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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Scientific American Supplement No. 360,
+November 25, 1882, by Various
+#9 in our series by Various
+
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+Title: Scientific American Supplement No. 360, November 25, 1882
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8559]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 23, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUP. NO. 360 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Olaf Voss, Don Kretz, Juliet Sutherland,
+Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 360
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 25, 1882
+
+Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XIV, No. 360.
+
+Scientific American established 1845
+
+Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.
+
+Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                         TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+I.    ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--Soaking Pits for Steel Ingots.
+      --On the successful rolling of steel ingots with their own
+      initial heat by means of the soaking pit process. By JOHN GJERS.
+      6 figures.--Gjers' soaking pits for steel ingots.
+
+      Tempering by compression.--L. Clemandot's process.
+
+      Economical Steam Power. By WILLIAM BARNET LE VAN.
+
+      Mississippi River Improvements near St. Louis, Mo.
+
+      Bunte's Burette for the Analysis of Furnace Gases. 2 figures.
+
+      The "Universal" Gas Engine. 8 figures.--Improved gas engine.
+
+      Gas Furnace for Baking Refractory Products. 1 figure.
+
+      The Efficiency of Fans. 5 figures.
+
+      Machine for Compressing Coal Refuse into Fuel. 1 figure.--
+      Bilan's machine.
+
+      Hank Sizing and Wringing Machine. 1 figure.
+
+      Improved Coke Breaker. 2 figures.
+
+      Improvements in Printing Machinery. 2 figures.
+
+II.   TECHNOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY.--Apparatus for Obtaining
+      Pure Water for Photographic Use. 3 figures.
+
+      Black Phosphorus.--By P THENARD.
+
+      Composition of Steep Water
+
+      Schreiber's Apparatus for Revivifying Bone Black. 5 figures.--
+      Plant: elevation and plan.--Views of elevation.--Continuous
+      furnace.
+
+      Soap and its Manufacture from a Consumer's Point of View.
+      (Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 330).
+
+      Cotton seed Oil.--By S. S. BRADFORD.
+
+      On some Apparatus that Permit of Entering Flames.--Chevalier
+      Aldini's wire gauze and asbestos protectors.--Brewster's account
+      of test experiments.
+
+III.  ELECTRICITY, LIGHT. ETC.--On a New Arc Electric Lamp.
+      By W. H. PREECE. 6 figures--The Abdank system.--The lamp.--
+      The Electro-magnet.--The Cut-off.--The electrical arrangement.
+
+      Utilization of Solar Heat.
+
+IV.   NATURAL HISTORY.--The Ocellated Pheasant. 1 figure.
+
+      The Maidenhair Tree in the Gardens at Broadlands, Hants,
+      England. 1 figure.
+
+      The Woods of America.--The Jessup collection in the American
+      Museum of Natural History, Central Park, and the characteristics
+      of the specimens.
+
+V.    AGRICULTURE, ETC.--An Industrial Revolution.--Increase in
+      the number of farms.
+
+      A Farmer's Lime Kiln. 3 figures.
+
+      The Manufacture of Apple Jelly.
+
+      Improved Grape Bags. 4 figures.
+
+VI.   ARCHITECTURE, ETC.--The Building Stone Supply.--Granite
+      and its sources.--Sandstone.--Blue and gray limestone.--Marble.--
+      Slate.--Other stones.--A valuable summary of the sources and uses
+      of quarry products.
+
+VII.  ASTRONOMY. ETC.--How to Establish a True Meridian. By
+      Prof. L. M. HAUPT.--Introduction.--Definitions.--To find the
+      azemuth of Polaris.--Applications, etc.
+
+VIII. MISCELLANEOUS.--A Characteristic Mining "Rush."--The
+      Prospective Mining Center of Southern New Mexico.
+
+      The Food and Energy of Man. By Prof. DE CHAUMONT.--Original
+      food of man.--Function of food.--Classes of alimentary
+      substances.--Quantity of food.--Importance of varied diet.
+
+      Rattlesnake Poison.--Its Antidotes. By H. H. CROFT.
+
+      The Chinese Sign Manual.--The ethnic bearing of skin furrows
+      on the hand.
+
+      Lucidity.--Matthew Arnold's remarks at the reopening of the
+      Liverpool University College and School of Medicine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SOAKING PITS FOR STEEL INGOTS.
+
+ON THE SUCCESSFUL ROLLING OF STEEL INGOTS WITH THEIR OWN INITIAL HEAT BY
+MEANS OF THE SOAKING PIT PROCESS.
+
+By Mr. JOHN GJERS, Middlesbrough.
+
+[Footnote: Paper read before the Iron and Steel Institute at Vienna.]
+
+
+When Sir Henry Bessemer, in 1856, made public his great invention, and
+announced to the world that he was able to produce malleable steel from
+cast iron without the expenditure of any fuel except that which already
+existed in the fluid metal imparted to it in the blast furnace, his
+statement was received with doubt and surprise. If he at that time had
+been able to add that it was also possible to roll such steel into a
+finished bar with no further expenditure of fuel, then undoubtedly the
+surprise would have been much greater.
+
+Even this, however, has come to pass; and the author of this paper
+is now pleased to be able to inform this meeting that it is not only
+possible, but that it is extremely easy and practical, by the means to
+be described, to roll a steel ingot into, say, a bloom, a rail, or other
+finished article with its own initial heat, without the aid of the
+hitherto universally adopted heating furnace.
+
+It is well understood that in the fluid steel poured into the mould
+there is a larger store of heat than is required for the purpose
+of rolling or hammering. Not only is there the mere apparent high
+temperature of fluid steel, but there is the store of latent heat in
+this fluid metal which is given out when solidification takes place.
+
+It has, no doubt, suggested itself to many that this heat of the ingot
+ought to be utilized, and as a matter of fact, there have been, at
+various times and in different places, attempts made to do so; but
+hitherto all such attempts have proved failures, and a kind of settled
+conviction has been established in the steel trade that the theory could
+not possibly be carried out in practice.
+
+The difficulty arose from the fact that a steel ingot when newly
+stripped is far too hot in the interior for the purpose of rolling, and
+if it be kept long enough for the interior to become in a fit state,
+then the exterior gets far too cold to enable it to be rolled
+successfully. It has been attempted to overcome this difficulty
+by putting the hot ingots under shields or hoods, lined with
+non-heat-conducting material, and to bury them in non-heat-conducting
+material in a pulverized state, for the purpose of retaining and
+equalizing the heat; but all these attempts have proved futile in
+practice, and the fact remains, that the universal practice in steel
+works at the present day all over the world is to employ a heating
+furnace of some description requiring fuel.
+
+The author introduced his new mode of treating ingots at the Darlington
+Steel and Iron Company's Works, in Darlington, early in June this year,
+and they are now blooming the whole of their make, about 125 tons a
+shift, or about 300 ingots every twelve hours, by such means.
+
+The machinery at Darlington is not adapted for rolling off in one heat;
+nevertheless they have rolled off direct from the ingot treated in the
+"soaking pits" a considerable number of double-head rails; and the
+experience so gained proves conclusively that with proper machinery
+there will be no difficulty in doing so regularly. The quality of the
+rails so rolled off has been everything that could be desired; and as
+many of the defects in rails originate in the heating furnace, the
+author ventures to predict that even in this respect the new process
+will stand the test.
+
+Many eminently practical men have witnessed the operation at Darlington,
+and they one and all have expressed their great surprise at the result,
+and at the simple and original means by which it is accomplished.
+
+The process is in course of adoption in several works, both in England
+and abroad, and the author hopes that by the time this paper is being
+read, there may be some who will from personal experience be able to
+testify to the practicability and economy of the process, which is
+carried out in the manner now to be described.
+
+A number of upright pits (the number, say, of the ingots in a cast) are
+built in a mass of brickwork sunk in the ground below the level of the
+floor, such pits in cross-section being made slightly larger than that
+of the ingot, just enough to allow for any fins at the bottom, and
+somewhat deeper than the longest ingot likely to be used. In practice
+the cross section of the pit is made about 3 in. larger than the large
+end of the ingot, and the top of the ingot may be anything from 6 in. to
+18 in. below the top of the pit. These pits are commanded by an ingot
+crane, by preference so placed in relation to the blooming mill that the
+crane also commands the live rollers of the mill.
+
+Each pit is covered with a separate lid at the floor level, and after
+having been well dried and brought to a red heat by the insertion of hot
+ingots, they are ready for operation.
+
+As soon as the ingots are stripped (and they should be stripped as early
+as practicable), they are transferred one by one, and placed separately
+by means of the crane into these previously heated pits (which the
+author calls "soaking pits") and forthwith covered over with the lid,
+which practically excludes the air. In these pits, thus covered, the
+ingots are allowed to stand and soak; that is, the excessive molten
+heat of the interior, and any additional heat rendered sensible during
+complete solidification, but which was latent at the time of placing
+the ingots into the pit, becomes uniformly distributed, or nearly so,
+throughout the metallic mass. No, or comparatively little, heat being
+able to escape, as the ingot is surrounded by brick walls as hot as
+itself, it follows that the surface heat of the ingot is greatly
+increased; and after the space of from twenty to thirty minutes,
+according to circumstances, the ingot is lifted out of the pit
+apparently much hotter than it went in, and is now swung round to the
+rolls, by means of the crane, in a perfect state of heat for rolling,
+with this additional advantage to the mill over an ingot heated in an
+ordinary furnace from a comparatively cold, that it is always certain to
+be at least as hot in the center as it is on the surface.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2]
+
+Every ingot, when cast, contains within itself a considerably larger
+store of heat than is necessary for the rolling operation. Some of this
+heat is, of course, lost by passing into the mould, some is lost by
+radiation before the ingot enters into the soaking pit, and some is lost
+after it enters, by being conducted away by the brickwork; but in the
+ordinary course of working, when there is no undue loss of time in
+transferring the ingots, after allowing for this loss, there remains a
+surplus, which goes into the brickwork of the soaking pits, so that this
+surplus of heat from successive ingots tends continually to keep the
+pits at the intense heat of the ingot itself. Thus, occasionally it
+happens that inadvertently an ingot is delayed so long on its way to the
+pit as to arrive there somewhat short of heat, its temperature will be
+raised by heat from the walls of the pit itself; the refractory mass
+wherein the pit is formed, in fact, acting as an accumulator of heat,
+giving and taking heat as required to carry on the operation in a
+continuous and practical manner.
+
+[Illustration: GJERS' SOAKING PITS FOR STEEL INGOTS.]
+
+During the soaking operation a quantity of gas exudes from the ingot and
+fills the pit, thus entirely excluding atmospheric air from entering;
+this is seen escaping round the lid, and when the lid is removed
+combustion takes place.
+
+It will be seen by analyses given hereinafter that this gas is entirely
+composed of hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbonic oxide, so that the ingots
+soak in a perfectly non-oxidizing medium. Hence loss of steel by
+oxidation does not take place, and consequently the great loss of
+yield which always occurs in the ordinary heating furnace is entirely
+obviated.
+
+The author does not think it necessary to dilate upon the economical
+advantages of his process, as they are apparent to every practical man
+connected with the manufacture of steel.
+
+The operation of steel making on a large scale will by this process be
+very much simplified. It will help to dispense with a large number of
+men, some of them highly paid, directly and indirectly connected with
+the heating department; it will do away with costly heating furnaces and
+gas generators, and their costly maintenance; it will save all the coal
+used in heating; and what is perhaps of still more importance, it will
+save the loss in yield of steel; and there will be no more steel spoiled
+by overheating in the furnaces.
+
+The process has been in operation too short a time to give precise
+and reliable figures, but it is hoped that by the next meeting of the
+Institute these will be forthcoming from various quarters.
+
+Referring to the illustrations annexed, Fig. 1 shows sectional
+elevation, and Fig. 2 plan of a set of eight soaking pits (marked
+A). These pits are built in a mass of brickwork, B, on a concrete
+foundation, C; the ingots, D, standing upright in the pits. The pits are
+lined with firebrick lumps, 6 in. thick, forming an independent lining,
+E, which at any time can be readily renewed. F is a cast iron plate,
+made to take in four pits, and dropped loosely within the large plate,
+G, which surrounds the pits. H is the cover, with a firebrick lining;
+and I is a false cover of firebrick, 1 in. smaller than the cross
+section of the pit, put in to rest on the top of the ingot. This false
+cover need not necessarily be used, but is useful to keep the extreme
+top of the ingot extra hot. J is the bottom of the pit, composed of
+broken brick and silver sand, forming a good hard bottom at any desired
+level.
+
+Figs. 4 and 5 show outline plan of two sets of soaking pits, K K, eight
+each, placed under a 25 ft. sweep crane, L. This crane, if a good one,
+could handle any ordinary make--up to 2,000 tons per week, and ought to
+have hydraulic racking out and swinging round gear. This crane places
+the ingots into the pits, and, when they are ready, picks them out and
+swings them round to blooming mill, M. With such a crane, four men and a
+boy at the handles are able to pass the whole of that make through the
+pits. The author recommends two sets of pits as shown, although one set
+of eight pits is quite able to deal with any ordinary output from one
+Bessemer pit.
+
+In case of an extraordinarily large output, the author recommends a
+second crane, F, for the purpose of placing the ingots in the pits
+only, the crane, L, being entirely used for picking the ingots out
+and swinging them round to the live rollers of the mill. The relative
+position of the cranes, soaking pits, and blooming mill may of course be
+variously arranged according to circumstances, and the soaking pits may
+be arranged in single or more rows, or concentrically with the crane at
+pleasure.
+
+Figs. 4 and 5 also show outline plan and elevation of a Bessemer plant,
+conveniently arranged for working on the soaking pit system. A A are
+the converters, with a transfer crane, B. C is the casting pit with
+its crane, D. E E are the two ingot cranes. F is a leading crane which
+transfers the ingots from the ingot cranes to the soaking pits, K K,
+commanded by the crane, L, which transfers the prepared ingots to the
+mill, M. as before described.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TEMPERING BY COMPRESSION.
+
+
+L. Clemandot has devised a new method of treating metals, especially
+steel, which consists in heating to a cherry red, compressing strongly
+and keeping up the pressure until the metal is completely cooled. The
+results are so much like those of tempering that he calls his process
+tempering by compression. The compressed metal becomes exceedingly hard,
+acquiring a molecular contraction and a fineness of grain such that
+polishing gives it the appearance of polished nickel. Compressed steel,
+like tempered steel, acquires the coercitive force which enables it to
+absorb magnetism. This property should be studied in connection with
+its durability; experiments have already shown that there is no loss of
+magnetism at the expiration of three months. This compression has no
+analogue but tempering. Hammering and hardening modify the molecular
+state of metals, especially when they are practiced upon metal that is
+nearly cold, but the effect of hydraulic pressure is much greater.
+The phenomena which are produced in both methods of tempering may be
+interpreted in different ways, but it seems likely that there is a
+molecular approximation, an amorphism from which results the homogeneity
+that is due to the absence of crystallization. Being an operation which
+can be measured, it may be graduated and kept within limits which are
+prescribed in advance; directions may be given to temper at a
+specified pressure, as readily as to work under a given pressure of
+steam.--_Chron. Industr_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ECONOMICAL STEAM POWER.
+
+[Footnote: A paper read by title at a recent stated meeting of the
+Franklin Institute]
+
+By WILLIAM BARNET LE VAN.
+
+
+The most economical application of steam power can be realized only by
+a judicious arrangement of the plant: namely, the engines, boilers, and
+their accessories for transmission.
+
+This may appear a somewhat broad assertion; but it is nevertheless one
+which is amply justified by facts open to the consideration of all those
+who choose to seek for them.
+
+While it is true that occasionally a factory, mill, or a water-works
+may be found in which the whole arrangements have been planned by a
+competent engineer, yet such is the exception and not the rule, and such
+examples form but a very small percentage of the whole.
+
+The fact is that but few users of steam power are aware of the numerous
+items which compose the cost of economical steam power, while a yet
+smaller number give sufficient consideration to the relations which
+these items bear to each other, or the manner in which the economy of
+any given boiler or engine is affected by the circumstances under which
+it is run.
+
+A large number of persons--and they are those who should know better,
+too--take for granted that a boiler or engine which is good for one
+situation is good for all; a greater error than such an assumption can
+scarcely be imagined.
+
+It is true that there are certain classes of engines and boilers which
+may be relied upon to give moderately good results in almost any
+situation--and the best results should _always_ be desired in
+arrangement of a mill--there are a considerable number of details which
+must be taken into consideration in making a choice of boilers and
+engines.
+
+Take the case of a mill in which it has been supposed that the motive
+power could be best exerted by a single engine. The question now is
+whether or not it would be best to divide the total power required among
+a number of engines.
+
+_First_.--A division of the motive power presents the following
+advantages, namely, a saving of expense on lines of shafting of large
+diameter.
+
+_Second_.--Dispensing with the large driving belt or gearing, the first
+named of which, in one instance under the writer's observation, absorbed
+_sixty horse-power_ out of about 480, or about _seven per cent_.
+
+_Third_.--The general convenience of subdividing the work to be done,
+so that in case of a stoppage of one portion of the work by reason of
+a loose coupling or the changing of a pulley, etc., that portion only
+would need to be stopped.
+
+This last is of itself a most important point, and demands careful
+consideration.
+
+For example, I was at a mill a short time ago when the governor belt
+broke. The result was a stoppage of the whole mill. Had the motive power
+of this mill been subdivided into a number of small engines only one
+department would have been stopped. During the stoppage in this case
+the windows of the mill were a sea of heads of men and women (the
+operatives), and considerable excitement was caused by the violent
+blowing off of steam from the safety-valves, due to the stoppage of the
+steam supply to the engine; and this excitement continued until the
+cause of the stoppage was understood. Had the power in this mill been
+subdivided the stoppage of one of a number of engines would scarcely
+have been noticed, and the blowing off of surplus steam would not have
+occurred.
+
+In building a mill the first item to be considered is the interest on
+the first cost of the engine, boilers, etc. This item can be subdivided
+with advantage into the amounts of interest on the respective costs of,
+
+_First_. The engine or engines;
+
+_Second_ The boiler or boilers;
+
+_Third_. The engine and boiler house.
+
+In the same connection the _form_ of engine to be used must be
+considered. In some few cases--as, for instance, where engines have to
+be placed in confined situations--the form is practically fixed by the
+space available, it being perhaps possible only to erect a vertical or a
+horizontal engine, as the case may be. These, however, are exceptional
+instances, and in most cases--at all events where large powers are
+required--the engineer may have a free choice in the matter. Under
+these circumstances the best form, in the vast majority of cases where
+machinery must be driven, is undoubtedly the horizontal engine, and the
+worst the beam engine. When properly constructed, the horizontal engine
+is more durable than the beam engine, while, its first cost being less,
+it can be driven at a higher speed, and it involves a much smaller
+outlay for engine house and foundations than the latter. In many
+respects the horizontal engine is undoubtedly closely approached in
+advantages by the best forms of vertical engines; but on the whole we
+consider that where machinery is to be driven the balance of advantages
+is decidedly in favor of the former class, and particularly so in the
+case of large powers.
+
+The next point to be decided is, whether a condensing or non-condensing
+engine should be employed. In settling this question not only the
+respective first costs of the two classes of engines must be taken into
+consideration, but also the cost of water and fuel. Excepting, perhaps,
+in cases of very small powers, and in those instances where the exhaust
+steam from a non-condensing engine can be turned to good account for
+heating or drying purpose, it may safely be asserted that in all
+instances where a sufficient supply of condensing water is available
+at a moderate cost, the extra economy of a well-constructed condensing
+engine will fully warrant the additional outlay involved in its
+purchase. In these days of high steam pressures, a well constructed
+non-condensing engine can, no doubt, be made to approximate closely to
+the economy of a condensing engine, but in such a case the extra cost of
+the stronger boiler required will go far to balance the additional cost
+of the condensing engine.
+
+Having decided on the form, the next question is, what "class" of engine
+shall it be; and by the term class I mean the relative excellence of the
+engine as a power-producing machine. An automatic engine costs more than
+a plain slide-valve engine, but it will depend upon the cost of fuel at
+the location where the engine is to be placed, and the number of hours
+per day it is kept running, to decide which class of machine can be
+adopted with the greatest economy to the proprietor. The cost of
+lubricating materials, fuel, repairs, and percentage of cost to be put
+aside for depreciation, will be less in case of the high-class than in
+the low-class engine, while the former will also require less boiler
+power.
+
+Against these advantages are to be set the greater first cost of the
+automatic engine, and the consequent annual charge due to capital sunk.
+These several items should all be fairly estimated when an engine is
+to be bought, and the kind chosen accordingly. Let us take the item of
+fuel, for instance, and let us suppose this fuel to cost four dollars
+per ton at the place where the engine is run. Suppose the engine to be
+capable of developing one hundred horse-power, and that it consumes five
+pounds of coal per hour per horse-power, and runs ten hours per day:
+this would necessitate the supply of two and one-half tons per day at
+a cost of ten dollars per day. To be really economical, therefore, any
+improvement which would effect a saving of one pound of coal per hour
+per horse-power must not cost a greater sum per horse-power than that on
+which the cost of the difference of the coal saved (one pound of coal
+per hour per horse-power, which would be 1,000 pounds per day) for, say,
+three hundred days, three hundred thousand (300,000) pounds, or one
+hundred and fifty tons (or six hundred dollars), would pay a fair
+interest.
+
+Assuming that the mill owner estimates his capital as worth to him ten
+per cent, per annum, then the improvement which would effect the above
+mentioned saving must not cost more than six thousand dollars, and so
+on. If, instead of being run only ten hours per day, the engine is run
+night and day, then the outlay which it would be justifiable to make to
+effect a certain saving per hour would be doubled; while, on the other
+hand, if an engine is run less than the usual time per day a given
+saving per hour would justify a correspondingly less outlay.
+
+It has been found that for grain and other elevators, which are not run
+constantly, gas engines, although costing more for the same power,
+are cheaper than steam engines for elevating purposes where only
+occasionally used.
+
+For this reason it is impossible without considerable investigation to
+say what is really the most economical engine to adopt in any particular
+case; and as comparatively few users of steam power care to make this
+investigation a vast amount of wasteful expenditure results. Although,
+however, no absolute rule can be given, we may state that the number
+of instances in which an engine which is wasteful of fuel can be used
+profitably is exceedingly small. As a rule, in fact, it may generally be
+assumed that an engine employed for driving a manufactory of any kind
+cannot be of too high a class, the saving effected by the economical
+working of such engines in the vast majority of cases enormously
+outweighing the interest on their extra first cost. So few people appear
+to have a clear idea of the vast importance of economy of fuel in mills
+and factories that I perhaps cannot better conclude than by giving an
+example showing the saving to be effected in a large establishment by an
+economical engine.
+
+I will take the case of a flouring mill in this city which employed two
+engines that required forty pounds of water to be converted into steam
+per hour per indicated horse-power. This, at the time, was considered a
+moderate amount and the engines were considered "good."
+
+These engines indicated seventy horse power each, and ran twenty-four
+hours per day on an average of three hundred days each year, requiring
+as per indicator diagrams forty million three hundred and twenty
+thousand pounds (40 x 70 x 24 x 300 x 2 = 40,320,000) of feed water to
+be evaporated per annum, which, in Philadelphia, costs three dollars
+per horse-power per annum, amounting to (70 x 2 x 300 = $420.00) four
+hundred and twenty dollars.
+
+The coal consumed averaged five and one-half pounds per hour per
+horse-power, which, at four dollars per ton, costs
+
+((70 x 2 x 5.5 x 24 x 300) / 2,000) x 4.00= $11,088
+
+Eleven thousand and eighty-eight dollars.
+
+  Cost of coal for 300 days.                $11,088
+  Cost of water for 300 days.                   420
+                                            -------
+  Total cost of coal and water.             $11,503
+
+These engines were replaced by one first-class automatic engine,
+which developed one hundred and forty-two horse-power per hour with a
+consumption of _three pounds_ of coal per hour per horse-power, and the
+indicator diagrams showed a consumption of _thirty_ pounds of water per
+hour per horse-power. Coal cost
+
+((142 x 3 x 24 x 300) / 2,000) x 4.00 = $6,134
+
+Six thousand one hundred and thirty-four dollars. Water cost (142 x
+3.00= $426.00) four hundred and twenty-six dollars.
+
+  Cost of coal for 300 days.                $6,134
+  Cost of water for 300 days.                  426
+                                            ------
+  Total cost of coal and water.             $6,560
+
+The water evaporated in the latter case to perform the same work was
+(142 x 30 x 24 x 300 = 30,672,000) thirty million six hundred and
+seventy-two thousand pounds of feed water against (40,320,000) forty
+million three hundred and twenty thousand pounds in the former, a saving
+of (9,648,000) nine million six hundred and forty-eight thousand pounds
+per annum; or,
+
+(40,320,000 - 30,672,000) / 9,648,000 = 31.4 per cent.
+
+--_thirty-one and four-tenths per cent_.
+
+And a saving in coal consumption of
+
+(11,088 - 6,134) / 4,954 = 87.5 per cent.
+
+--_eighty-seven and one-half per cent_., or a saving in dollars and
+cents of four thousand nine hundred and fifty-four dollars ($4,954).
+
+In this city, Philadelphia, no allowance for the consumption of water is
+made in the case of first class engines, such engines being charged the
+same rate per annum per horse-power as an inferior engine, while,
+as shown by the above example, a saving in water of _thirty-one and
+four-tenths per cent_. has been attained by the employment of a
+first-class engine. The builders of such engines will always give a
+guarantee of their consumption of water, so that the purchaser can be
+able in advance to estimate this as accurately as he can the amount of
+fuel he will use.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+RIVER IMPROVEMENTS NEAR ST. LOUIS.
+
+
+The improvement of the Mississippi River near St. Louis progresses
+satisfactorily. The efficacy of the jetty system is illustrated in the
+lines of mattresses which showed accumulations of sand deposits ranging
+from the surface of the river to nearly sixteen feet in height. At Twin
+Hollow, thirteen miles from St. Louis and six miles from Horse-Tail Bar,
+there was found a sand bar extending over the widest portion of the
+river on which the engineering forces were engaged. Hurdles are built
+out from the shore to concentrate the stream on the obstruction, and
+then to protect the river from widening willows are interwoven between
+the piles. At Carroll's Island mattresses 125 feet wide have been
+placed, and the banks revetted with stone from ordinary low water to a
+16 foot stage. There is plenty of water over the bar, and at the most
+shallow points the lead showed a depth of twelve feet. Beard's Island, a
+short distance further, is also being improved, the largest force of men
+at any one place being here engaged. Four thousand feet of mattresses
+have been begun, and in placing them work will be vigorously prosecuted
+until operations are suspended by floating ice. The different sections
+are under the direction of W. F. Fries, resident engineer, and E. M.
+Currie, superintending engineer. There are now employed about 1,200 men,
+thirty barges and scows, two steam launches, and the stern-wheel steamer
+A. A. Humphreys. The improvements have cost, in actual money expended,
+about $200,000, and as the appropriation for the ensuing year
+approximates $600,000, the prospect of a clear channel is gratifying to
+those interested in the river.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+BUNTE'S BURETTE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF FURNACE GASES.
+
+
+For analyzing the gases of blast-furnaces the various apparatus of Orsat
+have long been employed; but, by reason of its simplicity, the burette
+devised by Dr. Buente, and shown in the accompanying figures, is much
+easier to use. Besides, it permits of a much better and more rapid
+absorption of the oxide of carbon; and yet, for the lost fractions of
+the latter, it is necessary to replace a part of the absorbing liquid
+three or four times. The absorbing liquid is prepared by making a
+saturated solution of chloride of copper in hydrochloric acid, and
+adding thereto a small quantity of dissolved chloride of tin. Afterward,
+there are added to the decanted mixture a few spirals of red copper, and
+the mixture is then carefully kept from contact with the air.
+
+To fill the burette with gas, the three-way cock, _a_, is so placed that
+the axial aperture shall be in communication with the graduated part, A,
+of the burette. After this, water is poured into the funnel, t, and the
+burette is put in communication with the gas reservoir by means of a
+rubber tube. The lower point of the burette is put in communication with
+a rubber pump, V (Fig. 2), on an aspirator (the cock, _b_, being left
+open), and the gas is sucked in until all the air that was in the
+apparatus has been expelled from it. The cocks, _a_ and _b_, are turned
+90 degrees. The water in the funnel prevents the gases communicating
+with the top. The point of the three-way cock is afterward closed with a
+rubber tube and glass rod.
+
+If the gas happens to be in the reservoir of an aspirator, it is made
+to pass into the apparatus in the following manner: The burette is
+completely filled with water, and the point of the three-way cock is
+put in communication with a reservoir. If the gas is under pressure, a
+portion of it is allowed to escape through the capillary tube into the
+water in the funnel, by turning the cock, _a_, properly, and thus all
+the water in the conduit is entirely expelled. Afterward _a_ is turned
+180 deg., and the lower cock, _b_, is opened. While the water is flowing
+through _b_, the burette becomes filled with gas.
