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ANNUAL

OF

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY:

OR,

YEAR-BOOK OF FACTS IN SCIENCE AND ART

HOLE 1 S6: 0.

EXHIBITING THE

MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES AND TMPROVEMENTS

IN

MECHANICS, USEFUL ARTS, NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY,
ASTRONOMY, GEOLOGY, ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, MINERALOGY,
METEOROLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES, ETC.

TOGETHER WITH

NOTES ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE DURING THE YEAR 1859; A LIST
OF RECENT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS; OBITUARIES OF
EMINENT SCIENTIFIC MEN, ETC.

EDITED BY

DAVED: A. WEL Soen: M.,

AUTHOR OF PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY,
SCIENCE OF COMMON THINGS, ETC.

BOSTON:
GG, ee AWN. D. i. ERC OL N;

' 59 WASHINGTON STREET.
NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY.
CINCINNATI: GEORGE S. BLANCHARD.
LONDON: TRUBNER & CO.

1860.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by
GOULD. AND AGING OUIN,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

ANDOVER:
ELECTROTYPED BY W. F. DRAPER,

NOTES BY THE EDITOR

ON THE

PROGRESS OF SCIENCE FOR THE YEAR 1859.

TuE thirteenth meeting of the American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science was held at Springfield, Mass., August 3—9,
1859 — Prof. Stephen Alexander, of Princeton, N. J., in the chair.
The attendance of members was large, and the meetings harmonious
and interesting. The whole number of papers registered for pre-
sentation was 108.

The following gentlemen were elected officers for the ensuing
year: President, Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia; Vice President, Dr. B.
A. Gould, jr., of Cambridge; Secretary, Prof. Joseph LeConte, of
South Carolina; Treasurer, Dr. A. L. Elwyn, of Philadelphia.

The Standing Committee recommended that a Winter Session be
held in some Southern city in the winter of 1860-1.

A new expedition, by Lieut. Gillies, to South America, for the
more accurate determination of the Solar Parallax, was recommended,
and a committee of seven appointed to confer with him, and further
the enterprise.

The Association adjourned to meet in Newport, R. I., August 1st,
1860.

The twenty-ninth annual meeting of the British Association for
the Promotion of Science, was held at Aberdeen, Scotland, Septem-
ber 1859 — Prince Albert in the chair. The attendance on the part
of the members and the public was unusually large, and the commu-
nications numerous and important.

The meeting for 1860 was appointed to be held in Oxford, Lord
Worthlesley being the President elect.

From the report of the Council, we learn that the difficulties which
have hitherto presented themselves in the way of a daily photo-
graphic record of the sun’s disk, have been almost entirely surmounted.

“Tt has been found, after repeated trials, that the best photographic
definition is obtained when the sensitized plate is situated from 1-10th

Poe fi}

Iv ' NOTES BY THE EDITOR

to 1-8th of an inch beyond the visual focus in the case of a 4-inch
picture; and that when the adjustment is made, beautiful pictures
are obtained of the sun four inches in diameter, which still bear magni-
fying with a lens of low power, and show considerable detail on the
sun’s surfaces besides the spots, which are well defined. Mr. De la
Rue, by combining two pictures obtained by the Photoheliograph at
an interval of three days, has produced a stereoscopic image of our
luminary, which presents to the mind an idea of sphericity. Under
Mr. De la Rue’s direction, Mr. Beckley is making special experiments,
having for their object the determination of the kind of sensitive
surface best suited for obtaining perfect pictures; for it has been
found that the plates are more liable to stains of the various kinds,
known to photographers, under the circumstance of exposure to intense
sun-light, than they could be if employed in taking ordinary pictures
in the camera. Now that the photographic apparatus has been
brought to a° workable state, Mr. De la Rue and Mr. Carrington,
joint “Secretaries of the Astronomical Society, propose to devote their
attention to the best means of registering and reducing the results
obtained by the instrument.”

The customary review of the recent progress of science having
been omitted from the annual address by the president, the deficiency
was supplied, in part, by addresses from the presiding officers of the
sections, on assuming their respective chairs.

Prof. Owen, in assuming the chair of the section on Zodlogy, etc.,
noticed the progress of Natural Science in Australia and the United
States, as follows :

“ But it is in the younger countries where we see an advance more
evident. Australia and Van Diemen’s Land, now that wealth per-
mits time and luxury, have attended to science, and in most of the
journals of those countries we have original observers, and by-and-by
we shall have the results of the study of the remarkable productions
of these lands made where they live and grow. New Zealand also
has its scientific journal. It is, however, in the New World where the
greatest activity at present prevails. She has already, with credit to
herself, sent out scientific expeditions of a general character, and
those of Wilkes and Rae and Kane are well known, and huge works
have sprung from each. But the boundings of territory now claimed
by the American people have given rise to surveys and exploratory
expeditions at home, and these are proceeding in all directions to fix
the boundary lines, and the best railway routes to the Pacific. Natu-
ralists and draftsmen accompany each expedition, the results of
which are published in reports to Congress, in which they are assisted
by the Smithsonian Institution of Washington. But the work of the
greatest magnitude and importance to America i is, ‘Contributions to
the Natural History of the United States,’ by Agassiz, advertised to
be completed in ten large volumes. Two volumes for the first year,

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. Vv

on the Testudinata or Tortoises, have been published, illustrated by
thirty-four plates. An important part of these volumes is an intro-
ductory essay, which has been re-published separately in an 8vo
volume. Louis Agassiz’s ‘Essay on Classification,’ embraces the
whole range of the subject, which he treats in a wider and more
comprehensible and less mechanical manner than has hitherto been
done. But while I thus praise the work, and the manner in which it
is treated, and agree with a great many of the positions he has taken
up, I must warn its readers that some subjects are treated in a way
Prof. Agassiz will not be able to maintain; and that, to those who are
unable or unwilling to think for themselves, the author’s reputation
will prove a guarantee not altogether to be trusted. It must be
studied with great care and great caution. Nevertheless, I look upon
it as the remarkable book of the year. There is another work, upon
a similar subject, advertised, from which we may expect some curious
reasonings, ‘On the Origin of Species and Varieties,’ by Charles
Darwin.”

At the opening of the Geological section, Sir Charles Lyell
reviewed the subject of the “ Geo! osical Age of Man,” with special
reference to the researches which have been “recently brought before
the public.

“ No subject,” he said, “ has lately excited more curiosity and gen-
eral interest among geologists and the public than the question of
the antiquity of the human race, — whether or no we have sufficient
evidence to prove the former coéxistence of Man with certain ex-
terral mammalia, in caves, or in the superficial deposits commonly
called ‘drift, or ‘déluvium.’ For the last quarter .of a century,
the occasional occurrence, in various parts of Europe, of the bones
of man, or the works of his hands, in cave-breccias and stalactites,
associated with the remains of the extinct hyena, bear, elepbant, or
rhinoceros, have given rise to a suspicion that the date of man must
be carried further back than we have heretofore imagined. On the
other hand, extreme reluctance was naturally felt, on the part of
scientific reasoners, to admit the validity of such evidence, seeing that
so many caves have been inhabited by a succession of tenants, and
have been selected by man as a place not only of domicile but of
sepulture, while some caves have also served as the channels through
which the waters of flooded rivers have flowed, so that the remains of
living beings which have peopled the district at more than one era
may have subsequently been mingled in such caverns, and confounded
together in one and the same deposit. The facts, however, recently
brought to light during the systematic investigation, as reported on by
Piiconer:; of the Brixham Cave, must, I think, have prepared you
to admit that skepticism in regard to the cave-evidence in favor of
the antiquity of man, had previously been pushed to an extreme.

To escape from what I now consider was a legitimate deduction from
1*

Vea /

VI NOTES BY THE EDITOR

the facts already accumulated, we were obliged to resort to hypotheses
requiring great changes in the relative levels and drainage of valleys,
and, in short, the whole physical geography of the respective regions
where the caves are situated — changes that would alone imply a
remote antiquity for the human fossil remains, and make it probable
that man was old enough to have coéxisted, at least, with the Sibe-
rian mammoth. But, in the course of the last fifteen years, another
class of proofs have been advanced, in France, in confirmation of
man’s antiquity, into two of which I have personally examined in the
course of the present summer, and to which I. shail now briefly
advert. First, so long ago as the year 1844, M. Aymard, an eminent
palzontologist and antiquary, published an account of the discovery,
in the volcanic district of Central France, of portions of two human
skeletons —the skulls, teeth, and bones— imbedded in a volcanic
breccia, found in the mountain of Denise, in the environs of Le Puy
en Velay,— a.breccia anterior in date to one, at least, of the latest
eruptions of that volcanic mountain. On the opposite side of the
same hill, the remains of a large number of mammalia, most of them
of extinct species, have been detected in tufaceous strata, believed,
and I think correctly, to be of the same age. The authenticity of
the human fossils was from the first disputed by several geologists,
but admitted by the majority of those who visited Le Puy, and saw
with their own eyes the original specimen now in the museum of that
town. Among others, M. Pictet, so well known to you by his excel-
lent work on Paleontology, declared, after his visit to the spot, his
adhesion to the opinions previously expressed by Aymard. My
friend Mr. Scrope, in the second edition of his ‘ Volcanoes of Cen-
tral France, lately published, also adopted the same conclusion,
although after accompanying me this year to Le Puy, he has seen
reason to modify his views. The result of our joint examination —
a result which, I believe, essentially coincides with that arrived at by
MM. Hebert and Lartet, names well known to science, who have
also this year gone into this inquiry on the spot — may thus be stated.
We are by no means prepared to maintain that the specimen in the
museum at Le Puy — which, unfortunately, was never seen in situ by
any scientific observer —is a fabrication. On the contrary, we incline
to believe that the human fossils in this, and some other specimens
from the same hill, were really imbedded by natural causes in their
present matrix. But the rock in which they are entombed consists
of two parts, one of which is a compact, and, for the most part, thinly
laminated stone, into which none of the human bones penetrate ;_ the
other, containing the bones, is a lighter and much more porous stone,
without lamination, to which we could find nothing similar in the
mountain of Denise, although both M. Hebert and I made several
excavations on the alleged site of the fossils. M. Hebert, therefore,
suggested to me that this more porous stone, which resembles in color

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. vit

and mineral composition, though not in structure, parts of the genuine
old breccia of Denise, may be made up of the older rock, broken up,
and afterwards re-deposited, — or, as the French say, remané, — and
therefore of much newer date ; an hypothesis which well deserves con-
sideration ; but I feel that we are, at present, so ignorant of the precise
circumstances and position under which these celebrated human fossils
were found, that I ought not to waste time in speculating on their
probable mode of interment, but simply state th&t, in my opinion, they
afford no demonstration of Man having witnessed the last volcanic
eruptions of Central France. ‘The skulls, according to the judgment
of most competent osteologists who have yet seen them, do not seem
to depart in a marked manner from the modern European, or Cau-
casian, type, and the human bones are in a fresher state than those of
the Elephas meridionalis and other quadrupeds found in any breccia
of Denise which can be referred to the period even of the latest
volcanic eruptions. But, while I have thus failed to obtain satis-
factory evidence in favor of the remote origin assigned to the human
fossils of Le Puy, I am fully prepared to corroborate the conclusions
which have been recently laid before the Royal Society by Mr.
Prestwich, in regard to the age of the flint implements associated in
undisturbed gravel, in the North of France, with the bones of
elephants at Abbeville and Amiens. ‘These were first noticed at
Abbeville, and their true geological- position assigned to them by M.
Boucher de Perthes, in 1849, in his ‘ Antiquit¢és Celtiques, while
those of Amiens were afterwards described in 1855, by the late Dr.
Rigollot. For a clear statement of the facts, I may refer you to
the abstract of Mr. Prestwich’s Memoir, in the Proceedings of the
Royal Society for 1859, and have only to add that I have myself ob-
tained abundance of Flint Implements (some of which are laid upon
the table) during a short visit to Amiens and Abbeville. Two of the
worked flints of Amiens were discovered in the gravel-pits of St.
Acheul — one at the depth of ten, and the other of seventeen feet be-
low the surface, at the time of my visit; and M. Georges Pouchet, of
Jouen, author of a work on the Races of Man, who has since visited
the spot, has extracted with his own hands one of these implements,
as Messrs. Prestwich and Flower had done before him. The stratified
gravel resting immediately on the chalk in which these rudely
fashioned instruments are buried, belongs to the post-pliocene period,
all the freshwater and land ere which z accompany them being of ex-
isting species. The great number of the fossil instruments, which have

been likened to hatchets, spear-heads, and wedges, is truly wonderful.
More than a thousand of them have already been met with, in the last
ten years, in the valley of the Somme, in an area fifteen miles in
length. I infer that a tribe of savages, to whom the use of iron was
unknown, made a long sojourn in this region ; and Iam reminded 2
a large Indian mound, which I saw in St. Simond’s Island,

wut .- NOTES BY THE EDITOR

Georgia — a mound ten acres in area, and having an average height
of five feet, chiefly composed of cast-away oyster shells, throughout
which arrow-heads, stone axes, and Indian pottery are dispersed. If
the neighboring river, the Alatamaha, or the sea which is at hand,
should invade, sweep away, and stratify the contents of this mound, it
might produce a very analogous accumulation of human implements,
unmixed perhaps with human bones. Although the accompanying
shells are of living species, I believe the antiquity of the Abbeville
and Amiens flint instruments to be great indeed if compared to the
times of history or tradition. I consider the gravel to be of fluvia-
tile origin, but I could detect nothing in the structure of its several
parts indicating cataclysmal action — nothing that might not be due to
such river-floods as we have witnessed in Scotland during the last half-
century. It must have required a long period for the wearing down of
the chalk which supplied the broken flints for the formation of so
much gravel at various heights, sometimes one hundred feet above the
level of the Somme, for the deposition of fine sediment including
entire shells, both terrestrial and aquatic, and also for the denudation
which the entire mass of stratified drift has undergone, portions hav-
ing been swept away, so that what remains of it often terminates
abruptly in old river-cliffs, besides being covered by a newer unstrati-
fied drift. To explain these changes I should infer considerable
oscillations in the level of the land in that part of France, — slow
movements of upheaval and subsidence, deranging but not wholly
displacing the course of the ancient rivers. Lastly, the disappear-
ance of the Elephant, Rhinoceros, and other genera of quadrupeds
now foreign to Europe, implies, in lke manner, a vast lapse of ages,
separating the era in which the fossil implements were framed and
that of the invasion of Gaul by the Romans. Among the problems
of high theoretical interest which the recent progress of Geology and
Natural History has brought into notice, no one is more prominent,
and, at the same time, more obscure, than that relating to the origin
of species. On this difficult and mysterious subject a work will very
shortly appear, by Mr. Charles Darwin, the result of twenty years of
observation and experiments in Zodlogy, Botany, and Geology, by
which he has been led to the conclusion, that those powers of nature
which give rise to races and permanent varieties in animals and
plants, are the same as those which, in much longer periods, produce
species, and, in a still longer series of ages, give rise to differences
of generic rank. He appears to me to have succeeded, by his inves-
tigations and reasonings, to have thrown a flood of light on many
classes of phenomena connected with the affinities, geographical distri-
bution, and geological succession of organic beings, for which no
other hypothesis has been able, or has even attempted, to account.
Among the communications sent in to this Section, I have received
from Dr. Dawson, of Montreal, one confirming the discovery which

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. IX

he and I formerly announced, of a land shell, or pupa, in the coal
formation of Nova Scotia. When we contemplate the vast series of
formations intervening between the tertiary and carboniferous strata,
all destitute of air-breathing Mollusca, at least of the terrestrial class,
such a discovery affords an important illustration of the extreme
defectiveness of our geological records. It has always appeared to
me that the advocates of progressive development have too much
overlooked the imperfection of these records, and that, consequently,
a large part of the generalizations in which they have indulged in
regard to the first appearance of the different classes of animals,
especially of air-breathers, will have to be modified or abandoned.
Nevertheless, that the doctrine of progressive development may con-
tain in it the germs of a true theory, I am far from denying.”

One of the most interesting of recent contributions to Chemical
Science, is a Memoir by the well-known Swiss Chemist, Schonbein,
“On the result of twenty years study of oxygen.” The principal
points which he desires to establish are as follows: He recognizes the
existence of oxygen in three conditions. One, ordinary oxygen, that
which ‘ve respire from the atmosphere; the two other kinds are two
forms of ozone, which bear the same relation to each other that the
two forms of electricity possess. In fact, says Schonbein, we form
ordinary oxygen when we bring these two kinds of ozone together ;
and, on the other hand, ordinary oxygen is destroyed when, by any
given chemical action, one of these two allotropic modifications that
compose it is removed.

The tendency, on the part of the two modifications, to be produced
from ordinary oxygen, explains certain effects heretofore called
catalytic, which have been unaccountable. Thus, peroxide of barium
and oxygenated water, being acidified by nitric acid, are reciprocally
decomposed, giving rise to the formation of water, protoxide. of
barium, and ordinary oxygen; under similar circumstances, permanga-
nate of potassa is reduced to manganic oxide, and chromic acid be-
comes oxide of chrome ; that is to say, these compounds are deoxi-
dized in the presence of an abundant source of oxygen, and precisely
from the contact of that particular form of oxygen, or ozone, whose
oxidizing properties are effective in the direct oxidation of the least
oxidizable bodies, such as nitrogen, which is, as we know, directly
transformed, under the influence of ozone, into nitric acid. These
effects, so contradictory, are thus explained by Schonbein: A com-
bination strongly oxygenous can be decomposed in the presence of
a compound, rich in oxygen, whenever one of the compounds contains
oxygen in the condition that may be called positive, and the other
in that which may be called negative. The result of this decomposi-
tion is ordinary, or neutral oxygen. It is this,.moreover, which is
obtained, when we experiment with ozone obtained with phosphorus
by the action of oxygenized water — the product being pure water and

-

”

x NOTES BY THE EDITOR

ordinary oxygen. Therefore, in order that ozone or nascent oxygen,
obtained by phosphorus, should act as an energetic oxidizer, it is neces-
sary that it should not be in presence of nascent oxygen produced from
oxygenized water. Thus, an acid loses its acid properties in presence
of a base, and reciprocally ; and ozone, affected with a sign + loses
its oxidizing properties in the presence of ozone of the sign —.

The new classification of Reptiles, as proposed by Prof. Owen, in
a paper laid before the British Association at its last meeting, must be
regarded as one of the most important of recent contributions to
Natural History. The sub-class of Reptiles, which was formerly
divided into four orders, the Professor now proposes to divide into
thirteen. This revision has resulted from the study of the fossil forms
which have been found in such abundance in the secondary strata of
the earth’s surface. At the head of the Reptile Orders he places an
extinct form, — Archegosaurus, — and in the lowest Order the Batra-
chian Reptiles (the toads and frogs). He still retains these amongst
the reptiles, on account of the difficulty of distinguishing between
them and the Chelonia, or tortoises and turtles. At the same time, the
Professor acknowledges his inability to distinguish between the Ba-
trachia and the next group of animals, the Fishes.

The investigations of Prof. Faraday on Electricity, recently com-
municated to the public through the Royal Institution, seem to
almost conclusively settle the question as regards the nature of this
subtle agent, and must be considered as one of the memorable
scientific “incidents of the year.

During the past year the Exploring Expedition, ee in the
spring of 1853, by Lady Franklin, under Capt. McClintock, R. N.,
has returned, bringing relics, and definite information respecting the
lost navigators. The details of the expedition are briefly as follows:
—“ After visiting Beachy Island where it was known Sir John
Franklin passed his first winter, Capt. McClintock continued his
course down Peel’s Sound, in the direction of the magnetic pole, and
established his winter position at the entrance to Bellot Strait, in a
snug harbor, which he called Port Kennedy. To Lieut. Hobson he
allotted the search of the western shore of Boothnia to the magnetic
pole, while he himself went southward, toward the same point, in
the hope of communicating with the Esquimaux, and obtaining such
information as might lead us at once to the object of our search.
His success was quite complete, and entirely justified bis foresizht.
He started on the, 17th of February, and in eleven days he fell in
with a party of the natives, from whom he learnt that, several years ago,

a ship was crushed by the ice off the north shore of King William’s
Island, but that all her people landed safely, and went away tg the
Great Fish River, where they died. From this band of Esquimaux
he obtained many relics. On a second journey, a month later, he met
with other natives, and from them received information of another

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. xI

ship having been seen off King William’s Island, which drifted ashore
in the autumn of the same year— 1848; and that many of the
white men dropped by the way, as they went toward the Great
River. Continuing his search, he found, on the 24th of May, about
ten miles eastward of Cape Herschel, on King William’s Island, a
bleached skeleton, around which lay some fragments of European
clothing. ‘Judging from his dress, adds Capt. McClintock, ‘this
unfortunate young man was a steward or oflicer’s servant, and his
position exactly verified the Esquimaux’s assertion, that they dropped
as they walked along.’ Lieutenant Hobson was even more fortunate
than his commander. After parting from him, he made for Cape
Felix, the northern extremity of King William’s Island, where he
found a cairn, about which were relics of a shooting or magnetic
station, and among them a boat’s ensign. A few miles to the south-
ward, upon Point Victory, he came upon another cairn, where a vast
quantity of clothing and stores lay strewed about, as if here every
article was thrown away which could possibly be dispensed with ;
pickaxes, shovels, boats, cooking utensils, ironwork, rope, blocks, can-
vas, a dip circle, a sextant, engraved Frederic Hornby, R.N.,.’ a
small mindibene chest, oars, etc. But among them, and more ewe
ting and precious than all, was a record, dated April 25th, 1848, from
which, and from a duplicate found soon after, they learned that the
Erebus and Terror passed their first winter at Beachy Island, after
having ascended the Wellington Channel to lat. 77 deg. N., and
returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. When the spring
opened, the hardy mariners struggled southward, making for King
William’s Island, hoping to reach beyond it the continent of America,
and thus open the long-sought-for North-West Passage. Their efforts
were, however, in vain. The ice-fields which flow down between
Melville Island and Bank’s Island, and block up the narrows about
King William’s Island, caught them on the 12th of September, 1846,
in lat. 70° 5’ N., and long. 98° 23° W. From this position the coe
never escaped, except to drift a few miles further southwards. Here,
also, on the 11th of June, 1847, Sir John Franklin died —not, we may
hope, of starvation, or with any fearful foresight of the fate that was to
befall his companions, but quietly and peacefully — worn out with
arduous labor, yet full of hope that his task was about to be accom-
plished, and with the cherished and consoling conviction that they
who bore his last words to those he loved at home, would carry, also,
the news of that success to the very brink of which he had led them.
On the 22d of April, 1848, after another season of dreary waiting
and suffering, which will never be told, the remainder of the officers
and crew, one hundred and five in number, under the command of
Capt. Gide: abandoned their ships, five leagues N. N. West of Point
Victory, on King William’s Island, and started | for the Great Fish River.
The total loss by deaths in the expedition, up to this date, was nine

XIT NOTES BY THE EDITOR

officers and fifteen men. In attempting to reach the Great Fish River,
the whole party probably perished, as the natives said, ‘dropping
down by the way, one by one.’ In their further journeys, Lieut.
Hobson and Capt. McClintock fell in with a boat, which the sufferers
had abandoned, with its bow turned toward the ship, and in it were
two human skeletons, one in each end. Two guns stood against her
side, loaded, and a barrel cocked in each. There was fuel in abun-
dance about her, but no food, and no remains of any, except some tea
and chocolate. They found in her, also, several watches, and some sil-
ver spoons and forks, and plenty of ammunition. But guns and powder
were as useless as fuel and forks, where there was nothing to kill.
And here their sad story ends. That wilderness is marked, perhaps,
for many a mile with other bleaching bones, and tattered relics, as the
wanderers fell, one after the other, in their horrible and hopeless
march; but no pious hand will ever gather them together, and give
them Christian burial — no friendly and pitying eyes ever drop a tear
upon them.”

Some years since, the Duke of Luynes, a distinguished French
photographic amateur, instituted a prize, under the auspices of the
French Academy, for the discovery of a method of producing photo-
graphs by the use of carbon alone (neglecting salts of gold, silver,
and other metals), this being the only material which, submitted to
the test of time, has transmitted to us, without change, records almost
3000 years old. ‘The Commission of the Photographic Society, Paris,
to whom the applications for the prize were referred, have recently
reported that they are unable to announce a full success, and, there-
fore, adjourn the decision for three years. The desideratum is to
obtain a coating of carbon in a manner analogous to that from silver
or gold — namely, by reduction. But chemistry, as yet, has failed to
discover a process for the reduction of carbon compounds, and photo-
graphers have resorted to animal-black, which they have applied, in
any convenient manner, to plates previously exposed to the sun.
From the many contestants of the prize, the Commission esteemed
two memoirs presented as worthy of reward; and the following
résumé of these is given by M. Nickles, in his correspondence with
Silliman’s Journal :

Messrs. Garnier and Salmon, the authors of one of these memoirs,
cover the face of paper with a film obtained from an intimate mixture
of bichromate of ammonia and albumen. This coating is dried by
heat, and exposed to the sun in a frame covered by a glass positive.
The picture appears in a yellow-brown tint, which becomes more
intense by a gentle warmth. The sheet thus prepared is fixed ona
planchette, and covered with finely powdered ivory-black, the coating
being made even by a stump of cotton. It is next detached and
plunged in common water, the image uppermost, and there gently
moved at intervals for a quarter of an hour. The water is then

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XIII

drawn off, and the picture served in a bath composed of five parts of
concentrated sulphurous acid diluted in 100 parts of water, moving it
‘ about, as before, at intervals. After this double process, the carbon
almost entirely disappears from the lights and clear spaces, while it
remains in quantities proportional to the greater or less intensity of
action of the light upon the other portions, and thus the proof finally
reproduces the. positive, but not perfectly, since the lights and half
tints are not pure, and the blacks lack somewhat of brillianey and
perfectness. But the process is simple and good ; it remains only to
perfect it.

M. Pouncy, another competitor, operates a little differently, but
obtains results equally satisfactory. His process difiers in applying
the carbon before exposure of the proof to light — the sensitive coating
being formed at once, of bichromaté of potassa, gum arabic, and
finely divided carbon, exposed not under a positive, but under a
negative plate. On removal, the plate is placed in a bath of pure
water ; after five or six hours’ immersion, he washes under a stream of
common water, and the carbon positive is obtained. In this process
the manipulation is a little easier and more simple. The use of a
negative authorized the expectation of a better result; but the expo-
sure is longer than in the mode of Garnier and Salmon, whose use of
a positive avoids the chances of accident which attend the negative —
plates in the hands of the operator. Messrs. Pouncy, Garnier, and
Salmon, share the prize with Mr. Poitevin, who has the merit of anti-
cipating these photographers, whose methods are only an advance on
the process which Mr. Poitevin published in 1856.

In order to enable the public to derive full advantage from the
photographic negatives made officially for the British Government,
from rare and valuable objects in public and other collections, British
and foreign, the Committee of Council on Education, for Great
Britain, has caused an office for the sale of photographic impressions
from such negatives, to be established in London. Photographic
negatives made by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, and
for the War and other Government offices, will also be sold. The
tariff for unmounted impressions will be as follows: A single impres-
sion, the dimensions of which containless than 40 square inches, —é.9.,
5 X 7 inches, or 4 X 8 inches, —5d. Above 40 square inches, 23d.
should. be added to every 20 square inches or under. A detailed
list of the objects photographed is printed, price 2d. The depart-
ment does not charge itself with the mounting of impressions, as the
public is able to do ‘this for itself.

Much importance has of late years been atinched by astronomers to
the formation of catalogues and charts of stars in the vicinity of the
ecliptic, the region of the planetary bodies. The fixed points whose
positions are thus determined and mapped, not only serve as points
of reference for the places cf the moving bodies of our system, but

2

XIV NOTES BY THE EDITOR

they also afford most important facilities for the discovery of new
planets. They enable us to determine the variation and the position
of a moving body by a simple micrometrical measurement, or even
by ocular triangulation, and so render much more easy the detection
of those regular variations of place which enable us to pronounce the
moving body to be a planet. Induced by these considerations, and
stimulated by zeal for the advancement of his favorite scierce, Mr.
Cooper, of England, some eight years ago, undertook the formidable
task of determining the position of all the stars in the neighborhood
of the ecliptic to the twelfth magnitude inclusive. Mr. Cooper’s cata-
logue now extends to five volumes, and is the result of upwards of
72,000 observations carried on uninterruptedly during eight years,
or at the rate of 9000 observations perannum. A singular circum-
stance attended the progress ef this great undertaking, namely, the
disappearance of about seventy-seven stars which had been previously
observed, and whose positions had been noted. Of these, fifty had
been catalogued by Mr. Cooper in the earlier-part of his labors, but
when afterwards sought for, were not to be seen; the others had been
noted in the catalogues of foreign astronomers. This remarkable fact
of the disappearance of stars, recently observed, has been confirmed
by M. Chacornac, of France, who has published eighteen charts of
the positions of ecliptic stars. It is of course possible that some cases
of supposed disappearance may only be apparent, and arise from the
errors of former observers, and perhaps, also, by the discovery cf
the small planets situated between Mars and Jupiter, which, at the
time of observation, were mistaken for stars. But the greater num-
ber are, undoubtedly, real disappearances, which can only be ac-
counted for by an actual variability in the stellar systems, whether
periodical or otherwise. The number of known variable stars — those,
namely, whose brightness alternately increases and diminishes at
regular intervals — has been greatly augmented since the attention of
astronomers has been directed to stars of inferior magnitude ; and it is
not improbable that the stars which have disappeared belong to this
class, and that they will, consequently, be found to reiippear at some
future time. But it is highly improbable that all are of this class,
and, therefore, destined to become once more visible. If, on the
contrary, it be found that there are no permanent changes in the
‘stellar system, which are not compensated by opposite fluctuations,
these observations of Mr. Cooper, and others of a similar kind, made
by other astronomers, acquire an importance far beyond that belong-
ing to their immediate object, — opening up, in fact, a new field of
astronomical inquiry, and new motives to diligence and accuracy in
the arduous duty of mapping the stars.

At the meeting of the American Association, Springfield, 1859,
Prof. Henry stated, that at the present time most of the telegraphic
companies south of New England and east of the Mississippi send to

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. xvV

the Smithsonian Institution weather reports every day. When these
are received, a man indicates the weather upon a large map of the
United States, hung in the public hall, by means of a system of
small cards and pins. For example, a green card was hung over a
point where it was snowing; black, where it was raining; brown;
where it was cloudy; and white where it was clear; and by this
means an observer was able to see at a glance the exact state of the
weather over nearly the whole of the United States, at the same
hour. As the storms of the United States generally travel east, they
were enabled, from the meteorological reports at 9 A.M., in Cincin-
nati and upon the Mississippi, to predict the state of the weather in
Washington twelve hours in advance, and could thus announce or
postpone their evening lectures, in conformity with the weather.

Under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Meech has
been for some time engaged in investigating the subject of the
partial absorption or extinction which the rays of solar heat experience
in passing through the atmosphere to the surface of the earth. The
phenomenon is one of special interest, and various instruments have
been devised for its measurement ; among which the pyrheliometer
of Pouillet, and the actinometer of Herschel, may be mentioned.
The observations with these instruments, says Mr. Meech, are cer-
tainly valuable and instructive, but, with one very doubtful exception,
they fail to exhibit any distinct law. The law of absorption not being
obvious directly from observation, the simple hypothesis has generally
been adopted that equal thickness or strata of the medium absorb
equal proportions of the light or heat incident upon each stratum.
Lambert, Laplace, Pouillet, and others, have expressed this assump-
tion in an analytic form, which applies very correctly at higher
altitudes and near the zenith. For low altitudes, Laplace combined
the same assumption with his theory of refraction, and derived an
approximate expression for the relative amounts.

But the inquiry arises, how far the fundamental assumption is
sustained by experiments. During the trigonometric survey of
India, the astronomer, Jacob, observed the extinction of light reflected
through an extent of sixty miles of horizontal atmosphere. His
results were found to correspond very nearly with the law that “as
the first differences of distance increases in arithmetical progression,
the intensity of light diminishes in geometrical progression.” The
experiments of Delaroche and Melloni also indicate that the hy-
pothesis of equal thicknesses, absorbing equal portions of the incident
heat, is only an approximation, which, in extended media, will
differ widely from the truth; indeed, their experiments show an
increasing facility of transmission through equal strata in the direction
in which the rays proceed.

The necessity of a change, therefore, in the theory of atmospheric
absorption, to render it conformable to such experiments, being

B.O'p I NOTES BY THE EDITOR

obvious, the greater part of Mr. Meech’s time, available during the
past year, has been devoted to this object. The remaining discussions,
relative to the theory of climatic heat, of which this forms a part, are
yet in progress. It may here be stated, however, that, on computing
by this method the observations given in the translation of Kaemtz’s
Meteorology, p. 150, Mr. Meech shows that out of one hundred rays
descending vertically from the zenith, twenty-two rays are lost or
absorbed in the atmosphere, and seventy-eight are transmitted to the
earth’s surface. The same process applied to the mean of observa-
tions made with Herschel’s actinometer, on the Faulhorn and at
Brientz, in Switzerland, leads to precisely the same result when
reduced to the sea level.

The Scottish Meteorological Society offer a reward of twenty
pounds ($100) for the best essay on the following questions :

1. Whether the amount of Rainfall in the western parts of Eu-
rope, and particularly in Scotland, is less now than it formerly was.

2. Assuming this fact to be established, what are the most probable
causes of it ?

With reference to the first of these questions, the Peay of the
Society, A. Keith Johnson, says:

“ Notice may be taken of the popular belief that springs of water
have been gradually diminishing, or altogether drying up, especially
in arable districts; and of the following statement in the Report of
the Registrar-General for England, for the quarter ending June,
1859 :—‘ The deficiency in the fall of rain from the beginning of the
year is 1? inch. The deficiency in the years 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857,
1858, amounting to the average fall of one year, viz., 25 inches.
From a careful examination of the fall of rain (year by year) from
the year 1815, it would seem that the annual fall is becoming smaller,
and that there is but little probability that the large deficiency will
be made up by excess in future years.’

“ With reference to the second question, notice may be taken of
the supposed effects of deep drainage and deep culture of the soil, in
raising the temperature both of the soil and atmosphere, in lessening
evaporation, and in diminishing the condensation of vapor.”

During the past year, Dr. W. Odling, Secretary to the London
Chemical Scciety, has prepared an elementary text-book on chemistry
for the use of those lecturers and students who employ, or wish to
employ, the unitary system of chemistry, according to which the
molecule of water is represented by the formula H2O. Water thus
becomes a unit of comparison, to which the majority of oxides,
hydrates, acids, salts, alcohols, ethers, ete., can be referred. More-
over, the anomaly of the vapor density of water is hereby obviated,
and its volume-equivalent made to correspond with that of other com-
pound bodies. This system has been made the basis of elementary
teaching by Professor Brodie, at the University of Oxford; by tne

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. AVII

author at Winchester College, Hants; and by its chief English
exponent, Dr. Williamson, at University College, London.

In the erection of a new Museum at Oxford University, England,
designed to afford room for the various collections, pertaining to the
several departments of natural and physical science, belonging to the
university. a curious and interesting feature has been introduced into
the plan and architecture of the buildmg. ‘Thus, in the main hall
there are, on the ground-floor, thirty-three piers and thirty shafts;
on the upper fioor, thirty-three piers and ninety-five shafts. Thus
ene hundred and twenty-five shafts surround the court; and if we
include the capitals and bases of the piers, there are one hundred and
ninety-one capitals and bases. The material of each of these shafts
has been carefully selected, under the direction of the Professor of
Geology, from quarries which furnish examples of many of the most
important rocks of the British Islands. Thus, commencing in the
lower arcade, on the west side, we have, first, a column of Aberdeen
gray granite; next, Aberdeen red granite; then, porphyritic gray
granite of Lamonna; then, syenite from Charnwood; then, mottled
granite, Cruachan, Scotland; then, red granite from the Isle of Mull.
Succeeding these are the metomorphic rocks, the serpentines, por-
phyries; the English, Welch, and Irish marbles, breccias, gypsum, ete.,
etc. In the upper corridors the same order is preserved, — no two
columns being of the same material. Furthermore, the capitals and
bases of the columus represent various groups of plants and animals,
illustrating different climates, and various geological epochs, — all
mainly arranged according to their natural orders. <A series of
sculptured portraits of the great in science also constitutes a marked
feature of the building. Mr. Ruskin, who has taken an active part
in the designing and construction of this museum, thus sums up its
object: “ To make Art expressive rather than curious — fixed rather
than portable — publicly beneficial rather than privately engrossed,
—to convey truthful information of form, and promote intelligence,
has been attempted and carried out in the building.” The expendi-
ture contemplated is upwards of £60,000.

The following resumé embraces most of the geographical explora-
tions and investigations for the [ast two years.

The Geographical Society of St. Petersburg, has sent a number of
naturalists to Siberia; and a learned Finn, Dr. Nordenskiold, of Hel-
singfors, has pursued his observation as far as Spitzbergen. He there
discovered anthracite coal, and such a multitude of seals and walrusses
as promises rich returns to fishermen in years to come. He has also
ascended the Sneehiittan Mountain.

On the American continent, an officer of the English Navy, Capt.
Palliser, has been so fortunate as to find a passage through the Rocky
Mountains, in British America.

9*

XVIII NOTES BY THE EDITOR

In South America, the Frenchman, Dr. Plassard, who is settled in
Ciudad Bolivar, has undertaken an excursion into the interior of
Venezuelan Guyana, and found gold to the south of the lower
Orinoco, toward the Yuruari.

At Rio Janeiro, Messrs. Capanema, Lagos, and Gonsalvo Diaz, are
preparing for a second expedition into the interior of Brazil, which is
almost entirely unknown, and in the possession of wild Indian tribes.
They will have a military escort.

On the 27th of February last, the Sardinian traveller, Brun-Rollet,
died at Khartoun, on the boundary between Nubia and Abyssinia.
He had penetrated all the country bordering on the upper Nile, and
discovered Lake No, in lat. 12 deg., and the Bhar Keilak, or Misselad,
which belongs to the western basin of the Nile. In 1855, he pub-
lished in Paris Le Nil Blane and Soudan.

The Englishman, Coulthard, died a terrible death, by thirst, in the
inner desert of Australia. <A traveller, Babbage, found his bedy ina
thicket, and a tin cup near by, on which he had scratched a few lines
with a nail, which made known the frightful sufferings that preceded
his death. Coulthard set out with two other Englishmen, Scott and
Brooks, who probably have perished.

In the Southern Atlantic, the English Capt. Cubins believes that
he has, within the year, found a new group of islands on the track of
Australian-bound vessels.

But the great magnetic centre to which most discoverers instinc-
tively turn, is still the interior of Africa. Those vast countries,
which are represented in blank on our maps, have been attacked
from all sides — east, west, north and south.

The renowned Dr. Robert Livingstone is now making an excursion
in those countries which he discovered during his long journey from
St. Paul de Loanda to Quilimane. He embarked last year, equipped
with instruments for making scientific observations. He will first
attempt to go up the Zambeze River in a canoe, which he has named
“ Ma Robert,” or Robert’s wife or mother, as the natives along the
Zambeze have great respect for the wife and mother of a man whom
they admire.

The English steamer, the Rainbow, sailed on the 6th January,
1859, out of Bonny into the Gulf of Benin, to explore the country
along the Niger. Ladislaus Magyar, of Theresiopol, in Hungary,
who, after the Hungarian insurrection, became a citizen of Brazil,
has hit upon a rather singular but very prudent way to penetrate
into the mysteries of inner Africa with the greatest possible safety and
advantage. He has just married the daughter of the black King of
Bihe, in Upper Guinea. He has become commander-in-chief of
the armies of his father-in-law, and uses his authority and _ his
soldiers to become acquainted with the countries lying in his neigh-
borhood.

ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XIX

Jules Braouerec, commander of the corvette Oise, is now explor-
ing the wholly unknown country through which the Gaboon River runs.

The Swedish discoverer, Anderson, has travelled Ovampo, on the
west coast of Africa, south of Benguela, in the direction of the
Cunene River. y

On the east and south coast of Africa, two English officers, Capt.
Burton and Lieut. Speke, have found and measured a great lake,
between 3 deg. 30 min. and 8 deg. 40 min. south latitude — not to be
confounded with lakes Nyassa and Ukerewe, so much talked of in
late years. Until this discovery, there was ground for belief ina
ereat central sea in Africa, stretching from 12 deg. south latitude to
the Equator ; but this discovery is conclusive that the great bodies of
water which have hitherto been discovered at widely distant points
are separate lakes.

The French missionary, Leo des Avanchers, is travelling through
the country which lies to the eastward of this great lake. The Ger-
man traveller, Albert Roscher, has gone in the same direction, having
left Zanzibar with the hope of penetrating far into the interior.

Pedro de Gamitto, governor of the Portuguese forts Tete and Sena,
on the Zambeze, is making preparations for new explorations in Cena-
tral Africa, of which he has already given such interesting descriptions
in his book “ Muata Cazembe.”

Messaga, the Sardinian missionary, is now exploring the interior
of Abyssinia ; so, also, is Bayssiere.

The Upper Nile is the object of untirmg exploration. It would
be strange if, before the end of this century, its whole course were
not as well known as is now that of the Thames, the Seine, or the
Rhine.

Mr. McCarthy, son of the geographer, has it in contemplation to
travel on a new track to Timbuctoo from Algiers, where he has lived
these eight years. According to his plan, he will pass through Lag-
hoult and Goleah, then make a circuit to the east to get out of the
way of a tribe of Arabs who have been bejugeled by a new prophet,
and then continue his journey by Ghadames, Ghat, and Lake Tsad.

Other travellers, also, such as Capt. Magnan, Baron Kraft, and
Yussufben Gallabi, are bent on discovery, starting from Algiers, or
other northern points. Asia, too, is being explored by many travel-
lers; but as yet we have few details of their discoveries. Kriel has
been sent by the Vienna Academy into Asiatic Turkey. Rey is
exploring some hitherto neglected portions of Syria and Palestine.

A Russian scientific expedition is engaged in the exploration of
Chorasan, while a detachment of the French troops in Indo-China is
escorting a scientific corps through that country. Many other savants
have received missions from the Ministry of Public Instruction, or.
from the Paris Museum. Beside this, the Catholic and Protestant
missionaries are coming more and more to consider it a part of their

xX NOTES BY THE EDITOR.

duty to send homie precise and comprehensive ethnographic and geo-
graphic intelligence of the countries through which they travel.

M. Hochstetter, the naturalist of the recent Austrian Scientific
Exploration Expedition, declares, as the result of his observations, that
the abundance cf the remains of extinct primitive animals found in
Australia is most ‘astonishing. While Australia has always been
considered the newest continent, he has met there with the most
ancient and primitive forms in Flora and Fauna, proving Australia to
be the oldest continent of the earth. While Europe had to go
through several earth revolutions, Australia’s continent, since the
primeval period, has not been covered with the sea, and has devel-
oped itself undisturbedly. He also states, that he has found in New
Zealand organic remains, which make him conclude that these islands
are of a much more ancient date than has been hitherto supposed.

Among the recent publications of the Smithsonian Institution, is a
new and revised edition of “ Directions for Meteorological Observa-
tions.” In addition to the directions given in the first edition, there
have been added instructions for noting periodical phenomena, earth-
quakes, auroras, etc., and special remarks suggested by the experience
of previous years. This publication farms an octavo pamphlet of
seventy pages, and is now, perhaps, the most convenient and com-
plete work for the purpose to be found in the English language.

COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
WILL RECEIVE ATTENTION IF ADDRESSED TO THE EDITOR, CARE OF
Goutp & LINCOLN, 59 WASHINGTON STREET, Boston, MASS.

THE

ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS.

THE GREAT EASTERN.

Tue Great Eastern, steamship, the principle of whose construction and
history has been given in previous numbers of the Annual of Scientific Dis-
covery, has, during the past year, been fully completed. The following de-
tailed descriptions of her machinery and fittings are necessary to complete
the record:

The motive agents of the Great Eastern are paddle-wheels and a screw.

Paddle - Wheels. — The paddle-wheels are fifty-six feet in diameter, and
their weight is one hundred and eighty-five tons. Provision has been made,
when the ship is deeply laden, for reefing — that is, drawing in the floats —
ten feet, although, as every float would have to be treated separately, it is
not likely it will be made much use of. The floats are thirteen feet by three
feet, and thirty in number to each wheel. The wheels are connected to the
engines by friction-straps, so that they can be disconnected at any time, if
it should be necessary to use the screw by itself. The forgings connected
with the paddle-wheels are of the following weights and dimensions: Two
paddle-cranks, each seven feet between the centres, and weighing, when
forged, eleven and a half tons; when finished, ready for putting on to the
shafts, seven tons four hundred. The paddle-shafts, each thirty-eight feet
long, and weighing thirty tons. We have next the large, intermediate
crank-shaft; its depth of throw is five feet one inch; thickness, two feet
nine inches; greatest diameter, two feet seven inches; length over all,
twenty-one and a half feet; weight, thirty-one tons. The two friction-
straps, for disconnecting paddles, are each ten feet inside diameter, and
fifteen inches thick; and the weight of each is nine tons twelve hundred
weight.

22 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Paddle - Wheel Engines. — The engines for the paddle-wheels, which were
designed and built by Mr. Scott Russell, are oscillating engines, of the fol-
lowing dimensions:

Nominal horse power, 5 2 6 - c - - : 1000.
Number of cylinders, . - 2 - ; : : : “ 4
Diameter of each cylinder, - : - . A - : 74 in.
Length of stroke, . : 5 : : - : : pee EST
Strokes per minute, : : “ - : - - - 14

The weight of one of the cylinders, including piston and piston-rod, is
thirty-eight tons. Each pair of cylinders, with its crank, condenser, and
air-pump, forms in itself a complete and separate engine, and each of the
four cylinders is constructed so as to permit instant disconnection, if re-
quired, from the other three; so that the whole form a combination of four
engines, complete in themselves, whether worked together or separately.
The two cranks are connected by a friction-clutch, so that the two pairs of
engines can be connected or disconnected at a moment’s warning, and by a
single movement of the hand. The engines are provided with expansion-
valves, throttle-valves and governors, all constructed on the most improved
principles, and arranged for working in the most efficient manner. The
combined paddle-engines will work up to an indicator-power of three thou-
sand horses of thirty-three thousand pounds when working eleven strokes
per minute, with steam in the boiler at fifteen pounds upon the inch, and
the expansion-valve cutting off at one-third of the stroke. But all the parts
of the engines are so constructed and proportioned, that they will work
safely and smoothly at eight strokes per minute, with the steam at twenty-
five pounds, and full on without expansion (beyond what is unavoidably
effected by the slides), or at sixteen strokes per minute, with the steam in
the boiler at twenty-five pounds, and the expansion-valve cutting off at
one-fourth of the stroke. Under these last-named circumstances, the pad-
dle-engines alone will give a power of about five thousand horses.

Paddle-Engine Boilers.— There are four boilers for the paddle-engine,
seventeen feet nine inches long, seventeen feet six inches wide, and thirteen
feet nine inches high, each weighing about fifty tons, and containing forty
tons of water. They are tubular boilers, manufactured of wrought plate-
iron, with brass tubes of three inches diameter. There are ten furnaces in
each boiler, five on either side, and two boilers in each boiler room. Each
boiler room is supplied with air by four ventilators or shafts, seven fect
long by five feet wide, which go up to the upper deck, where they are grated
over, and up two of them there are gangways, one to eaeh stoke-hole.
These paddle-boilers are in two distinct sets, and each set is equal to supply,
with steady, moderate firing, steam for an indicator of one thousand eight
hundred horse power; though, with full firing, each set of two gives steam to
the amount of two thousand five hundred horse power, or five thousand
horse power in ali.

The Screw-Propeller.— The screw-propeller, which is twenty-four feet in
diameter, and ferty-four feet pitch, is by far the largest ever made. Lis
four fans, which were cast separately, and afterwards fitted into a large cast-
iron boss, have been compared to the blade-bones of some huge animal of
the pre-Adamite world. The weight of the screw is thirty-six tons. The
propeller-shaft, destined to move the screw itself, is one hundred and sixty
feet in length, and weighs sixty tons. The after-length of this shaft, forty-

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 2a

seven feet long and weighing thirty-five tons, was made at the Laceficld
forge. This portion of the shaft, the heaviest piece of wrought iron in the
ship, was manufactured this enormous length in order that the junction of
it with the remaining portions should not interfere with the floor of the after-
cabins. The other lengths of the propeller-shaft, consisting of different
pieces, each twenty-five feet long and sixteen tons weight, were made in
London for Messrs. James Watt & Co., the builders of the screw-engines.

The Screw-Engines. — The screw-engines, designed and built by Messrs.
Watt & Co., are horizontal direct-acting engines of —

Nominal horse power, - : 3 - - - = : 1600
Number of cylinders, . ; * = : < ; 2 4
Diameter of each cylinder, ‘ , : 3 : ; ‘ 84 in.
Length of stroke, . . 5 ; : , 4 ft.
Number of revolutions per minute, : : : : . 50

They are the largest ever made for marine purposes; and, as is the case
with the paddle cylinders, each of the four is in itself a complete and sepa-
rate engine, capable of working quite independently of the other three.
The combined screw-engines work up to an indicator-power of four thou-
sand five hundred horses of thirty-three thousand pounds, when working at
forty-five strokes a minute, with steam in the boiler at fifteen pounds, and
the expansion-valve cutting off at one-third of the stroke. They are, how-.
ever, made to work smoothly, either at forty strokes per minute, with steam
at twenty-five pounds, without expansion, or at fifty-five strokes a minute,
with the expansion cutting off at one-fourth of the stroke. Under these
circumstances, they will be working at the tremendous power of six thou-
sand five hundred horses. -

Screw-Engine Boilers. — The boilers for these engines are similar to those
for the paddle-engines, but a trifle larger and heavier. They are ten in
number, and the whole are so arranged that all or any of them can be used
with either set of engines. The weight of the screw-engines and boilers is
one thousand five hundred tons. To communicate between the different
stoke-holes and engine rooms, there are two perfectly water-tight tubes, six
feet high and four feet wide, running through the ship, the openings into
which can be closed by water-tight doors. Through one of them the va-
rious steam-pipes go, and the other is used-as a passage for the engineers
and stokers. There are ten donkey-engines to pump water into the boilers,
and two auxiliary high-pressure engines of seventy horse power, working
with forty pounds; but these, as with the other auxiliary engines, are made
to work at sixty pounds. Both these, besides having to do all kinds of odd
jobs about the ship, such as work the capstans, attend to the drainage and
water supply of the ship, etc., are connected with the screw-shaft abaft the
ordinary disconnecting apparatus, so as to enable them to drive the screw, ir
necessary, when disconnected from its main engine. It will thus be seen
that the paddle and screw engines, when working together at their highest
power, will exert an effective force of not less than eleven thousand five
hundred horse power.

Phe Coal Bunkers. —The coal bunkers are on either side, above and be-
tween the boilers, and are capable of containing about twelve thousand tons
of coal. The distance to Port Philip, Australia, is nearly twelve thousand
miles, which, at the rate of eighteen miles per hour, would take thirty days

24 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

to accomplish. The estimated consumption of coal per day of twenty-four
hours is about one hundred and eighty tons. Therefore, some five thousand
tons would be consumed in the outward voyage.

The Masts, Rigging, etc. — A writer observes that, “We all know, even on
a calm day, what a wind meets the face looking out of a railway train going
at that pace; and, consequently, it can be understood that sails, except on
extraordinary occasions, would act rather as an impediment than as an as-
sistance to the ship’s progress. It is not probable, therefore, that they will
be much resorted to, except for the purpose of steadying or of helping to
steer her.”’ In case, however, of a strong wind arising, going more than
twenty-five miles an hour in the direction of her course, she will be pro-
vided with six masts, five of them iron, the after-mast wood. The first,
fifth, and sixth, are two feet nine inches in diameter; the second, third, and
fourth, are three feet six inches The second and third carry square sails,
and all carry fore-and-aft sails. The standing rigging is seven and a half
inch wire rope, except for the sixth mast, which is hemp rope. There is
not to be a particle of iron about this mast, for it is intended to carry a com-
pass on it. The quantity of canvas that can be set is about six thousand
five hundred square yards.

The Great Eastern is to carry no bowsprit, and no sprit-sail. The writer
quoted above suggests that “‘the reason for this departure from the ordinary
rig is to avoid her ploughing too deeply in the sea. Her bow is also without
a figure-head; and this peculiarity, together with her simple rig, gives her
the appearance of a child’s toy boat. If beauty is nothing more than fit-
ness, this form of bow is undoubtedly the most beautiful.”

The ship is fitted with Brown’s patent capstans, and they are so arranged
that they can be worked either by hand or steam. There are three forward
and two aft. The bower chains are two inches and seven-eighths in diam-
eter; each link weighs seventy-two pounds, and each cable will be one hnn-
dred and twenty fathoms long. The four large bower anchors are seven
tons’ weight each, Trotman’s patent. In addition to these, there are two
smaller anchors at the bows, each weighing five and a half tons, and two
at the stern, each weighing six tons. The bower anchors of the largest
man-of-war weigh five tons. There are six hawse-holes forward, and four aft.

The anchors, with their accessories, would alone form the cargo of a good-
sized ship. These, together with their stocks, weigh upwards of fifty tons.
If we add to this, ninety-eight tons for her cight hundred fathoms of chain
cable, and one hundred tons for her capstans and warps, we shall have a
total weight of something like two hundred and fifty tons of material dedi-
cated to the sole purpose of making fast the ship.

The rudder-post and frame, which were forged in one piece by the Lance-
ficld Company, are of the following weights and dimensions: The post is
eighteen inches diameter at journal, and the weight is twelve and a half
tons; the upper part of the post is five tons additional, and the rudder-band
and cover are four and a half tons; the total length of the rudder is sixty-
“two feet, and the total weight is twenty-two tons.

Accommodations for Passengers, Cargo, etc. — The Great Easiern is de-
signed to carry eight hundred first-class, two thousand second-class, and
one thousand two hundred third-class passengers, independently of the
ship’s complement, making a total of four thousand guests. For the ac-
commodation of these, whole streets and squares of apartments have been
constructed. The first thing that arrests the attention, on descending into

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 25

the saloons, is the handsome and roomy entrances and the spacious stairs,
so unlike the cramped-up companion and stair-way so often found on board
ship. The first-class saloons and sleeping cabins are in the fore part of the
centre of the vessel, the second class abaft them, and the third class still
further aft, which arrangement is the reverse of that generally adopted.
The largest saloon is nearly one hundred feet long, thirty-six feet wide, and
thirteen feet high. Above it are two other saloons, one above sixty feet
long, and a smaller one, about twenty-four feet long; both are twenty-five
feet wide and twelve feet high; the smaller of the two is for a ladies’
cabin. The sleeping cabins are about fourteen feet long by seven or
eight feet wide, by seven feet four inches high,— quite large rooms; each
room is ventilated by two brass scuttles of fourteen inches in diameter.
There are, besides these, six other saloons, with their different sleeping
cabins, all of the same height as those we have described, and nearly as
large. The total length thus occupied by the cabins is three hundred and
ten feet. 5

The separate compartments into which the hotels for the accommodation
of passengers are divided, are as distinct from each other as so many differ-
ent houses; each has its splendid saloons, its bed-rooms or cabins, its
kitchen and its bar; and the passengers are no more able to walk from
the one to the other than the inhabitants of one house can communicate
through the parti-walls with their next-door neighbors. The only process
by which visiting can be carried on, is by means of the upper deck, or main
thoroughfare of the ship. The saloons, together with the sleeping apart-
ment, extending over three hundred and fifty feet, are located in the middle
instead-of extreme aft, according to the usual arrangement. The advan-
tage of this disposition of the hotel department must be evident to all those
who have been to sea, and know the advantage of a snug berth, as near as
possible to the centre of the ship, where its transverse and longitudinal axes
meet, and where, of course, there is no motion at all. The passengers are
placed immediately above the boilers and engines; but the latter are com-
pletely shut off from the living freight by a strongly arched roof of iron,
above which, and below the lowest iron deck, the coals are stowed, and pre-
vent all sound and vibration from penetrating to the inhabitants in the
upper stories.

There are two large holds, devoted exclusively to cargo, one at each end
of the cabins. They are both sixty feet long, and are the whole depth and
breadth of the ship; each is capable of holding one thousand tons of cargo.
The total quantity of space appropriated to cargo will be regulated entireiy
by circumstances. It would be quite easy to stow six thousand tons in the
hold and various other unappropriated places. The crew and officers are
berthed forward. The captain has a splendid suite of rooms, within easy
distance of the paddle-boxes.

The Great Eastern has twenty ports on the lower deck, each five feet
Square, to receive railway wagons. She has also sixty ports on each side,
two feet six inches square, for ventilation, and an abundance of dead-lights.
The lower ports are sixteen feet above the water when the ship is loaded.
The bulwarks are nine feet six inches high forward, and slope down to
above five feet high amidships and aft. The massive wrought-iron deck is
covered with teak planking, placed about six inches distance from the iron.»
The weight of the whole ship when voyaging, with every contemplated article
and person on board, is estimated at not less than twenty-five thousand tons.

3

26 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

WINANS’ STEAMER.*

The inventor of this curious vessel has, since her first construction, in-
creased her length and sharpness, until she is now 244 feet long, and abso-
lutely pointed at both ends. Her breadth of beam, or diameter (for she is
perfectly round), is the same as at first —16 feet. The greater length and
sharpness have augmented the speed, and have increased the cleanness of her
movement, until improvement on the latter point seems hardly possible.
The objects which Mr. Winans seeks to accomplish in this form, are precisely
those which the projectors of the Great Eastern hope to attain in that form,
to wit, avoidance of motion, and capacity for uninterrupted application of
the motive power, by which great average speed will be obtained. The
Winans steamer is designed to go through the waves, thus avoiding the toss-
ing which the vast proportions of the Great Eastern are intended to remedy;
and her propelling wheel, being midship, and of the full size of the vessel,
must always be one-half submerged, and therefore in a condition to receive
the full working power of the engines. If she rolls upon either side, or
plunges through a wave, her propeller can never be /ess (though often much
more) than half submerged, —its ordinary condition in smooth water.

A correspondent of the Portland Argus, thus describes an experimental
trip in this vessel, down the Potomac, a distance of seventeen miles and back.
“The time occupied in this trip of 34 miles, was just 2} hours from the time
the fastenings were cast off from the wharf until she was again at her moor-
ings, and we upon ¢ferra firma. The performance of this marine locomotive
(for such it may appropriately be styled) was admirable. When she started,
her steam was not up, and, for a mile or two, she moved rather slowly
through the smooth water, scarcely appearing to disturb its surface, or to
give any indication, by jar or sound, that there was a steam-engine on board.
But the revolutions of the propelling wheel gradually became quicker, and
her speed greater, until it reached the rate of about 16 miles an hour. Still
there was scarcely any perceptible jar from the machinery, so perfectly was
it adjusted, and the disturbance of the water by the passage of the vessel
was marvellously slight. So clean, indeed, was her movement, that a skiff
would scarcely have felt any agitation in crossing her wake.”

BISHOP’S FLOATING “BOOM DERRICK.”

This derrick, the invention of Albert D. Bishop, of New York, has been
for some time before the American public, but has only recently been intro-
duced into England. During the past year, however, a single machine has
been exhibited on the Thames, at London, which is reported capable of lift-
ing a thousand tons at a pull. Its construction is thus described by a corre-
spondent of the NV. Y. Times:

The machine consists, first, of a flat-bottomed boat of 257 feet in length,
and 90 feet beam, or about the length of an ordinary steamship, and 12 feet
broader than the Great Eastern. The depth is 14 feet, the draft of water is
only 4 feet, the bow and stern are sharp, the ground-plan is rhomboidal, and
resembles a compositor’s type-case, being divided into 87 water-tight depart-
ments, 14 feet square, extending from the bottom to thedeck. The whole of
this structure is of heavy boiler-iron. Bulwarks, some 7 feet high, surround

* See Annual of Sctentifie Discovery, 1859, p. 47.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 27

the deck. In the centre of the deck, lengthwise, and near one side of the
vessel, is erected a pier, at the top of which is a boom extending over the
water on the side where the weight is to be lifted, and over the deck on the
other side. The pier and boom resemble a cross, and constitute the derrick
proper. A wrought-iron arched truss, of 65 tons weight, passes from stem to fe
stern; two trusses of 50 tons each cross the deck diagonally, and two more im-
mense trusses pass under the legs of the derrick. The object of them all is to
distribute the weight of the derrick and its load equally over the whole deck,
and to enable the vessel to resist the leverage of the derrick. The pier is
composed of three wrought-iron legs, forming a tripod, each 80 feet high,
and weighing, together, 65 tons. They are surmounted by a horizontal plate,
or disk, near the edge of which is a trough filled with cannon balls. A sim-
ilar plate rests on the balls. On the top plate lies the boom. The balls be-
tween the plates are simply rollers, so that the boom can swing round like a
crane. To illustrate its action, place a row of marbies all round a dinner-
plate, in the groove or depression near its edge; put another plate, bottom up-
wards, on the top of the marbles; the top plate can then be revolved around
its own centre with very slight friction, under a great weight. The boom, or
cross, is a girder of wrought iron, 120 feet long, projecting 60 feet each way
from the pier, and weighs 80 tons. Surmounting the boom is a king-post, or
cylinder of wrought iron, 60 feet high, 7 feet in diameter, and weighing 60
tons. From its top to the ends of the boom extend massive iron cables. The
end of the boom over the deck is fastened directly to the deck by cables
when mere lifting and no swinging is required. But when weights are to be
transferred from the sea to the deck, or thence to the dock, these cables from
the boom are fastened to a car which runs on the underside of a circular rail-
way extending round and fastened to the legs of the tripod or pier. As the
boom swings, the car rolls with it. Suspended in a row from the other end
of the boom are 10 sets of gigantic, iron four-fold pulleys. The chain cables
working in them pass along the boom over fixed rollers down to the deck,
and under similar rollers along the deck, to their ten respective “‘ crabs,”
which stand in a row on the side opposite to the derrick, and by which they
are hauled in. All or a part of the pulleys or lifters may be worked at once,
as circumstances require. The crab is a massive frame, holding a windlass
consisting of a shaft attachable by a clutch to the main shaft from the en-
gine, and two other shafts so geared to the first that they move more slowly.
The two last shafts are simply grooved rollers, a foot in diameter, standing
say four feet apart. The pulley-chain passes around the pair of rollers (not
each roller separately) several times, and thence into the hold below, but is
not fastened to the rollers. The chain has such great friction on the rollers
that it will either raise the weight, stop the engine, or break,— it cannot slip.
If the ordinary windlass were used, it would have to be of immense diameter
to hold several hundred feet of chain, while, if the chain were to wind upon
it in two or more layers, it would jerk, bind, and give trouble generally. The
two rollers revolve with and upon the periphery of the wheel which drives
them, so that their rolling friction is reduced to the minimum. Altogether,
these crabs are extremely well designed and adapted. In the middle of the
vessel, and attached to the shaft moving all the crabs, are two oscillating
steam engines of thirty-horse power, each with Barran’s cup-surface boilers,
the latter being under the deck. ;
“So far,we have a tractive power of 1000 tons on the 10 sets of pulleys.
But suppose them to be attached to a sunken ship of that weight. After a

28 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

few hundred tons had been exerted, our huge derrick, vessel and all, would
begin to careen, and would ultimately pull itself over upon its beam-ends,
the sunken ship sticking in the mud as before. Here comes in the chief fea-
ture of the improvement. The entire hull, as we have seen, is a honey-
comb of water-tight compartments, — those on the side opposite the derrick
being capable of holding 1700 tons of water. Two pair of steam pumps,
of two feet stroke above each, capable of throwing 60 tons a minute, fill up
these compartments from the sea, as fast as the strain on the pulleys increases,
so that the sunken vessel on one side, and the water-cells on the other, just
balance each, and the empty compartments under the derrick hold the whole
mass afloat. The entire draft of water in this case will be only nine feet.
The pumps also throw out the water as the strain decreases. One of their
most useful offices will be to free stranded ships.

How to propel this great craft was not a simple question. There not being
draft enough for either screws or paddles, an old device was rejuvenated,
viz.: On each side two skeleton drums, resembling two paddle-wheels, were
placed, one near the bow, and the other near the stern. Over these pass
endless chains, on which are secured the floats or paddle-boards, some twen-
ty-four being immersed at atime. So the vessel crawls like a centipede at
the rate of seven knots an hour. The four propelling engines are of eighty
horse power each, and are entirely under the deck. It is evident that this
craft cannot be easily wrecked, for its width will prevent its capsizing; and,
although seas may sweep its deck, they cannot break through nor strain it,
for the entire hull is a girder of almost immeasurable strength. Should it
collide and fill half its compartments, the rest will keep it afloat.

It having been impossible to secure a large vessel near London, on which
the giant could try its hand, its only experiment has been the lifting of a
couple of smaller ones. Six of the puileys were secured by chains, forming
a cradle, under an old brig of 300 tons, weighing some 270 tons, and draw-
ing some ten feet of water. In fourteen minutes it was raised about twenty
feet in the air; the engines making ninety-four revolutions per minute. A
small iron steamboat, weighing sixty tons, was then run underneath, and at-
tached to the suspended brig. The engines being again started, both vessels
were raised high in the air, presenting a singular spectacle never before wit-
nessed. The derrick sank but thirteen inches under this increased body of
335 tons. This is, perhaps, the greatest weight ever raised at a dead pull. The
machinery is so arranged as to be quickly and easily handled by a few men,
and the entire demonstration on this occasion was satisfactory.

The method of raising a sunken ship would be as follows: The derrick be-
ing on one side of the ship, an accompanying steamer takes out two chains,
and, dropping them so wide apart as to embrace both stem and stern of the
sunken ship, returns them to the derrick. A new instrument here comes into
use. It is a bar of iron five feet long, with large holes in both ends, and a
pear-shaped mass of iron, weighing a ton and a half, suspended from the
middle. Both chains having been passed through one of these “divers,” at
one side of the sunken ship, and through another at the other side, both
divers are dropped to the bottom, and tend to draw together, and hold the
chains under the ship. By hoisting more on one chain than on the other,
one end of the ship may be raised a little, and the sticking of the mud thus
overcome by a great leverage. When one end is raised, the other chains are
similarly slipped under, without the aid of living divers, till they form a cra-
dle under the ship, which is then lifted bodily, the pressure of the water of

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 29

course assisting, till it reaches the surface. It is then either pumped ont,
careened, made tight and set afloat, or held up and towed into ten or twelve
feet of water, or if it weigh less than 1000 tons, is deposited on the doék.

The measurement of the great derrick is 5000 tons. Its cost was $250,000
—equal to that of a first-class Sound or North River steamer.

The steamer Ericsson, of 2200 tons, which, it will be remembered, sunk off
the Jersey coast some years since, was lifted to the surface of the water by a
derrick of only 300 tons capacity. But the great derrick, with a capacity of
j000 tons, will raise to the surface the largest ship ever sunk, pump it out at
the rate of 60 tons of water a minute, and hold it fast till it is either put into
floating condition, or stripped of its valuables. All it requires is a good hold,
and this it can get, deeper than divers ever sounded. As to ordinary vessels
of 260 or 400 tons, whose actual weight would be within the capacity of
the great lifter, it would simply pick them up from the bottom, carry them
ashore, and land them high and dry on the dock.

EXPERIMENTS WITH SCREW-PROPELLERS.

A series of experiments with screw-propellers has recently been made
in England, with a view merely of testing the relative qualities of the com-
mon screw with Griffith’s propeller. The common screw used by the British
Admiralty, consists of a sixth part of the whole helix; Griffith’s propeller
has a spherical central base, one-third the diameter of the screw, with the
blades made tapering. The driving surface of the former is at the extreme
ends of the blades; that of the latter lies towards the centre, nearest the
sphere.

The first trial was with a common screw, which had a diameter of 18 feet;
the speed obtained was 11°823 knots per hour. On a second trial, with its
diameter increased to 20 feet, the speed was 11°826 knots; but there was a
great increase of vibration. The leading corner of each blade was now cut
off, and on the third trial, with this change, a speed of 12°032 knots was ob-
tained. Both corners of the blades were now cut off, and a fourth trial made;
but even with a greater number of revolutions, less speed — 12'012 knots —
was secured. The highest speed was therefore achieved with the leading
corner of the screw cut off. With a Griffith’s propeller of 20 feet diameter,
and 32 feet pitch, the first trial gave 11:°981 knots per hour; on a second
trial, with an alteration of pitch to 26 feet 5 inches, a speed of 12°269 knots
was the result; on a third trial, with a still further reduced pitch, and 433
revolutions per minute, there was much less vibration than on former trials,
but the speed was only 12°158 knots.

It was found during these trials that the leading edge of the screw is the
part which affects the steering of a vessel most, and causes the greater part
of the vibratory action. It was also demoastrated that an increased diam-
eter of the common screw was better than an increased pitch to reduce the
speed of the engines, with an augmented speed in the vessel; but it had the
effect of promoting the vibration, which is an evil to be avoided, if possible.
By increasing the diameter of the Griffith’s propeller, additional vibration
was not experienced, because its chief acting surface is not at the extremities
of the blades. These experiments seem to have established the fact, that a
propeller having a sphere at its central portion, combined with tapering
weed gives better results with less power than the common screw-pro- .
peiler.

3%

30 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

DUTY OF STEAMSHIPS.

.

A committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science —
of which Mr. Fairbairn was chairman — appointed to consider the above
subject, at the meeting for 1858, recommends that all the owners of steam-
ships adopt means to register their efficiency. The rule which they lay
down for testing vessels, is, to multiply the cube of the speed by the square
root of the cube of the displacement, and divide the product by the con-
sumption of fuel per hour in hundred-weights. Thus, if a steamer, A, per-
formed a voyage of 7200 miles in 652 hours, on an average speed of 11°04
knots, and the consumption of coal was 47 cwts. per hour, and the mean
displacement 2934 tons,—the coéfficient of dynamic duty indicating the
merits of the performance would be —

(11-04)3 X (2984)2 —- 47 = 5870.

Suppose another steamer, B, having a displacement of 840 tons, average
speed 12°78 knots per hour, consumption of coal 50°3 ewts., then the coéffi-
cient of duty is—

- (12°78)3 x (840)3 — 50°3 = 3698.

In the first case, A performs as much work with 1 ecwt. of coal as B with
1 1-16th ewts. It is only by computing the amount of coal used, with the dis-
placement of the vessel and its speed, that we can arrive at any data regard-
ing the efficiency of steamers. The cause of superiority in one vessel may
be in its form, or the machinery; but, whatever it may be, there is no possi-
bility of finding this out, unless the displacement, speed, and coal consumed,
are known. A series of statistics of the performances of steamers under
such a test, would lead to a close investigation as to the causes of superiority
in one over another, and the result would be a general adoption of those
improvements by which the advantages were secured. At present there are
steamers which do the same duty as others with one-fourth less fuel; but no
person can really tell whether this is owing to their models, or machinery,
or some other cause.

WIARD'S PATENT ICE-BOAT.

This is a steamboat on runners, intended to navigate the Northeim rivers ©
and lakes in winter, when closed with ice of sufficient thickness to support
its weight with safety. It is constructed with a water-tight hull, so that in
case it should break through the ice, or come to open places in the river, it
will float on the water without harm to itself, cargo, or passengers. We
copy the following from a pamphlet on the subject, written by the inventor:

“Tt is safe to say that not less than twenty-two thousand miles 6f ice-road
are embraced within the limits of the United States and Territories. In
addition to this immense field, there are still others in the British Provinces
and the north of Europe. By means of the ice-boat, remote regions of our
country, shut out in winter, will be brought into constant connection with the
cities of Chicago, St. Lonis, Washington, New York, and Boston.

“Tn the winter of 1858-9, I constructed, at Prairie-du-Chien, my first ice-
boat. It was my intention to have it completed in time to make a trial of its
speed upon the ice of the Mississippi River, between Prairie-du-Chien and
St. Paul, in the spring of 1859; but in this I was disappointed, by the reason
of the breaking up of the ice in that river a month earlier than usual. The

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. el

boat, however, was completed, and is seventy feet in length, twelve feet in
width, and when resting upon the water, loaded, displaces about one foot in
depth of water. Its upper part is similar to a railroad car, and is warmed by
steam. It will accommodate one hundred passengers. It is propelled by an
engine acting on a single driving-wheel. Adhesion is given to the wheel by
means of penetrating or sharp flanges. Its velocity is controlled by a steam-
brake. The runners are so adjusted that it may be made to run through
snow five feet deep. The cabin of the boat is twelve by forty feet, and I
estimate its weight, when loaded with passengers and freight, at twelve tons.
It is my firm conviction that its ordinary speed will be from twenty to forty
miles, and on clear, solid ice, its speed may be increased to from forty to
eighty.”

THE NAPOLEON DOCKS AT CHERBOURG, FRANCE.

The naval works at Cherbourg, France, recently.completed by the French
Government, after having been in the process of construction for seventy
years, at a cost of $15,000,000, are of the most gigantic description. In gen-
eral terms, the breakwater may be described as presenting a mass of rubble
stone, having a slope, from the bed of the sea to the level, of nearly 22 feet
below high-water line of spring tides, towards the roads, in the ratio of one
of base to one in height (1to 1). Thetop of the mass then has a much more
gentle inclination; for, in the width of 19} feet, its inner summit attains the
level of 153 feet below high-water line, and there it stops against a wall,
almost vertical, rising 7 feet above the same high-water line, or datum. There
is a level platform at this height, of 20} feet wide on the eastern arm, and 21
feet wide on the western arm; and beyond it there is a solid masonry para-
pet (about 5 feet high, and rather more than 8 feet wide) towards the sea.
The outer line of this parapet is, in fact, in the continuation of the sea face
of the wall, and the latter has been built of coarse and dressed masonry,
laid with the greatest care, and composed of the very best materials, upon a
general bed of hydraulic concrete, 5 feet thick, laid over the loose rubble
hearting. The bottom of the concrete is about 29 feet below datum. Be-
yond the edge of the masonry which protects the foot of the vertical wall,
the top of the rubble hearting of the breakwater has assumed a slope of 1 in
10 towards the open sea, under the influence of storms. This slope contin-
ues until the top line has descended to 47 feet below datum, and thence it
continues to the bottom, at the rate of 14 to 1.

The small materials used in the hearting of the breakwater are naturally
exposed to be displaced by storms. Of late, however, a very effectual mode
of protecting the sea slope has been adopted, consisting of huge artificial
blocks, cubing not less than 26 yards, placed upon those portions of the
breakwater which are most exposed to the effects of the sea. These blocks
are composed of rubble masonry and of Portland cement mortar.

Returning, however, to the consideration of the general plan of these
offensive and defensive works, we find that there is, at the apex of the angle
formed by the meeting of the two branches of the breakwater, a large cen-
tral fort, having a total development of about 509 feet, measured on the
inner line of the parapet, which forms a very flat semi-ellipse. _ Behind this
battery there is to be raised an elliptical central tower, measuring 225 fect on
the major, and 123 feet on the minor axis. A casemated fort, of about 190
feet front, is to be formed on the western or longer branch, and two large
circular forts are placed at the extremities of the breakwater, — that of the

o2 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

eastern end being 100 feet in diameter, and that of the western end about 133
feet in diameter.

The military port of Cherbourg consists of an outer harbor, 7762 fect long,
by 662 feet wide, with a minimum depth of water of 584 feet. The channel
at the entrance is 206 feet wide at the narrowest point, and is usually 530 feet
wide. The cost of this outer harbor was estimated at nearly £680,000. Be-
yond it, and communicating with it by means of a lock of about 130 feet
long, and 58 feet 7 inches wide, is a floating basin 957 feet long by 712 feet 9
inches wide. There are on the opposite side of the outer harbor to this float-
ing basin, four fine covered building-slips for 120-gun ships, and a graying
dock close by a caisson, besides some uncovered slips for building smaller
classes of ships. The building-slips for vessels of the line are 383 feet long,
by 78 feet 8 inches wide. The graving-dock is 245 feet long, by about 78 feet
wide, with a depth of water over the sill of about 27 feet 6 inches.

The inner floating harbor has been inaugurated. It is parallel to the first
floating basin, and will communicate both with the outer harbor and the
basin. It is about 2788 feet long by about 1312 feet wide, and is entirely
excavated out of the solid rock,—a member of the transition series, ex-
tremely hard and tough. All round this marvellous sheet of water is a series
of graving-docks and building-slips, of remarkable beauty, so far as we may
judge of them by their present state, at least; and immediately beyond the
quays are the various magazines, storehouses, sail-lofts, shops, etc., which,
when complete, will render Cherbourg cne of the most complete arsenals in
Europe.

THE VICTORIA (ST. LAWRENCE) TUBULAR BRIDGE.

The present year will witness the completion of, perhaps, -the greatest
engineering work of our time, viz., that of the great bridge across the river
St. Lawrence, of which the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits proves
to have been but the precursor, as to Americans it will hereafter seem but as
the shadow. The enterprise has been carried out under the auspices, and as
a part of the “Grand Trunk Railway,” which forms the connecting link
between Montreal and the United States. In order that this road might be
kept open in winter, a bridge across the St. Lawrence, near Montreal, was
absolutely necessary; but the difficulties of crossing the river at this point
seemed at first almost insuperable. Its width, even at the most available
point is very formidable; its current is very rapid, its depth not insignificant.
Besides this, the navigation of the river, not merely by steamboats and other
vessels, but by enormous timber rafts, had to be provided for; so that un-
usual elevation, and unusual width between the piers, were both required.
There was another obstacle, more formidable — far more formidable — than
all. In the winter season, the St. Lawrence presents a field of ice from
three to five feet thick. Whilst it is thus frozen, the river rises sometimes as
much as twenty feet above its summer level. This rise of water might be
provided for; but how was accident to be avoided, at the annually recurring
period when the breaking up of the ice, with almost resistless power, sweeps
almost every obstacle before it?

Could any bridge be devised to withstand these formidable difficulties? If
possible, how was such a bridge to be constructed? The Directors of the
Grand Trunk Railway, to whom these questions were so vitally important,
took a course which will probably be thought to redound greatly to their

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. Se

enterprise and sagacity: they determined to take the opinion of the most
eminent engineer whose advice and counsel they could obtain.

The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Straits was opened in 1849, and it
was not, therefore, unnatural that, in 1852, the directors should look to Mr.
Robert Stephenson, as the engineer most competent to advise them. Mr.
‘Stephenson considered the subject of so much interest and importance, that
he determined to ge out to Canada, personally, for the purpose of dealing
with it. He accordingly repaired there, at the end of the summer of 1853,
and, after examining into the facts, made a public declaration of his épinion,
that a bridge across the St. Lawrence was practicable. On the 2d of May
following, Mr. Stephenson addressed to the Grand Trunk Railway Directors
a report, in which he considered the whole question in three branches: first,
as to the description of bridge best calculated to prove efficient and perma-
nent; second, as to the proper site; and thirdly, as to the necessity for such
a structure. Upon the first point, he did not hesitate at once to recommend
the adoption of a tubular bridge, as the description of bridge best fitted for
a permanent, safe, and substantial structure, in such a situation; on the
second point, he was not a little influenced by considerations affecting the
flow of the river, and “ those almost irresistible forces”? consequent upon
the breaking up of the ice in spring.

Mr. Stephenson, on his arrival in Canada, met with numerous alarmists,
who could graphically describe to him the effect of the ice, but he met with
no one who had in any way measured or calculated the amount of its pres-
sure. In considering the question whether a bridge could be constructed to
withstand that pressure, it appeared to Mr. Stephenson to be of primary
importance to ascertain really and precisely what that pressure was. This
Was a question of calculation; though, in the absence of any data, the
difficulty was how to calculate it. And here, before the reader proceeds fur-
ther, he may, perhaps, not without advantage, pause for a moment to ponder
on the way to solve the problem, What is the amount of the pressure
of ice four or five feet thick, in a running stream of a certain inclination,
velocity, and breadth ?

This problem puzzled Mr. Stephenson himself at first; but it was not long
before he hit on an expedient. He first got at the inclination of the river;
next atits velocity. He then assumed that the ice upon that river was what
they told him it usually was, from four to five feet thick. He then inquired
into the condition of the river, and he found that, about nine miles above
Montreal, there was_a fall called the Fall of Lachine, which, of course, sepa-
rated the body of ice above the fall from the body of ice below it. Taking
these data, he calculated what would be the pressure of nine miles of ice,
from four to five feet thick, lying on a plane of a given inclination, and
pressing against the piers of a bridge across the channel. The result of that
calculation in figures it would be unnecessary, even if it were possible, to
state; but, whatever were the figures, they enabled Mr. Stephenson at once
to realize one all-important fact. He arrived at the conclusion that ‘the
almost irresistible force” of this mass of ice would crush or sweep away any
ordinary bridge, and that all the suggestions previously made for encounter-
ing the difficulty were only likely to result in disaster if carried into effect.

For, up to the period of Mr. Stephenson’s report, great difference of opin-
ion existed in Canada and elsewhere, as to the probable effect of the ice
pressure. One party held that no bridge whatever could stand against it;
another, whilst admitting the difficulty to be formidable, thought timber

*

34 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

casings or fenders, such as those in use on the small rivers of Norway and
elsewhere, would be an efficient protection for the piers. The proposal most
forcibly impressed on Mr. Stephenson was to protect his piers by what is
called a “‘ erib-work;” that is to say, by large masses of timber in front of
the piers, crossed and weighted, and as thick, or thicker, than the ice itself.
It was evident from the first, that this extensive crib-work must be an addi-
tional obstacle and impediment to the free navigation of the river, and to
the passage of the ice. But, beyond this, Mr. Stephenson’s calculations con-
vinced him that such a work would be entirely inadequate to protect such a
structure as he contemplated, in such a river as the River St. Lawrence; and
that, even if the crib-work stood, it would be subject to such abrasion and
wear and tear, from its conflicts with the ice, that it would require to be rein-
stated at least every two or three years. It was more than doubtful, to his
mind, if such an arrangement would be capable of resisting the ice at all;
and if it did not, the capital of the company would be wasted. Mr. Stephen-
son, therefore, at once determined that such a work was undesirable; and
that such enormous stakes as those at issue could not be left dependent upon
the uncertainty of such an expedient.

The abstract methods he had taken to ascertain if any bridge would with-
stand the almost irresistible pressure of the ice, had not alone convinced Mr.
Stephenson that no such projects would avail as those proposed in Canada.
They had equally satisfied his mind as to the amount of resistance requisite
to encounter the pressure against which it was needful to provide. Know-
ing what timber would not resist, he equally knew what resistance could be
afforded by substantial masonry. “‘ Cribs” he felt were useless; but there
were methods by which the pressure could be resisted, independently of
“cribs.”’ Mr. Stephenson decided on the adoption of stone piers, to carry
the tubes at wide intervals, each pier having, on the side opposed to the
course of the stream, large cut-waters of solid stone work, inclined against
the current, up which, as it were, the ice would creep, and break itself to
pieces by its own weight and pressure. He arranged that these wedge-
shaped cut-waters should present angles to the ice sufficient to separate and
fracture it as it rose up upon the piers, but at the same time so obtuse as not
to be liable themselves to fracture. These piers, therefore, were devised to
answer the double purpose of piers and ice-breakers. They exhibit, as now
constructed, every indication of massiveness and power to resist pressure, as
well as of stability to support the superstructure. Experience, indeed, has
proved the piers suited for all the purposes for which they were designed.
During the four years the structure has been in progress, it has entirely ful-
filled all the conditions its originator anticipated; and it has withstood, in
the most satisfactory manner, the most violent pressures which have followed
the break-up of the ice.

Whilst the piers of this bridge are thus peculiar in their design, in order to
meet the peculiar circumstances of the country and the climate of Canada,
the superstructure is an elongated repetition only of the design for the Bri-
tannia Bridge. The Victoria Bridge is indeed remarkable for its extreme
length, but its several tubes are not so long as those of the Britannia Bridge,
and are only otherwise distinguishable, inasmuch as that they are the longest
tubes yet constructed without the adaptation of the cellular principle. It
deserves notice, however, that these tubes, in all their details, were designed,
plate by plate and rivet by rivet, in the office of Mr. Stephenson, and were
calculated for every strength and strain, and prepared and arranged in all

La

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 39

their details, under the sole superintendence and supervision of his relative,
Mr. G. R. Stephenson. With such nicefy were all the arrangements respect-
ing these plates conducted, that, under the directions of that gentleman,
every plate and piece of iron was punched in England before it was sent out
to Canada; and elaborate and detailed drawings and instr uctions were sent
by the same hand, to show the method of connection. On the arrival, there-
fore, of each separate cargo of iron in Canada, little remained to those upon
the spot but to fasten together the various pieces, and place them in their
order and position as directed.

The Victoria Bridge, with its approaches, is only about 60 yards short of
two miles, being five and one-half times longer than the Britannia Bridge
across the Menai Straits. The bridge proper consists of 24 spans of 242
feet each, and one in the centre of the river, —itself an immense bridge
of 330 feet. The spans are approached by a causeway, on each side of the
river, each terminating in an abutment of solid masonry, 240 feet long, and
90 feet wide. The causeway from the north bank is 1400 feet long, and that
from the south bank 700 feet. The iron tubes, within which the road runs,
are 60 feet above the high-water level of the St. Lawrence, and the total
weight of iron in the tubes is upwards of 100,000 tons.

ON THE SEWERAGE OF LONDON.

London has justly boasted of being the best-drained city in the world, and
pointed to her two thousand miles of subterranean passages, through which
the sewage of two millions of inhabitants flowed to the sea, as a prouder
~ wonder than the labyrinth of Crete. The object of all London drainage up
to the present time, however, has been to make the Thames the great main
sewer of the metropolis;—all the sewers of the e¢ity, on both sides of the
river, running due north and south, and. all discharging into the Thames
within a distance of about six miles. Most of the sewers, moreover, owing
to their low level, are so completely tide-locked, that it is only at dead low
water that they can empty themselves at all, and thus for twelve hours this
sewage of both sides of London is pent up, and gives off its miasma,
through an elaborate system of drains, into every street and house. But as
the sewage can only escape at dead low water, the rotening tide in the es
churns it up and down, keeping all its abominable “ flotsam ” and ‘ ‘jetsam ”’
opposite the city, until the tide turns, when it runs out, and is replaced by a
quantum of some two million gallons of fresh filth, to be operated on ina
similar manner. The consequence is, that the Thames itself has been con-
verted into a mere open sewer of the worst kind.

This evil has been greatly increased by the very perfection to which the
drainage of the city has been carried of late years. Within the last ten
years, seven or eight hundred miles of drains have been built to remove the
mischief of private cess-pools, attached to almost every house, and which
had grown into a nuisance of the most flagrant character. But this accuracy
of cleanliness for each house only aggravated the horrors of the river, inas-
much as it increased the amount of sewerage to the extent of two hundred
thousand gallons daily, containing three hundred tons, at least, of organic
matter, which in this case is the Sane term for filth of the most loath-
some description.

About three years ago, the waters of the Thames, which had gradually
been getting more and more full-flavored, began to give off a stench so dread- *

36 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ful, that precautionary measures had at once to be adopted to mitigate the
immediate danger; and,.as a palliative, an immense amount of lime and
chloride of lime was put in daily. During the past summer (1859) this
treatment had to be increased, and no less than one hundred and ten tons
of lime, and twelve tons of chloride of lime, were thrown into the-river
daily, at a cost of £1500 per week; an expenditure which it is calculated must
be doubled next year, and so on until the evil is overcome. A sum of
£20,000, moreover, was also expended during the past summer in flushing
the sewers, to aid in the discharge of their contents in times of extreme lojw
water.

The magnitude and importance of this growing evil have at last compelled
the attention of Parliament, and measures have been adopted to put an end
to it forever.

The great difficulty has been to decide on the most feasible method of
doing the work, the necessity of which was denied by nobody. Finally,
however, the plan of Mr. Bazalgette, the Chief Engineer of the Board of
Works, has been adopted, and is already in progress. It is on a scale ade-
quate to the Augean labor undertaken. It consists of three gigantic main
tunnels, at different levels, which intercept the existing sewers at right
angles, thus receiving all their contents formerly empted into the river, and
conveying them, parallel with the banks of the river, about eight miles to
Barking, where an immense reservoir is to be prepared to receive them.
This reservoir is to be a mile anda half long, by about one hundred feet
wide and twenty-one feet deep, capable of containing no less than seven
million cubic feet, or double the average of eight hours’ accumulation of
sewage. The object of the narrowness of the reservoir, compared with its
length, is to admit of its being bricked over with arches, and covered with
earth, so as to prevent the escape of foul gases. During the time the sewage
is in this reservoir it is to be deodorized, and experiments are now going on
to ascertain the best method of doing this. At high tide the contents of the
reservoir will be emptied into the river by immense outfall pipes extending
to the middle and bottom of its bed, sixty feet below the surface. It is be-
lieved that with these precautions, the sewage, after deodorization, being
poured into so vast a body of water, at so great a depth, will cease to be any.
longer an agent of mischief.

These works are now going on with great rapidity, and in the most thor-
ough and profuse manner. The estimated time for their completion is five
years, and the expense £4,000,000 ($20,000,000). At the point where the sev-
eral sewers unite, the whole are enclosed in a single tunnel of the most mas-
sive description, powerful outer haunches or buttresses supporting the tube
outside, while the whole is inclosed in what may be almost termed an em-
bankment of concrete. More than two thousand men are at present em-
ployed on the work, and the whole will require about forty million bricks,
and many thousand tons of mortar, to complete it. So vast is the undertak-
ing, and so colossal are its proportions, that but for its having an important
and most beneficial purpose in view, it would almost remind the spectator of
the gigantic and meaningless works which the Egyptians seem to have cre-
ated, apparently only to excite the astonishment of after ages.

fHE ORDNANCE SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

The National Survey of Great Britain is based upon a system of triangu-
lation extending over the whole country. The distances between the trigo-

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 37

nometrical sections are derived from the measured base-line on Salisbury
Plain, and on the north shore of Lough Foyle, in the north of Ireland. This
most important branch of the work has been executed with the greatest
accuracy — the difference between the measured lengths of the bases of veri-
fication and their computed lengths not exceeding two and one-half inches
in seven miles. The average length of the sides of the triangles in the
principal triangulation is about sixty miles, but many of the sides exceed
one hundred miles in length. The primary triangulation is next broken up
into smaller triangles, the sides of which are from five to ten miles in length,
and this secondary is again broken into triangles, the sides of which are
about one mile long, to form the tertiary or minor triangulation. The men
employed to make the detailed survey, then, actually measure the length of
each side of the minor triangles on the ground, noting in their “ field-books ”
every fence, stream, or other object they may cross; they then measure
cross lines from one side of the triangle to the other, and, by taking offsets
from the measured lines to every object on the face of the country, they ob-
tain in their field-books the data for plotting accurate plans upon any scale
which may be required. The length of every measured side of a triangle,
therefore, is checked by the computed trigonometrical distance, and the accu-
racy of the lines within each triangle is checked by the plotting, and thus no
errors can escape detection. By this method perfect accuracy is obtained,
not only in every part of the detail of the survey, but every object is in its
correct relative position to every other object, however distant. The levels
engraved on the plans are all given in relation to one datum level,— that for
Great Britain being the level of mean-tide at Liverpool.

The scales which have been adopted for the plans are as follows: Town
maps, 60 inches to the mile, or 1-500 of the actual linear measure; parishes,
25°334 inches to a mile, or 1-2500 of the actual measurement ; counties, 6
inches to the mile; and the general map of the kingdom, 1 inch to the mile.
The parish plans are engraved upon zinc, and the remaining plans on cop-
per. Zincography is now generally adopted, instead of lithography, on ac-
count of the facility of handling zinc plates, rather than lithographic stones,
which are necessarily heavy, and are constantly liable to be broken. The
reduction of the scale of the one-inch plans from those of larger size, is done
by means of photography. The collodion process is employed for the pur-
pose of taking the negative copy. The lens of the camera used is a single
achromatic meniscus, three and one-half inches in diameter, with a principal
focal length of twenty-four inches. The plan to be reduced is attached to a
board, which can be adjusted by a screw to any height that may be required,
and turns upon acentre pivot. The camera is placed opposite to it ona
table which runs upon wheels upon a small tramway laid down on the floor
of the photographic room, and the required scale of the reduction is obtained
by tracing on the ground glass of the camera a rectangle corresponding on
the reduced scale to the rectangle of the plan to be reduced. The curvature
of the image, and the indistinctness of outline from spherical aberration, are
both remedied by reducing the diaphragm in front of the lens to a small
aperture. From the negative thus obtained on glass, as many positive copies
on paper as are required are then taken in the usual way. The introduction
of this method has greatly lessened the cost of reducing the plans, and also
saves an immense quantity of time and labor. The six-inch map is en-
graved in sheets three feet by two feet, the sheets of each county being made
to fit together by the marginal lines, so as to form, if required, a single plan.

oe

38 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

A considerable saving in the cost of engraving the Ordnance Maps is effected
by using steel punches to cut the woods, figures, rocks, etc., on the copper
plates; the work is thus done much more quickly than by hand, and boys
are employed at it in the place of skilled engravers. A portion of the writ-
ing, also, on the copper plates, is engraved by machine (Becker’s patent),
and the parks and sands are ruled by a machine with a steel dotting-wheel,
the pressure of the wheel and the interval between the dots being regulated
according to the tint required to be produced. The ink used in the copper-
plate printing consists of Frankfort black with a mixture of Prussian blue,
ground with burnt oil in a mill constructed at the Ordnance Map Office, at
Southampton, for the purpose. After printing, the impressions are first
dried between millboards, and are then placed between glazeboards, and
pressed in an hydraulic press, after which they are ready to issue. — London
Times. ?

RAILROAD AXLES AND THE FORCES THEY HAVE TO RESIST.

From a Prussian journal for architects and civil engineers, we derive the
following report of a series of experiments, made by Superintendent Woehler,
of one of the largest railroad lines in Prussia, with different axles, and under
different circumstances.

The forces which act on these axles may be divided into two classes, one
class containing those forces which tend to effect a flexion or bending of the
axle, and the other containing those which effect a torsion or twisting of the
same. Two simple and ingenious apparatuses were attached to the axles,
which, by means of steel points acting against zinc plates, indicated, after
each trip, the degree of flexion and the respective torsion of the axle.

With the experiments on the flexion of the axles, it was necessary to as-
certain that force which, when applied to the circumference of the wheel,
corresponds to the flexion indicated by the steel point of the apparatus on
the dial-plate. For this purpose two dynamometers are attached, one to each
wheel and near to its circumference, and the two wheels are forced towards
each other, until the apparatus on the axle indicates the same degree of flec-
tion which has been indicated by the steel point during the trip. It must,
however, be remarked, that the apparatus, as it revolves with the axles, causes
the index to deflect in opposite directions, producing a deflection twice as large
as that produced with equal power by means of the dynamometer. The ap-
paratus was so constructed that, during the motion of the train, one inch
deflection of the index was equal to a side motion of the circumference of
the wheel of 3-16 of an inch, or to a deflection of 3-32 from its normal position.
The side-draught, which has to be applied to the circumference of the wheel
in order to produce the same flection of the axle, or a one-sided deflection of
the index of a half inch, is equal to 234 ewt. for axles of 3f inches diameter
in the hubs, and for wheels of 364 inches diameter. For axles of 5 inches
diameter in the hub, and with wheels of 363 inches, the side-draught was
found to be 703 cwt.

With the experiments on torsion the apparatus was so constructed that,
with axles of 33 inches, one inch deflection of the index corresponds to a
‘motion of 0°321 inches on the circumference of a wheel of 363 inches, which
is also the double amount of the real deflection of each point of the cireum-
ference from its normal position. Each inch of deflection of the index,
therefore, corresponds to an angle of torsion of 30 minutes. To produce

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 39

this amount of torsion, a power equal to 18? cwt. had to be applied to the
circumference of the wheel. With axles of five inches diameter, the angle
of torsion corresponding to one inch deflection of the index, was found to
be 21 minutes, which required a power of 44 cwt. applied on the circumfer-
ence of the wheels of 367 inches diameter.

Experiments have been made with cars running on six and four wheels, and
the results were collected in tables giving the number of miles travelled over
by the cars, the weight of the cars with their respective loads, and the largest
deflection of the indexes of both the apparatuses for flection and for torsion.

With axles of 33 inch diameter, made of cast steel, and running under cars
with four wheels, and with a weight of 117°6 cwt. on each axle, the largest
deflection of the index by flection was 3 1-16 inch, which is equal to a side-
draught of 72 cwt. The tension of the extreme fibres of the axle in this
case is equal to 252 cwt. per square inch, and the deflection of the wheel
from its normal position is equal to 0°287 inches. The average deflection of
the index, with covered cars running on four wheels, however, was found
to be from 2; to 23 inches, requiring a side-draught of from 54 5-6 to 623 ewt.

The largest deflection of the apparatus for torsion, in the same case, was
found to be 1 7-12 inches, which is equal to a power of 29 11-16 ewt. on the
circumference of the wheel, producing a tension of the extreme fibres equal
to 52 cewt. per square inch. The average deflection in this case was 1 1-12
inches, which is equal to a power of 20; cwt. on the circumference of the
wheels.

If the two largest forces on flection and torsion act simultaneously, the ex-
treme fibres of the axle sustain a power equal to the square root of 352? + 522,
which leaves 257 cwt. per square inch. This shows that the torsion increases
but very slightly the tension of the extreme fibres produced by the flection
of the axles.

Such a power would be amply sufficient to produce a considerable bend
with wrought-iron axles, where the limit of elasticity is approached by a
tension of the extreme fibres equal to 180 cwt. to the square inch.

With axles of five inches diameter, and a load of 153-15 ewt. per axle, the
largest deflection produced by flection was 1 15-32 inches, which is equal to a
deflection of the circumference of the wheel from its normal position of 9-64
inches, and which requires a side-draught of 102 35-64 ewt. The tension of
the extreme fibres in this case is equal to 156 ewt. per square inch.

The largest torsion was produced with a load of 164-25 ewt. per axle. The
deflection of the index was equal to 1-16 inch, which requires a power of 462
cwt. on the circumference of the wheel, and the tension of the extreme fibres
is equal to 35 ewt. per square inch.

If an axle is calculated to run 200,000 miles, and the eee deflection takes
place once in every ten miles, it (the axle) will break if it cannot be bent
20,000 times to this deflection from its normal position. In order to ascertain,
therefore, the largest load which an axle it able to carry with safety, it is
necessary to ascertain how far, and how often, the axle can be bent.

Careful experiments made in this respect show that the maximum load of
a five-inch wrought-iron axle ought not to exceed 155 ewt.; that of a 44-inch
axle, 113 cwt.; that of a 4-inch axle, 79 ewt.; and that of a 32-inch axle,

70 cwt.
&

SUGGESTIONS RESPECTING RAILWAY SUPERSTRUCTURE.

The following excellent remarks on railroad constr uction, by John C. Traut- *
wine, C. E. of Philadelphia, are from the Journal of the Franklin Institute:

40 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

“T would suggest to superintendents of railroads now in operation, the
trial of a few rods in length of superstructure with string-pieces, and two sets
of cross-ties. First place in the ballast-ties six by eight inches, two anda
half feet apart from centre to centre; upon these place longitudinal sills, also
six by eight inches; lastly, upon the latter place the smaller cross-ties sup-
porting the rail, about three by six inches, and two or two and a half feet
apart from centre to centre; the bottom of the longitudinals being about an
inch above the ballast. The bottom of the string-piece is supposed to be
elevated about an inch above the ballast. It appears to me that the elasticity
insured to the rail, throughout its entire length, by the arrangement, will be
found to diminish, to a very great extent, the destructive pounding action which
the engines exert upon the rails of all the superstructures now in use. Experi-
ence would soon point out the proper dimensions, and distances apart, of the
timbers to be employed for engines of any given weight, in order to insure
the requisite degree of elasticity, which evidently admits of being varied to
any extent which may be found desirable. The increased quantity of timber
involved in this proposed plan, is an evident objection to it; but experience
only can indicate whether the attendant advantages which it possesses may
not more than counterbalance this objection, together with any others to
which it may be liable. Besides the greater presumed durability of the rail,
from the fact that no portion of it rests on a rigid support, we should secure a
much more efficient rail-joint, inasmuch as the joints would rest upon the
upper cross-ties, instead of between the ties, as in the present preferred prac-
tice; thus combining increased strength of joint with greater uniformity of
elasticity. We also should elevate the rail more beyond the influence of
snow. Moreover, should this expedient enable us to obtain that certain. (un-
certain?) amount of elasticity of rail which all engineers concede to be so
important a desideratum, it will doubtless lead to the adoption of more effi-
cient supports for the lower cross-ties themselves,—supports which may extend
below the influence of rain and frost, and thus effect a very important reduc-
tion of expense for rectification of the track, besides dispensing with the use
of ballast. The greatest objection in the employment of such supports,
hitherto, has been the increased rigidity of track attendant on them, and by
which the destruction of the railis greatly accelerated. But if we can devise
a means of modifying or entirely annulling this rigidity in the rail by a pro-
cess entirely independent of the foundation on which the rail rests, then this
objection vanishes; and the way seems to open for arriving at a much more
perfect superstructure than has hitherto been used.

“T hope that the subject may be regarded by some of our intelligent super-
intendents as being of sufficient interest to induce them to make a trial of it,
if only for a few lengths of rail.”

GARDINER’S COMPOUND CAR WHEEL AND AXLE.

The invention consists of a compound axle of three parts, and a compound
wheel of six parts. The journal part of the axle is about sixteen inches
long, of sufficient length for the bearing, and passes to the centre of the hub
of the wheel; the other part is of sufficient length to reach from centre to
center of the hubs, constituting the main or middle part of the axle. Itis
joined to each end by the short axles, and so coupled together inside of the
hub as to render it as strong as the solid axle. The wheel is pressed on the
short axle in the ordinary way, giving the result of a loose and tight wheel

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 41

on the same end of the axle, —so that, while running on a straight line, the
wheels and axle revolve together in the ordinary manner; but, upon striking
a curve, they act independently, adjusting themselves, whatever the radius
may be, without causing the least tension on the axle. The short parts of
the axle can be made of cast steel with advantage—the difference in co8t
being more than equalled by its superior durability — the steel axle lasting
four or five times as long as one made of wrought iron. As there is no twist
on the main axle, it will last for many years, the short ones only wanting to
be renewed. In this way, the cost of axles for a term of years will be re-
duced nearly fifty per cent., to say nothing of the prevention of accidents, now
so frequent from the breakage of axles. An important feature is, that the
axle can be as well made from old axles, which have been worn out at the
journals, and can be applied to an ordinary cast wheel, or to the improved
wheel described as follows: The side-plates and tire are made of wrought iron;
the hub is of cast iron, and consists of three parts—a centre and two side
pieces. The side-plates will outlast several tires, which can be renewed when-
ever they wear out. The whole wheel can be made at a little over half the
cost of the ordinary wrought-iron wheel, and will save over three-quarters of
a ton on the weight of an eight-wheeled car. — American Railway Review.

IMPROVEMENT IN HORSE RAILROADS.

The Cincinnati Gazette notes a new kind of rail on exhibition in that city,
adapted to street railroads. It is designed to dispense entirely with wooden
cross-ties, and can be put down at much less expense than the ordinary way.
The rails are joined together, and made continuous by means of a splice-
wedge inserted in cleets about ten inches long, cast with the rail. Trenches
are opened in the pavement, eighteen inches wide, and from eight to twenty
inches deep, the bottom compacted by the use of a rammer, and the rail put
in. At the ends and in the middle of each rail, a block or plank, about ten
inches surface, is laid crosswise of the track; the gravel is then replaced, and
the pavement closed in. The weight of the rail is from eighty to one hun-
dred pounds per yard, and the cost per mile, when laid, from $6000 to $8000.

ON AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF AXLE-BOXES AND COUPLING-
RODS FOR LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES.

The following paper was read before the Institution of Mechanical Engi-
neers, London, by Mr. W. A. Fairbairn: This construction of axle-box has
for its object the introduction of an elastic cushion or spring of vulcanized
india-rubber between the axle-boxes and framing of locomotive engines, for
the purpose of allowing the wheels to accommodate themselves to curved
portions of the railway, and thus diminish the wear on the flanges of the
wheels and on the faces of the axle-boxes. The india-rubber spring is placed
in recesses formed in the jaws of the horn plates upon each side of the axle-
box, and a metal plate, with a smooth, case-hardened surface, is interposed,
upon which the axle-box slides vertically with the inequalities of the road.
The force of the spring action of the india-rubber is made sufficient to keep
the axles of the wheels at right angles to the straight portions of the rail-
way, but to yield to the friction of the rails upon the wheels in curved por-
tions, and by this means to allow the axles to assume such a position as will
place the wheels at a tangent to the curve. The elasticity of the india-rub->

4*

42 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ber serves also to keep the axle-boxes at all times in close contact with the
faces of the horn blocks, so as to secure a good fit, and obviate the necessity
for that constant lining which they ordinarily require, in consequence of the
wearing away of the working faces.

* That the leading and trailing wheels may have still further flexibility of
adjustment, a small play is permitted to the axle-box laterally, in the direc-
tion of the axle, by making the recesses in the axle-box, which receive the
face-plates, wider than the plates themselves by Z inch. But to keep the
axle-boxes in position in straight portions of the road, these plates are made
wedge-shaped in plan, so that the elastic pressure of the india-rubber on the
face-plates restores the axle-boxes to their central position, whenever the
pressure on the flanges of the wheel is relieved. The inclination of the
wedge is made such that 4 inch movement of the axle-box laterally, in
either direction, cgmpresses the india-rubber 4 inch.

The india-rubber is employed in the form of rings or washers +2 inch
thick; and it is found convenient, in order to maintain an accurate fit be-
tween the working surfaces of the axle-boxes, that these washers, when in
position, should be compressed +5 inch, which is equivalent to a pressure of
about one ton on each side of the axle-box, tending to maintain the contact
of the working surfaces. With this pressure, the axle-boxes slide more
freely on the case-hardened surface of the plates, than in the usual construc-
tion; whilst the motion which permits the wheels to accommodate them-
selves to the curvature of the road does not in the least increase the oscilla-
tion of the engine, and prevents the excessive wear of the shoulders of the
journals and the flanges of the wheels, which are such fertile causes of
unsteadiness in ordinary engines.

In the case of the driving-wheels of the engine, it is not advisable to allow
so much play to the axle-boxes; and hence, while the admirable fit between
the working surfaces obtained by the above arrangement renders its employ-
ment advantageous, it is modified in this case by the use of a band of india-
rubber, 123 by 23 inches, and 2 inch thick, covered by a wrought-iron plate,
case-hardencd as before, but not wedge-shaped, since in this case all lateral
play is to be avoided. A longitudinal play of =/5 inch only is allowed on
each side, between the case-hardened plate and the horn-blocks, to permit
the action of the india-rubber spring, which is compressed in this case, so as
to exert an initial pressure of about fifteen tons on each side of the axle-
box, to resist the action of the force driving the engine. Notwithstanding
this large pressure on the working faces of the box, it is found, in practice,
to fall readily with the weight of the wheel itself. In the case of the driving-
wheel, the advantage derived by this construction does not consist in the
adjustment given to the wheels, but in the perfect fit at all times maintained
between the sliding surfaces; the elasticity of the india-rubber also forms an
elastic cushion to receive the shocks of the machinery. A small strip of
leather prevents the oil from gaining admission to the india-rubber. The
perfect freedom of motion, the small wear of the axle-box, in consequence of
the case-hardening of the slides, the ease with which the engine passes curves,
and the diminished wear of the wheel-flanges, are important advantages,
which have been derived, in practice, from this construction of axle-box.

A similar application of an india-rubber spring to the outside coupling-rods
of an engine had also been made. In this construction of rods, the use of
cotters for tightening the brasses was dispensed with, by employing a sct-
screw at the end of the rod, secured by a lock-nut from risk of working
loose.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 45

Mr. W. Fairbairn showed a specimen of the india-rubber lining from an
axle-box that had run 17,000 miles in a locomotive engine; also, a model of
the axle-box fitted up with india-rubber, and a specimen of one of the con-
necting-rod ends. He stated that it was requisite to take great care to keep
oil away from the india-rubber: as in one trial, the india-rubber had lasted
only a month, from neglect of this precaution; but, when properly protected
from oil, its durability was found to be very great. A cap was now fixed
over the india-rubber, as a more complete protection for this purpose. These
axle-boxes and connecting-rods were working in several locomotives on the
Chester and Birkinhead Railway, and they were found to be now as good
and perfect as when first put in, thongh some had run as much as 17,000
miles; they were considered quite satisfactory, and the result of the axle-
boxes was an improvement in reducing the wear of the wheel-flanges.
The connecting-rods were screwed up at the ends, insteadeof being cottered,
as in the usual manner; and this mode of construction he considered an
improvement as regarded convenience and security from accident. — New-
ton’s Journal, Feb, 1859; Jour. Franklin Institute, April 1859.

LOUGHRIDGE PATENT BRAKE.

The construction of this new railway brake is described by the Scientific
American as follows: Alongside the throttle-lever there is a bent lever
which communicates with a ten-inch friction-wheel, and presses it against
the flange of the rear driver, at will. This causes it (the friction-wheel) and
its shaft to revolve, and a chain attached to the brakes throughout the train
is wound on the shaft. On the shaft is a ratchet-wheel with a pawl, so that
as the chain is wound to any given strain, it is kept in place. In connec-
tion with it is a weighing-beam, by means of which the power may be grad-
uated on the brakes to suit the condition of the rails. A weight sliding on
the notched weighing-beam gives more or less power as it is slipped from or
to the fulcrum, and, once gauged, the engineer cannot put more power on the
brakes if he wished, or should not wish, to; but he can apply any degree
less than the fixed maximum down to zero. The beam is fixed so that the
engineer cannot slip the wheels, nor break the chain, but can get what power
he wishes up to the slipping-point. And this is all that is requisite; for if
the wheels are slipped, the retarding power is lessened rather than increased.
To loose brakes, a small lever is pulled, and the pawl being thrown out of
the ratchet, the chain is suffered to unwind. The great beauty of the con-
trivance is the weighing-beam; for if the power were not gauged, the engi-
neer, by braking up too suddenly, would snap any chain that might be
used. To relieve the enormous shock which comes upon the pawl as it is
thrown into the ratchet, the inventor has attached to its end a long gun
spring, which effectually absorbs the sudden strain. The lever once thrown
back, the ratchet and pawl below hold the brakes in place, so that the engi-
neer need only put on the required power, and may then give his attention
to the working of his engine. Coming to a station, the speed of the train
may be so controlied that the reverse gear need never be used. The cost of
applying the brake to an engine is $75; to an ordinary car, but $30.

ON BOILER-PLATE JOINTS.

_In the discussion of boiler-plate joints, Mr. Clark demonstrates that the
bursting strain on the longitudinal seams of cylindrical boilers is double the

44 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

strain on the circular seams. This is an important practical distinction, be-
cause it is clear that, to insure uniform working strength, the longitudinal
seams must be doubly fortified; and, in the consideration of the means of
soldering, four distinct kinds of riveted joints are compared, and their rela-
tive strengths determined from actual trials. Welded joints are likewise
discussed, and should the reported results of their capabilities to resist burst-
ing strains be corroborated by advanced experience, they promise to super-
sede riveting, if not entirely, at all events for the principal joints. In the
order of tensile strength the joints are ranged thus:

1. Scarf-welded joint, - é 100 \
2. Double-riveted double- mele ine 4 A 80 per cent.

8. Double-riveted lap-joint, “ : : 72 a

4. Lap-welded joint, : : : 66 ee

5. Double-riveted single-welt sake - - 65 es

6. Single-riveted lap-joint, . : “ : GO macs

In this comparative statement the strength of the entire plate is repre-
sented by 100; and the trials were made with plates varying from 2 to }
inch in thickness. The relative strength of single and double-riveted joints
do not very materially differ from those deduced by Mr. Fairbairn. — London
Artisan, Dec. 1858.

ON THE USE OF SUPERHEATED STEAM.

At a recent meeting of the Society of Mechanical Engineers, London, the
President, Mr. Power, stated that, as the result of extensive experimentation,
he had arrived at the conclusion that an advantage can be derived from the
use of superheated steam, amounting to an economy of fuel of from twenty
to thirty per cent. in marine engines, and that a moderate extent of super-
heating enables all the important advantages of the plan to be obtained.
By so doing, there is nothing objectionable involved from extra tear and
wear, complication of apparatus, or difficulty in lubrication. The real ad-
vantage in superheating the steam appeared to be in preventing the presence
of water in the cylinder of the engine, thus insuring pure steam to work the
piston, making it a real steam-engine, and not a working mixture of water
and steam. In all condensing engines, the interior of the cylinder being
open to the condenser during half the time of each revolution, the tempera-
ture of the cylinder is reduced to about 125°. When the steam is therefore
admitted for the next stroke at a temperature of 260° Fah., it is robbed of
considerable heat, and a quantity of water is thereby formed in the cylinder.
A portion of this water may be evaporated again towards the end of the
stroke by carrying the expansion down to a low pressure, but its effective
value is lost during all the previous portion of the stroke. If, therefore, as
much heat is added to common steam by superheating it before entering the
cylinder as will supply the amount which is usually abstracted from it, not
a drop of water is formed during the whole stroke; it remains dry steam to
the end. The addition of 100° of heat to the temperature of steam insured
the desired object with steam at twenty pounds pressure on the square inch,
as used in marine engines.

THE UNIT OF HEAT.

Professor Rankine, at the late meeting of the Institution of Engineers of
Scotland, observed: ‘I am happy to recognize evidence that the true princi-

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. Ad

ples of the Mechanical Action of Heat, founded on the idea that heat is not
a substance, but a form of energy, are making their way amongst practical
men, and are being usefully applied by them. As a means of facilitating
that progress, by putting the expression of those principles into a shape
more familiar to practical engineers than their present form, it was recently
suggested by Mr. Stephenson, that, instead of the Unit of Heat commonly
employed in scientific treatises, — viz., so much heat as one pound of water
requires in order to raise its temperature by one degree, — quantities of heat
should be expressed in terms of a unit which practical men oftener have
occasion to think of —viz., so much heat as one pound of water at 212° of
Fahrenheit requires, in order to convert it into steam, at the same tempera-
ture; or what is commonly called ‘the latent heat of one pound of steam
at 212° of Fahrenheit ;’ being, in fact, the unit of heat now commonly em-
ployed in comparing the effects of different kinds of fuel and different forms
of furnace. This suggestion of Mr. Stephenson appears to be well worthy
of consideration and discussion. The following is a comparison of different
units of quantity of heat, British and French, reduced to their equivalents in
units of mechanical energy, as a common standard of comparison, based on
the experiments of Joule:

BRITISH UNITS. Equivalent energy in
foot-pounds.
One degree of Fahrenheit’s scale in a pound of water, . . : 772
One degree of the Centigrade scale in a pound of water, - a) dss,
Latent heat of one pound of atmospheric steam, . - A . 745750
FRENCH UNITS. Equivalent energy in
~ kilogrammetres.

One degree of the Centigrade scale in a kilogramme of water, . 4287
Latent heat of one kilogramme of atmospheric steam, . - - 22780
One kilogrammetre = 7:25314 foot-pounds. :
One foot-pound = 0 138253 kilogrammetres.”

TRY-COCK FOR STEAM-BOILERS.

This invention combines in one steam-boiler try-cock, all the advantages
secured from three or more try-cocks of the present construction. Its nov-
elty lies in the use of a straight hollow tube, inserted in the end of the
boiler, and arranged to move up and down on a hollow axis; said axis com-
municating with the passage of the tube, and with the passage of a try-
cock. The tube has a pointer on its outer end, and opposite the same a dial
or under plate is placed. A spring holds the under end of the tube down,
and thus keeps the inner end above the level of the water in the boiler. By
this arrangement, by simply elevating the outer end of the tube and open-
ing the cock, the same end will be brought down into the water, and the
height of the water indicated; for as soon as the tube enters the water, the
latter will be squirted through the tube, and escape at the try-cock. As soon
as this occurs, the engineer casts his eye to the dial, and ascertains the
height of the water in the boiler. The inventor of this device is James
Cummings, of Boston, Mass. — Scientific American.

COALS AND FURNACES — BURNING SMOKE.

It has long been a most desirable object, in burning bituminous coals, to
consume all the smoke; and in England a law has been passed for the pur-°

46 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

pose of compelling all the owners of factories to use furnaces for the pre-
vention of this smoke evil. In 1855 a prize of £500 ($2500) was offered by
the Colliers’ Association of Newcastle, and was contended for in December
1857, for the best method of burning bituminous coals in furnaces of mul-
titubular boilers without smoke. On that occasion, the prize was awarded
to C. W. Williams, of Liverpool, he having produced the best furnace and
system of feeding the fuel to it. The report of the judges on the trials has
but recently been published, and from it we obtain information which is of
the utmost importance to consumers of bituminous coal.

It has been demonstrated, to the satisfaction of the most able engineers
on the other side of the Atlantic, that bituminous coals can be burned in
furnaces without producing smoke; and this by a very simple construction
and arrangement of the furnace doors, and the method of feeding the coal.
The whole system consists in having the furnace doors made with double
plates, the inside one situated a few inches apart from the outside, so as to
form a small chamber between them. The front and back plates are per-
forated with holes, or slits, and the air is heated as it passes through into the
fire. The small holes deliver the air to the fuel in minute currents, and the
fresh coals are fed to the fire by being laid right behind the door, the red
coals being pushed forward every time the fresh are fed in. This arrange-
ment of furnace doors, and the method of feeding, entirely prevents smoke,
upon well-known principles. When fresh bituminous coal is thrown upon a
red-hot fire, the more volatile part passes off as smoke; were this supplied
with fresh air, and made to pass over a red-hot fire, it would ignite and be
consumed. The air which passes through the holes in the furnace door,
mixes with the volatile products of the fresh coal, and these are ignited as
they flow over the fire on their way to the flue tubes. Of course, air is also
admitted in the usual manner under the furnace bars, which should be half
an inch thick at the top, and very thin at the bottom, and an air space of
three-eighths of an inch left between them; such furnaces are made a little
longer in front than the common kind; no other alteration is necessary,
excepting perforating the door.

With furnaces so constructed, one foot of grate surface has evaporated
four cubic feet of water per hour, from 60° Fahrenheit, which is double the
amount usually obtained; and the economy of fuel has been over twenty-
five per cent. With such furnaces, 11.30 lbs. of water have been evapor-
ated with one pound of coal, and owing to the fresh coal being always
placed close to the door, the heat in the fire-room is but low, while the
doors are kept cool, and thus they last much longer. In employing bitumin-
ous coal in a multitubular boiler, the whole fuel should be perfectly burned
in’ the furnace, the flame running the whole length of the fire; as the in-
flamed gases, if just ignited near the mouth of the tubes, are very liable to
be extinguished when they enter them, and thus great loss of heat is sus-
tained. Furnaces in which anthracite coal is burned, do not require such
arrangements, because no volatile combustible matter is given off from this
fuel. — Scientific American.

GRIFFIN’S IMPROVED GAS FURNACE.

An improved furnace, for laboratory and manufacturing purposes, has
been patented during the past year, by Mr. Griffin, the well-known chemist,
of London; by which, standing on a table, or any other convenient place, an

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. AZT

intensity of heat can be obtained, sufficient to melt the most refractory sub-
stances, without any other fuel being used than the ordinary gas used for
lighting the house. The construction of the furnace is as follows:

Attached to a large retort-stand, by a horizontal arm, is a small metal box
between two and three inches in diameter. This box is divided into two
parts internally; the upper part being connected by a flexible tube with the
gas-piping of the room; the under part is in like manner connected with a
pair of double bellows. On the top of the metal box is fixed a burner,
consisting, in most instances, of sixteen jets, each of which is formed of two
tubes, the outermost of which is short and only reaches into the upper part
of the metal box, while the inner tubes are long enough to penetrate the di-
vision, and to reach the lower part of the box. This burner, with its six-
teen tubes, forms a small flat cylinder on the top of the box, around which,
and fitting it exactly, is placed a large flat disk of porous earthenware, in
shape like a millstone, and of a thickness equal to the height of the burner.
Over this burner is placed a plumbago crucible with a lid, and supported by
a semi-globular stand of the same material, like an inverted basin, pierced
all over with small holes, and having a large hole in the centre to receive
the bottom of the crucible; over this latter is placed a second, but larger
cup, similarly pierced with small holes. Round the crucible, thus supported
and covered, is placed a large cylinder made of porous earthenware, of the
same diameter externally as the flat disk, and with exactly sufficient space
in the centre to admit the crucible, cover, etc. This cylinder has a small
hole in the side, through which to watch the crucible, and this hole is stopped
with a plug. On the top of the first cylinder any number of others may be
placed as required, and space between the crucible cover and the top of the
highest cylinder may be filled with pieces of earthenware or pebbles, and
the whole covered with a piece of tile. When the gas is turned on, it passes
at first into the upper chamber of the metal box, and thence between the
- inner and outer tubes of the burner, where it comes into contact with the air
which is forced by the bellows through the long tubes; this current of air
produces rapid combustion of the gas, which, rushing out through the holes
of the stand under the crucible, entirely surrounds the latter with a most
ardent flame. The object of the earthenware cylinders and pebbles is solely
to prevent the escape of the caloric. This is effected in so perfect a manner,
that the hand can be placed with impunity on any part of the apparatus
while the inside is glowing with a white heat.

By means of this furnace, it is stated, three pounds of copper can be
melted in ten minutes, at an expense of a cent and a half,

FIRE GRATES AND CHIMNEYS.

A commission, appointed by the Board of Health in England, consisting
of Mr. Fairbairn and Professors Wheatstone and Playfair, have made a re-
port on grates and fire-places, in which they recommend some changes.
They urge, for all parlor grates, the use of a greater amount of reflecting
surface, to direct more heat into the room, and they advise the flue of the
chimney to be much smaller than those in common use — a reform which
we have also frequently advocated. They state that the flue of a chimney
does not require to be made more than nine inches in diameter at its widest
part; a narrow chimney diminishes the quantity of ascending air, and a
tendency to smoke. Chimneys always draw better when they are kept ©

48 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

warm: therefore, whenever it is possible, they should not be built on the
outer walls of houses, such as gables. As a general rule, the grate should be
situated at such a position in the fire-place where it can be seen from the
greatest number of points in the room, and a good frontage of fire-surface
should always be exposed. — Scientific American.

ON THE RELATIVE VALUES OF COAL AND COKE IN LOCOMOTIVE
ENGINES.

In a paper on the above subject, read before the Society of Arts, London,
May 18th, 1859, by B. Fothergill, Esq., the author stated that his object was
to lay before the Society the results of a series of experiments which he had
made with coal and coke in locomotive engines, and which had led him to
the conclusions that coal was decidedly superior to coke in respect to heat-
ing power, and consequently more economical; that a plentiful supply of
steam could be generated by it for working engines at high velocities, and
for drawing heavy trains; that coal-burning engines could be made to con-
sume their own smoke, and that the fire-boxes and tubes, when coal was
used, were found to last longer. is experiments had been conducted upon
the London and South-Western Railway, and were made, at the request of
the directors, to ascertain the value of an invention which had been pa-
tented by their locomotive superintendent, Mr. Joseph Beattie, and which
the author proceeded to describe in detail. The contrivance consists in so
dividing the fire-box as to increase the amount of heating surface, and to di-
minish the indirect or tube surface, whilst the combustion chamber affords
sufficient space for the introduction of a series of fire-tiles, for the purpose of
retaining a portion of the heat given off from the combustion of the gases,
and for diffusing the unconsumed carbon, as well as effecting a complete mix-
ture of the air with the gases, and thereby producing a mass of flames, whic
is brought in contact with the direct heating surface of the combustion cham-
ber before it enters the tubes, at the same time preventing practically such
an escape of smoke from the chimney as could be deemed a nuisance. In
addition to the practical experiments made by the author on the South-
Western Railway, a series of accurate analyses, with the view of ascertain-
ing the composition and heating power of various kinds of coke and coal,
had been made; and from all these investigations it appeared that a saving
of from 8} to about 103 lbs. of coke per mile — which, of course, represented
a larger quantity of coal — was effected by the use of coal in the patent fire-
box described, as compared with the quantity of coke consumed in the ordi-
nary engines, under similar circumstances. With regard to the durability of
the tubes, it had been found, that in the coke-burning engines, about 94,000
miles was the average duration of a set of tubes, whilst of the experimental
engines burning coal, one had already run 181,000 miles, and the tubes were
still in good condition. The author, therefore, expressed a strong opinion in
favor of the advantages of coal over coke for locomotive engines.

ON THE INTRODUCTION OF PRESERVATIVE SOLUTIONS INTO
RAILWAY TIMBER.

The following is an abstract of a valuable paper on the above subject,
communicated to the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Jan. 1859, by F.
Hewson, C. E.:

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 49 °

The use of timber upon our railroads is considered indispensable; it is
everywhere found in the superstructure of our tracks, and forms the chief

material of our bridges; its renewal is the most ile cagis item of repairs.
The life of a sillseldom extends beyond eight years, and the rate of annual
depreciation being 123 per cent., can be applied to the estimate for the dura-
bility of the bridges, and those structures which are unprotected against the
assaults of heat and moisture, the active and unfailing agents of decay.

Upon the 25,000 miles of the railway lines in the United States, it is here
estimated that 3125 miles of the timber superstructure of their track are
annually renewed, requiring an outlay of $3,500,000 to furnish the supply.

These prefatory data show the importance of seeking some effectual
method of arresting this enormous waste of capital. The chief obstacle to
this end has been the great outlay required in the outset for the apparatus
employed by the usual process, which is so inconvenient in character as to
preclude their adoption in the construction of our railroads. These objec-
tions of expense and inconvenience are applicable to the systems of Kyan,
Bethell, and Sir William Burnett, — systems which have been adopted upon
the leading works of Europe, by engineers distinguished alike for their
genius and soundness of judgment.

Kyan’s process is the simple immersion of the timber in corrosive subli-
mate dissolved in water; it requires the employment of two tanks or reser-
yoirs, into one of which the solution is pumped, while the timber is being
withdrawn. It has been severely tested in the dockyard of Woolwich, and
has been employed with success on the Bavarian state railways. The writer
has not been able to find any evidence against its efficacy. The solution is
an expensive one, besides being an active poison, which renders its adoption
dangerous.

Bethell’s process requires a strong cylindrical tank of iron, a steam-engine,
an aiz-pump, a force-pump, and a large wooden cistern or reservoir. When
the timber is placed inside the cylinder, which is air-tight, a vacuum is
obtained, and the solution, which is either coal-oil or pyrolignite of iron, is
forced, under a heavy pressure, into the timber.

Sir W. Burnett’s process employs chloride of zinc, with the same apparatus
and mode of operation used by Bethell.

There has been a want of confidence relative to the treatment of timber
by other systems. The process of boiling timber, or heating it to a high
degree of temperature, and suddenly plunging it into the’solutions, have
been condemned by the highest authorities.

In the Ordnance Manual, for the use of the officers of the United States
-army, edited by Major Mordecai, it is stated that “‘ kiln-drying is serviceable
only for boards and pieces of small dimensions, and is apt to cause cracks,
and impair the strength of the wood, unless performed very slowly ; and that
charring or painting is highly injurious to any but seasoned timber, as it
effectually prevents the drying of the inner part of the wood, in which, con-
sequently, fermentation and decay soon take place. Boucherie also men-
tions his want of success in rarefving, by a regular heat, the air included in
the interior of the wood, and then plunging it at once into the solutions
which he wished to introduce, though by this method he caused different
liquids to penetrate materials of a very compact nature; and he succeeded
in forcing tar into stones and bricks to a very great deh.” The same
authority states “that it is infinitely more advantageous to act Upo Woo!

~

v

30 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

- in its green state, than to prepare it after the time necessary for its complete
dessication had sensibly altered it.”

Tredgold, in his able and lucid manner, accounts for the effects upon the
durability of timber, produced by these processes, which have thus been
condemned. He says that “it is well known to chemists, that slow drying
will render many bodies less easy to dissolve, while rapid drying, on the
contrary, renders the same bodies more soluble; besides, all wood in drying
loses a portion of its carbon, and the more in proportion as the temperature
is higher. There is in wood that has been properly seasoned a toughness and
elasticity which is not found in rapidly dried wood; and this is an evident
proof that firm cohesion does not take place when moisture is dissipated at
a high heat.”

The employment of Bethell’s and Burnett’s process upon American rail-
ways, are open to serious objections, both on account of the expense of
apparatus, and difficulty of locating it along the route under construction.
What is wanted is some process which shall be cheap, simple, and efficacious,
Boucherie’s system of introducing the solutions longitudinally, through
pores or tubes of the timber, by the pressure of a column of any convenient
height, is a step in the right direction to meet these necessities. In a recent
improved process, brought out by Mr. John Reed, Jr., of Glasgow, the fol-
lowing course is pursued: “ After the tree has been felled, a saw-cut is made
across the centre, through about nine-tenths of the section of the tree, which
is slightly raised at the centre by a lever or wedge, so as to open the saw-cut
a little; a piece of string or cord is placed around the edge of the saw-cut,
and lowering the tree again, the cut closes on the string, which thus forms a
water-tight joint; an auger-hole is then bored obliquely into the saw-cut,
from the outside, into which is driven a hollow wooden plug; a flexible tube
is fitted on the plug, the end of which is made slightly conical, so that the
tube may be pushed tight upon it; the fluid flows from a cistern, at an
elevation of from 30 to 40 feet.”

Mr. Reid further adds, that the timber is most successfully operated upon
within ten days after being felled, in which event, the. process with a log 9
feet long will occupy twenty-four hours. If the timber is felled three months,
three days are required; if four months, four days.

To expedite the longitudinal transmission of solutions, an ingenious appa.
ratus has been contrived by John L. Pott, Esq., of Pottsville, some idea of
which can be formed by the following description:

It consists of a force-pump, to the cast-iron frame of which is bolted a
strong cylinder, also of cast iron, 9 feet long, the inside diameter being 12
inches. Into the further end of the cylinder a hollow cast-iron collar is
accurately fitted, but can be withdrawn and replaced at pleasure, the joint
being water-tight. From the sectional end of the collar which is foremost
in the cylinder, there extends a rectangular punch, sharpened and edged with
steel, the area of which being less than the cross section of the railroad sills
in use. This is driven by beetles into the end of the sill placed in the cylin-
der, and then firmly secured by strong bolts connected with the apparatus.
This plan of cylinder-head makes a water-tight joint, and at the same time
allows the sap to escape, and secures a greater pressure at the end of the sill
which lies against the pump. The power is applied by hand, with a crank.
The writer, experimenting with this apparatus, found that in certain classes
of timber which were freshly cut, the sap would be driven out with great
force, rapidly followed by the solutions. This was noticed especially with

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. dl

the rock, red, and black oak sills. Under a heavy pressure, varying from
1080 ibs. to 1500 Ibs. per square inch, working for about two minutes, the sap
for a few seconds would be ejected from the end of the sill; this would flow
sometimes in jets, like the discharges from the common garden watering-
pot, and at other times trickling in frothing exudations. It was found that
in white oak sills, under the enormous pressure of 1320 Ibs. per square inch,
the maximum gain in weight was 113 lbs. per sill, or 3°8 lbs. per cubic foot.
In black oak, under 800 lbs., the maximum gain was 173 Ibs. per sill, or 5°8
Ibs. per cubic foot. In red oak, under 1400 lbs., the maximum gain in a sill
was 29 lbs., or 9°6 Ibs. per cubic foot. In chestnut, under 1500 Ibs. per square
inch, the maximum gain in a sill was 15 Ibs., or 4°3 lbs. per cubic foot. Upon
cutting the sills most successfully operated upon into thin cross sections of
two inches in thickness, they were found to be so fully saturated, that by
striking them violently against a board, the solutions would exude and cover
the surface with moisture. Though it required but two minutes in operating
the pump for the complete impregnation of the sills, yet the time occupied
in adjusting and removing the sill, and in filling and draining the cylinder,
amounted to eighteen minutes; and the saturation of 25 sills was the average
work accomplished in ten hours.

After a close analysis of the cost and details of the various systems, the
writer has been induced to select capillary attraction as the agent for intro-
ducing the solutions by the correct way shown to us by nature in the vegeta-
tive process, viz., by expelling and following the sap longitudinally, through
the pores and tubes of the timber.

Preceded by a number of satisfactory experiments, the following plan has
been adopted: ‘The sills are placed vertically, with but-ends down, in a tightly
caulked rectangular tank, 14 feet long, 53 feet wide, and 8 feet deep, built of
three-inch plank, supported by upright stays, and further secured by trans-
verse bolts, which prevent the sides from spreading. When the tank is
packed with sills, sufficient solution is added to fill it to the top of the sills.
In this simple apparatus, the pressure of a column 7 feet in height is thus
maintained at the but-end of a sill, the sap is expelled, and the presery-
ing solution takes its place. A tank holding 100 sills will cost about $70, and
weighing when empty about two tons, can easily be transported.

In order to ascertain the relative extent or degree of absorption of the
popular solutions by the different classes of timber, the writer caused to be
divided into three equal parts, a rock oak, a white oak, and hemlock sill;
each, as thus divided, was placed vertically in separate casks, which were
filled with the solutions.

Cask with the chloride of zinc, one pound to 10 gallons of water.
ue blue vitriol, one ane to 124 gallons of water.
ee the pyrolignite of iron (density 1-104), 1 part pyrolignite to6 parts water.
After the duration of one week,

The white-oak stick in the eiieeaie of zinc, gained in weight, 68 an peut:

3 ee blue vitricl, es 79

ee ec pyrolignite of iron, = Ose oe
The rock stick in the chloride of zine, < CS ee

ig es blue vitriol, se 4-6 a

cc ee pyrolignite of iron, ee 5-6 ef
The hemlock stick in chloride of zinc, ss is

se es lue vitriol, = 102. WS

Oe ee yrolignite of iron, ce ie Ouel peg

52 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC: DISCOVERY.

The blue vitriol is absorbed more readily by the hemlock, and the oaks
prefer the pyrolignite.

For the impregnation of the heavy timbers used upon bridges and other
structures, a large wooden cistern, 43 feet diameter in the clear, and 27 feet
deep, was constructed of three-inch seasoned white-pine plank, tightly
caulked in the seams, and bound with iron hoops; two courses of three-inch
plank were laid transversely, and firmly secured at the bottom of the cistern.
This, when finished by the carpenters, was sunk into the ground, until the
top edge stood three feet above the surface. <A hoisting crane is used in lift-
ing the timber; the sticks being placed in a vertical position in the cistern, —
which should always be kept filled to its top edge with the solution, —in this
way a pressure of a column of 27 feet in height is maintained at the but-end
of the timber.

The following table shows the quantity of solution introduced into a cubic
foot of the different woods, the solution consisting of one part of pyrolignite
of iron and six parts of water:

Kind oftinier’ | Seiutuee® | Aves Alain | Maina abeigon
White cak, 542 053 gallons. | 2°72 gallons.
Rock oak, 853 071 ts 2 O4 We
Red oak, a) 203 ce 1-87 os
Black oak, 67 OSS +e 1:45 ee
White pine, 165 1-10 ES 2-04 gs

Timber freshly cut will receive the sclutions more readily than when dry.
Some pieces of white oak, which had been felled three months, absorbed per
cubic foot, 76 per cent. more than the same description and sizes of timber
which had been twelve months feiled. It was also observed that in pushing
some freshly-cut beams, with a sudden downward force, into the cistern, the
sap would appear on the top of the beam, often in quantities to fill a wine-
glass.

These facts confirm the opinions of Boucherie, and show that the drying
and scasoning of timber, to prepare it for impregnation, is an unnecessary
waste of labor. The expense of impregnating railway timber, with the pro-
cess advocated by the writer, is but trifling. The labor required is involved
only in lifting and carrying the timber; and to this must be added the cost
of the solutions absorbed. A statement of the cost of preserving sills with
the usual antiseptics is here given.

CHLORIDE OF ZINC.

In proportions used by Brunel, viz., one pound to 10 gallons of water — cost of
chloride of zinc, 9 cents per pound.
Labor at tank, lifting and carrying the sills, . A : - ¢ Otcent:
Soiution absorbed, 2 gallons, . eh te > : Seok ic Pa to 3 a

Cost per sill, : BP de ae ee SU Re hee rae a cine

BLUE VITRIOL.

In the proportion adopted by Boucherie, viz., one pound to 12} gallons of water
— cost of biue vitriol, 14 cents per pound.
Labor at tank, etc., ~ ‘ ; 5 ; 5 = 3 4 > i-Oicent.
Solution absorbed, : 2 - A : - 2:24 %&

Cost per sill, Soa ‘ we ae = ohare mite sy tee

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 53

PYROLIGNITE OF IRON.

In the proportions adopted by the writer, viz., 1 part of pyrolignite to 6 parts of
water — cost of pyrolignite, 23 cents per gallon.

Labor at tank, ete., : F : : - ; : A - 1-0 cent.
Solution absorbed, : : : : - : ‘ ‘ 5 ape Grout
Cost per sill, S : : 5 : : , : : é eye.

The writer does not claim that this method of impregnating timber by
capillary attraction is superior to any process extant, for such an assumption
at this period would certainly be premature and somewhat arrogant. The
question of its efficacy hangs upon a single point, which is this: Does it intro-
duce a sufficient quantity of the preservative solutions to produce the desired
effect? From the mass of data condensed in the tables given above, it
appears that the average degree of absorption varies in the different classes
of woods. The average of the sills impregnated in the tanks range from
0°521 to 0°78 * of a gallon per cubic foot. The averages of the timbers in the
cistern, from 0°531 to 1:10! of a gallon per cubic foot.

ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE STRUCTURE AND THE PHYS-
ICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD.— BY PROF. KNOBLAUCH.

The author seeks to ascertain whether any connection is ascertainable be-
tween the structural relations of various kinds of wood and their observed
physical properties, such as their powers of resonance and conduction of
heat, etc., in the same way as was done for one and the same wood by
Savart in respect to resonance, and more especially by Tyndall in respect to
the conduction of heat.

The primary object was to trace the difference in the conduction of heat
shown by different woods, according as the heat has to traverse the wood
in a direction parallel with, or at right angles to, the direction of the grain.
For this purpose, slabs of the woods to be examined were bored through,
perpendicular to their planes, and then covered as uniformly as possible with
a coating of stearine. A hot wire, exactly fitting the bore, was introduced
into the latter, and continually turned round during the experiment. By this
means the coating of stearine around the orifice was melted; but, as we
should expect, not in concentric circles, but in elliptic zones, whose major
axes invariably coincided with the direction of the grain. The great differ-
ence in the behavior of different kinds of wood (about eighty sorts were
examined) under these circumstances is at once apparent. With some, the
ellipses are tolerably circular; by others, more elongated; while by others,
again, the major axes are so extended as to be nearly twice the length of
the minor ones. The eccentricity of these ellipses, which furnished a graph-
ical expression for the conductive power of the wood in the directions be-
tween which the structural difference was greatest, made it possible to divide
the different kinds of wood into four distinct groups. In the first, the ratio
of the minor to the major axis of the ellipse is on the average as 1 to 1°25.
To this group, Acacia, Box, Cypress, King-wood, etc., belong. In the sec-
ond, and by far the most numerous group, containing Elder, Nut; Ebony,
Apple, several dye-woods, etc., the mean value of this ratio is 1 to 1°45. In
the third group, to which Apricot, Siberian, Acacia, Brazil-wood, Yellow-

* American gallons.

5s

Se | ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

wood from Puerto Cabello, etc., belong, the ratio is as 1 to 1°60. In the
fourth group it is as 1 to 1°80; and to this division belong Lime, Tamarind,
Tron-wood, Poplar, Savanilla (yellow), etc. Hence, the conducting power
of all woods in the direction of the fibre exceeds that in the perpendicular
direction by no means in a constant manner, but in one which depends
upon the nature of the wood. This superiority is in the first group so small,
that the warmth in the direction of the fibre traverses a path only a quarter
more in length than that traversed in the same time in a perpendicular
direction. In the last group, on the other hand, the length of the path in
the first direction is about twice that in the perpendicular one.

In order to investigate the relations of resonance, two rods were cut from
each kind of wood—the one being taken in the direction of the grain
(Langholz), the second perpendicularly across it (Hirnholz). Onsuspending
these rods freely (their length was 470 millims., breadth 20 millims., and thick-
ness 8 millims.), and striking them with a stick, the piece cut with the grain
always gives a more sonorous tone than the corresponding cross-grain piece.
Nevertheless, the difference of resonance in the tones of the width and cross-
grain pieces of one and the same wood, of the first of the groups described
(say beech), is unmistakably less than the difference between the tones of
the with and cross-grain pieces of any member of the second group. In the
second group this difference is less than in the third; and in the third, again,
less than in the fourth (as with with and cross grain pieces of poplar).
When, therefore, the fibres of all kinds of wood are set in vibration, the
purity of resonance is greater when such vibrations are transverse than when
they occur in other directions (as when the rods are cut across the grain).
But this superiority of resonance is not constant; it depends upon the nature
of the wood. The difference in this respect, in the first group of woods, is so
small, that the resonance of two with and cross grain pieces resembles that
of two not very dissimilar masses of stone when struck. In the last group
the difference is so great, that the tone of the with-grain piece, when struck,
has a metallic ring, while the dull sound of the cross-grain piece reminds
one of a piece of pasteboard when struck. The division of the woods exam-
ined, derived from their thermo-conductive power, is accordingly supported
by their acoustic relations.

By supporting the two ends of the rods employed in the above experi-
ments, and loading them equally in the middle, the degrees of deflection
which they undergo will give us an insight into their structural relations;
for the greater their compactness, the greater the resistance they will offer
to bending; and the less compact they are, the more easily they will yield.
The difference in vertical height of the middle points of the bent and
straight rods was taken as measure of deflection. A lever was employed to
determine this measure, the end of which passed over an enlarged scale, in
order that the readings off might be the more exact. The unit of this meas-
ure was a matter of indifference, inasmuch as in the comparison to be in-
stituted, relations only had to be determined. Although, as was to be
expected, in all cases the with-grain piece was much less flexible than the
corresponding cross-grain piece, yet an important difference was noticeabie
in the different groups. This is best seen by calculating the relation between
the bending (measured as above described) of the with-grain and that of the
cross-grain wood; that is, the same weight being applied (say 100 grs.), by
dividing the number given by the lever with the cross-grain piece by that
given with the with-grain piece. This relation (called “ratio of deflection ”

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. BS

-

in the following table) has, in the first group, the mean value of 1 to 5: in
the second, 1 to 8; in the third, 1 to 9.5; in the fourth, 1 to 14. The divis-
ion of the groups is therefore also supported from this point of view.* The
difference in the structure in the different directions is least in those woods
which show the least difference with respect to direction in their thermo-
conductive and resonant properties; and the difference in the former is
greater or less as the two latter differences are greater or less.

Hence a definite relation may be established between the different phe-
nomena described; and this is true to such an extent, that the knowledge of
one of them, e. g., the mechanical or state of cohesion, is sufficient to deduce
the others, those of warmth or resonance.

Thus, merely to adduce one example, especial experiments had shown
that in petrified woods a difference of structure in the directions parallel
with, and perpendicular to, the direction of the grain had been preserved;
and, in fact, the thermal curve was an ellipse whose major axis was parallel
to the fibres. As in the petrified example, this difference in mechanical
structure was much less than in the living wood; so, also, while in the living
Conifer the ratio of the axes was as 1 to 1.80, in the petrified specimen it
had sunk to 1 to 1.12.

The following table contains the names of the woods examined, arranged
according to the groups mentioned:

GROUP I.

Ratio of the axes of the thermal ellipse 1 to 1:25. Mean ratio of deflection 1 to 5:0.

Acacia. : King wood.
Box. Satin wood.
Lignum-vite. Salisburia ( Gingho).
Cypress. ©
GROUP. II.

Ratio of axes of thermal ellipse 1 to 1-45. Mean ratio of deflection 1 to 8:0.
Elder. Snake wood.

Alder. Zebra wood.

White Thorn. Purple wood (Amaranthus).
Arbor-vite. Settin.

St. Lucian wood. Coromandel wood.
Gymnocladus canadensis. Angica wood.

Beech (2 species, white and red). Cocoa wood ( Gateado).
Plane. Apple.

Elm. Pear.

Oak (two species). Cherry.

Ash. . Plum.

Maple. Sandal (red).
American maple. Caliatour.

Cedar of Lebanon. Costarica (red wood).
Australian cedar. Bimas sapan.
Mahogany. Cuba (yellow wood).
Palisander. Viset (yellow wood).
Ebony. Campeachy blue wood.
Palm. Tobasco blue wood.
Rosewood. Domingo blue wood.

* The diversity of nature, even with one and the same kind of wood, of course
did not admit of the boundaries of the groups being drawn with great exactness,
or of the subdivision of the groups into secondary ones.

56 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

GROUP III.
Ratio of axes of thermal ellipse 1 to 1:50. Mean ratio of deflection 1 to 9°5.
Apricot. Pernambuco red wood.
Pistachio. Japan red wood.
Siberian Acacia. Puerte-Cabello yellow wood
GROUP IV.
Ratio of the axes of the thermal ellipse 1 to 1-8. Mean ratio of deflection 1 to 140.
Willow (two examples). Weymouth fir.
Chestnut (three examples). Magnolia.
Lime. Iron wood.
Alder. Tamarind.
Birch. Palmassu.
Poplar (three examples). ** Kistenholz.”
Aspen. Caoba (Havana Cedar).
Pine. Savanilla yellow wood.

Fir.

ON THE MEASUREMENT OF RUNNING WATER BY WEIR BOARDS.

The following report on the above subject bas been presented to the Brit-
ish Association by Prof. James Thompson, of Belfast, Ireland: The exper-
iments proposed to be comprehended in the investigations to which the
present interim report of progress relates, have for their object to determine
the suitableness of triangular (or V-shaped) notches in vertical plates for the
gauging of running water, instead of the rectangular notches in ordinary
use. The ordinary rectangular notches, accurately experimented on as they
have been, at great cost and with high scientific skill in various countries,
with the view of determining the necessary formulas and coéfficients for
their application in practice, are, for many purposes, suitable and conve-
nient. They are, however, but ill-adapted for the measurement of very
variable quantities of water, such as commonly occur to the engineer to be
gauged in rivers and streams. If the rectangular notch is to be made wide
enough to allow the water to pass in flood times, it must be so wide that for
long periods, in moderately dry weather, the water flows so shallow over its
crest, that its indications cannot be relied on. To remove in some degree
this objection, gauges for rivers or streams are sometimes formed, in the
best engineering practice, with a small rectangular notch cut down below
the general level of the crest of a large rectangular notch. If, now, instead
of one depression being made, for dry weather use, in a crest wide enough
for use in floods, we conceive of a large number of depressions, extending so
as to give to the crest the appearance of a set of steps or stairs, and if we
conceive the number of such steps to become infinitely great, we are led at
once to the conception of the triangular instead of the rectangular notch.
The principle of the triangular notch being thus arrived at, it becomes evi-
dent that there is no necessity for having one side of the notch vertical, and
the other slanting; but that, as may in many cases prove more convenient,
both sides may be slanting, and their slopes may be alike. It is then to be
observed that, by the use of the triangular notch, with proper formulas and
coéflicients, derivable by due union of theory and experiments, quantities of
running water from the smallest to the greatest, may be accurately gauged
by their flow through the same notch. The reason of this is obvious from
considering that, in the triangular notch, when the quantity flowing is very

s

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. . Hi |

small, the flow is confined to a small space, admitting of accurate measure-
ment; and that the space for the flow of the water increases as the quantity
to be measured increases, but still continues such as to admit of accurate
measurement.

Farther, the ordinary rectangular notch, when applied for the gauging of
rivers, is subject to a serious objection from the diificulty or impossibility of
properly taking into account the influence of the bottom of the river on the
flow of the water to the notch. If it were practicable to dam up the river s¢
deep that the water would flow through the notch as if coming from a reser.
voir of still water, the diffictlty wouid not arise. This, however, can seldom
be done in practice; and, although the bottom of the river may be so far
below the crest as to produce but little effect on the flow of the water when
the quantity flowing is small, yet when the quantity becomes great, the ‘‘ ve-
locity of approach” comes to have a very maicrial influence on the flow of
the water, but an influence which it is usually difficult, if not impracticable,
to ascertain with satisfactory accuracy. In the notches now proposed, of
trianguiar form, the influence of the bottom may be rendered definite, and
such as to affect alike (or, at least, by some law that may be readily deter-
mined by experiment) the flow of the water when very small, or very great,
in the same notch. The method by which I propose that this may be ef-
fected, consists in carrying out a floor, starting exactly from the vertex of
the notch, and extending both up-stream and laterally, so as to form a bot-
tom to the channel of approach, which will both be smooth and will serve
as the lower bounding surface of a passage of approach, unchanging in form,
while increasing in magnitude at the places, at least, which are adjacent to
_ the vertex of the notch. The floor may either be perfectly level, or may
consist of two planes, whose intersection would start from the vertex of the
notch, and, as seen in the plan, would pass up stream perpendicularly to the
direction of the weir-board; the two planes slanting upwards from their in-
tersection more gently than the sides of the notch. The level floor, although
theoretically not quite so perfect as the floor of two planes, would probably,
for most practical purposes, prove the more convenient arrangement.

With reference to the use of the floor, it may be said, in short, that by a
due arrangement of the notch and the floor, a discharge orifice and channel
of approach may be produced, of which (the upper surface of the watér
being considered as the top of the channel and orifice) the form will be un-
changed, or but little changed with variations of the quantity flowing; very
much less, certainly, than is the case with rectangular notches. The laws
regulating the quantities of water flowing in such orifices as have now been
described, come naturally next to be considered. Without, however, in the
present interim report, attempting to enter on a detailed discussion of theo-
retical considerations on this subject, I shall here merely advert briefly to
the principal results and methods of reasoning.

By theory I have been led to anticipate that the quantity flowing in a given
notch should be proportional, or very nearly so, to the 3 power of the lineal
dimensions of the cross section of the issuing jet, or to the 3 power of the
head of water over the vortex of the notch. This head is to be understood,
in the case of water flowing from a still reservoir, as being measured verti-
cally from the level water surface in the reservoir down to the vertex of the
notch; or in the case of water flowing to the notch with a considerable ve-
locity cf approach over a floor arranged as above described, the head is to be
considered as measured vertically from the water surface, where the motion

58 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

is nearly stopped by the weir-board at a place near the board, but as far as
may be found practicable, from the centre of the notch. The law here enun-
ciated, to the effect that the quantity flowing should be proportional to the
3 power of the head, I consider should hold good rigidly in reference to
water flowing by a triangular notch in a thin vertical plate, from a large and
deep reservoir of still water, if the water were a perfect fluid, free from vis-
cidity and friction, and from capillary attraction at its surface, and from-any
other slight disturbing causes that may have minute influence on the flow,
the flow being supposed to be that due simply to gravitation resisted by the
inertia of the fluid. The like may be said of water flowing from triangular
netches with shallow channels of approach, having floors as described above,
when due attention is given to make the passages of approach so as really
to remain unchanged in form for a sufficient distance from the notch, while
increasing in magnitude as the flow increases (such being supposed accord-
ing to my theory to be possible), and if due attention be paid to the measur-
ing the heads in all cases in positions similarly situated with reference to the
varying dimensions of the issuing streams.

In illustration of these statements, or suppositions, I would merely say,
that, if two triangular notches, similar in form, have water flowing in them
at different depths, but with similar passages of approach, the cross section
of the two jets at the notches may be similarly divided into the same num-
ber of elements of area; and that the areas of the corresponding elements
will be proportional to the squares of the lineal dimensions of the cross sec-
tions; or, as from various considerations may readily be assumed, propor-
tional to the squares of the heads; also the velocities of the water in the
corresponding elements may be taken as proportional to the square roots of
the lineal dimensions, or to the square roots of the heads. From these con-
siderations, supported by numerous others, it appears that the quantities
flowing should be proportional to the products of the squares of the heads
into their square roots, or to the 3 power as already stated.

The friction of the fluid on the solid bovnding surfaces of the passages of
approach, where the water moves rapidly adjacent to the notch, may readily
be assumed, from all previous experience in similar subjects, not to havea
very important influence even on the absolute amount of the flow of the
water; and if we assume (as is known to be nearly the case for high veloci-
ties, such as occur in notches used for practical purposes, unless usually
small) that the tangential force of friction of the fluid per unit of area of
surface flowed along, is proportional to the square of the velocity of flow, it
follows by theory that the friction, though slightly influencing the absolute
amount of the flow, will not, according to that assumption, at all interfere
with its proportionality to the 3 power of the head. And this condition will
very nearly hold good if the assumption is very nearly correct.

How closely the theory thus briefly sketched may be found to agree with
the actual flow of water, will be a subject for experimental investigation;
and whatever may be the result in this respect, the main object must be to
obtain for a moderate number of triangular notches of different forms, and
both with and without floors at the passage of approach, the necessary
coéfticients for the various forms of notches and approaches selected, and for
various depths in any one of them, so as to allow of water being gauged for
practical purposes when in future convenient, by means of similarly formed
notches and approaches. The utility of the proposed system of gauging, it
is to be particularly observed, will not depend on a perfectly close agreement

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 59

of the theory described with the experiments; because a table of experi-
mental coéfficients for various depths, or an empirical formuia slightly mod-
ified from the theoretical one, will serve all purposes.

To one evident simplification in the proposed system of gauging, as com-
pared with that by rectangular notches, { would here advert, namely, that
in the proposed system the quantity flowing comes to be a function of only
one variable, namely, the measured head of water, while in the rectangular
notches it is a function of at least two variables, namely, the head of water
and the horizontal width of the notch, and is commonly, also, a function of
a third variable very difficult to be taken into account, namely, the depth
from the crest of the notch down to the bottom of the channel of approach;
which depth must vary in its influence with all the varying ratios between
it and the other two quantities of which the flow is a function.

The proposed system of gauging also gives facilities for taking another
element into account, which often arises in practice, namely, the influence
of back water on the flow of the water in the gauge, when, as frequently
occurs in rivers, it is found impracticable to dam the river up sufficiently to
give it a clear overfall free from the back or tail water. For any given ratio
of the height of the tail water above the vertex of the notch, I would antici-
pate that the quantities flowing would still be, approximately at least, pro-
portional to the 3 power of the head as before, and a set of coéfficients
would have to be determined experimentally for different ratios of the height
of the tail water above the vertex of the notch.

With the aid of the grant placed at my disposal by the Association at last
year’s meeting, for the purpose of these researches, I have got an experi-
mental apparatus constructed and fitted up at a place a few miles distant
from Belfast, and I have got some preliminary experiments made on a right-
angled notch in a vertical plane surface, the sides of the notch making
angles of 45° with the horizon, and the flow being from a deep and wide
pool of quiet water, and the water thus approaching the notch uninfluenced
by any floor or bottom. The principal set of experiments as yet made were
on quantities of water varying from about two to ten cubic feet per minute,
and the depths or heads of the water varied from two to four inches in the
right-angled notch.

