributed to coercive force is really due to

molecular freedom or rigidity; that in inherent molecular polarity we

have a fact admitted by Coulomb, Poisson, Ampere, De la Rive, Weber,

Du Moncel, Wiedermann, and Maxwell; and that we have also experimental

evidence of molecular rotation and of the symmetrical character of

polarity and neutrality.

The experiments which I have brought forward in this paper, in addition

to those mentioned in my paper read before the Royal Society, will,

I hope, justify me in having advanced a theory of magnetism which I

believe in every portion allows at least experimental evidences of its

probable truth.

* * * * *

THE WESTINGHOUSE BRAKE.

Below we illustrate the main parts of the Westinghouse brake as applied

to a vehicle. The supplementary reservoir brake cylinder and triple

valve are shown in position, and as fitted upon the engine, tender, and

each vehicle of the train. Air compressed by a pump on the locomotive

to, say, 70 lb. or 80 lb. to the square inch fills the main reservoir on

the engine, and flowing through the driver's brake valve and main pipe,

also charges the supplementary reservoirs throughout the train. When

a train is running, uniform air pressure exists throughout its

length--that is to say, the main reservoir on the engine, the pipe from

end to end of train, the triple valves and supplementary reservoirs on

each vehicle, are all charged ready for work, the brake cylinders being

empty and the brakes off. The essential principle of the system is,

that maintaining the pressure keeps the brakes off, but letting the air

escape from the brake pipe, purposely or accidentally, instantly applies

them. It follows, therefore, that the brake may be applied by the driver

or any of the guards, or if necessary by a passenger, by the separation

of a coupling, or the failure or injury to a vital part of the

apparatus, whether due to an accident to the train or to the brake; and

as the brake on each vehicle is complete in itself and independent,

should the apparatus on any one carriage be torn off, the brake will

nevertheless remain applied for almost any length of time upon the rest

of the train.

The triple valve, as will be seen, is simply a small piston, carrying

with it a slide valve, which can be moved up or down by increasing or

decreasing the pressure in the brake pipe. As soon as the air from the

main reservoir is turned into the brake pipe, by means of the driver's

valve, the piston is pushed up into the position shown, and air is

allowed to feed past it through a small groove into the reservoir. At

the same time the slide valve covers the port to the brake cylinder, and

is in such a position that the air from the latter may exhaust into the

atmosphere. The piston has now the same air pressure on both sides; but

if the pressure in the brake pipe is decreased, the piston and slide

valve are forced down, thereby uncovering the passage through which air

from the reservoir flows into the brake cylinder between the pistons,

thus applying the brakes. The brake pipe is shut off as soon as the

triple valve piston passes the groove. To release the brakes, the piston

and slide valves are again moved into the position shown, by the driver

turning air from the main reservoir into the brake pipe. The air in the

brake cylinder escapes, and at the same time the reservoir is recharged.

[Illustration: THE WESTINGHOUSE BRAKE.]

Fig. 2 represents two Westinghouse couplings connected. They are exactly

alike in all respects, and an air tight joint is made between them by

means of the rubber washers. These couplings are so constructed that the

air pressure within serves to tighten the joint, and they may be pushed

apart by the separation of the train without any injury. Such an

occurrence as already explained leads to the instant application of all

the brakes on the train.

By closing the small tap shown between the brake pipe and the triple

valve, the brake on any vehicle, if out of order, can be cut out of the

system. A release valve is also placed upon each cylinder as shown, so

that in the event of the brakes being applied by the separation of

the train, or the breaking of a pipe, or when the locomotive is not

attached, they can be released by allowing the air to escape from each

brake cylinder direct. The Westinghouse brake has been made to comply

thoroughly with the Board of Trade conditions. Many people, however, do

not appear to understand all that is involved in the second requirement,

which runs as follows: In case of accident, to be instantaneously

self-acting. This clearly implies: First, that accident to the train,

or to any of its vehicles, shall cause the instant application of

the brakes to the wheels of every vehicle in the train without the

intervention of the driver or guards. Secondly, that any injury, however

caused, which may impair the efficiency of the brake apparatus, shall,

in like manner, lead to the instant application of all the brakes on

the train. It then becomes impossible for a driver to run his train in

ignorance of any defect in his brake apparatus because such defect at

once discloses itself by applying the brakes and stopping the train.

Thirdly, that each vehicle shall carry its own brake power in such a

manner that the destruction of the brake apparatus on one or more of the

carriages shall not affect the efficiency of the brakes upon any of the

others. No continuous brake which does not comply with such conditions

can ever be satisfactory.--_The Engineer_.

* * * * *

HYDRAULIC ELEVATORS AND MOTORS.

[Footnote: Read at Buffalo meeting of the American Water-Works

Association May 15,1883.]

By B. F. JONES, Kansas City.

What I have to say in relation to elevators and motors will be mostly in

regard to questions that their uses necessarily bring up for settlement

at the water-works office; also to show how I have been able in a

measure to overcome some of the many difficulties that have presented

themselves, as well as to discuss and seek information as to the best

way of meeting others that still have to be dealt with. At the outset,

therefore, let me state that I am not an hydraulic engineer, nor have

I sufficient mechanical knowledge to undertake the discussion of the

construction or relative merits of either elevators or motors. This I

would respectfully suggest as a very proper and interesting topic for a

paper at some future meeting by some one of the many, eminent engineers

of this association.

The water-works of Kansas City is comparatively young, and my experience

only dates back six or seven years, or shortly after its completion.

At this time it was deemed advisable on account of the probable large

revenue to be derived from their use, to encourage the putting in of

hydraulic elevators by low water rates. With this end in view a number

of contracts were made for their supply at low special rates for a

period of years, and our minimum meter rate was charged in all other

cases, regardless of the quantity of water consumed. In most instances

these special rates have since been found much too low, parties paying

in this way being exceedingly extravagant in the use of elevators.

However, the object sought was obtained, and now they are very

extensively used. In fact, so much has their use increased, that the

question is no longer how to encourage their more general adoption, but

how to properly govern those that must be supplied. A present our works

furnish power to about 15 passenger and 80 freight elevators, and the

number is rapidly increasing.

Before going into details it seems proper to give at least a brief

description of our water-works, as my observations are to a great extent

local.

On account of the peculiar topography of Kansas City (and I believe it

has more topography to the square foot than any city in the country)

two systems of water supply have been provided, the high ground being

supplied by direct pumping, and a pressure of about 90 pounds maintained

in the business portion, and the lower part of the city being supplied

by gravity, from a reservoir at an elevation of 210 feet, thus giving

the business portions of the city, on high and low ground, about the

same pressure. By an arrangement of valves, a combination of these

two systems is effected, so that the Holly machinery can furnish an

increased fire pressure at a moment's notice, into either or both pipe

systems. Thus at some points the pressure is extremely high during the

progress of fires, causing difficulties that do not exist where the

gravity system of works is used exclusively.

Elevators have become an established institution, and in cities of any

commercial importance are regarded as a necessity, hotels, jobbing

houses, factories, and office buildings being considered as far behind

the times when not thus provided, as a city without a water supply or a

community without a "boom." The use of elevators has made it practicable

and profitable to erect buildings twice as high as were formerly thought

of. Perhaps some of the most notable examples of this are in New York

city, where such structures as the Mills building, the buildings of the

_Tribune, Evening Post_, and Western Union Telegraph Co.. tower high

above the surrounding blocks, monuments of architecture, that without

this modern invention would reflect little credit upon their designers.

It is now found less labor to go to to the fifth, sixth, or even tenth

floors of these great buildings than it was to reach the second or

third, before their use. In these days, merchants can shoot a ton of

goods to the top of their stores in less time than it would take to get

breath for the old hoist or "Yo, heave O" arrangement. Thousands of

dollars are sometimes expended on a single elevator, the cars are

miniature parlors, and the mechanism has perhaps advanced to nearly the

perfection of the modern steam engine. If then they have become such a

firmly established institution, their bearing upon the water supply of

cities is a subject to be carefully considered.

As before intimated, there are many questions involved in the use of

hydraulic elevators, that particularly concern towns supplied by direct

pumping, and perhaps other places where the supply by gravity is

somewhat limited. In a few larger cities supplied by ample reservoirs

and mains, some of the difficulties suggested are not serious. Very

little power is necessary to perform the actual work of lifting, with

either steam or hydraulic elevators, but on account of the peculiar

application of the power, and the great amount of friction to be

overcome, a very considerable power has to be provided. It has been

estimated, by good authorities, that not more than one-quarter of the

power expended in most cases is really utilized.

With all hydraulic elevators of which I have cognizance, as much water

is required to raise the empty cars as though they were loaded to

maximum capacity. Still, to be available for passenger purposes

elevators must have capacity of upward of 2,500 pounds, particularly in

hotels, where the cars are often arranged with separate compartments

underneath for baggage. In general use it is exceptional that passenger

elevators are fully loaded; on the contrary less than half a load is

ordinarily carried, and for this reason it would appear that no actual

benefit is derived from at least one-half of the water consumed. In this

connection it has occurred to me that passenger elevators could be built

at no great additional cost, with two cylinders, small and large, the

two piston rods of which could be connected so as to both operate the

same cable, either or both furnishing power, the smaller cylinder to be

used for light loads, the larger for heavy work, and the two together

for full capacity, this independent valve arrangement to be controlled

by a separate cable running through the car. Whether this plan is

practicable or not must be left to elevator manufacturers, but it seems

to me that with the Hale-Otis elevator for instance (which is conceded

to be one of the best) it could easily be accomplished. Certainly some

such arrangement would effect a great saving of water, and perhaps bring

water bills to a point that this class of consumers could afford to pay.

Hydraulic elevators where the water is used over and over again, by

being pumped from the discharge to elevated tanks, cut little or no

figure in connection with a city's water supply. When fuel, first cost,

attendance of an engineer, and the poor economy of the class of pumps

usually employed to perform this work are considered, the cost of

operating such elevators is greatly in excess of what it would be if

power were supplied direct from water mains, at any reasonable rate. The

following remarks will then relate almost exclusively to that class of

hydraulic elevators supplied with power directly from the water mains.

Let us now consider whether they are a desirable source of revenue, and

in this my knowledge does not exceed my actual experience. Few elevator

users appreciate the great quantity of water their elevators consume.

Even in Kansas City, where, on account of the high pressure carried,

much smaller cylinders than ordinarily are required, it is found that

passenger elevators frequently consume 500,000 to 800,000 gallons of

water per month, which will make a very considerable bill, at the most

liberal rates. I have, therefore, concluded that the quantity of water

was so large that, unless liberal concessions were made, it would be a

hardship to consumers to pay their water bills, and have therefore made

a special schedule, according to quantity, for elevators and motors,

these rates standing below our regular meter rates, and running to the

lowest point at which we think we can afford to furnish the water. This

schedule brings the rate below what we would receive for almost any

other legitimate use of water; and, in view of our rapidly increasing

consumption, and the probability of soon having to increase all our

facilities, it is an open question whether this will continue a

desirable source of revenue.

In Kansas City we have elevators of various manufacture: the Hale-Otis,

Ready, Smith & Beggs, O'Keefe, Kennedy, and perhaps others, each having

its peculiarities, but alike demanding large openings in the mains

for supply. These large openings are objectionable features with any

waterworks, and especially so with direct pumping. An occurrence from

this cause, about two years ago, is an experience I should not like

repeated, but is one that might occur whenever the pressure in the mains

is depended upon to throw fire streams. In this instance a large block

of buildings occupied by jobbing houses and having three elevators was

burned down, and the elevator connections broken early in the fire,

allowing the water to pour into the cellars in the volume of about

twelve ordinary fire streams. This immense quantity of water had to be

supplied from a 6-inch main, fed from only one end, which left little

pressure available for fighting the fire, and as a matter of course

failure to subdue the fire promptly was attributed to the water-works.

We have since had up hill work to restore confidence as to our ability

to throw fire streams, although we have demonstrated the fact hundreds

of times since.

From this time we have been gradually cutting down on the size of

openings for elevator supply, but under protest of the elevator agents,

who have always claimed that they should be allowed at least a 4-inch

opening in the mains, until we have found that under 80 to 90 pounds

pressure two to four 1-inch taps will answer the purpose, provided the

water pipes are of ample size.

The "water hammer" produced by the quick acting valves of elevators has

always been objectionable, both in its effect at the pumping-house

and upon water mains and connections. To obviate this, Engineer G. W.

Pearson has suggested the use of very large air chambers on the elevator

supply, and still smaller openings in the mains, his theory being that

the air chambers would not only materially decrease the concussion or

"water hammer," but that they would also act as accumulators of power

(or water under pressure) to be drawn from at each trip of the elevator,

and replaced when it was at rest. This plan I have never seen put to

actual test, but believe it to be entirely practicable, and that we will

have to ultimately adopt it.

All things considered, the plan of operating elevators from tanks in

the top of buildings, supplied by a small pipe connected with the

water-mains and arranged with a float valve to keep the tank filled, I

believe to be the best manner of supply, except for the great additional

cost of putting up such apparatus. By this arrangement the amount of

water consumed is no less, in fact it would ordinarily be more than with

a direct connection with the mains, but it has the advantage of taking

the water in the least objectionable manner. Still, if this mode of

supply were generally enforced, the large first cost, an additional

expense of operating, would undoubtedly deter many from using elevators.

Another evil in connection with the use of elevators, and which no doubt

is common, is the habit many parties have of keeping a key or wrench to

turn on and off the water at the curb. This we have sought to remedy

by embracing in our plumbers' rules the following: "All elevator

connections in addition to the curb stop for the use of the Water

Company must be provided with another valve where the pipe first enters

the building for the use of occupants of the building." Without this

extra valve it was found almost impossible to keep parties from using

the curb valve. In most cases the persons were perfectly responsible,

and as there was no intent to defraud the company by the act, they would

claim this privilege as a precaution against the pipes bursting or

freezing. This practice was very generally carried on, and was the

direct cause in at least two cases of very serious damage. In the

instances referred to, the pipes burst between the elevator and the

area wall of buildings, and the valves outside had become so worn

from frequent use that they would not operate, allowing the water to

literally deluge the basements before the water main could be turned

off.

One of the greatest causes of waste from elevators is the wearing out of

the piston packing, this being particularly troublesome in most of the

Western cities, where the water supplied is to a large extent from

turbid streams, carrying more or less fine sand or "grit," which cuts

out the packing of the pistons very rapidly. The only practicable remedy

for this is close inspection, to see that the pistons do not allow water

to pass, a fact that can readily be determined from the noise made in

the cylinder when the elevator is in motion going upward.

I have reserved one of the most annoying features of elevator supply for

the last, hoping to work myself into a mood to do the subject justice,

but doubt if it can be done in language proper to use before this

dignified body. I remember on one occasion the mayor of our city, in

discussing a job of plumbing, said that it seemed to him "that even a

plumber ought to know something about plumbing." Now it would seem that

even elevator agents ought to know something about elevators, but from

the following incident, which is but one of many, I am led to believe

that they are not infallible to say the least. Only a short time since,

one of these very reliable (?) agents reported at our office that he had

just attached a new indicator to the elevator of a leading hotel. He was

asked: "What does it register?" and promptly replied, "Cubic feet."

In this case our inspector had already made an examination, and had

correctly reported as follows: "Hale elevator; indicator started at zero

February 28; internal diameter of cylinder, 12 inches; travel of piston

for complete trip 301/4 feet; indicator registers for complete trip, 4."

When it is understood that we had for a long time been assuming that

elevator agents knew about all there was to know on the subject, a

comparison of statements of this agent and our inspector is somewhat

startling. Now let us see what the difference amounted to: At the end of

the month the indicator had registered 12,994; calling it cubic feet,

this register would equal 97,195 gallons. According to our inspector,

this same register would equal 578,233 gallons, or a difference of

nearly half a million of gallons for a single month. Our experience with

the agents in Kansas City has shown that they will, if allowed, put any

kind of an indicator on the most convenient point of any sort of an

elevator, without the slightest regard as to what it was intended to

indicate; then report it as registering cubic or lineal feet, whichever

they find the indicator marked. On the same principle they could as

well change the fulcrum of a Fairbanks scale, and then claim it weighed

pounds correctly, because pounds were marked upon the bar. We have

lately prepared a blank, upon which these agents are required to make a

detailed report upon the completion of an elevator before the water

will be turned on, which it is hoped will to some extent correct this

trouble.

I have come to regard an elevator indicator with a feeling of wonder.

Some years ago, when the "planchette" first came out, I remember that

it acquired quite a reputation as a particularly erratic piece of

mechanism, but for real mystery and _innate cussedness_, on general

principles, commend me to the indicator. Why, I have known an indicator

after registering a nice water bill, to deliberately and without

provocation commence taking it all off again, by going backward. This

crab-like maneuver the agent readily explained by saying the "ratchet

had turned over," but even he was unable to show us how to make the

bills after these peculiar gyrations. I also find that it is quite a

favorite amusement for indicators to stop entirely, like a balky horse,

after which no amount of persuasion will bring them to a realizing sense

of their duty.

Even at the best, these indicators are very apt to get out of order,

necessitating greater watchfulness in supplying elevators than for any

other purpose for which water is furnished.

Accidents in connection with the use of elevators are common throughout

the country, and in Kansas City had, until within a short time, become

of altogether too frequent occurrence. The great cause of this I believe

to be due to the fact that the parties who usually operate elevators

are the very ones who know least about them; the corrosion of pistons,

crystallization and oxidation of cables, and many other disorders common

to elevators, being matters they do not comprehend. The frequency

and fatality of these accidents in Kansas City finally led the city

authorities to appoint an Elevator Inspector, who is under heavy bond,

and whose duty is to examine every elevator at least once a month, and

to grant license to run only such as he deems in safe condition. Thus

far since the establishment of this office we have had no serious

accidents, which leads me to the belief that in most cases a monthly

examination will discover in time the causes of many terrible

casualties; also that it is not safe to operate elevators unless so

inspected by some competent person.

The hatchways of elevators in large buildings are points greatly feared

by firemen. They well know that when a fire once reaches this shaft, it

takes but a moment for it to be carried from floor to floor, until the

building is soon past saving. Although this great danger is well known,

it is the exception rather than the rule to provide elevators with

fire-proof hatches. A properly constructed elevator should, it seems

to me, be provided with hatches, or better still, built within brick

fire-proof walls, with openings to be kept closed when not in use. In

this way costly buildings, valuable merchandise, and many lives would be

saved from fire every year.

Although considerable has been said on the subject of elevators, I am

aware that the ground has not been covered, and that difficulties have

been pointed out more than remedies suggested. There is much yet to be

brought out by the engineers, to whom the subject more properly belongs.

In the mean time, although elevators claim many of the objectionable

features in the business of water supply, most of them are not of a

nature that should condemn their use; on the contrary, I hope that

with the joining of our experience there will be an improvement in the

methods of their supply. Inasmuch as they must be furnished with water,

all that can be done is to adopt such rules and fix such rates as will

compensate in some degree for their objectionable qualities.

WATER MOTORS.

My remarks on this subject I trust will be more to the have been point

than they upon the questions already discussed. Certainly my ideas are

more decided, so far at least as supplying water motors is concerned.