+
+_Mode of Measuring the Gases and Absorption_.--The tube that
+communicates with the vessel, F, is put in communication, after the
+latter has been completely filled with water, with the point of the
+cock, _b_ (Fig. 2). Then the latter is opened, as is also the pinch cock
+on the rubber tubing, and water is allowed to enter the burette through
+the bottom until the level is at the zero of the graduation. There are
+then 100 cubic centimeters in the burette. The superfluous gas has
+escaped through the cock, _a_, and passed through the water in the
+funnel. The cock, _a_, is afterward closed by turning it 90 deg.. To
+cause the absorbing liquid to pass into the burette, the water in the
+graduated cylinder is made to flow by connecting the rubber tube, s, of
+the bottle, S, with the point of the burette. The cock is opened, and
+suction is effected with the mouth of the tube, r. When the water has
+flowed out to nearly the last drop, _b_ is closed and the suction bottle
+is removed. The absorbing liquid (caustic potassa or pyrogallate of
+potassa) is poured into a porcelain capsule, P, and the point of the
+burette is dipped into the liquid. If the cock, _b_, be opened, the
+absorbing liquid will be sucked into the burette. In order to hasten
+the absorption, the cock, _b_, is closed, and the burette is shaken
+horizontally, the aperture of the funnel being closed by the hand during
+the operation.
+
+If not enough absorbing liquid has entered, there may be sucked into the
+burette, by the process described above, a new quantity of liquid. The
+reaction finished, the graduated cylinder is put in communication with
+the funnel by turning the cock, _a_. The water is allowed to run from
+the funnel, and the latter is filled again with water up to the mark.
+The gas is then again under the same pressure as at the beginning.
+
+After the level has become constant, the quantity of gas remaining is
+measured. The contraction that has taken place gives, in hundredths of
+the total volume, the volume of the gas absorbed.
+
+When it is desired to make an analysis of smoke due to combustion,
+caustic potassa is first sucked into the burette. After complete
+absorption, and after putting the gas at the same pressure, the
+diminution gives the volume of carbonic acid.
+
+To determine the oxygen in the remaining gas, a portion of the caustic
+potash is allowed to flow out, and an aqueous solution of pyrogallic
+acid and potash is allowed to enter. The presence of oxygen is revealed
+by the color of the liquid, which becomes darker.
+
+The gas is then agitated with the absorbing liquid until, upon opening
+the cock, _a_, the liquid remains in the capillary tube, that is to say,
+until no more water runs from the funnel into the burette. To make a
+quantitative analysis of the carbon contained in gas, the pyrogallate of
+potash must be entirely removed from the burette. To do this, the liquid
+is sucked out by means of the flask, S, until there remain only a few
+drops; then the cock, _a_, is opened and water is allowed to flow from
+the funnel along the sides of the burette. Then _a_ is closed, and
+the washing water is sucked in the same manner. By repeating this
+manipulation several times, the absorbing liquid is completely removed.
+The acid solution of chloride of copper is then allowed to enter.
+
+As the absorbing liquids adhere to the glass, it is better, before
+noting the level, to replace these liquids by water. The cocks, _a_ and
+_b_, are opened, and water is allowed to enter from the funnel, the
+absorbing liquid being made to flow at the same time through the cock,
+_b_.
+
+When an acid solution of chloride of copper is employed, dilute
+hydrochloric acid is used instead of water.
+
+Fig. 2 shows the arrangement of the apparatus for the quantitative
+analysis of oxide of carbon and hydrogen by combustion. The gas in the
+burette is first mixed with atmospheric air, by allowing the liquid to
+flow through _b_, and causing air to enter through the axial aperture of
+the three way cock, _a_, after cutting off communication at v. Then, as
+shown in the figure, the burette is connected with the tube, B, which is
+filled with water up to the narrow curved part, and the interior of the
+burette is made to communicate with the combustion tube, v, by turning
+the cock, a. The combustion tube is heated by means of a Bunsen burner
+or alcohol lamp, L. It is necessary to proceed, so that all the water
+shall be driven from the cock and the capillary tube, and that it shall
+be sent into the burette. The combustion is effected by causing the
+mixture of gas to pass from the burette into the tube, B, through the
+tube, v, heated to redness, into which there passes a palladium wire.
+Water is allowed to flow through the point of the tube, B, while from
+the flask, F, it enters through the bottom into the burette, so as to
+drive out the gas. The water is allowed to rise into the burette as far
+as the cock, and the cocks, _b_ and _b_, are afterward closed.
+
+[Illustration: DR. BUeNTE'S GAS BURETTE]
+
+By a contrary operation, the gas is made to pass from B into the
+burette. It is then allowed to cool, and, after the pressure has been
+established again, the contraction is measured. If the gas burned is
+hydrogen, the contraction multiplied by two-thirds gives the original
+volume of the hydrogen gas burned. If the gas burned is oxide of carbon,
+there forms an equal volume of carbonic acid, and the contraction is the
+half of CO. Thus, to analyze CO, a portion of the liquid is removed from
+the burette, then caustic potash is allowed to enter, and the process
+goes on as explained above.
+
+The total contraction resulting from combustion and absorption,
+multiplied by two-thirds, gives the volume of the oxide of carbon.
+
+The hydrogen and oxide carbon may thus be quantitatively analyzed
+together or separately.--_Revue Industrielle_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE "UNIVERSAL" GAS ENGINE.
+
+
+The accompanying engravings illustrate a new and very simple form of gas
+engine, the invention of J. A. Ewins and H. Newman, and made by Mr. T.
+B. Barker, of Scholefield-street, Bloomsbury, Birmingham. It is known as
+the "Universal" engine, and is at present constructed in sizes varying
+from one-eighth horse-power--one man power--to one horse-power, though
+larger sizes are being made. The essentially new feature of the engine
+is, says the _Engineer_, the simple rotary ignition valve consisting of
+a ratchet plate or flat disk with a number of small radial slots which
+successively pass a small slot in the end of the cylinder, and through
+which the flame is drawn to ignite the charge. In our illustrations Fig.
+1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2 an end view of same; Fig. 3 a plan; Fig. 4
+is a sectional view of the chamber in which the gas and air are mixed,
+with the valves appertaining thereto; Fig. 5 is a detail view of the
+ratchet plate, with pawl and levers and valve gear shaft; Fig. 6 is
+a sectional view of a pump employed in some cases to circulate water
+through the jacket; Fig. 7 is a sectional view of arrangement for
+lighting, and ratchet plate, j, with central spindle and igniting
+apertures, and the spiral spring, k, and fly nut, showing the attachment
+to the end of the working cylinder, f1; b5, b5, bevel wheels driving
+the valve gear shaft; e, the valve gear driving shaft; e2, eccentric to
+drive pump; e cubed, eccentric or cam to drive exhaust valve; e4, crank to
+drive ratchet plate; e5, connecting rod to ratchet pawl; f, cylinder
+jacket; f1, internal or working cylinder; f2, back cylinder cover; g,
+igniting chamber; h, mixing chamber; h1, flap valve; h2, gas inlet
+valve, the motion of which is regulated by a governor; h3, gas inlet
+valve seat; h4, cover, also forming stop for gas inlet valve; h5, gas
+inlet pipe; h6, an inlet valve; h8, cover, also forming stop for air
+inlet valve; h9, inlet pipe for air with grating; i, exhaust chamber;
+i2, exhaust valve spindle; i7, exhaust pipe; j6, lighting aperture
+through cylinder end; l, igniting gas jet; m, regulating and stop valve
+for gas.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVED GAS ENGINE]
+
+The engine, it will be seen, is single-acting, and no compression of the
+explosive charge is employed. An explosive mixture of combustible gas
+and air is drawn through the valves, h2 and h6, and exploded behind
+the piston once in a revolution; but by a duplication of the valve and
+igniting apparatus, placed also at the front end of the cylinder, the
+engine may be constructed double-acting. At the proper time, when the
+piston has proceeded far enough to draw in through the mixing chamber,
+h, into the igniting chamber, g, the requisite amount of gas and air,
+the ratchet plate, j, is pushed into such a position by the pawl, j3,
+that the flame from the igniting jet, l, passes through one of the slots
+or holes, j1, and explodes the charge when opposite j6, which is the
+only aperture in the end of the working cylinder (see Fig. 7 and Fig.
+2), thus driving the piston on to the end of its forward stroke. The
+exhaust valve, Fig. 9, though not exactly of the form shown, is kept
+open during the whole of this return stroke by means of the eccentric,
+e3, on the shaft working the ratchet, and thus allowing the products of
+combustion to escape through the exhaust pipe, i7, in the direction of
+the arrow. Between the ratchet disk and the igniting flame a small plate
+not shown is affixed to the pipe, its edge being just above the burner
+top. The flame is thus not blown out by the inrushing air when the slots
+in ratchet plate and valve face are opposite. This ratchet plate or
+ignition valve, the most important in any engine, has so very small a
+range of motion per revolution of the engine that it cannot get out of
+order, and it appears to require no lubrication or attention whatever.
+The engines are working very successfully, and their simplicity enables
+them to be made at low cost. They cost for gas from 1/2d. to 11/2d. per hour
+for the sizes mentioned.
+
+[Illustration: Fig.9.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+GAS FURNACE FOR BAKING REFRACTORY PRODUCTS.
+
+
+In order that small establishments may put to profit the advantages
+derived from the use of annular furnaces heated with gas, smaller
+dimensions have been given the baking chambers of such furnaces. The
+accompanying figure gives a section of a furnace of this kind, set into
+the ground, and the height of whose baking chamber is only one and a
+half meters. The chamber is not vaulted, but is covered by slabs of
+refractory clay, D, that may be displaced by the aid of a small car
+running on a movable track. This car is drawn over the compartment that
+is to be emptied, and the slab or cover, D, is taken off and carried
+over the newly filled compartment and deposited thereon.
+
+The gas passes from the channel through the pipe, a, into the vertical
+conduits, b, and is afterward disengaged through the tuyeres into the
+chamber. In order that the gas may be equally applied for preliminary
+heating or smoking, a small smoking furnace, S, has been added to
+the apparatus. The upper part of this consists of a wide cylinder
+of refractory clay, in the center of whose cover there is placed an
+internal tube of refractory clay, which communicates with the channel,
+G, through a pipe, d. This latter leads the gas into the tube, t, of the
+smoking furnace, which is perforated with a large number of small holes.
+The air requisite for combustion enters through the apertures, o, in the
+cover of the furnace, and brings about in the latter a high temperature.
+The very hot gases descend into the lower iron portion of this small
+furnace and pass through a tube, e, into the smoking chamber by the aid
+of vertical conduits, b', which serve at the same time as gas tuyeres
+for the extremity of the furnace that is exposed to the fire.
+
+[Illustration: GAS FURNACE FOR BAKING REFRACTORY PRODUCTS.]
+
+In the lower part of the smoking furnace, which is made of boiler plate
+and can be put in communication with the tube, e, there are large
+apertures that may be wholly or partially closed by means of registers
+so as to carry to the hot gas derived from combustion any quantity
+whatever of cold and dry air, and thus cause a variation at will of the
+temperature of the gases which are disengaged from the tube, e.
+
+The use of these smoking apparatus heated by gas does away also with the
+inconveniences of the ordinary system, in which the products are soiled
+by cinders or dust, and which render the gradual heating of objects to
+be baked difficult. At the beginning, there is allowed to enter the
+lower part of the small furnace, S, through the apertures, a very
+considerable quantity of cold air, so as to lower the temperature of the
+smoke gas that escapes from the tube, e, to 30 or 50 degrees. Afterward,
+these secondary air entrances are gradually closed so as to increase the
+temperature of the gases at will.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE EFFICIENCY OF FANS.
+
+
+Air, like every other gas or combination of gases, possesses weight;
+some persons who have been taught that the air exerts a pressure of 14.7
+lb. per square inch, cannot, however, be got to realize the fact that a
+cubit foot of air at the same pressure and at a temperature of 62 deg.
+weighs the thirteenth part of a pound, or over one ounce; 13.141 cubic
+feet of air weigh one pound. In round numbers 30,000 cubic feet of air
+weigh one ton; this is a useful figure to remember, and it is easily
+carried in the mind. A hall 61 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 17 feet high
+will contain one ton of air.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1]
+
+The work to be done by a fan consists in putting a weight--that of the
+air--in motion. The resistances incurred are due to the inertia of the
+air and various frictional influences; the nature and amount of these
+last vary with the construction of the fan. As the air enters at the
+center of the fan and escapes at the circumference, it will be seen that
+its motion is changed while in the fan through a right angle. It may
+also be taken for granted that within certain limits the air has no
+motion in a radial direction when it first comes in contact with a fan
+blade. It is well understood that, unless power is to be wasted, motion
+should be gradually imparted to any body to be moved. Consequently, the
+shape of the blades ought to be such as will impart motion at first
+slowly and afterward in a rapidly increasing ratio to the air. It is
+also clear that the change of motion should be effected as gradually as
+possible. Fig. 1 shows how a fan should not be constructed; Fig. 2 will
+serve to give an idea of how it should be made.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2]
+
+In Fig. 1 it will be seen that the air, as indicated by the bent arrows,
+is violently deflected on entering the fan. In Fig. 2 it will be seen
+that it follows gentle curves, and so is put gradually in motion. The
+curved form of the blades shown in Fig. 2 does not appear to add much to
+the efficiency of a fan; but it adds something and keeps down noise. The
+idea is that the fan blades when of this form push the air radially from
+the center to the circumference. The fact is, however, that the air
+flies outward under the influence of centrifugal force, and always tends
+to move at a tangent to the fan blades, as in Fig. 3, where the circle
+is the path of the tips of the fan blades, and the arrow is a tangent to
+that path; and to impart this notion a radial blade, as at C, is perhaps
+as good as any other, as far as efficiency is concerned. Concerning the
+shape to be imparted to the blades, looked at back or front, opinions
+widely differ; but it is certain that if a fan is to be silent the
+blades must be narrower at the tips than at the center. Various forms
+are adopted by different makers, the straight side and the curved sides,
+as shown in Fig. 4, being most commonly used. The proportions as regards
+length to breadth are also varied continually. In fact, no two makers of
+fans use the same shapes.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3]
+
+As the work done by a fan consists in imparting motion at a stated
+velocity to a given weight of air, it is very easy to calculate the
+power which must be expended to do a certain amount of work. The
+velocity at which the air leaves the fan cannot be greater than that of
+the fan tips. In a good fan it may be about two-thirds of that speed.
+The resistance to be overcome will be found by multiplying the area of
+the fan blades by the pressure of the air and by the velocity of the
+center of effort, which must be determined for every fan according to
+the shape of its blades. The velocity imparted to the air by the fan
+will be just the same as though the air fell in a mass from a given
+height. This height can be found by the formula h = v squared / 64; that is to
+say, if the velocity be multiplied by itself and divided by 64 we have
+the height. Thus, let the velocity be 88 per second, then 88 x 88 =
+7,744, and 7,744 / 64 = 121. A stone or other body falling from a height
+of 121 feet would have a velocity of 88 per second at the earth. The
+pressure against the fan blades will be equal to that of a column of air
+of the height due to the velocity, or, in this case, 121 feet. We
+have seen that in round numbers 13 cubic feet of air weigh one pound,
+consequently a column of air one square foot in section and 121 feet
+high, will weigh as many pounds as 13 will go times into 121. Now, 121
+/ 13 = 9.3, and this will be the resistance in pounds per _square foot_
+overcome by the fan. Let the aggregate area of all the blades be 2
+square feet, and the velocity of the center of effort 90 feet per
+second, then the power expended will bve (90 x 60 x 2 x 9.3) / 33,000
+= 3.04 horse power. The quantity of air delivered ought to be equal in
+volume to that of a column with a sectional area equal that of one fan
+blade moving at 88 feet per second, or a mile a minute. The blade having
+an area of 1 square foot, the delivery ought to be 5,280 feet per
+minute, weighing 5,280 / 13 = 406.1 lb. In practice we need hardly say
+that such an efficiency is never attained.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4]
+
+The number of recorded experiments with fans is very small, and a great
+deal of ignorance exists as to their true efficiency. Mr. Buckle is one
+of the very few authorities on the subject. He gives the accompanying
+table of proportions as the best for pressures of from 3 to 6 ounces per
+square inch:
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+                  |         Vanes.         | Diameter of inlet
+Diameter of fans. |------------------------|    openings.
+                  |   Width.   |  Length.  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+     ft. in.      |  ft. in.   | ft. in.   |       ft. in.
+      3  0        |   0   9    |  0   9    |        1   6
+      3  6        |   0  101/2   |  0  101/2   |        1   9
+      4  0        |   1   0    |  1   0    |        2   0
+      4  6        |   1   11/2   |  1   11/2   |        2   3
+      5  0        |   1   3    |  1   3    |        2   6
+      6  0        |   1   6    |  1   6    |        3   0
+                  |            |           |
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+
+For higher pressures the blades should be longer and narrower, and
+the inlet openings smaller. The case is to be made in the form of an
+arithmetical spiral widening, the space between the case and the blades
+radially from the origin to the opening for discharge, and the upper
+edge of the opening should be level with the lower side of the sweep of
+the fan blade, somewhat as shown in Fig. 5.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 5]
+
+A considerable number of patents has been taken out for improvements
+in the construction of fans, but they all, or nearly all, relate to
+modifications in the form of the case and of the blades. So far,
+however, as is known, it appears that, while these things do exert a
+marked influence on the noise made by a fan, and modify in some degree
+the efficiency of the machine, that this last depends very much more on
+the proportions adopted than on the shapes--so long as easy curves
+are used and sharp angles avoided. In the case of fans running at low
+speeds, it matters very little whether the curves are present or not;
+but at high speeds the case is different.--_The Engineer_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MACHINE FOR COMPRESSING COAL REFUSE INTO FUEL.
+
+
+The problem as to how the refuse of coal shall be utilized has been
+solved in the manufacture from it of an agglomerated artificial
+fuel, which is coming more and more into general use on railways and
+steamboats, in the industries, and even in domestic heating.
+
+The qualities that a good agglomerating machine should present are as
+follows:
+
+1. Very great simplicity, inasmuch as it is called upon to operate in
+an atmosphere charged with coal dust, pitch, and steam; and, under such
+conditions, it is important that it may be easily got at for cleaning,
+and that the changing of its parts (which wear rapidly) may be effected
+without, so to speak, interrupting its running.
+
+2. The compression must be powerful, and, that the product may be
+homogeneous, must operate progressively and not by shocks. It must
+especially act as much as possible upon the entire surface of the
+conglomerate, and this is something that most machines fail to do.
+
+3. The removal from the mould must be effected easily, and not depend
+upon a play of pistons or springs, which soon become foul, and the
+operation of which is very irregular.
+
+The operations embraced in the manufacture of this kind of fuel are as
+follows:
+
+The refuse is sifted in order to separate the dust from the grains of
+coal. The dust is not submitted to a washing. The grains are classed
+into two sizes, after removing the nut size, which is sold separately.
+The grains of each size are washed separately. The washed grains are
+either drained or dried by a hydro-extractor in order to free them from
+the greater part of the water, the presence of this being an obstacle to
+their perfect agglomeration. The water, however, should not be entirely
+extracted because the combustibles being poor conductors of heat, a
+certain amount of dampness must be preserved to obtain an equal division
+of heat in the paste when the mixture is warmed.
+
+After being dried the grains are mixed with the coal dust, and broken
+coal pitch is added in the proportion of eight to ten per cent. of the
+coal. The mixture is then thrown into a crushing machine, where it is
+reduced to powder and intimately mixed. It then passes into a pug-mill
+into which superheated steam is admitted, and by this means is converted
+into a plastic paste. This paste is then led into an agitator for the
+double purpose of freeing it from the steam that it contains, and of
+distributing it in the moulds of the compressing machine.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVED MACHINE FOR COMPRESSING REFUSE COAL INTO FUEL.]
+
+Bilan's machine, shown in the accompanying cut, is designed for
+manufacturing spherical conglomerates for domestic purposes. It consists
+of a cast iron frame supporting four vertical moulding wheels placed at
+right angles to each other and tangent to the line of the centers. These
+wheels carry on their periphery cavities that have the form of a quarter
+of a sphere. They thus form at the point of contact a complete sphere
+in which the material is inclosed. The paste is thrown by shovel, or
+emptied by buckets and chain, into the hopper fixed at the upper part
+of the frame. From here it is taken up by two helices, mounted on a
+vertical shaft traversing the hopper, and forced toward the point where
+the four moulding wheels meet. The driving pulley of the machine is
+keyed upon a horizontal shaft which is provided with two endless screws
+that actuate two gear-wheels, and these latter set in motion the four
+moulding wheels by means of beveled pinions. The four moulding wheels
+being accurately adjusted so that their cavities meet each other at
+every revolution, carry along the paste furnished them by the hopper,
+compress it powerfully on the four quarters, and, separating by a
+further revolution, allow the finished ball to drop out.
+
+The external crown of the wheels carrying the moulds consists of four
+segments, which may be taken apart at will to be replaced by others when
+worn.
+
+This machine produces about 40 tons per day of this globular artificial
+fuel.--_Annales Industrielles_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HANK SIZING AND WRINGING MACHINE.
+
+
+We give a view of a hank sizing machine by Messrs. Heywood & Spencer,
+of Radcliffe, near Manchester. The machine is also suitable for fancy
+dyeing. It is well known, says the _Textile Manufacturer_, that when
+hanks are wrung by hand, not only is the labor very severe, but in
+dyeing it is scarcely possible to obtain even colors, and, furthermore,
+the production is limited by the capabilities of the man. The machine
+we illustrate is intended to perform the heavy part of the work with
+greater expedition and with more certainty than could be relied upon
+with hand labor. The illustration represents the machine that we
+inspected. Its construction seems of the simplest character. It consists
+of two vats, between which is placed the gearing for driving the hooks.
+The large wheel in this gear, although it always runs in one direction,
+contains internal segments, which fall into gear alternately with
+pinions on the shanks of the hooks. The motion is a simple one, and it
+appeared to us to be perfectly reliable, and not liable to get out of
+order. The action is as follows: The attendant lifts the hank out of the
+vat and places it on the hooks. The hook connected to the gearing then
+commences to turn; it puts in two, two and a half, three, or more twists
+into the hank and remains stationary for a few seconds to allow an
+interval for the sizer to "wipe off" the excess of size, that is, to
+run his hand along the twisted hank. This done, the hook commences to
+revolve the reverse way, until the twists are taken out of the hank.
+It is then removed, either by lifting off by hand or by the apparatus
+shown, attached to the right hand side. This arrangement consists of a
+lattice, carrying two arms that, at the proper moment, lift the hank off
+the hooks on to the lattice proper, by which it is carried away, and
+dropped upon a barrow to be taken to the drying stove. In sizing, a
+double operation is customary; the first is called running, and the
+second, finishing. In the machine shown, running is carried on one side
+simultaneously with finishing in the other, or, if required, running
+may be carried on on both sides. If desired, the lifting off motion is
+attached to both running and finishing sides, and also the roller partly
+seen on the left hand for running the hanks through the size. The
+machine we saw was doing about 600 bundles per day at running and at
+finishing, but the makers claim the production with a double machine to
+be at the rate of about 36 10 lb. bundles per hour (at finishing), wrung
+in 11/2 lb. wringers (or I1/2 lb. of yarn at a time), or at running at the
+rate of 45 bundles in 2 lb. wringers. The distance between the hooks
+is easily adjusted to the length or size of hanks, and altogether the
+machine seems one that is worth the attention of the trade.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVED HANK SIZING MACHINE.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IMPROVED COKE BREAKER.
+
+
+The working parts of the breaker now in use by the South Metropolitan
+Gas Company consist essentially of a drum provided with cutting edges
+projecting from it, which break up the coke against a fixed grid. The
+drum is cast in rings, to facilitate repairs when necessary, and the
+capacity of the machine can therefore be increased or diminished by
+varying the number of these rings. The degree of fineness of the coke
+when broken is determined by the regulated distance of the grid from the
+drum. Thus there is only one revolving member, no toothed gearing being
+required. Consequently the machine works with little power; the one at
+the Old Kent Road, which is of the full size for large works, being
+actually driven by a one horse power "Otto" gas-engine. Under these
+conditions, at a recent trial, two tons of coke were broken in half an
+hour, and the material delivered screened into the three classes of
+coke, clean breeze (worth as much as the larger coke), and dust, which
+at these works is used to mix with lime in the purifiers. The special
+advantage of the machine, besides the low power required to drive it and
+its simple action, lies in the small quantity of waste. On the occasion
+of the trial in question, the dust obtained from two tons of coke
+measured only 31/2 bushels, or just over a half hundredweight per ton.
+The following statement, prepared from the actual working of the first
+machine constructed, shows the practical results of its use. It should
+be premised that the machine is assumed to be regularly employed and
+driven by the full power for which it is designed, when it will easily
+break 8 tons of coke per hour, or 80 tons per working day:
+
+    500 feet of gas consumed by a 2 horse power
+      gas-engine, at cost price of gas delivered   s. d.
+      in holder.                                   0  9
+    Oil and cotton waste.                          0  6
+    Two men supplying machine with large
+      coke, and shoveling up broken, at 4s.
+      6d.                                          9  0
+    Interest and wear and tear (say).              0  3
+                                                  -----
+         Total per day.                           10  6
+                                                  -----
+    For 80 tons per day, broken at the rate
+      of.                                          0  11/2
+    Add for loss by dust and waste, 1 cwt.,
+      with price of coke at (say) 13s. 4d. per
+      ton.                                         0  8
+                                                  -----
+        Cost of breaking, per ton.                 0  91/2
+
+As coke, when broken, will usually fetch from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per ton
+more than large, the result of using these machines is a net gain of
+from 1s. 3d. to 1s. 9d. per ton of coke. It is not so much the actual
+gain, however, that operates in favor of providing a supply of broken
+coke, as the certainty that by so doing a market is obtained that would
+not otherwise be available.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVED COKE BREAKER.]
+
+It will not be overstating the case to say that this coke breaker is by
+far the simplest, strongest, and most economical appliance of its kind
+now manufactured. That it does its work well is proved by experience;
+and the advantages of its construction are immediately apparent upon
+comparison of its simple drum and single spindle with the flying hammers
+or rocking jaws, or double drums with toothed gearing which characterize
+some other patterns of the same class of plant. It should be remarked,
+as already indicated, lest exception should be taken to the size of the
+machine chosen here for illustration, that it can be made of any size
+down to hand power. On the whole, however, as a few tons of broken coke
+might be required at short notice even in a moderate sized works, it
+would scarcely be advisable to depend upon too small a machine; since
+the regular supply of the fuel thus improved may be trusted in a short
+time to increase the demand.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVED COKE BREAKER.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IMPROVEMENT IN PRINTING MACHINERY.
+
+
+This is the design of Alfred Godfrey, of Clapton. According to this
+improvement, as represented at Figs. 1 and 2, a rack, A, is employed
+vibrating on the pivot a, and a pinion, a1, so arranged that instead of
+the pinion moving on a universal joint, or the rack moving in a parallel
+line from side to side of the pinion at the time the motion of the table
+is reversed, there is employed, for example, the radial arm, a2, mounted
+on the shaft, a3, supporting the driving wheel, a4. The opposite or
+vibrating end of the radial arm, a2, supports in suitable bearings the
+pinion, a1, and wheel, a5, driving the rack through the medium of the
+driving wheel, a4, the effect of which is that through the mechanical
+action of the vibrating arm, a2, and pinion, a1 in conjunction with the
+vibrating movement of the rack, A, an easy, uniform, and silent motion
+is transmitted to the rack and table.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY. Fig. 1]
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY. Fig. 2.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A CHARACTERISTIC MINING "RUSH."--THE PROSPECTIVE MINING CENTER OF
+SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO.
+
+
+A correspondent of the _Tribune_ describes at length the mining camps
+about Lake Valley, New Mexico, hitherto thought likely to be the central
+camp of that region, and then graphically tells the story of the recent
+"rush" to the Perche district. Within a month of the first strike of
+silver ore the country was swarming with prospectors, and a thousand or
+more prospects had been located.
+
+The Perche district is on the eastern flanks of the Mimbres Mountains,
+a range which is a part of the Rocky Mountain range, and runs north and
+south generally parallel with the Rio Grande, from which it lies about
+forty miles to the westward. The northern half of these mountains is
+known as the Black Range, and was the center of considerable mining
+excitement a year and a half ago. It is there that the Ivanhoe is
+located, of which Colonel Gillette was manager, and in which Robert
+Ingersoll and Senator Plumb, of Kansas, were interested, much to the
+disadvantage of the former. A new company has been organized, however,
+with Colonel Ingersoll as president, and the reopening of work on the
+Ivanhoe will probably prove a stimulus to the whole Black Range. From
+this region the Perche district is from forty to sixty miles south. It
+is about twenty-five miles northwest of Lake Valley, and ten miles west
+of Hillsboro, a promising little mining town, with some mills and about
+300 people. The Perche River has three forks coming down from the
+mountains and uniting at Hillsboro, and it is in the region between
+these forks that the recent strikes have been made.
+
+On August 15 "Jack" Shedd, the original discoverer of the Robinson mine
+in Colorado, was prospecting on the south branch of the north fork of
+the Perche River, when he made the first great strike in the district.