From these experiments I derive the formula Q =0°317 H 3, where Q is the
quantity of water in cubic feet per minute, and H the head as measured ver-
tically in inches from the still water level of the pool down to the vertex of
the notch. This formula is submitted at present temporarily, as being accu-
rate enough for use for ordinary practical purposes, for the measurement of
water by notches similar to the one experimented on, and for quantities of
water limited to nearly the same range as those in the experiments; but as
being, of course, subject to amendment by more perfect experiments extend-
ing through a wider range of quantities of water.

It will be readily observed that the experimental investigations indicated
in the foregoing report as desirable, are such as would require for their com-
pletion and extension to large flows of water a great expenditure both of
time and money, like as has already been the case with researches on the
flow of water in rectangular notches. All that I can myself, for the present,
propose to attempt, is to open up the subject with a itie® on moder-
ately small flows of water.

nuh A tn

60 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC. DISCOVERY.

STRENGTH OF WOODEN WATER-PIPES.

The Scientific American publishes the following report of a series of exper-
iments concluded by Israel Marsh, Esq., of Rochester, N. Y., with a view of
determining the strength of wooden water-pipes to resist hydraulic pressure.

Pipes of various sizes were subjected to pressure so great as to burst them,
but they bore a far greater amount than any spectator supposed them capa-
ble of bearing. The largest pipe tested had a bore of eight inches in diame-
ter; the smallest had a bore of one inch and five-eighths through a pine
scantling of three and a half inches. These scantlings were put together in
sections, and sustained a pressure equal to a head of one hundred and
eighty feet, and subsequent experiments showed that they would sustain a
far greater pressure before bursting.

The following is the report of Mr. Marsh, regarding his experiments; and
the results, as placed in a tabular form, will be found very convenient for
future reference by hydraulic engineers and others:

Hydrostatic pressure was applied to the pipe by means of a double-acting
piston-pump, with an air-chamber attached; and the amount of pressure
acting upon the whole interior surface of the pipe was ascertained by means
of a piston, which was cylindrical in form, and made equal in area to one
square inch, and fitted to an opening in the pipe, which conveyed the water
from the pump to the wooden pipe, and of a scale-beam graduated so as to
indicate any amount of pressure from forty to two hundred pounds. The
opposite side of the beam was graduated to indicate in feet the height of a
vertical column of water, which would produce a corresponding pressure.
Some of the pipes used in these trials were made of round logs, and others
of square scantling; but they were all made of white pine timber. The fol-
lowing is a statement of the pressure to which the pipe was subjected, in
which the last column indicates the pressure at which the pipe burst:

No. External Internal Length. | Pe
of ‘ Dimensions Dimensions. Biandedes Wafer l Pipe
Exp’ts.| Inches. Inches. | Feet. | Tach: Pressure’ Suz: Baik

1 31 Sq. 1g 8 86 8-10 200
2 38) Sq 13 8 85 195 207
3 3} Sq 1; 8 603 1340
4 3) Sq. 13 8 603 140
5 31 Sq. 12 8 78 1-10 180 190
6 65 ISG. 2s 8 90 207 218
at 6 Sq. 3 8 75 172 184
8 6 Sq. 3 8 824 190 195
9 AD: 6 5 821 190

10 20 D. 8 + 86 8-10 200

gave F495: 6 5 733 170 180

12 6 eae: 3 8 65 1-10 150

13 14. yD. 6 5 65 1-10 150

14 - 3k OD. 12 8 1344 31)

15 eT aD: 8 4 sit 190 200

16 TR oF ae 5 733 170 180
©

WORK OF WATER-WHEELS BY NIGHT AND DAY.

The following note, on the above subject, has been addressed to the editors
of the Scientific American, by a correspondent in East Pepperell, Mass:
In the course of my business of building and putting in water-wheels

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 61

(Blake’s patent), I have often heard it asserted, by mill owners and others,
that water-wheels will do more work in the night than in the daytime. To
demonstrate the fallacy of such an assertion by actual and scientific experi-
ments, I have, with great care and with the use of every perfect apparatus
for testing water-wheels, observed their performance in several successive
days and nights, namely, five experiments in the middle of the day and
three in the middle of the night, on a wheel of 18 inches in diameter, run-
ning without resistance under a fall (H) of eight and more feet; running the
wheel for 2000 revolutions at each experiment; and the time being calcu-
lated by noting the sounds for every 100 revolutions, by the bell-hammer
attached to the wheel-shaft, which is a good time-keeper.

I give below the results of each experiment opposite the fall (H) which
actuated the wheel, in revolutions per second; and I then reduce the revolu-
tions to what they would have been had the fall (H) been the same in every
experiment, having one in each series, night and day, equal to 8.41’ fect. I
reduce R to that H by the fomula as V H: R=W8'41/: RY.

DAY EXPERIMENTS.

H Revolutions. / R/.
8.410 feet, 4.901960 8.41 feet, 4.90196
62515, §¢ 4.962230 ce 4.93154
S250) * 4.889975 es 4.92524
8.422 ‘* 4.926108 2 . 4.92260
8.4216 * : 4.950544 ee 4.94713

Mean revolution, 4.92569; mean temperature of water, 70.7°; barometer (mean
height), 29.93 inches.
NIGHT EXPERIMENTS.

yest Revolutions. H/ R/.
8.41 feet, 4.88997 8.41 feet, 4.88997
Sor £O8iba . * 4.93949
§.42 °% 4.93827 cc 4.93533

Mean revolution, 4.92159; mean temperature of water, 70.79; barometer (mean
height), 29.91 inches.

On comparing the results of the two series of experiments, it will be seen
that there was a difference of 0.00410 in favor of the wheel’s revolution dur-
ing daytime.

NEW APPARATUS FOR DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS.

The following description of a new apparatus for effecting deep-sea sound-
ings, devised by Lieut. Trowbridge, U. S. N., is derived from a communica-
tion addressed by the inventor to Prof. A. D. Bache, Superintendent Coast
Survey, and published in Silliman’s Journal for May, 1859:

“In the method of sounding hitherto employed,” says Lieut. T., “the
influence of the friction of the water upon the line, or ‘ endwise resistance,’
as itis called by Prof. Airy, was known to exist, but the amount of this end-
wise resistance in pounds, and its ultimate effects at great depths, had not
been determined. It was supposed that by making use of a weight of thirty
or forty pounds and a small fishing-line, this resistance would be reduced to
an inappreciable amount, or at least that its effect in retarding the descent of
the lead would not be sufficient to destroy confidence in the results.”

Lieut. T., however, claims that his own investigations prove that a weight,
such as is ordinarily used in sounding, will be practically held in suspension:

6

62 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

at no very great depth, even when the line used is the smallest that will sus-
tain the weight with safety in the air; and in confirmation of this conclusion,
the fact is well established, that, notwithstanding repeated experiments, made
by the most skilful officers, and with the utmost care, the bottom of the
ocean has never been reached in its deepest parts; and even where the bot-
tom has been attained, and specimens brought to the surface, the uncertain-
ties of the results have given good grounds for controversy with regard to
the depth.

These failures and uncertainties do not arise from the magnitude of the
distance to be measured, nor from the impenetrability of the fluid through
which the lead has to pass; distances infinitely great and infinitely small in
the universe above and around us, have been measured with precision; and
the unexplored depths of the ocean are occupied by a medium freely and
equally penetrable at all depths. Yet in this field—a field daily traversed
by the commerce of the world—a distance of a few miles only has baffled
all attempts to measure it.

The difficulty lies in the simple cause stated above, viz., the “endwise
resistance” or friction upon the sounding-line, which prevents the lead from
going to the bottom where the depth is great. The apparatus now devised
is designed to avoid this friction upon the line, while at the same time the
line is not dispensed with, but is made use of, as in the ordinary mode.
Experiments have demonstrated, that an iron globe or sphere, when falling
freely on the ocean, will attain a maximum velocity, within twenty-five feet
of the surface, which will be kept up, without sensible increase or diminu-
tion, to the bottom. For a thirty-two-pound iron shot, this uniform velocity
is about sixteen feet per second. When attached, however, to a small line, —
this line being uncoiled from a reel on the deck of the vessei, and drawn
down by the weight of the sphere, — the friction of the water on the line
causes a remarkable change in the rate of descent. Nearly the same maxi-
mum velocity at starting is attained; but the velocity becomes rapidly re-
duced, until the sphere becomes suspended nearly motionless in the water.

Taking the simple case of a thirty-two-pound shot attached to a small fish-
ing-line: the shot attains its maximum velocity of sixteen feet per second
within twenty-five feet of the surface; but before a hundred fathoms of the
line is drawn into the water, this velocity is reduced to eight feet per second
—a diminution of half the velocity, from the friction of one hundred fathoms
of line. At five hundred fathoms, the velocity is again reduced half, or to
four feet per second; and at three thousand fathoms, to about one foot per
second. Whereas, at this depth, if there is no line attached, the shot will
fall with its original velocity of sixteen feet per second, undiminished. Be-
low this depth we may determine, in the same way, the circumstances in the
two cases; the shot falling freely, still retains its uniform velocity of sixteen
feet per second, at four, five, and six thousand fathoms depth; while, with
the line attached, at five thousand fathoms, the velocity is reduced to a few
inches per second; and at six thousand fathoms, the descent is not perceptible
under ordinary circumstances.

The time of descent becomes an important element also in practice. In the
two cases given, the shot falling freely will descend to the depth of three
thousand fathoms in twenty minutes, and to the depth of six thousand
fathoms in forty minutes; while, with the line attached, it will require two
hours to descend three thousand fathoms, and eight hours to descend six
thousand fathoms. These effects have been proved to be due to the friction

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 63

alone; and the amount of which, in pounds, has been determined for differ-
ent cases, in which different forms of weight and different sizes of line were
used; and the entire inapplicability of the ordinary mode of sounding for
great depths, or even for ordinary depths, where the object was to obtain a
correct knowledge of the depths, has been demonstrated.

Methods have been proposed, in which a line is dispensed with, by detach-
ing a float at the bottom, when the plummet strikes, and watching for the
return of the float to the surface; but this is impracticable, as there is no
material applicable, within our knowledge, that will float to the surface from
the bottom of the sea, on account of the great pressure, which condenses
the bulk, so as to render bodies, specifically lighter than water at the surface,
heavier than water at even moderate depths.

A line must therefore be used to bring back to the surface any machine by
which the depth may be registered in the descent, and the motion of this
line, in an extended form in the water, must be avoided.

The apparatus which Lieut. T. has devised is designed to secure this object,
by attaching to the sinker a tube or case, in which the sounding-line is com-
pactly coiled, and from which it will be discharged freely, thus causing the
plummet to carry down the coil, while one end of the line is held fast at the
surface, — the line being uncoiled from the descending sinker in the manner
that a spider, falling from a height, gives but a thread in his descent, by
which he retains communication with the point above, to which the thread
is attached. The motion of the line in an extended form through the water
being thus avoided, all the conditions of free descent are secured, and the
plummet will descend to the greatest depths, with a rapid and uniform
velocity. The depth is ascertained in the manner heretofore known as
Massey’s method, by a helix or curved blade, which is caused to revolve by
the motion of the apparatus through the water. Instead of Massey’s Indi-
cator, however, which, from its faulty construction, does not give accurate
results, Saxton’s Current Meter, a much more delicate instrument, has been
adopted to this purpose.

A specimen-tube is also used, differing somewhat from those now in use in
construction, but not in its essential points. The lower end of the line is
attached to the register and to the specimen-box, which weigh together only
two or three pounds, and as the line is hauled in from the bottom, it brings
up the register and specimen-box, leaving the plummet and attached case at
the bottom. Besides overcoming the principal difficulty in sounding, there
are other important advantages secured by this arrangement, which simplify,
rather than complicate, the problem. These are as follows:

First: There js no strain upon the line, in the descent, except from its own
weight, no matter to what depth or with what velocity the plummet may
descend. It is possible, therefore, to employ a very small line; a single
thread of silk may in fact be extended to the bottom of the ocean. This
permits of the use of a line which may be coiled compactly within a small
space, the strength of the tide being made just sufficient to insure its being
hauled in with safety, bringing up, at the same time, the specimen-box and
the register. The strain brought upon it, in hauling in, will depend upon
the velocity of the upward motion, which may be regulated accordingly.

Second: A rapid and uniform descent being secured, the indications of a
revolying register will be reliable, when attached to this plummet; while in
the present mode of sounding, the slow motion of descent at great depths,

‘enders such a mode of registering the depth uncertain and unreliable.

64 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Third: There being no strain upon the line in the descent, and the motion
being uniform, it is practicable to determine the depth by the time of descent,
making use of a small insulated wire as a sounding-line, and determining
the instant that the weight strikes the bottom by an electrical signal trans-
mitted through the line. An apparatus was devised as long since as the
year 1845, for ascertaining the moment when the weight strikes the bottom,
by electricity; but in the mode of sounding heretofore employed, no par-
ticular advantage would result from this, while the danger of breaking the
electric continuity is very great, owing to the strain brought upon the line
in the descent. And the plummet, as now used, descends with such a vary-
ing velocity, that, even with the time of descent given, no calculation will
give the depth. The method has therefore never been put in practice.
Whereas, in the method proposed, there is no strain upon the line in its
descent, and the plummet will fall through each successive hundred fathoms
in the same time; the time of descent will thus furnish a simple means of
calculating the depth. + :

In this process it will not be necessary to recover the line, and the time
required to sound the ocean at any point, need only be that required for the
plummet to sink to the bottom, moving with any velocity which may be
desired.

Many experiments have been made on the best method of coiling the line
so as to secure its uncoiling with certainty, and without the possibility of
strain upon the line, or the occurrence of a kink.

Much attention has also been given to the quality and size of line to be
used. Upon these points the practical working of the apparatus in a certain
degree depends; but, being merely mechanical questions, they are easily
settled.

The importance of the problem which is thus sought to be solved, in con-
nection with the survey of the coast, has never been questioned. A knowl-
edze of the configuration of the bottom of the sea, adjacent to the coast, is
necessary to the solution of many questions of importance to navigation
and to science, and especially that of the ruling feature of the Atlantic coast,
the Guif Stream. But besides these considerations, the question has become
one of great public interest, in connection with the laying of submarine tele-
graphs, the risk of such enterprises being diminished in proportion to the
accuracy with which the depth of the sea is known at every point of any
proposed line, and the ultimate practicability of such operations across the
Atlantic being yet to be demonstrated by new and more accurate soundings.

EXPERIMENTS WITH BELTING.

It has long been a question of great interest to-all who use belting to drive
machinery, whether leather or vulcanized rubber hugged the pulley the best,
and hence was less liable to slip. To satisfactorily determine this question,
Mr. J. H. Cheever, of New York, has instituted a series of experiments, by
means of a simple device of three pulleys, which we may designate as B, C,
and D, mounted on an axle or shaft in a frame. Pulley B was covered with
rubber; C was a polished iron pulley, such as is ordinarily used in machine-
shops; and D was covered with leather. In the first experiment, a leather
belt of good quality, three inches in diameter and seven feet long, was placed
over the pulley, with thirty-two pounds suspended from each end. Weights
were then added at one side until it began to slip over the pulley, and the
results were as follows:

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 65

by Leather belt on iron pulley slipped at 48 Ibs.
Mk «° leather ‘“ Cn RG Gt Tse
oe ue rubber “ es 158 lbs.

The next experiment was with vulcanized rubber. A three-ply belt of
the same diameter, length, and thickness as the leather one, was chosen,
and being loaded with thirty-two pounds to keep it “taut,” weights were
added, as in the former instance, and the result was as follows:

beleal ae belt on iron pulley slipped at 90 Ibs.
ty Teather“ se 128 Ibs.
“ tl) Porbbber s* ee 183 Ibs.

MINING ENTERPRISE.

The deepest coalpit in Great Britain, and probably in the world, has, after
nearly twelve years’ labor, during which some important mining problems
have been solved, been completed, and opened at Dunkinfield, Cheshire,
England. The shaft of this extraordinary pit is 6862 yards deep, and the
sinking of it has cost nearly £100,000. The undertaking was commenced in
1817, by Mr. Francis Astley, who is lord of the manor of Dunkinfield, a
township of 1263 acres in extent, and containing valuable beds of coal. By
September 1818, the shaft of the pit had been sunk 220° yards, when the
works were stopped by the tapping of a copious spring of water, which ren-
dered it necessary to put in pumps and drive a tunnel 80 yards long. In
about fourteen months this work was completed, and 43 yards added to the
depth of the pit. Shortly afterwards another spring was encountered, which
stopped the works three months. At the end of five years from the com-
mencement, a depth of 476 yards had been attained, — the last 165 yards hay-
ing occupied twenty-nine months, in consequence of the difficulties which
had to be overcome, the rock pierced through being very hard, and another
tunnel 400 yards long having had to be made. At this point the sinking of
the shaft was suspended for a time, and the mine was worked for coal; but
in 1857 it was determined to sink the shaft to the Black-mine, a further
depth of 2163 yards. Operations proceeded steadily, in the face of many
difficulties and discouraging predictions; but the enterprise was recently
successfully completed by the workmen winning the Black-mine, a fine seam
of coal 4 ft. 8; in. thick, and calculated to last thirty years at 500 tons per
day. In sinking the shaft, twenty-two workable seams of coal were passed
through, as well as eight other seams, varying from 1 to 6 feet thick, and in
the aggregate 105 feet in thickness. The shaft is generally 12 ft. 6 in. in di-
ameter, but near the bottom it expands to a diameter of 19 ft.2in. It is
lined with bricks 9 inches thick, with strong rings of stone at intervals of
S yards. At the bottom of the shaft is an incline nearly half a mile long.
The pit is fitted with very powerful machinery. Another shaft of the same
depth is sunk as an air draught. — London Times.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF CHEMICAL MANUFACTORIES ON ANIMAL
AND VEGETABLE HEALTH.

A recent inquiry on the above subject, instituted by the Belgian govern-
ment, merits attention. For some years, a notion had grown into a belief
that certain manufactories were prejudicial to health and vegetation; and so,
much disquiet arose thereupon, especially in the province of Namur, that

6*

66 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the governor reported it to the home department at Brussels. A commission
was appointed —two chemists and two botanists — who, commencing their
inquiry, pursued it carefully for several months, confining themselves to fac-
tories in whiclf sulphuric acid, soda, copperas, and chloride of lime were made.
The two chemists watched the processes, and noted the escape of gases from
the chimneys. They consider soda-factories to be the most noxious, and tall
chimneys more hurtful than short ones, because of the greater surface over
which they diffuse the vapors; and tall chimneys, by quickening the draught,
discharge gases which otherwise would be absorbed in the passage. Hence,
contrary to the commonly received opinion in this country, they hoid that
there is less dispersion of deleterious vapors with a short chimney than a tail
one.

The botanists, on their part, show, as might be anticipated, that the effect
on vegetation is most shown in the direction of the prevalent winds, and
more during rains and fogs than in clear weather. They establish beyond a
doubt the hurtful influence of smoke, due to the presence of hydrochloric
and sulphuric acid, and they find that the greatest distance at which the mis-
chief is observable is 2000 metres (a little over an English mile); the least,
660 metres. They enumerate thirty-four kinds of trees which appear to be
most susceptible of harm, beginning with the common hornbeam (Carpinus
Betulus), and ending with the alder; and between these two occur, in sequence,
beech, sycamore, lime, poplar, apple, rose,and hop. As regards the effect
on the health of men and animals, the commission find the proportion of
deaths per cent. to be lower now in the surrounding population than before
the factories were established: from 1 in 58 it has fallen to 1 in 66. One rea-
son for this improvement may consist in the better means of living arising
out of the wages earned in the factories. However, the commission wind up
their report with an assurance that health, either of men or horses, suffers
nothing from the factories, and vegetation so little, that farmers and graziers
may dismiss their fears, and the government refrain from interfering.

SCIENTIFIC VERSUS PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION.

The following testimony of Liebig as to his famous school at Giessen, is
worth considering in these days of schools of practical science. — Siiliman’s
Journal.

“The technical part of an industrial pursuit can be learned: principles
alone can be taught. To learn the trade of husbandry the agriculturist must
serve an apprenticeship to it: to inform his mind in the principles of the sci-
ence, he must frequent a school specially devoted to this object. It is impos-
sible to combine the two; the only practicable way is to take them up succes-
sively. I formerly conducted at Giessen a school for practical chemistry,
analysis, and other branches connected therewith, and thirty years’ experi-
ence has taught me that nothing is to be gained by the combination of
theoretical with practical instruction. It is only after having gone through
a complete course of theoretical instruction in the lecture-hall that the stu-
dent can with advantage enter upon the practical part of chemistry. He
must bring with him into the laboratory a thorough knowledge of the prin-
ciples of the science, or he cannot possibly understand the practical opera-
tions. If he is ignorant of these principles, he has no business in the labora-
tory. In all industrial pursuits connected with the natural sciences, in fact,
in all pursuits not simply dependent on manual dexterity, the developement
of the intellectual faculties by what may be termed school learning, consti-

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 67

tutes the basis and chief condition of progress, and of every improvement:
A young man with a mind well stored with solid scientific acquirements, will,
without difficulty or effort, master the technical part of an industrial pursuit;
whereas, in general, an individual who is thoroughly master of the technical
part may be altogether incapable of seizing upon any new fact that has not
previously presented itself to him, or of comprehending a scientific principle
and its application.” — Liebig, Letters on Modern Agriculture, edited by John
Blyth, M. D.

NOVEL GEOGRAPHICAL EXPOSITION.

A gentleman of Cumberland, England, has recently converted a level and
yerdant plain on his estate into a map of the world, of great and singular
interest. It really gives learners an expertness in geography, much be-
yond what they acquire from books and maps. The spot is about 300
yards in length, from east to west, and 180 in breadth, from north to south.
It is inclosed by a wall of dwarf dimensions. Thirty-six marks are made on
it (east and west), and eighteen on the north and south, fixing the degrees
of longitude and latitude at ten degrees, or 600 miles asunder. Four pieces
of oak timber are laid down, 30 feet long and 8 inches square, with holes at
the distance of 3 inches, or five miles from one another, — thus making 36
inches a degree, and comprising in ten a distance of 600 miles. The scales
afford an opportunity, by cross log lines, of determining particular towns
and cities, in the same manner as we operate with scale and compasses on
paper. The continents and islands are made of turf, the sea is gravel, and
the boundary is a border of box at particular places on this novel ocean of
gravel. Posts are set up, indicating trade-winds, currents, etc. — London
News.

CONSUMPTION OF GAS SMOKE.

A little invention for the prevention of gas smoke has recently been pa-
tented and introduced in London. It consists merely of an ornamental cir-
clet of metal, across which is stretched a sort of sieve of fine platina wire,
and it is intended to be placed as a cover on the top of the globe or chim-
ney. The result is most remarkable. The smoke appears to be instantly
annihilated, and the flame both increases in bulk and becomes brighter and
more clear. The photogenic improvement is stated to be from twenty-five
to thirty per cent. All effluvium from the gas is destroyed, and the discolor-
- ation of the ceiling and decorations of the room prevented by the use of
this simple apparatus. — London Literary Gazette.

PATENT GAS REGULATOR.

Mr. Herbert W. Hart, of Birmingham, England, gas engineer, has intro-
duced a method of regulating the pressure of gas in its transmission to gas
burners, by the introduction of a regulator in the main pipes through which
the gas passes, whereby a steady and nearly uniform pressure is maintained
at the burners, whatever may be the pressure from the source of supply.
This regulator consists of a chamber filled with fibrous material, so that the
gas in its passage must pass through or amongst the fibres. In preparing
this permeable fibrous body, the patentee takes layers of felt, or other fibrous
material, and makes up a suflicient thickness according to the initial pres- ~

68 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

sure of gas, the fibres being disposed transversely to the passage of the gas,
and held together by perforated or other porous plates. By means of suita-
ble connections between these porous plates, he causes the fibres to be com-
pressed more or Jess, according to the density of the body required, which
will also be according to the initial pressure of the gas. The fibrous mate-
rial being held somewhat loosely together, the pressure of the gas produces
this effect. The greater the initial pressure becomes, the more the fibres are
compressed together, rendering it more difficult for the gas to permeate.
Thus, by the self-action of the gas on the regulator, the exit pressure is regu-
lated and rendered uniform. In order to intercept the grosser impurities of
the gas before passing through the regulator, a little loose wool is placed be-
tween the ingress passage and the body of fibrous material before mentioned,
which latter also has a similar effect in filtering and purifying the gas. —
Mechanics’ Magazine, No. 1830.

BACHELDER’S COAL-OIL LAMP.

This lamp is designed for burning all kinds of coal oils without employing
the common glass chimney, and thus avoiding the expense of their breaking
and the inconvenience of the lamp getting out of order from that cause, and
also to obtain the greatest amount of illumination from the combustion of a
given amount of oil. The invention consists in the use of tapers or wick-
tubes, placed below and on both sides of a flat wick-tube or main illuminat-
ing burner, in combination with a suitable cap, thus supplying sufficient
oxygen completely to burn the oil without a chimney, and also without rais-
ing the cap so as to obscure a large portion of the flame. The lower part of
the cap is screwed upon the lamp in the usual manner. Above this is a retic-
ulated ring, for the purpose of admitting air under the wick-cap, which is
slotted at the top to fit a flat wick. This ring is removable for the purpose
of cleaning. By the contraction of the cap near the top, the air is concen-
trated upon the flame. Into the lower part of the cap are inserted the usual
wick-tube, and likewise two very small and short wick-tubes. By this ar-
rangement, the lamp, when trimmed and lighted, has a stronger draft on
account of the tapers in the short tubes; consequently the outer cap may be
lowered upon the main wick-tube, so that the illuminating flame is almost
entirely above the cap. In other lamps, where the draft is to be produced
by the wick-cap alone, it is necessary to elevate this cap, so as to give a con-
siderable volume of heated air in the upper part of the cap, in order to cre-
ate sufficient draft; but this elevation of the cap obscures more of the flame,
and lessens the illuminating power of the lamp. On the contrary, by the
usé of the small draft-lights, the top of the cap may be adjusted about half
an inch lower upon the illuminating burner without causing the lamp to
smoke; consequently it is practicable to secure a greater illuminating power
from a given amount of oil, and to dispense altogether with glass chimneys,
which are liable to break, difficult to keep clean, and otherwise objectiona-
ble. — Journal Franklin Institute, Oct. 1859.

NEW VENTILATOR.

A correspondent of the New York Jribune proposes a plan for ventilating
rooms warmed by stoves, which is as follows: Apply a vertical pipe to the
front of the chimney, into which the lower end should enter below the

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 69

stove-pipe, and the upper end approach within a few inches of the ceiling.
In its operation, the foul air from the top of the room rushes down and into
the chimney, to fill a partial vacuum occasioned by the draft from the stove-
pipe above. By applying a damper to the pipe, its capacity may be ad-
justed as desired.

THE NEW (ENGLISH) IRON STEAM RAM.

The following article, descriptive of a new engine for maritime warfare,
we copy from the London Times:

The recent battles in Italy, sanguinary as they have been, afford, after all,
but slight indications of the real progress which has been made in destruc-
tive branches of the art of war; and itis only when a naval engagement
takes place, that maritime powers will see, with dismay, the awful effects of
the weapons which science has placed in their hands. An engagement
between two hostile fleets, in the present day, would probably not last an
hour, for by that time two-thirds of all the ships engaged would be sunk or
blown up. The time when ships lay yard-arm to yard-arm, firing into one
another for a whole day, has gone by forever. It will be short and sharp
work now-a-days. It is a perfect knowledge of this fact, and a certainty
that wooden ships, after receiving one, or at most two, well-concentrated
broadsides, must sink immediately, that is leading maritime powers at the
present moment to see if science cannot devise some means for rendering
their ships invulnerable, at least fora time. But, while securing this object,
a still more awful element is introduced into the art of naval warfare, since
these iron-cased monsters are to be used not alone for defence, but forrunning
down and sinking by wholesale the vessels of the enemy.

The attempts to make iron shot-proof vessels have hitherto proved down-
right failures, both in the French and English navies. Efforts in this direc-
tion have therefore been discontinued, and the French emperor has set to
work to see if he cannot case large vessels with sufficient iron to give a fair
immunity from the effects of shot, whilst their prodigious strength and
weight may be turned to awful account in running down opposing first-rates.
The idea was a good one; but it went no further than an idea, as, instead of
building ships specially constructed for the purpose, the two vessels which
the emperor is now, with such vain secrecy, having coated with iron plates,
are old sailing three-deckers, which can never carry a sufficient weight of
iron to answer the purpose, and which, even when fitted with machinery,
will never, it is said, attain a rate of more than four or five knots an hour, or
so. The English Government have very wisely determined to adopt a dif-
ferent plan, and to build a wrought-iron vessel of immense size, strength,
and steam power, specially adapted as a vessel of war, and for running down
ships of the largest kind, not even excepting the Great Eastern itself. The
contract for this tremendous engine of modern war has been taken by the
Thames Iron Ship-building Company, and sufficient progress has been made
with the iron work to be used in her, to make certain that she will be afloat
and fitting for sea by June 1860. Her dimensions will be: extreme length,
380 feet; breadth, 58 feet; depth, 41 feet 6 inches; and her tonnage no less
than 6177 tons. The weight of the empty hull will be 5700 tons. The
engines are to be by Penn & Sons, of 1250 horse power; and of these we
shall give a description on another occasion. Their weight, with boilers,
will be 950 tons. She will carry 950 tons of coal, and her armament, masts,

70 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

stores, etc., will amount to 1100 tons more. Thus, at sea, her total weight
will be 9000 tons, which will be driven, when so wanted, through the water
against an enemy’s ship at the rate of sixteen miles an hour. It is difficult,
by mere description, to give an adequate idea of the tremendous strength
with which this vessel is to be built. The keel, or rather the portion to
which the ribs are bolted, is made of immense slabs of wrought scrap iron,
an inch and a quarter thick, and three feet six inches deep.

From this spring the ribs, massive wrought-iron T-shaped beams, which
are made in joints about five feet long by two deep, up to where the armor-
plates begin, five fect below the water-line. These'beams are only three feet
eight inches apart, while, for a distance of ten feet on each side of the keel,
they are bolted in at only half this distance asunder. Five feet below the
water-line the armor-plates commence, and, to give room for these, the depth
of the rib diminishes to about half, or nine inches. Over the ribs, and cross-
ing transversely, are bolted beams of teak, a foot and a half thick; and out-
side of these again come the armor-plates. Each of these plates is to be
fifteen feet long by four feet broad, and four and a half inches thick. Sey-
eral of them have been made, by the company, of puddled iron, of annealed
scrap iron, and of scrap iron unannealed: and experiments are now being
made at Portsmouth, with a view of testing practically which best with-
stands the tremendous attack of 68-pounders. It is almost needless to say
that each plate is the very perfection of material and manufacture. These
ponderous slabs go up to the level of the upper deck. The orlop deck will
be of wood, and twenty-four feet above the keel. The main deck will be of
iron, cased with wood, and nine feet above the orlop. The upper deck will
also be of wrought iron, and seven feet nine inches above the main. All the
decks are carried on wrought-iron beams of the most powerful description,
to which both the ribs and iron decks are bolted; while along the whole
length of the vessel, from stem to stern, are immensely solid wrought-iron
beams, at intervals of five feet inside the ribs, which are again crossed by
diagonal bands, tying the whole together in a perfect network.

The armor-plates are not intended to shield the whole vessel, only the
fighting portion— about 220 feet of the broadside — being thus protected.
This broadside, however, will mount fourteen of the Armstrong 100-pound
guns, which, with two broadside-guns on the upper deck, and two pivot-guns
of the same kind forward, and two aft, will give her a total armament of
thirty-six guns, each throwing 100-pound shot over a range of nearly six
miles. Neither the bows nor stern have any of the large armor-plates,
but are coated with wrought-iron plates of nearly one inch and a half thick,
over two feet of teak, which will offer sufficient resistance to prevent most
shots from going through. But, to compensate for this apparent deficiency,
both bows and stern are so crossed and recrossed in every direction with
water-tight compartments, that it is a matter of perfect indifference whether
they get riddled or not; and each of these ends are shut off from the engine-
room and fighting portion of the ship by continuous massive wrought-iron
transverse bulkheads;—so that, supposing it possible that both stem and
stern could be shot away, the centre of the vessel would remain as complete
and impenetrable as ever, still offering, in all, twenty-four inches of teak
coated with five inches of wrought iron to every shot. -But both stem and
stern are built, inside, of such immense strength, that coating with armor-
plates would be almost superfluous. The bows, at the spot where the whole
shock must be received in running down ships, are, inside, a perfect web of

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. ra:

iron work, strengthened back to the armor-plates with no less than eight
wrought-iron decks, an inch thick, and crossed and recrossed in all ways
and methods with diagonal bracings and supports. In the design sent into
the Admiralty by the Thames Shipbuilding Company, the shape of the bows
was made exactly after the outline of the neck and breast of a swan when
swimming. Thus the point that would strike an enemy’s vessel was the
breast, which was placed under the water-line.

In the Admiralty model, according to which the “‘ ram” is to be built, the
bows form an obtuse angle, the point of which is just level with the water,
receding back at a rather sharp slope, both above and below it. This pecu-
liar shape, however, will be concealed under the usual figure-head and for-
ward gear, with a light artificial cut-water of wood; so that, apparently, the
vessel will be an ordinary frigate of the largest size. The Admiralty, no
doubt, intend by these devices to disguise her real character; but we need
hardly point out how utterly futile such an attempt would be. The very idea
of attempting to conceal the real purpose of a vessel so remarkable, and the
only one of its kind afloat, seems absurd. Coming up into action with other
first-rates in line of battle, no doubt she would pass muster unobserved; but
under such circumstances, even if as well known to the enemy as to the
English, the knowledge would avail nothing to the former. Once a general
engagement was commenced, the “‘ram’”’ would be able to pursue her mis-
sion of destruction by running into the sterns of the enemy’s vessels almost
without hinderance. When such is avowedly her purpose, it seems, to say
the least, unwise to cumber her with the masts and rigging of a line-of-battle
ship. The shock of striking the first vessel would bring down all her masts
by the board like reeds, and leave the ram’s decks so encumbered with
wreck as might even render her almost useless for further efforts. The mode
in which she attacks will be to run straight at the enemy, taking him in the
stern or quarter, all the men retiring to the stern to avoid injury from falling
spars. When about half the vessel’s length from the enemy, the engines are
to be stopped, and the engineers stand by to reverse the engines, in order to
clear her from the wreck of her antagonist, before the latter goes down. It
is calculated that, striking a line-of-battle ship in the stern, the ram would
sink her within three minutes. The bowsprit will, we believe, be telescopic,
in order to be housed on board, with the anchors, before striking the enemy,
that there may be no chance of becoming entangled with the wreck of the
sinking vessel. It has, however, yet to be explained how she is to get rid of
her own masts and spars, and, above all, what precautions will be adopted
to prevent the rigging fouling her screw. The cost of the hull will be about
£200,000, and her engines about £75,000, and her fittings for sea about
£45,000 more, or £320,000 in all.

VULNERABILITY OF IRON PLATES.

A series of experimental trials have been recently carried on at Portsmouth,
England, with a view of ascertaining the amount of resistance offered by
iron and steel plates, when opposed to heavy ordnance at a short range. The
practice was made both from a 32-pounder and a 95-cwt. gun, the latter
throwing a solid 68-pound shot, with sixteen pounds charge of powder, —
the distance of range 200 yards. At this distance, the results of the ex-
periments have demonstrated, in the clearest possible manner, that no iron
or steel plate that has yet been manufactured, can withstand the solid shot

72 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC: DISCOVERY.

from the 95-ewt gun, ata short range. The first shot would not penetrate
through the iron plate, but it would fracture it, and on three or four striking
the plate in the same place, or in the immediate neighborhood, it would
smash to pieces. As the results of the trial affected the steel plates, it proved
that a steel-clothed ship could be far more easily destroyed than a wooden-
sided one, and that on the smashing in of one of the steel plates, the
destruction of life on the armed ship’s decks, supposing the broken plate to
be driven through the ship’s side, would be something dreadful to contem-
plate, from the spread of splintered material. At from 600 to 800 yards,
iron-clothed ships would be in comparative safety from the effects of an
enemy’s broadside. But it must be borne in mind that the effects of concen-
trated firing have yet to be ascertained on the sides of an iron or steel
clothed ship; and account also must be taken of the damage the wood-work
forming the inner sides of such a ship would receive from the driving in of
the broken plates, and which, so far as the present experiments have illus-
trated, would appear to prove that an iron or steel clad ship, on receiving a
concentrated broadside from a frigate armed in a similar manner to the
Mersey, and struck near her water-line, must sink then and there, with her
armor on her back. .

JAMES’S RIFLED CANNON AND PROJECTILE.

A new projectile, invented by Hon. Charles T. James, of Rhode Island,
and which is intended to be used in connection with a rifled cannon, is a cast-
iron cylinder, surmounted by a solid conical (canoid) head. The diameter
of the cylinder is ‘02 of an inch less than the bore of the gun; its length is
nearly equal to the calibre of the gun; while the length of its conical head
is about one inch greater than that of the cylinder. The cylinder retains its
full diameter for a quarter of an inch of its length at each end; then, for its
intermediate length, its diameter is shortened one-half an inch, forming a
recess in its body, which loss of diameter and external surface of the cylin-
der is replaced by a compound filling of canvas, sheet-tin, and lead.

The rings at the end of the cylinder, formed by shortening its diameter,
constitute the bearings of the projectile, when introduced into the gun for
loading. The solidity of the canoid is continued into, and thereby forms the
solid portion of, the head of the cylinder. The base of the cylinder has a
central cavity or opening of 1°95 inches in diameter, which extends into the
body 1°5 inches, and from which (like mortises in the hub of a wheel for
spokes) there are eight rectangular openings, enlarging as they approach the
circumference, in the recess of the body of the cylinder.

When the charge is fired, the gas evolved by the burning powder, in its
effort to expel the projectile and to escape from the gun, is forced into the
cavity and through the rectangular openings against the compound filling,
which is thereby pressed into the grooves of the bore, and by its firm hold
in them, the rifle-motion is imparted to the projectile. The canvas and tin,
in the order named, constitute the exterior of the filling, and are moulded
in the recess to the body of the cylinder. This is done by enveloping with
canvas the strip of tin, which must be equal in length to the greater circum-
ference of the cylinder, and in width equal to the length of its recess. The
strip of tin, when covered with canvas, is formed around the cylinder op-
posite the recess, and firmly secured there by an iron collar clamp, after
which the space between its inner surface and the body of the cylinder is

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 73

filled with melted lead, which, readily adhering to the tin and iron, forms
a compact mass in the recess around the cylinder body.

The following are some of the results of practice with an ordinary six-
pound gun (rifled, 15 grooves, and carrying the new projectile), recently
made at Chicopee, Mass., under the direction of a Board of Officers attached
to the Ordnance Department of the United States army, Major W. A.
Thornton, chairman.

The gun was first placed at a distance of 674 yards from the target. The
quantity of powder used at each firing was one and one-fourth pounds, the
service charge for a six-pound round ball, while the weight of the new pro-
jectile was over 12} pounds. Eighteen shots were fired at a cloth target four
feet square, fastened on a board frame eight feet square. The shots varied
from the centre, from three and one-half inches to four feet, fourteen of
them entering the boards. The gun was carried back to 867 yards, or nearly
half a mile from the target, elevated at such an angle as should carry a six-
pound round ball to the centre of the target, and fired. The shot passed
over the top of the board frame at an elevation of about twenty feet, cut off
four pine trees (one six inches in diameter) without deviating apparently
from a direct line, and was lost. This shows the greater range of shot from
rifled guns. This charge of one and a fourth pound of powder would carry,
by calculations in engineering, a round shot of six pounds weight to the tar-
get, and no more; but in this case, a shot of more than double weight goes
over the target at such a height and force as to probably double the distance
to the target. The gun was then lowered, and five shots fired, two of which
entered the board within about two feet of the centre. A twelve-pound
rifled gun was then placed in the same position (867 yards distant), and
nineteen shots fired. Five of these entered the board at from three and a
half to four feet of the centre. Great difficulties were encountered in arriv-
ing at exactness, inasmuch as the guns had no sights perfectly adapted to
them.

At a subsequent trial, with the same weight of powder, projectile, and gun
as in the first described experiments, a range of at least three and one-half
miles was attained; beyond this point the course of the ball was lost; but
the entire range was supposed to be as great as four and one-half to five
miles. A like result, with the same conditions of powder and weight of
projectile, has probably never been equalled.

In a report on the above experiment, officially submitted to the Secretary
of War, the Board say:

“The depth of the grooving in Mr. James’s gun is so shallow, as in no
case to materially impair the strength of the gun, while it is sufficient to
firmly hold the projectile and compel it to take the rifle flight. The perfora-
tion of the largest in all instances, and the obtaining of the projectiles after
firing, freely indicate that they invariably impinged point foremost; and
farther, in having one imbedded in damp earth, its spiral motion was plainly
indicated in the sand to the close of the flight. The grasp of the rifling is
further shown by the increased range obtained while using the same charge
of powder and elevation, in projecting masses of double the weight of the
usual spherical balls. The merits of the projectiles consist in their answer-
ing fully the expectations desired of them—their ready fabrication and
adaptation to guns, their ease of loading, as it required but little more force
to send the projectile to the bottom of the bore than is needed to move a
body of like weight ona smooth surface; the certainty of the expansion of

rs

74 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the filling, and its firm, true hold in the grooves of the gun; the greased
canvas wipes the rifling clean, and leaves the bore in a condition to receive
readily the next charge, and which is also a sure protection to the bore
from injury in loading, and when the gun is discharged. These conditions
commend the guns and projectiles to the favorable consideration of the
government.”

THE ARMSTRONG GUN.

The “Armstrong rifled cannon,” which has excited so much attention
during the past year, and which has been adopted by the British Govern-
ment, is constructed as follows: Each gun is made in about three-feet
lengths, and on much the same principle as the twisted gun barrels. Thin
bars of the best wrought iron, about two inches broad, are heated to a white
heat, and in this state twisted and welded together in spiral rolls round a
steel bar or core, smaller in diameter than the bore of the gun. Over this,
when cold, another twist of the same kind is made, with the spiral running
in a contrary direction, and so until three or four layers have been put on,
according to the calibre of the gun and the thickness required. The whole
is then reheated and welded together for the last time, under the steam ham-
mer. The edges of the three-feet lengths are next planed down so as te ad-
mit their joining and lapping over, and over these edges are forced on thick
wrought-iron rings, which, being welded down at a white heat, of course
contract so as to make the joint almost stronger than if made in one piece.
In the breech an opening is cut down into the chamber, but the breech itself
is separate from the gun, and is worked backwards by a powerful screw.
When the gun is to be loaded, the breech is worked back, and a wedge-shaped
piece, fitting into the opening of the gun, lifted out, but not to admit the
introduction of the charge, which is pushed forward with a ramrod at the
back, working through the large screw in which the breech turns into the
chamber, where the rifling begins. The wedge is then replaced, the breech
screwed close by a single turn of the lever handle, and the gun fired. The
operation of loading and firing can be performed, we believe, three times in
one minute. Apart from the simple but effective mechanism of the breech,
the great merit of this gun consists in the manner in which it is formed in
spirals of metal bands, which give it such an enormous increase of strength
that one-half the thickness of iron can be dispensed with. Thus, an ordi-
nary long thirty-two-pounder weighs 57 cwt., and requires 10 lbs. of powder
to throw a ball to its utmost effective range, 3000 yards. Sir W. Armstrong’s
thirty-two-pounder only weighs 26 cwt., and a charge of 5 lbs. of powder
throws its shot 5? miles, or nearly 10,000 yards. In a thirty-two-pounder of
this latter kind there are no less than forty-four rifle grooves, having one
pitch in ten feet, or making one complete twist round the inside in a gun of
that length. A greater pitch would no doubt give greater impetus to the
shot, but the risk of ‘‘stripping”’ the lead was so great that it could not be
attempted. The shot used are iron, and cylindrical, and at first were com-
pletely coated over with lead; but this plan has just been altered, and the
shot have now only two rings of lead 4 inch thick, and 14 inches broad, one
at the shoulder and one at the base of the cone. Both these rings are dove-
tailed, so to speak, into the iron shot, so as to leave about one-tenth of an
inch to fit the rifling. Thus, when the cartridge is ignited, the ball is forced
forward from the chamber into the narrow bore, which it fits so closely,

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. Pei,

being actually too large for it, that there is no windage whatever, and every
portion of the explosive force is applied to projecting the ball. The gun on
which the government experimented for months before adopting it, was
actually fired 3500 times, and was then returned as still serviceable.

In a speech made by the inventor at a banquet given in his honor, at New-
castle, England, he describes some peculiarities of the gun as follows: The
projectile for field purposes admits of being used indifferently either as solid
shot or shell, or common case or canister. It is composed of separate pieces,
bound together so compactly that the shell has been fired through a solid
mass of oak timber nine feet in thickness, without sustaining a fracture.
When used as a shell it divides into forty-nine separate regular pieces, and
into about one hundred indefinite and irregular pieces. It combines the
principle of the shrapnel and percussion shell. It either explodes as it ap-
proaches or as it strikes the object. The percussion arrangement is, that
the shell, while in the hands of a friend, is so safe and quiescent that it may
be thrown off the top of a house without exploding; but when among
enemies, it is so sensitive and so mischievous that the slightest touch will
cause it to explode.

The reason of this is, that the shock which the projectile sustains in the
act of firing puts the percussion arrangement from half to full cock, and it
then becomes so delicate that a shell has been exploded by being fired
against a bag of shavings. Moreover, the fuse may be so arranged that the
shell explodes at the instant of leaving the muzzle. In that case, the pieces
spread out like a fan, and act as grape shot.

Two targets, nine feet square, were placed at a distance of 1500 yards from
the gun, and seven shells fired at them; the effect of these seven shells was,
that the two targets were struck in 596 places, and with so much force that
although one of the targets was three inches thick, it was riddled through
and through with the fragments. Similar effects were produced at much
longer distances, extending in some cases to 3000 yards. I leave you to con-
ceive what would be the effect of these projectiles in making an enemy keep
his distance. For breaching purposes, or for blowing up buildings, or for
ripping a hole in the side of a ship, a shell of a different construction is used.

FRENCH RIFLED CANNON.

The rifled cannon introduced by Napoleon III., and used with such effect
in the recent battles in Italy, were of bronze, loaded at the muzzle, and of
two calibres, 12 for siege, 4 for field guns.

They each have six twisted rifles, the rifles being about an inch wide and
the third of an inch deep. In the bottom there is a narrow chamber to re-
ceive the powder, like the carbine of Delavigne, and like the old shell-guns,
still in use in the French artillery. The projectile rests on the border of this
chamber. This projectile is of a cylindro-spherical form, resembling the ball
of the infantry; is in iron, and is hollow and conical, like the latter. The
cylindrical base of the bullet is pierced in six places, and into these six drills
are introduced as many plugs of pewter. It is these six pieces of pewter,
placed in the circumference of the base of the ball, and corresponding to
the six rifles of the gun, which perform the important duty of “ slugging.”
They are forced into the rifles by the explosion of the powder, and thus give
to the bullet the precision and the force of the carbine ball.

Sometimes the projectiles are filled with balls, and are made to explode at

76 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

a given distance. To effect this, the match, which is in communication in the
interior of the projectile with the fulminating material, is marked exteriorly
With various figures, indicating the distance to which it will carry before ex-
ploding. The match is cut according to the desired distance at which the
gunner wishes to throw the ball — at 400 or 600 yards, or further... The ram-
mer of the cannon is hollow at its base, so as to embrace the conical head of
the projectile, the same as the ramrod of the baile-a-tige or Minié guns. The
“sight” is mobile, and is fixed in the right of the cannon. The distance to
which these guns will carry with precision is 2600 metres; the total distance
to which they carry is 4500 metres. (The metre is 39 37-100 inches — a little
more than a yard.)

The effects of this new artillery upon masonry is illustrated in the following
report of experiments made at Vincennes, in 1858. Two similar heavy
blocks of masonry having been chosen, a battery of 25 (old plan) was
mounted before the first at 36 yards, the usual distance for making a
breach. A battery of 12 (new plan) was placed before the other at about
double that distance — namely, 77 yards. It required half the number of
shot from the new cannon to make as wide a breach as was made by the old
one. The balls entered the masonry 32 inches deep, and then exploded,
throwing off large cones. The charge of the new cannon was 2 Ibs. 10
ounces of powder; the charge of the old one was 18 lbs.

NOVELTIES IN WAR IMPLEMENTS.

Mailet’s 36-inch Mortars. — These gigantic mortars were described in the
Annual of Scientific Discovery for 1858, page 87. Since then additional trials
have been made with them at Woolwich, England. In the first instance, a
charge of 50 lbs. of powder was used, which obtained a range of about 340
yards to each 10 Ibs. of powder. A minute examination of the wedges,
keys, rings, etc., having been made, and pronounced “all right,’ a second
charge of 60 lbs. of powder, etc., was introduced. The second round, like
the first, was highly successful, the range in this instance exceeding 2600
yards, the shell alighting beyond the butt, in a ditch which separates the
marsh from the adjoining property, and creating a tremendous eruption of
water, black earth, etc. According to the prescribed arrangement of adding
10 lbs. of powder to each successive charge, the third round contained 70 lbs. ;
and although the monster gun had stood the first two rounds well, an addi-
tional degree of caution was observed by every one present to stand clear of
its proximity the instant the match was ignited. The effect of the third
round was less successful, as one of the steel cotters broke asunder, and was
rendered useless; but as the former experiments had shown the necessity of
being provided against a similar casualty, the broken key was replaced, with
some slight delay, by a second, wrought of malleable cast iron, supposed to
be more durable. The mortar was then reloaded with an 80 Ib. charge, and
fired, with apparent success — the shell again mounting high in the air, and
taking a flight over 2758 yards, considerably exceeding a mile and a half.
The elevation of the mortar was frequently varied, and was ultimately re-
duced from 48 deg. 30 min. to 45 deg. At this stage of the proceedings it
was found impossible to carry on the experiments, as one of the mainstays
intended to secure the various segments constituting the barrel of the mor-
tar was broken, and one of the principal wedges or cotters, a foot and a half
in length, had escaped.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 77

New War Missile. — Experiments have been recently made at Portsmouth,
England, for the purpose of testing the practicability of charging hollow shot
with molten iron, and discharging the same from ship’s ordnance. The effects
of these globes of liquid metal striking a ship, are supposed to be, that they
would break, and, scattering the liquid metal on the wood-work of the ship,
at once set her on fire. In the experiments in question, a furnace was fitted
on the Colossus, an eighty-gun screw steamer, which proved capable of
supplying, without any difficulty, fully one ton of molten iron per hour.
The hollow iron shot were filled from this furnace, and then conveyed in an
iron bucket to a boat, which pulled aboard the practice-ship Excellent. The
average time from the metal being run off from the furnace until the missile
left the mouth of the gun on its errand of destruction, was six minutes. To
ascertain the effects of the practice, it was, of course, necessary that the shot
should effect a lodgment in the object fired at; but this was found, from the
rotten state of the hulk fired at, and the short range, — eight hundred yards,
—to be a matter of too great difficulty. Ten shots were fired altogether,
two of which burst; but the metal inside of them had lost too much of its
liquidity, from the length of time it had been drawn from the furnace, to pro-
duce the effects intended in its liquid state.

Italian Infernal Machines. —The machines used by the Italian conspirators,
in their diabolical attempt upon the life of the Emperor Napoleon in 1857,
were constructed as follows: — Each consisted of a hollow iron cylinder,
about four inches long and two and a half inches in diameter, divided into
two transversely, and terminated at each end by a hemispherical cover.
One of these covers was nearly an inch thick, and pierced with twenty-five
apertures, over which fulminating caps were placed on the exterior. The
other cover was considerably lighter, in order that when the missile was
thrown from a window or elsewhere, the explosive end might with certainty
strike the earth. *The cylinder and covers were coated with bronze-color
paint, to conceal the brightness of the metal. The cylinder was filled with
fulminate of mercury, or some explosive substance of equal intensity, in
consequence of which the murderous manufacturers had taken great precau-
tions in charging them. Instead of screwing the two parts of the cylinder
together, which might have been dangerous, they merely placed one part
within the other, and soldered round the joint on the outside. Other eareful
arrangements were also adopted. The explosive force of these terrible mis-
siles may be conjectured from the fact, that the fulminating powder em-
ployed is fifty times more powerful in its effects than common gunpowder.
— Mechanics’ Magazine, No. 1799.

Dennet’s Improvement in Bayonets. — An improvement in the form of bayo-
nets, and the mode of fitting and using them, devised by Mr. Dennet, of
London, consists in forming bayonets of a lozenge, rhomboidal, or elliptic
section, the sides of which forms may be grooved out; and bayonets so
formed, instead of being used upon the musket, carbine, or rifle, as hereto-
fore, are so fixed that the sharp edge is coincident with the longitudinal axis
of the arm. The practice has heretofore been to expose one of the flat or
grooved faces of the bayonet to the line of discharge, or flight of the bullet;
this has been found extremely prejudicial to correct firing when the bayonet
is fixed; as, from the reaction of the explosive force of the powder between
the concave, or flat surface of the bayonet and the ball, the latter is caused
to diverge from the correct line of flight.

7*

78 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

NEW PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNPOWDER.

At the recent Cornwall Midsummer Sessions, an application was made on
the part of Mr. Thomas Davey, one of the firm of Messrs. Bickford, Smith,
& Davey, patent safety-fuse manufacturers, Tuckingmill, for a license to
erect a gunpowder mill and magazine at a place called West Towan, in the
parish of logan. Mr. Davey, on being asked what were the advantages of
the powder he proposed to manufacture, replied: “Perhaps I shall best do
this by reading to you the provisional specification: — ‘The improvements
in blasting-powder consist, first, in the employment of flour, bran, starch,
or other glutinous or starchy matter, to replace a part of the charcoal now
employed in the manufacture of powder; second, in a new mode of graining
the same. By the substitution of the above-named, the component parts are
formed into a paste, and are easily combined and grained without danger of
explosion.’ Gunpowder in present use is manufactured from certain propor-
tions of nitrate of potash, sulphur and charcoal, which, by the dangerous
process of trituration, are intimately combined; the mixture is afterwards
pressed into cakes, dried, and then broken into grains of different sizes, ac-
cording to the use for which the powder is destined. In our process, instead
of grinding the powder, the nitrate of soda or potash is dissolved in sufficient
water to make a thick paste of the whole, and it is thus kneaded, to make it
homogeneous. It is then rolled into cakes, and cut into grains; or, while in
a paste, pressed through a perforated or wire sieve, with apertures or holes
of the size of the grain to be produced. The matter falls on endless canvas,
which is put slowly in motion, and passes on through a drying-room, bear-
ing with it a thin covering of the blasting composition divided in strings or
long grains by the sieve, and after being dried, it is passed between two roll-
ers, Which break it into grains of a convenient size.”

Mr. J. J. Rogers: “ Then you consider there is no danger of explosion, the
composition being wet?” Mr. Davey: “ Not the slightest. We use 30 per
cent. of water.”

Mr. Rogers: “How do you prevent the coagulation of the wet particles
after they have fallen down from the sieve?” Mr. Davey: “ By keeping the
canvas moving; but should there still be a slight connection between the
particles, it is broken on being passed through the wooden rollers, after the
composition is dried.”

Mr. Reynolds: ‘“‘ What difference is there in the appearance of your pow-
der and the powder manufactured by the old process?”? Mr. Davey: “ Ours
is very like gunpowder-tea in appearance: it has no gloss.”

Messrs. Freeman & Sons, granite contractors, had tried the new powder,
and found that it possessed qualities superior to other blasting-powder, ac-
complishing all that was done by the latter at a saving of 37 per cent. in
weight.

Captain N. Vivian, of Condurrow, said that he weighed the new powder
before testing, and found that the same quantity in bulk weighed 33 per cent,
less. He had six holes bored in very hard granite, and charged with powder,
putting no more into them than he should have done of the old powder, and
in every case it acted satisfactorily.. It emitted much less smoke than the old
powder, which in blasting a mine was a matter of very great importance.
If it were sold at the same price in weight as the old powder, it would, of
course, be much cheaper, as it was much lighter.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 79

In answer to Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Davey said that the powder would be
rather cheaper than that now used, as less nitre was employed in its manu-
facture, and the process was quicker. The Chairman said the Court would
grant the application.

The Mining Journal, from which we take these particulars, observes :—
“We understand a vast number of experiments have been made (with Mr.
Davey’s powder), and from the testimony of the leading managers, it ap-
pears certain that a saving of at least one-third in the expense will be
effected. It is less dangerous than ordinary powder, produces very little
smoke, and that of a less pungent kind than usual, not only enabling the mi-
ner to work in close places without the delay consequent on smoke, but
ereatly diminishing the unhealthy effects of it in the mines.— London En-
gineer.

THE IRON MANUFACTURE OF THE UNITED STATES.

From a statistical summary given by Mr. J. P. Lesley in his ‘Tron Manu-
fucturers’ guide to the furnaces, forges, and rolling-mills of the United States,”
we derive the following information respecting the iron manufacture in the
United States:

The entire production of raw metal in the United States in 1856, was a lit-
tle over eight hundred thousand tons (812,917), being an increase of 12 per
cent. from 1854. For the year 1856 the whole iron production advanced only 6
per cent. over the previous year, but the anthracite branch of the manufacture
reached the aggregate of 394,509 tons, being nearly one-half the whole iron
product of the country, and showing an increase of thirteen per cent. over the
previous year, a fact to be explained by the conversion of charcoal furnaces
into anthracite furnaces. The industry naturally tends to concentrate itself
about the geological centre of fuel in Pennsylvania, a fact shown by the de-
cline of this branch of the iron industry outside of Pennsylvania by an an-
nual rate of over six per cent., which raises the Pennsylvania anthracite
increase to over twenty-two per cent.

The grand total of iron of all kinds, domestic and foreign, used in the Uni-
ted States in 1856, is set down at 1,330,548 tons, which it distributed thus:

Domestic. Foreign. Total.

Rolled and hammered, 519,081 298 275 817,856
Pig iron, 337,154 55,403 892,557
856,235 353,678 1,209,913

which results give 70 per cent. domestic to 30 per cent. foreign iron. The great
facts demonstrated by the statistics collected by the American Iron Associa-
tion are, that we have nearly 1200 efficient iron works in the United States,
producing annually about 850,000 tons of iron, the value of which, in an ordi-
nary year, is fifty millions of dollars, of which the large sum of $35,009,000 is
expended for labor alone.

Mr. Whitney, in his Metallic Wealth of the United States, estimates the iron
product of the world at 5,817,000 tons, of which 1,000,000 are set down for the
United States, Great Britain producing that year 3,000,000. When we remem-
ber that, so late as 1815, the total product of the United States in iron had not
reached half a million tons (486,000), and that in 1850 it was only 600,000
tons, it will be seen that the progress in this important industry, in the first’

80 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

six years of this decade, has been at the rate of over twenty per centum per
annum. The operation of this law of increase will soon, it would seem, put
an end to all importation of iron, and points even to an export of this great
staple at no distant day. Thestock and variety of iron ores and coal in the
United States is such as seems adequate to meet the demands of the world, as
fast as the laws of commerce will permit their development.

ENAMEL WITHOUT LEAD, ON BAR AND SHEET IRON.—BY M.
PLEISCHL.

The author gives two recipes for the enamel, viz.:

(1) (2)
Silica, from 39 to 50 parts. Quartz, from 30 to 50 parts.
Flint, e10 toa Granite, cor 20 tOna0 ss
Kaolin, Fe ONtOTZO es Borax, ce LOMO On ee
Pipe clay, ee Stoi6g * Glass, ee 6tol0 *
Chalk, ee 6tol1d ‘ Magnesia, £o eal Oltosto mas
Pulverized porcelain, “ 5tol5 “* Feldspar, i HAAG
Boracic acid, * 90to40 * Effloresced carb. soda,“* 10to20 *
Nitre, om) 2* Lime, Oo) tg see
Gypsum, “ 2 to) 16 Sulphate of Baryta, ‘“ 2to S$ a
Fluor-spar, ue 8tol0d ¢

Each of these substances to be powdered separately as fine as possible,
mixed carefully, and fused into an enamel; this is again ground, and applied
to the objects, which are then furnaced. The proportions indicated may vary
very much with the different kinds of utensils which are to receive it. The
coat should be thin, otherwise it will crack in heating or cooling, and the ob-
jects coated should be cooled as slowly as possible, so as to prevent the
enamel from shrinking irregularly and cracking. — Buil. Soc. Encour. de V In-
dus. Nat. ( Paris.)

BRONZE OF ALUMINUM.— LETTER OF M. CHRISTOFLE TO M.
DUMAS.

We have applied the aluminum-bronze to two uses for which its qualities
of hardness and tenacity appear usefully applicable, and success has an-
swered our attempt. The first is the manufacture, in this bronze, of axle-
bearings, and rubbing surfaces for machines. We give as examples:

First, an axle-box which was placed on a polishing-lathe, making 2200
turns per minute; it lasted for nearly eighteen months; other boxes in the
same condition do not last over three months.

Second, a carriage for a circular saw, making 240 turns per minute, which
has lasted for a year without any apparent trace of wear: the carriages in
common bronze do not last more than four months.

The second application is the employment of this bronze in the manufac-
ture of guns of all kinds. We made a pistol-barrel, which, after having been
tried at Paris, was afterwards at the Exhibition at Dijon. It underwent the
tests in presence of the jury, and answered perfectly our expectations. We
are aware that these experiments cannot be conclusive as to its application
for artillery ; but the comparative experiments which we have made with this
metal, bronze, iron, and steel, have shown the immense superiority over
those different metals.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 81

The bars may be worked hot, as easily as the best quality of steel. — Acad-
emy of Sciences of Paris.

(The bronze here spoken of, is formed of 90 or 95 parts of copper, and 10
or 15 parts of aluminum.)

SILVER IN BELLS.

The public have heard more or less about the liberal use of silver in bell-
metal, and how some apocryphal bells are supposed to contain at least half
their weight of this precious alloy, a myth in which many people persist
in believing even down to the present day. But silver is not a sonorous
metal; and from experiments made with standard silver bells, it has been
shown, beyond dispute, that they have very little sound, and that little, too,
is of the harshest and most unmusical kind. With a view of definitely test-
ing the effect of a slight admixture of silver upon the tone of a bell, Messrs.
Mears made four very small ones of the same metal as the great bell for the
Westminster clock. In one of these, 1s. 6d. worth of silver was put, in
another 1s. worth, in the third 6d. worth, and in the fourth none. The mis-
chievous effects of even this slight quantity of silver were here clearly shown;
for that which had the least amountin it was the least injured in tone, and
that which had none was the best sounding bell of all. — London Times.

DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS OF RED LEAD UPON IRON.

Mr. Robert Lamont, who was, a few months back, requested by the man-
agers of one of the largest steam packet companies in the kingdom to make
a report on the merits of certain compositions used to a large extent in Liv-
erpool for the preservation of iron ships,-and to prevent fouling on the bot-
toms of such vessels, has come to the conclusion, so far as regards the use
of red lead, or paints containing lead, quite at variance with the popular
notion upon the subject, by declaring the use of that pigment for coating
iron vessels to be most pernicious. And in this hypothesis he is confirmed
by the opinion of Mr. Nathan Mercer, F. C.S., who, after inspecting the
iron ship William Fairburn, the plates of which were coated with red lead
prior to her late voyage to Calcutta, observes, that the extent to which the iron
had been corroded could not fail to have attracted the attention of the most
superficial observer. Ona close inspection, he found the red-lead coating
covered with blisters, from each of which, on being opened, a clear fluid
escaped, and left exposed on the surface of the iron a number of brilliantly
shining crystals of metallic lead. Mr. Mercer says each blister is, in fact,
a galvanic battery in miniature, and that, as wherever there is electrical
there must be also chemical action, the corrosion is easily accounted for.
This action, he says, will continue as long as any red lead remains, and is
necessarily at the expense of the iron. He also points out that the ‘‘ sweat,”
so well known to every person interested in iron ships, is not, as is generally
supposed, salt water, but a solution of chloride of iron manufactured in the
blisters. Mr. Mercer considers this sweating is due, in a great degree, to the
use of red-lead paint in immediate contact with iron; and he recommends,
therefore, that it should never be used as a coating for sea-going vessels,
unless special precautions are taken to prevent its coming into direct contact _
with iron. — Liverpool Albion.

82 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

IMPROVED MOULDING SAND.

Mr. J. W. Winter, of Maysville, Cal., recommends, in the Dental News
Letter, a new kind of moulding sand. He says: “ Take equal parts of soap-
stone and Bristol brick, pulverize finely; mix. It is superior to any other
moulding sand, as it requires but little mixture to pack it firmly; and you
can get a finer impression, and can pour your metal at any stage of heat
without spoiling the die.”

NEW BRONZING PROCESS (FOR BRASS).

A new bronzing process for brass has been introduced by Mr. Wagner.’
To obtain brass of a very deep-black color, he moistens the metal with a
dilute solution of ‘‘azotate of protoxide of mercury,” and he changes the
film of mercury thus formed on the surface of the article into the black sul-
phuret of mercury, by washing it repeatedly with a solution of sulphuret of
potassium. If for the solution of the liver of sulphur, we substitute a solu-
tion of liver of antimony or of arsenic, a fine brass-colored bronze (“ un
beau bronze de laiton’’) is obtained, varying in color from a deep brown to
yellow brown. He prepares the sulphurets of antimony or of arsenic by
boiling kermes (for the former) or of orpiment (for the latter) in a solution
of liver of sulphur.

NEW PROCESS FOR GILDING THREAD.

Hitherto no other method has been known of producing “ cloth of gold’’
in the loom than using metallic threads, which render the tissue stiff and
heavy. By the process recently invented by the Messrs. Beurot, these ob-
jections are avoided. The silken or other threads are stretched close together,
and are then dipped into a solution of azotate (nitrate) of silver, to which
ammonia is added until the solution is perfectly limpid. After immersion
for one or two hours, the threads are dried, and then submitted to the
action of a current of pure hydrogen. The threads becoming thus metal-
ized, become also good conductors of electricity, and are then gilt by any
of the ordinary methods in use for electro-gilding.

ON THE PROSPECTS OF STEAM TILLAGE.

There is a certain little quiet philosopher who dwells in snug retirement
beneath the surface of our fields; he seldom shows himself abroad, because
he is aware that nature has behaved like a niggard towards him in the mat-
ter of personal graces. His eyes are small, dull specks, almost devoid of
organization; his face is a queer long muzzle, tipped at the end with a lump
of bone; his limbs are ungainly and short; and his coat is rough, and of un-
couth cut; yet, notwithstanding all these disadvantages, he is far from
repining. With a spice of practical wisdom that is beyond all praise, he
sets to work to make the most of the circumstances in which he finds him-
self placed. Sensible that he never could have been intended for a gay den-
izen of the daylight, he keeps himself close at home in his underground
retreat, and there contrives to turn strong arms, hard, brawny hands, a pair
of sharp ears, and a keen, sensitive nose, to excellent account. He bores
and delves for his living, and lucky indeed is the insect or worm that es-
capes his notice When his burrow chances to take the direction in which it

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 83

lies. Behind his track, a long course of tunnelled galleries is stretched,
attesting at once the ingenuity of his operations and the activity of his
industry.

The old-fashioned tillers of the soil have, from time immemorial, regarded
the proceedings of this subterranean worker with marked hostility. They
never could bring themselves to tolerate his presence within their demesnes.
If, by accident, they crossed him in his labors at any time, they dragged
him forth and hung him up at once, without the benefit of judge or jury.
Occasionally, they even went to the length of preaching a crusade against
him, and organizing extensive schemes of indiscriminate massacre for the
extinction of his race. Yet, in reality, this sorely oppressed creature was
euiltless of all offence. He did no harm to the interests of his assailants,
but rather made them his especial care. The objects he appropriated from
the ground were neither useful nor harmless things; they were positively
injurious pests that levied a tax upon the crops by most insidious forays. It
would almost seem, indeed, that the persecution must have been instigated by
the spirit of envy, rather than by that of retaliation; that it must have been
the result of shame rather than of revengeful feeling. The farmers found
the soil where the mole had worked not injured, but altogether too good for
their liking. They saw the most barren earth changed beneath his touch
into rich, productive mould. The wettest swamp dried itself up, as if by
magic, after his operations. He did effectually and well, without eyes; what
they bungled over miserably and did inefficiently with them. His every
step made their incompetency only so much more manifest by contrast. He
therefore received an abundant share of the meed that is too often awarded
at first to the world’s teachers and benefactors. Envy, hatred, malice, and
all uncharitableness, were the recompense of his useful and suggestive labors.

All this has, however, in these table-turning days, been changed. Aegri-
culturists now begin to reverence the mole, and look up to him for practical
lessons; they study his mode of tunnelling, with heads intent upon gleaning
some hint which may be applied in their own practice of draining; and they
look upon the finely-ground material which he flings behind him, as he bur-
rows on, with hearts set upon finding some means whereby they may imi-
tate his doings upon an extended scale. Some enthusiasts among them
even take his name as the symbol of future successes, and inscribe it upon
their banners as the inspiriting word that is to lead to victory.

The amusing little volume which takes the generic name of the mole—
Talpa, or the Chronicles of a Clay-farm—narrates that the author, having
a stiff clay-farm of about 250 acres, which no one could do anything with,
he was driven in self-defence to take it in hand himself; and he then goes
on to chronicle how he vanquished difficulty after difficulty, until a stagnant
waste became a series of fertile and valuable fields.

In the course of the work, we learn on what principle the teachings of the
mole are applicable to agriculture: The natural food of vegetable life is
water and air— not, however, water and air in their purest states; the water
must contain minute quantities of saline and ammoniacal matters, and the
air must be contaminated with slight proportions of the heavy carbonaceous
gas that is exhaled from animal lungs. The water and air are in fact only
vehicles of conveyance; they are not themselves really nutritious. They
seem to be so merely because the substances they carry are, under ordinary
circumstances, altogether inappreciable to the senses. Plants are helplessly
fixed to the spots on which they grow; they cannot roam about in search

84 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC’ DISCOVERY.

of food, as animals can; consequently, provision must be made for bringing
constant supplies to them. The rain that falls into the porous soil dissolves
the saline and ammonical matters it finds there, and flows with its load
through the rootlets into the interior of vegetable structures. Air takes up
carbonaceous substance — of the nature of charcoal——into a sort of gaseous
solution, and then is blown by every puff of wind into the open mouths that
gape upon the surfaces of vegetable leaves. Of water and saline, ammonia-
cal, and carbonaceous substances, all vegetable bodies are composed. <A di-
lute solution of the fixed and ammoniacal salts is sucked up by the roots.
An abundance of leaves is then pushed forth, and carbon drunk in by their
myriad mouths. No other demand is made of the soil than a sufficient
supply of saline and ammoniacal substances, and water enough for their
solution and transport.

In order that the soil may be able to furnish these requisite matters, it is
essential, in the first place, that it should have them ready for use in its sub-
stance; and in the second place, that its texture should be so loose and
porous, that both water and growing roots may find an easy passage through
it. In the old practice of farming, the strength of the soil was kept up by
burying in it saline, ammoniacal, and carbonaceous matters, mixed indis-
criminately together. So soon as Liebig had shown that the great propor-
tion of the carbon found its way into the plant through the leaf, and not
through the root, it was seen that there was great want of economy in the
proceeding. When farm-yard manure is ploughed into the land, tons upon
tons of carbonaceous substance are placed beneath the surface, which can
effect nothing else there but their own escape from a useless position.
Hence, the custom was slowly introduced of using only concentrated saline
and ammoniacal manures, in the stead of the more bulky product of the
straw-yard. Now arefinement upon even this refinement is advised. Pro-
fessor Way Says that the soil requires no manuring at all during many
years, and that ultimately it will need only a slight dressing of saline mate-
rials. He has discovered that it can keep itself rich in ammonia. Clay is,
according to his views, mainly composed of a series of ingredients that have
the power of attracting this volatile and pungent body continuously from
the air.* The ammoniacal constituents of vegetable nutrition are therefore
given to the soil by the air, just as the carbonaceous constituents are to the
leaves. The atmosphere is the grand reservoir of nourishment, and the soil
plays a very subordinate part indeed. Out of its substance, nothing else is
contributed than the very trifling proportion of saline or earthy matter that
remains in the form of ash after any vegetable structure has been submitted
to the process of burning. Even the poorest soils contain within themselves
saline ingredients for multiplied crops of the richest kinds of grain.

It follows, from these data, that the only requirements in a good seed-bed
are, that it shall be a layer of loosened and finely comminuted earth, which
has been well turned over in the process of preparation. Break up the soil
thoroughly, and open out its substance to the air, and it will maintain its own
productiveness through lengthened years. In the first place, it will con-
stantly throw more and more of its reserved bullion into active circulation;
and in the second place, it will keep a sufficient quantity of floating capital
always within call for the safe transaction of affairs. If Professor Way’s

* These compounds are called, in the Janguage of the chemists, double silicates
of alumina and potash — alumina and soda, and alumina and lime.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 85

notions are correct, abundant harvests of grain may be taken off the land,
year after year, without any addition of manure at all, provided only a
sufficient quantity of labor be judiciously bestowed in pulverizing its
substance.

But here, again, if improved comminution of the soil, and not increased
manuring, is the thing required, a great revolution must be made in a very
important particular. A new form of apparatus must be contrived for
attaining the end. The plough now in use is merely a barbarous implement,
planned in rude days, for enabling horses to do man’s work. The spade lifts
up the soil in mass, turns it over, and leaves it evenly spread as a loosened,
porous bed; but the ploughshare, on the other hand, squeezes down and
condenses one part, while it loosens and turns up another. It is simply a
compromise of accurate principle, for the sake of insuring the horizontally
acting service of the horse. It is a matter of familiar knowledge that spade-
husbandry answers very much better than plough-tillage, whenever it can be
employed.

Spade-husbandry cannot, however, be much in use in these luxuridus
days; human labor has now too high a value in the markets of the worid for
this to be the case. Some agent must therefore be sought that shall combine
in itself the skill of the biped and the strength of the quadruped, and that
shall also admit of economical application: in other words, the animal
drudge must be exchanged for a mechanical one. That potent slave of the
wonderful lamp of science, who never fails to accomplish all that the pos-
sessor of the radiant spell enjoins, must be summoned to the agriculturist’s
aid; steam, ever so ready to transform coarse materials into fine, must now
be put in commission to grind down the soil, as it has before ground down
hosts of stubborn things, in order that nourishing grain may multiply as fast
as hungry mouths.

Assuming that steam has once been enlisted in the service of agriculture,
the consideration yet remains of how its enormous power may best be em-
ployed. Clearly, it must not be harnessed to the obsolete plough, as some
have thought; it would be as much out of place, if set to drag, as a horse
would be if put to dig. Man works best with an upward lift, the horse with
an onward pull; but the genius of steam is rotary. It likes to have the
resistance it is to conquer placed at the circumference of a wheel, the spokes
of which it is allowed to drive. The steam cultivator must wear the form of
a compact locomotive, carrying behind it a revolving cylinder, fully armed
with case-hardened claws of steel. As this machine travels onwards, it must
cut out its trench as the mole digs its burrow, and it must cast back into this
trench the mould that results from its abrading influence, “‘comminuted,
aerated, and inverted,” all at one stroke, just as the “‘ worthy pioneer that
works i’ the ground so fast,” flings behind him the earth his restless claws
have scraped away.

Fhe author of Talpa foretells the speedy approach of the time when the
children of the present generation Shall be as familiar with the spectacle of
locomotives stalking about over the surface of the fields, on agricultural
work intent, as we are with the sight of ships of a couple of thousands of
tons burden, driving themselves, duck-like, through the water with their
invisible web-feet. Already the prophecy begins to be realized; and, on
behalf of our bread-feeding, fast-multiplving race, we venture to express a
hope that the consummation will speedily arrive. — Chambers’s Journal.

8

86 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

FAWKES’S STEAM PLOUGH.

During the past year, a new and improved steam plough has been brought
before the public by John W. Fawkes, of Lancaster Co., Penn., which is
claimed to be superior to any device of the kind heretofore invented. In
order to fully understand the merits of this invention, it is expedient to
review the results accomplished in this direction by the three principal English
inventors, viz., Fowler, Smith and Boydell.

Fowler does his ploughing in this wise: To his engine is attached a drum
or drums of iron, over which passes a coil of wire rope. At the other side
of the field is a sort of truck, on sharp-edged wheels, which is caused to
travel at a snail’s pace along, keeping step with a like forward travel of the
engine, by the action of gearing worked by the unwinding and winding up of
the wire cable on a drum or drums on the truck. This truck, which he calls
an “anchor,” runs parallel with the engine, and, as the sharp wheels cut deep
into the sod, it is not overturned by the strain of the long length of cable
across fields. The two ends of the cable are attached to a double frame of
ploughs, hung on wheels in the middle; six ploughs face one way, and six
the other. The plough-frame is so shaped, that when one set is in the ground
at work, the other is hoisted in the air, on the principle of the “see-saw,”
that every one understands. To this apparatus, cumbersome, troublesome,
and expensive as it is, the grand prize of five hundred sovereigns was last
year awarded by the Royal Agricultural Society, the judges estimating that
a saving could be effected by it of from five to twenty per cent. in the cost of
ploughing.

Smith, of Woolston, uses the drum on or about his engine, but not that at
the other side of the field; in place of which he substitutes large grooved
pulleys, anchored to the ground by stout grapnel-hooks. He has small rollers,
a foot or more wide, fixed on bits of plank, on which the wire cable rolls at
different places throughout the whole length of the furrow, the better to
avoid great friction on the ground. He has also a different attachment
to his implements, and in fact he prefers to use different implements; for,
whereas Fowler takes only the ordinary plough and attaches it to a frame,
Smith uses the grubber, a long-tined sort of machine, with teeth shaped a
little like one of our wire-toothed hay-rakes. He has a patent for what he
calls a “turning-bow,” which is in fact merely a very large clevis arrange-
ment, by the use of which he can turn his implement at the end of the fur-
row, and not be compelled to travel forward and back, now elevating one
end, and now the other, as does Fowler.

Boydell, as a means of moving his plough, applies power to large driving-
wheels, to the periphery of which are attached, at equal distances from each
other, pieces of track, of such shape that the forward end of one locks in
with the rear end of its predecessor, as the revolution of the wheel brings
them in turn beneath, and each piece being attached by a bow to the wheel,
and free to move on a bolt, the wheel lays its own track, turns on it, picks
it up again as it moves along. Here is the sum-total of Boydell’s engine,
except that it may be steered by a rod working into gears on the truck of
two small front wheels, arranged to turn on a transom. All these machines
we saw in practical operation last year at the Royal Show at Chester, and
while it cannot be denied that Fowler did good ploughing, and did if contin-
uously; and Smith grubbed away zealously, until the whole field looked as
if a large drove of land-pike hogs had been turned in there over-night; and

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 87

Boydell’s “‘ fiery chariot,” puffing continuously, as if overworked, and draw-
ing its baby-cultivator, as an omnibus would a boy’s sled, did a tolerable
share of work ;— they all seemed to us either too expensive in construction,
too complicated and cumbersome, or too inefficient in performance. Boy-
dell’s engine drew a seven-tined grubber to a depth of six inches, and in
going up a slight hillock or mound, was completely stopped, and could not
proceed until the grubber had been loosened. Smith’s grubbing we thought
very rough work, certainly not good enough to induce us to purchase one for
any farm we might own; and as to Fowler’s, the mere fact that he must
have a steam-engine to turn a drum, to wind a rope, to drag a plough, to
turn up a furrow, to say nothing of the necessary after-use of harrow, roller,
clod-crusher, and seed-drill, we thought “‘we would call again.”

The advocates of the Boydell machine say that if steam is to replace
horses, it should carry itself and the loads of horses from place to place.
The machine should start from its shed, dragging its complement of coals
and the implements of tillage, go over the farm roads to the field to be
ploughed, take its own position, and move about up and down furrows and
‘across headlands as required. These qualifications were, to a certain degree,
combined in the Boydell traction-engine; but it seemed to us that an engine
of 30-horse power, costing $4000 or more, should be able to draw a grubber
more than six inches deep without being brought up standing; and that some
better means of locomotion should be used than the endless succession of
pieces of track, like the snow-shoes of a Canadian voyageur, that were to
be placed under the wheel for it to turn on, to keep it from sinking in the
ground.

The idea of Mr. Fawkes, for a steam travelling engine was, that it should
have the power applied to a large drum, bulged on the middle like a barrel;
and this plan constitutes the principal feature of his invention. In the
machine constructed and exhibited by Mr. Fawkes, during the past year,
the engine is a high pressure one, with an upright tubular boiler, containing
228 11 inch tubes, a 9-inch cylinder, and 15-inch stroke. It works a direct
crank-shaft, which revolves inside the sleeve of a drum-wheel, through spur
gearing. The drum has three iron spiders, and a heavy wooden face, which
is preferable to an iron face, as the latter, becoming quickly bright, slips on
sod ground, and thus, not only traction power is lost, but the ability to move,
even, is destroyed. The bed-frame of the engine rests on a two-wheeled
truck in front, is supported by a body-bolt, and the front wheels and truck
are as free to turn as the front axle of a wagon. They are steered by a rack
and screw connected, by a toothed chain, to a steering-wheel.

The weight is so distributed that the water-tank behind the drum or great
travelling roller, when full, balances the weight of the boiler, which is placed
in front; hence the weight resting upon the small guide-wheels in front is
but little, and they are left quite free to turn. To work the machine requires
two men, one to steer and attend to the engine, — which he can do, as the
cocks, levers, etc., are placed just at his side, — the other to fire and attend
to any odds and ends of work on the ground or elsewhere.

The ploughs, of which there are eight employed, are the ordinary Moline
plough, fastened to a frame of such shape that the furrows are turned regu-
larly one after the other. Davits extend from the rear of the engine, and on
these are grooved pulleys for chains, one end of which is hooked to the
plough-frame, and the other is fastened to a windlass. When the engineer
wishes to hoist ploughs, he whistles once, and the fireman draws a lever on *

88 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the platform of the engine. This turns a clutch into gear, which gives motion
to the windlass to which the hoisting-chains are attached. The chainis so
arranged as to draw the points of the ploughs out of the ground first, and
when it has wound to a certain point, it throws itself out of gear, and thus
the ploughs, swinging clear of the ground, may be transported anywhere.
To lower them, he gives two whistles, and the lever is drawn, which lets the
ploughs down to work. Enough slack is given to the chains to suffer the
ploughs to turn furrows of even depth in all inequalities of ground.

This engine (30 horse) is estimated to consume 12 bushels of coal per
diem, and with plough complete, costs $3500. When not in use for plough-
ing, the inventor proposes to apply the motive power of the machine to any
other purposes deemed desirable, and has arranged the details of the mech-
anism with that end in view.

To pump water into the boiler, he uses a donkey-pump, and can use it
when either stationary or in motion, and with a length of hose can run
alongside a ditch, well, or brook, and fill his tank without trouble. — New
Yorie Tribune.

The following is an abstract of the report of the committee appointed on
behalf of the Illinois State Agricultural’ Society, September 1859, to exam-
ine and practically test the invention of Mr. Fawkes. The trials were made
on the ‘‘ Fair Grounds ”’ of the Society, at Freeport, Illinois.

To form a complete conception of this steam plough, let the committee
recall the appearance of a small-sized tender of a locomotive engine; let
about half the forward portion of the sides and tank be removed. We now
have something which resembles the body of Fawkes’s machine. In the
middle of the forward portion of the platform stands the upright boiler,
which is about 62 feet high, and 4 feet in diameter, the fire-box and ash-pit
being of course below the level of the platform, and the fire-door opening
forward. The boiler contains 220 8) inch tubes, which, computed together
with the fire-box, gives 375 feet of fire-surface. Steam may be got up in 15
minutes, although twice that time is usually necessary. The fuel may either
be bituminous coal or wood. The cylinders are horizontal, 9 inches in diam-
eter, and 15 inch stroke, and are placed one on each side of the boiler.
The pistons communicate motion, not to the side-wheels, but to a drum or
roller, 6 feet in diameter, and 6 feet long, which, as the sides of the plat-
form overhang its end, is comparatively out of sight. The drum is placed
about midway between the front and back of the machine; before it de-
pends the fire-box, and behind it is the tank; so that, when the boiler and
tank are full, they nearly counterbalance each other on the axles of the
driving-drum.

This drum is composed of two iron heads, or “‘ spiders,” and an interme-
diate one; to these, thick, narrow planks, cut like staves, and fitting closely,
are bolted, and form the periphery. The adhesion is, therefore, produced
by a surface of wood, six feet long, which never becomes polished, and the
bearing of which is always across the grain. There is no slipping; the
machine is started and stopped instantly; and, except when propelling itself
a considerable distance on turnpike or paved roads, the wear and tear is
slight. The substitution of the driving-roller for the ordinary side-wheels,
wonderfully increases traction, and prevents sloughing in wet or yielding
soil; while moderate irregularities of surface scarcely affect the onward
march of the plough. Another great advantage is gained by the gearing of
the drum. Instead of being attached directly to a crank on the axle of the

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 89

drum, each connecting-rod communicates motion to a pinion, which turns
easily, but without shake, on the axle just mentioned. The pinion interlocks
with a cog-wheel, which, with a pinion on 7s axis, imparts motion to the
cog-wheel bolted to the drum;—the whole being so proportioned that six
strokes of the piston cause one revolution of the drum.

Increase of power and of control over the movements of the engine are
thus secured :

In front of the fire-box is a short, tapering bow of sheet iron, which serves
as a seat for the fireman and a receptacle for fuel. The bow is supported by
a body-bolt on a truck composed of two iron guide-wheels 33 feet in diam-
eter and 15 inches broad. The truck moves freely like the front wheels of a
chaise, and is controlled by a steering-wheel in charge of the engineer, so
that the whole machine is turned as readily and as short as a farm wagon.
The engine is of 30-horse power. The entire length of the machine is about
18 feet; its weight, with water and fuel, 10 tons; and cost, including ‘‘ don-
key ” engine and pump, about $4000. By this pump, water may be drawn
from a well or creek, and the tank filled, or water forced from the tank to
the boiler. The tank holds twelve barrels, sufficient for three hours running.
The ploughs, eight in number, are attached to one frame, which is suspended
by chains passing over grooved pulleys in two beams, projecting from the
seat of the engine. These chains communicate to a windlass in charge of the
fireman, in front, by which the gang of ploughs may be raised or lowered
at pleasure, and the frame of ploughs is drawn by other chains, which are
attached to the under side of the frame of the engine.

In answer to the several questions propounded by your Board, touching the
capacity and practicability of the engine for farm purposes, we find, upon
trial and examination, as foliows:

First: The weight is ten tons, as reported by Mr. Fawkes.

Second: The fuel consumed in one hour was 170 pounds, or two bushels
and ten pounds of inferior coal, with one-eighth part of a cord of wood,
evaporating about 150 gallons of water, and ploughing one acre in twelve
minutes (which includes turning).

The wood used was mostly of pine, and considerably decayed, and would
have been rejected upon steamboats.

Third: The amount of traction on different grades of land would be a
matter difficult to determine, with the facilities in the hands of the Commit-
tee. We had the engine run up the various grades of the Fair Grounds,
passing into a gulley with the ploughs swung in the rear, which struck on one
bank as the main roller was raising the other, which overpowered the engine;
but upon detaching the ploughs, the machine moved out without the least
difficulty. Upon measurement, the grade was found to be 1 foot vertical to 4
on the horizontal line. Steam, by the indicator, was marked at only 62°—
100° being his ordinary pressure.

Fourth: The friction produced by the pressure against the shoulders of the
axles, instead of being fair on the journal (which are of less size), may
possibly make a slight waste of power in running across inclined planes. The
wear and tear would be the same as with any other steam-engine used for
locomotion. ;

The engine can safely be run across an inclined plane of 30°, because of its
great breadth of base (six feet) — the principal part of the boiler, the heavy
fire-box, and a great portion of the machinery, being below the centre.

Fifih: We have previously stated that an acre could be ploughed in twelve

g*

90 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

minutes; but an examination of the following computations will demon-
strate its actual performance. A strip of land, 246 yards long and 20 feet wide,
was ploughed in four minutes; and the head-lands of 50 feet were crossed,
one in 27 seconds, the other in 30 — the ploughs being elevated and lowered
to and from the ground in the time.

Sixth: No steam-engine in existence should be intrusted to inexperienced
persons.

This one is as simple as any we have ever examined, is strong and sub-
stantial. It is a locomotive high-pressure engine in construction, arranged
for reversing at will, and was repeatedly advanced and reversed a few inches
at a time with perfect ease, and in a few seconds. The skill requisite to man-
age the machine should be acquired in a month by any intelligent American
farmer, and your Committee, in view of the certainty of the employment of
steam for farming purposes, would strongly recommend that the farmers of
Illinois should give special attention, in the education of their sons, to the
principles of mechanics and the practical management of steam-engines.

Seventh: The fuel furnished by the Society to your Committee was of such
inferior quality as to hardly enable us to demonstrate fully the steam-gen-
erating capability of the boiler; but, by referring to the amount of its fire-
surface (375 square feet), it will be seen, by practical men, that, with the ad-
vantage of an exhaust to create artificial draught, it is fully competent, with
ordinary fuel, to generate continuously abundant steam for its work.

In weight of coal and wood on board, and of passengers, it carried,
throughout the experiments, as much as would represent the weight of an
entire day’s supply of fuel. It would carry water for a three hours’ run.

Fighth: As astationary engine, her power was tested at Power Hall, where,
after jacking up her rear end so that the main drum turned clear of the
ground, by applying the power direct to the drum or roller, 120 revolutions
of it were obtained per minute. By passing the belt of a fifty-foot line of
shafting over the drum, the engine propelled one eight-horse thrasher, one
corn and cob mill at work at the rate of 25 bushels per hour, two small iron
corn-mills grinding six bushels each per hour, one wood-moulding machine,
one resawing circular saw of two feet in diameter, and a smut-machine of
high speed; all simultaneously, and with only 10 lbs. of steam. From expe-
rience with circular saws, we estimate it as capable of running two of the
largest size at one time. Itis perfectly competent to go into the timber, haul
logs where the ordinary log-wagons would be employed, and in one hour be
jacked up and furnish power to saw those of large size.

Ninth: The fire-box being within fourteen inches of the ground, the ma-
chine would run without injury through water twelve inches deep; it was
run by us over ground where, by hand pressure, a lath was forced downward
fifteen inches, and on examination we were of the impression that the actual
compaction of the surface by the machine was not more than one inch.
Horses crossing this slough sank to their fetlocks; but, as with the engine,
the actual surface pressing upon the ground is at all times six square feet, the
ability to sustain weight is much greater than with the wagon and team,
where the weight rests on narrow bases. The four wagon wheels present a
surface width of seven inches in all, but the engine, with its drum and guid-
ing wheels, a surface of 102 inches. The weight of the engine is ten tons,
that of a wagon-load of grain one and a half tons, or something more than
one-sixth as much; but the engine with a drum six feet in diameter, and guide-
wheels three and a half feet in diameter, gives a much greater proportional

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 91

contact with the ground, and its load is proportionably less liable to miring
in sloughs.

Tenth: The difference of power between running the engine on plank or
hard road, and common prairie, would be great; but that between running
on ordinary ground, and ground so soft that the drum would sink four
inches, we have no means of knowing. It is evident, however, from the ex-
planations in the preceding answer, that ground in such condition that a
drum six feet in diameter and six feet long would move to that depth,
would be entirely unfit to plough, and could not be even crossed by horses.

Having thus in detail answered the interrogatories propounded to us by the
Executive Committee, we desire to make some general remarks with refer-
ence to the practicability of employing steam for ploughing, and other farm
purposes. The experiments with Fawkes’s steam ploughing engine have
- demonstrated to our satisfaction that it is practicable that, in a few years, a
large portion of the labor now performed by animal power on the farm will
be superseded by steam, especially in prairie countries, and on well-improved
farms, where but few stones or other obstructions exist.

The engine here exhibited is intended only for large operations, being ca-
pable of breaking from 25 to 40 acres per day; but we see no reason why
its size may not be reduced very considerably (say to one-fourth), and still
successfully compete with animal power.

We estimate the cost of ploughing by it from the following very liberal
data:

USED PER DIEM.

One ton of coal, : ; : - : C . ay ele - $5.00
One cord of wood, . < 3 2 ae OU)
Labor of three men — neon Spenae ed assistant, » | £:00
Oil, etc., : 5 - - ; - 5 - “ 3 a OD
Ordinary wear aad tear, . - - F é : : 1200
Interest 10 per cent. on $4000, : ° 5 Pas gear Pen 4

Total, . 5 4 ‘ - = 5 - ‘ - $16.12

With the most liberal allowance for hauling water and coal one mile, for
stoppages and turnings, the machine should plough 25 acres per day. At
present contract prices of $2.50 per acre for prairie breaking, this would cost
$62.50, while by the above estimate it is seen that Fawkes’s ploughs for 644
cents per acre.

Your Committee, in view of the result of their experiments, unanimously
recommend that the First Prize of three thousand dollars be awarded to
Joseph W. Fawkes, of Christiana, Lancaster Co., Pa., for his Steam Plough.

All of which is respectfully submitted.
Isaac A. HEDGES, Cincinnati.

P. W. Gates, Chicago.
A. B. Larra, Cincinnati.

VAN DOREN AND GLOVER’S REAPING AND PLOUGHING MACHINES.

At the Illinois State Agricultural Fair, September, 1859, a combined reap-
ing and ploughing machine was exhibited by Messrs. Van Doren and Glover,
the construction of which is thus described by a correspondent of the New
York Tribune. /

A bed-frame of timber, 16 feet in length, is supported on the axle of two
wooden iron-faced driving-wheels of 4 feet 2 inches diameter, and 8} inches |

92 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

face. Between the wheels, the bed is 6 feet wide, and the drivers are in-
closed by an extension of the platform, making in all a width from outside
to outside of 8 feet. The timbers of the frame meet at a distance of 12 feet
from the axle, and at this point rest on a castor-wheel, which is steered by a
tiller. The boiler is upright, and contains 72 inch and a quarter tubes, 2 ft.
10 in. long. The fire-box, 20 in. square, is intended for either wood or coal.
Above the flues is a steam-reservoir, 3 feet high, with a smoke-flue passing
through it. Thus in one tube of boiler iron 8 feet in height, is contained a
fire-box, boiler, steam-reservoir, and smoke-flue. In front of the boiler there
is a reaper extension, which supports a regular reaping arrangement of cut-
ter bar, dividers, reel, etc., and which may be attached or removed at will.
Motion is given to the knives by a long, tilting lever, which is worked di-
rectly by an extension of the piston. The reel is turned by a belt passing
over a shaft worked by the driving-wheel. To mow grass, the cutter-bar is
lowered, or to head grain, is elevated, by a long lever hung on the main axle,
and passing back nearly to the steersman, who works the lever by means of
a pinion and rack. The cylinder is 53 inches in diameter, with a 9-inch
stroke, and has a link moticn to enable it to reverse. The pump is worked
by a crank on a shaft, which may be made to gear into the fly-wheel shaft
as required; and water is pumped into the boiler when the machine is either
in motion or at rest. The drivers are turned by a pinion, which is turned by
a bevel-wheel working into a pinion on the crank-shaft. An ordinary barrel
of water is carried on the axle alongside the boiler. To plough, the reaping
apparatus is removed, and then the machine travels in a contrary direction to
what it does in reaping, the ploughing being done behind and the reaping
before, as it moves along. <A cross-beam, which extends beyond the driving-
wheels, is 4 by 6 inches in_size. On it are five wheels, gearing into each
other, and one driven from the crank-shaft. To the centre of each wheel is
bolted an iron bar, ¢ by 24 inches, 4 feet long, on each end of which is a
small ploughshare without a land side, which cuts 10 inches deep if required.
The cut is 3 inches wide; so that each revolution of the arm makes a cut of
6 inches, and the machine travels forward the same distance in the same
time. Each plough-point being 2 feet 2 inches from the centre, the two ends
make a cut laterally of 193 inches, and the whole five cutters make a furrow
of 8 feet, as near as may be. For ditching, the plough-wheels are removed,
and an extra shaft inserted, which is driven direct from the crank-shaft.
The shaft turns a wheel to which another form of excavator is attached.
The same small plough is at one end of the iron bar, but a spade or scraper
replaces that at the other. It throws the dirt to one side, distributing it over
© to 20 feet of ground, in proportion to the speed of the machine. The fly-
wheel may, of course, be used to turn stationary farm machinery of all
kinds.

The inventor claims to have ploughed about two acres in all for experi-
ment, and to have mowed about anacre. The whole apparatus, of five-horse
power, weighs only 1400 pounds, and is presumed to cost about $600.

WATERS’S STEAM PLOUGH.

Asteam plough, exhibited at the Illinois State Agricultural Fair, September
1859, by James Waters, of Detroit, Mich., has the following construction:

It is a locomotive engine, with a horizontal boiler, and four 53 inch eylin-
ders, with a 12-inch stroke, making 34 revolutions to one of the driving-wheels.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. _ 93

The drivers are ten feet in diameter, made of /-inch boiler iron, and with a
face of 26 inches. They have each two sets of bar-iron spokes, crossing each
other so as to brace both ways, like a trotting wagon. There are two steer-
ing wheels in front, 5 feet in diameter, 13 inches face, and are turned by a
worm and chain by a crank by the engineer, who stands in front, at the
right hand of the boiler. The main axle is of 4-inch round iron, and fitted
with oil-tight boxes. The boiler is the horizontal tubular one used on loco-
motives, has 96 2-inch tubes, and a 2 by 3 feet fire-box that may be used for
either wood or coal. The boiler is bolted to the axle by clamps, and in
front bya light frame which rests upon the axle of the steering-wheels.
Motion is given to the drivers by a pinion working into internal gearing
which extends all around the inner face of the drivers; the pinion is turned
by its wheel gearing into the engine-shaft direct. To prevent slipping of the
wheels, pyramidal-shaped ribs of iron are bolted diagonally across the face
of the drivers. The inventor claims that the weight of the engine is so placed,
that, from the enormous diameter of the drivers, it is thrown upon their for-
ward face, and quite removed from the steering-wheels. The great size is
given to the main wheels to prevent miring in soft ground, they being large
enough to cross an ordinary slough before they would have time to sink.
A tank beneath the boiler holds five barrels of water, which may be pumped
into the boiler at will. A tender, or two-wheeled cart carries fifteen barrels
more, and on its deck coal and wood enough for a day’s work. This tender
may be detached, and left at one side of the field, or dragged behind the en-
gine, and in front of the ploughs, as desired. The ploughs are fifteen in num-
ber, attached firmly to a triangular frame, which runs on castor-wheels at
the corners. They are not separate and independent in attachment, like
Fawkes’s, so that some of them would miss in passing over basins, and dig
deep in going through hillocks, without compromise or evasion of obstacles.
There are two gangs, one having eight, the other seven, ploughs. With
frames, wheels, and all, the two weigh easily 6000 pounds, while the engine
itself is claimed to weigh only seven tons. — NV. Y. Tribune.

The Committee of the Illinois State Agricultural Society report, concern-
ing this invention, as follows:

Waters’s engine has undoubtedly great power, but has some objectionable
features as well. There being four cylinders, the machinery is made more
complicated, and by so much the less easy of management by farmers. The
four cylinders are necessary to a machine like this, which has two large tray-
elling-wheels, to keep each of which in motion at will, a pair of cylinders
must be used; for without them it would not be possible to get the wheels off
centres under some circumstances. The revolutions of the engine being 24
to each one of the drivers, speed of locomotion is not obtained commensu-
rate with the speed of the engine. The great length of the train of engine,
tender, and ploughs, makes it unwieldy to handle, and prevents trimming up
corners of lots and banks of sloughs and basins, where much waste of land
would be caused. It also is asserted by the inventor that his field is not back
furrowed and finished up, but a strip of fifty feet is left in the middle to be
finished by horse power. The tractive power of the engine, when at work,
seemed ample; but we are not prepared to say that such would be the case
throughout a day’s work, but suppose it would. The two pairs of cylinders
being independent of each other, a serious obstruction to one driver might
cause it to slip, while the other held its tractive power; thus there would be
a tendency to throwing out of line. The internal gears of the drivers being

94 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

quite exposed to dust and sand, the wear would be rapid. The raising and
lowering of the gangs of ploughs by a quick screw, proved itself bad; for
when the points ran down deep, the downward pulling weight caused the
screw rapidly to run up, and the ploughs were buried almost to the beams.

RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

Wetherill’s Horse-Hoe. — This invention, by Lorin Wetherill, of Worcester,
Mass., is designed for hoeing corn, potatoes, cotton, or other field crops that
are grown in rows or drills; and is adapted to the condition of the plants in
any stages of their growth. It consists principally of a double mould-board
plough, having at its rear sides two sets of hoes or paddles, affixed to the
ends of arms that rotate in planes perpendicular to the furrow made by the
plough. Motion is given to these arms by shafts driven by gearing moved
by a wheel running upon the ground just in advance of the plough. The
shafts can be raised or lowered at the ends carrying the hoes, in order that a
lesser or greater quantity of earth may be thrown by them upon the hills sur-
rounding the roots of the plants. The clods are broken by the hoes into
small pieces, which consequently lay more closely about the roots.

It is claimed to be an efficient and labor-saving machine, hoeing as much
ground in one day as the draft animals can pass over.

Whitney's Plough-holder.— The invention consists of an iron frame, sup-
ported by a wheel, which can be fastened to the left side of the beam of any
plough, and which by its weight keeps the plough upright. The machine is
simple, costs $5, and is said to work well, even on stony land.

Prairie Draining Plough. — A machine is in use in Illinois, that answers a
good purpose in draining the ordinary soil. A strong beam, on four rollers,
carries a small cutting-wheel, which divides the sod; this is followed by a
sharp coulter, set at an angle backward, to the bottom end of which a piece
of iron, shaped something like a pear, is welded, supported by a flat bar,
bol:ed, like the coulter, fast in the beam. To this ‘“‘mole” is attached a
second, of similar shape, a little larger, by a link-joint. Being set into the
ground, it opens a hole, which it moulds permanently by side pressure, three
feet below the surface, and through this drain the matter runs off as easily
and continuously as through tile drains.

New Garden Implement for Transplanting. — A new and useful implement
has been invented by John Bargum, of Concord, N. H., designed to facilitate
the transplanting of small garden plants or flowers from one bed to another,
or from the grounds to pots. Imagine a tapering pint tin pot, with the bot-
tom cut off, and the cup split up and down into two halves, and these
halves attached to two handles, like those of a stout pair of shears. By
opening the handles, so as to spread the halved cup a little apart, and thrust-
ing it, small end down, into the ground upon each side of the plant, and then
pressing the handles together, the dirt is pressed around the roots, and the
plant may be lifted out and set in its new place directly from the implement;
or any number of them may be laid upon a board or in a box for distant
removal.

Raking and Binding Machinery.— A correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune,
under date of Sept. 8th, 1859, thus describes two devices for raking and bind-
ing grain, conjointly, exhibited at the Illinois State Agricultural Fair — one
the invention of Allen Sherwood, of Auburn, N. Y., which binds the sheaf
with a bit of wire, and the other, that of John P. Manny, of Rockford, Il.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 95

with an iron hook and a hempen string. On Sherwood’s plan, the man who
works the apparatus sits behind and lower than the driver, facing the plat-
form. The triangular table of the Manny Reaper is used in this case, although
it is claimed that to almost any other machine the patent binder can be ap-
plied. At the raker’s feet is a half-circle shield of sheet iron to guide the
sheaf as raked to within reach of the binder. Behind the shield is an elbow-
joint, the short arm perhaps a foot long, and the long one something more,
with a handle on its end. Along the upper sides of both parts are eyelets
through which a No. 20 wire is guided to the handle, after having passed
from a spool fixed between the driving-wheel and platform, along the under
side of the platform, and up through it to the eyelets. The binder to com-
mence puts the end of the wire between a pinion and spur-wheel, which hold
it firmly, while he pushes the elbow-joint toward the raker, and with the
return motion passes his hand along the wire, bending it to the platform and
up the off side. He has plenty of slack wire to do this each time, for it un-
winds freely from the spool, and, the end being held by the gearing outside,
the bending back of the elbow-joint pulls wire up through the platform and
through the eyelets, as freely as required. Now, the sheaf is raked directly
upon the wire that lies upon the platform. As it comes, the binder reaches
out, takes hold of the handle, and pulls the elbow-joint toward him, thus
causing the wire to tightly confine the sheaf of grain. He rests the end of
the handle so that the end of the wire is caught between the pinion and spur-
wheel, when he sets them in motion by turning a crank, and they twist the
two ends of the wire together around the sheaf, making, at the same time,
a new twist for one end of the next band; a knife cuts the bundle loose, and
it falls, all nicely bound, upon the platform.

J. P. Manny’s binding apparatus is altogether different. He has only two
men, a driver and a binder, the raking being done by the machine. The cut
grain is carried sidewise on an endless slatted apron and up an incline, in the
usual way. On its passage up, it is confined from blowing away by light
slats, and arriving at the summit, it tumbles into a cradle, of which there are
three on one shaft, each in succession being brought uppermost by one-third
of an entire revolution. One finger of each cradle is of iron, the three made
in one casting. The iron finger has a forked end to reccive the small cast-
iron hook of the sheaf-band. The knotted end of the band, which is noth-
ing but a stout hempen string, about thirty inches long, is put in a notch of
a spring-catch, and is then ready in place for the grain, which is suffered to
fall into the cradle. When enough has accumulated for a sheaf, the binder
trips a lever with his foot, which causes the cradle-shaft to revolve, the hook
is brought by the iron finger-end to catch the knotted end of the string, the
binding is completed, and the band being freed from the catch, the gavel
falls on the ground. The little cast-iron band-hook will weigh perhaps two
ounces, but it is a mere shell, and if, by oversight, a half-dozen or more were
fed with the grain into the machine, they would be crushed like an egg-shell,
and the string be shredded to bits. I saw four of them put into a thrasher,
that was being tried by a committee, but no extra noise indicated their pas-
sage through; nor could I, after careful search, find the least fragment of iron
or string a moment after they must have been ejected.

The sheaves are firmly bound by both machines, — quite as well as good
hand binding. You may kick and toss them about, take them up by one
side and shake them roughly, and they do not come untied. And both kinds
of bands may be loosened in the instant at the threshing-table. The Sher

96 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

wood motions are too slow, and the endless belt of the Manny machine is
like all canvas belts, working sometimes well and sometimes worse. LFither
can be applied to reapers at a moderate cost, and both have enough to recom-
mend them for use to thus fully bring them to the notice of the public.

P IMPROVED SHOE FOR HORSES.

Many attempts have been made to shoe horses without the continual driy-
ing of nails into the hoof, by which great injury is sometimes inflicted upon
valuable horses, by nails pricking the quick. In order to diminish this evil,
Mr. Thomas, of London, has invented a double-bottomed shoe, which is
constructed and applied as follows: “ He takes an ordinary horse-shoe, and
forms a groove in the part which comes in contact with the ground. This
groove is about a quarter or three-eighths of an inch deep, and half an inch
or more wide, according to the size of the horse and shoe, and within three-
quarters of an inch from one extremity of the shoe to the same distance
from the other. The groove at the ends and toe of the shoe is cut under. A
piece of iron of the same width and shape with the groove, only thicker, and
slightly curved upwards, is so fitted at the ends and toc, that, by the tap of
a hammer, it is driven into the groove, and hence into the under cutting.
The junction forms a complete dovetail, which prevents the removal of the
inner shoe, unless by the forcible aid of a chisel. The advantage of this
inner shoe is, that it is made to project beyond the ordinary shoe, and, when
worn down, can easily be removed and replaced by another, without pulling
off the shoe from the horse’s hoof. Besides, in frosty weather, the inner
shoe needs only to be jagged, and you have the horse frosted.’ — Scientific
American.

TRANSPLANTING LARGE TREES.

The following plan for transplanting large trees is adopted in Paris, in the
Champs Elysées :

A circle is cut around the tree, about three feet from the trunk, and ata
depth of about five, through roots and earth. The earth which adheres to
the root is covered and bound with brush and ropes, to keep all together;
then large chains are passed under the whole, and the ends brought up
above the surface of the ground. It now being ready to be removed, two
heavy, strong planks are laid down outside of the hole, to receive the wheels
of the wagon, which is made of solid iron, and a skeleton body of only two
heavy side-pieces, which connect the fore and aft wheels, — the front wheels
having an axletree passing from one side to the other, while the rear wheels
are hung like those upon many railroad cars, having one open space, and
strengthened by a heavy cross-piece of iron, which can be removed at pleas-
ure. Over each wheel is a windlass, to hoist by crank. Now, being ready
to take up the tree, the heavy cross-piece behind is removed, and the vehicle
is backed upon the planks, and the trunk of the tree now stands up through
the middle of the skeleton body; the ends of the chains are made fast to
the windlasses, and eight strong men, two at each crank, wind up the chain,
and swing the tree, roots and earth, to the wagon, put in the cross-piece
behind, attach from four to six horses, and drive off. The tree is lowered
into the earth in the same manner that it is taken out.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 97

NEW MODE OF PRESERVING FRESH FRUITS.

Dissolve gutta-percha in sulphuret of carbon. The liquid separates into
three layers, the upper of which contains mucilaginous matters, and the
lower earthy compounds and other impurities; the middle layer is perfectly
limpid, and contains the pure gutta-percha. Separate this from the others
by a siphon. Gather the fruits rather before complete ripeness; dry and
brush them; dip them in spirits of wine; then two or three times in the
gutta-percha liquid; they may then be kept in a box or closet, the tempera-
ture of which must not exceed 50° Fahr. When the fruit is to be eaten, the
coating may be peeled off, or washed off with a little spirits of wine; and,
notwithstanding time and journeys, the fruit will be found to have preserved
its taste and perfume, as though it were perfectly fresh. — Cosmos.

UNIVERSAL PRINTING-PRESS.

A press adapted to all kinds of printing, has recently been patented by M.
Silberman, of Paris, which is thus described in the British Engineer and
Arch. Journal for December 1858.

Pascal’s law is this: “‘ Whatever be the amount of pressure brought to
bear upon any point in a contained fluid mass (whether the fluid be a liquid
or gas), the pressure is distributed with perfect and entire equality among all
parts of the mass, and consequently with perfect equality over all parts of
the surface of the vessel which contains the mass;”’ so that if the vessel, or
a portion of it, is pliable and elastic, it will communicate the same pressure
it receives to paper, cloth, or any other similar substance, laid upon an un-
yielding engraved surface. And the invention consists in printing by thus
applying the pressure of a fluid to a yielding surface laid against an unyield-
ing engraved surface; and this, whether the surface printed be that of the
vessel itself, which thus becomes the press, or whether it be communicated
to another interposed yielding surface, from the pliable and elastic side of the
vessel, so as to print, on any kind of material, plane, curved, or angular
surfaces.

The application of this principle to the peripheric printing of globes, and
of vessels of glass and earthenware, is the subject of a separate paper. At
present let us consider merely its application to printing upon plane surfaces,
as well as the different modifications it admits of, so as to suit the different
kinds of printing; and lastly, of its peculiar advantages over other methods,

The following are some of the methods in use for the practical application
of the principle:

1. A strong, shallow basin of tough metal is required, with a triple stop-
-eock at bottom, admitting at pleasure the sort of fluid intended to be used,
whether it be atmospheric air, steam, or (when great pressure is required)
water, with hydraulic pressure. This basin is filled with water, and covered
by a tympan formed of a sheet, or of several sheets thick, of caoutchouc,
firmly clasped at the edges in an iron frame. A movable plate of iron,
strengthened by stays, is attached by strong hinges to one of the edges of
the tympan frame. This plate, when shut down upon the surface of the tym-
pan, forms the unyielding portion of the press, and supports the engraved
plate against the substance intended to be printed, which receives, by means
of the tympan, the pressure produced upon the water at the bottom of the
basin.

In order to retain this plate firmly in its place upon the tympan, its edges, as |

9

98 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

well as those of the basin, should be bevelled in such a manner as to lock the
whole way round in a collar with a corresponding groove; this collar opens
and closes upon the edges the whole way round, by means of two hinges
and wide-threaded, strong screws, or else by means of a cam, or eccentric
lever-lock. A very simple contrivance compels regularity in the proceeding,
and prevents accidents, by locking the stop-cock, and preventing the admis-
sion of pressure into the basin, until after the plate shall have been shut
down and firmly locked upon the tympan.

The engraved plate may either be permanently fastened upon the iron
plate, or it may be run into its place in a groove, so as to admit of being
easily removed and replaced after each impression, as in the case of copper-
plate printing.

When it is intended to print paper-hangings or cloth with dies, an iron
frame, instead of the solid plate above described, is attached to the hinges;
a strong iron axle, passing through gudgeons on opposite sides of the frame,
carries a panel fitting into the frame, and upon this panel the die is fixed.
The panel thus revolving completely on the axle at the same time that the
frame is raised upon its hinges to a vertical position, admits of the face of
the die being alternately brought in contact with the tub, when it is charged
with color, and with the surface of the material intended to be printed.

2. Another form of the press is one in which the tympan is movable upon
hinges, and fastens down upon the plate, which in this case is the fixed part
of the press, and upon it the die is laid. In lithography or typography,
there must, of course, be a hollow in the plate corresponding to the thickness
of the stone or type used.

This was the form adopted for the first experiment of the press, its tym-
pan consisted of two sheets of vulcanized caoutchouc fastened to the basin,
and secured by strong screws; the tympanum and the plate, instead of being
locked together while the pressure was on, by means of the collar above de-
scribed, were kept together at one end by the hinges, and at the other by a
cam, or eccentric lever-lock, working from an iron arch like a common letter-
copying machine, and to which two movable claws are attached, which,
when the lever is worked, grasp and secure the ends of a strong bar across
the centre.

3. It may sometimes be desirable to place the press vertically, notwith-
standing the slight, and in fact almost imperceptible difference in the pres-
sure at the top and at the bottom of the basin, and which is produced by
the column of water in the basin itself. When air is used, this inequality is
absolutely imperceptible; but, on account of the great compressibility of air,
a much larger quantity of air must be admitted than when water is used.
For instance, if the basin is one metre square and one millimetre deep, and
consequently holds one litre, it will require one litre of air to produce a pres-
sure of a single atmosphere, and ten litres to produce a pressure of ten
atmospheres.

The vertical position is particularly well suited for very large plates, say
five or six feet square; the copperplate can, if necessary, be heated from be-
hind, and the workmen can apply the ink in a standing posture. The press,
in this case, would open like a door, and large presses thus arranged would
occupy but little space, would be easily worked, would render the application
of the ink less fatiguing, and would save rent in office space; for six vertical
presses take no more room than two horizontal presses. In this way the
printing of very large maps will become not only possible, but cheap.

«< ope

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. i

As to the purposes to which it can be applied: 1. It is equally suitable to
all kinds of ordinary printing, whether copperplate, lithography, typogra-
phy, paper-hangings, or wood engraving; for it fully admits of the depth of
shade in certain parts of the engraving being modified according to taste,
without altering the engraving by the usual contrivance of folds of paper
cut out so as to throw the part into suitable relief. 2. It is peculiarly suit-
able for polychromic printing, whether typographic, lithographic, or copper-
plate, and the pressure being only in a vertical direction, the paper or cloth
is not liable to be altered in size or form by the pressure, and admits of
accurate fitting to the guide-pins as often as the number of colors used may
require. 3. It is equally suitable for printing upon all sorts of material,
whether paper, cloth, ceramic paste, felt, leather, or caoutchouc. 4. It
prints, with a single impression, very much larger plates than it has hereto-
fore been possible to do, and it insures the color being uniform over the
whole surface. 5. It admits of being used for stereotype and other casts
from ordinary printing type, and does not require that frequent touching
with the brush which wears away the characters so quickly.

As to the pressure: 1. The pressure being that of a fluid communicated
through a uniformly yielding surface, will be absolutely equal at every point
of the surface, consequently there will be no danger of partial pressure on
the plate, nor need there be a pressure upon any part of the plate beyond
what is necessary, so that the maximum result is thus obtainable with a
minimum of pressure. 2. Any amount of pressure required can be easily
obtained. 3. The amount of pressure can be ascertained with precision (for
instance, by Bourdon’s metallic manometer), and diminished or increased to
the exact extent which may be required. 4. Perfectly plane surfaces are
no longer the only surfaces capable of being printed. 5. Convex or concave
surfaces can thus be printed.

As to make, form, and size: 1. The press is extremely simple in its con-
struction; almost all the pieces are cast exactly as they are used, and re-
quire very little fitting. 2. It can be made of any strength required. 3. It
requires no troublesome alterations when the purpose for which it is used is
altered. 4. It fits in a very small space, being only four or five inches wider
than the printed sheet, whereas the presses hitherto in use are at least four
times wider than the printed sheet. 5. It thus admits of being worked ina
small and comparatively inexpensive office. 6. Its size being so small, a
printer can have several presses of different sizes in his office, so as to be no
longer forced to use his large presses for small sheets. 7. It is easily taken
asunder and moved. 8. It is on this last account, and the almost impos-
sibility of breakage, admirably adapted for exportation.

As to its working: 1. It requires hardly any effort, and entirely dispenses
with the severe labor which the winches and pedals of the present litho-
graphic press requires, — with the rolling of copper-plate printing, — with
the difficulty of charging the blocks with color, as well as with the danger
of working the huge lever of the ordinary press in printing paper-hangings ;
and as it requires less exertion on the part of the workmen, it gives them
more time to attend to the quality of the work, and thus tends to elevate
their character. 2. A much greater number of impressions can be taken in
a given time than was possible heretofore. 3. The manner of using the
press can be learned in an hour. 4. No modification of the press, or any
of its parts, is necessary when a change is made in the size of the sheet, or
otherwise in the nature of the work to be printed. 5. The impression is

100 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

uniformly even and invariably successful. 6. There is no longer any danger
of distorting nor of lengthening, by rolling out the plates in copper-plate
printing, nor of breaking the lithographic stones by the uneven pressure of
the:scraper. 7. The simplicity of the contrivance for locking the press, and
for admitting and shutting off the pressure, renders all mistakes impossible.
8. There is no part of the press which is expensive from excessive wear and
tear; and even when worn out, both the caoutchouc and the metal have a
considerable value as raw material.

As an investment, the great simplicity of the machinery, and the small
expense of fitting, will allow the press to be sold extremely cheap.

As to the sort of pressure to be used, steam pressure may be adopted, or
the pressure of expanded or condensed air, the hydraulic press, the screw,
the cam, or the eccentric or knee lever lock. If steam is used, the waste
heat will warm the plates in copper-plate printing, and will thus get rid of
the charcoal dust, so injurious to the health of the workmen.

The expenditure of water or steam may be estimated by considering the
surface of the caoutchouc as the surface of a piston, and its depression
joined to that of the printed surface as the stroke of the piston; conse-
quently, when the basin is one metre square, there is an expenditure of one
litre of air or water for each millimetre in the depression of the surface.

Water appears, on the whole, the most desirable agent, on account of its
non-compressibility, and of the small quantity required in-order to produce
very considerable pressure, as also on account of its non-expansibility,
which prevents the possibility of an explosion; for if any breakage takes
place, the water simply runs out. In experiments which were made with a
pressure of from twenty to thirty atmospheres, before perfecting the press,
the vessel repeatedly burst, with no greater injury to those engaged than a
few splashes on their clothes.

J TYPE MAP.

A telegraphic map of Europe, entirely executed in typography, has been
issued by the Royal Printing Office of Berlin. The process by which it has
been produced is described as follows: The drawing of the map, made on
paper, is blackened at the back with a carbon tracing composition, and is
placed, blackened side downwards, on a surface composed of quadrats,
formed each by sixteen nonparcil squares, and by means of a point, the lines
are transferred to them. The quadrats over which these lines are traced are
then exchanged for nonpareil type, cast with a face of points, and the coast
line is formed by the inner portion of these points being cut away. The
telegraphic lines are formed of brass rules, fixed in nonpareil type body, as
a sort of legs, which can be inserted into the composition, when needed, by
taking out the quadrat — the legs being so adjusted in length that the upper
edge of the rule is level with the face of the type. The additional shading
of the coast line is effected by the insertion of nonpareil type cast with points
on the face. The names of places are inserted by means of type taking the
place of the quadrats where required. .

The effect produced is peculiarly good. How far this is ever likely to su-
persede the present methods of producing maps by engraving and transfer
to lithographic stone, is questionable; no details as to the cost are given,
and it seems very doubtful (however simple the process appears) whether
the result can be satisfactorily produced except by a skilled workman, whose
labor must be adequately remunerated.

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 101

NEW METHOD OF TESTING SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLES.

A plan devised by Messrs. Reed, of Engiand, engineers, for effectually
testing submarine telegraph cables previous to their deposition, so that any
defect may be made evident, consists in first exhausting the air from a ves-
sel in which the cable to be tested is placed, and then forcing in water, until
a pressure of about two hundred pounds per square inch is attained. To
perform this operation, they employ a vessel which is so constructed as to be
possessed of sufficient strength, so as to resist the pressure of the atmos-
phere when exhausted, and also, at the same time, the hydrostatic pressure
to which the cable is to be subjected. The vessel in which the operation
takes place is provided with a cover, so as to admit of a coil of insulated
wire being introduced and inclosed therein. One end of the covered wire is
conducted from the interior, through a shifting box, to the outside of the
vessel; the other end of the wire is coated over as well, and insulated. All
being thus arranged, a vacuum is formed, by means of air-pumps, in the
vessel which contains the cable. The stop-cock of the air-pumps is now
shut off, and the passage for the water is opened, so as to admit of the water
entering into the vessel to fill it; or, if desired, a quantity of water may be
allowed to enter into the vessel, so as to fill it, or nearly so, before the pneu-
matic apparatus is put into action. One end of the wire of a galvanometer is
connected with the outer end of the wire which has been brought through
the vessel, as described above. Pressure is next exerted by pumping water
into the vessel, and then, on connecting the two poles of the battery with
the galvanometer and the water in the vessel respectively, if the insulation
be perfect, no action takes place in regard to the needle of the galvanometer,
as no complete electric current has been formed; but, on the contrary,
should there exist any defect whatsoever in the coating of the wire, however
small it may be, the needle of the galvanometer will at once, by its deflec-
tion, indicate the same to the operator, which shows that a circuit has been
formed, owing to some of the water in the vessel getting into contact with
some part of the wire which is being tested.

OILED PAPER AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR OILED SILK AND GUTTA-
PERCHA IN SURGICAL DRESSINGS.

This material was introduced by Dr. James McGhie, of the Glasgow Royal
Infirmary, and has been used with success in hospital practice.

The following is the mode of preparing it:

Having secured a paper of good texture, the next desideratum is the fluid
or varnish by which it is to be coated and waterproofed. This is made by
reboiling boiled linseed oil with litharge, acetate of lead, sulphate of zinc,
and burnt umber, an ounce or two of each to a gallon of oil. No artificial
heat is employed in drying. A square board is now procured, several inches
broader than the size of the sheet to be prepared. Upon this the sheet is
spread, and well covered, by means of a broad brush, with the mixture.
The first sheet should be brushed on both sides. On this a second sheet is
placed, slightly projecting over the first, at one end, in order to facilitate the
lifting of the sheets when they are to be hung up to dry. This is also to be
coated with the mixture. This process is to be repeated till a mass of
sheets, from twenty to fifty in number, is prepared. The board is then to
be carried to some unoccupied apartment, across which cords have been

g*

102 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

stretched, and the sheets are to be lifted seriatim, and attached by one end
to the cords by means of bent slips of zine or tinned iron. A very small
space is sufficient to hold a hundred sheets or more. After twenty-four
hours or more, it is ready to be taken down. As the sheets are found to be
liable to stick to one another, they may be dusted with French chalk, which
prevents adhesion. The addition of a little wax and turpentine renders the
dusting or any other measure unnecessary. There is only one part in the
above process where any manipulatory difficulty may at first be encoun-
tered, and that is in spreading, evenly and expeditiously, the dry sheet on
the oiled one. This is easily overcome by working the brush freely from
the centre to the circumference of the sheet.

The following are its most obvious advantages:

1. Its extreme cheapness does away with any inducement which might
otherwise exist to employ the same piece more than once. A ream, or 480
sheets, of paper, costs from 7s. 6d. to 10s., and a gallon of the prepared oil
about 3s.; so that each sheet costs the fraction of a halfpenny. This
does not include the cost of manufacture, which would slightly increase the
expense.

2. Its transparency. — When applied over dressings of a stump, or any
cut surface, when hemorrhage may be feared, the danger can be seen at
once, and obviated.

3. Its lightness.—It adds little to the weight of dressings, and it can
cause little or no pressure on a tender surface. It is particularly useful in
this respect for covering large burnt surfaces.

4. Its extreme adaptability. — It can be applied with great niceness to any
part, so as to give rise to little or no inconvenience. When applied in any
particular way, it retains the form impressed upon it.

5. It can be torn easily in any direction. In this respect it contrasts favor-
ably with oiled silk and gutta-percha.

6. It can be made of any required strength by folding it one, two, three,
or more times, without becoming inconveniently thick.

7. It possesses a certain amount of adhesiveness, which is increased by the
heat of the body, and thereby more effectually prevents evaporation from
wet applications.

ANTI-POISONING BOTTLES.

The following is a description of a new form of bottle, introduced in Ene-
land, to avoid liability to accidental poisoning: In shape they are hexan-
gular, with deep fluting or grooves running lengthwise along the bottle.
To the sight and touch they instantaneously present most striking points of
difference to any other kind of bottle. Vessels of this description, made of
blue glass, are intended to be used for external applications only. For
poisonous and powerful medicines, prepared or not from prescriptions, the
dose of which is a teaspoonful and under, bottles similarly shaped and fluted,
in white glass, are proposed to be employed. The bottles are provided with
an entirely new contrivance, the effect of which is to make it impossible to
pour out the contents otherwise than very slowly and gradually — almost
drop by drop. This is accomplished by a very simple and inexpensive plan
of contracting the neck of the bottle at the lower part, by the shoulder, and
the mouth being of the usual size, the process of filling is but slightly af-
fected by the contraction. The very deliberate and cautious action thus
produced, will, it is believed, deter any one from taking over-doses of medi-

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 103

cine; while it is difficult to imagine a case in which a person could pour out
and take the whole contents of one of these bottles in mistake for something
else. To illustrate the manner in which the new bottle acts, in comparison
with ordinary ones, it may be mentioned that not more than a teaspoonful
would come out in the same time that an ordinary vial would take to dis-
charge its entire contents. A person being about to take a wrong medi-
cine, say laudanum, contained in this new bottle, on proceeding to pour it
out, would be struck by finding that instead of the whole draught having
run into the wine-glass, as usual, merely a teaspoonful would have left the
bottle; this would naturally lead to an examination of the label, and the
consequent discovery of the error. Although to empty even a two-ounce
bottle would tire the hand and arm of the holder, yet when only the pro-.
posed dose is sought to be withdrawn, the patience is not taxed in the slight-
est degree. This invention recommends itself to general notice on account
of its thoroughly practical character.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION OF TALC.

A new application of the natural silicate of magnesia, known as steatite,
or talc, has recently been made in France; namely, the manufacture of but-
tons, and even very handsome cameos, provided that, after its fabrication,
the object be exposed during several hours to a white heat. By this strong
calcination the steatite acquires sufficient hardness to strike fire with steel,
and to resist the hardest file. It can be polished with emery, tripoli, and
putty-powder, and may likewise be colored by different organic and mineral
substances; thus, chloride of gold dyes it purple, nitrate of silver produces
a black. By exposing the object to the deoxidizing blow-pipe flame, the
brilliancy of the colors is much heightened.

SUBSTITUTE FOR LINSEED DRYING OIL.

Joseph W. Harmon, of Elizabethtown, N. J., has recently patented the
following composition: He takes the residuum of the stills of candle fac-
tories as the important basis of his compound, which consists of certain
products from palm-oil, lard, tallow, or other greasy matters remaining after
the stearic acid has been taken off. To one gallon of this residuum is added
one gallon, more or less, of rosin-oil, and these are melted together into one
homogeneous mass; then three-quarters of a pound of litharge is added,
and one pound and a half of umber, together with three pounds fresh slaked
lime, and three pounds of oil-cake. The whole mass must be carefully
mixed and boiled properly, and, after cooling, it is brought to a proper con-
sistency by spirits of turpentine, when a good substitute for linseed drying oil
is produced — the proportions varying, of course, according to circumstances.

SULPHURIZED OIL PAINT.

A sulphurized oil paint has recently been brought to the notice of the
Society of British Architects. It is prepared by subjecting eight parts of lin-
seed-oil and one part of sulphur to a temperature of 278°, in an iron vessel.
This paint, when applied to the surface of a building of stone or brick, or to
wood-work, with a brush, effectually keeps out the air and moisture, and
prevents the deposits of soot and dirt. Itis said that it improves the color
of stone and brick, as well as preserves them.

104 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

EXPERIMENTS ON LUBRICATION.

A careful experiment, made on the Michigan Central Railroad, in regard
to the comparative value of whale and metallic oils, resulted in showing a
great difference in favor of whale-oil. Running a single train 103 days, one-
half of the journals were lubricated with whale-oil, consuming 28} gallons,
costing 60 cents per gallon; the other half with metallic oil, consuming 27
gallons, costing $1.34 per gallon. — Railroad Register.

IMPROVED METHOD OF TANNING.

The Scientific American, translates from the Bavarian Journal of Arts and
Trades the following account of a new method of tanning, recently intro-
duced into Bavaria, by M. Knoderer. r

It is well known that, by keeping the hides and the tanning substance from
coming in contact with the air, the tanning process is materially facilitated.
In order to effect this practically, the only way is to carry on the tanning in
vacuo.

The vessel in which the tanning substance is kept has to be made air-tight,
and, at the same time, no metal can be used except the very expensive one,
copper. Iron, as well as zinc, is affected by the tanning substance; wood
can only be used if its pores have been stopped by some varnish, which
effectually prevents the air from entering the vessel after it has been pumped
out.

M. Knoderer employs a cylinder, or barrel, rendered air-tight, and fitted
with man-holes, air-pumps, etc., and an apparatus by which a rotation can
be imparted to it. The operation of tanning is then carried on as follows:
When the hides are taken from the wash, all the water contained in them is
expelled by a powerful press. This done, they are placed into a barrel, to-
gether with the necessary amount of bark, or other tanning substance. A
sufficient quantity of water is added to keep the contents of the barrel moist.
The man-hole is now closed, and the air pumped out as clear as possible. As
the rarefication of the air in the barrel proceeds, the pores of the hides are
opened and prepared to receive the tanning substance. When the air has
been rarefied as much as possible, a suitable quantity of tanning solution is ,
admitted by means of a pipe, which passes through one of the trunnions on
which the barrel is suspended. The barrel is then rotated half an hour, ac-
cording to the quantity of hides in the same. After two or three hours’ rest,
the rotation is continued for a longer time; and so on, diminishing the time
of rest and prolonging the time of rotation, until at last the rotation is con-
tinued to the end of the operation.

By thus combining three actions — the rarefication of the air, whereby the
pores of the hides are opened, and the formation of gallic acid is prevented;
the rotary motion, which facilitates the extraction of the bark, and which
produces a continuous fulling of the hides; and the increased temperature
which is produced by the motion, and whereby the combination of the gela-
tinous matter contained in the cellular texture of the hides with the tanning
substance is greatly facilitated ; — by this combined action, the tanning of the
hides is effected to perfection, and with a saving of time, which is fully
established by the following table, based on actual experiments:

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 105

Time for tanning in Time for tanning in

vacuo without motion. barrel, when rotated.

Calf-skins, from oe hue s yi Ste i daa.’ 60s «= 4to TF days
Horse-hides, . : ; : . &to40 * - : . a LE OAS
Light cow-hides, . - : - ‘wito 35, “ : = - = dato 16. “
Cow-hides, middling, 5 - - 40to45 * - . - i8to20 <6
Heavy cow-hides, . : 7 HOO 160)“ 5 - ? - 22to30 *
Ox-hides, light and moans 2. .50ito'60: r ‘ F - 2to30
Ox-hides, first quality, . = Oto 90) 6 : - : - 8 to40 “

At the same time, 75 per cent. of bark is saved by using the rotary barrel.

PREPARATION OF FRICTION MATCHES.

Wagner has published the following results of his investigations respecting
the preparation of friction matches.

The ingredients used are phosphorus, a metallic oxide, nitre, and a cement-
ing substance. One of the most important points in the preparation of the
paste is the proportion of phosphorus. This should not be more than one-
tenth or one-twelfth, when the phosphorus is melted in solution of gelatine,
after the usual method. A much smaller amount of phosphorus is sufficient
for the preparation of a good paste when the mode of preparation is altered.
A greater effect is produced with a given quantity of phosphorus when it is
very finely divided, on account of its greater inflammability in this state. A
solution of phosphorus in bisulphide of carbon, leaves the phosphorus so
finely divided on evaporation, that it ignites by contact with the air. How-
ever, when this finely divided phosphorus is mixed with solution of gelatine,
the dry mass does not ignite when exposed to the air, although it is very in-
flammable. Apart from greater expense of a large amount of phosphorus, it
is otherwise disadvantageous, owing to the production of a film of phos-
phorie acid, which renders the ignition of the wood or stearine more diflicult.

Wagner recommends the following mode of preparation:

Light parts phosphorus dissolved in bisulphide of carbon; 21 parts gelatine;
24 parts peroxide of lead, and 24 parts nitre.

He considers that the binoxide of manganese would be the best adapted to
the preparation of the paste, since it contains a larger amount of oxygen than
red lead or peroxide of lead, and as the metallic oxide serves only to main-
tain the combustion by yielding oxygen.

The nitre also is supposed to be serviceable only as a source of oxygen,
and might therefore be replaced by some other nitrate; for instance, nitrate
baryta, which, like the potash salt, is anhydrous. The amorphous phos-
phorus does not seem to be nearly so good for the preparation of matches as
ordinary phosphorus, most likely in consequence of the necessity for the
conversion of amorphous phosphorus into ordinary phosphorus before igni-
tion takes place.

M. Canouil, of Paris, has patented the following mixtures without phos-
phorus for the manufacture of matches:

1. Dextrine (British gum), : : ‘ - - - : 2 LO pee:
Chlorate of potassa, . Bare ‘ ; : - : =) Ep
Brown oxide of lead, . Sb dame ful s eote ays fer BE
Iron-pyrites, - : , athe dade 5 : Ape WF

Water, q.s., .

The chlorate, binoxide of lead, and pyrites are powdered separately, and °

106 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

then made into a paste with the solution of British gum. The latter may be
replaced by gum or glue.
2. Matches with a Prepared Friction Surface. — The mass consists of

parts.
“ec

Chlorate of potassa,
Sugar of lead,

Bichromate of potassa, ee

Oar WW bd -1

Flowers of sulphur, : ; : 2 . : :
Gun, : 7
Water, : ; . : ; ty i - : 4 a

They are mixed in the same manner as No. 1.
The friction cover is made from

Bilacksmith’s scales, - E : 4 - ° : >. Li part.
Emory, ; : : - : ; - 2 = - pe pet
Chlorate of potassa, : : < : . : c =. On ee
Red glue, . : : : : - : ; : : Pate Bog
Glue, q.s., ; : : 5 fH 5 5 : : .

These are mixed, and painted on sheets of paper, wood, or metals.

8. Chlorate of potassa, 5 5 5 - 3 2 5 - 5 parts.
Powdered glass or flint, . : : 2 . : : «tie |
Bichromate of potassa, . : 2 Sears : ° oe tee
Gum, or British gum, . : : : . : 4 a. cs

Water, q-5., -". : : : . : : : 4

Prepared and mixed as under No.1.
Matches dipped into the above mixtures are not ignited by concussion,
nor by a temperature as high as 350° F.

PRICE’S PATENT CANDLE WORKS, LONDON.

The process of manufacturing candles, as carried on at the works of Price’s
Patent Candle Company, which we propose briefly to describe, is one of the
most interesting sights in London. The two establishments are known as
Belmont, at Vauxhall, and Sherwood, at Battersea. At Sherwood, the works
cover over twelve acres of ground, six of which are under cover; and to
this establishment we wish to carry our reader. The raw materials princi-
pally used in this manufactory are palm oil, cocoa-nut oil, and petroleum;
the first, however, is used in by far the largest quantities, and to its prepara-
tion for the manufacture of candles we shall first draw attention. Palm oil,
as imported, is of a deep orange color, of the consistency of butter at mid-
summer; hence it will not flow out of the cask like the more fluent oils; and
to assist this costive tendency —the first care of the manufacturer — the
following plan is pursued: the casks of oil, as they arrive from ths docks,
are transferred to a large shed, the floor of which is traversed, from end
to end, with an opening about a foot wide, which is in communication with
an under-ground tank. Over this opening the bung-hole of each successive
cask is brought, and the persuasive action of a jet of steam thrown into the
mass speedily liquefies and transfers it to the under-ground tank. Herefrom
the oil is pumped by steam-power to what may be called the high service of
the establishment, gravitation being sufficient to make it carry itself to the
distilling-rooms. Palm oil and all animal oils are made up of three elements,

UI

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 107

—a very hard body, called stearic acid, a liquid termed oleic acid, and a
white, sirupy body, which acts as a base to the other two. Now these three
companions agree admirably in nature, but the moment art attempts to con-
vert them to her own purposes, in the formation of candles, a little difficulty
arises; the glycerine turns out to be the slow man of the party; like many
good men and true, its illuminating power is found to be greatly deficient to
that of the company it is in, and hence its ejection is voted by the scientific
candle-maker. Not long since, this was performed by the process termed
lime saponification. By this method, cream of lime was intimately mixed
with the fatty matter to be acted upon, and the principle of chemical affini-
ties coming into play, the different ingredients, like the dancers in a certain
coquettish waltz, forsook each other for new comers; thus the stearic and
the oleic acids waltzed off with the lime, leaving the glycerine by itself. No
sooner, however, was this arrangement completed, than it was broken up by
the introduction of strong sulphuric acid, which in its turn waltzed away
with the lime, leaving the fat acids free. This was an expensive process,
however, inasmuch as, independently of the cost of the lime and sulphuric
acid, the stearic acid obtained was comparatively small in quantity, and the
whole of the glycerine was wasted. The next step in the process is known
as the sulphuric acid saponification, the fat acids being exposed to sulphuric
acid, at a temperature of 350° Fahrenheit. By this process, the glycerine is
decomposed, the fats are changed into a dark, hard, pitchy mass, the result
of the charring of the glycerine and coloring matters, its final purification
being effected in a still, from which the air is excluded by the pressure of
superheated steam. In 1854, this process was brought to its present perfect
state, by passing this superheated steam directly into the neutral fat, by
which means it was resolved into glycerine and fat acids, the glycerine dis-
tilling over in company, but no longer combined with them. This was an
immense step gained, inasmuch as the glycerine, thus for the first time
obtained pure, and in lagre quantities, was raised from being a mere refuse
product which the candle-maker made every effort to destroy, into a most
important body, of great use in medicine and the arts; indeed, like gutta-
percha, or vulcanized India-rubber, it is no doubt destined to play a great
part in the affairs of the world, and is far more valuable than its companion
bodies, the stearic and oleic acids. We may here mention that it is the
presence of this very glycerine in the old mould-candle, and in the still exist-
ing ‘‘dip,’ which produces the insufferable smell of the candle-snuff. A
candle, when blown out, exposes the smouldering wick to the action of the
atmosphere, and the glycerine distills away in the smoke. Yet here we see
as much as six tons distilling at one time, in one room, without the slightest
smell, in consequence of the process taking place in a vacuum. Imagine,
good reader, what would be your sensations sniffing at six tons of the
concentrated essence of candle-snuff!

The two acids, the hard stearic and the fluent oleic, have still to be sepa-
rated, as it is only the former which is, from its high melting point, calcu-
lated to form the true candle material. The cooled fats, forming a thick,
lard-like substance, having been cut in appropriate slices by means of a
revolving cutter, are then, by an ingenious labor-saving apparatus, spread
upon the surfaces of cocoa-nut mats, which are taken away in trucks to the
press-room. In the press-room these piles are subjected to hydraulic pres-
sure, which slowly squeezes out the oleic acid, leaving the stearic acid behind,
in the form of thin, hard, white cakes. These are remelted. The arrange-
ment by which the melting process is carried on is novel in the extreme.

108 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Into each vat a long coil of pipe depends, which admits into the fatty mass
a hissing tongue of steam, which quickly liquefies it.

The stearic oil, or candle-making material, of the cocoa-nut, is extracted
simply by pressure, no distillation or acidification being required. The well-
known ‘‘ composite candles” of this form are made from a combination of
this oil at low melting point and the hard stearic acid of the palm oil, their.
relative proportions varying according to the varying condition of the price
of each inthe market. We have yet to speak of the production of candle
material from the novel substance petroleum, a natural product of the kinz-
dom of Burmah, where it wells up from the ground, like naphtha, to which it
bears a very striking resemblance. It is a mineral substance, composed of a
number of hydro-carbons, varying in specific gravity and boiling points.
The preparation of this dark-orange-colored liquid is conducted simply by
distillation; a number of very different products coming over at different
temperatures, ranging from 160° to 620° Fahrenheit. The first product to
distil is the extraordinary liquid termed sherwoodole, a detergent very simi-
lar to benzine collas, the well-known glove-cleaner, removing grease-stains
like that liquid, but without leaving any smell behind. A very beautiful
lamp-oil, termed Belmontine oil, is the next product. This oil burns with a
brilliant light, and, as it contains no acidifying principle, it. never corrodes,
like other oils, the metal work of the lamps. The two next products are
light and heavy lubricating oils, used for lubricating spindles, at a much
cheaper rate than the ordinary oils now in use. The last product to distil is
termed Belmontine, a new, solid substance, of a most beautiful translucent
white, somewhat resembling spermaceti, and forming a candle of a most
elezant appearance, very similar to the paraffine lately distilled from peat.

The candle-making material being now fit for moulding, let us introduce
the reader to this department of the manufactory. A room, 127 by 104 feet,
is fitted up, throughout its entire extent, with parallel benches, running from
one end of the department to the other. In these benches, ranged close to-
gether in a perpendicular direction, are the candle-moulds, which, viewed
from above, their open mouths present the appearance of a vast honeycomb,
commensurate with the size of the room itself. Along the top of each bench,
104 feet in length, there runs a railway, and working on this railway is what
may be termed a candle locomotive, — a large car, running on wheels, con-
taining hot candle material. The wicks having been adjusted truly in the
long axis of the mould, the locomotive now advances, and deposits in each
line of moulds exactly enough material to fill them, proceeding regularly
from one end of the bench to the other, setting down at different stations its
complement of passengers. After a sufficient time has elapsed to allow them
to cool, preparations are made to withdraw them from their moulds. This is
done in the most ingenious manner: in an apartment close at hand, an iron
boiler of great thickness is filled with highly compressed air, by means of
a pump worked by a steam-engine; pipes from this powerful motive com-
municate with every distinct candle-mould, and convey to it a pressure of
air equal to 45 pounds to the square inch, about the surface of the diameter
of acandie. These candle-moulds and the air-pump constitute an immense
air-gun, containing thousands of barrels, each barrel loaded with a candle.
The turning of a cock, by boys in attendance, lets off these guns, and ejects
the candles with a slight hissing noise. This fusillade is going on all over
the room throuchout the entire day, and in the course of that time no less
than 188,160 candle projectiles, weighing upwards of fourteen tons, have
been shot forth.

art

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 109

The wicks of these candles are made very fine, the high illuminating power
of the stearic acid enabling a fine wick to give far more light than the coarse
wick of the common “dip.” Again, the particular twist given to the wick
when it is plaited, and the wire with which it is bound, causes it to project
from the flame when burning. Palmer’s candle-wicks are twisted upon each
other, the relaxation of the twist as it burns answering the same end, — the
projection of the burning cotton through the flame and into the air, which
immediately oxidizes it, or causes it to crumble away, thus obviating the
necessity of snufiing. Here we see an extraordinary example of the manner
in which avery simple improvement will sometimes interfere with a very
large trade, — the simple plaiting of a wick doing away with one of the most
extensive branches of hardware in Birmingham and Sheffield.

The candles are sent forth into the market in pound packets, packed in
highly ornamental boxes. The manufacture of these boxes is not the least
interesting part of the manufactory. In consequence of the duty on paper,
it was necessary to look about for some cheap substitute, and deal was finally
adopted. A plank 1 foot wide by 4 long, is planed into no less than 140
shavings of that size; these are pasted on one side with a very thin straw
paper, so as to form the hinges for the sides. They are cut out by a machine
to the required sizes, and rapidly made up afterwards by hand, the cost being
truly insignificant. For the manufacture of the night-light cases, the shav-
ings are rolled into a cylinder, pasted, and then cut off to the required heres
in a hand-lathe.— Once a Week.

CUTTING FILES BY MACHINERY

At a recent meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London,
a machine for cutting files, the invention of M. Bernot, of Paris, was exhib-
ited and described by Mr. Greenwood, of Leeds.

He said the chisels could cut five times 4s many files as by hand, without
being resharpened. The teeth cut on the files were raised with perfect regu-
larity, and were fully better than those made on hand-made files. Twelve of
such machines are now in operation at Douai, France, one in Brussels, Bel-
gium; and the relative cost for cutting files by them was eight cents per
dozen; by hand, sixty-four cents. Mr. Greaves, who was present, said he
had been engaged in file-cutting for twenty-five years, and he could state
that this machine could cut as good files as those made by hand, if it were
well attended. It was also stated that various such machines had been tried
both in America and England, none of which had been so successful as the
one of M. Bernot. In most of the machines heretofore made, the idea elim-
inated in them was an iron hand holding a chisel, and an iron hammer
striking blows on it. The vibration of the chisel, by this mode, caused
irregularity in the teeth. In the new machine, the blow is given by the
pressure of a flat steel spring pressing upon the top of a vertical slide, at the
lower end of which the chisel is firmly fixed. This slide is actuated by a
cam, which makes about a thousand revolutions per minute, and obviates
all irregular vibrations.

BEAUCHE’S MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING CIGARS.

The principle of this machine, the invention of Louis Beauché, of Paris,
France, consists in rolling the pieces of tobacco-leaf between two elastic

10

110 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

endless bands, which run in opposite directions. Two pairs of these endless
bands are prepared, one for rolling together the filling of the cigar, and the
other for winding the wrapper. The frame of the upper band is hung on
hinges at one side, so that it may be turned open. The operator gathers a
bundle of pieces of tobacco-leaf, previously cut of the proper length, and
places them upon the lower band, with a smooth piece of leaf loosely around
them. He then presses down the frame of the upper band, bringing it into
gear with the lower band, where it is held by a latch. He then throws the
two bands into gear with the driving machinery, and the bundle of tobacco
is rapidly rolled by the two bands between which it is pressed, which run in
opposite directions. The effect of this operation is to press the bundle to-
gether and sufficiently tighten the inner wrapper about it. The apparatus
for winding the wrappers is provided at one end with a hollow metallic cone,
partly formed witb a revolving roller, for finishing the pointed end of the
cigars, and giving a twist to the wrapper which prevents it from unwinding.
The upper band of this apparatus being turned open, the wrapper, pre-
viously cut of the proper reniform shape, is placed with one end upon the
lower band near its end, and the filling, prepared as before described, is
then Jaid upon it, and the apparatus is closed and thrown into gear with fhe
driving machinery. The two endless bands, running in opposite directions,
roll the cigar between them, and as the wrapper is held at an angle by the
operator, it is drawn in and wrapped around the filling, forming the cigar.
The rotary motion is continued until the pointed end of the cigar is rubbed
smooth, and handsomely finished by its revolutions in the metallie cone.
The upper band now being turned open, the cigar is taken out and the
square end cut off, when it is ready for market. — Scientific American.

THE WESTMINSTER CLOCK.

The clock recently constructed by Mr. Dent, of London, for the new House
of Parliament, Westminster, London, is one of the most complete and ac-
curate pieces of workmanship ever put together. When in its place, the
clock will report itself to Greenwich every day by a galvanic action at the
striking of some given hour, and when once fairly going and regulated, it
will not require altering to the extent of asecond per week. It has been
erroneously stated that the dial-faces of this clock are the largest in the
world. This is not the case, as they are considerably less than one which
exists at Mechlin, in Belgium. But then the Westminster has four dial-
plates, and in this respect it stands at the head of all other clocks; for no
other one in existence has to work four dials, 223 feet wide, for eight and a
half days. The hands of the Westminster clock weigh each about 2 ewt.,
and at thirty seconds, or half minute, the ponderous minute-hand moves 7
inches on the circumference of the dials; but the movement will be gradual,
instead of a sudden jerk, the momentum being checked by what is known
as the “gravity escapement.” The frame of the check is 15} feet long, 4
feet 7 inches wide, and 19 deep. The whole of the mechanism of the clock
weighs nearly 4 tons; but motion is given to the whole by the action of a
small spring, weighing one-sixth of an ounce. The pendulum weighs 6
ewt.; but, so accurate are all the adjustments, that when it is required to
regulate the clock, the addition or removal of a piece of metal weighing one
ounce will accelerate or retard it at the rate of a second per day. The wind-
ing up of this clock is a matter of no small importance, inasmuch as the

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 183 ;

weight to be lifted will not be less, including friction, than from three to
four tons; and the time required for the operation will be at least five
hours. The expense, therefore, if done by hand, will be a considerable
item. The use of a small steam-engine has been suggested.

¢

GLAZED WATERPROOF CLOTH.

A patent has lately been taken out in England for making waterproof
glazed cloth, to imitate leather, by the following process: About three
ounces each of litharge, brown umber and hydro-protoxide of manganese,
are subjected slowly to a boiling action in one gallon of linseed oil, for
about three hours. It is now spread over the surface of twilled cotton cloth
laid on a table, with a sponge, and then hung up in a warm room to dry.
After this, it is subjected to a second coat of the same oil varnish, rendered
black with lampblack. A small scraper is employed to put on the second
coat, as it is a little thicker than the first. If the varnish is desired to dry
quick, it is thinned with turpentine. When the second coat is dry, the cloth
is polished with pumice stone and water, to render its surface smooth and
close. Several coats of this varnish are put on in a similar manner, each
being dried before the other is applied. The finishing, or top varnish, is
made of linseed oil boiled with umber, litharge and Prussian blue, thinned
with turpentine. The finishing operation is running the cloth between two
engraved metal rollers.

IMPROVEMENT IN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

A patent has lately been taken out in England, by J. Robertson, for an
invention which relates to a most simple method of increasing the volume
and richness of tone of musical instruments. As applied to violins or simi-
lar stringed instruments, the sounding-board is made somewhat thicker than
those in common use, and the inside is deeply grooved, longitudinally, in
parallel lines. The grooving operation removes the white fibreless wood,
leaving the more fibrous portion standing. The back of the instrument
may also be grooved; but the sounding-board is the most essential feature
of the improvement. The sounding-boards, and their supports, of piano-
fortes may be grooved in a similar manner, and with good results. The
grooves leave the spaces of wood between them in such relative positions,
that an increased resonant vibratory action is thereby caused, which thus
greatly improves the tone of the instrument. — Scientific American.

ENGRAVING OF ROLLERS FOR CALICO-PRINTING.

A Providence correspondent of the Boston Journal states that a mechani-
cal arrangement has been invented by Mr. Milton Whipple, and improved
by Mr. Thomas Hope, of Providence, by which the engraving of rollers
used in printing calicos and delaines can be accomplished “in one-quarter
the time formerly employed, and a great reduction of labor and expense.
The surface of the copper rollers are covered with three coats of asphaltum
paint before being placed on the machine. The mechanism is so arranged
that upon tracing an index figure, which only requires one person to attend
upon the sketch or pattern to be engraved, it forms a connection with several
diamond points placed above the roller, and causes them to move in the
same manner with the index. They thus scratch the lines of the pattern .

112 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

through the thin covering of asphalt upon the copper surface. When com-
pleted, the rollers are placed in dilute acid, which etches into the copper
where the paint has been removed, and thus accomplishes the engraving.”

NOVEL COAL SIFTER.

°

A novel sifter, only requiring the refuse from the grate or stove to be
poured into a hopper, when it does its own sifting by gravity, is constructed
with an inverted cone at the bottom, and a direct one over it, both being
made of woven wire, and forming the screen. These are surmounted with
a hopper, into which the coal and ashes are poured, when they fall upon
the apex of the cone, slide down its periphery, discharge round the inside
base of the inverted cone, and so on, the ashes falling through an orifice at
its lowest point. The screens are so arranged as to be easily removed and
cleared, should they become clogged. It might be applied by farmers to
assorting such seeds, fruits, potatoes, etc., as are round enough to roll over
the cones. For coals it must be of great value, should it not choke too often
by filling the meshes with irregular pieces. — NV. Y. Tribune.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STARCH FROM CORN.

M. Watt, of London, has obtained a patent for making starch from Indian
corn in the following manner: He steeps the corn in water ranging in tem-
perature from 70° to 140° Fah., for about‘ week — changing the water at
least once in every twenty-four hours. A certain amount of acid fermenta-
tion is thus produced, causing the starch and refuse of the corn to be easily
separated afterwards. The swollen corn is ground in a current of clean soft
water, and the pulp passed through sieves, with the water, into vats. In
these the starch gradually settles to the bottom; the clear water is then run
off by a tap, and the starch gathered and dried in a proper apartment for
the purpose.

FLEXIBLE IVORY.

According to the process of Geisler, in Switzerland, articles of ivory are
placed in a solution of phosphoric acid of 1°130 specific gravity, and left
there until they assume a transparent aspect. After this, they are taken
from the acid, washed off in water, and dried with soft linen cloth. The
articles are now as soft as thick leather; they become hard in the open air,
and when placed in warm water they assume their former softness.

The application of such ivory for nipples of nursing-bottles, or for covers
of sore breasts, and for similar articles, is of importance. The change eyi-
dently consists in a solution of a portion of the lime, producing a compo-
sition containing a smaller percentage of lime than ivory.

ON THE OXIDATION OF IRON.

At a late meeting of the Manchester Philosophical Society, H. M. Ormerod
produced two specimens of iron used in buildings, which have become so
oxidized as to injure the structures in which they had been used. An iron
cramp, taken from a buttress of the Manchester Parish Church, had become
treble its own thickness by rust, and had thus split the building in the cen-
tre, and lifted about twelve feet of the wall. It was inserted about ninety
years ago. The other piece of iron was a small wedge, taken from the

MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 193

steeple of St. Mary’s Church; it was three-cighths of an inch thick origi-
nally, but had increased to seven-eighths of an inch with the rust. There
were several wedges used, and these had lifted the stones which they were
meant to keep in their places, and some of them had even been split by the
slow but certain force of rust expansion. The steeple was erected in 1756,
and the upper part had become so ruinous by these wedges, that it had to
be taken down by the city surveyor.

Destructive, Action of Oxides of Iron on Wood. — M. Kuhlmann, at a recent
meeting of the French Academy, drew attention to the decay of the wood
of ships in the places adjoining iron nails and bolts; while no such decay
took place where wooden or copper bolts were employed. His observations
were made on ships at Dunkirk. For the purpose of explaining these facts,
he had instituted numerous experiments on the action of sesqui-oxide of
iron on various vegetable products, the results of which appear to prove
that the sesqui-oxide brings the oxygen of the atmosphere into contact
with the organic matter of the wood, and thus hastens its destruction. The
oxide becomes, in some degree, a kind of reservoir of oxygen, filling itself
at the expense of the air, and emptying itself to support the combustion
of combustible bodies. To avoid this injury to the wood of ships, the nails
etc. should either be coated with zinc, or made of copper.