In many respects I believe water motors furnish as nearly perfect power

as it is possible to attain. A motor, for instance, properly connected

and supplied by the even pressure from a reservoir is probably the most

reliable and steady power known, not excepting the most improved and

costly steam engines. The convenience and little attendance necessary in

operating make them especially desirable for many purposes. Where only

small power is required, or even where considerable power for only

occasional use is desired, they are particularly well adapted, and

can be driven at small expense. Even for greater power they possess

advantages over steam engines which, to a considerable extent,

compensate for the large water rates that ought to be paid for their

supply. These advantages are in the first cost of a motor, as compared

with a steam engine, the saving in attendance and fuel, the convenience

and cleanliness, and in some cases a saving in insurance by reason of

their being no fire risks attendant upon its use. At just what point

steam becomes preferable, however, is a question depending considerably

upon water rates, but to some extent on other circumstances, leaving

it largely a question of judgment. As with elevators, there are

difficulties involved in their supply that unless carefully guarded make

water motors anything but a desirable source of revenue. How often is

the argument advanced: "Why, I only use water for a quarter of an inch

jet!" Showing how little people who use motors or elevators or fountains

realize the quantity of water they consume. This class of consumers may

be placed on one footing, to wit, a class who, in spite of the fact that

they are supplied with water for much less than any other, feel that

they are imposed upon, and cannot be made to think otherwise.

Though not as large as for elevator supply, water motors require liberal

openings in the mains, and frequently the fault of having too small

supply pipes is sought to be remedied by openings in the water mains

much larger than needful. A table prepared by an engineer who had given

the matter study, or by some motor manufacturer, showing the size of

taps, or openings, for the proper supply of motors, with the various

jets, under different pressures, would be of general use to water-works

people. In order to use water to the best advantage, the full pressure

in the main, so far as practicable, should be had at the jet, but in

order to accomplish this it is not necessary to use as large taps as are

ordinarily demanded, but to provide supply pipes of sufficient capacity

to deliver the water to the point of discharge with the least possible

friction. Lately this theory has been put in practice to some extent by

us, and the result has shown that in this manner we are able to supply

motors through smaller taps than beforehand with as satisfactory

results.

It is a general practice throughout the country to make annual or

monthly rates for water motors, and from my observation I believe I can

safely venture the assertion that in three-quarters of the cases the

rates charged will not equal 50 per cent. of the lowest meter rates in

force in these places. Although the Kansas City Water-Works has not

perhaps been generally accorded the reputation of being the most liberal

"monopoly" in the country, still I have had occasion at times to make

some such claims as an inducement to its generous support. But with all

its liberality, I am free to say that we cannot begin to meet the rates

for motors that parties claim to have paid almost everywhere else.

The St. Louis Water-Works, where the rates are substantially the same as

in Kansas City, have been quoted as having the following motor rates,

but whether correct or not my inquiries have failed to determine:

"On the supposition that motors are to be used ten hours per day for 300

days per year, motors are assessed for--

___________________________________

1/4 inch jets | $120 per annum. |

3/8 " | 198 " " |

1/2 " | 300 " " |

----------------+-----------------+

These rates based upon a charge of 50 cents per 1,000 gallons."

From Col. Flad's Report as Engineer of Public Works, May 1, 1876, p.70,

it is found that with 42 pounds pressure a 1/2 inch orifice will discharge

2,160 gallons per hour, 21,600 gallons in 10 hours, or 6,480,000 gallons

in 300 days, which at 20 cents per 1,000 gallons would amount to $1,296,

for which they assess the rate $300. From all of which I would conclude

that there must be a lack of harmony somewhere between the engineering

and office departments.

I have made some estimates myself for water motors, basing rates upon

the number of hours it was claimed the motors would be in use, and

afterward supplied the same motors by meter measurement; in every case

found that at least twice as much water was used as had been estimated.

Although estimates were carefully made upon what was believed to be

a reliable basis, these repeated similar results have led me to the

conclusion that the only way to supply motors is to make it an object to

the users of them to be economical. In other words, I believe the way to

supply water motors is upon an estimate that they will run 24 hours per

day and 365 days per year, or, more properly still, supply them only by

meter measurement. At all events this is henceforth my policy; or, in

other words, "on this rock I stand," believing it the only equitable way

out of this difficulty.

That class of motors or water engines operated by water pressure in

close cylinders upon pistons as with steam in a steam engine, I believe

could be easily supplied by measurement of water without a meter. This

could be accomplished by the use of "revolution counters" or indicators,

as the amount of water required per revolution could be readily

determined, and when once computed the cylinders would measure out the

water as accurately as a meter. The only objection to this plan is the

expense of counters, which is considerable; and as to indicators, it may

have been observed that I have little faith in their reliability. With

cheap revolution this class of motors would be free from many of the

objections raised in regard to motors generally.

The practical conclusion that I would draw from a consideration of

this subject is that the question of whether the supply of hydraulic

elevators and motors is desirable in its effects upon the water supply

is one that hinges so delicately upon their being carefully governed,

connected, and restricted, that while on the one hand they may be made

the source of large profit, and at the same time a public benefit, on

the other hand, unless all the details of their supply be carefully

guarded by the wisest rules and greatest watchfulness, their capacities

for waste are so great and the rates charged necessarily so low, that

they may become the greatest source of loss with which we have to

contend. I therefore trust that this discussion will be continued until

an interest is felt that will result in our all receiving much useful

information upon two most important factors of our business.

As this paper has been long for the information contained, I will close

with the earnest wish that it may at least be of service in bringing

these important but often neglected subjects to the attention of the

thinking and intelligent body of men, of whom many have had much longer

and more general experience in relation to these matters, and whose

views when expressed will consequently be of more interest and have

greater weight. Thus as a result may we all derive the benefit of

whatever useful information there is to be gained by this annual

interchange of experiences in the all-important business of public water

supply.

* * * * *

WATER SUPPLY OF SMALL TOWNS.

We now describe the new waterworks lately erected for supplying the town

of Cougleton, Cheshire. The population is about 12,000, and the place is

a seat of the silk manufacture. After various expensive plans had been

suggested, in the year 1879 a complete scheme for the supply of the town

with water was devised by the then borough surveyor, Mr. Wm. Blackshaw,

now borough surveyor of Stafford. These we now illustrate above by a

general drawing, and a separate drawing of the tower. With respect

to the mechanical arrangements, the Corporation called in Mr. W. H.

Thornbery, of Birmingham, consulting engineer, to decide on the best

design of those submitted, and this, with modifications made by him, was

carried out under his inspection. The water, for the supply by pumping,

is obtained from springs situated at the foot of Crossledge Hill, about

a mile from the town. It does not at present require filtering, but

space enough has been allowed for the construction of duplicate

filtering beds without in any way interfering with the present

appliances. These filter beds are shown in our perspective illustration,

but they are not yet built or required.

[Illustration: WATER SUPPLY OF SMALL TOWNS--CONGLETON WATERWORKS.]

The waterworks are situated very near the springs, from which they are

only separated by a road, under which the collecting pipes run. There

are two circular collecting tanks of brickwork, two pumping wells,

engine-house, boiler-house, chimney stack, and engine-driver's

dwelling-house, all inclosed by a wall. On the top of Crossledge Hill is

erected a circular brick water tower 35 ft. high to the underside of the

service tank, which is of cast iron 30 ft. internal diameter, supported

on rolled girders. The tank is capable of containing 50,000 gallons

of water, and it is provided with the usual rising and service mains,

overflow and washout pipes. There is an arrangement for pumping direct

into the mains in case the tank should require cleaning or repairing.

The pumping machinery is in duplicate, and each set consists of a

horizontal condensing engine, with cylinder 18 in. diameter, stroke 30

in., fitted with Meyer's expansion gear, governor, fly-wheel 12 ft.

diameter, weighing 4 tons, jet condenser with a single acting vertical

air pump, situated below the engine room floor, and between the end

of the cylinder and the main pump. Each main pump is 10 in. diameter,

horizontal, double-acting, worked by a prolongation backward of the

piston-rod. The valves and seats are of gun metal, 81/2 in. diameter. The

capacity is 350 gallons per minute, raised 206 ft. The air vessel is 21

in. internal diameter and 6 ft. high, and is fitted with a hand pump for

renewing the supply of air if necessary. The rising main from the air

vessel to the service tank is 9 in. diameter, and 307 yards long, laid

up the steep slope of the hill on which the water tower is built. The

boilers, two in number, are of the ordinary Cornish single-flued type, 5

ft. diameter by 18 ft. long, with flue 2 ft. 9 in. diameter, with three

Galloway tubes. They were made by Messrs. Hill & Co., of Manchester. The

engines and pumps were made by Mr. Albert Scragg, of Congleton, and the

brick, stone, and builder's work was executed by Mr. Thomas Kirk. The

waterworks were opened in the autumn of 1881, and since then have

constantly afforded an abundant supply of water. There is also an

independent gravitation system, also arranged by Mr. Blackshaw, for

supplying an outlying part of the town. The cost of the works was

exceedingly moderate, being not more than L12,000, including the water

mains for distribution.

PROCESS FOR SOFTENING HARD WATER.

The available water of many villages and small towns is that of the

chalk beds, but it is invariably very hard, and should be softened. We

have received so many inquiries respecting a simple means of carrying

out Clarke's water-softening process, that the following description

of a set of apparatus devised for this purpose by Messrs. Law and

Chatterton, MM.I.C.E., may interest many besides those who contemplate

the construction of small waterworks supplied by the chalk springs.

The apparatus, as made in various sizes by Messrs. Bowes, Scott,

and Read, of Broadway-chambers, Westminster, we illustrate by the

accompanying engravings.

_Softening hard water_.--The disadvantages attending the use of hard

water either for drinking purposes, steam generation, lavatory purposes,

and for many manufacturing purposes, are well known, but as there are

several methods of softening waters which are hard in different degrees

by different substances, we may be pardoned if we here reproduce, for

the convenience of some of our readers, a few passages from the sixth

report of the River Pollution Commission, 1874, pages 21 and 201-16,

which give some very valuable information on the relative merits of

hard and soft waters in domestic and trade uses. "Some of the mineral

substances which occur in solution in potable waters communicate to the

latter the quality of hardness. Hard water decomposes soap, and cannot

be efficiently used for washing. The chief hardening ingredients are

salts of lime and magnesia. In the decomposition of soap these salts

form curdy and insoluble compounds containing the fatty acids of

the soap and the lime and magnesia of the salts. So long as this

decomposition goes on the soap is useless as a detergent, and it is

only after all the lime and magnesia salts have been decomposed at the

expense of the soap, that the latter begins to exert a useful effect.

As soon as this is the case, however, the slightest further addition of

soap produces a lather when the water is agitated, but this lather is

again destroyed by the addition of a further quantity of hard water.

Thus the addition of hard water to a solution of soap, or the converse

of this operation, causes the production of the insoluble curdy matter

before mentioned. These facts render intelligible the process of washing

the skin with soap and hard water. The skin is first wetted with the

water and then soap is applied; the latter decomposes the hardening

salts contained in the small quantity of water with which the skin

is covered, and there is then formed a strong solution of soap which

penetrates into the pores, and now the lather and impurities which it

has imbibed require to be removed from the skin by wiping the lather off

with a towel or by rinsing it away with water. In the former case the

pores of the skin are left filled with soap solution; in the latter they

become clogged with the greasy, curdy matter which results from the

action of the hard water upon the soap solution which had previously

gained possession of the pores of the cuticle. As the latter process of

removing the lather is the one universally adopted, the operation of

washing with soap and hard water is analogous to that used by the dyer

and calico printer for fixing pigments in calico, woolen, or silk

tissues. The pores of the skin are filled with insoluble greasy and

curdy salts of the fatty acids contained in the soap, and it is only

because the insoluble pigment produced is white, or nearly so, that so

repulsive an operation is tolerated. To those, however, who have been

accustomed to wash in soft water, the abnormal condition of skin thus

induced is for a long time extremely unpleasant.

Of the hardening salts present in potable water, carbonate of lime is

the one most generally met with, and to obtain a numerical expression

for this quality of hardness a sample of water containing 1 lb. of

carbonate of lime, or its equivalent of other hardening salts, in

100,000 lb.--10,000 gallons--is said to have 1 deg. of hardness. Each degree

of hardness indicates the destruction and waste of 12 lb. of the best

hard soap by 10,000 gallons of water when used for washing. Hard water

frequently becomes softer after it has been boiled for some time. When

this is the case, a portion at least of the original hardening effect is

due to the bicarbonate of lime and magnesia. These salts are decomposed

by boiling into free carbonic acid, which escapes as gas, leaving

carbonates of lime and magnesia; the latter being nearly insoluble in

water, ceases to exert more than a very slight hardening effect, and

produces a precipitate. As the hardness resulting from the carbonates

of lime and magnesia is thus removable by boiling the water, it is

designated temporary hardness, while the hardening effect which is due

chiefly to the sulphates of lime and magnesia, and cannot be got rid of

by boiling, is termed permanent hardness. The total hardness of water

is therefore commonly made up of temporary and permanent hardness.

A constant supply of hot water is now almost a necessity in every

household, but great difficulties are thrown in the way of its

attainment by the supply of hard water to towns forming thick calcareous

crusts in the heating apparatus.

Waters with much temporary hardness are most objectionable in this

respect, and the evil is so great where the heating is effected in a

coil of pipe, as practically to prevent, in towns with hard water, the

use of this most convenient method of heating water. The property of

being softened by boiling which temporarily hard water possesses is not

of much domestic use, for water is, as a rule, either not raised to a

sufficiently high temperature or not kept at it for a long enough time.

Seeing then the disadvantages attendant on the use of hard water, it

remains to be considered how best to soften it. Four processes are known

to the arts. They are: Distillation, carbonate of soda, boiling, lime.

Of these processes the first and second are the most effective, but

owing to their expense are not applicable on a large scale. The third

and fourth processes are efficient only with certain classes of water,

rendered hard by the presence of the bicarbonate of lime, magnesia,

or iron. The fourth is, however, a very cheap process, and is easily

applicable to the vast volumes of water supplied to large cities,

provided the hardening ingredients are of the character described.

_Softening by distillation_.--By evaporation, water is completely

separated from all fixed saline matters, and consequently from all

hardening matters. Distilled water, however, has a vapid and unpleasant

taste, due partly to deficient aeration and partly to the presence of

traces of volatile organic matter; and though filtration through animal

charcoal will remove this, and the aeration can begin chemically, the

process is too expensive, except in certain cases, as on board ship, or

at military or naval stations where no potable water exists.

_Softening by carbonate of soda_.--The hardness of water, as already

explained, being principally due to the presence in solution of

bicarbonates and sulphates of lime and magnesia, can be reduced by

addition of carbonate of soda, which decomposes these salts slowly in

cold water but quickly in hot, forming insoluble compounds of lime and

magnesia, which are slowly precipitated as a fine mud, leaving the water

charged, however, with a solution of bicarbonate and sulphate of soda.

This process, on account of expense, is only applicable on a small scale

to the water for laundry purposes, as the water acquires an unpleasant

taste from the presence of the soda salts. For laundry purposes it is,

however, valuable, as it effects a great saving of soap.

_The softening of water by boiling_.--That portion of the hardness of

water due to the presence of bicarbonate of lime, magnesia, or iron, is

corrected by boiling the water for half an hour. During ebullition the

bicarbonates, which are soluble, become carbonates, which are insoluble,

giving off their carbonic acid as gas, rendering--by the precipitate

produced, but not allowed in a boiler time to settle--the water muddy,

but incapable of decomposing soap. To raise the temperature of 1,000

gallons of water to the boiling point and to maintain it for half an

hour requires the consumption of about 21/2 cwt. of coal, or by the

wasteful appliances found in households, probably three times that

amount. Softened by boiling, then, 1,000 gallons of water would cost

about 7s. 6d., while the cost of softening the same amount by soap is

9s., at L2 6s. 6d. per cwt.

_The softening of water by lime_.--The economy which carbonate of

soda exhibits in comparison with soap as a softening material is far

surpassed by the use of lime. Lime costs about 8d. per cwt., and this

weight of lime will soften the same volume of water as would require the

use of 201/4 cwt. of soap. From the above it is evident--so soon as it is

conceded that there is an advantage in using soft water--that the lime

process is by far the most economical. Besides the chemical action

affecting the hardness, it has another most important mechanical action,

in consequence of the weight of each particle composing the precipitate

produced by it. These particles during subsidence become attached to the

almost microscopical organic impurities present in all river water, and

drag them down to the bottom of the settling tank, whereby the water is

rendered, after some eight hours, clear as crystal. The average cost of

the water supplied by the leading metropolitan water companies is L10

10s. 93/4d. per million gallons. The charge made by the companies to

consumers is about 6d. per 1,000 gallons, or L25 per million gallons.

It has been found that water can on a large scale be softened from 14 deg.

hardness to 5 deg. at a cost of 20s. per million gallons--that is, 10 per

cent. on the cost of the water to the companies, or 4 per cent. as the

price charged to consumers. This estimate does not take into account the

value of the precipitated chalk, which has a market price, and is used

for many purposes, being, in fact, whiting of the purest quality. The

operations necessary in Clarke's process are four in number: (1) The

preparation of milk of lime; (2) the preparation of a saturated solution

of lime; (3) the mixture of this solution with the water to be softened;

(4) the classification of the softened water by the separation of

the precipitated substances Messrs. Law and Chatterton effect these

processes by simple mechanical means which are so far automatic that

they only require the presence of a person, without technical knowledge,

once in each twenty-four hours. No filtering medium whatever is

required, which is a great advantage for the following reasons: (1)

Filtering materials require periodical cleaning and renewal, which

not only occasion much trouble and mess, but are also frequently

inefficiently performed. (2) Experience has shown that the filtering

material, whether cloth, charcoal, or other substance, is extremely

liable to become mouldy or musty, which makes the wafer both unwholesome

and unpalatable. This system is especially adapted for small water

supplies and for use in country houses, there being no operation to

perform requiring either technical, chemical, or mechanical knowledge,

nor producing dust or dirt.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--LAW AND CHATTERTON'S WATER-SOFTENING APPARTUS.]

The following is a description of this apparatus as fitted at the

Hoo, Luton, Bedfordshire, for the supply of Mr. Gerard Leigh's house,

grounds, and home farm. The mixing of the lime and the subsequent

stirring of the water is effected by water power obtained from a

turbine. The whole of the apparatus and tanks occupy a space 60 ft.

square, 3,600 ft. area, and soften a daily supply of 50,000 gallons.

[Illustration: Fig. 2]

A pump driven from the turbine forces the water to a reservoir in the

park and on to the house, an ingenious automatic arrangement worked by

the overflow from the cistern throwing the pump out of gear when the

tank is full. A, B, and C. Figs. 1 to 6 herewith, are three tanks in

which the water remains to be softened, each capable of holding one

day's supply. D and E are two smaller tanks in which the lime water is

prepared; X is the automatic valve apparatus by which the connections

between the several tanks are effected in the order and at the times

required; H and H show the positions in which two pumps should be

placed, the former for pumping unsoftened water into the tanks, the

latter to pump the softened water into the supply cistern. J is the pipe

from the well or other source of supply--in case the supply is at a

higher level, one pump can be dispensed with. The operation consists in

adding to the water to be softened a certain quantity of lime water,

depending upon the degree of hardness, and in then allowing the mixture

to rest in a state of perfect quiescence until the whole of the lime has

been deposited and the water has become perfectly clear. The tank, A,

has been filled with unsoftened water. Tank B contains the water

and lime in process of clarification by subsidence after mechanical

agitation by the screw. Tank C contains the softened water--and the

precipitate--in process of removal for consumption. The mode of working

is as follows: The milk of lime, prepared by slaking new lime in a

"Michele mixer"--not shown. One of the tanks, D, having been filled with

softened water, run by gravity from one of the tanks, A, B, or C, the

requisite amount of milk of lime is allowed to flow into it from the

lining machine, and the whole having been thoroughly mixed by the patent

agitator, G, is left in a quiescent state for some hours, when the

superabundant lime falls to the bottom, and the tank contains a

perfectly clear and saturated solution of lime. The requisite quantity

of lime water is then suffered to flow by gravity into whichever of the

three tanks is empty. In the mean while, the softened water is being

withdrawn by pumping or gravitation, as the case may be, from the tank

C, until, upon the water being lowered to within a certain distance of

the bottom, an automatic arrangement shifts the valve, X, so that the

supply then commences from B, the unsoftened water flows into C, and

the water is in process of clarification in A, and thus the operation

proceeds continuously. Where the water can be supplied by gravitation,

and the tanks can be placed at a sufficient elevation to command the

service cistern, no pumps are required, the softening process, in fact,

in no way necessitating pumping. The space occupied by the whole of the

tanks and apparatus is 60 ft. square, 3,600 ft. area, and softens 50,000

gallons per day. For the daily softening of quantities less than 1,000

gallons, the tanks are made of galvanized sheet iron, and the whole

apparatus and tanks are self-contained, so as only to require the making

of the necessary connections with the existing supply and delivery

pipes, and fixing in place. No expensive foundations are required, and

the entire cost of an apparatus--see Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6--capable of

softening 500 gallons per day is about L75. Annexed is a more detailed

description of the manner of fixing and working the smaller apparatus.