+On the summit of a heavily timbered ridge he found some small pieces of
+native silver, and then a lump of ore containing very pure silver in the
+form of sulphides, weighing 150 pounds, and afterward proved to be worth
+on the average $11 a pound. All this was mere float, simply lying on the
+surface of the ground. Afterward another block was found, weighing 87
+pounds, of horn silver, with specimens nearly 75 per cent. silver. The
+strike was kept a secret for a few days. Said a mining man: "I went up
+to help bring the big lump down. We took it by a camp of prospectors who
+were lying about entirely ignorant of any find. When they saw it they
+instantly saddled their horses, galloped off, and I believe they
+prospected all night." A like excitement was created when the news of
+this and one or two similar finds reached Lake Valley. Next morning
+every waiter was gone from the little hotel, and a dozen men had left
+the Sierra mines, to try their fortunes at prospecting.
+
+As the news spread men poured into the Perche district from no one knows
+where, some armed with only a piece of salt pork, a little meal, and a
+prospecting pick; some mounted on mules, others on foot; old men and men
+half-crippled were among the number, but all bitten by the monomania
+which possesses every prospector. Now there are probably 2,000 men in
+the Perche district, and the number of prospects located must far exceed
+1,000. Three miners from there with whom I was talking recently owned
+forty-seven mines among them, and while one acknowledged that hardly one
+prospect in a hundred turns out a prize, the other millionaire in embryo
+remarked that he wouldn't take $50,000 for one of his mines. So it goes,
+and the victims of the mining fever here seem as deaf to reason as the
+buyers of mining stock in New York. Fuel was added to the flame by
+the report that Shedd had sold his location, named the Solitaire, to
+ex-Governor Tabor and Mr. Wurtzbach on August 25 for $100,000. This was
+not true. I met Governor Tabor's representative, who came down recently
+to examine the properties, and learned that the Governor had not up to
+that date bought the mine. He undoubtedly bonded it, however, and his
+representative's opinion of the properties seemed highly favorable.
+The Solitaire showed what appeared to be a contact vein, with walls of
+porphyry and limestone in a ledge thirty feet wide in places, containing
+a high assay of horned silver. The vein was composed of quartz, bearing
+sulphides, with horn silver plainly visible, giving an average assay of
+from $350 to $500. This was free milling. These were the results shown
+simply by surface explorations, which were certainly exceedingly
+promising. Recently it has been stated that a little development shows
+the vein to be only a blind lead, but the statement lacks confirmation.
+In any case the effect of so sensational a discovery is the same in
+creating an intense excitement and attracting swarms of prospectors.
+
+But the Perche district does not rest on the Solitaire, for there has
+been abundance of mineral wealth discovered throughout its extent. Four
+miles south of this prospect, on the middle fork of the Perche, is an
+actual mine--the Bullion--which was purchased by four or five Western
+mining men for $10,000, and yielded $11,000 in twenty days. The ore
+contains horn and native silver. On the same fork are the Iron King and
+Andy Johnson, both recently discovered and promising properties, and
+there is a valuable mine now in litigation on the south fork of the
+Perche, with scores of prospects over the entire district. Now that one
+or two sensational strikes have attracted attention, and capital is
+developing paying mines, the future of the Perche District seems
+assured.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SOY BEAN.
+
+
+The _British Medical Journal_ says that Prof. E. Kinch, writing in the
+_Agricultural Students' Gazette_, says that the Soy bean approaches more
+nearly to animal food than any other known vegetable production, being
+singularly rich in fat and in albuminoids. It is largely used as
+an article of food in China and Japan. Efforts have been made to
+acclimatize it in various parts of the continent of Europe, and fair
+success has been achieved in Italy and France; many foods are made from
+it and its straw is a useful fodder.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ON A NEW ARC ELECTRIC LAMP.
+
+[Footnote: Paper read at the British Association, Southampton. Revised
+by the Author.--_Nature_.]
+
+By W.H. PREECE.
+
+
+Electric lamps on the arc principle are almost as numerous as the trees
+in the forest, and it is somewhat fresh to come upon something that is
+novel. In these lamps the carbons are consumed as the current flows, and
+it is the variation in their consumption which occasions the flickering
+and irregularity of the light that is so irritating to the eyes. Special
+mechanical contrivances or regulators have to be used to compensate for
+this destruction of the carbons, as in the Siemens and Brush type, or
+else refractory materials have to be combined with the carbons, as in
+the Jablochkoff candle and in the lamp Soleil. The steadiness of the
+light depends upon the regularity with which the carbons are moved
+toward each other as they are consumed, so as to maintain the electric
+resistance between them a constant quantity. Each lamp must have a
+certain elasticity of regulation of its own, to prevent irregularities
+from the variable material of carbon used, and from variations in the
+current itself and in the machinery.
+
+In all electric lamps, except the Brockie, the regulator is in the lamp
+itself. In the Brockie system the regulation is automatic, and is made
+at certain rapid intervals by the motor engine. This causes a periodic
+blinking that is detrimental to this lamp for internal illumination.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1. FIG. 2.]
+
+M. Abdank, the inventor of the system which I have the pleasure of
+bringing before the Section, separates his regulator from his lamp.
+The regulator may be fixed anywhere, within easy inspection and
+manipulation, and away from any disturbing influence in the lamp. The
+lamp can be fixed in any inaccessible place.
+
+_The Lamp_ (Figs. 1, 2, and 3.)--The bottom or negative carbon is fixed,
+but the top or positive carbon is movable, in a vertical line. It is
+screwed at the point, C, to a brass rod, T (Fig. 2), which moves freely
+inside the tubular iron core of an electromagnet, K. This rod is
+clutched and lifted by the soft iron armature, A B, when a current
+passes through the coil, M M. The mass of the iron in the armature is
+distributed so that the greater portion is at one end, B, much nearer
+the pole than the other end. Hence this portion is attracted first, the
+armature assumes an inclined position, maintained by a brass button, t,
+which prevents any adhesion between the armature and the core of the
+electromagnet. The electric connection between the carbon and the coil
+of the electromagnet is maintained by the flexible wire, S.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
+
+The electromagnet, A (Fig. 1), is fixed to a long and heavy rack, C,
+which falls by its own weight and by the weight of the electromagnet and
+the carbon fixed to it. The length of the rack is equal to the length of
+the two carbons. The fall of the rack is controlled by a friction break,
+B (Fig. 3), which acts upon the last of a train of three wheels put
+in motion by the above weight. The break, B, is fixed at one end of
+a lever, B A, the other end carrying a soft iron armature, F,
+easily adjusted by three screws. This armature is attracted by the
+electromagnet, E E (whose resistance is 1,200 ohms), whenever a current
+circulates through it. The length of the play is regulated by the screw,
+V. The spring, L, applies tension to the break.
+
+_The Regulator_.--This consists of a balance and a cut-off.
+
+_The Balance_ (Figs. 4 and 5) is made with two solenoids. S and S',
+whose relative resistances is adjustable. S conveys the main current,
+and is wound with thick wire having practically no resistance, and S'
+is traversed by a shunt current, and is wound with fine wire having a
+resistance of 600 ohms. In the axes of these two coils a small and light
+iron tube (2 mm. diameter and 60 mm. length) freely moves in a vertical
+line between two guides. When magnetized it has one pole in the middle
+and the other at each end. The upward motion is controlled by the
+spring, N T. The spring rests upon the screw, H, with which it makes
+contact by platinum electrodes. This contact is broken whenever the
+little iron rod strikes the spring, N T.
+
+The positive lead from the dynamo is attached to the terminal, B, then
+passes through the coil, S, to the terminal, B', whence it proceeds to
+the lamp. The negative lead is attached to terminal, A, passing directly
+to the other terminal, A', and thence to the lamp.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4]
+
+The shunt which passes through the fine coil, S', commences at the
+point, P. The other end is fixed to the screw, H, whence it has two
+paths, the one offering no resistance through the spring, T N, to the
+upper negative terminal, A'; the other through the terminal, J, to the
+electromagnet of the break, M, and thence to the negative terminal of
+the lamp, L'.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
+
+_The Cut-off_.--The last part of the apparatus (Fig. 4) to be described
+is the cut-off, which is used when there are several lamps in series. It
+is brought into play by the switch, C D, which can be placed at E or D.
+When it is at E, the negative terminal, A, is in communication with
+the positive terminal, B, through the resistance, R, which equals the
+resistance of the lamp, which is, therefore, out of circuit. When it is
+at D the cut-off acts automatically to do the same thing when required.
+This is done by a solenoid, V, which has two coils, the one of thick
+wire offering no resistance, and the other of 2,000 ohms resistance. The
+fine wire connects the terminals, A' and B. The solenoid has a movable
+soft iron core suspended by the spring, U. It has a cross-piece of iron
+which can dip into two mercury cups, G and K, when the core is sucked
+into the solenoid. When this is the case, which happens when any
+accident occurs to the lamp, the terminal, A, is placed in connection
+with the terminal, B, through the thick wire of V and the resistance, R,
+in the same way as it was done by the switch, C D.
+
+_Electrical Arrangement_.--The mode in which several lamps are connected
+up in series is shown by Fig. 6. M is the dynamo machine. The + lead is
+connected to B1 of the balance it then passes to the lamp, L, returning
+to the balance, and then proceeds to each other lamp, returning finally
+to the negative pole of the machine. When the current enters the balance
+it passes through the coil, S, magnetizing the iron core and drawing
+it downward (Fig. 4). It then passes to the lamp, L L', through the
+carbons, then returns to the balance, and proceeds back to the negative
+terminal of the machine. A small portion of the current is shunted off
+at the point, P, passing through the coil, S', through the contact
+spring, T N, to the terminal, A', and drawing the iron core in
+opposition to S. The carbons are in contact, but in passing through
+the lamp the current magnetizes the electromagnet, M (Fig. 2), which
+attracts the armature, A B, that bites and lifts up the rod, T, with the
+upper carbon, a definite and fixed distance that is easily regulated
+by the screws, Y Y. The arc then is formed, and will continue to burn
+steadily as long as the current remains constant. But the moment the
+current falls, due to the increased resistance of the arc, a greater
+proportion passes through the shunt, S' (Fig. 4), increasing its
+magnetic moment on the iron core, while that of S is diminishing. The
+result is that a moment arrives when equilibrium is destroyed, the iron
+rod strikes smartly and sharply upon the spring, N T. Contact between T
+and H is broken, and the current passes through the electromagnet of the
+break in the lamp. The break is released for an instant, the carbons
+approach each other. But the same rupture of contact introduces in the
+shunt a new resistance of considerable magnitude (viz., 1,200 ohms),
+that of the electromagnets of the break. Then the strength of the shunt
+current diminishes considerably, and the solenoid, S, recovers briskly
+its drawing power upon the rod, and contact is restored. The carbons
+approach during these periods only about 0.01 to 0.02 millimeter.
+If this is not sufficient to restore equilibrium it is repeated
+continually, until equilibrium is obtained. The result is that the
+carbon is continually falling by a motion invisible to the eye, but
+sufficient to provide for the consumption of the carbons.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 6]
+
+The contact between N T and H is never completely broken, the sparks are
+very feeble, and the contacts do not oxidize. The resistances inserted
+are so considerable that heating cannot occur, while the portion of the
+current abstracted for the control is so small that it may be neglected.
+
+The balance acts precisely like the key of a Morse machine, and the
+break precisely like the sounder-receiver so well known in telegraphy.
+It emits the same kind of sounds, and acts automatically like a skilled
+and faithful telegraphist.
+
+This regulation, by very small and short successive steps, offers
+several advantages: (1) it is imperceptible to the eye; (2) it does not
+affect the main current; (3) any sudden instantaneous variation of the
+main current does not allow a too near approach of the carbon points.
+Let, now, an accident occur; for instance, a carbon is broken. At once
+the automatic cut-off acts, the current passes through the resistance,
+R, instead of passing through the lamp. The current through the fine
+coil is suddenly increased, the rod is drawn in, contact is made at G
+and K, and the current is sent through the coil, R. As soon as contact
+is again made by the carbons, the current in the coil, S, is increased,
+that of the thick wire in V diminished, and the antagonistic spring,
+U, breaks the contact at G and K. The rupture of the light is almost
+invisible, because the relighting is so brisk and sharp.
+
+I have seen this lamp in action, and its constant steadiness leaves
+nothing to be desired.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING PURE WATER FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC USE.
+
+
+Our readers are well aware that water as found naturally is never
+absolutely free from dissolved impurities; and in ordinary cases it
+contains solid impurities derived both from the inorganic and organic
+kingdoms, together with gaseous substances; these latter being generally
+derived from the atmosphere.
+
+By far the purest water which occurs in nature is rain-water, and if
+this be collected in a secluded district, and after the air has been
+well washed by previous rain, its purity is remarkable; the extraneous
+matter consisting of little else than a trace of carbonic acid and other
+gases dissolved from the air. In fact, such water is far purer than any
+distilled water to be obtained in commerce. The case is very different
+when the rain-water is collected in a town or densely populated
+district, more especially if the water has been allowed to flow over
+dirty roofs. The black and foully-smelling liquid popularly known as
+soft water is so rich in carbonaceous and organic constituents as to be
+of very limited use to the photographer; but by taking the precaution of
+fitting up a simple automatic shunt for diverting the stream until the
+roofs have been thoroughly washed, it becomes possible to insure a good
+supply of clean and serviceable soft water, even in London. Several
+forms of shunt have been devised, some of these being so complex as
+to offer every prospect of speedy disorganization; but a simple and
+efficient apparatus is figured in _Engineering_ by a correspondent who
+signs himself "Millwright," and as we have thoroughly proved the value
+of an apparatus which is practically identical, we reproduce the
+substance of his communication.
+
+A gentleman of Newcastle, a retired banker, having tried various filters
+to purify the rain-water collected on the roof of his house, at length
+had the idea to allow no water to run into the cistern until the roof
+had been well washed. After first putting up a hard-worked valve, the
+arrangement as sketched below has been hit upon. Now Newcastle is a very
+smoky place, and yet my friend gets water as pure as gin, and almost
+absolutely free from any smack of soot.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The sketch explains itself. The weight, W, and the angle of the lever,
+L, are such, that when the valve, V, is once opened it goes full open. A
+small hole in the can C, acts like a cataract, and brings matters to a
+normal state very soon after the rain ceases.
+
+The proper action of the apparatus can only be insured by a careful
+adjustment of the weight, W, the angle through which the valve opens,
+and the magnitude of the vessel, C. It is an advantage to make
+the vessel, C, somewhat broader in proportion to its height than
+represented, and to provide it with a movable strainer placed about half
+way down. This tends to protect the cataract hole, and any accumulation
+of leaves and dirt can be removed once in six months or so. Clean soft
+water is valuable to the photographer in very many cases. Iron developer
+(wet plate) free from chlorides will ordinarily remain effective on the
+plate much longer than when chlorides are present, and the pyrogallic
+solution for dry-plate work will keep good for along time if made with
+soft water, while the lime which is present in hard water causes the
+pyrogallic acid to oxidize with considerable rapidity. Negatives that
+have been developed with oxalate developer often become covered with a
+very unsightly veil of calcium oxalate when rinsed with hard water, and
+something of a similar character occasionally occurs in the case of
+silver prints which are transferred directly from the exposure frame to
+impure water.
+
+To the carbon printer clean rain-water is of considerable value, as he
+can develop much more rapidly with soft water than with hard water;
+or, what comes to the same thing, he can dissolve away his superfluous
+gelatine at a lower temperature than would otherwise be necessary.
+
+The cleanest rain-water which can ordinarily be collected in a town is
+not sufficiently pure to be used with advantage in the preparation of
+the nitrate bath, it being advisable to use the purest distilled water
+for this purpose; and in many cases it is well to carefully distill
+water for the bath in a glass apparatus of the kind figured below.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A, thin glass flask serving as a retort. The tube, T, is fitted
+air-tight to the flask by a cork, C.
+
+B, receiver into which the tube, T, fits quite loosely.
+
+D, water vessel intended to keep the spiral of lamp wick, which is shown
+as surrounding T, in a moist condition. This wick acts as a siphon, and
+water is gradually drawn over into the lower receptacle, E.
+
+L, spirit lamp, which may, in many cases, be advantageously replaced by
+a Bunsen burner.
+
+A small metal still, provided with a tin condensing worm, is, however, a
+more generally serviceable arrangement, and if ordinary precautions are
+taken to make sure that the worm tube is clean, the resulting distilled
+water will be nearly as pure as that distilled in glass vessels.
+
+Such a still as that figured below can be heated conveniently over an
+ordinary kitchen fire, and should find a place among the appliances
+of every photographer. Distilled water should always be used in the
+preparation of emulsion, as the impurities of ordinary water may often
+introduce disturbing conditions.--_Photographic News_.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+BLACK PHOSPHORUS.
+
+By P. THENARD.
+
+
+The author refers to the customary view that black phosphorus is
+merely a mixture of the ordinary phosphorus with traces of a metallic
+phosphide, and contends that this explanation is not in all cases
+admissible. A specimen of black or rather dark gray phosphorus, which
+the author submitted to the Academy, became white if melted and remained
+white if suddenly cooled, but if allowed to enter into a state of
+superfusion it became again black on contact with either white or black
+phosphorus. A portion of the black specimen being dissolved in carbon
+disulphide there remained undissolved merely a trace of a very pale
+yellow matter which seemed to be amorphous phosphorus.--_Comptes
+Rendus_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+COMPOSITION OF STEEP WATER.
+
+
+According to M. C. Leeuw, water in which malt has been steeped has the
+following composition:
+
+    Organic matter.        0.56 per cent.
+    Mineral matter.        0.52    "
+                           ----
+    Total dry matter.      1.08    "
+                           ----
+    Nitrogen.             0.033    "
+
+The mineral matter consists of--
+
+    Potash.               0.193    "
+    Phosphoric acid.      0.031    "
+    Lime.                 0.012    "
+    Soda.                 0.047    "
+    Magnesia.             0.016    "
+    Sulphuric acid.       0.007    "
+    Oxide of iron.        traces.
+    Chlorine and silica.  0.212    "
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SCHREIBER'S APPARATUS FOR REVIVIFYING BONE-BLACK.
+
+
+We give opposite illustrations of Schreiber's apparatus for revivifying
+bone-black or animal charcoal. The object of revivification is to render
+the black fit to be used again after it has lost its decolorizing
+properties through service--that is to say, to free its pores from the
+absorbed salts and insoluble compounds that have formed therein
+during the operation of sugar refining. There are two methods
+employed--fermentation and washing. At present the tendency is to
+abandon the former in order to proceed with as small a stock of black as
+possible, and to adopt the method of washing with water and acid in a
+rotary washer.
+
+Figs. 1 and 2 represent a plan and elevation of a bone-black room,
+containing light filters, A, arranged in a circle around wells, B. These
+latter have the form of a prism with trapezoidal base, whose small sides
+end at the same point, d, and the large ones at the filter. The funnel,
+E, of the washer, F, is placed in the space left by the small ends of
+the wells, so that the black may be taken from these latter and thrown
+directly into the washer. The washer is arranged so that the black may
+flow out near the steam fitter, G, beneath the floor. The discharge of
+this filter is toward the side of the elevator, H, which takes in the
+wet black below, and carries it up and pours it into the drier situated
+at the upper part of the furnace. This elevator, Figs. 3 and 4, is
+formed of two vertical wooden uprights, A, ten centimeters in thickness,
+to which are fixed two round-iron bars the same as guides. The lift,
+properly so-called, consists of an iron frame, C, provided at the four
+angles with rollers, D, and supporting a swinging bucket, E, which, on
+its arrival at the upper part of the furnace, allows the black to fall
+to an inclined plane that leads it to the upper part of the drier. The
+left is raised and lowered by means of a pitch-chain, F, fixed to the
+middle of the frame, C, and passing over two pulleys, G, at the upper
+part of the frame and descending to the mechanism that actuates it.
+This latter comprises a nut, I, acting directly on the chain; a toothed
+wheel, K, and a pinion, J, gearing with the latter and keyed upon the
+shaft of the pulleys, L and M. The diameter of the toothed wheel, K, is
+0.295 of a meter, and it makes 53.4 revolutions per minute. The diameter
+of the pinion is 0.197 of a meter, and it makes 80 revolutions per
+minute. The pulleys, M and L, are 0.31 of a meter in diameter, and
+make 80 revolutions per minute. Motion is transmitted to them by other
+pulleys, N, keyed upon a shaft placed at the lower part, which receives
+its motion from the engine of the establishment through the intermedium
+of the pulley, O. The diameter of the latter is 0.385 of a meter, and
+that of N is 0.58. They each make 43 revolutions per minute.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.--ELEVATION OF BONE-BLACK REVIVIFYING PLANT
+(SCHREIBER'S SYSTEM.)
+
+FIG. 2.--PLAN VIEW.
+
+FIG. 3.--LATERAL VIEW OF ELEVATOR.
+
+FIG. 4.--FRONT VIEW OF ELEVATOR.
+
+FIG. 5.--CONTINUOUS FURNACE FOR REVIVIFYING BONE-BLACK.]
+
+The elevator is set in motion by the simple maneuver of the gearing
+lever, P, and when this has been done all the other motions are effected
+automatically.
+
+_The Animal Black Furnace_.--This consists of a masonry casing of
+rectangular form, in which are arranged on each side of the same
+fire-place two rows of cast-iron retorts, D, of undulating form, each
+composed of three parts, set one within the other. These retorts, which
+serve for the revivification of the black, are incased in superposed
+blocks of refractory clay, P, Q, S, designed to regularize the
+transmission of heat and to prevent burning. These pieces are kept in
+their respective places by crosspieces, R. The space between the retorts
+occupied by the fire-place, Y, is covered with a cylindrical dome, O, of
+refractory tiles, forming a fire-chamber with the inner surface of the
+blocks, P, Q, and S. The front of the surface consists of a cast-iron
+plate, containing the doors to the fire-place and ash pan, and a larger
+one to allow of entrance to the interior to make repairs.
+
+One of the principal disadvantages of furnaces for revivifying animal
+charcoal has been that they possessed no automatic drier for drying the
+black on its exit from the washer. It was for the purpose of remedying
+this that Mr. Schreiber was led to invent the automatic system of drying
+shown at the upper part of the furnace, and which is formed of two
+pipes, B, of undulating form, like the retorts, with openings throughout
+their length for the escape of steam. Between these pipes there is a
+closed space into which enters the waste heat and products of combustion
+from the furnace. These latter afterward escape through the chimney at
+the upper part.
+
+In order that the black may be put in bags on issuing from the furnace,
+it must be cooled as much as possible. For this purpose there are
+arranged on each side of the furnace two pieces of cast iron tubes, F,
+of rectangular section, forming a prolongation of the retorts and making
+with them an angle of about 45 degrees. The extremities of these tubes
+terminate in hollow rotary cylinders, G, which permit of regulating the
+flow of the black into a car, J (Fig. 1), running on rails.
+
+From what precedes, it will be readily understood how a furnace is run
+on this plan.
+
+The bone-black in the hopper, A, descends into the drier, B, enters the
+retorts, D, and, after revivification, passes into the cooling pipes, F,
+from whence it issues cold and ready to be bagged. A coke fire having
+been built in the fire-place, Y, the flames spread throughout the fire
+chamber, direct themselves toward the bottom, divide into two parts to
+the right and left, and heat the back of the retorts in passing. Then
+the two currents mount through the lateral flues, V, and unite so as to
+form but one in the drier. Within the latter there are arranged plates
+designed to break the current from the flames, and allow it to heat all
+the inner parts of the pipes, while the apertures in the drier allow of
+the escape of the steam.
+
+By turning one of the cylinders, G, so as to present its aperture
+opposite that of the cooler, it instantly fills up with black. At this
+moment the whole column, from top to bottom, is set in motion. The
+bone-black, in passing through the undulations, is thrown alternately to
+the right and left until it finally reaches the coolers. This operation
+is repeated as many times as the cylinder is filled during the descent
+of one whole column, that is to say, about forty times.
+
+With an apparatus of the dimensions here described, 120 hectoliters
+of bone-black may be revivified in twenty four hours, with 360 to 400
+kilogrammes of coke.--_Annales Industrielles_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 330, page 5264.]
+
+
+
+
+SOAP AND ITS MANUFACTURE, FROM A CONSUMER'S POINT OF VIEW.
+
+
+In our last article, under the above heading, the advantages to be
+gained by the use of potash soap as compared with soda soap were pointed
+out, and the reasons of this superiority, especially in the case of
+washing wool or woolen fabrics, were pretty fully gone into. It was also
+further explained why the potash soaps generally sold to the public were
+unfit for general use, owing to their not being neutral--that is to say,
+containing a considerable excess of free or unsaponified alkali, which
+acts injuriously on the fiber of any textile material, and causes sore
+hands if used for household or laundry purposes. It was shown that the
+cause of this defect was owing to the old-fashioned method of making
+potash or soft soap, by boiling with wood ashes or other impure form of
+potash; but that a perfectly pure and neutral potash soap could readily
+be made with pure caustic potash, which within the last few years has
+become a commercial article, manufactured on a large scale; just in
+the same manner as the powdered 98 per cent. caustic soda, which was
+recommended in our previous articles on making hard soap without
+boiling.
+
+The process of making pure neutral potash soap is very simple, and
+almost identical with that for making hard soap with pure powdered
+caustic soda. The following directions, if carefully and exactly
+followed, will produce a first-class potash soap, suitable either for
+the woolen manufacturer for washing his wool, and the cloth afterward
+made from it, or for household and laundry purposes, for which uses it
+will be found far superior to any soda soap, no matter how pure or well
+made it may be.
+
+Dissolve twenty pounds of pure caustic potash in two gallons of water.
+Pure caustic potash is very soluble, and dissolves almost immediately,
+heating the water. Let the lye thus made cool until warm to the
+hand--say about 90 F. Melt eighty pounds of tallow or grease, which must
+be free from salt, and let it cool until fairly hot to the hand--say
+130 F.; or eighty pounds of any vegetable or animal oil may be taken
+instead. Now pour the caustic potash lye into the melted tallow or oil,
+stirring with a flat wooden stirrer about three inches broad, until both
+are thoroughly mixed and smooth in appearance. This mixing may be done
+in the boiler used to melt the tallow, or in a tub, or half an oil
+barrel makes a good mixing vessel. Wrap the tub or barrel well up in
+blankets or sheepskins, and put away for a week in some warm dry place,
+during which the mixture slowly turns into soap, giving a produce of
+about 120 pounds of excellent potash soap. If this soap is made with
+tallow or grease it will be nearly as hard as soda soap. When made by
+farmers or householders tallow or grease will generally be taken, as it
+is the cheapest, and ready to hand on the spot. For manufacturers, or
+for making laundry soap, nothing could be better than cotton seed oil. A
+magnificent soap can be made with this article, lathering very freely.
+When made with oil it is better to remelt in a kettle the potash soap,
+made according to the above directions, with half its weight of water,
+using very little heat, stirring constantly, and removing the fire as
+soon as the water is mixed with and taken up by the soap. A beautifully
+bright soap is obtained in this way, and curiously the soap is actually
+made much harder and stiffer by this addition of water than when it is
+in a more concentrated state previously to the water being added.
+
+With reference to the caustic potash for making the soap, it can be
+obtained in all sizes of drums, but small packages just sufficient for
+a batch of soap are generally more economical than larger packages, as
+pure caustic potash melts and deteriorates very quickly when exposed
+to the air. The Greenbank Alkali Co., of St. Helens, seems to have
+appreciated this, and put upon the market pure caustic potash in twenty
+pound canisters, which are very convenient for potash soft soap making
+by consumers for their own use.
+
+While on this subject of caustic potash, it cannot be too often repeated
+that _caustic potash_ is a totally different article to _caustic soda_,
+though just like it in appearance, and therefore often sold as such.
+One of the most barefaced instances of this is the so-called "crystal
+potash," "ball potash," or "rock potash," of the lye packers, sold in
+one pound packages, which absolutely, without exception, do not contain
+a single grain of potash, but simply consist of caustic soda more or
+less adulterated--as a rule very much "more" than "less!" It is much
+to be regretted that this fraud on the public has been so extensively
+practiced, as potash has been greatly discredited by this procedure.
+
+The subject of fleece scouring or washing the wool while growing on
+the sheep, with a potash soap made on the spot with the waste tallow
+generally to be had on every sheep farm, seems recently to have been
+attracting attention in some quarters, and certainly would be a source
+of profit to sheep owners by putting their wool on the market in the
+best condition, and at the same time cleaning the skin of the sheep. It
+therefore appears to be a move in the right direction.
+
+In concluding this series of articles on practical soap making from a
+consumer's point of view, the writer hopes that, although the subject
+has been somewhat imperfectly handled, owing to necessarily limited
+space and with many unavoidable interruptions, yet that they may have
+been found of some interest and assistance to consumers of soap who
+desire easily and readily to make a pure and unadulterated article for
+their own use.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+COTTON SEED OIL.
+
+By S.S. BRADFORD, Ph.G.