ON THE STRENGTH OF IRON AND STEEL,

At the meeting of the British Association for 1859, Prof. Macquorn gave
an abstract of a set of experiments conducted by Robert Napier and Son,
(the eminent engineers) of Glasgow, to test the strength of iron and steel
bars and plates. The following are the most important results arrived
at, arranged in a tabular form,—the weights in each case being applied
gradually.

TABLE A—TrRon Bars. - TABLE B—IRon PLATES.
Tenacity Tenacity
Districts. in lbs. Districts. in Ibs.
per sq. in. per sq. in.
Yorkshire, strongest,............ ...62,886 Yorkshire, strongest crosswise,..... 50,515
a WiGHItESis: gbognuoebonoco abe 60,075 “weakest, sean ertcyecse 46,221
as UO et aR COCO Ent R CORE Eee 66,392 TABLE C—STEEL Bars.
Staffordshire, strongest,............ 62,281 Steel for tools, rivets, etc.,
te WEAKEST scrersisre siajatajsreisteyersion 59,715 6 SELONP ESE nc cian crcctelectereieie = 132,909
West of Scotland, strongest,....... 64,795 KG, WeBKCSE a cansscte Bieta steers 101,151
OEP Ue WERKESE ys 5 0.5,<°s'e'e's oeine -...-65,655 Steel for other purposes,
Sweden, strongest,......... Seeovecs 48 232 « StFONGESE,. «.cia0 5 ee sie boone 92,015
a WAKES crepe clersivecv aeec ees 47,855 ee WEBKESE, ciscac'< tec niereyoreure 71,486
Russia, strongest,.......... cielo ese) OO, OUD TABLE D— STEEL PLATES.
tee. WeAKest 3). dc nosed etde eee 49,564 Strongest lengthwise,.............. 94,289
TABLE B—TJRON PLATES. Weakest lengthwise,...... ........ 75,594
Yorkshire, strongest lenghthwise, 56,005 Strongest crosswise,..............- 96,398
Ke W.CAIKES Es. ats.siarevedsusieetelneee 52,000 Weakest CLOSSWASEs: civancrscirereraciesl> 69,082

Norte. — The strongest lengthwise is the weakest crosswise, and vice versa.

ON THE USE OF PINE AS AN ORNAMENTAL WOOD.

In the royal palace at Potsdam there is a suite of apartments, the whole
wood-work of which, as well as the standing furniture, consists of yellow
deal, not painted, but polished, and exhibiting the natural color and grain

10*

114 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of the wood. In England some progress has been made towards the intro-
duction of this system in lieu of the coarse imitative efforts of the painter
and grainer. London furniture dealers manufacture bedroom furniture in
yellow pine, French polished, for which they find a ready sale, the prefer-
ence it receives being due to its beauty only, and not its cheapness; for the
necessity of using in it only the choicest timber, free from knots and blem-
ishes of all kinds, makes the price nearly as high as that of mahogany.

RECOVERING WOOL FROM WORN FABRICS.

A patent has been taken out in England, by R. Bell, for recovering wool
from old worn-out clothes, composed of cotton and wool, such as delaines.
The patentee takes muriate of manganese, such as is ordinarily obtained as
a residuum in the manufacture of bleaching-powder; the rags to be treated
are then steeped in a solution of this, which entirely decomposes the vegeta-
ble or cotton portions, and leaves the woollen fibres uninjured. The liquor
is then strained through a sieve that retains the wool, which is afterwards
washed, dried, and may be used for shoddy or other purposes in making
new goods out of old materials, just as new paper is made out of old rags,

Reet ro ths CO ei.

ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY. —BY JAMES P. ESPY.

Ir has not yet been ascertained by electricians, so far as I know, what is
the cause of atmospheric electricity; those, however, who have studied my
theory of storms, and agree with me that there is an upmoving current of
air in the centre of all storms, kept up by constant evolution of latent caloric,
as the vapor condenses by the cold of diminished pressure as the air ascends
with its vapor in it, will agree with me that it follows as a corollary from the
following experiments, that electricity must be generated simply by the up-
moving current of air from the surface of the earth, especially if it be
violent enough, as it frequently is, to carry up drops of rain with it to a
great height.

It is well known that all bodies, as Dr. Alex. Palagi, of Bologne, says, in
their natural state, give signs of positive electricity; When separating from
the soil, and of negative, when approaching it. In the twenty-third volume
of Geneva Archives of Science, pp. 286 and! 382, it is stated. that Volpicelli
caused a ball of metal to revolve on a horizontal axis of glass, at a distance
from that axis one metre and a half, and connected by means of a copper
ribbon with a Volta’s condenser, — during a demi-revolution ascending, de-
taching it when descending,—and in four demi-revolutions he collected
positive electricity enough to make the straws diverge so as to touch the
interior sides of the electrometer.

When the connection was made with the ball descending, negative elec-
tricity was obtained.

Now, in all storms, especially where floods of rain descend, there are at
the sides and under those parts of the cloud where floods of rain descend,
down-moving currents of air; and this will account for the sudden change
of electricity, from positive to negative, so well known to all observers.
Moreover, as there are thousands of up-moving currents of air every day,
nearly all over the earth, this theory will account for the upper air being
almost always positively electrified; for a body cannot be removed upwards
from the surface of the earth without becoming positively electrified; and,
vice versa, « body cannot descend towards the surface without becoming
nevatively electrified. It would be well to examine the electric state of the
air in the belts of high barometer, where the air must in gencral be descend-
ing, and also in the annulus of storms, where the barometer stands above the
mean (and of course the air must be descending there), to see if the electricity
is not sometimes negative; and if so, electricity may become a means of
predicting storms. — Jour. Franklin Institute.

116 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ON THE FORMATION OF FULGURITES.

In June 1859, a violent thunder-storm occurred at Oldenburg, Germany.
On the Haute River, four workmen were on board a dredging-boat, occupied
in deepening the new bed for the river, when all at once the lightning struck
the shore close to them; they appeared at the same instant to be struck
violently on the head with a soft body. Having recovered from the shock,
they perceived smoke rising from a point of the shore; they ran to the place,
and in the burnt grass they discovered, about seven yards from the water,
two holes near one another, and their edges surrounded with a whitish sand.
They dug carefully, and found in each hole a tube, that they were unable to
extract entire, on account of its fragility; but they followed them as far as
the marshy soil situated under the’sand. These were two fulgurites, having
the ordinary appearance, being round and as thin as sheets of paper, per-
fectly enamelled on the inside, but garnished on the exterior with grains of
sand; there were also, here and there on the outside, spots of green oxide
of iron, of the color of bottle-glass. The soil was formed of about three
inches of vegetable earth on the surface, then came twenty inches of white
sand, and lastly the boggy earth. The fulgurite began and ended at the
superior and inferior surfaces of the bed of sand. The principal fragments
haye been placed in the museum of Oldenburg.

NEW ELECTRIC LIGHT.

Galignani’s Messenger thus describes a new apparatus for producing an
clectric light, recently exhibited in Paris: ‘The principle on which it is con-
structed is electro-magnetism; that is, the property which electricity has, un-
der certain circumstances, of producing magnetism inversely and conversely.
Suppose a wire, many yards in length, and covered with silk, to be coiled
round a hollow cylinder, and let a magnetic bar of steel fit like a core in
the hollow; then, each time the core is introduced into the eylinder, an
electric current passes through the wire; and though of short duration, its
intensity is proportional to the length of the coil. Again, each time the
core is taken out, another electric current is produced in an inverse direction;
so that by constantly inserting and drawing out the core, an indefinite num-
ber of electric currents may be obtained. If the core, instead of being a
magnetic steel bar, consists of a bar of unmagnetized iron, and an electric
current be made to pass through the coil of wire, then an equally singular
effect is obtained; the iron core becomes so highly magnetized, that it will
raise heavy bars of iron, and the attraction is so great that it requires a
strong man to wrench the bar from the magnetized core. The effect, how-
ever, ceases as soon as the electric current is interrupted. It is clear, from
this, that it is much easier to obtain a permanent effect by magnetizing and
unmagnetizing in this way, than by alternately inserting and withdrawing
out a steel magnet, as in the former method. And the only difficulty that
remains is to give the apparatus a convenient mechanical arrangement.
This is done as follows: suppose a hexagonal frame placed horizontally on
legs, like a table. -At each of the angles let there be one of the electro-
magnets, or cylinders of induction, with wire coiled round, as above described,
and supported by an inner frame, so that the whole may have the appear-
ance of a horizontal wheel, with electro-magnets for spokes; only the nave
is supplied by a hollow frame. In this hollow there fits a drum, revolving

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 117

on a vertical axis, and carrying on its circumference eight bars of soft iron,
which, in going round, come very nearly in contact with the electro-magnets.
Now, from what has been said, it is easy to understand, that whenever one
of these bars approaches an electro-magnet, it is attracted laterally until it
comes in front of it, when the action of the electro-magnet ceases; but at
that instant the attractive power of the next electro-magnet commences, and
so on. Now, as each of the bars thus receive six impulses in one revolution,
and as there are eight bars, the number of impulses received in all by the
revolving drum is forty-eight, which impulses occurring in a few seconds,
preduce, in point of fact, a continuous motion. Now, if the place of the
spokes be occupied, not by cylinders of induction, but by magnetized iron
bars, the cylinders being fixed on the revolving drum, and their hollows
filled with cores of unmagnetized soft iron; then each time a cylinder comes
in front of a magnet, the soft iron becomes magnetized, and generates a
current in the coil, which ceases as soon as the cylinder changes its place.
Now, as the motion is continuous, and the revolution rapid, each ceasing
current is replaced by another, and so on, ad infinitum. These currents are
concentrated into a common conductor, and by this means an amount of
electricity is obtained which will melt an iron wire three yards long and
one-fourth of a line in diameter. An apparatus, consisting of thirty-two
cylinders and twenty-seven magnets, and made to revolve two hundred and
thirty-eight times in a minute, produced a permanent and regular light,
equal to that of two hundred and thirty tapers. Such, indeed, was the in-
tensity of the light produced, that a lighted candle being held against a
white wall, not only the shadow of the candle, but the shadow of the flame,
was projected on the wall by the electric light. The cost at which a light of
this intensity is produced, is stated not to exceed fifteen ceutimes per hour,
for each apparatus.”

CURIOUS ACTION OF ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY.

In front of the Bibliotheque Impériale, at Paris, there exists an open space
upon which the Opera-house formerly stood. The place is ornamented with
a bronze fountain, which has been coated with copper by the electrotype
process. The operation was carried on in a workshop built for the purpose,
at the neighboring village of Auteuil. While the upper basin, from which
the water flows, through sixteen tigers’ mouths was in the bath of sulphate of
copper, a violent thunder storm burst over Paris, and the lightning fell close to
the workshop in question. Immediately after the storm had subsided, M.
Oudry had the copper solution poured off, in order to examine the vase,
and to assure himself that the electric fluid had not deranged the deposit: he
was extremely surprised to discover that the copper had been deposited on the
tigers’ heads in streaks or lines about the twenty-fifth of an inch in height,
separated by equal intervals, and so happily arranged that they form a veri-
table tiger’s skin, covered with hair, in as perfect a manner as if they had
been produced by the hands of askilful engraver. This curious effect of the
electric fluid has accordingly been allowed to remain, and the result is a great
addition to the expressive character of the work.

EFFECT OF PRESSURE ON ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY.

Prof. Wartmann, of Geneva, Switzerland, has recently made a series of
highly interesting experiments on the effect of pressure on the electric con-

118 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ductibility in metallic wires. The method which he adopted in his experi-
ments is that known as the electrical bridge. The current of a Bunsen’s
battery of six large cells was divided between the wire to be tested (a very
soft copper wire, 0°05 of an inch in diameter, covered with gutta-percha) and
another conductor, both being covered with a delicate Ruhmkorff’s galvano-
meter, so that the needle remained on the zero point. All contacts were
made invariable by solderings. No sensible effect being determined by the
pressure of nine atmospheres in a picrometer, a press was used to produce
‘compressions superior to four hundred atmospheres, consequently greater
than that experienced by an electric wire immersed in the ocean at a depth
of 12,420 feet. The wire, besides its ordinary coating, was further protected
by two coverings of thick gutta-percha placed between the steel plates which
held it. The experiments have shown: 1. That a pressure of thirty atmos-
pheres diminishes the electrical conducting power of a copper wire. 2. That
the effect increases with the pressure. 3. That the diminution is the same
for each compressicn, as long as the latter is constant. 4. That the primitive
conducting power is exactly restored when the pressure vanishes altogether.

ON THE CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF ELECTRIC DISCHARGES.

Pliicker has published, in successive parts, the results of an elaborate and
very interesting investigation of electric discharges in tubes containing rare-
fied gases. For the details we must refer to the original papers, which do
not admit of condensation, and content ourselves with giving, in the author’s
own words, the results, which are most interesting to chemists.

1. Certain gases (oxygen, chlorine, bromine and vapor of iodine) combine
more or less slowly with the platinum of the negative electrode, and the
resulting compounds are deposited upon the surrounding sides of the glass
tube. When the gases are pure, we approximate in this manner to a perfect
vacuum.

2. Gases which are composed of two simple gases (vapor of water, ammo-
nia, protoxide of nitrogen, deutoxide of nitrogen, nitrous acid), are imme-
diately separated into their components, and then remain unchanged, if they
do not (as ammonia) unite with the platinum. If one of the gases be oxy-
gen (as in steam and the different oxides of nitrogen), this gradually disap-
pears, and only the other gas remains.

3. When the gases are composed of oxygen and a solid simple substance,
complete decomposition by the current takes place but slowly, the oxygen
going to the platinum of the negative electrode (sulphurous acid, carbonic
acid). Carbonic acid at first splits instantly into the lower gaseous oxide and
into free oxygen, which combines gradually with the platinum. Carbonic
oxide gas is then slowly decomposed by the combination of its oxygen with
the negative electrode. The results above mentioned were obtained by
means of the so-called Geissler’s tubes, which are simply glass tubes of va-
rious forms, containing rarefied gases, and provided with platinum wires
fused into the glass. The electric currents were partly derived from the
electric machine, and partly from Ruhmkorff’s apparatus. Finally, the re-
sults themselves are directly deduced from the prismatic analysis of the light
of the sintple and compound gases, the spectrum obtained being simple, or
composed of two distinct and superposed spectra, according as the discharge
passes through a simple gas or a mixture of two. — Pogg. Ann., cv. 67.—
Stiliman’s Journal,

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 119

ON THE DISCHARGE OF ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY THROUGH
GAS-PIPES AND MAINS.

In a paper on the above subject read before the American Association, at
Springfield, 1859, by Prof. B. Silliman, Jr., the author stated that, in June
1858, a thunder-bolt fell on the spire (227 feet high) of a church in New
Haven, and was conducted by a rod to a point less than 25 feet from the
ground. Here, owing to an imperfect arrangement of the rod, it passed
through a brick wall 20 inches thick, to a gas-pipe on the wall opposite. By
the new channel thus forcibly gained, the discharge was conducted to the
main pipes of distribution, and no further immediate effects were seen. Soon
afterwards, however, the escape of gas on the street in front of the church
was noticed, as well by the odor as by the death or the sickly condition of the
shade-trees lining the street. Upon opening the ground, it was found to be
saturated with gas, and every joint in the whole length of the street, some
forty in number, was discovered to be leaking profusely. The inference
seemed unavoidable that the leakage was occasioned by the electrical dis-
charge.

During the last week of July 1859, another very energetic discharge fell
upon a house in George Street, New Haven, which was supplied with gas,
and while but little injury was done to the dwelling, and none at all to its
inhabitants, the gas mains in the whole street, to the number of over sixty
joints, were found to be leaking profusely. In June of this year, the new
church spire struck in 1858, was again the subject of a second accident of
this sort; the wall of brick was again perforated near the same place, and in
the same manner as last year, with the additional circumstance that the gas-
pipe in the church was fused or burnt off at the point of contact of the
escaping discharge, and the gas being thus set on fire, in its turn set fire to
the wall casing behind which it ran. But-cither because the violence of the
discharge was less than last year, or because a portion of it found a lateral
escape, there was no effect produced in disturbing the joints of the street
mains.

This effect Prof. Silliman thought was plainly to be referred to the sudden
expansion of the gas in the main, at the point of electrical discharge. Not-
withstanding the enormous extent of the metallic circuit, — over 20 miles of
pipe from 3 to 12 inches in diameter — all buried in moist earth, the restora-
tion of electrical equilibrium could not be so accomplished ,without this
hitherto unobserved effect of expansion on the gas in the mains.

Prof. Henry remarked, that the introduction of gas-pipes into our houses
brought a new source of danger to human life from electrical discharges.
The rod should not merely terminate in the earth, but he had been in the
habit of recommending that it be placed in connection with the water or gas-
pipes.

DAMAGE BY LIGHTNING AT SEA.

Sir W. Snow Harris, under the direction of the House of Commons, has
published a list of the ships of the Royal Navy damaged by lightning be-
tween the years 1790 and 18140. The list, although not complete, embraces
no less than 280 cases, the particulars of which are full and reliable. These
cases include 106 ships of the line, 70 frigates, 89 sloops and brigs, 2 schoon-
ers, 7 cutters, 5 hulks, 5 ships in ordinary, 5 steamers, two of which were

120 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

iron; so that every variety of vessel has been subjected to lightning. In
these 280 cases, there were damaged or destroyed, at least 185 lower masts,
of which 135, or nearly three-fourths, were lower masts of line-of-battle frig-
ates. Not less than 100 were completely ruined as masts; 180 top-masts were
ruined or damaged; more than two-thirds thereof belonging to ships of the
line and frigates, and about 150 top-gallant masts were destroyed. In addi-
tion to this amount of damage, large quantities of rigging, sails, and other
stores, were either damaged or destroyed. In about one-eighth of the 280
cases, the ships were set on fire by the lightning, either in the masts, or in
the sails or rigging; and in some instances the ships were severely damaged
in the hull. The total loss on these 280 cases, in material alone, has been
estimated at about $700,000.

ON THE ELECTRIC-CONDUCTING POWER OF THE METALS. —
° - BY M. MATTHIESSEN.

The following values for the conducting power of the metals were deter-
mined in the Physical Laboratory at Heidelberg, under the direction of
Professor Kirchhoff, by the same method as is described in the Philosophical
Magazine, February 1857:

Conducting Power at Temp. in Centigrade degrees.

Silver, . : ‘ - - . - kN) 0
Copper, No. 3, : . 5 - : - - 66-43 18°8
Copper, No. 2, : : 5 : 5 =) 2:06 22:6
Gold, f : S ot pa ae PES : . «= 56°19 21:8
Sodium, : é : : ° - : : 37°43 21:7
Aluminum, . : - : . : ; - 33°76 19°6
Copper, No. 1, : 2 : ; ‘ : - 80°63 24:2
Zinc, * : : - - : z . - 27 389 176
Magnesium, eee eer as © « 25°47 17-0
Calcium, : 2 - 5 < 3 - - 22°14 16.8
Cadmium, : 3 . : : : - <0 enero 18-8
Potassium, . . : . 2 - | 2085 20°4
Lithium, : : - - : : 5 - 19-00 20.0
Iron, ci raed tate, Ue - : avits - 14-44 20 4
Palladium, . . A : : ° - E 12:64 17-2
Tin, ; . 3 3 Site : gi) ee, yap eaedss 210
Platinum, _ : - - - ° : : 10-53 20°7
Lead, : : : A ae : - : EAT 17-3
Argentine, . : : “ ° : : - 767 18:7
Strontium, . 5 5 : . 5 - : 671 20-0
Antimony, . . - . : - ; : 4-29 18°7
Mercury, - : : - 3 5 : : 1:63 22
Bismuth, - - = - s - 119 13:8
Alloy of Bismuth 32 parts, c - ° °

Antimony 1 part, ‘ : - . 5 . - } 0834 ol
Alloy of Bismuth 12 parts = - : -

Yin 1 part, C - } 0-519 a
Alloy of Janie 2 parts, Zine 1 sop : - 0-413 25:0
Graphite, No.1, . : - : : = 0:0693 22:0
Graphite, No. 2, A A - : : ea, 0°0436 22-0
Gas-coke, : : 4 : ‘ : A ; 0:0386 25:0
Graphite, No. 3, . ; ; : ; 2 0°003895 22:0
Bunsen’s Battery-coke, - : : : : 0-00246 26°2
Tellurium, . ; z - : : . : 0.000777 19-6

Red Phosphorus, . . . POAT ME ES 0.00000128 24-0

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 125

All the metals were the same as those used for my thermo-electric experi-
ments, with the exception of cadmium, which was purified. The alloys of
bismuth-antimony, bismuth-tin, antimony and zinc, were determined in or-
der to ascertain whether, as they give with other metals such strong thermo-
electric currents, they might be more advantageously employed for thermo-
electric batteries than those constructed of bismuth and antimony. Coppers
Nos. 1, 2, 3, were wires of commerce. No.1 contained small quantities of
lead, tin, zinc, and nickel. The low conducting power of No. 1 is owing, as
Prof. Bunsen thinks, to a small quantity of suboxide being dissolved up in it.
Graphite No. 1 is the so-called pure Ceylon; No. 3 purified German, and No.
2amixture of both. The specimens were purified by Brodie’s patent, and
pressed by Mr. Cartmell, to whom I am indebted for the above. The con-
ducting power for gas-coke, graphite, and Bunsen’s battery-coke increases
by heat from 0° to 140° C.; it increases for each degree 0°00245, 7. €., at 0° C.
the conducting power = 100, and between the common temperature and a
light-red heat about twelve per cent. The following metals were chemically
pure : Silver, gold, zinc, cadmium, tin, lead, antimony, quicksilver, bismuth,
tellurium. Those pressed were sodium, zinc, magnesium, calcium, cadmium,
potassium, tin, lead, strontium, antimony, bismuth, tellurium, and the alloys
of bismuth-antimony and bismuth-tin. The way in which these wires were
made is described in the Philosophic Magazine for February 1857.— Phil.
Mag. Vol. XVI., p. 219.

ON THE ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE, AND ITS STRATIFIED APPEAR-
ANCE IN RAREFIED MEDIA.

The following is a report of an important paper recently read before the
Royal Institution, by Mr. W. R. Grove, F. R. 8.: The best mode of exam-
ining and attempting to explain the electrical discharge, is to compare it
with its nearest analogue flame, to which one form of the discharge, viz.,
the voltaic arc, has much seeming resemblance. The flame of a common
candle results, as is well known, from the chemical combination of carbon
and hydrogen with the oxygen of the air; and the combustion is most bril-
liant where the heated gases and particles are in proximity to the oxygen.
It forms a hollow cone, as the oxygen of the air, being consumed or com-
bined into water and carbonic acid at the exterior portion, cannot reach the
interior; the course of the currents of heated air, and the particular form of
this hollow cone of flame, are beautifully shown by the refraction it pro-
ducés on a more brilliant light, such as that of the electric lamp; the flame
issues from a single nucleus, the wick; and the amount of heat produced is
definite for a definite amount of chemical combination.

In the voltaic arc there are two points or foci; the polar terminals there
undergo a change, but not aconsumption equivalent, or nearly so, to the heat
and light produced; but if the consumption of the zinc, or the quantity of
it combined with oxygen in the cells of the battery, be compared with the
amount of heat generated in the arc, plus that in the cells of the battery and
conducting wires, the same amount of total heat will be found to be devel-
oped as if the same quantity of zinc were simply burned in oxygen.

By subdividing more and more the plates of the voltaic battery, and pro-
portionally increasing their number, we gradually increase the length and
diminish the volume of the arc, until at length we arrive, as in the voltaic
columns of De Luc and Zamboni, at the electric spark.

11

122 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

The spark from a Ruhmkorff coil was projected on a screen by the electric
lamp, and the impression contrasted with that of the flame of a candle; in
the former, two cones are seen to issue from the terminals, instead of the
single one of the latter, one being more powerful, and overcoming or beating
back the other; and this effect is reversed as the direction of the current is
reversed.

In all cases hitherto observed, there is a dispersion or projection of a por-
tion of the terminals; this takes place in all forms of electric disruptive
discharge, whatever be the materials of which the terminals are compcsed.
In the voltaic are there is a transmission of matter, principally from the
positive, which is the more intensely heated, to the negative terminal; in
the spark from the Ruhmkorff coil the dispersion is principally, and in some
cases appears to be entirely, from the negative terminal, while this is now
the more intensely heated.

In addition to this, there is generally, but not always, a change produced
in the medium across which the discharge passes; compound liquids, vapors,
and gases are decomposed, and even elementary gases are allotropically
changed. There is also a polar condition of the electrical discharge, which
produces the converse chemical effects at each pole —effects described by
Mr. Grove in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 1852.

Gases offer a powerful resistance to the passage of the discharge, but this
resistance is diminished as the gases are rarefied; and a discharge which
would not pass across a space of half an inch in air of the ordinary density,
will pass through several feet in highly attenuated air.

In experimenting on the passage of the discharge through the vapor of
phosphorus in 1852, Mr. Grove observed, for the first time, that the discharge
was traversed by a number of dark bands, or striz. At first he was disposed
to attribute this phenomenon to some peculiarity of the medium; but on
trying good vacua of other vapors and gases, he found the strix were in all
cases visible, and seemed to depend on the degree of rarefaction of the gas.
Many subsequent experiments have been made by himself and others on the
subject, and more particularly by Mr. Gassiot; and the extent of knowledge
we have acquired upon this still mysterious phenomena was now discussed
and illustrated.

In the vapor of phosphorus, the striz generally exhibit themselves like
narrow ruled lines, about 0.05 inch diameter, transverse to the line of dis-
charge; but with certain precautions they become wider, and assume a coni-
cal form, somewhat resembling the whalebone snakes made as a toy for
children. Mr. Gassiot has used most carefully prepared Torricellian vacua,
and has also, in conjunction with Dr. Frankland, obtained excellent vacua,
by filling tubes containing sticks of caustic potass with carbonic acid, ex-
hausting them by the air-pump, and allowing the residual gas to be absorbed
by the carbonic acid.

The following is a summary of the effects produced by the electric dis-
charge through these vacua: If the vacuum be equal to that generally ob-
tained by an ordinary air-pump, no stratifications are perceptible; a diffused
lambent light fills the tube; in a tube in which the rarefaction is carried a
step further, narrow striz are perceptible, like those first described in the
phosphorus vapor experiment. A step further in rarefaction increases the
breadth of the bands; next we get the conical, or cup-shaped form; and
then, the rarefaction being still higher, we get a series of luminous cylinders
of an inch or so in depth, with narrow divisions between them. Lastly, with

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 123

the best vacua which have been obtained, there is neither discharge, light,
nor conduction.* The fact of non-conduction by a very good Torricellian
yacuum was first noticed by Walsh, subsequently carefully experimented on
by Morgan (Philosophical Transactions, 1785), and subsequently by Davy
(1822); the latter did not obtain an entire non-conduction, but a considerable
diminution both of light and conducting power.

From these repeated experiments it may fairly be considered as proved,
that, in vacuo, or in media rarefied beyond a certain point, electricity will not
be conducted, or, more correctly speaking, transmitted, — an extremely im-
portant result in its bearing on the theories of electricity.

The gradual widening of the strata, as the rarefaction proceeds, is in favor
of the phenomena of stratification being due to mechanical impulses of the
attenuated medium, and appears to support the following rationale of the
phenomenon given by Mr. Grove, who does not advance it as conclusive,
but only as an approximation to a theory to be sifted by further experi-
ments. When the battery contact is broken, there is generated the well-
known induced current in the secondary wire, in the same direction as the
original battery current, to which secondary current the brilliant effects of
the Ruhmkorff coil are due; but, in addition to this current in the secondary
wire, there is also a secondary current in the primary wire, flowing in the
same direction, the induction spark, at the moment following the disruption
of contact, completing the circuit of the primary, and thus allowing the
secondary current to pass. This secondary current in the primary wire pro-
duces in its turn another secondary, or what may be termed a tertiary, cur-
rent in the secondary wire, in an opposite direction to the secondary current.
There are thus, almost synchronously, two currents in opposite directions in
the secondary wire; these, by causing a conflict, or irregular action on the
rarefied medium, would give rise to waves or pulsations, and might well ac-
count for the stratified appearance. The experimental evidence in favor of
this view is as follows: When a single break of battery contact is made, by
drawing a stout copper wire over another wire, the striz do not invariably
appear in the rarefied medium through which the current of the secondary
wire passes. This would be accounted for, on the above theory, by suppos-
ing that in some cases of disruption the induced spark passes across imme-
diately on disruption, and thus completes the circuit for the secondary cur-
rent in the primary wire; while in other cases, either from want of sufficient
intensity, or from the mode or velocity with which contact is broken, or
from the oxidation of the points where contact is broken, there is no in-
duced spark by which the current can pass. In the former case there would
be a tertiary current in the secondary wire, and therefore striz; in the latter
there would be none.

But the following experiment is more strongly in favor of the theory. It
is obvious that the secondary must be more powerful than the tertiary cur-
rent. Now, supposing an obstacle or resistance placed in the secondary
circuit, which the secondary current can overcome but the tertiary cannot,

*The production of vacua by carbonic acid, and the increasing breadth of the
Stratifications with increased rarefaction, was communicated by Mr. Gassiot in a
paper, read to the Royal Society, January 13,1859. I incline to think that oxy-
hydrogen gas, with potash, might give a better vacuum than carbonic acid, as the
last residual portions of the gas would be slowly combined by the discharge, and
the water so formed absorbed by the potash. — W. R. G.

124 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

we ought, by the theory, to get no strix. If an interruption be made in the
secondary current, in addition to that formed by the rarefied medium, and
this interruption be made of the full extent which the spark will pass, there
are, as a general rule, no striz in the rarefied medium, while the same
yacuum tube shows the strizx well if there be no such break or interruption.
The experiment was shown by a large vacuum cylinder (16 inches by 4)
of Mr. Gassiot, and his micrometer-electrometer; this tube showed numer-
ous broad and perfectly distinct bands when the points of the micrometer
were in contact; but when they were separated to the fullest extent that
would allow sparks to pass, not the slightest symptom of bands or striz
was perceptible; the whole cylinder was filled with a uniform lambent
flame. With a spark from the prime conductor of the electrical machine,
the striz do not appear in tubes which show them well with the Ruhmkorff
coil; occasionally, and in rare instances, stria may be seen with sparks from
the electrical machine, but not as far, as Mr. Grove has observed, when the
spark is unquestionably single. All this is in favor of the theory given
above; but without regarding that as conclusive, or as proved rationale, it is
clearly demonstrated by the above experiments that the identical vacuum
tubes which show the striz with certain modes of producing the discharge,
do not show them with other modes, and that therefore the striz are not a
necessary condition of the discharge itself in highly attenuated media, but
depend on the mode of its production.

The study of the electrical discharge tz vacuo is of the utmost importance
in reference to the theories of electricity, and probably will assist much
towards the proper conception of other modes of force, or, as they are
termed, 7mponderables, heat, light, etc.

The experiments of Walsh and Morgan, corroborated as they now are by
that of Mr. Gassiot, show that, although the transmission of clectricity
across gaseous media is aided by refraction of the medium up to a certain
degree, yet that a degree of attenuation may be reached at which the trans-
mission ceases, at all events for a given distance between the terminals and
given intensity of electrical charge. Whether, having reached this point,
a reduction of the space to be traversed, or an increase of intensity in elec-
tricity, or both, would again enable the electricity to pass, is not quite clear,
though there is reason to believe that it would, and the increased inten-
sity of electricity would probably be again stopped by a further improve-
ment in the vacuum, and so on. But the experiments go far to prove that
ordinary matter is requisite for the transmission of electricity, and that if
space could exist void of matter, then there would be no electricity; thus
supporting the views advocated by Mr. Grove and some others, that elec-
tricity is an affection or mode of motion of ordinary matter.

The non-transmission of electricity, by very highly attenuated gas, may
also afford much assistance to the theory of the aurora borealis, a phenome-
non, the appearance of which, the regions where it is seen, its effect on the
magnet, and other considerations, have led to the universal belief that it is
electrical.

The experimental result that a certain degree of attenuation of air forms
a good conductor, or easy path for the electrical force, while either a greater
or less degree of density offers more resistance, and this increasing towards
either extremity of density or rarefaction, shows, that if there be currents of
electricity circulating to or from the polar regions of the earth, the return of
which, as is generally believed, gives rise to the beautiful phenomena ef the

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 125

aurora borealis, or australis, the height where this transit of electricity takes
place would be just that at which the density of the air is such as to render
it the best conductor. By careful measurement of the degree of attenuation
requisite to enable the electrical discharge to pass with the greatest facility
in our laboratory experiments, we may approximatively estimate the degree
of rarefaction of the atmosphere at the height where the aurora borealis
exists. By these means we get a mode of estimating the height of the au-
rora, by ascertaining, from the decrement of density in the atmosphere in
proportion to its distance from the earth, at what elevation the best conduct-
ing state, or that similar to our best conducting vacuum tubes, would be
found, or conversely, by ascertaining the height of the aurora, by parallac-
tic measurements, we may ascertain the ratio of decrement in the density of
the atmosphere. Thus, by our cabinet experiments, light may be thrown
on the grand phenomena of the universe, and the great questions of the
divisibility of matter, whether there is a limit to its expansibility, whether
there is a fourth state of attenuation beyond the recognized states of solid,
liquid, and gaseous, as Newton seemed to suspect (thirtieth query to the Op-
tics), and whether the imponderables are specific affections of matter in a
peculiar state, or of highly attenuated gaseous matter, may be elucidated.
Though the entire solution of such questions be beyond the power of man,
we may ever hope to gain approximative knowledge. The manageable
character of the electrical discharge, and the various phenomena it exhibits
when matter is subjected to its influence in all those varied states to which
we are enabled, by experiment, to reduce it, can hardly fail to afford new
and valuable information on these abstruse and most interesting inquiries.

STATIC INDUCTION.

The following is an abstract of a lecture recently delivered by Professor
Faraday, before the Royal Institution, on “ Static Induction”:

After referring to the simple case of evolution of electricity by the friction
of flannel and shellac, and tracing the effect upon their separation into ordi-
nary cases of induction, and after calling attention to induction as action at
a distance, and through the intervening matter, Professor Faraday pro-
ceeded to examine closely the means by which the state of the intervening
matter could be ascertained, choosing sulphur as the body, because of its
admirable nonconducting conditions, and its high specific inducting capacity.
It is almost impossible to take a block of sulphur out of paper, or from off
the table, without finding it electric; if, however, a small spirit-lamp flame
be moved for a moment before its surface, at about an inch distance, it will
discharge it perfectly. Being then laid on the cap of the electrometer, it
will probably not cause divergence of the gold leaves; but the proof that it
is in no way excited is not quite secure until a piece of uninsulated tinfoil or
metal has been laid loosely on the upper surface. If there be any induction
across the sulphur, due to the feeble excitement of the surfaces by opposite
electricities, such a process will reveal it; a second application of the flame
will remove it entirely. When a plate of sulphur is excited on one side only,
its application to the electrometer does not tell at once which is the excited
side. With either face upon the cap, the charge will be of the same kind;
but with the excited side downwards, the divergence will be much, and the
application of the uninsulated tinfoil to the top surface will cause a moder-
ate diminution, which will return as the tinfoil is removed; whereas, with

Lt

126 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the excited side upwards, the first divergence of the leaves will-be less, and
the application of the tinfoil on the top will cause considerable diminution.
The approximation of the flame towards the excited side will discharge it
entirely. The application near the unexcited side will also seem partly to
discharge it, for the effect on the electrometer will be greatly lessened; but
the fact is, that the flame will have charged the second surface with the con-
trary electricity. When, therefore, the originally excited surface is laid
down upon the cap of the electrometer, a diminished divergence will be
obtained, and it is only by the after application of uninsulated tinfoil upon
the uppper surface, that the full divergence due to the lower surface is
obtained.

Being aware of these points, which are necessary to safe manipulation,
and proceeding to work with a plate of sulphur in the field of induction
before described, the following results are obtained: A piece of uncharged
sulphur being placed in the induction field, perpendicular to the lines of in-
ductive fire, and retained there, even for several minutes, provided all be
free from dust and small particles, when taken out and examined by the
electrometer, either without or with the application of the superposed tinfoil,
is found without any charge. A gilt plate-carrier, if introduced in the same
position, and then withdrawn, is found entirely free of charge. If the sul-
phur-plate be in place, and then the carrier be introduced and made to touch
the face of the sulphur, then separated a small space from it, and brought
away and examined, it is found without any charge; and that, whether
applied to either one side or the other of the block of sulphur. So that
any of these bodies, which may have been thrown into a polarized or pecu-
liar position whilst under induction, must have lost that state entirely when
removed from the induction, and have resumed their natural condition.

Assuming, however, that the sulphur had become electrically polarized in
the direction of the lines of induction, and that therefore whilst in the field
one face was positive and the other negative, the mere touching of two or
three points by the gold-leaf carrier would be utterly inefficient in bringing
any sensible portion of this charge or state away; for though metal can
come into conduction contact with the surface particles of a mass of insu-
lating matter, and can take up the state of that surface, it is only by real con-
tact that this can be done. Therefore the two sides of a block of sulphur
were gilt by the application of gold-leaf on a thin layer of varnish; and
when the varnish was quite dry and hard, this block was experimented with.
Being introduced into the induction field for a time, and then brought away,
it was found free from charge on both its surfaces; being again intro-
duced, and the carrier placed near to it, but not touching, the carrier, when
brought away, showed no trace of electricity. The carrier being again intro-
duced at the side, where the charged or inductric body (made negative) is
placed, made to touch the gilt surface of the sulphur on that side, separated
a little way, and then brought out to be examined, gave a positive charge to
the electrometer; when it was taken to the other side of the sulphur, and
applied in the same manner, it brought away a negative charge; thus show-
ing, that whilst the sulphur was under induction, the side of it towards the
negative inductric was in the positive state, and the outer side in the negative
state.

Thus the di-electric sulphur, whilst under induction, is in a constrained
polar electrical state, from which it instantly falls into an indifferent or natu-
ral condition the moment the induction ceases. That this return action is

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 127

due to an electrical tension within the mass, sustained while the act of in-
duction continues, is evident by this, that if the carrier be applied two or
three times alternately to the two faces, so as to discharge in part the elec-
tricity they show under the induction, then, on removing the sulphur from
the induction field, it returns, not merely to neutrality or indifference, but the
surfaces assume the opposite states to what they had before, —a necessary
consequence of the return of the mass of inner particles to or towards their
original condition. The same result may be obtained, though not so per-
fectly, without the use of any coatings. Having the uncoated sulphur in its
place, put the small spirit-lamp on the side way from the negative inductric ;
bring the latter up to its place, remove the spirit-lamp flame, and then the
inductrie body, and finally, examine the sulphur; the surface towards the
flame, and that only, will be charged. Its state will be found to be positive,
just like the same side of the gilt sulphur, which had been touched two or
three times by the carrier. During the induction, the mass of the sulphur
had been polarized; the anterior face had become positive, the posterior had
become negative; the flame had discharged the negative state of the latter;
and then, on relieving the sulphur from the induction, the return of the
polarity to the normal condition had also returned the anterior face to its
proper and unchanged state, but had caused the other, which had been dis-
charged of its temporary negative state whilst under induction, now to
assume the positive condition. It would be of no use trying the flame on
the other side of the sulphur-plate, as then its action would be to discharge
the dominant body, and destroy the induction altogether. When several
plates were placed in the inductive field, apart from each other, subject to
one common act of induction, and examined in the same manner, each was
found to have the same state as the single plate described. It is well known
that if several metallic plates were hung up in like manner, the same results
would be obtained.

From these and such experiments, the speaker took occasion to support
that view of induction which he put forth twenty years ago (Phil. Trans.,
1837), which consists in viewing insulators as aggregates of particles, each
of which conducts within itself, but does not conduct to its neighbors, and
induction as the polarization of all those parties concerned in the electric
relation of the inductric and inducteous surfaces, and stated that, as yet, he
had not found any facts opposed to that view. He referred to specific induc-
tive capacity, now so singularly confirmed by researches into the action of
submarine electro-telegraphic cables, as confirming these views; and also to
the analogy of the tourmaline, while rising and falling in temperature, to a
bar of solid insulating matter, passing in and out of the inductive state.

To the above report Prof. Faraday has since made the following addition :

The inquiries made by some who wish to understand the real force of the
test experiments relating to static induction, and their consequences in rela-
tion to the theory of induction, make me aware that it is necessary to men-
tion certain precautions which I concluded would occur to all interested in
the matter; I hope the notice I propose to give here will be sufficient. When
metallic coatings or carriers are employed for the purpose of obtaining a
knowledge of the state of a layer of insulating particles, as those forming
the surface of a plate of sulphur, it is very necessary that they shou!d exist
in a plane perpendicular to the lines of the inductive force, and in a ficld of
action where the lines of force are sensibly equal. Hence the importance of
achering to certain fixed dimensions in the construction of the apparatus, —,

128 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the dimensions of the inductive surfaces, in the apparatus referred to, being
nine inches in diameter, and nine inches apart. The inductive surface men-
tioned is also a plane. <A ball cannot properly be used for this purpose; for
the lines of inductive force originating at it cannot then be perpendicular to
the layer of gold-leaf forming the coating of the sulphur, The consequence
would be, that this layer of gold, being virtually extended along the lines of
inductive force, —7. e., having parts nearer to, and parts more distant from
the inductric, — will be polarized according to well-known electrical actions,
will have opposite states at those parts, will show these states by a carrier,
and will give results not belonging merely to insulating particles in a section
across the lines, but chiefly to united conducting particles in a section oblique
to or along the lines. The carrier itself must be perfectly insulated the
whole time, or else a case of induction, not including the sulphur, and en-
tirely different to that set out with, is established. It must not even extend
by elongation into parts of the field of induction where the force differs in
degree, or else errors of the same kind as those described with the ball in-
ductric will occur. It should also be so used as to receive no charge by
convection. When introduced between the inductric and the sulphur, it is
very apt, if the charge be high, or if particles adhere to the inductric, to
receive a charge. This is easily tested by introducing the carrier into its
place, abstaining from touching the gold-leaf, withdrawing the carrier, and
examining it; it is not until this can be done without bringing away any
charge, that the carrier should be employed to touch the gold-leaf surface,
and bring away the indication of its electrical state. As before said, if, when
. the state of matters is perfect, and no convection interferes, the gilt sulphur
be put into its place, left there for a short time, and brought away again, it
will be found without any charge either of the gold-leaf coating or the sul-
phur. If it be put into place, the coating next the inductric be uninsulated
for a moment only, and the plate brought away, that coating will then
appear positive. If it be put into place, and the further gold-leaf be uninsu-
lated for a moment, that coating, when the plate is brought away, will be
found negative. These are all well-known results, and will always appear, if
convection and other sources of error be avoided.

ELECTRIC APPARATUS AND EMBRYOLOGY OF THE SKATE.

At a recent meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, Dr. Jeffries
Wyman stated that he had recently examined the electric apparatus in the
tail of one of our common skates (Raia levis). The electric organs have
been noticed by several anatomists, but have been fully described in Raia
tatis and other species, by Robin. In the species dissected by Dr. Wyman,
the organs were more largely developed, extended further up into the base
of the tail, and were more uncovered by the muscles, posteriorly, than in
the ones examined by Robin. Thus far, no positive proof has been adduced
to show that the organs in question really constitute an electric apparatus.
Structurally they resemble those of the Torpedo and Gymnotus, but have
not been observed to evolve electricity, though it has been stated that if a
living skate is held by the tail, an electric shock is felt.

Dr. Wyman also stated that he had seen the horny shell of the egg of the
skate In the process of formation. He had found one in each oviduct, sur-
rounded by the glandular enlargement which is visible near its middle.
That portion of the duct was very much thickened, and mainly consisted of

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 129

long tubular follicles, opening into its cavity. Although the shells were par-
tially formed, the yolks had not yet descended into the duct; many of them
were nearly mature. If this be a normal state of things, then we have, thus
far, an unobserved example of the shell being formed previous to the de-
scent of the ovum. The shell forms a pocket, open at the upper extremity,
and through this opening, which is never wholly closed, the egg probably
descends into its cavity.

NEW OBSERVATIONS ON ANIMAL ELECTRICITY.

The structure of the eggs of birds offers a certain resemblance to some
forms of the galvanic battery, inasmuch as it consists of a fluid inclosed in
a porous diaphragm, and in contact with another fluid of a different chemi-
cal composition. This circumstance attracting the notice of Dr. John
Davy, he made it the subject of experiment, in order to ascertain whether
any galvanic action was exerted by the different constituents of which the
egg is composed. The result fully answered his expectations; and there can
be little doubt that electro-chemical action plays an important part in the
changes which the egg undergoes during the process of incubation. Using
a delicate galyanometer and a suitable apparatus, on plunging one wire into
the white, and the other, insulated except at the point of contact, into the
yolk, the needle was deflected to the extent of 5°; and on changing the
wires, the course of the needle was reversed. When the white and yolk
were taken out of the shell, and the yolk immersed in the white, the effects,
on trial, were similar, but not so when the two were well mixed; then no
distinct effect was perceptible. Indications also of chemical action were
obtained, on substituting for the galvanometer a mixture consisting of
water, a little gelatinous starch, and a small quantity of iodide of potassium,
especially when rendered very sensitive of change by the addition of a few
drops of muriatic acid. In the instance of newly-laid eggs, the iodine liber- ©
ated appeared at the pole connected with the white; on the contrary, in that
of eggs which had been kept some time, it appeared at the pole connected
with the yolk, answering in both to the copper in a single voltaic combina-
tion formed of copper and zinc.

POLARIZED CONDITION OF MUSCULAR AND NERVE FIBRE.

Mr. H. F. Baxter, in a paper in a recent number of the Edinburgh New
Philosophical Journal, having arrived at the conclusion that the muscular
and nervous tissues are during life in a peculiar state or condition, which
has been termed polarized, puts the following question: ‘Can this state,
dependent as it evidently is upon nutrition, be increased by any artificial
means?” That it may be diminished, or easily destroyed, is to be inferred
from the fact that, whatever interferes with the proper nutrition of a muscle
or nerve, or disorganizes their structure, whether by mechanical or chemical
agencies, destroys also the conditions upon which the existence of the mus-
cular or nerve currents depend; and it is, it may be observed, from the
manifestation of these currents that the existence of this polarized condition
is inferred. It is reasonable, therefore, to suppose, that it might be by the
employment of the electric force (or current) that we should perhaps obtain
some evidence to assist in solving this problem.

We have not space for the details. The only conclusion (says the author)

150 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

that can be deduced from the foregoing investigations, contained in the
former as well as present papers, are the following:

1st. That we have no evidence of being able to increase the polarized
condition of the nervous and of the muscular tissue by artificial means, such
as the electric current; but it is highly probable.

2d. That an increase of this polarized condition may arise from an in-
creased action of those changes which take place in the living animal, such
as nutrition, being the same means by which it is produced and maintained
in the living animal.

Before acceding to these conclusions, it may be reasonably asked, have
we not other evidence besides that afforded by means of the galvanometer,
to indicate an increase in the polarized condition of the nerve? Do not the
tetanic contractions which are observed ina limb whose nerve has been sub-
jected to the action of an electric current (inverse), indicate an increased
action of the nerve? Previous to discussing this question, which will be
considered in the concluding remarks, the following experiment was per-
formed:

A current from six of Grove’s cells was passed through the limb of a gal-
vanoscopic frog in the inverse direction, and as soon as the tetanic contrac-
tions were produced, the nerve was divided at the junction of the nerve with
the muscles of the limb; the tetanic contractions ceased. The two ends of
the divided nerve were now placed in apposition, but no tetanic contractions
ensued. This inverse current was again allowed to pass for some time
through the nerve thus united, but no tetanic contractions occurred upon
the breaking of the circuit. Great care, however, is required in this experi-
ment to divide the nerve at the exact point where it emerges from the mus-
cles, as pointed out by Matteucci, otherwise the tetanic contractions take
place.

The results of this experiment only tend to confirm what has been already
satisfactorily proved by others, that the continuity of the nerve fibre, in the
nerve leading to the muscle, is necessary for the conduction of the impres-
sion excited at the distal end of the nerve in order to arouse muscular con-
traction. It need scarcely be added, that the muscular and nerve currents
may, however, be obtained under these circumstances between the separated
portions.

POCKET ELECTRO-MEDICAL APPARATUS.

M. Despretz has recently submitted to the Paris Academy a new Electro-
Medical apparatus, invented or combined by Ruhmkorff, and reduced to its
simplest condition. A small box, in size about four cubic inches, contains:
1. An induction coil; 2. A small Bunsen’s pile of zine and charcoal, in
which nitric acid is replaced by Marié-Davy’s sulphate of mercury; 3. Some
handles, a brush, and some needles for distribution of the direct currents,
or of the extra current to the surface of the patient. The manipulation of
the apparatus is as simple as its construction. No vapors are disengaged.
This apparatus will maintain its activity during a day. Its price is said to
be moderate.

APPLICATION OF THERMO-ELECTRICITY TO SURGERY.

Thermo-electric currents are now extensively employed by Middledorp, of
Breslau, in surgery. With wires and blades of platina of various dimen-

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 131

sions, brought to a white electric heat, he undertakes many operations com-
monly performed with cutting instruments. The heating agent is a Grove’s
battery; and, properly employed in an operation, there is no hemorrhage of
the small vessels; the action is energetic and limited, can be sustained or
cut off at pleasure, and applied through narrow passages, and to depths
never attempted in ordinary cauterization. Mr. Middeldorp says: ‘This
intelligent fire—let me be pardoned the expression— admits of cutting,
splitting, of cutting away, of cauterization on a single point or in rays, or
over large surfaces, of stopping hemorrhage, of provoking inflammation of
certain tissues, of coagulation of the blood, of suppuration, and the develop-
ment of proper granulations. In short, being introduced cold, the galvano-
caustic instruments inspire no fear in the patient, but once in place, a touch
of the finger suffices to raise them to a glowing heat,”’ and the wished-for
effect is speedily produced. Of four hundred operations performed by Mr.
Middledorp with the “intelligent fire,’ not one has been followed by ill
results.

THERAPEUTIC USES OF ELECTRICITY.

From an article in the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, “ On
the Therapeutic uses of Electricity,” we derive the following extracts, which
are illustrative of the mechanical philosophy of this agent, and its physiologi-
cal effects when applied to vital animal tissue. In speaking of electric currents,
the writer says:

“The degree of tension, or intensity of the electric current is, however,
more influential than its quantity in determining physiological results; and
it is to variations in this quality that we ordinarily apply the terms ‘ strong’
and ‘weak.’ There are several currents in common use for physiological
experiment and therapeutical exhibition; and as this quality of tension or
intensity is predicated of all of them, it is necessary that we should describe
separately the conditions upon which its variations depend. But before doing
so, inasmuch as some confusion has crept into the language of modern elec-
tricians, we will state as concisely as possible what these several currents arc,
what are their proper names, and in what way they have been erroneously
designated.

“Tn the wire which unites the two poles of a voltaic arrangement —
whether this consists of one pair of plates, or of one hundred pairs — there
is, when the wire is unbroken, a current of electricity, termed the ‘initial
current.’ This passes in the direction from the copper or negative metal,
through the wire to the zinc or positive plate. If this wire is broken, and ihe
two ends of it are grasped by the hands, the individual so doing becomes, in
that part of his body which intervenes between those two ends, a part of the
voltaic apparatus; and the initial current passes through him in the direction
described. If this wire, if any part of its course be broken, there is at the
moment of division, and existing at that moment only, another current set-
ting in the opposite direction to that taken by the initial current. This has
received various names: Duchenne has termed it an ‘induced current of the
first order,’ but its proper designation is the ‘extra current.’

‘Another wire placed near and parallel to the conducting wire — viz., that
through which the initial current passes — has its polar condition so affected
that an ‘induced current’ is propagated through it in an opposite direction te
the initial current. Several of such wires may be employed, at different de-
grees of proximity to the conducting wire, and in all of them there is an in-

132 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

duced current; that which is nearest to the conducting wire being called the
‘induced current of the first order,’ and the next of ‘ the second order,’ and so on.

“The currents employed by M. Duchenne, and about the different proper-
ties of which so much has been said and written, are the ‘extra current’ in
the conducting wire, and an ‘induced current of the first order’ in a parallel
wire; and M. Becquerel states, that for Duchenne to designate them induced
currents of the first and second order respectively: ‘c’est créer. . . .. un
langage tout a fait different de celui qui est employé par tous les physicians’
(p. 89).

“The most striking differences between these various currents are to be
referred to their degree of intensity, and this is determined by different con-
ditions, of which the following are the most important. The ‘initial current’
is intense in proportion to the number of the active cells in the battery, the
nature of the electrolytes employed, and the integrity of conducting mate-
rials throughout the whole circuit. The force of the ‘extra-current’ is deter-
mined by the same circumstances; hut that of the ‘induced currents’ depends
partly upon these, and also upon other conditions — viz., the size of the wire,
the length of it which is brought into proximity with the conducting wire,
and the presence and degree of additional magneto-electric induction.
Cateris paribus, the finer the wire and the greater its length, the more intense
is the induction.

“Tn order to obtain great, and at the same time convenient, length of the
wires, they are twisted into the form of a hollow spiral, or helix, the latter
becoming, in itself, endowed with magnetic properties, one end of the helix
being a north and the other a south pole. If into the hollow of this spiral or
helix, there are introduced bars of soft iron or steel, these bars become mag-
netic by induction; and thus the electrical force, developed in the battery
cells by chemical action, becomes resolved into the correlated force of mag-
netism. But precisely the reverse order of induction may take place in
another apparatus, and the ‘lifter’ of a permanent magnet, around which a
copper wire is twisted spirally, at the instant that it becomes a magnet by
induction, from contact with the poles of the permanent magnet, develops
chemico-polarity, or electricity in the copper wire. The former arrangement
is termed ‘ electro-magnetic; ’ the latter, ‘magneto-electric.’ In the one, elec-
tricity is developed from chemical decomposition; in the other, from magnet-
ism: but in the former—inasmuch as magnetism is induced by the initial
current--there is, in addition to the ‘primary induced current,’ that order
of induction which exists alone in the latter, and the addition of this is one
mode of augmenting the intensity of the current.

“Thus, then, the initial current develops magnetism in the bars of soft iron
which are inserted into the hollow of its helix, and the presence of magnet-
ism in these bars, at the moment of its induction, develops an electrical cur-
rent in the copper wires; the intensity of the latter induced current being,
cateris paribus, in proportion to the size of the temporary magnet, and deter-
mined or regulated by the length to which these soft bars are inserted in the
helix. The tension, therefore, of the induced current depends upon that of
the initial current, upon the size of the wire, upon its length —7.e., upon the
number of turns in the spiral — and upon the force of magnetism temporarily
developed in the bars of soft iron.

‘Whatever form or current is employed, the nature and degree of its
physiologic effects —7. e., of its power to occasion vital phenomena, as dis-
tinct from chemical and thermal— are determined mainly by differences in

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. laa

this quality of tension. Generally speaking, a weak current produces feeble
contractions of the muscles, and slight effects upon the organs of sensation;
whereas a powerful current produces strong contractions and violent sensa-
tions. Both sensory and motive phenomena may be occasioned by the ap-
plication of any one of these currents, but their variations in intensity render
some more useful for one class of effects, and others for a second class.
Thus, Duchenne has drawn considerable attention to the fact, that the ‘extra
current’ acts very readily on the muscles, and that the ‘induced current’
affects more powerfully than the extra current, the skin, nerves, and retina.
This difference of action he refers to a special elective power on the part of
the two currents respectively; but Becquerel has proved that, in reality, it is
merely dependent upon the difference of their intensity, the induced current
having much greater tension than the extra current, M. Becquerel has
shown, by a simple experiment, in which he modifies the arrangement of the
wires, that the effects which Duchenne attributes to the one current may be
obtained from the other, and vice versa.

“Tn proportion to the intensity of the current employed, electricity has the
power of evoking the ordinary physiologic action of a nerve or muscle; of
occasioning excessive and perverted action; of exhausting the functional
activity for a time, or of destroying it altogether. In the first degree there is
sensation or motion, each of these being within the limits of physiologic
function; thus luminous appearances, gentle sounds, gustatory effects, etc.,
on the one hand, and slight muscular contraction on the other, — contraction
so slight as merely to exhibit the persistence of muscular contractility, and
not to test its power, — are the results of applying an electric current of low
intensity. If a stronger current is employed, the impressions upon the sensory
organs become excessive in degree and painful in character; while, in the
place of gentle muscular contraction, there is distressing cramp or arrested
(inhibited) action in certain organs. A still more violent current exhausts
both nerve and muscle; and here sensation and contraction, though for a
time withdrawn, are capable of being restored by repose, or by the inverted
current; whereas the electricity may be so powerful as at once to put an end
to the vitality of the tissues —7. ¢., to kill the nerve, limb, or individual
through which it passes.

“Tt is owing to these different effects of variations in intensity that elec-
tricity may be employed both physiologically and therapeutically for so
many different purposes. As a test of irritability, or a gentle stimulus of
weakened sensibility and contractility, the current of low intensity may be
employed. For the sake of displaying the inhibiting influences of the vagi
and the splanchnic nerves, or for awakening the torpid nervous centres of
an individual poisoned by opium or alcohol, a more powerful current is re-
quired. Whereas, for the relief of excessive muscular contraction, or of
neuralgia, a still more intense current, one that shall temporarily exhaust
the nervous function, may be employed.

“Besides the quantity and tension of a current, the mode of its transmis-
sion exerts a notable influence upon its physiologic effects. Under this
head we place the different actions of the continuous and interrupted cur-
rents; and with regard to the former, the changes produced by altering
their direction; and with regard to the latter, their convection by means of
moist or dry conductors, the rapidity or slowness of their interruption, and
the degree of pressure with which the conductors are applied.

“The most general differences between the effects of the continuous and

12

134 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

interrupted current, are displayed very simply by an arrangement of M.
Claude Bernard’s, in which there are introduced into the same current, from
a small Cruickshank’s battery, first, the nerve of a frog’s leg, and second, a
delicate voltameter; the apparatus being so constructed that the current
may be either continuous or intermittent. By this arrangement, says M.
Bernard, it is shown that —

“*“So long as the current is continuous, chemical effects are produced, and
the physiological effects are ‘nuls,’ or at all events inappreciable. The facts
are that the water in the voltameter is decomposed by the current, whilst
the limb of the frog remains perfectly motionless. But immediately that,
by means of the interrupter, the current is rendered intermittent, everything
is changed; the decomposition of water ceases in the voltameter, and the
frog’s limb becomes violently convulsed.’ *

“But this experiment, although it illustrates very aptly the broadly marked
difference between the effects of the continuous and intermittent current, by
no means exhausts the subject of that difference, nor does it accurately
represent all the facts. For the continuous current is not devoid of physio-
logic action, nor is the interrupted, under all the circumstances, incapable of
acting chemically. True, there is no visible contraction of the frog’s leg;
but under certain conditions the irritability of the nerve is exhausted, and
under others it becomes increased. True, there is no sign of sensation in an
amputated frog’s leg, but the continuous current can produce sensory ef-
fects; for the proof of which let any one pass a continuous current through
his tongue or eyeballs; or, as Purkinje did, through the ears. And further,
it is quite easy to produce permanent, 7. e., tonic, contraction of a muscle
or group of muscles, as we have often done by a current of this kind; and
there is evidence to show that not only persistent contraction_of muscles
may be relaxed by such influence, but that hyperzsthesia may be reduced.§$

“Here, then, we have evidence of four kinds of physiologic action due to
the continuous current, namely, the production of sensory effects, and also
of motor, as well as the relaxation of spasm, and the reduction of hyperes-
thesia, — the different manner in which the current acts being mainly due
to its intensity.

“Other circumstances, however, influence the quality and degree of action
exerted, namely, the direction of the current. Generally speaking, the
transmission of a continuous current through a nerve, in the direction from
the centre to the periphery, exhausts the vital property of the nerve;
whereas a current passed in the opposite direction, 7. e., from the periphery
towards the centre, increases the vital property. The former is termed ‘di-
rect,’ the latter ‘inverse.’ Again, the direct current acts more energetically
than the inverse in producing muscular contractions. This we have often
witnessed, when employing, for the purpose of experiment or therapeutic
application, an ordinary Cruickshank’s battery, and so making use of the
initial current that its intensity could be regulated and measured by varying
the number of plates employed. Not only is the muscular contraction pro-
duced by transmitting a current from twenty plates, much stronger when

5

* Lecons sur la Physologie et la Pathologie du Systeme Nerveux, 1858, tome i. p-
1651.

+ Rust’s Magazin, bd. xxiii. p. 297.

+ Remak, Medical Times and Gazette, May 8, 1858.

§ Becquerel, p. 97.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. | 135

this current is direct than when it is inverse; but a current of such low inten-
sity as to cause no appreciable contraction when transmitted in the latter
direction (inverse), will occasion very evident action when passed in the for-
mer (direct). Thus the difference between these currents must be remem-
bered in testing irritability, as weil as in testing power. It is sometimes a
‘source of fallacy in physiologic experiments; as, for example, in examining
the irritability of muscles in a paralyzed limb, by passing the current from
one arm to the other. In this case, it is, of course, direct in one arm, and
inverse in the other; and we have frequently seen the difference between the
irritability of the muscles on the paralyzed and non-paralyzed sides so slight
as merely to equal, or even fall below that which exists between the action
of the inverse and direct current respectively. When such is the case, the
irritability appears greater in that limb through which the direct current
passes, whereas it may be really less.”

NEW AND CHEAP FORMS OF GALVANIC BATTERY.

The following description of a new, cheap, and effective arrangement of a
galvanic battery, devised by Dr. John O’C. Barclay, U.S. N., is contained in
a note addressed to the editor by Dr. B., March 1859: ‘‘ Haying in the years
1847-8 been engaged in some investigations touching the amount of: work
done by constant batteries, and the comparative cost of running them, I was
led, in consequence of the well-known passive state enjoyed by cast iron in
contact with concentrated nitric acid, to construct a cheap form of battery, in
which both elements are of cast iron. The battery is powerful (perhaps in this
point rather inferior to Grove’s), and is very constant. The following is the
form I adopted: In a vessel of convenient material is placed a hollow cylin-
der of cast iron, the metal being the black variety, or such as is used for gun
metal. The side of the cylinder should be split or cut through from top to
bottom by a slot one-fourth inch wide, or more. Within this cylinder, and
in moderately close approximation, is a porous jar, which contains a solid,
or, at option, a hollow rod or cylinder, of the same kind of cast iron. To
charge this battery, I make a saturated solution of chloride of sodium,
which I pour into the outer vessel, and in contact with the larger iron cylin-
der. Into the porous jar I put a mixture of equal parts of concentrated
nitric and sulphuric acids, and the battery is now ready for use. Theoreti-
cally, the acids should not be equal in quantity ; but the difference is so small
that, practically, it may be neglected. As some of your readers may wish to
know the changes undergone by the solids and fluids during the flow of the
electrical current, I will, in a line or two, state them. On uniting the poles,
water is decomposed, its oxygen uniting with the sodium of the chloride of
sodium, while its hydrogen combines with the fifth atom of the nitric acid
in the porous jar. The chlorine attacks the iron of the outer cylinder, form-
ing the very soluble chloride of that metal, and leaving the surface of the
iron always clean. The sulphuric acid in the porous jar unites with the
oxide of sodium to form sulphate of soda, thus completing the process. As
I before said, this form of battery is cheap, powerful, and constant, and is by
no means troublesome; and I offer it to your readers as a new and useful
instrument, particularly to those of them to whom the difference of cost
between iron and amalgamated zine is worthy of consideration, or to those
who find the use of mercury injurious or troublesome. The black cast iron
should be used, this being passive in concentrated nitric and sulphuric acids.

136 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

I have experimented with no other. It would perhaps be proper to cleanse
the iron of its skin and grit before using. I, however, used no such precau-
tion. A fair trialof this battery will not fail, we think, to establish for it a
place among the best of those now in use.”

Avery’s Improvements in the Galvanic Battery.— Mr. T. C. Avery, for many
years electrician at West Point, has invented and patented several important’
improvements upon the Grove Battery used in the working of telegraph
lines. The new instrument has been in use upon the lines of the American
Telegraph Company for several months. Mr. Avery’s improvement con-
sists: 1. In insulating the outside of the zincs, thereby reducing the sur-
face of metal brought in contact with the sulphuric acid, and preventing the
local action, which interferes seriously, at times, with the successful work-
ing of the telegraph. 2. The use of double the surface of platinum — this
increases the positive current, and equalizes it with the negative, thus pre-
venting, to a great extent, as he alleges, the escape of the current in damp
or stormy weather. 3. The insulation, at the top and bottom of the porous
cups, preventing the nitric acid from destroying the zines, and creating
local action on the inside, which is equally as injurious as the action of the
sulphuric acid on the outside.

Mr. Avery claims, in point of economy, the saving of at least two-thirds of
the zine, one-half of the sulphuric acid, one-cighth of the nitric acid, and
three-quarters of the mercury or quicksilver, now used.

ON THE ELECTROLYSIS OF SULPHURIC ACID.—BY DR. NORTON
GENTHER.

The following experiments were undertaken for the purpose of deciding
the question, whcther an electrolyte of different constitution than the simple
binary relation of atom for atom of each element, is capable of decomposi-
tion by the current. Previous experiments with chromic acid, chloride of
iron, and chromate of potash, had well-nigh decided the question in the
affirmative; but the attempt to decompose sulphuric acid, made with eight
cells of Bunsen’s battery, by Magnus, failed to confirm this view of it.
This failure Dr. Genther attributed to the limited force of the current, and
accordingly renewed the experiment, with fourteen of Bunsen’s cells. The
anhydrous acid still resisted, and even when the platina poles were ap-
proached so close as to insure the direct transmission of the current, it only
gave signs of arapid bubbling movement. The anhydrous acid was next
mixed with different quantities of acid of the constitution SO; + HO, and
the mixture exposed to the action of the same battery in a U-form tube.
The proportions first tried were four of the anhydrous to one part of the
other acid. This mixture yields a solution crystallizing at 68° Fah. It is
therefore necessary to apply a higher temperature, which is invariably ob-
tained by the continued action of the current. The conducting power of
this solution is so low as only to allow a very small distance to intervene
between the poles. Soon after the action commences, oxygen is liberated
at the positive pole, while not a gas-bubble appears at the negative. The
solution, however, being of a brownish-yellow cast, becomes colorless in
the arm of the tube containing the positive electrode, the color being entirely
confined to the other arm. The action being allowed to continue, blue
streaks slowly make their appearance at the surface of the liquid at the

/

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 134

negative péle, which, although multiplied by the duration of the current, are
yet very sparingly developed.

In the second mixture, the proportions were three parts of the anhydrous
acid to one of the acid SO? -+ HO. This gives a solution of better conduct-
ing power. As in the former experiment, oxygen appears at the positive
pole, but much more copiously; and at the negative pole a slight escape of
gas-bubbles is perceptible, whilst the blue streaks present themselves in
greater quantity, coloring the liquid contained in the negative arm of the
tube. The odor of sulphurous acid is also distinctly perceptible. With the
continuance of the action the temperature rapidly rises, the escape of gas
at the negative pole is more abundant, and sulphurous acid is formed; but
the blue streaks, however, diminish when the tube is immersed in water
gradually heated, and disappear altogether at 140° Fah., while a more copious
formation of sulphurous acid sets in, As the tube containing the electrolyte
gradually cools, the color reappears.

This whole process is effected much more rapidly when the mixture is in
the proportion of two parts of the anhydrous to one of SOs + HO, or of
equal parts of both, the temperature being kept at 32° Fah. The blue color
at the negative pole clearly proves that sulphur is liberated there, the solution
resembling that obtained by dissolving sulphur in anhydrous sulphuric acid.
Of this fact, the temperature at which decomposition takes place, and the
formation of SO2, furnish sufficient testimony independent of the color
produced.

The development of sulphurous acid seems to be occasioned by the rise
of temperature produced in the solution by the action of the current. Nor
is it confined to the negative arm of the tube; circumstances which indicate
that it is a secondary product.

In regard to the sulphur which has been observed at the negative pole,
there are only two ways of accounting for its presence. It is either the result
of direct decomposition by the current, or of the reducing action of the
liberated hydrogen.

The combination SO3 with HO, according to Faraday, is decomposed into
sulphur and hydrogen at one electrode, and oxygen at the other. The same
combination subjected to the action of the battery by Genther, gave at first
only H and O at their proper poles; sulphur was liberated only when the
temperature of the electrolyte was considerably raised by the action of the
current. When the tube was placed in water kept at 32° Fah., the liberation
of oxygen and hydrogen was of longer duration before free sulphur ap-
peared. The temperature of the electrolyte was found to rise almost instan-
taneously with the removal of the tube from the water. This would seem
to indicate that by keeping the electrolyte at 32°, the liberation of sulphur
would be prevented, which shows the great influence temperature has on the
product of the decomposition. It was further observed that the odor of sul-
phurous acid accompanied the liberation of sulphur, owing probably to the
action of S on the warm sulphuric acid. If we assume that in this process
the liberation of the sulphur is due to the reducing action of H, then it con-
sistently follows that the H, endowed with so strong an affinity, must unite
With the sulphur it meets at the moment of separation, and form sulphuretted
hydrogen. Not a trace of this gas has however been yet detected. Further-
more, if the hydrogen could exert this reducing action, it would at most be
but the reducing of SO3 to SOx. With such proofs drawn from experiment,
we must assume the direct decomposition by the current of sulphuric acid

12*

138 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

into 8, which appears at the negative pole, and oxygen at the positive pole.
It depends on the concentration of the acid whether the extra decomposition
of water accompanies the foregoing products.

That an electrolyte differing from the simply binary constitution is capable
of direct decomposition by the current, is thus shown in the case of SOs, and
even with less room for doubt, in the case of anhydrous chromic acid, and
chromate of potash, as the researches of Prof. Magnus prove. — Liebig and
Kopp’s Annual, 1857.

ELECTRO-ZINC DEPOSITS ON ENGRAVED COPPER PLATES.

Bradbury’s (of London) process for surfacing engraved copper plates
with a coating of pure zinc, by electro-metallurgical means, for the purpose
of protecting such plates from wear while printing, is described by the in-
ventor as follows:

To obtain a deposit of pure zinc, capable of printing from fifteen hundred
to two thousand impressions or more, before requiring to be removed and
renewed, I have recourse to a combined solution of chloride and cyanide of
zinc, prepared as follows:

Chloride of Zinc Solution. —In a suitable vessel, dissolve one part chloride
of ammonium in eight parts water; place in this a porous cell containing
the same solution and a copper plate, which attach to the zinc of a Smee’s
battery, and in the outer cell place a plaie of spelter, which attach to the
silver of the above battery for forty-eight hours.

Cyanide of Zine Solution. — Dissolve one-half pound of cyanide of potas-
sum in twelve parts of water; then add as much chloride of zinc as the solu-
tion will take up.

Mix these solutions together in equal parts; use a zinc positive pole and
one of Smee’s compound batteries, intensity arrangement, charged with one
part of sulphuric acid to twelve of water. In from forty-five minutes to an
hour, a deposit of the most beautiful lustre will be obtained, capable of
yielding from fifteen hundred to two thousand impressions, and even more,
according to the experience of the manipulator.

Mr. Bradbury, however, states in addition, that the durability of engraved
copper plates is best increased by covering them with a thin electro-deposit
of nickel. ‘This metal,” he says, “ gives a surface kinder, for printing pur-
poses, than either steel, copper, or any of the known metals; the reason
being simply that, in addition to hardness, it possesses the smoothest, firm-
est, and brightest surface to be obtained from electro-deposition. An en-
graved copper plate may be covered and recovered ad infinitum, thereby
preserving the integrity of the original work to an illimitable number of
impressions.

“ Again, if colored inks made from metals be used, such inks do not in
the least degree act upon nickel, as they are known to do upon steel and
copper. Nickel may be deposited at the same nominal cost as platinum and
palladium, namely, from a penny to twopence per square inch.

“The purity and extreme fitness of nickel deposit, —its non-oxidation,
the facility of throwing it down, its yielding five thousand impressions and
upward from the coating, — place the electro-nickel facing immeasurably
above electro-iron facing, as it has hitherto been done.’’

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 139

COPYING DRAWINGS BY GALVANISM.

Marshal Vaillant has described to the Academy of Sciences, of Paris, a
mode of copying drawings devised by M. Defrance, and perfected by Col.
Leveret. The process is as‘follows:

The drawing is made on transparent paper, and is laid, face downward,
upon a board, and fixed by tacks. Coats of gelatine are then applied with a
brush to the back of the drawing, so as to obtain a sheet of gelatine from
raz to sl5 inch thick. Upon this gelatine the drawing is traced with a sim-
pie point. A solution of gutta-percha in sulphuret of carbon is then applied
with a pencil, and the coatings repeated until it has also assumed a thick-
ness of about =}, of an inch. This will require at least thirty coats. When
the gutta-percha is sufficiently dry, a plate of copper is laid on it to give it
stiffness. The whole is then turned up, and the original drawing exposed.
This is easily removed, and then by delicate touches of a sponge dipped in
water, the gelatine is separated from the gutta-percha, which is metalized by
black lead. The plate is then electrotyped as usual.

The Marshal declares that by applying this process to the six-sheet map
of Kabilie, they have obtained an economy of seven-eighths of the time,
and of six-sevenths of the expense. — Academy of Sciences of Paris, Nov. 19,
1858.

DETERMINATION OF THE VARIATION OF THE COMPASS.

We have before us a simple but very useful contrivance, the invention of
Captain Toovey, of the mercantile marine, for determining the true varia-
tion of the compass. It is a simple dial, inscribed with an inner and an
outer circle, having the quadrants and eight points of the compass worked
off on each. In the centre is fixed a gnomon, to the foot of which is at-
tached a movable hand that travels round the dial. This hand, in using the
instrument, is made to indicate the direction of the ship’s head, and her
course. The dial is then placed in a horizontal position on the capstan-
head, the ship’s side, the poop-rail, or any other convenient place. The
bearings of the sun are then ascertained, and the shadow cast by the gno- °
mon indicates with accuracy the angle of variation of the compass, which
is read off on the inner or outer circle with perfect ease. The dial is fitted
with a movable sight for ascertaining the bearings of any object in the
heavens or on the horizon. — London Engineer.

CAST-IRON MAGNETS.

M. Florimond, Professor at Louvain, has succeeded in making very good
magnets of cast iron, very highly tempered. The quality of the cast iron
for this purpose must be neither too fine nor too coarse, and the plates should
be at least three times thicker than the plates of steel usually employed.

' ON INCREASING THE POWER OF LOCOMOTIVES BY MAGNETIZATION.

The following paper was read before the American Scientific Association,
by Mr. E. W. Serrell: :
The importance of increasing the power of locomotive engines without
adding to their weight, which is so destructive to the superstructure of rail-
ways, led me to attempt to magnetize the driving-wheels, to obtain addi-

140 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

tional adhesion. Before doing so, however, I carefully inquired of those
most likely to be informed, both in this country and in Europe, if previously
ascertained facts indicated the probability of success, and I was almost dis-
couraged by the unanimous answer, ‘‘ No.”’ But I persevered, and the result
is more than was anticipated. An additional adhesion of over seventy-five
per cent. has been obtained, and this by a very simple method.

The lower segment of the wheel is surrounded by a helix of copper wire,
through which the wheel revolves; and, contrary to the generally received
opinions, it was found that, upon curving the helix into a segment, the ra-
dius of which is equal to the diameter of the wheel, the point of greatest
magnetic effect coincided with the contact of the wheel and rail. One wheel
had south polarity, and its corresponding opposite wheel north polarity.

he wheels magnetized in the experimental trial were 4} feet in diameter,
and weighed about 1100 lbs. each. Ona very slippery rail, 19 Ibs. of steam
per inch slipped the wheels without magnetism; under the same condition,
35 Ibs. were required to slip them when magnetized. On a very clean rail,
and everything being favorable, 50 Ibs. were required without any magnetic
effect, and 88 lbs. when magnetized. The helix was made of No. 8 copper
wire, in one strand, 2700 feet in length, and laid in 288 turns, insulated with
cotton and marine glue, and covered with India-rubber. I have not been
able to discover any increased or diminished effect by the wheels being in
motion or at rest, and they were tested up to 300 revolutions per minute.
The battery used was a modification of Grove’s, so contrived as not to stop,
and consisted of sixteen cups each, having about 300 inches of zine surface,
and they were connected for the quantity of eight cups.

I have since adopted a modification of Smee’s and Chester’s battery, being
more permanent. It should be noticed, that when the helices produced the
greatest effect, they were raised about 2} inches above the rail, measuring
from their under sides.

TELEGRAPH APPLIED TO MILITARY PURPOSES.

At the battle of Solferino, a high degree of precision in evolution was at-
tained by the French army, by means of the telegraph.

From each corps, once in position, a horseman rode off to the next divis-
ion, unrolling on his rapid course a light wire, which no time was lost in
adapting to a field apparatus; and the process was repeated all along the
French line of twelve miles. Hence the movement of the whole army was
known and regulated like clock-work, on that decisive day. This arrange-
ment had been planned in Paris, and a supply of gutta-percha covered metal
thread forwarded with secrecy and dispatch.

MAGNETIC ACTION OF THE SUN.

The following abstract of a lecture delivered before the Royal Institution
(London); by Mr. Brayley, exhibits in brief the present state of our knowl-
edge respecting the magnetic action of the Sun, and its connection with the
spots on its surface, the earth’s magnetism, and the polar lights, or the re-
sult of those observations by which, as it has been said, we are “landed ina
system of cosmical relations, in which both the sun and the earth, and prob-
ably the whole planetary system, are implicated.”? In the opinion of the
Joint Magnetic Committee of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science, and the Royal Society, expressed in their report, that discussion

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 141

has not merely brought into view, but fully established, the existence of a
very extraordinary periodicity in the extent of fluctuation of ali the magnetic
elements, which connects them directly with the physical constitution of the
Sun, and with the periodical greater or less prevalence of spots on its surface,
—the maxima of the amount of fluctuation corresponding with the maxima
of the spots, and these again with those of the exhibitions of the Aurora
Borealis, which thus appears also to be subject to the same law of periodicity.
The discovery made by General Sabine of a decennial period in all those
magnetic influences at the surface of the globe, which, by their dependence
on the hours of solar time, led him to recognize the Sun as their primary
cause — operating, however, in some other manner than by its heat— was
explained by reference to the observations of Arago on the diurnal variation
of the declination, which were purposely selected by the lecturer, as giving
independent evidence on the subject, having been made before the establish-
ment of the British Magnetic Observatories, and because that philosopher
was evidently unaware of the existence of the periodicity they demonstrate,
in common with the later and different observations in which the decennial
period was first recognized by Sabine. A general view was then taken of the
phenomena of the Solar Spots, and of the analogy between them and the
revolving storms of our own atmosphere first inferred by Sir John Herschel,
and since remarkably confirmed, it was stated, by the observations of the
Rev. R. Dawes on the rotation of the spots about their own centres, and
those of Mr. Carrington on the currents in which they appear to drift across
the Sun; and the discovery of a decennial period in their amount and fre-
quency by Schwabe of Dessau, in the observations which he has carried on
for the third part of a century, was described by reference to tables compar-
ing the periods of the maxima and the minima of the spots with those of the
magnetic fluctuations as made known by Sabine, which were thus shown to
be, when complete, corresponding periods of.ten years. The enormous ac-
tivity in certain regions of the Sun indicated by the magnitude of the spots,
and the rapidity of their motions and changes, it was suggested, was ade-
quate to any conceivable exertion of force upon the Earth. In proceeding to
the third subject of this law of periodicity, the Polar Lights, after a brief
description of their characteristic phenomena, Mr. Brayley stated that, in
his opinion, the only suggestion of their cause, hitherto enunciated, in the
Nature of a vera causa, had been made by Professor Faraday, and had been
amply verified by facts subsequently observed, —a statement now made for
the first time. In the Bakerian Lecture, read before the Royal Society in
1852, relating his discovery of terrestrial magneto-electric induction, Mr.
Faraday showed that effects similar to those he had obtained by instrumen-
tai means, but infinitely greater in force, might be produced by the action of
the globe, as a magnet, upon its own mass, in consequence of its diurnal
rotation; and, in the sequel, he asked whether the Aurora Borealis and Aus-
tralis might not be the discharge of electricity, thus urged towards the poles,
and endeavoring to return, above the earth, to the equatorial region; citing,
as in accordance with an affirmative reply, the effect of an aurora upon the
Magnetic needle recorded by Mr. R. W. Fox. He did not pursue the subject;
but the hypothesis has been abundantly verified, with respect to the produc-
tion of terrestrial currents of electricity, in the manner inferred, by the
earth’s rotation, and the other natural motions of conductors cutting the
magnetic curves, by facts which the electric telegraph, land and submarine,
has disclosed, and some of which were recited; while all the phenomena of

142 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the Polar Lights themselves, especially those which are susceptible of precise
measurement and instrumental observation, conspire to verify Faraday’s sug-
gestion as to their immediate nature and cause. That they are truly electri-
cal in their nature, an inference rendered so probable by their obvious phe-
nomena, Mr. Brayley considered to be proved by their (electro-magnetic
inductive) effects on the magnetic elements; nothing hitherto known haying
the power of producing such effects but magnetism itself, and electricity,
while no phenomena of the former are luminous, — there is no magnetic
light; — and the absence of atmospheric electricity during the display of the
aurora, paradoxical as it may seem, is a necessary consequence, the electric-
ity being absorbed, as it were, by its conversion into the correlate magnetism ;
or, in other words, ceasing to be statically manifested while being dynamically
exerted. Some experimental illustrations of the electrical nature of the
Polar Lights were then exhibited, in which the luminous disruptive discharge
was taken in exhausted tubes, that is, in excessively rare media resembling
in their attenuation the atmosphere itself at the elevations where the Aurora
occurs; one of the tubes, prepared by M. Gassiot, showing the stratified dis-
charge (originally obtained by Mr. Grove), recently cited by Humboldt in
evidence that the dark space in the Aurora may be real, and not merely the
effect of contrast. The source of the electricity in these experiments being
the apparatus termed the Ruhmkorff coil, the close accordance between them
and the natural phenomenon was pointed out, in the fact that the electricity
was obtained by a process of magneto-electric induction, exactly analogous,
on the small scale, to the natural process to which, operating in the globe
itself, Faraday has referred the electricity manifested in the Polar Lights.
The actual influence of the Aurora on the magnetic elements was exemplified
by three photographs from the self-registering apparatus at the Kew Obser-
vatory, on which the vertical, the horizontal, and the total-force magnetome-
ters, respectively, had recorded the disturbances produced in them by the
Aurora of December 3, 1858. The facts establishing the participation of the
Polar Light in the great law of solar periodicity which it had been the object
of the lecturer thus generally to explain, were then briefly stated; and the
conclusion was deduced, that the relation of the periodicity to the electrical
causation of the Polar Light is simply this, — that the magnetic action of the
Sun periodically affects the terrestrial magnetism, which being converted into
electricity by the earth’s rotation and moving conductors, agreeably to the
theory maintained, exhibits the period in the polar discharges of that
electricity. —,

MAGNETIC DECLINATION.

From a table published by Encke, in the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy,
it appears that, in the fifteen years between 1839 and 1854, the magnetic
“declination,” or the westerly deviation of the magnetic north from the true
north, has diminished 1° 493’; the “‘variation”’ has, therefore, been at the
mean rate of 7; minutes per annum; but it has been a little greater in the
second half of the term than the first. The declination at Berlin in 1854 was
14° 56! 52’.

At a meeting of the Royal Belgian Academy, a letter was read from Han-
steen to the secretary, M. Quetelet, stating that with one of Gambey’s
needles, aided by careful manipulation, he is able to take the precise dip
within at least half a minute. From observations made in four summer
months with a dipping-needle and unifilar and bifilar horizontal needles, he

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. , 1438

has come to the conclusion that the diurnal variation, observable in magnetic
phenomena, is produced by a feeble perturbative force which turns round the
horizon from east to west in twenty-four hours. ‘‘ When this force proceeds
to the south, the horizontal intensity diminishes, the inclination augments,
and the declination has its mean value (about ten hours before midday);
when it proceeds to the north, the horizontal intensity increases, the inclina-
tion diminishes, and the declination assumes its mean value, which takes
place about an hour before sunset; when it proceeds towards the west or the
east, the respective declination augments or diminishes (one hour after mid-
day, eight hours before midday or midnight”). The inclination or dip,
which is now decreasing, will reach its minimum, Hansteen thinks, in Western
Europe, in 1878, and has already reached it in Siberia. Its maximum was in
1678, indicating a period of two hundred years.

ON A NEW METHOD OF RENDERING VISIBLE TO THE EYE SOME OF
THE MORE ABSTRUSE PROBLEMS OF CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, HITH-
ERTO CONSIDERED ONLY AS MATHEMATICAL ABSTRACTIONS.

here are some propositions of crystallography which require some me-
chanical means beyond that of the use of solid models, to make them appeal
to the eye for clearer perception. The most perfectly symmetrical solid forms
of the crystallographer belong te the cubical or tessular system. There are
seven different kinds or orders of forms belonging to this system, perfectly
symmetrical, four of which admit of an infinite variety of species. These
forms are associated in nature, as well as in their mathematical relations to
each other. They are found in crystals of the same substance, either in
their simple forms, or else associated in combination with each other, in the
different faces of a compound crystal; thus the cube, the octahedron, and
the rhombic dodecahedron, are found as simple crystals of the diamond; or
faces parallel to all three or two of them, may be discovered on a more com-
plex natural crystal. The three forms we have just enumerated, — the cube,
the regular octahedron, and the rhombic dodecahedron, — may be considered
as the permanent or limiting forms of the cubical system; they admit of no
varieties; their angles, whether those of the inclination, of adjacent faces, or
of the planes constituting their faces, are invariable; they are also limiting
forms. Between the octahedron and the rhombic dodecahedron, we may
conceive an infinite number of varieties of the three-faced octahedron, pass-
ing from the form of the octahedron to that of the rhombic dodecahedron;
similarly, the octahedron and the cube are limiting forms of an infinite series
of twenty-four-faced trapezohedrons, and the cube and rhombic dodeca-
hedron of a series of four-faced cubes. The forty-cight-faced scalenohedron,
or the six-faced octahedron, is a form varying within the limits of all the
others. To represent to the eye the passage of all the varieties of these
forms between their respective limits, is the object of the mechanical con-
trivance which is the subject of this paper. A skeleton or armillary sphere
is constructed of iron wire, so as to mark out the principal zones of the
sphere of projection of the forms of the cubical system; three circles are
united at right angles to each other, so as to represent eight equilateral spher-
ical triangles, each of whose sides are arcs of 90°. The six points where the
ares cross each other are the poles of the six faces of the cube; the lines
joining each pair of opposite poles represent the cubical axes, each axis
being perpendicular to two faces of the cube which can be inscribed in the

144 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

sphere. Each arc is now bisected. These twelve points of bisection are the
poles of the rhombic dodecahedron; the lines joining the opposite pairs of
these poles are the rhombic axes, each of these axes being perpendicular to
two faces of the rhombic dodecahedron inscribed in the spheres, or inscribed
in the cube inscribed within the sphere. Let each of the eight equilateral
spherical triangles be divided into six equal and similar spherical triangles
by ares, joining the angle of each triangle-with the centre of its opposite
side. The armillary portion of the sphere is now completed. The point
within each of the eight equilateral spherical triangles, formed by the inter-
section of the three arcs by which it is divided, is the octahedral pole. There
are, of course, eight of these; the lines joining the opposite pairs of these
poles are the octahedral axes, each one being perpendicular to two opposite
faces of the regular octahedron inscribed in the sphere, or in the cube in-
scribed within the sphere. If we now join each pole of the octahedron with
the three poles of the octahedron in the three adjacent equilateral spherical
triangles by straight wires, and do this symmetrically for the eight poles,
we shall then have the edges of the cube inscribed within our armillary
sphere, —the octahedral axes joining the opposite solid angles of this cube,
and the rhombic axes passing through the centres of each opposite edge.
Within this skeleton cube we now inscribe a regular octahedron, using elastic
strings for its edges, by uniting the point where each cubical axis passes
through the face of the cube, with the similar points on the two adjacent
faces. Each face of the octahedron is therefore represented by an equilateral
triangle of elastic cord. We now suppose each side of the eight equilateral
triangles to be bisected. Every angle of the eight equilateral triangles is
joined to the bisection of its opposite edge by another scries of elastic cords.
We have now an octahedron inscribed in the cube inscribed within our
armillary sphere, — every face of the octahedron having marked upon it the
traces formed by an imaginary plane passing through the zones of its sphere
and its centre. It will now be seen that the cubical axes join the opposite
solid angles of the octahedron; the rhombic axes the bisections of its oppo-
site edges; while the octahedral axes pass through the intersections of the
elastic cords, which join each solid angle of the octahedron with the centres
of the edges opposite to it. The points where the elastic cords meet, and the
octahedral axes pass through the faces of the octahedron, are now fastened
to cords. These cords are made to run round pulleys, and are united to-
gether, so that by pulling them simultaneously, the points uniting, every one
of the three elastic cords which are described on the face of the inscribed
octahedron, can be made to travel uniformly and symmetrically along each
of the octahedral axes, from the face of the octahedron to the solid angle of
the circumscribing tube. Another series of cords are united to each of the
four elastic cords, which meet at the point bisecting each of the edges of the
inscribed octahedron. These, by a similar contrivance, are made to draw
these points along the rhombic axes. The instrument is now completed.
By simply pulling the eight cords united together, which cause the clastic
cords to ascend the octahedral axes, the inscribed octahedron passes through
every form of the three-faced octahedron, till it reaches the limiting form of
the rhombic dodecahedron, — each three-faced octahedron being inscribed
within the cube inscribed within the sphere. In a similar manner, by pulling
the cords running along the rhombic axes in combination with those running
along the octahedral axes, all the other forms are shown as passing within
their prescribed limits. As soon as the cords are loosened, the elastic bands

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 145

immediately resume the form of the inscribed octahedron. In addition to
these forms the instrument also can be made to demonstrate the passage of
all the hemihedral forms of the cubical system, with inclined faces within
their limits. In this manner, it was demonstrated that this instrument can
make visible to the eye all the changes and varieties of an interesting series
of forms and their mutual relations, which could otherwise only be conceived
by a considerable power of mathematical abstraction. This armillary sphere,
by some other small additions, can be make use of for tracing out some of
the most beautiful portions of the zone-theory of the poles of crystals. — Rev.
Walter Mitchell, M. A., Proc. Royal Institution, London, March 18, 1859.

OBSERVATIONS ON PHOSPHORESCENCE.

At alate meeting of the American Photographic Society, New York, the
subject of phosphorescence being under discussion, the President, Professor
W. H. Draper, made the following remarks: “I will mention a fact or two
which may be found to have some bearing on the question of stored-up
light. If the powder of sulphide of calcium be spread on some convenient
surface, as a sheet of tin, and upon this a key be laid, and the whole be ex-
posed for a few minutes to the sunlight, on bringing it in a dark room and
removing the key, the whole surface will shine, except where the key left its
shadow. The image of the key will appear black on a white ground. The
phosphorescent light, however, gradually diminishes, till the image of the
key cannot be distinguished. If now a ring be laid on the powder, and the
surface be again exposed to sunlight, in the dark the image of the ring will
appear and disappear. The experiment may be continued with other objects,
and with precisely similar results. So far you find nothing that you did not
khow or might easily anticipate. But now heat the plate in the dark, and
the images of the key and ring, and other objects, will reappear. These
images were impressed, for a considerable time were latent, and again they
are developed. A phosphorescent which has lost its power to shine in the
dark, recovers this power when, a spark of electricity is sent through it.
_ The light now given out passes readily through quartz, while glass is opaque
to it. I have examined a great many diamonds in the study of phosphor-
escence. I have observed that yellow diamonds are invariably phosphores-
cent, and shine with brighter light than others. If, after the diamond has
ceased to shine in the dark, it be warmed in the hand, it glows again, but
only for a short time; this property may be restored successively at increas-
ing temperatures.”

ON PHOSPHORESCENCE, FLUORESCENCE, ETC.

The following is a report of a lecture on the above subject, given by Pro-
fessor Faraday, before the Royal Institution, June 17th, 1859: The agent
understood by the word “light,”’ presents phenomena so varied in kind, and
is excited to sensible action by such different causes, acting apparently by
methods differing greatly in their physical nature, that it excites the hopes
of the philosopher much in relation to the connection which exists between
all the physical forces, and the expectation that that connection may be
greatly developed by its means. This consideration, with the great advance
in the experimental part of the subject which has recently been made by E.
Becquerel, were the determining causes of the production of this subject
before the Members of the Royal Institution on the present occasion. The

13

146 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

well-known effect of light in radiating from a centre, and rendering bodies
visible which are not so of themselves, as long as the emission of rays was
continual — the general nature of the undulatory view, and the fact that the
mathematical theory of these assumed undulations was the same with that
of the undulation of sound, and of any undulations occurring in elastic
bodies, were referred to as a starting position. Limited to this effect of
light, it was observed that the illuminated body was luminous only whilst
receiving the rays or undulations. But superadded occasionally to this
effect is one known as phosphorescence, which is especially evident when the
sun is employed as the source of light. Thus, if a calcined oyster-shell, a
piece of white paper, or even the hand, be exposed to the sun’s rays, and
then instantly placed before the eyes in a perfectly dark room, they are seen
to be visible after the light has ceased to fall on them. There is a further
philosophical difference, which may thus be stated: if a piece of white
oyster-shell be placed in the spectrum rays issuing from a prism, the parts
will, as to illumination, appear red, or green, or blue, as they come under the
red, green, or blue rays; whereas, if the phosphorescent effect be observed,
i. e., that effect remaining after the illuminating rays are gone, the light
will either be white, or of a tint not depending upon the color of the ray
producing it, but upon the nature of the substance itself, and the same for
all the rays. The ray which comes to the eye in an ordinary case of visi-
bility, may be considered as that which, emanating from the luminous body,
has impinged upon the substance seen, and has been deflected into a new
course, namely, towards the eye; it may be considered as the same ray,
both before and after it has met with the visible body. But the light of
phosphorescence cannot be so considered, inasmuch as time is introduced;
for the body is visible for a time sensibly after it has been illuminated, which
time in some cases rises up to minutes, and perhaps hours. This condition
connects these phosphorescent bodies with those which phosphoresce by
heat, as apatite and fluor-spar; for when these are made to glow intensely
by a heat far below redness, it is evident that they have acquired a state
which has enabled them for a time to become original sources of light, just
as the other phosphorescent bodies have by exposure to light acquired a like
state. And then again, there is this further fact, that as the fluor-spar,
which has been heated, does not phosphoresce a second time when reheated,
still it may be restored to its first state by passing the repeated discharge of
the electric spark over it, as Pearsall has shown. Then follows on (in the
addition of effect to effect) the phenomena of fluorescence, and the fine con-
tributions to our knowledge of this part of light by Stokes. If a fluorescent
body, as uranium glass, or a solution of sulphate of quinine, or decoction of
horse-chestnut bark, are exposed to diffuse daylight, they are illuminated,
not merely abundantly but peculiarly, for they appear to have a glow of
their own; and this glow does not extend to all parts of the bodies, but is
limited to the parts where the rays first enter the substances. Some feeble
flames, as that of hydrogen, can produce this glow to a considerable degree.
If a deep-blue glass be held between the body and the rays of the sun, or of
the electric lamp, it seems even to increase the effect; not that it does so in
reality, but that it stops very many of the luminous rays, yet let the rays
producing this effect pass through. By using the solar or electric spectrum,
we learn that the most effectual rays are in most cases not the luminous
ones, but are in the dark part of the spectrum; and so the fluorescence ap-
pears to be a luminous condition of the substance, produced by dark rays

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 147

which are stopped or consumed in the act of rendering the fluorescent body
uminous; so they produce this effect only at the first or entry surface, the
passing ray, though the light goes onward, being unable to produce the
effect again; and this effect exists only whilst the competent ray is falling
on to the body, for it disappears the instant the fluorescent substance is
taken out of the light, or the light shut off from it. When E. Becquerel
attacked this subject, he enlarged it in every direction. First of all, he pre-
pared most powerful phosphori, these being chiefly sulphurets of the alka-
line earths, strontia, baryta, lime. By treatment and selection, he obtained
them so that they would emit a special color; thus, seven different tubes
might contain preparations which, exposed to the sun, or diffused daylight,
or the electric light, should yield the seven rays of the spectrum. The light
emitted generally possessed a lower degree of refrangibility than the ray
causing the phosphorescence; but in some instances he was able to raise the
refrangible character of the ray emitted to that of the exciting ray. By
taking a given preparation, and raising it to different temperatures, he
caused it to give out different colored rays by the single action of one com-
mon ray; this variation in power returning to a common degree as the tem-
peratures of the phosphori became the same in all. He showed that time
Was occupied in the elevation of the phosphorescent state by the ray, and
also that time was concerned in various degrees during the emission of the
phosphorescent ray; that this time, which in many cases was long, might
be affected, being shortened by the action of heat, and then the brilliancy of
the phosphorescence for the shortened time was increased. He showed the
special relation of the different phosphori to the different rays of the spec-
trum, pointing out where the maximum effect occurred; also that there were
the equivalents of dark bands, 7. e., bands in the spectrum, where little or
no phosphorescence was produced. These phosphori were many of them
highly fluorescent. Thus, if one of them was exposed to the strong voltaic
light, and then placed in the dark, it was seen to be brilliantly luminous,
gradually sinking in brightness, and ultimately fading away altogether; but
if it were held in the rays beyond the violet end of the spectrum (the more
luminous rays being shut off), it was again seen to be beautifully luminous,
but that state disappeared the instant it was removed from the ray. Now
this is fluorescence, and the same body seemed to be both phosphorescent
and fluorescent. Considering this matter, and all the circumstances regard-
ing time, Becquerel was led to believe that these two luminous conditions
differed essentially only in the time during which the state excited by the
exposure to light continued; that a body being really phosphorescent, but
whose state fell instantly, was fluorescent, giving out its light while the
exciting ray continued to fall on it, and during that time only; and thata
phosphorescent was only a more sluggish body, which continued to shine
after the exciting ray was withdrawn. To investigate this point, he invented
the phosphoroscope, an apparatus which may vary in its particular construc-
tion, but in which disks or other surfaces, illuminated by the sun or an elec-
tric lamp might, by revolution, be rapidly placed before the eye in a dark
chamber, and so be regarded in the shortest possible space of time after
their illumination. By such an apparatus Becquerel showed that all the
fluorescent bodies were reaily phosphorescent, but that the emission of light
endured only for a short time. An extensive series of experimental illustra-
tions upon the foregoing points was made with fine specimens of phosphori,
for which the speaker was indebted to M. Becquerel himself. The phospho-

148 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

roscope employed consisted of a cylinder of wood, one inch in diameter and
seven inches long, piaced in the angle of a black box with the electric lamp
inside, so that three-fourths of the cylinder were external, and in the dark
chamber where the audience sat, and one-fourth was within the box, and in
the full power of the voltaic light. By proper mechanicai arrangements this
cylinder could be revolved, and the part which was at one instant within,
rapidly brought to the outside, and observed by the audience. As the cylin-
der could be made to revolve 300 times in a second, and as the twentieth
part of a revolution was enongh to bring a sufficient portion of the cylinder
to the outside, it is evident that a phosphorescent effect which would last
only theggl55 or even the goo Of a second might be made apparent. All
escape of light between the moving cylinder and the box was prevented hy
the use of properly attached black velvet. The cylinder was first supplied
with a surface of Becquerel’s phosphori. The effect here was, that when by
rotation the part illuminated was brought outside the box, it was found phos-
phorescent. If the cylinder continued to rotate, it appeared equally lumin-
ous all over, and when the rotation ceased, or the lamp was extinguished,
the light gradually sank as the phosphorescence fell. Then a cylinder having
a surface of quinine or esculin, was put into the apparatus. Whilst the cyl-
inder was still, it was dark outside; but when revolving with moderate ve-
locity it became luminous outside, ceasing to be so the moment the revolution
stopped. Here the fluorescence was evidently shown to occupy time, —in-
deed, the full time of a revolution,—and taking advantage of that, the
self-shining of the body was separated from its illumination within, and the
fluorescence made to assume the character of phosphorescence. Another
cylinder was covered with crystals of nitrate of uranium, a hot saturated
solution having been applied over it with a fine brush. The result was
beautiful. A moderate degree of revolution brought no light out of the
box, but with increased motion it began to appear at the edge. As the
rapidity became greater, the light spread over the cylinder, but it could not
be carried over the whole of its surface. It issued as a band of light where
the moving cylinder left the edge of the box, diminishing in intensity as
it went on, and looking like a bright flame, wrapping round half the cylin-
der. When the direction of revolution was reversed, this flame issued from
the other side, and when the motion of the cylinder was stopped, all the
phenomena of fluorescence or phosphorescence disappeared at once. The
wonderfully rapid manner in which the nitrate of uranium received the ac-
tion of the light within the box, and threw off its phosphorescence outside,
was beautifully shown. The electric light, even when the discharge is in
rarefied media, or as a feeble brush, emits a great abundance of those rays,
which produce the phenomena of finorescenee; but then if these rays have
to pass through common glass, they are cut off, being absorbed and de-
stroyed, even when they are not expended in producing fluorescence or phos-
phorescence. Arrangements can, however, be made, in which the advanta-
geous circumstances can be turned to good account with such bodies as
Becquerel’s phosphori, or uranium glass. If these be inclosed within glass
tubes having platinum wires at the extremities, and which are also exhausted
of air and hermetically sealed, then the discharges of a Ruhmkorff coil can
be continually sent over the phosphori, and the effects, both fluorescent and
phosphorescent, be beautifully shown. The first or immediate light of the
body is often of one color; whilst on the cessation of the discharge, the see-
ond or deferred light is of another, and many variations of the effects can

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 149

be produced. In connection with rarefied media it may be remarked, that
‘some of the tubes by Geissler and others have been observed to have their
rarefied atmospheres phosphorescent, glowing with light for a moment or
two after the discharge through them was suspended. Since then, Becquerel
has observed that oxygen is rendered phosphorescent, 7. e:, that it presents
a persistent effect of light, when electric discharges are passed through it.
I have several times had occasion to observe that a flash of lightning, when
seen as a linear discharge, left the luminous trace of its form on the clouds,
enduring for a sensible time after the lightning was gone. I strictly verified
this fact in June 1857, recording it in the Philosophical Magazine, and re-
ferred it to the phosphorescence of the ‘loud. I have no doubt that that is
the true explanation. Other phenomena, having relation to fluorescence
‘and phosphorescence, as the difference in the light of oxygen and hydrogen
exploded in glass globes, or in the air, were referred to, with the expression
of strong hopes that Becquerel’s additions to that branch cf science would
greatly explain.

ON INTERMITTING FLUORESCENCE.

J. Miller has observed in platinocyanid of barium a peculiar phenomenon,
to which he has giving the name of intermitting fluorescence. Whena strip
of paper is washed with a solution of the salt in such a manner that on evap-
oration the surface appears covered with a layer of delicate green crystals,
and then exposed in a dark room to the spectrum produced by a flint glass
prism, aided by a lens of long focal distance, almost the whole portion on
which the blue rays fall appears blue. In this blue portion, however, three
isolated green fluorescent bands appear. The middle of one of these bands
corresponds to Frauenhofer’s line G; the two others lie between G and F.
The centres of these bands correspond to the wave-lengths 0°000462™m,
0°000416™™, 0°00430™™, From this it appears that rays of these wave-
lengths produce fluorescence, while those of intermediate wave-lengths pro-
duce none. An uninterrupted green fluorescence begins at that portion of
the spectrum which corresponds to a wave-length of about 0°000410m™m, No
similar phenomenon’ has hitherto been observed. — Pogg. Ann., civ., 649.

NOTE ON THE POLARIZATION OF THE LIGHT OF COMETS.

The following note, communicated by Sir David Brewster to the French
Academy, is published in the LZ. 2. and D. Philosophical Magazine, for April
1859, p. 311. Although there can be no doubt as to the accuracy of the
observations of M. Arago, on the indications of polarization discovered by
him in the light of the comets from 1819 to 1835, there is nevertheless noth-
ing impossible in the supposition that the light may have been polarized after
arriving in the terrestrial atmosphere. In fact, when we consider that light
is polarized by refraction in passing through the coats of the eye, that it is
polarized by refraction at the four or six surfaces of the object-glasses of an
astronomical telescope, and also in passing throuch the surfaces of its eye-
piece, and lastly, that the light of celestial bodies undergoes a slight polar-
ization by the refraction of the atmosphere, we are compelled to admit that
the problem of the existence of polarized light in the light of comets is not
solved. :

Iam not aware that those who have observed traces of polarization in the
light of comets, have noticed the direction of the plane in which it has been

13*

150 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

polarized; nevertheless, without some observation we cannot discover its
cause. If the light be polarized in a plane passing through the sun, the
comet and the eye, we must infer that it is polarized by the reflection of the
light coming from the sun; if it be polarized in an opposite plane, the polar-
ization may be due to the refraction of the atmosphere. If it be polarized
qua qua versus, this may be due to these causes, viz., to refraction by the sur-
faces of the object-glasses and eye-piece, to the imperfection in the annealing
of the glass of which the lenses are formed, or to the fact of one or more of the
lenses being pinched in their cell. Supposing it to be an effect of the first of
these causes, the opening of the object-glasses and eye-piece should be
reduced to a central band, which would eliminate the light polarized in an
opposite plane, and leave that which is polarized in a plane perpendicular to
the direction. By turning the telescope on the lenses, the direction of the
polarization would be changed.

If the polarization be produced by a defect in the annealing of the glass:
of which the lenses are made, the existence of this imperfection will be ren-
dered evident by exposing the lenses to polarized light.

If the polarization observed be due to the reflection of the rays of the sun
by the comet, or its envelope, small stars will be seen more distinctly when
the polarized light is extinguished by the application of a Nicol’s prism.

Objects rendered visible ina fog. — Whilst I was studying the polarization of
the atmosphere, I observed this remarkable fact, that when distant objects are
rendered indistinct by the interposition of a light fog, a part of their definite-
ness may be restored by looking at them through a Nicol-prism, which stops
all the light which the fog has polarized in a plane passing through the sun,
the object, and the eye of the observer. The objects thus made more dis-
tinct and visible, were seen through that portion of the fog in which the,
polarization of the reflected light was ata maximum. ‘This method of ren-
dering visible, objects rendered indistinct by fogs, may, it appears to me,
receive important applications in military and naval operations.

ON THE FORM OF THE EYEBALL, AND THE RELATIVE POSITION OF
THE ENTRANCE OF THE OPTIC NERVE INTO IT IN DIFFERENT
ANIMALS.

In a paper on the above subject presented to the British Association, 1858,
by Mr. T. Nunneley, the author observed that the orbits of the eyes are much
larger than the eyeballs, and that their axes diverge considerably in an out-
ward direction, while those of the two eyes are perfectly parallel. The eye-
balls lie in the fore-part of the orbits, and according as they are more or less
prominent, and more or less covered with the lids, do they appear to be larger
or smaller. The eye of the infant is larger, in proportion to the size of the
body, than that of the adult; but it is by no means certain that the eye of the
male is larger proportionately to the size of the body than the eye of the
female. By some anatomists the human eye was described as a spheroid,
the diameter of which, from before to behind, is greater than in any other
direction. He had measured a great number of eyes, of the human subject
as well as of animals, and he found that wherever there was a departure
from the spherical figure, it was in the direction contrary to that which had
been commonly stated. In some instances the difference between the two
diameters was scarcely perceptible; in all, where a distinction was observed,
the transverse was the greatest. He had prepared a set of tables (which were

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. rat

printed), containing the result of the measurement of two hundred eyes of yari-
ous creatures. In conclusion, Mr. Nunneley said : The measurements, I think,
clearly prove that whatever part the fibres of the optic nerve play in the
phenomena of vision, — and they, in all probability, only convey to the sen-
sorium the impression received by the true retinal elements, — the greatest
number of them are distributed on that part of the eyeball where there is the
greatest range of vision, and that the largest expanse of retina is on that
part of the ball opposite to where objects are placed, and consequently it is
where the visual images of them must fall. Thus the extent of vision is
always in conformity with the space of retina on that side of the optic nerve,
and as the rods and cellules appear always to correspond in abundance with
the fibres, that side of the retina which receives the greatest number of im-
ages is most exercised, or where the range of vision is the greatest, is always
the largest. That this is a fact, I think a careful comparison of the position
of the eyes in the head, the size of the eyeball, and the exact position of the
entrance of the nerve into it, with the mode of life and habits of various
creatures, will render more obvious than a casual glance would do. To men-
tion only a few instances as illustrations: Man, from the erect position of
his body, the horizontal placing of his eyes, and his habits, has a more pan-
optic range than any other creature (of course in this consideration all mo-
tion of the head, neck, and body of the animal, must be excluded, and
those of the eyeballs alone admitted). In him the optic nerve enters the ball
not far from the centre; leaving, however, a somewhat shorter space on the
inner and lower parts of the retina than on the upper and outer. Now, while
man enjoys a free range of vision above the horizontal line, there are far more
occasions for him to look at objects below than above this line, and thus mere
visual images are projected to the upper and outer sides of the entrance of
the optic nerve oftener than to the inner and lower sides of this spot. Inthe
pig, who sees at no great range before him, and who seeks his food with the
snout almost always in the ground, whose head and eyes are consequently
for the most part downward and near the ground, the nerve enters the ball
more outwardly and much lower than it does in man. The pig wants not to
see far before him, but he does require, while grubbing, to look behind him,
from whence danger comes. So with the timid herbivorous animals. Look
at the entrance of the nerve in the bullock and sheep, who pass so much
time with the head in a dependent position near to the ground with the eye
directed upon the surface, in open plains, where danger usually comes from
behind; in them the upper and the inner sides of the retina are much larger
than the lower and outer portions ; while in the deer, who live in more wooded
places, where danger is also from the front, but who, like the bullock, has
the head downward in feeding, though the inner or anterior side of the retina
is still larger than the posterior, it is so toa much less extent than it is in the
bullock, while the upper portion still continues as proportionately large as it is
in sheep and bullocks. On the contrary, in the horse, who is not so preyed
upon, who carries the head erect, and observes all around, the nerve enters
the cye more nearly in the axis. In birds, with few exceptions, the upper
portion of the retina is much more considerable than the lower parts, but the
anterior and posterior portions vary much in different genera. Those whose
locomotion is performed principally by the feet, and whose range of habita-
tion is very small, as the common fowl and turkey, have the inner or anterior
portion very considerably greater than the outer or posterior. Those birds
whose range is greater, and who use the wings for progression, but do not

152 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

wander very far, as the grouse and partridge, have much less difference in
the two portions of the retina; while in those birds whose flight is far and
profonged, as the crow, rook, swan, goose, and duck, the entrance of the
nerve is very nearly to the centre of the ball. So in reptiles. In the turtle,
who only requires to see immediately before and under him, the outer and
upper portions of the retina are very much the larger. In the more active
alligator, frog, toad, and chameleon, while the upper portion maintains its
size, the outer and inner parts are more nearly equal. In those creatures
whose habitation is for the most part under ground, as the shrew and the
mole, the eyes are so small as to have led Magendie to assert that the mole is
without the organs altogether, which is not the fact, for I have found all the
essentials of an eye, even true retinal elements, optic nerve, and a well-devel-
oped choroid. Yet the organ is so minute,and concealed by the skin and
hair, as probably only enables the creature to discern the light, which is all
that it requires; for, living underground, where it seeks its prey, it obviously
must depend upon the acuteness of other senses than of sight for its living.
Though in the individual there is usually some proportion between the size
of the eye and the body, taking different classes and genera, the size of the
animal is very little guide to that of the eye, the proportions between the two
being determined by other considerations than that of the bulk alone of the
creature; forthough, as a whole, the eye in fish bears a larger proportion to
the whole body than it does in other divisions of the animal kingdom, and
the eyes of birds are, as a class, much larger than those of mammalia or
reptiles, yet amongst the different genera of all these classes there are very
great differences, determined, apparently, by the following considerations,
amongst others not so obvious. When the creature lives in feeble light, yet
moves actively about, and is guided in its locomotion by the sense of sight,
as in nocturnal birds and animals and fish, the eye is very large, apparently
to take in a large quantity of the feeble light; on the contrary, where the
creature is guided in its movements by other senses, then the eye is very
small, as in the bat, the mole, the shrew, and the eel. Where vision pene-
trates to a long distance, and where the eye enjoys great power of overcom-
ing the aberration of parallax, the eye is large, as in rapacious birds. When
the brain and intellect are more developed, the size of the eye diminishes,
and the two eyes become more parallel, as in man and the higher mammailia.
Where animals are feeble, timid, have but little defensive power, and are
preyed upon, the eye is usually very large, as in the hare, the.conies, the
whole deer tribe, and many of the other ruminants. Where the animal is
not predacious, and the size and strength are such as to protect it from being
preyed upon, the eyes are commonly small, as in the whale and the elephant:
in the latter the eye iseven smaller than it is in the horse, and scarcely larger
than in the eagle.

KALEIDOSCOPE TOP.

Under the above name a beautiful philosophical toy has lately been ex-
hibited to the London Society of Arts. It is a top, with a flat disk of wood,
and a spindle in its centre, by which it is set in motion with a string. On
the upper surface of the disk cards of various colors and shapes are placed,
and held by pins, and the top is set in motion. This produces pleasing
effects, as a blue and yellow card exhibits a green color, a red and blue card
a purple, and a red and yellow card an orange color. By taking a black
card pierced with holes, and held steady above the rotating colored cards,

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 153

the eye sees through the openings a most beautiful play of colors. They
dance and waver in the outline of the perforated black card in a manner
that appears magical. These effects are due to the fact that the eye retains
for a certain period the impressions of color which it receives, and one im-
pression has not time io be effaced before another succeeds it. The inventor
is J. Gorham, who has thus succeeded in making a toy exhibit all the effects
of the well-known prismatic wheel.

OCCASIONAL LUMINOUSNESS OF THE ATMOSPHERE AT NIGHT, AS
OBSERVED ON THE ANDES.

In a communication on the above subject, presented to the American
Association for the Promotion of Science, 1859, by the Rev. George Jones,
U.S. N.,the author first referred to the case mentioned by Humboldt, in his
Cosmos, which occurred in Germany about the year 1833, when the atmos-
phere was so luminous that people could see to read fine print. While at
Quito, in 1856-7, he (Mr. Jones) noticed a singular luminousness, — not con-
stant, but occasional, — and made records of the phenomenon. About that
time, and before he had spoken to any one about it, an Irish gentleman, Col.
Lanegan, who had taken part in the revolutionary struggle in Ecuador, men-
tioned a similar case which he had observed at Macheche, about three days’
journey from Quito, when the night was so bright that his servant called
him up, and they started on a journey, supposing it to be day, but after a
while it became so dark that they could not see at all. Col. Lanegan attrib-
uted it to the zodiacal light, but he was wrong as to the cause.

The Colonel’s statement led Mr. Jones to make some inquiries on the sub-
ject, of Col. Stacy, at Quito, who told him that, in his night-marches on the
mountains, the air was often so bright that they could see everything dis-
tinctly, and again it was so dark that they went stumbling over every stone
that came in their way.

Mr. Jones said his own observations were made on cloudy nights, when
he could get no light from the stars, and the luminousness of the atmos-
phere was such, at times, that he could read the headings of newspapers, —
the New York Herald, and New York Journal of Commerce, for instance.
The next night would perhaps be so dark that he could not see his hand
twelve inches from his face. He could not account for this phenomenon,
unless on the supposition that all space was filled with luminous matter,
that vibratory matter is self-luminous, and that it is sometimes swept by us
in dense waves. This explanation, he admitted, was far-fetched, but he
could think of no other.

- MOTHER-OF-PEARL.

A peculiar phenomenon is noticed when wax, stearine, or similar sub-
stances, especially if colored black by lampblack or graphite, has been
poured on a sheet of mother-of-pearl. It is that the inner surface of the
congealed substance, in a certain position to the eye, appears with the same
bright iridescence as the plate itself. This goes to prove that those colors
are not owing to a particularity of the substance of mother-of-pearl, but
solely to the condition of its surface, which consists of fine striz that bend
the rays of reflected light, and resolve them into the various colors. Its
being reflected light, is proved by the complete disappearance of the varie-
gated colors when the surface is exposed to homogeneous light, such as that

154 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

from a lamp fed with alcohol containing chloride of sodium. Liquid wax
or stearine poured on the surface will receive an impression of even the
finest unevenness, only discernible with the glass, and therefore also striz
causing the iridescense. That the surface of mother-of-pearl vives this opal-
escence, in a number of positions, to the eye, and that obtained on wax only
when held in a certain direction, is caused by the many laminez underlying
each other in the original, as remarked by Breithaupt. Seen through a
Nicol’s prism (of course with homogeneous light), in case the undulat-
ing plane of the prism falls vertically upon that of the reflected rays, the
surface of the wax impression appears dark, while that of the original wiil
still be bright; for although the plane of the prism be vertical to that of
the rays proceeding from the surface, it intersects those from the underlying
lamin under a different angle. —Archiv. der Pharmacie, 1859.

NEW PHOTOMETER.

The following is a description of a new photometer, recently introduced
for the testing of coal-gas.

It consists simply of a disk of paper, one portion of which is oiled and
rendered translucent, while the remainder is left unoiled and opaque. The
disk slides on a Jong graduated bar, which has the standard spermaceti can-
die (burning one hundred grains an hour) at one end, and the standard gas-
burner (a five-feet Argand burner, fifteen holes, one-twenty-third of an inch
in diameter, seven-inch chimney) at the other. If the paper is placed very
near the candle, on looking at the side next the candle, we see the opaque
portion of the disk much brighter than the oiled portion, the quantity of
light from the candle which is reflected being greater than the quantity
from the gas which is transmitted. On looking at the other side of the
paper, the oiled portion presents the brighter appearance. The paper is
slipped along until the distinction between the oiled and opaque parts disap-
pears, and all portions of the disk present a uniform brightness, when seen
on both sides. The comparative distances between the paper and the can-
dle, and the gas and paper, being measured by the graduated bar on which
the paper slides, a simple calculation gives the quantity of light emitted by
the gas as compared with the candle.

ON THE MEASUREMENT OF THE CHEMICAL ACTION OF LIGHT.

M. Niepce St. Victor has devised the following plan for measuring the
chemical action of light. He fills a flask with a solution composed of
oxalic acid and nitrate of uranium, which produces, under the action of
even diffused light, a disengagement of carbonic acid gas with efferves-
cence. In order to assure himself that heat has nothing to do with this
phenomenon, the vessel containing the solution was placed in a bath, and
heated to the boiling-point, but no disengagement of gas took place.

There is in this fact the principle of an apparatus for measuring, compara-
tively, the action of light. A graduated tube, passing across the stopper
of the flask, receives the liquid, which, under the pressure of the gas disen-_
gaged, rises more or less, according to the power of the luminous rays,
during a given space of time.

> £2 .

i BR AR Y

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. . 155

ATMOSPHERIC REFRACTION,

Notwithstanding the great importance of solar eclipses in astronomical
calculations, their value has been hitherto much diminished by a certain
want of agreement of the phenomena observed with the calculations of the
most competent astronomers. The moment when the eclipse becomes total,
as well as the places over which the shadow passes, and the duration of ob-
scurity, all commonly differ, in a most provoking manner, from what theory
would seem to indicate. On this subject, M. Liais has written a letter to the
Astronomer Royal, of Great Britain, in which he points out a source of error
which had hitherto escaped the researches of the most distinguished savans.
The law by which a ray of light, passing obliquely from a rare into a denser
medium, is deflected from its path so as to enter the dense body less obliquely
than it could have done by pursuing a straight course, is well known to hold
good with respect to atmospheric strata of different density. This refraction
causes the heavenly bodies to appear higher up in the sky than they really
are; and the denser the atmosphere, and the nearer the luminary is to the
horizon, the more will this effect be apparent. This refraction M. Liais calls
the regular refraction; but, besides this, there exists an abnormal refraction,
“which takes place only on occasions of eclipses of the sun. It will be readily
understood that the sun’s rays being cut off from a portion of the earth by
the interposition of the moon, the temperature decreases, and the strata of
the atmosphere becomes denser over the place where the moon’s shadow
falls; thus a cone of comparatively dense air, surrounded by that which is
expanded by the sun’s heat, is created, which will cause a variation in the
refraction of the solar rays. The tendency of this refraction will evidently
be to diminish the extent of ground covered as well by the umbra as the
penumbra, and to make the eclipse at any given point to commence later
and end sooner, in other words, to be shorter, than previous calculation
would indicate, if this abnormal refraction had not been taken into account.
The amount of these refractions, depending as they do on the height of the
sun and on variations in the atmospheric density, from a variety of causes,
can never be calculated beforehand, but the necessary data can easily be
obtained as the moment of eclipse approaches, by which to make the neces-
sary corrections. Besides alterations in the apparent position and duration
of the eclipse, these refractions produce several remarkable phenomena,
which are only to be observed during a total solar eclipse; of these the pe-
culiar blood-red color of the moon may be mentioned, as well as the appar-
ent projection of the red flames, of which we know so little, upon the
moon’s disk during the eclipse of 1842. Again, slight irregularities in the
refraction of different portions of the sun’s edge may tend towards the pro-
duction of what are known as Baily’s beads, which have been frequently
observed in cases where it is difficult to suppose the existence of lunar
mountains to have caused them. M. Liais proposes, with a view to correct-
ing errors in the determination of longitudes by eclipses, that the different
phases of the phenomenon, as well before as after the moment of total ob-
scurity, be photographed, and the least distance of the centres at the place
of observation calculated from the variation of the angle of position of the
cusps. The intersection of the line between the centres to be determined by
calculation, together with the latitude of the place of observation, will give
the longitude independently of these abnormal refractions.

156 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

EXPERIMENT IN BINOCULAR VISION, ELUCIDATING THE PRINCIPLES
OF THE STEREOSCOPE.

A correspondent of the Journal of the Franklin Institute, states that a famil-
iar experiment, illustrating the principle of the stereoscope may be made by
looking into a mirror and concentrating the ocular axes upon any spot on
the surface of the glass, of an equal elevation with the eyes. If no such spot
exists, it can readily be supplied by wetting a piece of paper or wafer the size
of a pea.

The reflected images of the eyes being as far behind the glass as the eyes
are before it, and equidistant from each other, the ocular axes concentrated
upon the surface of the mirror will, if produced, cross and precisely meet
them, producing in the centre of the forehead one large cyclopian eye.

CURIOUS OPTICAL PHENOMENON.

At the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association, Sir David Brewster
exhibited a curious specimen of chalcedony, in the interior of which was a
landscape minutely depicted. The landscape was evidently produced by the
action of nitrate of silver, which had been insinuated through pores into the
interior of the chalcedony. The most curious fact, however, about the spe-
cimen was, that the landscape entirely disappeared after being kept some
time in the dark, but was restored again in a most distinct manner, after an
hour’s exposure to the light.

Acting upon the suggestion afforded by this specimen, he had induced a
lapidary in Edinburgh to try the experiment of introducing a figure into the
interior of a mass of chalcedony, by drawing it on a polished surface of the
stone with nitrate of silver. The attempt was wholly successful, and the
figure of a dog could be distinctly seen in the centre of the specimen.

ON THE PRODUCTION OF LIGHT, AND THEORY OF COLOR.

In a paper on the above subject, read before the British Association, 1859,
by J. Smith, Esq., of Perth Academy, the author stated that he was unable
satisfactorily to account for certain natural phenomena connected with light
by reference to either of the commonly received theories. <A series of exper-
iments were consequently undertaken with the object of clearing up this
difficulty, and these experiments led to the conclusion that varieties of color
are produced by pulsations of light and shadow.in definite proportions for
each shade of color. In order to make this point clearer, let us suppose
white light to be caused by motion in a fluid, and black by the absence of
motion, then a certain color — blue, for example — would be produced by a
certain proportion of alternate rest and motion of this fluid. The following is
an account of some of the experiments to which Mr. Smith had recourse
during his investigations. He first caused a narrow parallelogram of card-
board to revolve over a black body with a rapidity which he considered equal
to the vibrations of light in a second of time. By this motion he obtained a
distinct blue, while at another time, in different weather, the same thing
produced a purple. He then made a disk, with several concentric rings,
which he painted respectively one-third, two-thirds, three-quarters, and one-
half black, leaving the remainder white, and on making this disk revolve
rapidly, the rings became compleiely colored—there was no longer any

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. Fav

appearance of black or white. On a bright day, with white clouds in the sky,
the rings were colored respectively a light yellowish-green, two different
shades of purple, anda pink. He also cut a spiral figure of card, the revo-
lution of which produced most beautiful colors in those parts offering certain
proportions of black and white. The position, whether horizontal or verti-
cal, in which the disks revolve, does not affect the result, and the colors can
be reflected on a white screen; thus proving that they do not result from any
illusion caused by the dazzling motion of the eye. From the experiments
Mr. Smith concludes that light is simple and not compound, and that the
phenomena of prismatic refraction and polarization of light must be ex-
plained upon hypotheses altogether different from those of Newton.

WOODWARD’S SOLAR CAMERA.

The Solar Camera, invented by Mr. Woodward, of Baltimore, Md., is, as its
name implies, an adaptation of the principle of the solar microscope to the
ordinary camera, for the purpose of obtaining a light sufficiently strong to
be used for enlarging small photographs. Mr. Woodward is an artist by
profession, and it often occurred to him that if he could get sufficiently en-
larged copies of ordinary photographs to paint over canvas, it would be of
great advantage; and, following up the idea, he has produced the invention in
question. The condenser is placed in such a position that the point where
the rays of light cross, answers to the diaphragm ordinarily used; and by
this plan loss of light is avoided, and the image is free, or nearly so, from
spherical aberration. Another advantage of the solar camera is, that the
pictures can be printed direct upon the sensitive paper, thus avoiding the
necessity of making a second negative, or of developing the paper pictures.
Mr. Woodward generally uses ammonio-nitrate paper, and sometimes albu-
menized paper.

The powers of the Solar Camera have been put to a severe test in the United
States Coast Survey. Thus, it was desired to ascertain how far it would be
practicable to enlarge small copies of maps to scale; and for this purpose a
sheet of paper was prepared with geometrical squares, crossed by diagonal
lines. A collodion positive was taken of this, and projected, magnified eighty
times, on a screen covering one hundred square feet, and the image was
found, on accurate measurement, to be geometrically correct, the lines, etc.,
being all free from curvature to the edge.

FURTHER RESEARCHES BY M. NIEPCE ST. VICTOR ON THE ACTION
OF LIGHT.

Some time since, M. Niepce St. Victor announced the fundamental fact,
that a body exposed to solar radiation could act in the dark at a distance on
certain bodies, like light which emanated directly from the sun. The observa-
tions were made mostly with a cylinder of white pasteboard. M. Niepce has
since noticed that the pasteboard that has been exposed to the sun, and then
has been preserved, in the dark, in a cylinder of sheet tin (tinned irom), is
still active six months afterwards. This action of the chemical fluid calls to
mind radiant heat. Nitrate of uranium has, in a high degree, the property
of magnetizing the chemical fluid. On exposing to the sun, under a photo-
graphic proof, paper impregnated with nitrate of uranium, and then, at the
end of a quarter of an hour, plunging it into a solution of nitrate of silver, in

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158 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the dark, a positive image immediately appears, having the usual maroon
color. To fix it, it is only necessary to wash in pure water. If the nitrate of
silver is replaced by chloride of gold, the image appears of a deep blue.
These pictures resist the action of the cyanide of potassium, even on ebulli-
tion; they are therefore far more stable than photographs taken in the ordi-
nary way. Tartaric acid has the same property, though in a less degree.
Heat increases the sensibility of the reaction. For on covering with a plate
of iron heated to 50° C. both the pasteboard which bears the impression
from the sun and the leaf of sensitive paper prepared with chloride of silver,
the image will appear at the end of a few minutes, while at 0° C. it requires
several hours to obtain a faint impression.

One general result of the researches of M. Niepce is this, that the bodies
which preserve the greatest activity when exposed to the sun, are, with the
exception of the salts of uranium, those which are the least disposed to fluor-
escence. This chemical activity which certain bodies may contract under
the influence of the sun’s rays, or insolation, is greater or less according to the
nature of the substance; it has its limits. When a substance has reached its
maximum of activity, continued exposure does not add anything to it.
Paper prepared with the nitrate of uranium changes color in the light,
and becomes insoluble; in the dark it is decolorized, and it becomes soluble
after some hours, to be colored again in the light. It reduces the salts of
gold and silver, so much so as to become colored and insoluble.

A body rendered active by the sun, will transmit this activity, by contact
in the dark, to another body — tartaric acid, for example.

M. Niepce proposes to investigate whether the permanent activity com-
municated to a body by the solar rays is capable of determining the combi-
nation of chlorine and hydrogen, and whether it can be acquired in a
luminous vacuum. An engraving wet, and subjected to the sun, reproduces
itself on sensitive paper. But, if it is covered with some millimetres of
water, the effect fails, even with a solution of salt of uranium or tartaric
acid.

After having shown that certain bodies acquire, by exposure to the sun,
the property of reducing in the dark salts of gold and silver, M. Niepce ob-
serves further, that the reduction does not take place without the interven-
tion of an organic substance. Paper is very good for this purpose, while no
action is obtained if we take, for example, the edge of a porcelain plate ~
which has just been broken; on impregnating this edge with a solution of
nitrate of uranium, no effect is obtained in the sun; but there is an action if
we put on the edge a solution of nitrate of silver, containing a little starch
or gum, and then sulphate of iron or gallic acid. A coloration is seen in the
part subjected to the sun. It is the same if silver be used in place of ura-
nium. The reagents which M. Niepce employs by preference for demon-
strating this action of the light, are the salts of gold and silver, tinctures of
litmus and turmeric, iodide of potassium, for paper prepared with starch. In
many substances that have been exposed to the sun, the activity communi-
cated is apparent in the insolubility; it is, on a similar principle, acquired
under the sun’s action, by gelatine containing bichromate of potash, that
Mr. Talbot has founded his photoglyphy. Heat and humidity promptly
cause the loss of this property. M. Niepce cites many examples in which
the same results are obtained on inverting the course of operations; thus, a
leaf of paper impregnated with gallic acid and exposed to the sun, treated
by iodide of potassium, gives a feeble image, which becomes very decided if

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 159

subjected to nitrate of silver. A sheet of paper impregnated with chloride of
mercury, and exposed to the sun, gives an image with chloride of tin, chloride
of sodium, soda, potash, and sulphuret of sodium. In the same manner a
sheet impregnated with chloride of tin, and exposed to the sun, gives an im-
age with sulphuret of sodium, chloride of mercury, chloride of gold (Cls Auz)
and nitrate of silver. — Correspondence of M. Nickles, Silliman’s Journal.

In addition to the above, the following results, attained by M. Nicpce,
were announced by the Abbe Moigno, in the “ Cosmos,” for July, 1859.
“Tf a solution of starch or dextrine be subjected to the action of solar light
for a short time (say for a quarter of an hour, if there be but a very small
quantity of matter), it will be found to be completely changed into glucose
(grape sugar), Whose presence is easily recognized by the ordinary reactions,
and even by its sweet taste. M. Niepce thinks that he has determined, that,
by surrounding the bunches of grapes in the early part of autumn by bags
of white paper dipped in tartaric acid, not only is their ripening hastened,
but the quantity of sugar which they contain is greatly increased. Tartaric
acid is now well known to have the power of storing up the light in the con-
dition of chemical efficacy.”

PHOTOGRAPHS IN NATURAL COLORS.
The following process for obtaining a photograph of the prismatic spec-
trum, in its natural colors, has been devised by M. Becquerel. He takes a
well-polished silver plate, and, after covering the back of it with varnish, so
as to leave the front surface alone exposed, he attaches it by copper hooks
to the positive conductor of a voltaic battery of one or two cells; to the neg-
ative conductor of the battery is attached a piece of platinum. The plate of
silver and the platinum are then plunged into a mixture of eight parts of
water and one of hydrochloric acid. The electric current decomposes the
acid, and causes a deposit of chlorine on the surface of the silver, while
hydrogen is liberated at the negative pole. The chlorine gas unites with
the silver, and forms a violet tinted coating, which would become quite
black if the operation were continued a sufficient length of time. This
coating is tolerably sensitive to light when very thin, and in that condi-
tion produces the natural tints, although they are very weak. By increas-
ing the thickness of the layer, the tints become much brighter, but the
sensitiveness diminishes. In order to ascertain exactly the amount of chlo-
rine deposited on the silver plate, M. Becquerel introduces into the voltaic
circuit an apparatus for the decomposition of water, and since chemical
decomposition is similar in quantity for each cell of a battery, by measuring
the amount of hydrogen produced by this decomposition, the quantity of
chlorine liberated on the surface of the silver-plate, is easily arrived at.

An idea of the extreme tenuity of this film may be obtained when we
Jearn that, with six or seven centimetres of chlorine to the square decime-
tres, the layer of chloride of silver is only one thousandth of a millemetre in
thickness, equal to about 000004 of aninch. With a film of this thickness the
best results are obtained. Before-exposure to the spectrum, the surface has a
plain wood color, but if it be heated to between 150° or 200° centigrade (200°
to 390° Fahrenheit), it becomes rose-colored on cooling. If, however, instead
of raising the plate to a hich temperature, it be inclosed within a copper
box, and gently warmed, say from 90° to 95° Fahrenheit, and maintained at
this heat five or six days; or, better still, placed in a frame covered with a

160 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

deep-red glass, and exposed to the sun’s rays for from a quarter to half an
hour, upon being submitted to the action of the prismatic spectrum, the
natural colors appear in all their beauty, and the green and yellow tints,
which previously were obtained with difficulty, are now bright and clearly
defined. Thus this great problem of photography is in a fair way of solu-
tion, and we may still hope to see not only the beautiful effects of light and
shade which we now obtain, but, combined therewith, the brilliancy of na-
ture’s coloring.

M. Niepce de St. Victor has also communicated to the Paris Academy of
Sciences a process for obtaining photographs of a red, green, violet, or blue
color. For red, the paper is prepared with a solution of 20 parts of nitrate of
uranium in 100 of water; the paper is dipped into this solution for the space
of about twenty seconds, and then dried by the fire, in the night time. It may
be prepared several days beforehand. The impression is obtained in the
course of eight or ten minutes in the sun, or an hour or two in the shade.
When taken out of the frame, the impression must be washed with warm
water, marking about 120° Fahrenheit, and then dipped into a solution of
two parts of red prussiate of potash in 100 of water, in a few minutes the
impression takes a fine red color; it must then be washed repeatedly until
the water runs off clear, and then dried. To obtain green, a red impression,
like that we have described, must first be obtained; it is then dipped into a
solution of nitrate of cobalt, and dried by the fire, without washing; after
which it must be fixed by dipping it for a few seconds into a solution of 4
parts of sulphate of iron and 4 of sulphuric acid in 100 parts of water; it is
then dipped once into pure water, and dried by the fire. Violet impressions
may be obtained on the paper, prepared as above, with the nitrate of ura-
nium; but, instead of the solution of prussiate of potassa, a solution of half
a part of chloride of gold in 100 parts of water is used; when the impression
has acquired a fine violet color, it must be washed repeatedly with pure
water, and dried. For blue impressions, the paper must be prepared with a
solution of red prussiate of potash, in the proportion of 20 parts to 100 of
water; the paper is then left to dry in the dark. This operation may be
performed several days beforehand. The impression should be taken out of
the frame when the parts exposed to the sun have acquired a light blue
tinge; it is then dipped, for about ten seconds, in a solution of bi-chloride of
mercury, saturated at the common temperature; after which it is washed
once with water, and a warm solution (temperature about 130° Fahrenheit)
of oxalic acid, saturated at the common temperature, is poured over it; it is
then washed three or four times with pure water, and then left to dry.

ACCIDENTAL PRODUCTION OF COLORS IN PHOTOGRAPHS. —
BY M. MUGUET.

M. Muguet states to the French Academy the circumstances under which
he obtained natural colors in a stereoscopic picture of ruins covered with ivy.
Each glass plate had been exposed twenty seconds, the sun shining brilliantly,
and on developing I was astonished at finding the color strongly developed ;
the ivy was represented by a deep green tint, some old timber of trees by a
brown, the stones by a gray; all with colors in the highest degree varied.
Fixing did not alter them; but in drying they lost their brilliancy, with the
exception of the green, which has remained as decided as at first. In taking
a second picture the same effect was produced, but with less strength.

*

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 161

The collodion was, perhaps, two months old, nearly colorless, and gave a
thin coat. It was prepared by Mr. Robinson, chemist, who assured me that
he had iodized it with iodide cf potassium with a little bromine.

The bath was a neutral solution of crystallized nitrate of silver. I had
developed with a solution formed of two grains of pyro-gallic acid, twenty
drops of acetic acid dissolved in one ounce of water, and fixed by a concen-
trated solution of cyanide of potassium.

M. Raymond remarks that if, as soon as a collodion picture begins to
develop clearly under the combined action of pyro-gallic and acetic acid, it
be exposed to the light without previous drying, it is rapidly changed into a
positive picture, and takes more or less perfectly the colors of the model.
The stronger the light is, and the less the development of the picture, the
more rapid, but at the same time the less perfect, is the transformation. A
picture accidentally made in this way was completed in a quarter of an hour,
and lasted some months with scarcely any loss of brilliancy; and even now,
after more than two years time, is not completely effaced.

In reference to this communication of M. Muguet to the Academy (Paris),
M. Bertsch reminded the hearers that every photographer had frequently
observed, that when the development of a positive was arrested at a certain
point, and the picture placed upon a black ground, effects were obtained,
which imitated the natural color very well. The whole picture takes ona
rose-color, which imitates tolerably well the tones of the face; and as the
hair and dress, which are darker than the face, are but slightly brought out,
they allow the black color of the face to appear through them, and thus pro-
duces the appearance of a coloring which does not in reality exist. — Cosmos.

PHOTOGRAPHIC INFLUENCE OF RADIANT HEAT.

Mr. Crookes, editor of the London Photographic News, acting upon a hint
conveyed by M. Niepce de St. Victor’s recent experiments on photographie
printing, has succeeded in reproducing, by means of radiant heat, and with-
out the previous exposure of any of the materials to sun-light, the experi-
ment of photographing in the dark, which M. Niepce supposed to be accom-
plished by the action of light stored up in hermetically sealed tubes. Having
lined a tin tube with paper soaked in tartaric acid, Mr, Crookes proceeded as
follows:

A little water was introduced inside the tube, so as to well moisten the
paper, and the excess poured out. The tube was again closed, and heated
to a temperature too high to be borne by the naked hand. It was then
opened directly, and applied face downwards upon a sheet of ordinary sen-
sitive chloride of silver paper, — a piece of a handbill having previously been
laid on to serve as a negative. It was suffered to remain in that position
about ten minutes. The result was precisely similar to that accomplished by
M. Niepece. The circle of the sensitive paper which was covered by the
mouth of the tube became visibly blackened in those parts which were un-
protected by the piece of handbill, the letters on which were impressed, white
on a black ground, and distinctly legible. This, therefore, proves conclu-
sively that light has nothing whatever to do with the operation, inasmuch as
the whole of the manipulations we have described were performed at night by
the light of asmall lamp. The whole of the materials employed had also
been kept in darkness for some time previously.

Mr. Crookes thinks that “‘the heat, combined it may be with a chemical

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162 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

reaction between the bodies in the tin tube, is the actual producing cause of
the effect,’ described by M. Niepce.

PHOTOGRAPHS OF FLUORESCENT SUBSTANCES.

At the British Association, Aberdeen, 1859, Dr. Gladstone stated, that it is
well known, on the one hand, that the chemical action of light resides
mainly in the most refrangible rays, and on the other hand that these rays
are altered in their refrangibility and effect on the visual organs by fluores-
cent substances. It occurred to the author that such substances would prob-
ably exert little photographic action. Hence he had made two drawings on
sheets of white paper, one in an acid salt of quinine, the other in a very pale
solution of chlorophyll, and had taken photographs of them. Although the
drawing in quinine was quite undistinguishable from the white paper, and
the chlorophyll drawing nearly so, when they were viewed in the camera, for
adjusting the focus, they were strongly marked on the photographic image by
the little chemical action that had been exerted by them. The sheets of
paper, and the drawings developed on the glass plate, were exhibited, show-
ing that what theory had suggested as probable, was true in fact.

TIME AND PHOTOGRAPHY.

We have heard it affirmed that a fly is a medium-sized object in the scale
of living beings, — meaning that there are objects as much smaller than a
fly, as an elephant or whale are larger, — and this we believe to be true. But
what shall we say to a second in respect to photographic action? Taking six
hours as the maximum time of exposure, we can show differences in times
of exposure and variations in active action on the other side of a second of
time, far exceeding anything ever dreamed of in the ordinary practice of
photography. In taking photographs of rapidly moving objects, — the
waves of the sea, for example, — we have been obliged to judge of the proper
exposure requisite to bring out the half-tints, and estimate differences of
time varying between the 1-50th and the 1-120th of a second. Expressions
like these are, however, enormous when compared with the time occupied in
other photographic experiments. Thus in solar photography, according to
the experiments of Mr. Waterhouse, an image was produced in a space of
time not longer than the 1-9000th of a second, even when a slow photo-
graphic process was used; and when wet collodion was employed, one-third
of the above time only was requisite, or 1-27000th part of asecond. This
duration, however, inconceivably short as it appears, will seem to be a toler-
able length of time, when we try to bring the mind to appreciate the rapidity
with which Mr. Talbot performed his crucial experiment at the Royal Insti-
tution, when he photographed a rapidly revolving wheel, illumined with a
single discharge of an electric battery. To a casual observer, or reader of
this experiment, the wonderful part appears to be, that the wheel appeared
perfectly well defined and stationary in the photograph, although in reality
it was being rotated with as great a velocity as multiplying wheels could
communicate to it. <A little further consideration will, however, show that
the time occupied in the revolution of the wheel was a planetary cycle com-
pared with the duration of the illuminating spark, which, according to the
most beautiful and trustworthy experiments of Wheatstone, only occupies
the millionth part of a second. — Photographic News.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 1638

APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY TO WOOD ENGRAVINGS.

Mr. Robert Hunt, in a communication to the London Art Journal, January
1859, on the above subject, says: “‘ It should be understood, that there is not
the slightest difficulty in producing very perfect photographic pictures upon
boxwood blocks. Even by applying the nitrate or chloride of silver to the
surface of the wood, very satisfactory photographs could be obtained; but
the difficulty in this case is, that the silver salt gives a brittleness to the
wood, and it is liable to “chip off”’ under the tool; hence it is not possible
to produce the fine lines. By coating the wood with albumen, however,
this has been avoided; but the wood-engraver complains of the presence of
the film of albumen preventing him from working with his usual facility.
This objection is, in time, almost entirely overcome by the use of coliodion,
the attenuated film offering scarcely any obstruction to the engraver’s tool.
All that is necessary is, to adopt one of the so-called dry collodion processes,
and to obtain from a good negative on glass a positive copy on the block.
It is important that the processes should be simplified as much as possible,
to avoid all risk of injuring the wood. It is well to coat every part of the
wood, except the face, with a thin layer of a transparent varnish, so that the
iodized collodion may be applied, and the face dipped into the solution of
nitrate of silver, without the risk of having any absorption. Again; in the
slight fixing process which is necessary, no very high degree of permanence
being required, this varnish also protects the wood. By employing a some-
what sluggish collodion process, very charming pictures may be easily
obtained and rendered sufficiently permanent.

Now arises the wood-engraver’s difficulties. He has been trained to cut
along certain well-defined lines, and he does not understand working upon a
drawing in which there are none of those lines. It is, however, merely a
question of education; the conventional system must be abandoned, and the
engraver taught to use some judgment in the execution of his work.

Crookes’s Process for applying Photography to Wood Engraving. — The fol-
lowing plan, devised by Mr. Crookes, of London, for placing photographs
on wood for the used of wood-engravers, seems to obviate most of the diffi-
culties heretofore experienced. ‘Thin films of albumen, of dry collodion, of
collodion transferred from the glass upon a bituminous varnish, of a coat-
ing of gelatine and allum, followed by a solution of hydrochlorate of am-
monia, etc., have formed the bases of the different methods proposed in this
country and in Europe; but in all, or nearly all, it has been found necessary
to subject the wood block to a fixing bath, to the certain injury of its sur-
face. The method proposed by Mr. Crookes seems liable to no such objec-
tion. The block is to be covered by candle-light, or in a darkened room,
“with a mixture composed of oxalate of silver and water, to which may be
added a little gum or pulverized Bath brick, to suit the convenience of the
engraver.” The preparation is spread by the finger, precisely as the drafts-
man now spreads his solution of flake white, before making his drawing on
the block. It is then put in a dark place to dry, and as soon as dry is ready
to receive the picture, which is obtained by the ordinary process of photo-
graphic printing. ‘The block requires no subsequent washing, nor any
preparation of any description, before being placed in the hands of the
engraver,’ who then proceeds with his engraving in the usual way. But he
is warned that he “must not expose the block to the direct action of the

164 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

solar rays while working at it, or it will gradually blacken on the surface;
exposure to diffused day-light is allowable.”

Spence’s Process. — A method for taking photographs on wooden blocks,
patented by W. Spence, of Liverpool, is described as follows: The white of
an egg is beat up into froth with one-half its volume of water, and the face
of the block carefully moistened with this by a soft brush, then allowed to
dry slowly. <A solution composed of fine isinglass, thirty grains, chloride of
sodium, two grains, to one ounce of warm water, is now also rubbed over
the face of the block, and allowed to dry. The block is now heated, so as
to coagulate the albumen of the egg in the pores of the wood under the isin-
glass, and another coat of the latter is now applied, until the surface has a
glazed appearance. But no more isinglass is allowed than fills the pores of
the wood; any excess is removed with a knife. A solution of nitrate of
silver is now applied to the wood, and the block placed in the camera, when
the picture is taken. The picture is now fixed in a warm solution of sulphite
of soda, which removes the gelatine, but allows the albumen to remain; and
the picture being taken directly on the wood, can be engraved with more
facility than when it is applied on collodion, which is liable ‘to scale off.
The improvement claimed in this process is the application of the albumen
in the pores of the wood in such a manner as to form an insoluble base.
The nitrate solution is thus prevented from penetrating the pores, while the
picture is taken directly on the surface of the wood itself.

ENGRAVING WITHOUT AN ENGRAVER.

One of the most curious of the many remarkable applications of photog-
raphy, is that of producing by its means copies of engravings and other
works of art. The almost perfect reproduction of a drawing or an engray-
ing without the intervention of an engraver or copyist, would have seemed,
a few years back, almost an impossible thing; yet we know that photog-
raphy accomplishes it daily. But we have become so familiar with photog-
raphy, that we almost cease to wonder at its marvellous doings. Still, the
reproduction, true and beautiful as it is, is a photograph, and not an engray-
ing. The London Literary Gazette, Oct. 1859, calls attention to a new process,
by which, it says, ‘‘ it has been found possible, without even the aid of photog-
raphy, —in fact, as we may say, by mere mechanical means,—to make a
perfect fac-simile of an engraving, — whether a copperplate or a woodcut, —
and not only to make a copy of it, but to produce a plate or block for surface-
printing that shall yield impressions by the ordinary printing-presses quite
equal to the original. But even this is not all. Blocks can by this process
be produced, without the aid of any engraver, which shall print these fac-
similes, enlarged or reduced to any extent that may be desired. We have,
for instance, seen a whole-page woodcut from the Illustrated News reduced
to half, and enlarged to double the original dimensions, without any loss of
sharpness or vigor, and without the smallest distortion being anywhere dis-
coverable even with a lens. So, again, with an old and imperfect map; and
so with an impression from a steel engraving. But it is equally applicable
to original designs made with peculiar ink and paper. Without the assist-
ance of an engraver, blocks for surface-printing can be prepared from them,
either of the same or any larger or smaller size. But further, the blocks for
printing can be produced of an altered form, as well as of a different size.
Thus the normal pattern for printing on a dinner-service can be reproduced,

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 165

say in its original size and round form, for the ordinary dinner-plates, half,
or any other proportion of the size, for desserts or cheese-plates, and twice
the size and oval for dishes, etc. All this, we have said, is a mechanical
process; but it is also a scientific one, and to be properly worked out, we
need hardly say, it will require artistic guidance. The textile and the
ceramic manufacturer are almost equally interested in this invention with the
publisher; but the range of its application seems to be commercially almost
unlimited. The process is carried through by means of elastic blocks and
electro-metallurgy; all that is required to be furnished the manipulator is an
impression of the plate to be copied. The inventor is Mr. H. G. Collins, who
has protected his invention by patents, and a company, called the Electro
Printing-block Company, has been formed for working it.” The details of
this process are not as yet given. — Editor Annual.

Cutting § Bradford’s Photo-lithographic Process. — This process of taking
photographic images on stone, which gives promise of great success, is sub-
stantially as follows: To reproduce a line-engraving, the lithographic stone
"may have a polished surface; but to obtain a landscape, where gradations of
shade are required, the surface should be grained. This grained surface is
coated with a solution of gum-arabic, sugar, and bichromate of potassa, —
the sugar preventing the immediate fixing of the gum upon the stone, and
the chromic salt causing it to become more firmly fixed, or much less soluble,
on exposure to light. When the coating is dry, the stone may be exposed
in the camera a sufficient time to fix the gum at those parts of the picture’
where the lights are to appear. The stone is next to be washed with a solu-
tion of soap, which attacks the stone, remoying the unfixed portions of the
coating, and taking the place of these on the surface of the stone. After
this, it is to be washed with clean water, and dried. An inking roller is now
to be passed over the stone, to ink the soapy portions of the surface, and
give an additional body to the picture, — the fixed parts of the coating hay-
ing been previously damped, to enable them to resist the ink, — and when
brought up to color, the printing off of impressions may be proceeded with.

FIZEAU’S PROCESS FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC ENGRAVING.

A process devised by Mr. Fizeau, of Paris, is as follows: He takes a
“Daguerrean”’ silver plate, and uses on it a mixture of nitrous, nitric, and
hydrochloric acids. This mixture does not attack the whites of the picture,
but the blacks are acted upon immediately. The resulting chloride of silver,
as it impedes the action of the acid, is removed with a solution of ammonia,
so that the action may continue. It is complete when a finely-engraved plate
has been produced. The lines are then filled up with drying-oil, and the
surface electrotyped with gold. The varnish then having been removed out
of the engraved lines, by means of caustic potash, the surface has grains of
resin sprinkled over it, for the purpose of producing the engraver’s aquatint
ground, and the action of the acid is renewed, until the lines shall have
acquired sufficient depth. The plate being of silver, is too soft to print from;
a copy is therefore taken in copper, by electrotype. Not long ago there was
shown, at the meeting of a scientific society, a paper covered with repre-
sentations of coins, printed from a plate engraved in this manner. The
engraving was so exquisite, that each coin seemed to be presented actually
in relief.

Selia’s Process. —M. Sella, of Biella, in Piedmont, has pointed out the

166 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

applicability of salts of chromium and iron for photographie purposes, in
place of those of silver and gold. The salt of chromium — bichromate of
potash—is dissolved, and paper steeped in the solution. The salt thus
brought into contact with organic matter in the paper, enters into chemical
union with it where it is touched by light, and forms an insoluble compound.
So much of it as light has not touched is washed away after the picture has
been taken on this paper, which is, in the next place, soaked for a few
minutes in the solution of asalt of iron. The iron adheres firmly to the
mordant image, but is removed from the rest of the paper by another wash-
ing. Now dip the paper in a solution of gallic acid, add galls to the iron,
and a picture comes out with fine violet-black tints, which is, in fact, a pic-
ture in writing-ink, as permanent as writing-ink is known to be. This pro-
cess has held its ground, standing the test of wider practice, and by it
photographic pictures can be made that may be cheap as well as permanent.

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOVELTIES.

Among the new and useful applications of photography, is the taking of
copies of machines, in whole or part, as patterns, or advertisements, of the
manufacturers. Thus the leading tool and machine makers of New York
City take photographic views of every machine which they make, which not
only serve as records of their products, but the pictures are sent to persons
‘who wish to order similar machines, so as to give them a clear idea of the
article which they may wish to purchase. Several machine-shops, like that
of Messrs. Hoe & Co., of New York, have a photographic gallery connected
with the drafting department.

Photography has also been applied to furnish a key for detecting fraudulent
bank bills. The counterfeit bills are copied by photography on prepared
stones, and from these lithographic prints of the bills are obtained at a
comparatively low cost.

Pouncey’s Photographic Carbon Printing. — This invention’of Mr. Pouncey,
of England, consists in preparing the paper for printing on, by spreading
over it, by means of a hog’s-hair brush, a mixture of finely powdered vege-
table carbon, and equal parts of a saturated solution of bi-chromate of pot-
ash, and a common solution of gum arabic— the proportions being one
drachm of the carbon to four drachms of each of the solutions. After it is
dry, the paper is ready for printing on, by exposure in a printing-frame, in
the usual manner — the time of exposure being from four to five minutes in
the sun, and from ten to fifteen in the shade, but varying according to season,
character of negative, etc. In washing the picture, it must lie under water
for at least five or six hours, when the picture, of which previously scarcely
a trace was perceptible, will become visible. The principal difference in the
appearance between a carbon print and one prepared with silver, being, ac-
cording to Mr. Pouncey, “ that one may probably fade, while the other
remains imperishable.”

Photographs, for engraving, upon Copper.— The following method of taking
photographs upon copper, for the purpose of engraving therefrom, has
recently been brought out in England by Mr. Colin Smart.

Take some perchloride of iron, and pour it over a plate of polished copper
(such as is used by engravers), when the plate will at once be affected, and
the color changed. It is now washed with cold water, and dricd with a soft
cloth, when it is sensitive to sunlight. If a negative picture is placed upon

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. | 167

it in the ordinary way, and exposed to sunlight, a beautiful black positive
picture will be produced on the copper, in the course of ten minutes or a
quarter of an hour.

Photograph of Bursting Shells. —Mr. Skaife, an English photographist, has
recently succeeded in taking a stereoscopic photograph of a bursting shell,
during the practice firing at Woolwich. The results of the experiment he
thus describes, in a letter to the London Times:

A 13-inch shell, weighing two hundred pounds, was ten seconds in travers-
ing the air, and fell at a distance of six hundred yards from the battery. A
photo-stereo was taken as the shell emerged above the smoke, showing
three-eighths of an inch of the projectile’s track, commencing at a distance
of eighteen times the shell’s diameter above the mortar, and 13-inch visual
distance above the head of the superintending officer in front.