[Illustration: Fig. 3]

The tank must, of course, be set up perfectly level. The pipe from the

source of supply--in the present case from the hydraulic ram--must

be attached to the upper three way cock at A, on the accompanying

engravings, and the pipe to supply softened water is to be connected

to the lower three-way cock at B, and should be led into the elevated

cistern with a ball cock so as to keep it always filled. The three ball

cocks in C, D, and E should be adjusted to allow the tanks to fill to

within 3 in. of the top. The nuts at the upper extremity of the three

rods, F, G, and H, should be so adjusted that when the water in the

several tanks has been drawn down to within 15 in. of the bottom the

rocking shaft, I I, is drawn down and the vertical rod, J, lifted so as

to allow the wheel, K, and spindle, L, to revolve by the action of the

weight, M. The length of the chain is such that when the weight, M,

rests upon the floor the face of the raised rim on the wheel, K, should

not quite touch the rod, J, and if necessary, a thin packing should be

put for the weight to drop upon. The lime to be used should be pure

chalk lime free from clay, mixed with water to a smooth, creamy

consistency, and then poured into the small tank, N. This tank should

then be filled with water to within 3 in. of the top, and the small air

pump worked until the lime has become thoroughly mixed and diffused

throughout the water. Care must be taken that previous to filling the

tank the float, O, is raised up, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 3.

After the lime has been thoroughly mixed it should be left for at

least eight hours for the superabundant lime to subside, leaving the

supernatant fluid a perfectly clear saturated solution of lime. At the

end of this time the float, O, should be lowered, so that it may float

upon the lime water, and the three-way cock, P, should be turned in such

a position as to allow the contents of the tank, N, run into the

tank, Q, until the necessary quantity has been supplied, the mode of

determining which is hereinafter described.

[Illustration: Fig. 4]

The spindle, L, should then be turned into the position which allows the

water from the source of supply to be discharged into the tank, Q, the

float, R, having first been raised into the position shown in Figs. 2

and 5. A second quantity of the lime should now be added to the tank, N,

mixed with water, and after agitation, another eight hours allowed for

the contents of both the tanks, Q and N, to subside. At the end of

this time the three-way cock, P, should be turned through a third of

a circle, so as to discharge the lime water into the tank, S; and the

spindle, L, should be turned in the contrary direction to the hands of a

watch through the third of a circle, so as to allow the water from the

source of supply to be discharged into the tank, S, care being taken as

before to raise the float, T, out of the water. A third quantity of lime

must be added to the tank, N, and now mixed with water to be drawn from

the tank, Q, by the tap, U, and after agitation again left for eight

hours to subside. The float, R, may now be lowered into the water in the

tank, Q, when it will be found that the clear softened water contained

in the tank, Q, will be discharged through the pipe attached to the

bottom of the three way tap, B. The weight, M, must now be lifted about

5 in., so as to allow the ring at the end of the chain to be moved back

to the next stud on the wheel, K. The lime water in the tank, N, must

next be discharged into the tank, V, and then another quantity of lime

must be added to the tank, N, and filled up with softened water from the

tank, S, by means of the tap, W, and after being duly agitated and left

to subside. As soon as the softened water from the tank, Q, has been

drawn down to within 15 in. of the bottom, the rod, H, will move the

rocking shaft, I, and lift the rod, J, so releasing the wheel, K, and

allowing the weight, M, to descend and turn the spindle, L, and the

upper and lower three-way cocks through a third of a circle; the effect

of which movement will be to continue the supply of softened water from

the tank, S, and to fill up the tank, V, with water from the source of

supply.

[Illustration: Fig. 5]

The apparatus will now be in the condition to afford a regular supply

of softened water; all that will be necessary to insure its continuous

action will be that at certain stated intervals dependent upon the

rapidity with which the water is used--but which interval should not

be less than eight hours--the following things should be done: (1) The

float must be raised out of the tank last emptied. (2) The float must be

lowered into the tank last filled. (3) The weight, M, must be raised,

and the ring of the chain shifted to the next stud on the wheel, K. (4)

The clear lime water found in the tank, N, must be turned into the tank

last emptied. (5) The requisite quantity of lime must be put into the

tank, N. (6) The requisite quantity of water must be drawn off from the

tank last filled into the tank, N. (7) The contents of tank, N, must be

thoroughly mixed by means of the air pump. The quantity of lime to be

used for each tankful of water must depend upon the hardness of the

water, 3/4 oz. being required for each tankful for each degree of

hardness. It is desirable, however, always to have an excess of lime in

the tank, N, so as to insure obtaining a saturated solution of lime.

When first mixed the contents of the tank, N, will have a creamy

appearance, but when the superabundant lime has subsided the supernatant

liquid will be a perfectly clear saturated solution of lime. Therefore,

in the first instance, 3 lb. of lime should be put into the tank, N, and

subsequently each time such a quantity of lime should be added as is

found to be necessary by the method hereinafter described. The quantity

of the saturated lime water to be run into each of the softening tanks,

Q, S, and V, will depend upon the hardness of the water. For every

degree of temporary hardness a depth of 1-6/10 in. of the contents of

the tank, N, will be required; so that if the water has 14 deg. of

temporary hardness, then 221/2 in. in depth of lime water must be run off

into each of the tanks, Q, S, and V. In the first instance an excess of

lime may be used, and the softened water tested by means of nitrate of

silver in the following manner: A solution of 1 oz. of nitrate of silver

in a pint of twice distilled water should be obtained. Having let two

or three drops of this solution fall on the bottom of a white tea cup,

slowly add the softened water; then if there be any excess of lime, a

yellow color will show itself, and the quantity of lime water used must

be reduced until only the faintest trace of color is perceptible.--_The

Engineer_.

[Illustration: Fig. 6]

* * * * *

IMPROVED WATER METER.

We annex illustrations of a meter designed by Mr. A. Schmid, of Zuerich,

and which, according to _Engineering_, is now considerably used on

the Continent, not only for measuring water, but the sirup in sugar

factories, in breweries, etc. It consists of a cast iron body containing

two gun-metal-lined cylinders, and connected by an intermediate chamber.

Round the body are formed two channels, one for the entrance and the

other for the discharge of the water, etc., to be measured. Within the

cylinder are placed two long pistons, provided with openings in such

a way that each piston serves as a slide valve to the other, the flow

being maintained through the ports in the connecting chamber. The

arrangement of openings in the piston is shown in Figs. 5, 6, 7, and the

intermediate passages in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. To the upper side of each

piston is attached a cross-head working on a disk placed at each end of

a horizontal shaft. To one of the disks is added a short connecting rod

that drives the spindle of a counter.

[Illustration: SCHMID'S WATER METER.]

* * * * *

WASHING MACHINE FOR WOOL.

The washing machines in use for wool on the rake principle have during

the last few years experienced many improvements in the details of

their arrangement, which we have illustrated at different times in our

columns. The introduction of these improvements and alterations shows

that the washing of wool has attracted more attention on the part of

observant manufacturers and machine makers, and demonstrated at the same

time that the machines hitherto in use, with all their advantages, left

much to be desired in other respects. The main difficulty with all

washing machines for wool has been the avoidance of felting of the wool,

which tendency is increased by the use of warm water for washing and by

the agitation that some consider necessary for a thorough cleansing of

the wool and removal of the adhering impurities, but which agitation is

deprecated by others.

[Illustration: IMPROVED WOOL WASHING MACHINE.]

Referring to our different illustrations of improvements in this

direction, our subscribers will observe that the tendency of all these

has been to keep the wool floating in the water, and to apply all

mechanical appliances required for its cleansing and pressing as much as

possible while it is in this suspended condition. The success which the

different appliances and improvements mentioned by us have had when used

for the class of wool for which they are intended, has induced us to

look up any attempts in a similar direction which have been made on the

Continent, where the subject has attracted attention, as well as with

us. We therefore give the annexed illustration of a machine invented by

a German woolen manufacturer, which in many respects is a wide departure

from the acknowledged type in use in this country. As with the English

machines, the wool enters from a creeper at one end, passes through a

long trough, filled with water or lye, ascends an inclined plane, and

passes out through a pair of squeezing rollers. The invention mentioned

applies to the treatment in the trough which latter is shown in our

illustration at K. It has a second bottom, a little distance from a

false one, at K. The false bottom is traversed in its whole length by

an air pipe, communicating with the atmospheric air outside the trough.

From this longitudinal pipe other pipes branch off at right angles at

stated intervals, as shown in section in Fig. 2. These smaller pipes

contain a number of small perforations on their upper part, through

which the air ascends into the water in innumerable small bubbles. This

is one of the principal aims of the invention, for in ascending the

bubbles lift the wool more or less to the surface and tend to open it

out without the risk of doing so by any mechanical means liable to

produce felting. This is the same effect that is produced in many cases

so successfully in boiling. Instead of rakes the inventor has placed

four hexagonal drums into the trough, marked D, E, F, G. The flat parts

of these drums are made of perforated metal and set back a little. This

produces an alternate passing of the water into and out of them during

their revolution and consequent sucking and repulsing of the wool, which

also likewise agitates it. These drums are made wide at the entrance end

of the trough and gradually narrower toward the delivery end. The pipe,

V V, is the usual steam pipe for heating the water.

We have said before that the improvements introduced into the wool

washing machines nearer home have been of advantage for the wools for

which they are intended, and possibly the invention just described will

also be valuable in some cases.--_Tex. Manuf._

* * * * *

INCREASING THE ILLUMINATING POWER OF GASES, ETC.

By V. POPP, of Paris.

This invention relates to lighting by mixing air or other gaseous

supporter of combustion with illuminating or other hydrocarbon gas or

vapor, and burning the mixture (at a suitable pressure) in a burner of

special construction, shown in the accompanying illustrations.

[Illustration]

The burner is constructed as shown in Figs 1 and 2. It consists of a

central tube, i, screwing upon the pipe by which the gaseous mixture is

supplied. Upon this tube is screwed a cup, k, of metal or refractory

material which supports a cap, l, of fire-clay in the shape of a thimble

(or of other form, according to the intended use of the burner). The

flanged base of this cap is perforated with a ring of holes, m, as small

and numerous as possible, and the sides of the cap are pierced with

oblique perforations, n. The top of the tube, i, is provided with four

small projections, upon which rests a copper cone, o, soldered to the

tube at a point below the perforations in the base of the thimble. The

cone is perforated at its lower end with small holes, p, the sum of

whose areas is at least equal to the area of the tube. The thimble,

l, is surrounded by an envelope, q, of platinum wire netting or other

refractory material of the same form. The gaseous mixture arriving by

the pipe, i, escapes at the upper orifices, r, and passes down against

the interior surface of the cone, o, out at the orifices, p, and escapes

through the orifices in the cap, l, at which it is burned. The cap is

thereby raised to a high temperature; and the platinum wire sheath

becoming incandescent radiates the light. The gaseous mixture, by coming

first in contact with the copper cone and then with the refractory cap,

becomes raised to an exceedingly high temperature before it is consumed.

In the modified burner represented in Fig. 3, the metal cone and the

fire-cap are truncated. The tube, i, is provided with a number of small

perforations, r, at its upper end, the sum of whose areas is at least

equal to the area of the tube, and by which the gaseous mixture is

distributed within the chamber, k. Upon the upper closed end of the tube

is fixed a cup or inverted thimble, o, of fire-clay. A refractory cone,

l, surrounds this cup and rests by its base upon the cup. This flanged

base is perforated with small vertical holes, m, and upon it is fixed a

platinum wire cage or envelope, q. An annular space is left between the

cone and cup for the passage of the gaseous mixture, which, on escaping

from the orifices, r, passes over the exterior surface of o, the

interior of which is already heated by the flame which has not passed

through the wire gauze, and has been forced by the pressure of the

mixture into the interior of o. The gaseous mixture before passing

through the annular space thus attains such a temperature that on

escaping from the orifice its combustion is greatly promoted.

* * * * *

PREVENTING IRON FROM RUSTING.

In the present state of civilization the use of iron has reached a very

wide extension, and in a great number of cases iron is used where wood

or stone was formerly used. It is certainly an important question how

this metal can be protected under all circumstances against rust or

oxidation, so that the many costly iron structures may retain their

usefulness and strength, and be handed down uninjured to posterity.

Wherever bright iron comes into contact with air and moisture it

immediately begins to rust, and this rust is not content to continually

rob it of its substance in its persistent progress by scaling off the

surface, but at the same time it injures the remainder of the iron by

making it brittle. Attempts have hitherto been made to protect the iron

by covering it with other and less easily oxidizable metals. For this

purpose tin was first selected, then lead and zinc, and recently nickel.

Furthermore, earthy glazings and enamels, such as are used on stone

ware, have been applied to iron vessels, and they have already found

extensive use in the household. In most cases these coatings, either

metallic or vitreous, are inapplicable, either because they cannot be

applied or are too expensive, so that on a large scale recourse must be

had to paints made by mixing oils with metallic oxides, earths, etc.,

for protecting the surface of the iron from air and moisture.

It has been observed that iron does not rust in _dry_ air, not even in

dry oxygen. In like manner it frequently happens that unpainted iron,

such as weather vanes, fences, etc., is exposed to the air for a century

with very little injury, being covered with a thin coating of the

magnetic oxide (proto-sesquioxide), which acts as a protection and

prevents farther action. Hence it has been proposed to produce a layer

of this magnetic oxide on the surface artificially, and it was found

that superheated steam furnished the means for doing this. But it is not

to be supposed that such a process would find use on a large scale, and

besides this protection could only serve for iron tolerably exposed to

the open air and not for that in direct contact with carbonic acid and

water.

An interesting observation has been made on railways that the iron

rails, ties, bolts, etc., rust until the road begins to be used. Here we

must assume that anything made of iron is more inclined to rust when at

rest than if occasionally caused to vibrate, when an electrical action

probably comes into play and decreases the affinity of iron for oxygen.

In tearing down old masonry iron bonds and clamps are often found which

are as free from rust, so far as they are covered with mortar, as they

were the day they left the blacksmith's hands. A French engineer met

with such a phenomenon when he uncovered the anchor plates of several

chain bridges which had been built about thirty years. Where the anchors

were covered with the fatty lime mortar of the masonry they showed no

traces of rust, but the prolongations of the anchors in empty spaces

were rusted to such an extent that they were only one-third of their

original thickness.

It has been repeatedly observed that iron does not rust in water in

which are dissolved small quantities of caustic alkalies or alkaline

earths, which neutralize every trace of acid. It seems that these

experiences are the basis of A. Riegelmann's (Hanau) new protection

against rust. The paint that he uses contains caustic alkaline earths

(baryta, strontia, etc.), so that the iron is in a condition similar to

the iron anchors of the chain bridges that were embedded in lime mortar.

Although a paint is not thick enough to inclose so much alkali as the

masonry did that the iron was embedded in, nevertheless the alkaline

action will make itself felt as long as the coating has a certain

consistence. Under all circumstances, however, these new paints will

be free from active acids, which is more than can be said of our iron

paints hitherto in use. Besides this, the rust protector has such

a composition that it could serve its intended purpose without the

addition of any alkali. If experience confirms this claim, it will be an

interesting step forward in the preservation of iron, and contribute to

an extension in the use of iron.--_Polytechn. Notizblatt_.

* * * * *

[Illustration: SUGGESTIONS IN DECOTATIVE ART.--A CUPBOARD IN ITALIAN

WALNUT WITH DARKER PANELING.--_From The Workshop_.]

* * * * *

AN ELASTIC MASS FOR CONFECTIONERS' USE.

It should be made in a well glazed earthen crock; metallic vessels are

not good, as the gelatine burns too easily on the sides, and dries

out where it gets too hot. Nor is a water bath to be recommended for

dissolving the gelatine, for the sides get too hot and dry out the

gelatine.

A quart of water is put in the crock and heated to boiling; it is then

taken off the open fire and two pounds of the finest gelatine stirred

in, a little at a time. After the gelatine is completely dissolved there

is to be added eight or ten pounds (according to the quality of the

gelatine) of the finest white sirup previously warmed, and constantly

stirred. The mass must not boil, as it would easily burn, or turn brown

and acquire a bad color.

Thirty or forty pounds of a beautiful white elastic mass can be made by

this recipe in an hour at a cost of ten or twelve cents. Its chief use

is for making figures and ornaments to put on bridal cakes and other

fanciful productions of the confectioner. It contains no harmful

ingredients and can be eaten without danger. If coloring is added,

cochineal, plant green (chlorophyl), and turmeric are safer than aniline

colors.

* * * * *

CAOUTCHOUC.

A. Levy contributes the following brief account of this subject to the

_Moniteur Scientifique_:

The crude gum cut in irregular strips is passed five or six times

between two strong rolls sixteen inches in diameter, and making two

or three revolutions per minute. These rolls are kept wet by water

trickling on them. This broad strip of gum is perforated with foreign

substances and looks like a sieve. It is next put in the cutting

machine, a horizontal drum provided with an axle having knives on it. So

much heat is produced by this cutting that the water would soon boil if

it were not renewed. A second machine of this kind completes the cutting

and subdividing, and expels the air and water from it. The mass is then

pressed in round or quadrangular blocks.

The vulcanization of thin articles from one twenty-fifth to

one-sixteenth inch thick, is done by Parkes' patented process, that is,

dipping it in carbon disulphide for a short time, to which chloride or

bromide of sulphur has been added, and when the solvent has evaporated

the sulphur remains behind. Balls, ornamental articles, and surgical

apparatus are dipped into melted sulphur at 275 deg. or 300 deg. Fahr.

The third most important process consists in mixing in the sulphur

mechanically with the gum in the cutting machine.

After the pieces have received the form they are to have they are heated

with steam or hot air to 275 deg.. Flat articles are vulcanized between

press plates heated by steam. This vulcanization is said to have been

discovered accidentally by searching different colored stuffs, some of

which were dyed yellow with sulphur; the latter stood well.

Hard rubber contains more sulphur, and is heated longer and higher.

Small or fine tubes and hose are made by a continuous machine that

presses it through a hole with a core to it. Large hose is made by

wrapping strips around iron rods or tubes. The little air balloons

are made in Paris (their value is $300,000) by Brissonet from English

Mackintosh cloth. Powdered soapstone is strewed over it in cutting. The

edges are united by hammering on a horn anvil, or by machinery through

simple adhesion, and the cut surfaces are smooth.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC ACTION STUDIED SPECTROSCOPICALLY.