+
+
+Having had occasion during the last six years to manufacture lead
+plaster in considerable quantities, it occurred to me that cotton seed
+oil might be used instead of olive oil, at less expense, and with as
+good results. The making of this plaster with cotton seed oil has been
+questioned, as, according to some authorities, the product is not of
+good consistence, and is apt to be soft, sticky, and dark colored;
+but in my experience such is not the case. If the U. S. P. process is
+followed in making this plaster, substituting for the olive oil cotton
+seed oil, and instead of one half-pint of boiling water one and one-half
+pint are added, the product obtained will be equally as good as that
+from olive oil. My results with this oil in making lead plaster led me
+to try it in making the different liniments of the Pharmacopoeia, with
+the following results:
+
+_Linimentum Ammoniae_.--This liniment, made with cotton seed oil, is of
+much better consistency than when made with olive oil. It is not so
+thick, will pour easily out of the bottle, and if the ammonia used is of
+proper strength, will make a perfect liniment.
+
+_Linimentum Calcis_.--Cotton seed oil is not at all adapted to making
+this liniment. It does not readily saponify, separates quickly, and it
+is almost impossible to unite when separated.
+
+_Linimentum Camphorae_.--Cotton seed oil is far superior to olive oil in
+making this liniment, it being a much better solvent of camphor. It has
+not that disagreeable odor so commonly found in the liniment.
+
+_Linimentum Chloroformi_.--Cotton seed oil being very soluble in
+chloroform, the liniment made with it leaves nothing to be desired.
+
+_Linimentum Plumbi Subacetatis_.--When liq. plumbi subacet. is mixed
+with cotton seed oil and allowed to stand for some time the oil assumes
+a reddish color similar to that of freshly made tincture of myrrh. When
+the liquor is mixed with olive oil, if the oil be pure, no such change
+takes place. Noticing this change, it occurred to me that this would be
+a simple and easy way to detect cotton seed oil when mixed with olive
+oil. This change usually takes place after standing from twelve to
+twenty-four hours. It is easily detected in mixtures containing five
+per cent., or even less, of the oils, and I am convinced, after making
+numerous experiments with different oils, that it is peculiar to cotton
+seed oil.--_American Journal of Pharmacy_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE FOOD AND ENERGY OF MAN.
+
+[Footnote: From a lecture delivered at the Sanitary Congress, at
+Newcastle-on-Tyne, September 28, 1882.]
+
+By PROF. DE CHAUMONT, F.R.S.
+
+
+Although eating cannot be said to be in any way a new fashion, it has
+nevertheless been reserved for modern times, and indeed we may say the
+present generation, to get a fairly clear idea of the way in which
+food is really utilized for the work of our bodily frame. We must not,
+however, plume ourselves too much upon our superior knowledge, for
+inklings of the truth, more or less dim, have been had through all ages,
+and we are now stepping into the inheritance of times gone by, using the
+long and painful experience of our predecessors as the stepping-stone
+to our more accurate knowledge of the present time. In this, as in many
+other things, we are to some extent in the position of a dwarf on the
+shoulders of a giant; the dwarf may, indeed, see further than the giant;
+but he remains a dwarf, and the giant a giant.
+
+The question has been much discussed as to what the original food of man
+was, and some people have made it a subject of excited contention. The
+most reasonable conclusion is that man is naturally a frugivorous or
+fruit-eating animal, like his cousins the monkeys, whom he still so
+much resembles. This forms a further argument in favor of his being
+originated in warm regions, where fruits of all kinds were plentiful. It
+is pretty clear that the resort to animal food, whether the result of
+the pressure of want from failure of vegetable products, or a mere taste
+and a desire for change and more appetizing food, is one that took place
+many ages ago, probably in the earliest anthropoid, if not in the latest
+pithecoid stage. No doubt some advantage was recognized in the more
+rapid digestion and the comparative ease with which the hunter or fisher
+could obtain food, instead of waiting for the ripening of fruits in
+countries which had more or less prolonged periods of cold and inclement
+weather. Some anatomical changes have doubtless resulted from the
+practice, but they are not of sufficiently marked character to found
+much argument upon; all that we can say being that the digestive
+apparatus in man seems well adapted for digesting any food that is
+capable of yielding nutriment, and that even when an entire change is
+made in the mode of feeding, the adaptability of the human system
+shows itself in a more or less rapid accommodation to the altered
+circumstances.
+
+Food, then, is any substance which can be taken into the body and
+applied to use, either in building up or repairing the tissues and
+framework of the body itself, or in providing energy and producing
+animal heat, or any substance which, without performing those functions
+directly, controls, directs, or assists their performance. With this
+wide definition it is evident that we include all the ordinary articles
+recognized commonly as food, and that we reject all substances
+recognized commonly as poisons. But it will also include such substances
+as water and air, both of which are essential for nutrition, but are not
+usually recognized as belonging to the list of food substances in the
+ordinary sense. When we carry our investigation further, we find that
+the organic substances may be again divided into two distinct classes,
+namely, that which contains nitrogen (the casein), and those that do not
+(the butter and sugar).
+
+On ascertaining this, we are immediately struck with the remarkable fact
+that all the tissues and fluids of the body, muscles (or flesh),
+bone, blood--all, in short, except the fat--contain nitrogen, and,
+consequently, for their building up in the young, and for their repair
+and renewal in the adult, nitrogen is absolutely required. We therefore
+reasonably infer that the nitrogenous substance is necessary for this
+purpose. Experiment has borne this out, for men who have been compelled
+to live without nitrogenous food by dire necessity, and criminals on
+whom the experiment has been tried, have all perished sooner or later in
+consequence. When nitrogenous substances are used in the body, they
+are, of course, broken up and oxidized, or perhaps we ought to say more
+accurately, they take the place of the tissues of the body which wear
+away and are carried off by oxidation and other chemical changes.
+
+Now, modern science tell us that such changes are accompanied with
+manifestations of energy in some form or other, most frequently in
+that of heat, and we must look, therefore, upon nitrogenous food
+as contributing to the energy of the body in addition to its other
+functions.
+
+What are the substances which we may class as nitrogenous. In the first
+place, we have the typical example of the purest form in _albumin_,
+or white of egg; and from this the name is now given to the class of
+_albuminates_. The animal albuminates are: Albumin from eggs, fibrin
+from muscles, or flesh, myosin, or synronin, also from animals, casein
+(or cheesy matter) from milk, and the nitrogenous substances from blood.
+In the vegetable kingdom, we have glutin, or vegetable fibrin, which is
+the nourishing constituent of wheat, barley, oats, etc.; and legumin,
+or vegetable casein, which is the peculiar substance found in peas and
+beans. The other organic constituents--viz., the fats and the starches
+and sugars--contain no nitrogen, and were at one time thought to be
+concerned in producing animal heat.
+
+We now know--thanks to the labors of Joule, Lyon Playfair, Clausius,
+Tyndall, Helmholtz, etc.--that heat itself is a mode of motion, a form
+of convertible energy, which can be made to do useful or productive
+work, and be expressed in terms of actual work done. Modern experiment
+shows that all our energy is derived from that of food, and, in
+particular from the non-nitrogenous part of it, that is, the fat,
+starch, and sugar. The nutrition of man is best maintained when he is
+provided with a due admixture of all the four classes of aliment which
+we have mentioned, and not only that, but he is also better off if he
+has a variety of each class. Thus he may and ought to have albumen,
+fibrine, gluten, and casein among the albuminates, or at least two of
+them; butter and lard, or suet, or oil among the fats; starch of wheat,
+potato, rice, peas, etc., and cane-sugar, and milk-sugar among the
+carbo-hydrates. The salts cannot be replaced, so far as we know. Life
+may be maintained in fair vigor for some time on albuminates only, but
+this is done at the expense of the tissues, especially the fat of the
+body, and the end must soon come; with fat and carbo hydrates alone
+vigor may also be maintained for some time, at the expense of the
+tissues also, but the limit is a near one, In either of these cases we
+suppose sufficient water and salts to be provided.
+
+We must now inquire into the quantities of food necessary; and this
+necessitates a little consideration of the way in which the work of
+the body is carried on. We must look upon the human body exactly as a
+machine; like an engine with which we are all so familiar. A certain
+amount of work requires to be done, say, a certain number of miles of
+distance to be traversed; we know that to do this a certain number of
+pounds, or hundredweights, or tons of coal must be put into the fire of
+the boiler in order to furnish the requisite amount of energy through
+the medium of steam. This amount of fuel must bear a certain proportion
+to the work, and also to the velocity with which it is done, so both
+quantity and time have to be accounted for.
+
+No lecture on diet would be complete without a reference to the vexed
+question of alcohol. I am no teetotal advocate, and I repudiate the
+rubbish too often spouted from teetotal platforms, talk that is,
+perhaps, inseparable from the advocacy of a cause that imports a good
+deal of enthusiasm. I am at one, however, in recognizing the evils of
+excess, and would gladly hail their diminution. But I believe that
+alcohol properly used may be a comfort and a blessing, just as I know
+that improperly used it becomes a bane and a curse. But we are now
+concerned with it as an article of diet in relation to useful work, and
+it may be well to call attention markedly to the fact that its use in
+this way is very limited. The experiments of the late Dr. Parkes, made
+in our laboratory, at Netley, were conclusive on the point, that beyond
+an amount that would be represented by about one and a half to two pints
+of beer, alcohol no longer provided any convertible energy, and that,
+therefore, to take it in the belief that it did do so is an error.
+It may give a momentary stimulus in considerable doses, but this is
+invariably followed by a corresponding depression, and it is a maxim now
+generally followed, especially on service, never to give it before or
+during work. There are, of course, some persons who are better without
+it altogether, and so all moderation ought to be commended, if not
+enjoyed.
+
+There are other beverages which are more useful than the alcoholic,
+as restoratives, and for support in fatigue. Tea and coffee are
+particularly good. Another excellent restorative is a weak solution
+of Liebig's extract of meat, which has a remarkable power of removing
+fatigue. Perhaps one of the most useful and most easily obtainable is
+weak oatmeal gruel, either hot or cold. With regard to tobacco, it also
+has some value in lessening fatigue in those who are able to take it,
+but it may easily be carried to excess. Of it we may say, as of alcohol,
+that in moderation it seems harmless, and even useful to some extent,
+but, in excess, it is rank poison.
+
+There is one other point which I must refer to, and which is especially
+interesting to a great seaport like this. This is the question of
+scurvy--a question of vital importance to a maritime nation. A paper
+lately issued by Mr. Thomas Gray, of the Board of Trade, discloses the
+regrettable fact that since 1873 there has been a serious falling off,
+the outbreaks of scurvy having again increased until they reached
+ninety-nine in 1881. This, Mr. Gray seems to think, is due to a neglect
+of varied food scales; but it may also very probably have arisen from
+the neglect of the regulation about lime-juice, either as to issue or
+quality, or both. But it is also a fact of very great importance that
+mere monotony of diet has a most serious effect upon health; variety
+of food is not merely a pandering to gourmandism or greed, but a real
+sanitary benefit, aiding digestion and assimilation. Our Board of Trade
+has nothing to do with the food scales of ships, but Mr. Gray hints that
+the Legislature will have to interfere unless shipowners look to it
+themselves. The ease with which preserved foods of all kinds can be
+obtained and carried now removes the last shadow of an excuse for
+backwardness in this matter, and in particular the provision of a large
+supply of potatoes, both fresh and dried, ought to be an unceasing care;
+this is done on board American ships, and to this is doubtless owing in
+a great part the healthiness of their crews. Scurvy in the present
+day is a disgrace to shipowners and masters; and if public opinion is
+insufficient to protect the seamen, the legislature will undoubtedly
+step in and do so.
+
+And now let me close by pointing out that the study of this commonplace
+matter of eating and drinking opens out to us the conception of the
+grand unity of nature; since we see that the body of man differs in no
+way essentially from other natural combinations, but is subject to
+the same universal physical laws, in which there is no blindness, no
+variableness, no mere chance, and disobedience of which is followed as
+surely by retribution as even the keenest eschatologist might desire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+RATTLESNAKE POISON.
+
+By HENRY H. CROFT.
+
+
+Some time since, in a paper to which I am unfortunately unable to refer,
+a French chemist affirmed that the poisonous principle in snakes, or
+eliminated by snakes, was of the nature of an alkaloid, and gave a name
+to this class of bodies.
+
+Mr. Pedler has shown that snake poison is destroyed or neutralized
+by means of platinic chloride, owing probably to the formation of an
+insoluble double platinic chloride, such as is formed with almost if not
+all alkaloids.
+
+In this country (Texas) where rattlesnakes are very common, and persons
+camping out much exposed to their bites, a very favorite anecdote, or
+_remedia_ as the Mexicans cull it, is a strong solution of iodine in
+potassium iodide.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: The solution is applied as soon as possible to the wound,
+preferably enlarged, and a few drops taken internally. The common
+Mexican _remedia_ is the root of the _Agave virginica_ mashed or chewed
+and applied to the wound, while part is swallowed.
+
+Great faith is placed in this root by all residents here, who are seldom
+I without it, but, I have had no experience of it myself; and the
+internal administration is no doubt useless.
+
+Even the wild birds know of this root; the queer paisano (? ground
+woodpecker) which eats snakes, when wounded by a _vibora de cascabel_,
+runs into woods, digs up and eats a root of the agave, just like the
+mongoose; but more than that, goes back, polishes off his enemy, and
+eats him. This has been told me by Mexicans who, it may be remarked, are
+not _always_ reliable.]
+
+I have had occasion to prove the efficacy of this mixture in two cases
+of _cascabel_ bites, one on a buck, the other on a dog; and it occurred
+to me that the same explanation of its action might be given as above
+for the platinum salt, viz., the formation of an insoluble iodo compound
+as with ordinary alkaloids if the snake poison really belongs to this
+class.
+
+Having last evening killed a moderate sized rattlesnake--_Crotalus
+horridus_--which had not bitten anything, I found the gland fully
+charged with the white opaque poison; on adding iodine solution to a
+drop of this a dense light-brown precipitate was immediately formed,
+quite similar to that obtained with most alkaloids, exhibiting under the
+microscope no crystalline structure.
+
+In the absence of iodine a good extemporaneous solution for testing
+alkaloids, and perhaps a snake poison antidote, may be made by adding a
+few drops of ferric chloride to solution of potassium of iodide; this
+is a very convenient test agent which I used in my laboratory for many
+years.
+
+Although rattlesnake poison could be obtained here in very considerable
+quantity, it is out of my power to make such experiments as I could
+desire, being without any chemical appliances and living a hundred miles
+or more from any laboratory. The same may be said with regard to books,
+and possibly the above iodine reaction has been already described.
+
+Dr. Richards states that the cobra poison is destroyed by potassium
+permanganate; but this is no argument in favor of that salt as an
+antidote. Mr. Pedler also refers to it, but allows that it would not be
+probably of any use after the poison had been absorbed. Of this I
+think there can be no doubt, remembering the easy decomposition of
+permanganate by most organic substances, and I cannot but think that the
+medicinal or therapeutic advantages of that salt, taken internally, are
+equally problematical, unless the action is supposed to take place in
+the stomach.
+
+In the bladder of the same rattlesnake I found a considerable
+quantity of light-brown amorphous ammonium urate, the urine pale
+yellow.--_Chemical News_.
+
+Hermanitas Ranch, Texas.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE CHINESE SIGN MANUAL.
+
+[Footnote: Dr. D. J. Macgowan, in Medical Reports of China. 1881.]
+
+
+Two writers in _Nature_, both having for their theme "Skin-furrows on
+the Hand," solicit information on the subject from China.[1] As the
+subject is considered to have a bearing on medical jurisprudence and
+ethnology as well, this report is a suitable vehicle for responding to
+the demand.
+
+[Footnote 1: Henry Faulds, Tzukiyi Hospital, Tokio, Japan. W. J.
+Herschel, Oxford, England.--_Nature_, 28th October and 25th November,
+1880.]
+
+Dr. Faulds' observations on the finger-tips of the Japanese have an
+ethnic bearing and relate to the subject of heredity. Mr. Herschel
+considers the subject as an agent of Government, he having charge for
+twenty years of registration offices in India, where he employed finger
+marks as sign manuals, the object being to prevent personation and
+repudiation. Doolittle, in his "Social Life of the Chinese," describes
+the custom. I cannot now refer to native works where the practice of
+employing digital rugae as a sign manual is alluded to. I doubt if its
+employment in the courts is of ancient date. Well-informed natives think
+that it came into vogue subsequent to the Han period; if so, it is in
+Egypt that earliest evidence of the practice is to be found. Just as the
+Chinese courts now require criminals to sign confessions by impressing
+thereto the whorls of their thumb-tips--the right thumb in the case of
+women, the left in the case of men--so the ancient Egyptians, it
+is represented, required confessions to be sealed with their
+thumbnails--most likely the tip of the digit, as in China. Great
+importance is attached in the courts to this digital form of signature,
+"finger form." Without a confession no criminal can be legally executed,
+and the confession to be valid must be attested by the thumb-print
+of the prisoner. No direct coercion is employed to secure this; a
+contumacious culprit may, however, be tortured until he performs the
+act which is a prerequisite to his execution. Digital signatures are
+sometimes required in the army to prevent personation; the general
+in command at Wenchow enforces it on all his troops. A document thus
+attested can no more be forged or repudiated than a photograph--not so
+easily, for while the period of half a lifetime effects great changes
+in the physiognomy, the rugae of the fingers present the same appearance
+from the cradle to the grave; time writes no wrinkles there. In the
+army everywhere, when the description of a person is written down, the
+relative number of volutes and coniferous finger-tips is noted. It
+is called taking the "whelk striae," the fusiform being called "rice
+baskets," and the volutes "peck measures." A person unable to write, the
+form of signature which defies personation or repudiation is required in
+certain domestic cases, as in the sale of children or women. Often when
+a child is sold the parents affix their finger marks to the bill of
+sale; when a husband puts away his wife, giving her a bill of divorce,
+he marks the document with his entire palm; and when a wife is sold, the
+purchaser requires the seller to stamp the paper with hands and feet,
+the four organs duly smeared with ink. Professional fortune tellers in
+China take into account almost the entire system of the person whose
+future they attempt to forecast, and of course they include palmistry,
+but the rugae of the finger-ends do not receive much attention. Amateur
+fortune-tellers, however, discourse as glibly on them as phrenologists
+do of "bumps"--it is so easy. In children the relative number of volute
+and conical striae indicate their future. "If there are nine volutes,"
+says a proverb, "to one conical, the boy will attain distinction without
+toil."
+
+Regarded from an ethnological point of view, I can discover merely that
+the rugae of Chinamen's fingers differ from Europeans', but there is so
+little uniformity observable that they form no basis for distinction,
+and while the striae may be noteworthy points in certain medico-legal
+questions, heredity is not one of them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+LUCIDITY.
+
+
+At the close of an interesting address lately delivered at the reopening
+of the Liverpool University College and School of Medicine, Mr. Matthew
+Arnold said if there was one word which he should like to plant in the
+memories of his audience, and to leave sticking there after he had gone,
+it was the word _lucidity_. If he had to fix upon the three great wants
+at this moment of the three principal nations of Europe, he should say
+that the great want of the French was morality, that the great want of
+the Germans was civil courage, and that our own great want was lucidity.
+Our own want was, of course, what concerned us the most. People were apt
+to remark the defects which accompanied certain qualities, and to think
+that the qualities could not be desirable because of the defects which
+they saw accompanying them. There was no greater and salutary lesson for
+men to learn than that a quality may be accompanied, naturally perhaps,
+by grave dangers; that it may actually present itself accompanied by
+terrible defects, and yet that it might itself be indispensable. Let him
+illustrate what he meant by an example, the force of which they would
+all readily feel. Seriousness was a quality of our nation. Perhaps
+seriousness was always accompanied by certain dangers. But, at any rate,
+many of our French neighbors would say that they found our seriousness
+accompanied by so many false ideas, so much prejudice, so much that was
+disagreeable, that it could not have the value which we attributed to
+it. And yet we knew that it was invaluable. Let them follow the same
+mode of reasoning as to the quality of lucidity. The French had a
+national turn for lucidity as we had a national turn for seriousness.
+Perhaps a national turn for lucidity carried with it always certain
+dangers. Be this as it might, it was certain that we saw in the French,
+along with their lucidity, a want of seriousness, a want of reverence,
+and other faults, which greatly displeased us. Many of us were inclined
+in consequence to undervalue their lucidity, or to deny that they
+had it. We were wrong: it existed as our seriousness existed; it was
+valuable as our seriousness was valuable. Both the one and the other
+were valuable, and in the end indispensable.
+
+What was lucidity? It was negatively that the French have it, and he
+would therefore deal with its negative character merely. Negatively,
+lucidity was the perception of the want of truth and validness in
+notions long current, the perception that they are no longer possible,
+that their time is finished, and they can serve us no more. All through
+the last century a prodigious travail for lucidity was going forward
+in France. Its principal agent was a man whose name excited generally
+repulsion in England, Voltaire. Voltaire did a great deal of harm in
+France. But it was not by his lucidity that he did harm; he did it by
+his want of seriousness, his want of reverence, his want of sense for
+much that is deepest in human nature. But by his lucidity he did good.
+
+All admired Luther. Conduct was three-fourths of life, and a man who
+worked for conduct, therefore, worked for more than a man who worked for
+intelligence. But having promised this, it might be said that the Luther
+of the eighteenth century and of the cultivated classes was Voltaire.
+As Luther had an antipathy to what was immoral, so Voltaire had an
+antipathy to what was absurd, and both of them made war upon the object
+of their antipathy with such masterly power, with so much conviction,
+so much energy, so much genius, that they carried their world with
+them--Luther his Protestant world, and Voltaire his French world--and
+the cultivated classes throughout the continent of Europe generally.
+
+Voltaire had more than negative lucidity; he had the large and true
+conception that a number and equilibrium of activities were necessary
+for man. "_Il faut douner a notre ame toutes les formes possibles_"
+was a maxim which Voltaire really and truly applied in practice,
+"advancing," as Michelet finely said of him, in every direction with
+a marvelous vigor and with that conquering ambition which Vico called
+_mens heroica_. Nevertheless. Voltaire's signal characteristic was his
+lucidity, his negative lucidity.
+
+There was a great and free intellectual movement in England in the
+eighteenth century--indeed, it was from England that it passed into
+France; but the English had not that strong natural bent for lucidity
+which the French had. Its bent was toward other things in preference.
+Our leading thinkers had not the genius and passion for lucidity which
+distinguished Voltaire. In their free inquiry they soon found themselves
+coming into collision with a number of established facts, beliefs,
+conventions. Thereupon all sorts of practical considerations began to
+sway them. The danger signal went up, they often stopped short, turned
+their eyes another way, or drew down a curtain between themselves and
+the light. "It seems highly probable," said Voltaire, "that nature has
+made thinking a portion of the brain, as vegetation is a function of
+trees; that we think by the brain just as we walk by the feet." So our
+reason, at least, would lead us to conclude, if the theologians did not
+assure us of the contrary; such, too, was the opinion of Locke, but he
+did not venture to announce it. The French Revolution came, England grew
+to abhor France, and was cut off from the Continent, did great things,
+gained much, but not in lucidity. The Continent was reopened, the
+century advanced, time and experience brought their lessons, lovers of
+free and clear thought, such as the late John Stuart Mill, arose among
+us. But we could not say that they had by any means founded among us the
+reign of lucidity.
+
+Let them consider that movement of which we were hearing so much just
+now: let them look at the Salvation Army and its operations. They would
+see numbers, funds, energy, devotedness, excitement, conversions, and
+a total absence of lucidity. A little lucidity would make the whole
+movement impossible. That movement took for granted as its basis what
+was no longer possible or receivable; its adherents proceeded in all
+they did on the assumption that that basis was perfectly solid, and
+neither saw that it was not solid, nor ever even thought of asking
+themselves whether it was solid or not.
+
+Taking a very different movement, and one of far higher dignity and
+import, they had all had before their minds lately the long-devoted,
+laborious, influential, pure, pathetic life of Dr. Pusey, which had just
+ended. Many of them had also been reading in the lively volumes of that
+acute, but not always good-natured rattle, Mr. Mozley, an account of
+that great movement which took from Dr. Pusey its earlier name. Of its
+later stage of Ritualism they had had in this country a now celebrated
+experience. This movement was full of interest. It had produced men to
+be respected, men to be admired, men to be beloved, men of learning,
+goodness, genius, and charm. But could they resist the truth that
+lucidity would have been fatal to it? The movers of all those questions
+about apostolical succession, church patristic authority, primitive
+usage, postures, vestments--questions so passionately debated, and on
+which he would not seek to cast ridicule--did not they all begin by
+taking for granted something no longer possible or receivable, build on
+this basis as if it were indubitably solid, and fail to see that their
+basis not being solid, all they built upon it was fantastic?
+
+He would not say that negative lucidity was in itself a satisfactory
+possession, but he said that it was inevitable and indispensable, and
+that it was the condition of all serious construction for the future.
+Without it at present a man or a nation was intellectually and
+spiritually all abroad. If they saw it accompanied in France by much
+that they shrank from, they should reflect that in England it would
+have influences joined with it which it had not in France--the natural
+seriousness of the people, their sense of reverence and respect, their
+love for the past. Come it must; and here where it had been so late in
+coming, it would probably be for the first time seen to come without
+danger.
+
+Capitals were natural centers of mental movement, and it was natural for
+the classes with most leisure, most freedom, most means of cultivation,
+and most conversance with the wide world to have lucidity though often
+they had it not. To generate a spirit of lucidity in provincial towns,
+and among the middle classes bound to a life of much routine and plunged
+in business, was more difficult. Schools and universities, with serious
+and disinterested studies, and connecting those studies the one with the
+other and continuing them into years of manhood, were in this case the
+best agency they could use. It might be slow, but it was sure. Such
+an agency they were now going to employ. Might it fulfill all their
+expectations! Might their students, in the words quoted just now,
+advance in every direction with a marvelous vigor, and with that
+conquering ambition which Vico called _mens heroica_! And among the many
+good results of this, might one result be the acquisition in their midst
+of that indispensable spirit--the spirit of lucidity!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ON SOME APPARATUS THAT PERMIT OF ENTERING FLAMES.
+
+[Footnote: A. de Rochas in the _Revue Scientifique_.]
+
+
+In the following notes I shall recall a few experiments that indicate
+under what conditions the human organism is permitted to remain unharmed
+amid flames. These experiments were published in England in 1882, in the
+twelfth letter from Brewster to Walter Scott on natural magic. They are,
+I believe, not much known in France, and possess a practical interest
+for those who are engaged in the art of combating fires.
+
+At the end of the last century Humphry Davy observed that, on placing a
+very fine wire gauze over a flame, the latter was cooled to such a
+point that it could not traverse the meshes. This phenomenon, which he
+attributed to the conductivity and radiating power of the metal, he soon
+utilized in the construction of a lamp for miners.
+
+Some years afterward Chevalier Aldini, of Milan, conceived the idea of
+making a new application of Davy's discovery in the manufacture of an
+envelope that should permit a man to enter into the midst of flames.
+This envelope, which was made of metallic gauze with 1-25th of an inch
+meshes, was composed of five pieces, as follows: (1) a helmet, with
+mask, large enough, to allow a certain space between it and the internal
+bonnet of which I shall speak; (2) a cuirass with armlets; (3) a skirt
+for the lower part of the belly and the thighs; (4) a pair of boots
+formed of a double wire gauze; and (5) a shield five feet long by one
+and a half wide, formed of metallic gauze stretched over a light iron
+frame. Beneath this armor the experimenter was clad in breeches and a
+close coat of coarse cloth that had previously been soaked in a solution
+of alum. The head, hands, and feet were covered by envelopes of asbestos
+cloth whose fibers were about a half millimeter in diameter. The bonnet
+contained apertures for the eyes, nose, and ears, and consisted of a
+single thickness of fabric, as did the stockings, but the gloves were of
+double thickness, so that the wearer could seize burning objects with
+the hands.
+
+Aldini, convinced of the services that his apparatus might render to
+humanity, traveled over Europe and gave gratuitous representations with
+it. The exercises generally took place in the following order: Aldini
+began by first wrapping his finger in asbestos and then with a double
+layer of wire gauze. He then held it for some instants in the flame of
+a candle or alcohol lamp. One of his assistants afterward put on the
+asbestos glove of which I have spoken, and, protecting the palm of his
+hand with another piece of asbestos cloth, seized a piece of red-hot
+iron from a furnace and slowly carried it to a distance of forty or
+fifty meters, lighted some straw with it, and then carried it back to
+the furnace. On other occasions, the experimenters, holding firebrands
+in their hands, walked for five minutes over a large grating under which
+fagots were burning.
+
+In order to show how the head, eyes, and lungs were protected by the
+wire gauze apparatus, one of the experimenters put on the asbestos
+bonnet, helmet, and cuirass, and fixed the shield in front of his
+breast. Then, in a chafing dish placed on a level with his shoulder, a
+great fire of shavings was lighted, and care was taken to keep it up.
+Into the midst of these flames the experimenter then plunged his head
+and remained thus five or six minutes with his face turned toward them.
+In an exhibition given at Paris before a committee from the Academic
+des Sciences, there were set up two parallel fences formed of straw,
+connected by iron wire to light wicker work, and arranged so as to leave
+between them a passage 3 feet wide by 30 long. The heat was so intense,
+when the fences were set on fire, that no one could approach nearer than
+20 or 25 feet; and the flames seemed to fill the whole space between
+them, and rose to a height of 9 or 10 feet. Six men clad in the Aldini
+suit went in, one behind the other, between the blazing fences, and
+walked slowly backward and forward in the narrow passage, while the fire
+was being fed with fresh combustibles from the exterior. One of these
+men carried on his back, in an ozier basket covered with wire gauze, a
+child eight years of age, who had on no other clothing than an asbestos
+bonnet. This same man, having the child with him, entered on another
+occasion a clear fire whose flames reached a height of 18 feet, and
+whose intensity was such that it could not be looked at. He remained
+therein so long that the spectators began to fear that he had succumbed;
+but he finally came out safe and sound.