But though this is, I believe, the first time a mortar shell has ever been
photographed in its ascending flight sufficiently intense to print from, it is
not that ‘‘ What next ?” to which I wish to call particular attention, but the

‘likeness of the human head, which so distinctly dominates in the smoke.
This phantom does not appear to be the result of chance, for, on repeating
the experiment, it is invariably reproduced at a certain phase of the smoke’s
expansion. Further, the apparition is not,nor can it, I believe, be seen by
the human eye, excepting through the medium of photography, which, in its
highest instantaneity, appears to eternize time, by giving, at the photog-
rapher’s will, a series of pictures of things, which have their birth, marked
phases of existence, and extinction, in a moment (from the 20th to the
20,000th part of a second), much too fleeting to be noted by the naked
human eye.

Subsequently, Mr. Skaife took a photo-stereograph of a 36-inch shell in
the course of its flight, together with a-phase of the mortar’s explosion,
which is confirmatory of what he intimates in the above letter, viz., that
epochs of time, inappreciable to our natural unaided organs of vision, could
be made evident*to our senses by a photographic camera, as decidedly as
the presence of animalculz in blood or water is by a microscope.

A gentleman well acquainted with the action of shot and shell, to whom
the track of the projectile and its terminus in the stereo were pointed out,
exclaimed, ‘‘ But what stopped the ball ?” To this Mr. Skaife replies: — A
peculiarly rapid motion given to two small (each two inches square) thin
pieces of baked India-rubber, by means of a trigger movement, an optical
illusion is produced on the transit of a projectile, which may be likened to
the stopping of a railway carriage by a brake.

The first application of this optical brake is perceived in the commence-
ment of the shell’s track on the side of the mortar. The shell then appears
to have gradually decreased in speed, until it has gone the length of four of
its diameters after the brake has been applied, when it appears finally to
have stopped, and that for an interval sufficiently long to admit of its por-
trait being photographed accurately enough to give a tolerable idea of its size
and shape. After which (it is assumed) the shell proceeded on its rapid
course for one mile and a half further, arriving at its goal not one measur-
able iota of time less for its having lagged by the way to coquet with the
photographer. And thus Mr. Skaife accounts for this seeming paradox :—
The whole operation of putting on the optical brake to the flying projectile, .
stopping its course, and photographing its portrait, according to data sup-
plied by this stereo, appears to have been done in the fiftieth part of a

168 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

second. The shell, at this part of its course, is supposed to be flying at the
rate of 500 feet per second (the diameter of the shell is believed to be about
two and a half feet), when the now applied brake gradually retards its
flight, and finally succeeds in stopping the shell after it has gone four diame-
ters, or ten feet, from the first application of the brake. The commence-
ment of the shell’s track on the side of the mortar, it will be perceived, is
misty and ill-defined; while, on the contrary, the termination is sharp, and
gives a tolerably clear idea of the sort of snail that has been leaving its trail
behind. This difference between the beginning and end of this photo-
graphed section of the projectile’s parabola is thus accounted for: — The
vulcanite ‘‘ spring shutters”? admitted to the sensitized collodionized plate,
through a pair of lenses, a view of the shell the instant it emerged from the
mortar’s smoke, by being made to revolve on their axis ninety degrees, at
which point they have exposed the full aperture of the lenses, and at this
point the 100th part of a second has elapsed. Meanwhile the shell, flying
at the rate of 500 feet per second, has just interposed its trail on the collo-
dionized plate, the length of two of its diameters (one-eighth inch), and suc-
ceeds in trailing two others while the shutters are having their action
reversed and returned to their original light-excluding position, behind the
lenses. Now, as the first part of the shell’s track (one-sixteenth of an inch
wide) has been exposed to the fall action of light from the commencement
of the shutters’ opening to their final closing, this part of it has consequently
been undergoing a gradual effacement during the whole period of the fiftieth
part of a second; while, on the contrary, the terminus of the track photo-
graphed at the final closing of the shutters, must, in the shortness of its
exposure to the action of light, bear a moving analogy to the rapidity of
light itself, known to travel more than one million of times quicker than a
cannon ball. And hence the ball’s apparent stoppage in the air malgré the
tremendous physical force argument seen in the act of urging it forward.

BALLOONS AND PHOTOGRAPHY APPLIED TO MILITARY PURPOSES.

It is well known that among the many novelties introduced into the service
of war by the French Emperor, is that of the use of balloons; by means of
which, “‘ wherever the general goes, he has at his command a tower of great
altitude, whence to contemplate all the surrounding country.” This employ-
ment of balloons was often talked of even in the time of Napoleon I., but it
was left to Napoleon III. to render it a reality. In order that the project
might be fairly tested, the Emperor summoned to Italy M. Goddard, the
most eminent of the French aéronautists, and the consequence has been a
marked success. The balloon ascends to the height of several hundred
metres, and is held down by cords whilst an officer makes his observations.
Very important information respecting the disposition of the Austrian army
is said to have been so obtained prior to the battle of Solferino. But we now
learn from the Photographic News that the Emperor is anxious to employ
photography in these balloon observations. Some months ago, M. Nadar, a
distinguished photographer, made an ascent from the Hippodrome at Paris,
in order to make experiments in taking photographs at different altitudes.

We also learn, from the same source, that M. Porro, who has invented an
apparatus, by means of which it is possible “to take a panorama rigorously
exact of the whole horizon, in three proofs, by an operation that can be ac-
complished in a few minutes,’ has been taken into the service of the Pied-

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 169

montese government, by whose direction he has completed his apparatus;
and is thus able to obtain for the military authorities, almost instantaneously,
and without the assistance of any of the usual surveying instruments, all the
necessary materials for the construction of a complete topographical plan.
The instrument is described as extremely simple and very portable; it being,
in fact, a circular or cylindrical camera, little more than a foot in diameter,
with a spherical lens in the centre. The sensitive paper is placed on a reel on
one side of the lens, from which it is slowly wound off, as the view is taken,
on to a similar reel on the other side. When one view is taken, which em-
braces one-third of the horizon, the instrument is turned one-third of a revo-
lution on its axis, and another view is taken. The operation is then repeated,
and the panorama is compieted. The reduction of the plan is of course made
in the house; but it is rendered easy by special contrivances in the camera,
by which every thing is set off to a scale of heights, dimensions, and dis-
tances. Happily, the services of the instrument cannot be monopolized for
warlike purposes; and if it really can accomplish what is reported of it, a
most valuable addition will have been made to the materials at the service of
the arts of peace. — London Literary Gazette.

ON THE HEAT-CONDUCTING POWER OF METALS AND ALLOYS.

Messrs. Grace Calvert and Richard Johnson, of England, have been for
some time engaged in a series of experiments to determine the relative heat-
conducting powers of metals in a perfectly accurate and reliable manner, in
order that a standard might be obtained from which calculations could in
future be made, the numbers at present in use being regarded as unreliable.
The following results thus far arrived at, have been communicated to the
Royal Society. Taking silver, which is the best conductor, as 1000, they
obtained the relative conducting powers of the following metals:

Silver, - . . - ; . 1000 | Forged iron, . : - 5 - 435
ee ee te atone islets OE |e EIiNg ha eke ho guy ay Oiled Cag ee
Gold, REDS ' : Z : . 840 Steel, * : : - - 897
Copper.rolied, . . . . 845 | Fliatinum, Pian lacie A chabioas ol
PCT OAS iia ae ene. SLL BOGTN Seo Co aus a Mens OO
RE iia a eee OD. Cast'iron; eee se OU
Maainuy. .- . s,s, « 605 Lead, en tee ane ott eet eS:
Zinc, forged, . i . . 641 Antimony, cast horizontally, > 215
Zinc, cast vertically, . . . 628 Antimony, cast vertically, . . 192
Zinc, cast horizontally,. . . 608 Bismuthive tied st evel ote he)
Cadmium, : a an 4 - 578

The precision obtained by this process is such, that the authors were able
to determine the different conducting powers of the same metal, when rolled
or cast, as shown above. They were also able to appreciate the influence of
crystallization on conductibility; for they found that the conducting power
of a metal was different when it was cast horizontally or vertically, from
the different directions which the axes of crystallization took under these
circumstances.

The importance of having the metals as pure as the resources of chemistry
allow, is shown by the action which one per cent. of impurity exerts on the,
conductibility of a metal, in some cases reducing it one-fifth or one-fourth.
Copper alloyed with one per cent. of various metals, gave different conducts

15

170 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ing powers, in the same manner as Mr. Thomson has shown that the con-
duciion of electricity by the same metal is effected by a similar amount of
impurities.

Ailoying a metal with a non-metallic substance, also exerts an influence, as
is shown in the case of the combination of iron with carbon, thus:

Forgediron, . - < ; . 4 : - 5 : : - 486
Steel, - F : . - - - 2 . - . etl
Cast iron, . ay ee 5 - : : : oe hg ene 5 . 3859

Similar results were obtained by combining small proportions of arsenic
with copper.

The authors, with a view of ascertaining whether alloys are simple mix-
tures of metals, or definite compounds, made a large number of alloys of
various metals, using equivalent proportions, and determined their conduct-
ing powers. The general result obtained is, that alloys may be classed under
the three following heads:

1st. Alloys which conduct heat in ratio with the relative equivalents of the
metals composing them.

2nd. Alloys in which there is an excess of equivalents of the worse con-
ducting metal over the number of equivalents of the better conductor, such
as alloys composed of 1Cu and 25n; 1Cu and 3Sn; 1Cu and 4Sn, ete., and
which present the curious ana unexpected result that they conduct heat as if
they did not contain a particle of the better conductor; the conducting power
of such alloys being the same as if the square bar which was used in the
experiments were entirely composed of the worse conducting metal.

3rd. Alloys composed of the same metals as the last class, but in
a2+ c > 362; and the memoir contains a figure showing the form of the
surface for the case in question. The equation of the surface is obtained by
the elimination of X, Y, Z, between the above-mentioned equations and the

X2 Y2 Z2

equation — +>+-— =1,as already remarked. This is reduced to the
a tbe)” a

determination of the discriminant of a quartic function, and the equation of
the surface is thus obtained under the form I> —27 J2=0, where I and J are
given functions of the coordinates.

The apparatus used by Messrs. Calvert and Johnson appears to have been
in every way calculated to give reliable results. ‘They provided a deal box
(105 millims. in width, 165 millims. in length, and 220 millims. in height),
with a cover, and painted white internally and externally. Inside this box
are two vulcanized India-rubber square vessels, the sides of which are 15
millims. thick. The larger vessel measures internally 52 millims. on the
side, and 125 millims. deep, and is capable of containing 336 cub. cent. of
water. The smaller vessel is 27 millims. on the side, and 125 millims. deep,
and has a capacity of 90 cub. cent. These vessels are painted white, and
surrounded with wadding; and, still further, to prevent any radiation of
heat, a deal board is placed between the two vessels. So little heat is radiated
from the larger vessel when it contains 200 cub. cent. of water at 90° to the
smaller vessel containing 50 cub. cent. at 16°, that in a quarter of an hour,
the time required for their experiments, the water in the vessel did not rise
one-tenth of a degree centigrade. Therefore, all sensible radiation and con-
duction was avoided, and the rise of temperature in this vessel during the
experiment must have been entirely due to the heat conducted by the square

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. i171

bar of metal used. This bar is 6 centims. long, and 1 centim. square, and is
so arranged in experiment that 1 cub. cent. is in the larger vessel; 1 cub.
cent. in the smaller vessel; 3 cub. cent. are covered by the sides of the boxes
through which it passes; and the last 1 cub. cent. is covered with a piece of
vulcanized India-rubber tubing, and the whole made secure from any leakage
by lining the sides of the holes through which the bar passes with a varnish
made of caoutchoue dissolved in benzoine. All being ready for the experi-
ment, 50 cub. cent. of water, at the temperature of the room, are poured into
the smaller vessel, the boxes covered, and each provided with a very sensi-
tive thermometer, and 200 cub. cent. of boiling water poured into the larger
vessel by means of a funnel; the temperature of the liquid falls to 86° or
88°, but is again raised to 90°, by a small jet of steam generated in a flask,
the water in which is kept boiling during the whole experiment. The con-
ducting power of the metal being tested is noted with the greatest care. For
mercury and sodium they employed a very thin sheet-iron box, the internal
dimensions of which were exactly those of the square metallic bars they
usually employed, and of the conducting power calculated, but the figures
are very near the truth.

THE INTERNAL TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH.

The following is an abstract of a paper recently read before the Royal
Institution, London, by William Hopkins, F. R. S., ‘On the internal tem-
perature of the earth and the thickness of its solid crust:”’ If we descend
beneath the surface of the earth, and observe the temperature at different
depths, it is found that within a depth ranging from 50 to 80 feet, the tem-
perature changes periodically, being affected to that depth by the heat which
the earth receives from the sun at different seasons of the year. The annual
variation, however, becomes less as the depth increases, till at the depth
above mentioned it becomes insensible. At greater depths the temperature
is invariable at each point, but increases with the depth at the rate, on an
average, of 1° Fah. for a depth of between 60 and 70 feet. The best obser-
vations which have been made on this subject are those in deep mining
shafts and deep artesian wells; the greater the depth, the more completely
do anomalous influences counterbalance each other. The greatest depths at
which such observations have been made in Western Europe, are at Monk-
wearmouth and Dukinfield in England; the Puit de Grenelle, at Paris;
Mondorff, in the Duchy of Luxemburg; New Seltzwerk, in Westphalia;
and at Geneva. At the first two places the observations were made in ver-
tical shafts of coal mires, the depth of the one at Monkwearmouth being
upwards of 1800 feet, and that at Dunkinfield upwards of 2000 feet, and in
both cases the observations were made while the workmen were sinking the
shafts, and with every precaution against the influence of any extraneous
causes which might affect the observations. The former gave an increase
of 1° Fah. for every 60 feet of depth, the latter for about every 72 or 73
feet. The sinking of the Puit de Grenelle was superintended by Arago.
The mean increase of temperature was 1° for every 60 feet. At Mondorff
the bore was 2400, being that of an artesian well; the increase was 1° for 57
feet. At New Seltzwerk the artesian well, penetrating to the depth of 2100
feet, giving an increase of 1° Fah. for 55 feet. The average of these is very .
nearly 1° for sixty feet. Numerous other observations are confirmatory of
those results, though observations at smaller depths present many anom-

172 "ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

alies indicating the operation of local causes. If a sphere of very large
dimensions, like the earth, were heated in any degree and in any manner,
and were left to cool in surrounding space, it is shown by accurate investi-
gation, that after a sufficient and very great length of time, the law accord-
ing to which the temperature would increase in descending beneath the
earth’s surface, within depths small compared with the earth’s radius, would
be —that the increase of temperature would be proportional to the increase
of depth. This coincides with the observed law, if we neglect the anoma-
lous irregular variations which are found to exist more or less in each Jo-
cality. Now, according to this law, the temperature at the depth of 60 or
70 miles would probably be sufficient to reduce to a state of fusion nearly
all the materials which constitute the earth’s external solid envelope; and
hence it has been concluded that the earth probably consists of a centra
molten mass, as a fluid nucleus, and an external solid shell, of not more
than 60 or 70 miles in thickness; and some geologists, desirous of rendering
the conclusion the foundation of certain theories, have considered the thick-
ness even less than that now mentioned. This conclusion, however, rests
on reasoning in which an important element is wanting. It involves the
hypothesis that the conductive power of the rocks which constitute the lower
portions of the earth’s crust is the same as that of the rocks which form its
upper portion. This conductive power of any substance measures the facility
with which heat is transmitted through it, and it is easily proved, by accu-
rate investigation, that when the same quantity of heat passes through
superimposed strata of different conductive powers, the increase of depth
corresponding to a given increase of temperature (as one degree) is in any
stratum proportional to the conductive power. Consequently, if the con-
ductive power of the lower portion of the earth’s solid crust be greater than
that of the thin upper portion of it through which man has been able to
peneirate, the depth to which we must proceed to arrive at a certain temper-
ature (as that of fusion for the lower rocks) will be proportionally greater.
The precise nature of the rocks situated at a great depth can only be judged
of by analogy with those which are accessible to us; but those geologists
who adopt the conclusion of the extreme thinness of the earth’s crust, will
doubtless admit that its inferior part must be of igneous origin, and must
therefore be allowed to bear a certain resemblance to igneous rocks on the
surface of the earth. Mr. Hopkins had recently made a great number of
experiments on the conducting powers of various rocks. That of the softer
sedimentary rocks, which are great absorbents of water, is very much in-
creased by the quantity of moisture they contain; but taking chalk, one of
the best absorbents, its conductive power, even when saturated, is not half
so great as that of some of the igneous rocks on which Mr. Hopkins had
experimented. Calcareous, argillaceous, and siliceous substances, reduced
_ to fine powder, stand, with reference to their conductive powers, in the order
in which they are now mentioned, the conductivity of the first being the
least; and when in a compact state, all that contributes to give hard and
crystalline character to the substance, and continuity to the mass through
which the heat is conducted, increases the conductive power. These consid-
erations lead to the conclusion that the conductivity of the inferior portion
of the earth’s solid crust must be much greater, and may be very much
greater than that of the less consclidated and more superficial sedimentary
beds. Moreover, the temperature of fusion of certain substances, as Mr.
Hopkins had shown by experiment, is much increased by great pressure;

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 173

and by analogy it may be concluded that such would, at least in some con-
siderable degree, be the case with the mineral matter of the earth’s crust.
The chalk is that formation in which the most numerous and some of the
best observations on terrestrial temperatures have been made; and it would
seem impossible to conclude, from actual experiment and the considerations
above stated, that its conductive power can exceed one-third of that of the
inferior récks, and may not improbably be a considerably smaller fraction
of it. Now the increase of depth in the chalk corresponding to an increase
of 1° Fah. is well ascertained to be very nearly 60 feet, and therefore the
rate of increase in the inferior rocks must probably be at least three times
as great as in the chalk, and may be very considerably greater still. Hence,
supposing the thickness of the solid crust would be about 60 miles if the
conductive power of its lower portion were equal to that of chalk, its actual
thickness must probably be at least about 200 miles, and may he consider-
ably greater, even if we admit no other source of terrestrial heat than the
central heat here contemplated. There is also another way of investigating
the thickness of the earth’s crust, assuming the whole terrestrial mass to
consist of a fluid nucleus inclosed in a solid envelope. If the earth were
accurately spherical, instead of being spheroidal, its axis of rotation would
always remain exactly parallel to itself, on the same principle as that on
which the gyrascope preserves, in whatever position it may be held, the
parallelism of the axis about which it rotates. But the attraction of the
sun and moon on the protuberant equatorial portions of the earth’s mass,
causes a progressive change in the position of the earth’s axis, by virtue of
which the north: pole, or that point in the heavens to which the northern
extremity of the earth’s axis is directed, instead of being stationary, de-
scribes a circle on the surface of the heavenly sphere about a fixed point in
it, called the pole of the ecliptic, with a radius of nearly 23°, equal to the
inclination of the equator to the ecliptic, or the obliquity. The whole of this
revolution is completed in about 25,000 years; but, as follows from what
has just been stated, without any change, beyond small periodical ones, in
the obliquity. A corresponding change of position must manifestly take
place also in the position of equinoxes, which have thus a motion along the
ecliptic in a direction opposite to that in which the signs of the zodiac are
reckoned, completing a revolution in the period above mentioned of 25,006
years. It is called the precession of the equinoxes. This precessional motion
las been completely accounted for under the hypothesis of the earth’s entire
solidity, and that of a certain law according to which the earth’s density
increases in approaching its centre; but some years ago Mr. Hopkins inves-
tigated the problem with the view of ascertaining how far the observed
amount of precession might be consistent with the existence of a fluid nu-
cleus. The result was, that such could only be the case provided the thick-
ness of the solid shell were much greater than that which, as above stated,
has been supposed by many geologists. The numerical result was that the
least admissible thickness of the crust must be about one-fifth of the earth’s
radius; but, without assigning any great importance to an exact numerical
result, Mr. Hopkins had a full confidence in the investigation, as showing
that the thickness of the crust could not be so small as 200 or 300 miles, and
consequently that no geological theory can be admitted which rests on the
hypothesis of the crust being nearly as thin as it has been frequently as-
sumed to We. The influence of the interior fluidity on the precessional
motion above described, is due to the difference between the motions which

fo*

174 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the attractions of thesun and moon tend to produce on a solid mass in one
case, and a fluid mass on the other. It has been recently stated, as an ob-
jection to this investigation, that the interior fluid mass of the earth may
move in the same manner as if it were solid. The only reply which could
be given to such an objection was, Mr. Hopkins conceived, that it was
mechanically impossible that these motions should be the same, though the
resulting precessional motion for the solid crust, under certain conditions,
to be determined only by the complete mathematical solution of the prob-
lem, might be the same as if the whole mass were solid. The effect of the
attractions of the sun and moon also depends on the ellipticity of the inner
surface of the solid shell; and it has been said that since that ellipticity
depends on the law of the earth’s density, which can only be imperfectly
known, no result can be depended on which involves that ellipticity. This
was not a correct statement of the problem. It was assumed, in the solution
referred to, that the ellipticity of the inner surface would depend partly on
the law of density, and partly on the forms of the isothermal surfaces. Mr.
Hopkins had supposed it possible, at the time he was engaged in this inves-
tigation, that a surface of equal solidity might approximate to a surface of
equal pressure; he has now experimental reasons for believing that it must
approximate much more nearly to an internal surface of equal temperature.
Now for depths greater, probably much greater, than those which have
. often been supposed to correspond to the thickness of the earth’s solid crust,
there is no doubt that the inner isothermal surfaces have a greater ellipticity
than the external surface itself; a conclusion which is independent of the
law of density. Hence, a like conclusion will hold with reference to the
internal surface of the shell, if it approximate sufficiently to the surface of
equal temperature; and this is the conclusion most unfavorable to the thin
shell supposed by some geologists. Restricting the interpretation, then, of
Mr. Hopkins’s results to the question, whether the earth’s solid shell be as
thin as some geologists have supposed, or at least several hundred miles in
thickness, —and this is the only question of geological importance, — Mr.
Hopkins denied the validity of either of the objections above stated. Thus,
both the modes of investigation which had been described lead to like con-
clusions respecting the least thickness which can be assigned to the solid
envelope of our globe. It must be much greater than geologists have fre-
quently imagined it to be.

MOTION PRODUCED DIRECTLY BY HEAT.

A new apparatus for producing motion in metals directly, by means of
heat, has recently been devised by Mr. C. Gore, of Birmingham, England.
It consists of a massive circular railway of copper, the rails of which are
made red-hot, and balls of German silver placed upon them, and so arranged
as not to run off. Whenever this is effected, the balls roll on the rails, mak-
ing revolution after revolution on the track, as long as the rails remain
sufficiently hot.

ON EFFECTS OF HEAT ON DIFFERENT GASES.

Dr. Tyndall, in a recent lecture before the Royal Institution, London,
stated that he had been engaged in a series of experiments to ascertain the
correctness of the views of M. Pouillet, respecting the effect of a¢riform

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. Vis

bodies in absorbing the rays of heat, and he had arrived at conclusions
which are quite new, and calculated to be of great importance in explaining
some of the great phenomena of nature. His experiments have been con-
ducted with the aid of a thermo-electric pile, which is far-more sensitive to
the effects of heat than the most delicate tiiermometer, and the results he
had arrived at are, that the invisible rays of heat are absorbed in passing
through most transparent gaseous bodies, but that the luminous heat of the
sun is transmitted through them unimpeded. Mr. Tyndall repeated success-
fully some of these experiments, which require the most careful manipula-
tion. He first showed, by means of a galvanometer connected with the
thermo-electric pile, that rock-salt transmits the rays from a non-luminous
source of heat which are obstructed by glass; and in the construction of his
apparatus he accordingly used the former substance. The apparatus con-
sisted of a tube four feet long and three inches diameter, closed at each end
with rock-salt, and so contrived that it might be exhausted of air, and other
gases substituted. Some fusible metal was kept heated at one end of the
tube, and at the other was placed a thermo-electric pile, which was connected
with a delicate galyanometer. Another sensitive pile was also heated by a
non-luminous body, and connected with the galvanometer, the indications
of which were, by an ingenious arrangement of the electric light, reflected
on a sereen. The two sources of heat were so regulated as to neutralize each
other, and to bring the galvanometer needle to zero, when the tube contained
atmospheric air. When the tube was exhausted, and the rays of heat passed
throuch the partial vacuum, a decided deflection of the needle was observed.
The difference in the effect was, however, small when compared with the
brisk action of the needle when the tube was afterwards filled with coal-gas,
which absorbed the rays of heat much more than common air. Dr. Tyndall
having shown by these experiments — which he said might be repeated with
similar effects with all other gases — that the invisible rays of heat are vari-
ously absorbed by gaseous bodies, he next employed a source of heat com-
bined with light, resembling that of the sun. For this purpose he used the
oxyhydrogen light, the rays of which were passed through the tube when
filled with air; when exhausted, and when filled with coal-gas, in every
instance the effect was the same; for the luminous rays were not absorbed,
and the galvanometer needle, after having been brought to zero, remained
there. These experiments, Dr. Tyndall observed, have an important bear-
ing on the phenomena of nature; for they seem to explain how the plancts
most distant from the sun may yet be sufficiently heated by its rays to
become habitable. Even the planet Neptune, though so remote from the
source of heat, may in the course of time have become heated by continually
receiving luminous rays, the heating portion of which, when not combined
with light, may be retained by the absorbing power of the atmosphere. In
short, the conclusions arrived at by Dr. Tyndall may be popularly stated as
follows: Obscure rays of heat —that is, the rays of heat unaccompanied by
_ light—are absorbed by passing through the atmosphere, while those heat
rays which are luminous pass through it freely. Zwminous solar heat, which
passes uninterruptedly through the atmosphere, on reaching the earth be-
comes changed into obscure heat, and is no longer capable of free atmos-
pheric transmission or radiation; therefore it is not sent back into space, but
remains in the atmosphere, serves to increase and preserve its temperature:
or, in other words, the atmosphere, acting in the same way as a ratchet-
wheel in mechanics, allowed the solar heat to come to the earth, and when
there, prevented it from radiating back again into space.

176 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

OCEAN TEMPERATURE.

Some interesting information has been given by Captain Pullen, R. N., of
H. M.’s ship Cyclops, relative te the temperature of the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans at great depths, in his recent voyage to the East. The first soundings
for temperature was in 32° 13’ N., long. 19° 15! W., where, at 400 fathoms,
the minimum temperature was 50°5°, the surface at the time being 70°. Sub-
sequently, two thermometers were sent down at 500 and 800 fathoms; at the
greater depth, the minimum temperature was 44°5°, at the lesser 50°. The
next sounding was in lat. 10° 7! N., long. 27° 32! W., when there was no bot-
tom with 2000 fathoms of line. In 4° 16! N., and 28° 42’ W., two thermome-
ters were sent down to 1500 and 1000 fathoms, the greater depth showing a

ninimum temperature of 39°4°, the lesser of 42°5°. In the next cast, in lat.
2° 20’ N., long. 28° 44’ W., ninety miles from Si. Paul’s Island, two ther-
momeiers were sent down on a regular deep-sea line, with bottom at about
1080 fathoms: the thermometer showed a minimum temperature of 38°5° at
the lowest depth, and 46°2° at 680 fathoms. An attempt to get a cast di-
rectly on the Equator was unsuccessful, resulting in the loss of a large
portion of the line. After crossing the Equator, thermometers were sent
down at nearly every tenth parallel, three at a time, at 12, 8, and 400 fath-
oms, and portions of the water brought up were reserved to be sent home
for analysis. In lat. 26° 46’ S., and long. 23° 52! W., soundings were ob-
tained at 2700 fathoms. A thermometer sent down to this depth came in
showing a minimum temperature of 35° Fahrenheit; the bottom brought up
in the valve was a very fine, brown-colored sand. Running the casting down
between the parallels 35° and 38° S., to outside the Mauritius, the lead was
brought into play on the Brunswick shoei, which is marked §5 fathoms, but
bottom was not reached with 1410 fathoms. Then came the Atalanta,
marked as an extensive shoal; here a cast was obtained with bottom at 1120
fathoms. The bottom consisted of what appeared to be very. fine sand coy-
ering a hard substance, supposed at first to be coral, but which, under the
microscope, was found to be some very beautiful specimens of Diatomacex.
Steering now to pass to the east of Mauritius, a little south of parallel 20°,
about ninety miles from land, there was no bottom with 1375 fathoms of
line. Captain Puilen states that this gave him the first idea that his previous
opinion of the Indian Ocean not being so deep as the Atlantic was wrong.
Forty or fifty miles west of the northern part of Cargados, 1400 fathoms of
line reached the bottom; at the doubtful St. George’s Island, bottom was not
reached with 2000 fathoms of line. Steaming then for Rose Galley Rocks,
bottom was obtained with 2254 fathoms of line; the minimum temperature
was 35°. A thermometer was sent down at 2000 fathoms, and returned with
a minimum temperature of 38°5°. Now 35° was the minimum temperature
at 2700 fathoms in the Atlantic, further south than this cast. Captain Pullen
was therefore inclined to think that this is the minimum temperature of the
great depths of the ocean, and that it commences soon after passing 2000
fathoms.

HALL’S THERMOGRAPH.

A thermograph, invented by Mr. S..W. Hall, of Philadelphia, consists of a
spiral glass tube, terminated outwardly in a branch, which is prolonged with
a smaller curvature; this tube is delicately balanced upon a horizontal axis.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 1s 4

The spiral portion of the tube contains alcohol (or any other liquid or gas),
while the prolonged branch contains a plug of mercury, which is in contact,
at its inner surface, with the alcohol, while on its other side it has a partial
vacuum formed in the outer end of the tube. Of course, as the alcohol
expands or contracts, the mercury is moved farther from, or nearer to, the
axis, and the change in the position of the centre of gravity of the system
causes a rotation around the axis, and this motion is transferred by levers
to a needle-point, which is lifted or depressed, according as the alcohol is
expanded or contracted. In front of the needle, a band of paper is made to
pass with an uniform motion, communicated to it by rollers, which at the
same time print upon it a series of horizontal and vertical lines, the former
of which correspond to certain temperatures, and the latter record the hours.
And, by a modification of its striking works, the same clock-work which
governs the motion of these rollers, causes a vertical bar to press, at the end
of every five minutes, the needle-point through the paper, from which it is
immediately withdrawn by a spring, thus impressing a permanent and
easily visible mark, recording the temperature of the instrument at that
instant of time.

As regards the practical value of this invention, a committee of the Frank-
lin Institute, Philadelphia, have reported as follows:

ist. The power developed by the instrument is considerable. The mechan-
ical force exerted by the displacement of a mass of mercury with a consid-
erable leverage from the centre of motion, is so great as to insure the
satisfactory operation of the instrument, and to allow of considerable resist-
ance at its working parts, without deranging its action.

2d. This instrument is invariable; being once graduated and set, very
ordinary care is sufficient to prevent any derangement of its mechanism; its
record will, therefore, probably remain the same, without derangement of its
zero, or change in the length of its degree.

3d. It is, considering its utility, not too expensive. The inventor estimates
that a perfect instrument can be made for twenty to fifty dollars. This in-
cludes, of course, no estimate for ornamentation. For a meteorological
observatory, or for the ordinary recording of atmospheric temperatures at
home, this is not an extravagant expense. And it does not appear that any
more repairs ought to be required for an apparatus of this kind, than for the
common clock, which forms its basis.

It is, however, only for recording atmospheric temperatures, and for ob-
servatories or houses, that the apparatus is fitted. It occupies considerable
space, and from its structure couid not be conveniently carried in travelling,
except by sea. As, however, the scale and the motion of the paper may be
varied at pleasure within extensive limits, it appears possible to arrange the
apparatus either for very delicate registering during a comparatively short
time, or for a long-continned course. If the clock could be kept in motion,
as is now quite possible, there is no reason why the apparatus might not be
left to itself, to record the temperatures during a whole year, during which
time it would require neither superintendence nor adjustment.

Mr. Hall, moreover, proposes modifications in the form of the instrument,
by means of which it may be made to record within an apartment the tem-
perature of the air outside, indicating the actual temperature at every instant,
while it records them as usual every five minutes. — Journal Frank. Inst.,
June 1859,

i78 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ILLUSTRATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF HEAT BY SOLIDIFICA-
TION, ETC.

In most chemical text-books, no good examples are given of the develop-
ment of heat by mere solidification. It is, indeed, usually mentioned that
water may be cooled many degrees below the freezing-po:nt, and remain
liquid; and that on congealing, its temperature suddenly rises to 52°? F. But
the experiment is so troublesome to make, especially in the lecture-room, that
these truths commonly pass as matters of faith rather than of sight, and the
important principles which they illustrate, often fail of being distinctly im-
pressed on the mind of the student. Now, many of the hydrated salts, and
among them the nitrates, melt at points above the common temperature of
the air, and are therefore well adapted for showing, at all seasons, and with
great ease and clearness, the inertia of bodies with regard to change of form
and the liberation of sensible heat by crystallization.* Nitrate of lime is pre-
eminently suitable for the exhibition of these properties, since, after having
been fused and heated above 150° F., it may be cooled in a glass vessel as
low as 60°, and kept in the liquid state a long time, often for several days;
but on dropping in a bit of solid nitrate, crystallization immediately com-
mences, and an inserted thermometer soon rises to 110° F.

A substance which may be had both liquid and solid at a temperature
considerably below the melting-point, is obviously very convenient for dis-
playing the comparative densities and specific heats in the two forms, as
complications caused by differences of temperature, may be entirely avoided.
Thus, the specific gravity of a specimen of nitrate of lime in the liquid state,
at 60° F., was found to be 1°79. Some of the same was poured into oil of
turpentine, made to solidify, and cooled to 60° F. Its density was now 1°90.
The contraction may be rendered appreciable by the eye, if we cool to a cer-
tain degree some melted nitrate contained in a long-necked flask, fill with an
oil up to a marked height, effect the crystallization, and then cool to the
same point as before.

To illustrate the absorption of heat during the liquefaction of solids, freez-
ing mixtures are commonly employed, in which one of the ingredients, ice,
is already cold. The experiment is more striking, when all the articles used
are at the temperature of the surrounding air. Such may be the case if we
take crystallized sulphate of soda and a sesquinitrate. A mixture of thirty-
six grams of powdered pernitrate of iron crystals, and fifty-seven grams of
fine Glauber’s salt, liquefied and lowered the thermometer from 65° F. to zero.
It readily froze water contained in a test-tube. In cold weaiher, eight grams
of the nitrate and 9°5 grams of the sulphate, brought the thermometer from
22° to —10°.— J. M. Ordway, Silliman’s Journal, Jan. 1859.

ON THE MELTING AND SOLIDIFICATION OF WATER.

M. Mousson reports, in the Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve, an interest-
ing set of experiments, made by him for the purpose of determining the
effect of pressure on the melting-point of ice.

*In an excellent work published in 1857, —‘‘ Lehrbuch der physikatischen und
theoretischen Chemie, von H. Buff, H. Kopp und F. Zamminer,”— hyposulphite
of soda is mentioned as capable of affording a very striking example of the heat
becoming free during fixation; but this salt is less easy to prepare than most of the
nitrates.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 179

He first exposed a number of capillary tubes, of diameters varying from
00074 inch to 0°1 inch, and containing columns of water about 12 inches
long, to the air. The exposure lasted seven days, during which the temper-
ature never rose above 28'5° Fah., and went down every night below 23°
Fah. Upon withdrawing the tubes, all those whose diameter was greater
than 0°36 inch, had frozen; and all those whose diameter was less than
0°275 inch, had remained liquid, nor did a sudden blow cause them to freeze.
By arranging the tubes in an inclined position, so as to plunge them ina
vessel of water, it was found that the formation of the ice externally, favored
their freezing. The two tubes of least diameter (0°013 and 0°0074 inch) alone
remained liquid.

The sheet of water between two plates of glass, pressed together by
screws, will not freeze; but, if they be simply laid on each other, the sheet
which is then thicker, will freeze.

Blocks of ice, from 3 to 4°5 inches cube, were placed in a hydraulic press,
and reduced to sheets of a few hundredths of an inch in thickness. Although
the temperature of the air was only a few degrees above the freezing-point,
the water trickled from the blocks on all sides.

In order to prevent the expansion of the water during freezing, a quantity
was introduced into a cylindrical cavity of about 0°24 inch in diameter, in a
heavy prism of wrought iron. The water in the cavity was compressed by a
powerful screw, and then exposed to cold. The water remained liquid at
26°6° Fah. In an attempt to reduce the temperature to 23° Fah., the appara-
tus began to leak.

A quantity of water was then introduced into a cavity in a similar prism
of steel, and, after being frozen, the ice was compressed by means of a pow-
erful screw moving a copper cone. The apparatus was surrounded by a
freezing mixture, the temperature of which varied from —0:4° to —6:7°
Fah.; the temperature of the air was below 32°, and the movement of the
screw was performed so slowly as to make but two turns (or forward mo-
tion) of 0°36 inch in four hours. The ice was liquefied by the pressure, as
was indicated by the position of a small wire index which had been frozen
into the mass.

The pressure to which it had been exposed was 13,070 atmospheres, by
which the freezing-point was reduced below 0° Fah.

-

ICE PHENOMENA.

A recent number of the Canadian Journal of Industry and Science contains
some interesting information regarding the expansion and contraction of
ice, as observed on Rice Lake, C. W., by J. H. Dumble, C.E. A bridge of the
Cobourg and Peterborough Railway runs through this lake, and in the South-
ern States, or in a mild climate, it would have answered every purpose; but,
with the expansion of the ice on this lake, in such a cold climate, it has
become a complete wreck. Glare ice is that which is smooth on the surface;
it has been found that such ice, when acted on by the mid-day sun, is im-
mediately set in motion by expansion, and it generalky sets in towards the
shore. Sometimes this movement is very gradual, and accompanied with a
slight crackling noise; sometimes it is rapid and violent, and accompanied
by a succession of vigorous jerks, and a hollow, rumbling sound, seemingly
from under the ice, while at intervals there occur loud and sharp reports,
like those of cannon.

180 "ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Sometimes the ice expands several feet on the shore, without any fissures
being created in the lake: this is caused by a temperature of the atmosphere
higher than that which previously existed. If the thermometer indicates a
temperature of 30° below zero, and then suddenly rises to zero, expansion
of the ice results. When the thermometer indicates 30° above zero, and
then falls to zero, contraction of the ice is the result. The force with which
ice expands depends entirely on the extent of the change of temperature.

The most forcible movements of ice occur previous to rain storms. A
sudden rise of 20° in temperature produces violent expansion. Strong oak
piles in the bridge, which would not bend, were cracked and splintered by
the ice expansion; heavy cap timbers of pine were snapped like reeds, and
heavy iron rails were curved and doubled up, as if put into a huge press.
Trees growing on the shore have been torn up by the roots, by the ice
expansion, and boulders weighing several tons have been lifted from the
shore, and foreed into the bridge timbers. On one occasion, the ice ex-
panded no less than six feet along the whole shore. A uniform temperature
of the atmosphere neither causes expansion nor contraction of ice; it mat-
ters not whether the temperature is high or low, no movement of any kind
takes place. A coating of snow six inches deep effectually prevents any
motion in the ice, as it is a most effectual nonconductor, and protects it
from the influence of the atmosphere.

Ice does not possess the power of contraction to the same extent as that of
expansion. It has been noticed that when it expands some feet, it does not
recede when the temperature falls to its former situation; it only contracts
by inches for its expansion in feet.

The following are the general inferences deduced by Mr. Dumble, from his
observations:

1st. That ice is capable of expansion and contraction.

2d. That ice (up to 32°) expands with a temperature higher than that which
had just previously existed.

3d. That ice contracts with a temperature lower than that which had just
previously existed.

4th. That ice does not expand or contract with a uniform temperature.

oth. That ice is susceptible of expansion to a much greater extent than of
contraction.

Gih. That when ice is equally dense, thick, and glare, and equally acted
on by a heated atmosphere, it expands from the centre towards the circumi-
ference.

7th. That ice expands towards the line of least resistance.

NEW FORM OF AIR-PUMP.

The accompanying figure represents a curious air-pump proposed by A.
Gairaud, of France, to supersede the common piston air-pump. The agent
for producing a vacuum in this pump is mercury, acting by gravity; and
instead of a flap-valve, as in the air-pump, air-tight faucets are substituted.

It is coneeded by ali philosophers that, with the common air-pump, the
rarefication of the air can be carried on only to a certain limit; the best air-
pump not being able to bring the column of mercury in the barometer
attached to it below one-sixteenth of an inch; and it is obvious that the air
in the receiver will not be able to raise the valve, on account of its rarity.
These defects are proposed to be removed by the mercurial air-pump which

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 181

-

is the subject of this article. This pump consists of a barometer tube about
33 inches long, and 5-16 to 3-8 of an inch
in diameter. Its lower end, C, is bent in the
form of an §, and it is closed by a cock.
The upper end of the tube is firmly secured
to a glass egg-shaped vessel, B, containing
from half a pint to one quart, and is pro-
vided with a stop-cock below and with an-
other one above; this latter faucet being
covered by afunnel, A. The several fasten-
ings and cocks are all made of iron, and
the apparatus is screwed on a table.

To set the pump in operation, it is filled
with mercury through the funnel on the
top, and the upper cock is closed. By open-
ing the stop-cock at the lower end of the
tube, the mercury escapes into a vessel
placed underneath, a column of 30 inches
remaining in the tube; and a complete
vacuum is cbtained in the egg-shaped ves-
sel, forming in this case the vacuum of
Torricelli.

To apply this apparatus to the Magdeburg
hemispheres, the lower one is secured to
the top of the tube, and a hole is drilled in
the upper one, which is stopped up by a
cock, so that it can be filled with mercury
and closed. By opening the stop-cock at
the lower end of the tube, a perfect vacuum
is attained in the hemispheres.

To exhaust or to rarefy the air in a com-
mon receiver, this apparatus is also superior
to the common air-pump, as by its aid the
rarefication can be carried on ad infinitum.
The receiver is placed on the table and
made to communicate with the glass egg-
“shaped vessel on the top of the tube by means of an iron pipe which is
provided with a stop-cock. If the contents of the receiver and of the glass
ege-shaped vessel are equal, the density of the air is reduced one-half by
each operation; and after repeating the operation ten times, its density is
not more than 1-1024; and after twenty times, it is not more than 1-1018576
of its original density. In this case, however, it is desirable to place the
receiver on a ring or dish of India-rubber, instead of closing the joint by
means of tallow.

This apparatus is much cheaper than any of the common air-pumps; and
by the aid of 20 or 25 lbs. of mercury, all the usual experiments can be per-
formed. It would be still less expensive if made of gutta-percha. If the
tube is long and large enouzh, water may be used instead of mereury, and
the apparatus may be employed for exhausting the air wherever it it desira-
ble to make use of the atmospheric pressure, or in order to boii certain sub-

stances in a partial vacuum.— Dingler’s Polytechnic Journal. — Scientific
American. -
1

182 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

A NEW FORM OF MERCURIAL BAROMETER.

M. de Celles has exhibited to the Academy of Sciences, of Paris, a mercu-
rial barometer, constructed under his direction. The barometer is the instru-
ment of Torricelli, with the following modifications: 1st, the diameter of the
barometric chamber is increased in proportion as it is desired to make the
instrument more sensitive; 2d, the cistern is replaced by a horizontal tube
0°15 ins. or 0°2 ins. in diameter, and of a length proportionate to the sensi-
bility of the instrument. The instrument has the form of a square. Slight
variations of the height of the vertical column correspond to considerable,
but always proportional movements of the horizontal leg. This ratio is in-
versely as the squares of the diameters. An index of iron, placed in the
horizontal tube, is pressed outward while the pressure of the air is diminish-
ing, and is left when the column returns. It marks the minimum pressure,
and may be brought back by a magnet. M. de Celles claims for this instru-
ment the three advantages: 1st, of very great sensitiveness. 2d, a constant
level. 3d, a minimum index.

ON THE HEIGHT OF THE ATMOSPHERE.

A letter from Mons. Emm. Liais, published in the Comptes Rendus (Jan. 10,
1859, p. 109), gives the results of his inquiries into the height of the atmos-
phere, as deduced from observations on polarization made at the tropics at
the commencement of dawn and the end of twilight. The letter is dated
San Domingo, Bay of Rio Janeiro, Dec. 6, 1858. His observations at that
place, Dec. 1st, 2d, and 3d, indicated that the limit of atmospheric polariza-
tion was 9/ 40’ in passing from 20° east of the zenith to 20° west; but at San
Domingo, of which the latitude is 23° S., the limit of the shadow passes over
25.6 kilometres per minute, or 247°5 kilometres in 9/ 40’. From this the
height of the atmosphere is calculated to be 340 kilometres, or 211 miles.

THE PHONAUTOGRAPH.

At the last meeting of the British Association, the Abbe Moigno read a
paper describing a new method of reproducing the human voice and other
sounds in such a manner as to be visible to the eye. The instrument by
which this is effected is called the phonautograph, andis the invention of a
woung Frenchman, M.E.L. Scott. The phonautograph consists of a tube,
enlarged at one end in the same manner as a trumpet, in order to concen-
trate the sounds, which are conveyed through it toa thin membrane tightly
strained over the other end of the instrument. This membrane carries
affixed to it an excessively light style or pencil, which is put in motion by
every vibration produced by the action of the air upon the membrane. Be-
hind this style a band of paper, covered with lampblack, is unrolled by
clock-work ; and as this band passes along, the point of the style traces upon
the lampblack all the curvilinear and rectilinear movements originating in
the vibrations of the membrane, and thus it produces, in its own peculiar
characters, a faithful reproduction of the sound.

M. Moigno also exhibited a collection of sheets of paper, on which were
self-registered the sounds of the human voice, organ-pipes, etc., to the
amount of five hundred or a thousand vibrations. This continued enreczis-
tration forms an undulatory curve, so perfectly and distinctly traced that the

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 183

naked eye can easily reckon the atmospheric vibrations, especially when it is
divided in periods by the periodical intervention of a chronometer. It is
yery curious to examine the variations which the curves undergo when the
sounds are the results of the component parts of different harmony; for
instance, a note with its octave, third, fourth, or fifth, or any other consonant
relation, as the seventeenth or nineteenth. When the sounds are very nearly
in harmony, but not in perfect accord, their simultaneous resonance produces
beats, and these beats are perfectly indicated or made known to the naked
eye.

Concerning this invention, the London Literary Gazette says: “The sci-
ence of acoustics has received at the hands of M. Scott a means of develop-
ment of which we can form no idea at present. We can only compare his
invention to that of M. Daguerre, which, in its infancy, was treated as a
mere toy, but which has now become one of our most valuable scientific
instruments of observation. The human voice offers certain difficulties at
present; but there is little doubt that eventually the phonautograph will be
made capable of superseding every species of stenography, and not only the
words, but the very tones of our talented speakers and actors will, by its aid,
be registered for future generations.

ON THE VIBRATIONS OCCASIONED BY WATERFALLS, DAMS, ETC.

Prof. Snell, in an article in Siliman’s Journal, Sept. 1859, in reviewing the
subject of the vibrations occasioned by water falling over dams, etc., says:

This seems to be one of the numerous cases in which the body which
excites vibrations in another, is itself thrown into synchronous vibration by
reaction, and then, by its own inertia, or elasticity, controls the common rate
of both. The sheet of water in its descent first produces rarefaction of the
inclosed air by removing a part of it. The immediate effect is a collapse of
the sheet of water, as well as a rush of air in at the ends. But the inertia of
a thick mass of water will prevent its recovering its natural position so soon
as if it were thinner; hence the air-column divides itself into such a number
of segments, that the water and the air can adjust their movements to each
other. In a manner somewhat like this, a stream of air from the lips, driven
across the embouchure of a flute, excites vibrations in the column of air,
with such frequency that it can itself vibrate in unison with it. But, if the
stream is blown more and more swiftly, its elasticity will at length be too
great for so slow a rate, and then the column will divide into shorter seg-
ments, and the two will continue their vibrations harmoniously upon a
higher key. <A skilful player can in this way, by his mere breath, produce
six or eight harmonic notes on the flute, when all the holes are closed.

In one instance, at Holyoke, Mass., where the oscillations were only eighty-
two per minute, I was surprised by the great strength of the current of air,
as it rushed into the opening at the end of the dam. I could not venture
within the passage through the pier, lest I should be swept in behind the
sheet; nor could I stand at the entrance of the arch, without bracing myself,
by placing both hands on the corners. There was, however, no alternate
outward blast, but only a lull, or cessation of all motion; which shows that
the excess of air that pours in at every pulse, is carried out again in some
other way: and there is no conceivable way for it to escape, except to be
driven down by the falling water, and poured up externally in a bed of
foam. It had never occurred to me before, that the velocity of the air-

184 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

current must be greater, the longer the interval between the pulses, since the
rarefaction within the tube will be greater nearly in the ratio of the same
interval.

DOVE'S EXPERIMENT IN ACOUSTICS.

This experiment consists in rendering the tone from a vibrating diapason
very distinct, so that it could be heard through a large hall, by causing it to
vibrate in a certain relation to a glass flask containing water. The flask
should not be filled, and the diapason should not touch it, but be held in the
hand in the prolonged neck of the balloon. The sound returned depends on
the relation of the two limbs of steel to the neck of the flask. The percep-
tion of sound is most distinct when the plane of the two branches is in the
axis of the neck, and is null when the plane is perpendicular to the axis.
Dove ascertained these facts while engaged in researches as to the question
whether the ear, which is for a time sensible to a certain tone, becomes in-
sensible to it again, as the eye does to a given color, when it has for some
time contemplated it. The eye may be said to habituate itself to certain
colors, as the olfactory nerves do to persistent odors. Dove’s researches
returned an affirmative reply to the point in question. — Silliman’s Journal.

CURIOUS ACOUSTIC EFFECT.

At a recent meeting of the Royal Institute of Architects, London, Mr.
Parris, who renovated the painting in the dome of St. Paul’s, said he had
remarked, from his experience of that cathedral, that he could be heard dis-
tinctly at the distance of two hundred and twenty feet, when he was imme-
diately under the eye of the dome. Any person standing on a particular part
of the pavement below, at a right angle, or nearly at a right from where his
voice would strike the roof, could hear even a whisper with the greatest dis-
tinciness; in fact, he had often held conversations in that way. As he
moved to a different part of the dome, the person below would have to move
to a different position, but in the same angle; but when this became too
great, the voice was lost. He had often tried the experiment, and found that
the reverberations in a dome were always repeated thirty-two times, exactly
corresponding with the points of the compass. It was the same at the
Colosseum, London, where he had tried it with the flute, voice, and every
means. He had tried experiments in the same way in St. Paul’s, upon the
level of the organ, and above and beneath it; and he found invariably that
the sound was always best heard at the point opposite to where the voice had
struck. It was precisely the same with the voice ascending as descending;
in fact, his attention had been called to the matter by hearing a man below
ask another for sixpence; he exclaimed, ‘‘ Take care, he is giving you a bad
one,” and the man immediately turned round, surprised as to where the
voice could be coming from. — Builder.

EXPERIMENTS ON THE SUMMIT OF MT. BLANC.

Some interesting experiments on combustion, sound, etc., recently made
on the summit of Mt. Blanc, by Professors Tyndall and Frankland, were de-
tailed to the British Association, i859, as follows: Six candles were chosen
at Chamouni, and carefully weighed. All of them were permitted to burn
for one hour at the top; and were again weighed when we returned to Cha-
mouni. They were afterwards permitted to burn an hour below. Rejecting

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 185

one candle, which gave a somewhat anomalous result, we found, to our
surprise, that the quantity consumed at the top was, within the limits of
error, the same as that consumed at the bottom. The result surprised us all
the more, inasmuch as the light of the candles appeared to be much feebler
at the top than at the bottom of the mountain. The explosion of a pistol
was sensibly weaker at the top than at alow level. The shortness of the
sound was remarkable; but it bore no resemblance to the sound of a cracker,
to which, in acoustic treatises, it is usually compared. It resembled more the
sound produced by the explosion of a cork from a champagne-bottle, but it
was much louder. }

DYNAMOSCOPY.

This name has been given to a new mode of ausculation directed towards
the examination of sounds hitherto not studied. The author, Dr. Collongues,
examines these sounds, in case of a deceased person, with an instrument with
one extremity on the part to be ausculted and the other at the ear. Itis with
this instrument tlat Dr. Collongues supposes he is able to detect the evidence
of actual death.

He found this evidence in 1854, in the case of a woman attacked with
cholera, who was not believed to be dead. Examining about the heart with
his dynamoscope, he distinguished a crackling sound, which continued even
to the tenth hour after death. He followed up this trial with others, and has
arrived at the following conclusious respecting this sound.

1. After the respiration and the beating of the heart have ccased at death,
a crackling sound may be heard, which he calls “ bourdonnement.”

2. The sound continues from five to ten hours after death.

3. It goes on decreasing from the time of death, and is last perceived about
the precordial and epigastric regions.

The results have been confirmed by observations on animals. It hence
results that life continues until the cessation of this sound has ceased,
and the cessation is a positive sign of death. This observation offers a
means of distinguishing lethargy from death, as the sound does not cease in
lethargy.

On applying the instrument to the extremity of the fingers, a sound of
similar kind is heard which varies with the age, sex, state of health, activity
or repose. The crackling is more rapid in children than in adults, and still
more so than in aged persons. It is more gentle in woman than in man of
the same age, and the crackling sounds (“‘ pétillemens’’) are in general twice
as numerous as those of man. There is also a great difference for different
temperaments, and for different seasons and climates.

A singular experiment made with the instrument is to hear a faint and
agreeable harmony which is made at the extremity of the fingers of a man
asleep, whilst when awake there is only a great discordance in the ‘ bour-
donnement.”’ Dr. Collongues supposes that these sounds have their seat in
the nerves. — Silliman’s Journal.

UNIFORM MUSICAL DIAPASON.

Very considerable inconvenience has long been felt in the musical world,
in consequence of the want of a uniform standard by which the pitch of mu-
sical instruments, whether used individually or in concert, might be regulated.
The tendency in all the most celebrated orchestras to an increased elevation

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186 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of pitch, has been attended with evils which affect the interest of music in no
small degree; composers, instrument-makers, and artists are alike sufferers
from this cause, and the great difference existing between the pitches (or
diapasons, as they are called) of various countries, or of various musical
establishments, is frequently a source of embarrassment in musical transac-
tions. With a view to remedy this acknowledged and growing evil, the
French Government, sometime ago, appointed a commission of distinguished
men to discuss and collect information upon the whole question; and the
result of their labors has lately appeared in the Moniteur, in the shape of an
elaborate report. The commission consisted of fourteen members, all of
them eminent in the world of music or of science; as Auber, Despretz,
Lissajous, Meyerbeer, Rossini, ete.

Any opinions emanating from a body of men so well qualified to judge
upon a subject of this nature, must necessarily be worthy of attention; and
we think a short summary of their report may not be uninteresting to our
readers.

The report commences by stating that it is an undoubted fact that the dia-
pason, or pitch, has been steadily rising for at least a hundred years, and that
it is now quite a whole tone higher than it was in the middle of the last cen-
tury. As a proof of tilis, we have the internal evidence of the scores of
Gluck, Monsigny, Grétry, and others, besides the more certain testimony of
the organs of the time. Rousseau (Dictionnarie de la Musique, article Ton)
states that the pitch of the opera in his time was lower than that of the
chapel, and consequently more than a tone lower than that of the opera of
the present day. The first question, then, that naturally presents itself for
consideration is, what were the causes which have led to this result? Vocal-
ists cannot fairly be charged with any participation in producing this change.
They screamed, it seems, even in those days, without the facilities afforded
them by the operas of Signor Verdi. Besides, it is manifestly never for the
interest of the singer that the diapason should be forced up — a circumstance
which can only tend to increase his fatigue, and make inroads upon his voice.
The interests, too, of composers are, for many reasons, opposed to an undue
elevation of the pitch. They have, moreover, but little power of influencing
an orchestra in this respect. The composer does not fix the diapason — he
submits to it. It is, then, says the report, to the instrumentalists and the
instrument-makers that this result must be attributed. They are the persons
who have evidently a joint interest in raising the diapason of the orchestra.
Up to acertain point, the more elevated the pitch the greater the brilliancy
and sonority of an instrument.

The numerous inventions and improvements which have been effected in
wind instruments, have, more than anything, induced the unnatural height
which the diapason has now reached. A direct confirmation of this is
afforded in a particular instance by a letter addressed to the commission by
M. Kittl, the director of the conservatory at Prague, who states that the
Emperor Alexander I., upon becoming proprietor of an Austrian regiment,
ordered new instruments to be made for the band. The manufacturer, in
order to increase the brilliancy of tone, raised the pitch considerably. This
having produced the desired effect, the example was followed by other mili-
tary bands, who all raised their drapason.

With a view of obtaining as much valuable information as possible upon
the subject, which is one of universal interest to musical art, the commission
wrote to all the most celebrated musical centres in England, Belgium, Hol-

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 187

land, Italy,and America. Almost all the answers which they received agree
in their estimation of the importance of the subject, and in deprecating the
undue height of the diapasons now in use. Some of these communications,
coming as they do from composers and conductors of the first eminence, are
very interesting. It would, however, occupy more space than we can afford,
to attempt anything more than a very brief mention of one or two of the most
striking. Reissiger writes, from Dresden, that he hopes all Europe will warmly
applaud the establishment of the commission. The great elevation of the
pitch, in his opinion, destroys the effect and effaces the character of ancient
music — of the master-pieces of Mozart, Gluck, and Beethoven. Ferdinand
David, Franz Abt, and Lachner, express with equal decision their approval
of the step which the French government has taken. Herr Wieprecht, the
director of the military music of Prussia, and Dr. Furke, each forwarded able
papers upon the subject, and manifested a lively sympathy with the objects
which the commission had in view. From several quarters tuning-forks, to
the number of twenty-five, were reccived. Of these, Messrs. Broadwood
sent three, which afford a striking example of the necessity which exists in
our own country for some readjustment and assimilation of the pitches now
in use. The first is a quarter of a tone lower than that of Paris, and is used
exclusively for piano-fortes destined to be employed for the accompaniments
at vocal concerts. This, it seems, was the pitch used about thirty years ago
by the Philharmonic Society. The second, which is higher than the Paris
pitch, is that to which Messrs. Broadwood ordinarily tune their instruments,
as being most likely in general to be in tune with harmoniums, flutes, ete. It
is the diapason of instrumentalists. The third, still higher, is that now used
by the Philharmonic Society, and, with one exception — viz., that employed
in the band of the Belzium regiment of guides—is the highest which the
commission received. This latter vibrates nine hundred and eleven times in
a second, whereas the No. 1 of the Messrs. Broadwood, the lowest of all the
tuning-forks sent in, gives only eight hundred and sixty-eight vibrations in
the same time. This difference is nearly equivalent to a semitone.

With these and various other similar communications before them, the
commissioners unanimously come to the conclusion that it was desirable —
first, that the diapason shouid be lowered; and, secondly, that when so low-
ered, it should be taken as an invariable regulator. The determination of
the particular diapason to be adopted naturally presented considerable diffi-
culties, and accordingly led to some diversity of opinion. All agreed that a
depression of more than a semitone was neither practicable nor necessary.
Cne member alone advocated a depression of less than a quarter of a tone.
He, indeed, proposed that the alteration should at the most extend to half a
quarter of a tone — fearing that any greater change, coming suddenly into
operation, might act prejudicially upon the trade in musical instruments,
which is one of the most successful branches of French industry. It is dif-
ficult, however, to see much force in this objection, when we consider the
great variety which exists in the diapasons already in use throughout Europe.
In a letter addressed to the Minister of State by the principal French instru-
ment-makers, they enlarged upon the embarrassment resulting ‘‘ from the
continually increasing elevation of the diapason, and from the variety of
diapasons,”’ and go on to request his Excellency “ to put an end to this kind
of anarchy, and to render to the musical world a service as important as that
rendered to the industrial world by the creation of a uniform system of

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185 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

’

measures.” It is evident from this that the manufacturers themselves do not
rezard with apprehension the contemplated change of diapason.

Ultimately, a depression of a quarter of a tone was fixed. This, is was
thought, would afford an appreciable relief to vocalists; and, ‘ without in-
troducing too great a derangement in established habits, insinuate itself, so
to speak, zncognito into the presence of the public. It would render the exe-
cution of the ancient master-pieces more easy; it would lead us back to the
diapason employed (in Paris) about thirty years ago,—the period of the
production of works which have, for the most part, retained their places in
the repertory, and which would accordingly be restored to the original con-
dition of their composition and representation. It would also be more likely
to be accepted in other countries than the depression of half atone.” In
accordance with the recommendations of the commission, an official order
has been issued, establishing by law a uniform pitch to be used by all the
musical establishmer nts of France _ have any connection with the gov-
ernment. This “normal diapason”’ is an A, given by a standard tuning-
fork to be preserved at the Conservatoire, which vibrates 870 times ina
second. All musical establishments authorized by the state must be pro-
vided with a tuning-fork, verified and officially stamped as consonant with *
this standard. — Journal of the Society of Art, London.

The diapason adopted by the Congress Scientifique held at Stuttgard in 1834,
was /a(a’) =880. This movement is therefore towards lowering the concert
pitch. Savart gave as the diapason of the opera at Paris in 1834) la = 88575.
Another diapason given by M. Scheibler as that of the “Ac pacuay of Musié
at Paris in the same year, was 867°5. The starting-point will now be
c= 1°01953125. And the gamut will be as follows: — ut (c!) = 522. re (d/) =
O87 25. mi (e!) = 652°5. fa (f’) = 696. sol (g!) = 783. la (a!) = 870. si (b/) =
978 75. ut (cl!) = 1044.

Uniform Musical Pitch in England. — The following is an abstract of the
proceedings of a meeting called under the auspices of the Society of Arts,
London, June 3d, 1859, to consider the question of the alteration of the
musical pitch by the French Government, and how far such alteration was
likely to affect musical performances in England. The clair was taken by
Dr. Whewell, of Cambridge, who in his opening remaks said that he be-
lieved that he was the first person who determined the pitch by ascertaining
the number of vibrations in a second which gave particular notes. This was
done in the pipes of the organ at Trinity, and might be said to be the fun-
damental determination of the pitch in England, so far as mathematical

‘definition was concerned. The subject has recently been more prominently
brought before the musical world, in the report issued by the commission
appointed by the French Government to investigate this question, with the
view to the establishment of a uniform pitch to be adopted in that country.
In that report an historical view of the question had been taken, and the
number of vibrations of various notes at different periods during the last
century and a half had been stated. The question with the commission was,
from which of those various numbers the selection was to be made. The
first question to be determined was, whether it was desirable that a uniform
musical pitch should prevail; and, secondly, whether it was possible to es-
tablish such a uniform pitch in this country. The establishment of a uniform
pitch was to be enforced by stringent legal means in France, a course which
could not be imitated in this country. They had to consider what means
short of these could be used here, and whether any influence beyond a

: NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 189

general understanding among those engaged in music could be brought to
bear. These were points upon which those present were well qualified to
give opinions, which, he was sure, would be listened to with interest and
deference.

Letters were then read from gentlemen who were unable to attend, most
of whom were in favor of establishing a uniform diapason.

Professor John Donaldson (in his letter) suggested what he considers to
be a very simple standard of pitch: “Let a column of air, say an organ
pipe thirty-two feet long, be put into vibration or undulation, it will be
found to give thirty-two vibrations or undulations at each oscillation of the
pendulum. The length in the latitude of London beings 3971393 inches, al-
lowance could easily be made for the slight variation of length in the lower
or higher latitudes. If 32 feet in length = 32 vibrations, then as the vibra-
tions are inversely as the lengths: a 16-foot pipe = 64 — 8 ft. = 128 — the
pitch of the lowest string of a violincello; computing the vibrations or un-
dulations as course and recourse, the pitch adopted in Paris by Rheica in his
treatise on harmony.”

Mr. Alfred Mellon was of opinion that “there is no doubt that the mu-
sical pitch has been much elevated during the last quarter of a century,
and that some disadvantages result therefrom; but it may be questioned
whether greater disadvantages would not now be caused by a resumption of
the former pitch, or any depression of it. Many of the wind instruments
now in use would be injured, and the artists put to the expense of new ones.
The principal organs in Birmingham, Liverpool, Bradford, and other large
towns, would have to be altered at great expense. All purely orchestral
performances would also lose much of their brilliancy in the lowering of
the stringed instruments. Many other disadvantages occur to me, and will
doubtless be brought to your notice. On the other hand, I am not aware
(writes Mr. Mellon) that the proposed alteration would benefit any persons
except the singers and the wind instrument makers. But considering that
music is the universal language of Europe, it is desirable to establish a
uniform pitch between England and the Continent; and I would therefore
recommend that the pitch now in use at the Royal Italian Opera, Covent-
garden, under the direction of M. Costa, Esq., should be established as the
definite limit to prevent further elevation. but it must be borne in mind
that even this pitch cannot be maintained as an absolute rule throughout
an entire evening’s performance; the warmth of the temperature and the
breath of the performers would have the effect of sharpening the wind
instruments, and necessarily drawing the rest of the orchestra with them.”

Mr. Huilah thought a uniform pitch was highly desirable. Of course a
uniform pitch aspiring to universal adoption, must be regulated eventually
by what was convenient to the human voice. But there was a question
whether there was any particular number of vibrations per second which
was more convenient than another for simplifying musical calculations. He
had found the number of 512 vibrations per second for the C gave the sim-
plest series of numbers representing the other notes, and was very favorable
for musical calculations; at the time of which he was speaking, this pitch
was a little above some of those then in use, and a little below others, so
far as a correct comparison could be made, for that was a difficult matter.
He had then with him a pocket full of tuning-forks which he had collected,
and no two of them were alike, except those which had been made to his
order by a scientific process. He put himself in communication with Mr.

190 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Tomlinson and a gentleman who had given a great deal of attention to
the subject. Mr. Tomlinson, on being supplied with one of Cagniard de la
Tour’s instruments for measuring vibrations, — the Sirene, — satisfied himself
that he could regulate this instrument, which every one knew was very diffi-
cult to keep at the same pitch, so as to ascertain what was 512 vibrations
per second; and he made certain tuning-forks, of which he (Mr. Hullah)
had seen and tried hundreds, and he had never found the slightest discrep-
ancy in them, except on that morning, for the first time in his life. He
tried two of those forks with the greatest care again and again that morn-
ing. He placed one of them upon a hot plate, and allowed it to remain
until it became heated, when he found that the pitch was considerably
lowered. This was nothing new; but the extraordinary part of the matter
was, that the fork had never since recovered its former pitch, and there was
still some little discrepancy between it and the fork which had not been
heated. He thought a uniform pitch was so highly to be desired that what-
ever the pitch might be — whether the highest ever conceived or the lowest,
he would vote for it for the sake of uniformity — though he certainly should
prefer, and do his best to bring about, the adoption of a pitch considerably
lower than that at present in use.

Mme. Goldschmidt (Jenny Lind) was of opinion that if the present pitch
were adhered to, all the voices would be more or less spoiled, and that was
one of the reasons why we had so few really good singers. For her own
part, there was a considerable amount of music that she could not think of
singing at the present pitch; and music which she sang with the greatest
ease about twelve years ago, when the pitch was lower, she would not now
attempt. If the raising of the pitch went on as it had hitherto done, the
human voice would lose its beauty and strength; and she did not consider
it Was proper to tax the voice to that extent. In her opinion, the standard
of the pitch ought to be regulated by the human voice.

M. Goldschmidt did not suggest that they should adopt the French pitch
merely because it was French, but chiefly because it was the pitch of the
Philharmonic Society and of Broadwood thirty years ago. As it was adopted
by France, why should we not also adopt it, especially as it was the good
old pitch of olden times ?

Mr. Hullah would be glad to hear, from Mr. Walker, what would be about
the expense, in round numbers, of lowering the pitch of an organ worth
£2000 a quarter of a tone.

Mr. Walker, at a rough guess, should say perhaps £50.

Mr. Hullah could assure the meeting that he was not bigoted to any pitch,
but would vote for any upon which they could all agree. The difference
between the pitch which had been designated his and the French, was ten
vibrations per second. The French pitch was 522 vibrations per second;
his was 512. He thought if it were an open question to decide between the
two pitches, they were so near that it would be wise to decide in favor of the
lower pitch. He would put on record a remarkable expression which was
used some time since by Sir George Smart, in reference to this subject. He
said: “It is not the Philosopher who has settled the pitch; God Almighty
has settled the pitch in making the human voice.”

Dr. Arnott suggested that as inconvenience had been experienced from
the rise of the pitch of the organ in the course of an evening’s performance,
an apparatus might be connected with the bellows of the organ communi-

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 191

eating with the outer air, and so keeping up a blast of cold air through the
pipes, thus preventing their expansion by heat.

Mr. Walker remarked, that the cold air must be blown upon the exterior
of the pipes as well as upon the interior. Moreover, the front pipes of an
organ were generally more affected by the heat than the interior pipes.

The Chairman said, that, with regard to Mr. Hullah’s remarks, he would
say that every mathematician, at first sight, might have a strong bias in
favor of what Mr. Hullah called his standard of 512. Chladnir had founded
his system upon that number, and no mathematician who expressed the
relation of musical notes in numbers, could fail to be struck with the advan-
tage for such purposes of that scale, which gave tg the middle C 512 vibra-
tions per second. That did not give A a whole number, but it gave a great
amount of whole numbers, and in many ways was convenient. On the
other hand, the numerical advantages of the standard were not important.
Where the note was determined, they knew that it was by the number of
vibrations, whether counted in fractions or decimals, and by that means
they could recover the note at any time. Therefore, he thought the con-
veniences and inconveniences were of another kind, and must be considered
by practical musicians. The difficulty urged by one speaker, that a change
of pitch would involve the destruction of a great body of existing instru-
ments, was one which must not be overlooked, though some of them, no
doubt, might be modified. The alterations of organs to the new pitch would
also be a matter of considerable expense. These were difficulties of far
more importance than any want of symmetry in numerical calculations.
Still, if the French system were adopted over a great part of Europe, so far
as there were any perceptible difference between that and 512, musicians
would gain more by adopting it than mathematicians would lose.

A committee, of which Dr. Arnott is Chairman, was then appointed to
consider the whole subject, and report at a future meeting.

INTERESTING BALLOON VOYAGE.

The greatest balloon voyage on record, was performed on the ist and 2d
of July, by Messrs. Wise, LaMountain, Gager, and Hyde, — four persons, —
who passed over a distance of eleven hundred and fifty miles in nineteen
hours, or from St. Louis, in Missouri, to Henderson, Jefferson County, New
York. The special object of the experiment was to establish the existence
of a constant current of air, at a high elevation, from west to east, over the
North American continent, and, by means of it, to pass in the balloon from
St. Louis, on the Mississippi, to a point on the Atlantic sea-board. The
ascension was made from St. Louis, at 7.20 P. M., on the Ist of July, and
the course at starting was north of east. During the night nothing of any
particular moment occurred,-—the balloon sailing along in a north-east-
erly direction, at a varying height above the earth from five hundred to
ten thousand feet. The sky was clear, and the whole dome of the heavens
is described by Mr. Wise as “lit up with a mellow phosphorescent light. So
remarkable was this phosphorescent light of the atmosphere, that the bal-
loon looked translucent, and looked like light shining through oiled paper.
We could also tell prairie from forest, and by keeping the eye for a moment
downward, we could see the roads, fences, fields, and even houses, quite dis-
tinetly, at any elevation not over a mile, and even at the greatest elevation
we could discern prairie from woodland, and from water. Whenever we.

192 . ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

hallooed, it was followed by a distant echo, and even this served as a differ-
ential index to height.” .
At 6 A. M., on the morning of the 2d, the voyagers arrived at the shore of
Lake Erie, a little north of Sandusky. The course was at first held along
the southern shore of the lake; but by 10.20the lake was crossed, and the
Canada shore reached. In attempting to make a landing in the vicinity of
Rochester, N. Y., the aéronauts encountered a hurricane, and after being
blown for a great distance, —a part of the time over and near the surface of
the lake, — they brought up in a forest in the town of Henderson, Jefferson
County, N. Y. None of the party were seriously injured, but the balloon
was nearly destroyed. The entire distance travelled, from St. Louis to the
point of landing, was eleven hundred and fifty miles, which was done in
nineteen hours and fifty minutes, being very nearly a mile per minute. The
longest journey heretofore made in a balloon was five hundred miles, per-
formed many years ago by Mr. Green, the well-known English aéronaut.

ON THE FORM AND FLIGHT OF PROJECTILES FROM RIFLED CANNON.

From a recent work on rifled cannon, published in England by Mr.
Thomas, we derive the following memoranda relative to the construction of
the projectiles to be used in connection with this new ordnance.

In the practical adaptation of these new engines of war, it must be remem-
bered that it is the gun, rather than the shot, which has to be carefully
studied; because, for the production of great velocities, heavy charges of
powder are required, and these again demand greater thickness — and there-
fore greater weight —to enable the gun to withstand the greatly increased
strain upon it. Hence, the object is to obtain such a projectile that it can
be thrown from a gun of the same weight as that which throws the round
shot, — but which shall be, at the same time, a much heavicr missile. ‘‘ Now
this,” adds Mr. Thomas, “ can be accomplished by ihe use of elongated shot
—shot in which, while the weight is the same as that of the 32 Ib. slot, the
diameter is only that of a9 1b. shot; and therefore the surface, upon which
the resistance of the air acts, will be the same, or nearly the same, for the
heavy shot as for the lighter. .

To secure the accurate flight of an elongated missile, it is of paramount
necessity to keep its axis coincident with the line of its flight; for, if this be
not attended to, the resistance of the air becomes greater, and the shot is
liable to turn over on its shorter axis. To maintain this coincidence, the
projectile must be made to rotate upon its axis; and this rotation can only
be obtained by means of the turn or twist it acquires during its constrained
passage along the rifled grooves of the gun’s barrel. Again, as this rotation
varies according to the length of the turn given, it becomes of primary im-
portance to determine accurately how much the turn should be, and whether
it should be the same or different, according to the cannon or the projectile
required. Mr. Thomas, who has paid especial attention to this question,
states that the lengths of turn now in use vary between that of the Enfield
bullet, which has one turn in seventy-eizht inches, and those adopted by
Major Jacop and Mr. Whitworth, which are, respectively, one in twenty-four
and one in twenty inches. He points out that this remarkable disparity
arises, in a great measure, from the difference in the shapes of the bullets;
and sums up his whole investigation with two general conclusions — first,
that the velocity of rotation, or, in other words, the appropriate turn, must

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 193

be increased, proportionally, with any increase in the length of the projec-
tile; and, secondly, that it is not advisable that the projectile should, in
length, exceed the triple of its diameter.

Another question of great importance to be satisfactorily determined is,
whether the varying size of the projectile produces a similar effect upon the
turn of the grooves of a rifled cannon. Now, this cannot be ascertained
beforehand by theory, but depends entirely upon experiment, and on experi-
ment alone. It is true, that where the shot differ only in their diameters, a
law may be readily laid down; where, however, they differ both in form and
weight, a laborious series of experiments must be made before any definite
principles can be enounced. Here, as inso many branches of the great sub-
ject of gunnery, no clear views appear hitherto to have been held or pub-
lished; hence, Mr. Thomas has been compelled to examine into and to
state all the bearings of the case with great minuteness. It would be impose
sible, in this place, to follow him through all his reasonings; but we may
notice, generally, that the retarding effect of the air, for shot differing in
size, but of the same form and density, would appear to be nearly as the square
roots of their diameters.

Having discussed these matters as fully as possible, Mr. Thomas goes on
to describe, with equal minuteness, the different forms of projectiles advisa-
ble under different circumstances. We cannot enter here into these details ;
but we may state the general principles at which he has arrived, experimen-
tally. Thus, he states that the necessary qualifications for an elongated
projectile are: 1. That it shouid possess a certain definite density, so as to
insure the greatest possible range. 2. That it should completely fill the
bore, so that its axis should coincide exactly with it. 3. That its centre of
gravity should be thrown well forward, in order that the axis on which it
rotates should be, practically, a tangent to the line of its flight. And, 4.
That its form should be such as to expose it to the least possible resistance
from the air. Lastly, he shows that solid iron unexpanding shot can never
really produce the results attainable by compound shot, because in their
case space must always be allowed for their windage, for the fouling of the
bore, and: for the contraction of the gun itself, when heated by repeated
firing.

Mr. Thomas remarks, that it has generally been hitherto held that, on
firing, the whole of the powder is at once converted into an elastic fluid, and
that the ball is expelled by the gradual expansion of this fluid. The result,
however, of many interesting experiments made by him, appear to show that,
besides the ordinary explosive property of gunpowder, there resides in it a pe-
culiar force, which (for want of a better name) Mr. Thomas has termed impui-
sive; and that owing to this, large guns are much more liable to burst than
smaller ones. It is no less certain that, with a finely granulated powder, a
comparatively short gun may be safely used, —such tribes as the Afghans,
on the other hand, who manufacture a powder much inferior to ours, being
compelled to use guns of a length apparently altogether disproportionate,
With the simple object of completely igniting the powder.

WIND OF A SHOT.

M. Pelikan, a Russian, has made some curious observations upon the con-
tusions supposed to be produced by the wind of passing balls. Mr. P. ap-
plied to the committee on artillery of St. Petersburg, and having obtained:

17 ae

194 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

some pieces of large calibre, had a machine constructed for measuring the
force exerted by the wind of balls passing at various distances. The results
obtained were constantly the same. At the distance of three inches, a pass-
ing ball produced not the slightest effect. The conclusions deduced by Mr.
Pelikan are: 1. A projectile passing very close to any object exercises only
an insignificant influence upon it. 2. That what is called the wind of the
ball, even with a full charge of powder, has so trifling a force as to be inca-
pable of determining any lesion.

LUNAR TIDE UPON LAKE MICHIGAN.

Ata meeting of the Chicago Historical Society, November 30th, 1858, Col.
Graham, U. 8S. A., stated, as the result of a long and carefully conducted
series of observations, his discovery of a lunar tidal wave upon Lake Michi-
gan. From the comparatively small area of the body of water acted upon
by the lunar influence, the coordinate of altitude could not be but small.
This circumstance, added to that of the almost constant disturbance of the
lake surface by winds, renders this coordinate of altitude measurable only
in calm weather, and when the moon is in conjunction with or in opposition
to the sun. At such times its average is about two-tenths of a foot, or say
two and one-half inches.

UNITS OF WORK.

The following are the results obtained in units of work or foot-pounds for
one unit of heat, by different authors:

Centigrade Fahrenheit
thermometer. thermometer.
Foot-pounds. Foot-pounds.
By Holtzman’s formula, A Dateline ° 2) 227 682
By Joule’s experiments, Hts - eth Sat S886 17
By Rankine’s formula, 5 : - . 1252 695
By Thompson’s formula, : ; : 1320 772
For the best Cornish engine, by M. De eae 148 82
For a perfect low-pressure condensing engine, . 90°8 50-4
For an actual Boulton and Watt’s engine, 4 46 255

ON THE STRENGTH AND TENACITY OF GLASS.

A series of interesting experiments have been recently made in England
on the strength and tenacity of glass. By tearing rods and sheets of glass
asunder, the following mean results of tenacity per square inch, expressed in
pounds, were obtained: Flint glass, 2.413; green glass, 2.896; crown, 2.946.
The experiments on the resistance offered by glass to a crushing force, were
made upon small cubes and cylinders, crushed between parallel steel sur-
faces, by means of a lever — the force employed being sufficient to reduce the
elass to a fine powder. The results, expressed in pounds, were as follows:
Flint glass, 13.190; green glass, 20.206; crown, 21,867.

BLASTING WITH GUN-COTTON.

It is generally said that gun-cotton produces three times the effect of gun-
powder; but military engineers aver that the effect which the explosion of a
certain quantity of gun-cotton will produce, can never be exactly foretold.
If the cotton is very strongly compressed when the electric spark is applied

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 195

to it, the effect which it produces is very great; but if it is at all loose, it is
much less efficacious than gunpowder. If a few pounds of powder explode
in a room, the devastation must necessarily be great; but if the same weight
of gun-cotton is strewn loosely on the floor and then ignited, a sudden “ puff”
takes place, but the articles in the room are uninjured. The Austrian Goy-
ernment has expended a great deal of time and much money in making
experiments; but it is beginning to discover that powder is preferable to
cotton.

A SIMPLE MEANS OF DEMONSTRATING THE WORKING OF LIQUID
FIRE-SHELLS.

The bi-sulphide of carbon is first poured into the shell, and then small bits
of phosphorus are dropped in; the mouth of the shell is then closed with a
cork, partly projecting, like the cork in a wine-bottle. The shell may then
be laid on canvas, or other combustible matter; and in about ten minutes,
the fermentation of the mixture will force its way through the pores of the
cork, and, meeting the oxygen of the atmosphere, will become ignited, — the
cork acting like the wick of a candle, and the liquor underneath feeding it.
A leaden shell thus charged, and adapted to a military rifle, will continue to
burn for ten minutes with an intense flame, which cannot be extinguished
by water. — London Mech. Magazine.

ON THE FREEZING-POINT OF WATER IN CAPILLARY TUBES.

Many years*ago, M. Donné showed that water enclosed in narrow tubes
of a substance capable of being welled up by it, might be raised to a tem-
perature considerably above 212° without boiling. Mr. H. C. Sorby, in a
note communicated to the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical
Magazine, completes these researches by showing that in capillary tubes the
temperature of water may be lowered far below 32° without freezing, even
when the tubes are shaken. In tubes of from sha or =, inches in diame-
ter, the water may be reduced to 5° Fah., without freezing, provided it be not
in contact with ice. These experiments go to show that these phenomena
are caused by the adhesion of the water to the walls of the tube interfering
with its change of state.

CHEMICAL SCIENCKH.

ON THE NATURE OF THE SIMPLE BODIES.

THE Comptes Rendus for December 1858, contains a long memoir, by Des-
pretz, on his researches to ascertain whether certain of the so-called elements
are decomposable. His laborious and careful investigations have led to no
decomposition; and he announces the conclusion, that the substances called
elementary are really elementary, or incapable of decomposition. The author
should have added, that they were not decomposable by the methods he
used, for it is not probable that there is nothing more to be done in this
branch of research. His process consists in submitting theselement — cad-
mium, for example—to the physical and chemical regents ordinarily em-
ployed in analysis. He transforms it into an oxide, then into salts of all
kinds; decomposes these salts by chemical and galvanic methods; precipi-
tates the metal at one time at the positive pole, another at the negative;
examines the crystalline form; turns it again into salts, which he decom-
poses; vaporizes the metal by means of the pile; and thus causes an element
to pass through a great number of different states, and still arrives at the
same element. While rendering justice to the zeal and patience of Mr.
Despretz, we have to regret that these good qualities have been here wasted;
for the researches would be a hinderance to the progress of science, if taken
seriously.

Dumas took upon himself the refutation of M. Despretz, and brought to
the subject his well-known ability. He prefaced his remarks by presenting
the following table, which exhibits an interesting relation between the equiy-
alents of certain simple and compound bodies.

I Cl. Sab 7 Br 0s ae .
Nii Ph3t. Asis Sb Le } Differences.

Mg 12°25 Ca20 Sr 4375 Ba 685 Pb 1035 |

O°" 3 S 16 Se 8975 Te 45 Os 995 §
Ammonium 18 Methylamine 82 Ethylamine 46 Propylamine 60, ete. } Diff. 3
Methylium15 Ethylium 29 Propylium 43 Butylium 57, ete. Tes

d Difference 4.

As this relation suggests a doubt as to the elements being simple, Dumas
took occasion to express his opinion on this important question.

Since the radicals (elements) in mineral chemistry present the same gen-
eral relations as those in organic, he believes there is reason for bringing the
two branches more closely together than is usually done. We can decom-
pose the latter, and there is no proof that we may not decompose the

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 197

former. The following are the conclusions in his memoir, which will soon
be published.

1. The compounds which the three kingdoms offer for our study, are re-
duced by analysis to a certain number of radicals which may be grouped in
natural families. 2. The characters of these families show incontestable anal-
ogies. 3. But the radicals of mineral chemistry differ from the others in this,
that if they are compound, they have a degree of stability so great that no
known forces are capable of producing decomposition. 4. The analogy
authorizes the inquiry whether the former may not be compound as well as
the latter. 5. It is necessary to add that the analogy gives us no light as to
the means of causing this decomposition, and if ever to be realized, it will
be by methods or forces yet unsuspected.

To these remarks of Dumas, Despretz subsequently replied in his turn,
criticizing the ideas of Dumas on the unity of matter. According to him,
’ there is not a sufficient analogy between the radicals of organic chemistry
and the simple bodies of mineral chemistry. The first are decomposed by
heat, and converted by oxygen into water and carbonic acid. These organic
compounds thus disunited can never be again recomposed. It is well under-
stood to be quite otherwise in respect to the elements of mineral chemistry.
From this M. Despretz concluded that there is not only no analogy, but
that there is a complete contrariety, between the elements of organic and
inorganic chemistry; in a word, as far as he can discern, science furnishes
no indication favoring a belief in the decomposition of the bodies considered
simple, even by the aid of new forces. On the contrary, he thinks he has
demonstrated that the metals and metalloids are simple bodies. We have
already seen by what processes he thinks he has arrived at this conclusion;
he returns to the subject now to show in what respects his experiments are
new, and says: ‘All chemists have ignited iron and platinum to a white
heat, but no chemist, to our knowledge, has ignited these metals in a bar-
ometric vacuum for the purpose of ascertaining whether any gas was
disengaged; and this is my experiment.”

“Nothing is disengaged under the action of heat, or of a spark from a
powerful induction apparatus. This negative result is of a nature to astonish
the partisans of the theory of Dr. Prout, if any exist. According to this
hypothesis, iron should retain about 80,060 and platinum 200,000 volumes of
hydrogen gas condensed into only one volume. How can we suppose that
a condensed gas could resist the test to which iron and platinum are sub-
jected in my experiment? Is there a single fact in physics and in chemistry
which authorizes such a supposition? In my process, the disengagement of
one-twentieth of a cubic centimetre of gas would have been readily appre-
ciable. To this slight weight the most delicate chemical balances would
have been insensible.” |

The reply of Dumas is briefly as follows: “I demand of M. Despretz
why he expects the metals to resolve themselves into gas? why is it neces-
sary that the primary elements of bodies should be gaseous? As regards
the analogies between organic and inorganic chemistry, which are denied
by M. Despretz, I ask where is the chemist who would not unite in one
group cyanogen and chlorine, bromine and iodine? Where are the differ-
ences between these two sets of substances? Do they not biend in all their
chemical affinities? Does not the analogy between them extend even to a
similarity of atomic volumes? It is true, cyanogen has been decomposed,
while the others have resisted decomposition; but he is greatly mistaken

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198 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

_who believes that the discovery of cyanogen did not suggest doubts to the
minds of chemists, and to Gay Lussac himself, on the nature of chlorine.”

“Ts not the same the case with ammonium and the radicals of the ethers ?
Do not these radicals furnish oxides, chlorides, sulphurets? Do not these
oxides, acting the part of bases, resemble potassa and soda so strongly as
even to mislead? Have we not in the combination of these radicals the
same system as in inorganic chemistry? Who is the chemist to whom these
discoveries, succeeding one upon another, have not suggested doubts con-
cerning the nature of metals ?”’

“In a word, the efforts of modern chemists, for forty years, have resulted
in proving that organic chemistry is made up of substances which are sub-
ject to the very same laws with which Lavoisier enchained inorganic chem-
istry, and subordinated to the same scheme through all its products. It was
Lavoisier, who, in tracing out the route for us to follow, more than seventy
years ago, defined organic chemistry as the chemistry of compound radicals,
and mineral chemistry the chemistry of undecomposable radicals.”

Dumas then refuted, one after another, the facts brought forward by Des-
pretz in proof of his views. “If M. Despretz thinks fhat by distilling mer-
cury, zinc, or cadmium, these substances can be decomposed, he forgets
that alchemists and the arts long ago threw light on this point. If he com-
pounds with the decomposition of a single body the analyses of a mixture,
IT regret it, but I remain convinced that there is not the slightest connection
between the successive separations and the decomposition of simple bodies;
that there is nothing in common between those fortunate concentrations to
which we owe the discovery of iodine, cadmium, selenium, and bromine, and
a philosophical discussion concerning the principle of the unity of mat-
ter.’ Dumas further sums up with the following conclusions: 1. It appears
to me more and more probable that the equivalents of simple bodies are
multiples of the same unit. 2. That the radicals of mineral chemistry be-
have in the same way as the radicals of organic chemistry. 3. That it is
impossible to prove that bodies reputed simple are undecomposable. 4.
That if, even at the present time, simply by employing forces and means
already known, it is easy to contrive processes more powerful than those
which M. Despretz has employed for the purpose of accomplishing this
decomposition, I regard it as my duty to affirm anew that, in my opinion,
these processes, though more rational, will not probably be more effectual.
— Siliman’s Journal, Nos. 81 and 82 — Correspondence of M. Nickles.

UNITARY NOTATION IN CHEMISTRY.

The so-called system of ‘‘ Unitary Notation”? in Chemistry, which is
adopted and taught at the present time by the younger school of chemists
in Great Britain, —viz., Dr. Odling, of Guy’s Hospital, Prof. Brodie, of
Oxford, Prof. Williamson, of the University of London, and others, — con-
sists mainly in doubling the atomic weights of ten of the elementary bodies,
viz., oxygen, sulphur, selenium, tellium, carbon, boron, silicon, tantalum,
titanium, and tin. Those who are acquainted with Chemistry, will see at a
glance the enormous number of compounds which are thus affected. Water,
which under the old system was regarded as a compound of one of hydro-
gen and one of oxygen, is now regarded as having two of hydrogen and one
of oxygen. Its atomic number is 18, instead of 9. Nitric acid, whose for-
mula is written NOsHO, is to be NOsH. The theory of the constitution of

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 199

salts is also changed. The acid of the salt is to be regarded as uniting
directly with the metal, and not with its oxide, according to the old system,
— the oxygen of the oxide being referred to the acid. Thus nitrate of silver,
on the old system, was written NO5+ AgO; but, according to the new sys-
tem, the metal takes the place of the hydrogen in the acid, and itis expiessed
NOsAg.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF PRESSURE ON CHEMICAL AFFINITY. —BY
DR. LOTHAR MEYER.

In the twelfth volume of Poggendorff’s Annalen, there is a note by Babinet,
which contains the proposal to use, as a measure of chemical affinity, the
pressure which a gas generated by chemical decomposition must attain in
order that the decomposition may cease. The author states that for zinc and
sulphuric acid the limit is reached when for 0° C., the pressure of the liberated
hydrogen amounts to thirteen atmospheres; at 25° C., on the contrary, this
pressure exceeds the height of thirty-three atmospheres.

Experiments which I have made in Prof. Werther’s laboratory do not agree
with these statements. With the most varied strengths of sulphuric acid,
even in the presence of large quantities of different sulphates, and by the use
of citric and acetic acids, the pressure of the hydrogen liberated by zine far
exceeds the limits given by Babinet. The reason of this appears to lie in
the fact, that Babinet used copper vessels closed by a cock, while I used sealed
glass tubes.

The decomposition appears, however, to attain-a limit; at any rate, the
liquid, even with excess of zinc, has still a strong acid reaction after stand-
ing for months. But what the maximum of this pressure may be, I have
not been able to determine, inasmuch as the only tubes I could obtain which
would stand the pressure were too narrow to allow a manometer to be intro-
duced. The greatest pressure which L[-observed directly at the manometer
was sixty-six atmospheres. The acid consisted of one volume SH20q, and
three volumes of H20; the temperature was 0°C. The tube exploded
shortly after observing this pressure. — Poggendorff’s Annalen, vol. Ciy., p.
18).

FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE ALLOTROPIC MODIFICATIONS OF
OXYGEN, AND ON THE COMPOUND NATURE OF CHLORINE, BRO-
MINE, ETC.

The following remarks on the above subject, were addressed as a letter by
Professor Schénbein, to Professor Faraday, and by him communicated to
the L. E. and D. Phil. Mag., xvi., 178:

These last six months I have been busily working on oxygen, and flatter
myself not to have quite in vain maltreated my old favorite; for I think I
can now prove the correctness of that old idea of mine, that there are two
kinds, or allotropic modifications of active oxygen, standing to each other
in the relation of + to —; 7.e., that there is a positively active and a nega-
tively active oxygen, —an ozone and an antozone, which, on being brought
together, neutralize each other into common or inactive oxygen, according
to the equation (+ O) + (— 0)=0. At present I confine myself to general
statements; but a full detail will, before long, be published in the Zransac-
tions of the Academy of Munich.

200 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Ozonized oxygen, as’ produced from common oxygen by the electrical
spark or phosphorus, is identical with that contained in a number of oxy-
compounds, the principal ones of which are the oxides of the precious
metals, the peroxides of manganese, lead, cobalt, nickel, and bismuth; per-
manganic, chromic, and yvanadic acids, and eyen the peroxides of iron and
copper may be numbered among them.

The whole of the oxygen of the oxides of the precious metals exists in
the ozonic state, whilst in the rest of the oxy-compounds named, only part
of their oxygen is in that condition. I call that oxygen negatively-active, or

ozone par excellence, and give it the sign — O, on account of its electromotive
bearing. Though generally disinclined to coin new terms, I think it conven-
°o
ient to denominate the whole class of the oxy-compounds containing —O
“ozonids.” There is another less numerous series of oxy-compounds in
°

which part of their oxygen exists in an opposite active state, 7. e., as +O
or antozone, wherefore I have christened them “‘antozonids.”’ This class is
composed of the peroxides of hydrogen, barium, strontium, and the rest of
the alkaline metals; and on this occasion I must not omit to add, that what
I have hitherto called oxonized oil of turpentine, ether, etc., contain their

active oxygen in the + 6 state, and belong therefore to the class of the
“‘artozonids.”

Now, on bringing together, under proper circumstances, any ozonid with
any antozonid, reciprocal catalysis results; the 2 of the one and the + O
of the other neutralizing each other into O, which, as such, cannot be
retained by the Substances with which it had been previously associated in

the — b or +0 condition. The proximate cause of the mutual catalysis of
so many oxy-compounds, depends therefore upon the opposite states of the
active oxygen contained in those compounds.

I will now give some details on the subject.

1. Free ozonized oxygen = (— 6), and peroxide of hydrogen = HO +
(+ O), or peroxide of barium = BaO + (+ 6), the latter suspended i in water,
on being shaken together, destroy each other, HOt GCE O) or BaO-+ (+ O)
being reduced to HO or BaO, and + O and — 6 transformed into O.

2. Aqueous permanganic acid = Mn202 +5 (0). or a solution of per-
manganate of potash mixed with some dilute nitric acid, is almost instanta-
neously discolored by peroxide of hydrogen or peroxide of barium; the
nitrate of the protoxide of manganese being formed in the first case, and in
the second, besides this salt, the nitrate of baryta. It is hardly necessary to

state, that in both cases the — 6 of the permanganic acid and the +0 of
the peroxide of hydrogen or barium are disengaged as O.

3. An aqueous solution of chromic acid containing some nitric or sul-
phuric acid and peroxide of hydrogen, are rapidly transformed into the
nitrate or sulphate of oxide of chromium, HO, and inactive oxygen, which
is of course disengaged. A solution of chromic acid mixed with some nitric
acid and BaOsz, gives a similar result, — nitrate of baryta and oxide of chro-
mium being formed, and O disengaged.

4. If you add to a mixture of any peroxice salt of iron and the red ferro-
sesquicyanuret of potassium (both substances dissolved in water) some per-
oxide of hydrogen, Prussian blue will be thrown down and inactive oxygen
set free. On introducing into a mixture of nitrate of peroxide of iron and

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 201

the ferro-sesquicyanuret of potassium the peroxide of barium, a similar
reaction takes place, Prussian blue, nitrate of baryta, etc., being formed, and
inactive oxygen eliminated. From these facts it appears that, under certain
conditions, even peroxide of iron and HO2 or BaO2 are capable of catalyzing
each other into FeO and HO, or BaO and O.

5. Under certain circumstances, PbOz or MnOz are soluble in strong acetic
acid; now, if you add to such a solution HO2 or BaOs, the peroxides will be
reduced to HO or BaO, and PbO or MnO, inactive oxygen being disengaged.

6. It is a well-known fact, that the oxide of silver = Ag (— 6), or the
peroxide of that metal = Ag (— O)s, and the peroxide of hydrogen =
HO --(-- 0), catalyze each other into metallic silver, water, and inactive
oxygen. Other ozonids, such as PbO +(—OQO) or MnO + (— O), on being
brought in contact with HO+(+ 6), are transformed into PbO or MnO,
HO and O. Now the peroxide of barium = BaO+ (+ 6), acts like HO +

ee 6). If you pour water upon an intimate mixture of AgO, or AgO? and
BaOz, a lively disengagement of inactive oxygen will ensue, AgO, AgO2 and
BaOz being reduced to metallic silver and baryta. In concluding the first
part of my letter, I must not omit to state the general fact, that the oxygen
disengaged in all cases of reciprocal catalysis of oxy-compounds, behaves in
every respect like inactive oxygen.

There is another set of chemical phenomena, in my opinion closely con-
nected with the polar states of the active oxygen contained in the two oppo-
site classes of peroxides. It is known that a certain number of oxy-com-
pounds, for instance, the peroxides of manganese, lead, nickel, cobalt,
bismuth, silver, and also permanganic, chromic, and vanadic acids, furnish
with muriatic acid chlorine, whilst another set, such as the peroxides of
barium, strontium, potassium, etc., are not capable of eliminating chlorine
either out of the said acid or any other chlorid. This second class of oxy-
compounds produces, however, with muriatic acid, the peroxide of hydro-
gen; and it is quite impossible in any way to obtain from the first class of
the peroxides HO2, or from the second chlorine.

You are aware that, from reasons of analogy, I do not believe in the doc-
trine of chlorine, bromine, etc., being simple bodies, but consider those
substances as oxy-compounds, analogous to the peroxides of manganese,

- lead, ete., in other terms, as ‘‘ozonids.”’ Chlorine is, therefore, to me the

peroxide of murium = Mu0O + (— O), hydrochloric acid = MuO + HO, and,
as already mentioned, the peroxide of barium = BaO + (+ 0), that of hydro-
gen = HO+(+ b), and the peroxide of manganese = MnO + (— O). Pro-
ceeding from these suppositions, it is very easy to account for the different
way in which the two sets of peroxides are acted upon by muriatic acid.
From reasons as yet entirely unknown to us, HO can be chemically asso-
ciated only with +0, and with no other modification of oxygen, to consti-
tute what is called the peroxide of hydrogen; and in a similar way MuO (the
hypothetically anhydrous muriatic acid of older times) is capable of being
united only to — O, to form the so-called chlorine which I denominate per-
oxide of mnrium. If we cause MuO + HO to react upon BaO 4+ (+ 0),

Mu0O unites with BaO, and HO with + 0; but if you bring together MuO +

202 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

HO with Mn+(—0), part of MuO is associated to MnO, another part to
a 6, water being eliminated, according to the equation :
2(Muo, HO) + MnO + (— VO) = MuO, MnO + Mu0, (— O) + 2HO.

As you will easily perceive from these views, it would follow that, under
proper circumstances, two opposite peroxides, on being intimately mixed
together, and in the right proportion, and acted upon by muriatic acid, could
yield neither chlorine nor peroxide of hydrogen, but merely inactive oxy-
gen. If somewhat dilute muriatic acid be poured upon an intimate mixture
ot five parts of peroxide of barium and two parts of peroxide of manga-
nese, the whole will be rapidly transformed into the muriates of baryta and
protoxide of manganese, the active oxygen of both the peroxides being dis-
engaged in the inactive condition, and not a trace of free chlorine making
its appearance. The same result is obtained from dilute hydrobromic acid.

Another consequence of my hypothesis is this: that an intimate and cor-
rectly-proportioned mixture of two opposite peroxides, such as the peroxide
of barium and that of lead, on being acted upon by any oxy-acid, cannot
produce the peroxide of hydrogen; or, to express the same thing in other
terms, muriatic acid must act upon the said mixture exactly in the same
way as the oxy-acids do; and that is indeed the case. Mixtures of the per-
oxides just mentioned and acetic or nitric acids, are readily converted into
the acetates or nitrates of baryta and protoxide of manganese, the active
oxygen of both the peroxides being of course disengaged in the inactive -
condition.

Before I close my long story, I must mention one fact more, which, in my
opinion, is certainly a very curious one. If you mix an aqueous and con-
centrated solution of bromine with a sufficient quantity of peroxide of
hydrogen, what happens? A very lively disengagement of inactive oxygen
takes place, the color and the odor of the bromine solution disappears, the
liquid becomes sour, and on adding scme aqucous chlorine to it, bromine
reappears. From hence we are allowed to conclude, that, on bringing bro-
mine into contact with peroxide of hydrogen, some so-called hydrobromic
acid is produced. The hypothesis at present prevailing cannot account for
the formation of that acid, otherwise than by admitting that bromine takes
up the hydrogen of Hog, eliminating the two equivalents of oxygen united
to H. I, of course, take another view of the case: bromine is to me an
ozonid, like peroxide of lead, etc., 7. e., the peroxide of bromium = BrO +*

(= G). Now HO+ (+ 0) and BrO + (-- O) catalyze each other into HO,
BrO, and inactive oxygen, BrO+ HO forming hydrobromic acid, or what
might more properly be called hydrate of bromiatic acid.

It will be perceived that I am growing more and more hardened in my
heretical notions, or, to speak more correctly, in my orthodox views; for it
was Davy who acted the part of a heretic in overthrowing the old, venerable
true creed. Indeed, the longer I compare the new and old doctrine on the
nature of chlorine, etc., with the whole material of chemical facts bearing
upon them, the less I am able to conceive how Davy could so lightly and
slightly handle the heavy weight of analogies which, in my opinion, speak
so very strongly and decisively in favor of Berthollet’s views. There is no
doubt Sir Humphrey was a man of great genius, and consequently very
imaginative; but Iam almost inclined to believe that, by a certain wanton-
ness, or by dint of that transcendent faculty of his mind, he was seduced to
conjure up a theory intended to be as much out of the way and “ invraisem-

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 263

dlabie’’ as possible, and serve, nevertheless, certain theoretical purposes; and
certainly, if he entertained the intention of solving such a problem, he has
wonderfully succeeded. But what I still more wonder at, is both the sudden
and general success which that far-fetched and strained hypothesis met with,
and the tenacity with which the whole chemical world has been sticking to
it ever since its imaginative author pleased to divulge it: and all this could
happen in spite of the fact that the new doctrine, in removing from the field
of chemistry a couple of hypothetical bodies, was, for analogy’s sake, forced
to introduce fictitious compounds, not by dozens only, but by hundreds, —
the oxy-sulphion, oxy-nitrion, and the rest of those “nonentia.” But
enough of this subject, upon which I am apt to grow warm and even angry.
Although the results I have obtained from my recent investigations cannot
but induce me to begin another, and, I am afraid, endless series of researches,
I shall for the present cut short the matter, and indulge for some time in
absolute idleness.

ACTION OF OZONE ON ALBUMEN, CASEIN, AND OTHER ORGANIC
COMPOUNDS. — BY PROF. GORUP-BESANEZ.

Ozonized air oxidizes cyanide of potassium in watery solution to cyanate,
uric acid to allantoin and urea; but its most remarkable action is that on
albumina and casein. If a stream of highly ozonized air be conducted
through a solution of albumina, the latter turns opaque and changes its coler,
assuming a reddish hue in falling, a greenish-yellow in transmitted light.
The froth which soon appears on the surface, is mixed with numerous white
coagulations, which, when pressed between the fingers to expel the inclosed
air, shrink to tough, grayish-white fibres, having an unmistakable resem-
blance to fibrine, though so far insoluble in a solution of nitre. The forma-
tion of these coagula increases up to a certain point, when it lessens, and
those formed are redissolved, while, at the.same time, the liquid turns paler.
The frothing gradually subsides under the continued action of the ozonized
air, and the liquid finally becomes clear. Evaporated in the water bath, it left a
brown extract, partly soluble in alcohol. This solution in alcohol, on evapo-
ration, left a sirupy residue. The insoluble portion bore a great resemblance
to the residue from urine which is insoluble in the same menstruum. Its watery
solution is of a distinctly acid reaction evaporated, leaves a brownish residue,
which, when burnt, emits the odor of burnt horn, and leaves a voluminous
coal which gives but little ashes. It is only precipitated by tannic acid, but
is clouded, when concentrated, by acetate of lead, corrosive sublimate, the
salts of copper, lime-water, and by nitrate of silver with a yellowish cloudi-
ness, Which colors the liquid a brownish-red on boiling. Neither the alcohotic
nor aqueous solution contained sugar. These experiments prove that albu-
mina is acted on very powerfully by the ozonized air, losing, as it does, nearly
all the properties peculiar to albuminous compounds. The results are of
great interest physiologically, because they bear a close relation to the prop-
erties of the pectonous substances, the products described by Lehmann as
formed by the action of the ferment of the stomach on albuminates.

Casein is acted on as energetically as albumina, but without change of
color or formation of coagula; the final changes and products are the same
as those from albumina. At one stage of the process, while the solution is
not precipitated any more by acetic acid, thereby showing the absence of
soluble casein, it coagulates on boiling, like albumina, and is precipitated by

204 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

nitric acid. Milk treated with ozonized air, in a few days shows no casein,
while the fatty ingredients remain unchanged, and a good crop of sugar of
milk is obtained on evaporation. Fibrin is not fcted on by ozone.

NEW FACTS RESPECTING OZONE.

Oil of Bitter Almonds as an Ozonizer. —Schonbein, in his investigations on
ozonizing substances, has found in oil of bitter almonds an excellent medium
to induce the allotropic properties in atmospheric oxygen. In the following
we give a summary of the results arrived at in experimenting with this agent.

Arsenic in the form of metallic stains, as obtained by the Marsh apparatus,
readily disappears under access of air and solar light, when some oil of
bitter almonds is poured upon it, generally within five to ten seconds, at the
common temperature. The liquid resulting is decidedly acid, and shows the
reactions of benzoic and arsenic acid.

Antimonial stains treated in the same manner do not disappear, which fact
may be adopted to distinguish them from those of metallic arsenic.

Cadmium, in the form of thin sticks or lamina, on which oil of bitter
almonds has been poured and left in contact with, under direct sunlight and
access of air, is partly converted into benzoate of cadmia.

Lead is oxidized to binoxide by the oil of almonds in direct sunlight,
though this binoxide be almost immediately reduced to a benzoate of the
oxide.

Copper. A few drops of the oil of bitter almonds spread over a bright
piece of copper, in the direct light of the sun, causes a bluish-green color,
and the liquid soon solidifies into crystals of that color, which are a mixture
of benzoate of copper and benzoic acid.

Silver, treated in the same manner as copper, will soon give a reaction with
sulphuretted hydrogen, and form a crystalline mass of benzoate of silver
and benzoic acid.

Sulphide of Lead, in the state of a fresh precipitate, thinly spread on paper
and exposed to the direct action of light and air, is readily converted into
white sulphate by oil of bitter almonds.

Sulphide of copper, in the same manner, into sulphate.

Shaken with a solution of pure protosulphate of iron, oil of bitter almonds
produces a basic salt of the peroxide.

The above experiments prove that the ordinary oxygen is ozonized by
this oi] and light combined, in a similar manner as by phosphorus or by
electricity.

On the preparation of Ozone by Von Babo, and by Messrs. Bunsen and Magnus.
— The apparatus in which ozone is obtained by the combustion of phospho-
rus, permits of separating the gas from the phosphorus acid with which it is
ordinarily mixed. This result is attained by causing the gas to pass through
a solution of chromic acid. This acid not only oxidizes the phosphorous
acid, but, as Baumert has shown, it increases the quantity of ozone; for,
after the washing, there is more ozone than before, evidently because the
oxidation of phosphorous acid is itself a cause of ozonization.

Von Babo has succeeded in drying ozone so far as to render it anhydrous,
whence it follows that ozone, or at least this kind of ozone, cannot be con-
founded with the hydrogenated ozone HO3 discovered by Baumert. — Corre-
spondence of Silliman’s Journal.

Ozonometry in the Crimea.— During the Crimean war, the French army

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 205

physicians established three observatories for ozonometric, thermometric, and
other metcorological observations, morning and evening each day, and also
for keeping statistics of diseases and deaths. Dr. Berigny, of Versailles, has
in charge a reduction of the observations, and the following are his conclu-
sions on the subject of ozone.

1. The more the ozonometric test-papers were colored in the open air, the
more numerous were the sick that were taken to each of the hospitals. One
of these hospitals was situated at the general quarters at Sebastopol (Obser-
vatory No. 1), the second at the south border of the Inkerman plateau (Ob-
servatory No. 2).

2. The higher the temperature, the smaller the number of sick entered, and
also ef deaths.

3. At the three observatories, the ozone curve was essentially the same;
and 4, the same was true for the temperature.

5. At observatory No. 1, the less the ozone, the greater the number of
deaths, whilst at observatory No. 2, it was the reverse.

This is almost the only positive result which science and humanity have
derived from that destructive war, which has cost so much money and so
many lives. — Silliman’s Journal.

THEORY OF THE FORMATION OF DIAMONDS.—BY M. SIMMLER.

Brewster, in 1826, called attention to the expansible fluids frequently
inclosed in minerals, mostly in topaz, quartz, amethyst, but also, at times,
in cale-spar, celestin, heavy-spar, fluor-spar, and in diamonds. By examin-
ing these liquids, and the cavities of the last mentioned, Brewster was led to
the conclusion that the diamond was the congealed gummy secretion of a
vegetable; but, although the observations he made on the physical proper-
ties of those fluids are highly interesting, he came to no definite opinion as
to their nature.

The author, on the strength of the observations of Brewster and others,
advances the theory, that in most cases these fluids are liquid carbonic acid.
This assumption is, firstly, strengthened by the concurrent expansiveness of
those fluids, and liquid carbonic acid, which, for temperatures of from 10° to
27° C., is almost evenly 0°015 for each degree of temperature. When Brews-
ter investigated the subject, liquid carbonic acid had not been discovered by
Faraday. He, however, noticed that the liquids possessed the property of
refraction, in a much smaller degree than water, which Davy and Faraglay
found to be the case, also, with condensed carbonic acid. Thilorier and
Mitchell further describe this acid as not mixable with water, the same
property which Brewster noticed on the more expansible inclosed fluids, while
he found those of a less degree of expansibility to be chiefly water, or aqueous
solutions of solids or gases. ‘These data induced the author to presume that
the inclosed fluids, especially when expansible, were liquid carbonic acid;
and that it possesses the property of dissolving other substances, reconciles
this assumption with the fact that those mineral fluids, on evaporation, at
times deposit a precipitate. He further concludes, that the diamond is the
product of condensed carbon, crystallized from liquid carbonic acid. It is
known that diamonds not rarely show cavities, in which, according to all
appearances, a considerable pressure must have taken place. Supposing
these cavities to contain some kind of gas, there is no reason why this might
not be carbonic acid under a high pressure, and this theory would furnish a.

18

206 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ready explanation of the color-rings, with black crossing, observed by
Brewster around the cavities in diamonds, by supposing them to be caused
in a similar manner as those of unevenly compressed glass. The carbonic
acid, then, stands in the same relation to diamonds as the mother lye in-
closed in a number of native and artificial crystals. That there are large
quantities of carbonic acid under a high pressure in the body of our planet,
is shown by the immense quantities escaping at various localities, as, for
instance, at the springs of Nauheim (Hessia), where, according to Bunsen,
not less than a million pounds are annually carried to the surface.

Actual experiments, as to the solubility of carbon in liquid carbonic acid,
have, as yet, failed in the hands of the author. He has, however, no doubt
that numerous experiments in the same direction will be, and have been
made, the results of which should not be concealed from a fear of prejudice
against the scheme of diamond-making. Negative results are the more yal-
uable, as they prevent much unnecessary research in the same field. — Pog-
gendorff’s Annalen.

PREPARATION OF CALCIUM.

MM. Lies-Bodart and Jobin announce to the Academy of Sciences, at
Paris, that they have succeeded in preparing calcium in a purely chemical
way, by heating the iodide, with potassium, in an iron crucible, closed by a
cover screwed on air-tight.

This mode may, at present, be convenient to chemical professors and stu-
dents, who do not often see this metal, and the fact evolved, that this reac-
tion takes place under high pressure, which it does not under the pressure of
the atmosphere, may perhaps lead to results more important on the large
scale of industry.

LARGE SPECIMENS OF TITANIUM.

At a late meeting of the Manchester (England) Philosophical Society, Mr.
William Brockbank exhibited some large specimens of titanium, which have
recently been found in considerable quantities, filling the crevices and under
the hearths of the fire-brick linings of the furnaces of the Hematite Iron
Company, of Whitehaven. In one instance it occurred in a large mass
weighing nearly four cwts., under the furnace hearth, having found its way
through the crevices between the fire-bricks. Smaller masses, weighing
from fifty or sixty pounds to a few ounces, were found filling the hollows
and crevices in the lining of the furnace, around that part which holds the
molten metal. The occurrence of titanium in such large quantities is a new
and interesting circumstance, previous instances being confined to a few fur-
naces in South Wales (where hematite ore is used as a mixture), and to
some in the Hartz Mountains, in both of which cases the specimens found
were comparatively small.

ON THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL BY THE UCHATIUS PROCESS.

The following is an abstract of a paper and discussion on the above sub-
ject, reported from the ‘ Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engi-
neers,” by the London Civ. Eng. Journal, January 1859:

To compare the Uchatius with other processes, it must first be considered
what steel really is, and in what manner it may be produced. This point

”

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 207

may be illustrated by the following series, comprising the various degrees of
wrought iron, steel, and cast iron, arranged according to the amount of car-
bon in each, beginning with the softest wrought iron, that is, with iron con-
taining no carbon, or the least amount of carbon:

Soft wrought iron, containing 0-0 per cent. of carbon.

Hard wrought iron, MO 0.4 .
Soft steel, ee 0.5 a 3
Hard steel, oe 2.4 we “4
Cast iron, se 2.5 es
Hard cast iron, se 5.0 ef es

In this series, beginning with the softest wrought iron, containing little or
no carbon, the proportion of carbon increases until there is one-half per
cent., which then forms soft steel; a further increase of carbon, up to two
and one-half per cent., forms cast iron; and the proportion of carbon in-
creasing to five per cent., gives the hardest cast iron. Hence, it appears
that the operation of steel-making may be effected in two methods, — either
by adding a certain amount of carbon to pure wrought iron; or conversely,
by taking away a certain amount of carbon from cast iron, removing at the
same time the impurities of the cast iron,

The English, or converting process, is carried on according to the first of
these methods, by adding a certain amount of carbon to wrought iron. The
east iron is first made into wrought iron, which is then converted into steel,
forming blister steel; this is broken into small pieces and melted in cruci-
bles, which renders it homogeneous, and is then poured, while fluid, into
ingot moulds, after which it is known as cast steel. The chemical changes
which the cast iron has undergone in this process are — firstly, when it was
manufactured into wrought iron, all or nearly all the carbon was abstracted
from it; and secondly, by the converting process a certain amount of car-
bon was restored to it; and finally, the steel thus produced was made homo-
geneous by melting and casting. It is evident that this is a very circuitous
way of manufacturing cast stecl, and it has the following disadvantages:
the great loss of weight in manufacturing the cast iron into wrought, the
difficulty in converting the wrought iron so as to carbonize it equally in all
parts, the great length of time that this process requires for the production
of cast steel, and the great cost of manufacture.

The German, or puddling process, is effected by the converse method, by
taking away a certain amount of carbon from cast iron. The pig iron is
puddled in the same way as in making wrought iron, except that the process
is stopped when a certain amount of carbon has been taken away, a point
which it is difficult to judge of. This partially puddled iron, so-called pud-
dled steel, is then made homogeneous by melting it in crucibles in the ordi-
nary way. The chemical change which the cast iron has undergone by this
process is, the abstraction of a portion of the carbon in the puddling fur-
nace, and the puddled steel has then been rendered homogeneous by melting
and casting. The disadvantages of this method are—the waste of iron by
the puddling process; the uncertainty of getting equally discarbonized iron,
owing to the difficulty of measuring the quantity of oxygen acting on the
puddled metal; and also the cost of manufacture.

The Uchatius process is based upon the same principle as that last de-
scribed, consisting in taking away as much carbon only as is required to
produce steel, and removing at the same time the impurities of the cast iron.

208 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

The first and most important of these objects is effected by bringing a cer-
tain measured quantity of oxygen, in the shape of oxices of iron, in contact
with the tast iron, so that while the iron is hot the oxygen combines with
the carbon, and passes off in the form of carbonic acid gas. The purifica-
tion of the cast iron from silica, sulphur, magnesia, eic., is effected by
bringing the iron, when it is in a melted state, into contact with the alkaline
earths, so that the impurities combine with them, and remain floating on the
top of the melted metal.

In order to effect these two operations at the same time, the pig iron is
first melted in a furnace, or ordinary foundry cupola, and then run into a
cold water tank, where it is reduced into small granules. The mode in
which the granulation is performed is stated to be as follows: The cold
water tank has a horizontal wheel placed in it at one end, provided with
wooden floats dipping below the surface of the water, and driven at consid--
erable speed; the melted metal running into the tank from the furnace, falls
on the wheel, which scatters it in a finely divided state towards the deep
end of the tank, and it falls to the bottom in the form of small granules.
This granulated cast iron is mixed with pulverized oxide of iron and some
alkaline earths, and the whole put into the ordinary steel-melting crucibles,
and placed in the furnaces, and brought into a fluid state. The degree of
hardness of the steel is thus capable of being regulated by the size of the
granules, and by the quantity of oxides used.

The chemical change which takes place in the crucible is as follows:
Each granule being surrounded by the pulverized oxides, ete., the decarbon-
ization takes place first on the outside of each granule, and so progresses
towards the centre as the heat increases, the oxygen in the ores combining
with the carbon in the granules and passing off as carbonic acid gas; if,
therefore, during the process, the granule could be examined, it would be
found that the outside of each is entirely deprived of its carbon, the next
portion partially decarbonized, and the centre not decarbonized at all; so
that each granule would be composed of pure wrought iron, steel, and cast
iron. By increasing the heat, the cast iron centre portion of the granule
first becomes fluid, and the granule bursts, and falls by its own weight to
the bottom of the crucible. At the same time, the earths mixed with the
ores melt and rise to the top, forming a layer of scoria or dross floating on
the surface of the melted iron. Each granule of melted metal has therefore
in falling to pass through the rising scoria; and it is in the passing through
that the combination of the impurities of the metal with the alkaline earths
takes place, so that the decarbonized iron, on reaching the bottom of the
crucible, is cleansed from all impuritics. The heat continuing to increase,
melts the outside portions of the granules, and the whole is reduced to one
homogencous fluid mass in the crucible, which is then ready for being poured
into the ingot mould. The iron contained in the oxides mixes at the same
time with the fluid mass, and yields about six per cent. more of cast steel
than the weight of granules put into the crucible.

The oxides employed in this process are iron ores of the finest quality,
such as spathose and hematite, which are previously calcined and pulver-
ized. The proportion of the oxide to the granulated iron is according to
the hardness of steel required, say from twenty to thirty per cent.; the
greater the quantity of the oxide employed, the greater the decarbonization,
and consequently the softer will be the steel produced.

The process is attended with the following advantages: A rapid manu-

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 209

facture of cast steel, the pig iron being turned info cast steel in the space of
a few hours; certainty in producing a uniform quality of steel, that is, steel
containing a determinate proportion of carbon, which is accurately deter-
mined beforehand by the weight of oxide mixed with the granulated iron;
and less cost than the ordinary methods of making cast steel, since the
processes are fewer, and the materials used are simply pig iron and iron ores.

Some experiments in making cast steel by the Uchatius process have been
made at the Newburn Steel Works, near Newcastie-on-Tyne, from which it
appears there is little doubt that a very fine quality of cast steel can be pro-
duced at a cost little more than one-half of that entailed by the common
processes.

A specimen of steel bar was shown, made by the process described in the

aper, Which had been tested, and broke with a load of thirty ewt. at the
centre, the bar being one inch square, and three fect in length between the
bearings; the deflection was three and threc-eighths inches at the time of
breaking. A specimen was also exhibited showing the welding of the two
pieces of the steel, and specimens of the granulated iron and the pulverized
ore used in the manufacture, and of the bars and plates produced, with
some yolute springs made from the steel; also a piece of the steel twisted
cold, to show its toughness.

Mr. T. Spencer said that he had not tested the tensile strength of the steel
at present, but found it stood well in the volute springs that had been made
of it, which had proved quite satisfactory in working. Only some small
plates had been rolled from the steel at present as a trial, but these had
proved quite satisfactory; and he did not anticipate any difficulty in mak-
ing any size required. It would be observed in the specimen exhibited, that
the plate was quite sound on the edges, although it had not been rolled
edzeways, but simply rolled down lengthways. No wire has yet been made
from it; the bars and plates made had been hammered and rolled down from
the ingots of cast steel. The total cost of the finished bars was about one-
half of that by the ordinary process; but where the makers hammered and
rolled their own steel, and the cost of the ingot only had to he compared,
the proportion would be considerably less.

Mr. W. Fairbairn thought this process was a very important step in steel
manufacture, and would prove of great advantage in the construction of
machinery, if a sound uniform steel could be obtained at a moderate price.
The bar of the new cast steel that was exhibited certainly showed great
strength, having sustained nearly three times as great a weight as iron; and
he thought in process of time they might reasonably expect to obtain plates
cast and rolled of that manufacture at least double the strength of the pres-
ent wrought-iron boiler plates for the same thickness, and not much more
expensive for the strength; and it had now become a very important desi-
deratum to get plates for boilers only half the thickness at present used, as
the thinner plates were so much less liable to injury from overheating and
unsoundness in manufacture.

Mr. T. S. Prideaux thought the dropping of the melted iron into water, in
the process of granulating it, would have a beneficial effect in assisting to
free the metal from sulphur, by the metal coming in contact with water in a
red-hot state; the plan had been tried in Austria, he believed, with success.
It was not at all easy to separate sulphur from iron by simple exposure to

1s*

210 ANNUAL OF -SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

oxygen in atmospheric air; and he thought the plunging of the highly-
heated granules in water would be the means of removing the sulphur, to a
considerable extent, from the iron.

Mr. W. Smith thought the process that had been tried in Austria was that
of Capt. Uchatius now described; the plan of granulation seemed a very
ingenious and important step towards obtaining steel by the direct process
of decarbonizing, and offered the best chance of carrying that process to a
successful and economical result. Great advances were being made at the
present time in steel manufacture, and they were doubtless greatly indebted
for these advances to the investigation of the subject that had been excited
by the publication of Mr. Bessemer’s plans, although he had not succeeded
in all that he had attempted himself; and they were also much indebted to
Mr. Binks for having called more minute attention to the chemical princi-
ples involved in the manufacture of steel. The new process described in the
paper appeared to have effected a great success in obtaining cast steel by
the direct process; and if the uniformity of quality could be*maintained,
the economy of manufacture would allow of the use of cast steel being ex-
tended to many important new applications, such as boiler plates, and steel
wire for the manufacture of telegraph cables.

Mr. A. Lenz explained, respecting the process, in the absence of Capt.
Uchatius, that the only object in dropping the melted iron into the water
was to effect its granulation, and not for the purpose of depriving it of sul-
phur. The process of this manufacture of steel was to decarbonize the cast
iron by the action of oxides under a high temperature, the great object
being to expose the largest possible surface of the iron to this action, and
by granulation this object was obtained to a remarkable extent. As to the
actual composition of the steel, Capt. Uchatius had come to the conclusion,
from the results of his observations, that the best steel required some small
portion of what are considered impurities, such as sulphur, silica, ete.; and
that chemically pure steel was not the result to be aimed at, and he had
found that even with one-fourth per cent. of sulphur the steel was of good
quality. The great desideratum was to make steel at a very cheap price;
and he had hopes it might even be practical to apply it ultimately to the
manufacture of railway bars,

Mr. A. Lenz said that only the good qualities of iron were attempted to be
used for steel-making by the Uchatius process, and the Indian and Swedish
iron was principally used, containing very little trace of phosphorus, as it
was doubtful whether any phosphorus could be removed in the process.

In Chenot’s process, the principle was to employ pure magnetic iron ore in
powder, which was found in a few situations in the Pyrenees in a natural
state of powder, and was separated by a machine from the earths mixed
with it. This powder was put into a furnace like a cupola, within a tube in
the centre, protecting the ore from the fuel, and exposed to a great heat;
the powder then became in a spongy state, by reduction to nearly pure iron,
but was not able to melt. It was then compressed cold with great force
under a hydraulic press, to solidify the mass, and was finally carbonized by
covering with mixtures of oils and other carbonaceous substances, and
mclied in a close crucible. He doubted the process being adapted for the
actual manufacture of steel on any large scale, and thought it more suitable
for the laboratory than the shop. Various articles have been made of the

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. pe

steel for trial, which he believed were of a good quality, although he thought
there was not any regular manufactory carried on.

Mr. W. Fairbairn had seen the process in operation two years since in
Paris, and the steel that was manufactured by that means was of good
quality; but the process was carried out only on a small scale, and seemed
scarcely suitable for any wholesale manufacture.

Mr. T. Spencer observed, that a magnetic machine was employed to sepa-
rate the iron from the earthy matter, when in the state of powder, as found
naturally. The pig iron was broken into six or eight inch pieces, and was
at first put into the cupola for melting in the ordinary way; but they had
now constructed a furnace for the purpose, as the ordinary cupola rather
inereased the proportion of sulphur in the metal by absorbing some from
the fuel; the new furnace was a kind of reverberatory furnace, melting the
iron in a chamber separate from the fire. The fluid metal was then run into
the granulating tank; and the granules of iron were collected at the bottom
of the tank by drawing off the water.

ON THE HARDNESS OF METALS AND ALLOYS.

The following paper read before the Philosophical Society of Manchester,
England, by Prof. F. Grace Calvert, we obtain from the Journal of the Society
of Arts, No. 314.

The process at present adopted for determining the comparative degree of
hardness of bodies, consists in rubbing one body against another, and that
which indents or scratches the other is admitted to be the harder of the two
bodies experimented upon. Thus, for example:

Diamond, Quartz, Iron, Tin,
Topaz, Steel, Copper, Lead.

This method is not only very unsatisfactory in its results, but it is also in-
applicable for determining with precision the various degrees of hardness
of the different metals and their alloys. We therefore thought that it would
be useful and interesting if we were to adopt a process which would enable
us to represent by numbers the comparative degrees of hardness of various
metals and their alloys.

To carry out these views, we devised the following apparatus and method
of operating. The machine used is on the principle of a lever, with this im-
portant modification, that the piece of metal experimented upon can be
relieved from the pressure of the weight employed without removing the
weight from the end of the longer arm of the lever. The machine consists
of a lever, with a counterpoise and a plate, on which the weights are grad-
ually placed; the fulcrum bears on a square bar of iron, passing through
supports. The bar is graduated, and has at its end a conical steel point, 7
mm. or 0°275 of an inch long, 5 mm. or 0°197 of an inch wide at the base, and
1°25 mm. or 0°049 of a inch wide at the point which bears on the piece of
metal to be experimented on, and this is supported on a solid piece of iron.
The support, or point of resistance, is lowered or ra‘sed by a screw, and
when, therefore, this serew is turned, the whole of the weight on the lever is
borne by the support and the screw. When it is necessary, by turning the
screw, the weight on the lever is reéstablished on the bar, and experimented
upon.

212 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

When we wished to determine the degree of hardness of a substance, we
placed it on the plate, and rested the point upon it, noticing the exact mark
on the bar, and then gradually added weights on the end of the lever until
the steel point entered 3°5 mm. or 0°128 of an inch during half an hour, and
then read off the weight. A result was never accepted without at least two
experiments being made, which corresponded so far as to present a difference
of only a few pounds. The following table gives the relative degree of hard-
ness vf some of the more common metals. We specially confine our
researches to this class, wishing the results to be practically useful to
engineers and others who have to employ metals, and often require to know
the comparative hardness of metals and alloys.

Names of Metals. | Weight employed. artes Iron

Staffordshire Ccld Blast saa Iron | |

ace No 8. gy 4800 Ibs. 1000
Steel, - - : 5 4600? 958?
W rought Iron,* - ° . : 4550 948
Platinum, Z “ Bei hae 1800 375
Copper — pure, . . : “ : 1445 301
Aluminum, 5 - iS : 1300 201
Silver—pure, . 5 7 . : 1000 208
Zine, “: 5 3 : 5 ° 880 183
Gold, eee ele nS 800 167
Cadmium, ‘ : ; : = 520 108
Bismuth, : 2 : 5 250 52
Tin, gids + : : 130 27
Lead, a as c ¢ : : 75 16

This table exhibits a curious fact, viz., the high degree of hardness of cast
iron as compared with that of all other metals; and although we found alloys
which possessed an extraordinary degree of hardness, still none were equal
to cast iron.

The first series of alloys we shall give, is that of copper and zinc.

“ Weight | Obtained Cast !Cal
Formule of Alloys and per centages. Empley . a. | eines 1000 ts of Comic
: Cu 82 95 2 5
mca, {yn ipcet - - + | 20501bs | 42708 280-88
Cu 79 56
ZnCu, {7h 5048} 2250 468-75 276°82
. Cu 74:48
“Ce aaa 2 a a 2250 468-75 276 04
Cu 66 06
Zn Cu, {70 3394} fies 70 472-92 261-04
Cu 49-32 ;
1 os taal rie 2900 604 17 243-83
Cu Zn f Cu 82°74 : .
2 1Zn 6726 } Broke — 1500 Ibs. without the point en-
Cu 24-64 terin
Cu Zn, | Zn 75 a, ° - | Broke with 1500 Ibs. with an impression }
Cu 1957 mm. deep.
Be Zn, { Zn 80-43 . «+ | Entered a little more than the above; broke |
ps 40m 1620) with 2000 Ibs.
| ob {zn 83°70 § * + | Entered 2 mm. with 1500 Ibs. ; broke 1700 tbs.

* This wrought iron was made from the above mentioned cast iron.

+ To calculate the hardness of an alloy, we multiplied the per centage quantity of
each metal by the respective hardness of that metal, added the two results together,
and divided by 100. The quotient is the theoretical hardness.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 213

These results show that all the alloys containing an excess of copper are
much harder than the metals composing them, and, what is not less interest-
ing, that the increased degree of hardness is due to the zinc, the softer metal
of the two which compose these alloys. The quantity of this metal must,
however, not exceed 50 per cent. of the alloy, or the alloy becomes so brittle
that it breaks as the steel point penetrates. We believe that some of these
alloys, with an excess of zinc, and which are not found in commerce, owing
to their white appearance, deserve the attention of engineers. There is in
this series an alloy to which we wish to draw special attention, viz., the alloy
Cu Zn composed in 100 parts of

@OMBET Nercieiec sSaisieicra'e s[eieis « ce'8 ABDooodcL Ube HEdddoouoEobCOCsBosoceo |. CEHEe
Sete Ne os tiga 5 sic e waa acim Goan eas Cee heed tat claleas 6 Seieneae . 50°68
100-00

Although this alloy contains about 20 per cent. more zinc than any of the
brasses of commerce, still it is, when carefully prepared, far richer in color
than the ordinary alloys of commerce. The only reason that we can give
why it has not been introduced into the market is, that when the amount of
zinc employed exceeds 33 per cent., the brass produced becomes so white
that the manufacturers have deemed it advisable not to exceed that propor-
tion. If, however, they had increased the quantity to exactly 50°68 per cent.
and mixed the metals well, they would have obtained an alloy as rich in
color as if it had contained 90 per cent. of copper, and of a hardness three
times as great as that given by calculation. In order to enable engineers to
form an opinion as to the value of this cheap alloy, we give them the degrees
ot hardness of several commercial brasses:

Weisht Cast Iron = 10090.

employed.

Commercial Brasses.

Obtained. Calculated.
Copper, 82:05 lbs.
“Large Bearing,” Sin tales
Zine, 5-13 2700 562 259
Copper, 80-00
‘Mud Plugs,” *Tin, 10:00
Zine, 1000 3600 750 262
- , Cc *Q
“ Yellow Brass,” pinens 33 00 2500 520 258
{ Copper, 80 .
; : } * Tin 50
‘Pumps and Pipes,” Zine, 7-50
Lead, 7:50 1650 343 257

The alloy Cu Zn possesses another remarkable property, viz., the facility
with which it is capable of crystallizing in prisms half an inch in length, of
extreme flexibility. There is no doubt that this alloy is a definite chemical
compound, and not a mixture of metals, as alloys are generally considered
to be. Our researches on the conductibility of heat by alloys, recently pre-
sented to the Royal Society, leave no doubt that many alloys are definite
chemical compounds.

* These alloys all contain tin.

214 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

On Bronze seniiatia :

7 |
Formule of Alloys and Percentages. | Weight Employed. “oman Cat | gene,
Cu_ OTe Veh Pa
Cu Sn, Sn 90-21 Sia 400 Ibs. 88:33 51-67
u Fs .
Cu Sn, | si $814 } ON 460 65:81 59°56
u 15:2 ao ne
Cu Sn, | sn si 79 ehhanece 500 104-17 68-75
MU 21° - -
CuSn, {§"75 ay 650 135°42 84-79
Cu Sn \ re “a eS . |At me pounds the point entered one-half and the
= alloy broke
Sn Cu, | es aed } . |At 800 pounds the alloy broke without the point
2 Cu 6-79 entering.
Sn Cu, \ Sn 33-91} Mee ates wt ba eee the alloy broke in small pieces
2 ae ue alloy)
Sn Cu bee see sos « |At 1300 pounds divided the alloy in two, point
4 Cu =.) | not entering 1 am.
Sn Cu, | Sn 97-40 f . . « |The same as the preceding.
o x
Sn Cu,,{ Su ne 4400 | 91666 257-08
Sn Cu,, | on tas} 710 772-92 270-883
gaida (en seit ee 3070 639-58 277-70
Sn Cu, § CU 9317 | 2890 602-08 279-16
25 Sn 6°83 5 an 53 :

The results obtained from this series of alloys lead to several conclusions
deserving our notice. First, the marked softness of all the alloys containing
an excess of tin; secondly, the extraordinary fact that an increased quantity
of so malleable a metal as copper should so suddenly render the alloy brittle,
for the

Alloy Cu Sng, or

a
whilst the alloy Cu Sn, or

AOD POLS casts icra cloves eau t esavecete ie ete aioe lasccg ahatevetee.e 84:98

meee Rie Oh pra We) cae ee NR YY 65 502} is brittle.

Therefore, the addition of 14 per cent. of copper renders a bronze alloy brit-
tle. This curious fact is observed in all the alloys with excess of copper,
Sn Cuz, Sn Cu3, Sn Cut, Sn Cu5, until we arrive at one containing a great
excess of copper, viz., the alloy Sn Cut, consisting of copper 84°68 and tin
15°32, when the brittleness ceases; but, strange to say, this alloy, which con-
tains four-fifths of its weight of copper, is, notwithstanding, nearly as hard
as iron. This remarkable influence of copper in the bronze alloys is also
visible in those composed of

Sn Cus, containing 88-97 of cope

SnCu cory eee eee

Sn Cu,., 2 98-17 *

Copper acquires such an increased degree of hardness by being alloyed
with tin or zinc, that we thought it interesting to ascertain if alloys com-
posed of these two metals would also have a greater degree of hardness than
that indicated by theory; we accordingly had a series of alloys prepared in
equivalent quantities, and these are the results arrived at:

‘CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 215
{ -
Formule of Alloys and per . Obtained Cast Calculated Cast |
| centages of each. hed iba he i Tron=1000. Tron=L40.
Zn 21-65 € i
Zn Sn, |’ Jn pepe Sis 300 Ibs. 64-50 60-63
n 80°60 tr 2.7
Zn Sn {Sn ct 40 | ot: 330 68°75 &2°70
i -23 |
Sn Zn, a 52: 51S a ca 400 83:38 119 00 |
Sn Zn, { Zu san, fe iaflietl 450 93-70 124-58
sn 3l- 14 5-2 Qe 2 |
Sn Zn, { She ee f. ele 506 105-20 131-2
Sn Zn, ion a at ee 600 125-00 142-08
Sn 15 32 . 20: oe
Sn Zn, | Zn a ae cua | 580 | 120-33 158 33

These results show that these metals exert no action’on each other, as the
numbers indicating the degrees of hardness of their alloys are rather less
than those required by theory. Our researches on the conductibility of heat
by the three above series of alloys, throw, we believe, some light on the great
difference which the alloys of bronze present, as compared with those of tin
and zinc; for we have stated above, that the latter conduct heat as a mix-
ture of metals would do, and not as the former series, which conduct heat as
definite chemical compounds.

We shall conclude by giving the degree of hardness of two other series of
alloys, viz., those composed of lead and antimony, and lead and tin. In the
series of lead and tin, we find that tin also increases the hardness of lead,
but not in the same degree as it does that of copper.

Lead and Antimony

. |

Formule of Alloys and percentages. |Weight employed.

- Pb 24°31 Entered 2°5 mm. with 800 lbs.;
ie sb, {Spiseop ° ibs; then broke. ‘|
Pb Sb eS meer Entered 2:7 mm. with 800 Ibs.;)

4 SD ee broke with 900 Ibs.
| > . 6 a
Pb Sb, |spesia} °° 875
Pb Sb ae oe \Entered 2:5 mm. with 500 lbs.;
2 a rd i broke with 600 Ibs.
: > 6
Pb Sb {&p 35-30 | ane 500 |
Pb 76°32), :
Sb Pb, { Sp 53-08 | 385
Pb 82:80
Sb Pb, isp ee 310 |
Pb 86:52
Sb Pb, Ip 158 | a 300
: *b 88-92
BRED, | Sb 1-08 f i =| ae

ON THE CHEMICAL CHANGES WHICH PIG IRON UNDERGOES DURING
ITS CONVERSION INTO WROUGHT IRON.

The following important communication has been made by Messrs. Cal-
vert and Johnson, of England, to the L. LE. and D. Philosophical Magazie :

216 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Wishing to make some improvements in the manufacture of iron, we care-
fully examined the various analyses which had been made of pig iron and
wrought iron; but we found that no comparison could be made between the
recorded results, as the samples analyzed had been obtained from different
sources, and as also no detailed analysis had been published of the various
chemical changes which pig iron undergoes in the process of puddling, dur-
ing its conversion into wrought iron. We therefore decided to undertake
this task, with the hope of throwing some light upon this important opera-
tion in the manufacture of iron, and of thereby enabling practical men to
make those improvements in the puddling of iron which, on many accounts,
are so much to be desired. To closely follow the progressive changes which
pig iron undergoes during its conversion into wrought iron, we took samples
every five or ten minutes, after the pig iron had melted in the furnace.
These chemical actions are clearly defined in the furnace, by the peculiar
appearance which the mass assumes as the operation proceeds.

It is necessary that we should describe, in a rapid manner, the physical
conditions which pig iron assumes during its conversion into wrought iron.
When first heated in the puddling furnace, it forms a thick, pasty mass,
which gradually becomes thin, and as fluid as mercury. When it has reached
this point, it experiences a violent agitation, technically termed the “ boil,”
which is produced, no doubt, by the oxidation of the carbon, and the escape
of the carbonic oxide then generated. During this period of the operation,
the mass swells to several times its primitive bulk, and the puddler quickly
agitates the melted mass, to facilitate the oxidation of the carbon. After a
short time the mass gradually subsides; the puddler then changes his tool,
and takes the “puddle,” to gather with it the granules of malleable iron
floating in the melted mass of scoria or slag. The granules or globules of
iron gradually weld together, and separate from the scoria; and this separa-
tion is hastened by the puddler gradually forming large masses, called balls,
weighing about eighty pounds, from which the scoria drains out. This part
of the operation requires great skill in the puddler; for nearly the whole of
the carbon has been oxidized; so that if the current of air is not managed
with great care, the iron itself is oxidized, or, as it is technically termed,
“burnt;” and thus not only does great loss ensue in the quantity of mallea-
ble iron produced, but also the iron containing a certain quantity of oxide
of iron, is brittle, and of bad quality.

We shall now examine the various chemical changes which pig iron
undergoes dyring its conversion into wrought iron.

The iron we took for our experiments was a good cold-blast Staffordshire
iron; the pig was rather gray, being of the quality used for making iron
wire, ora gray No. 3. Its composition was as follows:

First analysis. Second analysis. Mean.

LOO -5 sacle Sonseneoraee arc voce 42 2320 2-280 2:275

SUDCHII TW Baa ngacgse Sain wa te ietare latest ee 2 670 2°720

PPE DAOTUS, cf csbs.s ssi sae hee Jee sis bee 0-710 0 645

SUD ITS Soap arDSaDenaanoon saceewe ale 0:288 0-301

Manganese and aluminum,.... ... traces traces

Spar esa ciiees ts ioc icbes cena . .94:059 94-059 94.059
100:047 99-957 100-000

Two hundred and twenty-four pounds of the above pig iron were intro-
duced at 12 o’clock, on the 4th of April, 1856, into a puddling furnace which

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 217

had been cleaned out with malleable iron scraps. After thirty minutes, the
pigs began to soften and to be easily crumbled, and ten minutes more had
hardly elapsed when they entered into a state of fusion. The first sample
was taken out of the. furnace at 12h. 40m. p.M., from the centre of the
melted mass, with a large iron ladle, and poured on a stone flag to cool.

On breaking the sample as taken out of the furnace, it had no longer the
appearance of gray No. 3 pig iron, but a white, silvery, metallic fracture,
similar to that of refined metal. The rapid cooling of the sample was no
doubt the cause of the change noticed, for it contained quite as much carbon
as the pig iron used; and further, the carbon was in avery similar condition,
as in both cases a large quantity of black flakes of carbon floated in the acid
liquors in which the iron was dissolved. The following is the amount of
carbon and silicium which the above sample contained per cent. :

First analysis. Second analysis. Mean.

WALD OMG H axe cae sisiele eves se sates reee role 2:780 2°726
SUL SUT Ao eR aCe Janeane Hee 0°893 0 938 0°915

These results are highly interesting, as they show that the iron had under-
gone, during the forty minutes which it had been in the furnace, two opposite
chemical changes; for whilst the proportion of carbon had increased, the
quantity of silicium had rapidly decreased. This curious fact is still further
brought out by the sample which we took out of the furnace at 1 P. M., or
twenty minutes later than the last sample analyzed, as is shown in this table:

Carbon. Silicium.
Pig iron used,........000 scseeees Gna aiereieasita/sisietas 2-275 2-720
First sample taken out at 12h. 40m.,............. 2°726 0-915
Second sample taken out at lh. 0Om.,............. 2/905 0-197

Therefore the carbon had increased 0°625, or 21°5 per cent. of its own
weight, and the silicium had decreased in the enormous proportion of above
90 per cent. Itis probable that these opposite chemical actions are due, in
the case of the carbon, to the excess of this element in a great state of di-
vision, or in a nascent state in the furnace, and that under the influence of
the high temperature it combines with the iron, for which it has a great
affinity, whilst the silicium and a small portion of iron are oxidized and com-
bined together, to form protosilicate of iron, of which the scoria or slag
produced during this first stage of puddling consists, and which plays such
an important part in the remaining phenomena of the puddling process.

Second Sample, taken out of the furnace at 1h. Om. P. M.
This sample contained the following quantities of carbon and silicium:

First analysis. Second analysis. Mean.

EOE rere vere ance ass dee cutee = eee ier 2-900 2.905
PPECVNHT,. cess wie /= Sobncuacece cos = 0 226 0-168 0°197

It had the same white, silvery appearance as No. 1; but had this differ-
ence, that it was slightly malleable under the hammer, instead of being
brittle like No.1. The scoria also was on the upper surface of the mass
when cold, and not mixed with the metallic iron, as in succeeding examples,

19

218 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Third Sample, taken out at 1h. 5m. P.M.

The mass in the furnace having become very fluid, and beginning to swell,
or enter into the state called ‘‘the boil,” a small quantity was ladled out.
When cold, it was quite different from that of the two previous ones, being
composed of small globules adhering to each other, and mixed with the
scoria; the mass, therefore, was not compact, like the former ones, but was
light and spongy; its external appearance was black, and the small globules,
when broken, presented a bright metallic lustre, and were very brittle under
the hammer. We had for some time considerable difficulty in separating the
scoria from the globules of iron; but we found that by pulverizing the whole
for a long time, the scoria was reduced to impalpable powder, and by siey-
ing we could separate it from the iron, which was much less friable. The
iron thus cleansed from its scoria gave us the following results:

First analysis. Second analysis. Mean.

CATE ONS 5 andashsosnoodocoute Soto nD 2rne 2°421 2°444
SHITHITM Ss sercdh nose Jeera ... 0188 0-200 0-194

Fourth Sample, taken out at 1h. 20m. P. M.

As soon as the last sample had been taked out, the damper of the furnace
was slightly raised, so as to admit a gentle current of air, which did away
with the smoke which had been issuing from the puddler’s door, and a clear
and bright flame was the result. This was done, no doubt, to facilitate the
oxidation of the carbon of the iron, and to increase this action the puddler
quickly agitated the mass. Under these two actions, the mass swelled up
rapidly, and increased to at least four or five times its original bulk; and at
ih. 20m., the mass being in full boil, this fourth sample was taken out.
Whilst cooling, it presented the interesting fact, that in various parts of it
small blue flames of oxide of carbon were perceived, no doubt arising from
the combustion of carbon by the oxygen of the atmosphere. It is curious
that this phenomenon was not observed in the previous samples. It is due
probably to the following causes: first, that the cast iron, having been
brought by the boil to a stateof minute division, offers a large surface to the
action of the oxygen of the air, and thus the combination of the oxygen
with the carbon of the iron is facilitated: and second, that at this period the
carbon seems to possess little or no affinity for-the iron; for one of us has
often observed that when pig iron, rich in graphite, is puddled, the carbon is
liberated from the iron; for if a cold iron rod is plunged into the mass of
melted iron in the puddling furnace, it is covered with iron and abundant
shining scales of graphite carbon.

The appearance of this No. 4 sample was most interesting; and the best
idea that we can give of it is, that it is so light, and formed of such minute
granules, as to be exactly like an ant’s nest. The particles have no adherence
to each other, for by merely handling of the mass it falls into pieces. This
is due to each particle of iron being intimately mixed with scoria. The
granules of iron have a black external appearance, are very brittle under the
hammer, and when broken they present a bright, silvery, metallic fracture.
The scoria was separated by the method above described for No. 3, and the
quantities of carbon and silicium which the iron contained were as follows:

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 219

First analysis. Second analysis. Mean.
@arbon,.. <<. @eeeeereeseeeeeseeneeseeeaene 2-335 2:276 2.305
SiliciuM,. ....ccceveseesrececceces -. 0187 0-178 0-182

Fifth Sample, taken out at 1h. 35m. P.M.

This sample is a most important one in the series, as itis the first in which
the iron is malleable, and flattens when hammered. It was ladled out of the
furnace just as the boil was completed, and the swollen mass began to sub-
side. The damper at the top of the chimney was drawn up, so that a very
rapid draft was established through the furnace. The puddler also changed
his tool, leaving the rubble, and taking the puddle to work with. When cold,
it partakes of the appearance of Nos. 3 and 4 samples, the mass being
spongy and brittle, as in No. 4, but less granulated, and like No. 3, being in
separate globules, mixed with the scoria. The granules are black externally,
but are bright and metallic when flattened. The analysis of these globules
proves that the mass of iron in the furnace has lost during the quarter of an
hour which has elapsed since the taking of No. 4 sample, a large proportion
of its carbon, equal to 20 per cent. of its weight, while the silicium, on the
contrary, has remained nearly stationary.

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.
@arponsacielss sels JoeeHet oooe noe c 1-614 1-681 1:647
PRI GUIDO, vetsiclgccletsieiraielcraysisiaiciale/=ais 0-188 0178 0:185

Sixth Sample, taken out at 1h 40m Pp. M.

The reason why this sample was taken out only five minutes after the last
sample, was, that the mass in the furnace was rapidly transforming itself
into two distinct products, viz., the scoria on the one hand, and small glob-
ules of malleable iron on the other. We attached some importance to this
sample, as the workman was on the point of beginning the balling or agglo-
merating the globules of iron, so as to form large balls, of about eighty
pounds weight, to be hammered and rolled out into bars. Whilst the mass
taken out for analysis was cooling, small blue flames of oxide of carbon
issued from it. These were similar to those observed in Nos. 4 and 5, but
were not so abundant. The appearance of this sample was very similar to
the iast one, with the exception that the scoria was not so intimately mixed
with the globules of iron, and that these were larger, and slightly welded
together when hammered. The proportions of carbon and silicium were as
follows:

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.
WALDO, cieoe cre oblele s.sieets everest 1-253 1-160 1-206
Silicium, {6.64.8 008ae 55.5) 200s 0-160 0-163

When these figures are compared with those of the previous analysis, it is
interesting to observe, that whilst the silicium remains nearly stationary, the
carbon rapidly diminishes; for in the five minutes which elapsed between
the taking out of the two samples, there was twenty-eight per cent. of the
carbon burnt out. This rapid decrease of carbon in the iron is maintained
during the remaining ten minutes of puddling. In fact, in one quarter of an
hour, viz., from 1h 35m to 1h 50m., the iron lost fifty per cent. of the carbon
which it contained at lh 35m.

Seventh Sample, taken out at 1h 45m P. M.
This sample was obtained when the puddler had begun to ball. The

220 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

appearance of the sample, although similar to the last, differs from it by the
granules being rather larger, and nearly separated from the scoria, which
forms a layer at the top and bottom of the mass. These granules are also
much more malleable, for they are easily flattened under the hammer. This
last fact is easily accounted for by the small amount of carbon which it con-
tains, as stated above and shown by these results:

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.

Carbony..s.csceseeees Rene 1-000 0.927 0-963
Silicium,....... Tc 0s RASeme. et 0 160 0167 0-163

Eighth Sample, taken out at 1h 50m p. mM.

This last sample was taken a few minutes before the balls were ready to
be removed from the furnace, to be placed under the hammer, and was a
part of one of the balls, which were separated and placed to cool. It was
observed that no blue flame issued from the mass as it cooled. The appear-
ance of the sample showed that the mass constituting the ball was still
spongy, and granulated similar to the previous ones. The only difference
was, that the granules adhered together sufficiently to require a certain
amount of force to separate one from the other, and also that they were
much more malleable under the hammer. They were found to contain the
following quantities of carbon and silicium per cent.:

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.
Warbon.asescses oes nddoanopoomade 0-771 0-778 0-772
SELIG LADINA SL cays ofayols alee aol a sills «oie O°170 0:167 0168

We should observe here, that the black coating which covers the granules
of iron, even of No.8 sample, preserves the iron from all oxidation; for
none of the samples became oxidized during the nine months they were in
the laboratory, exposed to the atmosphere, and to the various acid fumes
floating about. This black coating is probably composed of a saline oxide
of iron.

Ninth Sample. — Puddled Bar.

The balls taken out of the furnace were hammered, and then rolled into
bars, and in these we found the following:

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.

SCAT DON A. caivic sce pmcicein seh ais Sane 0-291 0:301 0-296
DSRMICHNE 5 5, vias iacctatesaerele mises eae 0-130 0-110 0.120
BSUEAPUIS «5 'chsie hain sme aiviwie scene amet 0-142 " 0°126 0°134
SOB DIOTUS is wis's'¢ sino ne s.tentaen 0-189 0-139

Tenth Sample.— Wire Iron.

The puddled bars were cut into billets of about four feet in length, and
heated in a furnace to a white heat, and then rolled into wire iron. The
proportion of carbon, silicium, sulphur, and phosphorus, were as follows:

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.

RUSE DON Sr ai6 eich He bleles ieee ee eereee 0-100 0-122 0-111
SME MEIRIE Dy co's 5 a Aie:so o7eiminnals Ooi eMIE 0-095 0:082 0 088
SONIA TUT Vaiets cise isis. is ear cies CORE 0-093 0 096 0-094
ASP HEIG: «oi. f2\<\e'eaid ds Sate sind 0-117 0-117

To complete the series of products in the conversion of pig iron into

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 221

wrought iron, we analyzed the scoria or slag which remained in the furnace
after the balls had been taken out, and found its composition to be as follows:

SHUG SEGEECOOLODC OND DEBUT OC On eae atts Bye ek 16°53
Protoxide of iron,...... BAL CLlonence Spon BdeDOL 66°23
Sulphuret ofiron,...... Acope edaeecocooncoe Bea eaha!
EZHOSPH OIC ACI -aroteieiorsiaieiaio(eiolo! iaieis) olajaiat ofole/aks\laiet> 8-80
Protoxide Of Manganese, ...0..ccecerssccccssrs 4:90
PANTERA a ci stcialo\ciais)ctsinis alesiaislee ~Coeaigndaconeuneel 1:04
BOA Cyeratetaie eiaielcscie oe aiaieia}sisie soe ceooce eis aieiga st O00

100.00

Therefore, in the scoria are found the silicium, phosphorus, sulphur, and
manganese, which existed in the pig iron; and probably the phosphorus
and silicium are removed from the iron by their forming fusible compounds
with its oxide.

We shall conclude this paper by giving our results in a tabulated form, so
that the removal of the carbon and silicium may be better appreciated by
those who may consult it with the view of obtaining such information as
may lead them to those improvements to which we think our investigations
tend.

Pig Iron used. Time. Carbon. Silicium.
2°275 2°720
Sample No. 1 12-40 2-726 0-915
¢e “ 2 1-0 2.905 0-197
‘ & 3 15 2-444 0-194
‘“ “ 4 1:20 2-305 0-182
66 6 5 1°35 1-647 0-183
‘sc ‘“ 6 1:40 1-206 0-163
3 “ 7 1:45 0°963 0-163
a & 8 3°50 0-772 0-168
Puddled bar, 9 0-296 0°120
Wireiron, 10 0-111 0-088

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL.

Morgan’s Improvement in Iron Smelting.— This invention relates to the
smelting of iron ores, in which the quantity of alumina present is equal to,
or exceeds, one-half the quantity of silica; and the invention consists in em-
ploying as a flux in the blast-furnace, when smelting such ores, sandstone,
sand, or, in fact, any other matter which contains silica in a comparatively
pure form — that is to say, where the proportion of that substance is about
seventy per cent.; any substance containing less than this would be alto-
gether unsuitable as a flux, according to this invention, owing to the in-
crease of fuel it requires, and also the large quantity of impurities which
would be introduced by it into the furnace. When-ores containing silica in
a quantity less than double the alumina are smelted in the ordinary manner,
the alumina renders the slag infusible and thick, and the working of the fur-
nace is imperfect, while the iron becomes at the same time deteriorated. In
carrying out his invention, Mr. Morgan operated upon ore known as Cleve-
land iron-stone, which ore contains of alumina 7.96, and of silica 8.62. Now
when, according to this invention, iron ores are employed which contain
certain proportions of silica and alumina different from that above, the

19*

222 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 3

quantity of sandstone should be regulated so that the silica and alumina in
the charge may bear to each other the same, or nearly the same, proportion,
as was the case with the Cleveland iron-stone, which was as follows: Cal-
cined iron-stone, 11 cwt.; sandstone containing ninety-three per cent. of
silica, 13 cwt.; limestone, contaning fifty-three per cent. of silica, 4 cwt.
This invention consists in adjusting the proportion of the silica and alumina
in the charge by the addition of silica, where ores are employed which do
not contain such a quantity of silica (when combined with lime to form a
slag) as will carry down the alumina which the ore contains, and at the
same time produce a sufficiently fluid slag. In this manner Mr. Morgan is
enabled to smelt ores of this description as advantageously as ores which
naturally contain silica and alumina in such proportions as to produce fluid
or fusible slag. It will be seen that the principal feature in this method con-
sists in employing silica as a flux. Now, as has been remarked, the use of
silica is as well known, or ought to be, by all who have charge of furnaces, as
limestone, and consequently the mere employment of that substance for that
purpose would not prevent its use by others either in the form of sandstone
or sand; but we are told by Mr. Morgan that he is aware that silica has been
used before as a flux; but heretofore it has been used with ores which do
contain sufficient silica to carry down the alumina, — that is to say, at least
two of silica to one of alumina, — but which, nevertheless, do not contain
silica enough to make sufficient slag to protect the iron from the blast, and
for the proper working of the furnace. This inventor claims only the em-
ployment of silica, where it is used together with ores, in which the quantity
of alumina present is equal to or exceeds one-half of the quantity of silica.
— New York Tribune.