At the last meeting of the Chemical Society Captain Abney gave a lecture

on the above subject to a large audience. We may premise by saying that

the demonstrations he gave were carried out principally by means of

experiments on paper, to enable his hearers to understand the different

points he wished to enforce. The lecture was commenced by insisting on

the fact that all photographic action took place within the molecules of

the compound acted upon and not on the molecule itself, and from this

he deduced that the absorption of radiation which take place by such

compounds is principally caused by the atoms composing the molecule.

This was found to be the case in the organic liquids, which the lecturer

to some extent had investigated, where he had further traced the

absorption to the vibrating atoms of hydrogen in those bodies. In

order to properly investigate the action of light it was necessary to

ascertain which components of light in the spectrum were the chief

agents in causing it, and this led him to consider the means to be

employed to obtain a spectrum.

The effects of diffraction gratings were first discussed, and in two

which were shown it was found that in some spectra the visible portions

were dimmed; in others the ultra-violet and the infra-red were almost

entirely absent. It thus became necessary to investigate the condition

of a grating before placing any confidence in the results obtained. This

was the first pitfall into which an experimentalist was liable to fall.

If prisms were used for obtaining the spectrum, then precautions had

also to be taken, since all glass absorbed a portion of the ultra-violet

rays and some the infra-red. On the whole, he considered that the best

glass to use was pure white flint glass for the collimator, the prisms,

and the camera lens. Another inquiry that was necessary was the

source of radiation which it was proposed to use. Diagrams showed the

unsatisfactory nature of solar radiation, and a photograph of the whole

spectrum, taken with it under certain atmospheric conditions in which

the effect of the green rays were almost _nil_, demonstrated the false

conclusions that might be deduced as to the sensitiveness of any

particular compound.

Captain Abney also showed the satisfactory conditions which existed in

using the crater of the positive pole of the electric arc light as a

source, and by diagrams illustrated the inferiority of an incandescent

light for the purpose, owing to the deficiency of violet and

ultra-violet rays. Having thus settled the source of illumination and

the kind of apparatus to employ, he next considered the conditions under

which the sensitive salts were to be exposed. The action of ordinary

sensitizers was explained and demonstrated by experiments, from which

point the results of certain colored sensitizers were considered. Thus,

various aniline dyes were proved to be bromine absorbents, and likewise,

more or less, to be capable of being acted upon by light in those

regions of the spectrum they absorbed. The result of the two effects was

to produce a developable image of the spectrum just in those parts to

which the salt of silver was sensitive, and also in the parts where the

dye itself was acted upon. The latter effect was traced to the organic

matter being oxidized in the presence of the sensitive silver salt.

The sensitizing effect of one silver compound upon another was then gone

into, and experiments and photographs showed where two salts of silver

were in contact with one another, and without an energetic sensitizer

being at hand, that the one when acted upon by light absorbed the

halogen liberated from the other through the same cause and that a new

molecule was formed. This was of importance, since in photographic

spectroscopic researches a conclusion might be arrived at that a

body suffered absorption in those regions of the spectrum where this

interesting reaction took place, whereas in reality the phenomenon might

be due to the silver salts employed. This was another pitfall for the

unwary. Again, it became necessary in studying photographic action to

make sure that the effect of radiation was only a reducing action, and

that the results were not vitiated by some other action.

The destruction by oxidizing agents of the effect produced by light was

then experimentally demonstrated, and photographs of the spectrum showed

that this effect was increased by the action of light itself. Thus, when

immersing a plate sensitive to all radiations, visible and invisible,

in a very dilute solution of nitric acid, bichromate of potash, or

hydroxyl, it was shown that if the plate were exposed to light, first

the parts acted upon by the red rays were reduced before the parts not

acted upon at all by the spectrum, thus conclusively proving that light

itself helped forward the oxidation or so-called solarization of the

image. It thus became a struggle, under ordinary circumstances, between

the reducing action on the normal salt and the oxidizing action on the

altered salt as to which should gain the mastery. If the reducing action

of any particular ray were the most active, then a negative image

resulted, whereas if the oxidizing action were in the ascendant, a

positive image resulted. Thus, in determining the action of light on

a particular salt, this antagonism had to be taken into account, and

exposure made with such precautions that no oxidizing action could

occur, as would be the case if an inorganic sensitizer, such as sulphite

of soda, were used.

The reversal of the image by soluble haloid salts, such as bromide of

potassium, was then dwelt upon with experimental demonstration. It was

shown that the merest trace of soluble haloid would reverse an image

by the extraction of bromine from it, and the fact that the most

refrangible part of the spectrum was principally efficacious in

completing this action showed how necessary it was to avoid falling

into error when analyzing photographic action by the spectroscope. A

reference was next made to gelatine plates, in which, owing to their

preparation, reversal through the above cause was most likely to take

place, and a plate soaked in sulphite of soda and exposed in the camera

for a couple of minutes--a time largely in excess of that necessary to

give a reversal under ordinary circumstances--proved the efficacy of

the oxygen absorber, the image remaining in its normal condition after

development.

The lecturer closed his remarks by showing the different molecular

states of iodide, bromide, and chloride of silver, as produced by

different modes of preparation. The color of the film by transmitted

light in every case indicated the effect which was likely to be produced

on them, and the photographed spectrum in each of them showed the

remarkable differences that were found. The points raised by Captain

Abney at different times are well worthy the study of scientific

photographers, since strict attention to the modes of exposure to the

spectrum, to the instruments employed, and to the source of light used

can alone insure accuracy in comparative experiments.--_Br. Jour. of

Photo_.

* * * * *

SALT AND LIME.

M.F.K. communicates the following interesting circumstance to _Neueste

Erfindung_.: A few years ago it was decided to whitewash the walls

and ceiling of a small cellar to make it lighter. For this purpose a

suitable quantity of lime was slaked. A workman who had to carry a

vessel of common salt for some other purpose stumbled over the lime

cask and spilled some of his salt into it. To conceal all traces of his

mishap he stirred in the salt as quickly as possible. The circumstance

came to my knowledge afterward, and this unintentional addition of salt

to the lime excited my liveliest curiosity, for the whitewash was not

only blameless, but hard as cement, and would not wash off.

After this experience I employed a mixture of milk of lime and salt

(about three parts of stone lime to one part of salt), for a court or

light well. To save the trouble and expense of a scaffold to work on, I

had it applied with a hand fire engine (garden syringe?) to the opposite

walls. The results were most satisfactory. For four years the weather

has had no effect upon it, and I have obtained a good and cheap means of

lighting the court in this way.

* * * * *

RENEWING PAINT WITHOUT BURNING.

It is stated in the _Gewerbeblatte fur Hessen_ that paint can be renewed

and refreshed in the following manner:

When cracks and checks appear in the paint on wooden articles, this

usually indicates that the varnish has cracked. If this is the case, the

article can easily be prepared for a fresh coat by sponging it over with

strong ammonia water, and two or three minutes later scraping off the

varnish with the broad end of a spatula before the ammonia has dried up.

In this way the first coat is removed. If it is necessary to remove the

next coating, the same operation is repeated. After the last coat

has been scraped off that is to be removed, it must be washed with

sufficient water to render the ammonia inactive, and then the surface is

rubbed with pulverized pumice to make it smooth. Any desired paint or

varnish can be applied to a surface prepared in this way.

* * * * *

TESTING OLIVE OIL.

By DR. O. BACH.

There is no department in analytical chemistry in which so little

success has been attained as in the testing of commercial fats and oils.

All methods that have been proposed for distinguishing and recognizing

the separate oils, alone or mixed, bear upon them the stamp of

uncertainty.

The facts observed by J. Koenig, and described by him in his excellent

book entitled "_Die Menschlichen Nahrungs und Genussmittel_" (p. 248),

excited great expectations; viz., that the quantity of glycerine in

vegetable fats was much less than the amount required to combine with

all the fatty acids, and that the quantity of oleic acid in the oils

that he examined exhibited essential differences. Koenig himself asserts

that the fats have hitherto been too little investigated to found upon

it a method for distinguishing them, but that nevertheless it may

possibly do good service in some cases.

My own estimation of the amount of glycerine in different olive oils, by

Koenig's method, has shown, unfortunately, that the percentage may vary

from 1.6 to 4.68, according to the origin and quality of the oil. In

like manner the estimation of the oleic acid, which was conducted

essentially in the manner proposed by Koenig, showed that the amount of

oleic acid in different olive oils varied from 45 to 54 per cent. But

since cotton seed oil, for example, which is most frequently used to

adulterate olive oil, contains 5 per cent. of glycerine, and 59.5 per

cent. of oleic acid, it is easy to see an admixture of cotton seed oil

cannot be detected by this method, which appeared to be so exact.

The method of analysis that I am about to describe is based chiefly upon

the determination of the melting point of the fatty acids contained in

the oils, and upon their solubility in a mixture of alcohol and acetic

acid.

The oils employed in adulterating olive oil, and to which regard must be

had in testing it, are the following: Cotton seed oil, sesame, peanut,

sun flower, rape, and castor oils. The tests for the two last named

have hitherto never presented any difficulty, as rape seed is easily

detected, owing to the sulphur in it, by saponifying it in a silver

dish, and castor oil by its solubility in alcohol. But in recent times

another product has come into the market called sulphur oil or pulpa

oil, obtained by extracting the pressed olive cake with sulphide of

carbon. This also gives a sulphur reaction when saponified, while it

resembles castor oil by its solubility in alcohol. When this oil is

mixed with ordinary olive oil, it can easily deceive any one who uses

the ordinary tests.

My method of testing olive oil is as follows:

First, the so-called elaidine test is made, and then the test with

nitric acid. About 5 c. c. (a teaspoonful) of the oil is mixed in a test

tube with its own volume of nitric acid, spec. gr. 1.30, and shaken

violently for one minute. At the expiration of this time the oils will

have acquired the following colors: Olive oil, pale green; cotton seed

oil, yellowish brown; sesame, white; sun flower, dirty white; peanut,

rape, and castor oils, pale pink or rose.

As soon as the color has been observed, the test glass is put in a water

bath at the full boiling temperature and left there five minutes. It was

found that the action of nitric acid upon cotton seed and sesame oil was

the most violent, sometimes so violent as to throw the oil out of the

glass. At the end of another five minutes after the test tube is taken

out of the water bath, the following colors are seen: olive and rape

oils are red; castor oil is golden yellow; sun flower oil, reddish

yellow; sesame and peanut, brownish yellow; cotton seed, reddish brown.

After standing 12 to 18 hours at about 60 deg. Fahr. the olive, rape, and

peanut oils will have solidified; sun flower, castor, and cotton seed

will be like salve (sticky), while sesame will remain perfectly liquid.

Mixtures of olive oil with small quantities of cotton seed or sesame are

distinguished by this characteristic--that, although the whole mass,

which is darker in color than olive oil, solidifies at first, at the end

of 24 or 36 hours a brown oil will be found floating upon the surface of

the solid mass, while the lower strata exhibit the yellow color of pure

olive oil. Oil of rosemary has no effect when shaken with cold nitric

acid, and imparts to it only a slightly darker color on heating. Oils

treated with lye act just like pure oils.

Far the purpose of determining the melting point of the fatty acids, 10

grammes of oil were saponified with 5 grammes of caustic potash on the

water bath; some water and alcohol being added. After all the alcohol

had been expelled the soap was dissolved in hot water, and the fatty

acids separated from the clear solution by adding hydrochloric acid.

After prolonged heating these acids will swim on the salt solution as

a perfectly clear oil, a portion of which is then put into a little,

narrow, thin walled tube and allowed to solidify. The point at with it

melts and solidifies is determined by putting this tube in a beaker

glass filled with water and warming with a small flame. A thermometer

is placed _in_ the fatty acids and moved gently about during the

observation, and the point accurately observed at which the whole mass

becomes perfectly clear, and also when the mercury bulb begins to be

clouded. It was found that the acids from pure olive oil melt between

261/2 and 281/2 deg. C. (= 80 deg. to 83 deg. Fahr.) and solidify at a point not lower

than 22 deg. C. (72 deg. Fahr.). The melting point of the fatty acids in the

oils used to adulterate olive oil differs considerably from this. The

melting and solidifying points of the acids in cotton seed, sesame,

and peanut oils lie considerably higher, those of sunflower, rape, and

castor oils decidedly lower than those of olive oil.

The melting and solidifying points of these acids are as follows:

Cotton seed melts at 38.0 deg.C. solidifies 35.0 deg.C.

Sesame do. 35.0 do. do. 32.5 do.

Peanut do. 33.0 do. do. 31.0 do.

Sunflower do. 23.0 do. do. 17.0 do.

Rape do. 20.7 do. do. 15.0 do.

Castor oil do. 13.0 do. do. 2.0 do.

The above figures differ so much from those of olive oil, that

adulteratious carried to the extent that they are in trade can easily

be detected by the aid of an estimation of the melting point, for a

Gallipoli olive oil, mixed with 20 per cent. of sunflower oil, melted at

24 deg. C. and solidified at 18 deg. C. (of course, the fatty acids are meant).

A Nizza oil, mixed with 20 per cent. cotton seed oil, melted at 311/2 deg. C.

and solidified at 28 deg. C. A Gallipoli oil with 33-1/3 per cent. of rape

oil melted at 231/2 deg. C. and solidified at 161/2 deg. C. When 0.50 per cent. of

rape is added, it melts as low as 20 deg. and solidifies at 131/2 deg. C., etc.

In testing the solubility of the fatty acids in alcohol and acetic acid,

I employ the method proposed by David (in _Comptes Rendus_, 1878, p.

1416) for estimating stearic acid.

It depends upon the principle that when acetic acid is poured drop by

drop into an alcoholic solution of oleic acid, there comes a time when

all the oleic acid separates, but stearic acid, which is insoluble in

a mixture of alcohol and acetic acid, remains insoluble if the mixture

contains oleic acid.

The following manipulations are adopted in testing olive oil: Equal

parts of glacial acetic acid and water are mixed in a bottle. Then 1

c.c. of pure oleic acid, 3 c.c. of 95 per cent. alcohol, and 2 c.c.

of acetic acid are put in a small tube graduated in tenths of cubic

centimeters. The solution should remain clear; on adding another

one-tenth c.c. of acetic acid it becomes turbid, and when 1 c.c. of

oleic acid (or at first even more) floats on the mixture of acid and

alcohol, the liquid is ready for use. If this is not the case, the

proportions (of acetic acid and alcohol?) must be varied until the

addition of one-tenth c.c. of the former will cause all the oleic

acid to separate. The proportions having been ascertained from

these preliminary experiments, the alcohol and acid are then mixed

accordingly, e.g., 300 of alcohol to 225 of acid. One or two grammes

of stearic acid are added to the alcoholic acetic acid, and the clear

supernatant liquid used for the experiments.

One cubic centimeter of the oil (acids) to be tested is put in the tube,

and 15 c.c. of alcoholic acetic acid added, well shaken, and the whole

left to stand quietly at 15 deg. C. (60 deg. Fahr). If the olive oil is pure,

the acids dissolve to a clear solution that remains so. Cotton seed

oil is insoluble, and the solution obtained by heating the solution

solidifies at 60 deg. Fahr. to a white jelly. Sesame and peanut oil react

in a similar manner. Sunflower oil dissolves, but at 60 deg. a granular

precipitate falls. Rape oil is entirely insoluble and floats like oil on

the surface. Castor oil on the contrary dissolves completely, just like

olive oil, and hence cannot be detected therein by this method. To

detect this oil we must take the melting point of the acids along with

the solubility of the oil itself in alcohol.

Olive oil when mixed with 25 per cent. of cotton seed oil yields a

granular precipitate, and so does 25 per cent. of sesame. Smaller

quantities cannot be detected by these methods. For rape oil the limit

is 50 per cent., and in smaller quantities the oil does not collect on

the alcoholic solution. The decided lowering of the melting point of

the fatty acids in combination with the sulphur reaction, and the

insolubility of the oil in alcohol, also furnish a method of detecting

when present in smaller quantities in olive oil.

Although I am well aware that I am making public a research that is by

no means free from objections, I nevertheless believe that it may be of

use to those who have to undertake the ticklish and intricate analyses

of commercial fats.--_Translated from the Chemiker Zeitung_, p. 355.

Leipsic, Jan., 1883.

* * * * *

ON THE THEORY OF THE FORMATION OF COMPOUND ETHERS.

In a note presented to the Industrial Society of Mulhouse, A. Pabst

discusses the different stages in the formation of compound ethers, as

Williamson has explained the production of ordinary ethers by the action

of sulphuric acid upon alcohol. Pabst has observed that the compound

ethers are formed in an analogous manner. If alcohol, sulphuric acid,

and acetic acid are heated together, acetic ether, we know, is formed.

Pabst has shown that it takes place in three stages. In the first stage,

ethyl sulphuric acid and water are formed; in the second, acetate of

ethyl with the reproduction of sulphuric acid, which again converts a

fresh quantity of alcohol into ethyl sulphuric acid.

(1) C_{2}H_{5}OH+HO,SO_{2}OH = C_{2}H_{5}O,SO_{2}OH+H_{2}O.

(Alcohol.) (Sulphuric acid.) (Ethyl sulphuric acid.)

(2) C_{2}H_{5}O,SO_{2}OH+C_{2}H_{3}O,OH =

(Ethyl sulphuric acid.) (Acetic acid.)

C_{2}H_{5}O,C_{2}H_{3}O+HO,SO_{2}HO.

(Acetate of ethyl.) (Sulphuric acid.)

Pabst proved this by letting methyl sulphuric acid act upon a mixture of

acetic acid and ethyl alcohol. He obtained by this process acetate

of methyl and ethyl sulphuric acid. By the continued action of ethyl

alcohol and acetic acid upon this mixture, of course, acetate of ethyl

was formed. At the conclusion of the operation there was no longer any

methyl sulphuric acid present in the liquid.

In the course of his investigations, Pabst was led to a very practical

method for preparing acetate of methyl, which consists in heating ethyl

sulphuric acid to 135 deg. or 140 deg. C, and allowing a mixture of equal

molecules of strong alcohol and acetic acid to flow into it.

The details of his experiments and the method of purification will be

published by the society.

* * * * *

A GREEN OR GOLDEN COLOR FOR ALL KINDS OF BRASS.

By E. PULCHER.

The French brass castings and articles of sheet brass are made of cheap,

light colored brass, and possess a fine golden color which is not

produced by gold varnish, but by a coating of copper. This gives them a

finer appearance, so that they sell better.

This golden color can be easily produced at very little expense and with

but little trouble by the following process. Fifty grammes of caustic

soda and 40 grammes of milk sugar are dissolved in a liter of water

and boiled for a quarter of an hour. The solution is clear as water at

first, but acquires a dark yellow color. The vessel is next taken

from the fire, placed on a wooden support, and 40 grammes of a cold

concentrated solution of blue vitriol stirred in. A red precipitate of

suboxide of copper is at once formed, and by the time the mixture cools

to 167 deg. Fahr., the precipitate will have settled.

A suitable wooden sieve is placed in the vessel, and on this the

polished articles are laid. In about one minute the sieve is lifted up

to see how far the operation has gone, and at the end of the second

minute the golden color is dark enough.

The sieve and articles are now taken out, and the latter are washed

and then dried in sawdust. If the brass is left longer in the copper

solution, in a short time a fine green luster is produced, becoming

yellow at first and then bluish green. After it turns green, then the

well-known iridescent colors finally appear. To obtain uniform colors

it is necessary that they be produced slowly, which is attained at

temperatures between 135 deg. and 170 deg. Fahr.

The copper bath can be used repeatedly and can be kept a long time if

bottled up tightly without change. After it is exhausted it can be

renewed by adding 10 grammes of caustic soda, replacing the water that

has evaporated, heating to boiling, and adding 25 grammes of a cold

solution of blue vitriol.