+
+One of the conclusions to be drawn from the facts just stated is that
+man can breathe in the midst of flames. This marvelous property cannot
+be attributed exclusively to the cooling of the air by its passage
+through the gauze before reaching the lungs; it shows also a very great
+resistance of our organs to the action of heat. The following, moreover,
+are direct proofs of such resistance. In England, in their first
+experiment, Messrs. Joseph Banks, Charles Blagden, and Dr. Solander
+remained for ten minutes in a hot-house whose temperature was 211 deg.
+Fahr., and their bodies preserved therein very nearly the usual heat. On
+breathing against a thermometer they caused the mercury to fall several
+degrees. Each expiration, especially when it was somewhat strong,
+produced in their nostrils an agreeable impression of coolness, and the
+same impression was also produced on their fingers when breathed upon.
+When they touched themselves their skin seemed to be as cold as that of
+a corpse; but contact with their watch chains caused them to experience
+a sensation like that of a burn. A thermometer placed under the tongue
+of one of the experimenters marked 98 deg. Fahr., which is the normal
+temperature of the human species.
+
+Emboldened by these first results, Blagden entered a hot-house in which
+the thermometer in certain parts reached 262 deg. Fahr. He remained therein
+eight minutes, walked about in all directions, and stopped in the
+coolest part, which was at 240 deg. Fahr. During all this time he
+experienced no painful sensations; but, at the end of seven minutes, he
+felt an oppression of the lungs that inquieted him and caused him to
+leave the place. His pulse at that moment showed 144 beats to the
+minute, that is to say, double what it usually did. To ascertain whether
+there was any error in the indications of the thermometer, and to find
+out what effect would take place on inert substances exposed to the hot
+air that he had breathed, Blogden placed some eggs in a zinc plate in
+the hot-house, alongside the thermometer, and found that in twenty
+minutes they were baked hard.
+
+A case is reported where workmen entered a furnace for drying moulds, in
+England, the temperature of which was 177 deg., and whose iron sole plate
+was so hot that it carbonized their wooden shoes. In the immediate
+vicinity of this furnace the temperature rose to 160 deg.. Persons not of
+the trade who approached anywhere near the furnace experienced pain in
+the eyes, nose, and ears.
+
+A baker is cited in Angoumois, France, who spent ten minutes in a
+furnace at 132 deg. C.
+
+The resistance of the human organism to so high temperatures can be
+attributed to several causes. First, it has been found that the quantity
+of carbonic acid exhaled by the lungs, and consequently the chemical
+phenomena of internal combustion that are a source of animal heat,
+diminish in measure as the external temperature rises. Hence, a conflict
+which has for result the retardation of the moment at which a living
+being will tend, without obstacle, to take the temperature of the
+surrounding medium. On another hand, it has been observed that man
+resists heat so much the less in proportion as the air is saturated
+with vapors. Dr. Berger, who supported for seven minutes a temperature
+varying from 109 deg. to 110 deg. C. in dry air, could remain only twelve
+minutes in a bagnio whose temperature rose from 41 deg. to 51.75 deg.. At the
+Hammam of Paris the highest temperature obtained is 87 deg., and Dr. E.
+Martin has not been able to remain therein more than five minutes. This
+physician reports that in 1743, the thermometer having exceeded 40 deg. at
+Pekin, 14,000 persons perished. These facts are explained by the cooling
+that the evaporation of perspiration produces on the surface of the
+body. Edwards has calculated that such evaporation is ten times greater
+in dry air in motion than in calm and humid air. The observations become
+still more striking when the skin is put in contact with a liquid or a
+solid which suppresses perspiration. Lemoine endured a bath of Bareges
+water of 37 deg. for half an hour; but at 45 deg. he could not remain in it more
+than seven minutes, and the perspiration began to flow at the end of six
+minutes. According to Brewster, persons who experience no malaise near
+a fire which communicates a temperature of 100 deg. C. to them, can hardly
+bear contact with alcohol and oil at 55 deg. and mercury at 48 deg..
+
+The facts adduced permit us to understand how it was possible to bear
+one of the proofs to which it is said those were submitted who wished
+to be initiated into the Egyptian mysteries. In a vast vaulted chamber
+nearly a hundred feet long, there were erected two fences formed of
+posts, around which were wound branches of Arabian balm, Egyptian thorn,
+and tamarind--all very flexible and inflammable woods. When this was set
+on fire the flames arose as far as the vault, licked it, and gave the
+chamber the appearance of a hot furnace, the smoke escaping through
+pipes made for the purpose. Then the door was suddenly opened before the
+neophyte, and he was ordered to traverse this burning place, whose floor
+was composed of an incandescent grating.
+
+The Abbe Terrason recounts all these details in his historic romance
+"Sethos," printed at the end of last century. Unfortunately literary
+frauds were in fashion then, and the book, published as a translation of
+an old Greek manuscript, gives no indication of sources. I have sought
+in special works for the data which the abbe must have had as a basis,
+but I have not been able to find them. I suppose, however, that
+this description, which is so precise, is not merely a work of the
+imagination. The author goes so far as to give the dimensions of the
+grating (30 feet by 8), and, greatly embarrassed to explain how his hero
+was enabled to traverse it without being burned, is obliged to suppose
+it to have been formed of very thick bars, between which Sethos had care
+to place his feet. But this explanation is inadmissible. He who had the
+courage to rush, head bowed, into the midst of the flames, certainly
+would not have amused himself by choosing the place to put his feet.
+Braving the fire that surrounded his entire body, he must have had no
+other thought than that of reaching the end of his dangerous voyage as
+soon as possible. We cannot see very well, moreover, how this immense
+grate, lying on the ground, was raised to a red heat and kept at such a
+temperature. It is infinitely more simple to suppose that between the
+two fences there was a ditch sufficiently deep in which a fire had
+also been lighted, and which was covered by a grating as in the Aldini
+experiments. It is even probable that this grating was of copper,
+which, illuminated by the fireplace, must have presented a terrifying
+brilliancy, while in reality it served only to prevent the flames from
+the fireplace reaching him who dared to brave them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE BUILDING STONE SUPPLY.
+
+
+The use of stone as a building material was not resorted to, except to
+a trifling extent, in this country until long after the need of such a
+solid substance was felt. The early settler contented himself with the
+log cabin, the corduroy road, and the wooden bridge, and loose stone
+enough for foundation purposes could readily be gathered from the
+surface of the earth. Even after the desirability of more handsome and
+durable building material for public edifices in the colonial cities
+than wood became apparent, the ample resources which nature had afforded
+in this country were overlooked, and brick and stone were imported by
+the Dutch and English settlers from the Old World. Thus we find the
+colonists of the New Netherlands putting yellow brick on their list
+of non-dutiable imports in 1648; and such buildings in Boston as are
+described as being "fairly set forth with brick, tile, slate, and
+stone," were thus provided only with foreign products. Isolated
+instances of quarrying stone are known to have occurred in the last
+century; but they are rare. The edifice known as "King's Chapel,"
+Boston, erected in 1752, is the first one on record as being built from
+American stone; this was granite, brought from Braintree, Mass.
+
+Granite is a rock particularly abundant in New England, though also
+found in lesser quantities elsewhere in this country. The first granite
+quarries that were extensively developed were those at Quincy, Mass.,
+and work began at that point early in the present century. The fame of
+the stone became widespread, and it was sent to distant markets--even to
+New Orleans. The old Merchants' Exchange in New York (afterward used as
+a custom house) the Astor House in that city, and the Custom House in
+New Orleans, all nearly or quite fifty years old, were constructed of
+Quincy granite, as were many other fine buildings along the Atlantic
+coast. In later years, not only isolated public edifices, but also whole
+blocks of stores, have been constructed of this material. It was from
+the Quincy quarries that the first railroad in this country was built;
+this was a horse-railroad, three miles long, extending to Neponset
+River, built in 1827.
+
+Other points in Massachusetts have been famed for their excellent
+granite. After Maine was set off as a distinct State, Fox Island
+acquired repute for its granite, and built up an extensive traffic
+therein. Westerly, R.I., has also been engaged in quarrying this
+valuable rock for many years, most of its choicer specimens having been
+wrought for monumental purposes. Statues and other elaborate monumental
+designs are now extensively made therefrom. Smaller pieces and a coarser
+quality of the stone are here and elsewhere along the coast obtained in
+large quantities for the construction of massive breakwaters to protect
+harbors. Another point famous for its granite is Staten Island, New
+York. This stone weighs 180 pounds to the cubic foot, while the Quincy
+granite weighs but 165. The Staten Island product is used not only for
+building purposes, but is also especially esteemed for paving after both
+the Russ and Belgian patents. New York and other cities derive large
+supplies from this source. The granite of Weehawken, N.J., is of the
+same character, and greatly in demand. Port Deposit, Md., and Richmond,
+Va, are also centers of granite production. Near Abbeville, S.C., and
+in Georgia, granite is found quite like that of Quincy. Much southern
+granite, however, decomposes readily, and is almost as soft as clay.
+This variety of stone is found in great abundance in the Rocky
+Mountains; but, except to a slight extent in California, it is not yet
+quarried there.
+
+Granite, having little grain, can be cut into blocks of almost any size
+and shape. Specimens as much as eighty feet long have been taken out and
+transported great distances. The quarrying is done by drilling a series
+of small holes, six inches or more deep and almost the same distance
+apart, inserting steel wedges along the whole line and then tapping each
+gently with a hammer in succession, in order that the strain may be
+evenly distributed.
+
+A building material that came into use earlier than granite is known as
+freestone or sandstone; although its first employment does not date back
+further than the erection of King's Chapel, Boston, already referred to
+as the earliest well-known occasion where granite was used in building.
+Altogether the most famous American sandstone quarries are those at
+Portland, on the Connecticut River, opposite Middletown. These were
+worked before the Revolution; and their product has been shipped to many
+distant points in the country. The long rows of "brownstone fronts" in
+New York city are mostly of Portland stone, though in many cases the
+walls are chiefly of brick covered with thin layers of the stone. The
+old red sandstone of the Connecticut valley is distinguished in geology
+for the discovery of gigantic fossil footprints of birds, first noticed
+in the Portland quarries in 1802. Some of these footprints measured
+ten to sixteen inches, and they were from four to six feet apart. The
+sandstone of Belleville, N.J., has also extensive use and reputation.
+Trinity Church in New York city and the Boston Atheneum are built of the
+product of these quarries; St. Lawrence County, New York, is noted also
+for a fine bed of sandstone. At Potsdam it is exposed to a depth of
+seventy feet. There are places though, in New England, New York, and
+Eastern Pennsylvania, where a depth of three hundred feet has been
+reached. The Potsdam sandstone is often split to the thinness of an
+inch. It hardens by exposure, and is often used for smelting furnace
+hearth-stones. Shawangunk Mountain, in Ulster County, yields a sandstone
+of inferior quality, which has been unsuccessfully tried for paving;
+as it wears very unevenly. From Ulster, Greene, and Albany Counties
+sandstone slabs for sidewalks are extensively quarried for city use;
+the principal outlets of these sections being Kingston, Saugerties,
+Coxsackie, Bristol, and New Baltimore, on the Hudson. In this region
+quantities amounting to millions of square feet are taken out in large
+sheets, which are often sawed into the sizes desired. The vicinity of
+Medina, in Western New York, yields a sandstone extensively used in that
+section for paving and curbing, and a little for building. A rather poor
+quality of this stone has been found along the Potomac, and some of it
+was used in the erection of the old Capitol building at Washington.
+Ohio yields a sandstone that is of a light gray color; Berea, Amherst,
+Vermilion, and Massillon are the chief points of production. St.
+Genevieve, Mo., yields a stone of fine grain of a light straw color,
+which is quite equal to the famous Caen stone of France. The Lake
+Superior sandstones are dark and coarse grained, but strong.
+
+In some parts of the country, where neither granite nor sandstone
+is easily procured, blue and gray limestone are sometimes used for
+building, and, when hammer dressed, often look like granite. A serious
+objection to their use, however, is the occasional presence of iron,
+which rusts on exposure, and defaces the building. In Western New York
+they are widely used. Topeka stone, like the coquine of Florida and
+Bermuda, is soft like wood when first quarried, and easily wrought,
+but it hardens on exposure. The limestones of Canton, Mo., Joliet and
+Athens, Ill., Dayton, Sandusky, Marblehead, and other points in Ohio,
+Ellittsville, Ind., and Louisville and Bowling Green, Ky., are great
+favorites west. In many of these regions limestone is extensively used
+for macadamizing roads, for which it is excellently adapted. It also
+yields excellent slabs or flags for sidewalks.
+
+One of the principal uses of this variety of stone is its conversion, by
+burning, into lime for building purposes. All limestones are by no
+means equally excellent in this regard. Thomaston lime, burned with
+Pennsylvania coal, near the Penobscot River, has had a wide reputation
+for nearly half a century. It has been shipped thence to all points
+along the Atlantic coast, invading Virginia as far as Lynchburg, and
+going even to New Orleans, Smithfield, R.I., and Westchester County,
+N.Y., near the lower end of the Highlands, also make a particularly
+excellent quality of lime. Kingston, in Ulster County, makes an inferior
+sort for agricultural purposes. The Ohio and other western stones yield
+a poor lime, and that section is almost entirely dependent on the east
+for supplies.
+
+Marbles, like limestones, with which they are closely related, are very
+abundant in this country, and are also to be found in a great variety of
+colors. As early as 1804 American marble was used for statuary purposes.
+Early in the century it also obtained extensive employment for
+gravestones. Its use for building purposes has been more recent than
+granite and sandstone in this country; and it is coming to supersede the
+latter to a great degree. For mantels, fire-places, porch pillars, and
+like ornamental purposes, however, our variegated, rich colored and
+veined or brecciated marbles were in use some time before exterior walls
+were made from them. Among the earliest marble buildings were Girard
+College in Philadelphia and the old City Hall in New York, and the
+Custom House in the latter city, afterward used for a sub-treasury. The
+new Capitol building at Washington is among the more recent structures
+composed of this material. Our exports of marble to Cuba and elsewhere
+amount to over $300,000 annually, although we import nearly the same
+amount from Italy. And yet an article can be found in the United States
+fully as fine as the famous Carrara marble. We refer to that which comes
+from Rutland, Vt. This state yields the largest variety and choicest
+specimens. The marble belt runs both ways from Rutland County, where
+the only quality fit for statuary is obtained. Toward the north it
+deteriorates by growing less sound, though finer in grain; while to
+the south it becomes coarser. A beautiful black marble is obtained at
+Shoreham, Vt. There are also handsome brecciated marbles in the same
+state; and in the extreme northern part, near Lake Champlain, they
+become more variegated and rich in hue. Such other marble as is found
+in New England is of an inferior quality. The pillars of Girard
+College came from Berkshire, Mass., which ranks next after Vermont in
+reputation.
+
+The marble belt extends from New England through New York, Pennsylvania,
+Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia, Tennessee, and the
+Carolinas, to Georgia and Alabama. Some of the variegated and high
+colored varieties obtained near Knoxville, Tenn., nearly equal that of
+Vermont. The Rocky Mountains contain a vast abundance and variety.
+
+Slate was known to exist in this country to a slight extent in colonial
+days. It was then used for gravestones, and to some extent for roofing
+and school purposes. But most of our supplies came from Wales. It is
+stated that a slate quarry was operated in Northampton County, Pa., as
+early as 1805. In 1826 James M. Porter and Samuel Taylor engaged in the
+business, obtaining their supplies from the Kittanninny Mountains. From
+this time the business developed rapidly, the village of Slateford being
+an outgrowth of it, and large rafts being employed to float the product
+down the Schuylkill to Philadelphia. By 1860 the industry had reached
+the capacity of 20,000 cases of slate, valued at $10 a case, annually.
+In 1839 quarries were opened in the Piscataquis River, forty miles
+north of Bangor, Me., but poor transportation facilities retarded the
+business. Vermont began to yield in 1852. New York's quarries are
+confined to Washington County, near the Vermont line. Maryland has
+a limited supply from Harford County. The Huron Mountains, north of
+Marquette, Mich., contain slate, which is also said to exist in Pike
+County, Ga.
+
+Grindstones, millstones, and whetstones are quarried in New York, Ohio,
+Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other States. Mica is found at Acworth and
+Grafton, N. H., and near Salt Lake, but our chief supply comes from
+Haywood, Yancey, Mitchell, and Macon counties, in North Carolina, and
+our product is so large that we can afford to export it. Other stones,
+such as silex, for making glass, etc., are found in profusion in various
+parts of the country, but we have no space to enter into a detailed
+account of them at present.--_Pottery and Glassware Reporter_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
+
+
+The most interesting change of which the Census gives account is the
+increase in the number of farms. The number has virtually doubled within
+twenty years. The population of the country has not increased in like
+proportion. A large part of the increase in number of farms has been due
+to the division of great estates. Nor has this occurred, as some may
+imagine, exclusively in the Southern States and the States to which
+immigration and migration have recently been directed. It is an
+important fact that the multiplication of farms has continued even in
+the older Northern States, though the change has not been as great in
+these as in States of the far West or the South. In New York there has
+been an increase of 25,000, or 11.5 per cent, in the number of farms
+since 1870; in New Jersey the increase has been 12.2 per cent., and in
+Pennsylvania 22.7 per cent., though the increase in population, and
+doubtless in the number of persons engaged in farming, has been much
+smaller. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois also, have been considered fully
+settled States for years, at least in an agricultural point of view, and
+yet the number of farms has increased 26.1 per cent, in ten years in
+Ohio, 20.3 percent, in Indiana, and 26.1 per cent, in Illinois. The
+obvious explanation is that the growth of many cities and towns has
+created a market for a far greater supply of those products which may be
+most advantageously grown upon farms of moderate size; but even if this
+fully accounts for the phenomenon, the change must be recognized as one
+of the highest importance industrially, socially, and politically. The
+man who owns or rents and cultivates a farm stands on a very different
+footing from the laborer who works for wages. It is not a small matter
+that, in these six States alone, there are 205,000 more owners or
+managers of farms than there were only a decade ago.
+
+As we go further toward the border, west or north, the influence of the
+settlement of new land is more distinctly felt. Even in Michigan, where
+new railroads have opened new regions to settlement, the increase in
+number of farms has been over 55 per cent. In Wisconsin, though the
+increase in railroad mileage has been about the same as in Michigan, the
+reported increase in number of farms has been only 28 per cent., but in
+Iowa it rises to 60 per cent., and in Minnesota to nearly 100 per cent.
+In Kansas the number of farms is 138,561, against 38,202 in 1870; in
+Nebraska 63,387, against 12,301; and in Dakota 17,435, against 1,720. In
+these regions the process is one of creation of new States rather than a
+change in the social and industrial condition of the population.
+
+Some Southern States have gained largely, but the increase in these,
+though very great, is less surprising than the new States of the
+Northwest. The prevailing tendency of Southern agriculture to large
+farms and the employment of many hands is especially felt in States
+where land is still abundant. The greatest increase is in Texas, where
+174,184 farms are reported, against 61,125 in 1870; in Florida, with
+23,438 farms, against 10,241 in 1870; and in Arkansas, with 94,433
+farms, against 49,424 in 1870. In Missouri 215,575 farms are reported,
+against 148,228 in 1870. In these States, though social changes have
+been great, the increase in number of farms has been largely due to new
+settlements, as in the States of the far Northwest. But the change in
+the older Southern States is of a different character.
+
+Virginia, for example, has long been settled, and had 77,000 farms
+thirty years ago. But the increase in number within the past ten years
+has been 44,668, or 60.5 per cent. Contrasting this with the increase in
+New York, a remarkable difference appears. West Virginia had few more
+farms ten years ago than New Jersey; now it has nearly twice as many,
+and has gained in number nearly 60 per cent. North Carolina, too, has
+increased 78 per cent. in number of farms since 1870, and South Carolina
+80 per cent. In Georgia the increase has been still greater--from 69,956
+to 138,626, or nearly 100 per cent. In Alabama there are 135,864
+farms, against 67,382 in 1870, an increase of over 100 per cent. These
+proportions, contrasted with those for the older Northern States, reveal
+a change that is nothing less than an industrial revolution. But the
+force of this tendency to division of estates has been greatest in the
+States named. Whereas the ratio of increase in number of farms becomes
+greater in Northern States as we go from the East toward the Mississippi
+River, at the South it is much smaller in Kentucky, Tennessee,
+Mississippi, and Louisiana than in the older States on the Atlantic
+coast. Thus in Louisiana the increase has been from 28,481 to 48,292
+farms, or 70 per cent., and in Mississippi from 68,023 to 101,772 farms,
+or less than 50 per cent., against 100 in Alabama and Georgia. In
+Kentucky the increase has been from 118,422 to 166,453 farms, or 40 per
+cent., and in Tennessee from 118,141 to 165,650 farms, or 40 per cent.,
+against 60 in Virginia and West Virginia, and 78 in North Carolina.
+Thus, while the tendency to division is far greater than in the Northern
+States of corresponding age, it is found in full force only in six of
+the older Southern States, Alabama, West Virginia, and four on the
+Atlantic coast. In these, the revolution already effected foreshadows
+and will almost certainly bring about important political changes within
+a few years. In these six States there 310,795 more farm owners or
+occupants than there were ten years ago.--_N.Y. Tribune_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A FARMER'S LIME KILN.
+
+
+For information about burning lime we republish the following article
+furnished by a correspondent of the _Country Gentleman_ several years
+ago:
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. A (Fig. 1), Railway Track--B B B,
+Iron Rods running through Kiln--C, Capstone over Arch--D, Arch--E, Well
+without brick or ash lining.]
+
+I send you a description and sketch of a lime-kiln put up on my premises
+about five years ago. The dimensions of this kiln are 13 feet square by
+25 feet high from foundation, and its capacity 100 bushels in 24 hours.
+It was constructed of the limestone quarried on the spot. It has round
+iron rods (shown in sketch) passing through, with iron plates fastened
+to the ends as clamps to make it more firm; the pair nearest the top
+should be not less than 2 feet from that point, the others interspersed
+about 2 feet apart--the greatest strain being near the top. The arch
+should be 7 feet high by 51/2 wide in front, with a gather on the top
+and sides of about 1 foot, with plank floor; and if this has a little
+incline it will facilitate shoveling the lime when drawn. The arch
+should have a strong capstone; also one immediately under the well of
+the kiln, with a hole 2 feet in diameter to draw the lime through; or
+two may be used with semicircle cut in each. Iron bars 2 inches wide by
+1/8 inch thick are used in this kiln for closing it, working in slots
+fastened to capstone. These slots must be put in before the caps
+are laid. When it is desired to draw lime, these bars may be
+pushed laterally in the slots, or drawn out entirely, according to
+circumstances; 3 bars will be enough. The slots are made of iron bars
+11/2 inches wide, with ends rounded and turned up, and inserted in holes
+drilled through capstone and keyed above.
+
+The well of the kiln is lined with fire-brick one course thick, with a
+stratum of coal ashes three inches thick tamped in between the brick
+and wall, which proves a great protection to the wall. About 2,000
+fire-bricks were used. The proprietors of this kiln say about one-half
+the lower part of the well might have been lined with a first quality of
+common brick and saved some expense and been just as good. The form of
+the well shown in Fig. 3 is 7 feet in diameter in the bilge, exclusive
+of the lining of brick and ashes. Experiments in this vicinity have
+proved this to be the best, this contraction toward the top being
+absolutely necessary, the expansion of the stone by the heat is so
+great that the lime cannot be drawn from perpendicular walls, as was
+demonstrated in one instance near here, where a kiln was built on that
+principle. The kiln, of course, is for coal, and our stone requires
+about three-quarters of a ton per 100 bushels of lime, but this, I am
+told, varies according to quality, some requiring more than others; the
+quantity can best be determined by experimenting; also the regulation of
+the heat--if too great it will cause the stones to melt or run together
+as it were, or, if too little, they will not be properly burned. The
+business requires skill and judgment to run it successfully.
+
+This kiln is located at the foot of a steep bluff, the top about level
+with the top of the kiln, with railway track built of wooden sleepers,
+with light iron bars, running from the bluff to the top of the kiln, and
+a hand-car makes it very convenient filling the kiln. Such a location
+should be had if possible. Your inquirer may perhaps get some ideas
+of the principles of a kiln for using _coal_. The dimensions may be
+reduced, if desired. If for _wood_, the arch would have to be formed for
+that, and the height of kiln reduced.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE MANUFACTURE OF APPLE JELLY.
+
+[Footnote: From the report of the New York Agricultural Society.]
+
+
+Within the county of Oswego, New York, Dewitt C. Peck reports there are
+five apple jelly factories in operation. The failure of the apple crop,
+for some singular and unexplained reason, does not extend in great
+degree to the natural or ungrafted fruit. Though not so many as common,
+even of these apples, there are yet enough to keep these five mills and
+the numerous cider mills pretty well employed. The largest jelly factory
+is located near the village of Mexico, and as there are some features in
+regard to this manufacture peculiar to this establishment which may be
+new and interesting, we will undertake a brief description. The factory
+is located on the Salmon Creek, which affords the necessary power. A
+portion of the main floor, first story, is occupied as a saw mill,
+the slabs furnishing fuel for the boiler furnace connected with the
+evaporating department. Just above the mill, along the bank of the pond,
+and with one end projecting over the water, are arranged eight large
+bins, holding from five hundred to one thousand bushels each, into which
+the apples are delivered from the teams. The floor in each of these has
+a sharp pitch or inclination toward the water and at the lower end is a
+grate through which the fruit is discharged, when wanted, into a trough
+half submerged in the pond.
+
+The preparation of the fruit and extraction of the juice proceeds
+as follows: Upon hoisting a gate in the lower end of this trough,
+considerable current is caused, and the water carries the fruit a
+distance of from thirty to one hundred feet, and passes into the
+basement of the mill, where, tumbling down a four-foot perpendicular
+fall, into a tank, tight in its lower half and slatted so as to permit
+the escape of water and impurities in the upper half, the apples are
+thoroughly cleansed from all earthy or extraneous matter. Such is the
+friction caused by the concussion of the fall, the rolling and rubbing
+of the apples together, and the pouring of the water, that decayed
+sections of the fruit are ground off and the rotten pulp passes away
+with other impurities. From this tank the apples are hoisted upon an
+endless chain elevator, with buckets in the form of a rake-head with
+iron teeth, permitting drainage and escape of water, to an upper story
+of the mill, whence by gravity they descend to the grater. The press
+is wholly of iron, all its motions, even to the turning of the screws,
+being actuated by the water power. The cheese is built up with layers
+inclosed in strong cotton cloth, which displaces the straw used in olden
+time, and serves also to strain the cider. As it is expressed from
+the press tank, the cider passes to a storage tank, and thence to the
+defecator.
+
+This defecator is a copper pan, eleven feet long and about three feet
+wide. At each end of this pan is placed a copper tube three inches in
+diameter and closed at both ends. Lying between and connecting
+these two, are twelve tubes, also of copper, 11/2 inches in diameter,
+penetrating the larger tubes at equal distances from their upper and
+under surfaces, the smaller being parallel with each other, and 11/2
+inches apart. When placed in position, the larger tubes, which act as
+manifolds, supplying the smaller with steam, rest upon the bottom of the
+pan, and thus the smaller pipes have a space of three-fourths of an inch
+underneath their outer surfaces.
+
+The cider comes from the storage tank in a continuous stream about
+three-eighths of an inch in diameter. Steam is introduced to the large
+or manifold tubes, and from them distributed through the smaller ones at
+a pressure of from twenty-five to thirty pounds per inch. Trap valves
+are provided for the escape of water formed by condensation within the
+pipes. The primary object of the defecator is to remove all impurities
+and perfectly clarify the liquid passing through it. All portions of
+pomace and other minute particles of foreign matter, when heated,
+expand and float in the form of scum upon the surface of the cider. An
+ingeniously contrived floating rake drags off this scum and delivers it
+over the side of the pan. To facilitate this removal, one side of the
+pan, commencing at a point just below the surface of the cider, is
+curved gently outward and upward, terminating in a slightly inclined
+plane, over the edge of which the scum is pushed by the rake into a
+trough and carried away. A secondary purpose served by the defecator
+is that of reducing the cider by evaporation to a partial sirup of the
+specific gravity of about 20 deg. Baume. When of this consistency the liquid
+is drawn from the bottom and less agitated portion of the defecator by a
+siphon, and thence carried to the evaporator, which is located upon the
+same framework and just below the defecator.