Carmont and Cobett’s Improved Furnace.— In this invention, the flues of
furnaces for the production of wrought iron or steel are so constructed as to
rise perpendicularly from the grate, so as to carry off all deleterious gases
generated in the process of manufacture, and also in preventing such delete-
rious gases coming in contact or being incorporated with the metal so man-
ufactured. Furnaces thus constructed cause the heat powerfully to reflect
and reverberate upon the metals, and at the same time prevent all flame or
smoke passing over or coming into contact with the metal while in a state
of fusion. — New York Tribune.

Improvement in the Manufacture of Cast Steel.— In a communication to the
London Engineer, Mr. Robert Mushet, in commenting upon the “‘ Bessemer
process” for manufacturing iron, describes improvements which he has
made in producing steel from cast iron. In an experiment with Welsh No.
1 pig iron, which was purified in a Bessemer furnace, he added ten pounds
of a triple compound of malleable iron, carbon, and manganese, to every
seventy-two pounds of the cast iron, and the ingots made from this were
good welding cast steel; on the other hand, ingots made from the same pig
metal without the manganese and carbon being added, were so brittle that
they cracked to pieces, at both a high and low heat, when worked under the
hammer. He asserts that there never was, or can be, a bar of first-rate
cast steel made by the Bessemer process alone. It is generally held that
molten iron cannot contain oxide of iron in solution, but Mr. Mushet is of a
different opinion. He also asserts that a very small quantity of metallic
manganese, introduced among molten cast iron, counteracts all the perni-
cious effects of phosphorus and sulphur in it. He says: “I have merely
availed myself of a great metallurgical fact, namely, that the presence of

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 223

metallic manganese in iron or steel, conferred upon both an amount of
toughness, when cold and heated, which the pressure of a notable amount
of sulphur or phosphorus cannot overcome.” In another portion of his let-
ter he says: “The great remedy for red-shortness in iron or steel is simply
the addition of a little metallic manganese thereto. Why are the Prussian
irons celebrated for their excessive red-toughness and cold-toughness? Sim-
ply because they contain a small alloy of metallic manganese.”

Tissier’s Experiments on the De-carbonization of Iron.— It has oftentimes
been a subject of remark, that wrought-iron tubes employed in the pro-
duction of sodium are never converted into cast iron, although the carbon-
ate of soda, from which sodium is distilled, contains a large amount of
carbon. M. Tissier, of Paris, has recently made some experiments in con-
nection with this subject, and has ascertained that wrought iron is not
affected in any way by the carbonate alluded to, even at a very high tem-
perature. He tried the action of the carbonate of soda upon malleable and
cast iron at the melting-point of the latter, and found that while the mallea-
ble iron was not affected, the cast iron was deprived of its carbon and sili-
con, and converted into malleable iron. M. Tissier also operated on gray
pig iron, containing six and a half per cent. of silicon, and graphitic carbon.
The iron was heated with an excess of carbonate of soda, at a bright red
heat, for several hours. It boiled up, evolving bubbles of carbonic oxide,
and when this action ended, the iron was withdrawn and immersed in water.
The result was, that this iron, formerly so brittle, could now be forged under
the hammer, and welded; its granular structure had disappeared—it had
become fibrous crystalline. The action of the carbonate, as reported in the
Le Technologiste, removed all the sulphur and phosphorus from the iron, as
well as the silicon. M. Tissier has only made experiments with small masses
of iron; and although the results of his efforts are interesting as a matter of
science, yet practically they are of little value, because the metal so treated,
although changed from pig to malleable and wrought iron, becomes too
porous.

New mode of treating Cast Steel. — A new mode of treating cast steel has
been recently patented by Perry G. Gardiner, of New York. Pure iron is
softened by heat, but does not melt; hence it is shaped into tools and pieces
of machinery by forging, and costs from 12 to 25 cents per pound. Cast
iron, which is a combination of iron, with 3 or 4 per cent. of carbon, does
not soften by heat, but at certain temperatures suddenly melts; hence this
metal is worked into useful shapes by casting into moulds, and costs from 2
to 4 cents per pound. Steel is iron, combined with from 3 to 12 per cent. of
carbon. This metal, when heated to 2000° Fahr., becomes soft, and can be
forged and welded; heated to 3500°, it melts, and can be poured into moulds.
The ordinary mode of working steel is by forging, and articles made of steel
thus prepared, cost from 25 to 75 cents per pound. Many have attempted to
make these articles by casting into moulds, but they were unsuccessful; the
metal was not as tough as after being hammered; besides, some air remaining
in the mould, and mixing with the fluid metal, produced those defects tech-
nically called honey-comb and piping. Mr. Gardiner seems to have suc-
ceeded in overcoming the difficulties. His process is as follows: Moulds of
fire-clay or blacklead are prepared in a substantial frame, so as to be used a
great number of times. Each mould communicates, by a straight vertical
pipe, with an air-chamber placed above it, and this air-chamber is closed by
a valve on top, opening outside. By the side of this mould, but on a higher

224 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

level, is a cup, from the bottom of which a curved pipe leads to the lowest
portion of the mould; the opening of this pipe in the cup is closed by a plug.
Each time this mould is to be used, it is first heated to cherry heat — that is,
from 2000° to 2500°—in a proper oven. The air contained in the several
portions of the mould, expands to about fifteen times its original bulk, and
in so doing, escapes through the valve at the top of the air-chamber. The
mould is swiftly taken from the oven, the melted steel poured into it, and it
is replaced in the oven till the metal is congealed and brought down to
cherry red. From the shape of the mould, it results that the melted metal
entering the mould from below, pushes out the small portion of air remain-
ing, without mixing with it; as for the few bulbs which might have entered
the steel when falling down the pipe in its way from the cup to the bottom
of the mould, it is very little, and all collects in the sprue formed in the pas-
sage to the air-chamber, which is afterward broken off. After the metal is
congealed, it is taken from the mould and plunged into oil at 150°. This
hardens it to the right point, and the articles do not require tempering,
beside being smooth, without cracking or warping.— New York Tribune.

NEW PROCESS FOR PREPARING INFLAMMABLE PHOSPHURETTED
HYDROGEN.

This process, which is completely free from danger, is based on the action
which cyanide of potassium in powder is capable of exerting on hydrated
phosphuret of copper, obtained in the humid way. The latter compound is
procured by decomposing, at the boiling temperature, a solution of sulphate
of copper by means of phosphorus; the product constitutes a powder of a
grayish black, composed of phosphuret of copper and basic phosphate.
This powder is kept under water. When it is dried, it may with impunity be
mixed with cyanide of potassium; the disengagement takes place only when
a little water is added.

The cyanide of potassium cannot be replaced by potassa or soda, and
water should not be replaced by dilute alcohol. In the former case, no dis-
engagement occurs; in the second, uninflammable phosphuretted hydrogen
is developed.

It is known that phosphuretted hydrogen readily blackens solutions of
nitrate of silver. M. Boettger applies this reaction to the production of a
kind of sympathetic ink; for this purpose, it is sufficient to expose to the
disengagement of gas a paper on which characters have been traced in a
solution of nitrate of silver; the characters immediately appear black, and
are very stable, resisting not Only the action of alkaline liquors, of solutions
of cyanide of potassium or hypochlorite of lime, but also the influence of
dilute sulphuric nitric, or hydrochloric acid.

The amorphous phosphorus reduces sulphate of copper only in as much
as it still contains ordinary phosphorus. The author proposes to turn this
property to account in industry for freeing amorphous phosphorus from the
ordinary phosphorus which it may contain, if we do not prefer to have
recourse to the very simple and practical process of separation, which M. E.
Nickles has made known.

The phosphuret of copper in question is composed according to the for-
mula Ph Cus. In the crude state it is mixed with the basic phosphate of
copper, which does not impede the disengagement of phosphuretted hydro-

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 225

gen, but which may be averted by boiling with a solution of bichromate of
potassa acidulated with sulphuric acid.

The phosphuret of copper which resists this latter’ agent is decomposed,
although slowly, when it is boiled with hydrochloric acid; the products of
the reiction are uninflammable gas and chloride of copper. However, this
phosphuret may inflame spontaneously when exposed to the solar rays.
This, at least, is what happened to M. Boettger in placing the crude phos-
phorus in the sun for the purpose of drying it.

NEW METHOD OF PREPARING SULPHUROUS ACID.—BY
E. F. ANTHON.

The author placed two ounces of sulphur, in fragments, and twenty-five
ounces of concentrated sulphuric acid, into a glass flask, furnished with a
gas tube, and heated it over a spirit-lamp. The sulphur soon melted, and
in a short time there was an evolution of sulphurous acid, which was con-
ducted into water. The evolution was very uniform, and the burning of the
spirit-lamp was continued until, after about six hours, there was only a com-
paratively small residue in the flask.

During this treatment, the sulphur constantly floated in the form of a
transparent hyacinth-red, thickly fluid mass on the hot sulphuric acid, and a
small portion of it sublimed; part of this condensed again in drops upon the
walls of the flask, and flowed back into the acid, whilst another part was
deposited in the form of a thin crust in the neck of the flask. Very small
quantities of sulphur were carried further mechanically by the sulphurous
acid, and deposited in the connecting tube. At the conclusion of the process,
the flask contained only 4} drachms of sulphuric acid and 32 grains of unal-
tered sulphur.

The advantages of this process are: that it furnishes a pure product; that
it is easily and cheaply effected; the evolution of the sulphurous acid gas is
very uniform; and no solid deposit settles at the bottom of the vessel of
evolution, which, in other methods, so often occasions the cracking of the
vessel. — Dingler’s Journal, c. 1. p. 379.

COAL-TAR — ITS COMPOSITION AND ITS APPLICATIONS.

The following popularly-written article contains a summary of what has
been effected, during the last few years, in the treatment and application of
“coal-tar”’ and its products.

Every reader is perfectly familiar with the color, odor, and generally disa-
greeable nature of tar. We don’t mean the rich, fragrant, foreign fluid, pre-
pared from the roots and otherwise useless portions of resinous firs, and
known as Stockholm tar; nor yet the purer extract furnished by the wood-
vinegar or pyroligneous acid maker. These are tars, but they are not our
tar: our tar is far more disagreeable than any other kind, and is usually
called, in allusion to the source whence it is obtained, coal-tar.

Coal-tar is torn from the long embrace of its parent coal, at the period
when that parent yields up to the service of man a no less cherished off-
spring, gas. As coal is heated in confined chambers, the carburetted hydro-
gen, for the production of which the operation is performed, is separated,
and with it a quantity of the black treacley-looking fluid known as tar. This
is collected in proper receptacles, and as it is of no use to the gas manufac-
turer, is sold to those whose special business is its preparation.

226 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Until the last few years, the applications of coal-tar were very simple, and
very limited: it was spread over a vast variety of substances which required
its preserving influence to guard them from the weather; it was used as a
rough varnish for gigantic ironwork; and it formed an important ingredient
in various compositions used instead of stone for esplanade purposes.

Coal.tar is a union of a very considerable number of organic bodies, some
being solid, and others fluid. It contains —if you desire a clear and satis-
factory idea of its composition — ammonia, aniline, picoline, quinoline, pyri-
dine, phenic acid, rosalic acid, brunolic acid, benzole, toluole, cumole, cy-
mole, napthaline, paranapthaline, chrysene, and pyrene. As each of these
sixteen substances is individually more or less complicated, we are not, we
think, wrong in saying that the fluid formed by their union is somewhat
remarkable.

The apparently simple business of the tar-worker is to take his tar to
pieces; not to separate it into all the various components we have enumer-
ated, for that would be a very difficult, and perhaps useless proceeding, but
to extract from it a number of vastly different bodies, which have been put
to a variety of uses in the manufacturing world.

In nearly the whole of his operations, the simple agent used by the tar-
worker is heat. It is one of the fundamental laws of chemistry, that every
fluid at a certain temperature shail assume a gaseous form; the temperature
at which such change takes place being entirely dependent upon the nature
of the fluid operated upon. The highly complex body, tar, is therefore
placed in certain large stills, each containing from 2000 to 3000 gallons; and
heat being applied, the tar in time begins to boil; and each of its fluid con-
stituents, which assumes the form of vapor at a different temperature from
the others, separately makes its appearance at the end of the still-worm.

The first of these is a quantity of ammonia and other gases, all of which
are collected in cold water, which soon becomes strongly impregnated with
them, and is used for the preparation of a rough description of sulphate of
‘ ammonia, which finds a ready sale as an important ingredient in certain
artificial manures.

As the heat is increased, an oily fluid comes over, technically called “light
oil,’ which is carefully collected apart from the other products. When as
much of this light oil has made its appearance as about equals in bulk one-
twentieth of the tar originally put into the still, it ceases to be produced, and
is succeeded by a dense, dark-colored fluid, with a peculiarly offensive odor,
known as “dead oil.”” The dead oil comes over in much larger quantity than
the light oil, equalling fully one-fifth of the tar. When the dead oil has ceased
to run, the distiller knows it is of no use to keep the pot boiling any longer;
the fire is therefore put out, a huge tap at the bottom of the still is turned,
and the thick, black residuum, still fluid in its heated state, being neither
more nor less than common pitch, is allowed to run along certain channels,
prepared for its transmission, into immense underground tanks in which it
is stored.

By simple boiling, then, our manufacturer has split up his tar into four very
different matters — pitch, dead oil, light oil, and ammoniacal liquor.

With the pitch he does very little. Shortly after running from the still, it
is ladled out of the great tanks already mentioned into moulds formed of
the halves of resin-casks, rubbed with chalk on the inside to prevent its
adhering; and being sold in this state, it is used for a variety of well-known
purposes.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 227

The greater part of the dead oil, too, has no further process to undergo.
The product is in reality a rough mineral creosote, and possesses in a high
degree the antiseptic properties for which creosote is so celebrated. The
dead oil is about the most important thing got out of the tar; thousands
and thousands of gallons are every week sold to the different railway com-
panies for the soaking of sleepers and other timber; for, once well impreg-
nated with the fluid, every description of wood may bid defiance to both wet
and dry rot. A good deal of the oil is, however, used for a very different
purpose. It is exceedingly inflammable, and contains a large amount of
carbon; and these two peculiarities are taken advantage of by slowly burning
it in curious little lamp-furnaces connected with vast brick flues; the smoke
from the burning oil is rapidly deposited on the sides of these flues in a form
which washerwomen would recognize as “ blacks;” and being periodically
scraped off, it makes its appearance in the market as “lampblack.”

The light oil is, however, a substance requiring a good deal more prepara-
tion, and serving a greater variety of purposes, than any of the other pro-
ducts. Light oil is impure coal naphtha; and to free it from its impurities,
especially those affecting its color and smell, is the crowning object of the
tar-distiller.

As it comes over, in the first instance, it is a dark-brown liquid, smelling
most horribly. Being, in this state, all but useless, it is at once redistilled,
and loses a large amount of smell and color. It is now ordinary ‘“‘ naphtha,”
and used for a variety of purposes, but it still contains a large quantity of a
peculiar greasy matter, called “ paranaphthaline,” from which no amount of
distilling would entirely free it. To separate it from this paranaphthaline,
therefore, it is mixed with “ oil of vitriol,” in an iron reservoir, and the acid
and naphtha are thoroughly shaken and stirred together. For some little un-
derstood reason, the fatty paranaphthaline leaves the naphtha, and attaches
itself to the acid, carrying along with it a vast amount of impurity, and
leaving the naphtha in a very commendable state of cleanliness. As the oil
of vitriol is nearly three times as heavy as the naphtha, directly the stirring
and mixing process is at an end, the two bodies separate, and are drawn off
from the reseryoir into proper receptacles.

The naphtha is now either sold in its present condition, or again distilled.
For the most particular purposes, indeed, it is distilled or rectified three
times, the whole operation being conducted by the steam of boiling water;
and the fluid is known to the trade as once, twice, or thrice run naphtha,
respectively.

Here the legitimate labors of the tar-distiller end. He has prepared from
his black tar — pitch, creosote, lampblack, naphtha, and sulphate of ammo-
nia. The first three are used, as we have already said, in their existing
forms; while the fourth, the coal naphtha, has yet to undergo a greater
variety of changes, and to fulfil a larger number of offices, than all the other
products put together.

In the state in which the naphtha leaves the tar-worker’s yard, it is used
extensively for illumination, for which it is eminently fitted by the immense
amount of carbon it contains; and if the lamp employed in burning it be
only constructed so as to allow of the actual combustion of this carbon, the
light emitted is probably greater than that obtained from the same bulk of
any other known substance. It is alsoa solvent of caoutchouc, gutta-percha,
and other gums, and therefore much in request by the varnish-maker; whilst
purified and deprived of its smell, by some secret method it becomes the

228 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

benzine liquid, extensively used as a valuable detergent of grease from wear-
ing apparel, ete.

When coal-naphtha is submitted to the action of certain chemical bodies,
totally different from itself in their nature, the most remarkable changes take
place in it; certain of its principles unite with certain elements of its added
body, and compounds are produced of the most unexpected nature.

Thus we have said that one of the constituents of tar is benzole. Now, when
the tar is distilled, and separated into the dead oil and the light oil, this
body, benzole, suffers no alteration in its nature; its affinity for some of the
other ingredients of the naphtha is so great, that simple heat is altogether
insufficient to produce a disunion; and the consequence is, that the benzole
goes over with the light oil, and continues to form part of it.

By using rather more energetic chemical means, however, the benzole may
be separated from the naphtha, about a pint being obtained from two gal- ~
lons. It makes its appearance as a heavy, oily substance, with very little
smell, and a pungent taste. When this apparently useless fluid is mixed
with nitric acid or aquafortis, a singular phenomenon occurs, — the two sub-
stances, the benzole and the acid, unite, and produce what chemists call
nitro-benzole, a fluid precisely resembling, in smell and taste, oil of bitter
almonds, and extensively used in various ways, in place of the more expen-
sive and poisonous substance which it represents.

Yet another strange transformation may be effected. Phenic acid we have
enumerated as existing in tar; and phenic acid, like benzole, is not altered
during the process of distillation, but passes over with the naphtha, and
forms part of it. Phenic acid further resembles benzole in being of little use
in its pure state. When, however, it is treated with nitric acid, already men-
tioned, and evaporated, long pale-yellow crystals, bright and clear, make
their appearance, very beautiful to the eye, and intensely bitter to the tongue:
these are crystals of carbazotic acid. Their color has caused a solution of
them to be extensively used in dyeing silk; their taste has made them ser-
viceable in adulterating beer.

Using only the multiform processes placed at his command by modern
chemistry, the investigator into such matters has gone on experimenting
upon all the compounds of this curious body, tar, and has baptized with
fearfully hard names the substances produced therefrom, until he has given
us binitrobenzol, hydrobenzamide, bi-bromide of chlorabronaphtese, and a
dozen other no less mystifying substances. Those above mentioned are,
however, the principal ones which have yet been put to any practical use.

Who will despise the nauseous, black coal-tar now? With substances ob-
tained from it, we have rendered our timber impervious to rot, have painted
our dwellings, paved our streets, made our varnishes and water-proof gar-
ments, taken grease from our Sunday clothes, manured our fields, dyed our
silken fabrics, adulterated our beer, and flavored our soaps, sweetmeats, and
confectionery. — Chambers’s Journal.

ON SOME MODIFIED RESULTS ATTENDING THE DECOMPOSITION OF
BITUMINOUS COALS BY HEAT.

The following paper has been communicated to us by Dr. A. A. Hayes, of
Boston. When bituminous coal is exposed, in proper vessels, to a gradually
increasing temperature, at a certain point decomposition commences and

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 229

continues, while heavy hydrocarbon vapors, mixed with the vapors of water
and salts of ammonia, escape, and may be condensed.

The proportion of permanent gases formed is small in comparison with the
weight of the liquids produced, when the decomposition of the coal is care-
fully regulated. In the ordinary rapid breaking up of the composition of
coal by heat suddenly applied in the manufacture of illuminating gas, the
proportion of permanent gases is increased, but the heavy fluid hydrocarbons
are also formed. This mode of decomposition is evidently a mixed one,
partaking of the characters of a regulated distillation, while at the same
moment a more complete destruction of the coal is proceeding in some parts
of the mass. A further decomposition of the fluid products, condensed from
either or both of these modes of operating, takes place when we again sub-
ject them to the influence of heat; and this well-known fact is the basis on
which improvements in the manufacture of illuminating gas have been
founded, — 2 secondary destruction of vapors being effected in appropriate
apparatus, heated to a high temperature.

This character, which all the bituminous coals exhibit, of passing into car-
bon nearly free from vapors only when heavy fluid hydrocarbons are also
formed, has, in a chemical view, been the strongest fact adduced in opposi-
tion to the generally received opinion that the anthracites and semi-anthra-
cites have resulted from chemical changes of bituminous coal, through the
agency of the heat of igneous rocks which have disturbed their beds. The
heavy hydrocarbons, represented by ordinary coal-tar, are the most inde-
structible bodies known; and wherever anthracites exist, we should expect to
find near by those products of the chemical changes effected in the coal.
Such is the delicacy of the balance existing between the elements of the
heavy hydrocarbons, that no second distillation of them can be effected; they
always undergo decomposition by heat, with the separation of carbon, which,
under any known natural conditions, would remain to attest their previous
presence. i

Considerations of this kind have led me to experiment on the changes
which coals undergo by heat, where the influencing conditions were not the
same as those usually seen; and the results of extended trials demonstrate
that the bituminous coals may be broken up into permanent gases, vapors
of water, and ammoniacal salts, while carbon remains as a fixed product. If
we substitute, for the ordinary forms of apparatus used in decomposing coal
by heat suddenly applied, any modification of form which compels the gas,
as it forms, to escape from the more highly heated part of the mass of coal,
‘through a small opening, or, better, a small eduction pipe, the heavy hydro-
carbons do not form part of the products which escape. Generally the light,
nearly colorless oils of the benzole series, appear with the aqueous solutions
of the ammoniacal salts, while only an accidental quantity of carbon is de- .
posited in the eduction pipe. The carbon left is more than usually compact
and hard; and such coals as ordinarily produce much water, when they form
heavy hydrocarbons, afford less than half the usual amount, when thus
decomposed, under the influence of the constant presence of an atmosphere
of permanent gases.

In following the observations at the earlier stage, it was found that the size
of the eduction-tube leading the gas from the hotter part of the mass of coal
undergoing changes, exerted a most marked effect on the composition of the
products. It was established as a fact, that in an ordinary coal-gas retort,

20

230 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the size of the conduit might be varied so as to allow the tar-like bodies to
form, or to prevent their appearance, at pleasure.

But a more remarkable result was obtained when, after having prevented
the production of heavy hydrocarbon fluids, the influence of reduced size of
tube was studied in its relation to the composition of the gas afforded by a
peculiar kind of coal. To a certain extent, the chemical constitution of the
gas formed was found to be under control, and the conclusion reached was,
that dissimilar permanent gases may be thus obtained from the same parcel
of coal without a modification of temperature.

Any explanation of the change of composition induced in the volatile
parts of bituminous coals under the above-described conditions, should not
include mechanical pressure, which is no greater than often exists in ordinary |
cases.

It seems probable that the presence of an atmosphere of nearly permanent
gases in the decomposing vessel, and the regular continuous flow of them
from the coal, prevent the formation of heavy vapors at the instant of change
in the coal. In support of this point, we find the temperature necessary to
convert coal into gas without the presence of heavy hydrocarbons much less
high than when they were produced.

We may, therefore, observe the decomposition of coal without the simul-
taneous formation of tar, and beds of coal may be converted under existing
natural conditions to anthracite, without secondary products being formed.

ON THE DECOLORIZATION OF ROSIN.

At a recent meeting of the Royal Institution, London, Mr. Mercer exhibited
a specimen of purified and bleached rosin, a substance, he said, which at
first might not appear to be of much interest or importance, but the bleach-
ing of rosin was a subject which had occupied the attention of the most
eminent chemists, and hitherto without success. Now, however, the problem
had been solved, and a patent taken out by Messrs. Pochin and Hunt, of
Manchester, by which common black rosin, worth only 4s. 6d. per cwt., was
converted into a beautiful white article, worth 18s. per cwt. To obtain this
result, the rosin to be purified was placed in a still with a receiver, and a
steam-pipe in connection with a boiler was introduced into and reached to
the bottom of the still, where it radiated with various smaller pipes, perfo-
rated so as to allow of the exit of steam. The steam was heated until the
rosin melted, when steam was admitted and thoroughly permeated the en-
tire contents, the temperature of the still being at the same time raised to.
600°, at which it was maintained until all the contents of the still capable of
being volatilized had passed into the receiver, the contents of which, at the
close of the operation, would be found to consist of fluid and solid matter,
the former being principally water, and the latter the bleached rosin, holding
a quantity of moisture in suspension. After the water had been driven off
by remelting, the rosin had the beautifully white and transparent appearance .
of the specimen on the table.

SAPONIFICATION OF FATS BY CHLORIDE OF ZINC. — BY LEON KRAFFT
AND TESSIE DU MOTTAY.

When any neutral fatty matter is heated with anhydrous chloride of zine,
we see it melt and disappear gradually as the temperature rises. Between

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 231

‘300° and 400° Fahr. the mixture of the two bodies is complete. If the tem-
perature be maintained for some time, and the mixture be then several times
washed with warm water,—or better, with water acidulated with hydrochloric
acid, — we obtain a fat which, when submitted to distillation, gives the fat
acids which correspond to it, and with an insignificant production of acro-
leine. The wash-waters carry off almost the whole of the chloride employed,
so that by evaporation this may be again used for another process. The fat
acids are thus produced in as great quantities as by the common methods,
and have the same appearance, the same qualities, and the same fusing
point as those which are obtained after saponification by sulphuric acid. To
operate well and quickly, the mixture should be heated rapidly, until by the

.reaction of the two bodies on each other, which is of considerable violence,
the vapor of water is abundantly evolved.

In fact, the washing with acidulated water may be dispensed with; but
the products then obtained by distillation are softer. If, however, the distil-
lation be carried on by means of a current of superheated steam, this defect
may bein a great measure cured. In all our experiments, the use of super-
heated steam produced the products more rapidly, more firm, and less
colored.

The experiments were instituted with a view to allow the inhabitants of
South America to convert their fats into stearic acid, without the danger and
expense of transporting sulphuric acid to those countries. In an economical
point of view this problem is resolved, since the chloride of zine is sold at
Marseilles never higher than two and one-fourth cents per pound, and,
packed in cases or barrels, can be shipped without danger or inconvenience.
— Comptes Rendus de l Academie des Sciences, Paris.

CONDENSED LYE, OR PORTABLE ALKALI.

The hydrated oxides, soda and potassa, are known in commerce as the
caustic, mineral, and vegetable alkalies. Being very deliquescent, it has not
been found practicable, until quite recently, to put them up for sale in small
parcels, so as to render them easily accessible to families, for soap-making
and other useful purposes.

Various devices have been tried, at different times, to secure the caustic
soda in air-tight packages. A patent was obtained October 1856; one mode
for doing which was to wrap up the small blocks in paper impregnated with
a resinous composition; but this was soon discovered to be inefficient, and
abandoned, because the caustic soda, possessing a powerful affinity for all
substances containing the elements of water, — namely, hydrogen and oxy-
gen, — quickly corroded the resinous paper, and destroyed the wrapper and
envelope.

The only mode which had heretofore proved measurably successful in se-
curing the caustic soda from atmospheric air and moisture, was the putting
it into metallic boxes; to this mode there are many serious objecttons, on
account of the difficulty of getting it out of the boxes, being apt to burn the
fingers and clothing, wherever it comes in contact with them.

Very recently, Dr. Chase, of Philadelphia, has succeeded, after various
experiments, in rendering paper wrappers proof against the corrosive action
of caustic alkali, by means of Paraffine. This being a hydro-carbon, is in-
susceptible to the corrosive action of the caustic soda, and is found in prac-
tice to be perfectly efficient.

252 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

The caustic soda is cast into cylindrical blocks, and, under the name of
Condensed Lye, is sold in large quantities. — Philadelphia Eclectic Medical
Journal.

GLYCERINE.

Under a process lately patented in England, this substance is stated to be
obtained from spent soap-lees, by forcing dry steam of a temperature of
400° Fahr. through them. By this means the glycerine is evaporated and
condensed in a separate vessel, upon the common principle of distillation.
Glycerine has also been used lately in England, mixed with paper pulp,
whereby the paper so made is rendered soft and pliable, and especially use-
ful for some kinds of wrapping paper.

DEODORIZING ALCOHOL.

In trying to prepare a transparent soap, M. Kletzinsky has made a curious
observation, which may be of value in the arts. He found that empyreumatic
alcohols, distilled over properly selected soaps, lost their bad odor and their
bad taste. A series of experiments, resulting from this first observation,
lead to the following results:

1. Spirits of wine, brandy, or alcohol, distilled over soap, lose their empy-
reumatic odors and tastes entirely. About 212° the soap retains neither
alcohol nor wood-spirit.

2. The empyreumatic oil which remains in combination with the soap which
forms the residuum of the distillation, is carried off at a higher temperature
by the vapor of water which is formed during a second distillation, the pro-
duct of which is a soap free from empyreuma and fit to be used again for
similar purposes.
~ 3. The concentration of the alcohol increases in this operation more than
when soap is not employed, because this compound retains the water, and
the alcoholic vapors which pass over are richer.

4. Thirty-three pounds of soap is enough for one hundred gallons of em-
pyreumatic brandy, and direct experiments have shown that under the most
favorable circumstances, the soap can retain twenty per cent of empyreu-
matic oil.

5. The soap employed should contain no potassa; it must be a hard or
soda soap, and ought to be completely free from any excess of fat acids or
fluids; otherwise it may render the product rancid and impure. Common
soap, made with oleine and soda, by the manufacturers of stearine candles,
has satisfied all the conditions in practice. If this soap is employed, it will
be better to add a little soda during the first distillation.

The hard soda soaps, as exempt as possible from fluid fat-acids, remove
completely the empyreumatic odor, and act, for equal weights, much better
than any of the other modes heretofore proposed, which disguise rather than
correct the fault.

A new method has also been introduced by Prof. Breton, of Grenoble,
which consists in passing the raw spirits through powdered pumice-stone,
moistened with olive-oil. It had been found that the fusel-oil is taken up by
the fat oil, even if held in solution by alcohol; and on this principle, filters
of woollen cloth were constructed impregnated with olive-oil; but there was
no means of cleaning them when once saturated with fusel-oil. The pow-
dered pumice-stone is easily freed from that impurity by calcination.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 233

NEW SOURCE OF AMMONIA.

Mr. Alexander Williams, of Neath, England, in a letter to the Journal of
the Society of Arts, has suggested a means of economizing the waste nitrogen
products escaping from the oil of vitriol chamber, by effecting their conver-
~ sion into ammonia. This is done by passing the escaping gases, mixed with
steam, over heated charcoal, and then into dilute sulphuric acid, by which
sulphate of ammonia is obtained. The following is Mr. Williams’ descrip-
tion of the arrangement he employs, and which has been tried on a large
scale at the Pontardawe Vitriol Works.

“The apparatus fitted up was of the following description: A furnace
was built above the exit-tube of one of their vitriol chambers, and a brick
gas retort, about fourteen inches in diameter, eight feet long, and open
at both ends, was passed through its whole length. This retort was filled
with charcoal, and kept at a red heat; the exit-tube of the chamber and a
steam-jet to supply the hydrogen were attached to one end, whilst at the
other end was an upright leaden cylinder filled with coke, and moistened
with diluted sulphuric acid. On passing the waste gases and steam through
the retort containing hot charcoal, both were decomposed, the oxygen of
each uniting with the charcoal to form carbonic acid, the nitrogen and hy-
drogen combining to form ammonia; then, together, probably forming car-
bonate of ammonia, which was again decomposed by the diluted sulphuric
acid, the sulphate of ammonia being found remaining in solution. This
solution was then evaporated, and in July 1857 I first had the pleasure of
obtaining any quantity of crystals of sulphate of ammonia, by this process,
from a vitriol chamber in actual work.”’

ARTIFICIAL INDIA-RUBBER.

The Journal Franklin Institute, April 1859, translates from the proceedings
of the French Academy the following communications on the above subject:

On the Action of Chloride of Sulphur upon Oils — By M. Z. Roussin. — If
a vegetable oil be mixed with about one-thirtieth of its bulk of chloride of
sulphur, this latter substance will be entirely dissolved; in a little while the
mixture heats, and assumes a viscous consistence, so that frequently the
vessel may be inverted without spilling the contents.

If the chloride of sulphur is in the proportion of one-tenth, the preceding
phenomena acquire greater intensity. The mixture soon attains a tempera-
ture of 120° or 140° Fah., some bubbles of hydrochloric acid are disengaged,
and the whole mass solidifies instantaneously without losing its transpar-
ency, and acquires a consistence like caoutchouc. This product possesses
some elasticity, and shrinks slightly after consolidation. Macerated in dis-
tilled water, it loses its transparency and becomes opaque white. In a few
days it is transformed into a white, slightly friable, elastic mass, having
no similarity to the original substance, and resembling rather an organic
substance.

If we take a mixture of one part of chloride of sulphur, and nine of oil,
and heat the mixture, we shall find that at about 140° a pretty strong re-
action shows itself. Hydrochloric acid is disengaged, and the mass is trans-
formed into an elastic cavernous substance like sponge, very closely resem-
bling certain cryptogamic vegetations. Macerated in water, it becomes
whiter, without changing its form. :

20*

254 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

All these products resist the action of boiling alkalies, whether dilute or
concentrated. Ammonia and the concentrated acids have no action on
them. Neither water, alcohol, ether, sulphuret of carbon, or the oils, appear
to alter or dissolve them.

At the temperature of 300° Fah. they remain solid and unaltered. A few
degrees above this point they begin to melt into a brown liquid, and emit
whitish acid vapors. We have not had time to determine the composition
of these substances. After long boiling in alkaline solutions, reiterated
washings with dilute acid and boiling water, they still contain sulphur and
chlorine in considerable quantities. In this state, the slightest shaking com-
municates to them a peculiar vermicular motion, which continues for some
time.

Action of Chloride of Sulphur on Oils, or Vulcanization of Oils — By M. Perra.
— The chloride of sulphur combines at ordinary temperatures with flaxseed
oil, as well as with other oils.

If we take 100 parts of flaxseed oil and about 25 parts of chloride of sul-
phur, we obtain a compound which has the maximum hardness.

100 parts of the oil, and from 15 to 20 of the chloride, give a flexible com-
pound.

From 5 to 10 parts of the chioride will thicken 100 parts of the oil very
strongly, without hardening it. In this state it is soluble in all the solvents
of common oils. This is not the case with the other combinations, which
swell somewhat, and lose a little sulphur without dissolving in solvents.

If we dilute a given weight of flaxseed oil with 30 or forty times its weight
of sulphuret of carbon, and introduce one-fourth of the weight of the oil of
chloride of sulphur, we have a product which will remain liquid for some
days. If in this condition it be applied upon glass or wood, etc., the sul-
phuret of carbon evaporates, and you have instantly a varnish.

The chloride of sulphur saturated with sulphur, is preferable, for these
actions, to that which is not saturated.

In making these mixtures, proceed as follows: Introduce the chloride of
sulphur quickly into the oil, which must be stirred so as to mix them inti-
mately. Gradually the mass heats, the combination takes place, the oil
thickens, and forms a compound more or less soft, according to the propor-
tions of the chloride. But small quantities should be operated on at a time,
and all elevation of temperature must be avoided, otherwise the chloride of
sulphur will be volatilized, and will form bubbles in the mass, or carbonize
and blacken the oil. As soon as these two substances are intimately mixed,
pour the mixture on a plate of glass or other polished substance, smooth it,
and in five or six minutes, according to the temperature of the air, you
obtain the compound. With the point of a knife, detach one of the corners
of this pellicle, which may be easily raised without breaking. One coat
may be laid over another, and they will unite in one, provided the upper
one be put on after the temperature of the lower has been reduced; mois-
ture in the air must also be avoided, which decomposes the chloride and
prevents the adherence.

By following this mode, I have succeeded in making little boxes, knife-
handles, etc. By introducing wire gauze into the mixture, plates of consid-
erable resistance may be procured. This is easily done by laying the wire
gauze on the glass, and proceeding as above.

All the products thus made are completely transparent, if care be taken
to keep the articles in a stove or other warm place, to drive out the vapors

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 235

of chloride of sulphur, and preventthe dampness from decomposing this
compound. These hard compounds of oil are not attacked by any atmos-
pheric influences; I have left them for several years exposed to the external
air,

These compounds are not, like vulcanized India-rubber, flexible when cold,
but are brittle when handled carelessly, which is an inconvenience. A still
greater one is the decided smell which they retain for a long time.

T have tried to make them as hard as hardened India-rubber, but in vain.
Almost all substances introduced into them are altered by the chloride, and
add nothing to the hardness.

They can, however, easily be colored. It requires but a little color mixed
with the oil before the introduction of the chloride. Some colors, however,
are altered by it.

These compounds resist very well the mineral acids and alkalies when
moderately dilute. These alkalies concentrated saponify them finally. A
heat of 250° browns them, a higher temperature melts them with a blackish
color. This vulcanized oil may be well used for moulds, as it takes impres-
sions very sharply. When rubbed, it always keeps a smooth and polished
surface. It has electric properties in a high degree, and might be used for
plates for electric machines.

I have not been able to apply this substance upon stuffs, in consequence
of its acid reaction, which destroys them. I have plated wood with it, by
first roughening the wood so as to cause it to adhere. It may be applied for
floor-cloths, table-covers, imitation marbles, window panes, etc.

I will remark, in conclusion, that the bromide of sulphur has the same
properties as the chloride, and it was, in fact, with the former that I made
my first experiments at the College of France, in 1853.

ON THE VARIABLE ILLUMINATING POWER OF COAL-GAS.

The following paper, on a subject of general and popular interest, read
before the American Association for the Promotion of Science, Baltimore
meeting, 1858, by Prof. W. E. A. Aikin, of Baltimore, is published in Sili-
man’s Journal, Vol. XXVil., No. 78:

In common with a large number of citizens of Baltimore, my attention
was directed, some short time since, to a somewhat sudden, inexplicable,
and enormous increase in the amount of our quarterly bills for gas con-
sumed; an increase equal at times to an advance of a hundred per cent. over
the corresponding quarter of the preceding year. As it would have been
absurd to suppose a simultaneous derangement of all the meters over an
extensive district, it was obvious that the difficulty could not lie in any error
in the registry of the gas, but in its illuminating power, necessarily requiring
the consumption of a greater bulk of gas to produce a given quantity of
light. Feeling curious to know how this difference could have occurred, I
set myself to work to ascertain, if possible, what causes could be acting to
diminish the illuminating power of the gas.

It has long been known that the quality of the gas produced from the fat
coals is very materially influenced by the circumstances of the decomposi-
tion. In the elaborate experiments made some years ago, on a most ex-
tended scale, by Hedley, the British engineer, as detailed in his report toa
committee of the House of Commons, we find this subject most satisfactorily
discussed. Below a cherry-red heat, the product obtained by heating coal’

yA) ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

in close vessels contains hardly any illuminating material. At that tem-
perature it is furnished most freely, but after having been formed, is liable
to decomposition, involving a loss of carbon by contact with any highly
heated surface, in passing through the apparatus, — such decarbonization
increasing with the degree of heat, with the extension of the red-hot sur-
face, and with the time of contact. Again, the duration of heat is most
important, the best gas coming over during the first hour, the quality rapidly
deteriorating, until, at the expiration of four hours, the product is worth
very little to the consumer, and after five hours may be considered as worth-
less. But the bulk of such worthless gas that can still be obtained by push-
ing the process to completion, is very considerable, equal sometimes to
two-fifths of all that passes over.

How far any neglect in the observance of the precautions required to pro-
duce a proper illuminating gas, may explain the result, the public have no
means of knowing. All that we know is, that the manufacturers furnish an
article which they say is the right article, and prepared in the right way, and
possessing an illuminating power varying from fourteen to seventeen candles.
That is, their engineer reports, that on trial with a photometer, at stated
times, the gas burning from a jet, consuming five cubic feet per hour, gives
an amount of light equal in the average to that of fifteen patent candles, six
to the pound, — the patent candle being ostensibly a mixture of spermaccti
and wax. Assuming as true all that is claimed by the manufacturers, it can
still be shown that the gas, even if properly made and correctly tested, may
be, and is, furnished to the consumer in a condition of greatly diminished
illuminating power, compelling the consumption of a greater bulk to obtain
the required light, and consequently swelling the record of the meter and
the sum-total of the quarterly bills. In my trials to determine the specific
gravity of our gas by weighing a globe previously exhausted and then filled
with it, Iobtained a result ranging from °570 to °580, somewhat below that
given as characterizing good gas. But in reality I attach very little impor-
tance to this result, since the mere specific gravity of such a complex
mixture as coal-gas, can hardly be relied upon to determine its commercial
value.

Although good gas certainly has a higher specific gravity than poor, yet
the difference could not be taken to represent the true difference in value,
since the principal components of the mixture —hydrogen, carbonic ox-
ide, light carburretted hydrogen, olefiant gas, and other still heavier hydro-
carbons having specific gravities widely different — might vary somewhat
in their relative proportions, sufficient to affect the illuminating power,
without at the same time, and to the same extent, affecting the specific
gravity. The action of chlorine in removing the olefiant gas, and other
more dense hydrocarbons, the principal light-giving materials of the coal-
gas, showed a percentage of these substances never exceeding ten per cent.
But, not having time at the moment to guard against all sources of error in
the process, I laid it aside. My attention was principally directed to the
simple inquiry, To what extent will the illuminating power of the gas be
impaired by keeping it in contact with water for noted periods? That it does
deteriorate when thus kept, or when kept in contact with oil, or even close
vessels, has been long known.

Dr. Ure tells us that gas from oil, when first made, and with a specific
gravity of 1°054, will give the light of one candle, when burned from jets
consuming 200 cubic inches per hour. But keep the gas three weeks, and

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 237

then, to get the same light from the same burner, you must supply 600 cubic
inches per hour. He adds, that with coal-gas the deterioration appears to be
more rapid. For if such gas, when first made, will give the light of 1 candle
by the consumption of 400 cubic inches per hour, when kept four days it will
require the consumption of 460 cubic inches per hour to give the same light.
On my first attempt to obtain some definite results, I filled a large receiver
from the street main, and placed it on the-shelf of the pneumatic trough;
the next evening I filled a second one, and put it alongside of the first; the
following evening I filled a third receiver, and still the following evening,
the 11th inst., I filled a fourth receiver. On the evening of the 12th I was
thus provided with four jars of gas, one of which had been standing twenty-
four hours, or one day, over the pneumatic trough; this I will call No. 1.
Another, No. 2, had been standing two days; No. 3 had been standing three
days, and No. 4 had been four days in contact with the water. The diminu-
tion in volume by such exposure was indicated by a receiver graduated to
cubic inches, into which I introduced 130 cubic inches of gas on the evening
of the 8th; on the evening of the 12th this had lost about ten and one-half
cubic inches, indicating a loss of about eight per cent. of the original bulk.

The effect produced on the illuminating power of the gas by the loss of
volume became at once apparent as I proceeded to contrast the value of the
flames furnished by the contents of the several receivers, 1, 2, 3, and 4.
I used for this purpose the ordinary photometer arrangement, taking the
relative intensity of the shadows produced, as a measure of the relative
intensity of the light. The candle employed for the comparison was the
patent candle already referred to, and the burner was the kind known as
fish-tail burner, which had been previously gauged, and known to consume
a trifle more than five cubic feet per hour, with the average maximum pres-
sure of the gas-works. I need hardly add, that the burner was the same in
all the trials, and occupied exactly the same position. The burner and the
screen on which the shadows fell were not moved at all during the experi-
ments. The only adjustment wanted was to bring the candle nearer to or
farther from the screen; and by beginning with the most luminous gas, the
adjustment became simply a gradual withdrawal of the candle.

The capped receiver from which the gas was passed, floated freely in a
large glass jar, supported in an erect position by the perpendicular sides of
the jar, its own weight, with all attachments, making a difference of level
between the water around it and that within, equal to three and one-half
inches, a little exceeding the ordinary evening pressure in the gas-pipes.
This difference of level, and consequently the pressure on the escaping gas,
was kept uniform by the spontaneous sinking of the receiver as the gas was
consumed, a flexible tube communicating between the stop of the receiver
and the gas-burner. This arrangement gave me a steady, equable flame,
which continued perfectly uniform long enough to enable me, after a few
trials, to note very exactly its true value. The results as first obtained were
too startling to be at once believed, but subsequent repeated trials satisfied
me that they were very close approximations to the truth. The first trial
was with the gas from the street main, which I found equal to 10°71 candles.
The same gas, transferred from the pipe to the capped receiver, and burned
immediately, gave exactly the same power, 10°71 candles. Gas No. 1 was
next used, and found equal to only 3°50 candles; gas No. 2, after standing
two days, gave the light of 3°20 candles; gas No. 3, three days old, was

238 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

equal to 1°90 candles; and gas No. 4, four days old, gave the light of 1:75
candles, —the quantities representing the average of repeated trials.

It thus appears that the illuminating material of our coal-gas is so rapidly
abstracted by suffering it to remain in contact with water, that the same’vol-
ume of gas which to-day will give me the light of nearly 11 candles, by
standing until to-morrow will give the light of only 3°50 candles; and if left
standing four days, will give the light of only 1°75 candles; while the only
means left to the consumer to get the light he requires from this deteriorated
gas, is to burn more of it, as we have all been doing through the past winter.
If we now take into account the well-known fact, that gas of less illuminat-
ing power has less density, and that gas of less density passes more rapidly
through a given aperture than gas of greater density, we have another cause
operating to increase the consumption. In Hedley’s experiments, the Argand
burner, which gave the light of 25 candles when supplied with three cubic
feet per hour of gas from Welsh cannel coal, with a specific gravity of °737,
required no less than seven and one-half cubic feet per hour to give the
same light, from the same burner, when the gas was made from the New-
casile coal, and had a specific gravity of only °475.

Again, as we diminish the illuminating power of the gas, we increase its
heating power, and this necessarily brings with it a higher temperature given
to the burners, a higher temperature given to the gas passing through them,
and again an increased rapidity in the flow. It is thus manifest that the
public are placed in a peculiarly unfortunate position, since all the mistakes
that are likely to occur in the process of manufacture, are mistakes that must
inevitably increase the bills of the consumer and the profits of the manu-
facturer. If the workman fails to raise the heat with proper rapidity; if he
overlooks a retort, and allows the heat to continue a little too long; if, to-
wards the close, he allows the heat to rise a little too high, the result is inevi-
table, —the product is deficient in illuminating power. Or if, on any one
day, alittle more gas is produced than is legitimately required, the surplus
remains in the gasometer to vitiate the supply of to-morrow. To what
extent this vitiating action operates may be inferred from the fact, that I
have never been able to obtain from the gas of our pipes an illuminating
power equal to the minimum of that reported by the engineer of the gas
company. In my trials, the power has varied from that of 13 candles down
as low as that of 9 candles, instead of ranging from 14 to 17 candles.

This difference is perfectly intelligible, if we assume the last quantities to
represent the value of the gas when first made, and my results to represent
its value as delivered to the consumer.

In conclusion I would merely add that the difficulty suggests its own
remedy; and that would be to have a standard of quality established by the
proper authorities, taking the illuminating power as the basis of the calcula-
tion, and then to have the requirements of such standard insured by a nightly
examination, if necessary, on the part of some one entirely disconnected
with the manufacture. In other words, the photometer can be made as
available and as valuable to the consumer of gas as the hydrometer is to the
spirit merchant; as he distinguishes with his instrument in any mixture,
between the spirit he wishes to buy and the water he is unwilling to pay for,
so the consumer of gas can distinguish with the photometer between the
true illuminating material and the worthless heat producing gases, hydro-
gen and light carburretted hydrogen, that make up the bulk of the ordinary
coal-gas.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE, 239

ESTIMATION OF ORGANIC MATTER IN THE AIR.

The following lecture was given before the Royal Institution, London °
(March 25th, 1859), by Robert Angus Smith. It furnishes more complete
details of a process devised by Mr. Smith, than was given in the Annual of
Scientific Discovery for 1859, pp. 262, 263.

After describing the opinions concerning matter in the air, and the attempts
made to estimate the amount, the lecturer described a method of obtaining
the relative quantity by means of mineral chameleon, permanganate of pot-
ash or soda. This mineral had been proposed by Forchammer, as a mode of
estimating the organic matter in water, but it was capable of estimating
quantities much more minute. At first, the air was passed through the so-
lution of chameleon, but this was not found to cause complete action. It
was necessary that the air should remain for some time in contact with the
solution to be decomposed. It was then ascertained that the relative amount
of organic and other oxidizable matter in air could be found by a simple
metrical experiment in a few minutes. In working out this idea, it has been
found that a vessel of the capacity of 80 to 100 cubic inches is the most
convenient. This is equal to, or rather less than, a quart and a half. The solu-
tion used must be extremely weak; 600 grains of it are required to decom-
pose 5 grains of a standard solution of oxalic acid. The standard solution
of oxalic acid is so made that 1000 grains neutralize 1 grain of carbonate of
soda. A thousand grains contain therefore 1°184 grains of crystallized oxalic
acid. To prepare the solution a manganate was formed by heating nitrate and
carbonate of sodaand manganese, assisted by a little chlorate of potash. There
was the most minute trace of nitrate remaining in the solution. A solution
of this manganate was made in pure water, and carbonic acid passed through
until a reddish purple shade was obtained. It was then tested by oxalic acid,
adding three or four drops of pure sulphuric acid. Pure water was added, to
dilute it. The solution is apt to change, even when it is hermetically sealed
inaglass tube. It is found readily to change when exposed to air. The
strength is extremely small. A few grains of the ordinary solutions of
manganese used will make some thousand grains of the solution here em-
ployed. The reason of this lies in the extremely small amounts of organic
matter found in even the worst air. The vessel used is simply a bottle, with
a perforated stopper, through which pass two tubes. To one of these a stop-
cock is attached, to the other a clasp or stop-cock. The standard size pro-
posed is 100 cubic inches; and to this all the experiments have been reduced ;
the vessels actually used contain between 80 and 100 cubic inches of air.
The stop-cock is of glass, or of hard caoutchouc, which is better. When the
bottle is to be filled with the air to be tested, the stopper is to be removed,
and the pipe of an exhausting pump is inserted, reaching to the bottom of
the bottle. The pump is made like a cylindrical bellows of about 8 inches
long when stretched out, and 4 in diameter, and is compressible into the
thickness of about 2 inches. The sides are made of thin Mackintosh cloth.
By the use of the pump the air of the vessel is removed, and the external air
of course enters. A few strokes of the pump are sufficient, 7. e., from six to
ten. The test-liquid is poured into a graduated tube or burette, containing
somewhat more than will be required. A portion is then poured into the
tube which passes through the stopper, and the stop-cock is opened to allow
it to pass. Small quantities are used. When it has entered the bottle, the
liquid is made to spread over the sides, and time given it to be exposed to.

240 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the action of the air; it is found that in five or six minutes a decided epoch
is attained from which to date the comparative action. In order to see the
color, the liquid must be allowed to trickle dcwn the sides of the vessel, and
collect itself at one point of the circumference at either end of the cylindri-
cal part of the bottle. This part must be raised up to the level of the eye, so
that the longest axis may be presented to the sight, and thereby the deepest
shade of color. It requires some time to accustom one’s self to the sight of
such a small amount of color; but when it is once well observed, it will be
found to be a method which will admit of the greatest precision. The first
few drops which are poured in will probably be decolorized at once; a few
drops more must then be added; if they become decolorized a few more must
be_used, and so on, until there is a perceptible amount of color remaining.
When this occurs the experiment is concluded. The amount of the reagent
used is then read off from the graduated measure. If the liquid be of proper
strength, and the bottle the required size, the number of grains gives the
comparative quantity at once. Sometimes the amount Of organic matter is
so small that there is no appreciable action, or even the smallest amount of
solution by one vessel of air. In this case it is necessary to fill the bottle
several times. Some of the principal results obtained by this method were
_ as follow:

Relative Quantities of Organic and other Oxidizable Matter in the Air of

Manchester (average of 181 experiments). ............00-0-+seee Zee 52:9
oe All Saints, E. wind (87 experiments)............ eee teccac ate 52-4

oe =, W. wind, less smoky (83 experiments)........ 49 1

cc oe E. wind, above 70° Fahr. (16 experiments).... 58-4

<2 <: ss below, ae (21 experiments).... 480

“ In a house kept rather close......... OG OA t0 OBO; maar ccuee Vel)

a GIP SLY eC MMCOVEREH AeGrK decide susie os oh ea ws dfarele-wiae csboe lolohe tele Pane 109-7
Thames at City, no odor perceived after the warmest weather of 1858.. 58-4
Rhames at samDpeth. << araismisy-6.»sjcin > cic “Goa aSOOnSe oe eneeieets ABOU DoS OE 43:2
se Waterloo Bridge! ...:...... Sogjdeo5s605003 o44707 3000349555 43-2
London in warm weather (6 experiments).......... sia caaw ieiseaGeeees 29-2
a0 after a thunderstorm...... aiecasaisreic feneieuer nee scien Baers ats sojs,diojett Ne

In the fields S. of Manchester. ..............00. ualleroiereleie ere eels cuneate eects 13°7
a Not Hichsate; wind from Londons sec eeese see eee 12:3
Hields durms warm weatherin N. Ttaly...c.vscaecsnee «scien SORE GIG
Most fields near Malan ise M4. eS be adie sis reek eeiceieiecte Ee 18-1
Open sea, calm (German Ocean, 60 Wiig fromyyYarmouth).cieentese oo eS
lospice of St. Bernard, ina fog.2% si. .<0-- odes os xiolsenereenaneeeee 28
INES ancashire. .. sic. sro iela/ ole Wieteini ie eile ieee Bc ase about same.
Horest.of Cham Ounyl. «. .is.c0.0c +06 Se Seng aoa oe eval ainteteistet ease ee ite)
MUMS AGU CETTIC. «01c0.ciace ioc eieis AS0T0 2006 s8uas S65 SoNsSE SEasgntc ase a Ss 1S

The first experiments undertaken were in Manchester, and the average
amount obtained was in the city about 50, gradually diminishing in moving
towards the country, until it was found in the fields at 13; on passing a sewer
stream about a mile from the outskirts, the amount rose to 83. The atmos-
phere on the Thames was not measured whilst at its worst, but immediately
afterwards; when, however, it had ceased to affect the senses of most persons
at least, the amount was very high, viz., 58. Moisture itself dces not pro-
duce any action on the test; one of the lowest numbers obtained was on the
German Ocean, about 60 miles from land; the day was calm and clear.
The influence of height was very decided; in the higher grounds of Lanca-
shire, ncar Preston, the numbers being from 2 to 4. What is abundantly

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 241

established and made clear to the eye is, that the air of our large cities is suf-
ficiently impure to account for much of its unhealthiness, and the air of our
hills and seas and lakes sufliciently pure to account for its salubrity.

ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION OF TARTARIC ACID.

M. Pelouze recently informed the French Academy that he had, in con-
nection with Baron Liebig, by the action of nitric acid on gums, etc., and
the sugars analogous to the sugar of milk, etc., succeeded in converting
these substances into tartaric acid, quite identical with the tartaric acid of
-nature. This transformation cannot be doubted, for it has been confirmed
by a multitude of chemical and optical experiments; and with the aid of
the artificial acid, Liebig has prepared tartrates of soda and potash, and
even tartar emetic. The announcement of this great discovery was received
with great enthusiasm. It has long been sought for by chemists, who
have, however, generally experimented on grape and cane sugar, instead
of sugar of milk, gums, etc.

RELATION BETWEEN FERMENTATION AND CRYSTALLIZATION.

In 1854 Mr. Schroeder, in connection with Mr. Dusch, published a paper
on fermentation and putrefaction, and showed that putrescent and ferment-
able substances could be indefinitely preserved, if, instead of leaving such
matter in common air, they were placed in vases filled with air that had
been filtered through cotton. Flesh, soup, and all kinds of alimentary sub-
stances can thus be preserved, if the precaution has been taken previously
to boil them in water.

Mr. Schroeder shows that what he has established concerning fermenta-
tion and putrefaction, is also true of crystallization. It is well known that
a saturated solution of sulphate of soda remains liquid as long as it is in
vacuo, but solidifies on access of air. Mr. Schroeder establishes the fact that
crystallization does not take place if the air is made to pass through a tube
filled with cotton.

Mr. S. explained the results of his experiments in 1854, by supposing that
the air filtered through cotton is deprived of the spores of cryptogamic infu-
soria, which are the cause of putresence and fermentation. If the experi-
ment on the sulphate of soda tends to establish a relation between fermenta-
tion and crystallization, it serves to prove also that these phenomena can
take place without the presence of these cryptogamia or infusorial germs,
suspended in unfiitered air. This question, which appeared to us finished
by the earlier researches of Mr. Schroeder, comes up anew. — Cor. Silliman’s
Journal.

ON THE COMPOSITION OF VEGETABLE CELLS.

M. Fremy has been engaged in some researches on this subject, the results
of which he has presented to the French Academy. The nature of the
liquids which are found in the vegetable cell have been several times accu-
rately determined, but our knowledge of the insoluble portion, or cell walls,
is very imperfect. We know that solid matter is deposited on the interior
of the cellular membrane, and increases its thickness; several reazents show
that the chemical composition of these layers is often ternary and often
nitrogenous, but the insolubility of these bodies in neutral liquids renders
their separation at the present time impossible, and prevents their composi-

21

242 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

tion being properly established. The examination of the vegetable cellular
membranes possesses, however, very great interest both to the chemist and
the vegetable physiologist. We see, in fact, these membranes undergo, dur-
ing vegetation, some remarkable modifications; in certain cases their thick-
ness increases rapidly, while in other cases it diminishes in as notable a
manner. The Jatter phenomena is presented during the ripening of almost
all fruits. The cell walls of green fruit are at first very thick, and formed
of several concentric membranes; at the period of maturation, however,
these walls become rapidly thin, as indicated by the changes which take
place in the hardness and transparency of the fruit. It can also be rigor-
ously determined by analysis. The following are the results of the exam-
ination of the solid pericarp of two species of pears, taken at different
periods of their development and maturation:
Percentage of membraneous tissue.

Winter pear. Summer pear.

ING See Gs See stele ele Moshe sleet ielolo eiesteniok ie ere be Reisen Lei 13:4
ce 2 Oe ARO C OCK ICES CIECOC OT Re 17:4 13°4
July DL ge seeatateveuavatase Bsic: Sialeros aheis eraveterelelaesaipieloseetrens 14:8 11:0
< DO letirate Phelan te Gu es eee k cc te mene aoe ok 14-0 11-0
ee ELIT, We ceraresouase sloysaelsiersiea-slaisiarealetiare pieiorsisiateletcieie 12°5 11:0
os LG ahrisle dete relelsics 6 eres coat ster cai wleeetsient ais 9-2 6°7
BATTCTIS GMA MorelarsieletereYore oie icreinis eietets etaisie cts cleieivic haere 58 6:0
ve OZ IEK ieeresate ates G06 Seanad jnooSpASScooaocesc 4:8 5

< DOE lok. pisicete sinters ote ate a eluievs,efarelstaseicie- wales 3°8 5-4

cS lets leisjeiavaiepae iter tele clare eiajateisiaies SA o5n02c50eC 34 35

Similar analyses to the preceding were made upon fruits, such as apples,
which ripen after they are detached from the tree, and which do not alter in
size during maturation. From these experiments it results that the cell
walls in these fruits undergo a notable diminution of weight during the
period of maturation; it therefore became interesting to know what were
the membranes in the cell walls which were thus absorbed at a certain pe-
riod of the growth. M. Fremy, several years back, showed that vegetable
tissue contains an insoluble substance, which he named pectose, constantly
accompanying the cellulose, and that under very slight influences this body
becomes soluble, and is converted into pectine. This modification explained
the origin of a gummy substance which appears in the juice of fruit which
has ripened or has been decocted; and it appeared probable that the interior
membranes of the cell, which become altered, are composed of pectose,
whilst the exterior membrane is formed of cellulose, which is a very stable
body. The solvent for cellulose, cuprate of ammonia, discovered by M.
Schweitzer, and successfully employed by M. Peligot in determining the
composition of the skin of silkworms, afforded the means for ascertaining
the chemical nature of the walls of vegetable cells. The ammoniacal solu-
tion of copper may be prepared by the direct action of solution of ammonia
and atmospheric air on metallic copper, or by dissolving hydrated oxide of
copper in caustic ammonia. The solution prepared in either of the above
ways is a perfect and immediate solvent for cellulose. To determine with
this reigent the composition of the vegetable cells, thin slices of fruits or
roots are cut up and left to digest for some hours in the solution. The cells
assume a green color, swell out, and appear to disaggregate. After the
action of the reagent, the tissue, examined under the microscope, had pre-
served its original form, but the outline of the cells was less distinct. In
these experiments care was taken to employ tissues which contained no

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 243

trace of starch, in order to avoid any secondary reaction. On examining
the amoniaco-cupric solution which had reacted on the cells, it was found to
contain the traces of nitrogenous bodies, and all the cellulose which formed
the primary membrane of the cells and fibrous tissue. The proportion of
cellulose which has been dissolved may be readily determined by saturating
the liquor with a weak acid, and washing the precipitate with a dilute solu-
tion of potash. The green insoluble matter, which has preserved exactly
the form of the original cells, consists of the pectic substance modified by
the action of the reagent. Analysis proves that it is formed of pectate of
copper; it is decolorized by the action of acids, and leaves a residue of pectic
acid which may be entirely dissolved by the alkalies, only imponderable
traces of mineral matter remaining in the liquid. Thus, then, the new re-
agent dissolves the cellulose and the nitrogenous bodies, and it transforms
the pectose into pectate of copper, without, however, at all affecting the
shape or form which it had in the cell; the acids decompose the pectate of
copper, leaving the pectic acid insoluble. Potash dissolves the pectic acid,
precipitating the traces of lime salts. These facts leave no doubt of the
important part which the pectic compounds play in yegetable organization.
In certain cells these bodies are more abundant than the cellulose itself;
they incrust the cells, and augment the thickness of their walls.

This new reagent does not attack all cellular membranes. Thus, the pith
of certain trees, and the spongy tissues of champignons, resist its action. It
may therefore be inferred, seeing that this body instantly dissolves the cellu-
lose of roots and fruits, but exerts no action upon the cells which form the
pith of trees, that several species of cellulose may exist, differing in their
chemical properties.

In the course of his experiments, M. Fremy obtained from the cells of
fruits a new and interesting body, which he terms cellulic acid. It is readily
obtained by submitting the pulp of fruits or roots, from which all soluble
matter has been removed by washing, to the action of lime. Cellulate of
lime is produced, which remains dissolved in the water, and is precipitated
by alcohol. This salt, decomposed by oxalic acid, gives the pure cellulic
acid. This body is soluble in water. Its acidity is comparable to that of
malice acid. It forms soluble compounds with all the bases, and reduces
with great facility the salts of gold and silver. This acid is not derived from
cellulose or from pectine, because these bodies, properly purified, do not
yield it. M. Fremy is still engaged in the investigation of this body. It ap-
pears, however, to be of some importance, in a practical point of view. In
one process, for preparing sugar from beetroot, the pulp is submitted to the
action of lime before being pressed. The vegetable membrane is thus mod-
fied, it loses its elasticity, and is more easily expressed, the pectic compound
being changed into pectate of lime. A juice is then obtained, which is very
easily worked, but it retains an alkaline reaction, which carbonic acid does
not remove, and retains in solution a notable proportion of lime salt, which
‘prevents the crystallizing of the sugar, and gives it a disagreeable odor.
This body proves to be cellulate of lime. From the foregoing experiments,
M. Fremy concludes that the cell walls of fruits or roots are formed of differ-
ent membranes, which microscopic observation cannot distinguish, the ex-
ternal membranes being formed essentially of cellulose, and the internal of
pectic substances. This latter substance is associated in the cell to a new
principle, which, under several influences, produces an energetic acid, which
he terms cellulic acid.

244 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

CONSTITUTION OF FRUITS.

Fresenius (in Liebig’s Annalen) gives the following table of the proportion

of malic acid (1.), sugar (11.}, and pectin or gum (111.) contained in the com-
mon domestic fruits

it I. Iii.
oe UL Ih a days ee ie eats SoeHiisn Seren ese ar. 1:57 37
PATIPICOIS; cele cisie'a ss cies ss joe chor oddosMbOP ood ooRs 1:09" 1:80 5°82
MPIOPRENE RRMA, a ao Said dc vices vulcc co's Smee eeiserslee 1:30 2-12 2°41
Meme Clawdes ye Foi iocis 6 scissile ais sine viele’ vise visi eisiole 91 312 1:30
Raspberries, .....-.cceerecccceccerccccceeereees 1:48 4:00 0°65
Blaekberriesy. 2). sje. os <eisa: wie ABO MD On NLD O1Fe 1:19 4-44 1:01
SiLAWDEMNICR, ja, s.o cia scaies oa eitcieisiewelnidssaies scwes Lok 573 0-06
WY NOTTIEDENTICS <5 5 .6.,s1c1c,cfc1e + «i510 aiatsicisisiarsiaisjsioeiers 1:34 578 1:05
COMETS AS Se annodbo Ee opaasaocdonoe oangocr abe 2°04 6°10 0 03
LETC See na AAS Sebo Ss eb onde see oeadioes 89 6°26 4.88
ROUSE CIMT ON owe a’ vasjssnena © sieniea.c rina pe vical oe 1-45 715 0-05
TE CAIN Mee eecls ice oe tere acer meiioeee aie ewe aioe eine 0-07 7°45 6°34
Pippen Me OTs Nese se. PR IE eRe BEEN ss 0°75 8 37 TAT
SounCherniessiy ase Sosa Se ie Sad 1:28 8-77 1:12
Sweet Cherries. citaid te uidace se aeaclt. Saeetes 0-62 10°79 4-45
Mulberries, . :...... akiebaoeieieottenabt sexs Mervegea aioe 1-85 (Ao 0 59
UG TTOS Aiba or Goa doen AUnnomoabs ddcoaeore Seca ere 0-74 14-93 2-74

CELLULOSE AND LIGNEOUS FIBRE.

In the French Academy, during the past year, an interesting discussion
has been going on, concerning the probability of only one, or of several,
kinds of cellulose, and which we find reported in M. Nickle’s correspondence
with Silliman’s Journal, No. 82. Payen was an advocate of the first opin-
ion, Fremy of the second. Judging from the action produced upon ligneous
tissues by Schweitzer’s reagent (ammoniacal oxide of copper), Fremy ad-
mits, at least, two species of cellulose; for he has seen paper, and textile
fibres in general, dissolve in ammoniacal oxide of copper, while elder pith,
and ligneous fibres in general, resist its action.

To Mr. Payen this difference seemed only an apparent one; he believed
that in this latter case the cellulose is incrusted with gum and foreign mat-
ters, which hinder the solubility; also the pith of the elder, which is insolu-
ble in Schweitzer’s reavent, becomes soluble in it when it has been previously
treated with a weak acid, such as dilute chlorohydric acid. Mr. Fremy sup-
posed that the chiorohydric acid does not act as a solvent of foreign matters,
but that it converts one variety of cellulose into the other variety, in the
same way, for instance, as an acid converts cane sugar into glucose.

We need not speak of the different phases of this discussion, for it is not
yet settled. According to Fremy, we must admit at least two kinds of cel-
lulose, offering the same percentage composition, but differing from each
other in their chemical properties, and capable of being brought into the ©
same state by the most diverse reagents, such as mineral acids, organic
acids, potassa, ammonia, etc. In order to prove that the differences in the
properties of cellulose are due to the state of the organic substance itself,
and not to the presence of mineral substances, Fremy has had recourse to
the action of heat. In exposing vegetable pith, which is insoluble in the
cupreous reagent, to the action of a temperature not exceeding 30°, and
maintaining it at that point for several hours, he has seen that substance

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 245

become soluble in the above reagent. He arrived at an analogous result by
keeping the cellular tissue of pith for twenty-four hours in boiling water.

Furthermore, he has remarked that this change takes place only in the or-
ganic substance of the tissue; for the proportion of mineral matter remained
the same in both cases, and the tissue which had become soluble in the
cupreous reagent left, after its calcination, a mineral network, reproducing
exactly the form of the vegetable cellules, which same thing happens to tis-
sues not modified by either dry or humid heat.

In order to distinguish between these two kinds of cellulose, Fremy calls
para-cellulose that which does not dissolve immediately in the cupreous re-
agent. He reserves the name cellulose for that which dissolves directly with-
out previous treatment. Cellulose is found in cotton, fibres of bark, cellular
tissue of fruits or of roots. Para-cellulose constitutes principally the pith of
trees, ligneous fibre, the celluiar tissue of the epidermis, etc.

This is not Payen’s opinion. The experiment of Fremy, quoted above, does
not appear to him to prove that the pith of the elder is of an isomeric com-
position with the cellulose of textile fibres; for, in Payen’s view, it is not
only the fact that foreign substances, in the form of incrustations, oppose
the solution of the cellulose in Schweitzer’s reagents, but infinitely minute
bubbles of air, which are condensed there, have the same effect, to a certain
point, in forming a protective envelope. According to him, the pith of the
/Eschynomene, insoluble in Schweitzer’s reagent, becomes soluble in it by
keeping it in a vacuum in the cold under an exhausted receiver, and after-
wards plunging it under water; the liquid is then placed in a refrigerating
mixture. After congealing, the pith has become to a great extent soluble;
there remains a residue of forty-three per cent., containing fifteen per cent.
of mineral substances. These mineral substances, according to Payen, pre-
vent the complete solution of the cellulose. The same is the case with cor-
tical fibres before their purification; so, also, hemp just obtained from the
flax-plant, resisted solution for more than six hours, and the portions not
dissolved preserved their fibrous form.

Incrusting Matter — Dead Cotton. — All these questions have recalled atten-
tion to an old paper by Mitscherlich, on the composition of vegetable cel-
lules, cellules essentially formed of cellulose, and of a substance analogous
to cork, a suberic material, capable of yielding suberic acid, and also suc-
cinic and nitric acids. The most delicate vegetable fibres are covered over
with this slender coating of suberic matter; it is on this account that fresh
cotton is with difficulty moistened with water, while it is at once decom-
posed if this coating of suberic matter is removed by the action of chlorine.

Such at least is the opinion of Mitscherlich. It seems, however, that an
immersion in chlorine is not always sufficient to render this variety of cotton
capable of receiving color, — the variety perfectly well known among dyers,
who have named it “ dead cotton.” It was first described by Daniel Koech-
lin, of Mulhouse, and has since been carefully studied by Walter Crum, of
Glasgow, whose results are published in the third volume of the Proceedings
of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow.

In the opinion of Mr. Walter Crum, the dyeing of cotton depends upon a
purely mechanical action. Chemistry is completely foreign to the subject of
fixing dyes upon stuffs. Dead cotton is the proof of this; the fibres of this
variety of cotton are flattened, while cotton which admits of being dyed is
composed of cylindrical fibres; the coloring matter, hence, can penetrate
within these, and fix itself there.

2i*

246 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

This is, as is seen, an opinion diametrically opposite to that of Runge,
who is so strong an advocate of the chemical theory that he considers col-
ored cottons as cottonates. In this view, a faint chamois tint, produced by
oxide of iron, is called by him per-cottonate of iron; another, bi-cottonate;
another still, basic cottonate of iron.

Mr. Walter Crum, declares that the substance of dead cotton has been
entirely bleached before becoming flattened; it contains, therefore, he says,
neither fatty matter, nor any impurity capable of hindering the fixing of
the coloring matter.

But let us return to the suberic matter, whose presence Mitscherlich recog-
nized on leaves and about the exterior of plants. It is over thirty years since
Payen showed that the epidermis of plants is covered over with a very thin
envelope, containing a fatty matter, some nitrogen and silica. Ad. Brong-
niart has isolated this pellicle, on which Mitscherlich experimented, by sub-
mitting leaves to a prolonged maceration, and has described it under the
name of cuticle; and Fremy, who has also just examined it, has recognized
in it all the characteristics of a fatty substance which he calls cutine. In
fact, in contact with boiling potassa, the cutine saponifies, and the acid which
is produced presents, the characters of a fatty acid. This experiment has
been repeated with success on the epidermic membranes of leaves, flowers,
and fruits.

It is easy to develop, ad libitum, this epidermic membrane. It is sufficient,
in fact, to experiment on superficial sections of living tissues of leaves,
branches, tuberaceous roots, and subterranean stems; at the end of several
days the denuded tissues afford characteristic reactions of epidermic mem-
branes.

Transformation of Woody Fibre into Sugar.— On the occasion of the above
discussion, Pelouze announced the important results which follow. Cel-
lulose, precipitated from its solution in the ammoniacal oxide of copper by
a feeble acid, is soluble in dilute chlorohydric acid. Ordinary cellulose is
soluble in concentrated chlorohydric acid; water forms with this solution a
precipitate of dazzling whiteness; at the end of two days the precipitate
ceases to form, and all the cellulose has been transformed into sugar afford-
ing the characteristics of glucose. The transformation of cellulose into glu-
cose can be effected by a prolonged ebullition in water containing a small
quantity of sulphuric or chlorohydric acid (some hundredths); paper, old
linen, sawdust, and any cellulose, more or less pure, can be thus turned into
sugar at the end of several hours’ boiling. Pelouze thinks that this reaction
will become the basis of a new branch of industry — one which has often
been attempted since Braconnot succeeded, in 1819, in transferring lignine
into glucose; he thinks that the transformation would be rendered much
more active by operating in a close vessel at an elevated temperature.
Lastly, Pelouze announces that, by treating the cellulose with caustic po-
tassa in fusion at a temperature between 150° and 190° C., and dissolving the
product in water, a substance can be separated from it by acids which has
the composition of cellulose, but differs from it in that it is soluble in the
cold in alkalies; it changes into sugar in the presence of chlorohydrie acid.

ON THE PROPERTY OF AMMONIACAL OXIDE OF COPPER DISSOLVING
CELLULOSE.

This property was made known some years since, by Schweitzer. Not only
cellulose, but also silk, is soluble in this redgent. The ammoniacal sulphate

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 247

of copper acts as a solvent only from the excess of oxide of copper present.
Mr. Schlossberger finds that the solvent power increases with the proportion
of copper, and that the hydrate of copper dissolved in ammonia acts better
than the sulphate. The cupro-ammoniacal liquid does not dissolve gum,
dextrine, starch, while it does dissolve filtering paper. The salts, and espe-
cially the alkaline salts, precipitate this solution of cellulose, and sulphate of
copper has the same effect. The precipitate shows no trace of organization
or crystallization; and it does not appear to differ in percentage composition
from that of cellulose. These same alkaline salts do not precipitate the solu-
tion of silk, and the fact may be made the basis of a process for separating
silk from cotton. The solution of cellulose is precipitated also by alcohol, a
concentrated solution of honey, gum Arabic, or dextrine. The cupro-ammo-
niacal liquid has no action on pyroxilline or collodion. Inuline, chitine,
conchyoline, are insoluble in it. Mr. Schlossberger has found that the am-
moniacal hydrate of nickel, NiO H3N, acts like the salt of copper. The
solution of silk is, however, a fine blue in the latter, and a yellowish brown in
the former. — Correspondence of Silliman’s Journal.

The ammoniacal solution of oxide of copper and ligneous fibre, cotton,
etc., is now coming into use as a substitute for collodion in photography.
Most of the basic salts of copper, and its hydrated oxide, give blue solutions
With ammonia, all possessing the remarkable property of dissolving the
cellular tissue, the basic carbonate of copper in a higher degree than the rest.
To prepare it, a solution of blue vitriol is precipitated with carbonate of soda,
the precipitate transferred to a filter, on which it is washed and then dried in
the water-bath, coarsely powdered and shaken in a well-stoppered flask, with
aq. ammonia of spec. gravity =0°945, which is found to be the best strength
for this purpose, the resulting solution being a better solvent than that of
any other salt of copper. The portion of this liquid which acts as the dis-
solving medium for the ligneous membrane is undoubtedly the ammoniated
oxide of copper, not the uncombined alkali or acid. This is proved by the
very process used by the discoverer of this interesting phenomenon, Peligot,
who employed the spirits of ammonia, agitated and digested with copper
turnings. A small proportion of sal ammoniac hastens the solution of the
metallic coppe™, which latter may be advantageously replaced by precipitated
copper. According to Peligot, these ammoniaca! solutions take up a quantity
of cellulose equal to that of the copper held in solution.— ScHWEIZER,
Schweizer Zeitschr. fur Pharmacie.

ON THE AMMONIACAL SOLUTION OF PROTOXIDE OF NICKEL, AS
A MEANS OF DISTINGUISHING SILK AND COTTON. — BY PROF.
SCHLOSSBERGER.

The violet-blue solution of freshly precipitated hydrate of protoxide of
nickel, exerts an extremely remarkable action upon silk. If silk threads be
brought in contact with a drop of this solution under the microscope, pecu-
liar vermicular movements are observed in it, and at the same time they
swell up considerably, and acquire a yellow color. Soon afterwards the out-
lines become pale, in part (with raw silk) accompanied by considerable infla-
tions or ruptures of the external envelops of the fibres, and finally complete
solution take place. If silk be thoroughly kneaded up in a test-glass by
means of a glass rod with the blue solution of nickel, it soon becomes of a
brownish-yellow color, resembling that of hydrated oxide of iron; it then

248 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

becomes slippery and gelatinous, and at last furnishes a brownish-yellow
solution.

If the silk fibres be washed with water in the first stage of their alteration
by the author’s new reiizgent, all further action ceases; in later stages of
change, they are also fixed by washing. The same thing is effected by a
~ drop of weak acid, by the addition of which the fibre also loses somewhat in
volume, and becomes colorless.

Solutions of alkaline salts do not precipitate the solution of silk, nor do
solutions of sugar and gum. It is remarkable that a solution of Cl NH, re-
stores the original violet-blue color to a brownish-yellow solution of silk in
_ NiO NHs, without separating anything. The solution of silk and nickel is
abundantly precipitated by acids, and this precipitate (in colorless flakes of
the aspect of hydrate of alumina) is permanent, when the acids are not too
strong. The fluid exhibits a greenish color. ;

Cellulose (cotton) is not at all altered, cven by immersion for sevral days
in the solution of NiO NHs; after lying in it for three days, the fibres of
cotton still presented their original form under the microscope, and there was
no trace either of swelling or coloration. Potato-starch also did not swell up
in it; inuline was gradually dissolved.

No analogous action has yet been produced upon silk by means of solu-
tions of CoO, ZnO, and AlsO3 in NH3. In the coloration, swelling, and
solution of silk by NiO, it is essentially a matter of indifference whether the
silk employed be raw silk, or silk deprived of its dressing by boiling. —
Chemical Gazette, No. 383, p. 372.

REPORT ON VEGETABLE PARCHMENT.

The following report on the so-called “ vegetable parchment,”’* has been
published by Prof. Hoffmann, of the Government School of Mines, London.
Vegetable parchment, in appearance, greatly resembles animal parchment;
the same peculiar tint, the same degree of translucency, the same transition
from the fibrous to the hornlike condition. Vegetable, like animal parch-
ment, possesses a high degree of cohesion, bearing frequently repeated bend-
ing and rebending, without showing any tendency to break in the folds; like
the latter, it is highly hygroscopic, acquiring by the absorption of moisture
increased flexibility and toughness. Immersed in water, vegetable parch-
ment exhibits all the characters of animal membrane, becoming soft and
slippery by the action of water, without, however, losing in any way its
strength. Water does not percolate through vegetable parchment, although
it slowly traverses this substance like animal membrane by endosmotic
action.

In converting unsized paper into vegetable parchment or parchment paper
by the process recommended by Mr. Gaine, viz., immersion for a few seconds
into oil of vitriol, diluted with half its volume of water, I was struck by the
observation, how narrow are the limits of dilution, between which the ex-
periment is attended with success. By using an acid containing a trifle more
of water than the proportion indicated, the resulting parchment is exceed-
ingly imperfect; whilst too concentrated an acid either dissolves or chars the
paper. Time, also, and temperature are very important elements in the suc-
cessful execution of the process. If the acid bath be only slightly warmer

* See Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1858, pp. 824—826.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 249

than the common temperature, 60° F. (15°5° C.) — such as may happen when
the mixture of acid and water has not been allowed sufficiently to cool — the
effect is very considerably modified. Nor do the relations usually observed
between time, temperature, and concentration, appear to obtain with refer-
ence to this process; for an acid of inferior strength, when heated above the
common temperature, or allowed to act for a longer time, entirely fails to
produce the desired result. Altogether the transformation of ordinary paper
into vegetable parchment is an operation of considerable delicacy, requiring
a great deal of practice; in fact, it was not until repeated failures had pointed
out to me the several conditions involved in this reaction, that I succeeded in
producing the substance in question.

Mr. Barlow, in the discourse on woody fibre, records some experiments es-
tablishing that unsized paper, by its conversion into vegetable parchment,
receives no appreciable increase of weight. These experiments rendered it
very probable that the action of sulphuric acid in this case is essentially
molecular, and that the chemical composition of the substance of the paper,
by its conversion into parchment, is not altered. It remained to establish this
point experimentally. For this purpose several of the specimens of com-
mercial vegetable parchment, without any further purification, were submit-
ted to analysis. The result showed that— with the exception of about 09
per cent. of mineral matter, a quantity, not much exceeding the amount
which is present in the better varieties of ordinary paper — the substance of
vegetable parchment is identical in composition with cellulose or woody
fibre. The analytical experiment demonstrates—as might have been ex-
pected — that the extraordinary change which the properties of paper undergo
during its transformation, depends solely and exclusively upon a molecular
rearrangement of the constituents, and not upon any alteration in the com-
position of the paper. In this respect the action which sulphuric acid exerts
upon woody fibre may be compared to the transformation of woody fibre,
under the protracted influence of the same agent, into dextrin, a substance
altogether different from fibre, but still identical with it in composition.
Vegetable parchment may, in fact, be looked upon as the connecting link
between cellulose on the one’ hand, and dextrin on the other.

Thus it is obvious that the transformation, under the influence of sulphuric
acid, of paper into vegetable parchment, is altogether different from the
changes which vegetable fibre suffers by the action of nitric acid; the cellu-
lose receiving, during its transition into pyroxylin and gun-cotton, the ele-
ments of hyponitric acid in exchange for hydrogen, whereby its weight is
raised, in some cases by forty, in others by as much as sixty per cent. As
the nitro-compounds thus produced differ so essentially in composition from
the original cellulose, we are not surprised to find them also endowed with
properties altogether different, such as increased combustibility, change of
electrical condition, altered deportment with solvents, etc.; whilst vegetable
parchment, being the result of a molecular transposition only, in which the
paper has lost nothing and gained nothing, retains all the leading characters
of vegetable fibre, exhibiting only certain modifications which confer addi-
tional value upon the original substance.

The nature of the reaction which gives rise to ihe formation of vegetable
parchment having been satisfactorily established, it hecame a matter of im-
portance to ascertain whether the processes used for the mechanical removal
of sulphuric acid from the paper had been sufficient to produce the desired
effect. It is obvious that the valuable properties acquired by paper, by its

250 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

conversion into vegetable parchment, can be permanently secured only by
the entire absence or perfect neutralization of the agent which produced
them. The presence of even traces of free sulphuric acid in the paper would
rapidly loosen its texture, the paper would gradually fall to pieces, and one
of the most important applications which suggest themselves, viz., the use
of vegetable parchment in the place of animal parchment for legal docu-
ments, would thus at once be lost.

Examination of the vegetable parchment for the free sulphuric acid, was
therefore one of the principal points to which I had to direct my attention.
From the description of the process adopted in preparing the new material,
viz., long-continued mechanical washing with cold water, immersion in a
dilute solution of caustic ammonia, and, lastly, renewed washing with water,
the absence in it of free sulphuric acid may be at once inferred on scientific
grounds. For, supposing that the first process of washing had left any free
sulphuric acid in the paper, this acid, after immersion of the paper in caustic
ammonia, for which it has so strong an attraction, could have remained only
in the form of sulphate of ammonia, a salt of perfectly neutral composition,
in which the acid character of sulphuric acid is entirely lost. Now, sulphate
of ammonia is a most stable compound, which begins to decompose only at
about 536° F. (280° C.), a temperature at which paper is completely destroyed;
and even then, no free sulphuric acid is to be found amongst the products of
decomposition. But the paper is washed again after treatment with ammo-
nia, and, obviously, only traces of sulphate of ammonia can remain in it.

The absence of free sulphuric acid in the parchment paper was, moreover,
established by direct experiment. The most delicate test-papers, left for
hours in contact with moistened vegetable parchment, did not exhibit the
slightest change of color. There is reason, therefore, to believe that vegeta-
ble parchment, prepared as it is by one of the most powerful agents of
decomposition, carries within itself the germ of its own destruction.

The absence of free sulphuric acid in vegetable parchment having been
satisfactorily established, it remained only to perform a few experiments on
the strengh of this material as compared with that of the animal parchment,
with which it is likely to enter into competition. The result of these led to
the result that paper, by exposure to the action of sulphuric acid in the man-
ner described, acquires about five times the strength which it previously pos-
sessed, and that for equal weights, vegetable parchment possesses about
three-fourths the strength of animal parchment. It was found, moreover,
that bands of vegetable parchment taken from different sheets of the same
kind of paper, exhibited a remarkable uniformity of strength, whilst in ani-
mal parchment — which, owing to its mode of manufacture, must always
present considerable inequality of thickness — extraordinary variations were
observed, even if the bands were taken from the same skin.

Vegetable parchment, then, as far as strength goes, is not quite equal to
animal parchment. On the other hand, the new article greatly surpasses
real parchment in its resistance to the action of chemical agents, and espe-
cially of water. As has been already stated, vegetable, like animal parch-
ment, absorbs water, and becomes perfectly soft and pliable; but it may re-
main in contact, and even may be boiled with water for days, without being
affected in the slightest degree, retaining its strength, and regaining its origi-
nal appearance on drying; on the other hand, it is well known how rapidly
animal parchment is altered by boiling water, by the protracted action .of
which it is converted into gelatine. Even at the common temperature, ani-

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 258

mal parchment, in the presence of moisture, is very prone to putrefactive
decomposition ; whilst parchment paper, in which nitrogen, this powerful dis-
turber of chemical balance,’is absent, may be exposed to moisture without
the slightest change either in appearance or properties. It would, in fact, be
difficult to find a paper-like material endowed with greater power of resist-
ance to the disintegrating influences of water than vegetable parchment.

Taking into consideration the chemical composition of the new material,
its cohesive power, and its deportment with chemical solvents, especially
water, both at the common temperature, and at the temperature of its boil-
ing-point, it is obvious that this substance unites in itself, in a most remark-
able manner, the conditions of permanence and durability; and I have no
hesitation in stating my belief that vegetable parchment, properly prepared,
is capable of resisting the tooth of time for many centuries, and that under
various circumstances it will even last longer than animal parchment.

The valuable properties of vegetable parchment suggest a great variety of
applications for the new material.

There is no doubt that parchment paper may be adopted, with perfect
security, for all legal documents, policies of insurance, foreign bills of ex-
change, bills of lading, scrip certificates, and other similar documents, as a
substitute for the skins which are now generally used. On the other hand,
its comparatively low price would appear to suggest its application in a
variety of cases, in which, at present, paper is employed: for instance, for
private ledgers of banking-houses, or other large establishments, as well as
for registries of wills, marriages, baptisms, and deaths. Even for the manu-
facture of bank-notes it may be found useful; indeed, for all documents, the
preservation of which is of importance. Many of the documents in question,
in order to protect them from injury in case of fire, are generally kept in safes,
the majority of which are now encased with solid water — the water of crys-
tallization in alum, and other similar hydrated compounds. The interior of
these safes, in case of exposure to heat, must, obviously, become filled with
steam of a high temperature, and it cannot be doubted that documents. writ-
ten on vegetable parchment, owing to the extraordinary power with which
this material resists the action of boiling water and of stcam, will stand a
much better chance of preservation under such circumstances, than those
written on common paper or animal parchment.

As another advantage of vegetable parchment as compared with animal
parchment, the experience may be quoted, that vegetable textures are much
less attractive to insects than animal structures. Moreover, to increase the
security of vegetable parchment in this respect, the paper, before conversion,
may be incorporated with chemical agents, which, like salt of mercury, for
instance, have been employed with such advantage in the manufacture of
paper for public records.

In considering the applicability of vegetable parchment for legal docu-
ments, another property of this remarkable material, although perhaps of
minor importance, deserves nevertheless to be noticed. This is the great dif-
ficulty with which words are erased from its surface, and others are substi-
tuted in their places. Deeds written on parchment paper acquire thereby a
certain degree of security against falsification.

Its strength and resistance to water appear to recommend parchment paper
in an eminent degree for engineers’ and architects’ plans, and especially for
their working plans, which are often unayoidably subjected to rough usage
and moisture. The thinner sheets of parchment paper, on account of their

*

252 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

transparency, present the additional advantage of being useful as a most
durable tracing paper.

In consequence of its strength and resistance to water, vegetable parch-
ment would probabiy find many applications for military purposes; thus it
promises to furnish an excellent material for water-proof cartridges.

Another field of considerable extent for the application of vegetable parch-
ment appears to be in book-binding, and especially in ornamental book-
binding. The books bound in parchment paper which accompanied your
letter, are remarkable for the beauty and solidity of their binding. Expe-
rienced book-binders, to whom I submitted these books, believed them to be
bound in real parchment. Even in the manufacture of books and maps
which, like those used for educational purposes, like military plans and nau-
tical charts, have to stand considerable wear and tear, parchment paper may
find a very useful application. The printing on ordinary paper is not
changed by the treatment with sulphuric acid, but owing to the shrinking of
the paper during the process, it will, probably, be found more convenient for
such purposes to print on the paper after it has undergone the transforma-
tion. Vegetable parchment is remarkable for the facility with which printer’s
ink, as well as writing ink, may be applied to it, and for its attraction for
dyes generally, many of which it appears to take even more readily than
calico. The specimens of dyed parchment paper which accompanied your
letter, leave nothing that could be desired in this respect.

Among the numerous more or less important applications in which parch-
ment paper is sure to be found useful as soon as it becomes accessible to the
general public, its adaptation for household, and especially for culinary pur-
poses, must not be left unmentioned.

In closing the orifices of vessels for preserves, etc., few housewives will
hesitate to substitute an elegant material like vegetable parchment paper
for the animal membrane, so frequently offensive, which is now generally in
use.
Formed into bags, of which the seams are cemented with the white of eggs,

parchment paper will be found very useful for the purposes of boiling and
stewing, according to the principles of a refined and scientific cuisine.
Nor can the chemist fail to derive some benefit from so interestmg an
- achievement of his own science as the transformation of paper into parch-
ment. °
In the laboratory, vegetable parchment will become a material of general
use for connecting retorts and condensers, or other similar apparatus, and on
account of its indestructibility by many of the fluids usually employed in
electric batteries, it will probably find a further and even more important
application in the construction of diaphragms for galvanic apparatus.

ESTIMATION OF ACETIC ACID IN VINEGAR.

Mr. Nicholson and Dr. Price have stated that the estimation of acetic acid,
by means of carbonate of soda or caustic alkalies, gives results that are not
accurate, because the acetate of soda has an alkaline reaction. Prof. Otto
has recently made some experiments, with the view of ascertaining whether
the error thus caused is constant, or whether it is sufficiéntly small to be dis-
regarded; and has obtained results very different from the above-named
chemists. The following numbers represent the percentage of acetic acid in
vinegar, as estimated by different methods:

oo

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. FAG

Acetometer. Carbonate of soda. Carbonate of baryta-
- 63 6°5 6-2
9-1 9-2 9-0

For testing with carbonate of soda, a solution was prepared, containing 104
grm. ina litre. Five cub. cent. of this solution indicated in 50 grm. of vine-
gar one per cent. of anhydrous acetic acid. The point of saturation was
determined by means of pale-blue litmus paper.

For tasting with carbonate of baryta, a weighed quantity was digested
with a weighed quantity of vinegar, with the aid of heat, until the liquid
acquired an alkaline reaction. The undissolved carbonate of baryta was
collected upon a filter, washed, dried, ignited, and weighed.

In order to remove the objection that the digestion with carbonate of
baryta had not been continued long enough, the following experiment was
made: A solution was prepared, containing in 100 erm. 27 grm. of crystal-
lized acetate of soda. This solution contained 10 grm. or 10 per cent. of
acetic acid. It had an alkaline reaction upon red litmus paper. When
mixed with 2 cub. cent of vinegar, containing 4°5 per cent. acetie acid, it
became perfectly natural, and another cubic centimeter of vinegar was suffi-
cient to make it have a decided acid reaction upon blue litmus paper. The
quantity of acetic acid in 2 cub. cent. of vinegar, containing 4°5 per cent. of
acetic acid, is not quite 0°1 grm.; so that the error incurred by estimating
the amount of acid in vinegar, containing 10 per cent. acetic acid, by means
of carbonate of soda, would be oniy qo per cent. at the utmost, and is cer-
tainly much less, because in practice there is always a little excess of soda
added. _

A hot solution, containing 50 per cent. of acetate of soda, corresponding
to 18°7 per cent. acetic acid, was rendered neutral by 2 cub. cent. of vinegar,
containing 9 per cent. of acetic acid, and distinctly acid by 1 cub. cent. more
vinegar. ¢

Prof. Otto infers from these results that the estimation of the amount of
acid in vinegar, by means of carbonated or caustic alkalies, may be adopted
without the risk of any sensible error, inasmuch as the alkaline reaction of
the alkaline acetates do not affect the results to such an extent as need be
regarded in practice.

He also remarks, that a comparison of the relation between the density of
ammonia solution and the amount of ammonia contained in it, as estimated
by him some years since, with the results obtained recently by Carius in a
very different manner, shows a very close correspondence.

NEW PROCESS OF PRESERVING MILK PERFECTLY PURE IN THE
NATURAL STATE, WITHOUT ANY CHEMICAL AGENT.

At the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association, the Abbe Moigno
stated, “‘ that to preserve milk for an indefinite period, is an important prob-
lem, which in France has been solved in three different modes. M. de Vil-
leneuve was the first to preserve milk, solidifying it by the addition of certain
solid ingredients, but it was no longer, properly speaking, milk. M. de
Signac preserved it by evaporating the milk till it became of the consistence
of sirup, rendering it a solid mixture of milk and sugar; still it could not be
called milk. .M. Maben also preserved it by excluding the air, and exposing
it to-an atmosphere of steam about 100° Cent.—thus depriving it of all the

22

254 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

gases which it contained, and then hermetically sealing the filled bottles in
which it had been heated. When about to leave for Aberdeen, I opened a
bottle which had been closed by M. Maben, in February 1854; and after the
lapse of five and a half years, I found it as fresh as it was the first day.
Since then, M. de Pierre has greatly improved the discovery. The means
which he employs to effect the preservation is still heat; but heat applied in
some peculiar way, by manual dexterity, first discovered by a Swiss shepherd.
All that Iam allowed to state is, that the effect of this new mode of applying
heat is, to remove a sort of diaspore, or animal ferment, which exists in milk
in very small quantity, and which is the real cause of its speedy decompo-
sition. When this species of ferment is removed, milk can be preserved for
an indefinite time in vessels not quite full, and consequently exposed to the
contact of rarefied air, a result which was not effected by the process of M.
Maben, as he completely expelled those gases which otherwise would have
rendered it sour.”” M. Moigno then exhibited a five-gallon vessel containing
milk, put up by M. Pierre’s process, which he had brought from France to
Aberdeen, and which was afterwards opened and passed round. It was
found to be as natural, as pure, and as rich, as when first taken from the cow
in Normandy.

ON THE USE OF SULPHATE OF BARYTES AS A PAINT.

M. Kuhlmann, who was the first to apply this substance to house-painting,
has read a paper on the subject to the French Academy of Sciences. Sul-
phate of barytes is white, and is preferable both to white lead and to oxide
of zinc, not only on account of its durability, but also because it produces no
injurious effects upon the health of the workmen. To obtain it, M. Kuhl-
mann first deprives the natural carbonate of barytes, or witherite, of its
carbonic acid, by putting it in contact with the vapors of hydrochloric acid
issuing from the furnaces where sea-salt is decomposed for the purpose of
obtaining soda; after which he transforms it into a sulphate by the addition
of sulphuric acid. The sulphate is afterwards well washed, in order to
deprive it of every trace of the acid. The excess of water is then expelled,
either by pressure or swift rotation, and the paste which remains is put into
barrels for sale. Sulphate of barytes might be reduced to the form of dry
cakes like white lead, but it is preferable to keep it in the state of a paste,
because, when once dry, it cannot be again reduced so easily to a fine pow-
der, such as it was when first precipitated. It is used with great advantage
in the manufacture of paper-hangings, and has been successfully applied to
oil-painting, a coating of this paint being much more durable than any other
known. In examining the rubbish remaining after the demolition of one of
his furnaces for the transformation of chloride of barium, M. Kuhlmann
observed a green and blue substance, strongly resembling ultramarine; and,
in presenting a sample of it to the Academy, expressed his belief that it
would not be impossible to obtain artificial ultramarine from barytes.

ACTION OF WATER ON GLASS.

Pelouze has made some experiments on the decomposition of glass by
water. He finds, that while glass vessels in which water is boiled are but
very slowly attacked, powdered glass is decomposed with remarkable ease.
Thus, a pint flask, in which water was boiled for five days, lost scarcely a
decigramme; but when the neck of this flask was powdered, and boiled for

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. Bao

the same time with water, the decomposition extended to as much as one-
third of the mass. Two specimens of glass, having the following compo-
sition:

Sree FN otal? Wises Relea chara sietete 72:1 773
DOGG esiastals cleleicicia's aia eS hdl cer Romie ele emia ae ¢ 12-4 163
ATINS- Gepop On -OnOOr BIC EOOCOCIO COR OCD TOOT een tats 64
Alumina,

Peroxide of iron, } ADR cASDORTODORE ROS ses eee tLaces: traces.

were subjected to the same treatment.

The substance extracted from the first, amounted to 1.5 per cent.; that
from the second, to 2 per cent.; and, judging from the quantity of lime dis-
solved, and the amount of this base in the glass, the decomposition
amounted in the one instance to 10 per cent., and in the second to 33 per
cent.; so that glass in which the amount of lime is large in proportion to
that of soda, is less decomposed by water than glass in which the amount
of lime is less than that of soda.

The experiments show that it is chiefly the basic constituents of glass that
are extracted by water, and probably they might be entirely separated when
the action was continued tor a long time.

All ordinary kinds of glass undergo gradual decomposition, when exposed
in fine powder to the atmosphere; they absorb carbonic acid, and after a
time effervesce copiously.

When a mixture of powdered glass and water is exposed for some days to
the air, it effervesces with acids, and the solution always contains sulphuric
acid, originating from sulphate of soda, which Prof. Pelouze has found in
most kinds of glass to the extent of from 0.001 or 1.002 to 2.0 per cent.

Powdered glass boiled with water, through which a current of carbonic
acid is passed, yields a liquid that effervesces copiously with acids. When
boiled with solution of sulphate of lime, a considerable amount of sulphate
of soda is produced. This reaction accounts for the fact, that the walls and
floor of the rooms in which plate-glass is polished, are covered with an
efflorescence of sulphate of soda. The gypsum used for fixing the plates
yields the sulphuric acid, and the glass yields the soda.

The extent to which powdered glass is decomposed by water is remark-
able, when compared with the great durability of glass vessels under the
same condition; and is probably owing to the greater extent of surface
offered by the powdered glass to the decomposing influence of the water.

ON THE USE OF THE MAGNETIC CARBIDE OF IRON FOR THE PURI-
FICATION OF WATER.

The efficacy of oxygen gas in the destruction of every sort of impurity in
water has long been known, but the means of readily availing ourselves of
this property has been a great desideratum. Profs. Brande and Spencer, of
England, recommend the use of the ferroso-ferric carbide of iron, or mag-
netic carbide of iron, as a peculiarly rapid and effective mechanical filter,
which also possesses the additional valuable property of attracting oxygen
te its surface in the form of ozone, which energetically manifests its presence
by the exhibition of its wonderful chemical powers of purification. When
water is passed through a filter made of this substance, it is deprived of all
color, taste, and smell, and nearly all the deleterious gases it may contain
(such as sulphuretted and phosphoretted hydrogen) are forced to combine

256 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

with the oxygen, and are so rendered harmless, and the water so treated has
little or no tendency to produce animal or vegetable organisms. These
properties are so important that this filterimg medium cannot fail to be
speedily and extensively applied, with the best possible results.

ACTION OF WATER IN LEAD PIPES.

An essay has been published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,
by Dr. Lauder Lindsay, in which he promulgates opinions totally opposed
to those generally entertained by chemists regarding the action of water on
lead pipes. It is generally taught and believed that pure soft water acts
rapidly on lead, and converts it into an oxide when exposed to the atmos-
phere. On the other hand, it is as generally taught and believed that hard
water, which contains neutral salts in solution, does not become impregnated
with lead in passing through pipes — the pure water is held to be dangerous
to use with lead pipes, while the impure water is considered safe. It is be-
lieved that the neutral salts in the water prevent it acting upon the lead,
while the oxygen of the pure water has such an affinity for the metal that
it leaves its hydrogen, and acts chemicaily upon it. Dr. Lindsay asserts that
observation and experiment have led him to conclude that certain pure soft
waters do not act upon lead; while certain hard waters, which are regarded
as most protective, do act chemically upon it, and therefore it must be dan-
gerous to use for conveying such water for domestic purposes. He has tried
experiments on a large scale, and from these he has drawn his conclusions.
He asserts that those before him who have made investigations on a small
scale have been deceived as to the results, and that water containing a small
portion of lead will affect some members of a family, or of a community,
and not others, and that the rationale of this is not well understood. From
what he says, the only safe course to pursue in the matter is not to use such
pipes at all.

ON THE REMOVAL OF GYPSUM (SULPHATE OF LIME) FROM WATERS
USED FOR GENERATING STEAM.

The following suggestions by Henry Wurtz, Esq., on the removal of gyp-
sum from waters used in steam boilers, are found in Silliman’s Journal, Vol.
xy, No.8;

When we call to mind that the crystallization of the gypsum from its hot
solution is the principal, and usually the only cause of the formation of the
destructive boiler-crusts; and that, leaving out of view the injury sustained
by the boiler, the actual loss of heat through the non-conducting power of
the crust, and other causes connected with it, has been shown to amount, in
the case of locomotive boilers (in France), in many cases, to forty per cent.
of the fuel consumed, — the subject may be considered worthy of further at-
tention; and [ shall, therefore, present some brief calculations bearing upon it.

In a saturated solution of gypsum, then (say, in round numbers, 1 part in
400), each 800 Ibs. = 800 pints = 100 gallons, will contain 2 Ibs., and each
1000 gallons 20 lbs. of sulphate of lime; which is equivalent to 24 Ibs. of pure
carbonate of baryta, or a little over 31 lbs. of pure carbonate of lead. But
water used for steam purposes, sea-water for instance, is seldom or never a
saturated solution of gypsum. Let us take von Bibra’s analyses of the
waters of the Atlantic Ocean (Liebig & Kopp’s Jahresd. fiir 1850, 621), col-

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 257

lected at four different times, at as many widely distant places. These give
in 100 parts 0°205, 0°156, 0°16, and 0°19 parts, of sulphate of lime. For the
sake of simplicity, take 0°2: then 1000 gallons = 8000 Ibs. contain 16 lbs. of
gypsum. The quantity of carbonate of baryta equivalent to this is 19°2 Ibs.,
and of carbonate of lead 25 lbs. Thus one ton (2000 lbs.) of carbonate of
baryta, which some years since sold in England (in the form of ground with-
erite) for $20, is theoretically sufficient to separate the gypsum from 100,000
gallons of the water of the Atlantic. On referring now to the evaporative
power of different coals, as determined by Walter R. Johnson, for the
United States Navy Department ( Taylor’s Statistics of Coal, introduction,
p- lvii; Knapp’s Chem. Technology, Am. Ed. i. 43), we there find that 1 Ib.»
for instance, of Lackawanna anthracite (considered in New York superior
for steam purposes) produces 8} lbs. of steam from cold water; so that to

evaporate 100,000 gallons would require = 94,000 lbs., or 47 tons.

Forty per cent. of such a quantity is over 18 tons.

I do not, however, by any means recommend the application of this prin-
ciple to ocean steamers, on account of practical difficulties, which I see no
way to overcome. But on land the application is a matter of perfect sim-
plicity. It is only necessary to have the tanks from which the boiler is
supplied, larger, and to have more of them. While the process of mixture
and agitation with the carbonate, and precipitation by standing, is going on
in one tank, water may be used from another which has undergone the pro-
cess. The idea seems to me to be especially adapted to locomotives, for
which even sea-water may then be used.

IMPURITIES IN DRINKING-WATERS.

From a report by Edwin Lankester, F. R. 8., on the drinking-waters of
London, published in the London Mechanics’ Magazine, July 1828, we obtain
the following memoranda.

Phosphates and silica exist in all London well-waters, in small quantities,
sulphate of lime, in the proportion of one to fifteen grains to the gallon. It
decomposes, in contact with organic matters, and produces sulphuretted
hydrogen. Very small quantities of organic matter serve to produce this
effect.

Ammonia exists in Thames water in small quantities; in much larger and
more appreciable quantities in the surface wells. This substance is the re-
sult of the decomposition of animal matter, and in the surface wells is
undoubtedly derived from human excretions.

Nitrates were found in one well-water to the extent of fifty grains to the
gallon.

The organic matters are not injurious when fresh or recent, but they assume
certain conditions of decomposition which occasionally render them deadly.
Their influence may be estimated by the case of the Lambeth and Vauxhall
Water Company’s supply, during the years 1848 and 1854,— two years in
which cholera visited London. In 1848, both companies derived their supply
of water from the Thames at Battersea, and both supplied the same district
With water, and the houses supplied were equally visited with cholera.

But in 1854, the Lambeth Company obtained an improved supply high up
the Thames, at Ditton. The consequence was, according to Dr. Snow’s cal-
culations, that the deaths amongst the population supplied by the Vauxhall -

22*

258 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Company, as compared with the Lambeth, was as seven to one; according
to the most favorable view of the case, as given by Mr. Swain, it was three
and one-half to one. There is nothing to account for this difference but the
larger quantity of organic impurity in the water supplied by the Vauxhall
Company, which still obtains water from the more impure source. The out-
break of cholera in the Golden-square district, in September 1854, was traced
to the pump in Broad Street, which was subsequently found to have commu-
nicated with the drain of a neighboring house.

Organic matters in standing water undergo a kind of fermentation, by
which carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and other gases, are got rid of,
and nitric acid is formed The water thus undergoes a process of self-purifi-
cation. This occurred in Thames water, and accounts for the fact that ships
were often supplied with water from the Thames below London Bridge.
This water is dangerous to drink before or during the fermenting process.

The appreciation of small quantities of organic matters by chemical pro-
cesses is a difficult process. During the evaporation of water, the organic
matters are dissipated, and not all left in the evaporating basin.

The microscope is an important aid. It detects the nature of organic im-
purities. These consist of dead and living animal and vegetable matters.
The dead consist of the tissues of animals and plants. The source of these
impurities can in some instances be made manifest. Such impurities are
very manifest in the Thames and surface-well waters, scarcely to be detected
in the deep-well waters. The living matters consist of plants and animals.
The filaments of microscopic Fungi have been found in impure well-water.
They have been detected in several waters known to be productive of dis-
ease. Amongst the living animals, the forms of Infusoria are most abundant.
These are frequently indicativewof the impure condition of water. Eggs of
the higher animals are not unfrequently found in the Thames water; and
some of these undoubtedly belong to those forms of Annulosa, which find |
their highest development in the human body. i

Many of these forms of animal and vegetable life are not injurious in
themselves; but they are most numerous where there is the greatest amount
of impurity, and are a measure of the greater or less objectionable nature of
a water for drinking purposes.

PURIFICATION OF WATER CONTAMINATED WITH LEAD.

Professor Faraday, writing to the London Times, on the danger of drink-
ing rain-water contaminated with lead (dissolved from the lead of roofs),
states, that if some powdered chalk or whiting be put into the cistern in
which such water is collected, and be stirred immediately after rain, the
water may, with the greatest facility, be obtained in a perfectly fit state for
all culinary and domestic purposes. The lead is rendered insoluble, and the
water may be filtered or left to settle. :

EFFECTS OF THE PREPARATION OF LEAD UPON THE INFERIOR
ANIMALS.

A. M. Pécart-Taschereau, a litharge manufacturer (Deutsche Klinik), has
investigated, with some care, the effects of the preparations of lead upon the
inferior animals. Strange as it may seem, he soon noticed that the Dog is
never affected with symptoms of lead poisoning. He has seen this animal

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 259

roll in litharge and white lead, and afterwards lick itself clean; but no evil
consequences ever attracted his attention.

The Cat, on the contrary, is soon killed. This animal dies in convulsions,
not only in establishments where litharge and white lead are prepared, but
even in those places where minute quantities of lead chance to be present,
in the compositor’s rooms, and where newly printed books have been stored.
New ink, it is well known, always contains a certain quantity of this metal.

M. Pécart-Taschereau tried a very decisive experiment. He hung several
cages, in each of which a cat was confined, in his factory, and in a short
time, one after another, all died.

Mice —and the lead manufactories are infested by them—play in the
litharge and white lead without any apparent evil consequences.

M. Rouart, white lead manufacturer in Clichy, remarks that Rats, which
multiply most rapidly in his establishment, are very apt to suffer from paral-
ysis of the lower extremities.

The Horse, exposed to the poisonous atmosphere of lead factories, appears
to be liable to a paralysis of the muscles of the larynx. The recurrent laryn-
geal nerve (which conveys the motory impulses to the muscles of the larynx)
appears unable to perform its proper functions, whilst the remainder of the
pneumo-gastric nerve is totally unaffected. The veterinary surgeon, Delanay,
has performed, in these cases, tracheotomy, with the result of preserving the
valuable animal, notwithstanding the local paralysis.

Birds soon succumb to the poison. It has been observed that.Sheep and
Goats that feed near lead factories frequently suffer from hematuria, and
are also liable to miscarry. It is also asserted that in such neighborhoods
women are peculiarly apt to have premature labor. — Medical and Surgical
Reporter. *

It is stated by Dr. A. S. Taylor, in his work on “‘ Poisons,” a new edition
of which has recently been published in London, that lead paralysis may
result from articles of food, from snuff, tobacco, etc., sold in what is denom-
inated “ tinfoil,’ which is, in truth, almost pure lead. This statement may
cause some surprise; but he furnishes another statement that is yet more
remarkable, from which it appears that vegetables are capable of taking up
lead from the soil, and incorporating it with other materials in their organ-
isms. Cattle-poisoning by lead, so alleged, became the subject of a chemical
investigation, and the question was, whether the cattle were injured by the
fumes from the chimney of the lead works, or from the lead in the soil.
Earth was brought to London from the field in which the cattle fed. ‘‘ Mus-
tard and cress seeds were sown in these four samples of the Mendip leaden
soil, and, for a comparative experiment, in a sample of ordinary garden
mould. In about eight days the crops were carefully cut, without interfering
with the earth, and submitted by Mr. Brande and myself to chemical exam-
ination. We first satisfied ourselves that there was no lead on the outside of
the plants, by washing them in pure diluted acetic acid, and testing the
washings. The vegetable matter was then dried and burnt, and lead, in well-
marked quantity, was found in the ashes.” — P. 512.

AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.

The following views in relation to the demands of agriculture upon science,
were expressed by Professor Voelcker, of the Cirencester College, England, in
a recent address before the Koyal Agricultural Society:

260 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

He believes that among the landed proprictors, their agents, and the larger
farmers, especially the rising generation, a more extensive knowledge of the
sciences applicable to agriculture is needed. All these want better instruc-
tion. But to teach the small farmer or the laborer chemistry, is simply
absurd. To either, the pursuit would be waste of time. So chemistry should
never be made the direct guide to the agriculturist. Science is, after all,
only the systematic arrangement of well-authenticated facts, and the rising
generation should be taught its general principles. But many professers of
chemistry have over-estimated their own powers, and instead of explaining
the experience of practical men, they set themselves up as guides to the
farmers; they have over-estimated the powers of the new science, and in
consequence stumbled. Again he says: ‘ Agricultural chemistry, in its ap-
plication to farming, is altogether a new science; and hitherto it has been
like every new knowledge, too vague and too general in its doctrines, as
well as in its researches. What is required at the time are, experiments
made for a special purpose, researches carried on in the field as well as in
the laboratory. We have no need of the joint labors of practical men and
men of science. There are questions which can only be properly investi-
gated if the man of science heartily joins with the practical man, working
cheerfully together, each in his own department,—a nearer approach be-
tween agriculture and science, in short, is what is required at the present
time. A general knowledge of the principles of farming, however useful
to the practical farmer, never will help him to grow a large crop of turnips;
he must have special training in practical matters in order to be a successful
farmer. So it is with chemical knowledge. Men may have excellent general
chemical knowledge, but if they have not special chemical knowledge in rela-
tion to farming, their labors will be of little direct utility to the agriculturist.”

In reference to the culture of root-crops, he says that, generally, ammoni-
acal manures, such as guano, are thrown away on roots; and phosphates
are more profitable. Guano and super-phosphate of lime both rather re-
tard the germination of the seeds, but they push forward the young plant
in its early growth. This we believe to form the true value of such manures,
though perhaps this is over-estimated.

SUBSTANCES EXTRACTED FROM ARABLE LAND BY RAIN-WATER.

Dr. Fraas, of Munich, has some time been making experiments to ascer-
tain the nature and quantity of the constituents of soils that are removed by
rain-water within a given time. The instrument used by him for this pur-
pose is called a lysimeter, and the substances obtained have been analyzed by
Hr. Zoeller. They were separated from rain-water that penetrated a square
foot of earth, six inches deep, during the summer of 1857, from April to
October. Five different extracts were analyzed:

No. 1, from cultivated and manured calcareous soil.

No. 2, from cultivated and unmanured clay soil.

No. 3, from uncultivated and unmanured clay soil.

No. 4, from uncultivated and manured clay soil.

No. 5, from cultivated and manured clay soil.

The manure applied to Nos. 1, 4, and 5, consisted, in each instance, of one
pound of cattle manure without straw.

The residues left by evaporation were yellowish or blackish-brown, and
very hygroscopic. They all contained the same constituents, with the ex-

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 261

ception of manganese, which could be detected only in Nos. 3 and 4. The
bases were potash, soda, lime, magnesia, and peroxide of iron; the acids,
carbonic, silicic, nitric, sulphuric, phosphoric, and chlorine. Besides these
substances, there were also organic substance, clay and sand.

In none of these residues could the presence of a soluble compound of
alumina or of ammonia be recognized. It was only by boiling for a long
time with concentrated caustic potash, that an ammoniacal reaction became
perceptible, and that was probably due to the decomposition of a nitrogenous
organic substance. There is, however, so large an amount of nitric acid
present, that when the residues of evaporation are heated upon platinum
foil, they deflagrate; and when the solution is heated with sulphuric acid, it
decolorizes indigo solution.

This nitric acid has most likely originated chiefly from ammonia by oxida-
tion; for, although nitric acid may be produced directly by the combination
of atmospheric nitrogen with the oxygen condensed by the soil, ammonia
would always be oxidized first, and converted into nitrate of ammonia.

However, since the nitric acid in the solution from soils exists in the state
of a lime or magnesia salt, this is a further proof of the powerful attrac-
tion of the soil for ammonia. So that while, on the one hand, the capability
of the soils to condense ordinary oxygen and ozonize it, may cause the pro-
duction of nitrate of ammonia, its powerful attraction for ammonia causes
the decomposition of the nitrate of ammonia, the base being retained by the
soil, while the nitric acid combines with lime or magnesia.

The analyses show that one million parts of the water passing through
soil six inches deep contained:

Solid residue dried at 212°,.... 472°32 254.62 292-64 305-20 291-50

PRECIP OLUMON recat. re ses open Lyo7£: 19475) 25 VURG
Potash, 5... - Meret Neiie) as GicLs ois ciebe Os AU a 2°37 2°03 5°46 3°82
SLE Dict ahi ltt a 56 Rapa eh ag Saad (a 5°60 743 23°74 6-02
WATIEG. ote 5, eta 3 Sees Sewn se ate Oo 57°60 70°80 68°41 92°34
MEO MEM latefaeiiatscae career’ (a0'Oa 8 88 1:32 2°93 5:12
Peroxide of iron,....: Sark. eet noe 6°35 8°26 5°76 4°39
Chioerinegs: .::.%.. Fee Bic eae pride 9°52 20°87 39°46 35°27

IPMOSPNOFIC BEI 5, </2is ais's sais ohcueis bya are
DULPMURIC ACIG sg To c.c% wince sncees LSAT 27°13 27°82 29-30 33°49
Silica (SOlUDIE), |...) nc.rjerepieenem “LOA 11:35 17-46 9:50 9°34

These analyses illustrated the absorptive power of soils, first pointed out
by Mr. Way as so important in its influence upon the nutrition of plants.
With one exception only, neither phosphoric acid nor ammonia were present
in sensible amount; the quantity of potash is in all instances smail, and
principally referable to the organic substance in the solution. Chlorine,
sulphuric acid, and nitric acid salts are not retained by the soil.

If these analyses show the substances that are dissolved from the soil, the
opinion that plants derive their nutriment from solutions must be given up.
The soils experimented upon gave good crops of corn and straw, and the
quantities of potash and phosphoric acid required by these crops much
exceed those which would be furnished by solutions of the above composi-
tion. Moreover, the comparison of the ash of cereals, and the substance
dissolved from the soil, is inconsistent with the opinion that the food of
plants is supplied in solution, unless they are supposed to possess a very
considerable selective power. — Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie, cvii. 27.

262 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ON THE VALUE OF WOOLLEN RAGS AS A MANURE.

Prof. Way, chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society, England, in re-
cently investigating the value of woollen rags as a manure, felt that it would
hardly be satisfactory to content himself with the analysis of wool, since, as
he observes (Jour. Royal Ag. Soc., vol. x. p. 617), to reason from the composi-
tion of a raw material of any kind upon that of the manufactured article,
which has passed through perhaps half a dozen processes, is often to lay
one’s self open to much error; and nothing short of the direct analysis of the
rags themselves, would enable any person to form a correct notion of their
manuring value. Wool, in a state of purity, contains upwards of seventeen
per cent. of nitrogen. Were woollen rags, therefore, of the same strength
as the wool itself, they should produce ultimately a larger amount of ammo-
nia than even Peruvian guano. It will be valuable, then, to examine the
chemical compositions of some of the commonly sold refuse woollen rags.
These rags are well known, and extensively employed as a manure in some
parts of the country.

Owing, as the Professor remarks, to their slow decomposition in the soil,
they are not well fitted for root culture — turnips and other plants of this
kind requiring active and readily soluble manures to produce a rapid growth.
Still, this must not be taken as an undoubted fact, since, in the experiments
of the late Mr. Pusey on the growth of beet-root (¢did., vol. vi., p. 530), when
thirteen tons of farm-yard manure per acre produced twenty-seven and a
half tons of clean roots, the addition to the dung of seven cwt. of rags raised
the produce to thirty-six tons. This increase he attributed to the large pro-
portion of azote or nitrogen present in the rags.

Woollen rags were formerly, as Professor Way adds, to be purchased of
good quality, and unmixed with any less valuable substance; but of late
years rags, of a size that used to be sold to the farmer, are bought up to be
reconverted into an inferior kind of cloth. The supply being in this way in
part cut off, is frequently made good by the admixture of such linen or cot-
ton rags as may not be worth the paper-maker’s attention.

Three specimens of these refuse rags were examined by the Professor.
Specimen No. 1, consisting of the seams and other uselesss parts of old cioth,
which had apparently been cut up to be remanufactured into cloth. No. 2,
called ‘‘ premings,” and No. 3, “ cuttings,’ appeared to be much of the same
character, but totally different from the rags, — they both consisted essen-
tially of colored wool less than an eighth of an inch in length. These all
contained, in their ordinary state, a certain proportion of water. In the
three specimens above referred to, the

Per cent.
acs contained Of water,. ..5«es<0% «0s ssse<. RE ey ee ee ee
PVE MAIN OG oisie.* coin oo «0, a1s ele 8 Sia facatale oraretcke lege faretecelorare SAAD PACOCUE Aeaneon |
Cuttings, 02.2... Vice eee Ge cleniee ein emails Melee neat SCHEELE Bares aan UW,

In this state, the proportion per cent. of nitrogen which they contained,
and the proportion of ammonia, which, by the decomposition of the animal
“matter, will be eventually produced from them, and from a specimen of
“shoddy,” is given in the following little table:

Nitrogen. Ammonia.
IR TIES. a.9ao0 IUD OOO DOO SEBO ODODORICOGBODE SACOG I55 canal timely) 12-71
HERE WMUMEA sets cialeie «sche «010 8'6 = éPajele fel clewinciee nae ieee 9-92 12:05
ROUGE erties a e]s!ere ein s/s ASB GBA NE Rac aco sasosndobsddos- 11-84 14°31

Shoddy,........... ere £ -diansts ae 455 5:52

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 263

It appears, then, says Way, that it is quite incorrect to estimate the value
of the different kinds of woollen refuse by the known composition of the
wool itself; for, to whatever cause the inferiority may be due, it is plain that
they do not, on an average, contain two-thirds of the nitrogen found in the
raw material.

The mineral substances found in wool refuse are of small fertilizing value.
In 100 parts of inferior wool refuse were found

DUN aR re ie aerntaian eWrie ae olois aiear 2,2» a 8 eos eieleibiele otelbia’ a's suatciaie Ax W eiaie| «ia aiereiers if bed
MPRNIRR PGT BHO Olle. Fx c0.5 cae ene ais alerae's ia © ciaiae cigisie.cinelo'e eslgre therein
Phospimie of lime,...... 2.0.5... Sonboaobacgod seed senronne seine She oil Sete:
Oxide of iron and alumina,.......... Spopconcoous soon dusccusaceadoce 2:10
Carbonate of lime,........ sod ancdeo beododt once Sectett hiseteeaiocncw 62
SHG MSrors A Aes Mabe eancoc ootine sac cocac cope cudgodasoUspdcaonUaeGr 21:23
EM ao ciale dn alain ciplniclnein a pieip winiae x apie ail sen eda 2 ne pie k ces ee Le

This specimen contained about 2°5 per cent. of nitrogen.

Professor Voelcker has explained the chief reasons for the considerable
difference of opinion, which exists in different places, with regard to the fer-
tilizing value of woollen substances (7bid., vol. xvi., p. 94). These, he consid-
ers, are to be best understood by a reference to their analysis, and the time
of their application, and the physical composition of the soil. Shoddy, for
instance, often contains from twenty to twenty-five per cent. of oil, which,
by excluding moisture, and the atmospheric air from the interior of the
wool hairs which compose this refuse, prevents its decomposition, as effectu-
ally as the oil in sardines, or a cover of grease the potted meat. And thus
the decomposition of the shoddy is retarded for a considerable period, so
that no effect is produced if it is applied to the land when the young wheat
has already made its appearance, or even if applied two or three months
previously. But if the same refuse is applied to the land a considerable
period before the sowing of the crop which it is intended to benefit, or if it is
previously brought into a state in which it will readily ferment (and then it
may be applied at once to the young wheat), a very marked and early good
effect will be produced by its use, since ammonia is then gradually formed
from the nitrogen of the shoddy. In light and porous soils, this necessary
preparation proceeds much more rapidly than in stiff, heavy lands.

The farmer, by his practice, confirms these chemical conclusions. The
Kentish hop-growers, we are told by Mr. S. Rutley, in his prize essay (7bid.,
vol. ix., p. 562), deem woollen rags, shoddy, and refuse seal-skins, to be very
lasting manures, but.much more valuable and early in their effect on dry
than on wet soils. On the Kentish hop-grounds they apply from twelve to
twenty ewts. per acre of woollen rags, twenty to thirty cwts. of shoddy, and
about 160 bushels per acre of seal-skin. For corn-crops on light, chalky
land, or for grass, about ten or twelve cwts. per acre of woollen refuse were
used. — Hxtracted from an article on wool, communicated by Cuthbert Johnson to
the ( English) Farmer’s Magazine.

SURFACE MANURING.

Agriculturists are very much exercised, at the present moment, whether
it is better to apply manures in a partially rotted state upon the surface of
the earth, weeks or months before they are required for crops, or to decom-
pose them in heaps, and plough them in as soon as applied, at planting:

264 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

time. The best writers, both practical and theoretical, in England and
America, seem to incline to the first-mentioned practice, in reference par-
ticularly to grass and grain; and the best effects are shown to have resulted
from this method of the application of surface-manure.

The practice of top-dressing, or of surface-manuring, has long been the
favorite method employed by all intelligent gardeners within the circle of
my acquaintance. We have long ago learned that masses of rich, nitro-
genous manures are not what plants require about their roots; but that
manures are applied much more successfully (and less injuriously) by top-
dressing, either in solid or liquid form. Nature never manures her plants
with crude masses of concentrated fertilizing substances; but imparts her
stimulating and mineral food in a state of the most minute division (almost
infinitesimal), chiefly from the surface of the earth. No wonder so many
fruit-trees have been killed, so many grape-vines destroyed or rendered bar-
ren by excess of wood, in consequence of the heavy manuring at the roots
so universally recommended by writers on gardening and horticulture.

The great objection to surface-manuring is founded upon the probable
loss of ammonia, caused by the exposure of decaying manures upon the
surface of the earth. But this loss has been shown, by sound reasoning
and by facts deduced from practical experience, to be much less than is com-
monly apprehended; while the benefits arising from surface-manuring, in
other respects, more than counterbalance any possible loss of ammonia
from this practice.

In the first place, when manures are exposed upon the surface of the
earth, even in hot weather, decomposition no longer goes on so rapidly as
when the same manures are kept in a heap, and the ammonia that is pro-
duced is gradually carried into the soil by rains. The other solubie sub-
stances, as potash, lime, the phosphates, etc., are, of course, not lost, because
they are not volatile.

Nor are these soluble and valuable substances lost to plants by being
carried into the soil before they are needed by growing plants. It has
been conclusively shown by eminent scientific authorities, that any good
soil, containing a fair proportion of clay and carbon, is capable of taking
up and retaining effectually, ammonia, lime, potash, soda, ete., in a soluble
form, so that little, if any, passes off in the underdrainage water of such
soils. These substances, it is true, may wash from the surface, but they
cannot pass through a good soil, and go off in the drainage water.

By surface-manuring, we mulch the ground, and render it cooler in sum-
mer and warmer in winter. Mere shade is an important element in culture,
so important, that some writers have thought shade alone to be equivalent
to manure. A piece of soil heavily shaded by surface-manuring, actually
decomposes like a manure heap; that is, it undergoes a sort of putrefaction
or chemical change, which sets free its chemical constituents, unlocks, as
it were, its locked-up manurial treasures, and fits its natural elements to
become the food of plants. Darkness, moisture, and air, are the conditions
required for vegetable and mineral decomposition. These conditions are
produced in the soil by surface-manuring.

Then, again, when the surface-manure decomposes, its elements are washed
into the soil, in a state of solution precisely fitted to meet the wants of
plants, and they become themselves active agents in promoting further
decomposition and chemical changes in the entire body of the soii.

Manure then, f say, chiefly upon the surface. Do not waste your manures

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 265

by mixing them deeply with the soil. Plant shallow. Keep roots of all
trees, plants, and vines, as near the surface as possible. There are weighty
reasons for the position assumed in the last sentence, which I have not
space now to enumerate. I say again, plant shallow, Let your soil be
deep and dry, but plant near the surface. To farmers I would say, manure
upon the surface as much as possible. Top-dress your grass, after mowing
in July or August, under a burning summer sun; top-dress in the fall, be-
fore and during the autumn rains; manure the surface while snow is on the
ground, while the March winds blow, and while the April rains fall. Ma-
nure your grass, instead of your corn and wheat, broadcast, at any time
when you have manure and leisure, and I will guarantee that you will be
abundantly satisfied with the result.

To fruit-growers I would say, do not fill your soil with manure before
you plant trees, grape-vines, etc. Plant in good natural soil, and manure
from the surface, spring and fall, liberally and properly, and I will guarantee
"you success far greater than if you plant in holes and trenches filled with
manure, as the custom is. Surface-manuring and mulching are the true
doctrines. Iam sure of it.— Mr. Bright, Gardener’s Monthly.

ON THE ESSENTIAL MANURING CONSTITUENTS OF CERTAIN CROPS.

At the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association, Prof. Voelcker de-
tailed the results of certain field experiments, having special reference to
the turnip-crop, which had extended over a period of four years. These
are the most important points cited: —1. That fertilizers destitute of phos-
phorie acid do not increase the yield of this crop. 2. That phosphate of
lime applied to the soil in the shape of soluble phosphate (super-phosphate)
increases this crop in an especial manner, and that the practical value of
artificial manures for root-crops, chiefly depends on the relative amount of
available phosphates which they contain. Thus it was shown that three
ewt. of super-phosphate per acre, produced as large an increase of turnips
as fifteen tons of farm-yard manure. 3. That ammoniacal salts and nitro-
genized constituents yielding ammonia on decomposition, have no beneficial
effect upon turnips, but rather the reverse. 4 That ammoniacal salts ap-
plied alone do not promote, as maintained erroneously, the luxuriant devel-
opment of leaves; but that they produce this effect to a certain extent
when salts of ammonia are applied to the land in conjunction with the
mineral constituents found in the ashes of turnips. The report likewise
states that numerous analyses of turnips have been made, from which it ap-
pears that the more nutritious and least ripened roots invariably contain
less nitrogen than half-ripened roots, or turnips of low feeding qualities. In
the latter, the proportion of nitrogen was found in several instanees two to
two-and-a-half times as high as in roots distinguished for their good feeding
qualities.

Similar experiments upon wheat showed that nitrogenized ammoniacal
matters, which proved inefficacious in relation to turnips, increase the yield
in corn and straw very materially, and that the increase of wheat was
largest when the ammoniacal constituents were associated with mineral
matters.

ACTION OF THE SOIL ON VEGETATION.

The late Professor Gregory left the following summary of recent views °
relative te the action of soil on vegetation:
Qo
23

266 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

1. Way, and, after him, Liebig, have shown that every soil absorbs ammo-
nia, and also potash, from solutions containing them or their salts, generally
leaving the acid, which takes up lime, etc., from the soil in solution. The
ammonia and potash, which are absorbed in very large proportion by arable
soils, are rendered thereby quite insoluble.

2. Arable soils absorb also silicic acid in very considerable proportion,
and it also becomes insoluble.

3. Arable soils also absorb the phosphoric acid of phosphate of lime, or
of ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate, apparently soluting the acid, which
also becomes insoluble.

4. Hence the soluble ingredients of manures cannot be conveyed to the
plants in the form of a solution percolating the soil (such as liquid manure,
or a solution formed by rain-water with the aid of carbonic acid), since such
a solution is deprived of its dissolved ingredients by filtering through a
very moderate amount of soil.

5. Hence, also, as the food of plants must thus be fixed in the soil in an
insoluble form, it is plain that it can only enter the plant in virtue of some
power or agency in the roots, which decomposes the insoluble compounds
in the soil, and thus renders soluble the necessary matter.

6. The absorbent power of soils is partly chemical, and partly mechanical,
as is the case with charcoal.

7. The quantities of alkalies, of phosphates of ammonia, etc., capable of
being supplied to plants by rain-water, after it has been percolated through
the soil, even supposing the whole to be assimilated, does not amount to
more than a mere fraction of what the plants contain.

8 The theory of the transference of ammonia, potash, silica, phosphates,
etc., from the soil to the plant, is not vet understood; but the old theory,
that the rain conveys food to the plant directly, is certainly not the true one.
— Edin. New Phil. Journal.

ON THE PRESENCE OF ARSENIC IN PLANTS USED FOR FOOD.

The following is the substance of a paper on the above subject, recently
read before the Natural History Society, Dublin, by Prof. John Davy:

His attention was first attracted to the subject by the difficulty of obtain-
ing pure sulphuric acid, that sold in shops commonly containing more or less
arsenic, derived from the pyrites from which it is manufactured. Super-
phosphate of lime is extensively used as a manure, and is more and more
employed every day, and this manure is made by the addition of sulphuric
acid to crushed bones; and, in order to produce it at the lowest cost, an infe-
rior description of acid is used, containing, among other impurities, an in-
creased .quantity of arsenious acid or white arsenic. With a view to ascer-
tain whether plants had the power of absorbing this arsenic from the earth,
Professor Davy transplanted three small pea-plants, and when they had
recovered from the removal, he watered them every other day for about a
week. The plants did not appear to be injured by the treatment, but grew
up, flowered, and produced seed as usual. Having collected the stalks,
leaves, and pods, they were carefully put aside for examination. The means
most commonly employed for the detection of minute quantities of arsenic
are Reinsch’s and Marsh’s. On trying the plants by these tests united, it
was found that not only the stalks and leaves, but even the seeds had
absorbed the poison, which was thus found to have penetrated the entire
plant.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 267

Having ascertained that arsenic could be absorbed by plants without
destroying their vitality, Professor Davy next proceeded to experiment on
the super-phosphate, by planting a small cabbage-plant in a pot containing
one part of the manure to three of mould. At the end of three wecks the
top was cut off, and appeared green and healthy; and on testing one hun-
dred and thirteen grains of the cabbage, very distinct indications of the
poison were observed. But, as the amount of super-phosphate used in this
experiment was much more than would have been used in ordinary cases,
Professor Davy procured some turnips to which six cwt. of the manure had
been used per Irish acre, and from two lbs. weight of the roots which had
been carefully washed and boiled for three hours in thirty-six ounces of
distilled water and three ounces of hydrochloric acid, striking evidence
was afforded of the presence of arsenic in the turnips. On testing the
brown acid used by the manure-makers, as much as one grain of white
arsenic was discovered per ounce of vitriol. It is necessary to state, that the
utmost caution had been taken to ascertain that no arsenic existed in any of
the reagents employed in the experiments. These facts show the extreme
caution which is necessary in the formation of conclusions based on the
presence of a minute quantity of arsenic in the body-of a person suspected
to have died from poisoning, as the small amount discovered in the liver, or
stomach and viscera, might have been received into the system with the veg-
etable or even animal food taken by the individual.

ATMOSPHERIC DUST.

This subject has been recently brought before the French Academy by M.
Pouchet, in a paper entitled ‘“‘ Etude des corpuscles en suspension dans I’at-
mosphere.’” The atmosphere which surrounds us holds in suspension a
mass of corpuscles, the detritus of the mineral crust of our globe, animal
and vegetable particles, and the debris of all that is used for man’s purposes.
These diverse corpuscles are proportionably more numerous and voluminous
as the atmosphere is more or less agitated by the wind, and it is to these that
the term dust has been applied.

The author enumerates the various corpuscles of mineral, animal, and
vegetable origin with which the air is loaded. Under the latter — the vege-
table products —he mentions especially particles of wheat, which are
always found mixed with dust, be it recent or old, as well as those of bar-
ley, rye, potatoes, which have been discovered in rare instances. ‘ Aston-
ished at the proportional abundance of flour which I have found among the
atmospheric corpuscles,’’ says M. Pouchet, “‘ I undertook the task to examine
the dust of all centuries and of all localities. Ihave explored the monuments
of our large cities; those of the shore and those of the desert; and in the
midst of the immense variety of corpuscles that universally float in the air,
almost always have I found the dust of grain, in greater or lesser abundance.
Endowed with an extraordinary power of preservation, years seem scarcely
to have altered it. ,

“Whatever may be the antiquity of atmospheric corpuscles, we find
among them the dust of grain yet recognizable. I have discovered it in the
most inaccessible retreats of our old Gothic churches, mixed with their black-
ened dust of eight centuries; I have met it in the palaces and hypogées of
Thebes, where it dates back perhaps to the epoch of the Pharaohs. I have
found it even in the interior of the tympanal cayity of the head of a mummi-

~‘

268 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

fied dog, which I have recovered from a subterranean temple of Upper
Egypt.” — Druggists’ Circular.

INFLUENCE OF FOODS.

Dr. Edward Smith, of the Hospital for Consumptives, Brompton, England,
contributes to the Proc. Royal-Medico-Chirurgical Society a paper entitled
“Practical Deductions from an Experimental Inquiry into the Influence of
Foods.” He considers the use of arrow-root and other fashionable foods
(consisting merely of starch and water) in preference to the cereals (wheat,
etc.), as utterly indefensible, even in cases of exhaustion. He draws the
distinction between the action of that diet which increases the vital power,
and that which merely tends to prevent the loss of it; and considers that
beef-tea, wines, and brandy, can act only in the latter mode, while the
cereals act in the first-named manner. Milk and the cereals he asserts to be
the most perfect form of food, and approves of the use of skimmed rather
than new milk in cases of fever. The great value of animal substances in
diet, as increasing the respiratory process in addition to the supply of plas-
tic material, is dwelt on. In cases of debility, with lessened appetite and a
soft, perspiring skin, Dr. Smith recommends fat to be applied to the skin
rather than taken internally. He approves of sugar and water (the French
eau sucrée) as an innocuous and refreshing beverage, and thinks that the ill
effects of sugar on the healthy system have been greatly exaggerated. Tea
causes waste, and is thus injurious to persons under fed. It differs from
coffee, chiefly by increasing the action of the skin, and thereby tending to
cool the body. He thinks tea and coffee onght to be more commonly used
as medicinal agents. The latter he believes to be a valuable febrifuge, and
one particularly fitted for cases of nervous excitability. He considers all
alcohols to have their chief influence in sustaining the action of the heart.

NEW DISINFECTING COMPOUND.

M. Corne and Demeaux, two French surgeons, have recently discovered
and introduced a new disinfecting compound of a most simple and eftica-
cious character. Its composition and preparation is as follows: — To one
hundred parts of plaster of Paris, finely powdered, add from one to three
- parts of coal-tar, then mix these two ingredients well into a mortar. To the
above add olive-oil in sufficient quantity, so as to reduce the mixture to the
consistence of ointment, after which it is to be placed in close vessels for use.
The mixture is of a dark-brown color, and has, owing to the presence of the
coal-tar, a bituminous smell. The olive-oil employed serves the purpose of
binding the powder without dissolving it, so that the preparation retains its
absorbing quality when it is placed in contact with a suppurating sore, while
at the same time it never dries sufficiently to become in any way inconveni-
ent to the patient from becoming hard, and without creating at the same
time any irritation; while its application destroys immediately any bad odor
which may exist, and which is as disagreeable to the patient as to the
attending physician. As this composition forms a kind of paste or oint-
ment, it admits of being spread upon linen, and then placed upon the wound.
The application may be immediate, or mediate, according to circumstances ;
if applied immediately to the sore it does not cause pain and has a detersive
action, while at the same time, as it cleanses the wound, it favors cisatrisa-
tion. By dressing wounds in this manner with this preparation, Dr. Corne

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 269

states that the twofold advantage is obtained of disinfecting any diseased
part, and also of absorbing any liquid which may be present, thereby doing
away entirely, or in a great measure, with the necessity of employing lint
or rags.

For preventing the disagreeable odor of sinks, privies, etc., it is also
exceedingly efficacious, and, being much cheaper, can be used with advantage
in the place of chloride of lime. Two pounds of the powder is sufficient to
dissolve in twenty-two gallons of water; or a table-spoonful dissolved in one
and three-fourths pints of water is sufficient per day to render inodorous the
refuse of a household of four or five persons. A morsel, the size of a pin’s
head, will render limpid and fit for use a pint and a half of water, which is
beginning to become putrescent. The value of such a discovery for those
who travel in the East, and especially for ships at sea, cannot well be over-
stated.

But it also has an important relation to agriculture. One-half pound of
the powder, dissolved in five or six gallons of water and sprinkled on the
litter of a stable, will deprive one cubic yard of manure of all odor, and
prevent the loss of its fertilizing qualities.

M. Velpeau, in a report to the French Academy, highly recommended its
use to the faculty, and gave numerous examples of its application. This
report was succeeded by a discussion, which is thus reported by M. Nickles
for Silliman’s Journal, Nov. 1859.

M. Bussy recalled the fact that charcoal powder, the Boghead coke, creo-
sote, and alkaline hypochlorites, have for a long time been used as disinfect-
ants. M. Chevreul next called attention to the fact that, in the last century,
Dr. George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, had published a work on the virtues
of tar-water, in which he speaks of this agent with enthusiasm. It was
esteemed by him as a specific also, particularly against ulcers, virus, and
the scurvy. More than twelve years ago, Dr. Herpin of Metz proposed a dis-
infecting mixture of plaster and carbon. Dumas reminded the Acaagemy
that one of its prizes was a few years since awarded to Mr. Sizet, who
showed all the metallic salts which could be used with advantage in disin-
fection — who also added that the properties of these disinfectants were much
exalted by the addition of a small proportion of coal-tar. These experi-
ments have also been confirmed elsewhere by Mr. Boussingault, without, itis
true, a special reference to sores and ulcers. Coal-tar has been used in Eng-
land for disinfecting dead animals for the uses of rural economy. The use
of coal-tar has also been advised for the dead on the battle-field.

Dumas added, that, having often sought an explanation of these facts, he
had found it in the fact illustrated by Schonbein, that the vapor of turpen-
tine, when mixed with air, produced an abundance of ozone. He thought
that the vapor of coal-tar might equally ozonize the air. In this case, the
odorous mixtures would be immediately burned by the ozonized oxygen, and
the putrid odor rapidly destroyed.

If coal-tar really produces this action, it is necessary, pocaalines to Dumas,
to distinguish three effects. 1st, the destruction of the infectious vapor or
gas by means of ozone arising from coal-tar. 2d, the action of the plaster
in preventing the production of new infectious gases by the solidification of
the liquids present. 3d, the point of arrest set to the development of putre-
factive process by any of the products contained in coal-tar, and especially
the phenic acid, which in the smallest traces, in the form of phenate of say
secures the preservation of animal matters in free air.

23*

270 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ON THE ALLEGED PRESENCE OF SAND IN SUGAR.

At the American Association for the Promotion of Science, August 1859,
Prof. Horsford, in a paper on the above subject, remarked, that there was,
perhaps, no adulteration more unhesitatingly charged upon grocers than
that of mixing sand with sugar. The granular condition of sand, and its
clean look, and its cheapness, were supposed to confer upon it such admir-
able adaptation, that the temptation to use it could scarcely be resisted. His
attention was called to this subject by a gentleman who had received from a
friend a present of a cask of maple sirup, who exhibited to him what he re-
garded as a quantity of very bright and glistening quartz sand. Although
the circumstances rendered such a thing exceedingly improbable, still he re-
garded it as an instance of adulteration, at first, on account of the resem-
blance of the impurity to bright, clean sand.

A few months since, he received a specimen of deposit from maple sirup,
which, on examination with the microscope, was found to be composed of
minute, well-defined crystals; and on further examination, the crystals were
found to be soluble in hydro-chloric acid, and when heated on platinum,
before the blow-pipe, first to blacken, and after conversion into a coal, with
prolonged heat, to become white. The residue effervesced with acid, and the
solution gave a precipitate with ammonia and acetate of ammonia, insoluble
in acetic acid. The sand was evidently a lime salt. Organic analysis and
determination of the lime showed it to be a tartrate of lime. This fact
shows that tartrate of lime has been sometimes mistaken for a much less
legitimate adulteration of maple sugar, and the burden of proof against the
dealers is much lessened.

ACTION OF MORDANTS.

O. L. Erdmann and Mittentzwey have published highly interesting exper-
iments on the action of mordants, especially of alum on cotton, and have
proved, almost to a certainty, that no chemical triple-combination takes
place between celiulose, alumina, and coloring matter; but that the vegeta-
ble fibre takes up mechanically a minute portion of the earth, which then
combines with the coloring matter, and that only minute portions can fasten
a color, since an excess of the mordant will act as resolvent.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STRA.W-PAPER.

The following are the main points of an improved process for the manu-
facture of straw-paper, recently patented in England, by R. H. Collyer. The
straw is first soaked or boiled in water to render it soft, then it is subjected
to a cutting action, and also to a grinding-machine. This latter operation
seems to be the improved feature. The straw is rubbed between grinding
surfaces until every knot is crushed and made into impalpable pulp. In
this finely subdivided state, the pulp is boiled in a strong caustic alkali,
which dissolves all the silica (hard specks), and reduces it to a fine condi-
tion. It is then bleached, and treated in the usual way.

HOW TO RESTORE THE WRITING OF DAMAGED LETTERS.

Alfred Smee, of London, F. R. S., publishes the following directions for
restoring the legibility of letters, etc., that have become damaged by the
action of sea-water.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 271

“ The letter should be lightly once brushed over with diluted muriatic acid.
As soon as the paper is thoroughly damped, it must be again brushed over
with a saturated solution of yellow prussiate of potash, Ww hen the writing im-
mediately reappears in blue. In this latter operation, plenty of the liquid
should be employed, and care must be taken that the brush is not used so
roughly as to tear the surface of the paper. This result is obtained by sim-
ple chemical laws, as the iron which exists in the writing-ink is retained in
the fibre of the paper, and by the action of the ferrocyanide of potash,
Prussian blue is formed —the acid being used simply to place the iron under
favorable conditions for uniting with the ferrocyanide. The letter should
then be washed in a basin of clean water, and dried first between the folds
of blotting-paper, and subsequently by holding it before the fire, when the
letter is fit for the counting-house. If the letter should be of much perma-
nent value, I reeommend it to be carefully sized with a solution of isinglass
before being filed; but if the paper has been much rotted, the operation
requires care, and should not be done until a notarial copy, or photograph,
has been taken.”’

\

WAX AND ROSIN FOR PAINTING.

To oil-coats there is this objection, that they require a comparatively long
time to dry. When oil of turpentine is used, though it evaporates fast
enough, it leaves the painting soft; and although, by the addition of some
other substances the drying may be hastened, it even then takes up too
much time, and leads to the substitution of white-wash and other water-
colors. Mr. Alluys now proposes a mixture which yields a coat of paint
that will dry as fast as white-wash, but leave as durable and elastic a coat
as that of oil. To prepare it, instead of more linseed oil, as usually, he adds
to the paint, ground in oil, a solution of wax and rosin in spirits of turpen-
tine. The mixture thus prepared has the appearance of common oil-paint,
and acts like such: on the evaporation of the turpentine, it leaves a coat
sufficiently hard to bear gentle rubbing without.coming off. Barreswil has
reported some experiments with this mixture, and finds that, although it
becomes sufficiently dry and hard after a time, it does not equal a good oil-
coating in this respect; but he has no doubt that for some purposes Alluy’s
mixture will be found quite desirable. He gives the following formula for
its preparation: Ten parts of pure yellow wax are dissolved in the same
quantity*of linseed oil, and five parts of rosin in eight of spirits of turpen-
tine, at a slow heat, in separate vessels, until quite liquid, when they are
taken from the fire and mixed, with constant stirring until they thicken.
In this condition the mixture serves for out-door and store-work. If to be
applied with ground paints, it is thinned with spirits of turpentine as
required. — Dingler’s Journal.

ON THE COMPOSITION AND PREPARATION OF ARTIFICIAL FRUIT
ESSENCES.

Amyl Alcohol, Fusel Oil, C10oHi202.— This alcohol, which has been referred
to as an impurity of alcohol, is contained in the products of fermentation
of potatoes, grain, and grape husks. To obtain it in a state of purity from
the ordinary grain fusel oil, which may be obtained at distilleries, the crude
fusel oil is agitated with an equal bulk of water, the water removed, and the
oil distilled with about its own weight of dry carbonate of potassa. The

272 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

potato fusel oil, distilling at first, still contains some alcohol, and the re-
ceiver is therefore changed as soon as the temperature in the retort has
risen to 268°, when it remains stationary. This part of the distillate is the
pure amylic alcohol.

It may also be obtained sufficiently pure for all purposes, if the crude oil
is at once distilled over a slow fire, and the receiver changed when the tem-
perature has attained 298°; a rectification of this product is necessary, and
the first portion of all the distillates may be preserved for future use, when
it may be added to other portions of crude fusei oil.

Fusel oil, thus purified, is a thin, oily liquid, crystallizing at —3° F. It has
a penetrating, disagreeable odor, and a hot, acrid taste. The inhalation of
its vapor and its internal administration are poisonous, producing coughing,
nausea, vomiting, vertigo, fainting, prostration of the lower extremities,
convulsions, asphyxia, and death. Ammonia has been recommended to
counteract these deleterious effects.

It is not used in medicine, but has attained considerable importance in
the arts, chiefly for the artificial production of perfume and fruit essences,
and by oxidizing agents for the preparation of valerianic acid.

Jargonelle Pear Oil is an alcoholic solution of acetate of oxide of amyle,
which may be obtained by digesting fusel oil with strong acetic acid for
several days, but more satisfactorily by the following process :— one part of
fusel oil, two parts of acetate of potassa, and one part of sulphuric acid,
are mixed and distilled. The distillate is washed with a weak solution of
potassa, then dried by chloride of calcium, and rectified over oxide of lead
to abstract the last quantities of free acetic acid. This ether is a light, vol-
atile liquid, boiling at about 270°. Its constitution is expressed by CioAnO,
C4H203.

Bergamot Pear Oil is similar to the former: five parts of acetate of oxide
of amyle mixed with one and one-half parts of acetic ether, are dissolved in
from one hundred to one hundred and twenty parts of alcohol.

Apple Oil.—In the preparation of valerianic acid from fusel oil, the dis-
tillate separates into two layers, the upper stratum of which is an oily
liquid, consisting principally of valerianate of oxide of amyle. It is washed
with a weak solution of carbonate of soda, then with water, afterwards
dried with chloride of calcium, and distilled, preserving that portion which
comes over at 270° to 274°; it consists of C1oH110, C1ioH9O3. One part of
this ether dissolved in six or eight parts of alcohol, furnishes apple oil.

Oil of Pineapples. — For the preparation of this essence, the making of
butyric acid is necessary. As obtained by the saponification of butter,
some difficulties are presented in freeing it of caprylic, caprinic, and vac-
cinic acids; it is therefore best to prepare it artificially by butyric fermenta-
tion, for which purpose, one hundred parts of starch sugar, or cane or milk
sugar, are dissolved in water, and set aside in a warm place, with ten parts
of old cheese; or a mixture of one hundred parts of sugar, one hundred
and fifty parts milk, and fifty parts of powdered chalk, are allowed to
ferment in a warm place; if diluted with water, fermentation takes place
quicker. After the cessation of the evolution of gas, the liquid, on evapo-
ration, furnishes butyrate of lime, ten parts of which are to be dissolved in
forty parts of water, and distilled with three or four parts of muriatic acid;
from the distillate the acid is separated by saturating it with chloride of
calcium, the oily liquid is rectified, and that portion coming over at 327° is
preserved as pure concentrated butyric acid.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 273

Two parts of this acid are mixed in a tubulated retort, with two parts by
weight of alcohol, and one part of sulphuric acid; after the reaction has
taken place, the mixture separates into two strata, the upper of which is
washed with water, dried with chloride of calcium, and rectified: it is then
butyric ether, has a specific gravity of ‘9, and boils above 230°; it is com-
posed of C4sHs0, CsH70Os.

To avoid the preparation of free butyric acid, the ether may be prepared
by heating the powdered butyrate of lime with a ‘mixture of alcohol and
sulphuric acid, skimming of the ether and treating it as above. The essence
of pineapples is made by dissolving one part of this ether in eight or ten
parts of alcohol.

Banana Essence is prepared from a mixture of acetate of oxide of amyle
and some butyric ether, by dissolving it in alcohol.

Essence of Raspberries is usually made by mixing acetic ether with an
alcoholic essence of orris root.

Quince Essence.— In making this essence, pelargonic acid has to be pre-
pared as a first step. This acid is contained in the oil of pelargonium
roseum, from which it may be obtained by combining it with potassa; but
more advantageously it is made from oil of rue, by heating it in a retort
with nitric acid previously diluted with an equal measure of waiter, removy-
ing from the fire as soon as the reaction commences, afterwards boiling
with cohobation until nitrous acid vapors cease to be evolved; the oily acid
is then removed, washed with water, combined with potassa, and a neutral,
strong-smelling oil separated, after which the solution of pelargonate of
potassa is decomposed by sulphuric acid.

Pelargonate acid is now sufficiently pure for the preparation of the ether;
it still contains a resinous substance, from which it may be purified by rec-
tification, combining with caustic baryta, and decomposing the crystallized
salt with diluted sulphuric acid. Pelargonic acid, by a continued digestion
of alcohol, is converted into pelargonic ether, which is obtained purer and
in a shorter time by saturating an alcoholic solution of pelargonic acid with
muriatic acid gas, washing the separated ether with water, and drying it
over chloride of calcium. If the pure ether is sought, this may be rectified;
it consists of C4H5O0, CisHi70s.

The pelargonic, also called cenanthic ether, dissolved in alcohol, constitutes
the essence of quince.

Fuse Oil of Wine.— Though pelargonic ether is generally called cenanthic
ether, many chemists apply the latter name to the pure fusel oil of wine,
which, though closely analogous to the former, they assert to be a different
compound. This fusel oil is the cause of the persistent smell of all or most
wines, and is quite distinct from their bouquet, which in some wines is
wanting altogether. It is obtained by careful distillation of the ferment of
wines mixed with half its measure of water; a little cenanthic acid may be
removed by agitation of the distillate with some carbonate of soda; the
liquid is then heated, the ether rises to the surface, and is obtained free of
water by standing over chloride of calcium. — Parrish’s Practical Pharmacy.

ON THE ODORS OF PERFUMES.

