MEMOIRS

OP THE

LITERAKY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

MANCHESTER

fii.'S/.Aspt

MEMOIRS

n iul

LITERARY

PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

MANCHESTER.

&econ& gexitB.

VOLUME FOURTEENTH.

LONDON:

H. BATTJ.TERK, PUBLISHER, 219, REGI^T STREET,

AND WO. BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

PARIS : J. BAILLIERE, LIBRAIRE, RUE HAUTEFEUILLE.

1867.

/

MANCHESTER !
PRINTED BY T. SuWLER AND B0N8, ST. ANN'S SQUARE.

NOTE.

The Authors of the several Papers contained in this
Volume, are themselves accountable for all the statements
and reasonings which they have offered. In these par-
ticulars the Society must not be considered as in any way
responsible.

CONTENTS.

Article: Pagb

I. — On Lightning and Lightning Conductors. By the late Mr.

William Sturgeon 1

II On some Peculiarities of the Thunderstorm which occurred in this

neighbourhood on Tuesday, the 10th of July last. By the late

Mr. William Sturgeon, Prestwich 23

ill On the Comparative Value of various kinds of Stone, as Exhibited

by their Powers of Resisting Compression. By W. Fairbairn,

F.R.S., &c

I V.— On the Fusion of Metals by Voltaic Electricity. By J. P. Joule,

F.R.S., &c 49

V. — A Short Account of the Life and Writings of the late Mr. William
Sturgeon. By J. P. Joule, V.P., F.R.S., Hon. Mem. Phil. Soc.

Cambridge, Corr. Mem. R.A. Turin, &c 53

VI. — On, the Solubility of Sulphate of Baryta in Acid Solutions. By

F. Crace Calvert, F.C.S., M.R.A. Turin, &c 86

VII — Additional Observations on the Permian Beds of the North-west

of EDgland. By E. W. Binney, V.P., F.R.S., F.G.S 101

VIII The Chemical Changes which Pig Iron undergoes during its con-
version into Wrought Iron. By F. Crace Calvert, F.C.S.,

M.R.A. Turin, and Mr. Richard Johnson 121

IX On the 7-partitions of X. By the Rev. Thos. P. Kireman, A.M.,

Rector of Croft-with-Southworth, and Honorary Member of the

Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester 1 37

X. — Remarks on the Occultation of Jupiter and his Satellites by the
Moon, January 2nd, 18ft7. By the Rev. Henry Halford

Jones, F.R.A.S., &c 151

XI.— Some Peculiarites of the Vital Statistics of the Society of Friends.

By Alfred Fryer w. 153

XII — On the Formation of Indigo-blue. Part II. By Edward

Schunck, Ph.D., F.R.S 181

XIII — On the Occurrence of Indigo-blue in Urine. By Edward

Schunck, Ph.D., F.R S 239

List of Donations i 2oi

The Council of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester 25S

Alphabetical List of Members

Honorary Members

Corresponding Members , 260

MEMOIRS

OF THE

literary and iPfitlojsop&fcal Society of
JWatu&e»ttr*

I. — On Lightning and Lightning Conductors.
By the late Mr. William Sturgeon.

(Continued from Vol. IX. p. 79.)

52. My own experience, which has been extensive in
electro-explorations of fogs, corresponds with that of all other
observers. I have found them invariably electro-positive;
and in many instances, especially in frosty mornings, the well-
known odoriferous character of electricity is so remarkably
well developed on the olfactories, that no electrician could
mistake it.

53. Haze, also, which occurs during hot weather, and
floats higher in the air, and is more attenuated than fogs,
I have found to be still more pregnant with intense electro-
positive action. In some cases the discharges, through an
uninsulated wired kite string held in the hand, have been
so copious and rapid, during a haze, that it was impossible
to evade a multitude of shocks. They frequently occurred
in absolute torrents or vollies.

54. Now, although there may be a difference in the magni-
tude of the particles constituting fog, haze, and thunder-cloud,

2 THE LATE ME. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

their aqueous character is precisely the same ; and it is only
the elevated aerial locality and the rapidity with which the
latter is formed, that gives it a superior electric tension, and
enables it to discharge its electric element with violence in
the shape of lightning.

55. With respect to aerial locality or altitude, I believe it
is now pretty well understood that the higher regions are
more densely charged with the electric element than those
below. The experiments of MM. Gay Lussac and Biot,
during their memorable balloon excursion in the year 1804,
showed that the air, at a lower altitude, was negative to that
in which the balloon was floating. The experiments which
I have myself made with electric kites, at different altitudes
at the same time, have invariably developed similar results:
for in every case, during serene weather, the highest kite was
positive to those beneath it, and the lowest negative to all
those above it ; but still positive with respect to the ground
on which I was standing. Hence, during serene weather,
there appears to be a regular increase of electric charge in
the atmosphere, from the ground upwards, as some function
of the altitude ; and as aqueous vapour suspended in the air
necessarily partakes of the same electric character, it is easy
to understand that a rapid condensation of that situated at a
high altitude would form cloud of a far superior electric in-
tensity to any that could be formed nearer to the ground.
Moreover, since in all cases the formation of cloud pre-
cedes discharges of lightning, and thunder-storms are fre-
quently attended with the most violent hail showers, even
during the hottest weather, there can need no further indi-
cation of a thunder-cloud's formation being the effect of a
sudden depression of temperature ; and, consequently, all
thunder-clouds, whatever change they may suffer afterwards,
are originally electro-positive. No experiment, that I am
acquainted with, can illustrate this fact more correctly than
that first shown by Franklin himself, with his chain and can.

LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. 3

56. The principles of electric action enable us to under-
stand that the presence of a highly charged cloud will disturb
the previous electric condition of the vicinal air, as well as
that of other clouds of lower intensity. In the latter case,
the disturbed cloud becomes prepared for the reception of a
discharge from that which disturbed it: hence one cause at
least why flashes of lightning more frequently occur amongst
the clouds themselves than between them and the earth. This
tendency to aerial lightning is also enhanced by the abundance
of aqueous vapour condensing in the region of the clouds,
which affords a conducting medium more easily transpierced
than the interposing dry air which separates clouds from the
ground, and consequently it is but seldom that lightning
strikes terrestrial objects previously to the intervening aerial
resistance being in a great measure removed by copious
showers of rain.

57. But, notwithstanding the facilities afforded by falling
rain, terrestrial objects require a predisposition to receive
lightning before it can assail them. This disposition is
enforced by the presence of the cloud, which disturbs the
normal electric state of the air beneath it, by a repellency
of its fluid into the ground, which will allow of its intro-
mission in proportion as its surface is prepared for its recep-
tion. Now, allowing a plot of ground, or even an extensive
tract of country, to be of an uniform conducting quality
throughout, its reception for the electric fluid from the air
would depend upon the character of its surface; if barren
of vegetation, it could not receive the electric fluid with the
same degree of facility as when luxuriously clothed with grass,
corn, trees, &c, which would present myriads of conducting
points and sharp edges in the best possible direction for the
electric ingress, and the multitude of roots ramifying into
the soil would facilitate its intromission and disposition below
the surface.

58. But the electric force of a cloud capable of repelling

4 THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

the fluid from the non-conducting air into the land, through
the medium of its vegetable clothing, would necessarily move
it still farther in this better conductor, which would neces-
sarily become electro-negative throughout a much greater area
than that presented by the lower surface of the cloud. Hence
there appears but little difficulty in understanding why trees,
which present multitudes of conducting points and sharp edges
to the air, and stand more prominent than the ordinary level of
the vegetation, should so frequently be the victims of lightning.
It is, however, worthy of remark, that the tallest trees are
but seldom selected ; and frequently lightning strikes objects
closely situated to trees without touching the latter. The
nature of the soil, with regard to its conduction, as well as
the objects situated on it, has much to do with the reception
of lightning, for no object can receive a discharge from a
cloud unless it be susceptible of electro-negation by the
cloud's repellent force; hence objects situated on wet lands
or on the banks of rivers are frequently those which fall
victims to lightning. Heavy rains, however, render all
objects, as well as the sites on which they stand, conductors,
and consequently susceptible of electro-polarisation by the
repellent force of a thunder-cloud.

59. Wherever land is impervious to the electric fluid, that
in the air above it becomes accumulated in a stratum on its
surface on the approach of a disturbing thunder-cloud, and
the repellent forces of the positive stratum, and those of
the cloud, cause the latter to diverge from the direction of
the wind, until it arrives at a locality suitable for the intro-
gression of the disturbed electric fluid of the air. Hence it
is obvious that the removal of the electrical resistance of the
air is a necessary preliminary to lightning striking objects on
the earth's surface, for the force that repels the cloud is that
which counterchecks the tendency of lightning discharges.

60. But if a displacement of the electric fluid of the air
be a necessary preliminary to strokes of lightning, and it

LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. 5

.cilitated by pointed vegetable conductors, the rule ap-
plies to pointed metallic conductors also, and the tendency of
lightning towards them will depend on their number and pro-
icy, and the sharpness of their points. Hence those tall
conductors which present several pointed branches to the air,
are better adapted for facilitating lightning discharges than
those that terminate with one point only. Hence also (57)
several distinct pointed conductors, distributed over a com-
paratively small area of ground, or attached to different parts
of an extensive building, are more likely to cause strokes of
lightning in the locality than one conductor only, though
furnished with the same number of points.

61. With respect to the ocean, which is a better conductor
than either wet land or lakes of fresh water, its natural elec-
tric fluid would be easily displaced by the repellent force of a
thunder-cloud, although not so well prepared for the reception
of fluid from the air as wet land well clothed with vegetation.
The presence of shipping, however, whose masts and rigging
stand prominently above the surface of the water, tend much
to facilitate those electric intromissions which qualify the air
for the transport of lightning from a cloud to its destination ;
and since every portion of metal in the rigging enhances the
conduction, and thus increases the tendency of lightning dis-
charges in the direction of the ship, there appears every
reason to infer that those vessels which expose pointed con-
ductors, more lofty even than the masts themselves, are more
likely to experience strokes of lightning than any other.

62. The above inference (61) appears to be somewhat
countenanced by the "return ordered to be laid before the
House of Lords, by precept, dated 4th May, 1848," in which
it is shown that sixteen men-of-war, fitted with pointed con-
ductors in the masts, were struck by lightning between March,
1840, and January, 1848. One of these vessels, the Favorite,
is reported to have been struck "several times," and the

ird and Dido appear to have been struck twice each,

O THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

which make the number of cases twenty, by allowing three
for the Favorite, In addition to these, there appears from
another report "prepared in compliance with a precept of the
House of Lords," dated June, 1849, to have been five cases
(within the same period) of lightning striking men-of-war
furnished with wire-rope conductors, which make a total of
twenty-five cases within a period of eight years. The Mindon
was struck twice, so that there are twenty-six lightning
strokes in the whole.

63. In the absence of official returns to show the effects of
lightning, within the same period, on those ships of the royal
navy which have not been furnished with conductors, a com-
parison of the number of cases in which lightning has struck
men-of-war, with and without conductors, may be approxi-
mated by taking the mean of the latter class of cases for
eight years, out of all those that have occurred within the
twenty-four years previous to 1840, which, according to a
statement in the Nautical Magazine for May, 1844, amount
to fifty-two. This gives seventeen cases for each period of
eight years, which is about two-thirds only of the number of
cases that have occurred to those ships to which pointed con-
ductors are attached, a result by no means favourable to that
form of conductors being introduced into the navy.

64. But if pointed conductors tend to favour the approach
of lightning towards those objects to which they are attached,
oblique discharges may find other channels of conduction,
amongst those objects over which they pass, the resistance
of which, at certain points of the transits, would be more
easily vanquished than that offered in a direct line to the
conductor itself. For, although a tall pointed conductor
might be the principal object in the locality for qualifying
the air so as to allow of a discharge taking place, the elec-
trical disturbance caused by the lightning subsequent to its
departure from the cloud, and the consequent electro-nega-
tions that it would enforce amongst objects within the range

/

LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. 7

of its influence, might cause it to deviate considerably from
the original direction in which it started, and to take a newly-
created route to its destination. Hence the probability, at
least, that tall pointed conductors are frequently instrumental
in bringing down strokes of lightning on vicinal objects as
well as on distant parts of those to which they are imme-
diately attached.

65. By taking this view (64) of the operations of light-
ning during its passage through the air, nothing seems more
easy to understand than the cause of so much damage being
caused by it close to the site of tall pointed conductors.
Nor could anything more decisively discountenance the long-
fostered idea that the path of lightning and the objects which
it strikes are definitely marked out previously to its leaving
the cloud.

66. If, therefore, it be allowable to lay to the charge of
tall pointed conductors those cases of damage by lightning
which have occurred to vicinal objects (19 — 25, &c), their
reputation, as protectors to shipping, will appear less favour-
able than from the estimate already made (63). For the
cases of damage which would thus be attributed to them
would, within a similar period, be more than double the
number of those that have occurred in their entire absence,
or where they could have no influence whatever.

67. Another important argument arises from the effects
that lightning has been known to produce on pointed con-
ductors. The most notable of these is the destruction of
the points by fusion, in those cases where they have* received
the discharge. Instances of this kind have been noticed from
the earliest ' period of lightning conductors to the present
time. Several have occurred to conductors attached to build-
ings; and marine conductors have frequently met a similar

In the report already alluded to (62), it is stated that
in the case of H. M. ship Constance, " the main spindle was

8 THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

fused, " and that " the conductors on the fore and main masts
were fused in several places."

68. In the case of the Fisgard (41), the same report
states that " the end of the vane spindle on the main-mast
was fused, and the conductors aloft exhibited small spots of
fusion. The copper plates were started from the mast for a
few inches, about 13 feet above the deck." The report of
Captain Duntze, who commanded the Fisgard at the time,
is somewhat more minute, and states that the mast itself
was "slightly singed" and splintered about the place where
the conductor was started from it. (See 41, for further
particulars.)

69. With respect to the effects below deck, Capt. Duntze
states that, " The electrical current having passed down the
main-mast, took the direction of the branches to the bolts
through the side, — one leading through the boatswain's cabin,
and the other through the midshipmen's berth. The branch
conductors in this ship, instead of leading directly to the
copper sheathing near the water's surface, as originally pro-
posed, had been led out above it, to two bands of copper
passing down externally over the ship's side; these bands
were also started at the ends in contact with the termination
of the through bolts ; the copper sheathing covering the other
extremity of the band was bulged outwards. It appears fur-
ther, by other reports, that at the point of contact with the
branches and iron knees within the ship, the metal was
blackened, as if a slight expansive action had occurred at
these points ; this is said to have been more apparent in the
boatswain's cabin, and may have arisen from an imperfect
contact with the iron knee and through bolts."*

70. The statements in Captain Duntze's report are of an
exceedingly interesting character, because of their furnishing
the particulars of the several events which occurred during

• Captain Duntze's Official Report. Harris's Remarkable Examples.

LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. 9

the transit of the lightning from the mast-head to the sea,
some of which, to an electrician of the present day, would
l to be sufficiently alarming to discountenance in toto
particular plan of conductors, notwithstanding that
they were originally projected by Mr. Henley, one of the
ablest practical electricians of the last century,* who, no
doubt, was led into the error from a want of more expe-
rience than could possibly be afforded at the time he pro-
posed them. In a paper, by this excellent electrician,
which appears in the Transactions of the Royal Society,
the author states that if instead of chain conductors " plates
of copper rVin. thick and 2in. broad, with the edges neatly
rounded off, were inserted in a groove and continued down
the main-topgallant-mast, the main-topmast, and part of the
main-mast, into the well-hole; a communication from the
mast to the underside of one of the decks might be made
with a plate of metal flattened at each end, and from that
rod the conductor might be continued by plates of lead or
copper on the underside of the deck and down both outer
sides of the ship as low as the keel, if it be thought neces-
sary; and this method, I should apprehend, would be pre-
ferable to the chains, now in use. Particular care should be
taken to have all the plates which form the conductor as
nearly as possible in contact with each other, and to fix a
sharp pointed slender rod of copper at its summit. And, for
the purpose of connecting the plates inserted in the main-
topgallant-mast, the main-topmast, and main-mast, if a hoop
of copper were fixed in a groove of its own thickness at the
top of the main-mast, and another such hoop at the upper
end of the main-topmast, perhaps they might answer this
end very conveniently."

71. It seems pretty clear, from Captain Duntze's official
report alone, that explosions took place below deck as well

• See Mr. Henley's paper on this subject, in the Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal Society for 1774.
C

10 THE LATE ME. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

as on the mast above, for nothing less than a high degree of
temperature, occasioned by an explosion, could blacken the
metal at the junction of the iron knees with the branch con-
ductors. And this view is still further supported by a letter
(from an officer belonging to the ship) that appeared in the
London Illustrated News for March, 1847, in which it is
stated, that " on reaching the lower deck the discharge took
the branches under the beams leading to the bands on the
ship's sides ; these were started at the ends in contact with
the copper bolts leading to the sea, and the copper sheet
covering the joint was bulged upwards by the expansive
force of the shock."

72. Nor is this a solitary case of explosions occurring
below deck, by lightning traversing the branch conductors.
In the case of H. M. ship Constance, already alluded to (67),
it is officially reported, that besides the injury the conductor
received on the mast, the lightning slightly tore "away
part of the casing which covered the branch conductor in
the boatswain's cabin, close to the side where it escaped." *
H. M. ship Fox, 44 guns, was struck by lightning April 5 th,
1847. " Lightning passed down the chain conductor, passing
visibly through midshipmen1 s berth and Commodore Steward's
berth, and leaving a burnt mark."] H. M. ship Conway, 26
guns, was struck by lightning March 9th, 1846. The elec-
tric fluid " traversed the branch or beam in the gunner's cabin,
who experienced no ill-effect ; he saw it pass from the ship in
a blaze of light. Mr. Lethbridge, officer of the watch, then
on deck, describes the effect as if one or two of the main-
deck guns had been fired up the hatchway T %

73. The effects thus described to have taken place below
deck (67 — 70), are of a similar character to those observed on
the masts above deck ; and from the same cause, viz., a want

* Official Return, prepared in compliance with a precept of the House of
Lords. Dated 11th June, 1849.

t Ibid. \ Ibid.

LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. 1 1

of continuity in the metallic channel, which will always allow
of explosion when lightning discharges traverse conductors
made up of metallic plates. Hence the separation of " the
plates of copper forming the conductor" of the main-mast ot
the Fisgard (41), and of those also in the branch conductors
as well as the starting of the copper bands from the exterior
ends of the through bolts, and the bulging outwards of the
copper sheathing (69), were results that might easily have
been foreseen as some of the natural consequences of such
explosions.

74. But if an ordinary discharge of lightning is capable of
producing such fearful explosions within the ship, and ruptures
in the conductors and copper sheathing, we have only to allow
of a second discharge of lightning to strike the ship before
the injured conductors were repaired, to form a picture in the
mind of the serious consequences likely to ensue. Ruptures
partially accomplished by the first discharge would be com-
pleted by the second, and former breaches would be widened ;
and many dangerous explosions, both above and below deck,
would probably take place.

75. Should this plan of conductors be introduced to the
merchant navy, there would be no predicting the evils that
might arise, even from the first flash of lightning that tra-
versed them, especially when the cargoes consisted of cotton-
wool, hemp, flax, &c, close jambed against the branch
conductors at those places most likely to experience explo-
sions. And as it would be next to impossible to accomplish
a minute inspection of these branch conductors when most
necessary, the chances of avoiding danger from subsequent
strokes of lightning would be much less than in men-of-war,
where every facility for discovering breaches in the conduc-
tors, and of repairing them by competent hands, is always
afforded.

76. It appears, therefore, from a due consideration of all
the facts that experience has hitherto furnished, that there

12 THE LATE MB. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

are two fundamental errors, fraught with great danger, in
this plan of conductors, the most palpable of which is that of
leading the lightning into the hull of the ship, and then
having to incur a heavy expense in endeavouring to get it
out again. The other is. that of having the conductors com-
pounded of many constituent pieces, although copper, of any
required dimensions and form, is always procurable.

77. Although I am far from thinking that conductors let
into the masts are the best situated for protecting ships from
lightning, still, should that plan continue to be persevered in,
they ought not, under any consideration whatever, to proceed
downwards on the masts farther than the upper deck. With
conductors thus applied, there could be no apprehensions
entertained of explosions taking place below deck, nor of
chronometers being injured by the magnetizing influence of
lightning, which is also a consideration of importance. More-
over, as each individual mast would have an uninterrupted
conducting flat metallic rod throughout, there could be no
explosions in the circuit excepting such as might occur at the
juncture of the rods, at the heads of the lower and top-masts,
or at those other places where lightning might strike the mast
below the highest point. The examination of those parts,
and their repairs, if necessary, would require neither much
time nor skill to accomplish.

78. I am not aware of the manner in which the wire-rope
conductors have been attached to the several men-of-war that
have been fitted up with them ; but it appears, by the official
report, that although they have answered the purpose exceed-
ingly well in some cases, they have entirely failed in others.
Commander Darley, of H. M. ship Electra, reports favour-
ably of these conductors, having observed their efficiency in
carrying off several discharges of lightning, whilst on the
West India station, in the year 1842. But, on board the
Hazard, where similar conductors were employed, they have
failed to protect the ship on two occasions, viz., May 1st and

LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. 1 3

June 12th, 1846. It is worthy of remark, however, that
although the mast and some parts of the rigging suffered
much from the lightning, it was safely conducted overboard
on both occasions. The damage suffered by the Hazard,
June 12th, 1846, is very likely to have arisen from these very
circumstances. " Lightning struck the ship, splitting and
carrying away main-topgallant and royal-mast, the whole of
the main-topmast from the hounds to the lower cap, damag-
ing the top, and sprung the after cross-tree, split and carried
away starboard tressel-tree ; a splinter from main-topmast
passing through the starboard side of the quarter-deck, the
electric fluid escaping from the conductor by the main rigging
overboard." In this case, nothing is said about injury to the
wire-rope conductor, which, no doubt, was on the opposite
side of the ship to that on which the lightning entered the
rigging; and it is very likely that the lightning was very
much attenuated amongst the masts and other parts which
it destroyed or damaged, before any part of it arrived at the
conductor. Indeed, the whole force of the discharge could
never arrive at the conductor, because much of it would be
carried off by the main-mast to the deck, and thence to the
sea.

79. If the Hazard were fitted with conductors in the man-
ner that Commander Darley describes those of the Electra,
viz., one to each mast, they would be still more liable to entail
danger on the rigging than conductors fitted into the masts ;
because an approaching discharge from the other side of the
ship, if it did not attack the conductor at the mast head,
would have to pass through some part of the rigging before
it could arrive at* it. This must always be the case where
the rigging is protected on one side only.

80. But there are other serious objections to the wire-rope
conductors, (unless very differently applied than on board the
Electra,) which Commander Darley says " are composed of
copper wire-rope, one to each mast ; they are passed through

14 THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

the mast head, trucks, and caps, and lead down the back-stays
through the channels, and are attached to a copper plate
secured under the ship's copper." *

81. The principal defect in the present fashion of the wire-
rope is the diminutive size of its strands, which are easily-
fused individually, on that side especially which receives the
lightning stroke; and if the discharge be very formidable,
the whole of the strands might be blown to atoms, or torn
asunder at the point which received it. Such seems to have
been the case with the conductor of the Hazard* for on one
of the occasions when the ship was struck by lightning, it
" carried away the conductor at main-topgallant-head." f The
wire-rope at present in use, besides the defects already pointed
out, is twisted a great deal too much, for it requires a greater
length for the strands than there is need for, and the more
compact they are laid together (for they can never form one
solid body) the more subject they are to be blown asunder by
lightning. The only object for having wire-rope is to main-
tain pliability, which is attainable to any required extent for
marine conductors, by the employment of thicker strands,
which would be easier laid or twisted together.

82. But as oblique discharges of lightning frequently strike
conductors below the mast-head, wire-rope will always be
liable to damage under these circumstances, because some of
its strands are almost sure to suffer by every formidable dis-
charge. The only danger, however, would be at the point
of attack, which is more likely to be sustained by moderately
thick wires than by thin ones ; but, in all cases, both sides
of the rigging ought to be protected (76), and the conductor
on each mast ought to be metallically connected at the cross-
trees and at the tops, as well as at the topgallant-mast-heads.
By these means, oblique flashes of lightning, from whatever

* Return, &c, prepared in compliance with a precept of the House of Lords
Dated 1 8th June, 1849.

t Ibid.

LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING CONDUCTOBS. 15

quarter they came, would meet with conductors without having
to enter the rigging, and the conductors would act in concert,
each branch carrying off a portion of the discharge ; and if
to these, other conductors were to connect the several pairs
of starboard and larboard conductors, either along the stays
or otherwise, the whole system would act in concert, so that
however formidable the attack might be on any one point,
the distribution would be general throughout the system, and
the discharge into the sea from each individual branch would
be perfectly harmless. A want of metallic connection above
the lower masts of the several conductors attached to the
masts individually, is a serious error, whatever may be the
cter of those conductors or the plan of fitting them up.
For whilst they are insulated from each other, they act
separately and independently, and derive no conducting as-
sistance whatever from each other, each having to sustain
the whole force of the lightning that strikes it, from the
point of attack to the sea.

84. There is also an objection to the method of applying
the rope conductor to the mast-head, as described for the
Electra (77), because of the interruption that must neces-
sarily occur betwen the rope and the pointed vane spindle.
For, whenever lightning strikes the spindle, there will be an
explosion between it and the rope which may be sufficiently
formidable to destroy the rope at that place. It is even
probable that this was the case when H. M. ship Hazard
was struck, May 1st, 1846 (79), for the Report states that
the lightning "carried away conductor at main-topgallant-
head."

85. From the fact that the points of conductors are fre-
quently fused by lightning, and the great probability, at least,
that pointed conductors predispose their localities for the
reception of lightning, and thus facilitate its discbarges in
their own direction, there appears good reason for abandon-
ing the employment of points altogether. For if they had

16 THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

answered even any of the purposes for which they were
first introduced, the first flash of lightning that any of them
received would destroy it. Such an accident on board of
ship might be but of little consequence, because the vane-
spindle being accessible could easily be pointed anew; but
a similar accident to the conductor of a tall factory chimney,
would entail a heavy expense in scaffolding, &c, before the
top of the conductor could be arrived at; so that the sup-
posed virtues of points is an expensive treasure, in continual
jeopardy. Moreover, as there has never yet been an instance
known of pointed conductors abating the violence of light-
ning discharges, there is not an attribute belonging to them,
nor a recorded circumstance in their favour, that can justify
a continuance of their employment in preference to conductors
of other forms at their superior extremities ; whilst the grave
charge of their being instrumental in facilitating strokes of
lightning, almost imperatively demands their immediate and
total discontinuance.

86. Notwithstanding the attempts that have been made to
propagate the idea that balls, surmounting conductors, are
virtually points, when compared to the immense surface 'of
a thunder-cloud, and (by inference) act in a similar manner,
the result of Franklin's experiment with the point and head
of a pin alternately presented to the prime conductor of his
machine would, independently of any other fact, be sufficient
to show the fallacy of the hypothesis. But the inaptitude of
polished bails in drawing off the electric fluid from vicinal
bodies, or intromitting it from the air, is a fact too well
established at the present day to admit of either equivocation
or doubt. Hence such terminations to conductors are in-
capable of qualifying the air beneath a thunder-cloud for the
transmission of lightning; and consequently have no power
in predisposing the locality for its reception. These negative
qualifications, in connection with the certainty of their with-

LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING CONDUCTOES. 17

standing any flash of lightning that may assail them, are
strong recommendations for the employment of globular
terminations to conductors. They offer precisely the same
amount of protection as pointed conductors, should lightning
come in their way, whether the discharges be vertical or
oblique ; and as they can never be accessory to its approach,
they possess important advantages over those of the usual
form.

87. I know of no better general guide for the application
of lightning-rods, than that embraced in the following motto :
Offer no facilities for the approach of lightning ; but pre-
pare for its reception in case it comes,

88. With respect to the practical application of conductors
to buildings, no individual plan will answer for every fashion
of edifice. The most simple systems of conductors are those
that would be applicable to cottages, powder magazines,
steeples, tall factory chimneys, &c, for which some general
rules might be given ; but buildings with complicated irre-
gular roofs, and decorated gables, chimneys, &c, would re-
quire a peculiar plan of conductor for each fashion of house.
But no building, however plain in its structure, can be
rendered secure against lightning by one individual rod only.

89. I have devised the following system of conductors for
powder magazines. It consists of three vertical arches of
cylindrical copper rod, which are united by a horizontal rod
of the same metal, and furnished with three balls.

90. Steeples, of the form of square towers, ought to have
a vertical copper rod at each angle, united by a copper band
at the top, or just above the uppermost weather mouldings.
The vertical rods should reach to above the highest pinnacles,
and be surmounted with copper balls; or the whole might
unite in one ball directly over the axis of the steeple.

91. Spires may be protected by three copper rods united
in a ball at the apex of the cone, and reaching downwards,

18 THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

at equal distances from each other, to the base, where they
should be again united by a copper band. From any "part
of this band a single rod, reaching to the ground, would com-
plete the conducting system.

92. Tall factory chimneys would require three rods from
top to bottom. They should be united in a ball directly over
the axis of the chimney, in the fashion of a bird-cage, and
again by means of a copper band about half-way between the
coping and the ground.

93. In all cases of applying conductors to buildings, the
rods should be kept clear of the masonry, at least 3in. or 4in.,
which may easily be accomplished by allowing them to pass
through oaken holdfasts built into the wall. There can be
no reason shown for the employment of deep pits or wells,
for the reception of the inferior extremities of conductors,
where brooks, drains, or gutters are near at hand; for light-
ning can be safely dismissed by continuing the rods hori-
zontally, just beneath the surface of the ground, to a few
yards from the building, and terminating them by a number
of sharp metallic points in any of those channels, which are
almost sure to be well supplied with water before any light-
ning descends from the clouds.

94. By employing a system of conductors, instead of a
single rod, protection is insured against oblique discharges,
from whatever quarter they may proceed ; and the union of
the several branches allows of a distribution of the force
throughout the whole system. The spire turret of St. Chad's
Church, Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, which was much
injured by lightning on the 23rd of May, 1850, has been
furnished with a system of conductors, similar to that de-
scribed (91), under my own superintendence. The main rod,
which reaches from the base of the spire to the ground, is
continued about 6 yards under ground, at right angles from
the side of the tower, and is bent down into a water-drain.

LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING C0NDUCT0B8. |Q

95. A circumstance of an exceedingly interesting character,
and replete with valuable instruction, occurred when this
church was struck by lightning. When the lightning left
the injured turret, it sprang from one iron cramp to another,
demolishing the elegant ornamental masonry on the parapet
on its way to a leaden gutter, which conducted it to a cast
iron water-pipe situated in one of the angles of the tower,
and reaching from the top down to the roof of the church,
round which are leaden gutters for conveying the rain-water
to other cast iron pipes which reach the ground. Whilst on
the top of the tower, examining the nature and extent of the
damage, I had some difficulty in discovering the route of the
lightning, until the sexton who was with me, informed me
of the iron pipe inside of the tower. On returning to the
bell-loft, I examined the water-pipe very minutely, under the
expectation of finding it damaged by the lightning, but I
could not discover the slightest breach; the sexton told
me that a great quantity of water had fallen on the floor
below (the floor of the ringing loft), but it was not known
where it came from. We descended to the place, and I soon
discovered that one of the pipes was broken and a large piece
of it was missing. On looking on the floor at the opposite
angle, we found several fragments of the pipe which had been
blown from the injured part. At my request, the remaining
portions of the cast iron pipe were examined, from the top of
the steeple to the ground, and three or four of the lengths, at
their junction with one another, were similarly damaged.

The suspicion of some damage having been done to this
water channel, arose from my knowing that the several
lengths of which it is composed are insulated from one
another by means of the cement (generally stiff white-lead
paint) employed at the joints, for rendering those parts water-
tight. These interruptions in the circuit will always be liable
to lightning explosions ; and, of course, endanger the pipe at

20 THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

every joint. Nor does a full flow of water through them
appear to render sufficient assistance to prevent their being
damaged, for, in this case, the rain was falling in torrents
during the whole time that lightning was in the neighbour-
hood of the church, and the pipe must have been conveying
a copious stream at the time it was damaged. It is probable,
indeed, that the presence of a stream of water would increase
the danger ; because of a sudden production of steam by ex-
plosions at the joinings of the lengths.

It is worthy of remark, also, that this iron pipe is com-
paratively new, for the church has not been finished more
than about three years. I have some of the fragments in
my possession at this time, and I find they are painted black
outside, and are perfectly sound on the inner side. I observe,
also, that the lengths have been painted before being fitted
into each other ; so that they are insulated from one another
by a coat or two of paint in addition to cement.

This circumst nee is, I believe, the first of the kind that
has been noticed, but it is too important to allow of its
omission in this place. The rule which has, for a whole
century, guided lightning-rod manufacturers, to avail them-
selves of every portion of metal that may happen to be con-
veniently attached to the building can no longer be depended
on for protection ; for, unless every portion of metal thus
employed, were securely and perfectly united, explosions
might take place on the roof, or against the walls, which
would be productive of serious damage.

The spire, and other portions of St. Chad's Church (95),
as has been the case with many others, suffered by explo-
sions from metal to metal ; and if a second discharge of light-
ning had passed along the broken water-pipe before the
damage occasioned by the first had been repaired, the ex-
plosions at these interruptions in the circuit would probably
have displaced large portions of masonry from the tower, as

LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING C0NDUCT0E8. 2 1

well as from the side wall of the church, against which the
pipe is placed.

I should be exceedingly glad to hear that the description
of this event, and the remarks I have made upon it, were the
means of providing better security to her Majesty's palace
at Osborne, than that afforded by cast iron water-pipes,
eight or nine of which are now jeopardising the building,
by being employed as portions of as many distinct light-
ning conductors.

3d

II. — On some Peculiarities of the Thunderstorm which
occurred in this neighbourhood on Tuesday > the 16 th
of July last.

By the late Mr. William Sturgeon, Prestwich. — (Com-
municated by Mr. Joule.)

{Read March 4M, 1856.]

The principal characteristics, of this storm, that I have to
notice in this communication, are, unusual displays of light-
ning, and the effects of electrical disturbances caused by it at
a distance from the primitive discharge.

This storm, which commenced in the afternoon, was ex-
perienced on every side of Manchester at nearly the same
time. On the road near to Bury, the lightning killed a
young man and the horse he was riding on. It was exceed-
ingly violent over Bolton and Blackburn ; also at Liverpool
and Northwich. As the principal part of the storm never
reached this place, I had an opportunity of exploring the
atmosphere, by means of an electric kite, without apprehen-
sion of danger, although many thunder-clouds passed slowly
over during the time. I got the kite afloat, with 300 yards of
string out, a little before six in the evening, and kept it up
till nearly eight. During this time the storm was raging
over Bolton. The lightning was very frequent and brilliant,
notwithstanding the bright daylight it had to contrast with.

The discharges from the kite-string were occasionally both
frequent and powerful, and at other times, but seldom and
feeble ; which is frequently the case in the vicinity of thunder-
storms. But in all cases, whether the sparks were large or

24 THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

small, they were invariably positive; showing that the air,
in this instance, retained its normal electric character (its
electric state during severe weather), though much disturbed
by neighbouring clouds and distant lightning. With respect
to the disturbance from the latter cause, it was very marked
on the present occasion, and its effects, in some of the in-
stances I have to mention, although not often observed, are
such as are always to be dreaded from vicinal flashes of
lightning.

During my experiments at the kite-string, I had the com-
pany of the Rev. W. W. Johnson, who assisted me in carrying
them on. After ascertaining the electric state of the air and
its vacillating intensity, my attention was drawn to the distant
lightning, which was now very fine; and its disturbing in-
fluence was soon discovered to extend to the place of observa-
tion. The wire connected with the ground was placed at a
certain distance from the conductor of the string, and the
frequency of the sparks observed. At times no sparks were
transmitted, at other times an abundance of them were dis-
charged through the interval within a few moments. On
comparing these fluctuations with the intervals between the
lightning flashes, we each took a separate part in the observa-
tions. I looked out for the lightning, and announced each
flash by the word "when;" whilst Mr. Johnson kept his eye
on the apparatus. Whilst I was silent, scarcely any sparks
appeared; but a shower of them were discharged from the
kite-string whenever I announced a flash of lightning : thus
showing by the concurrence of the events, that there existed
a rigid connection between the primitive and secondary dis-
charges.

Phenomena of this class are by no means of recent dis-
covery, though not often shown in this manner; and have
generally been considered as primitive rather than secondary
events. The easiest way of ascertaining an electric disturb-
ance, by the influence of a distant flash of lightning, is by

SOME PECULIARITIES OF A THUNDERSTORM. 25

holding the base q{ an electroscope in the hand, and elevating
it in the air above the head during a thunderstorm ; every
flash of lightning will produce a sudden divergency of the
gold leaves. When the lightning is near, the disturbance is
too powerful for a delicate electroscope to withstand.

Ou the day following that of the storm, I had information
of a cotton mill being set on fire by the lightning, at Bolton.
I immediately proceeded to the place, for the purpose of ex-
amining the effects of the lightning on the mill, which I
found to belong to Messrs. Boiling and Co., and situated in
Bradshaw-gate. By the kindness of the foreman I soon
gained admittance, and had every attention paid to my in-
quiries. I was shown that part of the machinery which had
been on fire, but no indication could be found of lightning
having entered the building.

The damage was very trifling, being limited to a carding
machine and a few boards of the floor above, which were
charred by the fire. This limitation of the damage, how-
ever, was owing to an incidental circumstance which fortu-
nately occurred, otherwise it is probable that the whole of
the premises would have been destroyed.

The rule observed at the mills is to turn off the steam -power
at half-past five daily, and the people leave the place at six.
On this occasion, however, the rain was so unusually heavy,
and the lightning and thunder so terrific at six o'clock, that
no one would venture out. Shortly after six, a terrific flash
of lightning took place, attended by a crash of thunder ; and
immediately an alarm was given that the mill was on fire.
Water buckets were immediately served out, and all who
could assist were employed in extinguishing the fire, which
was accomplished within a few minutes, and before it had
time to spread far from where it began.

The very natural conclusion was that the mill had been
struck by the lightning, though no breach could be discovered
in the roof or walls, nor was a pane of glass disturbed. I

26 THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

made very particular inquiry about everv^ circumstance that
occurred that I considered of importance ; all hands thought
the mill was struck, but nobody could find the place. Some
thought the whole building was on fire for a moment, and
those in the rooms thought the lightning struck every part of
the machinery. The fact is, the lightning never entered the
building at all ; and it is obvious, from all the circumstances
of the case, that the fire originated from a disturbance of the
electric element naturally belonging to the machinery ; pro-
bably by the influence of the individual flash of lightning
already alluded to. Such a disturbance amongst the metallic
parts of the machinery would probably give rise to multitudes
of sparks, each of which would be sufficient to ignite cotton,
wool, or other inflammable material, that happened to be in
the way; and, as in this case, the fire originated amongst
some loose cotton attached to the carding machine, it is easy
to understand how its ignition occurred. I was particularly
anxious to ascertain the initial point of ignition, and from the
information I received respecting the burning cotton, and the
communication of the fire to the floor above, the lower surface
of which being that only which had suffered, there appeared
no difficulty in understanding where the fire originated.

In addition to the indications already noticed, I had direct
evidence of the existence of sparks by their effects on a roller
closely situated to the site of the fire, but not in immediate
connection with it. This roller is of wood, about 4 in. long,
and l£in. diameter; its hollow axis is filled with lead, and its
surface covered with flannel. (I am not aware of the name
of this roller, but I send it with the paper for inspection.)
The several singed spots on the flannel covering are so many
evidences of local fires on the roller's surface, which could not
be produced by any ordinary mode of ignition. Nor can it
be supposed for a moment that the fire originated from friction,
because the machinery had been at rest for more than half an
hour ; besides which the parts ignited on this roller are not

SOME PECULIARITIES OF A THUNDERSTORM. 27

such as would be likely to be produced by friction, if even it
had been in motion. Moreover, the motion of this part of the
machine being slow, and its surface not very inflammable, its
ignition from friction seems quite out of the question.

From this mill I was directed to another, situated in
Hal li well-street, and belonging to Mr. Thomas Cross, which
I was told had been set on fire by the lightning. As the
people were leaving work when I arrived, my only guide in
the mill was the porter, who, after a barrier of prejudice and
prudent caution had been removed from between us, became
exceedingly polite and communicative. The occurrence here
seemed to be simultaneous with that at the other mill. I was
first shown a broken window at the landing to the uppermost
floor of that part of the mill, and also a rupture of the plas-
tering in the corner close to the ceiling. Only a small
portion of plaster was displaced, but the stones* which it had
covered were partially shattered. This damage was directly
over the burner of a thin leaden gas-pipe, and about two feet
from it. As no other damage could be discovered, it appeared
obvious that an explosion had taken place between the wall
and the gas-pipe; and as no mark of fusion could be dis-
covered on the metal, the quantity of electric fluid transmitted
was not great. The explosion, however, would produce a
momentary expansion of the air, which would be sufficiently
violent to break the window. My guide, however, insisted
that the lightning had come through the window, and had
melted the glass into smoke, for not a single fragment of it
could be found. I told him to look outside on the window-sill,
and perhaps he might find some, which he soon discovered to
be true ; but what astonished him most was, how I, who had
never been in the mill before, should know where to find the
broken glass. After allowing him to exercise his imagination
for a minute or two, I relieved him by pointing out the cause.

* It it a stone building.

28 THE LATE Mil. WILLIAM STURGEON ON

He became quite delighted with this piece of information, and
immediately took me to another part of the mill where a
quantity of cotton had been set on fire on the drums of two
carding machines. This accident occurred close to a window
which had suffered no damage whatever, nor was there to be
found any trace of the direct action of lightning. The two
drums on which the cotton was ignited are distant about forty
yards from the gas-pipe already mentioned, and as the fluid
that struck the burner would follow the pipe to the ground,
which was in a direct line downwards to the metre on the
ground floor, and thus to the underground main, it would
be impossible to imagine that any direct action from that flash
of lightning on those distant carding machines could take
place ; and, as not the slightest damage was done to any part
of the mill beyond that already mentioned, at the distance of
forty yards, there appears no other mode of accounting for the
fire than that arising from a consideration of the effects of
electrical disturbances by vicinal flashes of lightning.

These effects of electrical disturbance are in direct corre-
spondence with many others, of the same class, that have been
observed, but hardly ever clearly accounted for. Such are
deaths from lightning where no external marks of violence
appear on the subjects ; the singeing of garments without
injury to the wearer, beyond that of a momentary shock, &c.
In many cases, however, the expansion of the air and the
sudden conversion of fluids into steam and gases are pro-
ductive of much damage, and even of death.

Every flash of lightning necessarily disturbs all the electric
fluid around it, and thus produces an electrical wave, which,
in some instances, reaches to great distances, causing a sudden
increase of pressure, and a consequent intromission of fluid to
the ground through the conducting vegetable points and
sharp edges with which it is covered. Now, we have only to
imagine a tree, which exposes a large area of foliage from
its branches, to be situated near to the track of a heavy flash

SOME PECULIARITIES OF A THUNDERSTORM. 29

of lightning, to form an idea why the trunk should be decor-
ticated and split to shivers, whilst no mark of violence appears
on the leaves and branches ; for the suddenly disturbed electric
element in the vicinity of the tree would find an easy ingress
through the medium of the foliage, which, in consequence of
each leaf and point introducing but a small portion of the
whole that entered the tree, would not suffer by the trans-
mission from the air ; but as the whole of these portions would
arrive at the trunk at the same moment, they would form a
formidable mass of the electric element, sufficient to convert
the sap into steam, with an expanding power that would
accomplish the tree's destruction in a moment.

But to return to the Prestwich observations. After leaving
the ground where the kite experiments were made, the light-
ning appeared so unusually fine that I was induced to observe
it for a long time ; and as the flashes, or rather streams, of
electric fluid were each of longer duration than any I had
previously seen, I stept into the house for a pendulum to
ascertain the time which each discharge occupied, and found
that, in some cases, the electric fluid was visible during a
second and a half. Most of the discharges seemed to be
at great altitudes amongst the clouds, and had a fiery red
appearance ; and as several appeared to shoot upwards, they,
according to the rules of perspective, proceeded towards the
place where I was standing. Many discharges, however,
took a horizontal direction at right angles to the former, and
others were seen to shoot obliquely in various directions. The
streams of electric fluid were of unusually large diameter, and
seemed like streams of liquid fire ; and in some instances they
looked like sky-rockets, with a burst of multitudes of stars.
Upon the whole, this was the most singular display of light-
ning I ever beheld.

31

III. — On the Comparative Value of various kinds of
Stone, as Exhibited by their Powers of Resisting
Compression,

By W. Fairbairn, F.R.S., &c.

[ Rfd April 1st, 1856.]

Our knowledge of the properties of stone, viewed as a building
material, is very imperfect, and our architects and stonemasons
have yet much to learn concerning the difference between one
kind of stone and another, both as regards their chemical
constitution, their durability, and their powers of resisting
compression. On this subject we have the experiments of
Gauthey, Rondelet and Rennie, which to some extent sup-
ply the deficiency and furnish data for the resistance to a
crushing force of a considerable variety of stone. These are,
however, to some extent inapplicable to the purposes for
which such data are required, and not finding them in exact
accordance with the results of some experiments recently
made, I have endeavoured to inquire into the causes of the
discrepancy, and to account for the difference.

Stone is found in various forms and conditions, embedded
in and stratified under the earth's surface. That portion of
it which is used for building purposes, is a dense coherent
brittle substance, sometimes of a granulated, at others, of a
laminated structure. These qualities varying according to
its chemical constitution and the mode in which it has been
deposited. Sometimes the laminated and granular rocks
alternate with each other; at others, a rock of a mixed form

32 MR. W. FAIRBAIRN ON THE

prevails, partaking of the characteristics of both structures.
Independent of these properties is its power of resistance to
compression, which depends chiefly upon its chemical combi-
nations and the pressure to which it has been subjected whilst
under the earth's surface from the weight of superincumbent
materials. The granite also, and other igneous rocks, owe
their hardness to their having crystallized more or less rapidly
from a fused mass.

In attempting to ascertain the ultimate powers of resist-
ance of rocks which have been deposited by the action of
water, it is necessary to observe the direction in which the
pressure is applied, whether in the line of cleavage, or at
right angles to it. In nearly all of the following experiments
this precaution was attended to, and it will be seen that the
strength is far greater when the force is exerted perpendicu-
larly to the laminated surface, than when it is applied in the
direction of the cleavage. In building with such stone, it is
also important that it should be laid in the same position as
that in which it is found in the quarry, as the action of rain
and frost rapidly splits off the laminae of the stone when it is
placed otherwise. The strength of the igneous, or crystal-
line rocks, is the same in every direction, owing to the ar-
rangement of the particles of which they are composed.