+
+The evaporator consists of a separate system of six copper tubes, each
+twelve feet long and three inches in diameter. These are each jacketed
+or inclosed in an iron pipe of four inches internal diameter, fitted
+with steam-tight collars so as to leave half an inch steam space
+surrounding the copper tubes. The latter are open at both ends
+permitting the admission and egress of the sirup and the escape of the
+steam caused by evaporation therefrom, and are arranged upon the frame
+so as to have a very slight inclination downward in the direction of
+the current, and each nearly underneath its predecessor in regular
+succession. Each is connected by an iron supply pipe, having a steam
+gauge or indicator attached, with a large manifold, and that by other
+pipes with a steam boiler of thirty horse power capacity. Steam being
+let on at from twenty five to thirty pounds pressure, the stream of
+sirup is received from the defecator through a strainer, which removes
+any impurities possibly remaining into the upper evaporator tube;
+passing in a gentle flow through that, it is delivered into a funnel
+connected with the next tube below, and so, back and forth, through the
+whole system. The sirup enters the evaporator at a consistency of from
+20 deg. to 23 deg. Baume, and emerges from the last tube some three minutes
+later at a consistency of from 30 deg. to 32 deg. Baume, which is found on
+cooling to be the proper point for perfect jelly. This point is found to
+vary one or two degrees, according to the fermentation consequent upon
+bruises in handling the fruit, decay of the same, or any little delay in
+expressing the juice from the cheese. The least fermentation occasions
+the necessity for a lower reduction. To guard against this, no cheese
+is allowed to stand over night, no pomace left in the grater or vat, no
+cider in the tank; and further to provide against fermentation, a large
+water tank is located upon the roof and filled by a force pump, and by
+means of hose connected with this, each grater, press, vat, tank, pipe,
+trough, or other article of machinery used, can be thoroughly washed and
+cleansed. Hot water, instead of cider, is sometimes sent through the
+defecator, evaporator, etc., until all are thoroughly scalded and
+purified. If the saccharometer shows too great or too little reduction,
+the matter is easily regulated by varying the steam pressure in the
+evaporator by means of a valve in the supply pipe. If boiled cider
+instead of jelly is wanted for making pies, sauces, etc., it is drawn
+off from one of the upper evaporator tubes according to the consistency
+desired; or can be produced at the end of the process by simply reducing
+the steam pressure.
+
+As the jelly emerges from the evaporator it is transferred to a tub
+holding some fifty gallons, and by mixing a little therein, any little
+variations in reduction or in the sweetness or sourness of the fruit
+used are equalized. From this it is drawn through faucets, while hot,
+into the various packages in which it is shipped to market. A favorite
+form of package for family use is a nicely turned little wooden
+bucket with cover and bail, two sizes, holding five and ten pounds
+respectively. The smaller packages are shipped in cases for convenience
+in handling. The present product of this manufactory is from 1,500 to
+1,800 pounds of jelly each day of ten hours. It is calculated that
+improvements now in progress will increase this to something more than a
+ton per day. Each bushel of fruit will produce from four to five pounds
+of jelly, fruit ripening late in the season being more productive than
+earlier varieties. Crab apples produce the finest jelly; sour, crabbed,
+natural fruit makes the best looking article, and a mixture of all
+varieties gives most satisfactory results as to flavor and general
+quality.
+
+As the pomace is shoveled from the finished cheese, it is again ground
+under a toothed cylinder, and thence drops into large troughs, through a
+succession of which a considerable stream of water is flowing. Here it
+is occasionally agitated by raking from the lower to the upper end of
+the trough as the current carries it downward, and the apple seeds
+becoming disengaged drop to the bottom into still water, while the pulp
+floats away upon the stream. A succession of troughs serves to remove
+nearly all the seeds. The value of the apple seeds thus saved is
+sufficient to pay the daily wages of all the hands employed in the whole
+establishment. The apples are measured in the wagon box, one and a half
+cubic feet being accounted a bushel.
+
+This mill ordinarily employs about six men: One general superintendent,
+who buys and measures the apples, keeps time books, attends to all the
+accounts and the working details of the mill, and acts as cashier; one
+sawyer, who manufactures lumber for the local market and saws the slabs
+into short lengths suitable for the furnace; one cider maker, who grinds
+the apples and attends the presses; one jelly maker, who attends the
+defecator, evaporator, and mixing tub, besides acting as his own fireman
+and engineer; one who attends the apple seed troughs and acts as general
+helper, and one man-of-all-work to pack, ship and assist whenever
+needed. The establishment was erected late in the season of 1880,
+and manufactured that year about forty-five tons of jelly, besides
+considerable cider exchanged to the farmers for apples, and some boiled
+cider.
+
+The price paid for apples in 1880, when the crop was superabundant, was
+six to eight cents per bushel; in 1881, fifteen cents. The proprietor
+hopes next year to consume 100,000 bushels. These institutions are
+important to the farmer in that they use much fruit not otherwise
+valuable and very perishable. Fruit so crabbed and gnarled as to have no
+market value, and even frozen apples, if delivered while yet solid, can
+be used. (Such apples are placed in the water while frozen, the water
+draws the frost sufficiently to be grated, and passing through the press
+and evaporator before there is time for chemical change, they are found
+to make very good jelly. They are valuable to the consumer by converting
+the perishable, cheap, almost worthless crop of the bearing and abundant
+years into such enduring form that its consumption may be carried over
+to years of scarcity and furnish healthful food in cheap and pleasant
+form to many who would otherwise be deprived; and lastly, they are of
+great interest to society, in that they give to cider twice the value
+for purposes of food that it has or can have, even to the manufacturer,
+for use as a beverage and intoxicant.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IMPROVED GRAPE BAGS.
+
+
+It stands to reason that were our summers warmer we should be able to
+grow grapes successfully on open walls; it is therefore probable that
+a new grape bag, the invention of M. Pelletier, 20 Rue de la Banque,
+Paris, intended to serve a double purpose, viz., protecting the fruit
+and hastening its maturity, will, when it becomes known, be welcomed in
+this country. It consists of a square of curved glass so fixed to
+the bag that the sun's rays are concentrated upon the fruit, thereby
+rendering its ripening more certain in addition to improving its quality
+generally. The glass is affixed to the bag by means of a light iron wire
+support. It covers that portion of it next the sun, so that it increases
+the amount of light and warms the grapes without scorching them, a
+result due to the convexity of the glass and the layer of air between it
+and the bag. M. Pelletier had the idea of rendering these bags cheaper
+by employing plain squares instead of curved ones, but the advantage
+thus obtained was more than counterbalanced by their comparative
+inefficacy. In practice it was found that the curved squares gave an
+average of 7 deg. more than the straight ones, while there was a difference
+of 10 deg. when the bags alone were used, thus plainly demonstrating the
+practical value of the invention.
+
+Whether these glass-fronted bags would have much value in the case of
+grapes grown under glass in the ordinary way is a question that can only
+be determined by actual experiment; but where the vines are on walls,
+either under glass screens or in the open air, so that the bunches feel
+the full force of the sun's rays, there can be no doubt as to their
+utility, and it is probable that by their aid many of the continental
+varieties which we do not now attempt to grow in the open, and which are
+scarcely worthy of a place under glass, might be well ripened. At
+any rate we ought to give anything a fair trial which may serve to
+neutralize, if only in a slight degree, the uncertainty of our summers.
+As it is, we have only about two varieties of grapes, and these not the
+best of the hardy kinds, as regards flavor and appearance, that ripen
+out of doors, and even these do not always succeed. We know next to
+nothing of the many really well-flavored kinds which are so much
+appreciated in many parts of the Continent. The fact is, our outdoor
+culture of grapes offers a striking contrast to that practiced under
+glass, and although our comparatively sunless and moist climate affords
+some excuse for our shortcomings in this respect, there is no valid
+reason for the utter want of good culture which is to be observed in a
+general way.
+
+[Illustration: GRAPE BAG.--OPEN.]
+
+Given intelligent training, constant care in stopping the laterals, and
+checking mildew as well as thinning the berries, allowing each bunch to
+get the full benefit of sun and air, and I believe good eatable grapes
+would often be obtained even in summers marked by a low average
+temperature.
+
+[Illustration: GRAPE BAG.--CLOSED.]
+
+If, moreover, to a good system of culture we add some such mechanical
+contrivance as that under notice whereby the bunches enjoy an average
+warmth some 10 deg. higher than they otherwise would do, we not only insure
+the grapes coming to perfection in favored districts, but outdoor
+culture might probably be practiced in higher latitudes than is now
+practicable.
+
+[Illustration: CURVED GLASS FOR FRONT OF BAG.]
+
+The improved grape bag would also offer great facilities for destroying
+mildew or guarantee the grapes against its attacks, as a light dusting
+administered as soon as the berries were fairly formed would suffice for
+the season, as owing to the glass protecting the berries from driving
+rains, which often accompany south or south-west winds in summer and
+autumn, the sulphur would not be washed off.
+
+[Illustration: CURVED GLASS FIXED ON BAG.]
+
+The inventor claims, and we should say with just reason, that these
+glass fronted bags would be found equally serviceable for the ripening
+of pears and other choice fruits, and with a view to their being
+employed for such a purpose, he has had them made of varying sizes and
+shapes. In conclusion, it may be observed that, in addition to advancing
+the maturity of the fruits to which they are applied, they also serve to
+preserve them from falling to the ground when ripe.--J. COBNHILL, _in
+the Garden_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+UTILIZATION OF SOLAR HEAT.
+
+
+At a popular fete in the Tuileries Gardens I was struck with an
+experiment which seems deserving of the immediate attention of the
+English public and military authorities.
+
+Among the attractions of the fete was an apparatus for the concentration
+and utilization of solar heat, and, though the sun was not very
+brilliant, I saw this apparatus set in motion a printing machine which
+printed several thousand copies of a specimen newspaper entitled the
+_Soleil Journal_.
+
+The sun's rays are concentrated in a reflector, which moves at the
+same rate as the sun and heats a vertical boiler, setting the motive
+steam-engine at work. As may be supposed, the only object was to
+demonstrate the possibility of utilizing the concentrated heat of the
+solar rays; but I closely examined it, because the apparatus seems
+capable of great utility in existing circumstances. Here in France,
+indeed, there is a radical drawback--the sun is often overclouded.
+
+Thousands of years ago the idea of utilizing the solar rays must have
+suggested itself, and there are still savage tribes who know no other
+mode of combustion; but the scientific application has hitherto been
+lacking. This void this apparatus will fill up. About fifteen years ago
+Professor Mouchon, of Tours, began constructing such an apparatus, and
+his experiments have been continued by M. Pifre, who has devoted much
+labor and expense to realizing M. Mouchou's idea. A company has now come
+to his aid, and has constructed a number of apparatus of different sizes
+at a factory which might speedily turn out a large number of them. It is
+evident that in a country of uninterrupted sunshine the boiler might be
+heated in thirty or forty minutes. A portable apparatus could boil two
+and one-half quarts an hour, or, say, four gallons a day, thus supplying
+by distillation or ebullition six or eight men. The apparatus can be
+easily carried on a man's back, and on condition of water, even of the
+worst quality, being obtainable, good drinking and cooking water is
+insured. M. De Rougaumond, a young scientific writer, has just published
+an interesting volume on the invention. I was able yesterday to verify
+his statements, for I saw cider made, a pump set in motion, and coffee
+made--in short, the calorific action of the sun superseding that of
+fuel. The apparatus, no doubt, has not yet reached perfection, but as it
+is it would enable the soldier in India or Egypt to procure in the field
+good water and to cook his food rapidly. The invention is of especial
+importance to England just now, but even when the Egyptian question is
+settled the Indian troops might find it of inestimable value.
+
+Red tape should for once be disregarded, and a competent commission
+forthwith sent to 30 Rue d'Assas, with instructions to report
+immediately, for every minute saved may avoid suffering for Englishmen
+fighting abroad for their country. I may, of course, be mistaken, but
+a commission would decide, and if the apparatus is good the slightest
+delay in its adoption would be deplorable.--_Paris Correspondence London
+Times_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO ESTABLISH A TRUE MERIDIAN.
+
+[Footnote: A paper read before the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia.]
+
+By PROFESSOR L. M. HAUPT.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+The discovery of the magnetic needle was a boon to mankind, and has been
+of inestimable service in guiding the mariner through trackless waters,
+and the explorer over desert wastes. In these, its legitimate uses, the
+needle has not a rival, but all efforts to apply it to the accurate
+determination of permanent boundary lines have proven very
+unsatisfactory, and have given rise to much litigation, acerbity, and
+even death.
+
+For these and other cogent reasons, strenuous efforts are being made to
+dispense, so far as practicable, with the use of the magnetic needle
+in surveying, and to substitute therefor the more accurate method of
+traversing from a true meridian. This method, however, involves a
+greater degree of preparation and higher qualifications than are
+generally possessed, and unless the matter can be so simplified as to be
+readily understood, it is unreasonable to expect its general application
+in practice.
+
+Much has been written upon the various methods of determining, the
+true meridian, but it is so intimately related to the determination of
+latitude and time, and these latter in turn upon the fixing of a true
+meridian, that the novice can find neither beginning nor end. When to
+these difficulties are added the corrections for parallax, refraction,
+instrumental errors, personal equation, and the determination of the
+probable error, he is hopelessly confused, and when he learns that time
+may be sidereal, mean solar, local, Greenwich, or Washington, and he is
+referred to an ephemeris and table of logarithms for data, he becomes
+lost in "confusion worse confounded," and gives up in despair, settling
+down to the conviction that the simple method of compass surveying is
+the best after all, even if not the most accurate.
+
+Having received numerous requests for information upon the subject, I
+have thought it expedient to endeavor to prepare a description of the
+method of determining the true meridian which should be sufficiently
+clear and practical to be generally understood by those desiring to make
+use of such information.
+
+This will involve an elementary treatment of the subject, beginning with
+the
+
+
+DEFINITIONS.
+
+The _celestial sphere_ is that imaginary surface upon which all
+celestial objects are projected. Its radius is infinite.
+
+The _earth's axis_ is the imaginary line about which it revolves.
+
+The _poles_ are the points in which the axis pierces the surface of the
+earth, or of the celestial sphere.
+
+A _meridian_ is a great circle of the earth cut out by a plane passing
+through the axis. All meridians are therefore north and south lines
+passing through the poles.
+
+From these definitions it follows that if there were a star exactly at
+the pole it would only be necessary to set up an instrument and take a
+bearing to it for the meridian. Such not being the case, however, we are
+obliged to take some one of the near circumpolar stars as our object,
+and correct the observation according to its angular distance from the
+meridian at the time of observation.
+
+For convenience, the bright star known as Ursae Minoris or Polaris, is
+generally selected. This star apparently revolves about the north pole,
+in an orbit whose mean radius is 1 deg. 19' 13",[1] making the revolution in
+23 hours 56 minutes.
+
+[Footnote 1: This is the codeclination as given in the Nautical Almanac.
+The mean value decreases by about 20 seconds each year.]
+
+During this time it must therefore cross the meridian twice, once above
+the pole and once below; the former is called the _upper_, and the
+latter the _lower meridian transit or culmination_. It must also pass
+through the points farthest east and west from the meridian. The former
+is called the _eastern elongation_, the latter the _western_.
+
+An observation may he made upon Polaris at any of these four points,
+or at any other point of its orbit, but this latter case becomes too
+complicated for ordinary practice, and is therefore not considered.
+
+If the observation were made upon the star at the time of its upper or
+lower culmination, it would give the true meridian at once, but this
+involves a knowledge of the true local time of transit, or the longitude
+of the place of observation, which is generally an unknown quantity; and
+moreover, as the star is then moving east or west, or at right angles to
+the place of the meridian, at the rate of 15 deg. of arc in about one hour,
+an error of so slight a quantity as only four seconds of time would
+introduce an error of one minute of arc. If the observation be made,
+however, upon either elongation, when the star is moving up or down,
+that is, in the direction of the vertical wire of the instrument, the
+error of observation in the angle between it and the pole will be
+inappreciable. This is, therefore, the best position upon which to make
+the observation, as the precise time of the elongation need not be
+given. It can be determined with sufficient accuracy by a glance at the
+relative positions of the star Alioth, in the handle of the Dipper,
+and Polaris (see Fig. 1). When the line joining these two stars is
+horizontal or nearly so, and Alioth is to the _west_ of Polaris, the
+latter is at its _eastern_ elongation, and _vice versa_, thus:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But since the star at either elongation is off the meridian, it will
+be necessary to determine the angle at the place of observation to be
+turned off on the instrument to bring it into the meridian. This angle,
+called the azimuth of the pole star, varies with the latitude of the
+observer, as will appear from Fig 2, and hence its value must be
+computed for different latitudes, and the surveyor must know his
+_latitude_ before he can apply it. Let N be the north pole of the
+celestial sphere; S, the position of Polaris at its eastern elongation;
+then N S=1 deg. 19' 13", a constant quantity. The azimuth of Polaris at the
+latitude 40 deg. north is represented by the angle N O S, and that at 60 deg.
+north, by the angle N O' S, which is greater, being an exterior angle
+of the triangle, O S O. From this we see that the azimuth varies at the
+latitude.
+
+We have first, then, to _find the latitude of the place of observation_.
+
+Of the several methods for doing this, we shall select the simplest,
+preceding it by a few definitions.
+
+A _normal_ line is the one joining the point directly overhead, called
+the _zenith_, with the one under foot called the _nadir_.
+
+The _celestial horizon_ is the intersection of the celestial sphere by a
+plane passing through the center of the earth and perpendicular to the
+normal.
+
+A _vertical circle_ is one whose plane is perpendicular to the horizon,
+hence all such circles must pass through the normal and have the zenith
+and nadir points for their poles. The _altitude_ of a celestial object
+is its distance above the horizon measured on the arc of a vertical
+circle. As the distance from the horizon to the zenith is 90 deg., the
+difference, or _complement_ of the altitude, is called the _zenith
+distance_, or _co-altitude_.
+
+The _azimuth_ of an object is the angle between the vertical plane
+through the object and the plane of the meridian, measured on the
+horizon, and usually read from the south point, as 0 deg., through west, at
+90, north 180 deg., etc., closing on south at 0 deg. or 360 deg..
+
+These two co-ordinates, the altitude and azimuth, will determine the
+position of any object with reference to the observer's place. The
+latter's position is usually given by his latitude and longitude
+referred to the equator and some standard meridian as co-ordinates.
+
+The _latitude_ being the angular distance north or south of the equator,
+and the _longitude_ east or west of the assumed meridian.
+
+We are now prepared to prove that _the altitude of the pole is equal to
+the latitude of the place of observation_.
+
+Let H P Z Q, etc., Fig. 2, represent a meridian section of the sphere,
+in which P is the north pole and Z the place of observation, then H H
+will be the horizon, Q Q the equator, H P will be the altitude of P,
+and Q Z the latitude of Z. These two arcs are equal, for H C Z = P C
+Q = 90 deg., and if from these equal quadrants the common angle P C Z be
+subtracted, the remainders H C P and Z C Q, will be equal.
+
+To _determine the altitude of the pole_, or, in other words, _the
+latitude of the place_.
+
+Observe the altitude of the pole star _when on the meridian_, either
+above or below the pole, and from this observed altitude corrected for
+refraction, subtract the distance of the star from the pole, or its
+_polar distance_, if it was an upper transit, or add it if a lower.
+The result will be the required latitude with sufficient accuracy for
+ordinary purposes.
+
+The time of the star's being on the meridian can be determined with
+sufficient accuracy by a mere inspection of the heavens. The refraction
+is _always negative_, and may be taken from the table appended by
+looking up the amount set opposite the observed altitude. Thus, if the
+observer's altitude should be 40 deg. 39' the nearest refraction 01' 07",
+should be subtracted from 40 deg. 37' 00", leaving 40 deg. 37' 53" for the
+latitude.
+
+
+TO FIND THE AZIMUTH OF POLARIS.
+
+As we have shown the azimuth of Polaris to be a function of the
+latitude, and as the latitude is now known, we may proceed to find the
+required azimuth. For this purpose we have a right-angled spherical
+triangle, Z S P, Fig. 4, in which Z is the place of observation, P the
+north pole, and S is Polaris. In this triangle we have given the polar
+distance, P S = 10 deg. 19' 13"; the angle at S = 90 deg.; and the distance Z
+P, being the complement of the latitude as found above, or 90 deg.--L.
+Substituting these in the formula for the azimuth, we will have sin. Z =
+sin. P S / sin P Z or sin. of Polar distance / sin. of co-latitude, from
+which, by assuming different values for the co-latitude, we compute the
+following table:
+
+       AZIMUTH TABLE FOR POINTS BETWEEN 26 deg. and 50 deg. N. LAT.
+
+                             LATTITUDES
+ ___________________________________________________________________
+|      |         |          |         |         |         |         |
+| Year |   26 deg.   |   28 deg.    |   30 deg.   |   32 deg.   |   34 deg.   |   36 deg.   |
+|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|
+|      |         |          |         |         |         |         |
+|      |  deg. '  "  |  deg. '  "   |  deg. '  "  |  deg. '  "  |  deg. '  "  |  deg. '  "  |
+| 1882 | 1 28 05 | 1 29 40  | 1 31 25 | 1 33 22 | 1 35 30 | 1 37 52 |
+| 1883 | 1 27 45 | 1 29 20  | 1 31 04 | 1 33 00 | 1 35 08 | 1 37 30 |
+| 1884 | 1 27 23 | 1 28 57  | 1 30 41 | 1 32 37 | 1 34 45 | 1 37 05 |
+| 1885 | 1 27 01 | 1 28 351/2 | 1 30 19 | 1 32 14 | 1 34 22 | 1 36 41 |
+| 1886 | 1 26 39 | 1 28 13  | 1 29 56 | 1 31 51 | 1 33 57 | 1 36 17 |
+|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|
+|      |         |          |         |         |         |         |
+| Year |   38 deg.   |   40 deg.    |   42 deg.   |   44 deg.   |   46 deg.   |   48 deg.   |
+|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|
+|      |         |          |         |         |         |         |
+|      |  deg. '  "  |  deg. '  "   |  deg. '  "  |  deg. '  "  |  deg. '  "  |  deg. '  "  |
+| 1882 | 1 40 29 | 1 43 21  | 1 46 33 | 1 50 05 | 1 53 59 | 1 58 20 |
+| 1883 | 1 40 07 | 1 42 58  | 1 46 08 | 1 49 39 | 1 53 34 | 1 57 53 |
+| 1884 | 1 39 40 | 1 42 31  | 1 45 41 | 1 49 11 | 1 53 05 | 1 57 23 |
+| 1885 | 1 39 16 | 1 42 07  | 1 45 16 | 1 48 45 | 1 52 37 | 1 56 54 |
+| 1886 | 1 38 51 | 1 41 41  | 1 44 49 | 1 48 17 | 1 52 09 | 1 56 24 |
+|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|
+|      |         |
+| Year |   50 deg.   |
+|______|_________|
+|      |         |
+|      |  deg. '  "  |
+| 1882 | 2 03 11 |
+| 1883 | 2 02 42 |
+| 1884 | 2 02 11 |
+| 1885 | 2 01 42 |
+| 1886 | 2 01 11 |
+|______|_________|
+
+An analysis of this table shows that the azimuth this year (1882)
+increases with the latitude from 1 deg. 28' 05" at 26 deg. north, to 2 deg. 3' 11"
+at 50 deg. north, or 35' 06". It also shows that the azimuth of Polaris at
+any one point of observation decreases slightly from year to year. This
+is due to the increase in declination, or decrease in the star's polar
+distance. At 26 deg. north latitude, this annual decrease in the azimuth
+is about 22", while at 50 deg. north, it is about 30". As the variation in
+azimuth for each degree of latitude is small, the table is only computed
+for the even numbered degrees; the intermediate values being readily
+obtained by interpolation. We see also that an error of a few minutes of
+latitude will not affect the result in finding the meridian, e.g., the
+azimuth at 40 deg. north latitude is 1 deg. 43' 21", that at 41 deg. would be 1 deg. 44'
+56", the difference (01' 35") being the correction for one degree of
+latitude between 40 deg. and 41 deg.. Or, in other words, an error of one degree
+in finding one's latitude would only introduce an error in the azimuth
+of one and a half minutes. With ordinary care the probable error of the
+latitude as determined from the method already described need not exceed
+a few minutes, making the error in azimuth as laid off on the arc of an
+ordinary transit graduated to single minutes, practically zero.
+
+REFRACTION TABLE FOR ANY ALTITUDE WITHIN THE LATITUDE OF THE UNITED
+STATES.
+
+ _____________________________________________________
+|           |              |           |              |
+| Apparent  | Refraction   | Apparent  | Refraction   |
+| Altitude. | _minus_.     | Altitude. | _minus_.     |
+|___________|______________|___________|______________|
+|           |              |           |              |
+|    25 deg.    | 0 deg. 2' 4.2"   |    38 deg.    | 0 deg. 1' 14.4"  |
+|    26     |    1 58.8    |    39     |    1  11.8   |
+|    27     |    1 53.8    |    40     |    1   9.3   |
+|    28     |    1 49.1    |    41     |    1   6.9   |
+|    29     |    1 44.7    |    42     |    1   4.6   |
+|    30     |    1 40.5    |    43     |    1   2.4   |
+|    31     |    1 36.6    |    44     |    0   0.3   |
+|    32     |    1 33.0    |    45     |    0  58.1   |
+|    33     |    1 29.5    |    46     |    0  56.1   |
+|    34     |    1 26.1    |    47     |    0  54.2   |
+|    35     |    1 23.0    |    48     |    0  52.3   |
+|    36     |    1 20.0    |    49     |    0  50.5   |
+|    37     |    1 17.1    |    50     |    0  48.8   |
+|___________|______________|___________|______________|
+
+
+APPLICATIONS.
+
+In practice to find the true meridian, two observations must be made at
+intervals of six hours, or they may be made upon different nights. The
+first is for latitude, the second for azimuth at elongation.
+
+To make either, the surveyor should provide himself with a good transit
+with vertical arc, a bull's eye, or hand lantern, plumb bobs, stakes,
+etc.[1] Having "set up" over the point through which it is proposed to
+establish the meridian, at a time when the line joining Polaris and
+Alioth is nearly vertical, level the telescope by means of the attached
+level, which should be in adjustment, set the vernier of the vertical
+arc at zero, and take the reading. If the pole star is about making its
+_upper_ transit, it will rise gradually until reaching the meridian as
+it moves westward, and then as gradually descend. When near the highest
+part of its orbit point the telescope at the star, having an assistant
+to hold the "bull's eye" so as to reflect enough light down the tube
+from the object end to illumine the cross wires but not to obscure the
+star, or better, use a perforated silvered reflector, clamp the tube in
+this position, and as the star continues to rise keep the _horizontal_
+wire upon it by means of the tangent screw until it "rides" along this
+wire and finally begins to fall below it. Take the reading of the
+vertical arc and the result will be the observed altitude.
+
+[Footnote 1: A sextant and artificial horizon may be used to find the
+_altitude_ of a star. In this case the observed angle must be divided by
+2.]
+
+
+ANOTHER METHOD.
+
+It is a little more accurate to find the altitude by taking the
+complement of the observed zenith distance, if the vertical arc has
+sufficient range. This is done by pointing first to Polaris when at
+its highest (or lowest) point, reading the vertical arc, turning the
+horizontal limb half way around, and the telescope over to get another
+reading on the star, when the difference of the two readings will be the
+_double_ zenith distance, and _half_ of this subtracted from 90 deg. will be
+the required altitude. The less the time intervening between these two
+pointings, the more accurate the result will be.
+
+Having now found the altitude, correct it for refraction by subtracting
+from it the amount opposite the observed altitude, as given in the
+refraction table, and the result will be the latitude. The observer must
+now wait about six hours until the star is at its western elongation,
+or may postpone further operations for some subsequent night. In the
+meantime he will take from the azimuth table the amount given for his
+date and latitude, now determined, and if his observation is to be made
+on the western elongation, he may turn it off on his instrument, so
+that when moved to zero, _after_ the observation, the telescope will be
+brought into the meridian or turned to the right, and a stake set by
+means of a lantern or plummet lamp.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It is, of course, unnecessary to make this correction at the time of
+observation, for the angle between any terrestrial object and the star
+may be read and the correction for the azimuth of the star applied at
+the surveyor's convenience. It is always well to check the accuracy of
+the work by an observation upon the other elongation before putting in
+permanent meridian marks, and care should be taken that they are not
+placed near any local attractions. The meridian having been established,
+the magnetic variation or declination may readily be found by setting
+an instrument on the meridian and noting its bearing as given by the
+needle. If, for example, it should be north 5 deg. _east_, the variation is
+west, because the north end of the needle is _west_ of the meridian, and
+_vice versa_.
+
+_Local time_ may also be readily found by observing the instant when the
+sun's center[1] crosses the line, and correcting it for the equation of
+time as given above--the result is the true or mean solar time. This,
+compared with the clock, will show the error of the latter, and by
+taking the difference between the local lime of this and any other
+place, the difference of longitude is determined in hours, which can
+readily be reduced to degrees by multiplying by fifteen, as 1 h. = 15 deg..
+
+[Footnote 1: To obtain this time by observation, note the instant of
+first contact of the sun's limb, and also of last contact of same, and
+take the mean.]
+
+APPROXIMATE EQUATION OF TIME.