Similar operations with other well known reducing agents, such as

tartrate of soda, glycerine, etc., do not give such good colors, because

they do not precipitate the copper solution so rapidly and at so low a

temperature.

If the rinsed and pickled brasses are dipped for five minutes in a three

per cent. neutral solution of cocoa nut oil soap, and then washed with

water again before they dry, the coating gains in permanence.

Brass articles that have to be cleaned frequently should be covered with

oil of turpentine, or thin English copal varnish.--_Neueste Erfind_.

* * * * *

VINEGAR.

Hermann Kratzer, of Leipsic, communicates the following practical

information on the clarification and purification of vinegar to the

_Neueste Erfindungen und Erfahrungen_:

If vinegar has an unpleasant odor, which is rarer now that the vinegar

manufacture has reached such a state of perfection, it may be removed as

follows: Well burned and finely pulverized wood charcoal is put into

the bottles containing the vinegar, the proportions being 8 grammes of

charcoal to a liter of vinegar, or one ounce to the gallon. It is shaken

several times very thoroughly, then left standing three or four days,

and the vinegar filtered through a linen cloth. Vinegar treated in this

manner will be found to have completely lost its unpleasant odor.

I have found that when I used blood charcoal or bone coal in place of

wood coal it was still more efficient; but it must be mentioned that

when they are used they must be purified as follows before using:

Charcoal from blood contains potash and hence it is necessary to wash it

with distilled water and dry it before using it. Bone coal (also called

bone black, animal charcoal, etc.) contains on an average 10 per cent.

of nitrogenous and hydrogenated carbon, 8 per cent. of carbonate of

lime, 78 per cent. of phosphate of lime, besides phosphate of magnesia,

sulphate of lime, soluble salts, etc. Before using, it should be treated

with dilute hydrochloric acid until it does not effervesce any more. The

bone coal is then left to stand for 24 or 30 hours and at the end of

this time is washed with distilled water until the wash water no longer

reddens a blue piece of litmus paper, i.e., until every trace of

hydrochloric acid has been removed from the bone coal. Wood charcoal

may be treated in like manner. When this coal is perfectly dry it is

employed in the same proportions as the other, 8 to 1,000, the operation

being exactly the same.

He turns next to the clarification of the vinegar.

It happens everywhere that vinegar instead of being clear is sometimes

turbid. This is due to particles of yeast dissolved in the vinegar that

have not yet settled. To remove this kind of turbidity it is customary

to use oak or beech shavings that have been washed in hot water and then

dried. These shavings, which must be very long and extremely thin, are

put in a barrel with a second and perforated bottom, to a depth of 12

to 34 inches. The vinegar that runs through them deposits its slimy

constituents on the shavings and becomes perfectly clear, and presents

to the eye a pleasing appearance.

To this generally known method I would add a few more:

1. I take a 1/2 kilo of well pulverized _animal charcoal_ (black burned

bones) to 7/8 of a hectoliter of vinegar (1 lb. to 20 gallons), and stir

it well with a wooden rod; or, if the vinegar is in bottles, I shake it

a long time after putting the animal charcoal in the bottle, and repeat

it several times. After three or four days I finally filter the vinegar

through linen, when the filtrate will exhibit the desired clearness.

2. The best way to clarify vinegar is with _isinglass_. It is first

broken up, then swelled for a day in vinegar (17 or 18 grammes to the

liter), then 2 liters of vinegar are added and the mass boiled until the

isinglass is completely dissolved. Such a solution as this (1/2 ounce to

3 quarts) is mixed with 101/4 hectoliters (250 gallons) of turbid vinegar

and well stirred through it. After the expiration of five or six weeks

vinegar treated in this way has a beautifully clear appearance.

3. _Albumen_ can likewise be used to clarify it. The vinegar is boiled

with the albumen until the latter is completely coagulated, and then the

vinegar is filtered.

4. And finally _milk_ may be employed. For this purpose the milk is

skimmed, and 1 quart of milk added for every 68 quarts of vinegar,

the mixture well stirred and shaken. After the caseous portion has

coagulated (curdled) it is filtered as before, and in this case, too,

the product is a fine, clear vinegar.

We believe that these few experiments, so easily performed, and at so

small an expense, will prove useful to our readers in enabling them to

put their product in the market in an excellent condition and nicely

clarified.

* * * * *

THE ALIZARINE INDUSTRY.

At a recent meeting of the Manchester section of the Society of Chemical

Industry, Mr. Ivan Levinstein described the history and progress of the

manufacture of alizarine, from which are produced fast red, purple,

brown, and black dyes. He said alizarine was, until very recently, made

only from the root of the madder plant, of which the yearly crop was

70,000 tons, and represented an annual value of L3,150,000, of which

the United Kingdom consumed 23,000 tons, representing a value of nearly

L1,000,000.

Madder is now no longer grown for this purpose. The German chemists

found that alizarine produced from madder in undergoing certain

treatment gave a substance identical with anthracine, one of the

constituents of coal tar, and in 1869 the same chemists announced to

the world that they had accomplished the synthesis of alizarine from

anthracine. The effect of this discovery was to throw madder out of

cultivation.

Mr. Perkin, an English chemist, and Messrs. Graebe and Liebermann,

German chemists, almost simultaneously applied for patents in 1869,

in England, and as their methods were nearly identical they arranged

priorities by the exchanging of licenses. The German license became the

property of the Badische Aniline Company, and the English license became

the property of the predecessors of the North British Alizarine Company.

These patents expire in about two months, and the lecturer explained

that an attempt made by the German manufacturers to further monopolize

this industry (even after the expiry of the patent) proved abortive. He

also stated that alizarine, 20 per cent. quality, is sold to-day at 2s

6d. per lb., but that if the price were reduced by one-half there will

still be a handsome profit to makers, and that the United Kingdom is the

largest consumer, absorbing one-third of the entire production, and that

England possesses advantages over all other countries for manufacturing

alizarine--first, by having a splendid supply of the raw material,

anthracine; secondly, cheaper caustic soda in England than in Germany by

fully L4 per ton; thirdly, cheaper fuel; fourthly, large consumption at

our own doors; and, fifthly, special facilities for exporting.

The advantages derived from the development of the alizarine manufacture

here, it was stated, will benefit other collateral industries, such

as manufacture of soda, of ordinary sulphuric acid, bichromatic, and

chlorate of potash, articles used in this manufacture. The lecturer

considered that the difficulties attending the manufacture of alizarine

were now overcome, and with sufficient capital and competent chemists

English manufacturers must be successful.

He then proceeded to explain the source from which nearly all the

artificial coloring matters are derived, viz., gas tar; showing the

principal products of this wonderful, complex mixture, of which one

is anthracine. Alizarine manufacturers originally found scarcity of

anthracine; at present the supply is in excess of the demand, and the

price during the last 18 months has fallen from 3s. 6d. to 1s. per unit,

and the probabilities are that the supply will increase. The quantity of

gas tar now obtained the lecturer estimated at 500,000 tons per annum,

and the coal carbonized for gas making, 10,000,000 tons. This quantity

of tar suffices to produce 9,000 tons of 20 per cent. alizarine.

The lecturer then reviewed, in case of an increased demand for

anthracine, the probable new sources of obtaining increased supplies of

coal tar: (1) The destructive distillation of petroleum; (2) coke

ovens and blast furnaces; (8) the carbonization of coal for general

manufacturing purposes, using the coal and gas as fuel, and giving tar,

benzine, and ammonia as residues; and (4) distillation of coal with the

object of obtaining the principal products, tar and benzine, and as the

residual product, gas. This part of the lecture was important to dyers

and printers, the lecturer showing also, in a very interesting way,

in what manner manufacturers may very considerably economize their

consumption of coal.

The lecturer explained that while from one ton of coal there was

obtained on an average about 17 oz. of benzine, by the new method about

thirty times that amount can be got from the same quantity of coal.

He also considered in great detail the different processes of the

carbonization of coal, and of increasing the production of the different

important residual products of gas tar, and also the best method of

extracting the benzine. He showed samples of benzine which he produced

from gas obtained at the Rochdale Road Gasworks, and, further,

nitro-benzine, aniline, and coloring matters, which he had made from

this gas benzine.

The lecturer also discussed the effect of the probable increased

production of tar, ammonia, benzine, etc., as affecting gas companies,

and said it was anticipated they either would raise the price of gas or

change the present system of manufacture, which he considered probable.

The enormous increase in the production of ammonia, of which the larger

portion at present, as sulphate of ammonia, was used as a fertilizer,

would no doubt considerably reduce its value. It might even replace soda

for many purposes, and thus react on our alizarine industry.

He then proceeded to consider the manufacture of alizarine purpurine,

and divided its manufacture into four stages: 1, the purification of

crude anthracine; 2, the conversion of the purified anthracine into

anthraquinone; and 3, the production of sulpho acid of anthraquinone and

the conversion of this sulpho-acid into alizarine and purpurine. This

part of the lecture comprised a detailed explanation of the various

kinds of apparatus required, to be used which were beautifully got up,

complete working models having been prepared for the occasion. The

lecturer was of opinion that large consumers would be benefited if

makers would offer for sale only three distinct coloring matters--iso

or anthrapurpurine, and flavo-purpurine, leaving it to the dyers and

printers to produce for themselves the intermediate shades by mixing the

three colors; and he showed that by reason of the fastness of the shades

produced by these coloring agents varying considerably, the blue shade

(alizarine) being much faster then the orange shade (flavo-purpurine),

consumers were in many instances losers by using mixtures of alizarine

and flavo-purpurine.

In the course of the lecture many interesting specimens of various

products were produced and dilated upon, the lecturer fully describing

the process of purifying the crude anthracine and of the conversion of

the purified anthracine into anthraquinone.

* * * * *

THE PRESERVATION OF MEAT BY CARBONIC ACID.

Since 1874, when Professor Kolbe, of Leipsic, first published his

results on the antiseptic action of salicylic acid, he has made many

efforts to apply this acid to the preservation of meat, but he has

invariably found that after the lapse of a few days an unpleasant flavor

has been developed, which is not that of putridity. If putrid changes be

noticed, it is a sign that salicylic acid is in insufficient quantity,

for where it has turned putrid the meat is found to be no longer acid,

but alkaline. This leads to the assumption that meat is protected from

change by acids, even by gases of that kind; and in fact it was noticed

that beef--from 2 to 5 kilos. being taken--when placed in an earthen

vessel and loosely covered with a wooden cover, was long preserved from

putridity if the bottom of the vessel contained some hydrochloric acid,

nitric acid, or aqueous sulphurous acid. The meat, however, no longer

had the taste of fresh meat, but of such as had long lain in ice.

Experiments were therefore made with carbonic acid, and these proved

highly successful. The meat was placed in a cylinder of metal plate, and

suspended from a rod which crossed the upper part and the lower part.

A small tube serves to admit a current of carbonic acid from a Kipp's

apparatus. The lid, which rested in a circular trough of glycerine,

was traversed by a similar tube in its center, and both tubes could be

closed with India-rubber tubing and screw taps as soon as sufficient

carbonic acid gas had traversed the apparatus. At the end of seven,

fourteen, and twenty-one days it was found that the meat was still quite

good, and the soup prepared from it was in every respect excellent. At

the end of the fourth or fifth week the meat thus preserved in the gas

was still quite free from all putridity; but the broth prepared from it

no longer tasted so well as fresh bouillon. The experiments were not

extended over a longer time. Carbonic acid is thus shown to be an

excellent means of preserving beef from putridity and of causing it to

retain its good taste for several weeks. Mutton does not preserve so

well. In eight days it had become putrid; and veal is by no means so

well preserved as beef. The comportment of beef in an atmosphere of

carbonic acid, to which carbonic oxide has been added, is curious. A

number of cylinders were filled in the usual way with such a mixture and

opened at the end of two or three weeks; in each case the flesh had the

smell and taste of good, pure meat, but it was not of the gray color

which meat preserved in carbonic acid gas gradually takes, but appeared

in the interior, as well as on the outside, of a bright flesh-red color,

and on the surface here and there, there were white round masses of

fungoid growth of the size of a 20-pfenning piece, which were removed

with the slightest rubbing. The flesh lying just below these was found

to have the same bright red color as that already described. Meat which

had been for three weeks in such a gas mixture gave a broth which,

in good taste and freshness, could hardly be distinguished from

freshly-made bouillon; and the boiled meats could not be distinguished

either in appearance or taste. The property of carbonic acid to preserve

meat suggests a use for the large supplies of this gas evolved from the

earth in many localities. And it is as interesting to determine in

how far the gas could be of service as an antiseptic during surgical

operations.

* * * * *

REDUCTION OF OXIDIZED IRON BY CARBONIC OXIDE.

IT is well known that when the heat is sufficient, carbonic oxide

reduces the oxide of iron to metal with the production of carbon dioxide

(carbonic acid). On the other hand, at lower temperatures carbon dioxide

oxidizes metallic iron, forming carbonic oxide. J. Lowthian Bell's

celebrated researches (see SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, p. 199, March 31, 1883)

established the point of equilibrium where in the presence of both

monoxide and dioxide the reducing action of the one just counterbalances

the oxidizing action of the other.

At the suggestion of Prof. R. Akermann, of Stockholm, C.G. Saernstrom has

conducted a similar series of forty-five experiments, the expense being

borne by the Jernkontor. About 1 gramme of oxide of iron was placed in a

porcelain boat, and slid in a porcelain tube 18 millimeters (3/4 inch) in

diameter and 635 millimeters long (25 inches). This was exposed to the

action of a current of mixed carbon dioxide and monoxide made by heating

oxalic acid and concentrated sulphuric acid. It was mixed with carbon

dioxide as required, then analyzed, and preserved in gasometers holding

66 liters. Before using, it is passed over phosphorus and chloride of

calcium, and through sulphuric acid. The porcelain tube and boat were

heated to from 300 deg. to 600 deg. C. (572 deg. to 1,652 deg. Fahr.) while the gases

were passing, and then the state of oxidation determined. It was found

that the larger the quantity of dioxide the higher the degree of

oxidation, and the larger the proportion of monoxide the lower the

degree of oxidation.

The details of the experiment indicate that a saving of fuel in the

blast furnace could best be accomplished by the use of a very hot blast,

introducing some carbon monoxide into the blast, provided, of course,

that this gas can be made outside of the blast furnace more cheaply than

inside of it. Nevertheless, 643 lb. of carbon must be burned to

every 1,000 lb. of iron reduced, if carbonic oxide is exclusively

employed.--_Stahl und Eisen_.

* * * * *

ON THE ADULTERATION OF SOAP.

By Dr. H. BRACKEBUSCH.

The importance of soap as an indispensable article in the household has

not restrained the adulterators from making it a favorite object of

their operations, and at the present day soap is only very rarely what

it should be, the alkaline salt of a fatty acid with about 15 per cent.

of water, which may be increased in case of soft soaps to 30 per cent.

at most. The amount of moisture is an immediate signal for adulteration.

Of all substances that can be used to adulterate soap, water is of

course the cheapest, and as it is also harmless, this was the first

point where manufacturers made use of their knowledge. The percentage of

water was raised to 26 or 28 per cent., and now nearly all the ordinary

soaps contain that amount when they leave the factory. At first the

retailers objected to this method, because they had to suffer the loss

so far as it dried out and lost weight in the store.

The next point was to find some substance that would prevent this rapid

drying, and it was very soon discovered that those soaps that contained

an excess of lye retained moisture longer. Henceforth it was only

necessary to use lyes of extra strength so as to obtain a large yield of

soap containing an excess of water. The results of this ingenious method

are before us; in the shops of the soap dealers the bars of soap become

coated with a crust of white crystals, which is nothing but soda. If a

few drops of corrosive sublimate be dropped on these crystals, a red

spot will at once be produced by the formation of mercuric oxide. In

addition to the deception of the public who buy such soaps, this alkali

destroys clothes washed with it, as the fiber of the tissues is directly

attacked by it, while the proper action of the soap depends on its

enveloping the particles of dirt and carrying them off.

Soap is subject to another kind of adulteration called filling, or

weighting. Soapstone and similar mineral substances are added to the

finished soap to increase its weight. But it may be added that this

fraudulent weighting is rare. Large establishments cannot take the risk

of being detected in such avaricious practices, and small ones scarcely

have the apparatus at their disposal for making a uniform mixture which

will not arouse suspicion.

Now soaps are frequently found in the market that scarcely deserve this

name. Mineral soap, cold water soap, etc., are the names inscribed on

the placards behind which is buried a preparation consisting for the

greater part of water-glass. The well-known water-glass is a silicate of

soda or potash dissolved in free or caustic soda, or potash. There was

a time when it excited great hopes, and its introduction into the

household for washing was dreamed of, but it was soon found that

its caustic properties made their appearance at a relatively low

temperature. Hence we often find the notice, "TO BE USED COLD," printed

in bold letters on the wrappers. This product is obtained by thickening

water-glass with stearine, oleine, or any other easily saponifiable fat.

As it takes but very little of the substances named to make an article

closely resembling soap, of course the product is very cheap. There does

not seem to be any limit to the amount of water in it; at least the

author found in one kind of mineral soap from Berlin 58 per cent. of

water. Water-glass soaps do not dissolve readily in water, they make but

little suds, and render the skin hard and unpliable. Admitting that they

are suitable for many purposes, nothing can be said against their sale

so long as they appear under names which preclude their being confounded

with other soaps. Nevertheless, there is always this danger--that

water-glass may come into general use in making soap, and this is to be

deplored. Water-glass soaps are easily recognized by their insolubility

in moderately strong alcohol, the water-glass remaining behind in a

gelatinous form.

Great deception has been practiced under such names as "almond soap,"

etc. Fortunately the difference between various kinds of fat are not

very great from a chemical point of view, although it is always an

unpleasant thought that the fat from animals that have died may return

to the house in the form of soap. A white or yellow soap having a good

smell is not made from bad fat, and hence is more appetizing.

A method formerly much in use consisted in mixing green soap with starch

paste, a mixture that could not be detected by the naked eye, especially

if colored with caramel. On attempting to dissolve it in ordinary

burning alcohol, a white coagulum forms.

From the foregoing it is sufficiently evident that those who buy soap

to sell again have every reason to keep a sharp lookout on those who

furnish them with soap.--_Polyt. Notiz._

* * * * *

BOVINE AND HUMAN MILK: THE DIFFERENCE IN ITS ACTION AND COMPOSITION.

By C. HUSSON.

M. Meynet, in a remarkable report upon condensed milk, has raised a

question which it is important to have solved in the interests of

infants. This is my excuse for presenting to the French Society of

Hygiene certain observations on this subject.

Is woman's milk richer in fatty matters and sugar in proportion to the

caseine than that of the cow? Is the affirmative, sustained by a large

number of chemists, a mistake that ought to be corrected?

Such is the question that needs to be answered.

In my last work on milk, my aim was to report new experiments, and hence

I gave only the analysis of M. Colawell. By the side of the essays of

MM. Doyere, Millon, Commaille, and Wurtz, I put those of Liebig, and

quoted an interesting chapter written on this question by M. Caulier,

in Dechambre's Encyclopedic Dictionary. These are the authorities upon

which to base any opposition to the analyses of Boussingault, Regnault,

Littre, and Simon, savants of no less renown.

The differences are easily explained.

Woman's milk is rarely to be had in sufficient abundance to make a

complete analysis of it. In the country especially a few precious drops,

obtained with difficulty, are carried off in a thimble to be placed

under a microscope, where the number of fat globules are counted, and it

is examined to see if they are not mixed with globules of colostrum.