It might have been advantageous to have ascertained, by
analysis, the chemical composition of the substances experi-
mented on ; but as this varies in almost every locality, and
that in accordance with the superincumbent and surrounding
strata, this is of less consequence in practice than a know-
ledge of absolute facts in connexion with the properties of
the material. Deductions from direct experiment are of no
small importance to the architect and builder, as he should
not only be acquainted with the strengths and other proper-
ties of the material on which he works, but also with the
changes of those qualities under the varied forms of stratified,
metamorphic, and igneous rocks.

COMPABATIVE VALUE OF VABIOUS KINDS OF 8TONE.

33

On the durability of the specimens, I have made no further
inquiry than in regard to their power of resistance to strain.
Any addition would require a separate investigation into the
chemical constituents of the different specimens, and into
those changes to which stone of almost every description is
subjected when exposed to the action of the atmosphere. In
omitting this branch of the investigation I have not forgotten
its importance, but have very properly left its development
to abler hands.

Before giving the results of the inquiry, I may observe
that a portion of the experiments were undertaken at the
request of Mr. E. W. Shaw, the surveyor of the borough of
Bradford, in Yorkshire, in order to ascertain the best and
strongest qualities of stone for paving the streets of that
town. The following tables give the result of the experi-
ments on fifteen specimens of Yorkshire sandstone, and on
some specimens from Wales and other places, as follow.

Experiments to determine the force necessary to fracture,
and subsequently to crush, 2in. cubes of sandstone from the
Shipley quarries, Bradford. The pressure applied in the
direction of the cleavage.

No.

of

Expt

Weights
laid on
in lbs.

Remarks.

No.
of

Expt

Weights
laid on
in lbs.

Remarks.

No.

of

Expt

Weights
laid on
in lbs.

Remarks.

Specimen No. 1.
Shipley.

Specimen No. 2.
Ilea ton.

Specimen No. 3.
Heat on Park.

12
18

10

83524
38900

fractured
crushed

I]

12

16

urn

33524
40602

fractured
crushed

8

9

10

11

26356
28148
29940
81732

fractured
crushed

Specimen No. 4.

Specimen No. 9.
Old Whatley.

Specimen No. 10.
Manningham-lane.

This specimen was
defective and crashed
as the first weight,
2*148 lbs., was laid on

11
12
13

33524
& crushed

fractured
suddenly.

8
9

14

:56
28148 fractured

6 crushed

34

MR. W. FAIRBAIRN ON THE

The results of the experiments 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, fractured
and crushed in the line of cleavage, are given in the following
table.

No. of
Specimen

Locality.

Size.

Weight at which
it fractured.

Weight at which
it crushed.

1
2
3
9
10

Shipley, Brndford.
Heaton

2in. cube
>>

33524
3:5524
29940
35310
28148

38000
40692
31732
35316

37108

Heaton Park

Old Whatley

Manningham-lane..

Mean.

32090

36749

Experiments to determine the force required to fracture,
and subsequently to crush, 2in. cubes of sandstone from the
Shipley and other quarries, near Bradford. Pressure being
applied at right angles to the cleavage.

No.

of

Expt

Weights
laid on
in lbs.

Remarks.

No.

of

Expt

Weights
laid on
in lbs.

Remarks.

Specimen No. 5.
Idle Quarry.

Specimen No. 6.
Jegrum's-lane.

15
16
17
18

38900
40692

43380

fractured,
crushed.

18
19

22

44276
45172

47860

fractured.

crushed.

Specimen No. 7.
Spinkwell.

Specimen No. 8.
Coppy Quarry.

10
11

14

29940
31732

37108

fractured.

14

16

18

37108
39796

41588

first fracture..

second fracture.

crushed.

crushed.

Specimen No. 11 failed.

COMPARATIVE VALUE OF VARIOUS KINDS OF STONE.

35

Results of experiments on specimens 5, 6, 7, 8, fractured
and crushed at right angles to the cleavage.

No. of
Specimen

Locality.

Size.

2in. cube.
n

»»
»»

Weight at which
it fractured.

Woieht with which
it crushed.

5

6

7
8

Idle Quarry, Brad-

|

42484
45 17 %

811

37108

180
47860

108
41588

1 a*a»lant

Coppy Quarry

Mean.

39124

42484

By the foregoing experiment it will be observed that the
resisting powers of stone to compression, are greatest when
the pressure is applied perpendicularly upon the bed or
laminated surface, and that in the ratio of 100 : 82 in the
force required to fracture, and 100 : 86 in the force required
to crush this description of stone. Hence, as already observed,
the powers of resistance of every description of laminated
stone, are most effective when the beds are placed horizontally
or perpendicularly to the direction of the pressure, and this
position is the more important when the stone is exposed to
the atmosphere, as it partially prevents the absorption of
moisture, which in winter tends to destroy the material by the
contraction of the stone and the expansion of the water at low
temperatures.

Experiments to determine the force required to fracture
and crush h'w., l£in., and 2in. cubes of stones from Scotland,
Wales, and other places.

No.
of

Kxpt

Weight
laid on
in lbs.

Remarks.

No. Weight

of laid on

Exptj in lbs.

Remarks.

Specimen No. 12. Grauwacke.

Penmaeumawr, Wales.

2in. cube.

Specimen No. 14. Granite.

Mount Sorrel.

2in. cube.

16

29
30
81

40692

slight fracture,
second fracture,
crushed.

19
20
21
22

46068
47860
49052
51444

fractured, and after a
slight rest crushed.

65780
67572

36

MR. W. PAIEBAIRN ON THE

No.
of

L\\pt

Weight

laid on

S in lbs.

Remarks.

No.

of

Expt

Weight
laid on
in lbs.

Remarks.

Specimen No. 15. Grauwacke.
Ingleton.
2in. cube.

Specimen No. 16. Granite.
Aberdeen.
2in. cube.

13
20
25

35316

first fracture.

8

9

10

11

26356
27546
28148
28340

fractured,
not crushed.

47860

second fracture.

53236

not crushed.

Specimen No. 17. Syenite.

Mount Sorrel.

2in. cube.

Specimen No. 18. Granite.

Bonaw.

ljin. cube.

17

18
19
20

42484
44276

46068
47284

crushed.

2
3

7

15604
17396

fractur'd in 2 nearly eq. pte.
crushed.

24564

Specimen No. 19. Furnace Granite.
Inverary.
l£in. cube.

Specimen No. 20. Granite.

A.

ljin. cube.

4
5

6

7

19188
20980
22772
24564

crushed.

4

5
6

7

19188
20980
22772
24564

fractured,
crushed.

Specimen No. 21. Limestone.

B.

ljin. cube.

Specimen No. 22. Limestone.

C.

l|in. cube.

1
2
3
4

13812
15604
17396
19188

fractured,
crushed.

2
3
4
5

15604
17396
18292

19188

fractured,
crushed.

SpecimenNo. 23. MagnesianLimestone.

Anston.

lin. cube.

Specimen No. 24. Magnesian Limestone.
Worksop,
lin. cube.

1
2

io

1258
2154

8050

fractured,
crushed.

13
14

88

3834
3946

7098

fractured.

crushed.

Specimen No. 25. Sandstone,
lin. cube.

Specimen No. 26. Sandstone.
2in. cube.

8
9

13

2938
3050

3498

fractured.

11
12

20

9770
10218

12228

fractured.

crushed.

crushed.

COMPABATIVE VALUE OF VARIOUS KINDS OF STONE.

37

Results of experiments on stone from North Wales and
other places. Specimens Nos. 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21,
22, 23, 24, 25, and 26.

Weight
with

Weight
with

Pressure

No. of

Description

rtquktl

Speci-

Locality.

Sue.

which it

which it

to crush a

men.

Stone.

fractured,
in lbs.

crushed,
in lbs.

2in. cube,
in lbs.

Grauwacke.

Penmaenmawr ...

2in.cube.

40692

(57572

67572

14

Granite

Mount Sorrel

01144

51444

51444

17

Syenite

»» »

»»

47284

47284

47284

18

Granite

Bonaw, Inverary..

ljin.cube

17396

24564

11619

19

„

Furnace, „

,,

24564

18649

20

M

(A)

„

22772

24064

43669

21

Limestone..

22

N

17396

19188

34112

22

„

(C)

18292

19188

84111

n

Anaton

lin. cube.

2104

3050

12200

24

Worksop

3946

7098

28392
18909

25

Sandstone. .

»»'

3000

3498

26

>»

2in. cube.

10218

12228

12228

The Welsh specimen of grauwacke, from Penmaenmawr,
exhibits great powers of resistance, nearly double that of some
of the Yorkshire sandstones, and about one-third in excess of
the granites, excepting only the granite from Mount Sorrel,
which is to the Welsh grauwacke, as *757 : 1. Some others,
such as the Ingleton grauwacke, supported more than the
granites, but are deficient when compared with that from
Penmaenmawr. The specimen No. 23 is the stone of which
the Houses of Parliament are built. Specimens Nos. 25 and 25
were broken to show experimentally the ratio of the powers of
resistance as the size is changed. The results are sufficiently
near to prove that the crushing weights are as the areas of the
surface subjected to pressure.

The specific gravity and porosity of the different kinds of
rock vary greatly, and Mr. Shaw, in his desire to obtain the
best quality of Yorkshire paving stone, had those from the
neighbourhood of Bradford carefully tested in regard to their
powers of absorption ; the experiments, which were conducted
with great precision, gave the following results.

38

MR. W. FAIRBAIRN ON THE

Experiments to ascertain the amount of water absorbed
by various kinds of stone.

•J

Description
Stone.

Sandstone.

Grauwacke
Granite

Grauwacke

Locality.

Weight
before im-
mersion.

lbs.

Shipley

5.4687

Heaton

5.2578

Heaton Park

5.1718

Spinkwell ..... ...

5-2908

Idle Quarry

5.7178

Jegrum's-lane

5.5976

5-6757

Coppy Quarry

5 5703

Old Whatley

5.4720

Manningliam-lane .

5.4882

5.6289

Wales

0.410]
5.6875

Mount Sorrel

>> >»

5.8007

Ingleton

5.75 00

Weight
after im-
mersion

for
48 hours.

DifTrence

of
Weight.

Proportion
absorbed.

5.5546

.0859

1 in

63.6

5.3632

.1054

1 in

49.8

5.2896

.1171

1 in

44.1

5.4726

.1758

1 in

30.1

5.8203

.1016

1 in

56.3

5.7187

.1211

1 in

40.2

5.7801

.1094

1 in

53.8

5.6914

.1211

1 in

46.0

5.6132

.1406

l in

38.9

5.6093

.1211

1 in

40.3

5.7539

.1250

1 in

45.0

6.4140

.0039

1 in 1041.0

5.6992

.0117

1 in

485.0

5.8124

.0117

1 in

495.0

5.7539

.0039

3 in

1962.6

From the above table it will be observed that specimen
No. 15, the Ingleton grauwacke, is the least absorbent, and
No. 12, the Welsh grauwacke, absorbs almost as little, while
Nos. 9 and 14 of the sandstones absorb most. The granites,
though closely granulated, take up much more water than the
grauwackes, but less than the sandstones. The resistance of
the grauwacke specimens to the admission of water is four
times that of the granite, and thirty-six times that of sand-
stone, such as is found in the Yorkshire quarries.

COMPARATIVE VALUE OF VARIOUS KINDS OF STONE. 39

I

Pres-

1

i're*

Pres-

sure

Ratios

1

Spool

sure to

sure

per

Cubic

of

1

Description

flo

fnic-

sonars

feet

power*

CO

of

Looility.

Size.

gra-

crurh

iuoh

in a

o

Stone.

vity.

SpfCl-

S[*Ci-

tocrunh

ton.

a> »»rp

e

mcn.

min.

S|M>Cl-

tion.

B

men.

mJm

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lin

1

Sandstone . Shipley*

2.452

33524

19000

9725 14.616

63.6

2

„ IHeaton*

i)

2.420

8862 1

10609

10173 14.809

49.8

8

„ >nPark» ..

i)

2 385

29940 31732

1

44.1

4

,, SpiokweU

>j

2.829

defective.

.... 15.388

80.1

5

Idle Quarry t....

t%

2.464

42484 43380

10845

56.3

6

, , u egrutn s- lanet . •

'_'. ,00

45172 47860

11965 14.933

46.2

7

„ Spinkwellf

»>

2.466

31732 37108

9277J 14.592

53.8

8

., 'vQuarryf..

j»

2.408

37108 41588

9

„ W iKitley*. ..

ff

2.11.'.

35316 35316

■

10

„ Manning' m-lane*

>)

2.401

28148 37108 !

14.927 46.3

11

!»

2.421

f ii led.

....

14.804 46.0

12

Grauwacke Penmaenmawr . .

»>

•-'.748

40692 67572

16893

13.0421641.0

13

Granite ..

Mount Sorrel . . .

»»

2.6*7

.... ! ....

....

186.9

14

'

»» it • . .

if

2.675

61444 61444

12861

13.398

I9&0

15

Grauwackejlngleton .7

D

2.787

35316 (532M> not crd

12.866

1962.6

16

Granite . . Aberdeen

ii

—

27546 (28340: not crd

—

—

17

Syenite . .Mount Sorrell . . .

—

47284 47284 11821

__

—

18
19

Granite ..

Bonaw

liin
ii

—

17396 24564 10917
24564 24564J 10917

—

_

Furnace

20

A

ii

—

22772 24561 101)17

—

—

21

Limestone.

B

ii

—

17396 19188

8528

. —

—

22

C

<i

—

18292, 19188

8528

_

—

23
24

Anston

lin.
ii

—

2154 3050
3946, 7098

3050
7098

—

z

»»

Sandstone .

Worksop

25

D

2in.

—

3050! 3498

3498

—

"" —

26

i»

E

—

10218 12228

3057

—

- 1

On comparing the results of the experiments on the York-
shire sandstones, it will be seen that the difference of resist-
ance to pressure does not arise so much from the variable
character of the stone in different quarries, as from the posi-
tion in which it is placed as regards its laminated surface,
the difference being as 10:8 in favour of the stone being
crushed upon its bed to the same when crushed in the line of
cleavage ; the same may be said of the limestones.

Comparing the strengths indicated by the above experi-
ments, I find a very close approximation in the granites, but
considerable difference in the Yorkshire sandstones. Mr.
Uennie obtained his specimens from the same district, the
valley of the Aire ; but the force required to crush the Brom-

* Pressure applied in the direction of the cleavage,
t Pressure applied perpendicularly on the bed of the stone.

40

MR. W. FAIRBAIRN ON THE

ley Fall stone was much less than that required to fracture
similar specimens from the Shipley quarries. The following
table gives some useful results for comparison.

Description of Material.

Crushing force

in lbs. per

square inch.

Authority.

40416

11209

11664

6127

9824

1888

806

Ganthey.

Rennie.

Experiments 14, 18, 19.

Rennie.

Experiments 1 to 9.

Rennie.

Rennie.

Granite, Aberdeen

„ mean of 3 varieties

„ „ mean of 9...

Brick, hard

„ red

From the above it is evident that there is a considerable
difference between the results of Mr. Rennie's experiments
and those in the preceding tables. This may, perhaps, be
due to the different methods pursued in the experiments, or
from taking the first appearance of fracture as the ultimate
power of resistance. Whereas, there is in some cases a differ-
ence of nearly a third between the weight required to produce
the first crack, and that required subsequently to crush the
specimen. This is the more remarkable as all the specimens
did not appear to follow the same law, as in some the weight
which fractured the specimen by a continuation of the process
ultimately crushed it. Experiments of this kind require close
observation, and the reason just given may probably account
for the difference between Mr. Rennie's and my own results.

All information respecting the strength of materials must
be derived from direct experiment, which is always the safest
and best guide; and fully aware of the importance of this
fact, I have deemed it expedient to append the following list
of the bearing powers of some other materials employed in
building, and to which reference may be made in any case
where the load is excessive, or where the material is subjected
to severe strain.

The necessity of these experiments was the more apparent
some years since, in the construction of the Britannia and

COMPARATIVE VALUE OF VARIOUS KINDS OF STONE. 4 1

Conway tubular bridges, when fears were entertained of the
security of the masonry to support, upon the given area, the
immense weight of the tubes, upwards of 1,500 tons, resting
on one side of the tower. To ascertain how far the material
(Angiesea limestone) was calculated to sustain this load, the
following experiments were instituted by Mr. Latimer Clarke.
" Results of experiments made with actual weight on the
materials used in the Britannia bridge, January, 1848.

Brickwork.

tt>j. per square
Inch.

No. I. — 9in. cube of cemented brickwork (Nowell
and Co.), No. I (or best quality) weighing
54 lbs., set between deal boards. Crushed with
19 tons 18 cwt. 2 qrs. 22 lbs = 551.3

No. 2. — 9in. cube of brickwork, No. 1 weighing
53 lbs., set in cement. Crushed with 22 tons
3 cwt. 0 qr. 17 lbs = 612.7

No. 3. — 9in. cube of brickwork, No. 3 weighing
52 lbs., set in cement. Crushed with 16 tons
8 cwt. 2 qrs. 8 lbs = 454.3

No. 4. — 9Jin. brickwork, No. 4 weighing 55£ lbs.,
set in cement. Crushed with 21 tons 14 cwt.

1 qr. 17 lbs = 568.5

No. 5. — 9in. brickwork, No. 4 weighing 54J lbs.,

set between boards. Crushed with 15 tons

2 cwt. 0 qr. 12 lbs = 417.

Mean 521.

Note. — The last three cubes of common brick continued
to support the weight, although cracked in all directions; they
fell to pieces when the load was removed. All the brickwork
began to show irregular cracks a considerable time before it
gave way.

The average weight supported by these bricks was 33.5

42 MR. W. FAIRBAIRN ON THE

tons per square foot, equal to a column 583.69 feet high, of
such brickwork.

Sandstone.

fibs, per square
inch.

No. 6. — 3in. cube red sandstone, weighing 1 lb.
14g oz., set between boards (made quite dry by
being kept in an inhabited room). Crushed

with 8 tons 4 cwt. 0 qr. 19 lbs = 2043.

No. 7. — 3in. cube sandstone, weighing 1 lb. 14 ozs.,
set in cement (moderately damp). Crushed

with 5 tons 3 cwt. 1 qr. i lb = 1285.

No. 8. — 3in. sandstone, weighing 1 lb. 15 J ozs., set
in cement (made very wet). Crushed with

4 tons 7 cwt. 0 qr. 21 lbs = 1085.

No. 9. — 6in. cube sandstone, weighing 18 lbs., set
in cement. Crushed with 63 tons 1 cwt. 2 qrs.

6 lbs =3924.8

No. 10. — 9 Jin. cube sandstone, weighing 58 J lbs.,
set in cement (7 7 \ tons were placed upon this
without effect, = 2042 lbs. per square inch,
which was as much as the machine would carry)

Mean 2185.

All the sandstones gave way suddenly, and without any
revious cracking or warning. The 3in. cubes appeared of
ordinary description; the 6in. was fine grained, and appeared
tough and of superior quality. After fracture the upper part
generally retained the form of an inverted square pyramid
about 2 Jin. high and very symmetrical, the sides bulging
away in pieces all round. The average weight of this mate-
rial was 130 lbs. 10 ozs. per cube foot, or 17 feet per ton.

The average weight required to crush this sandstone is
134 tons per square foot, equal to a column 2351 feet high of
such sandstone.

COMPARATIVE VALUE OP VABIOUS KINDS OF STONE. 43
Limestone.

!b«. peraqnar*
inch.

No. 11. — 3in. cube Anglesea limestone, weighing

2 lbs. 10 ozs., set between boards. Crushed

with 26 tons 1 1 cwt. 3 qrs. 9 lbs = 6618.

This stone formed numerous cracks and splinters

all round, and was considered crushed ; but on

removing the weight about two-thirds of its

area were found uninjured.
No. 12. — 3in. limestone, weighing 2 lbs. 9 ozs., set

between deal boards. Crushed with 32 tons

6 cwt. 0 qr. I lb = 8039.

This stone also began to splinter externally with

25 tons (or 6220 lbs. per square inch), but

ultimately bore as above.
No. 13 3in. limestone, weighing 2 lbs. 9 ozs., set

in deal boards. Crushed with 30 tons 18 cwt.

3 qrs. 24 lbs = 7702.6

No. 14. — Three separate lin. cubes limestone,

weighing 2 lbs. 9 ozs., set in deal boards.

Crushed with 9 tons 7 cwt. 1 qr. 14 lbs = 6995.3

All crushed simultaneously.

Mean 7579.

All the limestones formed perpendicular cracks and splin-
ters a long time before they crushed.

Weight of the material from above =165 lbs. 5 ozs. per
cubic foot, or 13 J feet per ton.

The weight required to crush this limestone is 471.15 tons
per square foot, equal to a column 6433 feet high of such
material."

Previously to the experiments just recorded, it was deemed
advisable not to trust to the resisting powers of the material
of which the towers of either bridge were composed ; and, to
make security doubly sure, it was ultimately arranged to rest

44

MR. W. FAIRBAIRN ON THE

the tubes upon horizontal and transverse beams of great
strength, and by increasing the area subject to compression,
the splitting or crushing of the masonry might be prevented.
This was done with great care, and the result is the present
stability of those important structures.

In conclusion, I have now to submit to the consideration of
the society and the practical builder the following general
summary of results, obtained from various materials, showing
their respective powers of resistance to forces tending to crush
them.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF RESULTS ON COMPRESSION.

Crushing force
Description of Material. in lbs. Authority.

per square inch.

/ Cast steel

Blister steel

Iron \ Cast iron (white, derived ] 214816 \ Fairbaim's Experi-

arid < from 14 meltings) .... j j ments on the Mechani-

Steel. I Ditto (from 12 meltings). . 163744 \ cal Properties of Metals.

t-v... >/, ]. ° i > I — .Transactions of the

Ditto (from ordinary cast- ] g96()() \ British Association,

ings) j / 1854.

Porphyry 40416 Gauthey.

Grauwacke, Penmaenmawr 16893 Exprmts. No. 12.

Granite, mean of 3 11565 Do. Nos. 14,18,19.

Sandstone, Yorkshire .... 6127 Rennie.

Ditto, mean of 9 exprts. . 9824 Exprmts. 1 to 10.

/ Ditto, Runcorn 2185 Clark.

^ Limestone 8528 Exprmts. 21, 22.

Ditto, Anglesey 7579 Clark.

Ditto, Magnesian — mean. . 5074 Exprmts. 23, 24.

Brick, hard 1888 Rennie.

Ditto, red 805 „

Ditto, mean of 4 exprts. . . 1424 Clark.

(Box 9771

English Oak (dried) 9509

Ash (ditto) 9363

Plumtree (ditto) 8241 v

> Beech 6402 > Hodgkinson.

/ Red Deal 5748

Cedar 5674

\ Yellow Pine 5375

COMPARATIVE VALUE OF VARIOUS KINDS OF STONE. 45

It is observed by Professor Hodgkinson, in his experiments
on timber, that great discrepancies occurred when the woods
were in different degrees of dryness ; wet timber, though felled
for a considerable time, bearing in some instances less than
one-half what it bore when dry.

Professor Hodgkinson has also experimented on round and
square columns of sandstone from Ped Delph, Littleborougb,
Lancashire, a much harder stone than that found on the
banks of the Aire. With regard to these experiments, it
appears " that there is a falling off in strength in all columns
from the shortest to the longest, but that the diminution is
so small, when the height of the column is not greater than
about twelve times the side of its square, that the strength
may be considered uniform, the mean being 10,000 lbs. per
square inch or upwards.

"From the experiments on the columns lin. square, it
appears that when the height is fifteen times the side of the
square, the strength is slightly reduced ; when the height is
twenty-four times the height of the base, the falling off is
from 138 to 96 nearly; when it is thirty times the base, the
strength is reduced from 138 to 75 ; and when it is forty times
the base, the strength is reduced to 52, or to little more
than one-third. These numbers will be modified to some
extent by experiments now in progress.

" As long columns always give way first at the ends,
showing that part to be ^weakest, we might economize
the material by making the areas of the ends greater than
that of the middle, increasing the strength from the middle
both ways towards the ends. If the areas of the ends be
to the area of the middle, as the strength of a short
column is to that of a long one, we should have for a
column, whose height was twenty-four times the breadth,
the areas of the ends and middle as 13766 to 9595 nearly.
. however, would make the ends somewhat too strong,

46 MR. W. FAIRBAIEN ON THE

since the weakness of the long columns arises from their
flexure.

" Another mode of increasing the strength would be that
of preventing flexure, by increasing the dimensions of the
middle.

" From the experiments it would appear that the Grecian
columns, which seldom had their length more than about ten
times the diameter, were nearly of the form capable of bearing
the greatest weight when their shafts were uniform, and that
columns tapering from the bottom to the top were only
capable of bearing weights due to the smallest part of their
section, though the larger end might serve to prevent lateral
thrusts. This latter remark applies, too, to the Egyptian
columns, the strength of the column being only that of the
smallest part of the section.

" From the two series of experiments, it appeared that the
strength of a short column was nearly in proportion to the
area of the section, though the strength of a larger one is
somewhat less than in that proportion."

I give these extracts from Mr. Hodgkinson's paper, to show
the advantages to be derived from proper attention to the
construction of columns, not only as regards their resistance
to a crushing force, but as to the propriety of enlarging the
ends to increase their powers of resistance.

Experimental data cannot always be applied in architec-
tural constructions ; but it is, nevertheless, essential that the
architect and builder should be cognizant of the facts, in
order that they may prepare their plans, as far as possible,
in accordance with them, and effect the greatest amount of
work with the least waste of material.

The accompanying plate exhibits the appearance of some of
the fractured specimens ; in all, it will be observed, that there
is a tendency to give way by one or more wedges forcing out
from the sides in all directions.

COMPARATIVE VALUE OP VARIOUS KINDS OP STONE. 47

The plate shows the fractured appearance of,

Sandstone, Shipley, Bradford.

., Heaton, Bradford.

„ Heaton Park, Bradford.

„ Idle Quarry.

„ Spinkwell.

Grauwacke, Penmaenmawr, Wales.
Granite, Mount Sorrel.

A.
Limestone, B.

c.

„ Anston.

Sandstone, D.
E.

The other specimens operated upon were not sufficiently
defined in the line of fracture to admit of their form being
sketched; most of them having been crushed almost to
powder.

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49

IV On the Fusion of Metals by Voltaic Electricity.

By J. P. Joule, F.R.S., &c.

[Read March 4th, 1856.]

The attention of practical scientific men has of late been
much occupied with the question, how far it is possible to
forge large masses of iron, without destroying the tenacity
and other valuable qualities of the metal^ employed. In
welding iron, the metal is raised to the high temperature at
which it assumes a soft and incipient viscid consistency.
Two pieces of iron in this condition will adhere together
slightly, if merely placed in contact with one another. That
a firm junction cannot be made in this way is simply owing to
the fact that few particles are brought into contact, and that
the metallic continuity is only established at those points.
The hammer is, therefore, employed to cause the entire
surfaces to meet together. The same end has also been
attained by the employment of great pressure ; and probably
we shall ultimately see large masses of forged iron formed by
simply subjecting a bundle of smaller pieces, raised to the
welding temperature, to the operation of great pressure. To
succeed in the latter process, it would however be requisite to
press clean unoxidized surfaces together. Indeed the im-
portance of presenting clean surfaces together in ordinary
welding cannot be too strongly insisted on ; for, if oxide of
iron be present, a portion of it will not fail to remain at, or in
H

50 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE

the neighbourhood of, the juncture, and seriously impair the
quality of the iron at those points.

It occurred to me some months ago that it might be possi-
ble to employ the calorific agency of the electric current in
the working of metals. By the use of a voltaic battery there
appeared to be no doubt but that small pieces of metal could
be fused into one lump. If so, it was obvious that by em-
ploying a battery of adequate size the largest masses of
wrought iron could be produced, the question resolving itself
simply into one of cost. It was not before the last month
that I had an opportunity of witnessing an experiment on a
small scale. It was performed in the laboratory of Professor
Thomson. He surrounded a bundle of iron wires with char-
coal, and, after transmitting a powerful current through it for
some time, the wires were found in one part to be completely
fused together.

More recently I have made several experiments in which
the wires were placed in glass tubes, surrounded with char-
coal, &c. With a battery of six Daniell's cells I have thus
succeeded in fusing several steel wires into one, uniting steel
wires with brass, platina with iron, &c. I doubt not but that
in many instances the process would advantageously supersede
that of soldering, especially when, for thermo-electric or other
purposes, it is desirable to join metals of difficult fusibility
without the intervention of another metal which melts at a
lower temperature.

Having demonstrated the possibility of obtaining perfect
junctions by means of the voltaic current, let us inquire what
expenditure of battery materials would be necessarily in-
volved. In the outset it may be remarked that were not heat
continually removed, by conduction, convection, and radia-
tion, from a wire carrying a current of however low a degree
of intensity, the wire would ultimately attain an excessively
high temperature on account of the continuous augmentation

FUSION OF METALS BY VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY. 5 1

of heat within it. Now the escape of heat may be largely
prevented by means of non-conducting substances, and will be
nearly proportional to the surfaces, so that by employing
sufficiently large masses of metal, and surrounding them with
non-conducting materials, it may be reduced to almost any
extent. The quantity of zinc required to fuse a large mass
of iron may therefore be estimated as follows. —

I have shown in a paper already communicated to the
Society, that the quantity of heat due to the intensity of a
Daniell's cell is 6°. 129 per pound of water for every 33 grains
of zinc dissolved.* In working with a voltaio battery, it is
generally an advantageous arrangement to make the resistance
of the battery one-half that of the entire circuit. Hence,
as the quantity of heat evolved in any part of the circuit is
proportional to its resistance, we may take half the above, or
3°.064 per pound of water, as the heat which may be advan-
tageously produced outside a Daniell's battery by the
dissolution of 33 grains of zinc. Calling the temperature of
incipient fusion of iron 4,000° above the ordinary temperature
of the atmosphere and the specific heat of iron 0.11, we find
4,740 grains of zinc to be the quantity consumed in the voltaic
battery, in order to raise one pound of iron to the temperature
of fusion. But as a considerable quantity of heat will be
rendered " latent," 5,000 grains may be taken as the estimate
of minimum consumption of zinc, in a Daniell's battery, in
order to effect the fusion of one pound of iron.

The same effect is due to the heat evolved by the combus-
tion of 500 grains of coal, but on account of the large quantity
of heat which must necessarily escape up the chimney of a hot
furnace, we may estimate the minimum actual consumption at
1,000 grains.

The quantity of zinc consumed in the voltaic process is there-
fore nearly equal to that of the iron to be melted, but it would

* Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society, Vol. vii., p. 94.

52 MR. J. P. JOULE OK THE, ETC.

be possible to effect the same object in a more economical
manner, by availing ourselves of the use of the magneto-
electrical machine. This machine enables us to obtain heat
from ordinary mechanical force, which mechanical force may
again be derived from the conversion of heat, as in the steam
engine. In a steam engine it is practically possible to convert
at least one-fifth of the heat due to the combustion of coal into
force, and one-half of this force applied to work a magneto-
electrical machine may be evolved in the shape of heat.
Hence then it is possible to arrange machinery so as to pro-
duce currents of electricity which shall evolve one-tenth of the
quantity of heat due to the combustion of the coal employed.
So that 5,000 grains of coal used in this way would suffice for
the fusion of one pound of iron.

53

V. — A Short Account of the Life and Writings of the late
Mr. William Sturgeon.

By J. P. Joule, V.P., F.R.S., Hon. Mem. Phil. Soc.
Cambridge, Corr. Mem. R.A. Turin, &c.

[Read October 7 th, IR06.]

A pardonable vanity of our human nature makes us seek
into the past, in order to connect the names of those we
respect and love, with the great and good of ancient times.
In so doing we award to our contemporaries a portion of the
praise and admiration which are due to their eminent fore-
fathers. But the search is often unprofitable, and many of
our greatest men, descended from an obscure or unknown
parentage, have been the first to render the family name
illustrious. Of such was the subject of the present memoir,
who was born in 1783, at Whittington, a village in the
county of Lancaster, near the border which divides it from
Westmoreland. His father was John Sturgeon, a shoemaker,
who came from the neighbourhood of Dumfries, and married
Betsy Adcock, daughter of a small shopkeeper in Whit-
tington. The offspring of this marriage were William,
Margaret, and Mary. Of these, Mary died in infancy ; and
Margaret married John Coates, and died the mother of a
numerous family.*

John Sturgeon appears to have been a man who paid more
attention to fishing for salmon in the river Lune, a pursuit in

" The youngest of these, Ellen, who was only a few weeks old at the time
of her mother's death, was on that event kindly taken into the family of her
uncle, William Sturgeon, and ever afterwards treated as his own daughter.

54 ME. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WHITINGS

which he gained much local celebrity, than to his legitimate
business. Young William at a tender age was nightly com-
pelled, with a torch in his hand, to wade up to his middle in
the water, while his father stood ready to spear such fish as
were attracted by the glare. The treatment he experienced
during the day was equally harsh, and he was liable to severe
chastisement whenever his strength proved unequal to labours
which would have been unsuited to a child of double his age.
It argues strongly for his domestic virtues and filial piety
that in after years the happiness of this parent, to whom he
owed so little, was the object of his constant solicitude. Nor
were these efforts lost. His father's old age bore the fruits of
virtue and religion.

At ten he had the misfortune to lose his mother, an
estimable woman, upon whom, in consequence of the habits
of his father, the support of the family mainly depended.
Apprenticed, at the age of thirteen, to a shoemaker at Old
Hutton, a village near Kirby Lonsdale, he was doomed to
be even more cruelly treated than at home. The ill usage
of apprentices was very common at that time, and the per-
petrators of it too frequently escaped with impunity. Not
content with exacting a slavish drudgery on the week day,
this man compelled Sturgeon on the Sunday to carry game
cocks from one part of the country to another, so as, in
the language of that ancient but detestable sport, to
change their walks. He also used much violence, and
starved his apprentices to such a degree that they were
obliged to make free with the hares and rabbits of the
neighbourhood in order to supply their hunger. So long as
Sturgeon was a mere child he patiently submitted to this
tyranny, but when at the age of sixteen he felt strong enough
to resist force by force, be apprised his master of that circum-
stance, who, with the low cunning and cowardice suitable to
such a character, ever afterwards observed a more conciliatory
deportment.

OF THE LATE MB. WILLIAM STURGEON. 55

It seems almost incredible that, amid such hardships and
surrounded by such vicious examples, Sturgeon could have
acquired anything valuable beyond mere proficiency in his
trade, or that he could even have resisted the temptation to
follow evil courses so constantly held out. But it, neverthe-
less, appears that he contrived to acquire some proficiency in
music, and the knowledge of several mechanical arts. His
ability in the exercise of one of the latter may be judged by
the following anecdote, which will illustrate at the same time
the energy of character which became so conspicuous in after
life. One of the celebrations of the Guild at Preston took
place during his apprenticeship, and William Sturgeon and
his fellow-apprentice having heard much talk about it, deter-
mined to go and see it. Their master they well knew would
not give his consent, but this difficulty they got over by the
simple expedient of starting on their trip without asking it.
Another and more serious difficulty arose from the awkward
circumstance of neither of them possessing any money.
Sturgeon, who had shown some talent in cleaning clocks and
watches during his residence at Hutton, contrived not only
to support himself and fellow-apprentice during their journey
to and from Preston by what he obtained from clock clean-
ing by the way, but even to arrive at home with money in
pocket. On their return from satisfying their curiosity at
Preston Guild, the apprentices had to undergo the ordeal
of a sound thrashing from their brutal master.

Dissatisfied with his position as a journeyman shoemaker,
and seeing little prospect of improving his condition at Kirby
Lonsdale, he, in 1802, enlisted in the Westmoreland Militia,
and two years afterwards volunteered as a private into the
2nd Battalion of Royal Artillery. Soon after entering this
corps he married Mary Hutton, a widow, who kept a shoe
shop at Woolwich. The issue of this marriage was two
daughters and a son, namely, John and Elizabeth, twins, and
Ann, all of whom died in their infancy. After the death of

56 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

his first wife he married, in 1829, Mary Bromley, of Shrews-
bury, by whom he had a daughter, who died in infancy.

Being called into foreign service soon after his marriage
with his first wife, he made the first systematic efforts for the
improvement of his mind. While in Newfoundland he was
first directed to the contemplation of electrical phenomena,
on the occasion of a terrific thunderstorm. His interest in the
works of nature being thus excited, he prepared himself for
their study, by teaching himself reading and writing and the
elements of grammar. A sergeant in the artillery possessed
a tolerable library of books, to which the generous owner
gave him constant access. It was his practice when he came
off guard at night to take from his knapsack the book and
candle he generally carried there, and to spend that time in
reading which by the other soldiers was devoted to repose.
He was thus able to devote a considerable time to mathe-
matics, and to the study of the dead and living languages.
To these he added optics, and various other branches of
natural philosophy. He also found time to acquire various
mechanical arts, such as that of lithography, in which he
attained afterwards considerable proficiency.

Notwithstanding his love of these pursuits he did not ne-
glect, while in the army, his trade as a shoemaker, and the
excellence of his workmanship caused him to be employed in
this capacity by most of the officers of the corps. After
leaving the army he followed this avocation in Lancaster,
until, at the instance of his wife, whose relations resided at
Woolwich, he returned thither, and began to prosecute with
renewed assiduity his favourite intellectual studies.

The difficulties he encountered in his strivings after scientific
truth at this time, will be best understood by quoting his own
words from a manuscript I have by me. He says : — " After
leaving the service of the Royal Artillery in 1 820, and as my
slender finances presented opportunities, I turned my attention
to scientific inquiries, and to the construction of some of those

OP THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON. 57

philosophical apparatus which, from my boyhood, I hud been
an admirer of, but which, during my services at least, a military
profession precluded all further knowledge of than that which
was to be derived from books of science ; a species of com-
modity at that time exceedingly rare in the army, even in the
distinguished branch to which I bad the honor to belong.
Fortunately for the service, every encouragement is now
given for mental improvement both in the army and navy.
Having spent the prime of life in the service, during a period
of the most rigorous military discipline that ever occurred to
the British army, I can vouch from experience that the value
of a soldier is not likely to be deteriorated by mental cultiva-
tion; nor do I think it possible that any soldier could be
more devoted to his profession, than he who improves his mind
by scientific studies. The more science is cultivated in the
service the more efficient will be its members in the per-
formance of their respective duties, and consequently the more
formidable will they be found when those duties are required
against a well disciplined army."

" My first step towards constructing apparatus was the
purchase of an old lathe, and a few tools to work with. My
stock of tools, however, was very limited, from a want of
means to purchase more ; so that many rude substitutes had
frequently to be brought into requisition. And as I had no
practice either at the lathe or the vice, my first essays in
apparatus making were necessarily deficient of those elegan-
cies of structure and refinements of workmanship, which
always characterize the productions of regular-bred instru-
ment makers."

" Notwithstanding these disadvantages, however, hope and
perseverance surmounted every difficulty that was met with,
and I soon found myself capable of constructing such pieces
of apparatus as I immediately wanted for my own purpose ;
and it was not long before I found purchasers for others, even
amongst the first-rate instrument makers in London. I am
I

58 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

not aware that my progress was due to any particular genius
that I possessed, although I never had even a moment's
instruction from any person; and I record these particulars
with no other view than that of encouraging others to per-
severe, who may have similar disadvantages to encounter."

" Having become acquainted with Mr. Thomas Rose, a
gentleman of considerable scientific attainments, and at that
time (1823) residing in Woolwich, I had the good fortune to
become possessed of an electrical machine, much earlier than
I had expected. Mr. Rose being about to construct a machine
of this kind for his own use, presented me with the materials
he had prepared for it as soon as he became aware that I was
in want of one. By the liberality of this gentleman, I had
thus placed in my hands a glass cylinder ten inches in diameter,
and an excellent mahogany frame for its support. Both parts
were quite new, but the cylinder was not mounted, nor was it
furnished with caps at its necks. Although the fitting up of
this machine and its appendages cost a considerable portion of
time, I was amply rewarded by its happening to be an
excellent working apparatus, which I used in my lectures and
investigations for several years afterwards."

As above intimated, Mr. Sturgeon procured his discharge
from military duty in 1820, his conduct while a soldier having
been, according to the testimony of his commanding officer,
Major Jones, "altogether unimpeachable," and was thus
enabled to devote himself with greater assiduity to the pur-
suit of his favorite studies. At that period scientific research
had just received a great impulse from the discovery by
Oersted, that a current of voltaic electricity passing through
a conducting wire, is capable of deflecting a poized magnetic
needle from its position in the magnetic meridian of the earth.
This most remarkable discovery, by which the sciences of
electricity and magnetism were permanently allied, created an
intense interest, and accordingly we find that the most eminent
natural philosophers of the day immediately entered upon the

OP THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON. 59

new field of investigation thereby opened. Davy and Arago
magnetized steel needles, by placing them in the vicinity of
a wire carrying a voltaic current. Ampere found that two
parallel wires conveying currents in the same direction attracted
one another, but that they repelled one another if the elec-
tricity travelled in contrary directions ; and Faraday produced
the revolution of a magnetic bar round a conducting wire, as
well as the reverse phenomenon of the revolution of a con-
ducting wire round one of the poles of a magnet.

Mr. Sturgeon followed in the same track, and the mechanical
skill he possessed enabled him to construct and improve the
beautiful revolving apparatus, which had been devised by
Faraday, Barlow, Ampere, and others. The rotations are in
all cases owing to the action of a wire carrying a current of
electricity, upon either a permanent magnet or another electro-
dynamic wire, and may in every case be traced to Oersted's
law. Considerable instruction may, however, be derived from
their study, and it would appear that they were the object of
Mr. Sturgeon's earliest scientific efforts. We accordingly find
in the London Philosophic&l Magazine for September, 1823,
an account of his modification of Ampere's rotating cylinders.
This contrivance is succinctly described by Mr. Jones, optician,
as " consisting of two sets of revolving cylinders, one suspended
on each pole of an inverted horse-shoe magnet. Upon the
insertion of dilute nitric acid the two sets of cylinders simulta-
neously enter into rotations, in a very interesting and striking
manner." The effect, adds the same authority, is the most
pleasing I have ever seen.

In 1824 Mr. Sturgeon published four papers on thermo-
electricity, in which he succeeded in giving a fresh proof of
the complete analogy which subsists between thermo-electric
and voltaic currents.

In 1825 he presented to the Society of Arts the complete
set of novel electro-magnetic apparatus, which is described
in their transactions. The great merit of this collection con-

60 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

sisted in the improved adaptation of the batteries, magnets,
&c. to one another, by means of which he was enabled to
perform with a galvanic arrangement, no larger than a pint
pot, experiments which had previously required the use of a
cumbrous and costly battery. A principal improvement was
effected by increasing the size and power of the magnet, Mr.
Sturgeon having had the sagacity to observe that the intensity
of the action was more advantageously augmented by an
increase of the magnetic force, than by an enlargement of the
size of the conductors of electricity, whereby the friction on
the pivots of the revolving apparatus would have been made
too sensible. The Society of Arts testified its sense of the
importance of this contribution, by awarding to its author its
large silver medal, with a purse of thirty guineas.

The most important piece of apparatus in the above collec-
tion was a bent bar of iron, surrounded with a coil of conducting
wire. It was the earliest contrivance for showing the extra-
ordinary and instantaneous inductive effect of a voltaic current
on soft iron. I have already adverted to the magnetization
of steel needles by Arago and Davy, but it appears that Mr.
Sturgeon was the first who observed the wonderful facility
with which soft iron can be made intensely magnetic by the
galvanic current, as well as the extreme rapidity of the action.
Mr. Sturgeon appears to have discovered the soft iron electro-
magnet, and to have constructed it both in the straight and
horse-shoe shape as early as 1823. The soft iron electro-
magnet has been since introduced into most electric tele.
graphs.

A paper published in the Philosophical Magazine for
June, 1826, contains a discussion of the cause of difficulty of
firing gunpowder by electrical discharges. Mr. Sturgeon
showed that in order to succeed, it was necessary to place a
body of low conductive power in the circuit, such as a piece of
wet thread. The violence of the discharge was by this means
so much diminished, that the electric fluid from eight feet of

OF THE LATE MB. WILLIAM STUfiGEON. 61

coated glass produced no sensible shock when passed through
the body, a burning sensation only being experienced. He
remarks, that " by employing either a moistened thread, or
narrow tube of water, gunpowder may be ignited at several
interruptions of the same circuit. I have frequently passed
the fluid through my own body and fired six guns by one
discharge of a jar, and so instantaneous is the ignition at the
several guns, that their united reports appear like the report
of one gun only."

In 1830, Mr. Sturgeon published a pamphlet, entitled,
" Experimental Researches in Electro- Magnetism, Galvan-
ism," &c, embracing an extensive series of experiments,
chiefly in relation to the structure and action of galvanic
batteries and the dry electric column.* It contains the
record of a variety of observations, proving that the strongest
chemical action on the positive plates was not always accom-
panied by the transmission of the most powerful currents of
electricity. Mr. Sturgeon considered these experiments to
militate against the chemical theory of galvanism; but a
more searching investigation would have convinced him that,
in the adduced instances, the chemical action was in a great
measure occasioned by minute local circuits on the plates.
It was reserved for Dr. Faraday, a year afterwards, to esta-
blish the chemical theory in an unassailable position, by his
great discovery of the definite chemical action of electrical
currents. There are, however, some facts in this pamphlet
which have led to practical results of very great importance.
I allude, first, to the remarkable change produced in the elec-
trical powers of a metal by roughening its surface, such
roughening being shown by Sturgeon to render zinc less
electro-positive, so much so, that voltaic batteries constructed
of no other metals than rolled zinc and cast zinc are " suffi-

• This work is unfortunately only a fragment. The printer died shortly
after a portion was finished, leaving his affairs in a disordered stale. The MS.
of the remainder was consequently lost.

62 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

cient for the exhibition of most electro-magnetic experiments."
Mr. Sturgeon was prepared to meet with this remarkable fact,
having early in 1827 constructed several dry electric columns,
in which zinc roughened on one side was the only metal em-
ployed. The importance of employing rolled instead of cast
zinc for voltaic batteries was thus made evident.

The second fact to which I shall allude, as developed in
this pamphlet, is the great advantage to be derived from
amalgamating the zinc plates of a voltaic battery. Sir
Humphrey Davy, in his Bakerian Lecture for 1826, an-
nounced that amalgamated zinc is positive relatively to pure
zinc, without, however, drawing any conclusion regarding
the construction of voltaic batteries. Mr. Kemp, in 1828,
published in Professor Jameson's Journal, the account of a
battery in which the positive metal consisted of liquid amal-
gam of zinc. Mr. Sturgeon appears, however, to have been
the first person who introduced the use of amalgamated plates
of zinc. After pointing out the method of amalgamating the
plates, by first dipping them in a solution of sulphuric acid,
and then immersing them in mercury, or spreading mercury
over them with a piece of rag, he says, " were it not on
account of the brittleness and other inconveniences occasioned
by the incorporation of the mercury with the zinc, amalgama-
tion of the surfaces of the zinc plates in galvanic batteries
would become an important improvement; for the metal
would last much longer, and remain bright for a considerable
time, even for several successive hours, — essential consider-
ations in the employment of this apparatus. Notwithstanding
the inconveniences, however, the improvement afforded by
amalgamating the surfaces of zinc plates becomes available
in many experiments ; for the violent and intense chemical
action which is exercised on zinc by a solution of sulphuric or
muriatic acid, with the consequent evolution of heat, and
annoying liberation of hydrogen, have no place when the
plates are amalgamated ; the action is tranquil and uniform,

OF THE LATE MR. WILLIAM STURGEON. 63

and the disengagement of gas, which is trifling, occurs only
when the circuit is complete, and at the surface of the copper
plate. The electric powers are highly exalted, and continue
in play much longer than with pure zinc ; and the only care
of the experimenter is to prevent the copper, or whatever
metal be substituted, from becoming amalgamated."