+
+     _______________________
+    |          |            |
+    |   Date.  |  Minutes.  |
+    |__________|____________|
+    |          |            |
+    | Jan.   1 |        4   |
+    |        3 |        5   |
+    |        5 |        6   |
+    |        7 |        7   |
+    |        9 |        8   |
+    |       12 |        9   |
+    |       15 |       10   |
+    |       18 |       11   |
+    |       21 |       12   |
+    |       25 |       13   |
+    |       31 |       14   |
+    | Feb.  10 |       15   |
+    |       21 |       14   |  Clock
+    |       27 |       13   |  faster
+    | M'ch   4 |       12   |  than
+    |        8 |       11   |  sun.
+    |       12 |       10   |
+    |       15 |        9   |
+    |       19 |        8   |
+    |       22 |        7   |
+    |       25 |        6   |
+    |       28 |        5   |
+    | April  1 |        4   |
+    |        4 |        3   |
+    |        7 |        2   |
+    |       11 |        1   |
+    |       15 |        0   |
+    |          |------------|
+    |       19 |        1   |
+    |       24 |        2   |
+    |       30 |        3   |
+    | May   13 |        4   |  Clock
+    |       29 |        3   |  slower.
+    | June   5 |        2   |
+    |       10 |        1   |
+    |       15 |        0   |
+    |          |------------|
+    |       20 |        1   |
+    |       25 |        2   |
+    |       29 |        3   |
+    | July   5 |        4   |
+    |       11 |        5   |
+    |       28 |        6   |  Clock
+    | Aug.   9 |        5   |  faster.
+    |       15 |        4   |
+    |       20 |        3   |
+    |       24 |        2   |
+    |       28 |        1   |
+    |       31 |        0   |
+    |          |------------|
+    | Sept.  3 |        1   |
+    |        6 |        2   |
+    |        9 |        3   |
+    |       12 |        4   |
+    |       15 |        5   |
+    |       18 |        6   |
+    |       21 |        7   |
+    |       24 |        8   |
+    |       27 |        9   |
+    |       30 |       10   |
+    | Oct.   3 |       11   |
+    |        6 |       12   |
+    |       10 |       13   |
+    |       14 |       14   |
+    |       19 |       15   |
+    |       27 |       16   |  Clock
+    | Nov.  15 |       15   |  slower.
+    |       20 |       14   |
+    |       24 |       13   |
+    |       27 |       12   |
+    |       30 |       11   |
+    | Dec.   2 |       10   |
+    |        5 |        9   |
+    |        7 |        8   |
+    |        9 |        7   |
+    |       11 |        6   |
+    |       13 |        5   |
+    |       16 |        4   |
+    |       18 |        3   |
+    |       20 |        2   |
+    |       22 |        1   |
+    |       24 |        0   |
+    |          |------------|
+    |       26 |        1   |
+    |       28 |        2   |  Clock
+    |       30 |        3   |  faster.
+    |__________|____________|
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE OCELLATED PHEASANT.
+
+
+The collections of the Museum of Natural History of Paris have just been
+enriched with a magnificent, perfectly adult specimen of a species of
+bird that all the scientific establishments had put down among their
+desiderata, and which, for twenty years past, has excited the curiosity
+of naturalists. This species, in fact, was known only by a few caudal
+feathers, of which even the origin was unknown, and which figured in the
+galleries of the Jardin des Plantes under the name of _Argus ocellatus_.
+This name was given by J. Verreaux, who was then assistant naturalist at
+the museum. It was inscribed by Prince Ch. L. Bonaparte, in his Tableaux
+Paralleliques de l'Ordre des Gallinaces, as _Argus giganteus_, and a
+few years later it was reproduced by Slater in his Catalogue of the
+Phasianidae, and by Gray is his List of the Gallinaceae. But it was not
+till 1871 and 1872 that Elliot, in the Annals and Magazine of Natural
+History, and in a splendid monograph of the Phasianidae, pointed out
+the peculiarities that were presented by the feathers preserved at the
+Museum of Paris, and published a figure of them of the natural size.
+
+The discovery of an individual whose state of preservation leaves
+nothing to be desired now comes to demonstrate the correctness of
+Verreaux's, Bonaparte's, and Elliot's suppositions. This bird, whose
+tail is furnished with feathers absolutely identical with those that
+the museum possessed, is not a peacock, as some have asserted, nor an
+ordinary Argus of Malacca, nor an argus of the race that Elliot named
+_Argus grayi_, and which inhabits Borneo, but the type of a new genus of
+the family Phasianidae. This Gallinacean, in fact, which Mr. Maingonnat
+has given up to the Museum of Natural History, has not, like the common
+Argus of Borneo, excessively elongated secondaries; and its tail is not
+formed of normal rectrices, from the middle of which spring two very
+long feathers, a little curved and arranged like a roof; but it consists
+of twelve wide plane feathers, regularly tapering, and ornamented with
+ocellated spots, arranged along the shaft. Its head is not bare, but is
+adorned behind with a tuft of thread-like feathers; and, finally, its
+system of coloration and the proportions of the different parts of its
+body are not the same as in the common argus of Borneo. There is reason,
+then, for placing the bird, under the name of _Rheinardius ocellatus_,
+in the family Phasianidae, after the genus _Argus_ which it connects,
+after a manner, with the pheasants properly so-called. The specific name
+_ocellatus_ has belonged to it since 1871, and must be substituted for
+that of _Rheinardi_.
+
+The bird measures more than two meters in length, three-fourths of which
+belong to the tail. The head, which is relatively small, appears to be
+larger than it really is, owing to the development of the piliform tuft
+on the occiput, this being capable of erection so as to form a crest
+0.05 to 0.06 of a meter in height. The feathers of this crest are
+brown and white. The back and sides of the head are covered with downy
+feathers of a silky brown and silvery gray, and the front of the neck
+with piliform feathers of a ruddy brown. The upper part of the body is
+of a blackish tint and the under part of a reddish brown, the whole
+dotted with small white or _cafe-au-lait_ spots. Analogous spots are
+found on the wings and tail, but on the secondaries these become
+elongated, and tear-like in form. On the remiges the markings are quite
+regularly hexagonal in shape; and on the upper coverts of the tail
+and on the rectrices they are accompanied with numerous ferruginous
+blotches, some of which are irregularly scattered over the whole surface
+of the vane, while others, marked in the center with a blackish spot,
+are disposed in series along the shaft and resemble ocelli. This
+similitude of marking between the rectrices and subcaudals renders the
+distinction between these two kinds of feathers less sharp than in many
+other Gallinaceans, and the more so in that two median rectrices are
+considerably elongated and assume exactly the aspect of tail feathers.
+
+[Illustration: THE OCELLATED PHEASANT (_Rheinardius ocellatus_).]
+
+The true rectrices are twelve in number. They are all absolutely plane,
+all spread out horizontally, and they go on increasing in length
+from the exterior to the middle. They are quite wide at the point of
+insertion, increase in diameter at the middle, and afterward taper to
+a sharp point. Altogether they form a tail of extraordinary length and
+width which the bird holds slightly elevated, so as to cause it to
+describe a graceful curve, and the point of which touches the soil. The
+beak, whose upper mandible is less arched than that of the pheasants,
+exactly resembles that of the arguses. It is slightly inflated at the
+base, above the nostrils, and these latter are of an elongated-oval
+form. In the bird that I have before me the beak, as well as the feet
+and legs, is of a dark rose-color. The legs are quite long and are
+destitute of spurs. They terminate in front in three quite delicate
+toes, connected at the base by membranes, and behind in a thumb that is
+inserted so high that it scarcely touches the ground in walking. This
+magnificent bird was captured in a portion of Tonkin as yet unexplored
+by Europeans, in a locality named Buih-Dinh, 400 kilometers to the south
+of Hue.--_La Nature_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE MAIDENHAIR TREE.
+
+
+The Maidenhair tree--Gingkgo biloba--of which we give an illustration,
+is not only one of our most ornamental deciduous trees, but one of the
+most interesting. Few persons would at first sight take it to be a
+Conifer, more especially as it is destitute of resin; nevertheless,
+to that group it belongs, being closely allied to the Yew, but
+distinguishable by its long-stalked, fan-shaped leaves, with numerous
+radiating veins, as in an Adiantum. These leaves, like those of the
+larch but unlike most Conifers, are deciduous, turning of a pale yellow
+color before they fall. The tree is found in Japan and in China, but
+generally in the neighborhood of temples or other buildings, and is, we
+believe, unknown in a truly wild state. As in the case of several other
+trees planted in like situations, such as Cupressus funebris, Abies
+fortunei, A. kaempferi, Cryptomeria japonica, Sciadopitys verticillata,
+it is probable that the trees have been introduced from Thibet, or
+other unexplored districts, into China and Japan. Though now a solitary
+representative of its genus, the Gingkgo was well represented in the
+coal period, and also existed through the secondary and tertiary epochs,
+Professor Heer having identified kindred specimens belonging to sixty
+species and eight genera in fossil remains generally distributed through
+the northern hemisphere. Whatever inference we may draw, it is at least
+certain that the tree was well represented in former times, if now it
+be the last of its race. It was first known to Kaempfer in 1690, and
+described by him in 1712, and was introduced into this country in the
+middle of the eighteenth century. Loudon relates a curious tale as
+to the manner in which a French amateur became possessed of it. The
+Frenchman, it appears, came to England, and paid a visit to an English
+nurseryman, who was the possessor of five plants, raised from Japanese
+seeds. The hospitable Englishman entertained the Frenchman only too
+well. He allowed his commercial instincts to be blunted by wine, and
+sold to his guest the five plants for the sum of 25 guineas. Next
+morning, when time for reflection came, the Englishman attempted to
+regain one only of the plants for the same sum that the Frenchman had
+given for all five, but without avail. The plants were conveyed to
+France, where as each plant had cost about 40 crowns, _ecus_, the tree
+got the name of _arbre a quarante ecus_. This is the story as given by
+Loudon, who tells us that Andre Thouin used to relate the fact in his
+lectures at the Jardin des Plantes, whether as an illustration of the
+perfidy of Albion is not stated.
+
+The tree is dioecious, bearing male catkins on one plant, female on
+another. All the female trees in Europe are believed to have originated
+from a tree near Geneva, of which Auguste Pyramus de Candolle secured
+grafts, and distributed them throughout the Continent. Nevertheless, the
+female tree is rarely met with, as compared with the male; but it is
+quite possible that a tree which generally produces male flowers only
+may sometimes bear female flowers only. We have no certain evidence of
+this in the case of the Gingkgo, but it is a common enough occurrence in
+other dioecious plants, and the occurrence of a fruiting specimen near
+Philadelphia, as recently recorded by Mr. Meehan, may possibly be
+attributed to this cause.
+
+The tree of which we give a figure is growing at Broadlands, Hants, and
+is about 40 feet in height, with a trunk that measures 7 feet in girth
+at 3 feet from the ground, with a spread of branches measuring 45 feet.
+These dimensions have been considerably exceeded in other cases. In 1837
+a tree at Purser's Cross measured 60 feet and more in height. Loudon
+himself had a small tree in his garden at Bayswater on which a female
+branch was grafted. It is to be feared that this specimen has long since
+perished.
+
+We have already alluded to its deciduous character, in which it is
+allied to the larch. It presents another point of resemblance both to
+the larch and the cedar in the short spurs upon which both leaves and
+male catkins are borne, but these contracted branches are mingled with
+long extension shoots; there seems, however, no regular alternation
+between the short and the long shoots, at any rate the _rationale_ of
+their production is not understood, though in all probability a little
+observation of the growing plant would soon clear the matter up.
+
+The fruit is drupaceous, with a soft outer coat and a hard woody shell,
+greatly resembling that of a Cycad, both externally and internally.
+Whether the albumen contains the peculiar "corpuscles" common to Cycads
+and Conifers, we do not for certain know, though from the presence of 2
+to 3 embryos in one seed, as noted by Endlicher, we presume this is the
+case. The interest of these corpuscles, it may be added, lies in the
+proof of affinity they offer between Conifers and the higher Cryptogams,
+such as ferns and lycopods--an affinity shown also in the peculiar
+venation of the Gingkgo. Conifers are in some degree links between
+ordinary flowering plants and the higher Cryptogams, and serve to
+connect in genealogical sequence groups once considered quite distinct.
+In germination the two fleshy cotyledons of the Gingkgo remain within
+the shell, leaving the three-sided plumule to pass upward; the young
+stem bears its leaves in threes.
+
+We have no desire to enter further upon the botanical peculiarities of
+this tree; enough if we have indicated in what its peculiar interest
+consists. We have only to add that in gardens varieties exist some with
+leaves more deeply cut than usual, others with leaves nearly entire, and
+others with leaves of a golden-yellow color.--_Gardeners' Chronicle_.
+
+[Illustration: THE MAIDENHAIR TREE IN THE GARDENS AT BROADLANDS.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE WOODS OF AMERICA.
+
+
+A collection of woods without a parallel in the world is now being
+prepared for exhibition by the Directors of the American Museum of
+Natural History. Scattered about the third floor of the Arsenal, in
+Central Park, lie 394 logs, some carefully wrapped in bagging,
+some inclosed in rough wooden cases, and others partially sawn
+longitudinally, horizontally, and diagonally. These logs represent all
+but 26 of the varieties of trees indigenous to this country, and
+nearly all have a greater or less economic or commercial value. The 26
+varieties needed to complete the collection will arrive before winter
+sets in, a number of specimens being now on their way to this city from
+the groves of California. Mr. S. D. Dill and a number of assistants are
+engaged in preparing the specimens for exhibition. The logs as they
+reach the workroom are wrapped in bagging and inclosed in cases, this
+method being used so that the bark, with its growth of lichens and
+delicate exfoliations, shall not be injured while the logs are in
+process of transportation from various parts of the country to this
+city. The logs are each 6 feet in length, and each is the most perfect
+specimen of its class that could be found by the experts employed in
+making the collection. With the specimens of the trees come to the
+museum also specimens of the foliage and the fruits and flowers of the
+tree. These come from all parts of the Union--from Alaska on the north
+to Texas on the south, from Maine on the east to California on the
+west--and there is not a State or Territory in the Union which has not a
+representative in this collection of logs. On arrival here the logs are
+green, and the first thing in the way of treatment after their arrival
+is to season them, a work requiring great care to prevent them from
+"checking," as it is technically called, or "season cracking," as the
+unscientific term the splitting of the wood in radiating lines during
+the seasoning process. As is well known, the sap-wood of a tree seasons
+much more quickly than does the heart of the wood. The prevention of
+this splitting is very necessary in preparing these specimens for
+exhibition, for when once the wood has split its value for dressing for
+exhibition is gone. A new plan to prevent this destruction of specimens
+is now being tried with some success under the direction of Prof.
+Bickmore, superintendent of the museum. Into the base of the log and
+alongside the heart a deep hole is bored with an auger. As the wood
+seasons this hole permits of a pressure inward and so has in many
+instances doubtless saved valuable specimens. One of the finest in the
+collection, a specimen of the persimmon tree, some two feet in diameter,
+has been ruined by the seasoning process. On one side there is a huge
+crack, extending from the top to the bottom of the log, which looks as
+though some amateur woodman had attempted to split it with an ax and
+had made a poor job of it. The great shrinking of the sap-wood of the
+persimmon tree makes the wood of but trifling value commercially.
+It also has a discouraging effect upon collectors, as it is next to
+impossible to cure a specimen, so that all but this one characteristic
+of the wood can be shown to the public in a perfect form.
+
+Before the logs become thoroughly seasoned, or their lines of growth at
+all obliterated, a diagram of each is made, showing in accordance with
+a regular scale the thickness of the bark, the sap-wood, and the heart.
+There is also in this diagram a scale showing the growth of the tree
+during each year of its life, these yearly growths being regularly
+marked about the heart of the tree by move or less regular concentric
+circles, the width of which grows smaller and smaller as the tree grows
+older. In this connection attention may be called to a specimen in the
+collection which is considered one of the most remarkable in the world.
+It is not a native wood, but an importation, and the tree from which
+this wonderful slab is cut is commonly known as the "Pride of India."
+The heart of this particular tree was on the port side, and between it
+and the bark there is very little sap-wood, not more than an inch.
+On the starbord side, so to speak, the sap-wood has grown out in an
+abnormal manner, and one of the lines indicative of a year's growth is
+one and seven-eighths inches in width, the widest growth, many experts
+who have seen the specimen say, that was ever recorded. The diagrams
+referred to are to be kept for scientific uses, and the scheme of
+exhibition includes these diagrams as a part of the whole.
+
+After a log has become seasoned it is carefully sawed through the center
+down about one-third of its length. A transverse cut is then made and
+the semi-cylindrical section thus severed from the log is removed. The
+upper end is then beveled. When a log is thus treated the inspector can
+see the lower two-thirds presenting exactly the same appearance it did
+when growing in the forest. The horizontal cut, through the sap-wood
+and to the center of the heart, shows the life lines of the tree, and
+carefully planed as are this portion, the perpendicular and the beveled
+sections, the grain of the wood can thus be plainly seen. That these may
+be made even more valuable to the architect and artisan, the right half
+of this planed surface will be carefully polished, and the left half
+left in the natural state. This portion of the scheme of treatment is
+entirely in the interests of architects and artisans, and it is expected
+by Prof. Bickmore that it will be the means of securing for some kinds
+of trees, essentially of American growth, and which have been virtually
+neglected, an important place in architecture and in ornamental
+wood-work, and so give a commercial value to woods that are now of
+comparatively little value.
+
+Among the many curious specimens in the collection now being prepared
+for exhibition, one which will excite the greatest curiosity is a
+specimen of the honey locust, which was brought here from Missouri.
+The bark is covered with a growth of thorns from one to four inches
+in length, sharp as needles, and growing at irregular intervals. The
+specimen arrived here in perfect condition, but, in order that it might
+be transported without injury, it had to be suspended from the roof of
+a box car, and thus make its trip from Southern Missouri to this city
+without change. Another strange specimen in the novel collection is a
+portion of the Yucca tree, an abnormal growth of the lily family. The
+trunk, about 2 feet in diameter, is a spongy mass, not susceptible of
+treatment to which the other specimens are subjected. Its bark is an
+irregular stringy, knotted mass, with porcupine-quill-like leaves
+springing out in place of the limbs that grow from all well-regulated
+trees. One specimen of the yucca was sent to the museum two years ago,
+and though the roots and top of the tree were sawn off, shoots sprang
+out, and a number of the handsome flowers appeared. The tree was
+supposed to be dead and thoroughly seasoned by this Fall, but now, when
+the workmen are ready to prepare it for exhibition, it has shown new
+life, new shoots have appeared, and two tufts of green now decorate the
+otherwise dry and withered log, and the yucca promises to bloom again
+before the winter is over. One of the most perfect specimens of the
+Douglass spruce ever seen is in the collection, and is a decided
+curiosity. It is a recent arrival from the Rocky Mountains. Its bark,
+two inches or more in thickness, is perforated with holes reaching to
+the-sap-wood. Many of these contain acorns, or the remains of acorns,
+which have been stored there by provident woodpeckers, who dug the holes
+in the bark and there stored their winter supply of food. The oldest
+specimen in the collection is a section of the _Picea engelmanni_, a
+species of spruce growing in the Rocky Mountains at a considerable
+elevation above the sea. The specimen is 24 inches in diameter, and the
+concentric circles show its age to be 410 years. The wood much resembles
+the black spruce, and is the most valuable of the Rocky Mountain
+growths. A specimen of the nut pine, whose nuts are used for food by the
+Indians, is only 15 inches in diameter, and yet its life lines show its
+age to be 369 years. The largest specimen yet received is a section of
+the white ash, which is 46 inches in diameter and 182 years old. The
+next largest specimen is a section of the _Platanus occidentalis_,
+variously known in commerce as the sycamore, button-wood, or plane tree,
+which is 42 inches in diameter and only 171 years of age. Specimens of
+the redwood tree of California are now on their way to this city from
+the Yosemite Valley. One specimen, though a small one, measures 5 feet
+in diameter and shows the character of the wood. A specimen of
+the enormous growths of this tree was not secured because of the
+impossibility of transportation and the fact that there would be no room
+in the museum for the storage of such a specimen, for the diameter of
+the largest tree of the class is 45 feet and 8 inches, which represents
+a circumference of about 110 feet. Then, too, the Californians object to
+have the giant trees cut down for commercial, scientific, or any other
+purposes.
+
+To accompany these specimens of the woods of America, Mr. Morris K.
+Jesup, who has paid all the expense incurred in the collection of
+specimens, is having prepared as an accompanying portion of the
+exhibition water color drawings representing the actual size, color,
+and appearance of the fruit, foliage, and flowers of the various trees.
+Their commercial products, as far as they can be obtained, will also be
+exhibited, as, for instance, in the case of the long-leaved pine, the
+tar, resin, and pitch, for which it is especially valued. Then, too, in
+an herbarium the fruits, leaves, and flowers are preserved as nearly as
+possible in their natural state. When the collection is ready for public
+view next spring it will be not only the largest, but the only complete
+one of its kind in the country. There is nothing like it in the world,
+as far as is known; certainly not in the royal museums of England,
+France, or Germany.
+
+Aside from the value of the collection, in a scientific way, it is
+proposed to make it an adjunct to our educational system, which requires
+that teachers shall instruct pupils as to the materials used for food
+and clothing. The completeness of the exhibition will be of great
+assistance also to landscape gardeners, as it will enable them to lay
+out private and public parks so that the most striking effects of
+foliage may be secured. The beauty of these effects can best be seen in
+this country in our own Central Park, where there are more different
+varieties and more combinations for foliage effects than in any other
+area in the United States. To ascertain how these effects are obtained
+one now has to go to much trouble to learn the names of the trees. With
+this exhibition such information can be had merely by observation, for
+the botanical and common names of each specimen will be attached to
+it. It will also be of practical use in teaching the forester how to
+cultivate trees as he would other crops. The rapid disappearance of
+many valuable forest trees, with the increase in demand and decrease in
+supply, will tend to make the collection valuable as a curiosity in
+the not far distant future as representing the extinct trees of the
+country.--_N.Y. Times_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A catalogue, containing brief notices of many important scientific
+papers heretofore published in the SUPPLEMENT, may be had gratis at this
+office.
+
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+Solicitors of American and Foreign Patents, have had 35 years'
+experience, and now have the largest establishment in the world. Patents
+are obtained on the best terms.
+
+A special notice is made in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of all Inventions
+patented through this Agency, with the name and residence of the
+Patentee. By the immense circulation thus given, public attention is
+directed to the merits of the new patent, and sales or introduction
+often easily effected.
+
+Any person who has made a new discovery or invention can ascertain, free
+of charge, whether a patent can probably be obtained, by writing to MUNN
+& Co.
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Scientific American Supplement No.
+360, November 25, 1882, by Various
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Scientific American Supplement No. 360,
+November 25, 1882, by Various
+#9 in our series by Various
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Scientific American Supplement No. 360, November 25, 1882
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8559]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 23, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUP. NO. 360 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Olaf Voss, Don Kretz, Juliet Sutherland,
+Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 360
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 25, 1882
+
+Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XIV, No. 360.
+
+Scientific American established 1845
+
+Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.
+
+Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                         TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+I.    ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--Soaking Pits for Steel Ingots.
+      --On the successful rolling of steel ingots with their own
+      initial heat by means of the soaking pit process. By JOHN GJERS.
+      6 figures.--Gjers' soaking pits for steel ingots.
+
+      Tempering by compression.--L. Clemandot's process.
+
+      Economical Steam Power. By WILLIAM BARNET LE VAN.
+
+      Mississippi River Improvements near St. Louis, Mo.
+
+      Bunte's Burette for the Analysis of Furnace Gases. 2 figures.
+
+      The "Universal" Gas Engine. 8 figures.--Improved gas engine.
+
+      Gas Furnace for Baking Refractory Products. 1 figure.
+
+      The Efficiency of Fans. 5 figures.
+
+      Machine for Compressing Coal Refuse into Fuel. 1 figure.--
+      Bilan's machine.
+
+      Hank Sizing and Wringing Machine. 1 figure.
+
+      Improved Coke Breaker. 2 figures.
+
+      Improvements in Printing Machinery. 2 figures.
+
+II.   TECHNOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY.--Apparatus for Obtaining
+      Pure Water for Photographic Use. 3 figures.
+
+      Black Phosphorus.--By P THENARD.
+
+      Composition of Steep Water
+
+      Schreiber's Apparatus for Revivifying Bone Black. 5 figures.--
+      Plant: elevation and plan.--Views of elevation.--Continuous
+      furnace.
+
+      Soap and its Manufacture from a Consumer's Point of View.
+      (Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 330).
+
+      Cotton seed Oil.--By S. S. BRADFORD.
+
+      On some Apparatus that Permit of Entering Flames.--Chevalier
+      Aldini's wire gauze and asbestos protectors.--Brewster's account
+      of test experiments.
+
+III.  ELECTRICITY, LIGHT. ETC.--On a New Arc Electric Lamp.
+      By W. H. PREECE. 6 figures--The Abdank system.--The lamp.--
+      The Electro-magnet.--The Cut-off.--The electrical arrangement.
+
+      Utilization of Solar Heat.
+
+IV.   NATURAL HISTORY.--The Ocellated Pheasant. 1 figure.
+
+      The Maidenhair Tree in the Gardens at Broadlands, Hants,
+      England. 1 figure.
+
+      The Woods of America.--The Jessup collection in the American
+      Museum of Natural History, Central Park, and the characteristics
+      of the specimens.
+
+V.    AGRICULTURE, ETC.--An Industrial Revolution.--Increase in
+      the number of farms.
+
+      A Farmer's Lime Kiln. 3 figures.
+
+      The Manufacture of Apple Jelly.
+
+      Improved Grape Bags. 4 figures.
+
+VI.   ARCHITECTURE, ETC.--The Building Stone Supply.--Granite
+      and its sources.--Sandstone.--Blue and gray limestone.--Marble.--
+      Slate.--Other stones.--A valuable summary of the sources and uses
+      of quarry products.
+
+VII.  ASTRONOMY. ETC.--How to Establish a True Meridian. By
+      Prof. L. M. HAUPT.--Introduction.--Definitions.--To find the
+      azemuth of Polaris.--Applications, etc.
+
+VIII. MISCELLANEOUS.--A Characteristic Mining "Rush."--The
+      Prospective Mining Center of Southern New Mexico.
+
+      The Food and Energy of Man. By Prof. DE CHAUMONT.--Original
+      food of man.--Function of food.--Classes of alimentary
+      substances.--Quantity of food.--Importance of varied diet.
+
+      Rattlesnake Poison.--Its Antidotes. By H. H. CROFT.
+
+      The Chinese Sign Manual.--The ethnic bearing of skin furrows
+      on the hand.
+
+      Lucidity.--Matthew Arnold's remarks at the reopening of the
+      Liverpool University College and School of Medicine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SOAKING PITS FOR STEEL INGOTS.
+
+ON THE SUCCESSFUL ROLLING OF STEEL INGOTS WITH THEIR OWN INITIAL HEAT BY
+MEANS OF THE SOAKING PIT PROCESS.
+
+By Mr. JOHN GJERS, Middlesbrough.
+
+[Footnote: Paper read before the Iron and Steel Institute at Vienna.]
+
+
+When Sir Henry Bessemer, in 1856, made public his great invention, and
+announced to the world that he was able to produce malleable steel from
+cast iron without the expenditure of any fuel except that which already
+existed in the fluid metal imparted to it in the blast furnace, his
+statement was received with doubt and surprise. If he at that time had
+been able to add that it was also possible to roll such steel into a
+finished bar with no further expenditure of fuel, then undoubtedly the
+surprise would have been much greater.
+
+Even this, however, has come to pass; and the author of this paper
+is now pleased to be able to inform this meeting that it is not only
+possible, but that it is extremely easy and practical, by the means to
+be described, to roll a steel ingot into, say, a bloom, a rail, or other
+finished article with its own initial heat, without the aid of the
+hitherto universally adopted heating furnace.
+
+It is well understood that in the fluid steel poured into the mould
+there is a larger store of heat than is required for the purpose
+of rolling or hammering. Not only is there the mere apparent high
+temperature of fluid steel, but there is the store of latent heat in
+this fluid metal which is given out when solidification takes place.
+
+It has, no doubt, suggested itself to many that this heat of the ingot
+ought to be utilized, and as a matter of fact, there have been, at
+various times and in different places, attempts made to do so; but
+hitherto all such attempts have proved failures, and a kind of settled
+conviction has been established in the steel trade that the theory could
+not possibly be carried out in practice.
+
+The difficulty arose from the fact that a steel ingot when newly
+stripped is far too hot in the interior for the purpose of rolling, and
+if it be kept long enough for the interior to become in a fit state,
+then the exterior gets far too cold to enable it to be rolled
+successfully. It has been attempted to overcome this difficulty
+by putting the hot ingots under shields or hoods, lined with
+non-heat-conducting material, and to bury them in non-heat-conducting
+material in a pulverized state, for the purpose of retaining and
+equalizing the heat; but all these attempts have proved futile in
+practice, and the fact remains, that the universal practice in steel
+works at the present day all over the world is to employ a heating
+furnace of some description requiring fuel.
+
+The author introduced his new mode of treating ingots at the Darlington
+Steel and Iron Company's Works, in Darlington, early in June this year,
+and they are now blooming the whole of their make, about 125 tons a
+shift, or about 300 ingots every twelve hours, by such means.