At a late meeting of the French Academy, M. Chevreul presented a com-
munication upon the mode of action of odoriferous substances. This dis-
cussion was intended to recall the publications which this distinguished

ate. ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

chemist has made during the past thirty. years — researches made specially
to trace odors to their material causes. He reviews in the following manner
the action by which bodies exert their odors when properly mixed with
other odoriferous materials. 1st. Bodies, themselves odorant, disguise the
odors of other substances, as a strong light overpowers a feeble one. 2d.
Bodies, being themselves odoriferous, act in the manner of an acid in neu-
tralizing a base. 3d. Solid bodies may act by capillary affinity to absorb
odors, as is the case, for example, with charcoal. 4th. Other bodies act by
altering the constitution of the odorant substance, producing new com-
pounds either odorless or nearly so. Such is the action of moist chlorine or
oxygenated water. 5th. Lastly, the action may be twofold, as in the case
of chlorine and ammonia, decomposing one portion and neutralizing the
other, without decomposition.

Neutralization includes the largest class of cases; thus the volatile odorous
acids are neutralized by alkalies to form odoriess salts. Ammonia loses its
odor when united to an acid. The odors in such cases are truly neutralized,
since displacing the acids liberates again the odors, each in its own char-
acter. Examples of the destruction of odors are numerous and well known
to chemists. Sulphydric acid, for instance, is at once decomposed by chlo-
rine, and consequently disinfected. Ammonia, by the action of chlorine,
offers an example of both neutralization and destruction of odors, because
at the same time we have decomposition of one part of the base and the
neutralization of another part by the chlorohydric acid formed.

M. Chevreul proposes to define odors by means of a scale, analogous to
our notation of sounds, or for gradations of color by the chromatic diagram
(which last device we also owe to this savant). The great obstacle to this
plan is, the difficulty of employing the sense of smell as we employ that of
sight or hearing, a difficulty much increased by the toleration which the
smell soon acquires to odors — becoming “‘ blase.”

In 1830 he endeavored to take account of the changing odors exhaled by
the woad-vats during evaporation, if possible to define exactly the kind of
odor appropriate to each condition of the vat. He reached no positive re-
sults, although he detected in the dye-stuff bath five perfectly distinct odors:
the odor of ammonia, a sulphurous odor, a metallic odor, an aromatic odor,
clinging for many months to the woollen stuffs which had passed through
the woad-vat; and lastly, the odor of a volatile acid analogous to that of
animal matters in decomposition. M.Chevreul hoped to detect in these
odors of the dye-vats symptoms to guide the dyer in his art, as the phvysi-
cian finds new indications in his knowledge of symptoms depending on the
chemical nature of organic solids and liquids, if these symptoms can be cer-
tainly recognized by their odor. Thus he did not shrink from exposing him-
self to the most repulsive odors of the organism to reach his results. Having
often heard the odor of a cancer spoken of as characteristic, he examined it,
and recognized it as a compond of — 1st, an ammoniacal odor, turning blue
a reddened test-paper. 2d, a feeble butyric odor. 3d, a heavy odor which is
familiar in the “trying out” of suet or lard. No specific odor exists, then,
in cancers, since the three odors recognized coéxist in non-cancerous mat-
ters which the disease alters. He recognized these matters in the odor
of pus, and other products of animal origin, and he also detected in them a
sulphurous odor and a smell of fish, due probably to a compound ammonia.

To all these odors he adds what he calls the stale-nauseous ( fade nausea-

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. VTS

bonde), which appears in well-water that has stood some days in a vessel in
which have been placed egg-shells impregnated with albumen.

We may be permitted to add to these interesting facts some others which
we submit to the distinguished author of the chromatic circle and researches
on the fatty bodies.

1. If an odorous substance can be neutralized or destroyed by another
odorant body, there are others destitute of odor, which, by union, produce
odorant substances.

(To this class of odorless bodies belong O, 8, Se, Te, C, H, As, N, and we
might add P, which is odorless unless combined.)

9. Likewise there are odorless bodies which have become odorant by union
with others endowed with odor.

It is thus with oxalic, malic, butyric, racenic, citric, sorbic (the acid re-
cently discovered by Hoffman), boric, silicic acids, all odorless, which how-
ever produce, with the elements of alcohol, ethers more or less aromatic.

3. It is necessary to distinguish those bodies which act mechanically on
the olfactory membranes (for example, C1H, FIM, BrH, IH, and the vapors
of NOs+HO, SO2 HO) from those which exert a physiological influence (for
example, Cl, Br, I, NO4, So2, the hydrocarbons, the essential oils, etc).

4, It is necessary also to distinguish bodies having an odor proper, that
is, an odor which exists when they form compounds with other bodies (for
example, arsenic). The arsenical odor is recognized in AsHs, AsBrs, and
in the cacodyl series. Tin is another example. The odor of tin charac-
terizes a large number of stannic compounds. Sulphur: thus SO2SH, $C,
SNHs, SCI, etc., are distinguished by_a more or less sulphurous odor.

We might also mention naphthaline, benzine, and other hydrocarbons and
organic radicals.

We see that this group of bodies, characterized by a peculiar odor, em-
braces those elements which, like sulphur, arsenic and phosphorus, are desti-
tute of odor; that is, their odor is manifest only in combination. If we exam-
ine this phenomenon, we observe (a) that elementary bodies are usually
destitute of odor; (0) that in general the least odorant compounds are gener-
ally oxygen compounds; (c) highly odorant compounds are usually those con-
taining hydrogen. These seemingly singular facts may to a certain extent be
explained, when we remember that, in general, chemical compounds become
less volatile as they fix oxygen, while by union with hydrogen they become
more volatile. But these considerations do not explain all; they do not tell us
why CO and COzare odorless gases, while C12H, C2gHs,C1He, etec., are odorant.

Moreover, the perfumes, properly so called, as musk and the aromatic
essences, rose, lemon, orange, bergamot, lavender, etc., are eminently hy-
drogen compounds. They are not at all volatile; and some of them may be
exposed to the air for years, exhaling odor all the time, with no sensible loss
of weight. Among these are the perfumes isolated by Milon in 1856. The
cause of odors is not referable exclusively to the phenomenon of volatility,
although, as a general thing, the odor of most bodies is developed when they
are volatilized.

Hydrogen must be considered, par excellence, the exciting cause of odors.
This element possesses, above all other substances, the peculiar property of
developing odors, even with odorless bodies, as nitrogen, carbon, sclenium,
tellurium, phosphorus, etc., and a great number of compounds of these and
other elements. Oxygen, on the other hand, appears to act the chief part in
the perception of odors; it seems indeed proved that odors are not recog-

276 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

nizable where there is not oxygen in the air to bathe the olfactory mem-
branes. — Correspondence of M. Nickles, Silliman’s Journal, November, 1859.

‘ ON THE DETECTION OF STRYCHNIA.

It has long been a general opinion that strychnine was evanescent, and
difficult, if not impossible, to detect after death; and hence this poison has
been chosen for the perpetration of the most odious of crimes. Since the
celebrated trial of Palmer for the murder of Cook, chemists have directed
their researches to the means of detecting this poison in animal tissues, even
in the most minute quantities. Their success has been most complete.
Messrs. Rogers and Girdwood have obtained strychnine from bony tissue
long after the death and putrefaction of the victim who had been poisoned
by repeated smali doses of this drug, A writer in the London Medical
Review, who has employed ‘strychnine for more than twenty years in the
extermination of vermin, after describing its effects on various animals,
mentions the following important fact: “I once knew a greyhound bitch
poisoned in consequence of having picked up the leg-bone of a hare, com-
pletely bare of flesh, it having been eaten off by hoddie crows for whom it
had been originally laid three months previously, poisoned with strychnine,
and which had destroyed hundreds of them.’ From this we perceive in
how remarkable a manner this, among other vegetable poisons, penetrates
every part of the body, and remains ready for reproduction by the chemist
with such a degree of certainty that the most inexperienced experimental-
ist can bring forward unfailing proofs of its existence. Thus, in this as in
other cases, punishment follows inevitably upon guilt, and the skill to
detect crime keeps full pace with the iniquity which imagines it. Next in
importance to the prevention of crime, the discovery of an antidote engages
our attention; and on this point also marked progress has been made. In
November 1856, the Rev. Professor Haughton called the attention of the
Royal Irish Academy to his experiments on the poisoning of frogs by nico-
tine and _strychnia, and the mutual counteraction of these poisons, which he
believed to be important, as the action of the antidote depended on its phy-
siological and not on its chemical properties. Nicotine has been more than
once used with success to counteract strychnine. We shall instance the case
of a Mr. Johnson, of St. Louis, who took six grains of this drug, with the
intention of committing suicide, but immediately afterwards, repenting of
his act, he procured an emetic, which acted freely, but did not prevent vio-
lent symptoms of poisoning setting in. A Dr. Byrne was therefore called in,
who, acting on Mr. Haughton’s suggestion, made an infusion of tobacco,
and administered it in table-spoonful doses at intervals of five minutes,
until a favorable change was perceived. An hour anda quarter elapsed
from the time of the poison being taken until the antidote was administered,
but this delay in its action is accounted for by the emetic so promptly taken.
The spasms disappeared after twelve hours, and in the course of a few days
the patient was recovered. It is possible that other sedative poisons may act
as antidotes to strychnia also, in evidence of which we may mention that,
more than thirty years ao, De. Bewley wishing to kill a mangy cur, and
having read in Mazendie’s “‘ Report on Strychnia”’ that the sixteenth of a
grain will kill the largest dog; determined to make sure of this very little
animal by giving it about half a grain. But either Magendie’s statement
Was incorrect, or the drug’ was adulterated; for at the end of ten minutes, the

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 277

dog, though suffering frightfully, was not dead. Dr. Bewley resolved to put
him out of his misery at once, and accordingly mixed half a drachm of
prussic acid with a little milk, and put it under the dog’s snout. He lapped
the milk with avidity, and in less than a minute vomited, got upon his legs,
ran away, and recovered. It must be observed that Mr. Haughton’s pro-
posal involves the principle of employing a physiological antidote to neu-
tralize the poisoning, instead of merely rendering the poison inert by chemi-
cal means, which is the plan that has hitherto been universally adopted. —
London Lancet.

ON “ MARSH’S” TEST FOR ARSENIC.

At the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association, Dr. Odling read a
paper, the object of which was to show that Marsh’s test for the detection of
arsenic was not reliable to the extent generally supposed. He stated that
numerous and varied bodies, including the organic substance contained in
ordinary earth, vegetable tissue, animal tissue, salts of copper, and ordinary
salts, prevented the formation of arseniated hydrogen, and thereby defeated
the action desired. As a mode of separating the arsenic from these interfer-
ing substances, the author recommended the process of distillation with
muriatic acid, whereby arsenic in the form of chloride of arsenic is isolated
in a form suitable for testing.

PECULIAR EFFECTS OF PHOSPHORUS.

At a session of the Cercle de la Presse Scientifique, in Paris, the Abbé
Moieno directed attention to two facts, novel, and fit to figure in the pathog-
enesia of a poison, already charged with so many mischievous properties.
Females, being enceinte, breathing air filled with phosphoric emanations in
the establishments where matches are made, are sure to abort; and this
result is so common and well known, that, in localities where the manufac-
ture of matches engages a large number of workmen, the women profit by
it to rid themselves of the product of conception. The abbé made this
statement on the authority of a pious ecclesiastic, who guaranteed its authen-
ticity. In men submitted to the same conditions, phosphorus vapors induce,
after a little while, a vehement excitation of the generative functiens. —
Journal de Chemi. Medicale.

METAMORPHISM OF ROCKS.

‘Deville impregnated a piece of chalk with chloride of magnesium, and
then heated it for a long time in a platinum crucible in asand-bath. By a
temperature of about 100° C., six to seven per cent. of lime were replaced
by magnesia. Washing, and repeating this eight times, the ratio of mag-
nesia to the lime was 1:2, or nearly that of a true dolomite (which is 1:14).

In this reaction, however, some carbonic acid was given off, and oxy-
chloride formed. But, on exposing the piece in water to the atmosphere, a
little pure carbonate of lime formed, and separated with the chloride, and left
a neutral dolomite. It was an unexpected result to find the carbonic acid of
the atmosphere promoting this result, while a saturated solution of carbonic
acid leads to the formation of bicarbonates.

Deville impregnated a sandstone which contained no lime with a mixed

24.

278 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

solution of chloride of calcium and magnesium, and submitted it to the action
of a good red heat. After several repetitions of the process, the mass
became spongy and more absorbent. Pulverized, and raised to a white heat,
it fused to a milk-white mass, consisting of interlaced chrystalline fibres. Its
specific gravity was 3°0; it was not attacked by acids; it contained no chlo-
rine, but consisted of
Si 56:0 Ca 26°3 Me 17-7

equivalent to (Ca, Mg)? Siz, or a variety of pyroxene.— L’ Institute, No. 1282.

‘

RESEARCHES IN LIME, SALTS OF LIME, AND MAGNESIA, AND ON THE
FORMATION OF GYPSUMS, MAGNESITES, AND DOLOMITES. — BY T.
STERRY HUNT, F. B.S.

In these researches, undertaken to clear up several obscure points in
Chemical Geology, the author shows, among other things —

1°. The action of dilute solutions of bicarbonate of soda, added by de-
grees to liquids which, like sea-water, contain both salts of lime and mag-
nesia, determines at first the separation of all the lime as a nearly pure
carbonate, after which there is found a very soluble bicarbonate of magnesia,
which separates from concentrated solutions as a hydrous carbonate.

2°. Carbonate of lime, as is well known, requires for its solution about
1000 parts of water, saturated at the ordinary pressure with carbonic acid;
but its solubility is much augmented by the presence of sulphates of soda
or magnesia: in which case there is formed a bicarbonate of soda or mag-
nesia, together with sulphate of lime, which may be precipitated by alcohol.
When a solution of bicarbonate of lime, mingled wit sulphate of magnesia,
is evaporated at a gentle heat, crystalline gypsum is first deposited, while
bicarbonate of magnesia remains in solution, and is separated, as the liquid
is concentrated by evaporation, in the form of hydrous carbonate.

3°. When heated under pressure to 300° or 400° F., the hydrous carbonate
of magnesia is converted into a sparingly soluble crystalline, anhydrous
carbonate, which is magnesite; but if the amorphous hydrated carbonate is
mingled with carbonate of lime and then heated, the two combine to form
a double carbonate, which is dolomite.

In Haidinger’s famous experiment, which was supposed to prove the
formation of dolomite by the reaction, at 400° F., of a mixture of sulphate
of magnesia and carbonate of lime, no double salt is formed; but a mix-
ture of carbonate of lime and magnesia is readily separated by dilute acids.
In Marignac’s process, where chloride of magnesium replaces the sulphate, a
portion of double carbonate is, however, formed, and remains mingled with
magnesite and carbonate of lime.

4°. Besides the gypsums of epigenic origin, there are probably others
which have been formed by the simple evaporation of liquids like sea-water,
but the greater number of stratified gypsums are associated with magnesian
rocks, — a fact which is readily explained by the reactions indicated above.

Mr. Hunt considers attentively the various facts presented in the history of
magnesian limestones, and rejecting entirely the theory which ascribes their
formation to a metamorphism of sedimentary limestones, maintains that
they have been produced by the chemical union of carbonates of lime and
magnesia, which were deposited in a state of mixture from the waters of
seas and lakes. The carbonate of magnesia has either been produced by

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 279

the action of bicarbonate of lime with simultaneous formation of gypsum,
or by bicarbonate of soda producing at the same time chloride of sodium.
In this way have been formed those magnesian limestones which are not
associated with gypsums. The intervention in this process of the waters of
alkaline metalliferous springs, will explain the metalliferous character of
many magnesian rocks. The source of the bicarbonate of soda has been
the decomposition of feldspathic rocks, which have formed clays and clay
slates; and the action of this alkaline carbonate upon the lime and magne-
sian salts of the primitive sea, has given rise to limestones and dolomites,
as well as of the sea-salt which we find in the ocean. At the same time,
the removal of the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, which was- absorbed
by the soda and then fixed in the form of carbonate of lime and magnesia,
has served to purify the air, and fit it for the support of the higher orders
of plants and animals. In this relation between the atmosphere, the ar-
gillaceous rocks, the limestones and the salt of the sea, we have a remarkable
instance of the balance of chemical forces in inorganic nature. — Silliman’s
Journal, Vol. xxviii. pp. 170—365.

ON THE NUMERICAL RELATIONS EXISTING BETWEEN THE
ELEMENTS.

The American Journal of Science for January 1859, contains the first part
of a paper on the above subject, by M. Carey Lea, Esq., of Philadelphia, in
which certain numerical relations between the elementary bodies, before
unnoticed, or only partially noticed, are developed in a remarkable and
exceedingly interesting manner.

Few of the so-called elements present more directly marked analogies than
nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony ; while Cahours and Hofmann
have shown that phosphorus stands in every respect intermediate between
nitrogen and arsenic, forming compounds of the type 3(C4H;)PHCI, etc.,
like the nitrogen compounds, as well as those of the type 3(CsH5)P02,
etc., like those of the arsenic and antimony groups. These authors further
observe, that the equivalents of phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony, differ
by nearly the same number (44 to 45), but that nitrogen does not exhibit
this relation. Beyond the fact of the approximate equality of these two dif-
ferences, the analogy has never been extended. Mr. Lea, however, shows
that this relation may be extended not only to nitrogen, but, with exactness,
to many other elements.

Thus, if we form a descending arithmetical series, beginning with anti-
mony = 120°3, and diminishing by a common difference of 45 (45°53 in one
instance, 44 in several), we shall find that such a series does not cease with
the third term, P = 31, but gives for a fourth — 14, the exact equivalent of
nitrogen with a negative sign. The fifth term will be — 59, the exact equiv-
alent of tin (with a negative sign). The sixth will be —104, or very nearly
the equivalent of lead (also with a negative sign). The seventh — 149, very
nearly double the equivalent of arsenic, a previons term in the same series.
These results exhibit themselves more strikingly when tabulated, as follows:

It will be seen presently that the number 164, the eleventh term in the
following table, occurs also in the ascending positive series, and may repre-
sent the equivalent of a metal existing, but as yet unknown.

If we examine the position occupied by antimony, arsenic, phosphorus,
and nitrogen, in the electro-chemical scale of Berzelius, we shall find that in

280 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

| Differ- Calculated Received | ‘Differ- Calculated Received
ences equivalents. | equivalents. || ences. | equivalents. equivalents.
190 ©.) Sb & 1203. |||
45 45.
75 AS = jo) —194. —_—
31 Le ey si —239.. 2Sb = 240.6

proportion as their equivalent numbers diminish, their properties become
more and more electro-negative; a corresponding change is also visible in
the organic radicals which these elements are capable of forming by their
union with carbon and hydrogen. The passage from the positive to the
negative sign in the interval between phosphorus and nitrogen, is accom-
panied by a marked change in the nature of the organic radicals into which
these elements enter; — 3(Cy H;) N does not possess the power of combining
directly with oxygen, chlorine and sulphur which 3(C4H5)P, 3(C4 Hs)As, 3
(C4sH5)Sb exhibit in so high a degree. The methyl compounds show the
same differences as the ethyl.

Again, if we begin with phosphorus, and form an ascending series with
acommon difference of 44 (except in one instance), we shall find both the
number 164, the double of which constituted the eleventh term of the pre-
ceding table, and also the equivalent of bismuth, the double of which
formed the thirteenth term of the same table.

Differences. Calculated equivalent. Received equivalent.
34 ee he i =i!
it
(iy ceo - As = 75

HS fe f° 5
iD oe Se koe - » « - Sh= 1203

44
SI evn ie 2 et oi —

These four elements exhibit strong analogies and are all isomorphous
with each other.

If, taking mercury as a starting-point, we subtract the number 44 from
each term to find the following one, we shall obtain the series —

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 281

Differences. | Calculated equivalents. | Received equivalents,
100 Hg = 100
44 | |
| 56 | Cd = 56
Gh. a | ‘
| 12 Fl a ove) ate Mg = 1% |
|
44 | | :
Se Bo te a ewe eae alt ed aD reales

Seen eee en) eS SS EE EEE ES ES ee
a

The salts of the protoxides of the three last of these metals are isomor-
phous, and the metals themselves are all volatile.

It is not a little curious that the numerically negative members of this
series lead into the positive members of the foregoing. If we continue the
subtraction of 44, we find for the fifth number 76, or nearly the equivalent for
arsenic; for the sixth 120, very nearly that of antimony; for the seventh 164,
corresponding, as before remarked, with a possible undiscovered metal; and
for the eighth 208, or exactly the equivalent of bismuth. The two series
thus naturally lead to each other.

The members of these two analogous series are further united by the fact
that all of them, eleven in number, are capable of uniting with the hydro-
carbons of the methyl, ethyl, etc., type to form powerful organic metals,
and that this capacity appears to be limited to these elements alone.

Vhe magnesia group includes a well-marked natural family of metals,
whose oxides having the constitution RO are related with each other by
isomorphism. The equivalents of these metals, according to the most
recent determinations, are as follows :

Magnesium,....... aistopneeetote CHLOUMUM 5 seis sere cose 26°7
NEATISATCHES (0. cis Wings oc sland = 0 205 SRSA OCR OID OOOH TOF 32°6
WOMEE. = seis Rien pswimtere cleats 28 Cadminm. + sc59 sche asealrap 56°
Copaltze.....<0 SACRA SOCIO 29°5 Copperyens aeteseanacaaeer 3-7
PREC accion aetip whe p oaye «3 be 29-6 WAG occa acces oer siieaieeplue.o
PMEABIOT “S.cislcs vases fialsetee OO

They are furthermore related in the following manner by 44:

Thus, with Cu and Mg, Zn and Mg, the sum of each pair is 44 nearly.

With Cd and Mg, Pb and Ur, the difference of each pair is 44 or nearly.

With U and Mg, U and Fe, U and Co, U and Ni, U and Cr, Cd and Zn,
the mean term is 44 or nearly.

With Pb and Mn, Pb and Fe, Pb and Ni, Pb and Co, Pb and Cr, the sum
of each pair is three times 44 nearly.

The strong analogy existing between Mg, Cd and Zn, extends to their
equivalents, that of Mg being added to that of Zn gives the number of 44
nearly, subtracted from that of Cd, 44 exactly.

Mr. Lea also shows, in a like manner, that relations depending upon the
number 44, exist between the equivalents of the following metals, which
may be classed together as tending to form acids; viz., tin, titanium, tant-
alum, tungsten, vanadiam, molybedenum, tellurium, niobium.

If commencing with gold, Au =197, we form a diminishing series with a
common difference of 44°5, we shall find for its terms —

24*

282 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Differences. | Calculated equivalents. Received equivalents.
Ws. re 97 hy ct a eee aa = 38F
445. . |

NDZED Wel Peete oe fe
“a5. |
103 ere S bee Ao = 08
ay
GS.D otc e be hn e cites (NCL = ace

The equivalent of Cu has been here taken at double that usually employed,
or that which results from taking the first oxide of copper as CuO, a view
formerly entertained by Berzelius, L. Gmelin, and other distinguished chem-
ists.*

The second number in the above series, 152°5, does not correspond with
the equivalent of any known element, and, like the number 164, which occurs
twice in the nitrogen series, may represent the equivalent of some element-
ary body as yet unknown.

The same relation may also be extended, with more or less approxima-
tion to the platinum group, which naturally divides itself into two families;
rodium, ruthenium, and palladium; and platinum, iridium, and osmium;
and the difference between the equivalents of the two groups approaches
to 45.

So, also, if we take Gerhardt’s equivalent of carbon = 12, the sum of the
equivalents of carbon, boron, and silicium, amounts to 44 exactly.

From these and other examples, which Mr. Lea develops at considerable
length, it is evident that the number 44— 45 plays an important part in the
science of Stoichiometry; and the relations which depend upon it are sup-
ported, in some cases at least, in a remarkable manner, by analogies of
atomic volume. That such analogies are a support, becomes evident from
the following considerations.

Solids and liquids are very far from being governed by the laws which
determine the combinations of gases, in volumes either equal or having some
simple relation to one another. Therefore, if we find that in some few in-
stances such a relation does hold good with solid substances, we may natu-
rally expect to find a close relationship existing between those substances
thus united. We may even be permitted, by way of hypcthesis, to advance

-a step further, and finding that a given volume of silver unites with a given

volume of oxygen, and that the same volume of gold unites with precisely
the same volume of oxygen, to conjecture that gold may differ from silver
only by a third substance, which unites with the silver without increasing
its volume, or affecting the amount of oxygen which it is capable of sat-
urating, but which, on the other hand, alters its chemical equivalent, its
specific gravity, and other physical characters.

Moreover, if we find that by subtracting from the chemical equivalent of
silver half the difference between the equivalents of silver and gold we
obtain the equivalent of a third metal, copper (Cu = 63'4), which also, under
equal volumes, combines with a quantity of oxygen expressed by a very
simple relation with that capable of saturating gold and silver, we may at

* In the cases of nitrogen, tin, and lead, the Bay alents are taken with a negative
sign, as before explained.

CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 283

least speculate that the three may form a series consisting of two substances
combined in different proportions. It is true that we must be extremely
‘autious about venturing upon hypotheses involving a compound constitu-
tion of bodies which all our efforts have hitherto proved ineffectual to de-
compose; but, on the other hand, it must be admitted, that when we find
so-called elements arranging themselves into a series of terms having a
common difference, and when we find the terms of these series united by
equality or simple relation of atomic volume, we cannot grant that their
elementary nature has been absolutely established.

The following substances combine relations of chemical equivalents already
pointed out, with analogies of atomic volume:

Differences of Atomic* Relation of
Equivalents. volume, Ai. vol.
Niteosera if (aa hire, 3) "6 14°42 2
‘ Phosphorus (vapor), . . 7-01 1
4 . . .
U Arsenic (vapor ys 2 7-07 1
44-5*. WEY 6 WAR Slay eye as 9:09 1
nee * Tiny Anse heoy Pach ales 8:09 1
* BIL OR CH sy oe et she ees
ARTE {
gat shi FhOsphOrus ae .ae sua ole uray! 2
PATIBEHICS” plot cen es oar 9-58 3
ie ne oe 2
me | AMA OT 9 iene) agi 18:— 2
ea . .
or twice 43°85 . . eens BP VS PPO 21-18 z

(Where phosphorus, arsenic, etc., are compared in the solid state, the
unit of relation is of course different.) It has been already remarked, that,
in point of chemical relations generally, lead and tin are less closely united
with the series than the other members composing it; but the relation be-
tween the atomic volumes of Jead and antimony -— the latter almost the last
term at the other end of the series —is almost absolutely exact. Nitrogen
is of course omitted in the second table, as we do not a what would be
its atomic volume in the solid state.

For the further details of this paper, we must refer our readers to the
journal to which they were originally contributed. In conclusion, however,
Mr. Lea remarks, that the relation developed by him, depending upon the
same, or approximately the same number, extends to no less than forty-eight
of the elementary bodies, — the differences rarely exceeding the possible er-
rors in the determination of the chemical equivalents; or to all the elements
except those as yet imperfectly understood, most of which may yet range
themselves under the same law, and except the oxygen group, — oxvgen, sul-
phur, selenium and tellurium, substances which stand alone and unmistak-
ably apart from the other elements.

* The numbers here giyen for the atomic volumes are calculated from the specific

gravities adopted in Gmelin’s Handbook, and the latest and most reliable deter-
minations Of chemical equivalent.

.

“a GEOLOGY.

ON THE CONDITIONS OF GEOLOGICAL TIME.

THE successive modifications which the views of physical geologists have
undergone since the infancy of their science, with regard to the amount and
the nature of the changes which the crust of the globe has suffered, have
all tended towards the establishment of the belief, that throughout that vast
series of ages which was occupied by the deposition of the stratified rocks,
and which may be called “ geological time”’ (to distinguish it from the “ his-
torical time” which followed, and the ‘‘ pre-geological time’ which preceded
it), the intensity and character of the physical forces which have been in
operation have varied within but narrow limits; so that, even in Silurian
or Cambrian epochs, the aspect of physical nature must have been much
what itis now. This view of the condition of the earth, so far as geological
time is concerned, is, however, perfectly consistent with the notion of a to-
tally different state of things in antecedent epochs, and the strongest advo-
cate of such “ physical uniformity,” during the time of which we have a
record, might, with perfect consistency, hold the so-called “‘ nebular hypoth-
esis,” or any other view involving the conception of a long series of states
very different from that which we now know, and whose succession occu-
pied pre-geological time. The doctrine of physical uniformity, and that of
physical progression, are therefore perfectly consistent, if we regard geolog-
ical time as having the same relation to pre-geological time as historical
time has to it. The accepted doctrines of palzeontology are by no means in
harmony with these tendencies of physical geology. It is generally believed
that there is a vast contrast between the ancient and the modern organic
worlds — it is incessantly assumed that we are acquainted with the begin-
ning of life, and with the original manifestation of each of its typical forms ;
nor does the fact that the discoveries of every year oblige the holders of
these views to change their ground, appear sensibly to affect the tenacity of
their adhesion. Without at all denying the considerable positive differences
which really exist between the ancient and the modern forms of life, and
leaving the negative ones to be met by the other lines of argument, an im-
partial examination of the facts revealed by paleontology seems to show
that these differences and contrasts have been greatly exaggerated. Thus, of
some two hundred known orders of plants, not one is exclusively fossil.
Among animals, there is not a single totally extinct class; and of the or-
ders, not more than seven per cent., at the outside, are unrepresented in the
existing creation. Again, certain well-marked forms of living beings have

GEOLOGY. 285

existed through enormous epochs, surviving not only the changes of phys-
ical conditions, but persisting comparatively unaltered, while other forms of
life have appeared and disappeared. Such forms may be termed “ persist-
ent types ” of life; and examples of them are abundant enough in both the
animal and the vegetable worlds. Among plants, for instance, ferns, club
mosses, and Conifere, some of them apparently generically identical with
those now living, are met with as far back as the carboniferous epoch; the
cone of the oolitic Araucaria is hardly distinguishable from that of existing
species; a species of Pinus has been discovered in the Purbecks, and a wal-
nut in the cretaceous rocks. All these are types of vegetable structure,
abounding at the present day ; and surely it is a most remarkable fact to
find them persisting with so little change through such vast epochs. Every
sub-kingdom of animals yields instances of the same kind, which are known
to have persisted from at least the middle of the Palzxozoic epoch to our
own times, without exhibiting a greater amount of deviation from the
typical characters of these orders than may be found within their limits at
the present day. It is difficult to comprehend the meaning of such facts as
these, if we suppose that each species of animal and plant, or each great type
of organization, was formed and placed upon the surface of the globe at long
intervals by a distinct act of creative power. If, on the other hand, we view
“Persistent Types ”’ in relation to that hypothesis which supposes the spe-
cies of animals living at any time to be the result of the gradual modifica-
tion of preéxisting species, —an hypothesis which is supported entirely on
negative evidence, and therefore wholly untenable in the present state of the
science, — their existence would seem to show that the amount of modifica-
tion which living beings have undergone during geological times, is but very
small in relation to the whole series of changes which they have suffered.
In fact, paleontology and physical geology coincide in indicating that all
we know of the condition in our world during geological time, is but the last
term of a vast and, so far as our present knowledge reaches, unrecorded
series of changes in the condition of the earth. — London Literary Gazette.

ON DEEP-SEA EXPLORATIONS.—BY PROF. W. P. TROWBRIDGE.

The following is an abstract of a paper on this subject, communicated
to Silliman’s Journal, Vol. xxvi., No. 78, by Lieut. W. P. Trowbridge:

The first systematic deep-sea explorations were undoubtedly made by
Commander C. H. Davis, U.S. N. This officer, in 1815, while running a
line of deep-sea soundings across the Gulf Stream, obtained one east of 1350
fathoms, and brought a specimen of the bottom, in the so-called “ Stellwagen
Cup.” In the succeeding year, in the same explorations, soundings were
made to the depth of 1500 and 2160 fathoms, without finding bottom; but,
in the latter case, the temperature of the water was recorded at the depth
named. In 1818, in the explorations off Cape Hatteras, the officer engaged
in the explorations lost his instrument, with 3300 fathoms of line out. In
these explorations of Commander Davis, 95 specimens of the bottom, and
25 specimens of waiter, at various depths, were brought up and preserved.*

* These specimens from the ocean bottom were submitted to the late Prof. Bailey,
of West Point, for examination, who reported on them as foilows: All the speci-
mens are of the highest interest, being filled with organisms, particularly the cal-
careous Polythalamia, to an amount that is really amazing — hundreds of millions
existing in every cubic inch of these green muds. The most interesting specimen

286 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Our principal object, however, is to notice those great depths where no
bottom was found, and to examine whether the failure to find the bottom was,
under the circumstances, any proof that it did not exist at much less depths
than those reported, or whether any conclusion whatever can be derived
from the results.

When we reflect that two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with
water, while the remaining third is dry land, and that the figure of the
solid part can only be known when we can trace with certainty the moun-
tain-ranges and valleys along the bottom of the sea, it becomes important
to scrutinize those reported measurements which give such enormous de-
pressions in different parts of the sea, compared with which the highest
mountain-ranges are insignificant elevations. Numerous instances have
been reported in which soundings have been made to the depth of five, six,
seven, eight, and nine miles, without finding bottom; and again over large
areas the bottom of the sea is represented as a comparatively level plain,
submerged to the depth of two, three, or four miles. Supposing these
reported measurements to have been correct, we would have, still, very
insufficient data for arriving at any correct conclusions with regard to the
elevations and depressions of the ocean bed. What idea could be formed,
for instance, of the topography of our country, if our knowledge of its sur-
face consisted in knowing the height, above the level of the sea, of only
one point in every State of the Union? Such points, selected at random,
might be the highest or lowest points within an area of some thousands of
square. miles; and, after all, we would only know that it was possible to
measure those heights, without being able to conjecture, even, their relation
to each other. In the case of deep-sea soundings, we only know that
bottom has been reached-—in some instances at depths which show that
our ideas concerning the unfathomable abysses of the ocean have been
erroneous, and to sustain the belief that the mean depth is less than has
been supposed. With regard to the uncertainties of the measurements, it
is not sufficient to say that, compared with the immense area over which
they are spread, the depths are very small. It might as well be argued that
the height of the Alps is insignificant compared with the distance around
the earth, and therefore an error in height of one or two miles is unimpor-
tant; or that the elevations of ordinary mountain-ranges need not be
noticed when compared with the area of a continent. We are dealing with
finite quantities, not with the infinite with which they may be compared;
and an error of several thousand feet in two or three miles is hardly within
the limits of scientific accuracy.

Prominent among the instances of these reported unfathomable depths,
stands the sounding of Captain Denham of the British navy, in H. M.S.
Herald, made in October 1852, on a voyage from Rio de Janeiro to the Cape
of Good Hope. This is an extreme case; but since it is reported among the
greatest deep-sea casts, it will serve best for illustration.* All other great
casts of the lead which have been reported are subject to the same causes
of error which are to be found in this, some in a greater and some in a less
degree ; so that it is not necessary for us to believe, yet, anything with

is the one labelled No. 1, latitude 38° 04/ 40//, longitude 73° 56/ 47//, 90 fathoms.
This is crowded with Polythalamian forms, mostly large enough to be recognized
by a practised eye without the aid of a magnifier.

* Lieutenant Maury discusses these deep casis in his sailing directions, but his
rules for arriving at the depth, do not seem to me to be entirely satisfactory.

GEOLOGY. 287

regard to them, except that they gave no result. The sounding of Captain
Denham was made with a lead weighing nine pounds, attached to a line
one-tenth of an inch in diameter: and it is reported that this lead descended
to the depth of nearly nine miles in the sea without touching bottom.

In accordance with a plan which originated with the lamented G. M.
Bache, U. 8S. N., in 1846, in the explorations of the Gulf Stream, and which
has constantly been followed since, Captain Denham noted the time of run-
ning out of the successive portions of the sounding-line during the nine
hours of its supposed descent. According to these observed times of
descent, the nine-pound lead communicated to the descending line, at the
depth of 3000 fathoms, or 18,000 feet, a velocity of two feet per second, —a
result which is philosophically impossible, since the resistance of the water
acting upon a line of this diameter, moving with a velocity of two feet per
second, at the depth mentioned, amounts to more than three times the
weight of the lead or shot used. It will hardly be necessary to enter into
any argument to show that there can be no motion of descent, when the
resistance to that motion is three times the weight of the moving mass.
Further, the observations show that the nine-pound shot and line were run-
ning with a velocity of two feet and a half per second, at the depth of 2000
fathoms or 12,000 feet. Here the result contradicts, in quite as strong a
manner, the mechanical laws of the descent; and in fact, below 1000 fath-
oms, or 6000 feet, if we credit the observations, a velocity was observed in
the running out of the line which it was impossible for the lead to com-
municate to it. In fact, but a small part of that velocity could have been
produced by the descent of the lead. Here we have a reliable result to the
depth of 1000 fathoms only. The difference between this result and the
conclusions of Captain Denham is simply the difference between one mile
and nine miles.

In measuring the distance to the sun, an error of eight miles would hardly
be worth noticing, perhaps; but what conclusions can be drawn from a
measurement in which the probable error amounts to eight times the whole
distance ?

Popular ideas with regard to the sinking of bodies in the sea have here-
tofore been vague; for the reason, perhaps, that the laws which govern
this descent, and which are derived from the well-known laws of fluids,
have never been fully defined in their application to the depths of the
ocean. Some imagine that ships which founder at sea sink to a certain
depth and then float about until broken to pieces, or thrown upon some
bank beneath the sea; and, indeed, a recent writer in England has pub-
lished a book sustaining this absurd notion. Others, again, believe that
the buoyant force of the water at great depths is enormous, and due to the
whole pressure of the column of water above, and that all bodies which are
lighter than water at the surface, will, if sunk to the bottom and detached
from the sinker, shoot upward with a great velocity; or, in other words,
that the density of the water increases directly with the depth. These views
are erroneous. It is true the pressure increases with the depth, to the
amount of fifteen pounds upon every square inch for every thirty-four feet
in depth; but the density is not thereby sensibly increased, owing to the
incompressibility of the water; so that neither the buoyant force nor the
resistance to the motion of any body are sensibly increased from the surface
to the bottom. At the depth of 3000 fathoms, for instance, the pressure
upon a square inch is nearly 8000 pounds; but the column of 18,000 feet of

288 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

water is only shortened about 60 feet. The density is thus but slightly
increased ; but the effect of this enormous pressure upon compressible
bodies, as air, wood, ete., is to condense them into a smaller bulk, by which
they may be rendered heavier than water, and will sink of their own weight.
A piece of wood cannot float at the bottom of the sea, but a very slight
extraneous force will bring it to the surface.

Now, how is it with the sounding-lead and line? The lead, if allowed to
descend alone, will fall with a uniform and rapid velocity to the bottom.
This velocity will be attained within a few feet of the surface, and will be
due to the opposing forces of gravity and the resistance of the water, which
will be balanced, when the uniform velocity is reached. But if a line be
attached to the lead, a few hundred feet of the line will offer a resistance
to the motion nearly equal to the whole weight of the lead; and as suc-
cessive lengths of line are drawn into the water, the resistance is constantly
increased; so that at 2000 or 3000 fathoms depth, the weight will be almost
entirely suspended in the sea by the resistance of the water along the sides
of the line.

Some idea of the resistance which opposes the motion of a sounding-line
may be formed from the fact, that upon 1000 fathoms of a line one-tenth
of an inch in diameter, moving with a velocity of three feet per second, the
resistance is between twenty-five and thirty pounds; and if the velocity be
increased to six feet per second, the resistance upon the line becomes a
hundred pounds, nearly. Or, if the length of the line be doubled, with the
same velocity, the resistance is doubled; and it is also directly proportional
to the diameter of the line.

These are some of the reasons why an improvement in the mode of
measuring the depths of the sea is not only desirable, but necessary, before
a certain knowledge of those depths can be obtained.

THE GEOLOGY ON NEW ZEALAND.

It will probably be remembered, that a scientific expedition round the
world, in the frigate Novara, was organized and despatched, about a year
ago, by the Austrian government. Among the scientific officers appointed
was Dr. Ferdinand Hochstetter, a geologist of great eminence; and it appears
that when the Novara touched and remained for a few days at New Zealand,
Dr. Hochstetter was so much struck by the peculiarities and interesting
geological features of that country, that he applied for and obtained per-
mission to remain six months in that island, in order that he might investi-
gate its geology at his leisure, and especially that of the province of Auckland.
The general result of Dr. Hochstetter’s explorations, communicated to the
New Zealand government, is as follows:

The first striking characteristic of the geology of Auckland, according to
Dr. Hochstetter, is the absence of the primitive, plutonic, and metamorphic
formations. The oldest rock that he met with belongs to the primary forma-
tion. It is of very variable character, sometimes being more argillaceous,
and of a dark color, more or less distinctly stratified, like clay-slate; at other
times, the siliceous element preponderates, and from the admixture of oxide
of iron, the rock has a red, jasper-like appearance. No fossils have hitherto
been found in this formation in New Zealand, and therefore it is impossible
to state the exact age; it is possible, however, that these argillaceous, siliceous
rocks correspond to the oldest Silurian strata of Europe. The existence and

GEOLOGY. 289.

great areca of this formation are of great importance, as all the metalliferous
veins hitherto discovered in Auckland, or likely to be found, occur in rocks
of this formation. To these rocks belong the copper pyrites, which have
been worked for some years, the manganese, and the gold-bearing quartz at
Coromandel. The gold which is washed out from beds of quartz-gravel, on
both sides of the Coromandel range, is derived from quartz-veins of crystal-
line character and considerable thickness, running in a general direction,
from north to south, through the old primary rocks which form the founda-
tion of the Coromandel range. The coal-beds at Coromandel, occurring
between strata of trachytic breccia, are too thin to be of any value, and there
is no reason to suppose that a workable seam exists. Nearly all the primary
ranges are covered with dense virgin forests, rendering them extremely diffi-
cult of access; but there is every reason to believe that they will yield con-
siderable mineral riches. It is remarkable, that while one of the oldest
members of the primary formation is found so extensively in New Zealand,
the later strata of the Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian systems, appear
to be altogeter wanting; while, on the other hand, in the neighboring con-
tinent of Australia, these members of the primary period, together with
plutonic and metamorphic rocks, constitute, so far as we know, almost the
principal part of the continent. A very wide interval occurs between the
primary rocks of the northern island, and the next sedimentary strata. Not
only the upper members of the primary series are absent, but also nearly the
whole of the secondary formations. The only instance of secondary strata
met with by Dr. Hochstetter, consists of a very regular and highly-inclined
bed of marl, alternating with micaceous sandstone, extending to a thickness
of more than one thousand feet. These rocks contain remarkable specimens
of marine fossils, which belong exclusively to the secondary period. The
tertiary period must be divided into two distinct formations, which may, per-
haps, correspond to the European eocene and miocene. The older of these
formations contains the brown-coal sedms, on the skilful working of which
much of the future welfare of the province depends.

Dr. Hochstetter explored the remarkable limestone caverns at Hangatiki,
near the sources of the Waipa, the former haunts of the gigantic Moa. He
expected to meet with a rich harvest of Moa skeletons, but only found a few
bones. The natives, according to his account, have long since carefully
collected and stowed away, in safe hiding-places, all the Moa bones, in con-
sequence of the value attached to them by Europeans; but they are willing
to exchange them for money.

The volcanic formations in New Zealand are on a vast scale. Lofty tra-
chytic peaks, covered with perpetual snow; a great variety of smaller volcanic
cones, presenting all the characteristics of volcanic systems; and long lines
of boiling-springs, fumaroles, and solfataras, — present an almost unbounded
field of interest, and, at the same time, a succession of magnificent scenery.

The first volcanic eruptions were submarine, consisting of vast quantities
of lava, breccia, tuff, obsidian, and pumice-stone, which, flowing over the
bottom of the sea, formed an extensive submarine volcanic plateau. Subse-
quent eruptions formed lofty cones of trachytic and phonolithiclava. Thus,
in the central part of the northern island, an extensive volcanic plateau
exists, two thousand feet high, from which rise the two gigantic mountains,
Tongariro and Ruapahu. From the former, smoke constantly issues, and
the shape of the cone is changing, thus showing continual volcanic activity.
A grand impression is made upon the traveller by these two magnificent

25

290 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

voleanic cones, —Ruapahu shining with the brilliancy of perpetual snow;
Tongariro with its black cinder cone capped with a cloud of white vapor; —
the two majestic mountains standing side by side upon a barren desert of
pumice, and reflected in the waters of Lake Taupo.

In immediate connection with the volcanoes are the hot-springs, solfataras,
and fumaroles. In Iceland only are such a number of hot-springs found as
exist in New Zealand. Although there may be no single intermittent spring
in New Zealand of equal magnitude with the great Geyser in Iceland, yet in
the extent of country in which such springs occur, in their great number,
and in the beauty and variety of the siliceous incrustations and deposits,
New Zealand far exceeds Iceland. All the New Zealand hot-springs, like
those of Iceland, abound in silica, and may be divided into two distinct
classes — alkaline and acid. To the latter belong the solfataras, character-
ized by deposits of sulphur, and never forming intermittent fountains. All
the intermittent springs belong to the alkaline class, in which are also in-
cluded most of the ordinary boiling-springs. Sulphurets of sodium and
potassium, and carbonates of potash and soda are the solvents of the silica,
which, on the cooling and evaporation of the water, is deposited in such
quantities as to form a striking characteristic in the appearance of these
springs.

Dr. Hochstetter’s geological map of the Auckland district contains no less
than sixty points of volcanic eruption within a radius of ten miles. The
isthmus of Auckland is, in fact, completely perforated by volcanic action,
and presents a large number of true volcanic hills, which, although extinct,
and of small size, are perfect models of volcanic mountains. These hills —
once the funnels out of which torrents of burning lava were vomitted forth,
and afterwards the strongholds of savage cannibals — are now picturesque
and pleasing features, being the homes of peaceful and prosperous settlers,
whose fruitful gardens and smiling fields derive their fertility from the sub-
stances long ago thrown up from the fiery bowels of the earth. Volcanic
action in New Zealand, according to Dr. Hochstetter, is dying out; and
numerous facts prove that the action of the hot-springs is diminishing.

NOTES ON SPITZBERGEN.

The following is an abstract of a paper on the geological and physical
features of Spitzbergen, communicated to the London Geological Society,
by I. Lamont, Esq.

Mr. L. cruised about Spitzbergen, in his yacht, in the summer of 1858, and
went up the Stour Fiord, which, he remarks, is a sound, dividing the island,
not a gulf. The first thirty miles of coast along which he sailed on this
Fiord, consisted almost entirely of the faces of two or three enormous gla-
ciers; the water is shallow, seldom as much as sixteen fathoms, and such
appears to be the case all around Spitzbergen; and hence icebergs of very
large size are not formed. The shores are mostly formed of a muddy flat,
from half a mile to three miles broad, with ice or hard ground, at from
twelve to eighteen inches under the surface; this is intersected with muddy
rivulets, and bears saxifrages, mosses, and lichens, on which the reindeer
fattens. Protruding trap-rocks appear at many spots on these flats. A steep
slope of mud, snow, and débris succeeds the flats, and reaches up to perpen-
dicular crags of schistose rock, above which extend the great glaciers.
Above these, peaks, probably of granite, appear, when free of mist. The

GEOLOGY. 291

upper part of the sound has much drift-wood, chiefly small pine trees,
weather-worn and water-logged, and some wreck-wood. Bones and skel-
etons of whales are numerous. Drift-wood and bones of whales were ob-
served several miles inland, and high above high-water mark — at least thirty
feet. Whales’ skeletons were also seen high up on the Thousand Islands.
These circumstances, connected with the fact that seal-fishers and whalers
state their belief in the shallowing of these seas, led the author to think
that Spitzbergen and the adjacent islands are emerging from the sea at a
rate even more rapid than that at which some parts of Norway have been
shown to be rising.

THE MAELSTROM.

Of late years, even the existence of the Maelstrom on the coast of Nor-
way has been doubted. The ancient accounts of its terrible power were
doubtless fabulous; but the Maelstrom actually exists, and is sometimes
dangerous. M. Hagerup, minister of the Norwegian marine, has: recently
given a reliable account of it, in reply to some questions from a correspond-
ent of the Boston Recorder. The vast whirl is caused by the setting in and
out of the tides between Lofoden and Mosken, and is most violent half way
between ebb and flood tide. At flood and ebb tide it disappears for about
half an hour, but begins again with the moving of the waters. Large ves-
sels may pass over it safely in serene weather, but in a storm it is perilous
to the largest craft. Small boats are not safe near it, at the time of its
strongest action, in any weather. The whirls in the Maelstrom do not, as
Was once supposed draw vessels under the water, but by their violence they
fill them with water, or dash them upon the neighboring shoals. M. Hage-
rup says:

“Tn winter, it not unfrequently happens that, at sea, a bank of clouds
shows a west storm, with heavy sea, to be prevailing there, while further
in, on the coast, the clear air shows that on the inside of the West-tjord
(east side of Lofoden), the wind blows from the land, and sets out through
the tjord from the east. In such cases, especially, an approach to the Mael-
strom is in the highest degree dangerous; for the stream and under-current,
from opposite directions, work there together to make the whole passage
one single boiling cauldron. At such times appear the mighty whirls which
have given it the name of Maelstrom (that is, the whirling or grinding
stream), and in which no craft whatever can hold its course. For a steamer,
it is, then, quite inadvisable to attempt the passage of the Maelstrom during
a winter storm; and for a sailing vessel, it may be also bad enough in time
of summer, should there fall a calm or a light wind, whereby the power of
the stream becomes greater than that of the wind, leaving the vessel no
longer under command.”’

GEOLOGICAL REVOLUTIONS.

The following is an abstract of a paper on the above subject, recently
read before the Boston Society of Natural History, by Dr. C. F. Winslow:

“The general idea set forth in the communication is, that the earth, in
falling to the sun, and following the same law of gravitation that governs
any spheroidal or irregular body in falling to the ground, must change the
inclination of its poles to the plane of the ecliptic with every translation of
matter from one part of the mass to the other; that is to say, that its

292 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

present equilibrium would be disturbed, and materially modified, by such
changes as have, from time to time, transpired in producing the formation
of mountain-chains, and continents, and broad oceanic depressions. This
principle can be illustrated by experiments. The earth may be represented
by a marble or small balloon falling in a vacuum. Modify the form of
these, however slightly, or add particles of matter to one hemisphere or the
other, and a partial rotation or change of equipoise is produced, turning
the heaviest diameter towards the earth. If this principle holds with a
marble, it will hold with the moon, and with the earth, and all planetary
masses moving toward the great central mass.

“The second deduction is, that the earth was many miles larger in all its
diameters, when organic life first appeared in its shallow seas; and the
modus agendi of physical causes was illustrated, by which have been pro-
duced the profound geological revolutions that have divided the creative
epochs. These causes lie in the play of the primal and central forces of the
planet — attraction and repulsion—by which periodic condensation and
expansion are effected (see ‘Central Relations of the Sun and Earth,’
Annual of Scientifie Discovery, 1858, p. 364); and all geological revolutions
are direct results of the locomotion of the planet (a rocky, irregular shell,
with a plastic nucleus) in an orbit having radii vectores of unequal lengths.
The igneous constitution of the globe, and its contraction in consequence
of the radiation of heat, as first suggested by Leibnitz, is sustained; but
the idea of slow and gradual puckering of the surface, maintained by
Cordier and modern geologists, is discarded. The permanent contraction
of the nucleus is produced by the escape of lava and heat from fissures and
volcanic orifices, and by the conversion of heat into magnetism and elec-
tricity, during its transmission through the crust, thus originating meta-
morphosis and crystallization of primitive and superimposed rocks, in its
diffusion and passage to the surface. These local processes, together with
the periodic condensations arising from cosmical laws already referred to,
produce atmospheric or gaseous voids between the nucleus and the mun-
dane arch, which present possibilities, or absolute necessities, after long
intervals, for general convulsions of the globe, attended by sudden engulf-
ments, or subsidences of vast areas of its crust. Thus have the minor and
greater delineations of surface now observable been brought about. When
these catastrophes happen to the globe, the law of gravitation, as funda-
mentally stated above, immediately sways the planet into new polar rela-
tions to the plane of the ecliptic, and universal mutations of land, sea,
climate, isothermals, life, and of every other terrestrial and geographical
condition, follow. The facts on which were based these deductions were
traced from small to greater at length, and the geological sequences noted,
whatever the processes may have been which caused condensations of the
nucleus. Kilanea, a pit 800 feet deep and nine miles in circumference, on
the slope of Mauna Roa in Hawaii, is a geological fact of remarkable sig-
nificance. Its walls are perpendicular; and Dr. Winslow, in his personal
explorations, has observed the debris of the roof projecting in a line of
ridges, from 50 to 150 feet high, above the sea of lava by which it had been
swallowed up. Thingvalla, in Iceland, graphically described of late by
Lord Dufferin, is another remarkable instance of engulfment; appearances
all indicating a sudden catastrophe, —an area many miles in extent being
partially submerged beneath the sea. Various sudden submergencies of
small areas, within recent epochs, —for instance, that of the site of old

GEOLOGY. 293

Callao, on the 28th of October, 1746; of the Quay of Lisbon, on November
1, 1755; and of New Madrid, on the 16th of December, 1811; and many
other well-known facts of the same kind on record, — illustrate still more
fully the modus agendi of these physical changes, and demonstrate the
existence of subterranean voids to receive falling areas. From this series
of facts, Dr. Winslow ascends to others of greater magnitude, like Seneca
Lake, the chain of great North American lakes, the German Ocean, British
Channel, and Gulf of Mexico, where identity of strata and fossil forms
observable in opposite coasts and headlands clearly show former continuity,
which can only have been destroyed by sudden and more or less complete
engulfments of immense areas of surface. The existence of intervening
islands, as of Cuba and Hayti in the Gulf of Mexico, and of Aru between
Australia and New Guinea, is additional evidence of this position, — they
bearing the same relation to surrounding coasts that the ridges of debris in
the pit of Kilanea hold to their former connection with the level of the
general surface of Mauna Roa. Carrying these observations still further,
St. Paul’s in the Indian Ocean, which Dr. Winslow personally explored, is
found to be the vestige of a sunken continent, the extinct crater of some
ancient Cotopaxi or Popocatapetl shattered and split, and opened to the
incursion of the sea, by the great catastrophe which revolutionized the
Southern Hemisphere during a former epoch. The Atoll formations, inge-
niously divined by Darwin to betoken the earlier existence of mountain-
ranges and chains of craters, not only strengthen this conclusion respecting
a former continent in the Indian Ocean, as represented in the Maldives,
Lacadives, and other islands; but their prodigious development in the
Pacific Ocean, with evidences and logical deductions drawn from other
geographical and geological data, settles the fact relative to the sub-
mergence of a continent in that part of the globe now occupied by the
Polynesian Islands. Sudden changes of so stupendous a character would
profoundly alter the equipoise of the globe, and produce such movements
of the ocean as to overwhelm all lands, and give rise to drift phenomena
as extensive as those which can be traced in the last geological ages.

“These deductions, extended into their astronomical developments, ex-
plain the unique relation of the moon to the earth, the longest diameter of
the former being held steadfastly to tue planet, while the sun controls the
celestial movements of both; the various inclinations of the axles of the
different planets to the planes of their respective orbits; and even the
anomalous conditions of Uranus, whose retrograde rotation may be readily
accounted for when the fact is recognized that successive revolutions of
surface may have been so numerous or profound as to completely invert
the planet from its primitive relation to the sun.” — Comm.

ON THE THEORY OF GLACIERS.

Itis only within a comparatively recent period that the attention of the
modern scientific world has been especially directed to the very interesting
and complicated phenomena of glacier action. Attempts had indeed been
made by earlier observers to frame theories by which these phenomena
could be explained; but further examination proved that the hypotheses
thus proposed were not only insufficient to account for, but were in many
cases inconsistent with, the results of observation. The more accurate re-
searches of the last few years have, however, been attended with better

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294 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

success; and the main credit of attaining to this result is unquestionably
due to Professor J. D. Forbes. In the course of several successive journeys
to Switzerland, extending from 1841 to 185), he instituted a series of minute
observations on the phenomena of glacier action, from which he was at
length enabled to elaborate a theory by which these phenomena were ade-
quately explained. Until very recently, Professor Forbes’s hypothesis met
with all but universal acceptance; but early in 1857 it was controverted by
Professor Tyndall, whose objections to it have not been removed by the
result of observations and experiments made by him chiefly during the last
two summers. The question being thus reopened, it became a matter of
interest to the public generally to ascertain more exactly the details of
Professor Forbes’s theory, and the grounds on which it rests; and with
a view of supplying full information on this subject, the scattered papers of
Prof. F. have been collected and published during the past year, by Messrs.
Black, of Edinburgh. The appearance of this book furnishes a fitting op-
portunity for an attempt to estimate the contributions made by its author
to our knowledge of the laws of glacier action; for which purpose it is
necessary to state briefly the opinions which, before his time, were entertained
on the subject.

The most striking and obvious phenomenon connected with glaciers is
unquestionably their continuous motion. That they do move, is a fact which
must have been evident to the earliest observers, from the barest considera-
tion of the circumstances of the case. A glacier being a stream of ice, is-
suing from, and serving as an outlet to, the reservoirs of eternal snow, and
extending thousands of feet below the line of perpetual frost, it is obvious
that its lower extremity must be constantly thawing; so that, unless the
glacier were as constantly advancing, its permanent existence below the
snow-line would be an impossibility. Motion, therefore, being the one
necessary condition of the existence of a glacier, the first task of the gla-
cier theorist was plainly to assign a cause for this motion. The earliest
theory on this subject was that known as the Gravitation Theory, originally
proposed by Gruner, in a work published at Berne in 1760, but more gen-
erally associated with the name of De Saussure, its most illustrious expo-
nent. According to this theory, the masses of ice which comprise the
glacier, slide bodily over their rocky bed, urged by their own weight, — the
motion being facilitated by the melting of the ice at the bottom of the
glacier by contact with the warmer earth. The fatal objection to this
theory is, that a sliding motion of this kind, when once commenced, must
be accelerated by gravity, and the glacier must slide from its bed in an ava-
lanche. Other valid objections are also found in the small slope of most
glacier-beds, and their frequent contractions and changes of form through
which it would be impossible that a rigid, unyielding mass of ice could be
urged. The second hypothesis, known as De Charpentier’s, or the Dilatation
Theory, ascribes the moving force to the well-known expansion which water
undergoes when converted into ice. <A glacier is traversed by innumerable
minute fissures, which, during summer, are filled with water, during the
daytime; and this water, being frozen during the night, by its expansion
thrusts forward the whole mass of the glacier in the direction of its slope.
The same opinion was adopted by Agassiz, with the modification that the
water freezes, not in minute fissures in the glacier, but in the capillary ducts
by which its granular masses are traversed. According to this theery, the
motion of a glacier must take place by fits and starts; it must be accelerated

GEOLOGY. 295

by cold weather and retarded by hot; and must cease altogether in the
winter; —all conditions which are totally at variance with the now known
nature of glacier motion. Further objections are, that in the height of
summer, those parts of a glacier which move fastest are never reduced be-
low the freezing-point; and that the congelation produced by nocturnal
radiation cannot possibly extend more than a few inches below the surface
of the glacier.

Such was the state of glacier theories at the time when Prof. Forbes ap-
proached the subject. He at once perceived that it was hopeless to attempt
any explanation of the phenomena of glacier motion, without previously
obtaining precise numerical data as to the nature and extent of that motion.
Accordingly, inthe summer of 1842, he commenced a series of observations
on the Mer de Glace, which were continued, principally on the same glacier,
during the following years, by which he was enabled to determine the daily,
and even the hourly, motion of the glacier at different parts of its course, as
well as that of different surface-points of the same portion of the glacier.
By means of similar observations carried on under his direction by Auguste
Balmat in 1844-5, the mean annual motion was determined, together with
the effect produced on its velocity by changes of temperature. The result of
these observations was the establishment of the following facts: The
glacier moves continuously, day and night, winter and summer; the motion,
however, is not uniform, being accelerated by heat and retarded by cold. It
moves with varying velocity in different parts of its course, according to
variations in the slope, width, and other physical peculiarities of its bed.
The ice in the centre moves faster than that at the sides, and that at the sur-
face faster than that at the bottom; the variation in velocity from the sides
to the centre is always gradual, and is greater or less according to the actual
velocity of the glacier at the time when, and the point where, the observa-
tion is made. Now, these are precisely the laws by which the motions of any
viscous fluid (of which a river may be taken as the most familiar example )
are governed; and, according to Prof. Forbes, they can only be expressed
by the following theory, to which the name of the Viscous or Plastic Theory
is commonly given : A glacier is an imperfect fluid, or viscous body, which
is urged down slopes of certain inclination by the mutual pressure of its
parts. The ice of which a glacier is composed is not perfectly coherent,
but is traversed in all directions by capillary fissures, which are always more
or less charged with water, derived from the surface-melting of the glacier
itself, and of the snow-fields by which it is fed; and as the fluidity, and con-
sequently the velocity, of the glacier varies with the amount of water which
it contains, the retardation of its motion in the winter, and its acceleration
in the summer are fully accounted for. The lowering of the surface of the
elacier, which takes place during the summer, arising partly from superficial
melting, partly from the attenuation and collapse of the parts which move
most rapidly, is repaired during the winter, when the velocity of the whole
elacier is diminished, and, the higher regions of the glacier moving relatively
faster than the lower, the yielding mass of ice is pressed upwards in a ver-
tical direction.

The above theory expresses so completely all the observed facts of glacier
motion, that it gradually acquired all but universal acceptance, notwithstand-
ing the startling nature of its assertion of the plasticity of a body which we
have always been accustomed to regard as one of the most brittle of known
substances. Professor Tyndall, “however, while fully admitting that the

296 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

motion of a glacier was that of a viscous fluid, was never able to reconcile
himself to the notion of the viscosity of ice ; and accordingly, in a lecture
delivered before the Royal Institution, in January 1857, he proposed another
theory, by which the viscous motion of glaciers might be explained. This
theory is based upon a fact announced by Mr. Faraday in 1850, that two
pieces of ice at 32° will freeze together when brought into contact, either
with or without pressure, —a phenomenon which Dr. Hooker has named
“Regelation.””. By experiments with small masses, he showed that ice can
be moulded by pressure into any given form; and he asserted that the plas-
ticity of ice, whether upon the large or small scale, was owing, not to its
viscosity, but to fracture and regelation. :

Without pretending to arbitrate on a question disputed by such eminent
authorities, we may observe, that we are not disposed to attach so much im-
portance to the difficulty based upon the brittleness of small masses of ice.
That ice is not perfectly rigid is shown by its frequent bending beneath the
weight of the skater. Other bodies, scarcely less brittle than ice, will flow
down slopes with precisely the motion of treacle, or any other viscous fluid:
as is proved by an instance quoted in Professor Forbes’s volume, in which
Stockholm pitch was observed to flow very slowly out of a barrel, when it
was sufficiently hard to break into fragments under the blow of a hammer.
It would seem, therefore, that the properties of hardness and brittleness are
not incompatible with that of viscosity, or quasi-fluidity. But, after all, the
difference between the two theories is only one of degree. If we discard the
term viscous altogether, and substitute for it the alias plastic,— which, indeed,
Professor Forbes seems to prefer, — the same designation may be applied to
both theories. Both agree in asserting that, by the subjection of glacier-ice
toa peculiarly violent strain, solution of continuity is produced, which is
afterwards repaired when the disjoined surfaces are brought into contact by
pressure; but, according to Forbes, the solution of continuity is only partial;
while, according to Tyndall, it is complete. Professor Tyndall may deny
the viscosity of ice, but he will hardly deny its plasticity, since he has him-
self succeeded in moulding it by pressure into a variety of forms; and,
whether solution of continuity which it undergoes in the process be partial
or complete, is a circumstance by which the ultimate fact of its plasticity is
not affected.

Hitherto we have considered the different glacier theories with reference to
the one point of glacier motion; there are, however, several other phenom-
ena connected with glaciers, whose explanation must be included in any
complete theory on the subject, all of which, according to Professor Forbes,
are fully accounted for by his hypothesis. We have not space to enter into
a detailed enumeration of these phenomena, the explanation of which may,
in most cases, be deduced with facility from the plastic theory; but we must
dwell briefly upon two points, which appear to be closely connected with each
other, and of which, in one case at least, the theoretical explanation is cer-
tainly less clear. We allude to the mode in which glacier ice is formed, and
to the peculiar structure which it exhibits. We have already seen that the
glacier proper issues from, and is, in fact, fed by, the vast snow-fields which
occupy the higher plateaux of the mountains. It is to these snow-fields that
the term névé or firn is applied. In the mass of névé a succession of strata
of more and less crystalline snow is observed, which is generally admitted to
be owing to the successive falls of snow by which it is formed. The ques-
tion, therefore, arises, What is the process by which the granular snow of the

GEOLOGY. 297

névé is converted into the compact ice of the glacier proper? For some
time Professor Forbes, sharing the then universal opinion that snow could
not pass into pellucid ice without being first melted and then frozen, was
inclined to attribute the conversion to the liquefaction and subsequent con-
gelation of the névé snow. This view is plainly open to the same objection
that is urged against the dilatation theory of De Charpentier; viz.,- that
there is every reason to believe that the cold of the most prolonged winter
penetrates to a comparatively small extent into the interior of the glacier.
Accordingly we find that, in 1816, Professor Forbes abandoned this opinion,
and expressed his belief that the snow is converted into ice by intense pres-
sure exerted upon it when it is softened by the imminent approach of the
thawing state; ‘‘the very first effect of which is to annihilate the strata of
the névé, the most rapid glacification being effected by the kneading and
working of the parts upon one another, by the differential motions which the
semi-fluid law of glacier progression occasions, and which also necessarily
takes place under intense pressure.’’ Professor Tyndall, who verifies his
conclusion by actual experiment, also holds that the phenomenon is caused
solely by intense pressure; though, of course, he does not admit to any share
in it that differential motion of particles which, according to Professor
Forbes, constitutes the glacier a viscous fluid. We may, therefore, assume
it to be established that the glacification of the névé is effected by pressure.
We now come to the second point, the structure of glacier ice. In all glaciers
whose ice is well consolidated, more especially in their middle and lower
portions, the ice is found to be composed of alternate veins or lamin of
white, porous, and blue compact ice. These veins are of very varying width;
they are most distinct in those parts of the glacier which are subjected to
the greatest pressure. Their direction also varies considerably; but they
appear generally to traverse the whole width of the glacier, in a curve bend-
ing down from the sides to the centre, and dipping forward in the direction
of the glacier’s motion. This veined or ribboned structure was first observed
by M. Guyot, in 1858; but the first to attach to it a theoretical significance
was Professor Forbes, who noticed it in the Aar glacier in 1811. He ascribes
its formation to the differential motion of the glacier particles, occasioned
by the friction of the glacier on its sides and bed, and by the pressure of the
upper regions on those below; the result of such motion being the separa-
tion of the ice into a multitude of fissures, which constitute the blue veins,
being filled up, not, as he at first believed, by the congelation of infiltered
water, but simply by the effects of time and cohesion. Professor Tyndall,
on the other hand, conceives that these veins are the result solely of ex-
ternal pressure (as ene to differential motion of particles); and he
states that they are always developed in directions perpendicular to the di-
rection of pressure. Observing that the veined ice may be generally split in
the direction of its laminz, he traces an analogy between the veined struc-
ture and the lines of cleavage in slate; and he proves by experiment that
wax, or any body not strictly homogeneous in its structure, may be cn-
dowed, by pressure, with the property of cleaving in lines perpendicular to
the direction of the pressure. He further proves by experiment that ice,
when subjected to pressure, is liquefied in lines perpendicular to the direction
of pressure.

Notwithstanding the extreme beauty and ingenuity of Professor Tyndall’s
experiments, we cannot think that they are capable of affording a complete
explanation of the veined structure of ice. As far as the development of

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298 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

>

perpendicular lines of cleavage goes, the analogy between slate and ice is
perfect; but it fails in the point that in ice distinct laminz are formed, vary-
ing in compactness; which, as far as we know, is not the case with slate. ~
Prof. Tyndall’s last-named experiment would seem to show that the blue
veins are formed by the liquefaction of the ice in lines perpendicular to the
direction of pressure. But, in this case, how is the freezing of this water
effected? Not by the winter’s cold, which could only affect the surface; nor
by regelation, so long at least as the laminz of ice and water are subjected
to the pressure which causes the liquefaction. And yet parallel veins of ice
and water are never found in any part of a glacier. The ‘difficulty will be
removed when it is proved that pressure will develop in porous ice perpen-
dicular veins of compact ice, without previous liquefaction. — Lit. Gazette.

ON THE MARKS OF ANCIENT GLACIERS ON THE GREEN-MOUNTAIN
RANGE IN MASSACHUSETTS AND VERMONT.

At the meeting of the A. A. for the Promotion of Science, 1859, Mr. C. H.
Hitchcock, of Amherst, presented a communication on the above subject,
which embodied in itself the results of investigations undertaken under the
direction of Professor Edward Hitchcock, upon the mountains west of the
Connecticut River, in Massachusetts and Vermont. The following, according
to Mr. H., are the chief distinctions between the marks of the ordinary drift
and the marks of glaciers:

1. Glacier striz differ often widely in direction from drift strize. The drift
strie may be referred to three general directions, —to the south, to the
southeast, and to the southwest,— while the glacier directions are, exceed-
ingly various, sometimes coinciding with, and often crossing those left by
the drift.

2. Glacier striz occur enly in valleys radiating outwardly from the crests
of mountains, or in valleys tributary to a main valley, in which was the
principal glacier, while the drift strize overtop the mountains; or, when found
in valleys, cross them obliquely.

3. Glacier striz descend from higher to lower levels, except in limited
spots, where they may be horizontal. Drift striz as frequently ascend
mountains hundreds of feet.

4. Drift is spread promiscuously over the surface, and the blocks are a
good deal rounded. The detritus of glaciers more or less blocks up the val-
leys, and the fragments are frequently quite angular. These, however, are
in part covered with other materials, which have descended from the moun-
tains.

Mr. H. then carefully described the marks of an ancient glacier, to be seen
in the west part of Hancock, in a valley through which Middlebury River
commences to run, and within half a mile of the crest of the Green Moun-
tains. Here several ledges of gneissoid rocks have two sets of striz on
them, — the one running south 50° east, the other set pointing west 30° south,
down the valley. The glacier set are the most prominent; and they cross
the drift set at an angle of 70°. The force by which the first set was pro-
duced was up-hill, towards the crest of the mountain, which, a few miles
north of the road, rose some eight hundred or one thousand feet above the
strie. The force producing the second, or glacial set, was down-hill, in the
direction of the river.

We find traces of another glacier, passing over the mountain towards Han-

GEOLOGY. 299

cock. On reaching the cleared land, there are strie in the bottom of the
valley, pointing north 70° east, the agent of erosion being directed down the
valley. In three places, also, before reaching the main branch of White
River, are found accumulations of detritus, stretching across a considerable
part of the valley, in the same manner as ancient terminal moraines are
found in the valleys of the Alps. These have been somewhat modified by
the subsequent action of water upon the surface.

At Hancock the valley meets the valley of White River at right angles; the
striz also are at right angles, for another glacier descended the valley of
White River; and, like modern glaciers, these ancient ones united their forces
at the junction, and travelled the larger valley together, bending, in their
course, to all the sinuosities of the river, as the striz curiously and clearly
manifest.

Mr. H. had examined but one of the tributaries below, but there found (at
Rochester) the clear evidences that a glacier came down its valley to meet the
main one, which terminates near Stockbridge, where an immense termina
moraine crosses the valley. The total length of this glacier, so far as investi-
gated, is eighteen miles, and each of the tributaries examined was about four
miles. The slope, in all, was gradual and uniform.

A less striking example of the traces of glacial action is found upon the
Otta Queechee, above Woodstock. Several miles further west, just east of
Bridgewater, is a more decided example. Still others may be found on
Deerfield River, running up to Searsburg, and at the Hoosac tunnel; at
Windham, on the head waters of Saxton’s River; at Mount Holly, running
nearly east and west, on Black River; at Tinmouth, on Furnace Brook; and
at Huntington. Probably the Green-Mountain Range was once covered with
glaciers, on both sides, either before or after the drift period proper; for, in
all these cases, away from the valleys, the drift striz were found in abun-
dance, pursuing a course diagonally to, or at right angles with, the course of
the glaciers. If, as is probable, the glaciers existed before the drift, it would
not be strange to find that occasionally the traces of their existence had dis-
appeared, because the icebergs, etc., would wear away thestrie. The inac-
cessibility of their localities, and the decomposing character of the White
Mountain rocks, made it less probable that glacier-marks would there be
found. Still, research might very likely discover their traces.

ON THE THEORY OF IGNEOUS ROCKS AND VOLCANOES.
BY T.S. HUNT, F. B.S.

In a note in the American Journal of Science for January, 1858, I have ven-
tured to put forward some speculations upon the chemistry of a cooling
globe, such as the igneous theory supposes our earth to have been at an early
period. Considering only the crust with which geology makes us acquainted,
and the liquid and gaseous elements which now surround it, I have endeay-
ored to show that we may attain to some idea of the chemical conditions of
the cooling mass, by conceiving these materials to again reiict upon each
other under the influence of an intense heat. The quartz, which is present
in such a great proportion in many rocks, would decompose the carbonates
and sulphates, and, aided by the presence of water, the chlorides, both of the
rocky strata and the sea, while the organic matters and the fossil carbon
would be burned by the atmospheric oxygen. From these reactions would
result a fused mass of silicates of alumina, alkalies, lime, magnesia, iren,

500 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

etce.; while fll the carbon, sulphur, and chlorine, in the form of acid gases,
mixed with watery vapor, azote, and a probable excess of oxygen, would
form an exceedingly dense atmosphere. When the cooling permitted con-
densation, an acid rain would fall upon the heated crust of the earth, decom-
posing the silicates, and giving rise to chlorides and sulphates of the various
bases, while the separated silica would probably take the form of crystalline
quartz.

In the next stage, the portions of the primitive crust not covered by the
ocean, undergo a decomposition under the influence of the hot, moist atmos-
phere charged with carbonic acid, and the feldspathic silicates are converted
into clays with separation of an alkaline silicate, which, decomposed by the
carbonic acid, finds its way to the sea in the form of alkaline bicarbon-
ate, where, having first precipitated any dissolved sesquioxides, it changes
the dissolved lime-salts into bicarbonate, which, precipitated chemically, or
separated by organic agencies, gives rise to limestones, the chloride of cal-
cium being at the same time replaced by common salt. The separation from
the water of the ocean, of gypsum and sea-salt, and of the salts of potash,
by the agency of marine plants, and by the formations of glauconite, are
considerations foreign to our present study.

In this way we obtain a notion of the processes by which, from a primi-
tive fused mass, may be generated the silicious, calcareous, and argillaceous
rocks which make up the greater part of the earth’s crust, and we also un-
derstand the source of the salts of the ocean. But the question here arises,
whether this primitive crystalline rock, which probally approached to dolerite
in its composition, is now anywhere visible upon the earth’s surface. It is
certain that the oldest known rocks are stratified deposits of limestone, clay,
and sands, generally in a highly altered condition; but these, as well as more
recent strata, are penetrated by various injected rocks, such as granites,
trachytes, syenites, porphyries, dolerites, phonolites, ete. These offer, in
their mode of occurrence, not less than their composition, so many analo-
gies with the lavas of modern volcanoes, that they are also universally sup-
posed to be of igneous origin, and to owe their peculiarities to slow cooling
under pressure. This conclusion being admitted, we proceed to inquire into
the sources of these liquid masses, which, from the earliest known geologi-
cal period up to the present day, have been from time to time ejected from
below. They are generally regarded as evidences, both of the igneous
fusion of the interior of our planet, and of a direct communication between
the surface and the fluid nucleus, which is supposed to be the source of the
various ejected rocks. ae

These intrusive masses, however, offer very great diversities in their com-
position, from the highly silicious and feldspathic granites, eurites, and tra-
chytes, in which lime, magnesia and iron are present in very small quantities,
and in which potash is the predominant alkali, to those denser basic rocks,
dolorite, dierite, hyperite, melaphyre, euphotide, trap, and basalt; in these,
lime, magnesia, and iron-oxide are abundant, and soda prevails over the pot-
ash. To account for these differences in the composition of the injected rocks,
Phillips, and after him Durocher, suppose the interior fluid mass to have sepa-
rated into a denser stratum of the basie silicates, upon which a lighter and
more silicious portion floats, like oil upon water; and that these two liquids,
occasionally more or less modified by a partial crystallization and eliquation,
or by a refusion, give rise to the principal varieties of silicious and basic
rocks, while from the mingling of the two zones of liquid matter, interme-
diate rocks are formed.

GEOLOGY. 301

An analogous view was suggested by Bunsen, in his researche§ on the vol-
canie rocks of Iceland, and extended by Streng to similar rocks in Hungary
and Armenia. These investigators suppose a trachytic and a pyroxenic mag-
ma of constant composition, representing respectively the two great divisions
of rocks ‘which we have just distinguished; and have endeavored to calculate,
from the amount of silica in any intermediate variety, the proportions in
which these compounds must have been mingled to produce it, and conse-
quently the proportions of alumina, lime, magnesia, iron-oxide, and alkalies
which such a rock may be expected to contain. But the amounts thus cal-
culated, as may be seen from Dr. Streng’s results, do not always correspond
with the results of analysis. Besides, there are varieties of intrusive rocks,
such as the phonolites, which are highly basic, and yet contain but very
small quantities of lime, magnesia, and iron oxide, being essentially silicates
of alumina and alkalies in part hydrated.

We may here remark, that many of the so-called igneous rocks are often
of undoubted sedimentary origin. It will scarcely be questioned that this is
true of many granites, and it is certain that all the feldspathic rocks coming
under the categories of hyperite, labradorite, euphotide, diorite, amphibolite,
which make such so large a part of the Laurentian system in North Amer-
ica, are of sedimentary origin. They are here interstratified with lime-
stones, dolomites, serpentines, crystalline schists and quartzites, which are
often conglomerate. The same thing is true of similar feldspathic rocks in
the altered Silurian strata of the Green Mountains. These metamorphic
strata have been exposed to conditions which have rendered some of them
quasi-fluid or plastic. Thus, for example, crystalline limestone may be seen
in positions which have led many observers to regard it as intrusive rock,
although its general mode of occurrence leaves no doubt as to its sediment-
ary origin. We find in the Laurentian system that the limestones some-
times envelop the broken and contorted fragments of the beds of quartzite,
with which they are often interstratified, and penetrate like a veritable trap
into fissures in the quartzite and gneiss. A rock of sedimentary origin may
then assume the conditions of a so-called igneous rock, and who shall say
that any of the intrusive granites, dolerites, euphotides, and serpentines,
have an origin distinct from the metamorphic strata of the same kind,
which make up such vast portions of the older stratified formation? To
suppose that each of these sedimentary rocks has also its representative
among the ejected products of the central fire, seems a hypothesis not only
unnecessary, but, when we consider their varying composition, untenable.

We are next led to consider the nature of the agencies which have pro-
duced this plastic condition in various crystalline rocks. Certain facts, such
as the presence of graphite in contact with carbonate of lime, and oxide of
iron, not less than the presence of alkaliferous silicates, like the feldspars in
crystalline limestones, forbid us to admit, the ordinary notion of the inter-
vention of an intense heat, such as would produce an igneous fusion, and
lead us to consider the view first put forward by Poulett Scrope, and since
ably advocated by Scheerer and by Elie de Beaumont, of the intervention of
water aided by fire, which they suppose may communicate a plasticity to
rocks, at a temperature far below that required for their igneous fusion.
The presence of water in the lavas of modern volcanoes led Mr. Scrope to
speculate upon the effect which a small portion of this element might exert,
at an elevated temperature and under pressure, in giving liquidity to masses
of rock, and he extended this idea from proper volcanic rocks to granites. °

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302 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC. DISCOVERY.

Scheerer, in his inquiry into the origin of granite, has appealed to the evi-
dence afforded us by the structure of this rock, that the more fusible feld-
spars and mica crystallized before the almost infusible quartz. He also
points to the existence in granite of what he has called pyrognomic miner-
als, such as allanite and gadolinite, which, when heated to low redness, un-
dergo a peculiar and permanent molecular change, accompanied by an
augmentation in density, and a change in chemical properties, — a phenom-
enon completely analogous to that offered by titanic acid and chromic oxide
in their change by ignition from a soluble to an insoluble condition. These
facts seem to exclude the idea of an igneous fusion, and point to some other
cause of liquidity. The presence of natrolite, as an integral part of the zir-
con-syenites of Norway, and of tale and chlorite, and other hydrous min-
erals in many granites, shows that water was not excluded from the original
granitic paste.

Scheerer appeals to the influence of small portions of carbon and sulphur
in greatly reducing the fusing-point of iron. He alludes to the experiments
of Schafhautl and Wohler, which show that quartz and apophylite may be
dissolved by heated water under pressure and recrystallized on cooling. He
recalls the aqueous fusion of many hydrated salts, and finally suggests that
the presence of a small amount of water, perhaps five or ten per cent., may
sufiice at a temperature which may approach that of redness, to give to a
granitic mass a liquidity, partaking at once of the characters of an igneous
and an aqueous fusion.

This ingenious hypothesis, sustained by Scheerer in his discussion with
Durocher, is strongly confirmed by the late experiments of Daubrée. He
found that Common glass, a silicate of lime and alkali, when exposed to a
temperature of 400° C., in presence of its own volume of water, swelled up
and was transformed into an aggregate of crystals of wollastonite, the alkali
with the excess of silica separating, anda great part of the latter crystal-
lizing in the form of quartz. When the glass contained oxide of iron, the
wollastonite was replaced by crystals of diopside. Obsidian, in the same
manner, yielded crystals of feldspar, and was converted into a mass like
trachyte. In these experiments upon vitreous alkaliferous matters, the
process of nature in the metamorphosis of sediments is reversed; but Dau-
brée found still further that kaolin, when exposed to a heat of 400° C. in
the presence of a soluble alkaline silicate, is converted into crystalline feld-
spar, while the excess of silica separates in the form of quartz. He found
natural feldspar and diopside to be extremely stable in the presence of al-
kaline solutions. These beautiful results were communicated to the French
Academy of Sciences in November, 1857, and enable us to understand the
part which water may play in giving origin to crystalline minerals in lavas
and intrusive rocks. The swelling up of the glass also shows that water
gives a mobility to the particles ef the glass at a temperature far below that
of its igneous fusion.

I had already shown, in the report of the Geological Survey of Canada for
1856, p. 479, that the refiction between alkaline silicates and the carbonates
of lime, magnesia and iron, at a temperature of 100° C., gives rise to silicates
of these bases, and enables us to explain their production from a mixture of
carbonates and quartz, in the presence of a solution of alkaline carbonate.
I there also suggested that the silicates of alumina in sedimentary rocks
may combine with alkaline silicates to form feldspars and mica, and that it
would be possible to crystallize these minerals from hot alkaline solutions

GEOLOGY. 3803

in sealed tubes. In this way I explained the occurrence of these silicates in
altered fossiliferous strata. My conjectures are now confirmed by the ex-
periments of Daubrée, which serve to complete the demonstration of my
theory of the normal metamorphism of sedimentary rocks by the interposi-
tion of heated alkaline solutions.

But to return to the question of intrusive rocks: Calculations based on
the increasing temperature of the earth’s crust as we descend, lead to the
belief that at a depth of twenty-five miles the heat must be sufficient for
the igneous fusion of basalt. The recent observations of Hopkins, however,
show that the melting-points of various bodies, such as wax, sulphur, and
resin, are greatly and progressively raised by pressure; so that from analogy
we may conclude that the interior portions of the earth are, although ig-
nited, solid from great pressure. This conclusion accords with the math-
ematical deductions of Mr. Hopkins, who, from the precession of the
equinoxes, calculates the solid crust of the earth to have a thickness of 890
or 1000 miles. Similar investigations by Mr. Hennessey, however, assign
600 miles as the maximum thickness of the crust. The region of liquid fire
being thus removed so far from the earth’s surface, Mr. Hopkins suggests
the existence of lakes, or limited basins of molten matter, which serve to
feed the volcanos.

Now the mode of formation of the primitive molten crust of the earth,
would naturally exclude all combined or intermingled water, while all the
sedimentary rocks are necessarily permeated by this liquid, and conse-
quently in a condition to be rendered semi-fluid by the application of heat,
as supposed in the theory of Scrope and Scheerer. If now we admit that
all igneous rocks, ancient plutonic masses, as well as modern lavas, have
their origin in the liquefaction of sedimentary strata, we at once explain
the diversities in their composition. We can also understand why the pro-
ducts of volcanoes in different regions are so unlike, and why the lavas of
the same volcano vary at different periods. We find an explanation of the
water and carbonic acid which are such constant accompaniments of vol-
canic action, as well as the hydrochloric acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and
sulphuric acid, which are so abundantly evolved by certain volcanoes. The
reiiction between silica and carbonates must give rise to carbonic acid, and
the decomposition of sea-salt in saliferous strata by silica in the presence of
water, will generate hydrochloric acid, while gypsum in the same way will
evolve its sulphur in the form of sulphurous acid mixed with oxygen. The
presence of fossil plants in the melting strata would generate carburetted
hydrogen gases, whose reducing action would convert the sulphurous acid
into sulphuretted hydrogen; or the reducing agency of the carbonaceous
matters might give rise to sulphuret of calcium, which would be in its turn
decomposed by carbonic acid or otherwise. The intervention of carbona-
ceous matters in volcanic phenomena is indicated by the recent investi-
gations of Deville, who has found carburetted hydrogen in the gaseous
emanations of the region of Etna and the lagoons of Tuscany. The am-
monia and the nitrogen of volcanoes are also in many cases probably derived
from organic matters in the strata decomposed by subterranean heat. The
carburetted hydrogen and bitumen evolved from mud volcanoes, like those
of the Crimea and of Bakou, and the carbonized remains of plants in the
moya of Quito, and in the volcanic matters of the Island of Ascension, not
less than the infusorial remains found by Ehrenberg in the ejected matters
of most volcanoes, all go to show that fossiliferous sediments are very gen-

304 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

erally implicated in volcanic phenomena. It is to Sir John F. W. Herschel
that we owe, so far as Iam aware, the first suggestions of the theory of
voleanie action which I have here brought forward. In a letter to Sir
Charles Lyell, dated February 20, 1836, he maintains that with the accumu-
lation of sediment the isothermal lines in the earth’s crust must rise, so that
strata buried deep enough will be crystallized and metamorphosed, and
eventually be raised, with their included water, to the melting-point. This
will give rise to evolutions of gases and vapors, earthquakes, volcanic ex-
plosions, ete., all of which results must, according to known laws, follow
from the fact of a high central temperature; while from the mechanical
subversion of the equilibrium of pressure, following upon the transfer of
sediments, while the yielding surface reposes upon a mass of matter, partly
liquid and partly solid, we may explain the phenomena of elevation and
subsidence. Such is a summary of the views put forward more than twenty
years since by this eminent philosopher, which, although they have passed
almost unnoticed by geologists, seem to me to furnish a simple and compre-
hensive explanation of several of the most difficult problems of chemical
and dynamical geology.

To sum up in a few words the views here advanced. We conceive that
the earth’s solid crust of anhydrous and primitive igneous rock is every-
where deeply concealed beneath its own ruins, which form a great mass of
sedimentary strata permeated by water. As heat from beneath invades
these sediments, it produces in them that change which constitutes normal
metamorphism. These rocks at a sufficient depth are necessarily in a state
of igneo-aqueous fusion, and then in the event of fracture of the overlaying
strata, may rise among them, taking the form of eruptive rocks. Where
the nature of the sediments is such as to generate great amounts of elastic
fluids by their fusion, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions may result, and
these, other things being equal, will be most likely to occur under the more
recent formations. — Proc. Canadian Institute.

ON SOME POINTS IN CHEMICAL GEOLOGY.

The following paper “On the Theory of the Transformation of Sedi-
mentary Deposits into Crystalline Rocks,’ has been communicated to the
London Geological Society, by Mr. T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S., of the Canadian
Geological Commission, and is reprinted from the Journal of the Geological
Society, November, 1859, pp. 488—496. As elucidating many obscure points
in chemical geology, it will be read with interest. — Editor.

In considering this process, we must commence by distinguishing be-
tween the local metamorphism which sometimes appears in the vicinity of
traps and granites, and that normal metamorphism which extends over
wide areas, and is apparently unconnected with the presence of intrusive
rocks. in the former case, however, we find. that the metamorphosing
influence of intrusive rocks is by no means constant, showing that their
heat is not the sole agent in alteration, while in the latter case different
strata are often found affected in very different degrees; so that fossiliferous
beds but little altered are sometimes found beneath crystalline schists, or
even intercalated with them.

We cannot admit that the alteration of the sedimentary rocks has been
effected by a great elevation of temperature, approaching, as many have
imagined, to that of igneous fusion; for we find unoxidized carbon, in the

GEOLOGY. 305

form of graphite, both in crystalline limestone and in beds of magnetic iron-
ore; and it is well known that these substances, and even the vapor of
water, oxidize graphite at a red heat, with formation of carbonic acid or
carbonic oxide. I have, however, shown that solutions of alkaline car-
bonates, in presence of silica and earthy carbonates, slowly give rise to
silicates, with disengagement of carbonic acid, even at a temperature of
912 Fahr., — the alkali being converted into a silicate, which is then decom-
posed by the earthy carbonate, regenerating the alkaline salt, which serves
as an intermedium between the silica and the earthy base. I have thus
endeavored to explain the production of the various silicates of lime, mag-
nesia, and oxide of iron, so abundant in crystalline rocks, and with the
intervention of the argillaceous element, the formation of chlorite, garnet,
and epidote.* I called attention to the constant presence of small portions
of alkalies in insoluble combination in these silicates, both natural and
artificial — a fact which had already led Kuhlmann to conclude that alka-
line silicates have played an important part in the formation of many min-
erals; and I suggested t that, by combining with alkalies, clays might
yield feldspars and micas, which are constantly associated in nature with
the silicates above mentioned. This suggestion has since been verified by
Daubrée, who has succeeded in producing feldspar by heating together for
some weeks, to 400° C., mixtures of kaolin and alkaline silicates in the
presence of water.

The problem of the generation from the sands, clays, and earthy car-
bonates of sedimentary deposits, of the various silicious minerals which
make up the crystalline rocks, may now be regarded as solved; and we find
the agent of the process, in waters holding in solution alkaline carbonates
and silicates, acting upon the heated strata. These alkaline salts are con-
stantly produced by the slow decomposition of feldspathic sediments, and
are met with alike in the waters of the unaltered Silurian schists of Canada,
and of the secondary strata of the basins of London and Paris. In the
purer limestones, however, the feldspathic or alkaliferous clements are
wanting; and these strata often contain soluble salts of lime or magnesia.
These would neutralize the alkaline salts, which, infiltrating from adjacent
strata, might otherwise effect the transformation of the foreign matters
present in the limestones into crystalline silicates. By a similar process
these calcareous or magnesian salts, penetrating the adjoining strata, would
retard or prevent the alteration of the latter. These considerations will
serve to explain the anomalies presented by the comparatively unaltered
condition of some portions of the strata in metamorphic regions.

* Proceedings of the Royal Society, May 7, 1857.

+ Report Geol. Sury. Canada, 1856, p. 479.

+ De Senarmont, in his researches on the artificial formation of the minerals of
metalliferous veins by the moist way, has shown that by aid of heated solutions of
alkaline bicarbonates and su]phurets, under pressure at temperatures of 200° or 300°
C., we may obtain in a crystalline form many native metals, sulphurets, and sul-
pharseniates, besides quartz, fluor-spar, and sulphate of barytes.

Daubrée has since shown that a solution of abasic alkaline silicate deposits a
large portion of its silica in the form of crystalline quartz when heated to 400° C.
We have here, beyond a doubt, a key to the true theory of metalliferous veins.
The heated alkaline solutions, which are at the same time the agents of metamor-
phism, dissolve from the sediments the metallic elements which these contain dis-
seminated, and subsequently deposit them, with quartz and the various spars, in the
fissures of the rock.

26*

306 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

II. As the history of the crystalline rocks becomes better known, we find
that many which were formerly regarded as exclusively of plutonic origin
are also represented among altered sedimentary strata. Crystalline aggre-
gates of quartz and feldspar with mica offer transitions from mica-schist,
through gneiss, to stratified granites, while the pyroxenic and hornblendic
rocks of the altered Silurian strata of Canada pass, by admixtures of
anorthic feldspars, into stratified diorites and greenstones. In like manner
the interstratified serpentines of these regions are undoubtedly indigenous
rocks, resulting from the alteration of silico-magnesian sediments, although
the attitude of the serpentines in many countries has caused them to be
ranked, with granites and traps, as intrusive rocks. Even the crystalline
limestones of the Laurentian series, holding graphite and pyroxene, are
occasionally found enveloping broken beds of quartzite, or injected among
the fissures in adjacent silicious strata. From similar facts, observers in
other regions have been led to assign a plutonic origin to certain crystalline
limestones. We are thus brought to the conclusion that metamorphic
rocks, such as granite, diorite, dolerite, serpentine, and limestone, may,
under certain conditions, appear as intrusive rocks. The pasty or semi-
fluid state which these rocks must have assumed at the time of their dis-
placement, is illustrated by the observations of Daubrée upon the swelling
up of glass and obsidian, and the development of crystals in their mass,
under the action of heated water, indicating a considerable degree of mobil-
ity among the particles. The theory of igneo-aqueous fusion applied to
granites by Poulett Scrope, and Scheerer, and supported by Elie de Beau-
mont, and by the late microscopic observations of Sorby, should evidently
be extended to other intrusive rocks; for we regard the latter as being in
all cases altered and displaced sediments.

If. The silico-aluminous rocks of plutonic-and volcanic origin are natu-
rally divided into two great groups. The one is represented by the granites,
trachytes, and obsidians, and is distinguished by containing an excess of
silica, a predominance of potash, and only small portions of soda, lime,
magnesia, and oxide of iron. In the other group silica is less abundant,
and silicates of lime, magnesia, and iron predominate, together with
anorthic feldspars, containing soda, and but little potash. To account for
the existence of these two types of plutonic rocks, Prof. J. Phillips supposes
the fluid mass beneath the earth’s crust to have spontaneously separated
into a lighter, silicious, and less fusible layer, overlying a stratum of denser
basic silicates. In this way he explains the origin of the supposed granitic
substratum, of the existence of which, however, the study of the oldest
rocks affords no evidence. From these two layers, occasionally modified
by admixtures, and by partial separation by crystallization and eliquation,
Prof. Phillips suggests that we may derive the different igneous rocks.
Bunsen and Durocher have adopted, with some modifications, this view;
and the former has even endeavored to calculate the composition of the
normal trachytic and pyroxenic magmas (as he designates the two sup-
posed zones of fluid matter underlying the earth’s crust), and then seeks,
from the proportion of silica in any intermediate species of rock, to deduce
the quantities of alkalies, lime, magnesia, and iron, which this should
contain.

So long as the trachytic rocks are composed essentially of orthoclase and
quartz, and the pyroxenic rocks of pyroxene and labradorite, or a feldspar
approaching it in composition, it is evident that the calculations of Bunsen

GEOLOGY. 307

will to a certain extent hold good; but in the analyses, by Dr. Streng, of
the volcanic rocks of Hungary and Armenia, we often find that the actual
proportions of alkalies, lime, and magnesia vary considerably from those
deduced from calculation. This will necessarily follow when feldspars, like
albite or anorthite, replace the labradorite in pyroxenic rocks. The phono-
lites are moreover highly basic rocks, which contain but very small amounts
of lime, magnesia, or iron, being essentially mixtures of orthoclase with
hydrous silicates of alumina and alkalies.

IV. In a recent inquiry into the chemical conditions of a cooling globe
like our earth, I have endeavored to show that in the primitive crust all the
alkalies, lime, and magnesia, must have existed in combination with silica
and alumina, forming a mixture which perhaps resembled dolerite, while
the very dense atmosphere would contain, in the form of acid gases, all the
carbon, chlorine, and sulphur, with an excess of oxygen, nitrogen, and wa-
tery vapor. The first action of a hot acid rain, falling upon the yet uncooled
crust, would give rise to chlorides and sulphates with separation of silica;
and the accumulation of the atmospheric waters would form a sea charged
with salts of soda, lime, and magnesia. The subsequent decomposition of
the exposed portions of the crust, under the influence of water and carbonic
acid, would transform the feldspathic portions into a silicate of alumina
(clay) on the one hand, and alkaline bicarbonates on the other; these, de-
composing the lime-salts of the sea, would give rise to alkaline chlorides and
bicarbonate of lime — the latter to be separated by precipitation, or by
organic agency, as limestone. In this way we may form an idea of the
generation from a primitive homogeneous mass, of the siliceous, calcareous,
and argillaceous elements which make up the earth’s crust, while the source
of the vast amount of carbonate of lime in nature is also explained.*

When we examine the waters, charged with saline matters, which impreg-
nate the great mass of calcareous strata constituting, in Canada, the base of
the Silurian system, we find that only about one-half of the chlorine is com-
bined with sodium; the remainder exists as chlorides of calcium and mag-
nesium, the former predominating, while sulphates are present only in small
amount. If now we compare this composition, which may be regarded as
representing that of the paleozoic sea, with that of the modern ocean, we
find that the chloride of calcium has been in great part replaced by common
salt, —a process involving the intervention of carbonate of soda, and the
formation of carbonate of lime. The amount of magnesia in the sea, al-
though diminished by the formation of dolomites and magnesite, is now
many times greater than that of the lime; for so long as chloride of calcium
remains in the water, the magnesian salts are not precipitated by bicarbon-
ate of soda.t

When we consider that the vast amount of argillaceous sediment-matter
in the earth’s strata has doubtlessly been formed by the same process which
is now going on, namely, the decomposition of feldspathic minerals, it is evi-
dent that we can scarcely exaggerate the importance of the part which the
alkaline carbonates, formed in this process, must have played in the chem-
istry of the seas. We have only to recall waters like Lake Van, the natron
lakes of Egypt, Hungary, and many other regions, the great amounts cf

* Am. Jour. Sci. (2) xxv. 102, and Canadian Journal for May 1858.
+ See Am. Jour. Science (2) xxviii. pp. 170 and 805; Annual of Scientific Discov-
ery, 1859.

3808 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

carbonate of soda, furnished by springs like those of Carlsbad and Vichy,
or contained in the waters of the Loire, the Ottawa, and probably many
other rivers that flow from regions of crystalline rocks, to be reminded that
the same process of decomposition of alkaliferous silicates is still going on.

V. A striking and important fact in the history of the sea, and of all
alkaline and saline waters, is the small proportion of potash-salts, which
they contain. Soda is preéminently the soluble alkali; while the potash in
the earth’s crust is locked up in the form of insoluble orthoclase, the soda
feldspars readily undergo decomposition. Hence we find in the analyses of
clays and argillites, that of the alkalies which these rocks still retain, the
potash almost always predominates greatly over the soda. At the same
time these sediments contain silica in excess, and but small portions of lime
and magnesia. These conditions are readily explained when we consider
the nature of the soluble matters found in the mineral waters which issue
from these argillaceous rocks. I have elsewhere shown that, setting aside
the waters charged with soluble lime and magnesia salts, issuing from lime-
stones, and from gypsiferous and saliferous formations, the springs from
argillaceous strata are marked by the predominance of bicarbonate of soda,
often with portions of silicate and borate, besides bicarbonates of lime and
magnesia, and occasionally of iron. The atmospheric waters, filtering
through such strata, remove soda, lime, and magnesia, leaving behind the
silica, alumina, and potash —the elements of granitic and trachytic rocks.
The more sandy clays and argillites being most permeable, the action of the
infiltrating waters will be more or less complete; while finer and more com-
pact clays and marls, resisting the penetration of this liquid, will retain their
soda, lime, and magnesia, and, by subsequent alteration, will give rise to
basic feldspars, containing lime and soda, and, if lime and magnesia pre-
dominate, to hornblende or pyroxene.

The presence or absence of iron in sediments demands especial considera-
tion, since its elimination requires the interposition of organic matters,
which, by reducing the peroxide to the condition of protoxide, render it sol-
uble in water, either as a bicarbonate or combined with some organic acid.
This action of waters, holding organic matter upon sediments containing
iron oxide, has been described by Bischof and many other writers, particu-
larly by Dr. J. W. Dawson, in a paper on the coloring matters of some sedi-
mentary rocks, and is applicable to all cases where iron has been removed
from certain strata and accumulated in others. This is seen in the fire-clays
and iron-stones of the coal-measures, and in the white clays associated with
great beds of greensand (essentially a silicate of iron), in the cretaceous
series of New Jersey. Similar alternations of white feldspathic beds, with
others of iron ore, occur in the altered Silurian rocks of Canada, and on a
still more remarkable scale in those of the Laurentian series. We may
probably look upon the formation of beds of iron ore as in all cases due to
the intervention of organic matters, so that its presence, not less than that
of graphite, affords evidence of the existence of organic life at the time of
the deposition of these old crystalline rocks.

The agency of sulphuric and muriatic acids, from volcanic and other
sources, is not, however, to be excluded in the solution of oxide of iron and
other metallic oxides. The oxidation of pyrites, moreover, gives rise to
solutions of iron and alumina salts, the subsequent decomposition of which,
by alkaline or earthy carbonates, will yield oxide of iron and alumina; the
absence of the latter element serves to characterize the iron ores of organic

GEOLOGY. . 3809

origin.* In this way the deposits of emery, which is a mixture of crystal-
lized alumina with oxide of iron, have doubtless been formed.

Waters deficient in organic matters may remove soda, lime, and magnesia,
from sediments, and leave the granitic elements mingled with oxide of iron;
while, on the other hand,.by the admixture of organic materials, the whole
of the iron may be removed from strata which will retain the lime and soda
necessary for the formation of basic feldspars. The fact that bicarbonate of
magnesia is much more soluble than bicarbonate of lime, is also to be taken
into account in considering these reactions.

The study of the chemistry of mineral waters, in connection with that of
sedimentary rocks, shows us that the result of processes continually going
on in nature is to divide the silico-argillaceous rocks into two great classes,
-— the one characterized by an excess of silica, by the predominance of pot-
ash, and by the small amounts of lime, magnesia, and soda, and represented
by the granites and trachytes, while in the other class silica and potash are
less abundant, and soda, lime, and magnesia, prevail, giving rise-to pyrox-
enes and triclinic feldspars. The metamorphism and displacement of sedi-
ments may thus enable us to explain the origin of the different varieties of
plutonic rocks without calling to our aid the ejections of the central fire.

VI. The most ancient sediments, like those of modern times, were doubt-
lessly composed of sands, clays, and limestones, although from the prin-
ciples already defined in IV. and V., it is evident that the chemical com-
position of these sediments in different geologic periods must have been
gradually changing. It is froma too hasty generalization that an eminent ge-
ologist has concluded that limestones were rare in earlier times, for in Canada
the Laurentian system— an immense series of stratified crystalline rocks,
which underlie unconformably both the Silurian and the old Cambrian or
Huronian systems — contains a limestone formation (interstratified with dol-
omites), the thickness of which Sir W. E. Logan has estimated at not less
than 1000 feet. Associated with this, besides great volumes of quartzite
and gneiss, there is a formation of vast but unknown thickness, the predom-
inant element of which isa triclinic feldspar, varying in composition between
anorthite and andesine, and containing lime and much soda, with but a
small proportion of potash. These feldspars are often mixed with hypers-
thene, or proxene; but great masses of the rock are sometimes nearly pure
feldspar. These feldspathic rocks, as well as the limestones, are associated
with beds of hematitic and magnetic iron-ores, the latter often mixed with
graphite. Ancient as are these Laurentian rocks, we have no reason to sup-
pose that they mark the commencement of sedimentary deposits; they were
doubtlessly derived from the ruins of other rocks, in which the proportion of
soda was still greater; and the detritus of these Laurentian feldspars, mak-
ing up our paleozoic strata, is now the source of alkaline waters, by which
the soda of the silicates, rendered soluble, is carried down to the’sea in the
form of carbonate, to be transformed into chloride of sodium. The lime of
the feldspars being at the same time removed as carbonate, these sediment-
ary strata, in the course of ages, become less basic, poorer in soda and lime,
and comparatively richer in alumina, silica, and potash. Hence, in more

* Hydrated alumina, in the form of gibbsite, is however met with in incrusting
limonite, and the existence of compounds like pigotite, in which alumina is united
with an organic substance allied to crenic acid, seems to show that this base may,
under certain conditions, be taken into solution by organic acids.

310 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

recent crystalline rocks, we find a less extensive development of soda-feld-
spars; while orthoclase, and mica, chlorite, and epidote, and silicates of
alumina, like chiastolite, kyanite, and staurotide, which contain but little or
no alkali, and are rare in the older rocks, become abundant.

The decomposition of the rocks is more slow now than formerly, because
soda-silicates are less abundant, and because the proportion of carbonic acid
in the air (an efficient agent in these changes) has been diminished by the
formation of limestones and coal. It will be evident that the principles
above laid down are only applicable to the study of rocks in great masses,
and refer to the predominance of certain mineral species at certain geologic
epochs, since local and exceptional causes may reproduce, in different
epochs, the conditions which belong to other periods.

VIL. Mr. Babbage* has shown that the horizons, or surfaces, of equal
temperature in the earth’s crust, must rise and fall, as a consequence of the
accumulation of sediment in some parts, and its removal from others, pro-
ducing, thereby, expansion and contraction in the materials of the crust,
and thus giving rise to gradual and wide-spread vertical movements. Sir
John Herschel? subsequently showed that, as a result of the internal heat
thus retained by accumulated strata, sediments deeply enough buried will
become crystallized, and ultimately raised,with their included water, to the
melting-point. From the chemical reactions at this elevated temperature,
gases and vapors will be evolved, and earthquakes and’ volcanic eruptions
will result. At the same time, the disturbance of the equilibrium of pres-
sure, consequent upon the transfer-of sediments, while the yielding surface
reposes upon a mass of matter partly liquid and partly solid, will enable us
to explain the phenomena of elevation and subsidence.

According then to Sir J. Herschel’s view, all voleanic phenomena have their
source in sedimentary deposits; and this ingenious hypothesis, which is a
necessary consequence of high central temperature, explains, in a most sat-
isfactory manner, the dynamical phenomena of volcanoes, and many other
obscure points in their history — as, for instance, the independent action of
adjacent volcanic vents, and the varying nature of their ejected products.
Not only are the lavas of different volcanoes very unlike, but those of the
same crater vary at different times; the same is true of the gaseous matters,
hydrochloric, hydrosulphuric, and carbonic acids. As the ascending heat
penetrates saliferous strata, we shall have hydrochloric acid, from the decom-
positon of sea-salt by silica, in the presence of water; while gypsum, and
other sulphates, by a similar reaction, would lose their sulphur in the form
of sulphurous acid and oxygen. The intervention of organic matters, either
by direct contact, or by giving rise to reducing gases, would convert the sul-
phates into sulphurets, which would yield su!phuretted hydrogen when de-
composed by water and silica, or carbonic acid — the latter being the result of
the action of silica upon earthy carbonates. We conceive the ammonia so
often found among the products of volcanoes, to be evolved from the heated
strata, where it exists in part as ready-formed ammonia (which is absorbed
from air and water, and pertinaciously retained by argillaceous sediments),
and is in part formed by the action of heat upon azotized organic matter
present in these strata, as already maintained by Bischof. Nor can we hesi-
tate to accept this author’s theory of the formation of boracic acid from
the decomposition of borates by heat and aqueous vapor. :

* ** On the Temple of Serapis,” Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. ii. p. 73.
t+ Ibid. vol. ii., pp. 548, 593.

GEOLOGY. - St

The almost constant presence of remains of infusorial animals in volcanic
products, as observed by Ehrenberg, is evidence of the interposition of fos-
siliferous rocks in volcanic phenomena.

The metamorphism of sediments in situ, their displacement in a pasty
condition from igneo-aqueous fusion as plutonic rocks, and their ejection as
lavas with attendant gases and vapors, are, then, all results of the same
cause, and depend upon the differences in the chemical composition of the
sediments, the temperature, and the depth to which they are buried: while
the unstratified nucleus of the earth, which is doubtless anhydrous, and, ac-
cording to the calculations of Messrs. Hopkins and Hennesey, probably solid
to a great depth, intervenes, in the phenomena under consideration, only as
a source of heat.*

VIII. The volcanic phenomena of the present day appear, so far as Iam
aware, to be confined to regions covered by the more recent secondary and
tertiary deposits, which we may suppose the central heat to be still penetrat-
ing- (as shown by Mr. Babbage), a process which has long since ceased in
the palxozoic regions. Both normal metamorphism and volcanic action are
generally connected with elevations and foldings of the earth’s crust, all of
which phenomena we conceive to have a common cause, and to depend upon
the accumulation of sediments, and the subsidence consequent thereon, as
maintained by Mr. James Hall in his theory of mountains. The mechani-
cal deposits of great thickness are made up of coarse and heavy.sediments,
and by their alteration yield hard and resisting rocks; so that subsequent
elevation and denudation will expose these contorted and altered strata in
the form of mountain-chains. Thus the Appalachians of North America
mark the direction and extent of the great accumulation of sediments, by
the oceanic currents during the whole palexozoic period; and the upper por-
tions of these having been removed by subsequent denudation, we find the
inferior members of the series transformed into crystalline stratified rocks.T

* The notion that volcanic phenomena have their seat in the sedimentary for-
mations of the earth’s crust, and are dependent upon the combustion of organic
matters, is, as Humboldt remarks, one which belongs to the infancy of geognosy
(Cosmos, vol. v, p. 443, Otte’s translation). In 1834, Christian Keferstein published
his Naturgeschichte des Erdkérpers, in which he maintains that all crystalline non-strat-
ified rock, from granite to lava, are products of the transformation of sedimentary
strata in part very recent, and that there is no well-defined line to be drawn be-
tween neptunian and volcanic rocks, since they pass into each other. Volcanic
phenomena, according to him, have their origin, not in an igneous fluid centre, nor
an oxidizing metallic nucleus, but in known sedimentary formations, where they
are the result of a peculiar process of fermentation, which crystallizes and arranges
in new forms the elements of the sedimentary strata, with evolution of heat as an
accompaniment of the chemical process. — Naturgeschichte, vol. i. p. 109; also Bull.
Soc. Géol. de France (1) vol. vii. p. 197.

These remarkable conclusions were unknown to me at the time of writing this
paper, and seem indeed to have been entirely overlooked by geological writers.
They are, as will be seen, in many respects, an anticipation of the views of Herschel,
and my own; although in rejecting the influence of an incandescent nucleus as a
source of heat, he has, as I conceive, excluded the exciting cause of that chemical
change, which he has not inaptly described as a process of fermentation, and which
is the source of all yoleanic and plutonic phenomena. See in this connection my
paper on the Theory of Igneous Rocks and Volcanoes, in the Canadian Journal for
May, 1858; see also Annual Sci. Dis., 1860.

+ The theory that voleanic mountains have been formed by a sudden local ele-
vation or tumefaction of previously horizontal deposits of lava and other volcanic

$8 4 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL PALAZOZOIC BASIN, OR AREA
OF MIDDLE NORTH AMERICA.

In a paper communicated by Dr. I. J. Bigsby to the Quarterly Journal of
the Geological Society of London, Vol. xiv. Part 4. No. 56, the author deduces
the following conclusions respecting the geology of the central palzozoic
basin or area of middle North America:

1. That, whatever may be the case elsewhere, the Silurian and Devonian
systems of New York are parts of one connected and harmonious period, —
the product of successive and varying Neptunian agencies, operating in
waters which deepened westward from the Atlantic, and southwards from
the Laurentine chain on the north.

2. That from the Catskill group (Old Red Sandstone) downwards through
the whole series, to the Potsdam Sandstone, there is perfect and close coin-
formability, and no such unw onted change in fossil life as to constitute a
systematic break, except at one place—the Oriskany Sandstone, the base of
the Devonian in New York,—there being no break of like importance at
the Oneida conglomerate period, contrary to an opinion towards which able
geologists are now inclining, — an opinion which leads them to consider the
break at the Oneida conglomerate as systematic.

3. All the palzeozoic groups of New York slowly pass one into the other
by gradation of mineral and organic characters, with easily explained
exceptions.

4. The palxozoic strata of New York are comparatively thin. They seem
to have lost in thickness what they, have gained in extension.

rocks, in opposition to the view of the older geologists, who supposed them to have
been built up by the accumulation of successive eruptions, although supported by
Humboldt, Von Buch, and Elie de Beaumont, has been from the first opposed by
Cordier, Constant Prevost, Scrope, and Lyell. (See Scrope, Geol. Journal, vol. xii. p.
826, and vol. xy. p. 500; also Lyell, Philos. Trans. part 2, vol. exlviii. p. 708, for 1858.)
In these will, we think, be found a thorough refutation of the elevation hypothesis,
and a vindication of the ancient theory.

This notion of paroxysmal upheaval once admitted for volcanoes, was next ap-
plied to mountains, which, like the Alps and Pyrenees, are composed of neptunian
strata. Against this view, however, we find De Montlosier, in 1832, maintaining
that such mountains are to be regarded only as the remnants of former continents,
which have been cut away by denudation; and that the inversions and disturbances
often met with in the structure of mountains are to be regarded only as local acci-
dents. — Bul. Soc. Geol., (1) vol. ii. p. 488, vol. iii. p. 215.

Similar views were developed by Prof. Hall, in his address before the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, at Montreal, in August 1857. This
address has not been published, but they are reproduced in the first volume of his
Report on the Geology of Iowa, p. 41. He there insists upon the conditions which, in
the ancient seas, gave rise to great accumulations of sediment along certain lines,
and asserts that to this great thickness of strata, whether horizontal or inclined, we
are to ascribe the mountainous features of North Eastern America as compared
with the Mississippi valley. Mountain heights are due to original depcsitions and
subsequent continental elevation, and not to local upheaval or foldings, which, on
the contrary, give rise to lines of weakness, and favor erosion, so that the lower
rocks become exposed in anticlinal valleys, while the intermediate mountains are
found to be capped with newer strata.

In like manner, J. P. Lesley asserts that ‘mountains are but fragments of the up-
per layers of the earth’s crust,” lying in synclinals, and preserved from the general
denudation and translation. — Iron Manufacturer’s Guide, 1859, p. 58.

GEOLOGY. ola

5. De Verneuil rightly divides the New York groups into two great
classes, -— the ‘‘ constant ’’ and the “local.””. Among the former are Potsdam
Sandstone, Trenton Limestone, and Niagara. Among the latter are the
four lower Helderbergs, and perhaps Oneida conglomerate, etc. This is a
useful division.

6. That it is both convenient and natural to divide the Silurian and Devo-
nian systems of this state each into three stages, — the division being based
on change of sediment and their fossil contents.

7. The Middle Silurian stage is a period of especial transition —from the
coarseness of some of its sediments, from their innumerable and minute
alterations, and from the organic poverty prevailing.

8. That the presence of Oneida conglomerate in New York does not
necessitate a change of name for all the strata below it (of “‘ Cambrian”
for instance), because a conglomerate does not always indicate systematic
change, —not even if there be volcanic intercalation, provided there is
conformableness, and some community of fossils.

The Oneida conglomerate seems to be local, is supernumerary, and only
found at present on the east of middle North America.

9. The hardening and crystallizing effect of metamorphism is seen only
in the neighborhood of hypogene rocks.

10. The New York basin exhibits few uplifts, and those of limited magni-
tude; no uplifts dividing it into a series of deep basins contained in hypogene
beds, as in Bohemia, Wales, ete. Neither has it sheets of alternating vol-
canic grit (conformable), save in the Potsdam rock on Lake Superior.

This basin has a “lay,” or position of its own, as a number of undulating
sheets of sediment, dipping slightly to the southwest, here and there pierced
by a peak of crystalline rock, and in certain regions raised into three broad,
low domes, of great length.

11. The sedimentary rocks of this basin have submitted to two kinds of
plutonic disturbance, independent of each other, and acting at distant inter-
vals: Ist, that of secular or slow oscillation during deposition; 2nd, that of
disturbance arising from paroxysmal uplifts long after their completion.

12. The whole Silurian and Devonian series of strata having, during
deposition, sunk to the depth of 13,300 feet, it is submitted as a query
whether it does not seem necessary to suppose that they were elevated into
their present position by the post-carboniferous uplift, — such agency being
sufficient to produce all the observed phenomena, and the effects diminishing
westwards from the central line of disturbance. No other agency is known
to me, althouzh hinted at by [some] American geolovwists.

15. It is a remarkable fact that brine-springs exist in considerable quantity
in the middle stage of the Silurian system, a group or two below the Onon-
daza salt-springs of the upper stage, and three palzozoic systems below any
salt deposits in Europe.

14. That the form and direction of the five great Canadian lakes are not
due originally and mainly to the passage of loaded waters over their site,
but that they follow the outcrops of their containing sedimentary rocks;
changes in shape and size having, nevertheless, occurred since.

15. The contours of the valley of the St. Lawrence generally (to which
much of New York belongs), and its increasing elevation south-westwards,
inland from Montreal, are due to the successive altitudes assumed west-
ward, in slopes and plateux, by the Silurian and Devonian strata — the lowest

24

$14 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

or most ancient being on the east. This is beautifully evidenced in the rocks
forming the basins of the great Canadian lakes.

16. That some of the groups, during and after deposition, were sub-atmos-
pheric, presenting the conditions of dry land and shallow waters for long
and varying periods: and that, together with the marine life they sup-
ported, they enjoyed the influences of the sun, and other meteorological
agencies. This is indicated by animal tracks, sun-cracks on ancient shores,
the short ripple-marks of a chopped sea, impressions of reeds waving in
running water, and in presence of bog-iron ore. This is conformable with
what took place in the carboniferous, permian, triassic, liassic, oolite, wealden,
and later periods. Denudations also occurred to most of the groups to a
large extent.

17. That in New York, as elsewhere, there is an intimate connection
between fossils and their sediment or habitat. The calcareocolous animals
are always found in limestone more or less pure, and the arenicolous in sand-
stone more or less pure, — with exceptions, such as usually happen with lo-
comotive animals. The calcareocolous are everywhere the most numerous.
It is true that molluscs are the principal agents in the deposition of calcare-
ous sea bottoms; but these latter greatly favor afterwards the multiplication
of individuals.

18. That the iron ore which we so frequently see investing invertebrate
remains, had access to them after their death and sepulture.

19. Every group, as established by the State Geologists of New York, is a
distinct centre of life —a separate realm or community of animated beings,
which may be called epochal, so marked are the differences.

The majority of these existences always perished at the end of the group
when certain deposits ceased, because the new sediment, with its new and
peculiar flora (and for other reasons), was only able to nourish a few, if any,
of the old molluscs.

20. In New York the species of fucoids occupy and are typical of only one
group.

21. All the individual existences are perfect at once, from the earliest
dawn of life, in their organization and social relations.

22. It is a great thought, that throughout the incalculably long succession
of fossiliferous deposits, paleozoic or more modern, all animal and vege-
table life was constructed upon the same idea of innervation, organs of
sense, supply and waste, fecundation, etc.

23. There is another kind of life-centre—the geographic, belonging to
one and the same group. This forms numerous separate provinces, linked
together by a few common fossils, and displaying extraordinary variety.
This principle or regulation is carried out abundantly everywhere. Bohe-
mia and Scandinavia have scarcely a Silurian fossil in common. One-half
of the Russian and Irish fossils, and two-thirds of those of New York, are
new and peculiar. Even the @ast and west sides of the small districts in
Wales and England, investigated by Prof. Philips, differ remarkably in
their population. We see this in the American Tertiaries, and in the recent
seas.

24. Contrary to the opinion of Mr. D. Sharpe, the molluse having the
greatest vertical range has the greatest horizontal extension, being found in
the most distant regions.

25. There is no evidence of multiplication of species by transmutation.

GEOLOGY. 315

96. Fossils may be contemporaneous in geological age, without being
contemporaneous in time, as commonly understood.

Geological age is partly determined by fossil evidence. Now, the presence
of living beings (subsequently fossil) depends on mineral and other condi-
tions, such as temperature, depth, currents, etc., which were nowhere the
same for large spaces, but were always undergoing changes from plutonic
and other causes — changes always more or less local and limited, the de-
posits being thick or thin in places: so that the universal scheme of palzo-
zoic life was not everywhere worked up to the same point. Here preparations
were making for Lower Silurian deposits; there, for the Upper, or Devo-
nian, andso on. Thus isochronism was perhaps not common.

27. The principles of recurrency, succession, increment, and relative
abundance of fossil species, are the same in New York, Wales, and else-
where, modified by local circumstances.

28. Recurrency, or reiippearance in different strata, is at the same time
the measure of viability in the species, and of connection in the groups of
strata. It is a kind of living nexus, pointing out that the groups belong
to one and the same order of things. It may have been partly caused by
migration.

Recurrency is not so common in New York as in Wales; in other words,
vertical range is longer in Wales. Great depth is an obstacle to the existence
or transmission of living creatures.

29. Everywhere, on the eastern as well as on the western continent, the
same fossils, of all orders and kinds, appear in the same succession. A
very few Crustacea and a Lingula or Obolus or two, amid a dense matting _
of fucoids, appear at what now seems to be the dawn of life; then some
Gasteropoda, a few Cephalopoda, and a few Brachiopoda in the third group
from below (Chazy). But in the fifth group from below (Trenton), multi-
tudes of Zoophyta, Bryozoa, Brachiopoda (save Spirifrei), Orthocerata,
and Trilobites spring forth; but not a Lamellibranchiate. As species, they
nearly all perish with the advent of a new deposit; but, as genera, they
appear one after another through the successive epochal centres, becoming
multiplied in numbers and perfect in form. Then they lessen in numbers,
dwindle in size, and finally disappear.

30. There is a close similarity in New York and Wales in the increment
and decrement of ZooOphyta, Bryozoa, Echinodermata, Brachiopoda, etc. ;
that is, these fossils are numerous and few at the same points of the Silurian
scale.

31. The same genera, species, and amount of individuals abound or are
few in the countries just named. Brachiopoda, Crustacea, Orthocerata, are
many; Lamellibranchiates few. The extraordinary opulence in fossils of
the Rhenish Devonian strata does not obtain in New York. In New York,
however, according to our present list, the Lower Silurian stage is the most
fossiliferous; in Wales, it is the Upper. Future discoveries may change
this condition of things.

32. A remarkable feature in the uppermost four groups of New York
Siluria (the Lower Helderberg) is the substitution in them of limestone for
the arenaceous mud of the Welsh Ludlows, their contemporaries. It has
given them a Wenlock character. But it is to be remembered that the Lud-
low and Wenlock groups of Wales are in close fossil connection, — 74 out
of 311 species of organic remains being common to both, or very nearly
one quarter.

516 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

I shall not proceed at present with these inferences into the American
Devonian system, although there is no want of interest. I may just remark
that many Silurian Brachiopoda and some other molluscs work themselves
up into the Devonian as representatives of a common period. They may
even be found in the carboniferous system, as has been proved by D’ Archiac
and De Verneuil, to be not uncommonly the case in Europe.

The great ruling zoological principles of the Silurian system are continued
into the Devonian; but in the latter we have the introduction of Vertebrates
in profuse variety, and of new and complex types of Invertebrates in
unwonted abundance, the old forms dying out. — Silliman’s Journal, March
1859.

BEAUTIFUL APPLICATION OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE TO MINING
ENGINEERING.

One of the most beautiful and successful applications of geological
science to mine engineering has recently been made in England, on the
estate of the Duke of Neweasile, near Nottingham. In 1853, it was con-
sidered desirable to open a particular vein of coal, known as the “ top-
hard,” at a point removed from its outcrop and workings; and, under the
advice of experienced geologists, a location on the new red sandstone
formation, five miles distant, was selected, and the work of sinking a shaft
commenced. The confidence entertained in the geological estimates is well
illustrated by the fact, that nearly five years of uninterrupted labor have
been required to reach the proposed depth, where the vein has been struck
(during the past year), as was predicted. The strata passed through, in
sinking the shaft, were as follows: 54 feet of new red sandstone and marl;
112 feet of Permian limestones, shales, and sandstones; and 1564 of strata .
belonging to the Carboniferous formation: total, 1550 feet. One sandstone
(sixty-six feet thick) in the coal-measures was so full of water, that nearly
twenty months were taken up in working through it,—the water being
stopped, step by step, with iron tubing.

THE FROZEN WELL OF BRANDON, VERMONT.

At the meeting of the American Association for the Promotion of Science,
1859, Prof. Hitchcock presented the following paper on the curious frozen
well of Brandon, Vt.: .

This well is situated about one mile southwest of Brandon village, from
an eighth to a quarter of a mile east of the creek. The surface is not raised
very much above the river, and is composed of sand and gravel, with one
of the varieties of the lower Silurian limestone, showing itself occasionally
in bosses and low ridges, breaking through the ground, and doubtless
underlying the whole superficial deposit at no great depth. It is just such
a region of sand and gravel as may be seen in many places along the west-
ern side of the Green Mountains, and indeed all over New England. It is
what is called modified drift, and lies above genuine drift, having been the
result of aqueous agency, subsequent to the drift period. The well was dug
in November 1858. For about ten feet it passed through soil and gravel,
then about four feet of clay. Below this lay a deposit, from twelve to
fifteen feet thick, of frozen gravel, with quite large boulders intermixed.
Continuing the excavation two feet farther in the same material, water was
reached. The frozen part passed through appeared precisely like the same

GEOLOGY. ol?

materials frozen at the surface in winter. The depth of the well is about
thirty-four and a half feet, and it has about two and a half feet of water
in it. Its diameter is about three feet, and it is properly stoned up with
rounded boulders of limestone, and has a curb around the top. A marble
slab, with a circular hole eighteen inches in diameter, covers the well, the
windlass being protected by a roof made of a couple of boards nailed
together.

Immediately west of the well rises a hill of gravel and sand, which may
be thirty feet above the well, and at its south end some fifty to seventy feet
high. This ridge is an eighth of a mile long, and runs northeast and south-
west. Near its northern end it is crossed by a road which has been exca-
vated to a depth of sixty-two feet. At the top of the ridge the bed of clay
and the layers of sand and gravel are nearly horizontal, but lower down
they dip easterly fifteen or twenty degrees. At the foot of the hill they take
a horizontal position. The pebbles in the strata were about three inches in
diameter, and remarkably free from sand and gravel. The dip of those
beds of gravel, sand, and clay, make it almost certain that this ridge of
drift was formed by a current from the northeast.

The well was stoned up late in the autumn, and during the winter ice
formed upon the water, in one night, two inches thick. It continued to
freeze till April, since which time no ice has formed on the surface; but
when visited June 25th, the stones of the well, for some four or five feet
above the water, were mostly loaded with ice, and the temperature of the
water was only one degree above freezing. July 14th, there was ice in the
well. The water at that time was twenty-two inches deep. About one hun-
dred rods distant is another well, the temperature of which, on the 25th of
June, was fifty-one. Another well, twelve feet deep, sixty rods distant, had
a temperature of forty-five.

In this connection, Prof. Hitchcock entered at length upon similar phe-
nomena which had been observed in other places,—of a well in Ware,
Mass., dug through gravel and sand, which froze last year, though not to
the extent of that at Brandon. There were other instances of frozen wells
on record, — one in the thirty-sixth volume, first series, of the American
Journal of Science. This well is in Owego, N. Y. In this, the flame of a
candle was deflected, indicating a current of air passing through the gravel
strata. The well was on the table-land of the Susquehanna, about thirty
feet above the river. There was also an account of an ice-mountain in Vir-
ginia, which was satisfactorily explained as being a natural refrigerator, —
the cold of the winter being retained through summer on account of a
variety of causes. Sir Roderick Murchison has mentioned a similar moun-
tain in Siberia.

Prof. Hitchcock said, that before giving a probable theory of the phenom-
ena at Brandon, he would present a few preliminary propositions.

1. He regarded the cases at Ware and Owego as essentially like that at
Brandon, and to be explained in the same manner.

2. The phenomena most probably have a connection with a gravelly and
sandy soil; hence we should make the character of such soils an element in
our investigations.

3. As the gravelly deposit is in such a soil, the idea is precluded that the
congelation is the result of chemical reagents.

4. The temperature in the wells is strongly affected by the temperature

27%

318 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of the air atthe surface. In winter the cold is much more intense than in
summer.

' The subject presented two leading inquiries. 1st. When, and by what
agency, Was the congelation produced so deep beneath the surface? 2d. By
what means is the frost preserved from external and internal heat? In
reply, there were two suggestions to be made. Ist. These frozen deposits
may have been produced during the glacial period that accompanied the
formation of the drift.

This suggestion was dwelt upon at length, and it was contended that a
frozen deposit of any past period might be indefinitely preserved. Experi-
ments had been made which showed that even a thin layer of clay was a
powerful resistant to heat. The clay on the surface at Brandon would ex-
clude the externai heat, while the gravelly strata, free from sand, would act
as a tunnel to carry the ascending internal heat to the surface, and it would
not, therefore, reach the frozen deposit. The arrangement at Brandon was
in many respects similar to the most approved ice-houses. But, after all,
he was not sure that this was the true theory.

There was another theory. 2d. We maintain that, in porous depositions,
especially when interstratified with those nearly impervious to air, ice may
be formed in large quantities at any depth, and remain unmelted for a great
length of time. This position was elaborated, — showing by diagrams that
when a porous mass was overlaid by clay, the heat of summer could have
but little effect upon it. It had been stated, and it had not been disproved,
that there were subterranean currents of air. At Owego, the candic-flame
was deflected at the depth gf thirty feet.

Upon the whole, though it is possible that the Brandon deposit is a rem-
nant of a glacial period, he looked with more favor upon the supposition
that it was the result of operations now going on, produced by currents of
air through the porous deposit.

In a discussion of these phenomena at a recent meeting of the Boston
Society of Natural History, Prof. W. B. Rogers observed, “ that it was im-
portant to consider the mean temperature of the place, in explaining the
phenomena of frozen wells. The mean annual temperature of Brandon is
only 45° F.; of the winter, 20°; of the spring, 40°; giving for the winter
and spring a temperature of 30°, or two degrees less than the freezing-point
of water. In fact, at about the depth of thirty or forty feet, a reversal of
the seasons takes place, so slow is the progression of temperature down-
ward. The access of external air is also important. The temperature of
the air in winter at the bottom of this well must be very low. The lateral
perforation of this low temperature ought to be traced; the law of progress
of temperature from the surface downward, in this special locality, should
be ascertained. So that the question of explanation becomes very com-
plicated.”

In connection with this subject, some interesting observations have been
made by Mr. J. W. Andrews, of Albany, on the temperature of Lake Dun-
more, a considerable body of water, situated about eight miles in a north-
easterly direction from the well at Brandon. The average depth of water
in this lake, Mr. Andrews found, by frequent soundings, to be between fifty
and sixty feet, and the maximum, accurately found, being seventy-five feet.
At this last point, a maximum and. minimum registering thermometer was
let down, and gave the following curious results:

GEOLOGY. 319

(Bemperatare ef the air, .. 3% [ade ese encase woe aves Vesicle Sobeues oc 13° Me
£) surface) Water yencscis sect aces « KAO BanODe COOGEE 70° F.
ce.) bottom watery ects etelesieis<as- siisicusvarsieisjersiel «1s SAC TIS Oe

or nine degrees above the freezing-point, and within seven degrees of the
water in the ice-well of Brandon. At another sounding in sixty-five feet of
water, the self-registering thermometer recorded 46°, showing an increase
of temperature of five degrees by a diminution of ten feet depth of water.
A repetition of the experiments, on a subsequent day, gave the Same results.
Mr. Andrews, therefore, surmises that there is a stratum of constant under-
ground frost, extending from the Brandon well to localities widely sepa-
rated.

ON THE ARTESIAN WELLS AT LOUISVILLE, KY., AND COLUMBUS,
OHIO.

The following account of a remarkable artesian well, recently bored at
Louisville, Ky., is furnished to Silliman’s Journal, March, 1859, by Prof. J.
Laurence Smith, of the University of Louisville.

This work was commenced in April 1857, from the bottom of a well that
had a depth of 20 feet; the boring tools employed made a hole 5 inches in
diameter to the depth of 76 feet from the surface; the boring was now re-
duced to 3 inches, and thus continued to the bottom of the well. ‘The depth
of the well is 2085 feet; flow of water, 330,000 gallons in twenty-four hours;
rise above the surface, 170 feet. The rock struck, which geologically belongs
to the Devonian scries, is, for 38 feet, shell limestone; then, for 40 feet, coral-
line limestone; at which depth the Upper Silurian is reached. Without
being able to make out, with any degree of certainty, the amount of Upper
Silurian passed through, we suppose it to be over 1200 feet. At the depth of
1600 feet a sandstone was reached, doubtless of the Lowey Silurian, and 97
feet deeper was encountered the first stream of water which reached the sur-
face. This flowed out abundantly, and with much force. The quantity not
being sufficient, the boring was continued. After this, it was unnecessary
to use the bucket to take out the material detached by the borer, the force of
the water bringing up the fragments very readily. The water increased in
quantity in going deeper, the increase being more marked at 1879 feet, and
still more at 1900 feet, where pieces of rock, weighing an ounce or two, came
up with the water. The water increased every 10 or 20 feet to the depth of
2036 feet; here a very hard magnesian limestone was encountered, 6 feet in
thickness; after which the sandstone rea’ppeared, and for the next 50 feet
there was no increase of water. At the urgent request of many of the citi-
zens Of Louisville, the boring was now stopped, to give a fair test of the
medical virtues of the water that was pouring forth at the rate of 230 gal-
lons per minute, or about 330,000 gallons in twenty-four hours. The water,
by its own pressure, rises in pipes 170 feet above the surface.

The boring was accomplished in sixteen months, and the depth reached is
2086 feet. In order to conduct the water to the surface, and prevent its pass-
ing off into the gravel beds below, a tube, 5 inches in diameter, leads from
the surface to the rock, a depth or 76 feet, into which it is driven with a col-
lar of vulcanized gum-elastic around it. No tubing is found necessary for
any other part of the boring.

When the size of the bore (3 inches in diameter) and its depth are consid-
ered, the flow of water from the well is unequalled by any other artesian

320 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

well yet constructed that flows above the surface; for, although the Grenelle
well at Paris delivers 600,000 gallons in twenty-four hours, it has, at the bot-
tom, an area six times as great as the Louisville well, and a few hundred
feet up seven times as great. A corresponding diameter to the Louisville
well would, according to just and reasonable calculations, furnish about
2,000,000 gallons in twenty-four hours; also, the elevation of water above
the surface is greater than that of any other artesian well, and it is only
exceeded in depth by the St. Louis well, and that to an extent of 113 feet.

The water comes out with considerable force from the 5-inch opening,
and a heavy body thrown into the mouth of the well is rejected almost as
readily as a piece of pine wood. By an approximate calculation, its me-
chanical force is equal to that of a steam-engine with cylinder 10 by 18
inches, under 50 lbs. pressure, with a speed of 55 revolutions per minute— a
force rated at about 10-horse power. The top of the well is now closed, and
the water conducted about 30 feet to a basin, with a large jet d’eau on the
centre, from which there is a central jet of water, 40 feet in height, with a
large water-pipe, from which the water passes in the form of a sheaf. When
the whole force of water is allowed to expend itself on the central jet, it is
projected to the height of from 90 to 100 feet, settling down to a steady flow
of a stream 60 feet high.

Temperature of the Water. — The water, as it flows from the top of the
well, has a constant temperature of 763° Fah., and is not affected either by
the heat of summer or the cold of winter. The temperature at the bottom
of the well is several degrees higher than this, as ascertained by sinking a
Walferdin’s registering thermometer to the bottom, which indicated 824°
Fah. Taking as correct data that the point of constant temperature below
the surface of Louisville is the same as at Paris, namely, 53° Fah., at 90 feet
below the surface, we have an increase of 1° for every 67 feet below that
point. The increase in Paris is 1° for every 61°2 feet. The temperature of
the water is sufficient for comfortable bathing during most of the year.

Nature of the Water. — The water is perfectly limpid, with a temperature,
as already stated, of 763°, which is invariable all the year round. Its
specific gravity is 10113. The solid contents left on evaporating one wine
gallon to dryness are 9152 grains, consisting of chloride of sodium, 621°5
grains; sulphate of magnesia, 77.3; sulphate of soda, 72°2; chloride of cal-
cium, 65°7; sulphate of lime, 29°4; bicarbonates of soda, lime, magnesia,
and iron, 11°6; phosphate of soda, 1°5; iodide and bromide of magnesium,
0°9; chloride of lithium, 0°1, etc. etc.

Artesian Well at Columbus Ohio.— The artesian well at the State House in
Columbus, Ohio, according to a report by Prof. Mather, had reached a depth
of 1858 feet in December 1858, and has since, we understand, been excavated
several hundred feet farther, making it the deepest well in existence. For the
first 23 feet, the material passed through was sand, clay and gravel; then
15 of slate, and 14 of Columbus limestone, referred to the Devonian; 1153
feet Columbus limestone, probably Upper Silurian; below this, 277 feet, the
blue limestone of Cincinnati; then, 187 feet (or to a depth of 764), limestone
shales, with salt water, at 675 feet; then 823 feet of greenish marly slate,
probably equivalent to the Utica slates of New York. Prof. Mather observes
that “if the Cincinnati or blue limestone be the equivalent of the Trenton
limestone, Utica slates, and Hudson River group, there must be a great
depth of mud rock in Ohio, of which no traces exist in New York, Penn-
sylvania, or other states,” adjacent.

GEOLOGY. 321

ON THE DE-BITUMENIZATION OF COAL.

At a meeting of the Philadelphia Academy, May 1859, Dr. Emmons re-
marked, that the de-bitumenization of coal was effected through the agency
of heat, but he did not think that the de-bitumenization of anthracite was due
to heat emanating from an incandescent body, whether that body be in-
jected trap or other pyrocrystalline rocks. In his opinion the heat which
de-bitumenized the coal of the anthracite region was disengaged or generated
by the collision of the rocks enclosing it at the time of their upheaval. In
support of this view he referred to the correlation of forces, the equivalent
of heat, etc.; and stated he found by experiment, a year ago, that the vola-
tile matter of the bituminous slates of North Carolina began to come off at
350°, and that it was all driven off as paraphine, and all at about 608°. Hence
he inferred that coals are de-bitumenized at low temperatures, and that in-
tense ignition is not required.

‘ ORIGIN OF BITUMINOUS SCHISTS.

M. Reviere communicated to the French Academy, Oct. 25, 1858, a curious
observation, which had led him to a new theory of the origin of certain
rocks which are found to contain a small quantity of combustible matter.
He was first struck by the resemblance between these rocks and the earth
saturated with ordinary coal-gas by the leakage of the pipes which convey
it. By aserics of experiments he found,

1st. That the soil surrounding the pipe was, in certain circumstances, and
after some time, more or less impregnated with carbon and bitumen, so as
to become sometimes very combustible, and as black as impure coal.

2d. That the nature of the soil had much influence on the absorption;
thus, whilst a clayey, slightly damp soil charged with vegetable or animal
debris favored this absorption, it was, on the contrary, but slight in dry
sand.

3d. That the thickness of the upper strata favored absorption.

4th. That it was greater near the cracks and stratification joints.

oth. That the absorbing materials increase in weight, and sometimes in
bulk. ;

6th. That the vegetable matters were gradually converted into carbon
more or less bituminous according to circumstances.

7th. That the ferruginous materials were altered, more or less converted
into oxides, sulphates, or sulphites; and that they would probably have
been converted into sulphurets and carbonates, had the gas been less puri-
fied, and had the action been sufficiently prolonged and the circumstances
favorable.

ON THE SO-CALLED “TALCOSE SCHISTS” OF VERMONT, ETC.

At the meeting of the American Association for the Promotion of Science,
Mr. C. H. Hitchcock stated that the geological surveys of the various States
have made known the existence of a broad belt of rocks from Canada to
Georgia, consisting of green schists, denominated talcose, associated with
gneiss. This implies the presence of the mineral tale, which contains a large
percentage of magnesia. Recent investigations had, however, rendered it
probable that the character of the whole belt was aluminous rather than
magnesian. Mr. T. 8S. Hunt, of Montreal, had analyzed some of these rocks

$23 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC’ DISCOVERY.

at their northern extent in Canada, and had decided that magnesia was
present in them in inconsiderable quantity only; and he had, therefore, pro-
posed the name of nacrcous schists, instead of talcose.

ON THE STRATIGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE SANDSTONES OF THE
CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY.

In a communication on this subject, made to the American Association
for the Promotion of Science, Springfield, 1859, by Mr. J. D. Whitney, the
author stated, that the peculiarity of this sandstone series of rocks in the
Connecticut River Valley, was its almost uniform easterly dip, in a direction
at right angles to the greatest longitudinal extension of the basin. As re-
gards the origin, or cause, of this dip, extended observations on the forma-
tion had led him to the following conclusions:

1st. That it was a physical impossibility that the sandstone should have
been deposited in a horizontal position, and then elevated, so as to have its
present dip, by the elevation of the metamorphic or so-called “ primary ”
rocks to the west. 2d. That it could not have acquired its present dip from
the intrusion of the trap. 3d. It must therefore have been deposited with its
present dip, and under the influence of some cause acting with considerable
uniformity along the whole extent of the basin. 4th. This agent which pro-
duced the deposition of materials with an inclined dip, must have been a
more or less violent current setting across the basin, or into it from one side,
throughout its whole length. 5th. The cause of this current was to be sought
for in a fault running along one side of the basin, followed by a depression
of its area, which was greatest on its western edge, and which gradually de-
creased in amount towards the east, and which was continued for a consid-
erable time, with greater or less regularity. Mr. W. argued that this cause
was the only one sufficient to account for all the phenomena, especially those
of the dip of the sandstone and the peculiar association of this rock with the
trap which no theory yet proposed seemed satisfactorily to dispose of. Lo-
cal variations of dip in the vicinity of the trap were allowed to be present,
especially in the upper part of the basin; but the general facts seemed to be
better reconciled by the aid of this theory than of any other yet proposed.

In the discussion which followed, Mr. C. H. Hitchcock dissented from the
views of Mr. Whitney, and considered that the delicate footprints existing
in these strata proved that they must have been horizontal when in a plastic
state. If they had been lying at an angle of 452, the appearance of the
tracks would have been different.

Mr. Whitney replied, that his views were applicable to the region taken as
a whole, and the place where the tracks were found might be an exception,
arising from some local cause.

GEOLOGICAL SUMMARY FOR 1859.

On Elongated Pebbles in a Conglomerate, at Newport, R. I. —At the Springfield
meeting of the American Scientific Association, Prof. Hitchcock called at-
tention to the existence of curiously elongated quartzose pebbles and trans-
verse joints in a conglomerate rock, at the well-known locality, “‘ purga-
tory,” at Newport, R.I. The pebbles are sometimes elongated to the extent
of a foot in leneth, while their axes are always in the same direction. Joints,
or breaks, occur at intervals, which divide both the pebbles and the matrix,
as if a clean cut had been made crosswise through the entire mass. Prof. H.

GEOLOGY. 320

advanced the idea that the pebbles, though hard and rounded when the con-
glomeration was effected, had since been softened, and while so, were flat-
tened by lateral pressure.

Prof. Andrews, ef Marietta, Ohio, had visited the spot, and was satisfied
that the pebbles had been fused, and not elongated by lateral pressure.

Prof. Hitchcock said that the view presented by Prof. Andrews was for-
merly his own; but he thought the weight of evidence in favor of his pres-
ent theory.

Wisconsin “Potash Ketiles.’’ — Prof. Charles Whittlesey, in a paper read
before the American Scientific Association, 1859, stated that along the sum-
mit or dividing ridge between the waters of Rock River and those of Lake
Michigan, there are numberless crater-like depressions in the drift materials,
which are called by the people ‘‘ potash kettles.”” They are in the form of
cavities, sunk below the general surface ten, fifteen, and even one hundred
feet, their outline rudely circular, and their sides as steep as the earth will
stand. They have been traced about a hundred miles. The materials in
which they are found are the coarse drift. They seldom contain water;
boulders are found in and around them. In the southern part of the state,
timber grows in them.

While exploring the state, in 1849, it occurred to him that these cavities
cannot be explained by the usual and well-known examples of aqueous
deposits. Terraces and oblong ridges of sand and gravel might be formed
by currents and eddies acting on loose material; but these are depressions
on an even surface. As explanatory of the matter, he would suggest that
the phenomena was understood on the supposition that it was owing to gla-
cial action.

On the Gold Deposits of Australia.— Mr. Selwyn, director of the geological
survey of Victoria, Australia, in a letter recently read before the Royal Geo-
logical Society (London), stated that the auriferous quartz veins of Victoria
appeared to be as rich in gold, at a depth of 200, 230, and 400 feet, as at the
surface; but that certainly the large size of the nuggets found in the gold-
drifts, contrasted with that of the nuggets found in the quartz-veins, seems
to prove that the now worn away upper parts of the veins were probably
richer than the lower and now remaining portions. Mr. Selwyn, according
to his observations, thinks that none of the gold-drifts are older than the
Pliocene age. Miocene and Eocene tertiaries have been recognized in Vic-
toria, and some probably chalk fossils have also been found.

Hydraulic Mining in Georgia. — Within the past year the gold placers in
northern Georgia have attracted considerable attention, and two or more
extensive canals or ditches have been constructed to convey water to them,
at an elevation sufficient to wash out the gold, by the California hydraulic
method. These placers have been examined and reported on by Mr. Wm.
P. Blake and Dr. Charles T. Jackson. The aqueduct from the Yahoola
River is about twelve miles long, and to take the water across a valley near
Dahlinega, a trestle 240 feet high, and about 1500 feet long, is required. A
notice of the placers, and the improved methods of working them, was
presented at the meeting of the American Association, by Mr. Blake.

On the occurrence of Diamonds in Georgia.— Prof. C. U. Shepard, in a
communication to Silliman’s Journal, Jan. 1859, descriptive of a locality of
Lazulite, in Lincoln County, Georgia, calls attention to the resemblance of
the rock at this point (itacolumnite, and a hematitic mixture of cyanite and
quartz) to the diamond gangue of Brazil. Prof.S. also states that he was

324 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

-
informed that at least ten crystals of the diamond had been found in Burke

County, Ga., two in Habersham, two in Hall, and one in Union County.
The largest of these is said to have been sold for $150 in Philadelphia.
The whole number of diamonds thus far found in the United States, cannot
therefore be less than thirty, nearly all of which occarred in itacolumite.

Mineralogy of Greenland. — A Danish company, formed some years since
for the purpose of working the mines of Greenland, have reported, as the
result of their preliminary investigations, the discovery of numerous strata
of coal, some of which contain trunks of trees more than three feet in di-
ameter, —a fact which strikingly indicates the great change of climate in
this country, since the only tree which is now found is the meagre and sorry
salix-arotica. In Frederickshab, yellow copper and tin pyrites have been
discovered.

Tin in California. — At a recent meeting of the Boston Nat. Hist. Soc.,
Dr. C. T. Jackson stated that a locality containing tin ore had been discov-
ered at Los Angelos, California, within the limits of the United States; the
quantity of ore is very large, and it yields 602 per cent. of oxide of tin, with
brown oxide of iron. A company has been formed to work it.

Remarkable Vein of Goldin Georgia. — At the last meeting of the American
Association at Springfield, Mr. Wm. P. Blake described a remarkably rich
gold vein in the bed of the Chestatee River, Georgia. It occurs in very
hard hornblendic gneiss, which requires blasting. The gold is found ina
layer of quartz and carbonate of line about an inch thick, and is associated
with Bornite (a telluret of bismuth), and other minerals. About $3000
worth of gold was thrown out at one blast, and the fragments of rock
could be placed in a bushel basket. The specimens are remarkably beautiful.

Lake and Pond Ramparts in Vernont.— At the meeting of the Am. Associ-
ation for the Promotion of Science, 1859, Mr. C. H. Hitchcock, in a paper on
the above subject, referred in the first instance to the reported walled lake in
Iowa. This is situated in Wright County, in a large plain, covering an area
of 1900 acres; is from two to twenty-five feet deep, with a red, sandy bot-
tom. Around the lake is a wall of heavy stone, in some places ten feet high,
and thirteen feét wide at the base, sloping up both sides to five feet at the
top, composed of boulders from fifty pounds to three tons in weight. The
top of the wall is level, while the land is undulating. This work has been
referred by some to aborigines of the country, but such a supposition is
without foundation. In Vermont, similar walls of an artificial appearance
have been noticed, —one on Willoughby Lake, being from five to six feet
in height. The agency which has produced these embankments, Mr. H.
considered to be ice. which in the winter, by expansion, would force the
fragments of rocks from the central part of the lake to the shore. In one
winter the progress would be small: but in the course of years, or of ages,
the collection might be large, if the materials were abundant. Mr. J. D.
Whitnev said he had conversed with a gentleman who had visited the lake
in Iowa, and he had told him that the statements which had been published
were greatly exaggerated. There was nothing like a regular wall. He con-
sidered it not very different from other phenomena connected with drift
boulders which he had seen.

On the occurrence of Fossiliferous Limestone beneath Granite and Mica Slate
in Vermont. — At the Springfield meeting of the American Association for the
Promotion of Science, Prof. Hitchcock called attention to a deposit of fos-
siliferous limestone, recently discovered by him beneath granite and mica

.

GEOLOGY. 9)

slate, at Derby, Vermont, on the east shore of Lake Memphremagog, on
the Canada line. The granite, which was exceedingly characteristic and
typical, not only overlaid the limestone, but dipped down into it in veins,
which there (in the limestone) terminated. The limestone contains numerous
fossils.

In reference to this communication of Prof. Hitchcock, Sir Wm. Logan
said he thought the granite had cut through the limestone, and it would be
readily inferred that when an intrusive rock cuts through a fossiliferous
rock, it might well overlie it. He conceived this granite to be of the same
age with the general formation of the granite in Maine. It was, in his view,
Devonian granite. He believed the limestone to be the same with the
beautiful Rutland marble, and was of the same age.

Interesting Paleontological Discovery.— During the past year, an exceedingly
perfect specimen of a fossil fish, of the genus Pteraspis, has been discovered
in the Lower Ludlow rocks, England. The position of these rocks is as-
sioned by Mr. Murchison to higher beds of the Upper Silurian. Fish have
hitherto been found in the Upper Ludlow rocks, but none in the Lower
Ludlow, and consequently this discovery carries back the appearance of
fishes in the palzozoic rocks to a period more remoie than has before been
determined. i

At the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association, 1859, Mr. D. Page
stated that explorations made during the past summer, by Mr. Slimon and
Son, in the Upper Silurian formations of Scotland, had afforded ample indi-
cation of a very varied and curious ¢rustacean fauna, altogether new to
Paleontology. Molluscous remains of well-known Upper Silurian genera
had also been obiained in suificient numbers to prove the affinities of the
beds; and indications of both an aquatic and terrestrial flora seemed by no
means rare throughout the strata. The specimens obtained had a threefold
value; first, as proving the true Upper Silurian epoch of the Nilberry strata,
and thus affording a clue to the investigations of other Sub-Devonian tracts
in Scotland, yet but very imperfectly understood; secondly, as adding new
forms to the life of a former epoch, and thus extending the boundaries of
our zoological knowledge; and, thirdly, as enabling the Government pale-
ontologists, who had recently published their first monograph on the Euryp-
teridz, to understand more clearly the nature of this curious family of Crus-
taceans, and to correct what must now evidently appear as misinterpretations
of their structure and affinities. In none of the beds explored had there
ever been detected any trace of fish-life. Sir R. l Murchison remarked that
Janguage could scarcely exaggerate the value of Mr. Slimon’s discoveries to
palxontologists.

Sub-Silurian Fossiis.— At a recent meeting of the Philadelphia Academy,
Dr. Leidy called attention to specimens of Paleotrochus presented this even-
ing by Prof. E. Emmons, from Sub-Silurian strata. He stated that its or-
ganic nature had been denied by able authorities, but considered that its
symmetry and uniformity were in favor of its being a fossil. It had most
strongly the appearance of a coral.

Dr. Le Conte had seen a similar body of larger size from the copper-bearing
rocks of Point Keewenaw, Lake Superior. He could not conceive that such
numbers of masses of similar form could arise from molecular action
forming concretions.

Fossils from the Laurentian Limestones. — At the mecting of the Amcrican
Association, Springfield, 1859, Sir William Logan, of the Canada Survey,

28

326 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

gave an account of some impressions recently found in the Laurentian lime-
stones. He said these were the lowest rocks in Canada, are from 10,000 to
15,000 feet thick, and have always been considered azoic, or devoid of ani-
mal life; but, from some specimens shown by the speaker to the audience, he
was led to think they did show impressions of coral. If these impressions
had been found in Silurian, or Metamorphic rocks, they would at once have
been referred to the corals.

Fossil Reindeer fron New York.— At a meeting of the Philadelphia Ac-
ademy, August 23d, 1859, Dr. Leidy read a letter from Dr. G. J. Fisher, dated
at Sing Sing, New York, giving an account of an antler of the Reindeer,
which had been found in the vicinity of the place mentioned. The specimen
was discovered, in excavating a peat-bed, at the depth of six feet from the
surface. The peat-bed is almost an acre in extent, surrounded by high
ground, and looks as if it had been the site of an ancient lake. Dr. L. ob-
served that there is a similar specimen of an antler of the Reindeer in the
museum of the Academy, which had been found near Vincentown, New
Jersey, at the depth of four feet. (See Proc. 1858, 179.) The discovery of
these remains of the Reindeer, and likewise of the remains of the Walrus,
in similar positions in New Jersey (See Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., xi. 85), favor
the view that the Arctic fauna, at one period, extended its boundary much
more southerly than at present.

On the occurrence of Bones and Teeth in the Lead-bearing Crevices of the

North- West. — At the meeting of the American Association, 1859, Mr. J. D.
Whitney exhibited fossil bones and teeth, found in the lead-bearing crevices
of the North-West. In the cap-rock, as it is called by the miners, there are
fissures and cavities, from fifty to one hundred feet beneath the surface.
These cavities are usually lined with lead-ore; in them are found the teeth
of the mastodon, — usually the milk-teeth of the young,— also of the peccary,
also of the buffalo. The teeth were in a good state of preservation. They
are found in many localities —the tecth of the mastodon predominating.
He believed that this part of the country never was subject to the drift, as
_ no boulders were to be found —no striae marks. Mr. J. W. Foster also de-
scribed the geological position of the bones of the extinct peccary of the
West. They exist on the line of the Burlington and Mississippi Railroad.
In a cut on that road he found one skeleton at the depth of eight feet, a sec-
ond at the depth of twenty-five feet, and a third at the depth of twenty-eight
feet.
_ Eruptions of Mount Vesuvius. — During the past year Vesuvius has been in
a state of nearly constant activity, without any very great or striking erup-
tions. M. Palmieri, who has been engaged in observations on its action,
states, among other interesting memoranda, that a great abundance of lead
has been sublimed from the crater and the lava, mainly in the state of
chloride. The chloride and sulphate are also found mixed. Much of the
voleanic smoke has been found, by M. Palmieri, to be chloriodic acid.

Sub-Marine Eruption. —The barque Rolla, of New York, reports, on the
4th of January, in the Gulf of Mexico, passing through a scum of smoking
pitch which extended for several miles, and emitted a most nauseating odor.

ON THE EROSION OF ROCKS IN VERMONT.