It will be necessary at the outset to know whether the analyses given

refer to milk drawn from the breast before nursing, or at the end. In

the former case there will be an excess of caseine, in the second an

excess of fat present. This is the reason that in nursing infants the

intervals should not be too long, or the child will not be able to empty

the breast completely, and it will obtain a milk too rich in caseine,

too poor in butter, and one that it cannot digest.

This is the first proof of the importance of fatty matters for the

alimentation of babes.

Let us turn to the second.

At birth, when the milk is still in a state of colostrum, the fluid

contains a variable quantity of albumen coagulable by heat, much less

caseine, and an excess of butter and sugar.

Cow's milk, immediately after calving, contains more butter and less

caseine than milk produced some time later, when the specific character

of ruminants begins to appear in the calf, that is to say, when it

commences to graze the milk coagulates in the stomach. As in other

mammals, an excess of fat helps digestion by subdividing the caseine and

emulsifying it. But the milk of an animal recently calved is reserved

for its young, and it is not until the time of weaning that the lacteal

fluid is offered for human consumption.

Thus it is that the nursling of a day receives milk many months old and

heavily loaded with caseine. This milk it cannot digest because the

emulsifying element, the fat, is not present in it in sufficient

quantity in proportion to the coagulable matter. We must not forget

either that the difference in coagulation holds also with respect to

difference in the age and in the kind of animal. Just so the rennet of a

sucking calf has a greater power of coagulating cow's milk than that of

a sheep, and _vice versa_.

"Clinical observation," says Dr. Condereau, "shows that all young

infants digest human milk very easily and cow's milk very imperfectly.

When it is fed on the latter, in the excreta will be found numerous

fragments, sometimes very bulky, of undigested caseine. In most cases

this caseine suffers more or less decomposition in the alimentary

canal, which gives to the feces a tainted odor recalling that of putrid

Roquefort cheese.

"The excrement vary in appearance as much as they do in odor. Frequently

the caseous clots are not to be seen, and the stool has a clammy look

reminding one of glazier's putty, while the color varies from dirty

white to pale grayish yellow. That is due to the fact that the

composition of the milk from different animals is far from being

constant.

"The proportions of albumen to those of caseine are especially varied.

For woman's milk the proportions are as 100 to 122.72. In goat's milk

the proportions are 100 to 173.09. In cow's milk it is as 100 to 289.20.

"The conclusion is this: Caseine is not a food at all for the new born

during a space of time, the duration of which is to be determined

experimentally.

"This substance is a harmful burden that interferes with the regular

action of the digestive organs. It is a premature food, and the more

abundant the more injurious.

"Albumen on the contrary remains fluid in the presence of the gastric

juice; it is separated from the other aliments by coagulation of the

caseine. It is absorbed entire either in its natural state or in form of

peptone."

According to clinical observation, it is still the fats that give to

milk its hygienic value, and the excess of caseine is an obstacle to its

digestion.

However, if cow's milk is not easily digested by children, experience

proves that there are other kinds of milk, from other animals, which

young stomachs are able to bear more easily. There are many proofs of

this fact.

M. Tarnier, speaking before the Academy of Medicine on the artificial

nourishment of the new born, reports that the milk of cows and goats,

pure or diluted in different ways, that of condensed milk and Biedert's

cream, have always given disastrous results at the Maternite in Paris,

but that the mortality of the new born was considerably reduced from the

day when ass's milk was introduced as food.

Ass's milk was given pure for six weeks or two months; then cow's milk

diluted with one-half water until six months old, followed by pure cow's

milk. This is the most rational course of artificial feeding.

Prof. Parrot reports analogous results obtained at the nursery opened at

the Hospice des Enfants Assistes. By the aid of ass's milk he saved a

number of the little syphilitics.

The following are the numerical results: 86 infants with hereditary

taint of syphilis have been at the nursery. Of 6 fed exclusively on

cow's milk, only 1 survived and the other 5 died. Forty-two were suckled

by goats, of which 8 lived, 34 are dead, which is equal to a mortality

of 80.9 per cent. Thirty-eight were suckled by an ass, of which 28 lived

and 10 died; a mortality of 26.3 per cent.

Certainly these figures prove eloquently enough what chemical analysis

shows, that ass's milk, being better borne by the infant's stomach,

ought to have a composition resembling that of woman's milk. This

analogy is not found to consist in the quantity of fat, but in the small

amounts of dry residue (total solids) and of caseine.

Let us now examine the objections raised by M. Meynet.

Food has a considerable influence upon the composition of milk; this

fact, stated by M. Riche in his treatise on chemistry, seem to be

accepted by all.

The milk of carnivorae is excessively rich in caseine; that of herbivorae

much less.

The food of woman, who enjoys a mixed alimentation, ought to have a

composition intermediate between these two, and consequently ought to

contain more caseine than that of the plant eaters. This is the logical

deduction.

At first this reasoning misleads one, but numerous objections present

themselves.

The food, no doubt, has some influence upon the composition of the milk

of animals of the same species, but every animal can secrete something

independent of any food, just as one kind secretes musk, another

castor, etc. Yet it would not be an anomaly if an excess of caseine

in proportion to the other substances was a true characteristic of

ruminants.

But we admit that the milk of all mammals ought to have identically the

same composition if their food suffered no modifications.

What is the food of ruminants? Without doubt it is essentially

vegetable, and the plants of the field constitute the element par

excellence of their nurture. These plants contain a large excess of

carbohydrates in proportion to the nitrogenous.

But what are these other substances? What role do they play in

digestion?

They are composed in great part of fibers and cells that suffer no

change in the animal economy, and which are not acted upon by the

gastric juice, as proved by their occurrence in excreta. The carbon is

found almost unchanged, so that the excrements of herbivoiae, when dried,

form a valuable fuel. Ruminants are compelled, in order to obtain

nourishment from the plants that they eat, to extract their juices by

repeated pressure (as in chewing the cud); and what do these soluble

juices contain? Some saccharine substances, a little fat, but mostly

albumen and vegetable caseine, that is to say, the substance which

predominates in their lacteal secretions.

What, on the contrary, is the food of woman?

No doubt she gains much strength from the lean, muscular flesh that she

eats, but besides this she has butter, oil, fats of all kinds, sugar,

starches, and alcoholic beverages, all of which are favorable to the

production of butter in the milk. Hence, aside from her physical

constitution, the food of woman alone explains the relative excess of

non-nitrogeneous substances.

Nitrogenous articles of food are expensive, while the other forms of

nutriment are to be had in the form of potatoes, beans, and bread,

products sold at a reasonable price. Yet logic demands that there shall

be an excess of butter in proportion to caseine in the milk.

The discrepancies in analyses of woman's milk are easily explained by

the mobile and impressible character of woman.

If bad treatment and bee stings are able to modify the composition of

cow's milk, how much more ought the emotions of all sorts, which disturb

the heart and head of woman, to change the composition of her milk?

But if new analyses seem to be needed, they ought to be made. This

question is too important to rest in suspense. The mean composition

of human milk for the first two months after delivery ought to be

established. In chemistry, as in mathematics, figures alone are

convincing. But from what has been said it is logical to conclude that

an excess of caseine in milk is unfavorable to good digestion, while

an excess of butter is favorable to it.--_Translated from Journal

d'Hygiene, March 1, 1883_.

* * * * *

CEREAL FOODS IN THEIR RELATION TO HEALTH AND DISEASE.

By F.R. CAMPBELL, A.B., M.D.

The cereals are subject to many diseases which retard their development,

rendering them unfit for food, and even poisonous. The relation of

unwholesome foods to the diseases of the animal body are now being

thoroughly studied, recent advances in chemistry and microscopy

contributing valuable aid to the prosecution of such investigations.

Some enthusiastic advocates of the germ theory of disease believe that

many, if not all, the so-called disease germs may be transplanted into

the human system with the food ingested. But whatever may be the real

truth in regard to this subject, it has been positively demonstrated

that many diseases of the human body may be produced by unwholesome

food. The specific symptoms produced in man by the various grain

diseases are not accurately known, consequently our remarks upon this

subject must be of a very general character.

Pappenheim divides the diseases of the cereals into two classes,

internal and external. The internal diseases are those depending upon

conditions of soil, climate, cultivation, etc., and may be neglected in

our discussion, as they produce no special disease of the body, only

impairing the nutritive value of the grain.

The external diseases are of much greater importance, as they probably

produce some of the most fatal maladies to which the human race is

subject. These external diseases of the cereals are due to parasites,

which may be either of an animal or vegetable nature. Among the animal

parasites may be mentioned the _weevil, vibrio tritici_, which feeds

upon the starch cells of the grain. Grain attacked by this parasite was

at one time supposed to be injurious to health.

In 1844 the French Commission appointed to examine grain condemned a

large quantity imported with this parasite, but afterward reconsidered

their decision and permitted its sale, concluding that it was deficient

in nutritive properties, but not otherwise unwholesome. Rust is the most

common disease of the cereals, produced by vegetable parasites. Like

the other diseases of this class, it is most prevalent in warm, damp

seasons.

Prof. Hensboro is of the opinion that rust is but an earlier stage of

mildew or blight, the one form of parasite being capable of development

into the other, and the fructification characteristic of the two

supposed genera having been evolved on one and the same individual.

Blight is a term loosely applied to a number of parasitic diseases.

In it are included mildew, cories, and even rust and smut. The fungi

producing these diseases attack the plant and seed at various stages of

its growth. The whole kernel is affected, and not merely the external

coat, as is sometimes maintained. When blighted grain is sown, the

disease recurs the following year, often making it necessary to import

new seed before the disease can be eradicated. Various remedies have

been used to destroy the spores of these fungi, but all are uncertain

and some are dangerous to health. Special machinery and methods have

been employed in the mills to separate the mildew from the grain. Some

of these succeed in removing the fungi and discoloration from the

surface of the grain, but have no effects upon the parts within.

Blighted grain is soft, and has an unpleasant taste and smell, and bread

made of it is liable to be heavy and sodden.

It is undeniable that the use of blighted grain as food is exceeding

dangerous to health. It is a well known fact that vegetable parasites

may attack animals; the silk worm disease produced by the _Botrytis

baniana_, being an example. It is stated that the same vegetable

parasites which produce plant diseases, when transmitted to the animal

body produce special affections, the form and appearance of the germs

being altered by their environments. The same germs developed under

different conditions of temperature and surrounding medium, assume forms

so various that they have been supposed to belong to different species

and even different genera. If there is any truth, then, in the germ

theory of disease, it is not so very improbable that a fungus which

will produce blight in grain may cause cholera or tetanoid fever in an

animal.

Hallier, the famous physiological botanist, observed in 1867 that there

was a peculiar disease of the rice plant associated with an epidemic of

cholera. Rice plants fertilized with the discharges of cholera patients

were affected with blight. A concentrated infusion of the blighted grain

would produce changes in all animal substances, blood and albumen being

converted into thin odorless products resembling in every respect the

material found in the kidneys of cholera patients.

The most formidable of the diseases attributed to the use of diseased

grain is cerebro-spinal meningitis, commonly known as spotted or blanoid

fever. The disease is rare in England, but is frequently epidemic in the

United States, in Ireland, and on the Continent. In 1873, in the State

of Massachusetts alone, 747 persons died of it, and other epidemics even

more fatal have lately occurred in New York and Michigan. The disease is

a nervous fever attended with convulsions, the pathological lesion being

congestion and inflammation of the membrane of the spinal cord and

brain. Dr. Richardson in writing on the nature and causes of spotted

fever concludes that it is due to the use of diseased vegetable

substances, especially grain, and from a careful analysis of the

statistics of this disease reported by the Michigan State Board of

Health considers it demonstrated that "under favoring condition for its

action diseased grain received as a food is the primary cause of the

phenomena which characterize the disease." These views are substantiated

by the experiments of Dr. H. Day, who found that by feeding rabbits on

unsound grain, spasmodic affections were produced, due to inflammation

of the membranes of the spinal cord and brain.

In warm climates, pellagra or Italian leprosy is said to be produced by

eating diseased maize, which forms the principal article of food among

the poorer classes of the rural districts. Pellagra is epidemic in

northern Italy and the south of France. The disease is manifested by a

redness and discoloration of the exposed parts of the body. It is most

active during the hot weather, the inflammation subsiding in the winter,

leaving a pigmentation of the skin. Each year the symptoms become more

alarming, nervous disorders finally setting in, and a large number die

insane. The disease is most prevalent in the country. In the towns,

where maize is supplemented by other articles of food, it does not

exist.

Ergot is a very common disease of the cereals. The fungus producing it

was discovered in 1853, but for centuries previous its injurious effects

upon the human body were recognized, and it was observed that ergot of

rye was the most poisonous. Taken in large doses, ergot will produce

nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headache, and weakness of the heart. In

small repeated doses it will produce contraction of all the unstriped

muscles, as those of the blood vessels, the womb, and intestines.

Ergotium is the name given to the disease produced by the continued use

of grain affected by this fungus. Aitken describes it as "a train of

morbid symptoms produced by the slow and cumulative action of a specific

poison peculiar to wheat and rye, which produces convulsions, gangrene

of the extremities, and death. In countries where rye bread is much used

ergotium is sometimes epidemic. This was a frequent calamity before

the introduction of suitable purifiers into the mills. There are two

varieties of the disease, the convulsive and the gangrenous. The

convulsive form begins with tingling of the extremities, drowsiness, and

headache, followed by pain in the joints, violent muscular contractions,

and death. The gangrenous variety begins with coldness and weakness

of the extremities followed by gangrene and sloughing. This form is

somewhat more fatal than the convulsive, the mortality of those affected

being about 90 per cent.

Mouldy grain and bread have also caused poisoning. Prof. Varnell states

that "six horses died in three days from eating mouldy oats. There was a

large amount of matted mycelium, and this when given to other horses for

experiment, killed them within thirty-six hours." The writer has himself

seen seven hogs die within a few days while being fed on mouldy corn.

Flour which has become stale may produce similar injurious effects,

although most of the germs are destroyed in the process of baking. It is

quite probable, however, that a poisonous substance is generated by the

mould fungus, which cannot be destroyed in this way.--_Milling World_.

* * * * *

MOIST AIR IN LIVING ROOMS.

The injurious effect of dry heat in inhabited rooms is quite generally

known, and different methods have been suggested for moistening the

air. To test the effectiveness of these methods, J. Melikow, of St.

Petersburg, has estimated the quantity of moisture in the air of

different rooms by means of August's psychrometer, and also tested

the different methods of increasing the moisture. He arrived at the

following results, which are of decided practical value:

1. When large and small open vessels filled with water are placed in the

room, they do not increase the moisture of the air at all.

2. Tubs of water of the same temperature as the room and parlor

fountains have very little effect.

3. When hot air is used, open vessels of water placed over the pipes

have no effect at all.

4. Wolpert's revolving wheel increases the moisture but slightly.

5. The Russian tea machine and the steam pulverizer (atomizer) are

effective but only for a short time.

6. Wet hand towels suspended in a room are insufficient.

7. Of all the methods tested, the most efficient seemed to be to hang up

a number of wet cloths on a winch or some contrivance that permits

of turning them, so as to hasten their giving out moisture to the

air.--_Med. Zeitung_.

* * * * *

[The following article is from the June number of the _American

Naturalist_, edited by Prof. A. S. Packard, Jr., and Prof. E. D. Cope.

Published by McCalla & Stavely, Philadelphia, Pa.]

THE DEVELOPMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HUMAN PHYSIOGNOMY.

[Footnote: Abstract of a lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute

of Philadelphia, Jan. 20.1881, in exposition of principles laid down in

The Hypothesis of Evolution, New Haven, 1870, p. 31.]

By E. D. COPE.

The ability to read character in the form of the human face and figure

is a gift possessed by comparatively few persons, although most

people interpret, more or less correctly, the salient points of human

expression. The transient appearances of the face reveal temporary

phases of feeling which are common to all men; but the constant

qualities of the mind should be expressed, if at all, in the permanent

forms of the executive instrument of the mind, the body. To detect the

peculiarities of the mind by external marks has been the aim of the

physiognomist of all times; but it is only in the light of modern

evolutionary science that much progress in this direction can be made.

The mind, as a function of part of the body, partakes of its perfections

and its defects, and exhibits parallel types of development. Every

peculiarity of the body has probably some corresponding significance in

the mind; and the causes of the former are the remoter causes of the

latter. Hence, before a true physiognomy can be attempted, the origin

of the features of the face and general form must be known. Not that

a perfect physiognomy will ever be possible. A mental constitution so

complex as that of man cannot be expected to exhibit more than its

leading features in the body; but these include, after all, most of what

it is important for us to be able to read, from a practical point of

view.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Section of skull of adult orang-outang _(Simia

satyrus)_. FIG. 2.--Section of skull of young orang, showing relatively

shorter jaws and more prominent cerebral region.]

The present essay will consider the probable origin of the structural

points which constitute the permanent expression. These may be divided

into three heads, viz.:

1. Those of the general form or figure.

2. Those of the surface or integument of the body, with its appendages.

3. Those of the forms of the head and face.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Figure of infant at birth; _a_, front of face.

(The eye is too far posterior in this figure.)]

The principal points to be considered under each of these heads are the

following:

I. THE GENERAL FORM.

1. The size of the head.

2. The squareness or slope of the shoulders.

3. The length of the arms.

4. The constriction of the waist.

5. The width of the hips.

6. The length of the leg, principally of the thigh.

7. The sizes of the hands and feet.

8. The relative sizes of the muscles.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Portrait of a girl at five years of age.]

II. THE SURFACES.

9. The structure of the hair (whether curled or not).

10. The length and position of the hair.

11. The size and shape of the nails.

12. The smoothness of the skin.

13. The color of the skin, hair, and irides.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Portrait of the same at seventeen years, showing

the elongation of the facial region, and less protuberance of the

cerebral.]

III. THE HEAD AND FACE.

14. The relative size of the cerebral to the facial regions.

15. The prominence of the forehead.

16. The prominence of the superciliary (eyebrow) ridges.

17. The prominence of the alveolar borders (jaws).

18. The prominence and width of the chin.

19. The relation of length to width of skull.

20. The prominence of the malar (cheek) bones.

21. The form of the nose.

22. The relative size of the orbits and eyes.

23. The size of the mouth and lips.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Profile of a Luchatze negro woman, showing

deficient bridge of nose and chin, and elongate facial region and

prognathism.]

The significance of these, as of the more important structural

characters of man and the lower animals, must be considered from two

standpoints, the paleontological and the embryological. The immediate

paleontological history of man is unknown, but may be easily inferred

from the characteristics displayed by his nearest relatives of the order

Quadrumana. If we compare these animals with man, we find the following

general differences. The numbers correspond to those of the list above

given:

I. _As to General Form_.--(3) In the apes the arms are longer; (8) the

extensor muscles of the leg are smaller.

II. _As to Surface_.--(9) The body is covered with hair which is not

crisp or woolly; (10) the hair of the head is short; (18) the color of

the skin, etc., is dark.

III. _As to Head and Face_.--(14) The facial region of the skull is

large as compared with the cerebral; (15) the forehead is not prominent,

and is generally retreating; (16) the superciliary ridges are more

prominent; (17) the edges of the jaws are more prominent; (18) the chin

is less prominent; (20) the cheek bones are more prominent; (21) the

nose is without bridge, and with short and flat cartilages; (22) the

orbits and eyes are smaller (except in Nyctipithecus); (24) the mouth is

small and the lips are thin.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Face of another negro, showing flat nose, less

prognathism and larger cerebral region. From Serpa Pinto.]

It is evident that the possession of any one of the above

characteristics by a man approximates him more to the monkeys, so far

as it goes. He retains features which have been obliterated in other

persons in the process of evolution.