From the earlier portion of the above extract, it has been
alleged that Mr. Sturgeon did not fully perceive the practical
superiority of amalgamated, over ordinary zinc plates; but
generous and even candid criticism will attribute his reserve
to his praiseworthy aim to place before the reader the pro-
bable disadvantages as well as the real ascertained advantages
of his invention. How much the latter predominated over
the former, in Mr. Sturgeon's mind, will be obvious to any
one who reads the whole passage. I need hardly remark,
that amalgamated zinc plates are at the present day em-
ployed in Grove's, Daniell's, and, in short, every form of
improved battery.

1 next notice a memoir on the thermo-magnetism of homo-
geneous metals, published in the Philosophical Magazine
for 1831, which contains a very laborious investigation of
the effect of local heat on simple metals, by which he con-
firms Yelin's observation, that currents are produced in any
metal by an unequal application of heat, and shows that these
currents have a particular reference to the crystalline structure
of the metal ; bismuth, antimony, and zinc, which in a pure
state exhibit the phenomena in an eminent degree, losing it
nearly altogether when their crystalline condition has been
destroyed by alliage with a small portion of tin or lead.
Professor Thomson has recently discovered that strain,
whether arising from crystalline structure or any other cause,
produces, according to certain laws, an alteration both in the
thermo-electric character of metals, and their power to conduct
electrical currents.

In the year 1825 Arago announced his remarkable dis-

64 ME. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WHITINGS

co very of the magnetism of rotation. He showed that a
magnetic needle was deflected when a disc, composed of any-
kind of substance, was revolved near it. This very interesting
phenomenon immediately occupied the attention of the most
distinguished physicists, among whom the names of Seebeck,
Herschel, Babbage, Christie, and Barlow, may be particularly
mentioned. Herschel and Babbage remarked that a slit in
the revolving plate materially diminished its action on the
needle. Mr. Sturgeon took up the subject in 1832, and after
much labour came to the conclusion that the effects were pro-
bably owing to a disturbance of the electric fluid by magnetic
action. The words he uses are, " It would, however, be no
great stretch of the imagination to suppose a disturbance of
the electric fluid by magnetic action, as it would be only a
kind of re-action to that which takes place in electro-magnet-
ism." From the above extract there can be little doubt
that Mr. Sturgeon would presently have arrived at the dis-
covery of magnetic electricity, had he not been anticipated by
Dr. Faraday, who, in November, 1831, communicated to the
Royal Society his paper, " On the Evolution of Electricity
from Magnetism," which forms the 2nd section of the first
of that inimitable series of experimental researches, which
has contributed so greatly to the scientific renown of
Britain.

Van Marum and others had shown that a voltaic battery is
able to charge coated glass. After repeating their experi-
ments, Mr. Sturgeon constructed an apparatus, by means of
which a leyden battery in connection with a series of Cruick-
shank's voltaic plates is repeatedly charged and discharged,
by means of the revolution of a toothed wheel. In this way
" the discbarges can be made in such rapid succession as to
prevent the sensation of distinct shocks, the effect on the
animal economy being similar to that produced by a voltaic
battery charged with acid and water. No shock was produced
independently of the glass battery."

OF THE LATE MB. WILLIAM 8TUBG1 65

In 1836 Mr. Sturgeon communicated a paper to the Royal
Society, which, however, being denied insertion in the Philo-
sophical Transactions, received publication in the Annals of
Electricity, entitled, " Researches in Electro-Dynamics." It
contains the description of a machine, in which a coil of wire
made to revolve between the poles of a horse-shoe magnet
becomes the source of copious electrical currents. Another
machine is also described, in which the revolving coil is fur-
nished with a core of iron. Magneto-electrical coil machines
had been constructed previously, the most celebrated being
those of Pixii and Saxton. In these machines the current
reciprocated at every half revolution of the coil, or a stronger
current being forced in one direction than in another, the
difference only could be utilized. Therefore, though able to
bit some interesting phenomena, such as the spark and
shock, they were almost powerless to produce deflections of
the magnetic needle or electro-chemical decompositions. Mr.
Sturgeon, by means of a very beautiful arrangement of four
semi-wheels, mounted on the axis of his machine, united the
entire energies of the opposing currents in one direction.
This admirable invention received at his hands a still further
improvement, by the introduction of springs pressing against
the revolving discs, and the use of oil as a lubricating agent ;
mercury, which presents many very serious inconveniences,
being thus superseded. In fact, the magneto-electrical machine
received from Mr. Sturgeon's hands an improvement even
more essential than that which the steam engine received from
the genius of Watt, and henceforth it could be employed for
telegraphic communication, chemical decomposition, and in
short all the purposes for which a voltaic battery is available.
An opinion is expressed by Mr. Sturgeon that the magneto-
electrical machine thus improved, would ultimately entirely
supersede the use of the voltaic battery, and I cannot but
concur in it for reasons which I have stated fourteen years
ago. The argument is simply this. It has been shown by
K

66 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

Liebig, and also demonstrated by my own experiments, that
the production of force by the oxidation of zinc, is at least
one hundred times as expensive as that derived from the com-
bustion of coal in the steam engine. Therefore, admitting
that half the effect is wasted during the conversion of ordinary
force into that of current electricity, and also that half the
useful effect is wasted in the production of force by the voltaic
battery, we arrive at the conclusion that the zinc requisite to
produce a current of given intensity is at least twenty-five
times as expensive as the coal which, consumed in a steam
engine working a Sturgeon's magneto -electrical machine,
would be able to effect the same result.

In an inquiry on the " Attributes of the Galvanometer," he
found that a voltaic pair, enfeebled by a long continued
action, is able to produce a powerful temporary current after
a few minutes rest. I have since been able to show that the
strong initial current which takes place on the first immersion
of a pair of zinc and copper plates into dilute acid is owing to
the presence of oxygen on the surface of the negative plate.

In 1832 Mr. Sturgeon constructed an electro-magnetic
engine for turning machinery, which was the first contrivance
by means of which any considerable mechanical force was
developed by the voltaic current. Since that time, engines of
various forms have been constructed by Jacobi, Davidson,
and others ; but, as I have already observed, the hopes once
entertained of superseding steam as a motive force were found
to be fallacious.

Professor Henry appears to have been the first who ob-
served a spark on the disruption of a voltaic circuit in which
a long wire or coil was included. This phenomenon he
justly attributed to the dynamical induction discovered by
Dr. Faraday. Mr. Jenkin observed that on placing a bar of
iron within the coil, the intensity of the electrical action on
the breaking of the circuit is sufficient to produce a shock.
Henry and Faraday extended the subject still further, by

OP THE LATE MB. WILLIAM STUBGEON. 67

papers published almost simultaneously in the beginning of
1835. In 1837 Mr. Sturgeon produced his electro -magnetic
coil machine, consisting of a coil of thick wire surrounded by
a helix of thin wire. The coil of thick wire was in connection
with a pair of galvanic plates : an arrangement being made
for rapidly making and breaking the circuit. The ends of
the helix of thin wire were employed to communicate the
shock, which is further enhanced by the insertion into the
axis of the coil of a bundle of iron wires, or a scroll of thin
sheet iron. This apparatus is the most efficient ever em-
ployed by medical practitioners, and its power is such that
"a strong shock and bright spark are produced when the
battery employed consists of a copper and zinc wire (No. 1 5)
immersed one-tenth of an inch deep in dilute nitrous acid."
Mr. Dancer has made a capital improvement on this instru-
ment, by supplying a self-acting apparatus, consisting of a
piece of iron attached to a spring, by the intermittent attrac-
tion of which the use of a toothed wheel is dispensed with.

A research concerning the fracture of leyden jars by elec-
trical explosions conducted Mr. Sturgeon to the discovery of
the means of preventing such accidents, by connecting the
inner coating of the jar with the rod which supports the ball
by means of strips of tinfoil. So effectual did Mr. Sturgeon
find this simple contrivance to be, that during twelve years
he did not break a single jar, although during that period he
discharged a battery of twelve jars some hundreds of times
from the most intense electrization.

In the autumn of 1838, a series of experiments was per-
formed at the house of Mr. Gassiott, of Clapham-common,
with a voltaic battery which was the joint property of Mr.
Gassiott and Mr. Mason. These experiments appear to have
been conducted by Messrs. Gassiott, Mason, Sturgeon, and
Walker. After various interesting results had been ob-
tained, Mr. Sturgeon, who had been previously requested to
provide a catalogue of the experiments which it would be

68 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

desirable to make, had the opportunity of observing, for the
first time, a highly important fact, which he describes in the
following words: — " The battery was in series of one hundred
and sixty pairs. I brought the tip ends of the polar wires
(copper wire, one-tenth of an inch diameter) into contact, end
to end, then withdrew them gently and very gradually from
each other, keeping the flame in full play between them, till
they were separated about one-fourth of an inch. In a few
minutes the positive wire got red hot for half an inch, but the
negative wire never became red. I repeated this several
times in order to be convinced of the fact. I next laid the
wires across one another, and bronght them into contact about
an inch from- the extremities, and separated them as before.
In a short time the whole of that part of the positive wire
from the point of crossing to the extremity became very red
hot, but the negative end never got even to a dull redness ;
it was certainly very hot, but never higher than a black heat.
I next increased the length of the ends of the wires exterior
to the circuit, and eventually heated two inches of the positive
wire to a bright redness, but no such heat took place on the
other wire. Thus satisfying myself that I was not mistaken,
I called Mr. Mason to come and look at it ; and, after
satisfying that gentleman by an experiment or two, we called
Mr. Gassiott and Mr. Walker to come and witness the novel
phenomenon," Mr. Sturgeon considered that the heat was
driven along bodily by the electric current, so as to accumu-
late at the point whence the discharge across the air takes
place, an hypothesis which cannot be entertained at the
present day. The true explanation of the phenomenon is
most probably that advanced by Professor Thomson, viz.,
that in thermo-electric arrangement air stands in the same
ratio to copper as bismuth does to antimony. Whence
heat is evolved by electricity passing from copper to air,
but cold by the reverse action.

Porrett had discovered a disturbance of the hydrostatic

OF THE LATE MB. WILLUM STUEGJ 69

level by voltaic action. In his experiments, a glass vessel
divided into two compartments, by a bladder partition, had
one of the partitions filled with water. By sending a voltaic
current through the diaphragm the water was carried along
with it until nearly the whole of it was driven into the other
compartment, Mr. Porrett employed a battery of eighty cells,
but Mr. Sturgeon succeeded in obtaining a striking result, of
a similar nature, by the use of a simple Daniell's cell, the
copper and zinc plates of which were couuected together by a
conducting wire; after a few days action the solution of sul-
phate of copper was found to be four inches higher than the
level of the liquid in contact with the zinc plate. Xhere is
some reason to believe, that in Mr. Sturgeon's experiment,
the ordinary phenomenon of endosmose and exosmose, so ably
discussed by Professor Graham, had some place. Indeed,
Mr. Porrett's experiment is, probably, only a peculiar in-
stance of the mutual action of two dissimilar fluids in a porous
material, the one fluid positively electrified, and the other
negatively electrified water.

In investigating the action of heat on the poles of a
magnet, Mr. Sturgeon found that an alteration of attraction
for a suspended needle was thereby produced, which altera-
tion subsided to a considerable extent as the magnet became
restored to its original temperature. Mr. Sturgeon drew
from his observations the conclusion that the magnetic poles
move from the point where the heat is applied. Subse-
quently, on repeating the experiment by which Barlow found
that the magnetic virtue of iron disappeared at a white heat,
he found that a full red heat was capable of effecting the
same result. Hjs paper, entitled " Some Peculiarities in the
Magnetism of Ferruginous Bodies," published in the seventh
volume of the Society's Memoirs, contains an able discussion
of this interesting subject ; results of a very striking charac-
ter being obtained with bars magnetized either by electric
currents or the inductive action of the earth. Mr. Sturgeon

70 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

found that on heating one part of a bar to a full red heat,
the remainder acted just as if the heated portion had been
removed altogether.

Mr. Sturgeon had shown, in his " Experimental Researches
in Electro- Magnetism and Galvanism," published in 1830,
that when two similar plates of iron are placed, one in each
of two strong solutions of nitric acid of different degrees of
strength, having a bladder partition between them, they form
an active voltaic pair : a battery of ten such pairs enabled him
to decompose water and to ignite metals. At the same time
he showed the high rank held by iron as an electro-negative
element, when associated with amalgamated zinc. In 1836
Daniell observed that iron is sometimes more efficient than
platinum, in association with amalgamated zinc; and about the
same time Roberts and Fyfe recommended the employment of
iron in the construction of voltaic batteries. In 1839 Mr.
Sturgeon constructed a battery, consisting of twelve iron gas
tubes, furnished with strips of amalgamated zinc, which proved
very efficient. Afterwards, in 1840, he fitted up ten cylin-
drical jars of cast iron, each eight inches high and three inches
and a-half in diameter, with the same number of amalgamated
zinc cylinders of about two inches diameter. Although the
electro-motive force of an iron zinc pair is only about one-half
that of a Daniell's cell, Mr. Sturgeon's cast iron battery may
be advantageously employed in many cases, owing to its great
simplicity and cheapness.

In an experimental investigation of the " Magnetic
Characters of Simple Metals, Metallic Alloys, and Salts,"
published in the seventh volume of the Transactions of this
Society, Mr. Sturgeon showed that several metallic alloys
became endued with magnetic properties, although their con-
stituents separately showed no such action. On the other
hand, nickel and iron became almost entirely inert to magnetic
action when combined with other metals. An alloy of iron

OF THE LATE MB. WILLIAM STUBGEON. 7 1

and zinc, in the proportion of 1 to 7, was found to be quite
destitute of magnetic action.

In 1839 he published a memoir " On Marine Lightning
Conductors," comprising an examination of the effects of
lightning on shipping, with remarks on Mr. Harris's plan;
and the description of a new system of conductors. Mr.
(now Sir W. Snow) Harris, following Mr. Henley, placed a
strip of copper into a groove let into each mast. An elec-
trical discharge striking the top of the mast was thus to be
conducted by the copper strip through the keel into the
water. In the system recommended by Mr. Sturgeon, cop-
per rods or metallic ropes are placed aft the shrouds of each
mast. The upper extremities of these conductors are at-
tached to the fore, main, and mizen tops, as distant from the
masts as circumstances will allow. The lower ends are con-
nected with the chains belonging to the aft shrouds of each
mast, and continued by broad and stout straps of copper to
the sheathing of the ship. The top and top-gallant masts
are protected in a similar manner, their conductors being
connected with those of the lower masts. If, therefore, light-
ning strike the top-gallant, it will descend in two streams on
either side of the mast, and then over the sides into the sea.
Lastly, in order to distribute the discharge as completely as
possible, and thus still further to lessen its danger, he proposed
to unite the conductors of the fore, main, and mizen, by means
of copper rods or metallic ropes in the position of stays.
Little attention seems to have been paid to the above system,
which, nevertheless, secures many highly important advan-
tages, of which the following may be enumerated. 1st. The
conductors being for the most part entirely removed from any
combustible material, and combined so as to divide amongst
them any stroke of lightning, the danger of fire in consequence
of lateral discharge is less to be apprehended. 2nd. The
electric fluid is carried over the side of the vessel, which

72 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

obviates the great risk which might arise from lateral explosion
near the combustible or explosive materials of a cargo, and
particularly should any accident have occasioned any interrup-
tion of the complete continuity of a conductor passing through
the hull. 3rd. The magnetizing effects on chronometers are
diminished. And 4th. The labour and expense of the fitting
a ship with conductors are considerably lessened. I have said
that Mr. Sturgeon's system, however excellent, did not receive
much attention from the existing authorities. In addition to
this disappointment, he found himself involved in a dispute with
Mr. Harris, who had been largely successful in introducing
Mr. Henley's plan into the navy. The advancement of
science is seldom facilitated by warm controversy, and in this
instance it must be allowed that Mr. Sturgeon suffered himself
to be betrayed into stronger language than was suitable to the
occasion. But with respect to the scientific portion of the
argument, I cannot but be of opinion that he had a decided
advantage over his opponent. The chief subject of dispute was
whether a vertical conductor communicating by its lower end
with the earth will, when struck by lightning, produce strong
electric disturbance to vicinal conducting bodies not in metallic
connexion with the earth. Mr. Harris insists that the spark
which is observed to pass between an insulated discharging
rod and an insulated conductor very near it, is owing to an
excess of electricity on one coating of the ley den jar, as com-
pared with that on the other ; so that complete neutralization
not taking place, the discharging rod receives a charge which
it is able to communicate to neighbouring bodies. This hypo-
thesis is, however, entirely at variance with Dr. Priestley's
investigation of the phenomenon, as well as the experiments
of Weekes, and many others. But there can be no doubt that
even admitting Mr. Harris's hypothesis, the lateral explosion
must exist pre-eminently in a thunderstorm, the circumstances
of which render it almost impossible to conceive that the
total electricity of a cloud is just equal in amount to

OF THE LATE MB. WILLIAM STURGEON. 73

the electricity induced by it on the earth's, surface. But
even were the lateral explosion disproved, it could not be
denied that any electrical current must at its rise and fall tend
to produce currents of induction, according to the laws dis-
covered by Faraday and Henry. Such induced currents
must, in the case of a lightning stroke, be excessive, and
only estimable by direct experiments on conductors in the
neighbourhood of one struck by lightning. It must also be
remarked that any discharge will, according to the established
laws of conduction of electric currents, distribute itself among
all bodies in contact with the lightning conductor, in propor-
tion to their conducting powers. The portion thus conveyed
might indeed be numerically insignificant as compared with
the main stream, but yet sufficient to create sparks, at disrup-
tions of such weak conductors, capable of igniting combustible
materials. For the above reasons, whatever good fortune may
have hitherto attended the conductors at present used in the
navy, I cannot but prefer Mr. Sturgeon's system, which re-
moves the conductors as far as possible from contact with any
portion of the ship or its cargo.

Atmospheric electricity was a subject to which Mr. Sturgeon
devoted a great deal of attention, from the commencement of
his scientific career. He was in the habit of raising a kite,
the string of which, insulated at the lower end, had a fine
wire laid in it. In all seasons and weathers, on high and low
ground, in every hour of both day and night, did he pursue
this interesting but somewhat hazardous* course of investiga-
tion. By the result of more than five hundred kite observations
he confirmed the important fact, first discovered by Kinnersley
and Beccaria, that the atmosphere in serene weather is uni-
formly positive with regard to the earth. He also proved
that the higher we ascend the more positive does it become ;

" See his " Caution to Experimenters with the Electrical Kite," which he
published in consequence of having been nearly killed by a discharge from only
one hundred yards of wired string, though no thunder was heard.
L

74 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

so that if the #strata in which the kites are immersed are at
altitudes corresponding to the series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, their relative
charges of positive electricity would be conveniently repre-
sented by those numbers. He also revived copper and silver
from their solutions, and decomposed water by atmospheric
electricity. I cannot forbear describing, in his own words,
one of the many extraordinary electrical displays, of which
Mr. Sturgeon was a witness. On June 14th, 1834, he writes :
M The rain fell so heavily that it was with some difficulty I
got the kite afloat; and when up, its greatest altitude did
not exceed fifty yards. The silken cord also, which had been
intended for the insulator, soon became so completely wet that
it was no insulator at all. Notwithstanding all these impedi-
ments, I was much gratified with the display of the electric
matter issuing from the end of the string to a wire, one end
of which was laid on the ground and the other attached to the
silk, at about four inches distance from the reel of the kite
string. An uninterrupted play of the fluid was seen over the
four inches of wet silken cord, not in sparks, but in a bundle
of quivering purple ramifications, producing a noise similar to
that produced by springing a watchman's rattle. The display
was beautiful beyond description. The reel was occasionally
enveloped in a blaze of purple arborized electrical fire, whose
numberless branches ramified over the silken cord, and through
the air to the blades of grass, which also became luminous on
their points and edges, over a surface of some yards in cir-
cumference. We also saw a complete globe of fire pass over
the silken cord between the wire and reel of the kite string.
It was exceedingly brilliant, and about the size of a musket
ball."

Having on another occasion elevated an electrical kite
during a thunderstorm, he noticed that a shower of sparks
was discharged from the string at the moment of each flash
of lightning, a phenomenon which he accounted for by sup-
posing that every flash of lightning disturbs all the electric

OF TELE LATE ME. WILLIAM STURGEON. 75

fluid around it, and thus produces an electrical wave which,
in some instances, reaches to great distances.

Mr. Sturgeon noticed that thunderstorms are the most
violent when they occur over wet ground or water, owing to
the facility with which such a surface can he charged by the
inductive influence of electrified clouds; and also that elec-
trical storms generally travel in the direction of rivers or
along narrow tracts of wet ground. In his description of the
thunderstorm which occurred near Manchester on the 16th
July, 1850, he made an observation which was probably more
remarkable than any that had been previously made in at-
mospheric electricity. This consisted in the determination of
the time of a lightning discharge by means of the vibrations
of a pendulum ; the streams of electric fluid being visible in
some cases as long as a second and a-half. Mr. Clare and
others, including myself, who witnessed the same pheno-
menon from different points of view, coincided in remarking
that these streams of electric fluid took up a very sensible
time, and that the motion of electricity along them was ap-
parent. This extraordinary and magnificent spectacle seems
to have been owing to the great elevation at which the light-
ning was playing, where the rarefaction of the air would pro-
bably cause it to assume some of the characteristics of the
aurora borealis.

Mr. Sturgeon does not appear to have embraced any theory
of the cause of thunderstorms. I may, however, remark, that
after the discovery by Faraday that the enormous evolution
of electricity in Armstrong's hydro-electrical apparatus is
owing to the friction of particles of water and air, it is pro-
bable that the electricity of the thunder-cloud arises from the
friction of the particles of water or ice of which it is com-
posed, or which are falling from it, against the cold non-
conducting air which exists at a high altitude.

The aurora borealis was a phenomenon in which Mr. Stur-
geon took a great deal of interest. His observations of this

76 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

meteor extended over a period of more than twenty years.
Its cause he attributes to a sudden change of temperature in
the upper regions of the atmosphere, giving rise to a corre-
sponding disturbance of the electric fluid. The attenuated air
is, he conceives, illuminated by these extensive movements
of electricity, which at the same time agitate the magnetic
needle in conformity with the laws of electro-magnetic action.
I think it must be allowed that a more intimate connexion
subsists between the magnetism of the earth and the aurora
than he seems disposed to admit, although few will, probably,
embrace the very artificial hypothesis of Dal ton. Mr. Stur-
geon shows an excellent example of the spirit with which all
mere hypothesis ought to be enunciated, in the concluding
sentence of his " Observations on the Aurora Borealis," in
which he says with much modesty, " It is possible, however,
that the theoretical views which I have here advanced may
be open to objections that I do not myself perceive, and may
require the corrections of a more diligent observer, and a
sounder reasoner on the facts observed."

The last contribution I shall notice is one on a subject of
great scientific interest and practical importance, " the
electro-culture of farm crops." Many philosophers of emi-
nence had made the observation that plants grow more
vigorously when they are electrified or galvanized ; but the
experiments of Dr. Forster, in 1845, appear to have been the
earliest in which the atmosphere was employed as the elec-
trifying agent. He suspended a wire in the air communi-
cating metallically with a wire buried three inches deep and
surrounding the plot experimented on. He found the yield
of the ground, so electrified, to be considerably greater than
that of the rest of the field. The experiments of Dr. Forster,
variously modified, were repeated by Mr. Sturgeon with re-
sults sufficiently successful to encourage further investigation.
I do not know whether any further trials have been made,
but when we reflect upon the enormous quantity of electricity

OF THE LATE MR. WILLIAM 8TUBGEON. 77

almost* constantly descending from the air through the leaves
and roots of plants, it is impossible not to allow that great
influence on vegetation is exercised by it, and it must be
reasonable to infer that such influence may be increased or
modified by collecting and distributing it by artificial means.

Having completed a rapid survey of Mr. Sturgeon's prin-
cipal scientific researches and discoveries, it will be proper
now to notice his career in the several capacities of editor,
lecturer, and professor. Soon after leaving the army he was
appointed Lecturer on Experimental Philosophy to the Hon.
East India Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe, and
he continued to hold that position, with credit to himself, until,
in the year 1838, he accepted the office of Superintendent of
the Royal Victoria Gallery of Practical Science, an institu-
tion which was founded in this city by a few public spirited
gentlemen, in the hope that by means of popular scientific
discourses, illustrated by experiments with apparatus of a size
and completeness unattainable by a private lecturer, interest
would be excited and scientific education largely promoted.
This expectation was, however, unhappily disappointed. The
indifference to pursuits of an elevated character, which too
frequently marks wealthy trading communities, destroyed this,
as it has many other useful institutions. Undismayed by
this failure, Mr. Sturgeon made strenuous efforts to establish
another institution of a similar character, but which failed
from the same cause which ruined its predecessor. After
this he had no further connexion with any other educational
establishment, and relied for support on the precarious emo-
luments arising from the courses of lectures he delivered in
various parts of the country.

As a lecturer he was distinguished by his power of im-
pressing the truths of science clearly and accurately on the
minds of his auditory, and especially by the uniform success
of his experimental illustrations. The following quotation,
from one of his unpublished lectures, illustrating at once his

78 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WHITINGS

style of composition and his comprehensive view of the elec-
trical agent, will be read with interest. — " Thus, ladies and
gentlemen, I have, as far as this short course of lectures
would admit, endeavoured to illustrate the principles of mag-
netism, and their connexion with electricity. I have shown
you by a series of selected experiments, that there is not only
a reciprocal action exercised by those mysterious powers upon
each other ; but, by their agency, some of the most wonder-
ful and important phenomena of nature are produced.

" The electric fluid is so universally diffused throughout
every part of nature's productions, that every particle of cre-
ated matter, both animate and inanimate, which has hitherto
been contemplated by the philosopher, is full of this surpriz-
ingly animated elemental fire.

" In regions far above the surface of the earth, where the
air is much attenuated and so far thinned, near to the utmost
verge of the atmosphere, as to become a conducting medium,
the electric element plays its quivering streamers and spark-
ling corruscations in the beautiful aurora of the north. Some-
times this rare — this fascinating phenomenon is exhibited in a
steady glowing arch of light ; whilst at others, it expands its
dancing network in transient display over the whole concave
of the visible heavens.

" At altitudes less elevated than those which form the
grand theatre for the display of the aurora borealis, the elec-
tric discharges become more compact, and shoot slanting
downwards, on bright serene evenings, those beautiful gleam-
ing orbs of meteoric light, which, from ancient custom, are
still called falling stars.

w Still less elevated in the atmosphere the big black clouds
swell with the electrical element, until bursting from its aerial
walls it discharges itself into space, in all those grand, magni-
ficent, and splendid forms of lightning, with their tremendous
peals of thunder, so frequently displayed in most countries
during the transient rage of a majestic summer's storm.

OP THE LATE MB. WILLIAM 8TURG1. 79

" Descending to the earth we trace its circumfluent streams
polarizing this vast ball of matter, on which we are destined
to live and perform all our actions, and insinuating its resist-
less influence in all the silent, mysterious, attractions of the
magnet.

" Trace it to the laboratory of the chemist, and we find it
the most active and vigorous agent in accomplishing all those
astonishing changes which give new forms, and new qualities,
to passive, obedient matter.

" Besides all these important operations of nature, accom-
plished by the agency of electricity, it is capable of restoring
the dormant muscular and nervous powers of man, which have
been prostrated by accident or disease ; and of giving new
life, and new vigor, to parts which have bid defiance to every
other mode of medical treatment.

" In plants also, as well as in animals, it is said to facilitate
their growth, and to give health, vigor, and beauty to their
general appearance.

" Indeed, so universally does the electric fluid appear to
be employed in most, if not all, the grand processes of nature,
that there is not, perhaps, a plant that grows, nor a limb that
moves, but is, in some measure, influenced by its powers.

u Nay, it is, perhaps, this astonishing, this most gigantic
of physical agents, which is employed by the Great Creator
to spin the earth and planets on their axes, to sweep them
through the heavens in their regular periods of revolutions,
and to keep in uniform motion all those massy orbs of matter
which compose the counties* systems of the universe.

" Brief and imperfect as is the outline which I have thus
portrayed of one individual branch of science, perhaps we
may venture to ask, who is there, then, who knows the ad-
vantages, the beauties, nay, the pleasures of scientific know-
ledge, who would think his time misspent, or his labours
useless, in the accomplishment of so noble an acquisition ?

"It is by the cultivation of the mind that one man be-

80 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

comes superior to, and has an absolute advantage over,
another; and, by the study of science, the minutest process,
and the most stupendous operation of nature, become alike
delightful and familiar. The mind is thus led to explore the
beautiful, the harmonious, the wondrous works of creation,
and to admire and adore Creation's God."

In the year 1836 Mr. Sturgeon established a new scientific
periodical, entitled the " Annals of Electricity, Magnetism,
and Chemistry, and Guardian of Experimental Science,"
which he in the first instance published quarterly, but after-
wards monthly. He conducted it with great ability, industry,
and perseverance through ten octavo volumes. This work
became the medium of the communication of much valuable
information ; and we are told that it gave rise to a similar
publication, edited by Professor De la Rive, of Geneva.
Subscribers to it were not sufficiently numerous to enable
Mr. Sturgeon to continue it ; but, nevertheless, after an in-
terval of six months he made another attempt, which resulted
in the appearance of the "Annals of Philosophical Discovery,"
which, however, he gave up after publishing six monthly
numbers. Few, unhappily, care to read what it takes the
slightest effort to understand ; hence, with certain special ex-
ceptions, the sale of a publication may almost be said to be
inversely proportional to the cultivation that may be expected
from its perusal. Thus an inferior periodical literature is most
generally read, while so little regard is paid to the phenomena
of nature, or the theories of the philosopher, that a scientific
magazine is nearly always a bad speculation, in a pecuniary
point of view.

Mr. Sturgeon published several useful elementary works,
of which the principal are : — " Lectures on Electricity, deli-
vered in the Royal Victoria Gallery in 1841-42 ;" "A Course
of Twelve Elementary Lectures on Galvanism;" and "A
Familiar Explication of the Theory and Practice of Electro-
gilding and Electro-silvering." He also prepared a transla-

OP THE LATE MB. WILLIAM STURGEON. 81

tion of Jacobi's " Whole Galvanoplastic Art," and a new
edition of Barlow's " Treatise on Magnetism." His last
work, which was completed only a few weeks before his
death, was a compilation, in one large quarto volume, of
the whole of his published scientific papers, systematically
arranged, preceded by an able historical sketch of electro-
magnetism, from its commencement until the year 1823.

That a man, whose whole life was spent in hard labour,
both mental and bodily, and in the anxieties and depriva-
tions incident to slender pecuniary resources, should have
attained to the age of even 67 years, is somewhat remark-
able, and shows, what other similar cases testify, how in-
timate a connexion subsists between the strength of the
mind and the stamina of the constitution. Or, rather, does
it not teach that the brain being kept under steady discipline,
and in constant active employment, reacts on the body so as
to produce a corresponding vigor in the functions by which
life is sustained? Mr. Sturgeon continued, with little in-
termission, in a course of assiduous industry until ten days
before his death, which took place at Prestwich, on Sunday,
December 8th, 1851.

In considering the moral and intellectual qualities of this
eminent man, it is needful to recollect that from his birth
to 1820, an interval of 37 years elapsed, during which the
circumstances of his position precluded almost entirely the
cultivation of the higher faculties of the mind. Thus, to
were wanting all those advantages which belong so
eminently to early study ; such as the stimulus of first ideas ;
freshness and pliability of imagination ; the vigour and hope-
fulness of a mind unsoured with disappointment, and un-
clogged with the infirmities which begin to settle upon it
when the meridian of life is scarcely attained. That Mr.
Sturgeon succeeded at all with such a fundamental disad-
vantage, can only be attributed to the amazing elasticity and
sanguineness of his temperament. This quality, so essential

82 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

to his position, and without which he would probably never
have attained even mediocrity, must, nevertheless, be reck-
oned as the source of many of his embarrassments. On the
one hand it made him look beyond and aim further than
the mere acquisition of personal comfort ; on the other hand
it led him to embark in projects which entailed upon him
trouble and loss. So true it is, that even the best qualities
of the mind are to a certain extent, so to speak, double
handed, and affect a man's happiness injuriously or bene-
ficially according to the character of the individual, and the
circumstances in which he is placed.

To see a man labouring hard for the good of society and
the advancement of science without the possession of suitable
means, is a spectacle which calls forth the liveliest sympathies
of our nature. However noble the motives of such exertion,
it is certain that a man is frequently placed in circumstances
which render it a duty and virtue to deny himself the grati-
fication of intellectual pursuits. If a family is dependent
upon his labour for their daily bread, — if the claims of credi-
tors are to be met, — then it may be his bounden duty to
pursue the ordinary employment of society rather than his
favourite researches, however important, if they are not ac-
companied by a steady and adequate remuneration. Fre-
quently, however, it is difficult, or even impossible, for a man
disappointed in his hopes of realizing an income by intellectual
labour, to turn his attention successfully to ordinary business,
and thus paralysed in all his efforts he becomes involved in
crushing and hopeless penury. The sum which would be
necessary to succour the needy man of science, and so to ena-
ble him to continue his researches, would appear trifling indeed
if regard were had to the important objects to be realized.
But he appeals not to his country as a pauper. He asks it to
discharge the debt it owes for labours which have contributed
to the common weal, a debt which cannot honourably be left
unpaid.

OF THE LATE MB. WILLIAM STURGEON. 83

In the case of Mr. Sturgeon, Government was induced,
through the untiring exertions of my friend, E. W. Binney,
F.R.S., &c. (to whom science owes so much for his kind
assistance to its humble cultivators), to award a sum of
£200., and afterwards a pension of £50., which, on Mr.
Sturgeon's death, a year afterwards, was continued to his
widow. These sums, along with the private efforts of his
friends, alone saved him from being reduced to a state of
destitution, which had it occurred would have reflected deep
discredit upon the community.

Mr. Sturgeon was of a tall and well built frame of body ;
his forehead was high, and his features were strongly marked.
His address was animated ; and his conversation, as it gene-
rally is when the mind is stored with knowledge, pleasing and
instructive. His style of writing was at once vigorous, lucid,
and graceful. In friendship he was warm and steady ; in
domestic life affectionate and exemplary. He had a noble
mind and a generous heart. In politics he was a conserva-
tive ; in religion a member of the Church of England. He
was a close and sagacious rea3oner, and an unsparing exposer
of error. He detested quackery and false pretension, sought
diligently for truth, and loved it for its own sake. A diligent
accumulator and observer of facts ; eager in the pursuit of
information, of whatever kind, and in communicating his
stores to others ; under more fortunate circumstances he
would, probably, have left a name unsurpassed in the scientific
history of his time ; as it is, he will always be remembered as
a distinguished cultivator of natural knowledge.

83

VI. — On the Solubility of Sulphate of Baryta in Acid

Solutions.

By F. Crace Calvert, F.C.S., M.R.A. Turin, &c.

[Read December 2nd, 1856.]

There are few substances more frequently met with and
which require to be determined with greater precaution than
sulphur and its compounds, it is therefore of the highest
importance to possess exact means of knowing their pro-
portions.

Up to the present time it has been admitted that sulphate of
baryta was so insoluble that it was sufficient to add a soluble
salt of baryta to a solution containing a sulphate, with an
excess of acid, either nitric or hydrochloric (so as to avoid
the precipitation of other acids by the baryta), in order that
the sulphuric acid existing in a liquor should be exactly
determined. My researches have convinced me that sulphate
of baryta is soluble in acids. I have succeeded, as will
be seen further on, in dissolving two grains of sulphate of
baryta in 1,000 grains of nitric acid of a specific gravity of
1.167; whilst it requires 140,000 grains of water to dissolve
one grain of sulphate of baryta ; and what is not less interest-
ing is, that very weak nitric acid influences the solubility of
sulphate of baryta; it is therefore essential not to acidify
liquors with nitric acid.

This fact seemed to me so important for analytical chemis-
try, that I made a great number of researches in order to

86 MR. F. C. CALVERT ON THE SOLUBILITY OF

know all the circumstances which influence the solubility of
sulphate of baryta ; and, although I have made several hun-
dred experiments, I shall only give here the most striking,
and those which tend to demonstrate the influence exercised
by masses of matter, upon their chemical affinity. I hope
that these last facts will offer the more interest, as we only
possess few researches demonstrating, that Berthollet ex-
pressed a correct opinion, when he asserted that the quantity
of matter present exercised an influence upon chemical affinity.
However, since I have commenced these researches, in 1851,
several works supporting these views have appeared, those of
Messrs. Bunsen, Gladstone, Henry Deville, &c.

The first idea of these researches was suggested to me by
an inquiry which I had undertaken to determine the quantity
of sulphur in cast and malleable irons. As the quantity of
sulphur to be determined only varied between the limits of
0.1 and 0.3, it was indispensable that I should take the greatest
precautions ; but, notwithstanding, I still found it impossible,
in making two comparative analyses of the same iron, to
obtain two sulphates of baryta having corresponding weights.
Desiring to know the cause of error I made several experir
ments, and discovered, to my great surprise, that sulphate
of baryta was freely soluble in acids, and then the error in
my analyses was explained. Some quantitative analyses of
water, which I had to make at the same time, led me to the
same result ; for having followed the ordinary process which
consists in adding, in the case of a water which contains car-
bonates and sulphates, nitric acid to the residue left by the
evaporation of a known quantity of water, I determined the
quantity of sulphuric acid, and was again struck by the
divergence of my results. If I had contented myself by
taking the mean of the results obtained, I should have been
obliged, in calculating the relation of the bases to the acids,
to admit, as some chemists have done, that there were silicates

SULPHATE OF BABYTA IN ACID SOLUTIONS. 87

of magnesia and lime in the water, whilst by avoiding the
solution of the sulphate of baryta, I arrived at the conclusion
that the bases existed as sulphates and that the silica was
free, or combined in small quantity with potash or soda.

Before giving the results of my experiments, which demon-
strate the solubility of sulphate of baryta in acid solutions of
different degrees of concentration, and the influence exercised
by multiple volumes of nitric acid of specific gravity 1.167
on the same solubility, I shall give the method of operating
which I followed.

Having placed in ten jars, of the same size, known quan-
tities of perfectly pure sulphate of potash, I added to them a
given bulk of nitric acid of sp. gr. 1.305, and a quantity of
distilled water, such as when added to that which was em-
ployed to dissolve the nitrate of baryta, made a known total,
which was in each successive jar a multiple of the quantity of
water put in the preceding jar. When, instead of employing
acids decreasing in strength, I wished to study the influence
of increased volumes of the same acid, that used was of the
sp. gr. 1.167 at 60°, or equal to 27.27 of anhydrous nitric
acid and 72.73 of water per cent. This strength of acid was
employed in preference to any other, because it was that
which gave the maximum of solubility to the sulphate of
baryta. I also took the precaution to use new jars, in order
to avoid scratches, which influence the solubility of the sul-
phate of baryta; and equally avoided agitating the intimate
mixture of the two salts, in order to be always, as far as
possible, placed in the same, circumstances, so that the results
might be comparative.

I will give, first, several series of results which demon-
strate the solubility of the sulphate of baryta; and afterwards
will examine the facts which have special relation to chemical
affinity.

88

MR. F. C. CALVERT ON THE SOLUBILITY OF

SOLUBILITY OF SULPHATE OP BABYTA IN MULTIPLE VOLUMES
OF NITBIC ACID.

The first series of experiments was made by placing in
each jar a quantity of sulphate of potash, capable of pro-
ducing l.OOgr. of sulphate of baryta, and adding successively
in each jar, multiple volumes of nitric acid having a sp. gr. of
1.167 at 60°, and on the sulphate being dissolved, pouring
into it an equivalent quantity of nitrate of baryta, previously
dissolved in a known volume of water.

TABLE No. 1.

Number

of

Divisions

of tbe

Alkali-

meter.

Corre-

Quantity

Quantity

Weight

Order

sponding

of

of

of

Time

of

Weight of

Sulphate

Nitrate

8ulphate

when a precipitate

Jars.

Acid.

of

of

of

appeared.

8p.gr. 1.167

Potash.

Baryta.

Baryta.

1

40

466.8

0.735 gr.

1.121

0.999

Only in No. 1 did

2

80

933.6

a cloud appear after

3

120

140O.4

12 hours, and even

4

160

1867.2

after 24 hours the i

5

200

2334.0

precipitate was very

6

240

2S00.8

faint.

7

280

3267.6

No precipitate in

8

320

3734.4

the other nine jars.

9

360

4201.2

10

400

4668.0

On examining the above results, it will be observed that one
grain of sulphate of baryta was almost entirely dissolved in
40 volumes of acid, or in 466.8 grs. of nitric acid, and entirely
so in 933.6 grs. of the same acid, and that no precipitate was
formed in the other eight jars, even after standing forty-eight
hours. There was therefore more than 1 gr. of sulphate of
baryta dissolved in 1 000 grs. of acid. Desiring to obtain a
precipitate in all the ten jars, I employed 4J times the above
quantity of nitrate of baryta and sulphate of potash, and
obtained the following results.

8ULPHATE OF BARYTA IN ACID SOLUTIONS.

89

TABLE No. 2.

Order

of
Jars.

Nuiu>»or
of

DriWoei

of tho
Alknli-
meter.

Co ire-

spmnlinR

Acid.
8p.tr. 1.187

Quantity
of

Sulphate

of
Potash.

Quantity

of
Nitrate

of
Baryta.

Weight

Sulphate

of
B*ry«a.

'iim^

when a precipitate

appeared.

4
6

7

8

9

10

40
80
120
160
200
240
280

400

146.8

983.6
1400.4
1867.2
2334.0
2800.8
32<i7.6
3734.4
4301.9

3.34
... .t.

.:::::

4.46

instantly.
20 minutes.
2 hours.
8i hours.
24 hours,
no precipitate.

ditto

ditto

ditto

ditto

1 was much surprised to find, that even after standing twenty-
four hours, no precipitates were formed in jars Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9,
and 10, although the quantity of salt employed was capable
of giving rise to 4.46 of sulphate of baryta.

These results are also interesting in another point of view,
viz., if we calculate the quantity of sulphate of baryta dis-
solved by lOOOgrs. of acid in jar No. 6, the quantity found
is 1 .593, or in other terms, there is .592 more salt dissolved
per 1000 grs. of acid, than in the jar No. 2 of No. 1 Table;
this difference of solubility can only be owing to the influence
exercised by a greater quantity of sulphate of potash and
nitrate of baryta being employed, since everything else was
equal. In pursuing the reading of this paper it will be seen
that the influence exerted by quantity on mass is clearly con-
firmed. Having remarked that in the jars, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4,
and 5, of the above series, the precipitates diminished rapidly
in quantity, I collected them, and washed them until the liquor
gave no precipitate, either with sulphate of potash or nitrate
of baryta ; but these washings are very tedious, the nitrate of
baryta or the sulphate in excess adhering to the sulphate of
baryta with extraordinary tenacity ; and this difficulty, as I
frill show further on, increases still more when the recom-

90

MR. F. C. CALVERT ON THE SOLUBILITY OF

mendation given by some chemists is followed, viz., to add a
great excess of nitrate of baryta to the liquor containing the
sulphates.

TABLE No. 3.

Order

of
Jars.

Number

of

Divisions

of the

Alkalimeter.

Corresponding

Weight of

Acid.

Sp.gr. 1.167.

Quantity

of

Sulphate of

Barvta
Precipitated.

Quantity

of

Sulphate of

Baryta
Dissolved ■

Quantity

of Sulphate of

Baryta

dissolved

in luOD grains.

1
2
3
4

40

80

120

160

466.8

933.6

1400.4

1807.2

4.44
3.17

2.02
0.80

0.02
1.29
2.34
3 66

0.043
1.382
1.670
1.957

These figures show not only the rapid increase of solubility
of sulphate of baryta in multiple volumes of nitric acid
sp. gr. 1.167, but also that the formation of a precipitate
does not prevent the great solubility of this salt.

Thus, in jar No. 2, there is 1.382 dissolved in 1000 grs.
No. 3, „ 1.670
No. 4, „ 1.957
Therefore in each successive jar there is 0.3 gr. more of sul-
phate of baryta dissolved for the same volume of acid.

In the hope of producing a precipitate in all the jars of the
series, I employed a greater quantity of salts for the same
proportions of acid as above, and the results are given in the
following table.

TABLE No. 4.

Number

Corre-

Quantity

Quantity

Weight
Sulphate

!

Order
of

of
Divisions

sponding

Weight

of

of
Sulphate

of

Nitrate

of

Time
when a precipitate

Jars.

Alkali-
mtter.

Acid.
Sp.gr. 1.167

Potash.

Baryta.

Baryta.

appeared.

1

40

4(56.8

5.12

8.00

7.13

instantly.

2

80

933.6

2 minutes.

3

120

1400.4

14 minutes.

4

160

1867.2

1 hour.

5

'200

38*4.0

1 hour 15 minutes.

6

240

2800.8

4 hours.

7

280

3267.6

8 hours.

8

320

3734.4

24 hours.

9

360

4201.2

none.

10

400

4668.0

none.

SULPHATE OF BABYTA IN ACID SOLUTIONS.

91

Although the quantity of salt employed in this case was
capable of producing 7.13 grs. of sulphate of baryta, still,
after twenty-four hours there was no precipitate produced in
jars No. 9 and 10, and in order to obtain a precipitate in all
the jars composing a series, I was obliged to employ quan-
tities of salts of baryta and potash, capable of producing
10.0 grs. of sulphate of baryta.

In order to confirm the results given in Table No. 3, the
precipitates formed in the above series were collected, and
their weight determined.

TABLE No. 6.

< Mtai

of
Jan.

Number

of

Divisions

of tlie

Alkalimeter.

Corresponding

VVeiaht of

Aoid.

8p. gr. 1.167.

Quantity

of bu'pbate of

baryta

Precipitated

insteai of 713.

Quantity

of

Sulphate of

Baryta
DihSrlved.

Quantity

of Sulphate of

Baryta

dissolved
in 10. o grains.