At the Springfield meeting of the American Association for the Promotion
of Science, Prof. Hitchcock presented a paper on the evidences of erosion,

GEOLOGY. oat

exhibited by the rocks of Vermont. A satisfactory proof of the existence of
currents of water in particular localities in former times, was to be found in the
“‘pot-holes ”’ in solid rock ; and numerous examples of these in Vermont,
at various elevations above existing streams, showed that the whole valley
had been worn out beneath the pot-holes. In New-Fane, they were found
300 feet above the valley. In North Wardsboro’, 600 feet; and in West
Wardsboro’, upon the dividing ridge between two valleys, 1200 feet above
the valley, and nearly 2000 feet above the ocean. In fact, these pot-holes
may indicate the courses of large rivers upon this continent in former pcri-
ods, when the configuration of the continent was much different from what
it is at present.

Another proof of erosion was to be found in the varied inclinations of
strata. If the same kind of rock was found in the places dipping in oppo-
site directions, like the roof of a house, it was reasonable to infer that they
were formerly connected together, and by prolonging upon the paper the
inclinations and distances of these strata, the amount of rock that had been
worn away could be measured exactly. Sections now show where this
measurement might be made, and it was stated that in some cases it might
be clearly seen that at least four miles in thickness of rock had been removed
by erosion.

Another and new proof of the amount of erosion was suggested by the
position of lofty peaks of protrusive granites, etc. Mount Ascutney, in Ver-
mont, was instanced as an example of granite extending more than two
thousand feet above all adjacent rocks. When the granite was melted, it
must have been sustained in its place by other rocks that were sedimentary
and not igneous; otherwise the melted granite would have flowed over the
surrounding rocks. Hence, at this locality, as much as 2000 feet of mate-
rial must have been eroded, leaving the granite mountain now towering far
above the adjacent ledges.

ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES OF THE NORTH-WESTERN UNITED STATES.

In the Geology of Iowa, Vol. 1. by Hall and Whitney, the various theories
which have, at different times, been brought forward to account for the ab-
sence of trees in the prairie region, are discussed and pronounced to be inad-
equate. Itis attempted in the report to show that the extreme fineness of
the particles of which the soil is made up, is the predominating cause of this
peculiar condition of the vegetation, and some facts are stated to confirm
this theory. Reasoning from analogy of the smaller prairies to the thickly-
wooded region of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, it is inferred, “ that the
whole region now occupied by the prairies of the North-west was once an
immense lake, in whose basin sediment of an almost impalpable fineness
gradually accumulated, under conditions, the discussion of which is post-
poned to another volume, in which the drift phenomena of the North-west
will be taken up; that this basin was drained by the elevation of the whole
region, but, at first, so slowly, that the finer particles of the superficial de-
posits were not washed away, but allowed to remain where they were origi-
nally deposited. After the more elevated portion of the former prairies had
been laid bare, the drainage becoming concentrated in narrower channels,
the current thus produced, aided perhaps by a more rapid rise of the region,
acquired sufficient velocity to wear down through the finer material on the
surface, wash away a portion of it altogether, and mix the rest so effectually

328 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

with the underlying drift materials, or with abraded fragments of the rock
in place, as to give rise to a different character of soil in the valleys from
that ef the elevated land. This valley soil, being much less homogeneous
in its composition, and containing a larger proportion of coarse materials
than that of the uplands, seems to have been adapted to the growth of for-
est vegetation; and in consequence of this, we find such localities covered
with an abundant growth of timber.

“Wherever there has been a variation from the usual conditions of the
soil, on the prairie or in the river bottom, there is a corresponding change in
the character of the vegetation. Thus, on the prairies we sometimes meet
with ridges of coarse material, apparently deposits of drift, on which, from
some local cause, there has never been an accumulation of fine sediment; in
such localities we invariably find a growth of timber. This is the origin of
the groves scattered over the prairies, for whose isolated position and pecu-
liar circumstances of growth we are unable to account in any other way.”

ICEBERGS IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN.

Capt. Kirby, of the ship Uncowah, from New York to San Francisco, re-
ports an encounter with a mass of ice off Cape Horn, Aug. 9th, immense,
almost beyond precedent, for the latitude. He states “‘ that at first he could
not believe that it was ice, and, thinking he might have been drifted to the
northward during the several days in which he had not been able to get an
observation, set it down as an island covered with snow. The wind was
from the eastward, and the ship going at the rate of eight knots; she soon
brought the whole body above the horizon, and not long after the ice was
found to stretch along the whole head and on the weather bow. The course
of the ship was then altered, so as to bring the ice on the lee bow, and grad-
ually, as the bearings altered, five icebergs, of various sizes, were made out.
The ship passed within a few miles to the windward of them.

“The ice-field and icebergs were estimated to be from eight to ten miles
long, and very high —a solid mass of ice against which the sea broke, as
upon the iron-bound shores of a continent. At four miles distance, the
water about the ship was agitated with eddies and ripples, caused by the
opposing presence of so large a body to the usual ocean currents. The sides
along which the ship passed appeared to be precipitous up for more than a
hundred feet from the water, when they broke up towards the peaks in the
interior of the island; and down the steppes, the spy-glass showed the exist-
ence of great gullies and water-courses. When the sun shone full upon the
island, it reflected the light with great brilliancy.”

ON THE ORES OF ZINC AND MANGANESE FROM ARKANSAS.

Dr. Wm. Elderhorst has analyzed various specimens of Smithsonite from
the counties of Lawrence, Marion, and Independence. The principal mines
are situated in Lawrence county; the principal ore is a massive, brownish-
yellow, cellular Smithsonite, occasionally sub-crystalline. The analyses of
average specimens show a very high per centage of oxide of zinc, varying
from 49 to 61°7 per cent.; a very impure specimen, a mixture of carbonate
of zine with clay, yiclded 33 per cent. of oxide of zinc. The Arkansas ores,
therefore, compare very favorably with the best European ores, for example,
with those of Upper Silescia, the Rhenish workings, Belgium, Polonia, ete.
The ore occurs in dolomite, sometimes in regular veins, and firmly adhering

GEOLOGY. 329

to the rock, but usually in more or less rounded, irregular pieces, imbedded
in a red ferruginous clay. Both the dolomite and the red clay contain small
quantities of carbonate of zinc; the dolomite, in some localities, nearly 2
per cent., the red clay only 0°38 per cent. At another locality, occurs, asso-
ciated with galena, a very light and soft clay, of ochre-yellow color, which
contains rather more than 8 per cent. of oxide of zinc.

The Smithsonite of Marion county is occasionally found incrusted with a
white hydro-carbonate of zinc, whose composition is expressed by the formula
3(ZnO0.CO2)+2(ZnO.3HO) and for which the name of Marionite is proposed.
It contains nearly 4 per cent. more oxide of zinc than Smithson found in
his analysis of zinc bloom.

The same chemist publishes analyses of three specimens of psilomelance,
from Independence county — considering them, with Rammelsberg, as com-
pounds of peroxide of manganese with bases of the constitution RO. He
derives from his analyses the following formule, as expressive of their com-
position.

(MnO.Ba0.HO).Mn0O2+6°37 per cent. of MnOz mechanically intermixed,
and (MnO.BaO.CaO.HO).Mn0O2+3'81 per cent. of MnOz mechanically inter-
mixed.

A specimen of wad, from Izard county, has the same composition as the
wad from Rubeland, analyzed by Rammelsberg, namely.

(MnO.CoO.BaO).2Mn02+3HO+x MnOz

The composition of a fifth specimen of manganese ore is expressed by the
formula 4(MnO.CaO.MgO.HO).3Mn0Og; or, if the small quantities of lime,
magnesia, and water are considered as accidental impurities, by Mn203, the
composition of bramite; the proportion of manganese to oxygen being as
69°68 to 29°72; in braunite the proportion is 69°68: 30°42,

Prof. Elderhorst expresses the opinion that Arkansas is destined to take
the lead of all the Western States in her resources of ores of zinc and
manganese. — First Report of a Geological Reconnoissance of the Northern
Counties of Arkansas. By D. D. Owen, Wm. Elderhorst, and Edward T.
Cox. Little Rock, 1858.

PROF. OWEN ON FOSSIL MAMMALS.

The following is an abstract of the concluding lecture of a course recently
delivered by Prof. Owen, before the Royal Institution (London), “On Fossil
Mammals,” in which the causes of their extinction are particularly con-
sidered.

On the problem of the extinction of species, I have little to say; and of the
more mysterious subject of their coming into being, nothing profitable or
to the purpose, at present. As a cause of extinction in times anterior to
man, it is most reasonable to assign the chief weight to those gradual
changes in the conditions affecting a due supply of sustenance to animals
in a state of nature which must have accompanied the slow alternations of
land and sea brought about in the eons of geological time. Yet this reason-
ing is applicable only to land animals; for it is scarcely conceivable that
such operations can have affected sea-fishes. |

There are characters in land animals rendering them more obnoxious to
extirpating influences, which may explain why so many of the larger spe-
cies of particular groups have become extinct, whilst smaller species of
equal antiquity have survived. In proportion to its bulk is the difficulty of
the contest which the animal has to maintain against the surrounding agen-

28*

330 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

cies that are ever tending to dissolve the vital bond, and subjugate the living
matter to the ordinary chemical and physical forces. Any changes, there-
fore, in such external agencies as a species may have been originally adapted
to exist in, will militate against that existence in a degree proportionate to
the size which may characterize the species. If a dry season be gradually
prolonged, the large mammal will suffer from the drought sooner than the
small one; if such alteration of climate affect the quantity of vegetable
food, the bulky herbivore will first feel the effects of stinted nourishment;
if new enemies be introduced, the large and conspicuous animal will fall a
prey, while the smaller kinds conceal themselves and escape. Small quad-
rupeds, moreover, are more prolific than large ones. Those of the bulk of
the mastodons, megatheria, glyptodons, and diprotodons, are uniparous.
The actual presence, therefore, of small species of animals in countries
where larger species of the same natural families formerly existed, is not
the consequence of degeneration — of any gradual diminution of the size —
of such species, but is the result of circumstances which may be illustrated
by the fable of the ‘Oak and the Reed;” the smaller and feebler animals
have bent and accommodated themselves to changes to which the larger
species have succumbed.

That species should become extinct, appears, from the abundant fact of
extinction, to be a law of their existence; whether, however, it be inherent
in their own nature, or be relative and dependent on inevitable changes in
the conditions and theatre of their existence, is the main subject for consid-
eration. But, admitting extinction as a natural law which has operated
from the beginning of life on this planet, it might be expected that some
evidence of it should occur in our own time, or within the historical period.
Reference has been made to several instances of the extirpation of spe-
cies, certainly, probably, or possibly, due to the direct agency of man; but
this cause avails not in the question of the extinction of species at periods
prior to any evidence of human existence; it does not help us in the expla-
nation of the majority of extinctions, as of the races of aquatic invertebrata
and vertebrata which have successively passed away.

Within the last century, academicians of St. Petersburg and good natural-
ists have described and given figures of the bony and the perishable parts,
including the alimentary canal, of a large and peculiar fucivorous Sirenian
—an amphibious animal like the Manatee, which Cuvier classified with his
herbivorous Cetacea, and called Stelleria, after its discoverer. This animal
inhabited the Siberian shores and the mouths of the great rivers there dis-
emboguing. It is now believed to be extinct, and this extinction scems not
to have been due to any special quest and persecution by man. We may
discern in this fact the operation of changes in physical geography, which
have, at length, so affected the conditions of existence of the Stelleria as to
have caused its extinction. Such changes had operated, at an earlier period,
to the extinction of the Siberian elephant and rhinoceros of the same re-
gions and latitudes. A future generation of zodlogists may have to record
the final disappearance of the Arctic buffalo ( Ovibos moschatus ). Fossil re-
mains of Ovibos and Stelleria show that they were contemporaries of Elephas
primigenius and Rhinoceros tichorrhinus.

The great Auk (Alca impennis, L.) seems to be rapidly verging to extinction.
It has not been specially hunted down, like the dodo and dinornis, but by
degrees has become more scarce. Some of the geological changes affecting
circumstances favorable to the well-being of the Alca impennis, have been

GEOLOGY. Sat

matters of observation. A friend who last year visited Iceland, informs me
that the last great auks, known with anything like certainty to have been
there seen, were two which were taken in 1844, during a visit made to the
high rock called “‘ Eldey,”’ or ‘‘ Meelsoekten,” lying off Cape Reykianes, the
south-west point of Iceland. This is one of three principal rocky islets
formerly existing in that direction, of which the one, specially named from
this rare bird, ‘ Geirfugla Sker,’”’ sank to the level of the surface of the sea
during avolcanic disturbance in or about the year 1830. Such disappearance
of the fit and favorable breeding-places of the Alca impennis, must form an
important element in its decline towards extinction. The numbers of the
bones of Alca impennis on the shores of Iceland, Greenland, and Denmark,
attest the abundance of the bird in former times. A consideration of such
instances of modern partial or total extinctions, may best throw light, and
suggest the truest notions, of the causes of ancient extinction.

As to the successions, or coming in, of new species, one might speculate
on the gradual modifiability of the individual; on the tendency of certain
varieties to survive local changes, and thus progressively diverge from an
older type; on the production and fertility of monstrous offspring; on the
possibility, e. g., of a variety of auk being occasionally hatched with a
somewhat longer winglet, and a dwarfed stature; on the probability of such
a variety better adapting itself to the changing climate or other conditions
than the old type —of such an origin of Alca torda, e. g.;— but to what
purpose? Past experience of the chance aims of human fancy, unchecked
and unguided by observed facts, shows how widely they have ever glanced
away from the gold centre of truth.

As the result of the evidence accumulated by geologists, I have affirmed
that the successive extinction of Amphitheria, Spalacotheria, Triconodons,
and other mesozoic forms of mammals, has been followed by the introduc-
tions of much more numerous, varied, and higher organized forms of the
class, during the tertiary periods. There are, however, geologists who main-
tain that this is an assumption, based upon a partial knowledge of the facts.
Mere negative evidence, they allege, can never satisfactorily establish the
proposition that the mammalian class is of late introduction, nor prevent
the conjecture that it may have been as richly represented in secondary, as
in tertiary times, could we but get evidence of the terrestrial Fauna of the
oolitic continent. To this objection I have to reply: in the palxozoic strata,
which, from their extent and depth, indicate, in the earth’s existence as a
seat of organic life, a period as prolonged as that which has followed their
deposition, no trace of mammals has been observed. It may be conceded
that, were mammals peculiar to dry land, such negative evidence would
weigh little in producing conviction of their non-existence during the Silurian
and Devonian sons, because the explored parts of such strata have been
deposited from an ocean, and the chance of finding a terrestrial and air-
breathing creature’s remains in oceanic deposits is very remote. But, in the
present state of the warm-blooded, air-breathing, viviparous class, no genera
and species are represented by such numerous and widely dispersed individ-
uals, as those of the order Cetacea, which, under the guise of fishes, dwell,
and can only live, in the ocean. In all Cetacea the skeleton is well ossified,
and the vertebrz are very numerous: the smallest Cetaceans would be
deemed large amongst land mammals, the largest surpass in bulk any
creatures of which we have yet gained cognizance; the hugest ichthyosaur,
iguanodon, megalosaur, mammoth, or megathere, is a dwarf in comparison

332 ' ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

with the modern whale, of a hundred feet in length. During the period in
which we have proof that Cetacea have existed, the evidence in the shape
of bones and teeth —which latter enduring characteristics in most of the spe-
cies are peculiar for their great number in the same individual— must have
been abundantly deposited at the bottom of the sea; and as cachalots,
grampuses, dolphins, and porpoises, are seen gambolling in shoals in deep
oceans, far from land, their remains will form the most characteristic evi-
dences of vertebrate lifein the strata now in course of formation at the
bottom of such oceans. Accordingly, it consists with the known characicr-
istics of the Cetacean class to find the marine deposits which fell from scas
tenanted, as: now, with vertebrates of that high grade, containing the fossil
evidences of the order in vast abundance. The red crag of our eastern
counties contains petrified fragments of the skeletons and teeth of various
Cetacea, in such quantities as to constitute a great part of that source of
phosphate of lime for which the red crag is worked for the manufacture of
artificial manure. The scanty evidence of Cetacea in cretaccous beds seems
to indicate a similar period for their beginning as for the soft-sealed cycloid
and ctenoid fishes which have superseded the ganoid orders of mesozoic
times.

We cannot doubt but that, had the genera Ichthyosaurus, Pliosaurus, or
Plesiosaurus, been represented by species in the same ocean that was tem-
pested by the Balzenodons and Dioplodons of the miocene age, the bones
and teeth of those marine reptiles would have testified to their existence as
abundantly as they do at a previous epoch in the earth’s history. But no
fossil relic of an enaliosaur has been found in tertiary strata, and no living
enaliosaur has been detected in the present seas; and they are consequently
held by competent naturalists to be extinct. In like manner does such
negative evidence weigh with me in proof of the non-existence of marine
mammals in the liassic and oolitic times. In the marine deposits of those
secondary or mesozoic epochs, the evidence of vertebrates governing the
ocean, and preying on inferior marine vertebrates, is as abundant as that
of air-breathing vertebrates in the tertiary strata; but in the one, the fossils
are exclusively of the cold-blooded reptilian class ; in the other, of the
warm-blooded mammalian class. The Enaliosauria, Cetiosauria, and Croco-
dilia, played the same part, and fulfilled similar offices, in the seas from
which the lias and oolites were precipitated, as the Delphinidz and Balx-
nidz did in the tertiary, and still do in the present seas. The unbiassed
conclusion, from both negative and positive evidence in this matter, is, that
the Cetacea succeeded and superseded the Enaliosauria. To the mind that
will not accept such conclusion, the stratified oolitic rocks must cease to be
monuments or trustworthy recordswof the condition of life on the earth at
that period. So far, however, as any general conclusion can be deduced
from the large sum of evidence above referred to, and contrasted, it is
against the doctrine of the Uniformitarians. Organic remains, traced from
their earliest known graves, are succeeded, one series by another, to the
present period, and never reappear when once lost sight of in the ascending
search. As well might we expect a living Ichthyosaur in the Pacific, as a
fossil whale in the Lias. The rule governs as strongly in the retrospect as
the prospect. And not only as respects the Vertebrata, but the sum of the
animal species at each successive geological period has been distinct and
peculiar to such period. Not that the extinction of such forms or species
was sudden or simultaneous: the evidences so interpreted have been but

GEOLOGY. P55)

local. Over the wider field of life, at any given epoch, the change has been
gradual; and, as it would seem, obedient to some general, but as yet ill-
comprehended law. In regard to animal life, and its assigned work on this
planct, there has, however, plainly been an ascent and progress in the main.

Although the Mammalia, in regard to the plenary development of the
characteristic orders, belong to the Tertiary division of geological time, just
as “‘ Echini are most common in the superior strata; Ammonites in those
beneath, and Producti with numerous Encrini, in the lowest” of the
secondary strata; yet the beginnings of the class manifest themselves in the
formations of the earlier preceding division of geological time. No one,
save a prepossessed Uniformitarian, would infer from the Lucina of the
permian, and the Opis of the trias, that the Lamellibranchiate Molluscs ex-
isted in the same rich variety of development at these periods, as during
the tertiary and present times; and no prepossession can close the eyes to
the fact that the Lamellibranchiate have superseded the Palliobranchiate
bivalves.

On negative evidence, Orthisina, Theca, Producta, or Spirifer, are be-
lieved not to exist in the present seas: neither are the existing genera of
siphonated bivalves and univalves deemed to have abounded in permian,
triassic, or oolitic times. To suspect that they may have then existed, but
have hitherto escaped observation, because certain Lamellibranchs with an
open mantle, and some holostomatous and asiphonate Gastropods, have
left their remains in secondary strata, is not more reasonable, as it seems to
me, than to conclude that the proportion of mammalian life may have been
as great in secondary as in tertiary strata, because a few small forms of the
lowest orders have made their appearance in triassic and oolitic beds.

Turning from a retrospect into past time to the prospect of time to come,
—and I have received more than one inquiry into the amount of prophetic
insizht imparted by Palxontology,—I may crave indulgence for a few
words, of more sound, perhaps, than significance. But the reflective mind
cannot evade or resist the tendency to speculate on the future course and
ultimate fate of vital phenomena in this planet. There seems to have been a
time when life was not; there may, therefore, be a period when it will cease
to be. Our most soaring speculations still show a kinship to our nature;
we see the element of finality in so much that we have cognizance of, that
it must needs mingle with our thoughts, and bias our conclusions on many
things. The end of the world has been presented to man’s mind under
divers aspects: as a general conflagration: as the same, preceded by a
millennial exaitation of the world to a Paradisiacal state, — the abode of a
higher and blessed race of intelligences. If the guide-post of Palzeontology
may seem to point to a course ascending to the condition of the latter
speculation, it points but a very short way; and, in leaving it, we find our-
selves in a wilderness of conjecture, where to try to advance is to find our-
selves “in wandering mazes lost.”

With much more satisfaction do I return to the legitimate deductions
from the phenomena we have had under review.

In the survey which I have taken, in the present course of lectures, of the
genesis, succession, geographical distribution, affinities, and osteology of
the mammalian class, if I have succeeded in demonstrating the perfect
adaptation of each varying form to the exigencies and habits and well-
being of the species, I have fulfilled one object which I had in view, viz., to
set forth the beneficence and intelligence of the Creative Power. If I have

304 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

been able to demonstrate a uniform plan pervading the osteological struc-
ture of so many diversified animated beings, I must have enforced, wer

that necessary, as strong a conviction of the unity of the Creative Cause.
If, in all the striking changes of form and proportion which have passed
under review, we could discern only the results of minor modifications of
the same few osseous elements, surely we must be the more strikingly im-
pressed with the wisdom and power of that Cause which could produce so
much variety, and at the same time such perfect adaptations and endow-
ments, out of means so simple. For, in what have those mechanical instru-
ments — the hands of the ape, the hoofs of the horse, the fins of the whale,
the trowels of the mole, the wings of the bat — so variously formed to obey
the behests of volition in denizens of different elements —in what, I say,
have they differed from the artificial instruments which we ourselves plan
with foresight and calculation for analogous uses, save in their greater com-
plexity, in their perfection, and in the unity and simplicity of the elements
which are modified to constitute these several locomotive organs. Every-
where in organic nature we see the means not only subservient to an end,
but that end accomplished by the simplest means. Hence we are compelled
to regard the Great Cause of all, not like certain philosophic ancients, ag a
uniform and quiescent mind, as an all-pervading anima mundi, but as an
active and anticipating intelligence. By applying the laws of comparative
anatomy to the relics of extinct races of animals contained in and character-
izing the different strata of the earth’s crust, and corresponding with as
many epochs in the earth’s history, we make an important step in advance
of all preceding philosophies, and are able to demonstrate that the same
pervading, active, and beneficent Intelligence which manifests His power
in our times, has also manifested His power in times long anterior to the
records of our existence. But we likewise, by these investigations, gain a
still more important truth, viz., that the phenomena of the world do not
succeed each other with the mechanical sameness attributed to them in the
cycles of the Epicurean philosophy; for we are able to demonstrate that the
different epochs of the history of the earth were attended with correspond-
ing changes of organic structure; and that, in all these instances of change,
the organs, as far as we could comprehend their use, were exactly those
best suited to the functions of the being. Hence we not only show intelli-
gence evoking means adapted to the end, but, at successive times and
periods, producing a change of mechanism adapted to a change in external
conditions. Thus the highest generalizations in the science of organic
bodies, like the Newtonian laws of universal matter, lead to the unequivocal
conviction of a great First Cause, which is certainly not mechanical. Unfet-
tered by narrow restrictions, — unchecked by the timid and unworthy fears
of mistrustful minds, clinging, in regard to mere physical questions, to
beliefs, for which the Author-of all truth has been pleased to substitute
knowledge, — our science becomes connected with the loftiest of moral
speculations; and I know of no topic more fitting to the sentiments with
which I desire to conclude the present course. If I believed — to use the
language of a gifted contemporary — that the imagination, the feelings, the
active intellectual powers, bearing on the business of life, and the highest
capacities of our nature, were blunted and impaired by the study of phys-
iological and paleontological phenomena, I should then regard our science
as little better than a moral sepulchre, in which, like the strong man, we
were burying ourselves and those around us in ruins of our own creating.

GEOLOGY. 335

But surely we must all believe too firmly in the immutable attributes of that
Being, in whom all truth, of whatever kind, finds its proper resting-place, to
think that the principles of physical and moral truth can ever be in lasting
collision.

DISCOVERY OF THE REMAINS OF A FOSSIL EXTINCT REPTILE, THE
HADROSAURUS, IN NEW JERSEY.

During the summer and fall of 1858, the remains of a huge herbiverous
saurian reptile, closely allied, but larger, than the extinct Iguanodon, of the
Weaden and Lower Greensands of Europe, were discovered, by William P.
Foulke, of Philadelphia, in the eretaceous marls of Haddonfield, Camden
Co., N. J. The circumstances attending this discovery, and the following
description of the bones, are given in the proceedings of the Phil. Academy,
for December 14, 1858.

During the summer and autumn of 1858, Mr. Foulke visited a neighbor,
Mr. Hopkins, near his own summer residence at Haddonfield, in New Jer-
sey, afew miles out from Camden, on the Camden and Atlantic Railroad;
and, in the course of conversation, Mr. H. described from memory some
teeth and vertebrae which had been thrown out from a marl-pit on his prop-
erty not less than twenty years ago. One by one they had been given away
to curious friends, or casual acquaintances, or lost. He could remember no
long or large bones, but only teeth and vertebrze. Receiving permission to
reopen the spot, Mr. Foulke set a gang of marl-diggers to work at the bot-
tom of a small ravine near where it opens upon Cooper’s Creek, and about
twenty feet below the surrounding farm land of the neighborhood. Three
or four feet of soi] brought the workmen to the face of the marl, and, discov-
ering the old digging, went down along its edge six or seven feet, through a
small bed of shells, to where the bones had been exhumed. At this point a
collection of bones was found. They consisted of a thigh-bone forty inches
long, with a breadth at the head and adjoining trochanter of nine inches; a
tibia thirty-six and a half inches in length, and eleven inches broad at the
upper part; humerus perfect, and twenty-three inches in length; ulna,
twenty-three inches long; radius twenty inches, and six inches in circumfer-
ence in the middle. In addition to the above, there were also obtained
twenty-eight vertebrae, mostly with their processes broken away; an ilium
and pubic bone, imperfect; a femur; two metatarsal bones, and a first pha-
lanx, complete; also, nine teeth, and a small fragment of the lower jaw.

The bones are ebony black, from the infiltration of iron, and are exceed-
ingly heavy. Their texture is firm and well preserved; and they are neither
crushed nor water rolled. In association with them, beside the shells and
wood, were found several teeth of Odontaspis and Enchodus.

Most of the specimens of teeth appear to have belonged to the lower jaw.
These, when unworn and perfect, are about two inches long, and of all
known teeth mostly resemble those of the Igwanodon. They have a demi-
conoidal crown, with a lozenge-shaped enamel surface directed inwardly, and
divided by a prominent median carina. The upper borders of this surface
are provided with short, transverse, tuberculated ridges.

The sides and bottoms of the teeth exhibit the impressions of lateral and
inferior successors, and appear to indicate that the teeth in use, together
with those more or less developed within the jaw, had a quincuncial arrange-
ment. Two of the specimens of teeth, perhaps, belong to the upper jaw.

336 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

They differ from the others in the extraordinary degree of development of
the meditm carina of the crown. ‘These teeth also exhibit the impress of
successors holding the same relative position with one another as in the lower
teeth.

At the meeting of the Academy above referred to, Dr. Leidy stated, that
he had determined the bones to have belonged to a huge herbiverous sau-
rian, which was closely allied to the Iguanodon; the genus, however, was
different, and he proposed for it the name hadrosaurus — designating the
species from the discoverer of the bones, Hadrosaurus Foulkii. Dr. Leidy
then proceeded to point out the reptilian characters recognized in the bones
in question: The thigh-bone ossified, not, like the mammal’s, from half a
dozen centres, but from one single centre, as in the iguana, alligator, etc.,
and furrowed at the ends with the large blood vessels of reptile joints, in-
stead of being smooth, as in all mammalians. The whole form of the bones
was different from that of the mammalia, and the vertebrx of the tail were
armed above with the backward leaning processes, and below with the
loosely shaped, and likewise backward leaning spines, which characterize
the powerful, long, thin, deep reptilian tail. The teeth were also reptilian,
but not carniverous, like the crocodile’s, but herbiverous, like the iguana’s,
and most curiously shaped and set.

The creature was evidently of huge dimensions. Its hind-leg bones, when
put together, would reach seven feet, upon which the pelvis and back-bone
and upper skin would still go on, making it nine or ten feet high upon the
haunches. On the contrary, the fore legs were.so disproportionately short,
that, had they been found at a different time or in a different place, no anat-
omists would have hesitated to assign them to animals of different kinds, or
at least to different individuals.

“This great disproportion of size,” says Dr. Leidy, ‘‘ between the fore and
back parts of the skeleton, leads me to suspect that the Hadrosaurus may
have been in the habit of browsing, sustaining itself, Kangaroo like, in an
erect position on its back extremities and tail. As we, however, frequently
observe a great disproportion between the corresponding parts of the body of
recent and well-known extinct saurians, without any tendency to assume
such a position as that mentioned, it is not improhable that Hadrosaurus
retained the ordinary prostrate condition, progressing in the manner which
has been suspected to have been the case in the extinct batrachian of an
earlier period, the Latyrinthodon.”

“If we estimate the number of vertebre of the trunk of Hadrosaurus to
have been the same as in the recent Crocodile and Iguana, the number of
sacral vertebree to have been the same as in the Zguanodon, and the number
of caudal vertebrz to have been fifty, the whole number of vertebrae would
have been eighty. A calculation of the length of the specimens of vertebrze
in our possession, with a proper allowance of separation by invertebral fibro-
cartilages, and an addition of two and a half feet as an estimate of the length
of the head, would give, as the total length of the animal, about twenty-five
feet.”

Its tail must have been three feet deep; its neck thin, and its head no
doubt small. Its teeth are but two inches long, but set in such a tessalated
wall around the mouth as to make a formidable cutting and grinding appa-
ratus.

Hadrosaurus was most probably amphibious; and though its remains
were obtained from a marine deposit, the rarity of them in the latter leads

GEOLOGY. oof

us to suppose that those in our possession had been carried down the cur-
rent of a river, upon whose banks the animal lived.

The enormous size of this animal may be imagined when it is stated that
its thigh-bone is nearly one-third longer than that of a mastodon in the col-
lection of*the Academy.

There is also in the possession of the Academy a fragment of a thigh-
bone, found in the greensand of New Jersey some years since, and hitherto
uncharacterized, which now seems to have belonged to another much larger
individual of the Hadrosaurus genus than the one whose remains were dis-
covered by Mr. Foulke.

Fragments of fossil wood found in proximity to the bones, have been
shown by Dr. Hammond, of Philadelphia, to belong to a species of conifer,
not differing materially in microscopic character from the pines that now
grow in the same locality. Various specimens of shells, all marine, were
also found so near, or interspersed with the bones and coniferous wood, as
to tend to prove that the animals and plants which they represent lived in
the vicinity of the shores which the Mollusca inhabited, for these show that
they were deposited in a sediment totally and completely at rest. The most
tender and delicate forms remain without abrasion, and usually, in the case
of the bivalves, the two valves are attached.

ON THE CRETACEOUS SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES.

In connection with the foregoing description of the Hadrosaurus, the fol-
lowing paper, on the Cretaceous System of the United States, was read to the
Philadelphia Academy by Isaac Lea, Esq.

Geological science is indebted to the late Professor Vanuxem for the
identification of the marl-beds of New Jersey and Delaware with the Creta-
ceous group of Europe; but it was not then known in either country that
there were so many subdivisions of the group, and the exact parallelism of
the greensand was not attempted to be traced. In 1828, Mr. Vanuxem, in
the Journal of the Academy, gave a taDular view of the “ relative geological
position ” of the secondary, tertiary, and alluvial formations of the Unitcd
States, and also defined their geographical position, and stated that ‘‘ this
bed (greensand) was argillaceous, and contained greenish particles analo-
gous to those which are found in the greensand, or chalk, of Europe,” and
that it was “characterized by six genera, viz., Terebratula, Gryphea, Exo-
gyra, Ammonites, Baculites, and Belemnites.”? These views of Professor Van-
uxem were subsequently confirmed in various papers, published by Dr.
Morton and other geologists, and from year to year new explorations have
tended to demonstrate the vast extent of the Cretaceous formation in the
United States east of the Rocky Mountains.

The Cretaceous Formation commences at Martha’s Vineyard, in Massa-
chusetts, is largely developed in New Jersey, and is found in Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. In Georgia, it is more largely devel-
oped. Here, sweeping round the inferior strata, —the Primary, Silurian, and
Carboniferous masses, —it continues in a very enlarged band in a northerly
direction, through Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, to near the mouth
of the Ohio River. Crossing the Mississippi River, it descends to the south-
west, through Arkansas, where, on the upper waters of the Red River, it
expands to the north, through Nebraska Territory, far into the British Pos-
sessions east of the Rocky Mountains, embracing the head waters of the

29

&

338 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

River Saskatchewan.* To the west, from the Red River, it extends to and
beyond Santa Fe, embracing the head waters of the Colorado, and, stretch-
ing north-west, reaches the head waters of the Columbia, as well as those of-
the Missouri River. Following a south-western direction from Red River
through Texas, it crosses the Rio Grande into New Leon, and thgnce south
through St. Luis Potosi, it passes indefinitely into Mexico.

In all the great extent of this formation there is evidence of the cretace-
ous period, while most of the species differ from our eastern fauna, as the
lithological characters do in the rocks and sediments. In New Jersey, the
greensand beds are but slightly calcareous, the limestone, lying above, hav-
ing about 80 per cent. of lime. In North and South Carolina, it is, aecord-
ing to Prof. Tuomey, “25 to 30 per cent. of the mass,” but in Alabama it is
“highly calcareous.” This vast extent of a simultaneous deposit of this
kind, is calculated to excite the greatest interest, when we consider how
much it affects our agricultural prospects.

In 1810, Prof H. D. Rogers published his Report on the Geology of New
Jersey, in which he separated the cretaceous group into five divisions, under
the name of “‘the upper secondary series, embracing the greensand forma-
tion.” 1. A group of sands and clays extremely white and pure. 2. A
mixed group, consisting of greensand, alternating with, and occasionally
replaced by, layers of a blue, sandy, micaceous clay, the so-called “ green-
sand formation.” 3. A yellowish, granular limestone, having a profusion
of organic remains. 4. A yellow, very ferruginous coarse sand, with some
fossil shells of the green sand formation. 5. A coarse, brown, ferruginous
sandstone, sometimes passing into a conglomerate. Subsequently, in John-
ston’s Physical Atlas, 1855, under the name of’ “ Newer Mesozoic,” he con-
tinues these divisions, the whole thickness of which he presumes to be a
thousand feet. Prof. Tuomey, in the tables of his geological survey of
South Carolina, in 1848, calls the New Jersey deposits “ upper greensand;”
those of South Carolina, “the gault;”’ those of Alabama, the lower green-
sand, equivalent to the Néocomien of the French geologists.

In 1854, Messrs. Hall and Meek made a communication to the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, on some fossils from the Cretaceous Forma-
tion of Nebraska. This they divide into five sections. 5. Arenaceous clay,
passing into argillo-caleareous sandstone. 4. Plastic clay, the principal fos-
siliferous bed of the upper Missouri. 3. Calcareous marl, containing Ostrea
congesta, ete. 2. Clay, containing few fossils. 1. Sandstone and clay.

In 1855, Mr. Marcon publised, in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of
France, an account of the Geology of the United States, in the cretaceous
division of which (page 70), after giving to Prof. Vanuxem the credit of being
the first to detect this group in the United States, he says that it may be
divided provisionally into “‘ three great groups,’ which have been named in
Europe, Ist, le Néocomien; 2d, le grés vert supérieur et la craie marneuse;
od, la craie blanche.

In March 1856, Mr. Meek and Dr. Hayden published their section of the
Cretaceous formation of Nebraska. ~5. Gray and yellowish arenaceous clays,

* See the map of Nebraska, by Lieut. Warren and Dr. Hayden, with explanations
by the latter, who has done so much for the geology of the Western Territories; also
the excellent map of Hall and Lesley, in Major Emory’s Report on the Mexican
Boundary Survey, and Prof. Hall’s Report of the Geology of the Boundary, in the
same volume. Also, the various papers of Meek and Hayden.

GEOLOGY. 339

with great numbers of marine mollusea, few land plants, and bones of Mo-
sasaurus. 4. Bluish and dark plastic clay, containing numerous marine
Mollusca. 3. Lead-gray calcareous marl, with scales of fishes. Ostrea con-
gesta, Inoceramus, etc. 2. Dark-gray laminated clay, with scales of fishes,
small ammonites, etc. 1. Heavy bedded yellowish sandstone, with water-
worn lignite. This formation, they say, may not belong to the cretaceous
system.

Prof. Hall,in his Geological Report; August 1856, connected with Major
Emory’s Mexican Boundary Survey, gives an excellent table, prepared by
Prof. G. H. Cooke, of the New Jersey Survey, which divides the whole of
this system in New Jersey into eight members, which may be thus succinctly
given:

8. Greensand, 3d or upper bed.
7. Quartzose Sand.

® . (6. Greensand, 2d. bed — (a) Eschara, ete.
A & (b) Gryphea, ete.
i S | (c) Cucullea, ete.
= “ 15. Quartzose Sand, highly ferruginous — Exogyra, ete.
a a F Greensand, 1st or lower bed — Exrogyra, Ostrea, ete.
aS) pia Dark-colored clay, containing greensand — — Ammonites, Delawaren-
Z m [ sis, ete.

2. Dark-colored clay — Fossil wood, no animal remains.
1. Fire Clay and Potter’s Clay — Fossil wood and leaves, no animal
remains.

In May 1857, Mr. Meek and Dr. Hayden, in the Proceedings of the Acad-
emy, continued their valuable papers on the Tertiary and Cretaceous forma-
tion of Nebraska, and gave a table of equivalents with the New Jersey
deposits; and Dr. Hayden, in June of the same year, made a communication
entitled “ Explanations of a second edition of a geological map of Nebraska
and Kansas,” in which the whole series of formations is reviewed, including
the cretaceous system.

It is a very important matter, in discussing these organic remains, to as-
certain, as nearly as possible, thé horizon on which this particular formation
would stand in regard to its parallelism with those of Europe, where so
much has been written on the subject of the various members of the Creta-
ceous group. Sir Charles Lyell says that the New Jersey “strata consist
chiefly of greensand and green marl, with an overlying coraline limestone,
of a pale-yellow color; and the fossils, on the whole, agree most nearly with
those of the upper European series, from the Maestricht beds to the gault,
inclusive.*

Prof. Rogers, in his New-Jersey Report, does not seem to agree with this
idea; he “ does not regard these strata as the equivalents, in the strict sense
of the word, of the greensand formation, so-called, of Europe ”’ (page 178).
‘““Nor are we able,” he says, “ positively to decide, merely by the relation-
ship of the genera, whether the cretaceous period embraces both the com-
mencement and termination of the American greensand series ” (page 179).
M. D’Orbigny t — the chalk formation of North America to belong
to his “‘ étage sénonien ”’ (the upper chalk of Morris), and not to the “ grés
verts,’’ as supposed by Dr. Morton and others. Dr. Mantell considered that
the teeth of the Mosasaurus, found in the greensand formation of New Jer-

* Manual, third edition, p. 224. _ Cours Elémentaire, p. 671.

340 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC. DISCOVERY.

sey, described by Dr. Harlan, were in every respect analogous to those of
the Maestricht reptile, and that the deposit was equivalent to the Maestricht
bed. The Blackdown greensand of Dr. Fitton * has in its fossil mollusca a
very strong resemblance to our greensand fossils; and as D’Orbigny makes
this formation an equivalent to his Cenomanien, there is some evidence that
the New Jersey greensand may be on the same horizon; for, according to
D’Orbigny’s tables, the genus Belemnites ceases with the Cénomanien, and
we have abundance of that genus in our greensand formation. If he be
correct as to the decadence of the Cephalopoda, then we could not place this
formation higher up in the series than his Cénomanien, which is the “ Glau-
conie crayeuse”’ of Brogniart, found at Cap le Heve, in France, the Black-
down greensand of Fitton, and the Upper greensand of Mantell in the south
of England.

Under all the information we have, however, from the various investiga-
tions made by so many distinguished geologists, I think the evidence is in
favor of D’Orbigny’s opinion, that the greensand formation, from which
the remains of the Hadrosaurus were exhumed, belong to his Sénonien; but
it may prove, upon further examination, to be a little lower in the Cretaceous
series.

ON THE INFUSORIAL DEPOSITS OF THE TERTIARY OF VIRGINIA.

At a recent meeting of the Boston Nat. Hist. Society, Prof. W. B. Rog-
ers presented some masses of Infusorial earth from the Tertiary strata of
Virginia and Maryland, and gave a description of the geological and other
conditions in which this and the associated deposits exhibit themselves in and
near Richmond, in the former of these states.

The Tertiary formations which underlie the wide plain extending from the
seaboard to the eastern margin of the granitic and gneissoid rocks, approach
their termination along this meridian in a series of strata which are sepa-
rated by only a short interval from the irregular granitic floor. A little fur-
ther toward the west they reach their boundary, partly by a rapid thinning
away, and in part by abutting, along the hill-sides, against the indented shore
of these ancient rocks, here rising to the level of the general upland surface.

In the deep ravines leading into the valley of Shockoe Creek, especially
on its western side, we meet with several extensive exposures of the Terti-
ary strata, one of which embraces nearly the whole thickness of both the
Eocene and Meciocene formations as locally developed in this neighborhood.
In all these localities the infusorial deposit is found occupying a position im-
mediately above the upper limit of the Eocene strata or separated from it
by a thin layer of whitish or of more or Jess ferruginous clay. Like the
associated beds, it fluctuates in thickness as traced from one neighboring
exposure to another, varying from twenty to upwards of thirty feet at the
different localities on the north side of the valley, and presenting, where
measured some years ago, on the opposite or Church-Hill side, a thickness
of nearly fifty feet. In addition to the microscopic fossils, which in a more
or less perfect condition make up so large a portion of the mass, this deposit
presents a few casts of shells of well-known Meiocene forms, of which the
Astarte undulata may be mentioned as of the most frequent occurrence. It
also contains imperfectly preserved remains of a slender creeping plant, as

* Strata below the chalk.

GEOLOGY. 341

well as fragments of woody stems and branches, flattened and converted
into lignite, and in some cases filled in all directions with the perforations of
a Teredo.

The material of the Infusorial stratum is generally of a very fine texture,
admitting of being bruised between the fingers into an almost impalpa-
ble powder, singularly free from gritty particles. ‘Although usually of a
light-gray, almost white color, it includes in some localities layers of an
ashy tinge, which are, however, not inferior to the rest of the deposit in the
abundance of their minute organic forms. It has throughout a tendency to
lamination in a horizontal direction, and toward its upper limit this structure
is so distinct as to cause it readily to separate in thin crumbly plates. But,
of all its mechanical peculiarities, its great lightness is the most characteris-
tic. From experiments made many years ago, Prof. Rogers found that, when
pure and quite free from moisture, this material, in its ordinary state of com-
pactness, has a weight only one-third as great as an equal bulk of water.
The minute siliceous fossils for which this deposit has long been noted, be-
long, as is well known, almost entirely to the family of Diatomacex, and
include avery large proportion of Coscinodiscus and allied forms, whose
exquisitely thin plates, lying in parallel positions in the mass, have probably
contributed to the laminated structure before referred to. The number of
such frustules and other siliceous skeletons in each cubic inch of the pure
material can only be reckoned in millions, and a cubic foot would contain a
multitude far exceeding in number the entire human population of the
globe.

ON THE SO-CALLED “ BIRD-TRACKS ” OF THE CONNECTICUT RIVER
VALLEY.

The following paper was presented to the American Association for the
Promotion of Science, 1859, by Roswell Field, Esq., of Turner’s Falls, Mass.

“When fossil foot-prints were first discovered in the sandstones of the Con-
necticut Valley, the theory that they were produced by birds was received by
most scientific men with great distrust and skepticism. And it was not until
after Dr. Edward Hitchcock had spent much time and labor in comparing,
describing, and distributing specimens, that the scientific public became sat-
isfied that they were the tracks of once living birds.

“The great and only proof that they are the tracks of birds, is the organi-
zation of the foot, — and in the number and arrangement of the joints they
probably do agree with living types, — and the alternate steps of right and
left feet. Living in the vicinity of Turner’s Falls, the locality that has fur-
nished the greatest number, and beyond all comparison the most beautiful
specimens of these tracks, my attention was early drawn to this subject, and
I think I may safely say, that I have uncovered more foot-prints, and found
more new species, than any other person. I have, moreover, scen thousands
of tracks which others have not seen, since, from injudicious blasting and
carelessness of workmen, many fine specimens have been broken and lost;
others, from the shrinkage of the matrix, or the presence of sun-cracks, are
worthless for removing from the quarries. I consider that I have thus seen
thousands of specimens that others have not seen; and the better acquainted
I have become with the subject, the greater have become my doubts as
to the ornithoid character of the tracks. I have no new theory to advance;
but if I can rightly decipher the impressions, the animals producing them

Po id

342 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

should all be classed among the reptilia. They appear to me to have all
been quadrupeds, which usualiy walked upon two feet, but were capable
of walking upon four feet when necessity required. In proof of this, we
find tracks, as perfect as if made in plastic wax, which, in the number of
toes and phalangeal expansions, agree perfectly with living birds, and yet
it is certain that they were made by quadrupeds, from the impressions left
by their forward feet. And in other cases, where the animal sunk deep in
the mud, they usually dragged their tails, leaving a furrow, or groove,
ploughed up in the soft material, of from one-half an inch to an inch in
width. This groove is not always found on the surface where the foot
rested, since, when the weight of the animal caused the feet to sink through
the upper and yielding stratum, the tail dragged upon the then immediate sur-
face; and the existence of a tail appendage is only evident under the above
conditions. That these were quadrupeds, therefore, at this date of the depo-
sition of these sandstones, that had hind feet perfectly agreeing with those _
of birds, renders it a matter of great doubt whether there were any birds at
this epoch —this age of reptiles. If there were, they must have been apter-
ous and naked; for it is impossible to suppose that ordinary birds, congre-
gating together in such numbers, and pluming themselves, would not pull
out some of their feathers. No impressions of feathers, however, have
been found, although we constantly meet with impressions of the smallest
leaves of vegetables, and the tracks and markings of the annelids and in-
sects, some of which are so small, that they require the aid of a lens to
describe them correctly.

Mr. F. said “‘he was aware that men very eminent in science had come to
a conclusion different from his own in this matter, and it was not for him to
say that they were wrong; he would only suggest, that so little was known
in regard to the subject when they made their examinations, that possibly
our first discoverers may have been mistaken.

“Very few, probably, have any conception of the marvellous perfection of
these fossil inscriptions at Turner’s Falls, or of the once countless individu-
als who have left unmistakable evidence of their existence in what is now
the valley of the Connecticut River.”

ON THE DISCOVERY OF THE REMAINS OF MAN IN RECENT
GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS.

Much interest has of late been excited by the discovery of the remains of
man, or his works, under conditions which seem to imply an existence of
the genus homo during the later geological epochs. In addition to what was
brought forward on this subject at the British Association in 1858, by Prof.
Owen and Mr. Pengelley, and before the Royal Society by Mr. Horner (see
Annual Scien. Dis. 1859, pp. 324, 326), we herewith furnish our readers with
a résumé of all the additional contributions to our knowledge on this subject.
(See also Sir Charles Lyell’s address before the geological section of the
British Association for 1859, pp. 6, 7, present volume.) — Editor,

At a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries (London), June 2, 1859, Mr.
Evans read a paper “ On the occurrence of Flint Implements in undisturbed
Beds of Gravel, Sand, and Clay (such as are known by Geologists under the
name of Drift) in several Localities, both on the Continent and this Country.”
The first discovery of these implements is due to M. Boucher de Perthes, of
Abbeville, who, in the pits in that neighborhood, found flints evidently fash-

GEOLOGY. 343

joned by the hand of man, under such conditions as forced upon him the
conclusion that they must have been deposited in the spots where they were
found at the very period of the formation of the containing beds. M. de
Perthes announced his discoveries ina work entitled “ Antiquités Celtiques et
Antédiluviennes,”’ in two vols., the first published in 1849, and the second in
1857; but, owing in some measure to the admixture of theory with the facts
therein stated, his work has not received the attention it deserves. The late
discovery in the Brixham Cave, in Devonshire, of flint weapons in con-
junction with the bones of the extinct mammals, had brought the question
of the coéxistence of man with them again prominently forward among
geologists, and determined Mr. Prestwich, who has devoted much attention
to the later geological formations, to proceed to Abbeville, and investigate
upon the spot the discoveries of M. de Perthes. He had there been joined
by Mr. Evans, and they had together visited the pits where flint weapons
had been alleged to have been found, both in the neighborhood of Abbeville
and Amiens. The chalk hills near both these towns are capped with drift,
which, apparently, is continued down into the valleys, where it assumes a
more arenaceous character, and in these beds of sand, as well as more rarely
in the more gravelly beds. Upon the hills, mammalian remains have been
found in large quantities.* They include the extinct elephant, rhineceros,
bear, hyzna, tiger, stag, ox, and horse —in fact, most of the animals whose
bones are sO commonly associated together in the drift and caverns of the
Posipliocene period. On the hills near Abbeville, and at St. Acheul, near
Amiens, the drift varies in thickness from about ten to twenty feet, and con-
sists of beds of subangular gravel, with large flints, and above them sands
containing the fragile shells of fresh-water mollusea, and beds of brick-
earth. Itis among the basement beds of gravel, at a slight distance above
the chalk, that the flint implements are usually found. They are of three
forms:—1. Flakes of flint, apparently intended for Knives or arrow-heads.
2. Pointed implements, usually truncated at the base, and varying in length
from four to nine inches — possibly used as spear or lance heads, which, in
shape, they resemble. 3. Oval or almond-shaped implements, from two to
nine inches in length, and with a cutting edge all round. They have gen-
erally one end more sharply curved than the other, and occasionally even
pointed, and were possibly used as sling-stones, or as axes, cutting at either
end, with a handle bound round the centre. The evidence derived from the
implements of the first form is not of much weight, on account of the ex-
treme simplicity of the implements, which at times renders it difficult to
determine whether they are produced by art or by natural causes. This
simplicity of form would also prevent the flint flakes made at the earliest
period from being distinguishable from those of a later date. The case is
different with the other two forms of implements, of which numerous speci-
mens were exhibited, — all indisputably worked by the hand of man, and
not indebted for their shape to any natural configuration or peculiar fracture
of the flint. They present no analogy in form to the well-known imple-
ments of the so-called Celtic or stone period, which, moreover, have for the
most part some portion, if not the whole, of their surface ground or pol-
ished, and are frequently made from other stones than fiint. Those from
the drift are, on the contrary, never ground, and are exclusively of flint.
They have, indeed, every appearance of having been fabricated by another
race of men, who, from the fact that the Celtic stone weapons have been
found in the superficial soil above the drift containing these ruder weapons;

344 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

as well as from other considerations, must have inhabited this region of the
globe at a period anterior to its so-called Celtic occupation. This difference
in form and character from the ordinary types of stone implements, strength-
ened the probability of their having been found under entirely different cir-
cumstances; and Mr. Evans then proceeded to examine the evidence of
their having been really discovered in undisturbed beds of gravel, sand, and
clay. He showed, from various circumstances in connection with them,
such as their discoloration by contact with ochreous matter, whitening
when imbedded in a clayey matrix, and in some instances being incrusted
with carbonate of lime, the extreme probability of their having been depos-
ited in these beds at the very time of their formation, inasmuch as the
unwrought flints adjacent to them had been affected in a precisely similar
manner, and to no greater extent. This discoloration and incrustation of
the implements, also proved that they had really been found in the beds out
of which they were asserted to have been dug; and their number, and the
depth from the surface at which they were found were such, that if they
had been buried at any period subsequent to the formation of the drift,
some evident traces must have been left of the holes dug for this purpose;
but none such have been observed, though many hundreds of the imple-
ments had been found dispersed through the mass. But, besides this cir-
cumsiantial evidence, there was the direct testimony of MM. Boucher de
Perthes, Rigollot and others, to the fact of these implements having been
discovered underneath undisturbed beds of drift, and many of them under
the immediate eye of M. de Perthes, who, indeed, had been the first to point
out the existence of these implements to the workmen. Of the correctness
of this testimony, Mr. Evans, when visiting with Mr. Prestwich the gravel
pit at St. Acheul near Amiens, had received ocular proof. There, at the
depth of eleven feet from the surface, in the face of the bank or wall of
gravel, the whole of which, with the exception of the surface soil, had its
layers of sand, gravel, and clay entirely undisturbed, was one of these im-
plements in situ, with only the edge exposed, the remainder being still firmly
imbedded in the gravel. After having photographs taken of it, so as to
verify its position, this implement had been exhumed, and was now exhib-
ited with other specimens. At a subsequent visit of Mr. Prestwich and
some other geologists to the spot, one of the party, by digging into the
bank of gravel at a depth of sixteen feet from the surface, had dislodged
a remarkably fine weapon of the oval form, the beds above being also in a
perfectly undisturbed condition. The inevitable conclusion drawn from these
facts was, that M. Boucher de Perthes’ assertions were fully substantiated, and
that these implements had been deposited among the gravel at the time of
the formation of the drift. And this conclusion was corroborated in the
most remarkable manner by discoveries which had been made long since in
England, but whose bearing upon this question had until the present time
been overlooked. In the 13th vol. of the ‘‘ Archzologia,” is an account, by
Mr. Frere, in 1797, of the discovery of some flint weapons in Suffolk, in
conjunction with elephant remains, at a depth of eleven to twelve feet from
the surface, in gravel overlaid by sand and brick-earth, presenting a section
extremely analogous with some that might be found near Amiens or Abbe-
ville. Some of these weapons are preserved in the Museum of the Society
of Antiquaries and in the British Museum, and are identical in form with
those found on the Contiaent. Mr. Prestwich had been to Suffolk, and ver-
ified the discoveries recorded by Mr. Frere. Flint implements are still found

GEOLOGY. ‘i 345

there, as well as mammalian remains, but in diminished quantity, only two
of the weapons having been brought to light during the winter. Another
of these implements is in the British Museum, having been formerly in the
Kemp and Sloane Collections, and is recorded to have been found with an
elephant’s tooth in Gray’s Inn Lane. Similar implements are also reported
to have been found in the gravel near Peterborough. These accumulated
facts prove, almost beyond controversy, the simultaneous deposition of in-
struments worked by the hand of man with bones of the extinct mammalia
in the drift of the Postpliocene period. Whether the age of man’s existence
upon the earth is to be carried back far beyond either Egyptian or Chinese
chronology, or that of the extinct elephant, rhinoceros and other animals
brought down nearer to the present time than has commonly been allowed,
must remain a matter for conjecture. This much appears nearly indis-
putable, — that at a remote period, possibly before the separation of England
from the Continent, this portion of the globe was densely peopled by man;
that implements, the work of his hands, were caught up, together with the
bones of the extinct mammals, by the rush of water, through whose agency
the gravel beds were formed; that above this gravel, in comparatively tran-
quil fresh water, thick beds of sand and loam were deposited, full of the
delicate shells of fresh-water mollusca; and that where all this took place
now forms table-land on the summit of hills nearly two hundred feet above
the level of the sea, in a country whose level is now stationary, and the face
of which has remained unaltered during the whole period which history or
tradition embraces. In conclusion, Mr. Evans suggested a careful examina-
tion of all beds of drift in which elephant remains had been found, with a
view of ascertaining the co€xistence with them of these flint implements,
and still further illustrating their history. Their rudeness, and the fact that
they had not been sought for by those who have investigated the drift, may
well account for their not having been more generally found.”

The authenticity of the so-called works of art, found in the drift by Mr.
Prestwich having been very strenuously called in question and denied by
various writers, Prof. A. C. Ramsay, in a communication to the London
Atheneum, under date of July 13th, thus reviews the whole subject.

With regard to the presence of works of art in the Upper Drift, the sub-
ject easily divides itself into two heads: First, are the objects discovered
genuine works of art? and, secondly, were they actually found in strata
deposited at a period contemporary with the organic remains with which
they are associated ?

The first duty of all inquirers is to free their minds from all prepossessions
respecting the antiquity of the human race. On this point most geologists
may be charged with having heretofore had the strongest preconceived opin-
ions respecting the late date of the appearance of man on the world, in con-
firmation of which I may appeal to the writings of Buckland and many
others. They were, therefore, no more likely than other observers to adopt
in haste any hypothesis that might tend to prove his extreme antiquity.
They were, however, so far prepared for such a contingency, that their habits
of thought, might lead them to accept good evidence, when offered with
comparative facility, and their daily occupations give them some advantages
in dealing with the question.

For more than twenty years, like others of my craft, I have daily handled
stones, whether fashioned by Nature or Art; and the flint hatchets of
Amiens and Abbeville seem to me as clearly works of art as any Sheftield

346 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

whittle. It does not matter whether they occur under unexpected circum-
stances or not. ‘The question is, Is there reason to believe that flints are
ever so fashioned by natural processes? Certainly, flints moulded by “‘ mo-
tion in water ”’ assume forms quite the reverse of implements made by man,
or even of flints fractured by any mere blow, or by the action of the weather.
The action of running water, or of waves on a beach, is to remove all asper-
ities, and other accidental marks, on stones of every description. So thor-
ouzhly is this the case, that stones that have been simply scratched by the
onward motion of a glacier, lose not only their finer structures, but all their
angles get rubbed off, and they become rounded and water-worn by attrition,
as they rattle on each other in their passage down the stream. This result
is universal, not only in brooks and rivers, but also on sea-shores, like the
Chesil Bank, for instance, where all the stones, instead of being sharply
fractured, are water-worn and rounded. Atmospheric influences often pro-
duce angularity in stones; but these weather-broken fragments never possess
those repeated small fractures at the edge, the result of many taps, and that
peculiar artificial symmetry so evident in the presumed flint hatchets of
Abbeville. :

With respect to their position in the Drift, we have the testimony of vari-
ous independent observers, both French and English. I accept this part of
the evidence from Mr. Prestwich alone, as I would accept the evidence of
the existence of the planet Neptune from Prof. Adams. Mr. Adams’s peers
knew his value. and all British, and most Continental geologists are aware
that Mr. Prestwich is not only a man of long-tried experience, but is alike
skilful and cautious in all his determinations.

Observations on the Ossiferous Caves near Palermo, Sicily.— The following
is an abstract of a communication on the above subject, made to the Geo-
‘logical Society (London) by Dr. Falconer, June 22d, 1859.

Dr. F. first described the physical geography of that portion of the north-
ern coast of Sicily in which the ossiferous caves abound, namely, between
Termini on the east, and Trapani on the west. Along the Bay of Palermo,
and again at Carini, the hippurite limestone presents inland vertical cliffs,
from the base of which stretch slightly inclined plains of pliocene deposits,
usually about a mile and a half broad, towards the sea. The majority of
fossil shells in these tertiary beds belong to recent species. At the base of
those inland cliffs, but sometimes fifty feet above the level of the plain, and
upwards of two hundred feet above the sea, the ossiferous caves occur. One
of the best known of these is the Grotto di Santo Ciro, in the Monte Griffone,
about two miles from Palermo. This cave has been often described. Like
many others, it contains a mass of bone breccia, on its floor, extending also
beyond its mouth, and overlying the pliocene beds outside, where great blocks
of limestone are mixed with the superficial soil. The bones from this cave
had long been known, and were formerly thought to be those of giants.
Some years since, bones were here excavated for exportation; and M. Chris-
tol, at Marseilles, was surprised to recognize the vast majority of remains of
two species of hippopotami amongst bones brought there, and counted
about three hundred astragli. Besides the Hippopotamus, remains of Ele-
phas also occur. Professor Ferrara suggested that the latter were due to
Carthaginian elephants, and the former to the animals imported by the
Saracens for sport. The government of Palermo having ordered a correct
survey of this cave and its contents, it was found that beneath the bone brec-
cia was a marine bed, with shells, and continuous with the external tertiary

GEOLOGY. 347

deposits. The wall of the cave, to the height of eight feet from the floor,
had been thickly bored by Pholades; for the space of ten feet higher the
side was smooth; and still further up it was cancellar or eroded. Above
the breccia were blocks of limestone, covered by earthy soil, in which bones
of hippopotami, with a few of those of Bos and Cervus, light and fragile,
not fossilized as in the breccia, occurred plentifully. In a late visit to the
San Ciro Cave, Dr. Falconer collected (besides the Hippopotamus) remains
of Elephas antiquus, Bos, Cervus, Sus, Ursus, Canis, and a large Felis, some
of which indicated a pliocene age. Another cave, the Grotto di Maccag-
none, about twenty-four miles to the west of Palermo, was lately the espe-
cial subject of the author’s research. In its form it differs from that of
San Ciro, being much wider. Its sides show no Pholad markings nor pol-
ished surfaces, as far as they are yet bared. It has a reddish or ochreous
stalagmitic crust covering the interior. It agrees with the San Ciro Cave in
its situation at nearly the same elevation above the sea and above the terti-
ary plain; and in its enormous mass of bone breccia and great accumulation
of limestone boulders covered by the humatile soil with loose bones. The
floor had already been dug over for bones. Beneath this was the usual ochre-
ous loamy earth (called ‘‘ cave-earth”), with huge blocks of blue limestone,
which impeded the operations of search; then a reddish-gray, mottled, spongy
loam, cemented with stalagmite, occurring in thick patches, and called
*‘cinere impastate”’ by the peasants. This covers bone breccia resembling
that of San Ciro, and, like it, full of bones of hippopotami. The remains of
a large Felis, two extinct species of deer, and of Elephas antiquus, were met
with also. The last is characteristic of the other pliocene caves of Europe.
Coprolites of a-large hyena occur in ochreous loam, and especially in a
recess on the face of the cliff near the cave’s mouth. A patch of the “cinere
impastate” was found under the superficial earthy floor of the cave, at one
spot near the inner wall. The author next described some remarkable con-
ditions in the roof of the cave. About half-way in from the mouth, and at
ten feet above the floor, a large mass of breccia was observed, denuded
partly of the stalagmite covering, and composed of a reddish-gray argilla-
ceous matrix, cemented by a calcareous paste, containing fragments of lime-
stone, entire land shells of large size finely preserved, splinters of bone, teeth
of ruminants, and of the genus Equus, together with comminuted fragments
of shells, bits of carbon, specks of argillaceous matter resembling burnt clay,
together with fragments of shaped siliceous objects of various tints, varying
from the milky or smoky color of calcedony to that of jaspery hornstone.
The brecciated matrix was firmly cemented to the roof, and, for the most
part, covered over with a coat of stalagmite. In the S. 8. E. expansion of
the cavern, near the smaller aperture, a considerable quantity of coprolites
of hyxzna was found similarly situated in an ochreous calcareous matrix,
adhering to the roof, mingled with some bits of carbon, but without shells
or bone splinters. On the back part of the cavern, where the roof shelves
towards the floor, thick masses of reddish calcareous matrix were found
attached to the roof, and completely covered over by a crust of ochreous
stalagmite. It contained numerous fragments of the siliceous objects, mixed
with bone splinters and bits of carbon. In fact, all round the cavern, wher-
ever the stalagmitic crust on the roof was broken through, more or less of
the same appearances were presented. In some parts the matrix closely
resembled the characters of the “cinere impastata,” with a larger admixture
of calcareous paste. With regard to the fragments of the siliceous objects,

348 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

the great majority of them present definite forms, namely, lone, narrow, and
thin; having invariably asmooth conchoidal surface below, and above, a lon-
gitudinal ridge bevelled off right and left, or a concave facet replacing the
ridge; in the latter case presenting three facets on the upper side. The
author is of opinion that they closely resemble, in every detail of form, obsi-
dian knives from Mexico, and flint knives from Stonehenge, Arabia, and
elsewhere, and that they appear to have been formed by the dislamination,
as films, of the long angles of prismatic blocks of stone. These fragments
occur intimately intermixed with the bone splinters, shells, ete., in the roof
breccia, in very considerable abundance; amorphous fragments of flint are
comparatively rare, and no pebbles or blocks occur either within or without
the cave. But similar reddish flint, or chert, is found in the hippurite lime-
stone near Termini. In regard to the theory of the various conditions
observed in the Maccagnone Cave, the author considers that it has under-
gone several changes of level, @d that the accumulation of bone breccia
below and outside is referable to a period when the cave was scarcely above
the level of the sea. Dr. Falconer points out the significance of the fact,
that although coprolites of hyzna were so abundant against the roof and
outside, none, or but very few, of the bones of hyzna were observed in the
interior. He remarked, also, on the absence of the remains of small mam-
malia, such as rodents. He inferred that the cave, in its present form, and
with its present floor, had not been tenanted by these animals. The vast
number of these hippopotami implied that the physical condition of the
country must have been very different at no very distant period from what
obtains now. He considered that all deposits above the bone breccia had
been accumulated up to the roof by materials washed in from above through
numerous crevices or flues in the limestone, and that the uppermost layer,
consisting of the breccia of shells, bone splinters, siliceous objects, burnt clay,
bits of charcoal, and coprolites of hyzena, had been cemented to the roof by
stalagmitic infiltration. The entire condition of the large fragile Helices
proved that the effect had been produced by tranquil agency of water, as
distinct from any tumultuous action. There was nothing to indicate that
the different objects in the roof breccia were other than of contemporaneous
origin. Subsequently a great physical alteration in the contour, altering the
flow of superficial water, and of the subterranean springs, changed all the
conditions previously existing, and emptied out the whole of the loose inco-
herent contents, leaving only the portions agglutinated to the roof. The
wreck of these ejecta was visible in the patches of “cinere impastata,” con-
taining fossil bones, below the mouth of the cavern. That a long period
must have operated in the extinction of the hyzna, cave-lion, and other fos-
sil species, is certain; but no index remains for its measurement. The
author would call the careful attention of cautious geologists to the inferen-
ces — that the Maccagnone Cave was filled up to the roof within the human
period, so that a thick layer of bone splinters, teeth, land-shells, coprolites of
hyena, and human objects, was agglutinated to the roof by the infiltration
of water holding lime in solution; that subsequently, and within the human
period, such a great amount of change took place in the physical configura-
tion of the district as to have caused the cave to be washed out and emptied
of its contents, excepting the floor breccia, and the patches of material ce-
mented to the roof and since coated with additional stalagmite.

In connection with the above paper, and at the same meeting of the Soci-
ety, Mr. Prestwich gave in a few words the results of the examination of

GEOLOGY. 349

the bone-cave at Brixham, in Devonshire. The cave has been traced along
three large gaHeries, meeting or intersecting one another at right angles.
Numerous bones of Rhinoceros tichorinus, Bos, Equus, Cervus tarandus,
Uusus spelzeus, and Hyzena, have been found; and several flint implements
have been met with in the cave-earth and gravel beneath. One in particular
was met with immediately beneath a fine antler of a reindeer and a bone of
the cave-bear, which were imbedded in the superficial stalagmite in the mid-
dle of the cave.

Mr. J. W. Flower also described a flint implement recently discovered in a
bed of gravel, at Saint Acheul, near Amiens, France. .

The gravel capping a slight elevation of the chalk at Saint Achenl is com-
posed of water-worn chalk-flints, and is about ten feet thick; above it is a
thin band of sand, surmounted by sandy beds (three feet six inches) and
brick-earth (eleven feet nine inches). In this gravel the remains of elephant,
horse, and deer have been found, with land and fresh-water shells of recent
species. From the gravel Mr. Flower dug out a flint implement, shaped like
a spear-head, at about eighteen inches from the face of the pit, and sixteen
feet from the surface of the ground. Mr. Flower, in this communication,
pointed out evidences to prove that this and many other similar flint imple-
ments obtained from the same gravel were really the result of human man-
ufacture, at a time previous to the deposition of the gravel in its present
place.

“These interesting discoveries,” says a writer in the London Athenceum,
“taken in connection with the discovery of human teeth and bones asso-
ciated with those of the mammoth on the Swabian Alps, with the human
bones in the Kostriz and other bone-caves, and with the more recent discoy-
ery of the association of stone knives and fossil elephant bones in France,
seems to promise that, before long, geologists, by perseverance, May come
upon evidences of an earlier date for man’s occupation of European ground
than has been usually granted. Still, however, the stone knives are of no
older date than the ‘ Pleistocene period’ of geologists —the beginning of
the present state of things around us, when the existing hills and valleys
had been formed, the present climates settled, and the present fauna and
flora established, though still combined with some representatives of the
past.”

On the Bone-Cavern of Torquay, England. — In this connection, the follow-
ing notice of the cavern of ‘“ Kent’s Hole,” Torquay, England (celebrated
for its animal remains), from a recent publication by its explorer, Rey. J.
MacEnery, may not be uninteresting. :

The favorite entrance to this cavern is simply a cleft in the rock, shaped
like a reversed wedge, about seven feet wide at the bottom and five feet high.
When the accumulated rubbish was cleared away from the entrance, the
interior was found to rise rapidly, and to spread out into a spacious vault,
while the rock floor was polished as if by constant use.

Ordinary tourists visit caverns for the purpose of admiring the sparry con-
cretions (the stalactites and stalagmites) that frequently adorn them with
the most singular shapes. Kent’s Hole is not destitute of these natural or-
naments, yet does not abound in them so remarkably as some other caverns.
In the upper gallery, the concretions at the roof appear like clusters of cones,
disposed at regular intervals, like the pendants of a Gothic screen, connected
by a transparent curtain of stalactite. While the mere tourist would admire
the natural architecture, and heed nothing beyond its beauty, the geologist

30

390 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

is chiefly attracted by it because it has rendered him the invaluable service
of sealing down the floor hermetically, and preserving the precious deposits
of animal bones beneath through many centuries, without permitting natu-
ral decay or accidental disturbance. So hard was the floor, that attempts to
penetrate it were abandoned in despair, until, by following the cracks that
traversed it like a pavement, a flag was turned over, and groups of skulls
and bones were found adhering to the stalagmite. Succeeding flags, when
upturned, exhibited like interesting objects. The place was evidently an
ursine cemetery — intramural, indeed, as respected rock walls, but extramu-
kal as regarded all habitations of town-loving man. Here the remains of
the bear prevailed to the exclusion of all others. The bones retained their
natural freshness, as if they had been derived from animals in a high state
of vigor; while some of the teeth displayed dazzling enamel. Two skulls
were buried in the stalagmite as in a mould, and were brought away in that
state. The unbroken condition of most of these remains appeared to indi-
cate that they belonged to animals that died a natural death in this spot
during a succession of ages.

The most interesting part of the cavern was at a point where the roof and
floor nearly met, and which was always regarded as the extreme limit of the
cavern, until, by removing heaps of loose stones, a passage was opened to a
small group of chambers, probably untrodden before by the foot of mortal
man. A column of spar connecting roof and floor being removed, it was
found, to the explorer’s inexpressible joy, to have covered the head of a
wolf — “ perhaps the largest and finest skull, whether fossil or modern, of
that animal in the world.” Near it lay one of its under jaws entire, — the
other could not be found. The stalagmite at this point was a foot anda
half thick, excessively hard, marked by mixture of rolled rocky fragments,
but in the interior moulding itself purely upon a mass of bones. These
were so thickly packed together, that no idea of their number could be given.
They had suffered from pressure, and had been impelled by violence into this
narrow neck of the hollow. Some were even driven into the interstices of
the opposite wall; others were piled in the greatest confusion against its
side. From this spot alone Mr. MacEnery gathered some thousands of teeth
of the horse and hyena, and in the midst of all were myriads of Rodentia.
The earth was saturated with animal matter; it was fat with the sinews and
marrow of more wild beasts than would have peopled all the menageries in
the world.

In one part of the cavern, which has received the name of the “‘ Cave of
Rodentia,” it was found that the remains and dust of this class of animals
constituted the whole floor, and that they were agglutinated together by cal-
careous matter into a bony breccia or conglomerate. Not only had their
tiny remains penetrated into every cleft and crevice of the rock, but they
had even insinuated themselves into the chambers of the large bones. Here,
then, were myriads of minute animal remains accumulated by the side of
those of the elephant, rhinoceros, and hyena, in one common sepulchre.
When a handful of the dust was thrown into the air, hundreds of teeth rose to
the surface, and only in this way could they be collected. Land and water
rats (campagnols), bats, weasels, and moles, had all left innumerable remains
on this spot. That they all existed and died here, was made manifest by
the condition of their remains, every part indicating prolonged habitation
and peaccable death.

The distribution of animal remains over the whole cavern may be thus

GEOLOGY. 301

summarily stated. The ancient floor of the cavern was covered with the
remains of the hyena, bear, and campagnol — the two latter occupying its
opposite extremities, the former occupying the remainder and the centre
and the upper gallery. The great body of the cavern was occupied by the
hyena; while, in addition to the remains of its own species, which perished
by a natural death, there were found remains of its prey, accompanied by
other evidences of the conversion of the cavern by hyenas into a favorite
den, resembling that of Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, so well explored and de-
scribed by Dr. Buckland, in his Reliquie Diluviane.

In addition to these animal remains, the upper portions of the pialaoaniie
floor have yielded abundant rélics of man; viz., in the lowest of the more
modern deposits, innumerable flint spears and arrow-heads; then pottery,
beads of opaque glass, human crania and teeth; while, finally, sun-baked
urns, fragments of breastplates, heaps of shells, and pins and bodkins of
bone, indicate the visits of Britons — perhaps Romanized Britons.

FOSSIL CETACEAN IN VERMONT.

At the Springfield meeting of the American Association for the Promotion
of Science, 1859, Mr. Edward Hitchcock, Jr., exhibited the remains of a
fossil whale, found in Charlotte, Vt., in August 1849, during an excavation
for the Rutland and Burlington railroad. It was found in blue clay, lying
from ten to fourteen feet below the surface, the head almost four feet higher
than the tail. The frishmen who discovered it, supposing it to be the bones
of a horse, wantonly broke many of them, and particularly the head.
Enough of the head, however, was saved to show the two spiracles, or
blow-holes, which are characteristic of the cetaceans. Nine conical teeth
were also found, which were considerably worn, showing that it was not a
young animal. Of the fifty, or perhaps fifty-two vertebrx which belong to
the genus Beluga, forty-one were found. The caudal vertebre, particularly
the last ones, are flattened horizontally, giving another indication of the
whale family. The total length of the vertebral column, including the in-
tervertebral cartilages, must have been one hundred and thirty-seven inches;
and this, with the head and caudal fin, must have made the animal ues
fourteen feet in length.

Of the five cheek-bones which belong to the Beluga, only one is missing,
and two of them are perfect. The ribs are very badly broken, though at
least four are perfect. Their whole number was twenty-six. This whale is,
without doubt, of the genus Beluga; and the specific name Vermontana,
was given it by the late Prof. Z. Thompson, of Burlington, Vermont, as
commemorative of the State where the remains were found.

In connection with the above statement, Sir William Logan, of the Canada
Survey, remarked, that the remains of a similar skeleton had been found
near Montreal, in a clay pit, which was dug for the purpose of making
bricks, fifteen feet below the surface. They were found associated with five
species of marine shells, and also with some plants and pieces of wood.

ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE SOMBRERO GUANO.

At arecent meeting of the Philadelphia Academy, Dr. Leidy called-attention
to the large number of turtle bones included in the masses of the so-called
Sombrero Guano, which significantly pointed to the origin of the rock, im-
ported as a manure rich in phosphates, from the island Sombrero, W. I.

302 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC’ DISCOVERY.

This island, situated about one hundred and thirty miles east of Porto Rico,
is about two and one-half miles long, one-half to three fourths of a mile
wide, and rises from twenty to forty feet above the level of the ocean. It
is a barren rock, formerly avoided by navigators, and appears to be entirely
composed of the rich phosphatic mineral. Analyses of the substance, by
competent chemists, indicate it to bear a resemblance in composition to
bones deprived of their cartilage, and otherwise altered, as we might sup-
pose bones to be, exposed to the influence of the ocean water. It contains
about the same proportion of phosphate of lime as calcined bones; and it
is this circumstance which has directed the attention of merehants and
agriculturists to its value as a manure.

From this, the Sombrero material deserves to be distinguished by a new
name; and perhaps the easy one of Osite, from its resemblance in composition
to bones, and its probable origin, would not be inappropriate. But are we
to ascribe the immense mass forming the Sombrero rock to animal origin?
Many reefs and shores of vast extent are known positively to have had
their origin in the testaceous coverings of the lower animals, but Sombrero
appears to be the first instance of an extensive island formed alone of the
remains of the higher animals. The composition of the Sombrero sub-
stance, with its included bones, leads us to suspect that the island was once
a shoal swarming with turtles and other vertebral animals, whose accumu-
lated remains of ages have been cemented together, and gradually elevated
above the ocean level to the present position of the island.

GIGANTIC AUSTRALIAN LIZARD.

Professor R. Owen has communicated to the Royal Society the description
of some remains of a gigantic Land Lizard from Australia. A collection
of fossil remains now in the British Museum, demonstrates the former exist-
ence in Australia of a land lizard far surpassing in bulk the largest species
now known. The characters are derived from vertebre, partially fossilized,
equalling in size the largest known crocodiles. They are of the proccelian
type, presenting lacertian modifications, and agreeing closely with those of
the existing lace-lizard of Australia. A generic distinction is indicated by
the comparatively contracted area of the neural canal, and by the inferior
development of the neural spine of this fossil vertebra, which, from the
proportions of the body, must have belonged to an animal not less than
twenty feet in length. For this probably extinct lizard the name of Mega-
lanea prisca is proposed.

Prof. Owen also has communicated to the Geological Society, ‘‘ Notes on
some Outline-drawings and Photographs of the Skull of Zygomaturus trilo-
bus, Macleay, from Australia,” received by him from Sir R. Murchison, be-
ing seven photographs, three of which are stereoscopic, of perhaps the
most extraordinary mammalian fossil yet discovered in Australia. This
unique and extraordinary skull of a probably extinct mammal, together
with other bones, but without its lower jaw, were found at King’s Creek,
Darling Downs, —the same locality whence the entire skull and other re-
mains of the Diprotodon have been obtained. Mr. Macleay has described
the fossil under notice as belonging to a marsupial animal, probably as
large as an ox, bearing a near approach to, but differing generically from,
Diprotodon. He has named it Zygomaturus trilobus. The skull has trans-
versely ridged molars, and a long process descending from the zygomatic

GEOLOGY. aon

arch, as in the Megatherium and Diprotodon, and exhibits an extraordinary
width of the zygomatic arches. The skull, at its broadest part, across the
zygomata, is fifteen inches wide, and is eighteen inches long. In Diprotodon,
the skull is about three feet long by one foot eight inches broad: so that,
while the latter must have had a face somewhat like that of the Kangaroo,

the Zygomaturus more resembled the Wombat in the face and head.
2

ON THE VEGETABLE STRUCTURE OF COAL.

The following is an abstract of a paper recently presented to the Geologi-
cal Society (London), by Prof. J. W. Dawson, of M’Gill College, Montreal:

After referring to the labors of others in the elucidation of the history of
eoal, the author remarks, that in ordinary bituminous coal we recognize, by
the unaided eye, laminz of a compact and more or less lustrous appearance,
separated by uneven films and layers of fibrous anthracite or mineral char-
coal. As these two kinds of material differ to some extent in origin and
state of preservation, and in the methods of study applicable to them, he
proceeds to treat of his subject under two heads: 1st, The structures pre-
served in the state of mineral charcoal. This substance consists of frag-
ments of prosenchymatous and vasiform tissues in a carbonized state, some-
what flattened by pressure, and more or less impregnated with bituminous
and mineral matters derived from the surrounding mass. It has resulted
from the subaérial decay of vegetable matter; whilst the compact coal is the
product of subaqueous putrefaction, modified by heat and exposure to air.
The author proceeded (after describing the methods used by him in examin-
ing mineral charcoal and coal) to describe the tissues of Cryptogamous
plants in the state of mineral charcoal. Among these he mentions Lepido-
dendron and U lodendron, also disintegrated vascular bundles from the petioles
of Ferns, the veins of Stigmarian leaves, and from some roots or stripes.
He then describes tissues of Gymnospermous plants in the state of mineral
charcoal; especially wood with discigerous fibres, and also with scalariform
tissue, such as that of Stigmaria and Calamodendron; and the author re-
- marks that probably the so-called cycadeous tissue hitherto met with in the
coal has belonged to Sigillarie. The next chief heading of the paper has
reference to structures preserved in the layers of compact coal, which consti-
tute a far larger proportion of the mass than the mineral charcoal does.
The laminx of pitch or cherry-coal, says Dr. Dawson, when carefully traced
over the surfaces of accumulation, are found to present the outline of flat-
tened trunks. This is also true, to a certain extent, of the finer varieties of
slate-coal; but the coarse coal appears to consist of extensive laminz of dis-
integrated vegetable matter mixed with mud. When the coal (especially
the more shaly varieties) is held obliquely under a strong light, in the man-
ner recommended by Goeppert, the surfaces of the laminz of coal present
the forms of many well-known coal-plants, as Sigillaria, Stigmaria, Poacites,
(or Neeggerathia), Lepidodendron, Ulodendron, and rough bark, perhaps of
Conifers. When the coal is traced upward into the roof-shales, we often
find the laminze of compact coal represented by flattened coaly trunks and
leaves, now rendered distinct by being separated by clay. The relation of
erect trees to the mass of the coal, and the state of preservation in which
the wood and bark of these trees occur, —the microscopic appearance of
coal, — the abundance of cortical tissue in the coal, associated with remains
of herbaceous plants, leaves, etc., are next treated of. :

30%

354 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

The author offers the following general conclusions:

1. With respect to the plants which have contributed the vegetable matter
of the coal, these are principally the Sigillarie and Calamitee, but especially
the former.

2. The woody matter of the axes of Sigillarie and Calamitec, and of con-
iferous trunks, as well as the scalariform tissues of the Lepidodendrw and
Ulidodendre, and the woody and vascular bundler of Ferns, appear princi-
pally in the state of mineral charcoal. The outer cortical envelop of these
plants, together with such portions of their wood and of herbaceous plants
and foliage as were submerged without subaérial decay, occur as compact
coal of various degrees of purity, — the cortical matter, owing to its greater
resistance to aqueous infiltration, affording the purest coal. The relative
amounts of all these substances found in the states of mineral charcoal and
compact coal depend principally upon the greater or less prevalence of sub-
aérial decay occasioned by greater or less dryness of the swampy flats on
which the coal accumulated.

3. The structure of the coal accords with the view that its materials were
accumulated by growth without any driftage of materials. The Sigillarie
and Calamitec, tall and branchless, and clothed only with rigid linear leaves,
formed dense groves and jungles, in which the stumps and fallen trunks of
dead trees become resolved by decay into shells of bark and loose fragments
of rotten wood, which currents must have swept away, but which the most
gentle inundations, er even heavy rains, could scatter in layers over the sur-
face, where they gradually became imbedded in a mass of roots, fallen leaves,
and herbaceous plants.

4. The rate of accumulation of coal was very slow. The climate of the
period, in the northern temperate zone, was of such a character that the true
conifers show rings of growth not larger, or much less distinct, than those
of many of their northern congeners.* The Sigillarie and Calamites were
not, as often supposed, succulent plants. The former had, it is true, a very
thick cellular inner bark; but their dense woody axes, their thick and nearly
imperishable outer bark, their scanty and rigid foliage, would indicate no
very rapid growth. In the case of Sigiilarie, the variation in the leaf-scars
in different parts of the trunk, the intercalation of new ridges at the surface
representing that of new woody wedges in the axis, the transverse marks
left by the successive stages of upward growth, all indicate that at least sey-

ral years must have been required for the growth of stems of moderate
size. The enormous roots of these trees, and the conditions of the coal-
swamps, must have exempted them from the danger of being overthrown
by violence. They probably fell, in successive generations, from natural
decay; and, making every allowance for other materials, we may safely
assert that every foot of thickness of pure bituminous coal implies the quiet
growth and fall of at least fifty generations of Sigzlariw, and therefore an
undisturbed condition of forest-growth enduring through many centuries.
Further, there is evidence that an immense amount of loose parenchymatous
tissue, and even of wood, perished by decay; and we do not know to what
extent even the most durable tissues may have disappeared in this way; so
that in many coal-seams we haye only a very small part of the vegetable
matter produced.

Lastly. The results stated in this paper refer to coal-beds of the middle

* Paper on Fossils from Nova Scotia, Proc. Geol. Soc., 1847.

GEOLOGY. 355

coal-measures. A few facts which I have observed lead me to believe that
in the thin seams of the lower coal-measures remains of Neggerathia and
Lepidodendron are more abundant than in those of the middle coal-meas-
ures.* In the upper coal-measures similar modifications may be expected.
These differences have been to a certain extent ascertained by Goeppert for
Silesia, and by Lesquereux for those of Ohio; but the subject is deserving of
further investigation.

ON THE AGE AND FOSSILS OF THE CONNECTICUT RIVER
SANDSTONES.

Prof. Hitchcock, in his recent work, Ichnology of New England, in discuss-
ing the age of the Connecticut River Sandstones, concludes that the upper
half of the sandstones — that east of the half range of Mount Tom — is not
older than the Lias; and that the Virginia and North Carolina beds are of
equivalent age; the lower half of the same sandstone, which may be a mile
in thickness, according to the measurements of Prof. H., are thick enough
to embrace the Triassic and Permian; but no evidence has been obtained
that the Permian is represented.

Since the discovery of the Permian in the west, as a direct continuation of
the Carboniferous beds, and as the closing part properly of the Carbonifer-
ous system, it has become more apparent, we think, that the beds on the
Atlantic border, from the Connecticut valley to North Carolina, belong to a
later period. The elevation of the Appalachian mountains appears to have
closed the Palzozoic era, and thus separates the Permian period, the last of
the Carboniferous age, from the Triassic, the first of the Reptilian. The
observations of Prof. Hitchcock tend to confirm this view, for the rocks all
appear to belong to one system: the fossils of the upper half are as recent,
probably, as Lias; and no trace of a Permian species has been found in any
of the beds.

The foot-prints found in the Connecticut River Sandstones, are referred to
by Prof. Hitchcock as follows: — To Marsupialoid animals (5 species ); Birds
(31 species); Ornithoid reptiles, or reptiles walking on their posterior feet
(12); Lizards (17); Batrachians (16); Chelonians (8); Fishes (4); Crusta-
ceans, Myriapods, and Insects (19); Annelids (10);—in all 123 species,
more than double the number announced ten years since. The reference of
some of these species to the special division in which they occur, is still
doubtful, as Professor Hitchcock states, especially the Chelonian and Mar-
supialoid tracks. — Silliman’s Journal, March, 1859.

ON SOME FOSSIL PLANTS OF RECENT FORMATIONS.

Prof. Leo Lesquereaux, in a communication to Silliman’s Journal, May
1859, states, that he finds, on examination of a collection of fossil plants
made by Dr. John Evans, from the coal formations at Nanaimo, Vancou-
ver’s Island, and at Bellingham Bay, Washington Territory, that, with one
exception, “there is not a single plant collected which does not show a near
relation to some species of the Miocene of Europe,” —a conclusion that un-

*T may refer to my late paper on Devonian Plants from Canada, for an example
of a still older coal, made up principal'y of remains of Lycopodiaceous plants of
the genus Psilophyton.

356 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

mistakably establishes the age of the coal strata of Oregon and Vancouver.
Of the coal itself, Dr. Evans has given the following description.

“These coals do not belong to the true coal-measures, but to the tertiary
period; they have, however, been altered by voleartic action. The Belling-
ham Bay coal particularly, in consequence, is of a remarkable crystalline
structure, and presents under the magnifier a very singular and beautiful
appearance. It will produce an excellent coke, and is well suited to manu-
facturing and domestic purposes. It burns freely, and, although rather
light for long sea voyages, unless the construction of furnaces should be
changed, lessening the draft, is suitable for river navigation. The coal crops
out at various points from the British line, to near Port Oxford in Oregon,
and is accessible to sail and steam navigation, and almost inexhaustible in
quantity. These coals, with imperfect machines and facilities for mining,
can be delivered, ready for shipment, for at from $2 to $3 per ton.”

If we examine, says M. Lesquereaux, the plants obtained in Oregon and
Vancouver, conjointly with those obtained by Prof. Safford from the Plio-
cene of Tennessee, by Dr. D. D. Owen from the chalk-banks, or Pleistocene
of the Mississippi, and with those figured by Prof. Heer in his Fossil Fiora
of European Tertiary, “ we are at once struck with the remarkable character
of the Miocenic flora of Oregon and Vancouver Island, which evidently in-
dicates a tropical climate at this period of the geological formations. Palm
trees, figs, Cinnamomum, and Proteinew are now generally distributed at
least 30° lower than they were then. But it is still more extraordinary to
find just on the same latitude, but on an opposite point of the globe, in
Switzerland, a contemporaneous fossil flora, of which the species have so
near a relation to those of Oregon, that some of them may be regarded as
truly identical. This shows a remarkable uniformity in the direction of the
isothermal lines at the epoch of the Miocene formation, and establishes, be-
yond a doubt, that the oscillations of temperature have been generally
marked around our globe, and have not been the result of local geological dis-
turbances. That the oscillations were slow and progressive is shown by the
distribution of the species of plants in both the following formations. In
the Miocene of Vancouver the Proteinex are dominant. It has also palm
trees and Salisburia, all tropical plants, and most of the species are without
relation to the plants now living on this continent. In the Pliocene of Ten-
nessee, the Proteinez appear still abundant, and the flora finds its relatives
in the southern shores of Florida and on the islands of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Post-pliocene of the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Ohio River, and
even above it, has the same species of plants as are now found along the
shores of the Atlantic, in the Southern States. We have thus, apparently, a
steady decrease in the temperature, from the Miocene to the Post-pliocene
of the Mississippi. From this it appears to follow that the chalky banks,
of which the true geological position is still uncertain, ought to be re-
warded as anterior in origin to the Drift. For it is probable that if they had
been deposited after or at the time of the ice period, the distribution of the
plants would show a colder climate, rather than the climate of our southern
shores.”

ERUPTION OF MAUNA LOA, IN THE ISLAND OF HAWAII, SANDWICH
ISLANDS. °

One of the most terrific volcanic eruptions on record, took place from the
volcano of Mauna Loa, Sandwich Islands, during the past year, commenc-

GEOLOGY. oot

ing January 23d, 1859. On the evening of Saturday, January 22, the snow
on the mountain was seen white and unobscured by clouds or vapor; there
were no signs of smoke, and none of eruption. On Sunday, thick clouds of
smoke were seen gathering about the mountain, and at evening the whole
sky was lighted with a terrific glare, and the lava could be seen spouting
from a crater near the summit of MaunaLoa. As in all the other eruptions
from that mountain, the lava was thrown up in a jet, apparently nearly one
thousand feet high; it flowed down the northern slope of the mountain, and
in one or two days ‘ formed for itself. a covered channel from the summit
crater to the plain between the mountains.”

A writer in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, published at Honolulu, S. L.,
thus describes the incidents of a visit to the volcano during the continuance
of this great eruption:

From the distance at which we observed the crater, about ten miles, and
from various points of observation, it appeared to be circular, its width being
about equal to its breadth, and perhaps three hundred feet across the mouth.
This may be too moderate an estimate, and it may prove to be five hundred
or even eight hundred feet across it. The rim of the crater is surrounded or
made up of cones formed from the stones and scoria thrown out. The lava
does not simply run out from the side of the crater, like water from the side
of a bowl, but is thrown up in continuous columns, very much like the Geyser
springs, as represented in school geographies. At times this spouting ap*
peared to be feeble, rising but little above the rim of the crater; but gener-
ally, as if eager to escape from the pent-up bowels of the earth, it rose to a
height nearly equai to the base of the crater. But the columns and masses
of lava thrown out were ever varying in form and height. Sometimes,
when very active, a spire or cone of lava would shoot up like a rocket, or
in the form of a huge pyramid, to a height of nearly double the base of the
crater. If the mouth of the crater is five hundred feet across, the per-
pendicular column must be eight hundred to one thousand feet in height!
Then, by watching it with a spyglass, the column could be seen to diverge,
and fall in all manner of shapes, like a beautiful fountain.

This part of the scene was of wonderful grandeur. The fiery redness of
the molten lava, ever varying in form, from the simple gurgling of a spring
to the hugest fountain conceivable, is a scene that will remain on the mem-
ory of the observer till death. Large masses of red-hot lava, weighing hun-
dreds, if not thousands, of tons, thrown up with inconceivable power to a
ereat height, could be seen occasionally falling outside or on the rim of the
crater, tumbling down the cones and rolling over the precipice, remaining
brilliant for a few moments, then becoming cold and black, and lost among
the surrounding blocks of lava.

A dense, heavy column of smoke continually rose out of the crater, but
always on the north side, and took a north-easterly direction, rising in one
continuous column far above the mountain, to a height of perhaps ten
thousand feet from the crater. j

On leaving the crater, the lava stream does not appear at the surface for
some distance, say an eighth of a mile, as it has cut its way through a deep
ravine or gulch, which hides it from theeye. How deep this gulch may be,
is all conjecture, as it is impossible to get near enough to look into it; but it
probably is several hundred feet deep. The first, then, that we see of the lava,
after being thrown up in the crater, is its branching out into various streams
some distance below the fountain-head. Instead of running in one large

wa

308 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC: DISCOVERY.

stream, it parts, and divides into a great number, spreading out over a tract
of five or six miles in width. For the first six miles from the crater, the
descent is rapid, varying from four to ten miles an hour. But after reaching
the level plain the stream moves slower. Here the streams are not so nu-
merous as higher up, there being a principal one, which varies, and is very
irregular, from an eighth to a half mile in width, though there are frequent
branches running off from it. This principal stream reached the sea, near
Wainanalii, on the 31st of January, after a flow of eight days. When it
reached the sea, it spread out about half a mile in width. Some of the finest
scenes of the flow were the cascades or falls formed in it before the lava reached
the plain. There were several of them, and they appeared to be changing,
and new ones formed in different localities as new streams were made. One,
however, that remained apparently unchanged for two days, must have been
eighty or one hundred feet in height. First, there was a fall; then, below
were cascades or rapids. To watch this fall during the night, when the
bright, red-hot stream of lava was flowing over it, at the rate of ten miles
an hour, like water, was a scene never to be forgotten. .

Another writer describes the jets from the crater of the volcano, as fol-
lows: — “ Before you, at a distance of two miles, rises the new-formed crater,
in the midst of fields of black, smoking lava, while from its centre there jets
a column of red-hot lava to an immense height, threatening instant annihi-
lation to any presumptuous mortal who should come within the reach of its
scathing influence. The crater may be one thousand feet in diameter, and
from one to one hundred and fifty feet high. The column of liquid lava
which is constantly sustained in the air, is from two hundred to five hundred
feet high, and perhaps the highest jets may reach as high as seven hundred
feet! There is a constant and rapid succession of jets, one within another; the
masses falling outside, and cooling as they fall, form a sort of dark veil,
through which the new jets darting up with every degree of force and every
variety of form, render this grand fire-fountain one of the most magnificent
objects that human imagination can conceive of. From the top of the lava
jets, the current of heated air carries up a large mass of scoria and pumice,
which falls again in constant showers for some miles around the crater.”

Prof. Haskell, of Oahu College, thus describes the flow of the river of lava
from the mountain to the sea:

“Descending by the stream of lava flowing from the mountain, we were
abie to follow it on its south side, as a strong wind was blowing from that
direction. Here we found good walking, and could with safety approach
within a few feet of the channel. The width of the stream was from twenty
to one hundred feet, but its velocity almost incredible. Some of our party
thought it one hundred miles per hour. We could not calculate it in any
way, for pieces of cold lava thrown into it would sink and melt almost in-
stantly. The velocity certainly seemed as great as that of a railroad car.
For eight or ten miles the stream presented a succession of cascades, rapids,
curves, and eddies, with an occasional cataract. Some of these were formed
by the nature of the ground over which it flowed, some by the new lava
itself. The stream had built up its own banks on each side, and had added
to the depth of its channel by melting at the bottom. The stream flowed
more gracefully than water. In consequence of its immense velocity and
imperfect mobility, its surface took the same shape as the ground over
which it flowed. It therefore presented not only hollows, but ridges. In
several places, for a few feet, the course of the stream was an ascent of five

GEOLOGY. 359

to ten degrees, in one instance of twenty-five. Where the turns in the
stream were abrupt, the outside of the stream was much higher than the
inside. So much was this the case, that the outside sometimes curved over
the inside, forming a spiral. It is needless to add, that we were filled with
wonder and admiration at the sights we saw.

“The clinkers are always formed by deep streams, and generally by wide
ones, which flow sluggishly, become damned up in front by the cooling of
the lava, and in some instances cooled over the top, forming, as it were, a
pond or lake. As the stream augments beneath, the barriers in front and
the crust on the surface are broken up, and the pieces are rolled forward
and coated over with melted lava, which cools and adheres to them more or
less. Then, from the force of the melted lava, behind and underneath, the
stream rolls over and over itself. In this way a bank of clinkers, ten to
forty feet high, resembling the embankment of a railroad, is formed. Often,
at the end of the stream, no liquid lava can be seen, and the only evidence
of motion is the rolling of the jagged rocks of all sizes down the front of the
embankment. Sometimes the stream breaks through this embankment, and
flows on for a time, until it gets clogged up again, and then the same pro-
cesses are repeated. In this latter case, the outbursting stream often carries,
as it were, on its back immense masses of clinkers, which look like hills
walking. We found no clinkers until we reached the plain, and it would
seem that none are formed except where the descent is but little, or the lava
but imperfectly melted.”

It is said that ships sailing along the windward shores of Hawaii, Maui,
and Molokai,.during the week in which the eruption commenced, and before
the lava reached the ocean, encountered immense shoals of dead fish; lead-
ing to the supposition that there might have been a sub-oceanic eruption
before the outpouring from the mountain, and that possibly the whole
island might have been overwhelmed, had not this side passage given issue
to a portion of the lava.

SEISMOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE WORLD.

A very interesting Map has been published, with this title, in England, in
which, on Mercator’s projection, are laid down careful indications of the re-
gions subject to earthquakes and the sites of volcanoes. In the language of
its constructor, it shows “ the surface distribution and space of earthquakes,”
and is intended to illustrate a paper contributed by Mr. Robert Mallet, F. R.S.,
etc., of Dublin, and his son, Dr. J. W. Mallet, to the late meeting of. the
British Association at Leeds. As a very large number of copies of the map
is required, and the greatest accuracy of delineation is necessary, it has
been executed in chromo-lithography, and printed in a serics of different
tints from eight different stones. Thus, various shades of orange and
orange-red: show what are termed the “seismic bands” in their position
and relative intensity. Small black disks denote ‘‘ volcanoes, fumeroles, sol-
fataras,” now active, or presumed to have been so within historic or recent
geologic periods. A speckled gray-blue shade indicates the areas of subsi-
dence (whether sub-oceanic or terranean) now proceeding. A green line de-
marcates land from sea. Of the great oceans; only the Atlantic shows
much of that agency which produces earthquakes, and that chiefly in its
latitudes north of the equator. The Pacific has almost an immunity from
these throes of earth’s inner crust. Of the continents, Europe has the

560 * ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

fainter tints of “seismic bands” in the north; but only in Iceland does the
deeper hue indicate great intensity, accompanied by the signs of considera-
ble voleanic action — there being ten smaller dots, besides the large one for
Hecla. The Azores, Teneriffe, and Cape Verd Islands, are all shown to be
voleanic; and along the south of Europe the band is of greater intensity,
and especially in Italy, also marked as volcanic. There is a deep band from
the Levant and Cairo to Tiflis, and it meanders across Persia and Central
India to Calcutta. A large tract of sea and land, encircling Borneo, is
clearly one of the most intensely seismic and volcanic regions of the earth.
The bands then extend in a north-easterly direction, over Hong Kong, Jeddo,
etc., and across the ocean to the Russian and British territories on the north-
west coast of North America. The band extends along the whole of the
western coast of Labrador, California, etc., increasing in intensity as it enters
Mexico; and here again volcanoes become prevalent. This continues over
Central America, and again pursues the line of the west coast of South
America to Cape Horn. In the West Indies is another line or band, and the
coast of the United States has a band of less intensity; while the only ap-
proach to the centre of the North American continent is along the valley of
the Mississippi. The most northerly portions of Europe, Asia, and North
America, are quite free from these influences. But from the West Indies a
band extends southward (with a branch touching the south-east coast of
Australia), through New Zealand, to nearly 80° south latitude, terminating
in the volcanic peak of Mount Erebus.

TRACES OF ERUPTIVE ACTION IN THE MOON.

The following remarks on the above subject were recently made before
the Royal Astronomical Society (London), by the Rey. T. W. Webb:

“The inquiry as to the continuance of volcanic or explosive action on the
surface of the moon must be admitted to be a very interesting one. Astron-
omers are generally agreed as to its entire cessation on any conspicuous
scale; but this would not necessarily infer the impossibility, or even im-
probability, of minor eruptions, which might still continue to result from a
diminished but not wholly extinguished force. Till the publication of the
labors of Beer and Miadler the necessary data for the determination of the
question were very imperfect; and since that time the general impression
would seem to be adverse to the iflea cf any physical change. Before, how-
ever, it is entirely acquiesced in, it may be well to see whether any evidence
of an opposite nature exists. Want of leisure has hitherto prevented me
from entering upon the subject in any other than the most incidental man-
ner; but I would request permission to direct attention to one or two regions
where an accurate investigation might be desirable. One of these is the
spot named Cichus, near the south extremity of the Mare Nubium. Here,
many years ago, in comparing Schroter’s drawings with the mcon, I was
struck with the apparent enlargement of the small crater which has defaced
one side of the ring. On procuring the map of Beer and Madler, I found
that they had also seen it enlarged. Could we, in this instance, depend
upon the older drawings, we might reasonably infer the probability of a
change since the year_1792. Schroter was undoubtedly a coarse draughts-
man, but still he was faithful and careful; nor does there seem any appear-
ancé, but the reverse, that his designs were copied from one another to save
trouble; if not, the agreement of three separate figures seems fair evidence
that this little crater was not then ef its present magnitude.”

GEOLOGY. 361

VOLCANIC EMANATIONS.

The deficiency of our information regarding the gaseous products of Vol-
canoes seems to have induced the Academy of Sciences to send two of their
men of science — Messrs. St. Clair Deville and Leblanc — to Italy, on a special
mission to examine the gases which issue from the volcanoes of that coun-
try. They were supplied with peculiar apparatus, made for the purpose of
collecting and preserving the gases, and partly for examining them on the
spot. The memoir containing the result of their investigations has been
made the subject of a report by three very accomplished members of the
Academy, — Messrs. Dumas, Boussingault, and Elie de Beaumont. They
state that M. Deville and his associate were enabled by their apparatus to
collect gases over mercury, not only at the orifice of the volcano, but at great
depths in the vent; in the latter case by slender tubes, which were rapidly
closed by the blow-pipe. The gases they brought away and analyzed in
Paris, were from Vesuvius, the Phlegrean Fields, one of the Lipari Isles (Vul-
cano), and Etna. Mixed with the gaseous products they found much
heated air, more or less altered by the addition of gas or vapors, or the ab-
sorption of oxygen, which led them to believe that common air penetrates
into the vent of the volcano by a fissure, is exhaled by it, and escapes
heated. Generally, the report confirms the opinions of Davy as to Vesu-
vius, Boussingault as to the Andes, and Bunsen as to Iceland, but with
some additions. They show that different fumeroles of one volcano do not
yicld the same gas, and that the gas from a single fumerole is not always
the same. Further, the gas from the different fumeroles varies with their
distance from the eruptive crater, and varies also with the time elapsed
from the commencement of the preceding eruption. The report concludes
by expressing an opinion that the gaseous emanations, carefully analyzed
and compared, will throw light on the chemical processes which gave them
birth, and enable observers in the vicinity of a volcano, and, through them,
the surrounding population, to foresee the course which a coming eruption is
likely to run, and of course serve as a useful warning.

NATIVE IRON,

The following communication is made to Silliman’s Journal, Sept. 1859, by
Dry ¥.- A. Genth:

About four years ago I received, for examination, a mineral, which was
said to be found in the neighborhood of Knoxville, Tennessee, in considera-
ble quantities, and which was believed to be a valuable nickel ore. A quali-
tative analysis of it, made at that time, proved it to be almost pure iron, and
the total absence of carbon, phosphorus, and sulphur, and its peculiar ap-
pearance, made it very probable that it was real native tron. The specimen
which I received was 13 x 13 in size; on one side of it the iron was one-
fourth, on the other one-eighth of an inch in thickness. On one side it was
incrusted by a silicate of iron, magnesia, and lime.

The iron itself is of a grayish-white color, a hackly fracture, and breaks
easily into fragments of an irregular shape, which are crystalline, without,
however, showing signs of any distinct planes. It is soft, and scratches
fluorspar with difficulty. Lustre, eminently metallic. Dissolves readily in
nitric acid. It was found to contain —

31

362 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

POM caaesins simon ct ae SOOM TOO aiale (elelaleree oie see. So bisa Seles . -99°790
Nickel, with a trace of cobalt,.........+. 45.5 Sn cine. Ju OCOD OSU eeace 140
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PSUINCIUIN ssf ties. s alactv ces « Reletealericiate nies SSosgds w eiolo slcleiate sistoey sieieieie Ae 0-075

100°148

About a year after I had examined the mineral from Knoxville, I received
the same substance from northern Alabama, as an alloy of gold, platinum,
silver, copper, etc., with the request to advise a plan for the separation of
these metals.

I have endeavored to obtain more of this interesting substance from both
localities ; but the parties, probably not being satisfied with the results of my
examinations, did not comply with my request; and I hope others may be
more successful than I have been.

ON AN EXAMINATION OF THE MATTER OF A SUPPOSED SHOOTING
STAR THAT FELL ON THE EVE OF NOVEMBER l6ru, 1857, AT
CHARLESTON, S. C.— BY PROF. C. U. SHEPARD.

In calling attention to the matter of a shooting meteor, Iam conscious
that the evidence of its genuineness is not absolutely perfect; nevertheless,
it falls so little short of entire satisfaction, as to make it fully worthy of
notice. No instance of the kind at least has yet been recorded, entitled to
so much confidence.

Mr. S. R. Scriven, a clerk in a dry-goods store in King’s Street, Charleston,
was the principal observer of the phenomenon. He returned to his resi-
dence near King’s Street, in Charleston, at half past eight, on the evening of
Novy. 16, 1857, when he saw a red, fiery ball, of the size and shape of an
orange, slowly descending through a distance apparently of twenty or
thirty feet, to the ground. Its fall was scarcely more rapid than that of a
soap-bubble, giving him time to call his sister, a little girl, to see it strike
a high wooden fence, distant about fifty or sixty feet from the portico,
and which separated the door-yard from a church-enclosure adjoining. It
seemed to adhere for an instant to the board against which it struck, and
then separated into three parts, and disappeared. The evening was dark,
it having followed a rainy afternoon, though at the time of the fall, it had
ceased to rain and become very foggy.

Nothing further would probably have been heard of the phenomenon
but for the accidental reading, by an elder sister the next day at the break-
fast-table, of a paragraph from a newspaper, relating to a meteoric fall,
where the specimens picked up were said to have possessed a strong odor
of sulphur. This induced young Scriven, who had never before heard of
meteoric falls, at once to examine the fence against which the ball had
struck. The fence was eight feet high, and formed of long strips of hori-
zontally disposed boards. It was near the extremity of an uppermost
board, that had been detached and bent around so as to present its flat side
uppermost, that the body had been seen to impinge. And here it was that
he discovered adhering a small bristling mass of black fibres. These he
detached and carried into the house. As it had rained again during the
night, he was led to suppose that the rest of the matter had been washed
away. He searched the ground among the dead grass, but not until after
the second night, when much more rain had fallen. He could find no move

GEOLOGY. 363

of the same material, though he gathered up numerous small fragments,
which proved to be ordinary charcoal.

Mr. Scriven (the father) was so much struck with the appearance of the
black fibres, together with the circumstances under which they had been
found, that he requested his son to call on Dr. William Pettigrew, the fam-
ily physician, and describe to him what had happened. Two days, how-
ever, elapsed, before Dr. Pettigrew heard of the case. He immediately
repaired to the house, where he was informed of the particulars as above
described, and shown a mere pinch of the matter that had been detached
from the fence,—the principal portion of it having unfortunately been
given to a young man of the neighborhood, an engineer, who wished to
exhibit it to his friends.

Dr. Pettigrew immediately called to acquaint me of the case; but not
finding me at home, we did not meet until the forenoon of the 20th, when
he presented me the specimen gathered by Scriven, and took me to the
spot.

I heard the statements repeated from the different members of the family,
corroborative of those above presented, and examined the place upon the
board from whence the fibres had been gathered. It presented no discol-
oration or appearance of having been heated or charred, though for many
inches on either side, it was slightly blackened in spots. This, perhaps,
was not strange, as heavy rains had fallen since the occurrence; and it
might fairly be presumed that all foreign matter would have been effect-
ually detached. I examined the grass and soil on both sides of the fence,
without finding anything beyond little fragments of charcoal, which are
common enough in most places about the premises of houses. We then
took pains to find the individual to whom had been given the principal
portion of the fibrous matter obtained from the fence; but had the mortifi-
cation to discover that, having worn it in a paper wrapper for several days
in his vest pocket, he had finally mislaid or lost it. Thus little more than
a microscopically visible specimen of the shooting star remained for study
and examination. Its entire weight is probably less than one-tenth of a
grain. When viewed by a single pocket lens, it seems to be a confused ag-
gregate of short clippings of the finest black hair, varying in length from
one-tenth to one-third of an inch. Each portion is straight, or only slightly
curved. Except in color, they remind one most of that variety of pumice-
stone from the Sandwich Islands, known as volcanic hair, or as “Pele’s
hair.” They do not seem very prone to break in handling, and appear
slightly elastic.

They have been examined under compound microscopes of high power
by several persons accustomed to the use of this instrument; but hitherto
no one has ventured to suggest a relationship in their properties to any
known form of organic or inorganic matter. The following description is
from a note handed to me by my friend, Dr. F. W. Porcher, of Charleston.
“Black elongated bodies, perfectly opaque, round and solid; amorphous,
not properly smooth surfaces, often furnished with warty dots or projections;
rather glossy.”

I could spare only a few of them for a chemical trial. These were intro-
duced into a small glass test-tube (previously well dried), and heated by con-
tact with the flame of the blow-pipe. They suddenly glowed with a brilliant
light, at the same time emitting an odor most nearly resembling the bitu-
minous. A distinct grayish skeleton of each fibre was left adhering to the

364 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

glass. Barytic water being thrown into the tube, was instantly rendered
milky, thereby proving the existence of carbonic acid; and the subsequent
addition of hydrochloric acid, slowly caused the separation of the skeletons
from the glass, which led me to infer the presence of silica as a part of the
earthy residuum. The little bodies, however, were not annihilated by the
process; but, greatly to my surprise, were easily seen, by the aid of a single
lens, still floating through the clear liquid, preserving in a great measure
their original form, with the exception only of being rendered here and
there transparent, as if about one-half of the black matter had been eaten
out and dissolved, leaving the remainder sufficiently connected to maintain
the original figure of the body.

This is all that I have been able to ascertain concerning the origin, struc-
ture, and chemical composition of these singular bodies. They appear to
be inorganic, though composed in part of carbon. <A large proportion of
earthy matter also enters into their composition.

It will be remembered, perhaps, in this connection, that Berzelius detected
what appeared to him to be an organic residuum (resembling burnt hay)
in the French meteoric stone of Alais, that fell March 15, 1806; and bear-
ing more distinctly still upon our subject, are the highly interesting results
recently obtained by Prof. Wohler on the unknown substance of an organic
nature (resinous) in the meteoric stone of Kaba, Hungary, that fell April
15, 1857; and those again arrived at by Prof. E. P. Harris, in the Gottingen
laboratory, concerning the carbonaceous matter in the stone that fell Oct.
13, 1838, at Cape of Good Hope,—a meteorite originally described by Sir
John Herschel and Prof. Faraday. Prof. Harris states, in his valuable
thesis on meteorites (GOttingen, 1859), that he finds a quarter per cent. of
bituminous matter in the Cape stone, which is soluble both in alcohol and
ether, and fusible in a glass tube over a spirit-lamp. It finally burns, with
a bituminous odor, and the deposition of carbon.

Is the matter of the Charlseton shooting star analogous to that of the
Alais and the Cape meteoric stones? And if so, may the more complete
combustion of its carbonaceous ingredient have been prevented by the hu-
mind state of the atmosphere at the time of its fall? These are questions
that naturally suggest themselves, but to which we are not in a condition to
return satisfactory replies at present.*

It is reasonable, perhaps, to suppose that many aggregates of meteoric
matter — such, for example, as those made up wholly of one or more of the
following meteorié elements: carbon, phosphorus, and sulphur— would,
owing to their easy combustibility, burn out, even in the upper regions of
the atmosphere, and, being resolved into gaseous compounds, fail of trans-
mitting to the earth’s surface any material proof of their existence. Others,
again, may not be recognized at the surface of the earth, owing to the dis-
persion of their oxides in the condition of an impalpable dust, or in solution
in water. But, however this may be, the facts seem thickening about us of
the occasional arrival out of the air of anomalous earthy bodies, whose

* As having possibly a close connection with the subject in hand, may be men-
tioned, two instances recorded in Chladni’s list of ancient meteorites. The first of
these refers to the fall at Rockhausen, near Erfort, July 5, 1582, (?) during a frightful
tempest, of a large quantity of a fibrous substance, similar to hair. The second
occurred March 23, 1665, (?) at a place near Lancha, not far from Naumburg, in
which case, the matter that fell was likewise fibrous, and resembled a bluish silk. It
was also abundant.

GEOLOGY. 3865

descent is unaccompanied by the explosions belonging to the true meteorites,
and the precipitated matter is uncharacterized, also, by the possession of a
thin, well-fused coating or crust.

The study of these pseudo or doubtful meteorites, as they have been
called, is worthy of a much closer attention than has hitherto been devoted
to them; and it is to be regretted that they continue still to be treated
much as the true stones and iron masses were, prior to the time of Chaldni
and Howard. Their study seems to be regarded as a field, exterior to the
domain of legitimate science,—a region for the reception of all that is
vague and contradictory. Much time and labor will no doubt be requisite
to disentangle what is really entitled to scientific regard; but this desirable
result will be yet longer postponed, if naturalists continue to dismiss as
unworthy of investigation every reported meteoric fall that is unattended
with the stereotyped accompaniments of the descent of the black encrusted
stone and iron mass, the frequency of whose arrival has now so multiplied
as to make the recital of their apparition almost monotonous.

Without here referring to many of the doubtful meteorites, of which I
have from time to time given notices, I will venture to call attention to a
few other instances, of which no scientific mention has yet been made,—
not claiming for them, however, any other character than that of mere
hints, intended to awaken regard to a fuller investigation of analogous
cases, as they may from time to time present themselves.

It was not far from the month of August, 1834, that the newspapers
announced the fall of a blazing meteor, in the night, in the town of Nor-
wich, Conn. Its descent was unaccompanied by any report, and the mass
of matter, in its course, came near falling upon the roof of a house, missing
it only by the space of about two feet, and nearly burying itself in the
rather soft earth of the door-yard. The phenomenon occasioned much
fright to the occupants of the house, who were only females. It was seen,
however, by others. The mass of matter occupying the cavity was of a
flattened form, and nearly as large over asa man’s head. It had the ap-
pearance (in the words of a neighbor who saw it, and who described it to
me a few weeks after) of a mass of earth, stuck together by the infiltration
of tarry matter. And such he took it to be, supposing that some mis-
chievous persons had prepared a fire-ball, and projected it on fire into the air,
with the intention of alarming the inmates of the house. I was shown the
cavity said to have been produced by the ball; but the specimen had been
given to a medical student, who had sent it to his preceptor, residing in or
near Albany, N. Y. The circumstances were on the whole so discouraging
to the idea of its being a genuine meteorite, that I gave the subject no
further consideration.

On the evening of the 23d of April, 1855, at Ochtertyre House, Crieff,
in Perthshire (Scotland), a young woman saw, from the third story, a shoot-
ing star or meteorite, falling, with a brilliant light. It struck the gravel
walk near to the house. She instantly called two other females, ‘‘ who saw,
as it were, a bright object on the gravel, like the sun shining on a large
diamond.” Two of them ran out of the house and round a court-yard to
the spot, taking matches and a candle with them. As soon as they got to
the spot, one of them picked up two cindery fragments, which were too hot
to hold, and which emitted a strong sulphurous smell. The other felt
something hot under her foot, which she also picked up. It had a similar
character with the other fragments. At first it was believed that these

aL

366 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

masses had actually fallen from the heavens; but a closer investigation
into their character left little doubt that they were merely fragments of or-
dinary cinder, derived from a neighboring furnace, situated upon a stream,
whence gravel had* been obtained for dressing the walks. Being in Shef-
field, in England, when the subject was undergoing investigation, I was
favored by Sir William Keith Murray, at whose residence the occurrence
took place, with an inspection of one of the specimens, and was satisfied
that a correct general view had been taken of their character. Nevertheless,
as the confidence of the gentleman referred to was full and entire in the
integrity of the witnesses of the phenomenon, it would seem to be an in-
stance in which the sulphurous matter of a shooting star was not com-
pletely consumed before reaching the ground, and that much of the residuum
suffered oxidation after it struck upon the cinder of the walk.

My meteoric cabinet has contained for many years a few grains of a
mixture of carbonaceous and earthy matter in a pulverulent state, sent to
me in 1845 by Mr. Black, of Elizabethtown, Essex County, N. Y. (then a
member of the Legislature of New York), as having fallen in his wood-
yard during the winter of 1844 and 1845. — Silliman’s Journal, Sept. 1859.

POOPY yY.

ARABLE AND FOREST LAND OF THE UNITED STATES.

UNDER the direction of the Smithsonian Institute, a map has been con-
structed, designed to represent at one view the extent and location of the
arable and forest land of the United States. The work has been intrusted
to Dr. J. G. Cooper, a naturalist, who has been engaged in government ex-
plorations in the western part of the United States, and who has critically
examined all the authorities to be found on the subject. The facts presented
at once to the eye by this map, are in striking accordance with the deduc-
tions from the meteorological materials which have been collected by the
Institution, and serve to place in a clear point of view the connection of cli-
mate with the natural productions of different parts of the earth — Smith-
sonian Report for i858.

NEW GENERA OF AMERICAN PLANTS.

At a recent meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, Dr. Gray
presented specimens of a new genera of rosaceous plants, Neviusia Alaba-
mensis (Gray), recently discovered in Alabama by Rey. Mr. Nevins.

That a new genus of plants should be detected at this late day, and that
one a large, ornamental, conspicuous shrub, is certainly rather surprising in
so well explored a locality.

THE ABSENCE OF TREES FROM PRAIRIES.— BY D. VAUGHAN.

In tracing the influence of the several causes which are concerned in giy-
ing plants their geographical position, a very decided part must be ascribed
to certain meteoric conditions, which have hitherto received little attention.
The health and longevity of trees depend, in a high degree, on the manner
in which they are invigorated by seasonable supplies of rain during every
period of their growth; while the long droughts to which they are exposed
in many Jocalities are productive of diseases which may cause the forest to
lose the dominion of the land. The extermination of trees on many vast
plains, is generally regarded as the work of man; but, on a more careful
investigation, the phenomenon seems to correspond to what may arise from
the agency of unassisted nature.

The fall of rain on different parts of the earth’s surface depends not only
on their latitude and the proximity to large bodies of water, but also on the

368 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

presence of mountains. Although mountainous districts do not invariably
receive a greater annual amount of rain than other places equally near to
the equator and the ocean, it may be considered a general rule, that they are
visited by more numerous showers, and are more exempted from the occur-
rence of long-continued droughts. Very extensive plains, on the contrary,
generally receive their supply of rain in a few excessive showers, and very
frequently suffer much from the long continuance of dry weather. These
different peculiarities seem to show that mountains serve not only to cool
the air, but also to neutralize the insulating power of its lower stratum, and
to prevent the accumulation of electricity in the region of the clouds. As we
have reason to believe that the violence of storms is, in part, due to electri-
eal action, which serves to maintain ascending currents in the air, and to
cause the condensation of vapor to take place more abundantly, mountains
must evidently have the effect of preventing excessive showers, and of dis-
pensing the aqueous resources of the atmosphere with more economy for the
purposes of vegetation.

It is to the growth of perennial plants that long-continued droughts are
most detrimental. Though the grass may be parched on a dry summer, the
injury is scarcely felt during the following year, if rains be abundant; but
in the vegetation of trees the result is different. The imperfect layer of wood
formed under such unfavorable circumstances, will have a great tendency to
decay prematurely; and, as the decay must quickly extend to the whole
vegetable structure, the droughts of a single summer may destroy the work
of a century. From several facts it appears that the lignifying process in
trees is dependent on feeble currents of electricity, which are made to circu-
late along their tissues by the evaporation from the leaves, combined with
the chemical changes transpiring in the soil; and accordingly, when this
evaporation is checked on account of the want of rain, an imperfect forma-
tion of wood will be the inevitable consequence. The health of trees will
therefore depend on the frequency of rain, on the extent of foliage which
they possess, and also on the fertility of the soil; for when the vegetable
nutriment is more abundantly supplied, a greater amount of elaborating
energy is required to convert it into wood.

Whatever opinion may be formed respecting these theoretical views, the
characters of arborescent vegetation in different regions exhibit the effects of
the meteoric conditions which I have noticed. The most durable timber
and the oldest trees are to be found in islands, in mountainous districts, in
lands contiguous to the sea, and in other places where they are favored by
the frequency of rain. It is well known that the oaks of the British Isles are
much superior in strength and durability to those produced in the interior of
Europe; and many trees in England are remarkable for their great age,
which in some cases is known to exceed one thousand years. More extraor-
dinary instances of vegetable longevity are to be found in the island of Ten-
eriffe, in Sicily, and on the coast of Africa. The mountains on the Syrian
coast have been celebrated for the great age of their cedars. But perhaps no
forests furnish a greater abundance of trees, or more durable timber, than
those of Guiana; and scarcely any region on the globe is visited by more
frequent rains. Doubtless the age and durability of trees depend on the
species to which they belong; but when the comparison is confined to trees
of the same species, it will be seen that they are affected, in a very serious
degree, by the meteoric influences to which they are exposed.

That the absence of mountains is unfavorable to the health of arbores-

BOTANY. 369

cent vegetation, especially at great distances from the sea, is proved by sey-
eral facts. European Russia is a vast plain, resembling in geographical
structure the prairies of the West, and, like them, subject to long droughts,
which cannot fail to operate injuriously on the vigorous development of
trees. Accordingly, the Russian forests, though very extensive, furnish no
durable timber; and the Russian ships are remarkable for their great lia-
bility to decay. The dry-rot which invariably attacks them is ascribed to
the peculiar character of the waters of the Baltic and Black seas; but, as it
does not seem to operate very injuriously on British vessels which enter the
same ports, we can only attribute the effects to the great difference in the
durability of the wood used by both nations for shipbuilding. On this con-
tinent, the mountainous districts and the lands near the sea coast produce
the most durable timber; while in the inland states and territories, and es-
pecially in the Mississippi Valley, arborescent vegetation displays less vigor,
and hollow trees become more numerous.

It is not surprising that, where the gigantic forms of vegetation are ex-
posed to such enervating influences, they should be incapable of contending
successfully with the herbaceous plants for the possession of the soil, and
that the forest fails to maintain its ground in such localities. Accordingly,
trees are absent from prairies, except on the banks of rivers, where they are
favored with copious dews, or in barren soil, where their growth is slow,
and the supply of nutriment is not too copious for the energy of vegetative
power. As the steppes of Central Asia and the pampas of South America
exhibit the same peculiarity, we may reasonably suppose that natural causes
alone are sufficient to establish permanent boundaries between the domin-
ions of the trees and those of the herbaceous plants, and to prevent the for-
est from acquiring the exclusive possession of all lands.

To cultivate trees successfully on prairies, and to prevent their degeneracy,
it would be necessary to introduce seed from regions more favorable to their
health; for seeds, to a certain extent, receive and transmit the infirmities of
the plants which produce them. The oaks raised in England from German
acorns are found to be much inferior to those generally grown in the British
forests. In prairies, also, it will be necessary to plant the trees a considera-
ble distance apart, in order to permit the utmost expansion of their foliage,
and thus cause the elaboration of the sap and the formation of woody fibre
to take place in a more effective manner. The character of the wood of all
trees is always impaired by the removal of their leaves or branches; and,
according to Loudon, pruning has been abandoned in the cultivation of the
British forests, as experience proved its deleterious influence on the durability
of the timber.

But, notwithstanding this result, pruning serves to maintain the sap in a
condition suited to the nutriment of fruit; and it becomes more necessary in
climates where rains are frequent, and the tendency to form woody fibre
very great. In dry climates it should be pursued with more caution, and
many diseases to which fruit trees are subject proceed from over-pruning.
During the dry summer of 1854, it was observed in Southern Ohio that the
unpruned grape-vines were most productive. On a farm near New Rich-
mond, Ohio, were some grape-vines which were never pruned, and, after
being unproductive for many years, they bore grapes in abundance in the
summer of 1854, while the rest of the vineyard, which was cultivated in the
usual way, afforded only a small crop. These facts show that a deficiency

370 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

of rain and a deficiency of foliage operate in the same manner to check the
formation of woody tissue, and to promote the development of fruit.

From this theory many practical inferences may be deduced, in regard to
the culture of forests, orchards, and vineyards. The pruning of fruit trees
should be wholly regulated in accordance with the opportunities which their
geographical position gives them for receiving supplies of rain. The prun-
ing of forest trees should be confined to the removal of decaying branches.
If trees are to be felled in. summer, the operation should be performed, not
after a long period of dry weather, but after copious rains, when, by the con-
stant evaporation from the leaves, the sap contains little organic matter
unconverted into wood.

ON THE MOTIONS OF CERTAIN WINDING PLANTS.

The following are the results of a series of observations on the motions
of certain winding plants (7. e., the common Lima bean, Phaseolus lunatus,
L., and the common Morning-glory, Convolvulus purpureus, L.), made by
Prof. W. H. Brewer, of Washington College, Pennsylvania, and communi-
cated by him to Silliman’s Journal, March, 1859.

1st. That during the day, winding plants, like others, grow towards the
light.

2d. That they possess the property of turning towards some solid sup-
port.

3d. That this is more manifest by night than by day, and the most so on
cool nights following hot days.

4th. That this is not controlled by any influence of light or its absence,
exerted by the support.

5th. That heat is the controlling cause, and that such plants will only turn
(unless it be accidentally) towards a support, the temperature of which is
higher than that of the surrounding air.

6th. That the color and material of the support exert no influence further
than that they influence the radiation and absorption of heat; and,
> 7th. That when such plants are in actual contact with some support, the
tendency to wind spirally around it is much greater than they manifested in
order to reach it. -

In the Proc. of the American Academy (Vol. 1v., p. 98), August 1858, we also
find the following communication on the same subject, by Prof. Asa Gray,
of Cambridge.

As much as twenty years ago, Mohl suggested that the coiling of tendrils
“resulted from an irritability excited by contact.” In 1850 he remarked that
this view has had no particular approval to boast of, yet that nothing better
has been put in its place. And in another paragraph of his admirable little
treatise on the Vegetable Cell (contributed to Wagner’s Cyclopedia of Physi-
ology), he briefly says: “In my opinion, a dull irritability exists in the stems
of twining plants and in tendrils.”” In other words, he suggests that the
phenomenon is of the same nature, and owns the same cause (whatever that
may be) as the closing of the leaves of the Sensitive-plant at the touch, and
a variety of similar movements observed in plants. The object of this note
is to remark that the correctness of this view may be readily demonstrated.

For the tendrils in several common plants will coil up more or less promptly
after being touched, or brought with a slight force into contact with a foreign
body; and in some plants the movement of coiling is rapid enough to be

BOTANY. 371

directly seen by the eye; indeed, is considerably quicker than is needful for
being visible. And, to complete the parallel, as the leaves of the Sensitive-
plant, and the like, after closing by irritation, resume after a while their
ordinary expanded position, so the tendrils, in two species of the Cucurbit-
ace, or Squash family, experimented upon, after coiling in consequence of
a touch, will uncoil into a straight position in the course of an hour; then
they will coil up at a second touch, often more quickly than before; and
this may be repeated three or four times in the course of six or seven hours.

My cursory observations have been principally made upon the Bur-Cucum-
ber (Sicyos angulatus). To see the movement well, full-grown and out-
stretched tendrils, which have not reached any support, should be selected,
and a warm day; 77° Fahr. is high enough.

A tendril which was straight, except a slight hook at the tip, on being
gently touched once or twice with a piece of wood, on the upper side, coiled
at the end into 24— 3 turns within a minute and a half. The motion began
after an interval of several seconds, and fully half of the coiling was quick
enough to be very distinctly seen. After alittle more than an hour had
elapsed, it was found to be straight again. The contact was repeated, timing
the result by the second-hand of a watch. The coiling began within four
seconds, and made one circle and a quarter in about four seconds. It had
straightened again in an hour and five minutes (perhaps sooner, but it was
then observed); and it coiled the third time on being touched rather firmly,
but not so quickly as before; viz., 14 turns in half a minute. I have indica-
tions of the same movement in the tendrils of the grape-vine; but a favor-
able day has not occurred for the experiment since my attention was acci-
dentally directed to the subject. I have reason to think that the movement
is caused by a contraction of the cells on the concave side of the coil; but I
have not had an opportunity for making a decisive experiment.

>

POMOLOGICAL USE OF SULPHATE OF IRON.

M. Dubreuil has produced much larger fruits than usual by moistening the
surface of the green fruit with a solution of sulphate of iron, twenty-four
grains to a quart of water. This was done when the fruit first set, when it
was half, and when it was three-quarters grown, taking care never to do it
when the sun was shining. It has long been well known that this solution
greatly stimulated absorption.

INSECT AND VERMIN EXTERMINATING POWDERS.

The various termed insect and vermin exterminating powders (Persian,
Lyon’s, ete.), now in general use, are composed essentially of the same mate-
vial, which has long been known to the Trans-Caucasian populations under
the name of “ Guirila.” In that paradise of vermin, it is an article of a
very considerable commerce, and is not only carried inland through Russia,
in large quantities, but is also exported to Germany and France. A large
dépot exists at Vienna. It is a coarsely-ground powder, of a green color,
and penetrating odor, formed of the flowers of the pyrethrum, carneum, and
roseum, Which grow in the Trans-Caucasus at a height of five thousand or
six thousand feet. This powder possesses the peculiarity of rapidly stupe-
fying the insects, which soon afterwards die. Strewed about the room or
the bed, it proves a poison to fleas, lice, flies, ete. In the military hospitals,

O72 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

in hot countries, it is an invaluable preventive of the formation of mag-
gots in wounds, and the more so inasmuch as its use is attended with no dis-
advantages, unless employed in large quantities in closed bedrooms, when it
may give rise to confusion in the head, such as is produced by flowers or
new hay. It has been long used as a means of preserving insects; and can-
not be too strongly recommended to those who have the care of herbarian
and other natural-history collections, liable to the depredations of insects.
Unfortunately, the demand for the powder has been so great of late, as to
lead to its adulteration, by the addition of the stalks and leaves of the
plants to the flowers, and to the mixing of the new with stale powder. Asa
general rule, the powder purchasable in Germany is very different from the
Asiatic in color, smell, and efficiency. — Buchner’s Report.

ON THE ACTION OF GROWING VEGETATION IN NEUTRALIZING
MIASMA.

Lieutenant Maury, of the National Observatory, in an article communi-
cated to the Rural New- Yorker, maintains that the growing of sunflowers
around a dwelling located near a fever-and-ague region, neutralizes the mi-
asma, in which that disease originates; and seems to support the theory by
successful experiment. He was led to make the experiment by the follow-
ing circumstances. The dwelling of the superintendent of the observatory
at Washington, is situated on a hill on the left bank of the Potomac, in lat.
38° 39! 53//. It is ninety-four feet above low-water mark, and about four
hundred yards from the river. The grounds pertaining to it, about seven-
teen acres, are enclosed by a wall on the east, south, and west, and with a
picket fence on the north. The south and west walls run parallel with the
river, the Cl Resaveue and Ohio Canal, and a row of sycamores, of some
twenty years’ growth, separating fhe wall from the river. In fact, ‘the river,
with its marshes, encircles about half of the grounds. The house is, there-
fore, in the bend of the river; and the place is so unhealthy, that the family
of the superintendent are.compelled to vacate it five months out of the
twelve, — the marshes being covered with a rank growth of grass and weeds,
which begin to decay early in August. A knowledge of these facts led Lieut.
Maury to the following process of reasoning:

If it be the decay of the vegetable matter on the marshes that produces
the sickness on the hill, then the sickness must be owing to the deleterious
effects of some gas, miasm, or effluvium, that is set free during decomposi-
tion; and if so, the poisonous matter, or the basis of it, whatever it be, must
have been elaborated during the growth of the weeds, and set free in their
decay. Now, if this reasoning be good, why might we not, by planting
other vegetable matter between us and the marshes, and by bringing it into
vigorous growth just about the time that that of the marshes begins to decay,
bring fresh forces of the vegetable kingdom again to play upon this poison-
ous matter, and elaborate it again into vegetable tissue, and so purify the
air?

This reasoning appeared plausible enough to justify the trouble and
expense of experiment; and I was encouraged to expect more or less success
from it, in the circumstance that ever ybody said, “‘ Plant trees between you
and te marshes — they will keep off the chills.” But as to the trees, it so
happens that at the very time when the decomposition on the marshes is
going on most rapidly, the trees, for the most part, have stopped their

BOTANY. 373

growth to prepare for the winter; and though trees might do some good, yet
a rank growth of something got up for the occasion might do more. Hops
climb high; they are good absorbents, and of a rank growth; but there were
objections to hops on account of stakes, poles, etc. I recollected that I had
often seen sunflowers growing about the cabins in the West, and had heard,
in explanation, that it was ‘‘ healthy”’ to have them.

The theory of this is as follows: The ague and fever poison is set free dur-
ing the process of vegetable decay, which poison is absorbed by the rank-
growing sunflower, again elaborated into vegetable matter, and so retained
until cold weather sets in. The result of the experiment is thus narrated:

Finally, I resolved to make the experiment at the risk of spoiling the looks
of a beautiful lawn. Accordingly, in the fall of 1855, the gardener trenched
up, to the depth of two and ahalf feet, a belt about forty-five feet broad
around the observatory on the marshy side, and from one hundred and fifty
to two hundred yards from the buildings. The conditions of the theory I
was about to try, required rich ground, tall sunflowers, and a rank growth.
Accordingly, after being well manured from the stable yard, the ground was
properly prepared, and planted in sunflowers in the spring. They grew
finely; the sickly season was expected with more than usual anxiety.
Finally it set in, and there was shaking at the president’s house, and other
places,-as usual; but, for the first time since the observatory was built, the
watchmen about it weathered the summer clear of chills and fevers. These
men, being most exposed to the night air, suffer most, and heretofore two
or three relays of them would be attacked during the season; for as one
falls sick, another is employed in his place, who, in turn, being attacked,
would in like manner give way to a fresh hand.

REGULARITY OF NATURAL FORMS.

A correspondent of the London Atheneum presents the following curious
speculation on the above subject:

““This phenomenon has always appeared to me to be of a very astonish-
ing nature, and its explanation has hitherto been unattempted. I would,
however, endeavor to point out the ways by which the forms of plants, etc.,
can be determined, taking care, however, to avoid the error of endowing
mere matter with the properties of mind — an obvious fallacy, and one which
it behoves all rational physical inquirers to guard against. It is impossible
that either gravity or electricity, or the union of the two, can alone regulate
the various forms to be found in the simplest weed. Some other influence
or influences must come into action, and what this or these must be I will
now endeavor to show: 1. Different kinds of vegetable matter doubtless
have different properties ; and the vital force acting upon these may produce
the forms we see, without any other influence; or 2. The atmosphere, or
some far more attenuated medium, may act as a kind of mould in which
the various parts of plants are formed, different vegetable substances pene-
trating this universal mould according to their various qualities, and thus
assuming different forms, being expanded and propelled probably by the
vital and solar forces respectively. It cannot, I think, be doubted, that all
considerations on this subject are, however crude and hypothetical, of some
value, inasmuch as our present knowledge respecting these matters is so
_ very limited and unsatisfactory. It is found that the elements of future
‘ existence are more or less of a circular shape; all roots and bulbs, as also

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3874 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

seeds, come under this law, and appear incapable of formation apart from
forces which develop this form. We may, I think, take it for granted, that if
atoms have an existence in solid bodies, they must be circular, or something
very like it, the eccentricity arising from gravity and more imperceptible
causes, because there is (and this is mathematically correct) no reason why
any great variation from the circle should exist in the production of any
independent form, seeing that the components of atoms approach each
other in regular succession from the various points without the forming
atom, and this for all composing the different kinds of solid matter. The
same of course applies to the numberless components of atoms, which we
may perhaps call particles, if indeed such either exist or are capable of ra-
tional supposition. Let us suppose, then, that all substances which, receiv-
ing various matter, produce ‘different vegetable forms, are composed of
almost circular atoms. This state can be imagined; and the idea that
change of form as a whole will tend to alter the form of the components of
the altered substance is reasonable, and probably true. All seeds, and what-
ever is the sensible origin of future development, have an axis of vitality
along which elongation proceeds; thus: all seeds, etc., turn the point of
this upwards, if they happen to fall into the ground with it in any other
position, showing that the various properties of bodies cannot be overlooked
without a complete attestation as to their necessity and existence. After
remaining in the ground some time, elongation in the direction of this axis
takes place,— it may be before any influx of external elements has pro-
duced a material conjunction,—and as the result of this the component
atoms must assume an oval form, and consequently alter the shape of their
interstices. I say nothing about the change which this must produce in the
external covering (skin) of seeds, etc., merely assuming that it acts as a
barrier to the extension of the enclosed matter, which is indeed very evi-
dent. We have then elongated atoms, which contour does not to any per-
ceptible extent exist in their primitive condition, and results principally from
the upward attraction of the sun, the solar gravity, the influence of which in
the vegetable world is universal. The axis of vitality probably always coéx-
ists with the sap, and the stems of plants are probably composed of atoms
elongated equally to those just considered, because the great elongation into
which the seed, by conjunction with external elements, resolves itself, would,
if unaided by externals, greatly alter the form of the component atoms; but
this not being the case, the material influx preserves, or nearly so, the form
of the atoms existing in the elongated seed, supposing that the matter ab-
sorbed is composed of atoms similar (the same, except as to size and iden-
tity) to those forming it, which there is not, I think, much reason to doubt,
except it can be shown why fluids should be composed of different sized or
differently formed atoms to solids. This @ priori problem has not been
solved; and with regard to the difficulty arising from the mobility of fluids,
I am inclined to refer it to electrical or the like conditions. If no influx
were to take place, it is evident, seeing that a large portion of the seed re-
mains undisturbed when the stem is put forth, that the already elongated
atoms must receive a very extended form. The stems of plants decrease in
breadth, probably from the diminishing force of the sap. It is obvious that
an innumerable body of atoms touch equally numberless points of the inner
surfaces of the coverings of plants (using the terms of quantity in this case
restrictively), and that one and only one projects at the extremities of stems, .
where they give way to either flowers or leaves. Where then we have flow-

BOTANY. 375

ers or leaves, we may consider that what formed them has been more di-
rectly submitted to the various forces of nature, which I take to be occasioned
by the removal of the outer covering, by which material influx is quickened,
and the solar attraction caused to produce mightier developments. Thus it
has appeared to me that leaves are produced by the expansion of single
atoms which are not enclosed by the outer covering, and that every variety of
floral form is the expansion of the same under various circumstances of ex-
tension and cleavage. Thus the form of leaves would be accounted for. If
they are the extension of atoms, it is clear that they would, at all events to
some extent, preserve their shape; and this would to a great extent explain
their strong axial resemblance. It is true that objections, on the score of
latitude, may be raised against this hypothesis, and much, if not all, that I
have said; but, as I have before set down, such speculations are not entirely
useless.

THE GENETIC CIRCLE IN ORGANIC NATURE.

The following is an abstract of a paper read before the British Associa-
tion,1859, by Dr. G. Ogilvie:

Parental derivation, he observed, was now generally allowed as the sole
origin of organic beings; and the subject of discussion among physiologists
was no longer the admissibility of spontaneous generation, but the nature
of the derivation, as the case may be, from a single parent ora pair. The
former mode of origin, by what has been termed ‘‘gemmation,” or the
“pudding process,” plays a very conspicuous part in the propagation of
many of the lower species, and by its periodic recurrence in conjunction
with the other form of reproduction, gives rise to the singular phenomena
known as alternation of generations. All cases of alternation were not,
however, to be regarded as precisely parallel; and it was the object of the
present paper to point out certain-differences dependent on the period of
the life-history of a species in which the process of gemmation is interpo-
lated. Three stages were distinguished in the life-history — the Protomor-
phic, or that prior to the first appearance of the organization most charac-
teristic of the species; the Orthomorphic, or that marked by such typical
organism; and the Gamomorphic, or that of the development of the repro-
ductive organs. In each of these stages we may have a process of gemma-
tion interpolated. The results contrast, especially as it occurs in the first
and last. As examples of the former, the Trematode and Cystic Entozoa
were referred to in the animal kingdom, and the Mosses among plants, in
all of which certain provisional forms are interposed between the ovum and
the embryonic rudiment of the typical form. The Polypifera and Cestoidea
among animals on the other hand, and the Ferns among vegetables, furnish
illustrations of alternation dependent on gemmation, in the gamomorphic
stage, and arising from the reproductive organs acquiring the characters of
detached and often highly organized structures comparable to independent
animals or plants. The Hood-eyed Medusz become in this way much more
conspicuous organisms than the Polype stock, whose organs they really are.
The Cestoidea are remarkable as presenting instances of a double alterna-
tion, from a process of gemmation occurring both in the cystic or protomor-
phic, and in the Tzenioid or gamomorphic stages. The author concluded by
indicating a parallelism between the phenomena of alternation and ceriain
points in the embryogeny of the higher animals, and in the maturation of
the reproductive organs. The formation of double monsters in the higher

376 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

animals, the normal twin embryo of the Polyzoa, the variable number of
Tenia heads budded off by the Cystic Entozoa, and the phenomena of de-
velopment among the Echinodermata, were referred to as indicating a grad-
ual transition from the implantation of the embryo on the germ-mass of the
ordinary ovum, to cases of well-marked alternation — while the reproduc-
tive process in the Polyzoa and Hydraform Polypes, in the Salpz and in
some Annelides, and the phenomena of impregnation in the Coniferze among
vegetables, were brought forward in illustration of a similar transition from
the development of the normal, reproductive organs, to the formation of
conspicuous sexual Zooids;— and in proof of distinctions founded on the
complexity of the structures themselves not being of essential importance,
reference was made to the males of the Rotifera and Cirrhipeda, which,
though animals with an individuality entirely distinct even from the ovum,
are much more defective in organization than some of the sexual Zooids
now referred to, as the Hood-eyed Meduszx. The paper was illustrated by
tabular views of the relations referred to.

ON THE STRUCTURE OF PLANTS.

One of the earliest fruits of the application of the convex lens to the exam-
ination of minute bodies, was the discovery of the structure of wood fibre,
and the arrangement of the minute vessels in which the sap of plants circu-
lates. Anxious to ascertain whether or no these microscopic vessels inter-
communicated with each other, Professor Faraday took a stick of considera-
ble length, and having varnished one end, he cut his name through the
varnish, and forced a colored injection into the pores of the wood; when,
after some time, the name appeared at the other end, nearly in the same
relative position as that in which it had entered, thereby proving that the
sap vessels are completely separated from one another.

ON THE AMELIORATION OF PLANTS FROM THE SEED.

Among the valuable scientific publications, in- France, of the past year,
are a collection and reprint of several of Louis Vilmorin’s important commu-
nications to the Central Agricultural Society of France, and to the Academy
of Sciences; to which is prefixed a French translation of a memoir upon the
Amelioration of the Wild Carrot, contributed by his father to the Transac-
tions of the London Horticultural Society (but not before published in the
vernacular of the author), which memoir, as the younger Vilmorin informs
us, was the point of departure for his own investigations in this field, and
even contains the germ of most of the ideas which he has since developed
upon the theory of the amelioration of plants from the seed. These pa-
pers claim the attention of the philosophical naturalist no less than of the
practical horticulturist.

Most of our esculent plants are deviations from the natural state of the
species, which have arisen under the’ care and labor of man in very early
times. New varieties of these cultivated races are originated almost every
year, indeed; but between these particular varieties, the differences, however
well marked, are not to be compared for importance with those changes
which the wild plant has generally undergone, in assuming the esculent
state. In this amelioration or alteration, as in other cases, c’est la premiere
pas que cote, For the altered race, once originated, has much less stability

; 3 BOTANY. olT

than the wild stock; it accordingly tends, not only to degenerate (as the culti-
vator would term it) towards its original and less useful state, but also to
sport into new deviations, in various directions, with a freedom and facility
not manifested by its wild ancestors. This explains the readiness with
which we continually obtain new varicties of those escuient plants which
have been a long time in cultivation, while a newly-introduced plant exhibits
little flexibility. To detect the earliest indications of sporting, and to select
for the parents of the new race those individuals which begin to vary in the
requisite direction, is the part of the scientific cultivator. In this way, the
elder Vilmorin succeeded in producing the esculent carrot from the wild
stock in the course of three generations,—no addition to our resources,
indeed, but significant of what may be done by art directed by science. By
adopting and skilfully applying these principles, the younger Vilmorin has
conferred a benefit upon France which (if she will continue to make sugar
from the beet) may almost be compared with that of causing two blades of
grass to grow where only one grew before, having, so to say, created a race of
beets containing twice as much sugar as their ancestors, and indicated the
practicability of its perpetuation. The mode of procedure, and the ingeni-
ous methods he contrived for rapidly selecting the most saccharine out of a
whole crop of beets, as seed-bearers for the next season, are detailed in these
papers.

Once originated, and established by selection and segregation for a few
generations, the race becomes fixed and perpetuable in cultivation, with
proper care against intermixture, in virtue of the most fundamental of or-
ganic laws, viz., that the offspring shall inherit the characteristics of the
parent, — of which law that of the general permanence of species is one of
the consequences. The desideratum in the production of a race is, how to
initiate the deviation. The divellant force, or idiosyncracy, the source of
that “infinite variety in unity which characterizes the works of the Crea-
tor,” though ever active in all organisms, is commonly limited in its practical
results to the production of those slighter differences which ensure that no
two descendants of the same parent shall be just alike, being overborne by
that opposite or centripetal force, whatever it be, of which ensures the partic-
ular resemblance of offspring to parents. Now, the latter force, as Mr. Louis
Viimorin has well remarked, is really an aggregation of forces, composed of
the individual attraction of a series of ancestors, which we may regard as the
attraction of the type of the species, and which we perceive is generally all-
powerful. There is also the attraction or influence of the immediate parent,
less powerful than the aggregate of the ancestry, but more close, which ever
tends to impress upon the offspring all the parental peculiarities. So, when
the parent has no salient individual characteristics, both the longer and the
shorter lines of force are parallel, and combine to produce the same result.
But whenever the immediate parent deviates from the type, its influence
upon its offspring is no longer parallel with that of the ancestry; so the
tendency of the offspring to vary no longer radiates around the type of the
species as its centre, but around some point upon the line which represents
the amount of its deviation from the type. Left to themselves, as Mr. Vil-
morin proceeds to remark, such varieties mostly perish in the vast number
of individuals which annually disappear, — or else, we may add, are obliter-
ated in the next generation through cross-fertilization by pollen of the sur-
rounding individuals of the typical sort, — whence results the general fixity
of species in nature. But under man’s protecting care they are preserved

[399 Bo
32%

378 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

and multiplied, perhaps still further modified, and the better sorts fixed by
selection and segregation.

Keeping these principles in view, Mr. Vilmorin concluded that, in order to°
obtain varieties of any particular sort, his first endeavor should be to elicit
variation in any direction whatever; that is, he selected his seed simply from
those individuals which differed most from the type of the species, however
unlike the state it was desired to originate. Repeating this in the second,
third, and the succeeding generations, the resulting plants were found to
have a tendency to vary widely, as was anticipated; being loosed, as it were,
from the ancestral influence, which no longer acted upon a straight and
continuous line, but upon one broken and interrupted by the opposing action
of the immediate parents and grand-parents. Thus confused, as it were, by
the contrariety of its inherited tendencies, it is the more free to sport in vari-
ous ways; and we have only to select those variations which manifest the
qualities desired, as the progenitors of the new race, and to develop and
fix the product by selection upon the same principle continued for several
generations. i

It is in this way that Mr. Vilmorin supposes cross-fertilization to operate
in the production of new varieties; and even in the crossing of two distinct
species, the result, he thinks, is rarely, if ever, the production of a fertile
hybrid, but of an offspring which, thus powerfully impressed by the strange
fertilization, and rendered productive by the pollen of its own female parent,
is then most likely to give origin to a new race.

We cannot follow out this interesting but rather recondite subject in a brief
article like this. But we are naturally led to inquire whether the history of
those plants with which man has had most to do, and the study of the laws
which regulate the production and perpetuation of domesticated races, may
not throw some light upon the production of varieties in nature; and
whether races may not have naturally originated, occasionally, under cir-
cumstances equivalent to artificial selection and segregation.— Prof. Asa
Gray, Silliman’s Journal, May 1859.

FO Te OE ¥:

USE OF THE MICROSCOPE IN NATURAL HISTORY.

THE microscope, as an adjunct to naturalists, has been of high service,
which, however, has been overrated. Dr. Walker Arnott, in the Proceedings
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, observes:

Microscopic differences are by themselves of little importance. To see is
one thing; to understand and combine what we see, another. The eye must
be subservient to the mind. Every supposed new species requires to be

“separated from its allies, and then subjected to a series of careful observa-
tions and critical comparisons. To indicate many apparently new species,
is the work of an hour; to establish only one on a sure foundation, is some-
times the labor of months or years. In microscopical natural history, as
much scrutiny is required to prove a new form to be distinct from its allies,
as in chemistry to discover a new alkaloid, or in astronomy to demonstrate
the identity of two comets. A naturalist cannot be too cautious. It is
better to allow diatoms to remain in the depths of the sea, or in their native
pools, than, from imperfect materials, to elevate them to the rank of dis-
tinct species, and encumber our catalogue with a load of new names, so
ill-defined, if defined at all, that others are unable to recognize them. The
same object can be more easily attained by attaching them, in the mean-
time, to some already recorded species, with the specific character of which
they sufficiently accord. In all such cases, the question to be solved for the
advantage of naturalists is not whether the object noticed be a new species,
but whether it has been proved such, and clearly characterized.

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

Dr. Brown-Séquard, in a recent lecture in Edinburgh, exhibited some
Guinea-pigs which had been experimented upon some months ago, by cut-
ting certain nerves; the hinder limbs became paralyzed, but in time the
animals recovered the power of voluntary motion, attended, however, with
a very curious result—the operator could put them into a fit of epilepsy
whenever he pleased. It appears that by the cutting of the nerves, the
animals lose sensation except in one cheek; and if that spot be irritated, a
fit is the immediate consequence. Another noticeable particular is, that the
lice which infest the animals, congregate on that spot, and nowhere else.
Whether it be that there is more warmth or more perspiration than on
other parts of the body, is not known; at any rate, physiologists are agreed

380 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

as to the singular and suggestive nature of the phenomenon. It appears,
moreover, that if the sensibility of the sensitive spot be destroyed, then the
Guinea-pig ceases to be liable to epilepsy. Applying this fact to human
physiology, Dr. Brown-Séquard says that there is in the human body a
spot, discoverable, as he believes, by galvanism, which, if deprived of its
sensibility, would, in like manner, completely prevent attacks of epilepsy.

PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE GAINED THROUGH CHLOROFORM.

The following is an extract of a letter addressed to the Medical and Surgical
Reporter, London, by Dr. Charles Kidd, July 1859:

“Tt is only within a few weeks that it has been clearly proved that the
endowment called common sensation, the great root of consciousness, as
shown by Locke, Leibnitz, and Schlegel, is not psychologically the same
as the sense of touch, with which Dr. Snow and others have confounded it.
Thus aman may have a red-hot iron applied to his arm or leg under the
influence of chloroform; he feels no pain, but he feels the iron as an affair
of touch streaking out lines on his skin. The bearing of this fact on the
phenomena of insanity, sleep and dreams, is most extensive. In the same
manner, &@ woman in labor, with proper doses of chloroform, feels no pain,
but is quite conscious of the process of parturition quoad, the muscular
sense (that would be agonizing cramps otherwise) going on as usual. This
has only recently been shown, by M. Brown-Séquard, to depend on the fact
already stated, but not suspected by Dr. Snow, who chiefly experimented
on rabbits and dogs. Indeed, a new world has, since his death, been opened
up as regards the psychology of chloroform in relation to ordinary sleep,
common sensation, touch, dreams, sympathetic action, emotion, refiex action
of the sensorium or soul itself, on the body, etc., so that the subject is only
in its infancy.”

CELL DEVELOPMENT.

Virchow, the eminent German physiologist, in a recently published series
of lectures, on what may be called “ Cellular Physiology,” defines the cell
to be an exceedingly minute microscopic object, consisting of a membrane
containing a substance in which is a nucleus upon which the action of the
ecll depends. All pathological processes proceed from changes in and mul-
tiplications of previously existing cells. A cell can only arise from a pre-
existing cell, and never de novo. The germ of life is a cell transmitted and
impregnating an ovum. The whole scheme of animal development, both
physiological and pathological, is but a continuation of the process begun
in the ovum upon the cell—the first step in gestation. He denies the
formation de‘novo of “ granules,” or any other tissue form of the old pathol-
ogists, from a so-called Blastema or of homogeneous exudation. That is,
since the creation of the first man and woman, the race has been kept up
by, and every physiological and pathological phenomena has had its origin
in, the division and multiplication of cells — the difference between the phe-
nomena of physiology and pathology being only that of normal or morbid
action in similar forms.

CHANGES OF THE BLOOD-CELLS OF THE SPLEEN.

The opinions of physiologists as to the functions of the spleen, have been
various. Some, as Funke, Hewson, Bennet, etc., believe it to be a generator

ZOOLOGY. 381

of blood-cells, while Kolliker and others maintain that it is a destroyer of
them. Dr. Henry Draper states (VV. Y. Jour. Med., Sept. 1858) some mi-
croscopic investigations made by him on the blood of frogs taken from the
splenic artery and splenic vein, and he found the latter to contain at least
double the general average of imperfect cells; whence he infers that “ the
spleen must be an organ for the disintegration of blood-cells.”

NEW FACT CONCERNING BLOOD.