[Illustration: FIG.8.--Portrait of Satanta, a late chief of the Kiowas

(from the Red river of Texas), from a photograph. The predominance of

the facial region, and especially of the malar bones, and the absence of

beard, are noteworthy.]

In considering the physiognomy of man from an embryological standpoint,

we must consider the peculiarities of the infant at birth. The numbers

of the following list correspond with those already used (Fig. 3).

I. _As to the General Form_.--(1) The head of the infant is relatively

much larger than in the adult; (3) the arms are relatively longer;

(4) there is no waist; (6) the leg, and especially the thigh, is much

shorter.

II. _As to the Surfaces_.--(10) The body is covered with fine hair, and

that of the head is short.

III. _The Head and Face_.--(14) The cerebral part of the skull greatly

predominates over the facial; (16) the superciliary ridges are not

developed; (17) the alveolar borders are not prominent; (20) the malar

bones are not prominent; (21) the nose is without bridge and the

cartilages are flat and generally short; (22) the eyes are larger.

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Australian native (from Brough Smyth), showing

small development of muscles of legs and prognathism.]

It is evident that persons who present any of the characters cited in

the above list are more infantile or embryonic in those respects than

are others; and that those who lack them have left them behind in

reaching maturity.

We have now two sets of characters in which men may differ from each

other. In the one set the characters are those of monkeys, in the other

they are those of infants. Let us see whether there be any identities in

the two lists, i. e., whether there be any of the monkey-like characters

which are also infantile. We find the following to be such:

I. _As to General Form_.--(3) The arms are longer.

II. _Surface_.--(10) The hair of the head is short, and the hair on the

body is more distributed.

III. _As to Head and Face_.--(21) The nose is without bridge and the

cartilages are short and flat.

Three characters only out of twenty-three. On the other hand, the

following characters of monkey-like significance are the opposites of

those included in the embryonic list: (14) The facial region of the

skull is large as compared with the cerebral; (15) the forehead is not

prominent; (16) the superciliary ridges are more prominent; (17) the

edges of the jaws are more prominent. Four characters, all of the face

and head. It is thus evident that in attaining maturity man resembles

more and more the apes in some important parts of his facial expression.

[Illustration: Esequibo Indian woman, showing the following

peculiarities: deficient bridge of nose, prognathism, no waist, and

(the right hand figure) deficiency of stature through short femur. From

photographs by Endlich.]

It must be noted here that the difference between the young and

embryonic monkeys and the adults is quite the same as those just

mentioned as distinguishing the young from the adult of man (Figs. 1 and

2). The change, however, in the case of the monkeys is greater than

in the case of man. That is, in the monkeys the jaws and superciliary

ridges become still more prominent than in man. As these characters

result from a fuller course of growth from the infant, it is evident

that in these respects the apes are more fully developed than man.

Man stops short in the development of the face, and is in so far more

embryonic.[1] The prominent forehead and reduced jaws of man are

characters of "retardation." The characters of the prominent nose with

its elevated bridge, is a result of "acceleration," since it is a

superaddition to the quadrumanous type from both the standpoints of

paleontology and embryology.[2] The development of the bridge of the

nose is no doubt directly connected with the development of the front of

the cerebral part of the skull and ethmoid bone, which sooner or later

carries the nasal bones with it.

[Footnote 1: This fact has been well stated by C. S. Minot in the

_Naturalist_ for 1882, p. 511.]

[Footnote 2: See Cope, The Hypothesis of Evolution, New Haven, 1870, p.

31.]

[Illustration: The Venus of the Capitol (Rome). The form and face

present the characteristic peculiarities of the female of the

Indo-European race.]

If we now examine the leading characters of the physiognomy of three

of the principal human sub-species, the Negro, the Mongolian, and the

Indo-European, we can readily observe that it is in the two first named

that there is a predominance of the quadrumanous features which are

retarded in man; and that the embryonic characters which predominate are

those in which man is accelerated. In race description the prominence

of the edges of the jaws is called prognathism, and its absence

orthognathism. The significance of the two lower race characters as

compared with those of the Indo-European is as follows:

_Negro_.--Hair crisp (a special character), short (quadrum. accel.);

prognathous (quadrum. accel.); nose flat, without bridge (quadrum.

retard)[1]; malar bones prominent (quadrum. accel.); beard short

(quadrum. retard.); arms longer (quadrum. accel.); extensor muscles of

legs small (quadrum. retard.).

[Footnote 1: In the Bochimans, the flat nasal bones are co-ossified with

the adjacent elements as in the apes (Thulie).]

_Mongolian_.--Hair straight, long (accel.); jaws prognathous (quadrum.

accel.); nose flat or prominent with or without bridge; malar bones

prominent (quadrum. accel.); beard none (embryonic); arms shorter

(retard.); extensor muscles of leg smaller (quad. retard.).

_Indo-European_.--Hair long (accel.); jaws orthognathous (embryonic

retard.); nose (generally) prominent with bridge (accel.); malar bones

reduced (retard.); beard long (accel.); arms shorter (retard.); extensor

muscles of the leg large (accel.).

The Indo-European race is then the highest by virtue of the acceleration

of growth in the development of the muscles by which the body is

maintained in the erect position (extensors of the leg), and in those

important elements of beauty, a well-developed nose and beard. It is

also superior in these points in which it is more embryonic than the

other races, viz., the want of prominence of the jaws and cheekbones,

since these are associated with a greater predominance of the cerebral

part of the skull, increased size of cerebral hemispheres, and greater

intellectual power.

A comparison between the two sexes of the Indo-Europeans expresses their

physical and mental relations in a definite way. I select the sexes of

the most civilized races, since it is in these, according to Broca and

Topinard, that the sex characters are most pronounced. They may be

contrasted as follows. The numbers are those of the list already used.

I first consider those which are used in the tables of embryonic,

quadrumanous, and race characters:

MALE. FEMALE.

I. _The General Form_.

2. Shoulders square. Shoulders slope.

4. Waist less constricted. Waist more constricted.

5. Hips narrower. Hips wider.

6. Legs longer. Legs shorter (very frequently).

8. Muscles larger. Muscles smaller.

II. _The Integuments, etc_.

10. More hair on body, that Less hair on body, that of head

of head shorter; beard. longer; no beard.

12. Skin rougher (generally). Skin smoother.

III. _The Head and Face_.

16. Superciliary ridges more Superciliary ridges low.

prominent.

22. Eyes often smaller. Eyes often larger.

[Illustration: The Wrestler; original in the Vatican. This figure

displays the characters of the male Indo-European, except the beard.]

The characters in which the male is the most like the infant are two,

viz., the narrow hips and short hair. Those in which the female is most

embryonic are five, viz., the shorter legs, smaller muscles, absence of

beard, low superciliary ridges, and frequently larger eyes. To these may

be added two others not mentioned in the above lists; these are 1, the

high pitched voice, which never falls an octave, as does that of the

male; and 2, the structure of the generative organs, which in all

mammalia more nearly resemble the embryo and the lower vertebrata in the

female than in the male. Nevertheless, as Bischoff has pointed out, one

of the most important distinctions between man and the apes is to be

found in the external reproductive organs of the female.

From the preceding rapid sketch the reader will be able to explain the

meaning of most of the peculiarities of face and form which he will

meet with. Many persons possess at least one quadrumanous or embryonic

character. The strongly convex upper lip frequently seen among the lower

classes of the Irish is a modified quadrumanous character. Many people,

especially those of the Sclavic races, have more or less embryonic

noses. A retreating chin is a marked monkey character. Shortness

of stature is mostly due to shortness of the femur, or thigh; the

inequalities of people sitting are much less than those of people

standing. A short femur is embryonic; so is a very large head. The faces

of some people are always partially embryonic, in having a short face

and light lower jaw. Such faces are still more embryonic when the

forehead and eyes are protuberant. Retardation of this kind is

frequently seen in children, and less frequently in women. The length of

the arms would appear to have grown less in comparatively recent times.

Thus the humerus in most of the Greek statues, including the Apollo

Belvidere, is longer than those of modern Europeans, according to a

writer in the Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie of Paris, and

resembles more nearly that of the modern Nubians than any other people.

This is a quadrumanous approximation. The miserably developed calves of

many of the savages of Australia, Africa, and America are well known.

The fine, swelling gastroenemius and soleus muscles characterize the

highest races, and are most remote from the slender shanks of the

monkeys. The gluteus muscles developed in the lower races as well as

in the higher distinguish them well from the monkeys with their flat

posterior outline.

It must be borne in mind that the quadrumanous indications are found in

the lower classes of the most developed races. The status of a race or

family is determined by the percentage of its individuals who do and do

not present the features in question. Some embryonic characters may

also appear in individuals of any race, as a consequence of special

circumstances. Such are, however, as important to the physiognomist as

the more normal variations.

Some of these features have a purely physical significance, but the

majority of them are, as already remarked, intimately connected with

the development of the mind, either as a cause or as a necessary

coincidence. I will examine these relations in a future article.

* * * * *

THE PRODUCTION OF FIRE.

In 1867 the Abbe Bourgeois found at Thenay, near Pont-levoy

(Loir-et-Cher), in a marly bank belonging to the most ancient part of

the middle Tertiary formation, fragments of silex which bore traces of

the action of fire. This fire had not been lighted by accidental causes,

for, says Mr. DeMortillet (_Le Prehistorique_, p. 90), the causes of

instantaneous conflagrations can be only volcanic fires, fermentations,

and lightning. "Now, in the entire region there is no trace of volcanic

action, and neither are there any traces of turfy or vegetable deposits

capable of giving rise to spontaneous inflammations--phenomena that

are always very rare and very exceptional, as are also conflagrations

started by lightning. Well, in the Thenay marls, the pieces of silex

that had undergone the action of fire were found disseminated at

different levels, and this could not have been a simple accident, but

was evidently something that had been done intentionally. There existed,

then, during the Aquitanian epoch, a being who was acquainted with fire

and knew how to produce it."

Mr. De Mortillet supposes that this being was an animal intermediate

between man and the monkey, which he calls the _anthropopithecus_.

This precursor of man made use of fire for splitting silex and

manufacturing from it instruments whose cutting edge he perfected by

means of a series of retouchings produced by slight percussions upon one

of the surfaces only.

I shall not enter in this place upon a discussion as to the existence

of an anthropopithecus or Tertiary man, whom every one does not as yet

accept, but will confine myself to giving the facts as to the use of

fire in the remotest epochs, incontestable proofs of which exist from

the time at which Quaternary man made his appearance. How this was

discovered is indicated, according to Aryan tradition, by the Vedic

hymns. The ancestors of the Aryans, these tell us, had seen the lighting

dart forth from the shock of black clouds. They had seen the spark that

fired the forests issue from the friction of dry branches agitated by

the storm. They took a branch of soft wood, _arani_, and passing a thong

around a branch of hard wood, _pramontha_, they caused it to revolve

rapidly in a cavity in the _arani_, and thus evoked the god _Agni_, whom

they nourished with libations of clarified butter, _soma_.

The _Pramontha_, became the _Prometheus_ of the Greeks, the Titan who

stole the fire, and it is from the Sanscrit _Agni_ that is derived the

Latin _Ignis_, "fire," and the Greek [Greek: Agnos], "pure," and the

_Agnus Dei_ of the Christians, who purifies all.

Orientalists generally agree that the sign which is seen under the forms

[inline illustration], [inline illustration], or [inline illustration],

on a large number of objects of Aryan origin is a sort of sacred

hieroglyphic, representing the _arani_ or _svastika_, formed of two

pieces of soft wood fixed by four pins in such a way as not to revolve

under the pressure of the Pramontha.

This process of producing fire is also found among a host of more or

less savage peoples, and especially in India, where, during the last

month of the great feast of sacrifices, the sacred fire must always be

kindled three hundred and sixty times a day with nine different kinds of

wood that are prescribed by the rite.

Fig. 1 shows the arrangement in use among the Eskimos, and Fig. 2 that

employed by the Indians of North America.

In 1828 there still existed at Essen, in Hanover, an analogous apparatus

designed to produce an alarm fire. This was a large, horizontal, round

wooden bar whose extremities pivoted in two apertures formed in vertical

posts, and which was provided with a cord that was wound around it

several times. Several persons, by pulling on the ends of this cord,

caused the bar to revolve alternately in one direction and the other,

and the heat developed by the friction lighted some tow that had

previously been inserted in one of the apertures in the post.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--ESKIMO PRODUCING FIRE BY FRICTION.]

It is certain that the alternate motion must have been produced directly

by hand before being effected by cords. This simpler process is still in

use in Tasmania, Australia, Polynesia, Kamtschatka, Thibet, Mexico, and

among the Guanches of the Canary Isles, who are supposed to be the last

representatives of the inhabitants of Atlantis, which sank under the

waters at the close of the Quaternary epoch.

Chamisso, who accompanied Kotzebue in his voyage, describes it as

follows: "In the Caroline Islands, they rest a vertical piece of

roundish wood, terminating in a point, and about a foot and a half in

length and one inch in diameter, upon a second one fixed in the ground,

and then give it a rotary motion by acting with the palms of the

hands. This motion, which is at first slow and measured, is at length

accelerated, while at the same time the pressure becomes stronger,

whereupon the dust from the wood which has formed by friction and

accumulated around the point of the movable piece begins to carbonize.

This dust, which, after a fashion, constitutes a match, soon bursts into

flame. The women of Eap are wonderfully dexterous in their use of this

process."

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--PROCESS EMPLOYED IN NORTH AMERICA FOR PRODUCING

FIRE.]

Fig. 3 shows another manner of obtaining fire by rotation which is

employed by the Guachos, a half savage, pastoral people who inhabit the

pampas of South America. Longitudinal friction must have preceded that

obtained by rotation. It is still in use in most of the islands of

Oceanica (Fig. 4), and especially in Tahiti and in the Sandwich Islands.

In these latter, says again Chamisso, upon the fixed piece of wood they

place another piece of the same kind, about the length of the palm, and

press it obliquely at an angle of about 30 degrees. The extremity that

touches the fixed piece is blunt, and the other extremity is held with

the two hands, the two thumbs downward, in order to allow of a surer

pressure. The piece is given an alternating motion, and in such a way

that it shall always remain in the same plane inclined at an angle of 30

degrees, and form, through friction, a small groove from six to eight

centimeters in length. When the dust thus produced begins to carbonize,

the pressure and velocity are increased. Wood of a homogeneous texture,

neither too hard nor too soft, is the best for the purpose.

The Malays operate as follows: A dry bamboo rod, about a foot in length,

is split longitudinally, and the pith which lines the inside is scraped

off, pressed, and made into a small ball which is afterward placed in

the center of the cavity of one of the halves of the tube. This latter

half is then fixed to the ground in such a way that the cavity and ball

face downward. The operator next fashions the other half of the tube

into a straight cutting instrument like a knife-blade, which he applies

transversely to the fixed half and gives an alternating motion so as to

produce a sort of sawing. After a certain length of time, a groove, and

finally a hole, is produced. The cutting edge of the instrument is then

so hot that it sets on fire the ball with which it has come in contact.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--GAUCHO OBTAINING FIRE.]

Some peoples, the Fuegians especially, procure fire by striking together

two flints. In the Aleutian Islands these latter, having been previously

covered with sulphur, are struck against each other over a small saucer

of dry moss dusted with sulphur. The Eskimos employ for this purpose

pieces of quartz and iron pyrites.

In the Sandwich Islands recourse is had to a process that necessitates

much skill. There is arranged in a large dry leaf, rolled into the

shape of a funnel, a certain number of flints along with some easily

combustible twigs. On attaching the leaf to the end of a rod, and

revolving the latter rapidly, it is said that fire is produced.

Processes that are based upon the clashing of two flint stones must be

much more inconvenient of application than we would be led to suppose.

We are, in fact, accustomed to see the flint and steel used, but here

the spark is a bit of iron raised to red heat through a mechanical

action that has violently detached it from the mass under the form of

a small sliver. In the case of two flint stones, the light that

is perceived is of an entirely different nature, for it is a

phosphorescence which is produced, even by a very slight friction, not

only between two pieces of silex, but also between two pieces of quartz,

porcelain, or sugar; and that the heat developed is but slight is proved

by the fact that the phenomenon may occur under water. Of course,

fragments of stones may be raised to a red heat through percussion; but

this does not often occur, so for this reason the Fuegians keep up with

the greatest care the fires that they have lighted, and it is this very

peculiarity that has given their country a characteristic aspect and

caused it to be named Terra del Fuego (land of fire). When they change

their residence they always carry with them a few lighted embers which

rest in their canoes upon a bed of pebbles or ashes.

The same thing occurs, moreover, among the Australians and Tasmanians,

who employ, as we have just seen, the rotary process. There are women

among these peoples whose special mission it is to carry day and night

lighted torches or cones made of a substance that burns slowly like

punk. When, through accident, the fire happens to get extinguished in a

tribe, these people often prefer to undertake a long voyage in order to

obtain another light from a neighboring tribe rather than have recourse

to a direct production of it.

We can understand from what is still taking place in these distant

countries why the worship of fire should have existed among our

ancestors, and why sacerdotal associations, such as the Brahmins of

India, the Guebers of Persia, the Vestals of Rome, the priests of Baal

in Chaldea and Phenicia should have been specially instituted for

producing and preserving it.

Plutarch narrates (Numa, chap. ii.) that when the sacred fire happened

to go out, there was employed for relighting it a brass mirror that

had the form of a cone generated by the hypothenuse of an isosceles

rectangular triangle revolving around one of the sides of the right

angle.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--NATIVE OF OCEANICA OBTAINING FIRE BY FRICTION.]

In a poem upon stones attributed to Orpheus, it is said that the sacred

fire was also lighted by a bit of crystal which concentrated the rays of

the sun upon the material to be inflamed. This process must have been

the one that was most usually employed before fire became common. In

fact, a plano-convex crystal lens has been found among the ruins of

Nineveh. Aristophanes, in the _Clouds_, puts on the stage a coarse

personage named Strepsiades, who points out to Socrates how he must

manage so as not to pay his debts:

"Streps.--Hast thou seen among druggists that beautiful transparent

stone that they employ for lighting a fire?

"Socr.--Thou meanest glass.

"Streps.--Yes.

"Socr.--Well! what wouldst thou do with it?

"Streps.--When the registrar shall have made out his summons against me,

I will take the glass, and, placing myself thus in the sun, will cause

his writing to melt."

As well known, writing was then traced on waxen tablets. Servius (in

_AEn_., xii., 200) affirms that men of ancient times, instead of lighting

fire upon the altar themselves, in their sacrifices, caused it to

descend from heaven. He adds, according to Pliny, Titus Livius, and

several old Latin historians, that Numa, who was initiated into all the

wisdom of Etruria, practiced this art with success, but that Tullius

Hostilius, having desired to repeat the evocation, guided only by the

books of Numa, did not accomplish all the formalities prescribed by the

rite and was struck dead by lightning.

Is it not curious that twenty-four centuries afterward, in 1753,

the physicist Reichman was killed by lightning in trying to repeat

Franklin's experiment? This coincidence, however, is not the only one.

Pliny (ii., 53) recounts that lightning was evoked by King Porsenna at

the time when a monster named _Volta_, who was ravaging the country, was

directing himself toward the capital, Volsinies.

If we return to the Vedas, who had the habit of personifying all

phenomena, we shall find that the fire Agni was the son of the carpenter

who had manufactured the instrument by which it was produced, and of

_Maya_ (magic). He took the name of Akta (anointed, [Greek: christos])

when, nourished by libations of butter, he had acquired his full

development. The Persians attributed likewise to Zoroaster the power

of causing fire to descend from heaven through magic. Saint Clement of

Alexandria (_Recog_., lib. iv.) and Gregory of Tours (_Hist. de Fr._,

i., 5) speak of this. However this may be, the marvelous art was lost

at an early date, for it was at such a date that priests began to have

recourse to tricks that were more or less ingenious for lighting their

sacred fireplaces in an apparently supernatural manner.--_A. De Rochas,

in La Nature_.