1

40

466.8

6.86

0.27

0.591

2

80

933.6

6.63

1.50

1.615

8

120

1400.4

4.66

2.47

1.767

4

160

1807.2

3.22

8.91

2.099

5

200

2334.0

2.33

4.80

2.059

6

240

2800.8

1.10

6.03

2.155

7

280

8267.6

0.14

6.99

2 141

These results prove that 1000 grs. of nitric acid sp.gr. 1.167,
are able to dissolve about 2 grs. of sulphate of baryta.

ON THE INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY AN EXCESS OP
PRECIPITANT.

As it is generally admitted that an excess of precipitant
increases the chances of obtaining the total precipitation of
the sulphate in solution, I thought it useful to make a series
of experiments to ascertain if these views were correct, and
it will be seen, by comparing the results given below with
those of Table No. 2, in which equivalent quantities were
used, that such is not the case, since the results in the two
tables are identical.

92 MR. F. C. CALVERT ON THE SOLUBILITY OF

TABLE No. 6.

Order
of

Number

of
Divisions
of the
Alkali-
meter.

Corre-

i-p«mling
Weight

Acid.
Sp.gr. 1.167

Quantity
of

Sulphate

Quantity

of
Nitrate

Weight
of

Sulphate

Time
when a precipitate

Jars.

of
Potash.

of
Baryta.

of
Baryta.

appeared.

1

40

40(3.8

3.84

10.00

4.46

instantly.

2

80

933.6

5 minutes.

3

120

1400.4

37 minutes.

4

160

18U7.2

... .

2 hours 30 minutes.

5

200

2334.0

5 houre.

6

240

2800.8

24hrs. distinct cloud

7

280

3267.6

no precipitate.

3

320

3734.4

ditto

9

860

4201.2

ditto

10

400

4668.0

ditto

But this method of operating, namely, employing an excess
of precipitating agent, offers, as I have already said, great
inconveniences in consequence of an excess of precipitant
adhering to the sulphate of baryta, which necessitates num-
berless washings. To avoid prolonging this paper, I shall
state that the same difficulties present themselves when two
equivalents of sulphate of potash are employed for one equi-
valent of nitrate of barytes.

INFLUENCE OF BOILING, UPON THE FORMATION OF
SULPHATE OF BAKYTA.

TABLE No. 7.

Number

of

Divisions

of the

Alkali-

meter.

Corre-
sponding
Weiaht

of

Acid.

Sp.gr.1.167

Quantity

Quantity

Weight

Order

of

of

Sulphate

of

Nitrate

of

Sulphate

Time
when a precipitate

Jars.

of
Potash.

of
Baryta.

of
Baryta.

appeared.

1

40

466.8

3.34

5.00

4.46

instantly.

2

80

933.6

3 minutes.

3

120

1400.4

8 hours.

4

160

1867.2

24 hours.

5

200

2334.0

no precipitate.

6

240

2800.8

ditto

7

280

3267.6

ditto

8

320

3734.4

ditto

9

360

4201.2

ditto

10

400

4668.0

ditto

SULPHATE OF BARYTA IN ACID SOLUTIONS.

93

On comparing the results contained in this table with those
able No. 2, it is observed that the formation of sulphate
of baryta is not facilitated by boiling. This fact was often
confirmed during the course of my experiments, by taking
the clear solutions which remained when the precipitate of
sulphate of baryta had subsided and bringing them to ebul-
lition, without in any case obtaining a precipitate.

EMPLOYMENT OF SULPHURIC ACID INSTEAD OP SULPHATE OF

POTASH.

I thought it right to make the following series of experi-
ments, in order to ascertain that the non-formation of sulphate
of baryta, in a liquor rendered acid by nitric acid, was not
owing to a combination being formed between the sulphate
of potash and the nitric acid ; to attain this object, I poured
into each multiple volume of nitric acid a quantity of sulphu-
ric acid, equivalent to that contained in 3.34 grs. of sulphate
of potash, and the results obtained were identical with those
observed in Table No. 2 ; consequently no combination was
formed between the nitric acid and the sulphate of potash.

TABLE No. 8.

-»

N linger

of
QMMhm

Corre-
■Mwdfag

Weight

of

Acid.

Sp.gr. 1.167

Sulphuric
Acid.

tMlual la 1.5.13,

Weight

Nitrate

of
ftnyta.

Time

vhaa

Weight

of

EfHraai

of
Baryta.

Time
when

'o
o

\

of the

AUnli-

me'er.

capable of

pn*li].:inK4.4t>

BaOBOs

a precipitate
appeared.

a precipitate
appeared.

40

440 -

1.033

0.00

instantly.

10.00

instantly.

1

80

II minutes.

6 minutes.

a

120

2hrs.30min.

30 minutes.

4

160

1867.2

7 hours.

1 h. 10 min.

0

200

2834.0

■•urs.

0 h. 80 min.

8

2800.8

no precipitate

7 h. 30 min.

7

3267.6

ditto

24 hours.

8

320

3734 4

ditto

no precipitate-

9

860

4201.2

ditto

ditto

400

4668.0

ditto

ditto

I also made several series of experiments, dissolving first the
nitrate of baryta in the nitric acid, and then pouring into it
the sulphate of potash ; but this mode of operating did not

94 MK. F. C. CALVERT ON THE SOLUBILITY OF

produce any alteration in the results obtained. During this
series of experiments, I determined the solubility of nitrate of
baryta in nitric acid sp. gr. 1.167 at a temperature of- 60°.
1 grain of nitrate of baryta requires 250.2
2.5 „ „ „ 446.8

5.0 „ „ „ 933.8

6.5 „ „ „ 1334

8.0 „ „ „ 2800

10.0 „ „ „ 3267

ON THE INFLUENCE EXERCISED BY DIFFERENT DEGREES OF
CONCENTRATION OF NITRIC ACID ON THE FORMATION OF
SULPHATE OF BARYTA.

In the following series of experiments I operated in an
entirely different manner; the same quantity of nitric acid,
sp. gr. 1.305, was put into each jar, and to each was added
multiple volumes of water ; therefore, each solution decreased
in density; and after having dissolved the quantity of sul-
phate of potash which I intended to employ, I poured in the
solution of nitrate of baryta.

On comparing the experiments contained in the following
table, it will be seen that I have obtained results very different
from the preceding, for instead of 4.46 of sulphate of baryta
remaining in solution in the last five jars, as was the case
when I employed the same quantities of salt in multiple
volumes of the same acid, precipitates were found in all the
jars, and that in the space of three minutes ; therefore, mul-
tiple volumes of acid, decreasing in strength, do not exert the
same influence as the increase of volume of the same acid.
This table also presents a fact important for chemical analysis,
viz., that the solubility of sulphate of baryta is affected even
by the weakest acid, since 2200 grs. of nitric acid, sp. gr.
1.032, are capable of dissolving 0.08 of sulphate of baryta;
this solubility, though slight, is still five times greater than it
would be in distilled water.

8ULPHATE OF BARYTA IN ACID SOLUTION8.

95

TABLE No. 9.

Number
Divisions
of the
Altall

rm'cr • f

NlirloAoid

8i>. ur.

1.305.

■J Vumbf-r of

Divisions

of tbe

Allcli-

mrt«T of

W.U.T
IKIJ..I to

the Acid.

Bp. RT.
of the
Add.

KM,

of

IMasIi

«!U-

Nltrate
of

■olved Barylu.

In the

Acid.

|Q>

Quantity
4.46.

Quantity

of
Sulphate

of

Har/ti

< i-- Dived.

20
20
20
N

20
20
20
20
20
20

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

100

180

2<H)

1.107
1.120
1.085
1.067
1.057

1.039
1.032

S.S4

0.00

3 minutes

4.28
4.34

4.35
4.35

4.38

Average
quantity
dissolved
equal to
0.10.

The series of experiments which follows, was made with the
view of knowing what would be the influence of a less quan-
tity of nitrate of baryta for the same quantity of sulphate of
potash, and it will be seen, in perusing the table, that instead
of obtaining a precipitate in all the jars in three minutes,
the time required was from 2 hours 30 minutes to 24 hours,
although, with the exception of the quantity of nitrate of
i, everything was equal.

TABLE No. 10.

Niinib.r <■'

Number of

Divit-ioni

DtrttOM

talphass

Order

of the

Alkiili-

of the
Alkali-

8p. IT.

of the
Acid.

of

!*.• .ish

Nitrate
of

Time required

for a
Precipitate to

of

TiiertM . f

mi te: of

•li^.irrd

Baryta

Jars.

NUricAdd

\\ atSf

in the

poured In.

fc*

ad led to

Acid.

appear.

the Acid.

1

20

20

1.107

3.34

0.25

2 hours 30 minute*.

2

20

40

1.120

2 hours 45 minute*.

3

20

60

1.085

2 hours 45 minutes.

4

20

80

1.067

6 hours.

5

20

100

1.057

6 hours.

6

20

120

1.050

24 hours.

7

20

140

1.044

24 hours.

8

20

160

24 hours.

9

20

180

24 hours.

1 io

20

200

i o*a

24 boors.

I thought that it would be interesting to know what would
be the minimum quantity of nitrate of baryta necessary, in

96

MR. F. C. CALVERT ON THE SOLUBILITY OF

order that no precipitate should be formed in any of the jars
of the series, when 3,34 of sulphate of potash was in solution,
and the following table gives the results obtained.

TABLE No. 11.

Number of

Number of

Divisions

Divisions

Sulphate

of

Potash

dissolved
in the
Acid.

Order

uf the
Alkali-

of the
Alkali-

Sp. gr.

Nitrate

of

Baryta

poured in.

Time required

for a

Precipitate to

a^psar.

of
Jars.

meter of

Nitric Acid

Sp. gr.

meter of

Water

addel to

of the
Acid.

1.305.

the Acid.

1

20

20

1.167

3.34

0.063

No precipitate after

2

20

40

1.120

24 hours in any of

3

20

60

1.085

the jars.

4

20

80

1.067

5

20

100

1.057

6

20

120

I 050

7

20

140

1.044

8

20

160

1.039

9

20

180

1.035

10

20

200

1.032

HAS THE FORMATION OF A PRECIPITATE AN INFLUENCE ON
THE SOLUBILITY OF SULPHATE OF BARYTA.

It is generally believed that the formation of a precipitate
tends to increase its quantity, but if this opinion be correct
with regard to crystalline precipitates, such as those of bitar-
trate of potash, carbazotate of potash, &c, it is not so with
sulphate of baryta ; for it will be seen, in the following table,
that the quantity of sulphate of baryta which remains dis-
solved in 1000 grs. of nitric acid, sp.gr. 1.1G7, at 60° Fah.,
is the same, whether there is or is not a precipitate formed
in the liquors.

Order

of
Table.

No.
of
Jar.

Quantity
of Acid
Sp. gr.

1.167

employed.

Weight

Sulphate

of

Baryta

disso'ved.

Quan-
tity of
Acid.

Weight

of
Sulphate
of Baryta
dissolved
per 10t Ogs.

Remarks.

2
3
4
5

Reultswithl5\
gra.BaOao8 J

5
4
8
5
9
10

2334 0
1867.2
3734.0
2334.0
4201.2
4668.0

4.46
3.66
7.136
1.806

9.130
10 470

1000

1.957
1911
1.918
2.059
2 066

With no precipitate. 1
With a precipitate, j
With no precipitate.
With a precipitate

ditto

ditto

HATE OP BABYTA IN ACID SOLUTIONS.

97

ON THE INFLUENCE OF MASS ON CHEMICAL AFFINITY.

When the results contained in the preceding tables are
compared, there is observed a certain number of facts which
demonstrate the influence of masses of matter " put in pre-
sence f and in order to corroborate this assertion, I add here
a certain number of results, extracted from the preceding
tables.

1. If we compare the results given by the two first jars in
Tables Nos. 1, 2, and 4, it will be seen that, although the
same quantity of acid was employed, the time necessary for
the formation of a precipitate varied considerably.

<>rd r
Of

Table.

Quantity

of

Acid

employed.

VMM

Sulphate of
Potash.

Weight

of

Nitrate of

Baryta.

Weight

of

Sulphate of

Baryta.

Time

when a Precipitate

appeared.

1
2
4

466.8
933.6

0.753

0.753

3.34

3.34

5.12

5.12

1.121
1.121

5.00
5.00
8.00
8.00

LOO

1.00
4.46
4.46
7.13
7.13

12 hours,
none,
instantly.
•-J hours,
instantly.
2 minutes.

The differences observed above can only be owing to the fact
that, for the same quantity of fluid, increasing proportions
of nitrate of baryta and sulphate of potash were employed ;
for it cannot be explained by admitting that it is owing to
there not being a sufficient quantity of nitric acid to hold a
greater quantity of sulphate of barytes in solution ; for if we
calculate how much sulphate of baryta remains dissolved in
1000 grs. of acid, it will be seen that the quantities are the
same in each of the three tables.

Order

Order of
Jars.

Quantities of

Quantities

Weight of

of

Acid employed.

of Fluid

Sulphate of Paryta

Table.

represented by.

dfasolred.

1

1

166.8

1000

2.141

4

1867.2

2880

5

23'( :

1.911

« \

7

3267.6

0.161

8

3734.4

1.909

98

MK. F. C. CALVERT ON THE SOLUBILITY OF

Neither can it be admitted that the difference observed is
owing to the formation of a precipitate, for I have shown
above that the presence of a precipitate has not any influence
on the degree of solubility or non-formation of sulphate of
baryta.

2. The increased solubility of sulphate of baryta, arising
from the presence of quantities of matter, can only be
explained by admitting that this solubility is influenced by
the increased quantities of salt employed, since the volume
of acid is the same in every case, and all other circumstances
are equal.

Order

of
Table.

Order
of
Jar.

Quantity

of

Acid

employed.

Quantity

of

Sulphate of

Baryta

dissolved.

Quantity of

Sulphate of Baryta

dissolved

per lOOOgrs.

Increased ratio of

solubility per lOOOgrs.

of Acid.

1
2
4

2
6
9

933. 6
2800.8
4201.2

1.00
4.46
713

1.072
1.522
1.912

.450
.390

I will again introduce the figures given above, as they show
in a striking manner the rapid increase of the solubility of
sulphate of baryta, for 1000 grs. of acid, in three successive
jars of the same series.

Order

of
Table.

Order

of

Jar.

Number

of Divisions

of the

Alkalimeter.

Correspond-
ing Weight

of Acid
Sp. gr. 1.167.

Weight of
Sulphate of

Baryta
precipitated.

Weight of
Sulphate of

Baryta
dissolved.

Weight of

Sulphate of

Barxta

dissolved

per lOOOgrs.

1

1
2
3
4

40

80

120

160

466 8

933.6

1400.4

1867.2

4.44
3.17

2.02
0.80

0.02
1.29
2.34
3.66

0.043
1.382
1.670

1.957

Therefore it appears to me that we must admit that the dif-
ference observed is due to the quantities of matter "put
in presence."

I would also, in conclusion, call attention to the enormous
differences between the effects of multiple volumes of an
acid, compared with volumes of the same acid decreasing in
density.

:. OF J1ABYTA IN ACID SOU r

ON THE SOLUBILITY OF SULPHATE OF BABYTA IN HYDBO-
ILOEIC ACID.

I thought it advisable to repeat some of the above series,
substituting hydrochloric acid for nitric acid, and it will be
seen that although sulphate of baryta is less soluble in this
acid than in nitric acid, still it is sufficiently so, to cause
chemists to avoid its use in excess in delicate analyses.

The following table shows the results obtained by employ-
ing multiple volumes of hydrochloric acid, of sp. gr. 1.0775,
with quantities of nitrate of baryta and sulphate of potash,
capable of producing 1 gr. of sulphate of baryta.

TABLE No.

12.

Divisions
of

Weight of

Sulphate
of

Weight Weight
of of

Nitrate Sulphte,
of | of

Baryta. Baryta.

Weight of
Sulphate
of Harya
obtained

Weight of

Time

Order
of

the Alkali-
meter of

Sulphate
of Baryta

when a
Precipitate

Jar.

Aoid

Sp.gr. 1. C775

Potash.

iMtttd of
1.00

tfajjoftfesl

appeared.

]

40

0.735

1.121

1.00

.96

.C4

if ruinate.

80

.85

.15

0 minutes.

3

120

.S3

.17

50 minutes.

4

100

.66

.34

3} hoars.

5

200

.48

.52

10 hours.

6

240

.22

.78

24 hours.

7

280

do precip.

1.00

no precipitate.

8

820

9

360

10

400

On comparing the results contained in this table with those
of No. 1 Table of the nitric acid series, it will be seen that
instead of the non-formation of a precipitate in jar No. 2, one
was produced in the first six jars; sulphate of baryta, t!
fore, is less soluble in hydrochloric acid than in nitric acid,
and still if we calculate, taking for term of comparison the
results obtained in jar No. 7 of hydrochloric acid, it will be
Grand that its solubility is equal to one part of sulphate of
baryta in 2800 parts of hydrochloric acid ; and consequently
the solubility of sulphate of baryta in hydrochloric acid,
sp. gr. 1.0775, is fifty times greater than in distilled water.

100

MR. F. C. CALVERT ON THE SOLUBILITY, &c.

I have also made a series, employing the same quantities
of salt of potash and of baryta, as in series No. 2 of nitric
acid.

TABLE No. 13.

Divisions

Weight of

of

Weight

Weight
of

Weight of

Sulphate

Weight of

Time

Number

the Alkali-

of Sul-

Sulphate

of Baryta

Sulphate
of Baryta

when s

of

meter of

phate ol

Nitrate

of

obtained

Precipitate

Jar.

Aoid

Potash.

of

Baryta.

instead of

dissolved.

appeared.

8p.gr. 1.0775

Baryta.

4.46

4.46.
4.35

1

40

3.34

5.00

.11

instantly.

2

80

4.34

.12

instantly.

3

120

4.24

.22

20 seconds.

4

160

4.20

.26

1 j minute.

5

200

4.14

.32

2 minutes.

6

240

4.14

.32

3§ minutes.

7

280

4.17

.29

6 minutes.

8

320

3.94

.52

9 minutes.

9

360

3.98

.48

13 minutes.

10

400

3.96

.50

18 minutes.

I have also made a series of experiments, employing no longer
multiple volumes of the same acid of a constant strength, but
multiple volumes of acid decreasing in strength, and it will be
observed that the results in this last table are comparable
with those of Table No. 7 of the nitric acid series.

TABLE No. 14.

Divisions

Weight

a

of
the Alkali-

Divi-
sions of

Weight
of Sul-

Weight

Weight
of Sul-

of Sul-
phate of

Weight
of Sulphate of

Time
when a

o

i

meter of
Acid
Sp.gr.

Water
added.

phate of
Potash.

Nitrate

of
Baryta.

phate of
Baryta.

Baryta
obtained
instead

Baryta
dissolved.

Precipitate
appeared.

1.1425

of 4.46.

i

20

20

3.34

5.00

4.46

4.31

Average

instantly.

2

20

40

quantity dis-

instantly.

3

20

60

...

...

solved equal

instantly.

4

20

80

...

4.31

to 0.15.

15 seconds.

0

20

100

...

...

...

ditto

6

20

120

...

,.

4.32

ditto

7

20

140

...

20 seconds.

8

20

160

...

...

ditto

9

20

180

...

ditto

10

20

200

... 1 4.35

ditto

lol

VII Additional Observations on the Permian Beds of

the North-west of England.

By E. W. Binnet, V.P.; F.R.S., F.G.S.

[Read 2ith February, 1807.]

In a former communication made to this society on the per-
mian beds of the north-west of England, and printed in
vol. XII. (new series) of its Memoirs, I have alluded to the
fragmentary condition in which our knowledge on this subject
was. 1 then published what information I had obtained as an

ie, trusting that other parties better qualified for the task
would fill up the vast gaps that I had passed over. Since
that time I have collected some further information on the
subject at Seedley and AsUey, near Manchester ; Irby Hall,
near Kirby-in- Lonsdale, and Howrigg, Shawk and Westward,
near Wigton, Cumberland. This I now hasten to lay before

ociety, in the hope that it may probably induce other
labourers to work on the permian deposits of this and the
neighbouring districts.

102 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE PERMIAN BEDS

Seedley Section.

N.N.

Middle and Upper Coal Field.
a and b. Mr. Fitzgerald's old and new coal pita.
c. Seedley bore hole.

6. Trias.

7. Red marls and limestones.

8. Conglomerate.

At page 231, in the paper before alluded to, under the
head of " Pendleton," there was given a section of the strata
lying between Oatbank, on the Eccles New Road, and Kersal
Moor, both well known places in the immediate vicinity of
Manchester, and lying to the north and west of the city.
In that section, the upper new red sandstone, the lowest
member of the trias, was laid down; but the permian deposits,
although supposed to lie under the drift between Oatbank and
the Bolton New Road, north-west of Pendleton, were not
put in, no direct evidence of their occurrence in that part
having been then obtained.

Mr. Appleby, of the Seedley Printing Company, has lately
made a bore hole at their works in Seedley, for the purpose of
increasing the supply of water there. In the spring of 1856
he called upon me for the purpose of ascertaining the cha-
racter of the deposits lying under the upper new red sandstone,
in which rock he had already several bore holes. I informed
him that it was pretty certain that the upper permian beds,
namely, the red marls with thin beds of limestone, would be
about 130 feet in thickness ; but the inferior portion, namely,
the conglomerate and lower new red sandstone, were rocks of so
variable a nature that it was impossible to say how thick they
might be — whether 6 feet or 600 feet. Mr. Appleby has since

OF THE NORTH-WEST OF EN<-

L03

favoured me with a copy of the bore, and samples of the strata

gone through. The hole was 15 inches in diameter, and was

made by Messers. Mather and Piatt, of Salford, with their

new apparatus for boring. On the whole work the workmen,

I am informed, averaged from eight to nine feet a day, and

during their passage through the upper new red sandstone,

they generally went three feet per hour ;— certainly a very

extraordinary speed- for such a bore. The following is a list

of the beds gone through : —

Ft. In.

Till 61 0

Soft red sandstone with a few small rounded

quartz pebbles in it 139 0

Very tenacious red clay 8 0

Hard red raddle, very close in texture 0 6

Bed clay and red gritty sandstone 1 6

Red clay, red gritty sandstone, and whitish

gray rock, the latter soft ... 6

Red clay and beds of stone 16

Ditto 28

Red clay 4

Hard white rock ... 2

Red clay with thin beds of stone 4

Ditto 59

White rock

Red sandstone with .beds of raddle 11

Bluish-white stone, rather soft 0

Clay with shale containing coal plants 30 0 Carboniferous

Drift.

Trias.

:1

Red marls
and thin
beds of
limestone

Conglome-
rate.

378 0

Now, in the above section the upper permian beds, namely,
red clays (marls) with thin beds of limestone, are 128
feet in thickness—just about what was expected ; but the
lower beds, which, when last seen at Collyhurst, two miles and
a-half to the south-east, were 350 feet in thickness, and at
Patricroft, on the west, within one mile and a-half of Seedley,
were 21 feet, only proved to be 12 feet 6 inches thick. These
beds bear no resemblance to the soft crumbling sandstone at
Heaton Mersey, Beet Bank Bridge, and Collyhurst, but are

104 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE PERMIAN BEDS

like the conglomerates of Cheetham weirhole and Patricroft ;
and I am, therefore, inclined to class them as such. They
are, I believe, as stated in my former paper, at page 266,
often unconformable to the underlying lower new red sand-
stone upon which they rest.

The clay, with beds of shale, 30 feet in thickness, was good
coal measures, as the lighter coloured beds were full of the
rootlets of Stigmaria jicoides.

The occurrence of coal measures at this place is of con-
siderable importance, as they were met with at a depth of only
115 yards from the surface, and if a good seam of coal could
be found the field is of tolerable extent, and, from its position,
would certainly command a first-rate market. The strata
which I examined afforded no evidence of what part of the
coal-field they belonged to; but, from the position of the
Pendleton seams on the north-east, and the Patricroft ones on
the west, they probably belong to the upper coal-field. The
most likely seam to be found is the Openshaw coal, formerly
worked near the Water Works Reservoir, in Beswick, near
Manchester, and occupying a geological position near to the
Slack Lane coal, formerly worked by Messrs. Lancaster at
Monton.

Astley Section.

At pages 235 and 268 of my former paper, I gave par-
ticulars of a bore hole made by G. P. Ken worthy, Esq., in
a field called the Horse Pasture, in Astley. In the upper
permian beds there, fifty -five beds of limestone had been
met with in a distance of 230 feet 6 inches. Many of these
contained fossils of the genera Schizodus, Bakevellia, and
Tragos. By the kindness of my friend, H. Mere Ormerod,
Esq., I am enabled to add the following additional particulars,
which carry the section through the lower permian beds into
the coal measures.

OF THE NORTH-WEST OF ENGLAND.

10!

Brown rock with water

Ditto

Ditto

l)ii to bun

Ditto soft

Ditto hard

Whitish rock

Brown-red rock

Hard burr

White sandstone

Irony burr

Brown-red rock

Red metal

Brown-red rock

Hard burr

Soft bed

Hard burr

Brown-red rock

White or gray rock

Brown and red rock burr

Ditto

Ditto

Bright red rock

Burr

Bright red rock .

Ditto very hard

Red ironstone burr

Bright red rock

Red burr

Red rock or linsey...

Red rack with clay

Red burr.

Red rock.

Red raddle

Red rock

Blue metal

Black shale

Red metal

Black shale

Linsey

Blue metal

White rock

Black shale with ironstone bands.

Rocky warrant

Red and blue metal .

Black shale

Ft. In.1

10 0|

8 >>;

5 4J

1 oi

0 10$

10 8

l

4 5

1 1*

4 11

o a

a 7

0 b\

34 6*

2 2

0 1

1 0

0 7

2 1

3 0

7 10*

11 ftj

0 10$

3 0

* 4

0 6

0 0

2 8

2 4

5 2

0 9

0 11

3 0

1 4

7 0

0 10

0 7

3 1*

0 7

3 7

4 L

4 4

J 06 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE PERMIAN BEDS

Ft. In.

Blue metal 9 b\

"White rock 0 5

Blue metal 1 1|

Strong white rock 0 9

Blue metal 1 0

Whiterock 0 5

Blue metal 1 3

Whiterock 3 0$

Dark blue metal 5 8

Strong white rock 1 8

Blue metal 1 1

Whiterock 0 4

Blue metal 6 2

Whitish blue metal 7 i;£

Black bass 0 2|

Smut of coal 0 1£

Warrant 3 11

Whiterock 7 2£

Linsey 6 1

Whiterock 7 5

Bluemetal 4 0

Black shale 0 3£

White rocky warrant 5 2

Hard white burry rock 0 6

Light gray metal 0 8

Light blue metal 10 5

Blackshale 0 8

Light gray metal 4 0

Gray linsey 1 9

Light blue metal 4 4

Graylinsey 3 11

Strong white rock 0 11

Graylinsey 0 10

Whiterock 2 5

Gray metal or linsey 0 3

Whiterock 2 10

Gray burr, very hard 2 1

Whiterock I 1£

Burr 0 11|

Parting of blue metal 0 3

Whiterock 0 84-

t& 8

r-£

E NORTH-WEST OF ENGLAND.

1<>7

This section gives a thickness of 150 feet 2} inches for
the lower permian beds.* The coal measures appear to belong
to the upper field, and although 153 feet 7 inches were 1
d, no seam of coal was met with.

By the further kindness of Mr. H. Mere Ormerod I have
been furnished with a copy of the strata met with by Messrs.
Sam Jackson and Co., in sinking their new pit down to the
Four Feet seam of coal at Bedford Lodge. This working
lies a little to the south of the places where the permian
beds described by Mr. G. Wareing Ormerod, M.A., F.G.S.,f
were met with, and not a great distance on the rise from
Mr. Kenworthy's bore hole, previously alluded to in this
paper. The dip of the strata is slightly east of south, at an
angle of 9°; and as this is one of the best sections of the per-
mian beds ever met with in Lancashire, I shall give it at
length : —

8oil

Yellow clay and marl

Dry lum and gravel .
Fine sand, very wet
Lum and gravel, very wet. .
Gravel, wet

8and, wet

Fine gravel, wet .

Soft red rock ...

Soft red rock band and gray rock

Soft red rock with gray band* ....

Yellow rock

Soft red metal.

Red metal, rather stronger

Fine light blue metal

White gritty rock like bone or a bed of

magnesia
Soft red metal...
Soft white rock
Red metal

Yds. Ft. In.

0 0 10

0

I

1
0
1

I

I

* This it about the thickness of the rock at Edge Green See page 243 of
the author's former paper.
t Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, VoL VIL, page S«S.

108 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE PEBMIAN BEDS

Yds. Ft. In.

Soft red metal 0 2 6

Soft gray rock 0 0 8

Redmetal 0 1 10

Gray rock 0 0 10

Redmetal 2 2 6

Soft blue metal 0 0 2

Hard bastard limestone .. , 0 0 3

Soft red metal 118

Red metal, rather stronger 0 2 4

Red stone bind or floor 10 6

Red stone bind, softer 12 2

Light blue metal 0 0 1

Soft red metal 10 7

Light blue metal 0 0 1

Red metal flooring 0 2 2

Redmetal 0 1 ©£

Light blue metal 0 0 2

Redmetal 0 1 8£

Stony blue rock 0 0 5

Redmetal 2 14

Blue metal 0 0 2

Redmetal 0 0 6

Blueditto 0 0 2

Red ditto 0 0 2

Blueditto 0 0 2

Red ditto 0 0 4

Top band of limestone 0 0 5

Redmetal 0 0 4

Blue metal 0 0 1

Red ditto with streaks of blue 0 14

Blueditto with streaks of red 0 0 5

Red ditto 0 0 4

Blueditto 0 0 2

Mainband limestone 0 0 U£

Redmetal 0 0 2j

Limestone 0 0 7

Blue metal 0 0 1

Red ditto 0 0 l£

Blueditto o 0 1£

Red ditto 0 0 2

Limestone , 0 0 1£

Redmetal 0 0 lj

Limestone 0 0 2

Blue metal 0 0 1

Red ditto 0 0 1

Blueditto 0 0 0£

OF IBM NORTH-WEST OP ENGLAND.

109

Red metal

Yds. Ft. In.
.004]
..001
..001
.004
.000}

. 0 0 S|

. 0 0 8}

.000}

.001

.001

.006

.004

.004

.000}

.001}
.002}
.001}
.004}
.004

.001

.001

.002

.008

.001

.004}

.008

.300

.001
.007
.001
.007
.001
.006
.001
0 0 6
0 0 2

Blueditto

Red ditto

Limestone
Red metal

Limestone

Red metal

Limestone

Red metal

Limestone

Red metal

Limestone

Red metal

Limestone

Blue metal

Red ditto

Limestone .

Red metal

Limestone

Blue metal

Red ditto

Limestone

Red metal

Limestone

Red metal

Limestone

Red metal

Limestone

Red metal

Limestone

Red metal

Limestone

Red metal

Bottom limestone band

Blue metal

Red metal with blue streaks

Red metal

Bastard limestone band

Red metal

Bastard limestone band

Red metal .

Bastard limestone band
Red metal

Bastard limestone band
Red metal

Limestone balls .

1
1

I

1

1

a

110 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE PERMIiN BEDS

Yds. Ft. In.

Red metal 0 0 8

Limestone 0 0 1

Red metal with limestone balls 1 0 10

Red ditto ditto 0 2 6

Red ditto 3 16

Blueditto 0 0 2£-

Soft blue rock 0 0 2£

Soft red rock 1 l 5

Ditto 12 0

Red metal 0 0 3

Light blue ditto 0 0 0)

Red metal 0 0 1

Red rock 0 0 1

Red metal 0 0 If

Red rock 0 0 5

Soft red metal 0 0 6$

Red rock 0 0 l£

Red rock with streaks of metal 0 1 4

White rock 0 0 llf

Red metals 0 0 3£

Gray rock, sandy, full of joints, yields

much water 3 2 7

Soft gray rock, mixed with bands of dark

gray metals 0 19^

Gray sandy rock floor or parting 2 1 0

Ditto ditto 115

Dark gray sandy rock, mixed with white

hard pebbles and red raddle balls 5 1 10

Hard sandy rock 1 2 10

Dark brown metals 12 8

Metals or linsey, mixed with rock bands... 10 5

Ditto ditto ... 1 1 9 .

•Red metals 6 2 6"

Black bass or shale 3 0 10

Floor or warrant, hard Ill

Gray bass or shale 0 2 0

Black bass or shale . .. 0 1 11

Brown metals, mixed with ironstone balls.. 0 2 5

Ditto mixed with gray rock, soft.. Ill

Soft gray metals 0 14

Linstey, mixed with rock bands 3 0 6

Blue metals, soft 2 0 jO

Dark metals, blackish cast 0 13

Metals, lightish colour 0 2 3

Black shah and bastard coal 0 18

Warrant, dark colour 8 I %

OF THB NOETH-WEST OP ENGLAND.

Ill

Yds. Ft.

Linstey, mixed with rock bands 2 0

Soft flaggy rock <i 0

Blue metals, mix *tone bands or

bullions.. 3 1

Black shale 0 0

: ant, rocky 0 1

White rock, strong, with bands of metal... 8 0

Rock, soft and shaly

Strong gray metals or linstey 2 2

Strong metals... 1 1

Coal. ... 0 0

Strong rocky warrant I 2

Light blue metals ... 0 2

Dark rock or burr

Black bassy coal 0 0

Strong warrants with streaks of metal 1 0

The upper part of the permian beds named in the above
section, consisting of red marls and limestones, contains the
usual permian fossils, consisting of shells of the genera Schi-
zodus, Bakevelliay Turbo, and Rissoa, and a sponge of the
genus Tragos.

The number of beds of limestone is only 26, whereas in
the bore at Messrs. Kenworthy's 54 were noticed. In the
latter case, most of the hard beds were put down as limestone,
whilst in the former, only those which appeared to the work-
man to be limestone were noticed as such ; and sometimes two
or three beds were classed as one. In the former also several
beds were enumerated containing limestone ball-, whu

latter were put down as separate beds. These circum-
stances may, in some measure, account for the great difference
in the number of beds.

In my former paper, at page 238, I alluded to the occur-
rence of red and variegated sandstones containing impressions
of Catamites and SigUlariay and pieces of fossil wood, which
had been found in sinking the pit at the Bedford Colliery some
years since ; but whether these fossils belonged to the carbo-
rmian strata — as both were lying on the pit bank

112 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE PERMIAN BEDS

mixed together — I could not undertake to speak with cer-
tainty. If, however, they belonged to the last-named strata,
they were the only specimens of fossil plants that had
then to my knowledge been met with in the permian beds
of the north-west of England. Now, in sinking the shaft
at Bedford Lodge, of the strata in which I have given full
particulars above, I collected undoubted specimens of
Sigillaria, Lepidodendron, and Sternbergia, the specific
characters of which could not be distinctly recognised, Cata-
mites cannceformis and C. approximates, and fossil wood,
both in the fine-grained sandstones and coarse conglomerates
containing rounded and partly rounded pebbles of white
quartz, of the size of a common marble. The fossils occurred
in all the arenaceous rocks found under the red marls and
limestones, and lying above the carboniferous strata. All the
'beds were full of nodules and patches of a soft liver-coloured
clay containing iron, and most of the fossil wood was con-
verted into that substance. The strata which contained the
fossil plants I take to be permian from their geological
position, as well as from the pebbly character of the beds ;
for, although many of the red sandstones of the upper coal-
field of Lancashire doubtless contain much red oxide of iron,
and red and liver-coloured nodules of clay, I never yet found
a coal measure sandstone, except in the lower field, containing
large quartz pebbles ; — in fact, some of these beds are quite
as much conglomerates as the millstone grits are, and can
scarcely be distinguished from those rocks, except that they
are rather more pulverulent. The men engaged in sinking
did not know where the permian strata ceased and the coal
measures commenced, for both strata dipped in the same
direction, and nearly at the same angle.

The coal measures to a stranger would appear to pass into
the overlying permian strata, but the Worsley and Astley
Four Feet seam lying under unquestionably proves that the
former beds, at their point of contact with the permian strata,

OF .THE NORTH- WE8T OF ENGLAND. 1 1 8

are 1,100 feet down in the series from the highest beds of the
upper coal-field, and, therefore, really belong to the lower
part of that division.

In the red metals marked with an asterisk, 6 yards, 2 feet,
6 inches in thickness, specimens of microconchus carbonarius,
a cypris, and fish scales were met with ; thus clearly proving
that the carboniferous strata had there commenced. In fact,
e strata lie a short distance above the Four Feet coal
which has been already worked under the spot where the
shaft was being sunk.

Irby Hall Section.

At page 262 of my former paper, a description is given of
the permian beds found at Westhouse, near Ingleton. Since
the time when that sketch was written, I have met with
another section of permian beds, exposed in the railway
cutting near Irby Hall, lying between Westhouse and Kirby
Lonsdale, about three miles from each of those places.* The
breccia or conglomerate is similar in appearance to that at
Westhouse, is not exposed for more than about 200 yards,
and is capped by a deposit of 20 feet of brownish-coloured
till. Its position with regard to the underlying rocks of the
district cannot be seen. It dips to the north-east at an angle
of 12°, but as you proceed to the west under the railway
bridge the dip increases to 25°. The rock is composed chiefly
of limestone pebbles, varying from the size of a marble to
that of a man's head, some being round and others angular,
cemented together by a reddish-coloured clay. Besides other
stones, consisting of slates, silurians, and old red sandstones,
rounded pebbles of milk-white quartz, like vein quartz, are
found.

* l am indebted to Mr. Hiodton, of Kirby Lonsdale, for taking me to this
locality, and showing me the section.

1 1 4 MR. £. W. BINNEY ON THE PEBMIAN BEDS

About two years ago, Sir Charles Lyell, M.A., F.R.S.,
when in Manchester, showed me some breccias which he had
lately collected in the vicinity of the Shropshire coal-field.
In these specimens was a cream-coloured limestone, somewhat
resembling a common mountain limestone, except that it had
a porcelain-like appearance, possessed a slightly conchoidal
fracture, and contained no fossil organic remains. This rock I
immediately recognised, merely from its external character,
as one of the so-called freshwater * limestones of the upper
part of the coal-field, like those of Leebotwood and Uffington,
near Shrewsbury; Lane End, Staffordshire ; Ardwick, near
Manchester ; and Whiston, near Liverpool ; and I then re-
marked that it had not travelled far, but had been derived
from the neighbouring coal-field.

Now, in the specimens of limestone found in the breccia at
Irby Hall, some of them have been a good deal decomposed
by water containing carbonic acid gas in solution, and many
of the fossil corals have been thus brought out of their
matrices and exhibited in relief. The Syringopora ramulosa
and other corals I have collected. But the most interesting
specimens from this locality are some pieces of an upper car-
boniferous limestone, like those before mentioned, and no
doubt derived from a portion of the neighbouring Black
Burton coal-field, containing undoubted specimens of the
Microconchus carbonarius and Cypris inflata, as well as
pieces of a peculiar flinty-looking chert which I have not
hitherto met with any where in the north-west of England,
except at Ardwick.

The occurrence of a carboniferous rock is what might have
been expected from the vicinity of the neighbouring coal-field,
since the rocks of the permian breccia or conglomerate, as I

* See papers by the author On the Origin of Coal, vol. VIII. (second series),
pages 157 and 185, and On some Trails and Holes found in Rocks of the Car-
boniberous Strata, vol. X., page 199, of the Society's Memoirs, where he gives
his reasons for the marine character of the strata of the coal measures.

Of THE N0BTII-WE8T OP ENGLAND. 1 15

have before stated, generally vary with the description of the
older rocks found in the immediate vicinity ; but such a lime-
stone as the porcelain-like one is at the present time no where
to be met with in the Black Burton coal-field. This rock would
most probably, as in the southern coal-fields of Lancashire,
be found in the upper part of the formation, but as this
portion of the strata has here been removed before the breccia
or conglomerate was formed, these interesting fragments afford
evidence of the former occurrence of a rock now no longer to
be met with in situ, and thus supply us with another proof of
the great denuding action which took place at the close of the
carboniferous epoch.

Howrigg Section.

In a geological map of the Lake Districts, published by
Mr. John Ruthven, of Kendal, in 1855, a small tract of what
he terms magnesian limestone is laid down. It is about two
miles in extent from east to west, and lies a little south of
Howrigg, near Wigton. In the month of October last I went
over to Howrigg, and although I did not meet with any true
permian magnesian limestone, certainly some of the mountain
limestones there found might very easily be mistaken for such
were it not for their fossil organic remains ; and these are by
no means abundant, or commonly to be met with. I, how-
ever, saw a small patch of permian breccia, and some fine-
grained sandstones of a brick-red colour, containing very
beautiful ripple marks, and, in their lower portions, desiccation
cracks, which very much reminded me of the permian sand-
stones found at the Craigs, near Dumfries. Like the la
some of the beds are so finely laminated as not only to be
used for flags, but also for slating houses.

On approaching the district from Carlisle, I reached the
Curthwaite station, on the Maryport railway, but saw noil

116 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE PERMIAN BEDS

of the strata there, owing to the thick covering of drift
deposits between Curthwaite and Howrigg. On the top of
the hill, near the last named place, is a small sandstone
quarry, on the south side of the road. The stone there met
with is laminated, of a brick-red colour, variegated with
brownish tints, and divided by several red clay partings. It
contains many desiccation cracks and ripple marks, and the dip
of the strata is about 20° west of north, at an angle of 15°.

A little to the south of the last named place is Howrigg
quarry, worked by Mr. Wood. This is an extensive exca-
vation of fine-grained laminated sandstone, of a brick red,
containing beds of a greenish-brown colour. It affords stones
with many beautiful ripple marks on their surfaces, and de-
siccation cracks in some of the lower beds. In its lines of
bedding the stone frequently shows considerable traces of
black oxide of manganese, and some of the lower strata are
of a greenish-brown colour, and contain nodules of greenish
clay. Altogether 30 to 40 feet of stone must be exposed in
the quarry. The dip of the strata is towards 20° west of
north, at an angle of 15°. I looked diligently for tracks, but
only saw one specimen at all likely to be taken for such, and
this I unfortunately broke in attempting to cut it out with a
chisel. It was a single track, and occurred in the light-
coloured sandstone near the bottom of the quarry, and I
traced seven impressions, each about an inch and a half apart,
and one-sixth of an inch in depth, all running in nearly a
straight line. The accompanying wood cut represents one of
the impressions.

OP THE NORTH-WEST OF EUGULND.

iawk Section.

117

■ E.

^Z&?

7. Bed and variegated landttonea.

8. Bed and ahaly marli.

9. Conglomerate.

10. Mountain limestone.

I next examined the large sandstone quarries of Mr. Wood,
known by the name of the Shawk quarries, extending from
Shawk Foot to the hill opposite the old lime kilns. They
consist of fine-grained laminated sandstones of a brick-red
colour, and contain variegated beds, desiccation cracks, and
ripple marks, and in all respects resemble the Howrigg stone,
before described, of which they are no doubt a continuation.
The dip of the strata is to the north-east, at an angle of 15°,
and probably not less than 200 to 300 feet in thickness of
stone may be exposed. This sandstone is succeeded on its
rise by about 140 feet of red shaly marls, dipping a little east
of north, at an angle of 15°. Then comes in bottom of the
valley, near the brook, but I could not trace it going under
the red marls, a bed of breccia. This is composed of angular
pieces of mountain limestone, cemented together by a paste
of reddish clay containing more or less of red sand. It is seen
below the lime kiln, near the brook side, and the beds occur
in the following descending order : —

Reddish and light-coloured sandstone 7 feet.

Brown breccia . 4 „

The dip of the strata is to the south-west, at an angle of 18°.

is in the opposite direction to the dip of the sandstones

Vithin a few yards of the breccia the mountain

118

MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE PERMIAN BEDS

limestone is quarried. It is of a cream colour, and partly crys-
talline. The dip, if any, is to the north-east, but it lies nearly
level. Probably 30 feet in thickness of the limestone may
be exposed. In it I found portions of a large Producta, a
Cyathophyllum, and some crinoidal stems. Between the
breccia and the mountain limestone is a fault, running from
south-east to north-west, and this dislocation may have altered
the inclination of the former rock, and thus caused it to appear
to dip near the fault in a contrary direction to the red sand-
stones and clays, under which, probably, at a distance from
the fault, it may dip and be conformable with. Of this,
however, I at present cannot speak positively, as I have not
seen the breccia underlying the red clays.

Westward Section.

7. Red and variegated sandstone.

8. Red marls and shales.
8'. Not exposed.

9. Red marls and shales.

10. Reddish brown mountain limestone.

11. Canky stone and purple marls.

12. Purplish red sandstone.

18. Yellowish brown mountain limestone.

About a mile to the west of Howrigg is a place called
Westward, and in the small brook course there is exposed a
yellowish-brown limestone, partly earthy and partly crystalline
in structure, very much resembling the ordinary permian
magnesian limestone of Yorkshire and Durham. It has been

THE NORTH- WEST OF ENGL I 119

led to some extent for the purpose of making lime, but,
from the quantity of unused stone left in the quarry, the
attempt does not appear to have proved very successful. It
dips 15° west of north, at an angle of 15°. I observed

nlal stems in it, but no other fossils. This limestone is
succeeded by a purplish-red coloured sandstone, much lami-
nated, and containing many worm holes, similar to those of
the Arenicola carbonaria, and some singular contorted worm
coils and tracks. In all its characters this sandstone so much
resembles the rock termed Smardale sandstone,* and found
low down in the mountain limestone at Smardale, and in the
bed of the Belah at Whitrigg, near Kirby Stephen, that I
have no hesitation in pronouncing it to be of the same
geological age. Then come beds of canky stone and purple-
coloured marls. These are succeeded by a bed of hard lime-

• of a cellular structure and a reddish-brown colour, very
much resembling the permian limestones of South Lancashire,
and not to be distinguished from similar beds of mountain
one found in the bed of the Belah. In this limestone
I detected crinoidal stems. Next came red marls and shales,
with a short distance on the bank of the stream covered up
with drift, so as not to be visible. Up to this point, no
doubt, the strata are carboniferous, but here commence a
series of red marls, containing circular concretions of a greenish
colour, with a black spot in the middle, parted by sandy beds,
some of which contain ripple marks. These strata occupy the
brook course between the two bridges, and exactly resemble
some beds seen in the river Ayr, near Catrine, in Ayrshire,
and on the beach near Methill Harbour, on the coast of Fife.
Although these deposits have as yet afforded no fossil remains,
I am inclined to regard them as permian rather than carbo-
niferous. Next comes a laminated sandstone, fine-grained,

" See Profe«or Sedgwick'* paper On the Lower Palaxnoic Rock* at the
bate of the Carboniferous Chain between Rarenetone Dale and Ribbleedale.
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol VIII., page 43.

120 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE PERMIAN BEDS, ETC.

and of a brick*red colour, dipping to the north-west at an
angle of 25°. This stone I cannot distinguish from the sand-
stones of Howrigg and Shawk, previously described.

The beds lying between the most southerly bridge over the
brook and the old lime kilns are certainly more like permian
than carboniferous beds in their appearance, and might be
taken for the former, as similar beds in the Belah have been
by experienced geologists, if it were not for the fact that both
the Westward and Belah deposits contain crinoidal stems, and
other undoubted mountain limestone fossils.