M. Claude Bernard has communicated certain observations to the French
Academy of Sciences, tending to show that the custom of applying the de-
nomination of red blood to that of the arteries, and of black to that of the
viens, is not in accordance with facts. Having had oecasion to open the
renal veins of various animals, M. Bernard found them to contain red
blood, strongly contrasting with the dark blood issuing from the vena cava
below. In order to ascertain whether the same was the case with other
veins belonging to organs of secretion, he opened the vein of the sub-max-
illary gland of a dog, and found the blood of the darkest possible hue. At
that moment, however, the salivary secretion had stopped. In order to
excite it, a few drops of vinegar were introduced into the throat of the ani-
mal. The secretion recommenced, and after a few seconds the blood was
seen to change its color to the scarlet hue of arterial blood. As-soon as the
secretion ceased, the blood resumed its former dark color. Hence M. Ber-
nard concludes that, although the name of red blood is correctly applied
to that of the arteries, that of black blood cannot be, with equal generality,
applied to that of veins; for that in the veins of the organs of secretion
the color varies according as the organ is in a state of action or repose.

WHEN IS A TISSUE DEAD.

Some interesting experiments of M. Brown-Séquard have brought him to
this conclusion: That a tissue is not of necessity dead when it has lost its
vital properties or its natural action for a period of one or even several
hours; and for the reason, that its properties and its actions may be restored
through the aid of blood charged with oxygen.

ON THE PRODUCTION OF BONE.

At a recent meeting of the French Academy, Dr. Olivier read a paper, in
which he endeavored to throw quite a new light on the production of bone.
The conclusions at which he arrived, if supported by future experimental-
ists, will not fail to produce a deep impression on the minds of physiolo-
gists; while, at the same time, they will tend to enlarge and extend the
system of “anaplastie,” as applied to surgery. The experiments of Dr.
Olivier were conducted entirely on rabbits of different ages, and different
stages of growth, and were divided by him into three series. In the first
series, long slips of periosteum were detached from the tibia throughout its
entire length, one of the extremities only being left attached to the bone by
a peduncle; these slips of periosteum were then pushed along the muscles,
and twisted around them in a variety of ways. In the course of a certain
time osseous matter was produced, assuming the shapes of the twisted and
contorted membrane. In the second series of experiments, the slips of peri-
osteum which had been treated in the same manner as in the first series,

382 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

were, three or four days after the operation, completely detached from the
bone, and, notwithstanding their isolation from their original source of life,
the periosteum still continued to produce bone. In the third series of
experiments the periosteal covering was completely and at once separated
from the bone, and immediately inserted under the skin of the shoulder and
back, and still, strange to say, the periosteum produced bone. Dr. Olivier
found that age modified, to a certain extent, this peculiar property of the
periosteum; advanced age, for instance, while it diminished the property,
did not completely destroy it. The osseous tissue obtained in this strange
manner he found to be real bone, similar to that of the rest of the body.
The result of these interesting and curious experiments goes to prove that
bone even can be obtained in whatever part of the body the periosteum can
be introduced; and, further, that a membrane may preserve its properties,
notwithstanding its removal from its original seat, and transplantation to
another part of the economy.

VALUE OF A LIFE.

Mr. Charles M. Willich, of London, has published a simple rule for com-
puting the probable value of property in life at any age from five to sixty.
His formula stands thus: E= } (80—a); or, in plain words, the expectation
of life is equal to two-thirds of the difference between the age of the party
and eighty. Thus, say a man is now twenty years old. Between that age
and eighty there are sixty years. Two-thirds of sixty are forty; and this is
the sum of his expectation of life. If a man be now sixty, he will have an
expectation of nearly fourteen years more. By the same rule a child of five
has a contingent lien on life for fifty years. Every one can apply the rule to
his own age Mr. Willich’s hypothesis may be as easily remembered as that
by Dr. Moivre in the last century, which has now become obsolete from the
greater accuracy of mortality tables. The results obtained by the new law
correspond very closely with those from Dr. Farr’s English Life Table, con-
structed with great care from an immense mass of returns.

POPULATION OF THE GLOBE.

The following tables, showing the division of mankind into races,
branches, families, and nations, has been published by M. d’Halloy, in the
Proceedings of the Belgian Academy:

I. DIvISION INTO RACES AND BRANCHES.

WHITE RAcE.— European branch, .......... a ciate delsieees 20d OOUs0U0

Aramean KE Ris etaiatu tate retctoraiets peciotic 50,390,000

Scythian cc de Jabs eescd otevcedsess OT SI000 = O10, f2a0000
YELLOW RacrE.— Hyperborean Branch,.........-. sh teles te ete f 160,000

Mongolian fis Uk Beee Bs Or00 eeeee 7,000,000

Sinic Je Sfecebiissciee hers eis cele 333,300.000 = 845,460,000

Brown RAcsE. — Hindoo branch,. ..........60eeeeeee0+++- 171,100,000
Ethiopian“ |, .cces'ew't eadder eee sess JO eeUn

Malay SE Palle deateatare t merre rer teiateis eens 25,600,000 = 205,000,000
RED RACE. Sonthern:, $5 pescsves aes siaisielaieieere tars oe 20) e200: 000

Northen. 45°). megs ce see eeeies a Seen - 400,000 = 9,600,000
BrAgmbace-— Western. .cveisccccdawt sdeaack coe POM OO

AIS TET ool a tore cc ae oa ole wong siésis sles tiee: O00, 000 — as seOUu O00
HYBRIDS, Piulstios, Zambos, Cte... «.ssccsnacnntaateaa eer aces 12,217,000

Total, 1,000,000,000

ZOOLOGY.

383

II. SUBDIVISION OF THE WHITE RACE INTO FAMILIES AND NATIONS.

1. European Branch.

TEUTONIC FAMILY.— Germans, including the Dutch.......54,000,000

Scandinavians. — Swedes, ........... 3,634,000
Norwegians,....... 1,563,000
WANES S.. osees esse 1,709,000
English, including the Scotch, ......38,014,000 = 98,920,000
CELTIO FAMILY. — ° Cymry.— Welsh,’ +2. ...06..... 0.000 650,000
IBTOTOMS, sien ciercieseeieletera’ornie. oF OUUS 000
Ginelss = Trish yews cw sehelsves) ereiets veee- 9,600,000
ERG HAR GGT a Fates 08 seers 500,000 = 11,750,000
LATIN FAMILY. PENI CH): sevice se cars sics steers spose Naacacioct 39,900,000
Spaniards, including the Portuguese, 22,865,000
MEDIANS, 5 iv tieorn eeooe esses cj. ee ornessrersper sles 26,160,000
WW SHEER sc cc nckic wctle c mace Samatereeierets 7,095,000 = 96,020,000
GREEK FAMILY. —— Greeks,..........005 presccndacausiene 2,999,000
OTPABIANS Sore saat cei nest ent 1,480,000 = 4,470,000
SLAvic FAMILY. —— Russians, inc. Rusniaks and Cossacks, 49,874,000
Sel CEI ASscre hie y sae seers nobngadsesoc 3,387,000
Berviads, ..252 sees s SER eo sce ee meiaiele 5,500,000
SIOVENIANS Eiise bess dees co cetee ossies 1,306,000
Wreends). 42). 2e5n tenes ocbOuuL adasadcce 142,000
Chechs.— Bohemians.’..........00+-- 8,144,000
MOraA VIAN, stone aac 1,000,000
HV AMAKS) 60ers cleats cteise crs eiciote 280,000
SIOVAKS ener selcete A OOOEE 2,400,000
PAM yarns Sola orale Sine aaicieaoe denne Con dats 9,304,000
Lithuanians. — Lithunians, properly, 1,217,000 ;
4 Rettish 2. seas .... 872,000 = 78,426,000
* Total, 289,586,000
2. Aramean Branch.
BASQUE FAMILY. —— Basques, ...........0005 Savoy siete ch lavn her ca atalete) Sal cesta 775,000
LYBIAN FAMILY. —— Berbers. — Amazirghs, ............. . 4,700,000
Kabyles®. . 232.0 Sdoonoe Luh i Gd
INTEC oodbocoscosuonacc 300,000
Egyptians. — Copts, ..... op odBnossocs 150,000
Wel align cay «xcs eee 2 1,500,000 = 8,150,000
SEMLTIO PE AMDEN 2 = AT ADS vaxc i crcraeresrstercre’ a slates opeterctatetete » +... 14,650,000
QEW Sys rararereiore:sterolatoretatefets teletarotatele veeeeees 4,074,000
SV MIDIS seretelo lero -cte ote ee Gre bee era olete ale where 500,000
Maltese,..... eloteniter wlatiaideraee erent 106,000 = 19,330,000
PERSEAIN: SAMIR Fe Dag Ices wars 5 ous tercderawensaserre teceaets 8,775,000
Afghans. — Afghans, properly, ...... 3,500,000
Belouebis,.:.ii% saaseeess - 1,500,000
Batans;. 2:5 couseee nae 5,000,000
Kurds, including the Lures, ......... 1,500,000
ATMENIANG, «isrrifarsetcetteteeteoe on ree 1,228,000
Ossetian gay i. < oiavdayaanaudaes done 32,000

Georgians, inc. Mingrelians & Lazians, 600,000 = 22,185,000

Total,

50,890,000

384 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC. DISCOVERY.

8. Scythian Branch.

CIRCASSIAN Fam. — Cherkessians, ....... ssccccscocscsevece ss «800,000

Whelchentiy cam. ci. vas oe SEDONAROCI SOOO AC 200,000

TSCRO IANS, 6 epeasio's «0.00 040 5)018 am e.eeeeees 000,000 = 1,500,000
MAGYAR FAMILY. — Magyars,... .....eee0. Mere AQodassac 4¢ 5,000,000
TURKISH FAMILY.— Osmanli, ........... Ja wisiciasisisieleise eseja ciate 9,500,000

MUTCOMANE, «.200500-ccnceccsee po sanbo3¢ 1,500,000

Tarekamehs,......e0+ses0+ Giaisteloleetorsesintate 1,000,000

PV OPAL Sos coe nin wie ules swine nase sacar snp sie 1,470,000

GIRS eee leiee sons cdodauc0 jererermlaraisrerevercionters 1,000,000

MISDOKS, sci. cis o.0:c bic esse eanje een isn sierewisi 5,500,000

BANAT VE: cias Saino soudsc00s Aeteistetolclctersiatelels (cists 30,000 = 20,000,000

FINNISH FAMILY. — Finns of Siberia. —
Teleouts;c.c.cenws vs cows sess esac sdpOUU

Sagais; Kachints, etc......... 20,000
AOS Sosad soag0000C noddade 12,000
Ostiaksinn sos eso nee ose a eh 103,000 = 186,000
Finns of Eastern Russia. —

BaSHKIS wei cieleraetsiorelnwi close .. 092,000
ME WUIAILSy- eietcl< = ieleisle oyefelelele eee 000
Mei Chersaksttevesiateslaleieiesssile n= 80,000
CHGUWASENE. Ue -laclals sisiemieinn oats 430,000

= CO) CRA TSTOS A 5655 cose aano dee 165,005
MMONGUING sce icles ceisieic as + 480,000
IEMA ogdoebcancosesc000- 52,000
SUUPIPUNG -soqngnd0acaenadasS 71,000
WiObKers- sure ccr oe teciesiot « 191,000 1,965,000

Finns of the Baltic.

AVOMIANS cite ciciels elec Shasadeoee 2,000
IDSEROMIANSS vier sisie epeiwie. o\c.nieis , 654,000

Kyrial®; Ymes; Quaines,. .1,490,000 2,146,000 = 4,247,000

Total,

30,747,000

III. SUBDIVISION OF THE YELLOW RACE INTO BRANCHES, FAMILIES, AND

NATIONS.

Hyperborean Branch.

HAE ONT Oe BVA CNEL Ya. bole) 1g (0\s n(slo\eleteiere Pies Sgotanceudcoroosstcocasu: 9,000
SA MKONSOD ION Gies kM MMes «(cis 6.65 eis whe Sis (eolelats eter g te bi vhecs antes ocelot CLC 15,000
YENISEI, CAeMN Magrcysratate\eis «ate AAP OM OHO ACARD ACO 540 cO.o5 g0.Ge0 38,000
YUKAGIR 40) eres ri i a: parece ode ose GS 3.000
KorRIAK s ISOTIAIKS sree eer ere creer alaisla crater eeitots'a ts 8.000
Chutchis, 2,000

BEARERS CM ADBIA DHA). F565 2's «99 oad epee MP eeeme mime eae sete aie 5,000
FAQUIMAUX EF Ams NAMOLLOS,, ...,:00.0/0csleleleie Reto lercieistevere si oate eeeioe 2,000
Chu cassis, \. ::s'miote, Hie ee ele e chee wiceies elect 3,000

x“ Kuskoyintzes,. dssesccece cee cae eee meee 7,000

ANE OUS, jc 0's ods ows tee nee soieniele eee caeieeies 3,000

PSQUIMAUX).\s 5:2 5/ctsha ak ene eee eee ore 20,000

Greenlanders. 42.4 «seine. vee teas manana eee 5,000

EGR PEAR WEA MEE —— A TITOB, | 5 0!) )siere ie ya'iciova s,n%e ictajgtevere 8 efele eveciens ola 40,000 = 160,000

ZOOLOGY. 3885

Mongolian Branch.
VARUT PAM. — YVaktts yee ccecis de tencdsdcdescedsedéa e's es 00,000

MONGOLIAN FAM.— Kalmucks,. 0. cccccescsccccscceres eerste Nels « FEU 0O0
Mongolians,.....seeeeeeees seheteistote siatatetatars! 2,560,000
Boarattishy.s3 csicdds diss etic se ics ats seas cae. 120,000

TUNGUSIAN FAM.—Tungusians,..... Saisie asisicrs sdococaad: Bcddages 60,000
Mantchurians, ...... ieeenteae sctedion Caan 2 4,000,000 = 7,000,000

Sinic Branch.

CHINESE PWAMILY, © 6.6 cccsecctcccsccnscccsccsons Sesser 282,000,000

COREAN SN nl free atetarerae MEAGe DoD COCO ICORCL aeateyo ssid 6,000,000

JAPANESE ‘“ Ber eyereys a arehavarelereneraltvel operas seratevere sis Sr oieralal ctete coy 25,000,000

AmrAmermre/ 9 8) 0. -sjaien eats rte ae 5 oat id iste aeralbderereete Sal aa 12,000, 000

SIAMESE ce are etel ere a's. s/vie wale eats wade oa oetovecomisre teteiole ale 4,300,000

PEGUAN Me ET er re sins v oaie Watslog alee Sisasee hl ore Sa Sek eos ease 500,000

BIRMAN oe ADODOCAgOGOLONOOC oid snvare erolerore ere ounretars Mot ic 2,500,000

THIBETAN ‘* Decticnetor me eror ‘nis Dat maaan p aaree tte Oa .6,000,000=338,300,000

Total, 345,460,000

IV. SUBDIVISION OF THE BROWN RACE INTO BRANCHES, FAMILIES, AND
NATIONS.
Hindoo Branch.
Hindees; Guzurats; ieee
Bengalees; Oriyas; ? Taiganes, . 111,100,000

Telingas ; Carnatics; Tamils ;
?Singalese; ? Gonds; ? Bits | 60,000,000 = 171,100,000

Hinpoo FAMILY. —{

MALABAR “
? Paharias; ? Kacharis, etc....

Ethiopian Branch.

Icy 7 Nema grb ec ee RD
FELLAN - Fellahs; Ovas, efes. ......ccseends ses .. 4,000,000 = 8,300,000
Malay Branch.
; Malays; Battas; Javanese; Macas-
MALAY 4 sars; Bugis; Turajas; Dayal | 24,600.000
Bissayis; Tagalis, etc...........

New Zealanders; Tongas; Bougain- |

villians; Cook’s Islanders; Ta- |

POLYNESIAN ‘“ hitians ; Paumotuans; Marque- ¢ 1,000,000 = 25,600,000
sans; Sandwich Islanders; Car-
oline Islanders; Mulgravians,...

Total, 205,000,000

V. SUBDIVISION OF THE RED RACE INTO BRANCHES AND FAMILIES.

Southern Branch.

AZTEC: TRAMEGY. © os dacs swessmsie meee ete sn Seka ve ssoureesean . 4,485,000

Maya 3: ia alt NEUE He se Sted eves ice -~. .800,000

QUICHUA SCOT: Deeps tes apiersenie aie: aediabei dre veisileta nistarescroees wees -2,020,000

ANTISIAN Bes AR aide ew On etds ee wietecte Sawcctoldeereces ahiee stale 100,000

ARIAT CANTAIN EOAIME I i.)ue chic. sce Seid ME eel EAL DER ecctore Slaten »-...040,000

PAM PRAT AMEN ho 58.5 al eiav en dt derseisel eee aaemeets ESL, TNS if 250,000
CHIQUIBBAR TASS dart tigle fs Sd eee SHEERS es Sete riots aisioe ve 20,000

MoxIAn Cte Te WS 6 PA A BCe os Bese OOOO UCU Satie oer Oar 30,000 :
GUARAN TAIN © AS ch roters sidisrstauielete, ote slvetadts ofaniae aepeieee Shed ne ae 1.105,000 = 9,200,000

as)

386 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Northern Branch.

PEORIDUAN MAMIE yo os aie )0,0,6,0 06. 0,0.0.00,0 001000000 007,090 2 ae Olle mis 70,000?

Troquo!is So nt EAD ASO NO OID COTIR ACO dG US's at oD a 5,000?

LENAPE SON cle giclee wae a3 RicMad wha en ee ep ceindoce Releetioe 40,000?

ATTA ASCAINY SOR sss see Sethiddasatind ABasecenpopbdonbscasos tc 40,000?

S1oux WP Seo as SUSnnOO AG JoripecieBncon cont aansacn a 35,000?

PAWNEES MEME Wc artis etovctela!siasct'e's iesesiase aicid ta oTginte ate tefotela ole onesicietmens 80,000?

KOLUSHEN SIM Ee ate etre tareiesie a eicisvale cole sees aneitata AR dacchor 50,000?

WaAKASH, 2 ES SAA aR ee aoe oaNSroGosdacaood Uoblisadass 20,000?

RAE PMORNEAR FF) ici. c ce ee ne sce) an dopoedoc CG ad -aHOO ses a One 60,000? = 400,000?
Total, 9,600,000?

VI. SUBDIVISION OF THE BLACK RACE INTO BRANCHES, FAMILIES, AND
NATIONS.

Western Branch.

HOTTENTOT ‘*

CAFFRE FAMILY,
ce

A large number of nations, of whom the most 56,000,000

z are ‘unknown slioliNatetevonatalioloterieiatareterevernielotereacteretete
NEGRO :

Eastern Branch.

ee New Caledonians; New Hebrid- }

PAPUAN FAMILY, eans; Salomon Islanders; Papuas,........

Andamans of the Andaman Islands, Tao 1,000,000
ANDAMANIAN FAM. China, New Guinea, New Holland, Van
DWiements Wan ds penises cielo eerste ey arne ———_ ——_

Total, 57,000,000

From a paper recently published also by M. Dieterici, of the University of
Berlin, on the “ Population of the Globe,” we derive the following statistics,
which disagree materially with those of M. d’Halloy.

The author adopts three different modes of classification:

First, By totals of the several countries;
Second, By Races; and
Third, By Creed or Religion.

According to the first mode of classification, the mass of detail given,
sums up in the following round numbers:
Average to the

Square Miles. Inhabitants. Square Mile.
TEI OPEs = sisistn’s/=.610 nier- ov eeeee + 2,900,000 272,000,000 93
Dt INT IRS Soh osaod0sOos eeleeis slew, s00,000 755,000,000 60
Bo Mitricas.. 52st. FANE Le fs 8,700,000 200,000,000 22
A’ America... ......« sieheieei aera 12,000,000 59,000,000 5
5. Aastralia,. .... 5.20. 50650506 2,600,000 2,000,000 auf
Round totals,......... . «89,000,000 1,288,000,000 33

The greatest density of population of a kingdom is exhibited in Belgium,
where it is 538 to the square mile; single districts in Rhenish Prussia show
as high as 700 to the square mile.

Political economy has not yet found a gauge by which to determine how
densely people can be crowded, and make a living. - In civilized Europe, the
density is steadily increasing. America promises a similar development in
future. Civilized emigration to Polynesia may tend to a similar develop-
ment in Australia. East India and China, although now densely peopled,

ZOOLOGY. 387

incline, after a period of stability, toward a decrease rather than an increase,
owing to the peculiarities of their civilization.

Dieterici’s remarks on Distribution by Races is prefaced by an interesting
sketch of Retzius’s new system of craniology, with its two divisions of Oval
Heads (dolico cephalous) and Broad or Cubic Heads (bradry cephalous) — the
former including, in Europe, all the Latin and German tribes, 157 millions;
the latter the Slavonic, Magyar, Turkish, and some of the Romance tribes
of the south, 115 millions; in Asia, the Chinese, Hindoos, Arian Persians,
Arabs, Jews, and Tungusians, are Oval Heads, 610 millions; all the rest
Broad Heads, 145 millions. The estimate of America is, of course, based on
aborigines only. In regard to them, the opinion is advanced that from the
islands around Behring’s Straits, along the west coast, including the Russian
Colonies, Oregon, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Argentina, Pata-
gonia, and Fire Island, the population consists principally of Broad Heads;
while on the east coast, from Canada downward, including the United
States, the Caribbean Islands, the West Indies, Venezuela, Guiana, and
Brazil, the Oval Heads predominate. This would coincide with Humboldt’s
theory, that the west coast of America was peopled from Asia. The aborig-
ines would now, probably, not exceed one million. All the rest are emi-
grants and their descendants, including perhaps half a million of Broad
Heads; one-half of the aborigines being Oval Heads, one million is there-
fore the extent of the Broad Heads of America, to fifty-eight millions of
Oval Heads. In Australia the Broad and Oval Heads are probably evenly
divided, being one million each. The footings are therefore as follows:

Oval Heads. Broad Heads.
lin, Oe bona d.cSandedenscucenanocoobnde 157,000,000 115,000,000
lit ANIONS Sap eese aso coqoconcenannnoer Sia oulelate 610,000,000 145,000,000
TA PAVET IGA gare fatayc lato cfolalavelololielavatsis viel ers Meletefers ‘ale 200,000,000 ——
im America,.. 2... AD Com tC OLOCO DO COME OnOOCrS 58,000,000 1,000,000
In Australia,...... anon or enedoaceoubandecoced 1,000,000 1,000,000
UGA Rene apo wdeecoubocconccarnoc + «++ 1,026,000,000 262,000,000

The same Swedish ethnologist makes still another division of the human
race, according to the facial angle, into Orthognathes and Prognathes— the
former with an erect face, the latter with protruding jaws and receding
foreheads. Both classes are found both among Oval and Broad Heads.
The footings are thus:

Upright Faces. Receding Faces.
Lifts IBDN CEH eopodaoecncaondoce sGanneeéoot . -272,000,000
Tn Asay sid: Eee LAD ae NS ep 224,000,000 531,000,000
lft; ASHE OKs adosccocce “onooCoUa scan: Adc —_—— 200,090,000
d bans STIR CCE ash Sac oc aaoCHORO een SAO Go Oa Ic 2 - 98,000,000 1,060,000
nV Ans Grallicipers tatccyeters caiaiotetet iota s aietoeiae tee ee 1,000,000 1,000,000
Potalec tances SCHOO ODOC OUR COT eee 009,000,000 728,000,000

The excess of the latter is attributable to the population of Africa, which,
although Oval Heads, must be classed entirely with the Receding Faces, the
same as the population of China and Eastern Asia in general.

The preceding strictly scientific classification is followed by the popular
classification of races, according to the color of the skin and the formation

388 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC ‘DISCOVERY.

of the features, the hair, etc., established by Blumenbach. The five races
thus established are distributed as follows:

1. THE CaucasiIAn— (28 85 per cent.)— In Europe, the entire popula-
tion with the pee of the Fins and Lap-
PACT Sete gn bie weds e ey x pcn.s cos sine eae eee 270,000,000
In Asia— Turks 15; Arabs 5; Persians, ete. 11;
Siberian, in part, 3; foreigners in Rastern

inten, | TO RNB eS STS) CRUE: Sete ee 36,000,000
In Africa — Foreigners in the colonies, and Arabs, 4,000,000
In America — All except the Indian,.............. 58,000,00¢
In Australia — Foreigners on all Islands,.......... 1,000,000

Total. 1.<nmasin-iuiaiabine as pa ace mei 369,000,000

2. THE MoncoLian — (40°61 per cent.) — Principally in Asia, including

China, the greater part of India, Central Asia,

and part of Siberia,.......... Se htakers stiNcore baler ete ete 522,000,000
38. THE ETHIOPIAN — (15°08 per cent.)—The entire population, .with

the exception of the Caucasians, as above,.......196,000,000 .

4. THE AMERICAN — (0-08 per cent:)— The Indians of America,....... 1,000,000
5. THE MaLtay —— (15°38 per cent.) —In the Indian Islands, 80; East

India, 84; Japan, 35; and Australia, 1,........... 200,000,000

Grand Total,........ (afer einen etole misters etein siete re 1.288 ,000,000

The division according to creeds is full of interesting detail. The leading
footings, taken on the round number of 1,300,000,000, as the total population
of the earth, are:

(Hristiaqs cic cea aon ecne tant eee teee 335,000,000 or 25:77 per cent.
VOWS ee eeisicwitere sicare mais te cuieies pies 5,000,000 *“* 088 <
Pemtine PRENSAGME cw ss soos eles tee ee ees 600,000,000 ‘* 46:15 *¢ j
POGURINMEDANG, - i secs os cs eens obscicdse pe 160,000,000 ‘* 12°31 “i:
IRE eee rece tees tectes totes crea 200,000.000 ‘* 15-39 =

Wotals ec. AGoetoceeDas SAG RHES DOSE ...1,300,000,000 or 100 per cent.

The 335,000,000 of Christians are again divided into:

Roman Catholies,......... ae ae esc ieaseiae 170,000,000 or 650.7 per cent.

HE VOLCSEAMULS 2) cer qeicesiesien. said aeons 5G, syecces 89,000.000 “ 26.6 ec

GreekoCamMoness. 6 okc0 ances Bee eetewee 76,000,000 ‘ 22-7 “
SOAP Syste cvs 0.5 oy 'e55yeee ae ees wie (estas ris 39,000,000 or 160 per cent.

_ The conscientious author of the very elaborate paper from which we have
made these extracts, is of opinion, that although much uncertainty attaches
to the positive numbers given under the various heads, yet so manifold have
been his sources of comparisons, that the general results, in proportions of
population, race, or creed, may be adopted as correct.

BLOOD-STAINS AND BLOOD-CRYSTALS.

At a recent meeting of the Philadelphia Academy, Dr. Mitchell made some
interesting statements in respect to the importance of the study of blood-
crystals in connection with the medico-legal study of the blood, and the
examination of blood-stains. Dr. M. remarked upon the difficulty of dis-

ZOOLOGY. 389

*”

criminating between the blood of man and that of some other mammals,
even when the blood was comparatively fresh and fluid. Here, he thought,
the blood-crystal might serve to determine the point in question. Usually,
in murder cases, only the dried blood was to be obtained, and here the pos-
sibility of making use of the varied forms of blood-crystals to determine the
source of the blood, was a more doubtful matter. Several questions present
themselves.

Can blood-crystals be obtained from the dried blood of man and animals ?
Dr. M. has so far been unsuccessful in obtaining the characteristic form from
dried human blood. Some of the German observers have been more fortu-
nate. The failure to obtain the human blood-crystal is not, or would not be,
decisive as to the inutility of this mode of research, if the blood of other ani-
mals does not present a like difficulty. On this point, our information is not
altogether complete, because the number of animals whose blood has been
examined, is as yet rather limited. The blood of birds, whether in its wet
state, or dried, has not afforded crystals under any method as yet employed.
This is unfortunate as regards judicial questions, because it is often a ques-
tion whether a blood-stain may not have been derived from pigeon or chicken
blood. Dr. M. referred to such a case as within his own experience. The
blood of fishes in general affords crystals with great readiness, even after the
blood has been long dried. The forms are characteristic, and are not likely
to be confounded with those of human blood. The blood of all reptiles is
difficult to crystallize; Dr. M. would say, after many trials, impossible, were
it not for the results which others have observed. At all events, no observer
has obtained crystals by treating the dried blood of reptiles, nor is it likely
that the blood of this class will ever play any part in a judicial investigation.
In regard to birds, fishes and reptiles, it is to be observed that the form of the
blood globule, and its nuclear condition, may be decisive as to its not being
human, and that the production of blood crystals from the blood of these
classes is not, therefore, so important as in the case of mammalia, and espe-
cially of the domestic animals. In some of these, as the cat, the blood
affords good crystals when properiy treated, either in a fresh state, or still
better, when decomposing. Dr. M. was unable to obtain crystals by treating
the dried blood of the bullock or sheep, but he obtained crystals easily from
the dried blood of the opossum, and from several of the rodentia. It is prob-
able that we shall be able at some future time to obtain crystals from the
dried blood of any animal.

Dr. M. especially insisted on the greater ease with which putrescent blood
yielded crystals. He thought that exposure to light and the decomposition
of the blood, previous to its being dried, were the most favorable conditions.
The disappearance of the fibrinous mass under these circumstances, placed
the process of crystallization in the best circumstances by setting free the
mass of blood globules. Dr. M. was accustomed to obtain crystals from
dried blood by moistening the dried clot and occasionally supplying water
until putrefaction began, when the blood was treated as though it was fresh.
The blood thus moistened was examined for crystals by the usual method
from day to day, but the best results were commonly observed at the period
of decomposition.

Dr. Mitchell’s remarks gave rise to an animated discussion of the medico-
leval examination of blood-stains.

Dr. Woodward was of opinion, that it generally is impossible to state the
particular mammal from which the blood of a dried blood-stain has come,

oOvse
ow”

390 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

~

by any mode of microscopic inspection. Dr. Schmidt had constructed tables
of the relative size of the “dried blood globule in man and many animals.”
Dr. Woodward thought too much stress had been laid upon these measure-
ments, and conceived that a question which it was very difficult to answer
in regard to fresh blood, must become almost unanswerable with dried blood.
He had himself been examined in a case where those concerned evidently
expected thag the microscope would enable him to say of the specimen of
dried blood, this is the blood of man, or of this or that mammal. He had
found himself unable to decide, and had stated as his fixed opinion, that no
examination by the microscope of the blood globules, fresh or dried and re-
moistened, would enable any one to swear as to the source of the specimen.
He mentioned this, because in Philadelphia and elsewhere other opinions are
held and taught by many medical men.

Dr. Leidy stated his opinion to be the same as that held by Dr. Woodward.
He would feel it to be very unsafe to declare positively to what particular
animal certain corpuscles belonged. He alluded also to cases where, when
judicially examined, he had been obliged to correct erroneous opinions simi-
lar to those spoken of by Dr. Woodward.

Dr. Hammond agreed entirely with the opinions held by these gentlemen.

Dr. Hartshorne stated that he had come to the same conclusion as to the
impossibility of deciding positively as to the source of blood-stains, with or
without the use of the microscope.

Dr. Hammond declared that in only one class of cases did he believe that
the microscope could be of any service; it would enable the physician to
pronounce with confidence that certain stains did not come from the blood
of a human being when the corpuscles contained therein were oval or
nucleated.

Dr. Atlee stated that he had never observed any white corpuscles in speci-
mens of dried blood. Drs. Leidy and Hammond added the remark, that, as
far as their recollection served, they had not observed them.

Dr. Woodward declared that he had seen them very distinctly after six
months had elapsed, when blood had been dried rapidly on a slide.

This difference of opinion was attributed by Dr. Morris to not using oblique
lights, by which these bodies are much more readily distinguished.

RACES OF NORTHERN AFRICA (MEN WITH TAILS).

At arecent meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, Dr. Bod-
ichon, a French naturalist, residing in Algeria, gave an account of the vari-
ous races of men occupying Algeria, from personal observations.

There are two white races; one, living in the mountains, the Mauritanians,
Numidians, or Berbers; and the Asiatics, or Arabs, 1. Also called Kabyles,
living in the mountains, — small in stature, warlike, democratic, dwelling in
villages resembling the Swiss, planting trees, enjoying plentiful harvests,
fruits, ete.; very independent and noble in their sentiments. They have no
judges, often settling their disptues by an appeal to the first person who
passes by; though polygamous, they prefer a single wife; they are fine
soldiers, and are not afraid of European troops. He considers these as an
indigenous race, and the same as the brown inhabitants of Southern Europe.
2. The Arabs, a tall, brown race, excellent horsemen, nomadic, possessing
no permanent villages; they are very fond of fighting, and pass at least
half their time in war; they have a strong religious sentiment, and are very

ZOOLOGY. 391

“

fond of poetry; they are polygamous. 3. A mixed race of Turks and
women of the different races of the country, which has begun to disappear
since the dominion of the French. 4. In the interior of Africa there is a
race like the Germanic, with light hair and blue eyes, which he believes to
be descendants of the ancient Gauls or Carthaginians; they are polygamous,
and present the curious phenomenon that the women are sovereign in the
family and in the state, though the daughter of the queen cannot inherit the
throne; they make long pilgrimages on very swift camels for the purpose
of carrying off negro slaves —they are called Tuariks. 5. A mixed white
and black race, the Fellatah, embracing many millions; a powerful people,
of very social disposition. 6. Negroes, from Congo, Timbuctoo, etc.; the
best are from the neighborhood of Labe Tsad; they are idolaters, making
sacrifices to their gods of sheep, cocks, and other animals, and drawing
from them various auguries. They are subject to a kind of periodic insan-
ity, like some of the New Orleans negroes, in which they call on the spirits
of their ancestors, and often fall insensible. The characters of these differ-
ent races are not perfectly distinct; especially of some of those communities
which gather about a well or oasis in the desert, a few hundreds together,
which they often wall around, and form into smail villages. The Kabyles
have well-shaped heads; the Arabs have low, retreating foreheads. In
answer to the question whether there exists.in Africa any race of human
beings with tails, Dr. B. replied that in the neighborhood of the Mountains
of the Moon, there is said to be a large tribe of ferocious cannibals, having
an elongated coccyx, projecting like a tail, from three to ten inches; when
seen by other tribes, they are killed as if they were wild beasts. He had
never seen any specimens, though it is generally believed that such a race
exists.

SPONTANEOUS GENERATION.

Mr. George Henry Lewes, in an article contributed to ‘“‘Once a Week,”’ thus
sums up the recent investigations and present state of our knowledge on the
subject of ‘spontaneous generation.”

It was as easy for the ancients to conceive that animals could be produced
from putrefying matters, as it is difficult for the instructed physiologist of
our day to conceive any generation whatever except that by direct parent-
age. Aristotle found no difficulty in believing that worms and insects were
generated by dead bodies, and that mice could become impregnated by lick-
ing salt. The successors of Aristotle were even less skeptical than he. They
were constantly observing animals and plants suddenly springing into exist-
ence where no animals or plants had been before. Every dead dog, or de-
caying tree, was quickly beset with numerous forms of life; how could it be
doubted that the putrefaction, which was observed as an invariable accom-
paniment, was the necessary cause of these sudden appearances of life?

To the mind imperfectly acquainted with the results of modern science,
spontaneous generation is as easy of belief as it was to Aristotle. Do we
not constantly see vegetable mould covering our cheese, our jam, our ink,
our bread? Do we not, even in air-tight vessels, see plants and microscopic
animals develop where no plants and animals could be seen before, and
where, as we think, it was impossible that their seeds should have pene-

rated? And when we hear that Mr. Crosse produced an insect by means of
electricity, startled as we may be, do we really find any better argument
han our prejudice for dishelieving such a statement? Where do parasitic

392 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

animals come from, if not spontaneously generated in the body? These
parasites are found in the blood, in the liver, in the brain, in the eye, nay,
even in the excessively minute egg itself. ‘‘ How gat they there?” is our nat-
ural question. This question, which is so easily answered on the supposition
that generation can take place spontaneously, presents the most serious diffi-
culties to science, because the massive weight of scientific evidence has been
year after year accumulating against such a supposition; until the majority
of physiologists have come to regard it as an axiom, that no generation
whatever can occur except by direct parentage. This axiom, which a small
minority has always rejected, has quite recently met with a formidable
questioner in M. Pouchet, the well-known physiologist of Rouen; and his
experiments and arguments having agitated the Academy of Sciences, our
readers may be interested if a review of the whole subject be laid before
them.

The first person who assailed the notion of spontaneous generation was
Rtedi, the Italian naturalist, in his treatise “‘ Experimenta circa Generationem
Insectorum,” in which he reviewed the facts, and proved that the worms
and insects which appear in decaying substances, are really developed from
eggs deposited in those substances by the parents. So masterly was the
treatise, that no one since then has had the courage to maintain the produc-
tion of worms and insects spontaneously. It has been held as preposterous
to suppose that putrefaction could generate an insect as that it could gener-
ate a mouse — which Cardan believed. Driven from the insect world, the
hypothesis has sought refuge in the world of animalcules and parasites; and
there the hypothesis is not so easily defeated. Whoever turns over the pages
of Leeuwenhoek, the first who extensively applied himself to microscopic
observations, will see that the Dutchman steadily set his face against spon-
taneous generation, because the microscope showed him that many even of
these minute animals had their eggs, and were generated like the larger ani-
mals. Since that time, thousands of observers have brought their contribu-
tions to the general stock, and each extension of our knowledge has had
the effect of narrowing the ground on which the “‘ spontaneous” hypothesis
could possibly find footing; the modes of generation of plants and animals
are becoming more and more clearly traced; and the necessity in each case
of a parent stock is becoming more and more absolute. It is true that there
are organic beings of which, as yet, we can only say that there is the strong-
est presumption against their being exceptions to the otherwise universal
rule of generation. We do not know, for example, how the Amcba arises;
no one has ever seen its eggs; no one has ever seen its reproduction — and,
what is more, it is perfectly easy to make them in any quantities. I have
done so repeatedly. Nevertheless, they can only be “‘ made” under the con-
ditions which would be indispensable for their birth and development if they
were really generated from eggs; and that they are so generated is a pre-
sumption which has every argument in its favor, except the direct evidence
of the eggs themselves. The question, then, comes to this: Is it more proba-
ble that a law of generation which is found to reach over the whole organic
world should have an exception, or that our researches have not yet been
able to detect the evidence which would bring this seeming exception also
under the law? One after the other, cases which seemed exceptions, have
turned out to be none at all; one after the other, the various obscuri-
ties have been cleared away, showing one law to be general; and it is there-
fore the dictate of philosophic caution which suggests that, so long as we

ZOOLOGY. 393

remain in positive ignorance of the actual process, we must assume that in
this case also the general law prevails.

Positive evidence would of course settle the dispute; but every one who
has made any experiments, or has attentively followed the experiments of
others, will admit that it is excessively difficult to devise any experiment
which shall be conclusive, — the facts elicited admit of such different inter-
pretations, the avenues by which error may enter are so numerous. I will
not narrate here the experiments of Fray, Gruithuisen, Burdach, Baer, and
others, since they cannot withstand serious discussion; nor will I adduce my
own, for the same reason. But those recently made by M. Pouchet have a
more imposing character, and demand the strictest examination.

The reader will observe that the cardinal point in the investigation is to
be certain that no organic germs could by any possibility be present in the
liquid which is to produce the animalcules. On the hypothesis that the ani-
malcules, like other animals and plants, are produced from germs or eggs,
these germs must be excessively minute, and easily overlooked. If they
exist, it is in the water and the air, awaiting the proper conditions for their
development. Supposing them to be floating about in the air, under the
form of dust-like particles, they would fall into, or enter, any vessel contain-
ing organic matter in a state of decomposition, and there develop; as the
deposited eggs of the insect developed in the decaying body of the dog.
Now, inasmuch as the presence of atmospheric air is one of the indispensa-
ble conditions of vitality, and without it the animalcules could not develop
and live, the initial difficulty is how to secure the presence of this air, and
yet be sure that the air itself does not bring with it the germs of the animal-
cules which we find in the liquid. Schultze of Berlin devised an experiment
which was thought to have finally settled this point, and to have refuted the
hypothesis of spontaneous generation. An account of this experiment, to
be found in the Edin. New Phil. Jour., for October 1837, shows that an infu-
sion of organic substances, supplied with atmospheric air, but not with an air
containing living germs, was suffered to remain thus from the end of May
till the beginning of August; but, during the whole of that time, no plant
or animal was developed in the infusion. The apparatus was now removed
from the flask, atmospheric air was allowed to enter freely — without first
passing through acid or potassa solution— and in three days the infusion
was swarming with animalcules.

This really looked like a conclusive experiment. No sooner were measures
taken which would destroy the germs, supposed to be suspended in the at-
mosphere, than the infusion was kept free from animalcules; no sooner was
the air allowed to.enter the flask in the ordinary manner, than animalcules
abounded. The proof did not, however, seem to me quite rigorous. It was
by no means clear that the air, in its passage through sulphuric acid, would
not suffer some alteration, perhaps electrical, affecting its vital properties;
and this doubt seemed confirmed by the experiments of M. Morren, com-
municated to the French Academy, May-22, 1854; from which it appeared
that air, having passed though sulphuric acid, was incompetent to sustain
life, since the animalcules subject to it died in a few days. But M. Pouchet
announces experiments which, if correct, not only scatter this doubt, and
M. Morren’s confirmation, but point-blank contradict the experiment of
Schultze. He declares that in following Schultze’s experiment in every par-
ticular, and also in repeating it with fresh precautions, he can constantly
exhibit animalcules and plants developed in an infusion in which every

394 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

organic germ has been previously destroyed, and to which the air has only
access after passing through concentrated sulphuric acid, or through a laby-
rinth of porcelain fragments at red-heat. Nay, M. Pouchet goes further.
Feeling the difficulty of satisfying his opponents that the atmospheric air
really contained no germs, he determined on substituting artificial air. This
he did in conjunction with a chemist, M. Hougeau. Artificial air, as the
reader knows, is simply a mixture of twenty-one parts of oxygen gas with
seventy-nine parts of nitrogen gas. This air was introduced into a flask
containing an infusion of hay, the hay haying previously been subjected for
twenty minutes to a heat of one hundred degrees Centigrade (two hundred
and twelve degrees Fahrenheit), a temperature which would destroy every
germ. He thus guarded against the presence of any germs, or animaicules,
in the infusion, or in the air. The whole was then hermetically sealed, so
that no other air could gain access. In spite of these precautions, crypto-
gamic plants and animalcules appeared in the infusion. M. Pouchet re-
peated the experiment with pure oxygen gas, instead of air; and with simi-
lar results.

In presence of such statements as these, only two courses were open to
the antagonists of spontaneous generation. They could deny or disprove
the facts; or they could argue that the precautions taken were not sufii-
ciently rigorous to exclude the presence of germs. I have already said how
difficult it is for the modern physiologist to admit spontaneous generation,
and the reader will therefore be prepared to hear that M. Pouchet has roused
immense opposition; but the opponents have not disputed his facts; one
and all, they accept the statements as he makes them, and, by criticism and
counter-statement, endeavor to show that spontaneous generation is just as
impossible as ever. These criticisms, and M. Pouchet’s replies, may here
be grouped in order, and with all possible brevity.

Milne-Edwards objected to the conclusions of M. Pouchet, saying: There
is no proof that the hay itself had been subjected to the temperature of
one hundred degrees Cent. (or the boiling-point of water), it being very
probabie that although the furnace was at that heat, the hay, which was in
a glass vessel and surrounded with air at rest, was not at anything like that
temperature.

To this M. Pouchet replied, that he and M. Hougeau ascertained that the
hay was at the temperature of one hundred degrees, before they proceeded
in their experiments.

Milne-Edwards is ready to grant that the temperature may have been
reached, but argues that even that would not suffice for the destruction of
all the germs, if they were perfectly dry. He refers to the observations of
M. Doyere, which prove that the TFardigrada (‘‘ water-bears,” microscopic
animals common in stagnant water), when thoroughly desiccated, preserve
their power of reviving even after having been subjected to a temperature
of one hundred and forty degrees Centigrade (three hundred and sixteen
degrees Fahrenheit). If, therefore, animals of sc complex a structure as
these water-spiders can resist the action of so high a temperature, there is
no reason for supposing that the germs of the simpler animalcules would be
destroyed by it. Not content with this argument, which is sufficiently forci-
ble, Milne-Edwards narrates an experiment of his own, which is very simi-
lar, both in method and results, to one I have performed. Unhappily, it is an
experiment the value of which is either destroyed by the argument just ad-
duced, or else it destroys the argument. It is this: In two tubes a littie water

ZOOLOGY. 395

containing organic matter is placed, one of them hermetically sealed, the other
left open to the air. They are then placed in a bath of boiling water, and kept
there till their temperature has reached that point. After this, they are left
undisturbed for a few days. In the tube which was exposed to the air, there
were animalcules; in the tube which was excluded from the air, before the
action of heat had destroyed all the germs, not an animalcule could be seen.

Is not this something like a proof? “ Why, no, sir,’ as Johnson would
have said. At least, not if the argument previously urged is worth any-
thing. Because every one will see that if it be true, as Milne-Edwards main-
tains, that the temperature of boiling water is not by any means high enough
to destroy the organic germs of animalcules, then it could not have destroyed
those germs in the closed tube, and animalcules ought to have made their ap-
pearance there. If I could lay any particular stress on my own experiments
(which I do not), they would lead to the conclusion that the organic germs
do not resist the action of boiling water; for I found that a piece of fish,
divided into three, and placed in boiling water in three different tubes, one
closed and excluded from the light, the second closed but exposed to the
light, and the third open and exposed to the light, gave me no animalcules
at all: had there been any germs in the water or meat, these must have been
destroyed. But all such observations go for nothing in the presence of M.
Pouchet’s assertion that he had found animalcules in the infusion, after sub-
jecting the organic matters to a temperature of two hundred and fifty de-
grees Centigrade (five hundred and forty-six degrees Fahrenheit), and this,
too, with artificial water. Unless the germs are supposed to be incombusti-
ble, it is difficult, he says, t6 maintain, after this, that the animalcules were
developed from germs.

Milne-Edwards being thus disposed of by M. Pouchet, let us see how M.
Quatrefages will come off. He says that, having examined the dust remain-
ing on the filter after some observations on rain-water, he found that the
organic elements presented a confused assemblage of particles; and this
continued to be the case for a few minutes after their immersion in water.
But a few hours afterwards, he detected a great number of vegetable spores,
infusoria, and those minute, spherical, and ovoid bodies, familiar to micro-
scopists, which inevitably suggest the idea of eggs of extremely small di-
mensions. He also declares that he has frequently seen monads revive and
move about after a few hours of immersion. The conclusion drawn is, that
the air transports myriads of dust-like particles, which have only to fall into
the water to appear in their true form of animalcules.

The reply of M. Pouchet is crushing. If the air is filled with animalcules
and their eggs, they will of course fall into any vessel of water, and as water
is their natural element, will there exhibit their vitality. But if half a dozen
vessels of distilled water, perfectly free from animalcules, be left exposed to
the air, beside one vessel of distilled water containing organic substances in
decay, the half dozen will be free from animalcules and eggs, but the one
will abound with them. Now, it is perfectly intelligible that, inasmuch as
organic matter is said to form the indispensable condition for the develop-
ment of the eggs, it is only in the vessel containing such matter that the
eges will develop; but why are they not also visible as eggs in the other
vessels ? why are not the animalcules themselves visible there, as they were
in the water examined by M. Quatrefages? If both eggs and animalcules
are blown about like dust in the air, it is an immense stretch of credulity, to
believe they will be blown into the vessel containing organic matter; but the

396 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

opponents of spontaneous generation go further even than this, for they de-
clare these dust-like animalcules will be blown into a closed vessel, if it con-
tain organic matter, but not into several open vessels, if they only contain
distilled water.

M. Quatrefages is on better ground when he rejects the evidence, long sup-
posed to be so weighty, of parasitic animals. He refers to the modern inves-
tigations which have not only made the generation of these parasites intelli-
gible, but in many cases have demonstrated it. M. Pouchet’s reply is feeble,
and unworthy of a physiologist of his eminence. He doubts the truth of the
results obtained in Germany, Italy, and Belgium: ‘‘the monopoly of which,”
he adds, “has, by a strange anomaly, belonged to foreigners.” Because
France has not the honor of this splendid discovery, the Frenchman begs to
doubtits value! Every physiologist, however, — not French, — will be ready
to admit that whereas the parasitic animals formerly furnished the advocates
of Spontaneous Generation with their most striking illustrations, the inves-
tigations of Von Siebold, Van Beneden, Kiichenmeister, Philippi, and others,
have entirely changed thé whole aspect of the question, and given the oppo-
nents of Spontaneous Generation new grounds for believing that in time all
obscurities will be cleared away, all contradictions explained.

In conclusion, I must say, that as far as regards the particular discussion,
M. Pouchet seems to me to have the best of it. Their objections to his
experiments are all set aside. If the facts are as he states them, — and his
antagonists at present do not dispute the facts, — their criticisms go for very
little. They have not shown it probable that any germs could have been
present, under the conditions stated by him. Are we, then, to accept Spon-
taneous Generation as proven? By no means. It is very far from proven.
The massive preponderance of fact and argument against such an hypothesis
forces us to pause long before we accept it. What M. Pouchet has done is
to destroy many of the arguments against Spontancous Generation, and to
have devised experiments which may finally lead to a conclusion. It is still
on the cards that some source of error, as yet overlooked, vitiates his experi-
ments; but until that error has been detected, he must be considered to have
on his side the evidence of experiment, whereas we have on our side the
massive evidence of extensive inductions. His experiment may be conclu-
sive, and an exception to the general law will thereby be established. But
it may also, on further investigation, turn out to be illusory; some little over-
sight may be detected, which will rob the experiment of all its force.

Perhaps you will ask why this suspicion should be entertained? Why
ought we not to accept M. Pouchet’s statement with confidence, although it
does contradict our inductions? The reason can only be, that the massive
weight of these inductions naturally predisposes the mind to believe that it
is more probable the experiment which contradicts them should be miscon-
ceived, than that they should be contradicted. Two years ago, I became
acquainted with an observation made by Cienkowski, the botanist, which
seemed finally to settle this question of Spontaneous Generation, to place the
fact beyond doubt, because it caught nature in the act, so to speak, of spon-
taneously generating. Cienkowski’s statement is as follows: If aslice of raw
potato be allowed to decompose in a little water, it will be found, after some
days, that the starch grains have a peculiar border, bearing a strong resem-
blance to a cell-membrane. This shortly turns out to be a real cell-mem-
brane, and is gradually raised above the starch-grain, which grain then occu-
pies the position of a cell-nucleus. Thus, out of a grain of starch, a cell has

‘

ZOOLOGY: 397

been formed under the observer’s eye. Inside this cell, little granular masses are
developed, which begin to contract. Finally, minute eel-like animalcules are
developed there, which bore their way through the cell-wall into the water.
~ Funke, in his report of this observation, which, he says, he has verified,
asks, how is it possible to deny Spontaneous Generation here? Before our
eyes a grain of starch becomes a cell, in that cell are developed living forms,
which bore their way out.

The reader will imagine the sensation which such an observation created.
He will agree with Funke, as I did, that if the fact were as he stated it, all
discussion was at an end. But was the fact as stated? I tried in vain to
verify it. Not less than twenty separate potatoes were employed, always in
conjunction with ordinary starch, as a point of comparison; but although
the animalcules were abundant enough, I never could satisfy myself of the
first and all-important step, namely, the formation of a cell-wall round the
starch-grain. This was the more distressing, because it is at all times un-
pleasant to be unable to verify an observation, especially one made by a
careful and competent observer, and described in precise terms.

I could not reject what Cienkowski had positively affirmed, and Funke
positively confirmed, and was willing to suppose that there was some neces-
sary condition in the observation which I had not fulfilled. On the other
hand, I could not reject a doctrine on the strength of a fact about which any
doubt was permissible. In this state of suspense, I had the satisfaction of
hearing from Professor Naegeli, the celebrated microscopist, that he too had
been bafiled at first in the attempt to verify this observation; but that, after
nearly a hundred trials, he had succeeded. He positively confirmed all the
statements Cienkowski had made. But, from that moment, my suspense
vanished. If the phenomenon was of such rare occurrence, there were rea-
sons for suspecting some other explanation than that of Spontaneous Gen-
eration. What the source of the error was, might not be easily divined; but
it seemed very probable that error had crept in somewhere.

In a late number of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles (x. 140), there is a
note which clears up the whole mystery. Cienkowski has himself discoy-
ered the source of his own error. The membrane which seemed to form
itself round the starch-grain has had quite another origin. He has observed
the little monads swimming about, and has noticed one of them adhere to a
starch-grain, spread its elastic body round it, and finally envelop it, as the Ameba
wraps itself round its food. This explains how the starch-grain comes to be
inside a cell; and as this process was never suspected, and the starch-grain
was seen with a cell-wall, the idea of natural formation was inevitable, the
more so as the wall seemed to grow larger and larger.

Thus has even this, the most striking case in favor of Spontaneous Genera-
tion ever adduced, been finally cleared up; and the reader will probably agree
in the conclusion to which the whole of the facts advanced in this paper lead,
namely, that the Law of Generation is universal; the exceptions which have
been hitherto urged, have, one by one, been found to be no exceptions; and
the presumption is, that even M. Pouchet’s cases will be likewise explained.
It is quite possible that the generation of animalcules may take place spon-
taneously; but, although possible, it is not probable, and certainly is not
proven.

In addition to the above communication by Mr. Lewes, the following
remarks by M. Dumas, before the French Academy, on the subject of M,
Pouchet’s views, are given in Silliman’s Journal, No. 82.

34

398 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

Pt

For thirty years he had had the question under examination, and had
experimented on the subject. In these experiments he had assured himself
that organized matter heated to 120° or 130° C., with water artificially made
by means of hydrogen and oxide of copper, and with artificial air in closed
tubes, the glass of which had been recently heated to a red-heat, produced
neither vegetation nor animalcules. On opening these tubes, and allowing
ordinary air to enter, there was soon an appearance of vegetation and ani-
malcules. These results had surprised him, as he was disposed to think that
the germs of these plants and animalcules might be distributed in the organ-
ized matter as well as in the air itself, and that certain of these germs might
well be of a nature to resist a temperature of 100° C., or even a higher tem-
perature.

As the Tardigrades,* when absolutely dry, resist 140° C., and the sporules
of Oidium aurantiacum 100° C. in a moist medium, it will not suffice, in order
to establish the hypothesis of spontaneous generation, that living beings
should sometimes appear in boiling water, in contact with artificial air and
with the presence of organic matters that had before been heated, especially
if these matters were heated when dry. When, among these inferior animals
and plants, life is suspended by absolute desiccation to return to action
again on a return of humidity, the being so treated is in that state of latent
animation which belongs to germs. It is hence a matter of astonishment
that on putting heated organic matters into connection with oxygen and
artificial water, we do not sometimes find living beings to appear Even
such an observation as this would not therefore suffice to establish the
theory of spontaneous generation, or prove that the germs of these beings
were not previously deposited in the organic matters employed. But, in
fact, whilst animalcules appear when the ordinary air has access, without
this access, under the precautions mentioned, they do not appear.

On the same occasion, M. Claude Bernard also made the following state-
ment:

Among a large number of experiments which I have made to ascertain the
influence of saccharine substances in liquids where microscopic vegetation
was developed, I will cite one, as it bears directly on this subject of sponta-
neous generation now under discussion.

On the 1st of September, 1857, I put into two glass flasks, each half a
litre in capacity, about fifty cubic centimetres of a same dilute solution of
gelatine in water, to which some thousandths of cane-sugar had been added.
The liquid was then kept boiling in the two flasks for a quarter of an hour,
the tubular neck of each having been previously drawn out, so that it could
easily be sealed. Up to this point there was no difference between the flasks.
Now, when the flasks were still boiling, and filled with steam, a difference
was begun, by allowing ordinary air to enter one, and highly heated air the
other. To accomplish this, while ebullition was going on, the neck of one
of the flasks was connected with one of the extremities of a porcelain tube
filled with fragments of porcelain, and brought up to a red-heat by a
furnace; at the other extremity, the porcelain tube was terminated in a
glass tube of fine bore, so that the air should enter gradually, and pass very
slowly over the red-hot porcelain. Thus situated, the vapor of the liquid in

* The Tardigrade animalcules, are minute, worm-shape animals, about a fortieth
of an inch in length, belonging to the Rotatoria of Ehrenberg, and therefore much
higher in structure than the ordinary Infusoria.

ZOOLOGY. 399

ebullition rose into and filled the porcelain tube, and even passed out at the
end of the fine tube. The lamp was then removed to arrest the ebullition;
and by degrees the steam,was condensed, and the outside air (air of the labo-
' ratory.) entered to take its place, passing through the red-hot porcelain tube
above described. After the liquid had cooled, the flask was hermetically
sealed at the neck.

The other flask was allowed to cool without any connection with the
porcelain tube, and the atmospheric air entered freely. When the flask was
cooled, it was sealed like the other.

The two flasks were then placed on the same conditions, exposed to the
light and to the ordinary temperature. After ten or twelve days, at the sur-
face of the flask containing the ordinary air, vegetation was visible—a
well characterized mould; whilst in that which had received the heated air,
the liquid remained perfectly limpid, and without anything on its surface.
After a month, the mould had much increased in the former, while nothing
had appeared in the latter, except that the water had slightly lost its clear-
ness. After six months (March 4, 1858), the mould remained stationary in
the former, while in the other the liquid continued the same, without any
trace of mould. The extremities of the two flasks were now broken under
mercury. In the case of the one with heated air, considerable mercury was
absorbed, but none in the other. The air of the two flasks being analyzed,
no oxygen was found in either. The air from the flask with ordinary air
contained 13°48 per cent. of carbonic acid; that of the other, in which no
mould had formed, 12°43 per cent. The liquid of the flask with ordinary
air had a putrid and very disagreeable odor, while the other had none. M.
Montagne, on examining these liquids, ascertained that the mould devel-
oped in the flask with ordinary air was the Penecillium glaucum, which was
in full fructification; in the other he found no trace of any vegetable or
animal organism.

The following note, on this subject of spontaneous generation, has also
been published by Prof. Dana, of New Haven.

1. There is a well-known principle in the system of nature that deserves
to be considered in this connection. The principle is so fully sustained by
all research, both in chemistry and zoology, including the important experi-
ments above mentioned, that it may well carry with it great weight, and
quiet both apprehension and expectation on this subject. It is this: The
forces in life and inorganic nature act in opposite directions, — the former
upward, the latter downward.

The vital force, in the organic substances it forms, ascends through vege-
table and animal life to an exalted height in the scale of compounds at an
extreme remove from saturation with oxygen; inorganic force descends
towards the saturated oxide. The former reaches a point which from its
very elevation is one of great instability ; the latter tends towards one of per-
fect stability. There is hence a counterpart or cyclical relation between the
two great lines of action in nature.

As some readers of these remarks may not be familiar with chemistry, a
further word of explanation is added.

When an element unites with its full allowance of oxygen, as determined
by its affinities, it is ina sense saturated with it. Since the attraction of the
elements for oxygen is the most universal, and, in general, the strongest in
nature, the oxides as a class are the most stable of compounds; the rotks,
the earth’s foundations, are made of them. But evanescence and unceasing

400 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

change are in the fundamental idea of the living structure; and, conse-
quently, the material of the plant or animal contains only oxygen enough to
give increased stability to the combination. Moreover, the compounds aug-
ment in instability, through this and other ways, with the rise in the grade
of organic life, and reach probably their farthest extreme in this respect
in the brain. Here, then, is the summit of the series of compounds which
arise under the agency of life. The stable oxide is at the lower end of the
series in nature, the material of the brain at the upper. Passing from the
latter condition towards the former, is therefore a real descent; and it is the
natural downward course of inorganic forces; while passing towards the
latter is as truly an ascent; it is the counter-movement of life.

The plant through its vital functions may take carbonic acid, and from it
continue to elaborate the organic products constituting vegetable fibre, until
a whole tree of such material is made, and then produce the higher material
of the flower and seed. The animal may then go to the plants and use them
in making a still higher class of products, muscular fibre and nerve. After
all this is done, now turn over the material to the action of chemical and
physical forces, and the work of years of life is soon pulled down from its
height, and one part after another descends towards that state of compara-
tive inactivity, the condition of an oxide. Chemistry makes organic pro-
ducts by commencing with those of a higher grade than the kind to be
made, but not otherwise. Albumen is a prominent material of the egg;
and chemistry has not succeeded in making dead albumen, much less living.

The very relation of life to chemistry is therefore evidence that chemistry
cannot make life; it works in just the reverse direction. And in this recip-
rocal relation one of the profoundest laws of nature is exhibited. It leads
the mind to recognize one author for both, and not to imagine that one side
in the cycle has generated the other.

2. There is another consideration, which, if it has not the force of demon-
stration, may help the mind to understand the extent of the transition from
dead matter to living.

(a) In ordinary inorganic composition, there is the simple formation of
inorganic particles, and, on consolidation, their aggregation into crystals,
the perfect individuals of inorganic nature. With the enlargement of the
crystal there is no gain of new powers or qualities: it simply exists. In
fact, in entering this state of perfection, there is a loss of latent force; for the
gas is the highest condition of stored or magazined force in inorganic nature,
the liquid the next, and the solid the lowest, — this condition of power being
related directly to the amount of heat.

(b) The plant grows from its germ, enlarges, accumulates force, storing it
away in vegetable fibre, and accomplishes its highest functions in its blos-
soms and fruit. But there is here only latent or stored force generated, besides
that which is used up in growth, and no mechanical force. The minute spore
or reproductive cellule of some seaweeds has locomotive power, but it is lost
at the commencement of germination; and the plant is ever after as incapa-
ble of self-locomotion as a rock.

(c) In the animal, there is not only a storing of force in animal products
(the fifth and highest grade of stored force in nature), but there is also
increasing mechanical force from the first beginning of development. I is
almost or quite zero in the germ; but from this, it goes on increasing, until,
in the horse, it gets to be a one-horse power; or in the ant, a one-ant power;
and so for each species. And in addition to mechanical force, there is, in

ZOOLOGY. 401

the higher group, the-more exalted mental force; for the mind, while not
itself material, is yet so dependent on the material, that its action draws
deeply upon the energies of the body. To make an animal germ is, then, to
make a particle of albuminoid substance that will grow and spontaneously
develop a powerful piece of enginery, and continue a system of such genera-
tions through ages of reproduction. The creation of any such animal germ
out of dead carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, or any of their dead
compounds, is therefore opposed to all known action or law of chemical
forces; and as much so, the creation of a vegetable germ from inorganic
elements. Moreover, it is seen that the two kingdoms, the vegetable’ and
animal, have their specific limits and comprehensive reciprocal relations,
and are obviously embraced as parts of one idea in a single primal plan:—
not a plan involving the generation of one out of the other, or of either out
of inorganic nature, but of the three, through some Creating Power higher
than all.

ON APPARENT EQUIVOCAL GENERATION.

Mr. H. J. Clark, of Cambridge, in a communication to the American
Academy, Boston, May 10, 1859, states that he has been fortunate in discov-
ering the origin of several forms of these pseudo-animate bodies called
Infusoria. Whilst watching the decomposition of the inner wall of the
proboscis of a young Aurelia flavidula, our common jelly-fish, I observed
that the whole component mass of cells was in violent agitation, each cell
dancing zigzag about within the plane of the wall. If any one will shake
about a single layer of shot in a flat pan, he can obtain an approximate idea
of the appearance of this moving mass. In a perfectly healthy condition,
these cells lie closely side by side, and do mlot move individually from place
to place, but yet are active on one side, which constitutes the surface of the
stomach, where they are covered by vibratile cilia. As the young Aurelia
grows, this wall becomes separated from the outer one, but not completely,
for the cells of the two adhere to each by elongated processes varying in
number from one to six or seven. Each cell of the inner wall contains nu-
merous red or brown granules, a few transparent globules, and a single large,
clear mesoblast. When decomposition ensued, these celis became still far-
ther separated from each other, and danced about in the manner which I
have just described. The vibratile cilia were not observed to share in this
movement; in fact, I could not detect their presence, because, no doubt, they
had become decomposed and fallen away; but the elongated processes,
which heretofore had remained immovable and stiff, lashed ahout with very
marked effect upon the cells to which they belonged, and caused them to
change place constantly. At last the inner wall fell to pieces, and every cell
moved independently, and in any direction. If at this time they were placed
before the eyes of Ehrenberg, or any one of his adherents, he would at
once pronounce every cell with a single process a Monas; the red or brown
granules would be recognized as the stomachs filled with food, the trans-
parent globules as the empty stomachs, and the large mesoblast as the gen-
ital organ or propagative apparatus. Those with two processes would be to
him a Chilomonas, or some other genus closely related to it; those with three
or four on one side would be the Oxyrrhis of Dujardin; and those with six
or seven processes the Hexamita of the same author. To complete the ap-
parently truthful determinations of these microscopists, I would only have
to place before them some of these cells which I have found in a state of

54*

nw

402 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

self-division, each half possessing its genital-like mesoblast. In all their
yarious shapes and actions, and in the mode of self-division, there is a re-
markable and undistinguishable resemblance to numerous moving bodies
which go under the name of Infusoria, and which may be found, uncon-
nected with any living organism, in various kinds of infusions.

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE VIBRIO.

The following. paper has been communicated to the American Academy
by H. J. Clark, of Cambridge:

In connection with Pouchet’s revival of the doctrine of equivocal or spon-
taneous generation, a discovery made by me may not be uninteresting, as it
has more or less relations in its nature to his theory. There are certain
well-known bodies, described as animals by Ehrenberg, under the name of
vibrio; their peculiarity consists in that they are composed of a single row of
globular bodies, resembling a string of beads, more or less curved, and move
in a spiral path with great velocity, even faster than the eye can follow in
many cases. They exhibit, by their activity, more plausible signs of ani-
mality than any of the Desmidex or Diatomacee, and fully as convincing
indications of life as the spores of Algsz, to which they were first referred
by the late Dr. W. I. Burnet, and after him by Rudolph Wagner and Leuck-
art. They have always been spoken of as developing around decaying animal
and vegetable matter. I was very much surprised to discover the manner
in which they originate from such substances. I was studying the decom-
posing muscle of a Sagitta, a little crustacean, as I consider it, when I
noticed large numbers of Vibrio, darting hither and thither, but most fre-
quently swarming about the muscular fibres. I was struck with the similar-
ity of these bead-like strings to the fibrille of the muscle; and, upon close
comparison, I found that the former were exactly of the same size, and had
the same optical properties as the latter. Some of these appeared to be at-
tached to the ends of the flat, ribbon-like fibres, and others at times loosened
themselves and swam away. I was immediately impressed with the daring
thought, that these vibrios were the fibrillz set loose from the fibres; but as
this was a thing unheard of, and so startling, I for the time persuaded my-
self that they must have been accidentally attached and subsequently loos-
ened. However, I continued my observation until I found some fibres in
which the fibrillz were in all stages of decomposition. At one end of the
fibre the ultimate cellules of the fibrilla were so closely united, that only
the longitudinal and transverse strix were visible; further along, the cellules
were singly visible; and still further, they had assumed a globular shape;
next, the transverse rows were loosened from each other excepting at one
end; and finally, those at the extreme end of the fibre were agitated, and
waved to and fro, as if to get loose, which they did from time to time, and,
assuming a curved form, revolved each upon its axis, and swam away with
amazing velocity. There was no doubting, after this, the identity of the
vibrios and the muscular fibrille; but I thought such a strange phenome-
non ought to have a second witness to vouch for it, and therefore went for
the best that could be wished for, Prof. Agassiz. I simply placed the pre-
parations before him, and, without giving him the least hint of the origin of
the muscle, I was pleased to have him rediscover what I had seen but fifteen
minutes before.

The number of ultimate cellules in a moving string varied from two to

ZOOLOGY. 403

fifty; the greatest number of strings were composed of only three or four,
often six to eight, and rarely as high as fifty. Very rarely the fibres split
longitudinally, and in such instances the fibrille were most frequently long,
and moved about with undulations rather than a wriggling motion. A sin-
ele ultimate cellule, when set loose, danced about in a zigzag manner; but
whenever two were combined, the motion had a definite direction, which
corresponded to the longer diameter of the duplicate combination; and if
only three were combined, the spiral motion was the reswt of their united
action. What it is that causes these cellules to move, I do not profess to
know; but certainly it is not because they possess life as independent beings.
This much is settled, however, that we may have presented to us all the phe-
nomena of life, as exhibited by the activity of the lowest forms of animals
and plants, by the ultimate cellules of the decomposed and fetid striated
muscle of a Sagitta. I do not pretend to say that everything that comes
under the name of Vibrio and Spirillum it a decomposed muscle or other tis-
sue, although I believe such will turn out to be the fact; but this much I
will vouch for, and will call on Prof. Agassiz to witness, that what would be
declared, by competent authority, to be a living being, and accounted a cer-
tain species of vibrio, is nothing but absolutely dead muscle.

ON THE LOWEST (RHIZOPOD) TYPE OF ANIMAL LIFE, CONSIDERED
IN ITS RELATIONS TO PHYSIOLOGY, GEOLOGY, AND ZOOLOGY.

The following is an abstract of a lecture on the above subject, recently
given before the Royal Institution, London, by Prof. Carpenter:

Among the unexpected revelations which the modern improved micro-
scope has made to the scientific investigator, there is, perhaps, none more.
fertile in interest than that which relates to the very lowest type of animal
existence; from the study of which both the physiologist and the zoologist
may draw the most instructive lessons, whilst the geologist finds im it the
key to the existence of various stratified deposits of no mean importance,
both in extent and thickness. Though the doctrines of Professor Ehrenberg
as to the complexity of organization possessed by the minutest forms of ani-
malcules, have now been rejected by the concurrent voice of the most com-
petent observers, working with the best instruments, yet the wonders of ani-
malcular life are not in the least diminished by this repudiation of them.
Indeed, as great and small are merely relative terms, it may be questioned
whether the marvel of a complex structure comprised within the narrowest
space we can conceive, is really so great as that of finding those operations
of life we are accustomed to see carried on by an elaborate apparatus, per-
formed without any instruments whatever ; a little particle of apparently
homogeneous jelly changing itself into a greater variety of forms than the
fabled Proteus, laying hold of its food without members, swallowing it with-
out a mouth, digesting it without a stomach, appropriating its nutritious
material without absorbent vessels or a circulating system, moving from
place to place without muscles, feeling (if it has any power to do so) without
nerves, multiplying itself without eggs; and not only this, but in many
instances forming shelly coverings of a symmetry and completeness not sur-
passed by those of any testaceous animals. As examples of this type of
existence, the Ama@ba and Actinophrys were first described; and it was then
pointed out that the only recognizable characters by which such beings ‘are
distinguishable as animals from vegetable organisms of equal simplicity,

404 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. '

are to be found in the nature of their aliment, and in the method of its intro-
duction. For whilst the protophyte obtains the materials of its nutrition from
the air and moisture that surround it, and possesses the power of detaching
oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen from their previous binary com-
pounds, and of uniting them into ternary and quarternary organic compounds
(chlorophyll, starch, albumen, etc.), the simplest profozoon, in common with
the highest members of the animal kingdom, seems utterly destitute of any
such power, and depends for its support upon organic substances previously
elaborated by other living beings. Further, whilst the protophyte obtains
its nutriment by simple imbibition, the protozoon, though destitute of any
proper stomach, extemporizes, as it were, a stomach for itself in the substance
of its body, into which it ingests the solid particles that constitute its food,
and within which it subjects them to a regular process of digestion. Hence
these simplest members of the two kingdoms, which can scarcely be distin-
guished from each other by any structural characters, seem to be physiologi-
cally separable by the mode in which they perform those actions wherein
their life most essentially consists. The general character of the group of
marine rhizopods, commonly termed Foraminifera, was next described; and
the lecturer dwelt much on the importance of making great allowance, in the
systematic arrangement of their forms, for the very wide range of variation
that may present itself within the limits of one and the same specific type.
It is very easy to select from any extensive collection of Foraminifera, recent
or fossil, sets of forms having certain characters in common, but yet so dis-
similar in other respects, that few naturalists would have any doubt as to
their specific, or even generic, distinctness; yet, when the collection is thor-
oughly examined, such a series of intermediate forms is found to exist as
connects all these by gradations so insensible as to prevent the possibility
of any line of demarcation being satisfactorily drawn between them. Re-
markable illustrations of this principle were adduced, not only from the lec-
turer’s own researches, but from Prof. Williamson and Mr. W. K. Parker,
on the groups which they have particularly studied; so that it would appear
as if this type of animal existence were specially characterized by its ten-
dency to such variations. And this will seem the more probable, when it is
considered how little of definiteness there is in the form and structure of the
sarcode-body that forms the shell; so that the wonder is, not that there
should be a wide range of variation both in the form and in plan of growth
of the aggregate body, and in the mode of communication of the individual
segments, but that there should be any regularity or constancy whatever.
But it is only in the degree of this range that this group differs from others;
and the main principle, which must be taken as the basis of its systematic
arrangement, — that of ascertaining the range of specific variation by an
extensive comparison of individual forms, —is one which finds its application
in every department of natural history, and is now recognized and acted on
by all the most eminent zodlogists and botanists. There are still too many,
however, who are far too ready to establish new species upon variations of
the most trivial character, without taking the pains to establish the value of
these differences, by ascertaining their constancy through an extensive series
of individuals, — thus, as was well said by the late Prince of Canino, “ de-
scribing specimens instead of species,” and burdening science not only with
a useless nomenclature, but with a mass of false assertions. It should be
borne in mind that every one who thus makes a bad species, is really doing
a serious detriment to science; whilst every one who proves the identity of

ZOOLOGY. 405

species previously accounted distinct, is contributing towards its simplifica-
tion, and is, therefore, one of its truest benefactors. Having noticed some
of the most interesting physiological and zoological considerations which
connect themselves with the study of this group, the lecturer alluded, in the
last place, to its geological importance. ‘Traces, more or less abundant, of
the existence of Foraminifera, are to be found in calcareous rocks of nearly
all geological periods; but it is towards the end of the Secondary, and at the
beginning of the Tertiary period, that the development of this group seems
to have obtained its maximum. Although there can be no reasonable doubt
that the formation of chalk is partly due to the disintegration of corals and
larger shells, yet it cannot be questioned that in many localities a very large
proportion of its mass has been formed by the slow accumulation of forami-
niferous shells, sometimes preserved entire, scmetimes fragmentary, and
sometimes almost entirely disintegrated. The most extraordinary manifes-
tation of this type of life, however, presents itself in the nummulitic lime-
stone, which may be traced from the region of the Pyrenees, through that
of the Alps and Apennines, into Asia Minor, and again through Northern
Africa and Egypt, into Arabia, Persia, and Northern India, and thence (it is
believed) through Thibet and China, to the Pacific, covering very extensive
areas, and attaining a thickness in some places of many thousand feet; an-
other extensive tract of this nummulitic limestone is found in the United
States. A similar formation, of less extent but of great importance, occurs
in the Paris basin; and it is not a little remarkable that the fine-grained and
easily-worked limestone, which affords such an excellent material for the
decorated buildings of the French metropolis, is entirely formed of an accu-
mulation of minute foraminiferous shells. Even in the nummulitic lime-
stone, the matrix in which the nummulites are imbedded, is itself composed
of minute Foraminifera, and of the comminuted fragments of larger ones.
The remarkable discovery has been recently made by Professor Ehrenberg,
that the green and ferruginous sands which present themselves in various
stratified deposits, from the Silurian to the Tertiary epoch, but which are
especially abundant in the Cretaceous period, are chiefly composed of casts
of the interior of minute shells of Foraminifera and Mollusca, the shells
themselves having entirely disappeared. The material of these casts, which
is chiefly silex, colored by silicate of iron, has not merely filled the chambers
and their communicating passages, but has also penetrated, even to its mi-
nutest ramifications, that system of interseptai canals, whose existence, first
discovered by Dr. C. in nummulites, has been detected also in many recent
Foraminifera, allied to these in general plan of structure. And it is a very
interesting pendant to this discovery, that a like process has been shown, by
Professor Bailey, to be at present going on over various parts of the sea bot-
tom of the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Stream, — casts of Foraminifera in
greensand being brought up in soundings with living specimens of the same
types.

ON SOME UNUSUAL MODES OF GESTATION.

The following is an abstract of a paper communicated by Dr. Jeffries
Wyman to the Boston Society of Natural History (see Proc. Sept. 1857),
on some unusual modes of gestation, which have been made by him the
subject of personal observation.

Among Batrachians, the circumstances under which the young are devel-
oped, though less varied than in some of the other classes of vertebrates,

406 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

still present a considerable range. By most species the eggs are deposited
in the water either upon aquatic plants or on the bottoms; by others, as in
Salamandra erythronota, they are laid in damp places under logs or stones;
with some the evolution of the embryo commences a short time previous to
the laying of the egg, and is completed subsequently, while there are other
species which are wholly viviparous.

The most remarkable deviations from the ordinary modes are to be found
in those instances in which the eggs, after being laid, are brought into a
more or less intimate relation with the parent, as in the “Swamp toads”
(Pipa Americana) of Guiana, where each ovum is deposited in a sac by itself
on the back of the female; in Notodelphys of Venezuela, where all the eggs are
lodged in one large sac, also on the back, and is analogous to the pouch of
the Marsupials, and in Alytes, the ‘Obstetric toad”’ of Europe, where the
eggs are wound in strings around the legs of the male, who takes care of
them until they hatch.

The species, the habits of which are noticed below, and which, in so far
as I have been able to learn, have not attracted the attention of naturalists,
adds another to the series just mentioned, though the relation of the foetus to
the parent becomes less intimate than in any of the preceding cases.

Hylodes lineatus (Dum. and Bib.) is very common in Dutch Guiana, and its
peculiar habits are well known to the colonists.

In the month of May, 1857, during an excursion to the country inhabited
by the Bush negroes, above Sara Creek on the upper Surinam River, I had
an opportunity, for the first time, of seeing these animals carrying their
young, and subsequently collected several specimens. In one instance the
larve were retained permanently adherent to the back of the parent, in con-
sequence of the coagulation of the mucus covering the surface of the body,
and are still preserved in the Academy of Comparative Anatomy at Cam-
bridge. The young, from twelve to twenty in number, were also collected
upon the back of the mother, their heads directed towards the middle line.
They were about three-fourths of an inch in length. No limbs were devel-
oped, and no special organ was found to aid them in adhering to the back
of the parent. The adhesion may have been effected by the mouth; and
this is rendered probable by the fact that all of them had the month in con-
tact, either with the skin of the parent or with that of another larva. A
viscid mucus covering the intezuments, undoubtedly assisted in some meas-
ure to bring about the same results. However this may be, they retained
their places perfectly well, and were not displaced when the mother, closely
pursued, carried them through the grass.

On dissection of the young, nothing was found materially different to condi-
tions of the larve of other anousa. Gills had disappeared, but were replaced
by internal ones, which were arranged as usual on three hyoid arches. The
development of the lungs had commenced, and these were represented by a
slender conical mass of ‘cells, but not permeable to air. The mouth was
provided with finely denticulated horny jaws, and the intestinal canal was
shorter and less spirally convoluted than in ordinary larve of frogs and
toads. The stomach was not so much developed as to be distinguished
from the rest of the intestine; but this last, after passing the liver, was
somewhat dilated, and contained, as was shown by the microscope, large
quantities of yolk-cells, which had not been absorbed, and which were
adherent to its walls.

We have here, then, a larva, in all the details of its structure, especially in

ZOOLOGY. 407

the existence of gills and of a flattened tail, adapted to aquatic locomotion
and respiration, yet passing a portion of its time at least on the back of its
parent, and at a distance from the water.

I was not able to ascertain whether the eg¢s were primarily deposited in
the water or not; but it is well known to some of the colonists, that after the
larve have reached a certain degree of development, they are carried about
in the manner just described, and they do not know them under any other
circumstances. The existence of yolk-cells in the intestine shows that, for
a period at least, they may have from these a supply of nutriment. But after
this is exhausted, and it appeared to be nearly so in those which I have dis-
sected, how do they obtain their food? In the absence of limbs adapted to
terrestrial locomotion, can they leave the body of the parent? and if they
cannot, do they, as in the case of Pipa and probably in Notodelphys, depend
upon a secretion from her?

Among fishes, as far as at present known, the external conditions under
which the eggs are developed, are more varied than in any other class of
vertebrates. There are scarce any known conditions of the higher classes
to which there are not analogies at least in the class of fishes. Besides the

.ordinary mode of depositing eggs upon the bottoms, some of the Salmonide,
like the turtles, bury their eggs, the Lampreys (Pefromyzon), the Breams
(Pomotis), the Hassars ( Callicthys), the Stickle-backs ( Gasteroste7), ete., build
more or less complete nests. Among some of the Pipe fishes (Syngnathide)
the eggs, and subsequently the young, are carried in a pouch analogous to
that of the opossums and other marsupial animals; and among some of the
Sharks there is a vitelline placenta, analogous to the Allantoidian, one of the
Mammalia.

Among the Siluroid fishes of Guiana, there are several species which, at
several seasons of the year, have their mouths and branchial cavities filled
with eggs or young, as is believed, for the purpose of incubation. The phe-
nomena, which, when first stated to me by Dr. Cragin, of Surinam, seemed
improbable, I found on visiting the market of Paramaribo, in,1857, to be cor-
rect. Inatray of fish which a negro woman offered for sale, I found the
mouths of several filled with either eggs or yagng, and subsequently an
abundance of opportunities occurred for repeating the observation. The
kinds most commonly known to the colonists, especially to the negroes, are
Jara-Bakka, Nijinge-njinge, Koepra, Makrede, and one or two others, all
belonging either to the genus Bagrus, or one nearly allied toit. The first
two are quite common in the market, and I have seen many specimens of
them; for the last two I have the authority of negro fishermen, but have
never seen them myself. The eggs in my collection are of three different
sizes, indicating so many species; one of the three having been brought to
me without the fish from which they were taken.

The eggs become quite large before they leave the ovaries, and are arranged
in three zones, corresponding to three successive broods, and probably to be
discharged in three successive years; the mature eggs of a Jara-bakka eigh-
teen inches long, measured three-fourths of an inch in diameter, those of the
second zone one-fourth, and those of the third are very minute, about one-
sixteenth of an inch.

A careful examination of eight specimens of Njinge-njinge, about nine
inches long, gave the following results: The eggs in all instances were car-
ried in the mouths of the males. This protection, or gestation of the eggs
by the males, corresponds with what has been long noticed with regard to

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408 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

other fishes, as, forexample, Syngnathus, where the marsupial pouch for
the eggs or young is found in the males only, and Gasterosteus, where the
male constructs the nest and protects the eggs, during incubation, from the
voracity of the females. In some individuals the eggs had been recently
laid, in others they were hatched, and the fceetus had grown at the expense
of some other food than that derived from the yolk, as this last was not pro-
portionately diminished in size, and the foetus weighed more than the unde-
veloped egg. The number of eggs contained in the mouth was between
twenty and thirty. The mouth and bronchial cavity were very much dis-
tended, rounding out, and distorting the whole hyoid and bronchiostegal
region. Some of the eggs even partially protruded from the mouth. The
ova were not bruised or torn, as if they had been bitten, or forcibly held
by the teeth. In many instances the fcetuses were still alive, though the
parent had been dead for many hours. No young or eggs were found in the
stomach, although the mouth was crammed to its fullest capacity.

The above observations apply to Njinge-njinge. With regard to Jara-
bakka, I had but few opportunities for dissection, but in several instances
the same conditions of the eggs were noticed as stated above; and in one in-
stance, besides some nearly mature foetuses contained in the mouth, two or
three were squeezed apparently from the stomach; but not bearing any
marks of violence, or of the action of the gastric fluid. It is probable that
these found their way into that last cavity after death, in consequence of the
relaxation of the sphincter which separates the cavities of the mouth and
the stomach. These facts lead to the conclusion that this is a mouth gesta-
tion, as the eggs are found there in all stages of development, and even for
some time after they are hatched.

The question will be naturally asked, how, under such circumstances, the
fishes are able tosecure and swallow their food. I have made no observa-
tions bearing on such a question. Unless the food consists of very minute
particles, it would seem necessary that, during the time of feeding, the eggs
should be disgorged. If this supposition is true, it would give a very proba-
ble explanation of the only fact which might be considered at variance with
the conclusion stated abov@viz., that we have in these fishes a mouth gesta-
tion. In the mass of eggs with which the mouth is filled, I have occasion-
ally found the eggs, rarely more than one or two, of another species. The
only way in which their presence may be accounted for, it seems to me, is
by the supposition that, while feeding, the eggs are disgorged; and as these
fishes are gregarious in their habits, when the ova are recovered, the stray
egg of another species may be introduced into the mouth, among those
which naturally belong to them.

CURIOUS FACT IN REPRODUCTION.

M. Von Siebold, in his recent work on parthenogenesis, states, among
other extraordinary theories relative to the generation of bees and other
insects, that the drones, or male bees, are invariably produced from eggs
laid by unimpregnated females.

ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY.

NEW PLANETS.

THE fifty-seventh asteroid was discovered by M. Luther of Bilk, on the
evening of Sept. 22, 1859. It has received the name Mnemosyne.

The asteroid discovered Sept. 10, 1558, by M. Goldschmidt, at Paris, has
been named Alexandra, and is numbered as the fifty-fourth of the series. The
asteroid discovered on the same night, by Mr. George Searle, at Albany, N. Y.,
has been named Pandora, and is numbered the fifty-fifth. In 1857, Mr. E.
Schubert, of Washington, undertook a series of observations of the asteroid
Daphne. On computing his observations, he was surprised to discover that
he had not found Daphne, but had observed for it a new asteroid in the
neighborhood. He has computed its elements, and it is to be hoped that the
body will be redetected.

Numbering of the Planetoids, or Asteroidal Planets. — In numbering the plan-
etoids, a difficulty has arisen from the fact, discovered by Mr. Schubert, that
the planetoid detected by M. Goldschmidt, Sept. 9, 1857, and mistaken for
Daphne, is undoubtedly a different body. In the Annuaire for 1859 of the
French Board of Longitude, the planetoid detected Sept. 9, 1857, is numbered
(47), and the numbers of all those subsequently discovered is increased by one.
M. Leverrier objects to this proceeding, on account of the confusion which
it occasions, and maintains that the planetoid of Sept.-9, 1857, should be
numbered (56).

Which plan will finally be adopted by astronomers, remains to be seen.
We incline to that of the Annuaire, as strictly conformed to the old rule of
numbering in the order of discovery, and as likely, on the whole, to produce
the least confusion. — Silliman’s Journal, July, 1859.

Supposed new Planetary Bodies between Mercury and the Sun. — At a session
of the French Academy, Sept. 1859, a paper was presented from M. Lever-
rier, on the subject of certain unaccountable discrepancies between the obser-
vations of the transits of Mercury over the disk of the sun, and the results of
calculation. The facts are as follows: The theory of the sun having been
carefully revised, and compared with the results of 9000 observations of that
body taken at various observatories, the motion of Mercury had in its turn
to be revised. Now, there are twenty-one observations of the inner contacts |
of Mercury’s disk with that of the sun, taken within a period of 151 years,
viz., between 1697 and 1818, and all reliable; yet in these transits there ap-
pears to be a progressive.error, which amounts to as much as nine seconds
of an are in 1753. Now, can it be supposed, to explain such a constantly

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410 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

repeated divergence, that such men as Lalande, Cassini, Bouguer, etc., should
have committed mistakes amounting to several minutes of time, and mis-
takes, too, progressively varying from one period to another? This would
be absolutely impossible. But there is another curious circumstance, viz.,
that by increasing the secular motion of the perihelion by thirty-eight seconds,
all the above observations are found to be correct to a second, and in some
cases even to half a second! M. Leverrier then proceeds to show, that in
order to explain this addition of thirty-eight seconds, we should have to
incréase the mass attributed to Venus by one-tenth of its amount. This
mass, calculated to be the 400,000th part of that of the sun, has been however
found, by other calculations, rather too large, so that increasing it is out of the
question. Hence M. Leverrier concludes that the excess of the motion of
Mercury’s perihelion must be owing to some other cause as yet unknown to
us, and this cause he supposes to be either a new planet, or a series of small
bodies circulating between the sun and Mercury.

M. Faye, in commenting on this important communication, suggested that
all the astronomers of Europe should now direct their attention to the small-
est spots on the disk of the sun, in order to discover whether there were among
them any minute planetary bodies which had hitherto escaped observation.
Such bodies had often been looked after without success; but this proved
nothing, such researches having been made at mere hazard; now, however,
there were serious grounds for repeating such attempts, and total eclipses
would be the most advantageous periods for observing any minute body in
the immediate vicinity of the sun. A total eclipse, he added, would be visi-
ble in Spain and Algeria in July next. Suppose an astronomer at Campyey,
for instance, to prepare himself exclusively for such an observation, neglect-
ing everything else relating to the eclipse; if a quarter of an hour before the
proper time he remained in a dark room, in order to guard his eyes from the
dazzling influence of the solar rays, whose effects continue for several min-
utes, and cause vision to be indistinct at the decisive moment, he might, as
soon as the eclipse has reached its maximum, observe the heavens with the
greatest accuracy, and perhaps discover what had hitherto escaped notice
under less favorable circumstances.

Mr. E. C. Herrick, of New Haven, in a note communicated to Silliman’s
Journal for Noy. 1859, says: In this connection it may be worth while to
state that there are already on record observations which make it highly
probable that there exists an intra-Mercurial planet with a satellite. Wart-
mann reports (Bibl. Univ. Avr. 1837, p. 409; Quetelet: Corr. Math. et Phys.,
Aug. 1837, p. 141) that Pastorff, of Buchholz, an attentive observer of the
solar spots, saw twice in 1836, and once in 1837, two round black spots of
unequal size, moving across the sun, changing their place rapidly, and pur-
suing each time routes somewhat different. He found that the two bodies
observed Oct. 18, 1836, traversed an arc of 12/ from 2h 20™ to 3h 12m; that
the two observed Novy. 1, from 2 48™ to 3h 42m traversed in this time an are
of 6/; and that the two observed Feb. 16, 1837, traversed an are of 14/, be-
tween 32 40™ and 4h 10m. In 1834, Pastorff saw two similar bodies pass six
times across the disk of the sun (Bib. Univ., t. 58). The larger was about
3/! in diameter, and the smaller 1// 1/25. Both appeared perfectly round.
Sometimes the smaller preceded the larger, sometimes the contrary. The
greatest observed distance between them was 1! 16//.. The bodies were often
very near each other, and their transit then occupied only a few hours.
They had the appearance of a dull black spot, like that of Mercury in its
transits.

ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 411

On further search, the following statements were found, which may per-

haps bear on the case. Flaugergues mentions (De Zach: Corresp. Astron.,
vol. 13, p. 17, 1825) that Pastorff saw two remarkable spots on the sun, Oct.
23, 1822, and also spots, July 24 and 25, 1823. Olbers (in Tilloch’s Phil. Mag.,
vol. 57, p. 444, 1821) cites Gruithuisen’s observations of three solar spots,
June 26, 1819, viz., one near the middle of the sun, and two small ones without
nebulosity near the western limb.
» M. Leverrier’s new Tables seemed (by the Report made to the French
Academy, Aug. 4, 1845, C. R. 21: 316) to show that Mercury suffered no un-
explained disturbance. Nevertheless, in the hope of finding this presumed
planet, I undertook, in the year 1817, in conjunction with Mr. Francis Brad-
ley, to observe the sun’s disk twice a day when practicable, and also to ex-
plore the neighborhood of the sun with a telescope, armed in front with a
long pasteboard tube blackened inside. These efforts, made with an instru-
ment badly mounted, in an inconvenient place, proved fruitless, and were
finally given up on account of the pressure of other work. Such observa-
tions ought to be resumed by those who can command suitable means. The
fact that for twenty years past no such bodies as those seen by Pastorff have
been detected by the numerous observers of solar spots, may perhaps be due
to the large inclination of the planet’s orbit.

OBSERVATIONS ON BIELA’S COMET.

This comet was discovered to be periodical by M. Biela, in 1826; it re-
volves about the sun in six and three-fourths years, or two thousand four
hundred and ten days, in a very eccentric orbit, which, however, so neariy
intersects that of the earth, that at the return, in November 1832, if the
earth had been one month in advance of its actual place, it would have
gone through the comet; otherwisé, the comet, which is small and hardly
visible to the naked eye, was of little importance until its return, in the au-
tumn of 1845, in the December of which year its form gradually elongated;
and in the middle of January 1846, it actually separated into two comets,
each with a short tail and a nucleus, each of which was alternately brighter
than the other; moreover, the distance between them slowly but steadily in-
increased, so that when they wholly disappeared, in April, it had become
nearly as great as that from the earth to the moon.

At the next return of the comet, in 1852, it was therefore an object of
great curiosity to astronomers, especially after it was ascertained that the
distance between the two parts had become about a million of miles, but
otherwise they had performed their long journey of nearly seven years
almost side by side. Another return of the comet has occurred during the
past year, its perihelion passage taking place on the 24th of May, at a dis-
tance of one hundred and sixty millions of miles from the earth. Unfortu-
nately, however, its distance and position, nearly in a line with the sun, were
unfavorable for observations on it, at any of the observatories of the north-
ern hemisphere.

The following interesting communication from M. Faye, on the division of
this comet, has been recently made to the French Academy.

M. Faye first examines whether this is the first occurrence of the kind
recorded in history, or whether a similar fact has been witnessed before.
Seneca, in his Queestiones Naturales (Lib. VIL., c. 86), mentions a case of the
kind recorded by Ephorus, a Greek historian, whose works are lost; but he

412 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

only does so to cast a doubt on the matter. “ Ephorus,” he says, ‘‘ who is
not very trustworthy, is often deceived, and often deceives. Thus he says
that comet on which the eyes of all men were fixed, because on its rising it
ushered in an immense event, namely, the swallowing up by the sea of
Helice and Bure, was seen to set under the form of two stars, —a thing
which no one else has mentioned before. For who can have observed the
moment when the comet split into two parts? And how, if any one saw it
split asunder, does it happen that no one saw the junction of two bodies
to form it?”

This comet appeared, according to M. Humboldt, under the archonate of
Asteius, in the fourth year of the 101st Olympiad, two years before the bat-
tle of Leuctra, when the two towns of Achaia, mentioned by Seneca, were
washed away by the sea in consequence of an earthquake. Kepler has al-
ready confuted Seneca’s criticisms in his work De Cometis, 1619, pages 49
and 50; but the separation of Biela’s comet in two, sets the question at rest,
and shows that Ephorus spoke the truth; but the comet of Asteius sepa-
rated suddenly and rapidly, since the separation was visible to the naked
eye, whereas that of Biela’s comet has been effected very slowly. According
to M. Plantamour’s measures and calculations, the distance of the two
nuclei, equal to that which exists between the earth and the moon, re-
mained nearly constant during the whole time of its appearance in 1816.

According to M. Alexander, it would be necessary to go back five hundred
days in order to find the nuclei at one-tenth of that distance from each other,
and it was not until the lapse of seven years that the distance became ten
times greater. The two nuclei, in fact, follow the same route; there are but
very slight differences in the elements of their orbits; they have the same
inclination, the same longitude of the node, with the exceptions of a few
seconds; the same eccentricity, and the same orientation of the transverse
axis, so that the difference seems chiefly to bear on the diurnal motion, and
even there it is very slight. Hence the two comets have been moving to-
gether for years side by side, so to say, and at so short a distance from each
other that it was for a long time impossible to distinguish one from the other
with the naked eye. M. Faye hence concludes that the separation of Aste-
ius’s comet was owing to causes different from those operating on Biela’s
comet.

Secondary nuclei, he observes, are not unfrequently seen in a course of
formation in the principal nucleus of a comet, in the midst of the luminous
sectors which are successively developing themselves around it. MM. Donati
and Amici saw one in the dark space existing between two luminous aureo-
las of the large comet of 1858, and this phenomenon appears to be more
frequent even in telescopic comets. These secondary nuclei are in most
cases ultimately absorbed by the principal one when the intestine commo-
tions, caused by the neighborhood of the sun, have ceased; but during the
period of instability, the slightest cause might lead to the expulsion of one
of these nuclei, or, in other words, the formation of two comets out of one.
When the matter of the aureolas has been partially condensed into a nu-
cleus, the latter, having attained a certain degree of density, ceases to
form part of the principal nucleus, and then a small degree of force will
enable it to separate from the parent comet.

M. Faye points to the tangential component of the solar repulsion acting
on the comet, as the probable force which produces that effect. When Biela’s
comet, in its double state, again makes its appearance M. Faye confidently

ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 413

expresses a hope that observation will furnish data sufficient to confirm
his theory. As to the instantaneous separation which was observed in
Asieius’s comet, M. Faye attributes it to a totally different cause, which he
endeavors to explain by the following supposition, namely, that were the
nucleus of Donati’s comet suddenly to cease emitting the particles which
form the tail, the latter would be rapidly separated from the nucleus, and
form a second comet, which would follow a hyperbolical orbit, while the
nucleus, surrounded only by a slight nebulosity, would continue its elliptical
route. A commencement of such a separation took place in the great comet
of 1813, and such might easily have been the case with the comet of Aste-
ius, mentioned by Ephorus.

THE DIVISION OF BIELA’S COMET.— BY D. VAUGHAN.

The aériform matter of which comets are almost entirely composed, must
furnish a wide field for the play of those forces which occasionally disturb
the tranquillity of our atmosphere. So light is the air we breathe, that its
weight is considerably altered by electric action; and from this cause storms
frequently arise. Whenever the prevalence of moisture causes the superflu-
ous electricity to escape from the region of the clouds to the ground, the air
is repelled, and forms an ascending current. <As it undergoes expansion
during the ascent, the cold which. this occasions condenses the accompany-
ing vapor; and descending drops of rain diffuse moisture through the me-
dium which they traverse, and improve its conducting power. Accordingly
the discharges of electricity are constantly repeated, and the aérial current
continues to ascend; while the surrounding air presses into the seene of
action, and participates in the movement. Such is Dr. Hare’s theory of
storms. -

If the small quantity of dense matter which is required to hold together
the rare cometary gases, contained a large proportion of water, or any other
volatile fluid, much vapor should be generated on the approach of the
comet near the sun. Whenever this vapor condensed, at the place screened
from the solar rays, or at any other locality, a discharge of electricity would
occur between the envelop and the central mass of the comet; while an
ascending current commenced in the rare fluid, and determined the focus of
astorm. Owing to its vast height, the greater part of the nebulous append-
age would take part in the movement, and give it a degree of impetuosity
which the feeble attractive power of the nucleus could scarcely control. If
ascending currents of air on our own planet prevent condensed vapor from
falling until it forms large drops of rain, hailstones of a considerable size,
and in some cases waterspouts, the vapor returning to a liquid form in the
vapor of a comet, whose gravity is very feeble, should be sustained by simi-
lar ascending currents, until it had collected into bodies as large as lakes or
seas. Even large collections of the fluid, evaporated from the central nu-
cleus, may be sometimes driven beyond the sphere of its effective attraction,
and may separate forever from the comet, taking away its share of the
aériform appendage.

That the division of Biela’s comet arose from a cause of this nature, is
proved by a singular fact. The two parts into which this body divided were
almost equal in size and brilliancy when nearest to the sun; but at a more
considerable distance from him, one was about eight times as large as the
other, and about four times as bright. This shows that they differed in

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414 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. °

their capabilities of affording material for evaporating; and it is precisely
what should occur, if one were fluid and the other almost entirely solid mat-
ter. On approaching the sun, the nebulous appendage of the first would
swell by the introduction of vapor; while the small amount of vapor con-
tained in the other would be only rendered invisible by the solar heat.
Other comets present indications of similar commotions, though not at-
tended with such remarkable results; and we thus become acquainted with
the relation between the agencies operating on our globe and in the more
humble members of the solar family.

NEW PERIODICAL COMET.

The comet discovered by Mr. Tuttle, of Cambridge, on the 4th of January,
1858, has been found to possess elements identical with those of the second
comet of 1790, discovered by Méchain. Mr. Bruhns, of Berlin, who discoy-
ered this comet seven days after Mr. Tuttle, has compared a great number
of observations, made up to the month of March, in Europe and America,
and -has deduced from them an elliptical orbit of 13°66 years. The comet
discovered on the 4th of January by Mr. Tuttle has therefore returned four
times since 1790 without having been seen.

ON THE GREAT AURORAL DISPLAY OF AUGUST 28TH TO SEPT.
4TH, 1859.

On the evening of August 28th, 1859, was commenced an exhibition of
Auroral or Polar light, which continued with varying intensity at different
localities in North America, so far as is now known, up to September 4th.
This auroral display was one of the most remarkable ever recorded in the
United States, — remarkable not only for the great extent of territory over
which it was observed, but also for its duration, for the intensity of the illumi-
nation, as well as the brilliancy of the colors, and the extreme rapidity of the
changes. It was also equally remarkable for the magnetic disturbances which
accompanied it, especially on the 2d and 3dof September. These electrical
perturbations were recorded not only by the usual magnetic instruments;
but over ‘the whole system of telegraphic wires, especially in New England
and the Canadas, the magnetic mduction either greatly interfered with or
prevented the working of the lines by the usual voltaic current, while in
more than one case the north and south lines were worked solely by the
atmospheric influence! — Silliman’s Journal.

In some instances, lines were worked constantly for two hours in this way,
the currents being variable, but always sufficient for the purpose. These
phenomena had been previously noticed to somé@ extent, and the telegraph
operators were fortunately sufticiently well informed on the subject to ob-
serve and experiment intelligently. The following reported conversation
over the wires between Boston and Portland, on the evening of Sept. 3d, will
give an idea of the way in which they managed it:

Boston (to Portland operator). —‘“‘ Please cut off your battery entirely
from the line for fifteen minutes.”

Portland. — ‘‘ Will do so. It is now disconnected.”

Boston. — “ Mine is aiso disconnected, and we are working with the auroral
current. How do you receive my writing?”

Portland. — ‘‘ Better than with our batteries on. Current comes and goes
gradually.”

‘ ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 415

Boston. — ‘My current is very strong at times, and we can work better
without batteries, as the aurora seems to neutralize and augment our bat-
teries alternately, making the current too strong at times for our relay mag-
nets. Suppose we work without batteries while we are affected by this
trouble ?”

Portland. — ‘Very well. Shall I go ahead with business? ”

Boston. —“‘ Yes. Go ahead.”

It would further appear, from the observations of the telegraph operators,
that while the lights are streaming up the heavens there are strong electric
or electro-magnetic currents passing over the surface of the earth, which,
according to a writer in the Atlantic Magazine, December, 1859, are fre-
quently equal in strength to a current produced by a battery of two hundred
Grove’s cups. These follow the telegraph wires wherever they encoun-
ter them; and the observations made upon their influence during the recent
auroral displays, show that the earth currents pass in waves, alternately
negative and positive. First comes a strong wave of positive electricity,
which gradually subsides, and is succeeded by a negative wave. The
average duration of each wave is about fifteen seconds. While the poles
of the telegraph battery correspond with those of the earth currents the
telegraph current is strengthened by them; and when they are opposed, the
telegraphic current is neutralized.

This auroral display appears to have been witnessed from Cuba and
Jamaica on the south, to an unknown distance beyond the Canadas on the
north; and from Great Britain, France, Germany, and Central Europe on
the cast, to California on the west. Capt. Howe, master of the ship Southern
Cross, from Boston to San Francisco, also reports, that the display off Cape
Horn, on the night of the 2d of September, was grand beyond description,
— the whole heavens being of a deep blood, which color was reflected in the
ocean, upon which a fearful sea was running.

Mr. B. V. Marsh, in a communication to the Journal of the Franklin
Institute, states, that from a comparison of a great number of observations
on the aurora of August 28th, made in different localities, the conclusion
seems warranted, that the luminous horizontal curtain observed ‘“ was in the
form of a ring, the centre of which was probably situated in or near the
northern part of Davis’ Straits —its direction having been shown to be
nearly north-west from England, a few degrees east of north from Philadel-
phia, and north-east from California; that this ring was about forty-three
miles from the earth, and that its width, previous to half-past nine o’clock,
was about three hundred and fifteen miles; and furthermore, that from
various points on its surface, arose splendidly illuminated vertical columns
several miles in diameter, and near six hundred miles high, and that these
columns were at all times at very considerable distance from each other, one
streamer for every five hundred square miles being more than sufficient to
satisfy all observations.”

REMARKABLE METEORS.

On the morning of the 11th of August, 1859, at 7 o’clock and 20 minutes,
or thereabouts, thermometer 73°, air still and the sun shining brightly, a
meteoric body of great size and brilliancy was observed throughout a large
portion of Western New England and Eastern New York, and which, explod-
ing violently, threw down to the earth at least one fragment of its mass, in
the vicinity of Albany, N. Y.

416 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

The main facts connected with this interesting phenomenon, collected from
numerous and widely separated observers, are as follows : By observers,
generally, north of Albany, the meteor is described as appearing in the
south-east, at an elevation of from 45° to 60°; thence passed rapidly to the
south, and disappeared a little west of south at an elevation of from 10° to
15°. Its course, throughout its visible range, was marked by a heavy train,
or trail of smoke, which continued visible for some little time after the meteor
itself had disappeared; and, at two or three points in its course, large vol-
umes of smoke were observed to form, as if the result of successive explo-
sions. These volumes of smoke were noticed to be in a state of great agi-
tation, and in size were compared to the cloud of smoke produced by the
discharge of a six-pounder.

To observers, generally, south of Albany (twenty miles distant, or more),
the meteor was first seen in the north-east, and disappeared in the north-
west, —a fact which indicates the path of the body to have been nearly coin-
cident with the parallel of Albany.

A few moments after the disappearance of the meteor, — the lapse of time
being variously estimated, by differently located observers, at from thirty
seconds to two minutes, — two or three loud and successive explosions or
reports were heard, accompanied with prolonged echoes, and a violent con-
cussion. These sounds have been compared by some to sharp and heavy
peals of thunder, to the report attending the explosion of a powder-mill, or
steam-boiler, and also to the heavy rumbling of carriages crossing a bridge.
In the city of Troy, the concussion and jarring was sufticiently intense to
suggest, generally, the idea of an earthquake; people walking the streets
involuntarily stopped, and for a moment nearly every occupation was sus-
pended. At Schaghticoke, N. Y., and Bennington, Vt., where powder-mills
are in operation, the report was referred to explosions at the works; and at
the former place, when the managers of the works ascertained that no explo-
sion of mills had taken place, either in their own town or in Bennington,
they at once concluded that a train of powder-wagons, which started some
hours previously for Troy, had blown up on the road, and messengers were
at once despatched in search of information. At Eagle Bridge, on the Troy
and Bennington Railroad, the concussion was forcible enough to jar the win-
dows and shake the seats of a train of cars in motion. At Greenbush, oppo-
site Albany, numbers of people rushed to the docks, under the supposition
that a passing steamboat had exploded her boiler. The noise and concussion
also appear to have been noticed, to nearly an equal extent, at points sixty
miles east of the Hudson; while the whole area over which the sound is
positively known to have been heard with distinctness, was upwards of two
thousand square miles.

The area of country, on the other hand, over whieh the meteor was seen,
was, as might have been expected, much larger than the area over which the
explosions were heard, being, at least, equal to six thousand square miles.
Thus, observations were made upon it at Morristown, Lamoile County, Ver-
mont, — twenty-five miles north of Montpelier, — and at South Manchester,
Connecticut, a point nearly two hundred miles south; it was also observed
at localities west of the Hudson River, and at various points from thirty to
sixty miles east of the Hudson. Within a radius of thirty miles north-east
and south-east of Troy, it was probably observed by every person out of
doors, who was at the time looking in the southerly direction; yet such is
the unreliability of human testimony as regards natural phenomena, that

ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 417

no two observers can be found to agree as to many important particulars,
such as apparent size, period of visibility, direction, altitude, ete.

The estimates formed of its size are exceedingly discrepant — some observy-
ers comparing it to the sun, or full moon, and others to a sky-rocket, or the
luminous ball projected from a “Roman candle.”’ All agree, however, that
its appearance, even in full sunshine, was exceedingly bright and dazzling; the
light being at the same time of a reddish color. So bright, indeed, was it at

trafford, Vermont, — a locality nearly one hundred miles north of the prob-
able point of explosion, — that its distance was sean lis as not exceeding a
half a mile from the point of observation.

A single fragment only of this meteor is soslitiels known to have fallen.
This was found in the town of Bethlehem, Albany County, N. Y., and ata
point about ten miles west of the city of Albany. The circumstances con-
nected with the phenomenon, as related by the illiterate Dutch farmer who
noticed it, are as follows : While standing in the enclosure adjoining his
house, his attention, and that of his family, were attracted by a loud sound
overhead, which somewhat resembled thunder; and, a few moments after, a
stone struck the south-east side of a wagon-house, and, bounding off, rolled
into the grass. A dog, lying in the doorway, started up and ran to the place
where the stone rested. When picked up, immediately after, it was found
to be quite warm, and possessed of a slp odor. The fragment in
question was small — about the size of a pigeon’s egg, and irregularly shaped.
Nearly three-fourths of its superficies was covered with a black, non-lustrous,
evidently fused crust, while the remainder presented the appearance of a
fresh fracture, and was of a light-gray color, and of a granular, or semi-crys-
talline texture. Its composition was apparently silicious, and not metallic.
This specimen was bought by the Regents of the State of New York, and is
now deposited in the State Cabinet at Albany. Other fragments are reported
to have fallen in the vicinity of the Hudson; but careful inquiry has, thus
far, failed to discover them.

From the above facts, it seems evident that the meteor of August 11th was
of immense size, — probably of tons weight, — and that it exploded violently
at no great distance above the surface of the earth.

It is an interesting subject of speculation, as to what became of the other
fragments; and also of what the smoke so abundantly developed during its
course was composed. — Editor.

Meteor of Nov. 15th, 1859. — On the morning of Noy. 15th, about nine and
one-half o’clock, a remarkable meteor was seen throughout South-eastern
New England, Southern New York, at numerous places in New Jersey, and
at Washington, D. C., and as far south as Fredericksburg, Va. At all these
places it appears to have been seen at the same instant of absolute time;
and at all the stations north of New York the appearance was almost iden-
tical, and the direction of the meteor was somewhat west of south.

In a communication to Silliman’s Journal, January 1860, Prof. E. Loomis
gives the following summary of facts connected with the phenomenon.

“In New York and vicinity, the meteor was so brilliant that, although
the sun was unclouded and had an elevation of about twenty degrees above
the horizon, the flash attracted the attention of well-nigh every person who
happened at that time to be looking nearly toward that part of the heavens.
The apparent diameter of its head was somewhat less than that of the sun,
and it had an appendage like the tail of a comet, several degrees in length.
Its apparent path was nearly vertical, with a slight inclination towards the

418 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

west; and the length of its visible path was variously estimated from 15° to
25°. The entire period of its visibility did not exceed one or two seconds.
No sound was heard at New York which could reasonably be ascribed to
the meteor. By taking the mean of the estimates of several observers, I
have determined that the point of the horizon where the meteor vanished
was about 21° west of south.”

At Washington, D. C., ““the apparent path of the meteor was nearly per-
pendicular to the horizon, and its point of disappearance was estimated to be
four degrees north of east. Those lines of direction, as observed at New
York and Washington, intersect at a point a little north of Cape May; and,
inasmuch as at each of these stations the apparent path was nearly vertical,
the actual path must also have been nearly vertical, and the meteor un-
doubtedly struck the earth at some point not very remote from Cape Mav.

“This conclusion is confirmed by the reports of the meteor from New
Jersey. The meteor was generally observed throughout the sonthern part
of that State, and was everywhere succeeded by a very remarkable explo-
sion. At Beeseley’s Point, situated on the Atlantic Ocean, near lat. 39° 20),
the course of the meteor is said to have been from northeast to southwest.
It was attended by a sudden flash of light, and left behind a curling track
of a smoky or light cloudy appearance, which soon vanished. About a
minute after the flash, there was heard a series of terrific explosions, which
were compared to the discharge of a thousand cannon. These explosions
continued for one or two minutes; they were very sharp and distinct, and
shook the windows and doors of the houses. These noises occasioned con-
siderable alarm, and by some were thought to have been produced by an
earthquake.

“From these facts it seems almost certain that the meteor struck the earth
at a point a little north of Cape May. As no account of its discovery, how-
ever, has been received, there is reason to apprehend that it may have de.
scended into water, and probably into Delaware Bay. Analogy would lead
us to conclude that this belonged to the class of iron meteors, of which we
have numerous specimens in our cabinets.

“The velocity of this meteor was very extraordinary. It probably struck
the earth at a distance of one hundred and ten miles from Washington, and
is said to have been first seen at an elevation of 45°. This would make the
length of its visible path one hundred and ten miles, and it is said to have
described this path in two seconds, giving a velocity of fifty-five miles per
second. A small portion of this velocity (seven miles per second) may be
ascribed to the earth’s attraction, and another portion was due to the motion
of the earth in its orbit, for the earth was moving obliquely towards the me-
teor; but there still remains an independent velocity nearly double the ve-
locity of the earth in its orbit. The path of the meteor in space could not
therefore have been a circle with the sun for its centre; and the above ve-
locity is too great for any elipse or even parabola; but such conclusions
must be received with caution on account of the imperfection of the obser-
vations; for if we suppose the time of describing this path was three sec-
onds, the independent velocity of the meteor would not have been much
greater than that of the earth in its orbit.”

Besides this meteor, there is reason to believe that other luminous bodies
fell at different points on the morning of November 15th, at about the time
above specified. The master of a sloop on the Hudson, states, in a commu-
nication to the New York Tribune, that a “ball of fire about as large as a

ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 419

man’s hat, struck the water off Fort Washington, very close to the vessel,
and disappeared with a hissing sound. A similar phenomenon was observed
by the officers of a steamboat on the Hudson near Albany. At New Bed-
ford, four or five luminous bodies were observed to strike the water of the
harbor, at the same time, at as many different points.

On the subsequent day, Nov. 16th, a curious phenomenon was noticed by
Edward L. Higgins, of East Killingly, Conn., and is thus described by him,
in a communication to the New York Evening Post:

“On the afternoon of Noy. 16th, about three o’clock, I was walking from
the mill (in Killingly) to the post-office. The day was cloudy, and a mist
was slowly settling over the hills which skirt the horizon. A slight drizzling
rain was falling, and I had just opened my umbrella, when I was astonished
by a loud whizzing noise, somewhat like that produced by a sky-rocket on
its ignition. I turned my umbrella aside, and looked up, when I perceived a
phenomenon that very much surprised, and I may say, awed me. Out of
the mist, from the hill-top, a bright band of flame seemed approaching that
part of the upper air under which I stood, and for quite a distance on either
side the mist was illumined by the light; but the centre of the luminosity
was intensely brilliant, and very rapid in its motion. In a few seconds it
was above my head, and, to my intense disgust, not very far above it either;
and I was enveloped in a sheet of milky-white light, and became sensible
of a very noisome smell, something between that of very coarse burning
brimstone and sour garlic. I followed with my eyes the course of the centre
of the bed of light, which passed just above the mill, and describing a para-
bola, descended to the earth, with a terrific explosion, about half a mile off.
Business intervening, it was an hour and more before I could go in search of
the exploded aérolite; and when I reached the spot where I had observed it
fall, I was petrified with astonishment to perceive no trace whatever of its
presence.” -

ON THE SPOTS ON THE SUN.

Father Secchi, of the Observatory at Rome, has recently published his
researches on the spots upon the sun’s disk. He commences by supporting
the opinion entertained by Wilson, according to whom the feebler light of
the penumbrz depends, at least partly, on the different angles of the sur-
faces emitting that light. He says ‘‘at least partly,’ because we must
make allowance for the striated formation of the edges of the spots, or
penumbrez, which is now established. Closer observation, aided by more
powerful instruments, has proved that the penumbre are composed of
extremely fine, brilliant filaments, whose light equals that of the luminous
solar envelope, or photosphere ; but in consequence of the black lines which
separate them, the total effect is that of half-tints. Powerful instruments
have also enabled Father Secchi to discover in the darker portion of the
spots semi-transparent veils, to which he gives the name of cirri, or clouds.
He attributes them to some irruption of luminous matter having the fila-
mentous aspect of the penumbrz. Wilson’s theory supposes a real depres-
sion of level in the solar spots, and Father Secchi has accordingly attempted
to measure this depression, and has arrived at the conclusion that the solar
photosphere does not exceed half, or even one-third, of the earth’s diameter
in thickness. This would give a depth equal at most to the two-hundredth
of the sun’s diameter; but, notwithstanding the smallness of this estimate,
Secchi believes he is not far from the truth, and he holds the frequent dis-

¢

420 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY.

ruption of the luminous envelope to be itself an evidence of its comparative
thinness. He considers that the faculz are only the crests of parts of the
photosphere which are elevated above the general level. According to this
hypothesis, the faculz are only more luminous relatively to the darker por-
tions near the edge of the solar disk. Furthermore, he has arrived at the
conclusion that the penumbra of a spot near the centre, seen with a feeble
power, does not appear in reality to be blacker than the portions of the disk
near the edge, the light from which is little more than half that of the bril-
liant central parts. From this he infers that the lower strata of the solar
atmosphere must exert an enormous power of absorption, and produce a
great diminution of light in the interior of the cavity formed by the photo-
sphere. Lastly, Father Secchi has established, in a manner satisfactory to
himself, from drawings of the positions and form of numerous spots, that
the greater number of the faculz show themselves in the regions where the
spots appear, namely, above and below the equatorial zone. There is,
therefore, reason to suppose, that, compared with the tropical regions, the
solar equator enjoys a degree of calm similar to that which exists in the
corresponding part of the terrestrial atmosphere. This latter fact agrees
admirably with the observations of Carrington, who was the first to notice
the motion, in opposite directions, of the spots situated above and below the
solar equator. Father Secchi considers that the influence of the spots is
towards raising the temperature of the earth.

MAXWELL’S THEORY OF SATURN’S RINGS.

Prof. Maxwell, of England, in a recent treatise on the stability of the
motion of Saturn’s rings, which gained the Adams prize at Cambridge in
1856, gives us the following as the result of his investigations of the subject:

“The result of the mechanical theory is, that the only system of rings
which can exist is one composed of an indefinite number of unconnécted
particles revolving round the planet with different velocities, according to
their respective distances. These particles may be arranged in series of
narrow rings, or they may move through each other irregularly. We are
not able to ascertain by observation the constitution of the two outer divis-
ions of the system of rings; but the inner ring is certainly transparent, for
the limb of Saturn has been observed through it. It is also certain that,
though the space occupied by the ring is transparent, it is not through the
material parts of it that Saturn was seen, for his limb was observed without
distortion; which shows that there was no refraction, and therefore that the
rays did not pass through a medium at all, but between the solid or liquid
particles of which the ring is composed. Here, then, we have an optical
argument in favor of the theory of independent particles as the material of
the rings. The two outer rings may be of the same nature, but so ex-
ceedingly rare that a ray of light can pass through the whole thickness
without encountering one of the particles.”

OBITUARY

OF PERSONS EMINENT IN SCIENCE. 1859.

Alcott, W. A.,a well-known American writer on health, physiology, ete.

Barratt, Dr. John P., a naturalist and scientific agriculturist, of South Carolina.

Bond, William C., a distinguished American astronomer.

Broderip, William John, an eminent English naturalist.

Brunel, Isambard K., the English engineer.

Brun-Rollet, a Sardinian explorer of Eastern Africa; died at Kartoum, on his
return from the interior.

Cagniard de la Tour, an eminent French chemist.

Davis, Dr. James B., of South Carolina, an eminent agriculturist and naturalist.

Dibtrich, Dr., a distinguished German pathologist.

Dirichlet Lejune, an eminent German mathematician, successor to Gauss, at Got-
tingen.

Eilett, William H., an American chemist.

Grailich, Prof., an eminent mineralogist, of Vienna.

Henfrey, Prof. Arthur, a leading English botanist and naturalist.

Horsefield, Dr., a botanist, well known from his reseaches in Jaya.

Humboldt, Alexander Von.

Hunt, Walter, a well-known American inventor.

Jelachich Baron, Ban of Croatia, well known as a military commander, but also
as a skilful chemist.

Johnson, Manuel, astronomer of the Radcliffe Observatory, Eng.

Lardner, Dr. Dionysius, the well-known scientific author.

Lassaigne, M.,an eminent French chemist, formerly editor of the Journal de
Chemié Medicale.

Loitus, Kennet, assistant in the geological survey of British India, and well known
for his researches at Babylon.

Mather, William W., an American geologist.

Mitchel], D., an English naturalist, late Secretary of the Zodlogical Society.

Motley, Mr.,an English engineer and naturalist, killed by the natives of Borneo.

Nichol, Prof. J. P., Professor of Astronomy in the University of Glasgow, and
a well-known author of astronomical works.

Nuttall, Dr. Thomas, best known as an ornithologist.

Olmstead, Denison, Professor of Natural Philosophy, Yale College.

Ritter, Carl, the distinguished geographer.

Soubeirain, M. E., a distinguished French chemist and physicist.

Stevenson, Robert, the well-known English engineer.

Stewart, James, of N. Y., inventor of the seraphine, type-casting machine, etc.

Taylor, Richard, for many years editor of the London E.and D. Philosophical
Magazine.

Tully, Dr. William, a well-known writer on materia-medica.

Walker, John, a Scotch chemist, inventor of the lucifer match.

Welsh, John, an English physicist, Superintendent of the Kew Observatory.

Wilson, Dr. George, Professor of Technology in the University of Edinburgh,
and a popular scientific author.

Wright, E. G., an English chemist, originator of the use of fulminating mercury
in the percussion cap. ;

36

%

~LIST OF BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, ETC.,

ON MATTERS PERTAINING TO SCIENCE, PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED
STATES DURING THE YEAR 1858-9.

Agassiz, Mrs. First Lessons in Natural History. Boston: Little & Brown.

Antisell, Thomas, M. D. The Manufacture of Photogenic or Hydro-Carbon Oils.
8vo. pp. 144. D. Appleton & Co.,N. Y. $1.75.

Baird, Spencer F. Catalogue of American Birds, chiefly in the Museum of the
Smithsonian Institution.

Bartholomew, W.N. Linear Perspective Explained. Boston: Shepard, Clark & Co.

Binney, W. G. The Terrestrial Air-breathing Molluscs of the United States and
adjacent Territories. 4to. pp. 207. $3.00. Westermann, N.Y.

Blake, William P. Mining Magazine and Journal of Geology. New Series: New
York, G. M. Newton Pub. $5.00 per annum.

Blinn, Leroy J. Practical Companion for the Tin, Sheet Iron, and Copper Smith.
Detroit: Barnes, French & Way. $1.00.

Brunnow, F. Dr. Tables of Victoria, computed with regard to the Perturbations
of Jupiter and Saturn. N. Y. Westermann.

The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, and Proceedings of the Natural History
Society of Montreal. Vols. 1, 2,3. Montreal, 1857-58. $10.50.

Coen, H.C. The Art of Handrailing. F. Coen, Wheeling, Va. $5.00.

Dalton, John C.Jr. <A Treatise on Human Physiology, designed for the use of
Students, etc. 254 illustrations. Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea.

Dana, J.D. Synopsis of a Report on Zodphytes. 180 pp. 8vo. New Haven, 1859.

Darlington, W., M. D. American Weeds and Useful Plants; or, Agricultural
Botany. With Additions by George Thurber. New York. $1.50. Saxton & Co.

Davidson, R.O. A New Theory of the Flight of Birds. Tract. Washington, D.C.

Dawson, J. W. Additional Notes on the Post-pliocene of the St. Lawrence Valley.
es On the Lower Coal Measures, as developed in British America.

Dowler, Dr. Bennet. Natural History of the Amphivinide.

e Observations on Longevity. 3

Emmons, Dr. E. Manual of Geology, designed for the use of Colleges and Acad-
emies. Illustrated with numerous engravings, principally from American
Specimens. 12mo. pp. 300. Philadelphia: Sower & Barnes.

Emmons, Dr. E. Report on the North Carolina Geological Survey. Raleigh, 1858.

Ewbank, Thomas. Thoughts on Matter and Force. pp. 154. 18mo. N.Y.

Feuchwanger, Dr. A Popular Treatise on Gems, in reference to their Scientific
Value. N. Y.: Appleton & Co.

French, Henry F. Farm Drainage: the Principles, Processes, and Effects of Drain-
ing Land, including Tables of Rain-fall, ete. pp. 313. Saxton & Co., N. Y.

Geological Survey of Canada. Figures and Descriptions of Canadian Organic
Remains. Decades 1, 2, 3,4. 10 plateseach. B. Dawson, Montreal.

Gill, T. On the Fresh-water Fishes of Western Trinidad.

LIST OF BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, ETO. 423

Goodrich, S. C. Illustrated Natural History of the Animal Kingdom. 1500 en-
gravings. 2vols. pp. 680, 688. $12.00. Derby and Jfickson, N., Ys

Gray, Prof. Asa. Catalogue of the Phenogamous and Atrogenous Plants con-
tained in Gray’s Manual of the Botany of the Northern States, adapted for
marking desiderata in exchange of specimens, etc. N.Y.: Ivison & Phinney.

Guyot, Arnold. Tables, Meteorological and Physical, prepared for the Smithso-
nian Institution. 2d edition, revised and enlarged. 8vo.

Hall, James. Contributions to the Paleontology of New York. pp. 18. Wester-
mann & Co., N.Y. $1.25.

Hall, James, and Whitney, D. D. Report on the Geological Survey of the State
of Iowa. Published by the Legislature of lowa. Vol. I. pp. 724. 1858.

Hammond, Dr. W. A. and Dr. S. W. Mitchell. Experimental Researches relative
to Corraval and Vao; two new varieties of Woorara, the South American
Arrow-Poison. Brochure extraced from the Am. Jour. Med. Sci., July 1859.

Hayden, F.Y. Explanations of a second edition of a Geological Map of Nebraska
and Kansas. 8vo.pamph. Phil. 1858.

Hillside, A. M. A Familiar Compend of Geology for the School and Family.
12mo. pp. 149. Philadelphia: Challen & Co.

Hitchcock, Prof. E., and Edward Hitchcock, Jr. Elementary Anatomy and Phys-
iology, for Schools and Colleges. 1 vol. pp. 440, with 418 illustrations. N. Y.:
Ivison & Phinney. $400.

Hitchcock, Edward. The Ichnology of New England; a Report on the Sandstone of
the Connecticut Valley, especially its Fossil Foot-marks. Published by the
Legislature of Massachusetts. 220 pp. 4to., with 60 quarto plates.

Isherwood, B. F.,U.S.N. Engineering Precedents. 2vols. $3.75. Balliere,N. Y.

Ives, Lieut. J.C. Colorado Exploring Expedition, Preliminary Report. 12 pp. 8vo.

Jilson, Arnold. Utility of the Slide-rule. Woonsocket, R.I.

Johnson, Sam. W., Prof. Essays on Peat, Muck, and Commercial Manures. 8vo.
pp. 178. Brown & Gross, Hartford, Ct.

King, John. The Microscopist’s Companion. Mallory & Co., Cincinnati, O.

Kirkwood, J. P. Collection of Reports (condensed), and Opinions of’ Chemists,
in regard to the use of Lead Pipe for Service Pipe. N. Y.

Klippart, John H. The Wheat Plant; its Origin, Culture, Diseases, etc. 100 illus-
‘trations. 12mo. pp. 706. Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co. Cincinnati, O.

Lesley, J.P. The Iron Manufacturer’s Guide to the Furnaces, Forges, and Roliing-
Mills of the United States; with Cuts and Maps. To which is appended, a His-
tory of the Manufacture of Iron, a Summary of the Statistics of the American
Production of Iron, and a Geological Discussion of the Iron Ores of the United
States. Published by order of the Board of Managers of the American Iron
Association. lvol.8vo. $5.00. John Wiley, N.Y.

Lieber, O. M. Third Report on the Geological Survey of South Carolina. pp. 224. 8vo.

Lewes, G. Physiology of Common Life. Appleton & Co., N. Y.

Maclean, George M., M. D. Elements of Somatology. 1 vol. 75 cts. Wiley, N. Y.

Mather, W. W. Report on the Artesian Well at Columbus, Ohio. 42. pp. 8vo.

Miller, Hugh.- Sketch-book of Popular Geology, with an Introductory Résumé of
the Progress of Geological Science within the last two years. Gould & Lincoln,
Boston. lvol. 12mo. pp. 428.

Newberry, I. S. Reports on the Geology, Botany, and Zoslogy of Northern Cal-
ifornia and Oregon, made tothe War Department, U.S. Washington. 320 pp.
4to. With Numerous Plates.

Ohio Statistics; being the Second Annual Report of the Commissioners of Statistics
to the Legislature of Ohio, for the Fiscal Year 1858. pp. 95. Richard Nevins.

Owen, D. D., assisted by W. Elderhorst and E. T. Cox. First Report of a Geological
Reconnoisance of the Northern Counties of Arkansas. 8vo. pp. 256. 1859.

424 LIST OF BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, ETC.

Osborn, A. Field Notes of Geology. Pamph. 12mo. N. Y., 1858.

Parrish, Edward. An Introduction to Practical Pharmacy, designed as a Guide
for the Physician and Pharmaceutist. Second edition, enlarged, with 246 Hlus-
trations. 8vo. pp. 720. Blanchard & Lea. $3.50.

Peck, Prof. W.G. Elements of Mechanics, for the use of Colleges and Academies.
12mo. pp. 338. Barnes & Burr, N. Y.

Prime, Temple. List of the known Species of Pisidium, with their Synonymy.
8vo. tract. N.Y.

Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 12th
meeting. 1858.

Proceedings of the Elliot Society of Nat. History of Charleston, S.C. Vol.1. 8vo.

Proceedings and Debates of the National Sanitary Convention held in New York
City, April, 1859. Published by the City. lvol. 8vo. pp. 721.

Rogers, H. D. The Geology of Pennsylvania; a Government Survey. With a
general view of the Geology of the United States, and Essays on the Coal For-
mation, etc. By Henry D. Rogers, State Geologist, Prof. of Natural History
in the University of Glasgow, F. R. S., Hon. F. R. S. E., etc. In 2 vols. 4to.,
with Atlas. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh: Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia.

Rogers, H. D. A New Map of the State of Pennsylvania. Constructed from Origi-
nal Surveys and the most Recent Authorities, under the superintendence of
Prof. H. D. Rogers. Lippincott & Co.

Say. The Complete Writings of Thomas Say on the Entomology of North Amer-
ica. Edited by John LeConte, M.D. Balliere, N. Y.

Smithsonian Report for 1858. Washington, D. C. 1 vol. 8vo.

Storer, Dr.C. H. History of the Fishes of Massachusetts. 4to.

Swallow, G.C., Prof. Fourth Report on the Geological Survey of Missouri. Pamp.

Sevan, Samuel. City and Suburban Architecture. Folio. $12.00. Lippincott &
Co., Philadelphia.

Sevan, Samuel. Guide for the Builder and Carpenter. 62 plates. Lippincott & Co.,
Phil. $5.00.

Tenney, Sanborn. Geology for Teachers, Classes, and Private Students. E. H.
Butler & Co. Phil. 12mo. pp. 320. $1.18.

Torrey, Parry, and Englemann. The Botany of the Mexican Boundary. Introduc-
tion by C. C. Parry; Botany of the Boundary by Prof. Torrey; Czxtace by G.
Englemann. Pub. Doc. Washington, D.C.

Tuomey, M. Second Biennial Report on the Geology of Alabama. Edited, from
the author’s MSS., by Prof. J. W. Mallett.

Warren, Lieut. G. K. Map of the Territory of the United States from the Mis-
sissippi to the Pacific.

Wells, David A. Annual of Scientific Discovery for 1859. Boston: Gould & Lin-
coln.

| Sogo NB Pie code ee

: event PAGE |
Acetie acid in vinegar, 252
Acid, carbazotic, production of, 223

‘tartaric, artificial production

of, 241
Acoustics, experiments in, 184
Africa, explorations in, 17

* northern races of, 390
Affinity, influence of pressure on, 199 |
Agricultural chemistry, 259
Air, organic matter in, 239
Air-pump, new form of, 180
Alcohol, deodorization of, 232
Aluminum, bronze of, 80
Alloys, composition of, 170
America, North, geology of the mid-

dle palzozoic region of, 812
Ammonia, new source of, 233

Animal life, lowest type of, 403
Animals, inferior, effects of lead on, 258

te spontaneous generation of, 391
Antimony, alloys of, 215
Apple oil, 215
Arable land in the U. S., map of, 357

oe ‘* substances extracted

from by water, 260
Armstrong's cannon, 7
Arsenic, Marsh’s test for, 277

“presence of in plants, 266

Art, works of in geological forma-
tions, 344
Atmosphere, dust of the, 267
es height of, 182

S remarkable luminous-

ness of, 153
Atmospheric refraction,
Aurora, Aug. 28th, 1859,

“mode of estimating the height

of, 125
Auk, ‘great,’ extinction of, 330
Australia, fossils of, 18

se gold deposits of, 323
Axle-boxes for locomotives, 41

Axles, railroad car, and the forces
they resist,

BACHELDER’S coal-oil lamp,
Balloon voyage, remarkable,

Bailcons applied to war purposes, 168
Banana essence, 27:
BARCLAY’S galvanic battery, 135

Barometer, new form of,

Ca
Barytes, sulphate, use of in painting, 254 |

Battery, galvanic, Avery’s im-
proved, 136

Battery, galvanic, Barclay’s im-
proved, 135 |

Bayonets, Dennet’s improvements
in,

17

36%

Bells, silver in,
Bird-tracks in the Connecticut Val-

ley Sandstones, 341

BIsHOpP’s boom-derrick, 26

| Bituminous schists, origin of, 821

-BLAKH. Wi. b., 323, 324
Blane Mt., experiments on the sum-

| mit of, 184

Blood, new fact concerning, 381

| ‘* stains and cry. tals, 383

“ec

cells of the spleen, changes

|. in, 880
Bodies, simple, nature of, 196
Boilers, steam, try-cock for, 45

| Boiler- plate joints, 43

Bone, production of, 381

Bottles, anti-poisoning, 102
Brass, improved composition for, 213
‘¢ “new process for bronzing, &2
Brake, Loughridge’s patent, 43
Bridge, Victoria, at Montreal, 32
Bronze of alluminum, 80
|
Calcium, preparation of, 206
_Calico-printing, engraving rollers
|=. for, 1
| Camera, Woodward’s solar, 157
| Candle-works, Price’s patent, 106
Cannon, Armstrong’s rifled, 74
bs French’s, o 75
es James’s, at: 72
se rifled projectiles for, 192
|Car wheel and axle, Gardiner’s
| compound, 40
| Carbazotie acid, production of, 228
Caves, ossiferous, of Sicily, 346
Cavern, ossiferous, at Torquay, Eng., 348
Cell development, 380
Cells, vegetable, composition of, 241
| Cellulose and lignine, distinction be-
tween, 244
Cellulose, dissolved by ammoniacal
copper, 245
Chalcedony, landscape in, 156
| Chemical manufactories, influence
| of on health, 65
Chemistry, its application to agri-
culture, 59
os new system of notation
in, 15
Se unitary notation in, 198
Chimneys, construction of, 47
|Chlorine, supposed compound na-
| ture of, ; 02
|Chloroform, psychological knowl-
, edge gained through, 3880
Cigars, Beauche’s machine for mak-
ing, 109

426 INDEX.
PAGE _ PAGE
Circle, genetic, in organic nature, 375 | Electricity, atmospheric, curious ac-
* ATK acl’ ie, 401, 402 tion of, lig by
Clock, Wes stminster, 110 ee atmospheric excitation of, 115
Cloth, glazed, water-proof, iB ti RE discharge of through
Coal and coke, relative value for fuel gas-pipes, 119
in locomotives, ce Faraday’s recent re-
Coal, bit uminous, decomposition of searches in, 10, 125
by ‘heat, 228 ee probable nature of, 125
Coal, de »-bitumenization of, 321 ee therapeutic uses of. 131
“vegetable structure in, 353 | Electro-medical apparatus, Des-
Coal-sifter, novel, 112| pretz’s, 130
Coal-tar, antiseptic properties of, 269 Electro-zine deposits on copper, 138
“ “its composition and appli- | Electrolysis of sulphuric acid, 136
cations, 225 Elements, nature of, 196
Coals and furnaces, 45 32 numerical relations of, 280
Coffee, influence of, 268 | Emmons, Dr. E., 821
Color, new theory of, 156 Enamel for iron, 80
Colors, produetion of in photography,160 Engraving, on wood, application of
Comet, Biela’s, 411 | photography to, 163
‘new periodical, 414 | é photoeraphic, 166, 167
Comets, polarization of the light of, 149 | ee without an engraver, 164
Compass, variation of, 139 | Eye-ball, form of in different ani-
Copper, ammoniacal oxide, a solvent ‘mals, 150
for cellulose, 246 |
Copper, hardness of, 214 | FARADAY, on phosphorescence and
Cotton, ‘* dead,” 345 fluorescence, 145
<<) how distinguished in fabrics ee “~ recent pee serine SS
from silk, 247 in electricity, 122, 128
Craniology, new system of, 3887 | Fats, saponification of by chloride
Cretaceous system in the U. S., 337 | of zinc, 230
Crops, adaptation of manures to, 265 | FAWKES’S steam-plough, 86
Crystallography, explanation of Fermentation and cry stallization, re- '
some abstruse problems in, 143 lation between, 241
Crystallization and fermentation, Fibre, nerve and muscular, polarized
relation between, 241 condition of, 129
| Files, machinery for cutting 109
Declination, magnetic, 142 | Filters, water, use of carbide of iron
DENNET'S improv ed bayonet, Tt) | eetors 255
Derrick, Bishop’s ‘ boom,” 26 | Fire-grates, construction of, 47
Diamond, theory of the formation of, 205 | Fire-shells, 195
Diamonds, occurrence of in Georgia, 325 | Fluorescence and phosphorescence, 145
Diy AECL, uniform musical, 185 sf intermitting, 149
Docks, } Napoleon, at Cherbour gy 31 | Fog, to render objects visible in, 156
Dolomites, formation of, Hunt on Foods, influence of different, 268
the, 278 | Forms, natural, regularity of, 373
Drawings copied by galvanism, 139 | Fossils, from the lead crevices of the
Drift, occurrence of art remains in West, 326
the, 342 ae sub-silurian, 325
Dust. atmospheric, 267 | Foster, J. W., on the extinct pec-
Dynamoscopy, 267 | cary of the West, 826
FRANKLIN, SIR JOHN, Be
Earth, internal temperature of, 171} concerning, 10
“ thickness of the crust of, 174 | Frozen wells, 316
Earthquake map of the world, 859 | Fruit essences, artificial preparation, 271
Eastern, the great, 21 | Fruits, constitution of, 244
Eclipse, ’solar, 1858, 421) «¢ method of increasing the size
Kzegs, electricity of, 129 cf, 37
ELpDERuHORST, Dr. W., 829 ce 3 ¢ preserving, 97
Hiectric apparatus of the skate, 128 | Fulgarites, formation, 116
“conducting power of the Furnace, Carmont and Cobett’s im-
metals, 120 proved, 222
Electric conductiy ity, effects of pres- xe Griflin’s improved gas, 46
sure on, 117 | Fusel-oil, how prepared, 272
Electric light, new, 116
Electrical ‘discharges, 121 | Galvanism, copying drawings by, 139
S fe ‘chemical effects Gas, coal, deterioration of over wa-
of, 118 ter, 235
Electricity, animal, new observa- « « yariable illuminating pow-
tions on, 129 er of, 3)
cs applications of to sur- Gas pipes and their relations to elec-
gery, 130! tric discharges, 119

INDEX. 427
lle
PAGE | z , PAGE
Gas regulator, new, 67 | Horses, improved shoe for, a)
Gas-smoke, consumption of, 67 | Hunt, T. Sterry, 278, 299
Gases, efiects oi heat on, 174 Hydrogen, phosphoretted, new pro-
Generation, apparent equivocal, 401 cess for preparing, 224
es spontaneous, 3u8 |
Geographical explorations, recent, 16 Icebergs, remarkable in the southern
te exposition, novel, 67 | ocean, 323
Geology, chemical, some new points | lce-boat, Wiard’s, 30
in, Hunt, 304 Ice phenomena, 179
oe of New Zealand, 288 Igneous rocks and volcanoes, theory
“« Spitzbergen, 290 | _ of, 299
£6 “ the central paleozoic _Imponderables, nature of, 124
basin of middle North India-rubber, artificial, 233
America, 812 | Induction, static, Faraday on, 125
Geological revolutions, Winslow, 291 | Infernal machine, Italian, fir
eS summary for 1859, 322 | Infusorial deposits of the tertiary of
ee time, conditions of, 284| Virginia, 340
Georgia, diamonds in, 323 | Insect exterminating powders, 371
e hydraulic mining in, 823 | Instruction, scientific vs. practical, 66
£C remarkable vein of gold in, 827 | lron and steel, experiments on the
Gestation, on some unusual modes strength of, 113
of, 405} ° KG ‘improvements in
Glaciers, ancient, marks of on the manufacturing, 221
Green Mountains of Vt., 298} ‘* carbide, use of for purifying
Se theory of, 293 water, 255
Glass, action of water on, 254 “ destructive action of oxidation
“ strength and tenacity of, 194 on wood, 113
Globe, population of, 382 6 x effects of red-lead
Glycerine, distillation of, 107 on, 81
aS manufacture of, 282] “ enamel for, 80
Gold deposits of Australia, 23 ‘* manufacture of in the U.S., 7
‘¢ remarkable vein of in Georgia, 324 “¢ molten, as a war-missile, 77
Granite, overlying fossiliferous lime- ‘¢ native, from Tennessee, 351
stone in Vt., 3824 ‘oxidation of, 112
Grapes, experiments in ripening, 159 «¢ plates, vulnerability of, (a
Greenland, mineralogy of, 324 “ smelting, Morgan’s improve-
GROVE, Mr., on electrical discharges, 121 ments in, 221
Guano, ‘‘ Sombrero,” composition of, 351 ‘¢ sulphate, pomological use of, 371
Gun-cotton, blasting with, 194 “¢ Tissier’s experiments on the
Gunpowder, new process for manu- decarbonization of, 223
facturing, 78 “ transformation of pig into
Gypsum, removal of from waters, 256 wrought, 215
ee researches on the formation Ivory, flexible, 112
of, Hunt, 278 | JAMES’S rifled cannon, 72
Hadrosaurus, a new fossil reptile, 335 | Kaleidoscope top, 152
Hardness, tests for, 211 ; KirkKwoopD, Prof., on the orbits of
Hayes, Dr. A. A., on the decompo- Mars and the asteroids,
sition of coal, 228
Health, influence of chemical manu- Lamp, coal-oil, 68
factories on, 65 Land, arable and forest of the U. S., 457
Heat, atmospheric absorption of, 17 | Lava, remarkable jet of, 307
* conducting power of metals LEA, Isaac, on the cretaceous system
and alloys, 169 of the U.S., 337
*¢ development of by solidifica- ‘¢ MM. Carey, on the numerical re-
tion, 178 lations of the elements, 27
‘¢ effects of on different gases, 174 | Lead, alloys with antimony, 215
‘s internal, of the earth, lil ‘© effects of on the inferior ani-
‘¢ motion produced by, directly, 174 mals, 258
«radiant, photographic effects ‘¢ pipes, action of water on, 256
of, 161} ‘ purification of waters contain-
‘unitof, 44 ing, 258
Hewson, F., on railway timber, 48 “¢ red, destructive effects oniron, §&1
HirTcucock, C. H., 278, 321, 322, 324 | Letters, written, how to restore dam-
cs Prof. E.., 316, 822] aged, 270
ac “Edward Jr., 851 | Life, value of, 382
Hoe, horse, Wetherell’s, 99 | LIEBIG, on scientific instruction, 66
HopxKins, on the internal heat of Light, electric, 116
the earth, 171 “«¢ “measurement of the chemical
HorsForp, Prof., 270 action of, . 154
Horse-railroads, improvements in, 41 “© Niepce’s researches on, 157

428 INDEX,
PAGE PAGE
Light, production of, 156 | Oil, substitute for linseed, - 103
Lightning at sea, statistics of, 119 | Vils, action of chloride ‘of sulphur
Limestone, fossiliferous, over ‘laid by on, 223
granite, 2 “© artificial fruit, 272
Lithogr aphie-photo, process, 165! ‘* vulcanization of, 234
Lizard, gigantic fossil, from Austra- | Oil-paint, sulphurized, 103
lia, - 852 | Oiled paper, s substitute for oiled silk, 101
Locomotives, improved, 48 Optic nerve, position of in different

increasing’ the traction

of by magnetization, 1 |

London, sewerage of,

animals, 150
Optical phenomena, curious, 156

| Ordnance survey of Great Britain, 36
Organic matter of the atmosphere, 239
OWEN, Prof., on fossil mammalia, 329
Oxygen, Schonbein’s views on, 9
Ozone, action of on albumen, etc., 203
‘“« new facts respecting, 204

‘© ~~ observations on in "the Cri-

mea, 205
de preparation of, 204
‘¢ Schonbein’s researches on, 199

Paint, use of sulphate of barytes for, 254
Paleontological discoveries, interest-
ing 825

| Paper, -oiled, a substitute for oiled

silk
Paper, straw, improvement in manu-
facturing, 270
Parchment, vegetable, 248

LOUGHRIDGE’S patent brake, 43 |
Lubrication, experiments on, 104
Lye, condensed, or portable alkali, 231)
LYELL, Sir C., on the geological age
of man,
Maelstrom, the, 291
Magnets, cast-iron, 139
Magnetic action of the sun, 140
a declination, 142
“ storm, Aug. 28, 1859, 414
Magnetization of locomotive wheels, 139
Mammals, fossil, Owen on, ” 329
Man, geological age of, 5
‘“* yemains of in n geological forma-
tions, 342
Manganese ores of Arkansas, 329
Manuring, surface, 263
MARSH, : on the strength of wood-
en water pipes, 60
Marsupial, extraordinary fossil from
Australia, O2
Matches, friction, improved prepara-
tion of, 105
Maury, Commander, 372
Men with tails, 390
Metals and alloys, hardness of, 211
electric conducting power of, 120
“heat 169
Metamorphism of rocks, 2717
Meteors, remarkable in 1859, 415
Miasma, action of growing vegeta-
tion in neutralizing, 72
Michigan, Lake, lunar tide on, 194
Microscope, use of in*natural his-
tory, 379
Milk, new method of preserving, 253
Mine, deep, 65
Mining, application of geological sci-
ence to, 316
«enterprise, 65
Moon, traces of irruptive action in, 350
Mordants, action of, 270
Mortars, Mallet’s 36- inch, 76
Museum, new geological, at Oxford, 15
Music, uniform diapason in, 186
Musical instrumeuts, improvements
in, 111
Naphtha, coal, production of, 227
Nervous system, researches on, 379
NIEPCE, St. Victor’ Ss, researches on
Light, 157
Notation, unitary, in chemistry, 198
Obituary for 1859, 421
Ocean, temperature of, 176
Odors, classification of, 274

Oil, palm, mode of using and purify-
ing,

Pear, Jargonelle, oil, preparation of, 272
Pearl, mother-of, iridescence of, 153
Pebbles, elongated, inconglomerate, 322

Peccary, extinct remains ‘of, 826
Perfumes, on the odors of, 273
Phenic acid, production of, 228
Phonautograph, the, 182

| Phosphorus, peculiar psychological

effects of, 217
Phosphorescence and fluorescence, 145
Photograph of a bursting shell, 167
Photographs by the British Goyern-

ment,
4 in natural colors, 159, 150
x of fluorescent sub-
stances, 162
Photographic engraving, Fizeau’s
process, 165
fc engraving, Sella’s

process,
influence of radiant

heat, 161
es nov elties, 166
Photography and time, 162

applied to wood engray-

ing, 163

ee applied to war pur-
poses, 168

cs prize for improvements
in, 12
ie use of carbon in, 12
Photo-lithography, 165
Photometer, new, 154

Physiological knowledge, gained
through chloroform, 380
Pine-apple oil, 272
Planet, new asteroidal, 409

“ supposed, between Mercury

and the sun,
Planetoids, numbering,
betemey: ameliorations of from the
seed, 876

409

INDEX. 429
PAGE PAGE
Plants, fossil, of recent formations, 355 | Smith, Dr. J. Lawrence, 319
‘ how nourished, 260, 265 | Smoke, burning in furnaces, 45
se irritability of, 3710 ‘* of gas, consumption of, 97
a new geuera of American, 307 | Snell, Prof., on vibrations of water, 183
ee presence of arsenic in, 265 Soil, action of vegetation on, 265
ss structure of, Faraday on, 376 | Soundings, deep sea, 61, 285
“ winding, motions oi, 310 | Species, extinction of, 332
Plough, Fawkes’s steam, 86 | Spitzbergen, geology of, 290
ee prairie draining, 94 | Spleen, changes in the blood-cells of, 380
oe Waters’s steam, 92 | Spontaneous generation, 321
Plough-holder, Whitney’s, 94 | Star, shooting, examination of the
Ploughing and reaping machines, 91; supposed matter of, 362
Poisoning, accidental, precautions Stars, new map and catalogues of, 13
against, 102 ‘¢ observations on lost, 13
Population of the globe, 352 | Starch, conversion into sugar by the
Pressure, influence of on affinity, 199 action of light, 159
$e + “ © electric con- Starch, improvement in the manufac-
duction, 117 ture of, 112
Printing, increasing the durability Static induction, 125
of plates for, 138 | Steam, superheated, use of, 44
“ press, universal, 97 | Steam-ploughing, 86
Projectiles, for rifled cannon, 192 | Stea#m-ram, 69
Propellors, screw, experiments with, 29 | Steamships, duty of, 30
| Steam-tillage, prospects of, 82
Quince essence, how prepared, 273 | Steamship Great Eastern, 21
Steamer, Winans’s, 26
Railroad car-axles, 88 | Steel, cast, Gardner’s new mode of
tailway superstructures, 39 treating, 223
xs timber, preservation_of, 48 Steel, different modes of manufac-
Rain-fall, decrease in western Europe, 15 |_ turing, 208

Raking and binding machinery, 94

Kam, iron steam, 69
Ramparts, lake and pond, 324
Raspberries, essence of, 273
Retraction, atmospheric, 155
Tieindeer, tossil, of New York, 26
Reproduction, new fact in, 498
teptile, new fossil, hadrosaurus, 335

Reptiles, Owen's new classification of, 16

Rhizopod type of animal life, 403 |
Rocks, conductivity of heat, 172
** metamorphism of, 277
RoGers, Prot. W. B., 340
Rusin, decoloration of, 230 |
Sand, improved moulding, 82

Sandstones, Conn. River Valley, bird-

tracks in, 32
Sandstones, ‘ ae ** fossils
of, 855
Sandstones, ‘ oi post
tion of, 322
Schonbein on ozone, 199
Science, progress of in the U.S., 4
Schists, bituminous, origin of, 321
** talcose (so called), of Ver-
mont, etc. 321
Sea, deep, explorations, 285
** effects of lightning at, 119
‘** sinking of bodies in, 287
Sensation, researches on, 380
Sewerage of London, 3D
Shoe, improved for horses, 96
Shooting star, supposed constitution
of, 352
Shot, resistance of iron plates to, 71
“wind of 93

Silk and cotton, means of distin-
guishing, IAT
Silurian, sub, ossils,

29D
Silver in bells, 81
Skate, electric apparatus of the, 128

Steel, experiments on the strength of, 113
‘* improvements in the manufac-
ture of, 221

Steel, manufacture by the Uchatius

| precess,

Stereoscope, experiments illustrating
the principle of,

Strychnia, detection of,

Sugar, production of from woody

276

tibre, 245
Sulphuric acid, electrolysis of, 136
| Sulphurous acid, new mode of pre-
| paring,
Sun, eclipse of, Sept. 7th, 1858, 420
‘¢ magnetic action of, 140
“© photographic pictures of, +
Pp gray p
‘¢ spots on, 419

Surgery, application of electricity to, 180
Survey, ordnance of Great Britain, 36

Tale, new industrial application of, 103
Tanning, improved method of, 104
Tartaric acid, artificial production of, 241
Tea and coffee, influence ot on thesys-
tem, 268

| Telegraph, application to military
| purposes, 140
| Temperature of the ocean, 176
| Thermograph, Hall’s, 17
Therapeutic uses of electricity, 1381
| Thompson, Prof. J., on the measure-
ment of running water, 56
| Thread, new. process for gilding, 82
| Tide, upon Lake Michigan, 194
| Tillage, steam, prospects of, 82
Timber, railway, preservation of, 48
Time and photography, 162
‘geological, couditions of, 284
| Tin, in California, 32
Tissue, nervous and muscular condi-~
tious of, 129

430 INDEX.

PAGE PAGE
Tissue, when dead, 351 Water, purification of, by carbide of
Titanium, large specimens of, 205 iron, 255
Touch, the sense of, 8380 , Water, se et contain-
Transplanting. implement for, 94, ing lead, 258
Trees, large, new method of trans- | Water, J: ce contain-
planting, 96| ing sypsum,
Trowbridge, Lieut., 61 | W ater, running, measurement of, 56
Turnips, essential manures for, 265 Water-pipes, w yooden, § strength of, 60
Tyndall, Dr. J., on the effects of heat | Water-wheels, work of by day and
on gases, 174| night,
Type -map, 100 Wax and rosin, use of in painting, 271
| Weather, map of, 16
Vacuum, electrical dischargesin, 121 Weir-boards, use of for measuring
Vaughan, Prof. Daniel, 867, 413 water, 56
Ve vetable cells, composition of, 241 Well, frozen, at Brandon, Vt., 316
“ parchment, 248, W ells, artesian, at Columbus, 0. 820
Vegetation, action of thesoilon, 265) * ** Louisville, Ky. “7 ole
* on miasma,* 372] “ Gnen. 317
Ventilator, new, 68 Whale, fossil, from Vermont, 351
Vermont, erosion of rock in, 326 Whitney, J. D., 322
cb fossil cetacean from, 351 | W hittlesey a harles, Prof., 823
Vesuvius, eruptions in 1859, $326 Winans’s steamer, 26
Vibrations in falling water, 183 Wine, oil of, how adeno, 273
Vibrio, origin of, 402 Winslow, Dr. C. 291
Vinegar, acetic acid in, 252 Wisconsin, on tee so-called ‘* potash
Vision, binocular experiments in, 156| kettles” of, 323
Voleanic emanations, 361 Wood, connection between structure
*3 eruption at the Sandwich | and phy sical properties of, 52
Tslands, 356 Wood, destructive action of the
Volcanoes, origin of, 304 oxides of iron on, 113
‘ theory of, 299 Wood, pine, use of, for ornamental
Ww ork,
War implements, novelties in, 75 Woody fibre, transformation into
‘* missile, new, 77 | sugar, 245
W ater, action of on glass, 254 Wool, recovery from worn fabries, 119
* on lead 256 Woollen rags, value as manures, 261
a freezing of, in capillary tubes, 195 Work, units of, _ 194
es impurities in London drink- | Wor 1d, seismographic map of, 859
ing 257 | Wurtz, Prof., Henry,
Water, melting and solidification of, 178 |

|

« pr oducts extracted from soils | Zealand, New, geology of, 288
by, 260 , Zinc and manganese ores of Arkansas, 829

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(19)

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