* * * * *

ST. BLAISE, THE WINNER OF THE DERBY.

St. Blaise, the property of Sir Frederick Johnstone, was bred by Lord

Alington, and is by Hermit from Fusee. This is an unexceptionable

pedigree, for Hermit is now as successful and fashionable a sire as was

even Stockwell in his palmiest days, while Fusee was far more than an

average performer on the turf, and won several Queen's Plates and other

races over a distance of ground. St. Blaise is by no means a big colt,

standing considerably under sixteen hands. His color is about his worst

point, as he is a light, washy chestnut, with a bald face and three

white heels. He has a good head and neck, and very powerful back and

muscular quarters, added to which his legs and feet are well shaped and

thoroughly sound. His first appearance was made in the Twenty-fourth

Stockbridge Biennial at the Bibury Club Meeting, when he won easily

enough; but there were only four moderate animals behind him. A

walk-over for the Troy Stakes followed, and then Macheath beat him

easily enough for the Hurstbourne Stakes, though he finished in front

of Adriana and Tyndrum. For the Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood, he ran a

dead-heat with Elzevir, to whom he was giving 7 lb.; and Bonny Jean,

in receipt of 10 lb., was unplaced. A 7 lb. penalty seemed to put him

completely out of the Dewhurst Plate; but he must then have been out

of form, as, on the following day, it took him all his time to defeat

Pebble by a neck in the Troy Stakes. This season he has only run twice.

His fourth in the Two Thousand was by no means a bad performance,

considering that he was palpably backward; and his victory of last week

is too recent to need further allusion. Porter, his trainer, can boast

of several other successes in the great race at Epsom; but Charles Wood

had never previously ridden a Derby winner. St. Blaise was unfortunately

omitted from the entries for the St. Leger, but has several valuable

engagements at Ascot next week, and appears to have the Grand Prize of

Paris, on Sunday, at his mercy.--_Illustrated London News_.

[Illustration: ST. BLAISE, THE WINNER OF THE DERBY.]

* * * * *

[NATURE.]

SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS IN CHINA AND JAPAN.

Various steps in the progress of China, and Japan in the adoption of

Western science and educational methods have from time to time been

noticed in these columns. To the popular mind the names of the two

countries are synonymous with rigid, unreasoning conservatism and with

rapid change, respectively. The grave, dignified Chinese, who maintains

his own dress and habits even when isolated among strangers, and whose

motto appears to be, _Stare super mas antiquas_, is popularly believed

to be animated by a sullen, obstinate hostility toward any introduction

from the West, however plain its value may be; while his gayer and more

mercurial neighbor, the Japanese, is regarded as the true child of the

old age of the West, following assiduously in its parent's footsteps,

and pursuing obediently the path marked out by European experience.

There is considerable misconception in this, as indeed there is at

all times in the English popular mind with regard to strange peoples.

Broadly speaking, it is no doubt correct to say that, Japan has adopted

Western inventions and scientific appliances with avidity; that she

has shown a desire for change which is abnormal, and a disposition to

destroy her charts and sail away into unsurveyed seas, while China

remains pretty much where she always was. She is now, with some

exceptions, what she was twenty, two hundred, perhaps two thousand years

ago, while a new Japan has been created in fifteen years. All this, we

say, is true, but it is not the whole truth. China also has had her

changes; not indeed so marked or rapid, not so much in the nature of a

_volte-face_ on all her past as those of her neighbor.

The radical difference between the two countries in this respect we take

to be this: that while Japan loves change for the sake of change, China

dislikes it, and will only adopt it when it is clearly demonstrated to

her that change is absolutely necessary. To the Japanese change appears

to be a delightful excitement, to the Chinese a distasteful necessity;

to the former whatever is must be wrong, to the latter whatever is is

right. As a consequence of this difference between the two peoples, when

China once makes a step forward it is generally after much deliberation,

and is never retraced. Japan is constantly undertaking new schemes

with little care or thought for the morrow, but with the applause of

injudicious foreign friends. In a short time she discovers that she has

underrated the expense or exaggerated the results, and her projects

are straightway abandoned as rapidly and thoughtlessly as they were

commenced. Swift suggested as a suitable subject for a philosophical

writer a history of human projects which were never carried out; the

historian of modern Japan finds these at every turn. Where, for example,

are the results of the great surveys, trigonometrical and others, which

were commenced in Yezo and the main island about ten years ago? A large,

expensive, but highly competent foreign staff was engaged, and worked

for a few years; but suddenly the whole survey department was swept

away, and the valuable instruments are, or were recently, lying rusting

in a warehouse in Tokio. The same story may be told of scores of other

scientific or educational undertakings in Japan. An able and careful

writer, Col. H.S. Palmer, R.E., who has recently, with a friendly and

sympathetic eye, examined the whole field of recent Japanese progress,

in the _British_ _Quarterly Review_ is forced to acknowledge this. "Once

having recognized," says this officer, "that progress is essential to

welfare, and having resolved, first among the nations of the East, to

throw off past traditions and mould their civilization after that of

Western countries, it was not in the nature of the lively and impulsive

Japanese to advance along the path of reform with the calmness and

circumspection that might have been possible to a people of less active

temperament. Without doubt many foreign institutions were at first

adopted rather too hastily, and the passing difficulties which now beset

Japan are to some extent the inevitable result." It would be blindness

to deny that the net result of the Japanese efforts is progress of a

very remarkable kind, but it is a progress which in many respects lacks

the firm and abiding characteristics of Chinese movements.

The proverb, _Chi va piano va sano_, which was recommended ten years ago

to Japanese attention by an eminent English official, and apparently

disregarded by them, has been adopted by their continental neighbors.

To the blandishments of pushing diplomatists or acute promoters, the

Chinese are deaf. However we may felicitate ourselves on our inventions,

scientific appliances, "the railway and the steamship and the thoughts

that shake mankind," our progress, the newspapers, the penny post, and

what not, China will not adopt them simply because _we_ have found

their value and are proud of them. But if, within the range of her own

experience, she finds the advantage of these things, she will employ

them with a rapidity and decision surpassing those of the Japanese. A

conspicuous instance of this will be found in her recent action with

respect to telegraphs. For years the Chinese steadily refused to have

anything to do with them; the small land line which connected the

foreign community of Shanghai with the outer world, was maintained

against the violent protests of the local authorities, and the cable

companies experienced some difficulty in getting permission to land

their cables. But during the winter of 1870-80, when war with Russia

was threatened, the value of telegraphs was demonstrated to the Peking

government. The Peiho at Tientsin was closed by ice against steamers,

and news could only be carried to the capital by overland couriers from

Shanghai. Before a year elapsed a land line of telegraph was being

constructed between this port and Tientsin; in a few months the line

was in working order, and the Chinese metropolis is now in telegraphic

communication with every capital in Europe.

This conservatism, respect for antiquity, conceit, prejudice, call it

what we will, has something in it that extorts our respect. Let us

imagine a dignified and cultivated Chinese official conversing with

a pushing Manchester or Birmingham manufacturer, who descants on the

benefits of our modern inventions. He would probably commune with

himself in this wise, whatever reply Oriental politeness would dictate

to his interviewer: "China has got on very well for some tens of

centuries without the curious things of which this foreigner speaks; she

has produced in this time statesmen, poets, philosophers, soldiers; her

people appear to have had their share of affliction, but not more than

those of Europe; why should we now turn round at the bidding of a

handful of strangers who know little of us or our country, and make

violent changes in our life and habits? A railway in a province will

throw thousands of coolies and boatmen out of employment and bring

on them misery and starvation. This foreigner says that railways and

telegraphs have been found beneficial in his country; good, let his

countrymen have them if they please, but let us rest as we are for the

present. Moreover, past events have not given us such faith in Europeans

that we should take all they say for wisdom and justice." A day will

undoubtedly come when China also will have her great mechanical and

scientific enterprises; but what we contend for here is that nothing

we can say or do will bring that time an hour nearer. European public

opinion is to China a dead letter; she refuses to plead before that

tribunal. Each step of her advance along our path must be the result of

her own reflection and experience; and our wisest policy would be to

leave her to herself to advance on it as she deems best. SINENSIS.

* * * * *

THE DIAMOND FIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

At a recent meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the paper

read was "On the Diamond Fields and Mines of South Africa," by Mr. James

N. Paxman, Asoc. M. Inst. C.E.

The author commenced by stating that Kimberley was situated in

Griqualand West, above 700 miles northeast from Table Bay, and 450 miles

inland from Port Elizabeth and Natal on the east coast. Lines of railway

were in course of construction from Table Bay and Port Elizabeth to

Kimberley, and were about half completed. In Griqualand there were

several diamond mines, the principal of which were Kimberley, De Beer's,

Du Toit's Pan, and Bultfontein.

In the Orange Free States there were also two mines, viz., Jagersfontein

and Koffeyfontein, the first of which produced fine white stones. The

mines were all divided into claims, the greatest number of which were to

be found in the Du Toit's Pan mine. Bultfontein came next.

The deepest and most regularly worked was the Kimberley mine. The next

deepest was De Beer's, which, however, was very unevenly worked. Then

followed Du Toit's Pan and Bultfontein. The Du Toit's Pan mine ranked

next in importance to Kimberley mine. Diamonds were first discovered in

1867 by Mr. O'Reilley, a trader and hunter, who visited a colonist named

van Niekirk, residing in Griqua. The first diamond, on being sent to the

authorities, was valued at 500_l_. Considerable excitement was caused

throughout the colony, and the natives commenced to look for diamonds,

and many were found, among which was one of eighty-three and a half

carats, valued at 15,000_l_. In 1868 many enterprising colonists made

their way up the Vaal River, and were successful in finding a good

number of diamonds. The center of the river diggings on the Transvaal

side was Klipdrift, and on the opposite side Pniel. In all there were

fourteen river diggings. Du Toit's Pan and Bultfontein mines were

discovered in 1870 at a distance of twenty-four miles from the river

diggings. The diggers took possession of these places. Licenses were

granted giving the first diggers a right to work. In 1871 De Beer's

and Kimberley mines were discovered, and in 1872, Mr. Spalding's great

diamond of 2821/2 carats was found at the river diggings.

The mines were of irregular shape, and were surrounded by reef. The top

reef was a loose shale, and had given great trouble from the frequent

slips. Below this were strata of trachitic breccia and augite; the

formation was then seamy to an unknown depth.

Within the reef, the surface soil was red, and of a sandy nature. The

next stratum was of a loose, yellow, gravelly lime, and the third blue,

of a hard, slaty nature. This last was the real diamantiferous soil.

Large stones had been found in the "yellow," but the working of this

generally did not pay. Kimberley mine, however, had paid very well all

through. The method of working in deep ground was determined by roadways

running north and south. The soil was hauled up to these roadways,

and taken to the sorting tables. The roadways decaying shortly after

exposure to the atmosphere, a system of hand windlass was adopted, which

worked very well for a time until horsewhims were adopted in 1873.

The depths of the mines increasing, horsewhims had to give way to

steam-engines in 1876.

The first diggers treated on an average ten loads per day each party. At

the present time the least taken out by any engine, when fully employed,

was 250 loads per day. The cost of working, with present appliances, the

first one hundred feet in depth, was 3s. 6d. per load; the second one

hundred feet (mostly blue) 5s.; the third one hundred feet 8s.; and

the fourth one hundred feet 11s. Through scarcity of water a system

of dry-sorting had to be resorted to for several years; but it was

superseded by the introduction of washing machinery, which was now

generally employed.

At the commencement, through inexperience, many serious mistakes were

made. When the first diggers reached the bottom of the red sand, they

thought no diamonds would be found in the next stratum. When, however,

diamonds were found in the second stratum, the diggers had again to

remove the debris, and so also when the "blue" was reached. Some of the

claims in the Du Toit's Pan and Bultfontein mines were irregular in

shape. The other mines, however, had been properly and regularly laid

out. One or two shafts had been connected with the mines by underground

galleries. These galleries were convenient in the case of falls of reef.

Labor, at first, was cheap; but from 20s. per month, wages rose to 30s.

per week, and food. The yellow soil offered no difficulty in working,

being loose and broken, but the blue soil required blasting.

Several methods were adopted for extracting the soil and carrying it

from the mine before steam was introduced. The cost of wood for heating

purposes was a serious item, but good coal had now been found at 160

miles from Kimberley, costing 13l. per ton; another serious item of

expense was the transport over natural roads only, costing from 18_l_.

to 30_l_. per ton.

The machinery designed by the author for this industry was described.

A sixteen horse-power direct-acting winding engine was introduced for

hauling up loads at the rate of about one thousand feet per minute, and

a twenty-five horse-power geared engine, for hauling up heavier loads at

the rate of from six hundred feet to seven hundred feet per minute.

Water was dear, and water-heaters were fitted to each engine, by which

thirty-three per cent. of the water was again used, thus saving one

third. The boilers were of the locomotive type, mostly of steel, to save

weight, and thus reduce the cost of transit. The fire-boxes were also

made of steel of very soft and ductile quality. A semi-portable engine

was made for driving the wash mill. The engine was so arranged that it

might be removed from the boiler and placed separately. The boiler was

made to work at a pressure of 140 pounds per square inch. Automatic cut

off gear was fixed to each engine, and the governors were provided with

a spiral spring for adjusting the speed. A screen, or cylinder wash mill

and elevator, were used for dealing with the diamantiferous soil, and

were described. Standing wires were fixed at the back of the machinery,

and passed over a frame fixed at the top of the mine, the end of the

mine being secured to strong wooden posts. After the blue soil had been

blasted and collected into trucks, it was placed in tubs, which ascended

the standing wires. It was then emptied into the depositing box. The

yellow soil might be put into the wash mill direct, also that portion of

the blue which had passed through the screen fixed over the depositing

box. The remainder of the blue, which was spread out to a thickness of

four inches or six inches on the depositing ground, some distance from

the mine to dry, was delivered into the upper part of the screen. The

return water from the elevator, with a portion of fresh water, was also

discharged at this point, and operations were thus greatly facilitated,

the soil becoming thoroughly saturated, and passing more easily down the

shoots. The large pieces which would not drop through the meshes of the

screen were discharged into trucks at the lower end and carried away.

The smaller pieces with water, in the form of sludge, fell through into

a shoot, and thus were conveyed into the wash mill pan, and there kept

in constant rotating motion by agitators. The diamonds and other pieces

of high specific gravity sank to the deepest part of the pan, and the

remainder of the sludge was forced over the inner ledge to the elevator.

The sludge was then lifted and thrown upon an inclined screen and down

the shoot over the side of the bank. The residue left in the pan at the

end of the day's work was passed through a pulsator, in which, by the

force of water, the mud and lighter particles were carried away, leaving

behind the diamonds, agates, garnets, and other heavy stones. It was the

practice occasionally to put a few inferior stones in the soil, to test

the efficiency of the machinery.

In 1881 the author paid a visit to Kimberley, and found the industry a

large one. The Post Office return showed the value of diamonds passed

through the office in one year to be 3,685,000_l_. Illicit diamond

traffic had hitherto been a source of great trouble at the fields. It

was a question whether this industry would ever cease; in any case there

was no doubt but that it would last for over a century. It was believed

that the main bed of diamonds had not yet been reached, and that the

mines in operation were merely shafts leading to it. Now that the water

works were finished, with a bountiful supply of water, coupled with

the great boon of railways to the Fields, and the advantage of a law

recently passed for the prevention of illicit buying, a great and

prosperous future was in store for the Diamond Fields.

* * * * *

SPONGES AT THE BAHAMAS.

Within the last few decades the sponge industry of the Bahama Islands

has increased at such a rate that to-day it is the second in importance

on the island. Although the product is not of such excellent quality

as that from the Mediterranean, it sells well and is in demand both in

England and in America.

For sponge fishing little boats of ten tons burden are employed and

manned by from six to twelve men. The sponges that are washed upon the

rocks and reefs are taken with iron rakes fastened to long poles, or

are brought to the surface by divers and spread out on the deck of the

vessel. This kills their soft, slimy organisms, which are black as tar.

The sponges are then repeatedly beaten with sticks to remove this black

slime, and afterward well washed.

The sponges are then sorted and softened for several hours in lime

water, dried in the sun, and bleached. They are finally pressed by

machinery into 100 lb. balls and then packed for shipping.

A rich and very extensive "sponge field" was recently discovered near

Eleuthera, but as the water there has a considerable depth, five or six

fathoms, fishing is attended with difficulty. In fact, it is rendered

impossible wherever the "segler" or sailor fish are found, for the mud

which these tiny creatures stir up completely veils the sponges from the

eye of the fisherman.

In 1881 the export amounted to $150,000, of which three-fourths came to

America.--_Chem. Zeit_.

* * * * *

TESTING FISH OVA FOR IMPREGNATION.

The development of the eyes of game fishes (salmonoids), as is well

known, is relatively far advanced before the fish culturist is

positively assured that embryos are developing normally in the egg.

A method, therefore, which would enable us to shorten this period of

probation would not only be desirable, but be also of value under

certain circumstances, since it is certainly annoying after having had

them in water for four or five weeks, spending time and care over them,

to eventually find, when the "eye spots" do not develop, that all our

trouble was wasted and that no development at all took place.

It is true one may, with proper preparations and with the help of the

pocket lens or microscope, follow the development while there may be no

external signs of the process evident. This method of making the

test is, however, not adapted to the purposes of the practical fish

culturist, who will have better success by the following method:

If fertilized fish ova are placed in a 50 per cent. solution of wine

vinegar [any ordinary vinegar will probably be found to answer just

as well--_Tr_.] the embryo, even during the very first stages of

development, will become apparent to the eye lying on the transparent

yelk. The acetic acid contained in the mixture, one part water to

one part wine vinegar, causes the material of the embryo proper to

coagulate, while the yelk remains clear.

A short time after the ova are laid in this mixture, and during the

first week after impregnation, a white circle at one pole of the

egg should become apparent, and in the course of the second week a

cylindrical white streak running from the edge of the circle toward its

center should be evident. If these features are not developed by the

test, the eggs have not been fertilized, and are, therefore, worthless.

We will not complicate the application of the method by describing other

details of the development, but would merely suggest that when a lot of

ova are fertilized a small portion should be left unimpregnated. These

could then be tested in comparison with the fertilized ova from day to

day, using say three eggs at a time of each lot. The observant culturist

could by this means construct for himself a scale of development

covering the period embraced by his experiments. At a lower temperature

the development is slower than at a higher one. The difference of

appearance between fertilized and unfertilized ova treated by the method

will demonstrate its utility. Whoever does not trust to the method for

the evidence of death of the eggs until after five weeks subsequent to

impregnation, must of course wait.

Director Tiefenthaler, of Koelzen, has had the kindness to test the

method practically, and finds it useful to fish culturists.--_Prof.

Nussbaum_.

[A very little practice, it seems to the translator, would serve to

enable any person of ordinary intelligence to apply this method, or

several others which might be suggested. Other substances which would

answer the same purpose would be dilute solutions of picric or chromic

acid, of not more than one to one-half per cent., or one part to two

hundred of water. Vinegar or acetic acid of the shops may also be used;

the last to be diluted in the proportions of about one part in ten of

water. The acids cited will coagulate and cause the germ disk to turn

white or yellow in a few hours. Chromic is better than picric acid, as

it coagulates the yelk also, but turns the latter much darker than the

embryo or embryonic disk.--_Tr_.]

* * * * *

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