The beds in this section — namely, the red marls and sandy
deposits — which appear to me to belong to the permian group,
dip at the same angle and in the same direction as the under-
lying carboniferous strata, namely, at an angle of 15°, but
the red sandstone under which they disappear, although
dipping in the same direction, inclines at an angle of 25°,
instead of 15°.

The brick-red sandstones of Howrigg, Shawk, and West-
ward, with their underlying red clays, as well as the breccia
at Shawk, I have little doubt will be proved to be permian.
It is true that no fossil organic remains have yet been found
in them, with the exception of the track alluded to in this
paper ; but if mineraiogical characters and geological super-
position are to be taken as evidence of their age, they are as
good permian beds as those of Westhouse, Kirby Stephen, and
Brough, in England, and Dumfries and other places in the
south-west of Scotland, with the latter of which they are
most probably connected.

121

VIII. — The Chemical Changes which Pig Iron undergoes
during its conversion into Wrought Iron.

By F. Crack Calvert, F.C.S., M.R.A. Turin, and
Mr. Richard Johnson.

[Read March 10th, 1857.]

uing to make some improvements in the manufacture of
iron, we carefully examined the various analyses which had
been made of pig and wrought iron, and we found that
no comparison could be drawn between the results, as the
samples analysed had been obtained from different sources;
and also that no detailed analysis had been published of the
various chemical changes which pig iron undergoes in pud-
dling during its conversion into wrought iron. We therefore
at once decided to undertake this task, with the hope of
throwing some light upon this important operation. Fully to
investigate the progressive and interesting chemical changes
which cast 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. Before
describing the various chemical changes, the appearance of
the melted mass as taken out of the furnace, and its com-
position, we shall describe, with some detail, the analytical
processes which we have adopted to determine the various
elements which exist in pig and wrought iron, and in the
samples taken during the puddling.
R

1 22 MR. F. C. CALVERT AND MR. R. JOHNSON ON THE

These details of analysis appear to us the more important
when it is remembered that most of the heterogeneous sub-
stances existing in pig iron, are present only in minute
quantities, and that it is on their gradual removal or decrease
that the subsequent quality of the wrought iron depends. Also,
it is necessary to bear in mind, that we had to trust entirely to
the exactitude of the analytical methods adopted to appreciate
the chemical changes which gradually took place in the melted
mass during the hour and a quarter that the conversion of the
cast into wrought iron lasted.

Iron.

The quantity of iron was determined by dissolving one
gramme of iron in pure hydrochloric acid, reducing the
solution to a perfect protosalt by a little pure zinc, and then
determining the amount of iron by Margueritte's process.

Carbon.
To determine this element we found, after many trials,
that the best process was to reduce the iron into very fine
powder, either by pulverization or by means of a file, and
then to burn the carbon under the influence of a red heat
by a slow current of pure and dry oxygen gas. The appa-
ratus which we used was the following: —

CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF PUDDLING.

123

A. A flask containing
a mixture of chlorate
of potash and oxide of
coppcr.whichbw

/ g:ive off a regu-
lar cui rent of ox yg.-u.

B. A bottle contain-
ing a concentrated solu-

f caustic potash,
so as to retain any chlo-
rine or any oxygenated
compound of this gas,
which might be pro-
duced.

C. A tube full of
pu milestone moistened
with solution of caustio
potash, and employed
with the same new as
the- bat

D. A U tube filled
with pieces of solid
melted caustic potash,
also used for the same

E. A bottle contain-
'phuric aci

retaining any moisture
which might accom-
pany the oxygen gas.

F. A porcelain tube
in which was placed a
small porcelain dish
containing the pulve-
rized cast iron.

0. A tube filled with
small pieces of pumice-
stone moistened with
sulphuric acid, with the
Tiew of retaining any
moisture.

EL ALiebigtabefoll
of a concentrated eola-
tion of caust ic potash, to
determine the amount
of carbonic acid pro-
duced by the combina-
tion of the oxygen with
the carbon or the cast
iron.

1. A small tube with
fragment* of caustie
potash, to retain any
trace of carbonic acid
which might not he
absorbed in the Liebig
tube.

To render the absorption of the carbonic acid complete,
necessary to conduct the operation very regularly and

124 MB. P. C. CALVERT AND MR. R. JOHNSON ON THE

slowly ; therefore, about two hours are required to burn all
the carbon existing in about three grammes of cast iron.
By this method, two analyses of the same sample seldom
presented a greater difference than 0.005. We also always
took the precaution to dissolve the oxide of iron obtained,
after combustion, in order to see that no hydrogen was given
off and consequently no metallic iron remained.

Silicium.

There is considerable difficulty in determining with pre-
cision this element in pig iron, and it was only after several
fruitless trials of various processes that we adopted the follow-
ing, which gave us very satisfactory and concordant results.

Five grammes of pig iron were dissolved in aqua regia con-
taining excess of nitric acid, the whole was then evaporated
to dryness and fused in a platinum crucible with three times its
weight of a mixture of pure carbonate of potash and carbonate
of soda. The mass obtained was dissolved in water and boiled
with aqua regia until the whole of the peroxide of iron had
entered into solution, and then was evaporated a second time
to dryness and heated carefully to about 200° C. The mass
was then heated with hydrochloric acid and water, and the
silica, on being gathered on a filter, was washed with dilute
hydrochloric acid until it was perfectly white ; it was then
dried, and calcined, and its weight gave the amount of
silicium in the iron analysed.

Sulphur.
In consequence of the small proportion in which this
element exists in pig and wrought iron, considerable diffi-
culty is experienced in ascertaining with accuracy the various
proportions of sulphur existing in iron; and this difficulty
was increased by the fact that none of the methods recom-
mended gave satisfactory results in our hands. Thus, for
example, the method which consists in determining the sul-

CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF PUDDLING. 125

phur in the state of sulphuretted hydrogen failed, owing to
the difficulty of removing the last traces of sulphuretted
hydrogen held in solution in the liquid in which the iron is
dissolved and in which the gas is produced. As to the
process which consists in dissolving the iron in aqua regia
and boiling off the greatest part of the acid and then adding
nitrate of baryta to the solution, it cannot be followed with
security, for one of us has shown that sulphate of baryta is
soluble in acid liquors, especially in those containing nitric
acid, and often in such quantities as to make a greater dif-
ference between the analyses of two samples of the same iron

the real difference which exists in two samples of iron
from different ores.

These considerations induced us to modify the last men-

l process in the following way. Five grammes of the
sample of iron to be analysed were reduced to fine powder
and gradually and slowly added to a strongly oxydizing aqua
regia, composed of four parts of fuming nitric acid and one
part of hydrochloric acid. The iron being dissolved, the
solution was evaporated to the consistence of a thin syrup,
and then gradually mixed with four times its weight of a
mixture of pure carbonates of potash and soda, and heated
to redness for one hour in a platinum crucible. The fused
mass was then heated with boiling water until all the soluble
portion was dissolved. This liquor was then rendered slightly
acid with hydrochloric acid, evaporated to dryness, and heated
at 200° C, to render the silica insoluble. The whole was
then heated by water slightly acidulated with acetic acid,
and on the silica being separated by filtration, the amount
of sulphate, and consequently, of sulphur, was determined,
from the weight of sulphate of baryta obtained.

Phosphorus.

We also attached great importance to the exact valuation of
tin- body, because, like sulphur, its presence even in small

126 MR. F. C. CALVERT AND MR. R. JOHNSON ON THE

quantities is most injurious, the more so as such minute quan-
tities as a few thousandths more or less will completely alter
the value of this metal for many uses. To determine phos-
phorus, the process which we followed was similar to that
employed for the sulphur, with this difference, that we added
to the liquid from which we had separated the silica, a
little hydrochloric acid, and then ammonia in excess,
instead of acetic acid, as we had done in the analysis for
sulphur. The liquid was allowed to stand to see if any
alumina separated, and if not, we added hydrochloric acid in
excess, then pure chloride of calcium and then ammonia
again, when phosphate of lime, having the following formula
P053CaO, was precipitated, from which the quantity of phos-
phorus was calculated. We always took care to operate on
such a bulk of fluid as to prevent the precipitation of any
sulphate of lime, and we also washed rapidly to prevent any
carbonate of lime being formed. We verified this method
several times during our analyses, by determining the amount
of lime in our precipitates and the amount of phosphoric acid
by M. Reynoso's process.

Aluminum.

If there was any alumina it was separated during the last
process, and its amount determined.

We also made several fusions of iron dissolved in aqua regia,
and evaporated with a mixture of alkaline carbonates to which
we had added a little caustic alkali and we found no alumina
or mere traces in the iron analysed by us.

Manganese.

Five grammes of iron were dissolved in aqua regia, and the
whole evaporated to dryness and calcined with alkaline car-
bonates. The fused mass was treated with boiling water, and
to the solution were added small pieces of Swedish paper, to
reduce the manganese.

CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF PUDDLING. 1 27

The iron and manganese were then collected on a filter,
well washed, and then dissolved in hydrochloric acid. This
solution was again evaporated, and heated so as to render the
silicic acid insoluble.

The residue was then heated with weak hydrochloric acid,
and the solution filtered to separate the silica ; carbonate of
baryta, recently prepared, was then added to precipitate the
oxide of iron ; this was separated by filtration, sulphate of
soda and a little hydrochloric acid were added to the liquid,
to separate the baryta in solution, and finally the manganese
was precipitated by a little caustic potash, washed, dried,
calcined, and its amount ascertained.

It is necessary that we should describe, in a rapid manner,
the physical conditions which pig iron assumes during its
conversion. When first melted in a 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 called " the boil," which is pro-
duced, 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
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 separation is hastened by
the puddler gradually forming large masses, called balls,
weighing from 70 to 80 lbs., from which the scoria drains
out.

This part of the operation requires great skill, as nearly
the whole of the carbon has been oxidized, so that if the

1 28 MR. F. C. CALVERT AND MR. R. JOHNSON ON 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 malleable
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 during its conversion into wrought iron.

The iron we took for our experiments was a good cold
blast Staffordshire iron, the pig was rather grey, being of
the quality used for making iron wire, or a grey No. 3. Its
composition was as follows : —

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.

Carbon 2.320 2.230 2 275

Silicium 2.770 2.670 2.720

Phosphorus 0.580 0710 0.645

Sulphur 0.318 0.288 0.301

Manganese and Aluminum... Traces

Iron 94.059 94.059 94.050

100.047 99.957 100.000

First Sample, taken out of the furnace at 12 40 p.m.

Two hundred and twenty-four pounds of the above pig
iron were introduced at twelve o'clock, on the 14th of April,
1856, into a puddling furnace, which had been cleaned out
with wrought iron scraps. After 30 minutes the pigs began
to soften and to be easily crumbled, and 10 minutes more had.
hardly elapsed when they entered into fusion. A sample was
immediately taken out from the centre of the melted mass,
with a large iron ladle, and poured on a stone flag to cool.
The flue of the furnace, which had hitherto been kept open,
was now, nearly closed by a damper at the top of the chimney,
so that the products of combustion came out by the door of
the furnace and other openings, whilst little or none escaped
by the chimney.

CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF PUDDLING. 129

Appearance or the Sample. — On breaking the sample
as taken out of the furnace, it had no longer the appearance
of grey No. 3 pig iron, but had 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 a very 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 fol-
lowing is the amount of carbon and silicium which the above
sample contained per cent.

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.

Carbon 2.673 2.780 2.726

Silicium 0.808 0.938 0.915

These results are highly interesting, as they show that the
iron had undergone, during the 40 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 20 minutes
later than the last sample analysed, as is shown in this
table.

Carbon. Silicium.

Pig Ironuaad ... 2.275 2.720

First Sample taken out at 12.40 2.726 0.915

Second Sample taken out at 1 p.m 2.905 0.197

Therefore the carbon had increased 0.630 or 21.5 of its own
weight, and the silicium had decreased in the enormous
proportion of above 90 per cent. It is probable that these
opposite chemical actions are due, in the case of the carbon,
to the excess of this element in a state of minute division, or
in a nascent state, in the furnace, and that under the influ-
ence of the high temperature it combines with the iron, for
s

130 MR. F. C. CALVERT AND MR. R. JOHNSON ON THE

which it has a great affinity ; whilst the silicium and a small
portion of iron are oxidized and combined 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 at 1 p.m.

This sample contained the following quantities of carbon
and silicium.

First Analysis. Second .Analysis. Mean.

Carbon 2.910 2.900 2.905

Silicium 0.226 0.168 0.197

It had the same white silvery appearance as No. 1, but with
this difference, that it was slightly malleable under the
hammer, instead of being brittle like No. 1. The scoria
also is on the upper surface of the mass when cold, and
not mixed with the metallic iron as in preceding samples.

Third Sample, taken out of the furnace at 1 5 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. The appearance of the
sample when cold 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 glo-
bules, 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 sieving we could separate it

CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF PUDDLING. 131

from the iron, which was much less friabK iron thus

cleansed from its scoria gave us the following results : —

PlTHt Anmlyd*. Swxmd Analytic Moan.

Carbon 2421 2.444

Silicium 188 0200 0.104

Fourth Sample, taken at 1 20 p.m.

As soon as the last sample had been taken 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
or five times its original bulk, and at 1 20 p.m., 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:
Firstly, that the pig iron having been brought by the boil to a
state of 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 secondly, 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 very interest-
ing; and the best idea that, we can give of it is, that

132 MR. F. C. CALVERT AND MR. R. JOHNSON ON THE

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 mere 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 appearance externally, are
very brittle under the hammer, and when broken 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 : —

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.

Carbon 2.33o 2.276 2-305

Silicium 0.187 0.17a 0.182

Fifth Sample, taken at 1 35 p.m.

This sample is a most important one in the series, as it is
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 subside.
The damper at the top of the chimney was drawn up, so
that a very rapid draught was established through the fur-
nace. 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, whilst the silicium on the con-
trary has remained nearly stationary.

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.

Carbon 1.614 1.681 1.B47

Silicium 0.188 0.178 0-185

CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF PUDDLING. 133

Sixth Sample, taken at 1 40 p.m.

The reason why this sample was taken 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 globules 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
agglommerating the globules of iron, so as to form large balls
of about 80 lbs. 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 similar to the last

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 propor-

of carbon and silicium were as follows : —

First Analysis Fecond Analysis.

Carbon 1 1160

Siliciom . 0.167 0.160 MM

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
samples, there are 28 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 1 35 to I 50 the iron lost 50
per cent, of the carbon.

Seventh Sample, taken at I 45 p.m.
This sample was obtained when the puddler had begun to
ball. The appearance of the sample, although similar to the

134 MR. F. C. CALVERT AND MR. R. JOHNSON ON 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 contains,
as stated above and shewn by these results.

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.

Carbon 1.000 0.927 0.963

Silicium... 0.160 0.167 0.163

Eighth Sample, taken 1 50 p.m.

This last sample was taken a few minutes before the balls
were ready to be taken out of the furnace to be placed under
the hammer, and was a part of one of the balls which was
separated and placed to cool.

It was observed that no blue flame issued from the mass as
it cooled. The appearance of the sample shewed 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.

Carbon 0.771 0.773 0.772

Silicium 0.170 0.167 0.168

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.

CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF PUDDLING. 135

Ninth Sample of 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. Seoond Analysis. Mean.

Carbon 0.291 0.301 0.300

Silicium . 0.1 0.110 0.120

Sulphur. 0.142 0.126 0.134

Phosphorus 0.139 ... 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 white heat, and then rolled
into wire iron. The proportions of carbon, silicium, sulphur,
and phosphorus, were as follows : —

First Analysis. Second Analysis. Mean.

Carbon 0.100 0.122 0.111

Silicium 0.095 0.082 0.088

Sulphur 0.093 0.096 0.094

Phosphorus 0.117 ... 0.117

To complete the series of products in the conversion of pig
iron into wrought iron, we analysed the scoria or slag which
remained in the furnace after the balls had been taken out,
and found its composition to be as follows : —

Silica 16.53

Protoxide of Iron 66.23

Sulphuret of Iron 6.80

Phosphoric Acid" 3.80

Protoxide of Manganese 4.90

Alumina.. 1.04

Lime 0.70

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

136 MR. F. C. CALVERT AND MR. R. JOHNSON ON THE, &c.

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 . . .

Sample No. 1
2
3
4
6
6
7
8

Puddled Bar 9

Wire Iron 10

12.0.

12.40 P.M.

1.0.

1.5.

1.20

1.35

1.40

1.45

1.50

CAKBON.

SILICIT7M.

2.275

2.720

2.726

0.915

2.905

0.197

2.444

0.194

2.305

0.182

1.647

0.183

1206

0.163

0.963

0.163

0.772

0.168

0.300

0.120

0.111

0.088

Finally, we wish to express to Mr. Simeon Stoikowitsch
our best thanks for the ability and perseverance which he has
shown in helping us in these long and tedious analyses.

137

IX.— On the 1 -partitions of X.

By the Rev. Thomas P. Kirkman, A.M., Rector of Croft-
with- South worth, and Honorary Member of the Literary
and Philosophical Society of Manchester.

[Read April 1tht 1857.]

The subject of partitions of numbers has been greatly ad-
vanced within the last two years. Euler was, as I believe,
the first to show that the number of ways in which x can be
made up of a, b, c . . . m, each element being repeated an
indefinite number of times, is the co-efficient of r* in

I

(l_;-)(l_r*)...(i-r»);
and thus the problem was reduced to the decomposition of
rational fractions. This view of the matter, however, led to
no practical results, until, by the profound researches of Mr.
Cayley, printed in the current volume of the Philosophical
Transactions, and by the more decisive discoveries of Pro-
fessor Sylvester, who has, if I mistake not, thoroughly worked
out the idea of Euler, and given the results of it in a calcu-
lable form, the problem of partitions has been directly solved,
without any aid from induction. That is, Professor Sylvester
has given the general formula both for the non-circulating and
the circulating part of the expression of the k-partitions of X,
in the Quarterly Mathematical Journal for July, 1855.

The direct solution is obtained by an analysis of no ordi-
nary difficulty ; and I think it not unlikely that, for practical
use, the inductive method given by mc in the twelfth volume
T

138 REV. T. P. KIRKMAN ON THE

of the Manchester Memoirs will be found most easily appli-
cable.

It will at least be interesting, for a comparison of methods,
to show how very easily the 7-partitions of X can be obtained
by my method, which requires no expansions, transformations,
or summations of any kind, nor anything more than very
simple eliminations. Nor has the formula for the 7-partitions,
so far as I know, been explicitly found by any one.

That for the 6-partitions was first given by me at p. 143 of
the twelfth volume of the Manchester Memoirs, as follows :

JP-at(

2^22 ( 6^+1 35#M- 760#3— 5046*

W.12
(P) — (1350:z2+5400:z;)*2x_

+ 7926**6*— 8424*(*6x_1+*6,_5)
+ 1 1 76*-*6,_a— 1674* (*6x_2+*6^)
+*6, (—47556^ +I80(e?5+tfn+ rf17+ . . to k terms))

+*6*_1(+50544£— 31225+ 1 80(d0+«Ze +d12+ . . to k terms))
+*6,_2( + 10044&— 6656+180(^+^+4,+ . . to k terms))
+*6X_3(— 7056£— 4617+180(c^+^+*4+ . . to k terms))
+*6*_4( + 10044£— 9328+ 180(rf3+ J9 +rf15+ . . to k terms))
+*6,_5( + 50544£— 16889+180(^+rf10+d16+ . . to k terms)) j;
where #— 60A+6(£— l)+c; (670, Z7);

=60*+/»+l; (*70, Z10);

and ogftT) 1S ^he co-efficient of the circulator *60av_p in gP^.

In the expression given at p. 143 above quoted, the con-
stant *2,r_1C'+F is by inadvertence omitted, which stands at
the top of p. 142; and at line 13, p. 143, there is a mis-
print of — 3598 for — 3528. The omission of the constant
*2,r_1C'+F makes no difference in the value of 6P#, because
that value is always the integer nearest, whether over or
under, to the sum of the terms in x.

The 60 numbers dpi are given at p. 139 of the Memoirs
quoted above. It is not necessary for our purpose here to

7-PABTITION8 01

refer to them, except foi the remark, which inspection of that
page will verify, that

<k+<*«+rf«+<J»+<k+*.=91,
the sums of the first and sixth horizontal lines ; and that the
sum of the six numbers in every other horizontal line at p.
139, beginning with </6, </I2, dm di4i dx, d^ d^ and dMi is
always = — 485. These horizontal lines appear as vertical
lines in the fonnula for ^P, just written.

The constant circulator, or term free from x, is obtained
from the above formula by giving to k its 10 successive
values, 0, 1, 2 ... 9. As both the sum of the 60 elements
of that term and the elements themselves are required, the
first for the determination of the terms in x of 7PX, and the
latter for that of the circulating constant in it, we must here
obtain these data, before attempting to find 7P*.

Adding up the six concluding lines of the formula above
written, we obtain

7^{66564A— 68715*°+180(vf*rKa+ . . . toJterma));

where *l>=rf,,+rfAfl+ ... to 6 terms,

*<F=.tvp=$\, and
*«* 'is* *i* *24i *m» *«« ««» are each equal — 485.
Giving to k all its values, we have the sum

-i- j 66564.46^8715•10+180(9*•+8^7'"^?+5#,4) I
720»( 7 ^+4*JO+3<»+2#tt+#*

==r^ J 299538— 687150+180(13-91— 32485) J,

272430__ i
"" T^O1"""^^0"^1"^"4" ' ' " +^*
the sum of the 60 elements of the circulating constant, whose

form is ?/J*60jr_p-1^3 .

If it could be proved true for 7PX, as it is for all the lower
partitions of x, that the sum of the terms in x expressed the
number of the partitions, this sum just found, together with

140

REV. T. P. KIRKMAN ON THE

the terms in x of 6P*, would easily give us 7PX ; for they give
us, as we shall see, very readily all the terms in x of 7Pa..
But as this does not appear certainly true, it becomes neces-
sary to write out in full the constant term of qPx9 that we
have it in our power accurately to express the constant of
7PX, which, unlike this of 6P.r, we may find essential to the
value.

This constant is, writing the numerators^, Jq, &c,

/.=

19319

/.=-

• 5008

/a = 7047

/*=-

-62464

/»=-

-48128

/.=-

■ 46089

/10=— 50800

/n=

45319

/»=-

-34425

/«=

—256

/it=- 7817

/l8=

73872

fie=

11408

/*=

3847

fu= 20736

/«=-

-63625

fa-— 49289

/«F=

32400

/„= 51719

Jm—'

-27392

/*=

82944

4=

—1417

/&■=:— 15728

^9=-

-13689

/«=

10247

/«=-

- 68864

/46=— 66825

,/46=:

32144

/«.=-

-57200

/«=

48519

/52=:— 20992

^3=="

-28553

/«=-

- 4617

/•=

—9328

/«,=— 16889

/*=

0

/.=-

-70025

/.=

115344

/7 = 30983

fn=

62208

/■3=-

- 22153

/M=— 36464

/»=-

-10489

./iso—

- 89600

/n= 16119

/»=

25744

/»=

27783

/28==_41728

/»=-

-25353

/»=-

- 30064

/»=— 37625

/«=-

-83200

/«=

12919

/«= 94608

/«=

24583

/«=

41472

/49=— 42889

/«=

53136

^6= —

- 31225

/„=— 6656

These numbers can all be obtained from
/eo=0, /«,=— 16889, /«=— 9328, /„==— 4617, /«,=— 6656, and
fu=— 31225, by the formula

.£+^="664(12^+12.^+12,^+12^+12^,0+12^

X(l— 20_r-20^„)

-53136(12,+ 12x_,+ 12^+12^+12^+12._8)

X(l— 20_,— 20_,6)
+ 115344.(20_«+20_„)+50544.(20_1+20_16).
And it is remarkable, that

/*W;=±1802.

7-PABTITION8 OP X. 141

The reason of all this may be found in the fact, that the
elements dp of the circulating constant in ftP« all satisfy,
except only twelve of them,

while all of them satisfy

*** ^-±M0.

We proceed to deduce from the expression for 6Px, that for
7P,, the 7 -partitions of x.

1 have suffered no little perplexity in the endeavour to
obtain 7P* from the consideration of the equation

k*z — *P»— *=*— iP*—i »
which gave me readily my previous results. But all difficulty
disappears if we use the two equations
7P. — 7P^_7=6P^1, and

7*« — 7*»— u^P^-i+e**-*"!" • • "f"6l*-*»

which follow easily from the fundamental theorem

*P»=*-iP»-i+*-iP»-*-i+*-iP*-2*-i+ • • ., or,
writing *=7(*- 1)+*, (c70, Z8),

7P-=«P*-i+.P*-«+.P^i4+ • • • -feP^i- (A.)
Let (jPf) stand for the sum of the algebraic, or non-
circulating terms in the right member of equation (A), and
GPjr-?) for the sum of such terms in

7P^7=,P^+flP_16+ . . . +^i. (A')
It is plain that, if [«P*_J represent the non-circulating part
of gPjr-i, we shall have

(:P.)-(7P-7)=[^^]- (B)

Let then

(7P.)=A^+B^+Ck4+D*'+E*>+ Fx+Qx ;
for evidently no power above the 6th can disappear by the
above subtraction. Then (B) is

+E (x«_(x-7)') +P(^-(*-7))
= (7^0)' j 6('-1)a-r-l35(*~l)«+760(a;-l)»-5046(^l) j

] 42 "I KEY. T. P. KIEKMAN ON THE

In this subtraction the constant Gx must vanish of course,
if it be an ordinary constant ; and if it be a circulator, it can
depend only on the 7 values of c in equation (A) ; that is, it
must be of the form

A#7^+Gt-#7#^+ . . . +G0-*?,,
so that Gjp=Gx_7, and can have only seven values.

Equating the co-efficients of powers of x, we have

42A !_ . a- l •

-1572A+35B= \l~0,.-.B= ^

280 80

20-73A-10-7!B+4-7C= j^, .;. C= lw ;

-15-7«A+10-73B-6-7JC+3-7D= - 1-||2S, .-. D= ~~5 ;

H-7'A-5-7'B+4-7'CU3-72D+27E=— ^g, .-. E= - ^gpj

_7.A+7»B-7'C+7»D-rE+7F=^, .-. F= - ggj.
Wherefore

^7 x) 7-7202"1"7202"t'7202"t" 7-7202 2-7202 14'7202+ *'

The value of the constant Gx is obtained from the equation,
(putting #=7(l— l)+c)

(7PC)=(7Pc-7)+[&Pc-1]=[ttP,-1],

for 7PX_7 has no terms at all on the right of equation (A'), if
#Z8 ; i.e., (7P^7)=0. This constant therefore will be a cir-
culator of the form SG/.?^.

The value of G7 is readily found by the equation
(7Po)=(7Po-7)+[eP^i]=0=G7 ;
for #=0, which requires e=0, c=7, makes every term on the
right of equation (A) vanish. The remaining six values, or
all the seven, are obtained by putting for c its successive
values in

(7P,)=[6Po-i],

7-PAKTITION8 01 143

which is

f 6.C5 80c4 2185.C3 1361c8 55899c
7.720a+720~2+ 7202+ 7.720a 2.7202 14.7202+Ge

=^0* f 6(^-l)6+135(c-iy+760(c-l)«-5046(c-l) ) .

Let now (7PX)' stand for the sum of the circulating terms
in x on the right of equation A; and ["«P,_i]' for the like
terras of ePj;-! . Then evidently

(7P,)M,P^y=[.P^.i]'+[J^.J+ • • • +C.P-J'; (C)
for if we put in (A) x — 42 for x9 and subtract the result from
(A), the remainder on the right must be the terms here pre-
sented. And it is plain that no power of x higher than the
third can have disappeared on the right of (C) by the sub-
traction. Let

(7P,y=«^+^+c*+rf, ; (c)

then (C) becomes

o^— (*— 42)8)-fo(*2— x— 42)2)-fc(*— (>— 42)) =
-Lf | (-1350(^1 )*-5400(*-l))2x_2+(-1350(:r-8)2

—5400(a?— 8))2_
+ (— 1350(«— 15)a— 5400(«— 15))2_„+(— 1350(x— 22)3

— 5400(*— 22))2^3
+ (— 1350(*— 29)2— 5400(#— 29))2r_ao-r-(— 1350(x—36)»

— 5400(a>— 36))2.^
+(*_ l)(+7926-6^!— 84246^ *— 16746_ ,+1176-6_ 4

— 1674-6^ r-8424-6^,,)
+ '— 8)(— 8424-6^,4- 7926-6^. 8— 84246^ ^1674-6^,0

+ 1176-6^— 16746^)
+(*— 15)(— 1674-6_19— 8424-6^ao+7926-6^ir- 8424'6^w

--1674-6^7+1176 6^_18)
+(*— 22)(+1176-6-^M— 1674-6^(r-8424-6JP_a7+7926-6^_a

— 8424-6^ar-1674-6^M)
+(*— 29)(— 1674 6^+1 176'6^— 1674-6^—8424 6^

+7926*6^*— 8424 6_*,
+(*_36)(— 8424 6^,— 1674 6,^+1176 -6^— 16746^

-842 If., u +7926-6^,)}

144 REV. T. P. KIRKMAN ON THE

The constant dx must disappear in this subtraction (C); for
if it be a circulator, it can depend only on the value of c in
equation (A) combined with the circulators in [6Pjr]'; that is,
it can have only 42 values, and dx must be the same with

The circulators 2^2, 2<r_16, &c, 6x_l9 6x_l39 &c, standing
vertically under each other, are equal, if #740 ; supposing
then that a=42(/— 1)+?, (7 70, Z43), and that /7l, we
have, by equating co-efficients,

3.42a=-^.3(2,+2^)=-?-135° 135°

7202 v * ' *~~v 7202 42.7202

_3.422a+84S=-^V^ { (2+30+58)2_2

+(16+44+ 72).2;_1 J

+ ^(7926— 8424— 1674+1176— 1674— 8424). (6^+ 6^

+6^+6^+6^+6*),

• fuh— _3^22.1350 , 90.1350 , 42.1350 2 ___ 27294
i.e. B4G- 42 7202 + 7202 + 7202 • -1 7202 !

fl= —37947+28350.2^,

42.7202

a.423-5.422+c.42=-^((l+152+292)2,+(82+222+362)2a>_1)

+w((1+15+29)2*+(8+22+36)2'-1)

5-I(— 7926+8.8424+15.1674— 22.1176+29.1674+36.8424)

7201

+.|g±2(8424— 8.7926+15.8424+22.1674— 29.1176+36.1674)
^-£-^(1674+8.8424— 15.7926+22.8424+29.1674— 36.1176)
+%±(— 1176+8.1674+15.8424— 22.7926+29.8424+36.1674)
+^£=»2(1674— 8.1176+15.1674+22.8424— 29.7926+36.8424)
+Jk.2(8424+8.1674— 15.1176+22.1674+29.8424— 36.7926).

7-rABTITTONS OF X. 145

Putting 6^+6^2+6,^ for 2X9 and e^+e^+e*. for 2^i,

and l=6x+6x.1+64r.84-6„3+6^+6^5,
we readily obtain

c=- * | — 409860*6,+255840-*6_1— 275460*6^,

— 12960-*6,^— 141060'*6^+121440-*6._J
Therefore

(7P*),=42^ | "~135° ^-<37947-28350 #2-i)*3

— *6„-409860:r+*6_1-255840*— *6_4-275460*
— ♦6^-12960j>— *6^_4141060j;+*6^-121440z | +<*..

The value of the constant d<y is given by equation (C),
thus:

(iP7y=tPrJ'+c^r-j'+ • • +[.*w. (co

if yZ42 ; for in that case tV^-m has no terms at all on the
right side of equation (A), x being z.Q> That of dA2 is ob-
tained immediately by putting x=0 in (C) which requires
/=0, 7=42 ; so that (C) becomes , by (c) ,
(7P0)'=0+^=0, or

The remaining 41 values of */<y, or all the 42 values, are
obtained by putting for y its successive values, 1, 2, 3 ... 42,
in the equation (C), which is, (c) and (P),

-rf7= 42^20* i -l35073-(37947-28350-27^)7*

— 6y 4098607-_6y_4- 14 IO6O7— 6y_a-2754607
+6^-2558407+6^1214407— 6^129607!

+J_( .350 ( (r~i)8-27-.+(y-i5)8Vie-f-(7~29)8-27^

720»| 10° H(7-8)8-27^+(7-22)».27_23+(7-^6)»-2r.^

+5400f (Y-1)27-»+(7-15)V"+(7-29)27^
^+(7-8)2^+(7-22)27_„+(7-36)27V

146 REV. T. P. KIRKMAN ON THE

+8424((7-l)-(67.2+67_.)+(7~15)(67_16H-67^)

+(7-29X6^+6^))

-1176((7-l)-6^+(7~15)-67_18+(r-29)67^)

+ 1674((7-.8)-(67_10+67_12)+(7-22)(67_24+67_26)

+(r_36)(67_S8+67_4o))

-7926 (•(7~8)-67_,+(7-22).67_22+(7— 36) 67^e)

_7926((r-l)-67_1+(7~15)-67_16+(7-29)67_29)
+1674((7-l)(67_3+67_5)+(7~15)(67_17+67_19)

+ (7~29)(67_31+67_33))
-1 1 76((7-8)-67_n+(7-22)-67_25+(7— ^'Qy-J)
4-8424 ((7-8)(6y^+6y-la) +(7— 22X6^4-6^27)

4-(7~36)(67_^74-67-41))J.

In this expression it is to be borne in mind that 6#_7=0,
whenever x/_l*

We have now found, in the sum

GP.)+(tP.)',
all the terms in x of 7VX which arise from summing all the
powers 7O of x — 1, x — 8, &c., on the right of equation (A).
We have yet to determine (7P#)", the sum of the constants
in the same member of (A). Of these there are 60 in every

term 6Pr-i-7a> of the form ^~2X>fg*§Qx-g> of which, for a

given value of x, only one has value, viz. one of the sixty
already given, p. 140.
We know that

(7P,)"-(7P^2o)"=[eP^i]"+[6P^]"+[6P^M]"4- . . 4-[6P_41J". (D)
If we write z=420m4-60(n— I) + 04- 1 , we have, for 0=0,
x— 1=60^4-0, a— 8=60^4-53, x— 15=60^4-46, &c, so that

the right member of this equation is —^ {y5 +./m +J& 4-J& 4-
... to 60 terms J , that is, it is always the sum of the 60 num-
bers ,/J, the co-efficients of the circulating constant in 6P*.

7-PAKTITION8 OF X. 147

Let now

The equation D is

for the constant fix, depending only on the seven values of c
and the circulating constant in 0PX, can have only 420
values, and /3«=/3*-49o, which therefore disappears in D.
Wherefore

as has been already proved, and

— _ 2?243
a~ 42.7203'

The constant j3* is given by putting x=.x'> ^420; which
requires

(7P,0"=[eP«'-i]"+C«P/-«]"+ • • +[«Po-i]W, U
<rf+P*=j7filf>-i+f>+*+ • • • to/.U inclusive),

A==S353> { 27243*'+42(/^+Afl+ • • to/.U) j J

This being added to (7Px)+(7P*y found before, completes the
expression of 7P* .

We have then finally, writing
x=420m+a?'
=420*f>+42(*— l)+7
=420m+42(»— l)+7(*— l)+c ;
(•70, Z7), (c70,Z8), (770, Z43), (*70, Z420),

7P^[iTw{2(^-^+84(+^^)+1120^W)+437^W)

— -9527(*>— c8)— 55899(*—c) }

""42^ ( 1350(«»-73)+(37947-28350 *2^1)(*,-7*)

+2724S(*— *')

148 REV. T. P. KIRKMAN ON THE

+(*— 7)(*6x-409860— *6*_1255840+*6_2275460

+*6x_^12960+*6.e_4-141060— *6^-121440)}

+_*_ | 6(c— l)6+136(c— l)*+760(o-l)3— 5046(e— 1)

-_1350((7~l)2+(7-15)2+(7-29)2)*2;e
— 1350((7— 8)2+(7— 22)2+(7— 36)2)*2^
—.5400(7—1 +7— 1 5+7— 29)*2,
—5400(7— 8+7— 22+7— 36)*2;_1 ,
(taking and squaring only as many of these six remainders as are positive J

+ {(C-_l)+(c+6)+(c+13)+...to i terms}

multiplied singly in order by the 0th, (c-\-\)tht (c~\-2)th ...ofthe co-efficients

(7926,— 8424,— 1674,+1176,— 1674,— 8424)
of which the e<* is the (e+6/A,

+(/*-i+/c+e+/*+i3+ ... to (6(n— 1)+0 terms) | J ,
where fp : 7202 is the co-efficient of P*60x_p in 6PX , and

In the above expression the portion

^*=7202{ 4<^ + (/*-i+/*+«+/c+i3+ ' ' t0 7"~~Cterms)}

may be disregarded. For it is

&M -^(/-+/^+--+/e.) + (/c_1+/^+ . . t0

^±_=? terms) j;

that is, it is always the*sum of h terms fc„l9 fc+6, &c, begin-
ning with one of the 7 f0 fx f2 f3 fA f5 f6 , diminished by
about h times the mean value of the whole 60 numbers fv .
When x' is small, jS* is the sum or difference of two small
numbers. When x' is larger, it is seen by inspection of the
table of these quantities fv that no considerable number of
them can be taken as fe-i+fc+69 &c, that shall not have a

negative sum, and shall not with +| • 60 - make the nume-
rator of (5X very far less than 259200=-i7202.

7-PAKTITION8 OF X. 149

This proves that the value of 7P* is always the integer
nearest, above or below, to the sum of the terms in x, c, y ;
af, andyj_i, &c., being neglected; and I suspect, from the
look of the expression, that c and y may be neglected also.

The terms free from x in 7PX can be reduced to a cir-
culating constant of 420 terms. The shape in which I leave
it has at least the advantage of occupying less room, and of
showing more of the structure of the function. I am content
to lay before the reader a definite expression of these 7-par-
titions of x, and am convinced that 8P* can be deduced from
it with ease by the method here given ; and I think this can
be done without the labour of writing out at length this
tedious constant in 7PX .

The portions (gP*) and (gP*)' of 8P* are very easily ob-
tained from the equations

(8Pzy-(eP^)'=[7P^]'4-[7P^9]'+[7P_16]',

by a process exactly like that employed to find (7PX) and
(7P*)'. The sum (8P*)" of the circulating constants in
7Px_i-r-7Px_9 4- ... is to be found from

(8P,)"-»(sP^o)"=[7P^i]"H-[rP^]"+ • . • +[A-»]\
the right side of which is the sum of 105 out of the 420
elements of the constant in 7P, . Hence the sum (8P*)" of all
these will be of the form

and can be found easily before the constant in 7FX is fully
written out. But I hope that a still more expeditious mode of
determining S will be discovered.

In like manner the 9-partitions, 10-partitions, &c. of x may
be deduced, each almost by simple transcription from the last
preceding, if the constant of this be written out from the
formula arising in the process.

151

X. — Remarks on the Occultation of Jupiter and his
Satellites by the Moon, January 2nd, 1857.

By the Rev. Henry Halvord Jones, F.R.A.S., &c.

[Read 2Uh March, 1857]

The following observations were made at the Rusholme-road
Cemetery, Manchester.

GRBETVnCH MEAN TIME.

h. m. s.

The fourth Satellite disappeared 4 47 36

The third ditto ditto 4 54 38

First contact of Jupiter with the Moon 5 0 58

Total immersion of Jupiter 5 2 41

The first Satellite disappeared 5 3 21

The second ditto ditto 5 4 27

Last contact of Jupiter with the Moon 5 55 50

The time elapsed between the first contact of Jupiter and
his total disappearance was 1 minute and 43 seconds. And
the time between the beginning and end of the occultation of
the planet, 54 minutes and 52 seconds.

In the earlier part of the evening and during the time in
which the several occultations took place, the weather was
very fine, and all the objects were beautifully distinct. Not
only was the disc of the planet well defined, but his belts and
satellites were seen without the slightest difficulty. Not long
after the last satellite had disappeared, but more particularly
about the time of the planet's reappearance, flying clouds
began to interpose, and thus rendered the emersion of the
satellites invisible, and the last observed contact of Jupiter
with the Moon indistinct and doubtful in time to the extent

152 REV. H. H. JONES ON THE OCCULTATION OF JUPITER.

of several seconds. In a few minutes afterwards the sky
became quite obscure, and a heavy shower of rain began
to fall.

The observations were made with a seven-inch Newtonian
reflector, and all the phenomena watched with as much
vigilance as could be commanded on the occasion, but no
perceptible distortion of the planet or the limb of the Moon
was observed to take place. Nor did there appear to be
any greater difference in the colour of the discs of either
Jupiter or the Moon than what might naturally have been
expected. During the process of the immersion of the planet,
there certainly did seem to be a rather darkly shaded line of
demarcation between Jupiter and that part of the Moon's
limb projected on the planet's disc. The same phenomenon
occurred during the emersion of the planet; but I have a
strong impression that this was nothing more than an ocular
illusion, occasioned by the juxtaposition and contrast of two
objects reflecting differently coloured light, and also differing
widely in the intensity of their illumination. Astronomically
considered, the whole phenomena were extremely interesting,
and, viewed with a contemplative eye, presented a scene of
surpassing beauty and sublimity, calculated to awaken in the
reflective mind feelings of unusual and intense admiration.

153

XL — Some Peculiarities of the Vital Statistics of the
Society of Friends.

By Alfred Fryer.

[Read April 1th, 1857.]

It is now universally acknowledged that the amount of suffer-
ing and death caused by the breaking of certain well-known
sanitary laws, renders the yearly preventible mortality of our
towns greater than that of the most bloody campaign ; the
number of deaths annually in this country, traceable to causes
within our control, is five times as great as the total number
of killed, wounded, and missing of the allied army at Water-
loo,— thus filth and miasma are more terrible than the sword
and the bullet. The mortality of the people in the town is
27 per ce"nt. greater than those in the country districts ; any-
thing bearing upon this subject becomes therefore important.

The population of towns, and especially manufacturing
towns, comprehends so large a proportion of the poorer
classes, that any statistics covering the whole, fail to indicate
the amount of mortality due to the vitiated atmosphere and
other pernicious effects of densely peopled districts, as they
include an excess of deaths due to the occupations, habits,
and privations of the poor.

It then becomes an important question : Is there any dif-
ice in the average duration of life of two portions of a
class of individuals, one living in towns and the other in the
country, and both provided with sufficient of the neces<

154 ALFRED FRYER ON SOME I U1TIE8 OF THE

of life ? If there is any difference, Low much ? And, if so,
at what time of life is the poison of towns most fatal?

Little is known of the average duration of life of the same
class of people for successive generations.

To endeavour to throw some light on the above questions
is the object of this paper; nevertheless several other subjects
are included, some presenting features of novelty, others cor-
roborative of facts already known to the statistician.

In comparing the average duration of life in different times
and places, it has appeared difficult to obtain any community
whose general circumstances did not allow of changes suf-
ficient to disturb the calculation.

The Society of Friends offers itself as the most promising ;
their habits have changed less than those of any well-marked
class, and they have kept the same relative position in the
wealth and industry of the country.

It is pretty well known that the average duration of life in
the Society of Friends greatly exceeds that of the people of
England generally. The fact has been recorded in the first
" report of the commissioners for inquiring into the state of
large towns and populous districts ; " and is also pointed out
in the last edition of Johnstone's Physical Atlas, in the letter-
press appended to the map of "health and disease."

This low rate of mortality has been usually attributed to
the following circumstances : —

1st. Great attention is paid to cleanliness in their persons
and houses.

2nd. They rarely drink to excess or indulge in other in-
temperance.

3rd. Their children receive careful instruction, and the
Society takes charge of the education of the poor among
them.

4th. None of their members suffer from the want of suit-
able food or adequate clothing, as the Society maintains its
own poor.

i AL STATISTICS OF T1IK SOU I 11IENDS. 1 55

5th. The worn* «>t often employed in other than

domestic labour, and mothers can devote time and attention
to the bringing up of their children.

Besides here are other causes which tend to keep up

if average duration of life, viz. : —

1st. There are few early marriages, and the number of
births does not more than replace the deaths; thus, as there
are fewer children, the number of deaths of children must be
relatively smaller than in the country at large.

2nd. The Society of Friends contains an unusually large
proportion of females, and as women live longer than men,
the average age at death is thus slightly increased.

3rd. The relative number of Friends following unhealthy
or laborious occupations is considerably less than in the
country at large.

But, on the other hand, Friends are not distributed over
country in the proportion of the population, an undue
proportion of them live in large and unhealthy towns, such
as Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Bradford, whilst there
is a deficiency in the rural districts. On this account, there-
fore, the average duration of life is less than it would be if
Friends were distributed as favourably as the population of
the country at large.

The records of births, marriages, and deaths in the Society
of Friends have been kept with great accuracy for a long
% period ; and a small publication, " The Annual Monitor,"
is regularly issued, containing the names, ages, and residences
of all the members who die in Great Britain and Ireland each
year. The names of children, however, who die under one
year are not inserted separately, but a summary of them is
appended. This little book is not official ; but the informa-
tion contained is supplied to the editors by all the different
-trars. The tables appended to this paper, embracing
the years 1842-55 inc re compiled from "The Annual

1 56 ALFRED FRYEK ON SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE

The average age of death is not generally much to be
relied on as an indication of the rate of mortality, being so
much influenced by the relative number of births and deaths;
yet, where these are nearly equal, and there is little fluctua-
tion of numbers from emigration or other causes, the average
age at death is trustworthy. The only really correct method
of obtaining the rate of mortality is by comparing the annual
number of deaths at each age with the number living at the
same ages. An enumeration of the Society of Friends in
Great Britain and Ireland was made 6th Month 30th, 1847,
when there were found to be 18,733 persons living. The
average number of deaths per annum for the last fourteen
years is 357, therefore 19 per 1,000; or 1 in 51, died
annually.

The average deaths per 1,000 living, for the whole country,
is 22, or 1 in 45 ; but were the number of births and deaths
equal it would be 1 in 41, or rather more than 24 deaths to
1,000 persons living.

The high rate of mortality in Manchester, Liverpool, and
most of the large and densely populated towns, might be re-
garded as owing chiefly to the overwhelming preponderance of
the lower classes. Many of these live in small and ill-ventilated
houses, some in closed courts, and others live in cellars ; and
the greater number are employed at unwholesome or laborious
occupations. Their lives are further shortened by addiction
to intoxicating drink, by consuming badly-cooked food, by
want of cleanliness, and by various privations; the employ-
ment of mothers in other than domestic duties, to the neglect of
their offspring, tells seriously upon the mortality of children.
Taking these things into consideration, it might be supposed
that by attention to sanitary laws, the middle classes at any rate
might attain as great an age in the town as in the country.
To throw some light on this question, nineteen towns,
containing a comparatively large number of Friends, have
been selected, the age at death of each who died at one year

VITAL STATISTICS OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 157

and upwards during the fourteen years \£42-5£ recorded,
and the average age at death of these is contrasted with the
deaths of Friends in the remainder of Great Britain and
Ireland during the same period. The number of children
dying under one year has been divided in the proportion
of the recorded deaths between one and five years; still the
chance of inaccuracy on this ground is small, and cannot
seriously affect the results.

Table I shows the deaths of males at various ages in the
19 selected towns — London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manches-
ter, Liverpool, Leeds, Preston, Bradford, Newcastle, Sunder-
land, North and South Shields, Darlington, Hull, Belfast,
Clonmel, Cork, Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford — total
deaths, 726. Not a single death is recorded at 95 or up-
wards.

Table 2 shows the deaths of females in the same towns —
total 933. Three women died at 95 and upwards.

Table 3 shows the deaths of men in Great Britain, and
Table 5 in Ireland, exclusive of the nineteen towns before
enumerated; showing, respectively, 1,240 and 62 deaths.
Three men died at 95 and upwards.

Tables 4 and 6 show the deaths, as above, of females;
being 744 in England, 191 in Ireland. Nine women died
at 95 or above. It would thus appear that town life is
unfitted for very old persons, and that there are more aged
women than men ; but as those who attain so great an age as
ninety-five are very few, and the Society of Friends is small,
not much reliance can be placed upon these deductions.

Tables 8 and 9 are summaries of the deaths of Friends,
males and females, in the whole country, and present the
following peculiarities. For every 100 boys and 100 girls
born there died 14 boys and 8 girls under five years, the
deaths of boys thus greatly preponderating. From the ages
of 5 to 14 the deaths are nearly equal ; from 15 to 24 there is

158 ALFRED FRYER ON SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE

a greater f stair ty among men; from 25 to 54 'ai'ucr.g 'Yemen?
from 55 to 64 among men ; from 65 to 74 it is about equal,
and from 74 and upwards there being more aged women than
men their deaths preponderate.

In tables 10 and 11 we see the contrast between the town
and country, which is unfavourable to the former in every
particular; and, as tender and young plants are soonest in-
jured by ungenial influences, so we must expect to see the
unhealthiness of towns prove especially fatal to children. We
accordingly find that up to five years the deaths in towns
are double those in the country. It must, however, here be
borne in mind that the deaths under one year, though correct
for the whole, are divided between the town and country in
the proportion of the mortality of the subsequent four years.
But, allowing a large margin for the chance of inaccuracy,
the fatality of town life to children is excessive. Until the
age of 54, when half of the town-born have died (while about
two-thirds of the country-born are living), the mortality of the
towns is in excess. After that age, as there are a greater
number of survivors among the country population the deaths
among them are more numerous, so that they appear at
first sight to have a lower degree of health, but in the town
these same individuals, whose deaths are enumerated, would
have already died before that age. An examination of this
table is conclusive that something more is wanted for suc-
cessfully rearing children than suitable food, clothing, and
shelter ; plenty of pure air cannot with impunity be replaced
by a polluted atmosphere, and no amount of nursing and
medicine can compensate for the change.

Table 7 is an analysis of the deaths of children under one
year, and the preponderance of the deaths of boys over girls
is shown throughout. The deaths of boys under one month
were 31 in excess of the girls; from one to three months, 8
in excess; from three to six, 14 in excess; six to twelve, 7 in

This is the more worthy of notice as the number of
females annually dying in the Society is greatly in excess of
males.

Table 13 shows the number of deaths and aggregate of
years attained by those dying in the nineteen specified towns
and elsewhere, also the average age at death; excluding
children under one year. London, Birmingham, Cork, and
Darlington appear to be healthy towns; the number dying
in some of the other towns is too small to enable us to judge
of their respective healthiness except in the aggregate.

Table 14 shows the average length of life in males and
dee, town and country. It appears that members of the
Society of Friends, including both sexes, live on the average
to the age of 51 years i month, which exceeds by 10 years
the average of the people of England generally. The
women however live longer than the men — the age of men
; 48 years 1 month, and that of women 53 years 4 months.
The difference between town and country is remarkably great,
and of course in favour of the country. The average length
of life in towns is 44 years 8 months, in the country 54 years
3£ months ; so that the life of a person in the country is ten
years longer or one-fourth more than that of one in a town,
that is to say, if 100 persons were born in the town and 100
in the country, for each hour the former live the latter will
live an hour and a quarter. When it is considered that the
1,659 persons whose deaths have been recorded in the towns,
were as cleanly and temperate, as well fed and as warmly clad
as their mote fortunately situated friends who lived on the
average ten years longer than they, attention is immediately
turned to the polluted air of towns, to the effluvia and noxious
gases arising from decaying animal and vegetable refuse,
sewers, graveyards, and cesspools, to the sulphurous acid,
carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, and carbon emanating from
inineys of our manufactories, and to imperfect ventila-
id around our houses.

1 60 ALFRED FRYER ON SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE

It is a serious thing to know that we, in towns, inhale with
each breath a poison which is sapping our health and strength,
and that though we may exercise the greatest care, we and
our families are inevitably defrauded of one-fifth of our lives
on the most favourable computation. When we further con-
sider that in the nineteen enumerated towns the average
duration of life is raised by several peculiarly healthy towns
being included, as well as outskirts of towns, which are gene-
rally more healthy ; and when we further remember that the
list containing the remainder of deaths does not consist entirely
of country districts, but includes Friends living in every un-
healthy spot in the country, not computed in the nineteen
enumerated towns, we cannot but conclude that the difference
between town and country life is much greater than here
shown. If we contrast the worst towns — Liverpool, with
its unenviable notoriety of being the most unhealthy
place in the kingdom, with 36 in the 1000 dying annually,
Manchester with 33 in the 1000, Leeds 30, Bristol 29,
Wigan 28, Bolton and Wolverhampton 27, &c, on the one
hand, and the rural districts on the other, we cannot doubt
that the difference would be at least 15 to 20 years, however
attentive the inhabitants of the former might be with regard
to their health.

The mortality of the Society of Friends, as before stated,
contrasts very favourably with that of England generally.
In the diagram the two are contrasted, the lines relating to
the former being constructed on tables 10, 11, and 12, and
the latter from the deaths of the people of England registered
in the seven years 1838 to 1844, extracted from the Registrar-
General's 8 th Report. The most marked peculiarity consists
in the difference between the deaths of young children, the
number dying under one year, being of Friends 6.2, in Eng-
land generally 22, or 3J times more than in the Society of
Friends. Under five years the deaths of Friends are only
one-third of the average of England. The number of deaths

VITAL STATISTICS OF THE SOCIETY OF FBIENDB. 16 1

1

8 8

£ 8 3 3 3 a

1 62 ALFRED FRYER ON SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE

[To prevent confusion in the diagram, the figures relating to deaths under one
year are inserted separately in the following table.]

INFANT MORTALITY.

Friend* Friends friends England Manchester

_ Country. Average. Towns. Average. Average.

Out of 100 Children )

born, the Number} 1 year 95*6 93.8 90.3 78.0 74.8

Surviving at.... )

2 „ 94.0 91.8 87.6 70.0 61.0

3 „ 92.8 90.5 86.1 65.6 55.1

4 „ 92.1 89.7 84.9 62.7 51.3

5 „ 91.6 89.0 83.8 60.6 48.6

of Friends at 65 and upwards is 44 out of each 100 born; in
England it is only 19£. In England generally, out of a given
number born, one-half die before they attain 20 years; in Man-
chester one-half die before they attain 5 years. In the Society
of Friends, 60 years must elapse before one-half die. At ex-
treme old age, 95 and upwards, there would appear to be but
little difference between the proportion dying among Friends
and others; but as previously stated, the number attaining
so great an age is very small, and not sufficient to warrant
us in coming to any conclusion. As the Society of Friends
does not increase in population the number of births is not
in excess of the deaths, and the proportion of children is less
than in England generally. This gives a somewhat fictitious
increase to the average length of life, and also a correspond-
ing diminution of infant deaths. Nevertheless this effect is
small, and need scarcely enter into the calculation.

Another question naturally arises : Are unhealthy towns
deteriorating or improving ; have we in Manchester a greater
or less expectancy of life than our fathers and grandfathers ;
is Manchester more or less healthy than it was half a century
or a century ago, at least for such portion of the community
as live in the most favourable manner, whether the locality
is healthy or not ? A very laborious transcription and classi-
fication of the records of the deaths of all persons interred

PAL STATISTICS OP THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, Ki3

in the burial grounds of Friends within the limits of the
Lancashire Quarterly Meeting, from the commencement of
1777 to the end of 1837, affords some interesting information
on this subject. There is no reason to believe that the Society
of Friends eighty years ago had fewer personal comforts, were
more harrassed by the cares of business, were less cleanly,
orderly, or temperate than at the present day, so we must
not look to changes in these respects to account for any
variation in the duration of life ; they probably stood in the
same relation to the community as they do now. It should
be remarked that the list includes a few persons who died
previous to 1777.

Table 15 gives a summary of this investigation. It will
be observed throughout that the women live longer than the
men, and on the average nearly two years. The proportion
of women to men has steadily increased. To each 100 men
who died in the twenty years ending 1797, there died 102
women; in the next twenty years 110; in the third twenty
years 120. This great increase in the number of women
arises from various causes, one of which may be, that more
men leave the Society by disownment than women. Still
this will only account in part for the remarkable increase of
women, and the subject is worthy of investigation.

It must be observed that Table 15, containing the deaths
of all persons interred in the burial grounds, includes a num-
ber of persons not in membership, but who were connected
with Friends and attended their religious meetings ; this re-
duces the average age of death. In Manchester the age at
death of Friends only, for the twenty years ending 1856,
was 41 ; for all interred in their burial grounds for the same
time, 38. Thus we may add three years to each of the ages
to form an idea of the age of Friends only.

Lancaster appears to have been a very healthy town, the

average duration of life eighty years ago was greater than

of Manchester at the present time. The duration of

164 ALFRED FRYER ON SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE

life there has rapidly increased each twenty years. First
twenty years, 39 ; second, 45 ; third, 49. The women who
died in Lancaster during the last twenty years attained the
age of 53 f, and adding 3 for the correction it would be 56^ ;
but one circumstance, affecting the duration of life of Friends
in Lancaster, must be borne in mind, namely, that the number
of Friends there has steadily decreased, this will tend to make
the average age appear greater.

Preston. The number living in this town was so small
that no safe comparison can be made of the relative duration
of life at different periods ; but if we take the total deaths in
sixty years, we find the average duration of life 30 years,
which must be considered low. More interments of those
not members than the average took place in the graveyard
of Friends at Preston; this will cause the average duration
of life there to appear less.

In Liverpool the records present a very singular appear-
ance; they show for the first twenty years, duration of life
25 years; second, 41; third, 34 J. This may, in part, be
accounted for on the supposition that the number of Friends
decreased after the first twenty years, and after the second
twenty increased again. The number of deaths recorded
would bear out this supposition, and thus the latter number
would a little exceed the correct amount, and the former be a
little less. Still this does not fully account for the difference.

It would be hazardous and unsafe on this authority alone
to assume that the sanitary condition of Liverpool improved
up to a certain date; after which, that the extension of
docks, the free immigration of the Irish with their habits, the
rapid extension of the town without an efficient system of
sewers, together with other causes, caused it to deteriorate.

Bad as the statistics of mortality make Manchester appear
when compared with other towns, it is cheering to see a
progressive and steady increase in the duration of life, not
retarded by the increase of the population, nor checked by
the yearly increasing smoke and sulphur which we are told
are so deadly in their effects. No doubt these are bad
enough, but it is pleasant to turn to the brighter side and

VITAL STATISTICS OF THE 80CIE1T OF FRIENDS.

165

to know that we are mending. The result for those interred
in the burial grounds of Friends is as follows : —

20 years ending 1797, average duration of life, 25 years.
» >> 1817, „ ,, 28£ ,,

„ ,, 1837, ii ,, 31£ ,,

,, ,, 1856, ,, ,, 38 ,,

How marked is the step in the last twenty years, being as
much as in the previous forty years ! New wide streets,
plenty of good water, the removal of old cottage property
in the heart of he town, clean streets, good sewers, and
extra-mural interments have had their share, no doubt, in
og the average; and are, it is to be expected, destined
to improve it still more.

The following lines show at a glance by their length the
average duration of life of some of the classes under con-
sideration : —

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1 66+ ALFRED FRYER ON SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE

The deaths in other parts of Lancashire, not included
in the four towns enumerated, present, at the first sight, a
strange appearance. The average age steadily falls — from 43
to 37 and from 37 to 34 J — yet this is perfectly consistent, and
is one other striking proof of the unhealthy influences in our
towns. Eighty to one hundred years ago many of our unhealthy
smoky towns were then comparatively healthy hamlets, and at
that time nearly all the people who were not included in the
largest towns, were living in the country ; but now, Wigan,
Bolton, Prescot, Warrington, Oldham, and others, have
become densely peopled. Thus we cannot assume that the
rural district is more unhealthy, but being partly converted
into a town district the variation is accounted for.

In the whole of Lancashire there seems but little
change in the duration of life in the last sixty years. The
deleterious results arising from the increasing density of the
population, and the extension of the cotton manufacture,
accompanied with the combustion of so much coal, seem to
have been nearly counteracted by the increased knowledge
of the laws of health.

A careful examination of the tables will suggest many other
points of interest besides those here briefly indicated, but even
a cursory glance will show that life may be much prolonged by
temperance and care. It will be equally evident that towns
are unfavorable to long life, and especially unfitted for young
children, whose life is always precarious and who are so easily
affected by injurious influences. Still we find that it is quite
possible for a town to increase in healthiness whilst it in-
creases in size, so we may hope that by a further knowledge
of the laws of health, and more especially by further atten-
tion to their requirements, the time will come when the
" Health of Towns" may be a reality, not a name.

VITAL STATISTICS OF THE SOCIETY OF FE1ENDS

167

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VITAL STATISTICS OF THE SOCIETY OF FBTENDS.

173

TABLE Ho. 7.

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

Great Britain and Ireland. — Deaths of Children under 1 Year, for 14
Years, 1842-1855, inclusive.

Males.

Females.

Total
Deatha.

From

From

From

Total
Deaths.

From

From From

Und'r

1 to3

3 to6

6tol2

Und'r

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3 to66tol2

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8

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17

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4

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6

11

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4

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13

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5

7

1

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185

54

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55

125

23

26

28

48

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VITAL STATISTICS OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

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ALFKED FRYER ON SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE

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\11AL STATISTICS OF THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS.

177

TABLE Ho. 13.

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

Average Age at Death (excluding childben who hate died under
one yeab),/ot the 14 Years, 1842-55 inclusive.

IKales.

Females.

PLACES.

No. of
Deaths.

Aggregate

Average
Age.

No. of
Deaths.

Aggregate

Average
Age.

ritain & Ireland

1943

102360

Yrs.Mos.
52 8

2743

152888

Yrs.Mos.
55 9

Gt. Britain, excluding
large towns

1167

148
628

65614

7668
29078

56 3

51 10

46 4

1690

185

868

97270

10599
45019

57 7

57 4
51 10

Ireland, excluding
large towns

Total large towns ...

London*

140
50
20
50
41
41
13
24
16
15
13
27
10
16
24
34
62
13
19

7086

2676

964

2339

1971

2101

344

1100

583

636

396

1412

614

628

1015

1649

2260

490

814

207
80
44
52
64
30
19
26
32
22
14
24
27
23
30
50
81
10
33

11539
4786
2338
2508
3092
1260

940
1090
1569
1063

538
1403
1421
1119
1518
2518
3918

492
1907

Bristol

mingham

Manchester

Liverpool

Leeds

Preston

Bradford

Newcastle

derland

N. & S. Shields...
Darlington .. .

Hull

|

Clonmel

Cork ..

Dublin .

1 1 erford ...

* To prevent conclusion* being hastily drawn the average of each town is not
us great importance can be attached only to the aggregate result.

178

ALFRED FRYER ON SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE

TABLE No. 14.

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

Summary. — Average length of Life, Great Britain and Ireland, for
the Fourteen Years 1842-1855, inclusive.

No. of Deaths.

Years.

Months.

Both Sexes

4996

51

1

Total Males

2128
2868

48
53

1
4

„ Females

Males, 19 Towns

726

1240

162

40
52

47

6

11

4

„ remainder Great Britain

,, remainder Ireland

Females, 19 Towns

933

1744

191

48
55
55

3

8
6

„ remainder Great Britain ...
„ remainder Ireland

Total To wns

1659
3337

44
54

8
3i

„ Country

L 8TATISTIC8 OF THE SOCIETY OF FK1!

179

TABLE Ko. 15.

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

Interments in the Burial Ground* of Friends within the Quarterly Meeting

of Lancashire.

Lancaster.
1778 to 1797 inclusive
1798 to 1817
1818 to 1S37

Preston.
1778 to 1797 inclusive
1798 to 1817
1818 to 1837

Liverpool.
1778 to 1797 inclusive
1798 to 1817
1818 to 1837

Manchester.
1778 to 1797 inclusive
1798 to 1817
1818 to 1837
1838 to 1856

Remainder of Lancashire Q. M.

1778 to 1797 inclusive

1798 to 1817 „

1818 to 1837 m

Total of Lancashire Q.M.

1778 to 1797 inclusive

1798 to 1817

1818 to 1837

MALES.

No. of
Death*.

99
64
30

31
30
36

106

81

124

114
129
159
173

351
306
Mi

701
610
733

Av'rage

354

38

41

19

24*

39

24*

45

35f

25

m

27*
36

39*
38i
33*

33*

36

33

FEMALES.

No. of
Deaths

103
73
52

16
22
41

101
95

138

111
141
182
155

384
335
395

715
666
908

Av'rage
Age.

42*
50*
53*

24

37*

33

26

41*

33

25

29*

35

40*

47*
35 J
35

39

36*

36

TOTAL.

No. Of
Deaths.

202

137

82

47
52

77

207
176
262

225
270

Av'rage
Af*

39
45
49

21
30
35*

25
41
34*

25

28*

31*
328 38

735
641

779

1416
1276
1541

43
37
34*

36*

36*

181

XII On the Formation of Indigo-blue. Part II.

By Edward Schunck, Ph.D., F.R.S.

[Read April 1 5th, 1856.]

In the first part of this memoir I announced the discovery
of a peculiar substance contained in the leaves of the Isatis
tinctoria, to which, as I there showed, the indigo-blue ob-
tained in the usual process of treating the plant owes its
origin. Having applied to this substance the name of
Indican, I proceeded to give a general account of its pro-
perties and of the process of decomposition which it under-
goes when subjected to the action of strong acids. I now
propose to present a more detailed account of the properties
of this substance and especially of the products of decom-
position derived from it.

In continuing my experiments I soon arrived at the con-
clusion, that the different methods of preparing indican, of
which I had in the first part of this paper given a description,
though they sufficed for the preparation of small quantities,
were not well adapted for obtaining in a state of purity
the larger quantities of the substance which I found to be
necessary for the purposes of investigation. The great dif-
y in the preparation of indican arises, as i have before
stated, from the extreme facility with which it is decomposed,
when its solutions, especially the watery one, are heated, a
process of decomposition which is rapidly completed at a tem-
pttaturc a little below that of boiling water, and takes place
even at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, when

i me. circumstance

1 82 MR. S. BGHT7KCK ON THE

renders its necessary to avoid distilling the solutions or
evaporating them at any but the usual temperature. On
the other hand, the length of time necessary for the spon-
taneous evaporation of the watery solution produces in a great
measure the same effect as the evaporation of the solution
at a higher temperature during a shorter period of time. It
therefore became necessary to devise some means of pro-
ducing a more rapid evaporation of these solutions without
the application of artificial heat. This object was attained
by means of a simple apparatus, in which a rapid current
of air was made to pass over a large surface of the liquid
to be evaporated, and which may be described in a few
words.

The solution to be evaporated is poured into a dish or
tray of block tin about 16 inches square with perpendicular
sides 2 inches deep, and capable therefore of containing when
full nearly two gallons of liquid. The dish is placed on a
shelf fixed at a convenient height in a wooden box of which
abed, Fig. 1, represents the front. This box is closed at
the two sides, but open at the front and back from the shelf
upwards. It must be sufficiently wide to allow the dish to
slide easily in and out, but from front to back it must be so
deep as to leave a space of about £ an inch between the
front and the dish. At the distance of about 1 J inch from
the back of the box there is fixed in a perpendicular position
a board /, the upper and side edges of which are firmly
attached to the top and sides of the box. The lower edge of
this board is about on a level with the upper edge of the tin
dish and is accurately fitted to a shelf g, which is suspended by
means of two upright pieces of wood h h, 2| inches deep, rest-
ing on two ledges * t, fixed to the sides of the box. The spaces
between h h and the side walls of the box must be sufficiently
wide to allow the sides of the tin dish to move easily up and
down in them. By means of supports n n inserted between
the tin dish e and the shelf o the former may be raised so as

FORMATION OF INI -

183

to bring the surface of the liquid contained in it close to the

g which ii thus made to hang down within the dish.

When the apparatus is to be used, the spaces p p left between

dges of t tnd the ledges ii are closed as tightly

as possible by means of flat plugs of wood, so as to cause the

ut of air passing through the apparatus to sweep over

itace of the liquid, and the front of the box is

Fig. 1.

(I by means of a frame j A /m covered with muslin and
sliding up and down in grooves fixed to the sides, which in I

184 MR. B. 8CHUNCK ON THE

groat measure prevents the dust which is carried along by
the current of air from being conveyed into the liquid.
The apparatus is now placed so as to make the back fit
as closely as possible to the wall q r, Fig. 2, in which there
is an opening s communicating with a steam-boiler flue,
or the back of the box may be closed with a piece of wood,
having an opening communicating by means of a pipe with
the flue. The section Fig. 2 shows the direction taken by
the air in passing over the surface of the liquid. As the
liquid evaporates the dish is raised by means of additional
supports, so as again to bring the surface of the former close
to the shelf g and thus confine the current within a narrow
space. The current of air which I employed, and which was
sufficiently rapid to cause a constant ripple on the surface of
the liquid, was produced by the draught of a steam-boiler
flue, which carried away the products of combustion from
several large fires. I think it probable, however, that the
same effect might be produced by causing the whole of the
air necessary for the supply of an ordinary stove or close
fireplace to pass through the apparatus. By means of the
current of air at my disposal I was enabled to evaporate in
this apparatus about one pint of water in the course of
twenty-four hours at a temperature not exceeding 10° C,
the temperature of the water being kept by means of the
rapid evaporation rather lower than that of the atmosphere.
The evaporation of a gallon of spirits of wine by the same
means occupied only a few hours.

In preparing indican the course of proceeding which I
adopt is as follows.* The dried woad leaves are reduced to

* In the course of the investigation I had an opportunity of confirming a state-
ment made by the authors, who have described the cultivation of the woad plant
and the preparation of the dye made from it, viz., that the first crop of leaves
obtained during the first year's growth of the plant is richest in colouring
matter, and that each successive crop yields less than the preceding one. This
may perhaps be ascribed to the lower temperature prevailing during the latter
part of the year. Nevertheless if the roots be left in the ground through the

itMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 185

a powder, which is passed through a hair sieve, in order to

separate the leaf-stalks and ribs of the leaves, and an extract of

- then made in a displacement apparatus with cold

alcohol in the usual manner. The extract, which may be made

^er by passing it through fresh quantities of powder,

I lively dark green colour. It is evaporated in the
apparatus just described, a little water being previously added
to it, in order to facilitate the separation of tne fatty matter.
After a few hours there is found at the bottom of the evapo-

5 dish a dark green layer, consisting of fat and green

colouring matter, covered by a light brown watery liquid.

poured off, filtered, agitated with a quantity of

iy precipitated oxide of copper, and filtered again. It
now appears of a dark green colour from oxide of copper in
solution. The latter having been removed by means of sul-
phuretted hydrogen, the filtered liquid, which is now quite

and of a light yellow colour, is evaporated again in the
same apparatus, when it leaves a brown syrup. This syrup
contains besides indican some products of decomposition of the
latter. On being treated with cold alcohol only a portion of
it is dissolved, a part remaining undissolved in the form of a
brown glutinous substance, which is a product of the combined
action of water and oxygen on indican, and which will be

winter, though the plant in the ensuing year teems to hare lost none of its
vigour, as may be seen by the size and abundance of rich glaucous leaves
which it puts forth, and the quantity of flower stems bearing numbers of
flowers, and then of seeds which it sends up, still the leaves are as poor in
colouring matter as those of the .preceding autumn. The inferior quality of
the dye produced from the second year's leaves, which in Thuringia went by
the name of "Kompts-waid" (see Schreber's Beschreibung des Waids) was
well known to the growers of woad in former times.

Woad it still employed by the woollen dyers in this country, but what use-

rpose it answers in preference to an equivalent quantity of indigo, I am

unable to say. A specimen of the drug, as used by a woollen dyer, which I

examined, contained no trace of indigo-blue. If its use be merely to act as a

t and reducing agent on the indigo employed at the same time, as is

obable, its place might be supplied by rotten cabbage leaves or decaying

vegetable matter of any kind.

2 B

186 MB. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

more fully described below. The alcoholic liquid after being
poured off is mixed with about twice its volume of ether,
when it becomes milky and deposits a substance of a syrupy
consistence, which contains an additional quantity of the body
just referred to and also some of the peculiar kind of sugar
which is formed by the decomposition of indican. After the
mixture has stood for several hours there is usually found
deposited on the surface of the syrup and attached to the
sides of the glass a quantity of white crystalline needles,
which also consist of a product of the decomposition of in-
dican. After the ethereal liquid has become clear, it is poured
on a filter and then evaporated as before, when it leaves a
clear brown syrup, consisting of indican in as high a state of
purity as 1 have been able to obtain it. The only impurity
which may still attach to the indican as thus prepared is a
small quantity of fatty matter, the last traces of which it is
extremely difficult to remove. When an alcoholic extract of
woad is evaporated and water is added to the residue, the
filtered liquid, though it may appear tolerably clear, still
contains a quantity of fatty matter, in a state either of solu-
tion or, as seems more probable, of mechanical suspension.
On adding acid to it, this fatty matter separates in greenish
masses, which melt when the liquid is heated. The greatest
part of this fatty matter is carried down by the oxide of
copper used in the process just described, and the remainder
is generally removed, when sulphuretted hydrogen is passed
through the filtered liquid, by the precipitated sulphuret of
copper. A little more separates occasionally in small
white grains during the evaporation of the liquid filtered
from the sulphuret of copper, especially if the temperature
of the current of air passing over its surface be low, as in
winter. If, however, the residue left after evaporation of the
-alcoholic extract be stirred up and agitated for some time
with water, so large a quantity of fatty matter becomes sus-
pended in the liquid as to render its separation without de-

FOEMATION OF INDIGO-BL. 187

composition of the indican almost impossible, and it is for
eason that I have found it advisable always to add water
to the alcoholic extract of the leaves before evaporation, and
to pour off the watery liquid from the undissolved chlorophyll
and fatty matter, instead of evaporating the extract by itself
and then stirring up the residue with water.

I have very little to add to the description formerly given
of indican and its properties. It is always obtained in the
form of a transparent light brown syrup, and it cannot be
separated from the water which it still retains in this state
without decomposition. Its watery solution has a yellow
colour and a purely bitter taste. Even in the highest state of
purity in which it can be obtained it produces when dissolved
in water a slightly acid reaction on litmus paper. Whether
this reaction is peculiar to it, or whether it is a consequence
of a commencing decomposition of this easily decomposable
substance, I am unable to decide. After being prepared in
the manner just described it yields when subjected in small
quantities to the action of acids, indigo-blue, indirubine and
sugar, with mere traces of other products of decomposition.
When the same process however is performed on a somewhat
larger scale, other products make their appearance from causes
which I shall presently explain.

The new experiments which I have made to determine the
composition of indican confirm the conclusions at which I
arrived in the first instance and which are contained in the
first part of this paper. Being unable to obtain the substance
itself in a state fit for analysis, I was obliged, as before, to
have recourse to its compound with oxide of lead. This com-
l was prepared in the following manner. Pure indican
was dissolved in cold alcohol, and the solution was ir.
with a small quantity of an alcoholic solution of acetate of
lead and filtered from the precipitate, which was generally of
a somewhat dirty yellow colour. On now adding to the
d an excess of acetate of lead a bright sulphur-yellow

1 88 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

precipitate fell, which was collected on a filter, washed with
alcohol and then dried, at first in vacuo, and then for a few
hours in the waterbath. This precipitate was employed in
the analyses I. and II. The liquid filtered from this precipi-
tate gave with a little ammonia a second precipitate of a rather
paler yellow colour, which was collected on a filter, washed
with alcohol and dried in the same manner as the first. The
analyses III. and IV. were made with this precipitate. The
following results were obtained.

I. 1.0120 grm. burnt with oxide of copper and chlorate of
potash gave 0.7590 grm. carbonic acid and 0.1885 water.

1.0330 grm. burnt with soda- lime gave 0.0580 grm.
platinum.

0.6385 grm. gave 0.5140 grm. sulphate of lead.

II. 0.8845 grm. gave 0.5040 grm. carbonic acid.

1.1100 grm. burnt with soda-lime gave 0.1260 grm, chloride
of platinum and ammonium.

0.3490 grm. gave 0.3260 grm. sulphate of lead.

III. 1.3315 grm. gave 0.9380 grm. carbonic acid and
0.2535 water.

1.6295 grm. gave 0.2145 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

0.8550 grm. gave 0.7005 grm. sulpnate of lead.

IV. 0.9520 grm. gave 0.6345 grm. carbonic acid and
0.1715 water.

1.2490 grm. gave 0.0640 grm. platinum.

0.5335 grm. gave 0.4495 grm. sulphate of lead.

These numbers correspond in 100 parts to

I. n. III. iv.

Carbon 20.45 15.54 19.21 18.17

Hydrogen 2.06 2.1 1 2.00

Nitrogen 0.79 0.71 0.82 0.72

Oxygen 17.47 .... 17.58 17.12

Oxide of Lead.. .. 59.23 68.73 60.28 61.99

100.00 100.00 100.00

FOKMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 189

After (leduci >xide of lead the relative proportions of

the other constituents are expressed by the following numbers:

t. ii. m. iv.

Carbon 50.15 48.36 47.80

5.05 5.31 5.26

Nitrogen 1 2.27 2.06 1.89

Oxygen 12.87 05

100 100.00

These numbers conduct, as will be seen, to two different
formulae. The numbers of the first two determinations lead
to the formula C52 H31 N034, those of the last two to the
formula C^ H33 N Ox as a comparison of the numbers found
by experiment with those required by the respective formulae
will show :

Eqs. Calculated. Eqs. Calculated.

... 52 312 49.60 52 312 48.22

Hydrogen. . 31 31 4.92 33 33 5.10

Nitrogen . . 1 14 2.22 1 14 2.16

Oxygen ... 34 272 43.26 36 288 44.52

629 100.00 647 100.00

The first analyses which I made of the lead compounds of
indican, and the results of which are recorded in the first part of
; >aper, led to the formula? Cag H^ N O^ and CM H^ N O40,
but I stated at the same time that neither of these could be
considered as the true formula, since the compounds then
analysed seemed no longer to contain unchanged indican.
However the compounds, the analyses of which have just been
given, even after having. been completely dried, and decom-
posed with cold dilute sulphuric acid yielded solutions
which, after having been filtered from the sulphate of lead
and boiled, deposited flocks consisting almost entirely of
indigo-blue and indirubine, products indicating with cer-
ty the presence of unchanged indican. Since indican
exhibits a tendency, as I have before observed, to take up suc-
cessively a number of equivalents of water, it is probable that

190 lOt. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

of the two formulae given above, the first, viz., C52 H3l N034
approaches nearest to, if it is not a correct representation of
its true composition. The formula C52 H^ NO^ may then
represent a mixture of indican with a small quantity of what
may be called its hydrate, or it may show the composition of
indican in the first stage of its hydration before it has lost
the property of yielding indigo-blue by decomposition. As
far as regards the explanation of the different processes of
decomposition which the substance undergoes, it is of course
immaterial which formula is adopted.

Action of Acids on Indican.

In the first part of this memoir I have given a general
description of the process of decomposition which indican
undergoes by the action of acids and of the products thereby
formed. I shall now proceed to give an account of the results
obtained in a more minute investigation of this process, per-
formed with larger quantities of material than had previously
been at my disposal.

Sulphuric and muriatic acids are not the only acids capable
of effecting the decomposition of indican. If to a watery
solution of the latter a small quantity of nitric acid be added,
the quantity of the acid not being large enough to enable it
to exert any oxidising action on the indican, the solution im-
mediately becomes green and turbid, and on standing it
deposits flocks of a dark colour, while the surface becomes
covered with a blue pellicle. The deposit is found to consist
principally of indigo-blue with a little indirubine and a trace
of other products of decomposition. The filtered liquid on
being boiled becomes muddy and deposits some brown flocks,
which contain no indigo-blue. The quantity of indigo-blue
formed by the action of nitric acid seems indeed to be compara-
tively larger than when sulphuric or muriatic acid is employed.
It is hardly necessary to add, that if this be really the case, it
cannot be ascribed to any oxidising effect produced by the

'IMATION OF INDIGO-BU 191

A watery solution of indican on being mixed with

oxalic or tartaric acid and left to stand yields a dark blue or

purple deposit, consisting of indigo-blue and indirubine, which

ii oxalic acid is employed, are remarkably free from other

acts of decomposition. The liquid filtered from tin-,
depo- in either case when boiled a few more flocks,

ifter being filtered, mixed with sulphuric acid and boiled

i, it gives an additional quantity. These flocks contain
indirabine and iudirctiue but no indigo-blue. Even acetic
acid produces a slight effect on indican. On adding that acid
to a watery solution of the latter, the mixture deposits on
standing some dark flocks, consisting of indigo-blue and in-
dirubine, but their quantity is trifling.

A more minute examination of this process of decomposition

el that it was more complicated and that the products
formed by it were more numerous than I had at first imagined.

products of decomposition which I have observed are of
three kinds. The first are insoluble in water and are deposited
in the shape of powder or flocks from the acid liquid, the
second remain dissolved in the latter, the third are volatile and
are obtained by distilling the liquid either whilst the action
of the acid is proceeding or after it has ceased. For the pur-
pose of preparing these various products I found it to be

pessary to obtain indican in a state of absolute purity by
successive solution in alcohol, water and ether, for though
some indican is always decomposed when its watery solution
is evaporated, the substances into which it is* thereby
converted afford by decomposition with acids, products
which do not differ in their nature, but only in their
relative proportions from those which are formed, when
perfectly pure indican is employed. I therefore contented
myself with extracting the dry leaves of the woad plant with
cold alcohol, evaporating the extract in the apparatus above
described, adding water to the residue and filtering. The

ion of indican thus obtained was mixed with a considerable

192 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

quantity of sulphuric acid, and the green fatty matter precipi-
tated by the acid was separated by filtration. The action of
the acid passed, as I invariably observed, through two distinct
stages, and I found it convenient to collect and treat the
products formed at each stage of the action separately. The
filtered liquid, though clear at first, soon became opalescent
and muddy and deposited dark flocks, while the surface became
covered with a blue pellicle. After the liquid had stood in
the cold for about twenty-four hours, this deposit usually
ceased to be formed, and the action then entered on its second
stage, which was manifested by the separation from the filtered
liquid of a brown powder the quantity of which was much
increased by heating. This powder contained little or no
indigo-blue, but some indirubine and a large quantity of other
products of decomposition. I think it probable that the first
deposit owed its origin to the pure indican contained in the
solution, while the second was formed from indican that had
undergone a change by the action of water. The matter
insoluble in water formed by the action of acid having been
collected on a filter, the acid liquid was employed for the
preparation of the other products of decomposition in a manner
to be hereafter described. The portion of the products in-
soluble in water was also obtained by another method, still
more expeditious than the one just described. The leaves of
the plant having been finely chopped, boiling water was poured
over them, and the mixture having been well stirred the liquid
was strained through calico and mixed with sugar of lead.
This produced a pale green precipitate which was separated
by filtration, and the liquid having been mixed with an excess
of sulphuric acid was filtered from the sulphate of lead and
heated for some time, when it produced a deposit containing
the same products as before. Instead of sulphuric acid I
sometimes employed nitric acid, avoiding however in this case
the use of heat. More indigo-blue and less of the other pro-

FORMATION 19i

ducts of decomposition seemed to be formed, when nitric acid
was used.

[a whatever manner the products insoluble in water were
obtained, I always adopted the same method of treatment for
turpose of separating them from one another, a method
indeed essentially the same as that employed by
Berzelius for the separation of the constituents of crude indigo.
The whole of the acid used in the process having been care-
fully removed by means of cold water, the mass left on the
filter was treated with dilute caustic soda. This dissolved a
great portion forming a dark brown opaque liquid, which was
filtered ,*rom the insoluble matter. The latter was treated
again with caustic soda, the action being now assisted by heat,
and the process was repeated until nothing more was dissolved.
The liquid on being mixed with an excess of muriatic acid let
B voluminous flocculent precipitate of a brown colour, which
being collected on a filter and washed with water was
ith a boiling mixture of alcohol and ammonia. This
sometimes dissolved the whole of it, sometimes only a part.
The insoluble portion, wThcn there was any present, had the
appearance of a dark brown powder, and consisted of the body
to which I have given the name of Indihumine, After having
been treated repeatedly with alcohol and ammonia, until
nothing more was dissolved and then with muriatic acid, and
lastly washed with water, it was considered pure. The
alcoholic liquid filtered from it was dark brown. On adding
an excess of acetic acid, an abundant dark brown deposit
was formed, consisting of a substance which 1 h*».d not pre-
viously observed, and to which I propose to apply the term
Indifuscine. It was collected on a filter, washed first with
alcol hot water until all the acetate of ammonia

and acetic acid were removed, and lastly agitated with a little
cold alcohol, filtered off and dried, when it had the appearance
of a dark brown or reddish-brown powder. By repeating the
process of solution in alcohol and ammonia and precipitation
2 c

J94 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

with acid, its further purification was effected. The alcoholic
liquid filtered from the indifuscine was mixed with an alcoholic
solution of acetate of lead, when an additional quantity of the
same substance was precipitated in combination with oxide of
lead in brown flocks. The filtered liquid, containing an excess
of sugar of lead was mixed with ammonia, which gave a
brownish-yellow precipitate, consisting chiefly of indiretine in
combination with oxide of lead. This precipitate after being
filtered off was treated with dilute acetic acid, which removed
a considerable quantity of oxide of lead, and after being
again filtered off and washed, it was completely decomposed
with boiling dilute muriatic acid. The indiretine which was
separated collected in the boiling liquid in the form of brown
half fused masses, which were separated by filtration while the
liquid boiled, washed with boiling water and then treated with
a small quantity of cold alcohol. The alcohol acquired a dark
brown colour, and after being filtered from a little undissolved
indifuscine was evaporated to dryness, when it left the indiretine
in the shape of a brittle resinous residue, which was purified
by being again dissolved in cold alcohol.

That part of the product of the action of acids insoluble in
caustic soda was usually of a dark bluish-purple colour. It
was treated with boiling alcohol until nothing more dissolved.
The alcoholic liquid, which had a dark brownish-purple colour,
was filtered boiling hot from the insoluble portion, consisting
chiefly of indigo-blue, and then mixed with ammonia and an
alcoholic solution of acetate of lead, which gave a brown pre-
cipitate consisting of oxide of lead in combination with indi-
fuscine, and such other products as had not been completely
extracted by the caustic soda. After being filtered from this
precipitate the liquid appeared of a beautiful purple colour.
It was mixed with an excess of acetic acid and distilled or
evaporated to about one quarter of its original volume, and
then mixed with a large quantity of water, which precipitated
the whole of the matter dissolved in it in the shape of dirty

FOBMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 195

purple flocks. These flocks were collected on a filter, well
washed with water and then treated with dilute caustic soda,
which generally however only dissolved a minute portion of
them. After being again filtered off and well washed they
were dried and treated with a small quantity of cold alcohol.
The alcohol dissolved a portion forming a solution of a deep
reddish-yellow colour, which was filtered and evaporated,
when it left a shining resinous substance of the same colour,
which as it possesses characteristic properties and a peculiar
composition, I shall call Indt/ulvine. By dissolving it in
weak spirits of wine it was separated from a little impurity,,
which remained undissolved in the shape of a brown powder.
The matter left undissolved by the cold alcohol consisted
chiefly of indirubine. For the purpose of purifying this
body I availed myself of the property which it possesses in
common with indigo-blue of dissolving in caustic alkalies in
the presence of bodies which easily take up oxygen. On
treating the mixture containing indirubine with a solution
of protoxide of tin in caustic soda and boiling, I obtained
a solution, which after being rapidly filtered deposited in-
dirubine on exposure to the air in the shape of a reddish-
purple pellicle covering its surface. This pellicle on being
broken fell to the bottom in thick flakes and was succeeded
by another. As soon as the whole of the indirubine contained
in it had been again oxidised and deposited, it was filtered off,
wol! washed with water and dissolved in boiling alcohol. The
alcoholic solution which had a beautiful purple colour generally

OB evaporation a dark brown amorphous residue consisting
of indirubine in as high a state of purity as I have been able
to obtain it when formed by the decomposition of indican.
A brown powder was left undissolved by the alkaline solu-
tion of protoxide of tin, which after being again treated
a fresh quantity of the same solution, in order to

he all the indirubine which might be contained in it,
was washed with water, then with acid, washed again with

196 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

water, dried and treated with cold alcohol. The latter dis-
solved a second portion of indifulvine, which seemed to have
escaped the solvent action of the alcohol in the first instance
in consequence of its having been so intimately mixed with
and enveloped by particles of indirubine as not to be reached
by the alcohol. The alcohol still left undissolved a quantity of
brown powder, which did not seem to be any peculiar substance
but an intimate mixture of indifulvine and indirubine. The
indigo-blue left undissolved by the boiling alcohol was purified
by treating it according to Fritzsche's method with a warm
solution of grape sugar in alcohol to which caustic soda was
added, and allowing the mixture to stand in a warm place
until the indigo-blue was dissolved. The yellow solution
having been drawn off with a syphon and allowed to stand
exposed to the air became first red, then purple, and then
deposited the indigo-blue in the shape of small crystalline
scales, which were collected on a filter and washed first with
alcohol, afterwards with boiling water, then digested with
muriatic acid, well washed with water and dried.

The bodies insoluble in water formed by the action of acids
on indican are therefore six in number. I shall now give an
account of their properties and composition.

Indigo-blue.
The indigo-blue obtained by this process has all the pro-
perties usually ascribed to that substance. It is insoluble in
alkaline liquids, but dissolves easily when a deoxidising sub-
stance, such as a salt of protoxide of tin or protoxide of iron,
or grape sugar is added at the same time, the solution exhibit-
ing the usual appearance of an indigo vat, such as the yellow
colour, and the blue pellicle on the surface. It is only slightly
soluble in boiling alcohol, to which it communicates a blue
tinge, but easily and completely soluble in concentrated
sulphuric acid, forming a blue solution from which nothing
is precipitated on the addition of water. By the action of

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 197

ug nitric acid it yields indigotic acid, and when treated

;i strong boiling solution of caustic soda it is converted

having the properties of anthranilic acid. Its

tity with indigo-blue is however placed beyond doubt by

following results: —

I. 0.3365 grm. dried at 100° C. and burnt with oxide of

nd chlorate of potash gave 0.8955 grm. carbonic
and 0.1305 water.
0.5 175 grm. burnt with soda-lime gave 0.3775 grm. plati-

AMD0.*

II. 0.3605 grm. gave 0.9605 grm. carbonic acid and 0.1350
water.

0.5230 grm. gave 46 CC. of moist nitrogen at a tempera-
i »f 1 2° C. and a pressure of 736.8m m- equivalent to 42.7 CC.
of dry nitrogen at 0° C. and a pressure of 760mm or 0.0534 grm.
Hence was deduced the following composition : —

Eqs.

Calculated.

I.

II.

Carbon

. 16

96

73.28

72.57

72.66

Hydrogen . .

. 5

5

3.81

4.30

4.16

Nitron

. 1

14

10.68

10.36

10.22

Oxygen ....

. 2

16
131

12.23
L00.

12.77

12.96

100.00

100.00

* The double chloride which yielded this amount of platinum was washed
according to Hofmnnn's directions with ether, to which a little alcohol was added
instead of with the usual mixture of alcohol and ether. It weighed 0.fK)9*> grm.,
which if it had consisted of the double chloride of platinum and ammonium
alone, would hare corresponded to 0.0571 grm. of nitrogen or 11.03 per cent.
The apparent excess arose without doubt from the presence of aniline.

f The analyses above given lead to a composition more nearly approaching
-■oretical one than apy previously on record, with the exception of those
given by Laurent (Ann. de Chim. et de Pbys. Ser. III., T. which

were made with sublimed indigo-blue. To the use of the latter for this pur.
pose, however, objections may be raised on account of the difficulty of separating
n particles of carbon and traces of oily and resinous matters formed by
the sublimation. Dumas in his last memoir on the composition of indigo. blue
(Ann. de. Chim. et de Phys. Ser. III,. T. 2, p. 207) proved that the excess
of carbon in the previous analyses of the substance was only apparent, being
caused by the admixture of a little sulphur derived from the sulphate of iron
which is generally used for its purification. Having carefully removed this

198 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON TBM

Indirubine.
This substance when obtained by the process above de-
scribed usually appears in the form of a dark brown amor-
phous mass. On one occasion, when very pure indican had
been employed in its preparation, it was deposited from the
boiling alcoholic solution on cooling in long crystalline needles,
which were red by transmitted light. The alcoholic solution
has a fine purple colour. It is perfectly insoluble in alkaline
liquids, but if it be treated with a boiling solution of caustic
soda, to which some deoxidising substance, such as pro to-
chloride of tin or grape sugar is added, it dissolves with ease,
just as indigo-blue does under the same circumstances, form-
ing a solution from which it is again deposited in purple
flakes by the action of the atmospheric oxygen. It dissolves
in concentrated sulphuric acid in the cold, forming a purple
solution, which on the addition of water gives a dark precipi-
tate, the supernatant liquid remaining of a fine purple colour.
It is decomposed by boiling nitric acid. On being heated

sulphur, he obtained in three analyses 72.90, 72.84, and 72.97 per cent, of
carbon, which correspond apparently with the theoretical composition. These
amounts are, however, calculated according to the old atomic weight of carbon.
If corrected in accordance with the new atomic weight of carbon, which was
established by Dumas a short time previously, they become respectively 71-89,
75.77, and 71.92, the great excess in the second determination being probably
due to some misprint. On analysing some specimens of the indigo-blue re-
maining from his previous investigation, which he himself had proved to be
impure, and calculating the results according to the new atomic weight of
carbon, Dumas obtained in four analyses 73.3, 73.5, 72.7, and 73.3 per cent,
of carbon. The coincidence between these and the previous annlyses is of
course only apparent. I have myself always found a deficiency in the amount
of carbon, unless care was taken to wash the precipitated indigo-blue for a
considerable time. I ascribe this circumstance to the indigo -blue like all
porous bodies combining with certain substances and removing them from
their solutions in consequence of an attraction of surface exerted by it. If,
for instance, grape sugar is employed in its purification, a certain quantity of
it is carried down by the indigo-blue and can only be removed by continuous
washing with hot water, followed by treatment with muriatic acid and renewed
washing with water. Each portion of water is found to leave on evaporation
a small quantity of syrup, and this does not cease until the washing has been
ontinued for several days.

•

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 1 99

between two watch-glasses, it produces on the upper glass
a sublimate consisting of beautiful purple needles which dis-
in boiling alcohol forming a line purple solution which
on cooling deposits crystalline needles. This sublimate seems
to consist, not of any product of decomposition formed by
heat, but of the substance itself, which when freed from all
impurities possesses the property of crystallising.

The quantity of indirubine which I obtained, even when
operating on large quantities of indican, was so exceedingly
I, that I was unable to apply any means for effecting its
further purification.

I was however enabled by chance to procure from another
source a sufficient quantity of the substance for an examina-
of its properties and composition. Some time before
commencing my investigation of the woad plant I had ob-
tained from India a quantity of the dried leaves of the
Indigofera tinctoria for the purpose of ascertaining the state
in which the colouring matter is contained in them. Though
the leaves reached me as soon as possible after having been
gathered and dried, their examination led to no definite results,
the process of fermentation by which the colouring matter is
formed having probably been already completed, and I there-
fore laid them aside. Their peculiar greenish-purple colour
and the glaucous appearance of their surface which resembled
that of glazed green tea, showed however that they must con-
. ready formed, some peculiar species of colouring matter.
I was therefore induced to examine them again, and this ex-
amination led to the conclusion that their colour was caused
by a thin coating of a substance, which was, there could be
doubt, identical with indirubine. This substance was
isolated by the following process.

Having prepared a liquid containing protochloride of tin

dissolved iu an excess of caustic soda, the leaves were im-

led in it while boiling. The boiling was continued until

tin* leaves had lost their purple tinge and become pale green.

200 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

The green muddy liquid was then strained as quickly as pos-
sible through canvas, and left to stand exposed to the air in a
shallow vessel. The surface of the liquid soon became covered
with a purple pellicle, which was carefully skimmed off and
was succeeded by another, which was in its turn removed,
the process being repeated as long as anything formed on the
surface. The purple matter was then dissolved a second time
in an alkaline solution of protoxide of tin and the solution
was again left exposed to the atmosphere. The pellicle
which was formed by the action of the oxygen was removed
this time by means of blotting paper, to which it adhered
without much of the liquid underneath being removed with
it. The substance was separated from the paper by agitation
in water, collected on a filter, treated with boiling caustic soda
to dissolve a little adhering fatty matter, filtered off again,
washed with acid, then with water, and lastly dissolved in
boiling alcohol. The alcohol acquired a splendid purple
colour and on cooling deposited a quantity of crystalline
needles, consisting, as I believe, of indirubine in a state of
purity. When thus prepared it is found to have the follow-
ing properties.

It crystallises from its alcoholic solution in small needles
forming when dry a silky mass of a colour between purple
and chocolate, which on being rubbed with a hard body shows
a slight metallic lustre, resembling that of bronze. When
heated on platinum foil it emits red vapours, then melts and
burns with a yellow smoky flame leaving some charcoal.
WThen carefully heated between two watch-glasses it gives
a yellowish-red vapour, resembling that of bromine, which
condenses on the upper glass in the form of beautiful long
crystalline needles. These needles are plum or garnet-
coloured, they possess a somewhat metallic lustre, which is
however much inferior to that of sublimed indigo-blue, and
seem to consist simply of the original substance, which has
been volatilised without change. When the process of sub-

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 201

is carefully conducted only a trace of carbonaceous
t. It dissolves completely in concentrated sul-
phuric acid in the cold, forming a solution of a beautiful
de colour. This solution when heated does not become
black, but on the contrary rather paler and evolves only a
trace of sulphurous acid. When mixed with water it gives
bo precipitate and retains its fine purple colour, which does
not disappear or become weakened when the acid is neutralised

carbonate of soda, but soon vanishes entirely when an
excess of caustic soda or ammonia is added. The solution in
sulphuric acid after dilution with water imparts a fine purple
colour to cotton, wool, and silk. When treated with nitric
acid of ordinary strength indirubine begins to dissolve
even in the cold and to a greater extent on the application
of heat, forming a purple solution, which on being further
heated becomes red and on boiling yellow. The whole of
the substance is dissolved without leaving any resinous resi-
due, such is always left when indigo-blue is treated with
nitric acid, forming a clear yellow solution. This solu-
tion leaves on evaporation a residue which dissolves only
partially in hot water. A brown resinous substance is left
^solved by the latter, and the liquid filtered from this
is bright yellow and very bitter and yields when mixed

carbonate of potash and evaporated, crystals, apparently

i crate of potash, which detonate when heated. Very
dilut acid also decomposes and dissolves it on boil-

ing, but its decomposition is effected with far more difficulty
that of indigo-blue by the same means. In like
manner a boiling solution of bichromate of potash, mixed

sulphuric acid, which easily decomposes indigo-blue,
seems to have very little effect on it even when the boiling
is continued for a considerable time. When suspended
in water and exposed to the action of a stream of chlorine
gas it loses its colour very slowly and is changed into a
sinous substance containing chlorine which i

202 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

in boiling water and is easily soluble in alcohol, but
does not crystallise when the solution is evaporated. Like
the indirubine from indican it is quite insoluble in alkaline
liquids, but dissolves easily when a deoxidising agent, such
as grape sugar or a protosalt of iron or tin, is added at the
same time. If it be treated for instance with a solution of
protoxide of tin in an excess of caustic soda it dissolves
rapidly, forming a yellow solution, the surface of which on
exposure to the air instantly becomes covered with a film of
regenerated indirubine, the appearance being exactly like that
of an indigo vat, except that the film floating on the sur-
face is purple instead of blue. If a piece of calico be dipped
into the solution and then exposed to the air it acquires a
purple colour, which is not removed either by acids or soap.
This colour has no great intensity, but by working on a
larger scale it is probable that shades of purple equal in
depth to those produced by indigo-blue might be obtained.
When the solution is mixed with an excess of muriatic acid
it gives a dirty yellow precipitate, which after filtration and
exposure to the air slowly becomes purple. By long con-
tinued exposure of the solution to the atmosphere the whole
of the indirubine dissolved in it is again deposited as a purple
mass, which is sometimes found to consist of small crystalline
needles. When heated in a tube with soda-lime the substance
emits fumes having a smell like that of benzol and an alkaline
reaction, which condense on the colder parts of the tube to a
sublimate, consisting partly of oil and partly of crystalline
needles. It is not precipitated from its alcoholic solution by
acetate of lead, even when ammonia is added at the same time.
These reactions seem to me to prove the identity of this body
with the indirubine from indican, which if it could be entirely
freed from all impurities would no doubt exhibit the same
property of crystallising and of volatilising without residue. *

• When dry woad leaves are extracted with cold alcohol, the sides of the
glass vessel containing the extract generally become covered with patches of

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 203

The behaviour of indirubine towards concentrated sulphuric
acid and towards alkaline solutions of deoxidising substances
so much resembles that of indigo-blue towards the same re-
agents as to lead one to expect a great similarity in the com-
position of the two bodies, even if the fact of their being
formed from the same parent substance by the same process
of decomposition were unknown. The quantity of pure indi-
rubine, which I obtained from the leaves of the Indigofera, was
only sufficient for a general examination of its properties and
for one analysis, which showed however, if it be permitted to
draw a positive conclusion from one determination, that it has
exactly the same elementary composition as indigo-blue, that
the two substances are isomeric, rhe following are the num-
bers yielded by the analysis : —

0.3185 grm. dried at 100°C and burnt with oxide of copper
and chlorate of potash gave 0.8500 grm. carbonic acid and
0.1195 water.

0.2021 grm. gave 49.3 CC. of nitrogen at a temperature of
10.5°'C. and a pressure of 269.5mm equivalent to 16.81 CC.
at 0° C. and a pressure of 760mm or 0.2122 grm.*

In 100 parts in contained therefore

Carbon 72.78

Hydrogen . 4.16

Nitrogen ... 10.50

Oxygen 12.56

.00

Indifulvinb.

This substance is obtained on the evaporation of its alco-
holic solution in the form of a deep reddish-yellow, transparent,
amorphous resin, which when dry is brittle and may easily be
reduced to powder. It is perfectly insoluble in caustic alkalies,

small red crystals, which seem to consist of pure indirubine. They are insoluble
in caustic alkalies, but soluble in boiling alcohol, the solution depositing on
cooling, crystals exactly like those abore described.

' I owe this determination to Professor Frankland, who had the kindness to
perform it according to bis own method of analysis.

20 i Mil. E. SCHtltfCK ON THE"

a property by which it may be at once distinguished from fn-
diretine, which it resembles in its outward appearance. Even
when grape sugar or protochloride of tin is added to the
alkaline liquids not a trace of it dissolves even on boiling,
and in this respect it differs widely from indirubine. When
it is treated with strong caustic soda lye only a trace of
ammonia is given off, but on heating the dry substance with
soda-lime there is a very perceptible evolution of ammonia.
When heated on platinum it melts and then burns with a
bright flame, leaving much charcoal which burns away with
difficulty. On being heated in a tube it melts and gives off
fumes having a strong smell resembling that of crude indigo
when heated. These fumes condense on the colder parts of
the tube to a brown oil which on cooling becomes almost
solid without exhibiting a trace of anything crystalline. It
dissolves in concentrated sulphuric acid in the cold forming
a solution of a greenish-brown colour, which when heated
becomes black and disengages sulphurous acid. It is not
much affected by nitric acid of ordinary strength even on
boiling, but fuming nitric acid dissolves it readily, even in
the cold, giving a dark reddish-yellow solution, which on the
addition of water deposits orange-coloured flocks. If the
solution in fuming nitric acid be boiled it gives off nitrous
acid, and on evaporation it leaves a reddish-yellow resinous
mass, the greatest part of which on being treated with boil-
ing water remains undissolved in the shape of a yellowish-red
resin, resembling indifulvine itself in appearance, but differ-
ing from it in being easily soluble in alkaline liquids and
soluble with difficulty in boiling alcohol. The watery liquid
filtered from this resin yields on evaporation white needle-
shaped crystals which are not oxalic acid. A boiling solution
of bichromate of potash to which sulphuric acid is added de-
composes indifulvine very slowly, the solution becoming green
from the reduction of the chromic acid. Chlorine converts
indifulvine when suspended in water into a body which does

FORMATION Of INDIGO-BIT 205

not much differ from it in appearance but is ftolable in alkalies.
Indifulvine is not precipitated from its alcoholic solution by
acetate of lead even on the addition of ammonia, as indeed
might be inferred from its method of preparation.

Notwithstanding that I worked with tolerable large quan-
of the mixed products of decomposition of indican I
obtained only on two occasions, a sufficient quantity of pure
indifulvine for analysis. The composition on these two occa-
sions was not the same, so that, if the substance was in each
case pure, there are, strictly speaking, two bodies having the
general properties of indifulvine. Nevertheless the formula?
of the two bodies stand in a definite relation to one another
and to that of indican, so that in either case the formation of
the substance may easily be explained.

I. 0.3695 grm. dried at 100°C. gave 0.9945 grm. carbonic
acid and 0.1795 water.

0.3605 grm. gave 0.4665 grm. chloride of platinum and

ionium.
These numbers lead to the following composition : —

Eqs. Calculated. Found.

Carbon 22 132 73.33 73.40

Hydrogen 10 10 5.55 5.39

Nitrogen 1 14 7.77 8.12

Oxygen 3 24 13.35 13.09

180 100.00 100.00
The second analysis afforded the following data :

II. 0.3125 grm. gave 0.8975 grm. carbonic acid and 0.1635
fcer.

0.3400 grm. gave 0.4635 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

Hence may be deduced the following composition : —

Eqi. Calculated. Found.

Carbon 264 78.80 78.32

Hydrogen 19 5.67 5.81

Nitrogen 2 8.35 8.56

M8 7.81

100.00 >.00

206 Mil. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

If the first formula be doubled it gives C44 Hgo N2 06, and
if from this be deducted 1 equivalent of water and 2 equiva-
lents of oxygen it gives the second formula C44 H19 N2 03.

For the sake of distinction I think it may be of advantage
to apply to the first of these modifications of indifulvine, the
term a indifulvine and to the second that of b indifulvine.
The manner in which these bodies are derived from indican
can only be understood after all the products of decomposi-
tion have been treated of.

Indihumine.

This substance has the appearance of a sepia-brown powder,
which is insoluble in water and alcohol, but soluble in alkaline
liquids forming brown solutions, from which it is re-precipitated
by acids in brown flocks. When heated on platinum it burns
without melting leaving some charcoal which easily burns
away. Boiling nitric acid decomposes it easily, forming a
yellow solution which on evaporation leaves an orange-
coloured residue insoluble in water. Indihumine is not
always formed in any great quantity in the decomposition of
indican by acids. Sometimes indeed it cannot be detected
among the products of decomposition, and usually it is
present only in minute quantities. What are the circum-
stances which determine its formation in particular cases
I am unable to say. On the only occasion on which I
obtained a sufficient quantity for analysis it was procured
from an alcoholic extract of woad by evaporating, adding
water to the residue and filtering, then adding sulphuric acid
to the watery solution containing indican, filtering again,
allowing the solution to stand for twenty-four hours, filtering
off the indigo-blue and other products which had separated,
boiling the liquid, collecting the brown powder which was
deposited during the ebullition on a filter, washing it with
water and then treating it with a boiling mixture of alcohol
and ammonia until nothing more dissolved. The insoluble

OF INDIGO-BLUE. 207

ie consisting of indihumine was analysed, when the
following numbers were obtained : —

0.3065 grm. dried at 100°C. gave 0.7065 grm. carbonic
acid and 0.1300 water.

0.3285 grm. gave 0.3765 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

From these numbers it may be inferred that the compo-
sition is as follows : —

Eqg. Calculated. Found.

Carbon 20 J20 62.82 62.86

Hydrogen 9 9 4.71 4.71

Nitrogen 1 14 7.33 7.19

Oxygen 6 48 25.14 25.24

191 100.00 100.00

Indifuscine.

This body so much resembles the preceding in its outward
appearance and most of its properties, that the two might
easily be confounded. Indifuscine is always obtained in the
shape of a dark brown powder, exhibiting sometimes a red-
dish tinge. It is insoluble in boiling water and only slightly
soluble in boiling alcohol, the solution being light brown and
depositing a great part of the substance on cooling in brown
flocks. It is easily soluble in a mixture of alcohol and am-
monia. The solution is dark brown and opaque, and when
it is mixed with an excess of muriatic or acetic acid the
greatest part of the indifuscine is deposited in the form of
a brown powder, while the supernatant liquid retains a brown
colour, which is rather darker than that of the solution of
the substance itself in boiling alcohol. It is also soluble in
watery solutions of caustic and carbonated alkalies, forming
brown solutions, from which it is precipitated again by adds
in brown flocks. The amnion iacal solution gives brown pre-
cipitates with salts of baryta, lime, magnesia, alumina, iron,
zinc, copper, lead, mercury, and silver, the whole of the in-

208 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

difuscine being precipitated in combination with the respective
bases. When indifuscine is heated in a platinum crucible the
whole mass begins to heave and is kept in a state of agitation
for a few moments, in consequence probably of an evolution
of gas at the points of contact with the metal, whereupon it
burns but without melting and leaves a considerable quantity
of charcoal, which burns away with difficulty without leaving
any ash. When heated in a tube it gives fumes having a
smell like that of burning turf besides a little oily sublimate,
unmixed with anything crystalline. Concentrated sulphuric
acid dissolves indifuscine forming a brown solution, which on
being heated evolves sulphurous acid. A boiling solution of
bichromate of potash to which sulphuric acid is added dis-
solves and decomposes it rapidly with an evolution of gas,
the chromic acid being reduced to oxide of chromium. On
being treated with boiling dilute nitric acid indifuscine is
decomposed with a disengagement of nitrous acid, giving a
yellow liquid which on evaporation yields crystals of oxalic
acid. The mother liquor of these crystals on being neutral-
ised with carbonate of potash and evaporated gives brownish -
yellow crystals, which detonate when heated and give with
acetate of lead, nitrate of silver, and sulphate of iron, reac-
tions showing them to consist of picrate of potash. When
finely powdered indifuscine is suspended in water and sub-
jected to the action of chlorine it is converted into a yellow
flocculent substance containing chlorine, which is insoluble in
boiling water, but dissolves easily in boiling alcohol forming
a brown solution, which on spontaneous evaporation leaves a
light brown amorphous residue.

When the indican submitted to decomposition with acids
has not been purified, the quantity of indifuscine formed far
exceeds that of the other products of decomposition, which
with the exception of indigo-blue are always produced in com-
paratively small quantities. In this case a great part of the
indifuscine owes its origin to the action of the acid on a body

FORMATION OP INDIGO-BLUE. 209

formed by the influence of water and oxygen on indican.
Nevertheless, even when perfectly pure indican is employed,
a certain quantity of indifuscine is always produced, especially
if the quantity of material used is considerable.

When submitted to analysis indifuscine prepared on different
occasions is found to exhibit considerable variation in its
composition. The analyses, the results of which I am about
to give, were made with specimens, derived from different
sources, which notwithstanding the difference in their com-
;on showed no difference in their properties.

I. 0.3135 grm. indifuscine, obtained from the deposit formed
on mixing a watery solution of indican with sulphuric acid and
allowing the mixture to stand in the cold, dried at 100°C.
and burnt with oxide of copper and chlorate of potash, gave
0.6830 grm. carbonic acid and 0.1305 water.

II. 0.3930 grm. obtained by adding sulphuric acid to a
watery solution of indican, allowing the mixture to stand for
some time in the cold, filtering, and then employing the de-
posit produced on heating the filtered liquid, gave 0.8720 grm.
carbonic acid and &1625 water.

0.5675 grm. gave 0.5230 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

III. 0.3435 grm. derived from the deposit formed on mix-
ing a decoction of woad leaves with muriatic acid and boiling,
gave 0.7635 grm. carbonic acid and 0.1510 water.

0.4550 grm. gave 0.4365 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

I V. 0.3675 grm. obtained by extracting fiuely chopped woad
leaves with warm water, adding sugar of lead to the extract,

ing from the green precipitate, removing the excess of
lead with sulphuric acid, filtering, adding more acid, and treat-
ing the flocculent deposit which was formed in the usual
manner, gave 0.8950 grm. carbonic acid and 0.1635 war
0.5715 grm. gave 0.5855 grm. chloride of platinum and

210 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

V. 0.3640 grm. prepared in a similar manner to the last,
gave 0.9020 grm. carbonic acid and 0.1640 water.

0.4470 grm. gave 0.5070 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

These numbers correspond in 100 parts to —

i. ii, in. iv. v.

Carbon 59.41 60.51 60.61 66.41 67.58

Hydrogen... 4.62 4.59 4.88 4.94 5.00

Nitrogen 5.78 6.02 6.43 7.12

Oxygen 29.12 28.49 22.22 20.()3

100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00
In passing the eye along these numbers it will be seen that
the amount of oxygen decreases progressively from II. to V.,
while that of the other constituents increases. These two
analyses represent in my opinion the composition of the two
extreme members of a series, the intermediate members of
which consist of mixtures or compounds of the two. A number
of other analyses which I made gave results which can only be
explained on the supposition that there are two bodies having
the same general properties which I have ascribed to indifu-
scine, but a different composition. Of the above analyses the
two first agree tolerably well with the formula C24 H10 N09,
whereas the last leads to the formula C22 H10 N05, as the
following calculation will show : —

Eqs. Calculated. Eqs. Calculated.

Carbon 24 144 60.00 22 132 67.34

Hydrogen. . 10 10 4.16 10 10 5.10

Nitrogen . . 1 14 5.83 1 14 7.14

Oxygen ... 9 72 30.01 5 40 20.42

240 100.00 196 100.00

It will be seen that the two formulae differ from one another
by 2 equivalents of carbonic acid, and hence the name of
Indifuscone might not be inappropriate for the body whose
composition is expressed by the second formula C22 H10 N05.

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUB. 2 1 1

Though this is the only way in which I am able to explain
these discrepancies, still I failed in all my efforts to separate
any specimen of the substance having an intermediate com-
position into two distinct constituents, as every such specimen
behaved towards all reagents as if it were one single sub-
stance. By treating however a specimen of this kind with
a boiling solution of caustic soda for a length of time, the
percentage of carbon was increased by about 2.5, showing
that the body whose formula is C24 H10 N 09 has a tendency
to lose carbonic acid and be converted into the one whose
composition is expressed by the formula CM H10 NO«. The
substance used in this experiment was that employed for the
analysis No. III. It was dissolved in caustic soda, the solu-
tion was boiled for some time and then mixed with an excess
of muriatic acid. The precipitate produced by the acid was
dissolved in alcohol and ammonia, and the solution having
been mixed with an excess of acid deposited a brown powder,
which after being collected on a filter, washed and dried was
analysed, when it was found to contain 63.22 per cent, of
carbon.

Indiretine.

This body, the most striking properties of which have been
already mentioned in the first part of this paper, appears on
evaporation of its alcoholic solution in the form of a dark
brown, shining resin, which is transparent only in very thin
layers. It resembles indifulvine in appearance but is dis-
tinguished from the latter by its being easily soluble in all
alkaline liquids. When heated on platinum foil it melts,
swells up very much and burns with a yellow smoky flame,
leaving some charcoal which slowly burns away. When
heated in a tube it swells up and gives strong smelling fumes
together with an oily sublimate, resembling that obtained
from indifulvine, which when cool becomes half solid. Con-

212 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

centrated sulphuric acid dissolves it in the cold, forming a
brown solution, which when boiled becomes black and dis-
engages sulphurous acid. Boiling nitric acid decomposes it
with an evolution of nitrous acid, giving a yellow solution,
which on evaporation leaves a brown residue consisting of a
resinous substance insoluble in water and a little picric acid.
When it is treated with boiling caustic soda lye only a trace
of ammonia is given off, but when heated with soda-lime
there is a much stronger evolution of ammonia. A boiling
solution of bichromate of potash to which sulphuric acid has
been added slowly decomposes it with an evolution of gas
while the liquid becomes green. The solution in ammonia
is brown and gives brown precipitates with the chlorides of
barium and calcium and with nitrate of silver, while the
liquid in each case becomes colourless. The alcoholic solu-
tion gives with acetate of lead a brown precipitate, which
dissolves entirely on the addition of acetic acid, and with
acetate of copper it gives a slight brown precipitate, the
filtered liquid being still dark brown.

In the first part of this paper I have given for indiretine
the formula C36 H20 NO]3. The analyses, which I have
made with fresh preparations of this body, lead to the formula
Cag Hi7 NO10, as will be seen from the following details.

I. 0.3955 grm. dried at 100° C. and burnt with oxide of
copper and chlorate of potash gave 0.9565 grm. carbonic acid
and 0.1995 water.

0.5215 grm. burnt with soda-lime gave 0.1400 grm. pla-
tinum.

II. 0.4250 grm. of the same preparation heated to 190° C.
and then kept for several hours at 100° C. gave 1.0300 grm.
carbonic acid and 0.2090 water.

0.5065 grm. gave 0.1370 grm. platinum.

III. 0.4210grm. of a different preparation gave 1 .0200grm.
carbonic acid and 0.2140 water.

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 213

The theoretical composition as compared with that derived
from these numbers is as follows : —

Eqs.

Calculated.

I.

n.

in.

Carbon. . . .

36

216

66.05

65.96

66.09

66.07

Hydrogen.

, 17

17

5.19

5.60

5.46

5.64

Nitrogen . .

1

14

4.28

3.81

3.84

... .

Oxygen . . .

10

80
^27

24.48
100.00

24.63

24.61

100.00

100.00

I think it is improbable that the discrepancy between the
two formulae, which differ from one another merely by 3 HO,
proceeds from any impurity in either case, or that it is to be
attributed to the substance having been more carefully dried
at one time than at another. Indiretine appears to furnish
one of those instances, of which I have met with several
during the investigation of this series, of a body exhibiting
when prepared on different occasions the same properties but
having at one time a composition differing by the elements
of water from that which it has at others.

Having described the several products of decomposition
formed by the action of acids on indican, which are insoluble
in water, I shall now proceed to the consideration of those
which are soluble in water. In order to obtain these I found
it advisable to employ sulphuric acid for the decomposition
of the indican. After the process was completed the insoluble
matter deposited wa3 separated by filtration, the sulphuric
acid was removed by means of carbonate of lead, and the
I having been filtered, sulphuretted hydrogen was passed
through it in order to precipitate a little lead contained in ir,
and after being again filtered it was evaporated by means of
a current of air in the same apparatus as that employed in
the evaporation of solutions of indican. After the evapora-

was completed there was left a light brown syrup, ?
on being treated with alcohol was usually entirely dissolved.
The alcoholic solution was filtered if necessary, and then

214 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

mixed with about twice its volume of ether, which imme-
diately turned it milky and produced a deposit consisting of
a brown syrup. This syrup was allowed to settle and the
whole was left to stand for twenty-four hours. The surface
of the syrup and the sides of the glass vessel were then found
to be covered with a quantity of small, almost white crystals.
These crystals are the same as those referred to above as
being obtained in the preparation of indican, when ether is
added to the alcoholic solution of the latter. I was at first
inclined to suppose that they consisted of a substance which
was contained as such in the plant, but I soon discovered
that they were a product of decomposition of indican, as they
were also obtained from perfectly pure indican, which had
been prepared by successive solution in alcohol, water and
ether, in the last of which the crystals are insoluble. Indeed
no product of decomposition of indican seems to be so easily
formed as this. By shaking the liquid from which they
were deposited the crystals were easily detached from the
sides of the vessel and the surface of the syrup. They
were collected on a filter, washed with ether, and then
pressed between folds of blotting-paper in order to absorb
any of the syrup which might be mixed with them. They
were then dissolved in boiling water, and the solution
having been decolorised with animal charcoal was filtered
and evaporated, when it left a crystalline mass, which was
again pressed between blotting-paper and dissolved in a
small quantity of boiling alcohol. The alcoholic solution
on cooling deposited a mass of small crystals, which had the
properties and composition of

Leucine.

It crystallised from the alcoholic solution in small flat tables
having a pearly lustre, which repelled cold water like a fatty
acid but were readily soluble in boiling water. It was insoluble

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 215

in ether. When heated in a tube it was completely volatilised
without melting, forming a sublimate on the colder parts of
the tube in the form of a light mass like cotton. It was easily
soluble even in the cold in sulphuric, muriatic and nitric acids.
The solution in nitric acid gave off no nitrous fumes on being
boiled and left on evaporation a colourless syrup, which on
standing was changed into a crystalline mass. The solution in
muriatic acid left on evaporation a crystalline residue. It
was easily soluble in caustic soda, and the solution evolved no
ammonia on being boiled, but when the dry substance was
heated with soda-lime it gave off a strong smell of ammonia
accompanied by a peculiar penetrating odour. The watery
solution was neutral to test paper and had no perceptible
taste. When mixed with freshly precipitated oxide of copper
and boiled, the watery solution became sky-blue ; the filtered
liquid gave no precipitate with caustic soda, and on being
evaporated left a residue consisting of bright blue crystals.
The watery solution gave no precipitate with nitrate of silver,
but on the addition of a little ammonia there was deposited
almost immediately a quantity of small crystalline scales,
which blackened slightly on exposure to the light, and were
not easily soluble in an excess of ammonia. The watery
solution gave no precipitate with acetate of lead, and even on
adding ammonia there was only a slight precipitate, but on
allowing the ammoniacal liquid to stand for some hours there
was formed a crystalline mass of a pearly lustre consisting
of needles arranged in star-shaped masses.

The analysis of the substance gave the following results:

0.3430 grm. dried at 100°C. and burnt with chromate of
lead gave 0.6820 grm. carbonic acid and 0.3125 water.

0.2550 grm. gave 0.4125 grin, chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

The composition in 100 parts agrees tolerably well with
required by the formula of leucine C12 H|S N04, as will

216 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

be seen from the following comparison of the calculated com-
position with that found by experiment : —

Eqs. Calculated. Found.

Carbon 12 72 54.96 54.22

Hydrogen 13 13 9.92 10.12

Nitrogen 1 14 10.68 10.16

Oxygen 4 32 24.44 25.50

131 100.00 100.00

However strange the fact of leucine, a substance hitherto
supposed to be a product of decomposition peculiar to animal
matters, being obtained from the decomposition of a vegetable
substance, may have appeared at a former period, it will no
longer excite surprise at the present time, when so many dif-
ferent bodies have been found to be common to both classes
of organisms. It is a fact however which seems to imply
some connection, hitherto unsuspected, between leucine and
indigo-blue.

The brown syrup precipitated together with leucine by the
addition of ether to the alcoholic solution consisted chiefly of
the peculiar kind of sugar produced by the decomposition of
indican, and to which as having a composition differing from
that of most other species of sugar I propose to give the
name of

Indiglucine.

In order to purify it, the brown syrup after the crystals of
leucine had been separated by decantation, was dissolved in
water and acetate of lead was added to the solution. A slight
precipitate was thereby produced, which was separated by
filtration, and on adding ammonia to the liquid, a bulky yel-
lowish precipitate fell, consisting chiefly of the lead compound
of indiglucine. This was filtered off, completely washed with
water and decomposed with sulphuretted hydrogen. The
filtered liquid was agitated with animal charcoal until it had

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 217

quite lost the yellowish tinge which it showed at first and
until a portion of it on being mixed with acetate of lead and
ammonia gave a perfectly white precipitate. It was then
filtered again and evaporated either in the apparatus above
described by means of a current of air or over sulphuric acid.
The syrup left after evaporation was dissolved in alcohol and
the solution was mixed with twice its volume of ether, when
the indiglucine was precipitated as a pale yellow syrup, having
a sweetish taste.

To the description formerly given of this substance I have
only a few particulars to add. Baryta water gives no pre-
cipitate in the watery solution, but on adding alcohol a slight
flocculent yellow precipitate is produced. The watery solu-
tion after being mixed with milk of lime and filtered is found
to have become strongly alkaline and on being boiled becomes
quite thick in consequence of the separation of a bulky yellow
mass of flocks, which on the liquid cooling is completely re-
dissolved forming a clear yellow solution as before, an experi-
ment which may be repeated any number of times. The
solution of the lime compound when mixed with an excess
of alcohol gives a bulky yellowish precipitate, after which the
liquid appears almost colourless. When treated with boiling
nitric acid indiglucine is decomposed and yields oxalic acid.
When a watery solution of indiglucine is mixed with yeast
and left to stand in a warm place no disengagement of gas
is observed nor is any sign of fermentation taking place
manifested. After some days however the solution begins
to acquire a strongly acid taste and reaction, showing that
it has entered into a state of acetous fermentation without
having passed through the intermediate stage of the alco-
holic fermentation.

The new analyses which I have made of the lead compound
confirm the conclusion at which I arrived at an early period
of the investigation, viz. that when in combination with oxide
2 F

218 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

of lead the composition of indiglucine is expressed by the
formula C12 H9 On, and that hence its formula when in an
uncombined state is probably C12 H10 012.

An analysis of the lead compound, prepared by adding
acetate of lead and ammonia to a watery solution of indi-
glucine, filtering, washing and drying in vacuo, gave the
following results: —

0.5640 grm. burnt with chromate of lead gave 0.2430 grm.
carbonic acid and 0.0845 water.

0.2495 grm. gave 0.2445 grm. sulphate of lead.

These numbers lead like those of the former analyses to
the formula C]2 H9 On +4 Pb O, as will be seen by com-
paring the numbers required by theory with those deduced
from the analysis.

Eqs Calculated. Found.

Carbon 12 72 11.69 11.75

Hydrogen 9 9 1.46 1.66

Oxygen 11 88 14.30 14.49

Oxide of Lead 4 446.8 72.55 72.10

615.8 100.00 100.00

There still remain some products of the action of acids on
indican to be treated of. These products are volatile. In
order to ascertain their nature I took a solution of indican,
mixed it with sulphuric acid and boiled it in a retort, the tube
of which passed through a cork into a receiver from which a
tube led into a bottle with lime water, the joinings being all
air-tight. After the liquid had entered into a state of ebul-
lition and the air had been expelled from the apparatus, bub-
bles of gas were seen now and then to pass through the lime
water, which became milky and deposited a quantity of car-
bonate of lime. After a great part of the solution had been
distilled, the receiver was removed and the liquid contained in
it, which was yellowish and had an acid reaction, was mixed

UMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 219

an excess of carbonate of soda and evaporated to dry-
The saline residue was mixed with an excess of dilute
sulphuric acid and the liquid was distilled. The distillate was
now colourless. It contained formic acid, for after being neu-
tralised and mixed with nitrate of silver, metallic silver was
soon deposited even in the cold. The whole of it was boiled
with carbonate of lead, and the filtered liquid was evaporated,
when it yielded some shining crystalline needles surrounded
by a thick syrup. By means of a little cold water the syrup

removed, the needles being left undissolved. The latter
had the properties of formiate of lead.

0.3450 grm. of these needles dried at 100° C. and heated
with sulphuric acid gave 0.3505 grm. sulphate of lead, equi-
valent to 0.2579 oxide of lead or 74.75 per cent. In 100
parts of formiate of lead there are contained by calculation
75.11 parts of oxide of lead.

The liquid poured off from these crystals was mixed with
an excess of sulphuric acid, filtered from the sulphate of lead
and distilled. The distilled liquid was boiled with peroxide
of mercury, in order to decompose any formic acid which it
might contain, and filtered, and after sulphuretted hydrogen
had been passed through it, it was again filtered from the
precipitated sulphuret of mercury. The excess of sulphu-

d hydrogen was removed by agitation with carbonate of
lead, and the filtered liquid was mixed with an excess of sul-
phuric acid, filtered again from the sulphate of lead and dis-
tilled. The distillation was repeated and the distillate was
then boiled with carbonate of silver, filtered and evaporated
in vacuo. A residue was left consisting of small white crys-
talline grains, which repelled water just as if they contained
fatty matter. When a portion of this residue was mixed with
alcohol and sulphuric acid and the mixture was boiled, a smell

that of butyric ether was given off. The quantity ob-
tained was just sufficient for one analysis, the results of which
were as follows : —

220 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

0.4420 grm. gave 0.2370 grm. carbonic acid and 0.0925
water.

0.0990 grm. gave 0.0835 grm. chloride of silver.
These numbers correspond in 100 parts to

Carbon 14.62

Hydrogen 2.32

Oxygen 14.87

Oxide of Silver 68.19

100.00

This composition approximates, as will be seen, to that of
acetate of silver, which consists in 100 parts of

Carbon 14.37

Hydrogen 1.79

Oxygen 14.38

Oxide of Silver 69.46

100.00

The excess in the amount of carbon and hydrogen and the
deficiency in that of the oxide of silver show however that
it must have contained a small quantity of the silver salt of
another acid belonging to the same series as formic and acetic
acids, a series having the general formula Cn Hn 04. This
acid was probably propionic acid, an acid, the formation of
which must indeed be assumed, in order to explain how one
of the other products of decomposition of indican takes its
rise. The quantity of this acid however contained in the
silver salt the analysis of which has just been given was very
small, since as may be inferred from the composition of the
salt, it was to that of the acetic acid in the proportion of 1
equivalent of the former to 23 equivalents of the latter.

Having described all the products to which the decomposi-
tion of indican with acids gives rise, it will now be possible
to give an account of the manner in which these various
products are formed and of the relation in which they stand
to one another.

FORMATION OP INDIGO-BLUE. 221

The decomposition of indican, after taking up several equi-
valents of water, into 1 equivalent of indigo-blue or indirubine
and 3 equivalents of indiglucine will be evident at once from
a comparison of the formulae of these bodies.

The formation of leucine will also be easily understood
when it is considered that indigo-blue and 10 equivalents
of water, contain the elements of 1 equivalent of leucine,
1 equivalent of formic acid, and 2 equivalents of carbonic
acid, as the following equation will show: —

( Cu Hw N04 1 eq. Leucine.
1 eq. Indigo-blue Clfl H5 NO, j = C, H, O, 1 eq. Formic acid

10 eqs. Water H10 O10 ) p n o n i -a

* V Ca 04 2 eqs. Carb. acid.

Cl'Hl6N°12 CuHuNO,,

Such a decomposition as this can of course only take place
before the elements of indican have arranged themselves in
such a manner as to form indigo-blue, which is a body of far
too stable a nature to undergo any decomposition by the
action of dilute acids.

In order to explain the formation of indifulvine it is neces-
sary to take into consideration the simultaneous formation of
formic acid. Indican m&y be supposed, after taking up 5
alents of water, to split up into 1 equivalent of a indi-
fulvine, 2 equivalents of indiglucine, and 3 equivalents of

formic acid, as will be seen from the following equation :

Indican C„ H* NO* j ( C«H">N03 * eq. a Indifulvine.

Water H, O, j = °» H*> °* 2 ^8' ^diglucine.

n „ " V C, H« 0„ 3 eqs. Formic acid.

C.H..NO,.

The following equation shows how the other modification
of indifulvine may be supposed to take its rise : —

iC* Hlt N, O, 1 eq. b Indifulvine.
C« H40 O* 4 eqs. Indiglucine.
0,0 H10 Ow5eqs. Formica
C. 0^2 eqs. Carb. m

Cio« h„ n, 0:a

222 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

It may further be assumed that 1 equivalent of indican
after taking up 4 equivalents of water, is decomposed into
1 equivalent of indihumine, 2 equivalents of indiglucine, 1
equivalent of propionic acid, and 2 equivalents of carbonic
acid, as follows: —

GjoHg N06 1 eq. Indihumine.
C24 H20 Om 2 eqs. Indiglucine.
4 eqs. Water H4 04 ) ~ ) c6 H6 04 1 eq. Propionic acid.

1 eq. Indican C62 H31 NCX* \ _ } c24 U^ 021 2 eqs. Indiglucine.
H4 O J ~

C52 Hw NO^ V Q 04 2 eqs. Carbonic acid.

The formation of indifuscone is quite analogous to that of
indihumine, the propionic acid in the preceding equation being
simply replaced by acetic acid, for

/ C22 H10 NOfi 1 eq. Indifuscone.
1 eq. Indican C62 H31 NO^ |_|CM H^ 024 2 eqs. Indiglucine.
3 eqs. Water H3 03 j ~~ ) C4 H4 04 1 eq. Acetic acid.

C H NO ^ ^a ®* ^ e^8, Carbonic acid.

CWH*N0r

The manner in which indifuscine takes its rise from indican
needs no explanation, since a comparison of its formula
C24 H10 N09 with that of indifuscone shows that its com-
position differs from that of the latter by containing in
addition the elements of 2 equivalents of carbonic acid. In its
conversion into indiretine, indican splits up into 1 equivalent of
the latter body, I equivalent of indiglucine, and 4 equivalents
of carbonic acid. Here however the anomaly presents itself
of a copulated body like indican losing water instead of
taking it up during its decomposition into simpler compounds,
as will be seen from the following equation : —

Cgs H17 NO10 1 eq. Indiretine.

1 eq. Indican CM H31 NO^ =

C12 H10

012 1 eq.

Indiglucine.

c4

08 4 eqs.

Carbonic acid.

H4

04 4 oqs.

Water.

C52 H31 N03

UK. 223

It will be observed that when indican is converted into
indirubine it yields at the same time 3 equi-

lts of indiglucine, whereas the formation of the other
products of decomposition is accompanied by the elimination
of no more than I or 2 equivalents of that substance. Hence
it may be inferred that the appearance of these other products
is due to a part of the indiglucine undergoing a further de-
composition from the action of the acid, its elements together
with the residual portion of the indican affording the materials
out of which the other products are formed. In fact we may
easily suppose indiglucine, or perhaps more strictly speaking

-roup of atoms contained in indican which goes to form
indiglucine, to split up into 1 equivalent of propionic acid,
I equivalent of acetic acid, and 2 equivalents of carbonic
acid, for

C« H10 012 = C6 H6 04 + C4 H4 04 + 2 C (X

Each of these subordinate groups of atoms or any two of
them may then be supposed to enter into combination with
that portion of the indican which goes to form indigo-blue
or indirubine and which may be called its central nucleus.
When for instance indihumine is formed, 2 equivalents of

lucine are produced from the indican, whereas the third

ralenft splits up into acetic acid, propionic acid, and car-
acid. The two latter are set at liberty and may be

I among the volatile products of decomposition but the
elements of the acetic acid unite with the indigo-blue group
of atoms yielding by the combination indihumine. In the
case of indifuscone the acetic and carbonic acids derived from
the third equivalent of indiglucine are set at liberty, whereas
the propionic acid combines with the indigo-blue molecule con-
stituting indifuscone. Indifuscine again may be supposed to

st of indigo-blue, propionic acid and carbonic acid, acetic
acid alone being in this case disengaged. In the process of
decomposition which leads to the formation of indiretine, only

livalent < icine is eliminated, and 4 equivalents of

224 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

carbonic acid are disengaged, while the 2 equivalents of pro-
pionic acid as well as the 2 equivalents of acetic acid derived
from the other two equivalents of indiglucine unite with the
indigo-blue nucleus to produce indiretine. When a indiful-
vine is formed it must be assumed that 1 equivalent of indi-
glucine after taking up 2 equivalents of water, splits up into
3 equivalents of formic acid and a body represented by the
formula C6 H6 02, as follows: —

Cu Hio 013 + 2 H O = 3 C2 H2 04 + C6 H6 02 .

Now the last is the formula belonging to the aldehyde of
propionic acid and by adding to this formula that of indigo-
blue the sum will represent the composition of a indifulvine.
The more complicated formula given above for b indifulvine,
viz. C44 H19 N2 03 represents a compound of 2 equivalents of
indigo-blue with a body whose formula is Ci2 H12 02 and which
is therefore homologous with propylic aldehyde, its origin
being due to 2 equivalents of indiglucine being decomposed
in such a manner as to give rise to formic acid and carbonic
acid in accordance with the following equation : —

2 C H10 012 + 2 H 0 = 5 C2 H2 04 + 2 C 02 -f C12 H12 02.

It will be observed in all these cases, with one exception,
viz. that of indihumine, that in the assumed combination of
the elements of indigo -blue with those of these various acids
&c, one or more equivalents of water must be supposed to
be eliminated, as will be seen by a glance at the following
equations : —

Indihumine. Indigo-blue. Acetic acid.

CM H, N06 = C16 H5 N02 + C4 H4 04

Indifuscone. Indigo-blue. Propionic acid.

H»H10NO, = Cl6H6N02 + CflH604 — HO

Indifuscine. Indigo-blue. Propionic acid.

CMH10NO9 = C16H5N02 + C6H604 + 2C02 — HO

a Indifulvine. Indigo- blue. Propylic aldehyde.

CKH10NO3 = C16H5N02 + C6H602 — HO

FOBMATION OF INDIGO-BIXE. 225

b Indifulvine. Indigo-blue.

C« H19 Na 03 = 2 Qe H, NO, + Clt HI3 03 — 3 H 0

Indiretinc. Indigo-blue. Acetic acid. Propionic acid.

CM H17 NOl0 = C16 H4 N03 + 2 C4 H4 04 + 2 C.H, 0< — 8 H O

It must not for a moment be supposed that these bodies
really are compounds of indigo-blue, or that the latter is in
any shape contained in them or may be obtained by their
decomposition. Indeed all my experiments lead to the con-
on that the elements are arranged in a manner very dif-
ferent from what might be inferred from the above equations.
If the nitrogenous substances formed from indican together
with indigo-blue were copulated bodies containing the latter,
it would be possible to obtain from them either indigo-blue
itself or its products of decomposition. With the small quan-
tities of these substances which were at my disposal I was
unable to make many experiments to decide this point. A
tolerably large quantity of indifuscine was however subjected
to the action of a strong caustic soda lye, the liquid being
boiled until it left a thick mass which was heated still further,
a small portion of it no longer dissolved in water with a
dark brown colour. I was unable however to discover among
the products of decomposition a trace of anthranilic acid,
which would probably have been present, if indifuscine con-
tained the elements of inctigo-blue.

Some advantage may nevertheless arise from looking at
these compounds from the point of view just presented, as their
relation to one another, to indigo-blue and to indican is thereby
more vividly impressed on the memory. This method of con-
sidering them may also serve to show that these compounds
are all produced at the expense of indigo-blue, that the ele-
- contained in indican which have formed a certain portion
of indifulvine, indihumine, &c, might under certain unknown
circumstances have produced equivalent quantities of indigo-
blue, and that the latter cannot therefore be said in any sense
to pre-exist in indican.
2G

226 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

Action of Alkalies on Indican.

In the first part of this paper I have described in general
terms the effect produced on indican by alkalies. I shall
now proceed to give a more detailed account of this process
of decomposition and of the products, to which it gives rise.

When a watery solution of indican is mixed with caustic
soda it turns of a dark yellow colour, but no further apparent
change takes place. If however, after the mixture has been
left to stand for several days, a portion of it be mixed with an
excess of sulphuric acid and boiled, it deposits dark flocks,
which after being collected on a filter and washed are found
to contain no indigo-blue and to be entirely soluble in boiling
alcohol. The alcoholic solution has a fine purple colour and
gives only a slight precipitate with acetate of lead. Hence
it follows that by the action of the alkali indican is converted
into a body which by decomposition with acids yields indiru-
bine. This body may be prepared in the following manner.
A watery solution of indican having been mixed with baryta
water is left to stand, until a portion of it on being boiled
with an excess of muriatic acid no longer yields indigo-blue
but only indirubine. The baryta is then precipitated with
sulphuric acid, the excess of the latter is removed by means
of carbonate of lead, the liquid is filtered and after sulphu-
retted hydrogen has been passed through it, it is filtered
again from the precipitated sulphuret of lead and then eva-
porated by means of a current of air in the apparatus above
described. The dark yellow syrup left after evaporation is
treated with alcohol in which a great part dissolves, and the
alcoholic solution is then mixed with twice its volume of
ether, which causes a milkiness and produces a syrupy de-
posit consisting chiefly of indiglucine. The liquid after it
has become clear is evaporated spontaneously when it leaves
a yellow transparent glutinous residue, having a bitter taste,
which cannot be distinguished in outward appearance from
indican itself. This residue when dissolved in water and

FORMATION OP INDIGO-BLUE. 22/

treated with acid still gives indirubine, in a state of tolerable
purity.

On attempting however to prepare stance on a

somewhat larger scale I found it difficult to arrest the pro-
cess at this stage. As soon as the solution ceased to give
indigo-blue with acids, it began to yield with acids a mixture
of indirubine and indiretine, and at length it gave indiretine
only, after which no further change took place. By allowing
a watery solution of indican mixed with baryta water to stand
until the decomposition had arrived at its last stage and then
treating the solution in the way just described, a substance
resembling the preceding was obtained, in the form of a
brown syrup, to which I propose to give the name of

Indicanine.

This substance has the following properties. Its taste is
bitter like that of indican. When heated on platinum it
swells up very much and burns leaving a bulky carbona-
ceous residue. When heated in a tube it gives fumes, con-
densing to a brown liquid, which after some time becomes
filled with a quantity of white crystalline needles. It is
perfectly soluble in alcohol and ether. The alcoholic solu-
tion gives with an alcoholic solution of acetate of lead a
bright sulphur-yellow precipitate which dissolves when more
acetate of lead is added and the liquid is boiled, forming
a yellow solution, in which ammonia again produces a
yellow precipitate like the first. The watery solution gives
only a slight precipitate with acetate of lead, but the
filtered liquid yields a copious yellow precipitate on the
addition of ammonia. When the watery solution is mixed
with sulphuric acid and boiled it slowly deposits a quantity of
brown resinous particles, which are entirely soluble in caustic
soda and consist of indiretine and a little indifuscine. On
tig caustic soda to a watery solution of indicanine it be-
m dark yellow and on being boiled disengages ammonia,

228 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

but exhibits no further change. The analysis of the lead
compound, prepared by adding acetate of lead to the alco-
holic solution, filtering and washing with alcohol, yielded the
following results: —

0.7840 grm. dried first in vacuo and then at 100° C. burnt
with oxide of copper and chlorate of potash gave 0.6115 grm.
carbonic acid and 0.1480 water.

1.0350 grm. gave 0.2225 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

0.3785 grm. gave 0.3010 grm. sulphate of lead.

Hence was deduced the fc .lowing composition : —

Eqs. Calculated. Found.

Carbon 40 240 21.06 21.27

Hydrogen 23 23 2.01 2.09

Nitrogen 1 14 1.22 1.35

Oxygen 24 192 16.88 16.78

Oxide of Lead 6 670.2 58.83 58.51

1139.2 100.00 100.00

After deducting the oxide of lead the amount of the other
constituents in 100 parts as compared with the calculated
composition is as follows : —

Eqs. Calculated. Found.

Carbon 40 240 51.17 51.26

Hydrogen 23 23 4.90 5.03

Nitrogen 1 14 2.98 3.25

Oxygen 24 192 40.95 40.46

469 100.00 100.00
In the first part of this paper I gave an analysis of the lead
compound of a substance having the formula C40 H^ N027
which differed therefore in composition from this merely by
containing the elements of 3 equivalents more of water. As
it was impossible to analyse these substances in an uncom-
bined state, there were no means of ascertaining whether in
that state they had the same composition, as was most pro-
bably the case.

FORMATION OP INDIGO-BLUE. 229

Indicanine is formed from indican simply by the latter taking
Bp water and losing 1 equivalent of indiglucine, as will be seen
from the following equation : —

1 eq. Indican CM H3i NOM | __ ( C£ Un NO* 1 eq. Indicanine.

2 eqs. Water Ha Oa ) "" I Cla H10 Ou 1 eq. Indiglucine.

C„ H„ NO. CMH„NO„

The indiglucine formed in the process is contained in the
brown syrupy deposit which falls on adding ether to the alco-
holic solution of the indicanine. Some of this deposit, after
the liquid had been poured off, was dissolved again in alcohol,
the solution was mixed with an excess of alcoholic solution of
acetate of lead, which produced a brown glutinous precipitate,
and to the filtered liquid was added an excess of ammonia,
which gave a bulky sulphur-yellow precipitate. This pre-
cipitate was collected on a filter, washed with water and de-
composed with sulphuretted hydrogen, and the filtered liquid
was agitated with animal charcoal until it had lost the yellow-
ish tint which it possessed at first. The liquid having been
again filtered was mixed with acetate of lead and ammonia,
which produced a milk-white precipitate. This precipitate
after being filtered off was redissolved in a mixture of alcohol
and acetic acid, and by the addition of a small quantity of
ammonia a white precipitate was again produced, which was
filtered off and washed with alcohol.

1.0230 grm. of this precipitate dried in vacuo gave 0.4780
grm. carbonic acid and 0.1510 water.

0.6095 grm. gave 0.5780 grm. sulphate of lead.
In 100 parts it contained therefore

Carbon 12.74

Hydrogen 1.64

Oxygen 15.85

Oxide of Lead. . 69.77

100.00
If the oxide of lead, the amount of which stands in no

230 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

simple relation to that of the other constituents, be deducted,
the composition of the body combined with it will be repre-
sented by the formula C12 H9 On, which is that of anhydrous
indiglucine, as will be seen from the following calculation : —

Eqs. Calculated. Found.

Carbon 12 72 42.60 42.14

Hydrogen 9 9 5.32 5.42

Oxygen 11 88 52.08 52.44

169 100.00 100.00
The manner in which indiretine and indifuscine are formed
from indicanine needs no explanation, since the composition
of the latter ditfers from that of indican merely by the ele-
ments of 1 equivalent of indiglucine. It is however difficult
to explain why indicanine by decomposition with acids should
yield only these products and no indigo-blue, indirubine, or
indifulvine, which might, as far as their composition is con-
cerned, be produced at the same time, and I am quite unable
to assign any cause for this phenomenon. It seems to me
very probable that the indiretine and indifuscine which are
formed when pure indican in large quantities is decomposed
with acids owe their origin to the conversion of a portion of
the indican into indicanine, before the acid has had time to
effect the more complete decomposition of this portion into
indigo-blue or indirubine and indiglucine.

Indican is decomposed when its watery solution is heated
for a length of time, in exactly the same manner as by means
of alkalies. After the solution has been heated for some time
it no longer gives any indigo-blue when a portion of it is
boiled with sulphuric acid. If it be now evaporated in the
same apparatus as that used for evaporation of solutions of
indican it leaves a brown syrup, a great part of which dis-
solves in alcohol. On adding ether to the alcoholic solution
a syrupy deposit of indiglucine is produced followed by the
separation of crystals of leucine. If the liquid be filtered
and evaporated it leaves a brown glutinous residue having

FOBMATION OP IND1QO-BLUE. 231

the properties of indicanine. The lead compound which was
obtained in the form of a sulphur-yellow precipitate by adding
acetate of lead to the alcoholic solution, was after being
filtered off and washed with alcohol submitted to analysis
when it gave the following results: —

1.2580 grm. dried first in vacuo and then in the waterbath,
gave 0.8320 grm. carbonic acid and 0.2040 water.

1.5655 grm. gave 0.2740 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

0.7620 grm. gave 0.6610 grm. sulphate of lead.
These numbers correspond in 100 parts to

Carbon 18.03

Hydrogen 1.80

Nitrogen 1.09

Oxygen 15.26

Oxide of Lead 63.82

100.00

The oxide of lead being deducted, the substance combined
with it was found to have a composition agreeing with the
formula Cio HM NO*;, as will be seen by a comparison of
the calculated composition with that found by experiment : —

Eqs. Calculated. Found.

Carbon 40 240 50.20 85

Hydrogen 24 24 5.02 4.98

Nitrogen 1 14 2.92 3.01

Oxygen 25 200 41.86 42.16

478 100.00 100.00
When a watery solution of indican or indicanine is evapo-
rated in contact with the air, either spontaneously or with
issistance of heat a portion of it is always converted
into a substance which is insoluble not only in ether but
also in alcohol. That the formation of this substance is due
to the action of oxygen on indicanine is proved by analysis.
formation moreover is promoted by heating the solution
of indicanine with peroxide of lead, the filtered liquid after

232 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

the dissolved lead has been removed with sulphuretted hydro-
gen leaving on evaporation a residue which is insoluble in
alcohol. It differs however in composition according as the
solution of indican has been evaporated spontaneously or with
the assistance of heat. The body which is formed when a
watery solution of indican is spontaneously evaporated in
contact with the air, I propose to call

OXINDICANINE.

So much of this body is produced during the preparation
of indican, that I found it unnecessary to prepare it purposely.
When the residue left after the evaporation of the watery
solution of indican by means of a current of air, as described
above, is treated with cold alcohol, the greatest part of the
oxindicanine formed during the process remains undissolved.
It may be purified simply by dissolving it in a little water
and precipitating again with a large quantity of alcohol. Its
appearance is that of a brown glutinous substance, which on
being left to stand over sulphuric acid becomes almost dry
and assumes the appearance of gum. It is insoluble in abso-
lute alcohol and only slightly soluble in dilute alcohol. When
heated on platinum it swells up very much and burns leaving
a considerable carbonaceous residue. It yields when heated
in a tube strong smelling fumes but only a slight trace of
crystalline sublimate. Its taste is nauseous but not bitter.
Its watery solution gives with acetate of lead a copious dirty
yellow precipitate, and the filtered liquid gives a pale prim-
rose-yellow precipitate on the addition of ammonia or of a
large excess of alcohol. When the watery solution is mixed
with sulphuric acid and boiled it slowly deposits brown flocks,
which have the properties of indifuscine, while the liquid con-
tains indiglucine. For the purpose of determining its com-
position I employed the lead compound, prepared by adding
acetate of lead to the watery solution, filtering and washing
with water.

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 233

I. 0.8515 grm. of this precipitate dried first in vacuo and
then at 100° C. gave 0.7310 grm. carbonic acid and 0.1735
water.

1.1640 grm. gave 0.2575 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

0.5 185 grm. gave 0.3460 grm. sulphate of lead.

II. 1.2640 grm. of another preparation gave 1.0495 grm.
carbonic acid and 0.2430 water.

1.5500 grm. gave 0.2505 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

0.7730 grm. gave 0.5250 grm. sulphate of lead.

Hence the composition in 100 parts was as follows: —

I. H.

Carbon 23.41 22.64

Hydrogen 2.26 2.13

Nitrogen 1.38 1.01

Oxygen 23.85 24.25

Oxide of Lead 49.10 49.97

100.00 100.00

After deducting the oxide of lead the first analysis gives a
composition agreeing with the formula C40 Hw N031, whereas
the second leads to the formula C40 H23 NO32, as is shown by
a comparison of the calculated numbers with those deduced
from the above analyses.

Eqa. Calculated. I. Eqs. Calculated. £1.

Carbon . . 40 240 45.80 45.99 40 240 45.02 45.25

Hydrogen 22 22 4.19 4.44 23 23 4.31 4.25

Nitrogen.. 1 14 2.67 2.71 1 14 2.62 2.01

Oxygen.. 31 248 47.34 46.86 32 256 48.05 48.49

524 100.00 100.00 533 100.00 100.00

If the second formula be adopted as the correct one it fol-
lows that indicanine is simply converted into oxindicanine
by taking up 8 equivalents of oxygen. The formation of in-
difuscine from oxindicanine takes place in consequence of the
separation from the latter of I equivalent of indiglucine, 4

2H

234 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

equivalents of carbonic acid, and 3 equivalents of water, in

accordance with the following equation : —

/ Cu H10 N09 1 eq. Indifuscine.

i r\ • j- • n tr Am ) C12 HJ0 012 1 eq. Indiglucine.
leq.OxindicanineC40H23NO32= < u ^ * . ■

il4 U8 4 eqs. Carbonic acid.

V H3 03 3 eqs. Water.

*-"40 "23 NO32

The acetic acid which is produced when indifuscine is
formed from indicanine does not make its appearance in this
case. Indeed the 8 equivalents of oxygen which indicanine
absorbs in its conversion into oxindicanine is just sufficient
when added to the oxygen already contained in 1 equivalent
of acetic acid to convert the carbon and hydrogen of the
latter into carbonic acid and water.

When a solution of indican is evaporated in contact with
the air with the assistance of heat, and the residue which
remains is treated with strong alcohol there is left undis-
solved a brown glutinous substance, which has the properties
of oxindicanine but a different composition. The lead com-
pound of this substance was prepared by dissolving the latter
in water adding acetate of lead, decomposing the precipitate
with sulphuretted hydrogen, adding a little acetate of lead to
the filtered liquid, filtering again and precipitating completely
with sugar of lead. The precipitate which was of a dirty
yellow colour was filtered off, and washed first with water
and then with alcohol.

I. 1.3345 grm. dried first in vacuo and then at 100° C. gave
0.9875 grm. carbonic acid and 0.2370 water.

1 .5825 grm. gave 0.4305 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

0.8960 grm. gave 0.6630 grm. sulphate of lead.

II. 1.3675 grm. of another preparation gave 1.0485 grm.
carbonic acid and 0.2470 water.

1 .5955 grm. gave 0.4325 grm. chloride of platinum and
ammonium.

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 235

0.8895 grm. gave 0.6485 grm. sulphate of lead.
These numbers lead to the following composition :—

Eqt. Calculated. I II.

Carbon 28 168 20.27 20.1* 20.91

Hydrogen... 16 16 1.93 1.97 2.00

Nitrogen .... 1 14 1.68 1.70 1.70

Oxygen 23 184 22.22 21.71 22.35

Oxide of Lead 4 446.8 53.90 54.44 53.04

828.8 100.00 100.00 100.00
The following table shows the composition of the substance
after deducting the oxide of lead as compared with that re-
quired by theory : —

Eqs. Calculated. I. II.

Carbon 28 168 43.97 44.29 44.52

Hydrogen ... 16 16 4.18 4.32 4.25

Nitrogen 1 14 3.66 3.73 3.62

Oxygen 23 184 48.19 47.66 47.61

382 100.00 100.00 100.00
This body may for the sake of distinction be called Oxin-
dicasine. It is formed from oxindicanine by the latter taking
up water and losing 1 equivalent of indiglucine, since
1 eq. Oxindicanine C^ H.^ NO*, \ __ ( Cw Hl6 NO^ 1 eq. Oxindicasine
3 eqs. Water H3 O, i ~~ ( CiaH10 On 1 eq. Indiglucine.

C4oH»NOM C^H^NO*

It is possible that there may exist a body which bears to
oxindicasine the same relation that indicanine does to oxin-
dicanine. This body would be Indicasine, and would differ
from indicanine by containing the element of 1 equivalent of
indiglucine less. The following analyses of a lead compound
which was obtained a* a pale yellow precipitate when a large
quantity of alcohol was added to the liquid filtered from the
lead compound of oxindicasine, seem to countenance the idea
that such a body really exists.

I. 0.9705 grm. of this precipitate, alter being completely
washed with alcohol and then dried, at first in vacuo and then

236 MR. E. SCHTJNCK ON THE

at 100° C. gave 0.5740 grm. carbonic acid and 0.1645 water.

1.2145 grm. gave 0.1210 grm. platinum.

0.6325 grm. gave 0.5420 grm. sulphate of lead.

II. 1.3280 grm. of another preparation gave 0.7795 grm.
carbonic acid and 0.2145 water.

1.5600 grm. gave 0.1435 grm. platinum.

0.8965 grm. gave 0.7715 grm. sulphate of lead.

Hence was deduced the following composition : —

Eqs. Calculated. I. II.

Carbon...... 28 168 15.90 16.13 16.00

Hydrogen ... 20 20 1.89 1.88 1.79

Nitrogen 1 14 1.32 1.41 1.30

Oxygen 23 184 17.44 17.53 17.59

Oxide of Lead 6 670.2 63.45 63.05 63.32

1056.2 100.00 100.00 100.00

After deducting the oxide of lead the composition in 100
parts as compared with the theoretical composition is as
follows : —

Eqs. Calculated. I. H.

Carbon 28 168 43.52 43.65 43.62

Hydrogen 20 20 5.18 5.08 4.88

Nitrogen 1 14 3.62 3.81 3.54

Oxygen 23 184 47.68 47.46 47.96

386 100.00 100.00 100.00

Now if the formula of this substance be doubled and the
formula of oxindicasine be deducted the remainder will be
the formula C^ H24 NO23, since

CK Hw N2 O^ = C28 H16 NOM + CM H^ NO^

The body represented by the last formula and 1 equivalent
of indiglucine contain together the elements of indicanine and
water, for

CM Ku NO^ + CI2 H10 012 = Qo H* NO^ +11HO.

It has therefore the composition which theory would assign
to indicasine, and the substance represented by the formula

FORMATION OF INDIGO-BLUE. 237

CM H90 N023 is probably a mixture in equal proportions of
indicasine and oxindicasine. By decomposition of the lead
compound with sulphuretted hydrogen and evaporation of
the filtered liquid this substance is obtained in the form of a
brown syrup, which cannot be distinguished in appearance or
properties from oxindicanine or oxindicasine.

I did not enter into a more minute examination of these
bodies, since their formation from indican is the only point
of interest in their history.

XIII. — On the Occurrence of Indigo-blue in Urine.
By Edward Schunck, Ph.D., F.R.S.

[Read Aprillth, 1857.]

The occurrence of urine exhibiting various peculiar and
abnormal colours is a phenomenon which has frequently
attracted the attention and excited the curiosity of patho-
logists. Of these variously tinted urines the most remark-
able and striking are the black and the blue, but they are
at the same time so rare, that it has been deemed of im-
portance to record minutely the symptoms exhibited in each
case as well as the chemical and physical properties shown
by the urine itself. These urines have been observed in
diseases of the most different kinds, as well as in cases in
a the general health seemed not to be in the least degree
affected. The pigments themselves, to which the colours are
due, have not until lately been subjected to any chemical
examination, and great doubts still prevail regarding their
true nature. The blue pigment, to which I propose to con-
fine myself on the present occasion, has been discovered in
two states. In some cases it has been found ready formed so
as to impart to the urine a blue colour, but merely in a state
of suspension and therefore easily separated by simple filtra-
tion, whereas in other cases it has only made its appearance
when the urine was left to stand or was subjected to the action

240 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

of various reagents. In the cases described by Janus Plancus,*
Prout,f Braconnot, J and Simon, || it existed in the former
state. Hassall developed the blue colour by means of putre-
faction, in urines exhibiting the usual appearance, while
Neubauer found the same effect to be produced by the ad-
dition of acids to the urine. As regards its chemical nature,
the blue colouring matter seems to have been of three kinds,
as far as can be ascertained from the descriptions given by the
observers, which are not always very precise. In some cases,
such as those described by Julia-Fontenelle, § and Cantu,^
the colour was evidently caused by Prussian blue, the iron of
which appears to have been derived in one case from a quan-
tity of ink which the person had swallowed. The second
kind of colouring matter has been minutely described by
Braconnot, who obtained it simply by filtering the urine
from the blue deposit found suspended in it. It was a dark
blue powder, insoluble in water and alkalies, only slightly
soluble in alcohol and yielding no crystalline sublimate when
heated. From its dissolving in acids and its being reprecipi-
tated by alkalies and other bases, Braconnot inferred that it
consisted essentially of an organic base, to which he gave the
name of cyanourine. If the substance which he examined
was pure, it seems certainly to have been of a peculiar nature.
Nevertheless no one has since then observed any colouring
matter which could be with certainty pronounced identical
with it, though instances have been met with in which
the blue colour not being caused, as it seemed, by any well-
known body, has been attributed to the presence of cyanourine.
In the third class of cases the blue colour was produced by a

* Commentarii Instituti Bononiensis, ad Ann. 1767.

f On Stomach and Renal Diseases. 5th ed. p. &67.

% Annales de Chimie et de Physique. T. XXIX. p. 252.

|| Simon's Animal Chemistry, translated by Day. Vol. II. p. 327.

§ Archives generates de Medecine. T. II. p. 104.

% Journal de Chimie medicale. T. IX. p. 104.

OCCURRENCE OF INDIGO-BLUE IN URINE. 241

substance, which on examination of its properties and reac-
tions was found to be indigo-blue. Prout and Simon each
I ion a case in which indigo-blue was deposited from urine
on standing, in the shape of a blue sediment. Neubauer*
observed that the urine of a young man of 18, apparently in good
health, when mixed with strong acids became first purple, then
, and deposited a blue powder, which however he could
not with positive certainty identify as indigo-blue. Hassall t
was the first to point out that the occurrence of indigo-blue
in urine was by no means so rare a phenomenon as had
previously been supposed. The specimens of urine in which
1 [assail discovered it were mostly of a pale straw colour and
acid. On standing they became thick and turbid and changed
in colour from yellow to brown then to bluish-green, while
the surface became covered with a blue scum or pellicle, which
was found to consist of impure indigo-blue. Hassall con-
rid< n that the exposure of the urine to the oxygen of the
atmosphere is essential for the formation of the colouring
matter, however I shall show that this exposure is by no
means necessary. He also maintains that indigo-blue does
not occur in healthy urine, that its presence is accompanied
with strongly-marked symptoms of deranged health, and that
•rmation in urine must be regarded as a strictly patho-
logical phenomenon, conclusions which are, as will be seen,
quite at variance with the results of my experiments.

Such in a few words is the present state of our knowledge
on this rather obscure subject.

In my paper " On the Formation of Indigo-blue," J I have
shown that the colouring matter exists in plants in a very
different state to what had hitherto been supposed, that it does

* Anleitung zur Analyse des Harris. S. IP.

f Proceedings of the Royal Society, Vol. VI. p. 827 ; and Philosophical
Transactions for 1*54, p. 297.
X Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Vol.
p. 177 ; and M On the Formation of Indigo-blue," in the present Vol.
2 I

242 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

not exist in them ready formed nor as reduced indigo, and
that the presence of oxygen is not essential to its formation,
but that it owes its origin to the presence of a peculiar
substance, soluble in water, alcohol and ether which by the
action of acids is decomposed into indigo-blue, to which I have
given the name of Indican, also a peculiar kind of sugar and
a small quantity of other products. After having investigated
the properties of this substance and its products of decom-
position, I conceived it to be a matter of great interest to
ascertain in what state indigo-blue exists in those urines, in
which its presence is not indicated by the external appearance
but is only made manifest by treatment with various reagents.
That such urines should contain a body resembling indican
seemed indeed exceedingly probable, since the same reagents
which produce indigo-blue from indican lead in most cases to,
the development of the blue colour in particular kinds of urine*
The extreme rarity however of these kinds of urine appeared
to present an insuperable obstacle to the further investigation
of the subject, and I therefore resolved to astertain whether
any conclusions could be arrived at from an examination of
ordinary healthy urine.

When muriatic or sulphuric acid is added to urine, the
mixture on being heated becomes brown and begins to deposit
dark brown flocks, which increase in quantity when the heat-
ing is continued. When these flocks are filtered off, washed
and dried, they form a compact dark brown mass, from which
cold alcohol extracts a resinous matter, leaving undissolved a
brown powder, which dissolves however in a boiling mixture
of alcohol and ammonia. This powder contains nitrogen and
so much resembles indifuscine, one of the products of the
decomposition of indican, as almost to lead one to suspect their
identity. Its composition however, though it stands, as I
have ascertained, in a certain relation to that of indigo-blue,
is quite different from that of indifuscine. Now if the liquid
filtered from these flocks be mixed with a salt of oxide of

OCCURRENCE OF INDIGO-BLUE IN URINE. 243

topper and an excess of caustic soda, it becomes greenish, and
if after being filtered it be heated for some time it gradually
deposits a tolerably large quantity of suboxide of copper,
which is a proof of the presence of sugar. That the latter
has been formed during the process and did not pre-exist, may
be ascertained by previously heating a portion of the urine
with a salt of copper and caustic soda, before treating the
remainder of it with acid. Samples of urine, which, when
tried in this way, afforded very doubtful or no indications of
their containing sugar, were found after being boiled with
acid, then filtered and made alkaline, to reduce oxide of copper
in a very marked manner. This reaction, which is so simple
that it is only surprising it should never before have been
observed, seems to me to prove that there is contained in urine
some body, which by decomposition with acids yields sugar,
the brown flocks precipitated at the same time being probably
the substance with which the sugar was originally associated
in the form of a copulated compound. From various con-
siderations, which I need not detail, I was led to infer that this
body could be no other than the very imperfectly known, so-
called extractive matter of urine, and I accordingly commenced
an investigation of this substance, which has led to conclusions
of considerable interest. On discovering that the composition
of the brown flocks formed by the action of strong acids on
urine is expressed by the formula Cu H7 N04, which is also
that of anthranilic acid, a product of the decomposition of
indigo-blue, no further considerations were necessary to induce
me to proceed with the investigation, notwithstanding the
difficulties which I found attending it. Into the details of this
investigation I shall at present only enter so far as they relate
to the occurrence of indigo-blue in urine.

When acetate of lead is added to urine it produces a cream-
coloured precipitate, which consists of chloride, sulphate,
phosphate, and urate of lead, and contains also a little of the
•extractive matter of urine, which is, as it were, merely attached

244 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

to some of these lead compounds, since it is not precipitated
from its watery solution by acetate of lead, when in a state of
purity. The filtered liquid which is much paler in colour than
it was before the addition of acetate of lead, gives with basic
acetate of lead a second precipitate of a pale cream-colour,
which consists of the lead compound of the extractive matter
mixed with some basic chloride of lead. Both this and the first
precipitate give when treated with sulphuric or muriatic acid
yellow liquids, which after being filtered from the sulphate or
chloride of lead and boiled, yield brown flocks exactly like
those obtained from urine itself. The liquid filtered from the
precipitate with basic acetate of lead is almost colourless. It
gives, however, on the addition of ammonia an almost white
precipitate, the quantity of which is much less than that of
either of the two other precipitates. Now this precipitate
exhibits a very remarkable peculiarity. It contains in most
instances in combination with oxide of lead, a small quantity
of a substance which by decomposition with acids yields
indigo-blue. The first time that I treated this precipitate
with acid I was surprised to observe that the liquid became
immediately of a purplish-blue colour, and deposited after
filtering and standing a small quantity of a substance, which
on examination was found to consist chiefly of indigo-blue.
This phenomenon was observed on so many occasions that I
came to the conclusion that the occurrence in urine of an
indigo-producing body similar to indican, was by no means an
unusual circumstance.

In order to ascertain whether this body is present, I adopt
the following method. The urine having been mixed with
basic acetate of lead until no more precipitate is produced is
filtered, and after the precipitate has been washed with water
the liquid is mixed with an excess of ammonia, which always
produces more or less of a white or yellowish-white precipitate.
This precipitate is collected on a filter, slightly washed with
water and then treated with dilute sulphuric or muriatic acid

OCCURRENCE OF INDIGO-BLUE IN URINE. 245

in the cold. After the whole of the oxide of lead has combined
with the acid employed, the liquid is filtered. When there is
much of the indigo-producing body present the filter acquires
a blue tinge, small particles of blue pigment are seen dotting
the surface of the sulphate or chloride of lead, and the surface
of the liquid, which is of a brownish-purple colour, in a very
short time becomes covered with a thin pellicle, which is blue
by transmitted and copper-coloured by reflected light, particles
of the same blue substance being at the same time found
attached to the sides of the vessel. When there is less of the
indigo-producing body present, this pellicle only appears after
some time, sometimes not until the next day. After twenty-
four hours however the action of the acid is always completed,
so that if no indigo-blue then appears or can be detected on
examination of the deposit, the total absence of the indigo-
producing body may be inferred. On the succeeding day,
however large the quantity of blue deposit formed may be, the
liquid no longer appears purplish, but brown, and after being
filtered and boiled deposits a dark brown powder, having
exactly the same appearance as that produced by the action
of acids on the ordinary extractive matter of urine. The
matter left on the filter after being washed is treated with
caustic soda, which dissolves a portion acquiring thereby a
brown colour. The portion which remains undissolved after
being again collected on a filter and washed, is treated
with boiling alcohol. In most cases the alcohol acquires
thereby a bright blue colour. When however the quantity
of deposit formed is tolerably large, the boiling alcohol
first dissolves another substance, which imparts to it a
fine purple colour, and which I consider to be identical with
indirubine.* That which the boiling alcohol leaves undissolvd
is a bright blue powder having the properties of indigo-blue.

* It it very probable that Heller's urrhodine, as well as Golding Bird's
purpurine are also identical with indirubine, which, as I have shown, has the
same composition as indigo-blue

246 ur. e. schunck on the

It dissolves in an alkaline solution of protoxide of tin, and the
solution on exposure to the air becomes covered with a blue
film. It is soluble in concentrated sulphuric acid forming a
blue solution, which remains blue even after dilution with
water. It imparts to boiling alcohol a bright blue colour, and
the solution on cooling and standing deposits blue flocks.
When heated in a tube it gives a purple vapour which forms
on the colder parts of the tube a blue sublimate.

Provided with this test I proceeded to examine the urine of
a number of individuals, and I succeeded in obtaining indigo-
"blue in so great a number of instances, that I have no hesita-
tion in saying that the indigo-producing body, if not exactly
one of the normal constituents of urine, occurs more frequently
than any other of the abnormal ones. The urines containing
it exhibit no remarkable or peculiar appearance whatever;
they are acid, clear, and of the usual colour. Its occurrence,
at least if its quantity is moderate, is not to be considered as a
pathological phenomenon. 1 can at all events state from my
own experience, that its presence is not attended by any
symptoms of ill health or feelings of discomfort, and that
neither from the state of the health nor the appearance of the
urine can any conclusions be drawn as to its presence or
absence. The small number of samples of morbid urine,
which I had an opportunity of examining, yielded, with one
exception, no more indigo-blue than the generality of healthy
urines. Nevertheless, there are no doubt diseases in which
the quantity of the indigo-producing body may become so
large as to constitute a truly morbid symptom, and it may
therefore become a matter of importance and interest for the
medical man to have a ready means of detecting it. The
delicacy of the test which I have described, as well as the
small quantity of the substance usually present, may be
judged of from the fact that by working for several weeks on
the urine of two individuals, which contained a comparatively
large quantity, I obtained one grain of indigo-blue. Even

OCCUBRHNOE OF INDIGO-BLUE IN URINE. 24?

when the amount of indigo-blue formed was very small I
always found that 16 fluid ounces of urine yielded an appre-
ciable quantity of it.

The urine of forty different individuals, all of whom were
apparently in a good state of health, yielded, with one excep-
tion only, more or less indigo-blue, when examined in the
manner just described. These individuals belonged to both
sexes, and they were of ages varying from 7 to 55. The ma-
jority were persons of the working classes. The largest quan-
tity of indigo-blue was obtained from the urine of a man above
the age of 50, a publican by trade. The urine of a young man,
aged 32, a servant in my employment, yielded almost as large
a quantity. Among the rest, the urine of a young man, aged
25, an engraver, that of a clerk, aged 23, and that of a girl,
aged 12, who had been a cripple from infancy, were alone
remarkable for the amount of indigo-blue which they yielded,
In all these cases the indigo-blue was accompanied by the
substance imparting to alcohol a purple colour, and which I
suppose to be indirubine. The other specimens afforded much
less, sometimes mere traces. In all cases however in which
the urine of the same individual was examined at different
times, the amount of indigo-blue obtained from it was found
to vary exceedingly, it being sometimes considerable and occa-
sionally dwindling down to a mere trace. It was only very
rarely however that none was found. In the case of the
individual first referred to, the urine gave on one occasion not
a trace, and this took place when he was engaged in perform-
ing labour, unusual for him both in its nature and amount.
In my own case, as well as that of my assistant, the amount
varied most capriciously from a tolerable quantity to a mere
trace, occasionally even none at all being obtained.

I performed several experiments with different kinds of diet
in order to ascertain the effect on the amount of indigo-blue
yielded by the urine. Only one experiment, however, led tQ
any decisive result. Having selected an occasion, when the

248 MR. E. SCHUNCK ON THE

night urine gave no indigo-blue, I took on the next night,
before going to bed, a mixture of treacle and arrowroot boiled
with water in as large a quantity as the stomach could bear,
and the effect was that the urine of the following night gave
a large quantity of indigo-blue. As, however, the same phe-
nomenon was repeated for several succeeding nights without
any additional quantity of food having been taken, it remained
uncertain to what cause it was to be attributed, though a re-
petition of the experiment on a second occasion gave the same
result.

I have hitherto not had an opportunity of examining many
specimens of urine in disease. Of two samples of urine from
patients with albuminaria one gave a small quantity of indigo-
blue, the other not a trace. Several specimens of diabetic
urine yielded it. One of these, which I owed to the kind-
ness of Dr. Browne of Manchester, gave a much larger quan-
tity than I obtained from any other specimen of human urine.

The urine of the horse and the cow when tried in the same
way as human urine gave comparatively very large quantities
of indigo-blue, especially that of the horse.

I think it is highly improbable that the indigo-blue ob-
tained in Hassall's experiments was produced, as he supposes,
by the action of oxygen on the urine. Its formation was
without doubt due to the decomposition of the indigo-pro-
ducing body induced by the fermentation of the urine, the
indigo-blue at the moment of its formation dissolving in the
fermenting alkaline liquid and producing a true indigo vat,
from which it was gradually deposited by the action of the
atmospheric oxygen. When small quantities of indigo-blue
only are formed in any specimen of urine, fermentation is not
in my opinion to be recommended as a means of detecting it.

The occurrence of the indigo-producing body as an excre-
tion seems to me to be due to a disproportion between the
oxygen absorbed by the system and the matter to be acted on
by it, which again may be caused either by an excessive

N URINE. 249

waste of the tissues or by an obstruction of the organs con-
ig oxygen, as the lungs and skin, or, as is probably the
case in the majority of instances, by an excess of food being
taken over and above the requirements of the system. As
regards the constitution of this body, I think there can be no
doubt that it contains the elements of indigo-blue and sugar,
and that by oxidation within the system it is converted into
the ordinary extractive matter of urine, which contains, as I
have ascertained, the elements of sugar and of the black sub-
stance which is formed by the action of strong acids on urine,
and which may be considered as a product of the oxidation of
indigo-blue. Having prepared the extractive matter of urine
in a state of purity, ascertained its composition, and examined
its products of decomposition, I think it is probable that the
indigo-producing body will be found, as regards its formation
and composition, to occupy a place between the substance of
the tissues and the ordinary extractive matter of urine. The
very minute quantities of it ordinarily occurring in urine, and
the difficulty of separating it from the extractive matter, make
it, however, impossible to ascertain whether this is the case or
not. My object in making known this portion of the inves-
tigation in its present fragmentary state, is to induce medical
men, who have an opportunity of examining many varieties
of urine, to endeavour to discover among these varieties some
containing a sufficiently large quantity of this body to enable
the chemist to ascertain its properties and composition.

The formation of a substance containing the elements of
indigo-blue in the animal system is a fact which may lead to
important conclusions regarding the chemical composition of
the complex bodies of which the blood and tissues consist.

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JAMES WOOLLEY.

EDWARD WILLIAM BINNEY, F.R.S., F.G.S.

EDWARD FRANKLAND, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S.

259

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE MEMBERS

Wfjt P*ras anb Ipsjrpfeital Sonets 0f $ltafttstar.

JULY 21st, 1857.

DATE OP ELECTION.

Henry Morell Acton, B. A January 27th, 1867

Joseph Adshead April 29th, 1866

Ralph F. Ainsworth, M.D April 30th, 1839

James Allan, Ph.D., M.A January 24tb, 1864

W. H. Ash April 17th, 1849

Thomas Ashton, Hyde August 11th, 1887

John Atkinson January 27th, 1846

Robert Barbour January 23rd, 1824

Henry Bernoulli Barlow January 27th, 1852

Joseph Barratt April 19th, 1842

Rer. R. Bassnett, A.M April 17th, 1849

John F. Bateman, M.Inst. C.E., F.G.S., &c January 21st, 1840

Thomas Bazley January 26th, 1847

Thomas Sebastian Bazley, B.A April 19th, 1853

William Bell January 26th, 1847

Edward T. Bellhouse April 21st, 185T

James Beran January 28rd, 1844

Charles Beyer ... January 24th, 1854

Edward William Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S January 25tb, 1842

Richard Birley April 18th, 1834

John Blackwall, F.L.S January 26th, 1821

260 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE MEMBERS.

DATE OF ELECTION.

Eddowes Bowman, MA January 23rd, 1855

Henry Bowman October 29th, 1839

John Brock April 21st, 1857

William Brockbank April 17th, 1855

Edward Brooke April 30th, 1824

W. C. Brooks, M.A January 23rd, 1844

Frederick Broughton April 17th, 1855

Henry Browne, M.B January 27th, 1846

Laurence Buchan November 1st, 1810

John Burd January 27th, 1846

Henry Bury April 19th, 1853

William Callender, jun % January 24th, 1854

Frederick Crace Calvert, M.R.A.T., F.C.S January 26th, 1847

John Young Caw, F.S.A., F.R.S.L April 15th, 1841

Charles E. Cawley, C.E January 23rd, 1855

Henry Charlewood .7 January 24th, 1832

David Chadwick April 20th, 1852

George Cheetham Churchill April 21st, 1857

Richard Copley Christie, M.A., Owens College April 18th, 1854

Charles Clay, M.D April 15th, 1841

Charles Cleminshaw April 29th, 1851

Samuel Clift, F.C.S April 19th, 1853

Thomas Cooke April 12th, 1838

Edward Corbett January 25th, 1853

Samuel Cottam January 25th, 1853

Samuel Crompton April 29th, 1851

James Crossley January 22nd, 1839

Joseph S. Crowther January 25th, 1848

Richard S. Culley, C.E January 24th, 1854

Matthew Curtis April 18th, 1843

John Dale February 7th, 1854

John Benjamin Dancer, F.R.A.S April 19th, 1842

Robert Dukinfield Darbishire April 19th, 1853

David Reynolds Davies January 24th, 1854

James Joseph Dean November 15th, 1842

William L. Dickinson January 23rd, 1855

Frederick Nathaniel Dyer April 30th, 1850

Joseph Cheeseborough Dyer April 24th, 1818

IE MEMBERS. 26 1

DATS OF KUtCTION.

C. F. Ekman ... April 29tb, 1856

CharlesEMs ...January 24th, 1854

George Fairbairn January 25th, 1853

Thomas Fairbairn April 30th, 1850

W. Fairbairn, F.R.S., Inst.Nat.Sc., Par. Corresp October 29th, 1824

W. A. Fairbairn October 80th, 1849

David Gibson Fleming January 25th, 1852

Richard Flint October 81st, 1818

H.R.Forrest April 29th, 1856

Thomas Barham Foster ; April 21st, 1857

Benjamin Fothergill '..January 23rd, 1855

E. Frankland, Ph.D., F.R.S., Owens College April 29th, 1851

Alfred Fryer January 24th, 1854

Rev. William Gaskell, M.A January 21st, 1840

Samuel Giles April 20th, 1836

John Gould April 20th, 1847

John Graham August 11th, 1837

Robert Hyde Greg, F.G.S January 24th, 1817

Robert Philips Greg, F.G.S October 30th, 1849

John Clowes Grundy January 25th, 1848

Richard Hampson January 23rd, 1844

John Hawkshaw, F.R.S., F.G.S., M.Inst.CE January 22nd, 1839

William Charles Henry, M.D., F.R.S October 31st, 1828

John Hetherington January 24th, 1854

Sir Benjamin Heywood, Bart., F.R.S January -27th

James Heywood, F.R.S., F.G.S April 26th, 1833

James Higgin April 29th, 1851

James Higgins April 29th, 1845

Peter Higson October 31st, 1848

John Hobson January 22nd, 1889

E. Hodgkinson, F.R.S., M R.I.A., F.G.S., &c January 21st, 1820

George Holcroft January 24th, 1854

Isaac Holden January 23rd, 1855

James Piatt Holden January 27th, 1848

Thomas Hopkins January 18th, 1828

Henry Houldsworth January 23rd, 1824

262 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE MEMBERS.

DATE OV ELECTION.

William Jenniogs Hoyle February 7th, 1854

Edward Hunt, B.A., F.C.S January 27th, 1857

George Jackson January 27th, 1857

John Jesse, F.R.S., R.A.S., and L.S January 24th, 1823

Richard Johnson April 30th, 1850

William Johnson January 22nd, 1856

Rev. Henry Halford Jones, F.R.A.S April 21st, 1846

Joseph Jordan October 19th, 1821

B. St J. B. Joule April 18th, 1848

James Prescott Joule, F.R.S., &c January 25th, 1842

William Joynson January 27 th, 1846

Samuel Kay January 24th, 1843

John Lawson Kennedy January 27th, 1852

James Kershaw, jun January 24th, 1854

Richard Lane April 26th, 1822

William Langton April 30th, 1830

Joseph Leese, jun April 30tb, 1850

Thomas Taylor Lingard January 22nd, 1856

Thomas Littler January 27th, 1825

Joseph Lockett October 29th, 1839

Isaac Waithman Long, F.R.A.S January 27th, 1852

R. B. Longridge January 27th, 1857

Benjamin Love April !9th, 1842

George Cliffe Lowe January 24th, 1854

Edward Lund April 30th, 1850

George T. Lund January 23rd, 1855

William Tudor Mabley October 30th, 1855

James M'Connel October 30th, 1829

William M'Connel April 17th, 1838

Alexander M'Dougall April 30th, 1844

John Macfarlane January 24th, 1823

The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Manchester, D.D.,

F.R.S., F.G.S April 17th, 1849

Thomas Mellor January 25th, 1842

William Mellor January 27th, 1837

David Morris January 23rd, 1849

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE MEMBERS. 263

DATB OF BLBCT10X.

AlfredNeild ...January 25th, 1848

William Neild April 26th, 1822

James Emanuel Nelson January 27th, 1852

Thomas Henry Nevill February 7 th, 1854

John Ashton Nicholls, F.R.A.S January 21st, 1645

William Nicholson January 26th, 1827

Edward Byron Noden October 31st, 1854

Henry Mere Ormerod April 30th, 1844

George Parr April 30th, 1844

John Parry , April 26th, 1883

George Peel, M.Inst.C.E April 15th, 1841

William Wilkinson Piatt April 21st, 1857

Henry Davis Pochin January 24th, 1854

Rev. T. E. Poynting January 27th 1857

John Ramsbottom February 7th, 1854

Joseph Atkinson Ransome, F.R.C.S April 29th, 1886

Thomas Ransome January 26th, 1847

Richard Roberts, M.Inst.C.E January 18th, 1823

Samuel Robinson January 25 th, 1822

Alan Roy le January 25th, 1842

Samuel Salt April 18th, 1848

Alex. J. Scott, M.A., Owens College February 7th, 1854

Archibald Sandeman, M.A., Owens College April 29th, 1851

Michael Sa'terthwaite, M.D January 26th, 1847

Edward 8chunck, Ph.D., F.R.S. January 25th, 1842

Edmund Hamilton Sharp January 23rd, 1855

John Shuttleworth October 30th, 1835

Joseph Sidebotham April20th, 1852

George S. Fereday Smith, M.A., F.G.S January 26th, 1838

Robert Angus Smith, Ph.D., F.R.S April 29th, 1845

Peter Spence April 29th, 1851

Thomas Standring January 27th, 1852

Edward Stephens, M.D January 24th, 1834

James Stephens April 20th, 1847

Robert Stuart January 21st, 1814

John Edward Taylor January 22nd, 1856

264 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE MEMBERS.

DATE OF ELECTION.

David Thorn April 20th, 1852

James Thompson April 18th, 1854

James Aspinall Turner, M.P April 29th, 1836

Thomas Turner, F.R.C.S April 19th, 1821

Robert Walker, M.D January 27th, 1857

Absalom Watkin January 24th, 1823

Thomas George Webb January 27th, 1857

Joseph Whitworth January 22nd, 1832

Samuel Walker Williamson April 19th, 1853

William Crawford Williamson, F.R.S., Owens College April 29th, 1861

George Bancroft Withington January21st, 1851

William Rayner Wood January 22nd, 1839

Alonza B. Woodcock October 30th, 1855

George Woodhead April 21st, 1846

Edward Woods April 30th, 1839

James Woolley November 15th, 1842

Robert Worthington, F.R.A.S April 28th, 1840

265

HONORARY MEMBERS.

Rev. William Turner, Manchester.

Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., Rolleston Hall.

Rev. Adam Sedgwick, M.A., F.R.S., Hon. M.R.I.A., &c, Cambridge.

General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, Bart., F.R. S., Hon. M.R.I. A.,

Instit. Nat. Sc, Paris. Corresp., &c, Makerstoun, Kelso.
Rev. William Venables Vernon Harcourt, M.A., F.R.S., Hon. M.R.I. A.,

F.G.S., York.
Rev. William Whewell, B.D., F.R.S., Hon. M.R.I.A., F.R.A.S., &c,

Cambridge.
Sir William Hamilton, Bart, Dublin.
Baron Von Liebig, Munchen.
Eilert Mitscherlich, Berlin.
Sir John Frederick William Herschel, Bart., D.C.L., F.R.S. L. Sc E., &c,

&c, Instit. Nat. Sc, Paris Corresp.
Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L, F.R.S., Hon. Mem. R.S. Ed., Instit. Nat.

Sc. Paris. Socius.
George Biddell Airy, Esq., M.A., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., 4c, Ac, Royal

Observatory.
Sir David Brewster, F.R.S. L. & E., Instit. Sc Paris. Socius, Hon. M.R.I. A.,

F.G.S., F.R.A.S., &c, St. Andrew's.
Very Rev. George Peacock, D.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., F.R.A.S., Ely.
Baron Alexander Von Humboldt, Berlin.
Peter Barlow, Esq., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., Hon. M.C.P.S., Instit. Nat. Sc, Paris

Corresp., Woolwich.
Rev. Henry Moteley, M.A., F.R.S., Wandsworth.
Louis Agassiz, Cambridge, Massachussets.
Major-General Edward Sabine, R.A., F.R.S.V.P., F.R.A.S., Ac
Jean Baptiste Dumas, Parts.
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, G.C., Sc S., M.A., F.G.S, Hon. M.R.S.

Ed.. R.I.A., &c, &c
2M

266 HONORARY AND CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.

Richard Owen, Esq., M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., Hon. M.R.S. Ed., Instit. Nat

Sc, Paris. Corresp , &c, &c.
John Couch Adams, Esq., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., &c, Cambridge.
W. J. J. Le Verrier, Paris.
J. R. Hind, Esq., Regent's Park.
Rev. Joseph Bosworth, LL.D., F.S.A., F.R.S., &c.
Robert Rawson, Esq., Portsmouth.
Bennet Woodcroft, Professor, Patent Office.
William Thomson, Professor, University, Glasgow.

Lyon Playfair, C.B., F.R.S., &c, Department of Science and Art, Kensington.
George Gabriel Stokes, M. A., &c, &c, Cambridge.
Rev. Thomas Penynton Kirkman, M.A., F.R.S., &c, Croft Rectory, near

Warrington.
William Hopkins, Esq., F.R.S., Pres. Geo. Soc, &c, Cambridge.
John Hartnup, F.R.A.S., Observatory, Liverpool.
General M. A. Morin, Mem. Instit. France, &c, Paris.

Rev. John James Tayler, B.A., Principal of Manchester New College, London.
General Poncelet, Mem. Instit. France, &c, Paris.

CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.

Rev. John Kenrick, M.A., York.

Benjamin Dockray, Esq., Lancaster.

Rev. Robert Harley, Brighouse, near Huddersfield.

William Thaddeus Harris, Esq., Cambridge, Massachussets.

Peter Pincofts, M.D., Dresden.

Henry Hough Watson, Esq., Bolton.

John Mercer, F.R.S., Oakenshaw.

M. Girardin, Rouen.

T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S., &c, Burnley.

E. J. Lowe, F.R.A.S., Nottingham.

T. SOWLBR AND SONS, PRINTERS, MANCHESTER.

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