+
+The machinery at Darlington is not adapted for rolling off in one heat;
+nevertheless they have rolled off direct from the ingot treated in the
+"soaking pits" a considerable number of double-head rails; and the
+experience so gained proves conclusively that with proper machinery
+there will be no difficulty in doing so regularly. The quality of the
+rails so rolled off has been everything that could be desired; and as
+many of the defects in rails originate in the heating furnace, the
+author ventures to predict that even in this respect the new process
+will stand the test.
+
+Many eminently practical men have witnessed the operation at Darlington,
+and they one and all have expressed their great surprise at the result,
+and at the simple and original means by which it is accomplished.
+
+The process is in course of adoption in several works, both in England
+and abroad, and the author hopes that by the time this paper is being
+read, there may be some who will from personal experience be able to
+testify to the practicability and economy of the process, which is
+carried out in the manner now to be described.
+
+A number of upright pits (the number, say, of the ingots in a cast) are
+built in a mass of brickwork sunk in the ground below the level of the
+floor, such pits in cross-section being made slightly larger than that
+of the ingot, just enough to allow for any fins at the bottom, and
+somewhat deeper than the longest ingot likely to be used. In practice
+the cross section of the pit is made about 3 in. larger than the large
+end of the ingot, and the top of the ingot may be anything from 6 in. to
+18 in. below the top of the pit. These pits are commanded by an ingot
+crane, by preference so placed in relation to the blooming mill that the
+crane also commands the live rollers of the mill.
+
+Each pit is covered with a separate lid at the floor level, and after
+having been well dried and brought to a red heat by the insertion of hot
+ingots, they are ready for operation.
+
+As soon as the ingots are stripped (and they should be stripped as early
+as practicable), they are transferred one by one, and placed separately
+by means of the crane into these previously heated pits (which the
+author calls "soaking pits") and forthwith covered over with the lid,
+which practically excludes the air. In these pits, thus covered, the
+ingots are allowed to stand and soak; that is, the excessive molten
+heat of the interior, and any additional heat rendered sensible during
+complete solidification, but which was latent at the time of placing
+the ingots into the pit, becomes uniformly distributed, or nearly so,
+throughout the metallic mass. No, or comparatively little, heat being
+able to escape, as the ingot is surrounded by brick walls as hot as
+itself, it follows that the surface heat of the ingot is greatly
+increased; and after the space of from twenty to thirty minutes,
+according to circumstances, the ingot is lifted out of the pit
+apparently much hotter than it went in, and is now swung round to the
+rolls, by means of the crane, in a perfect state of heat for rolling,
+with this additional advantage to the mill over an ingot heated in an
+ordinary furnace from a comparatively cold, that it is always certain to
+be at least as hot in the center as it is on the surface.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2]
+
+Every ingot, when cast, contains within itself a considerably larger
+store of heat than is necessary for the rolling operation. Some of this
+heat is, of course, lost by passing into the mould, some is lost by
+radiation before the ingot enters into the soaking pit, and some is lost
+after it enters, by being conducted away by the brickwork; but in the
+ordinary course of working, when there is no undue loss of time in
+transferring the ingots, after allowing for this loss, there remains a
+surplus, which goes into the brickwork of the soaking pits, so that this
+surplus of heat from successive ingots tends continually to keep the
+pits at the intense heat of the ingot itself. Thus, occasionally it
+happens that inadvertently an ingot is delayed so long on its way to the
+pit as to arrive there somewhat short of heat, its temperature will be
+raised by heat from the walls of the pit itself; the refractory mass
+wherein the pit is formed, in fact, acting as an accumulator of heat,
+giving and taking heat as required to carry on the operation in a
+continuous and practical manner.
+
+[Illustration: GJERS' SOAKING PITS FOR STEEL INGOTS.]
+
+During the soaking operation a quantity of gas exudes from the ingot and
+fills the pit, thus entirely excluding atmospheric air from entering;
+this is seen escaping round the lid, and when the lid is removed
+combustion takes place.
+
+It will be seen by analyses given hereinafter that this gas is entirely
+composed of hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbonic oxide, so that the ingots
+soak in a perfectly non-oxidizing medium. Hence loss of steel by
+oxidation does not take place, and consequently the great loss of
+yield which always occurs in the ordinary heating furnace is entirely
+obviated.
+
+The author does not think it necessary to dilate upon the economical
+advantages of his process, as they are apparent to every practical man
+connected with the manufacture of steel.
+
+The operation of steel making on a large scale will by this process be
+very much simplified. It will help to dispense with a large number of
+men, some of them highly paid, directly and indirectly connected with
+the heating department; it will do away with costly heating furnaces and
+gas generators, and their costly maintenance; it will save all the coal
+used in heating; and what is perhaps of still more importance, it will
+save the loss in yield of steel; and there will be no more steel spoiled
+by overheating in the furnaces.
+
+The process has been in operation too short a time to give precise
+and reliable figures, but it is hoped that by the next meeting of the
+Institute these will be forthcoming from various quarters.
+
+Referring to the illustrations annexed, Fig. 1 shows sectional
+elevation, and Fig. 2 plan of a set of eight soaking pits (marked
+A). These pits are built in a mass of brickwork, B, on a concrete
+foundation, C; the ingots, D, standing upright in the pits. The pits are
+lined with firebrick lumps, 6 in. thick, forming an independent lining,
+E, which at any time can be readily renewed. F is a cast iron plate,
+made to take in four pits, and dropped loosely within the large plate,
+G, which surrounds the pits. H is the cover, with a firebrick lining;
+and I is a false cover of firebrick, 1 in. smaller than the cross
+section of the pit, put in to rest on the top of the ingot. This false
+cover need not necessarily be used, but is useful to keep the extreme
+top of the ingot extra hot. J is the bottom of the pit, composed of
+broken brick and silver sand, forming a good hard bottom at any desired
+level.
+
+Figs. 4 and 5 show outline plan of two sets of soaking pits, K K, eight
+each, placed under a 25 ft. sweep crane, L. This crane, if a good one,
+could handle any ordinary make--up to 2,000 tons per week, and ought to
+have hydraulic racking out and swinging round gear. This crane places
+the ingots into the pits, and, when they are ready, picks them out and
+swings them round to blooming mill, M. With such a crane, four men and a
+boy at the handles are able to pass the whole of that make through the
+pits. The author recommends two sets of pits as shown, although one set
+of eight pits is quite able to deal with any ordinary output from one
+Bessemer pit.
+
+In case of an extraordinarily large output, the author recommends a
+second crane, F, for the purpose of placing the ingots in the pits
+only, the crane, L, being entirely used for picking the ingots out
+and swinging them round to the live rollers of the mill. The relative
+position of the cranes, soaking pits, and blooming mill may of course be
+variously arranged according to circumstances, and the soaking pits may
+be arranged in single or more rows, or concentrically with the crane at
+pleasure.
+
+Figs. 4 and 5 also show outline plan and elevation of a Bessemer plant,
+conveniently arranged for working on the soaking pit system. A A are
+the converters, with a transfer crane, B. C is the casting pit with
+its crane, D. E E are the two ingot cranes. F is a leading crane which
+transfers the ingots from the ingot cranes to the soaking pits, K K,
+commanded by the crane, L, which transfers the prepared ingots to the
+mill, M. as before described.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TEMPERING BY COMPRESSION.
+
+
+L. Clemandot has devised a new method of treating metals, especially
+steel, which consists in heating to a cherry red, compressing strongly
+and keeping up the pressure until the metal is completely cooled. The
+results are so much like those of tempering that he calls his process
+tempering by compression. The compressed metal becomes exceedingly hard,
+acquiring a molecular contraction and a fineness of grain such that
+polishing gives it the appearance of polished nickel. Compressed steel,
+like tempered steel, acquires the coercitive force which enables it to
+absorb magnetism. This property should be studied in connection with
+its durability; experiments have already shown that there is no loss of
+magnetism at the expiration of three months. This compression has no
+analogue but tempering. Hammering and hardening modify the molecular
+state of metals, especially when they are practiced upon metal that is
+nearly cold, but the effect of hydraulic pressure is much greater.
+The phenomena which are produced in both methods of tempering may be
+interpreted in different ways, but it seems likely that there is a
+molecular approximation, an amorphism from which results the homogeneity
+that is due to the absence of crystallization. Being an operation which
+can be measured, it may be graduated and kept within limits which are
+prescribed in advance; directions may be given to temper at a
+specified pressure, as readily as to work under a given pressure of
+steam.--_Chron. Industr_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ECONOMICAL STEAM POWER.
+
+[Footnote: A paper read by title at a recent stated meeting of the
+Franklin Institute]
+
+By WILLIAM BARNET LE VAN.
+
+
+The most economical application of steam power can be realized only by
+a judicious arrangement of the plant: namely, the engines, boilers, and
+their accessories for transmission.
+
+This may appear a somewhat broad assertion; but it is nevertheless one
+which is amply justified by facts open to the consideration of all those
+who choose to seek for them.
+
+While it is true that occasionally a factory, mill, or a water-works
+may be found in which the whole arrangements have been planned by a
+competent engineer, yet such is the exception and not the rule, and such
+examples form but a very small percentage of the whole.
+
+The fact is that but few users of steam power are aware of the numerous
+items which compose the cost of economical steam power, while a yet
+smaller number give sufficient consideration to the relations which
+these items bear to each other, or the manner in which the economy of
+any given boiler or engine is affected by the circumstances under which
+it is run.
+
+A large number of persons--and they are those who should know better,
+too--take for granted that a boiler or engine which is good for one
+situation is good for all; a greater error than such an assumption can
+scarcely be imagined.
+
+It is true that there are certain classes of engines and boilers which
+may be relied upon to give moderately good results in almost any
+situation--and the best results should _always_ be desired in
+arrangement of a mill--there are a considerable number of details which
+must be taken into consideration in making a choice of boilers and
+engines.
+
+Take the case of a mill in which it has been supposed that the motive
+power could be best exerted by a single engine. The question now is
+whether or not it would be best to divide the total power required among
+a number of engines.
+
+_First_.--A division of the motive power presents the following
+advantages, namely, a saving of expense on lines of shafting of large
+diameter.
+
+_Second_.--Dispensing with the large driving belt or gearing, the first
+named of which, in one instance under the writer's observation, absorbed
+_sixty horse-power_ out of about 480, or about _seven per cent_.
+
+_Third_.--The general convenience of subdividing the work to be done,
+so that in case of a stoppage of one portion of the work by reason of
+a loose coupling or the changing of a pulley, etc., that portion only
+would need to be stopped.
+
+This last is of itself a most important point, and demands careful
+consideration.
+
+For example, I was at a mill a short time ago when the governor belt
+broke. The result was a stoppage of the whole mill. Had the motive power
+of this mill been subdivided into a number of small engines only one
+department would have been stopped. During the stoppage in this case
+the windows of the mill were a sea of heads of men and women (the
+operatives), and considerable excitement was caused by the violent
+blowing off of steam from the safety-valves, due to the stoppage of the
+steam supply to the engine; and this excitement continued until the
+cause of the stoppage was understood. Had the power in this mill been
+subdivided the stoppage of one of a number of engines would scarcely
+have been noticed, and the blowing off of surplus steam would not have
+occurred.
+
+In building a mill the first item to be considered is the interest on
+the first cost of the engine, boilers, etc. This item can be subdivided
+with advantage into the amounts of interest on the respective costs of,
+
+_First_. The engine or engines;
+
+_Second_ The boiler or boilers;
+
+_Third_. The engine and boiler house.
+
+In the same connection the _form_ of engine to be used must be
+considered. In some few cases--as, for instance, where engines have to
+be placed in confined situations--the form is practically fixed by the
+space available, it being perhaps possible only to erect a vertical or a
+horizontal engine, as the case may be. These, however, are exceptional
+instances, and in most cases--at all events where large powers are
+required--the engineer may have a free choice in the matter. Under
+these circumstances the best form, in the vast majority of cases where
+machinery must be driven, is undoubtedly the horizontal engine, and the
+worst the beam engine. When properly constructed, the horizontal engine
+is more durable than the beam engine, while, its first cost being less,
+it can be driven at a higher speed, and it involves a much smaller
+outlay for engine house and foundations than the latter. In many
+respects the horizontal engine is undoubtedly closely approached in
+advantages by the best forms of vertical engines; but on the whole we
+consider that where machinery is to be driven the balance of advantages
+is decidedly in favor of the former class, and particularly so in the
+case of large powers.
+
+The next point to be decided is, whether a condensing or non-condensing
+engine should be employed. In settling this question not only the
+respective first costs of the two classes of engines must be taken into
+consideration, but also the cost of water and fuel. Excepting, perhaps,
+in cases of very small powers, and in those instances where the exhaust
+steam from a non-condensing engine can be turned to good account for
+heating or drying purpose, it may safely be asserted that in all
+instances where a sufficient supply of condensing water is available
+at a moderate cost, the extra economy of a well-constructed condensing
+engine will fully warrant the additional outlay involved in its
+purchase. In these days of high steam pressures, a well constructed
+non-condensing engine can, no doubt, be made to approximate closely to
+the economy of a condensing engine, but in such a case the extra cost of
+the stronger boiler required will go far to balance the additional cost
+of the condensing engine.
+
+Having decided on the form, the next question is, what "class" of engine
+shall it be; and by the term class I mean the relative excellence of the
+engine as a power-producing machine. An automatic engine costs more than
+a plain slide-valve engine, but it will depend upon the cost of fuel at
+the location where the engine is to be placed, and the number of hours
+per day it is kept running, to decide which class of machine can be
+adopted with the greatest economy to the proprietor. The cost of
+lubricating materials, fuel, repairs, and percentage of cost to be put
+aside for depreciation, will be less in case of the high-class than in
+the low-class engine, while the former will also require less boiler
+power.
+
+Against these advantages are to be set the greater first cost of the
+automatic engine, and the consequent annual charge due to capital sunk.
+These several items should all be fairly estimated when an engine is
+to be bought, and the kind chosen accordingly. Let us take the item of
+fuel, for instance, and let us suppose this fuel to cost four dollars
+per ton at the place where the engine is run. Suppose the engine to be
+capable of developing one hundred horse-power, and that it consumes five
+pounds of coal per hour per horse-power, and runs ten hours per day:
+this would necessitate the supply of two and one-half tons per day at
+a cost of ten dollars per day. To be really economical, therefore, any
+improvement which would effect a saving of one pound of coal per hour
+per horse-power must not cost a greater sum per horse-power than that on
+which the cost of the difference of the coal saved (one pound of coal
+per hour per horse-power, which would be 1,000 pounds per day) for, say,
+three hundred days, three hundred thousand (300,000) pounds, or one
+hundred and fifty tons (or six hundred dollars), would pay a fair
+interest.
+
+Assuming that the mill owner estimates his capital as worth to him ten
+per cent, per annum, then the improvement which would effect the above
+mentioned saving must not cost more than six thousand dollars, and so
+on. If, instead of being run only ten hours per day, the engine is run
+night and day, then the outlay which it would be justifiable to make to
+effect a certain saving per hour would be doubled; while, on the other
+hand, if an engine is run less than the usual time per day a given
+saving per hour would justify a correspondingly less outlay.
+
+It has been found that for grain and other elevators, which are not run
+constantly, gas engines, although costing more for the same power,
+are cheaper than steam engines for elevating purposes where only
+occasionally used.
+
+For this reason it is impossible without considerable investigation to
+say what is really the most economical engine to adopt in any particular
+case; and as comparatively few users of steam power care to make this
+investigation a vast amount of wasteful expenditure results. Although,
+however, no absolute rule can be given, we may state that the number
+of instances in which an engine which is wasteful of fuel can be used
+profitably is exceedingly small. As a rule, in fact, it may generally be
+assumed that an engine employed for driving a manufactory of any kind
+cannot be of too high a class, the saving effected by the economical
+working of such engines in the vast majority of cases enormously
+outweighing the interest on their extra first cost. So few people appear
+to have a clear idea of the vast importance of economy of fuel in mills
+and factories that I perhaps cannot better conclude than by giving an
+example showing the saving to be effected in a large establishment by an
+economical engine.
+
+I will take the case of a flouring mill in this city which employed two
+engines that required forty pounds of water to be converted into steam
+per hour per indicated horse-power. This, at the time, was considered a
+moderate amount and the engines were considered "good."
+
+These engines indicated seventy horse power each, and ran twenty-four
+hours per day on an average of three hundred days each year, requiring
+as per indicator diagrams forty million three hundred and twenty
+thousand pounds (40 x 70 x 24 x 300 x 2 = 40,320,000) of feed water to
+be evaporated per annum, which, in Philadelphia, costs three dollars
+per horse-power per annum, amounting to (70 x 2 x 300 = $420.00) four
+hundred and twenty dollars.
+
+The coal consumed averaged five and one-half pounds per hour per
+horse-power, which, at four dollars per ton, costs
+
+((70 x 2 x 5.5 x 24 x 300) / 2,000) x 4.00= $11,088
+
+Eleven thousand and eighty-eight dollars.
+
+  Cost of coal for 300 days.                $11,088
+  Cost of water for 300 days.                   420
+                                            -------
+  Total cost of coal and water.             $11,503
+
+These engines were replaced by one first-class automatic engine,
+which developed one hundred and forty-two horse-power per hour with a
+consumption of _three pounds_ of coal per hour per horse-power, and the
+indicator diagrams showed a consumption of _thirty_ pounds of water per
+hour per horse-power. Coal cost
+
+((142 x 3 x 24 x 300) / 2,000) x 4.00 = $6,134
+
+Six thousand one hundred and thirty-four dollars. Water cost (142 x
+3.00= $426.00) four hundred and twenty-six dollars.
+
+  Cost of coal for 300 days.                $6,134
+  Cost of water for 300 days.                  426
+                                            ------
+  Total cost of coal and water.             $6,560
+
+The water evaporated in the latter case to perform the same work was
+(142 x 30 x 24 x 300 = 30,672,000) thirty million six hundred and
+seventy-two thousand pounds of feed water against (40,320,000) forty
+million three hundred and twenty thousand pounds in the former, a saving
+of (9,648,000) nine million six hundred and forty-eight thousand pounds
+per annum; or,
+
+(40,320,000 - 30,672,000) / 9,648,000 = 31.4 per cent.
+
+--_thirty-one and four-tenths per cent_.
+
+And a saving in coal consumption of
+
+(11,088 - 6,134) / 4,954 = 87.5 per cent.
+
+--_eighty-seven and one-half per cent_., or a saving in dollars and
+cents of four thousand nine hundred and fifty-four dollars ($4,954).
+
+In this city, Philadelphia, no allowance for the consumption of water is
+made in the case of first class engines, such engines being charged the
+same rate per annum per horse-power as an inferior engine, while,
+as shown by the above example, a saving in water of _thirty-one and
+four-tenths per cent_. has been attained by the employment of a
+first-class engine. The builders of such engines will always give a
+guarantee of their consumption of water, so that the purchaser can be
+able in advance to estimate this as accurately as he can the amount of
+fuel he will use.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+RIVER IMPROVEMENTS NEAR ST. LOUIS.
+
+
+The improvement of the Mississippi River near St. Louis progresses
+satisfactorily. The efficacy of the jetty system is illustrated in the
+lines of mattresses which showed accumulations of sand deposits ranging
+from the surface of the river to nearly sixteen feet in height. At Twin
+Hollow, thirteen miles from St. Louis and six miles from Horse-Tail Bar,
+there was found a sand bar extending over the widest portion of the
+river on which the engineering forces were engaged. Hurdles are built
+out from the shore to concentrate the stream on the obstruction, and
+then to protect the river from widening willows are interwoven between
+the piles. At Carroll's Island mattresses 125 feet wide have been
+placed, and the banks revetted with stone from ordinary low water to a
+16 foot stage. There is plenty of water over the bar, and at the most
+shallow points the lead showed a depth of twelve feet. Beard's Island, a
+short distance further, is also being improved, the largest force of men
+at any one place being here engaged. Four thousand feet of mattresses
+have been begun, and in placing them work will be vigorously prosecuted
+until operations are suspended by floating ice. The different sections
+are under the direction of W. F. Fries, resident engineer, and E. M.
+Currie, superintending engineer. There are now employed about 1,200 men,
+thirty barges and scows, two steam launches, and the stern-wheel steamer
+A. A. Humphreys. The improvements have cost, in actual money expended,
+about $200,000, and as the appropriation for the ensuing year
+approximates $600,000, the prospect of a clear channel is gratifying to
+those interested in the river.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+BUNTE'S BURETTE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF FURNACE GASES.
+
+
+For analyzing the gases of blast-furnaces the various apparatus of Orsat
+have long been employed; but, by reason of its simplicity, the burette
+devised by Dr. Bünte, and shown in the accompanying figures, is much
+easier to use. Besides, it permits of a much better and more rapid
+absorption of the oxide of carbon; and yet, for the lost fractions of
+the latter, it is necessary to replace a part of the absorbing liquid
+three or four times. The absorbing liquid is prepared by making a
+saturated solution of chloride of copper in hydrochloric acid, and
+adding thereto a small quantity of dissolved chloride of tin. Afterward,
+there are added to the decanted mixture a few spirals of red copper, and
+the mixture is then carefully kept from contact with the air.
+
+To fill the burette with gas, the three-way cock, _a_, is so placed that
+the axial aperture shall be in communication with the graduated part, A,
+of the burette. After this, water is poured into the funnel, t, and the
+burette is put in communication with the gas reservoir by means of a
+rubber tube. The lower point of the burette is put in communication with
+a rubber pump, V (Fig. 2), on an aspirator (the cock, _b_, being left
+open), and the gas is sucked in until all the air that was in the
+apparatus has been expelled from it. The cocks, _a_ and _b_, are turned
+90 degrees. The water in the funnel prevents the gases communicating
+with the top. The point of the three-way cock is afterward closed with a
+rubber tube and glass rod.
+
+If the gas happens to be in the reservoir of an aspirator, it is made
+to pass into the apparatus in the following manner: The burette is
+completely filled with water, and the point of the three-way cock is
+put in communication with a reservoir. If the gas is under pressure, a
+portion of it is allowed to escape through the capillary tube into the
+water in the funnel, by turning the cock, _a_, properly, and thus all
+the water in the conduit is entirely expelled. Afterward _a_ is turned
+180°, and the lower cock, _b_, is opened. While the water is flowing
+through _b_, the burette becomes filled with gas.
+
+_Mode of Measuring the Gases and Absorption_.--The tube that
+communicates with the vessel, F, is put in communication, after the
+latter has been completely filled with water, with the point of the
+cock, _b_ (Fig. 2). Then the latter is opened, as is also the pinch cock
+on the rubber tubing, and water is allowed to enter the burette through
+the bottom until the level is at the zero of the graduation. There are
+then 100 cubic centimeters in the burette. The superfluous gas has
+escaped through the cock, _a_, and passed through the water in the
+funnel. The cock, _a_, is afterward closed by turning it 90°. To
+cause the absorbing liquid to pass into the burette, the water in the
+graduated cylinder is made to flow by connecting the rubber tube, s, of
+the bottle, S, with the point of the burette. The cock is opened, and
+suction is effected with the mouth of the tube, r. When the water has
+flowed out to nearly the last drop, _b_ is closed and the suction bottle
+is removed. The absorbing liquid (caustic potassa or pyrogallate of
+potassa) is poured into a porcelain capsule, P, and the point of the
+burette is dipped into the liquid. If the cock, _b_, be opened, the
+absorbing liquid will be sucked into the burette. In order to hasten
+the absorption, the cock, _b_, is closed, and the burette is shaken
+horizontally, the aperture of the funnel being closed by the hand during
+the operation.
+
+If not enough absorbing liquid has entered, there may be sucked into the
+burette, by the process described above, a new quantity of liquid. The
+reaction finished, the graduated cylinder is put in communication with
+the funnel by turning the cock, _a_. The water is allowed to run from
+the funnel, and the latter is filled again with water up to the mark.
+The gas is then again under the same pressure as at the beginning.
+
+After the level has become constant, the quantity of gas remaining is
+measured. The contraction that has taken place gives, in hundredths of
+the total volume, the volume of the gas absorbed.
+
+When it is desired to make an analysis of smoke due to combustion,
+caustic potassa is first sucked into the burette. After complete
+absorption, and after putting the gas at the same pressure, the
+diminution gives the volume of carbonic acid.
+
+To determine the oxygen in the remaining gas, a portion of the caustic
+potash is allowed to flow out, and an aqueous solution of pyrogallic
+acid and potash is allowed to enter. The presence of oxygen is revealed
+by the color of the liquid, which becomes darker.
+
+The gas is then agitated with the absorbing liquid until, upon opening
+the cock, _a_, the liquid remains in the capillary tube, that is to say,
+until no more water runs from the funnel into the burette. To make a
+quantitative analysis of the carbon contained in gas, the pyrogallate of
+potash must be entirely removed from the burette. To do this, the liquid
+is sucked out by means of the flask, S, until there remain only a few
+drops; then the cock, _a_, is opened and water is allowed to flow from
+the funnel along the sides of the burette. Then _a_ is closed, and
+the washing water is sucked in the same manner. By repeating this
+manipulation several times, the absorbing liquid is completely removed.
+The acid solution of chloride of copper is then allowed to enter.
+
+As the absorbing liquids adhere to the glass, it is better, before
+noting the level, to replace these liquids by water. The cocks, _a_ and
+_b_, are opened, and water is allowed to enter from the funnel, the
+absorbing liquid being made to flow at the same time through the cock,
+_b_.
+
+When an acid solution of chloride of copper is employed, dilute
+hydrochloric acid is used instead of water.
+
+Fig. 2 shows the arrangement of the apparatus for the quantitative
+analysis of oxide of carbon and hydrogen by combustion. The gas in the
+burette is first mixed with atmospheric air, by allowing the liquid to
+flow through _b_, and causing air to enter through the axial aperture of
+the three way cock, _a_, after cutting off communication at v. Then, as
+shown in the figure, the burette is connected with the tube, B, which is
+filled with water up to the narrow curved part, and the interior of the
+burette is made to communicate with the combustion tube, v, by turning
+the cock, a. The combustion tube is heated by means of a Bunsen burner
+or alcohol lamp, L. It is necessary to proceed, so that all the water
+shall be driven from the cock and the capillary tube, and that it shall
+be sent into the burette. The combustion is effected by causing the
+mixture of gas to pass from the burette into the tube, B, through the
+tube, v, heated to redness, into which there passes a palladium wire.
+Water is allowed to flow through the point of the tube, B, while from
+the flask, F, it enters through the bottom into the burette, so as to
+drive out the gas. The water is allowed to rise into the burette as far
+as the cock, and the cocks, _b_ and _b¹_, are afterward closed.
+
+[Illustration: DR. BÜNTE'S GAS BURETTE]
+
+By a contrary operation, the gas is made to pass from B into the
+burette. It is then allowed to cool, and, after the pressure has been
+established again, the contraction is measured. If the gas burned is
+hydrogen, the contraction multiplied by two-thirds gives the original
+volume of the hydrogen gas burned. If the gas burned is oxide of carbon,
+there forms an equal volume of carbonic acid, and the contraction is the
+half of CO. Thus, to analyze CO, a portion of the liquid is removed from
+the burette, then caustic potash is allowed to enter, and the process
+goes on as explained above.
+
+The total contraction resulting from combustion and absorption,
+multiplied by two-thirds, gives the volume of the oxide of carbon.
+
+The hydrogen and oxide carbon may thus be quantitatively analyzed
+together or separately.--_Revue Industrielle_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE "UNIVERSAL" GAS ENGINE.
+
+
+The accompanying engravings illustrate a new and very simple form of gas
+engine, the invention of J. A. Ewins and H. Newman, and made by Mr. T.
+B. Barker, of Scholefield-street, Bloomsbury, Birmingham. It is known as
+the "Universal" engine, and is at present constructed in sizes varying
+from one-eighth horse-power--one man power--to one horse-power, though
+larger sizes are being made. The essentially new feature of the engine
+is, says the _Engineer_, the simple rotary ignition valve consisting of
+a ratchet plate or flat disk with a number of small radial slots which
+successively pass a small slot in the end of the cylinder, and through
+which the flame is drawn to ignite the charge. In our illustrations Fig.
+1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2 an end view of same; Fig. 3 a plan; Fig. 4
+is a sectional view of the chamber in which the gas and air are mixed,
+with the valves appertaining thereto; Fig. 5 is a detail view of the
+ratchet plate, with pawl and levers and valve gear shaft; Fig. 6 is
+a sectional view of a pump employed in some cases to circulate water
+through the jacket; Fig. 7 is a sectional view of arrangement for
+lighting, and ratchet plate, j, with central spindle and igniting
+apertures, and the spiral spring, k, and fly nut, showing the attachment
+to the end of the working cylinder, f1; b5, b5, bevel wheels driving
+the valve gear shaft; e, the valve gear driving shaft; e2, eccentric to
+drive pump; e³, eccentric or cam to drive exhaust valve; e4, crank to
+drive ratchet plate; e5, connecting rod to ratchet pawl; f, cylinder
+jacket; f1, internal or working cylinder; f2, back cylinder cover; g,
+igniting chamber; h, mixing chamber; h1, flap valve; h2, gas inlet
+valve, the motion of which is regulated by a governor; h3, gas inlet
+valve seat; h4, cover, also forming stop for gas inlet valve; h5, gas
+inlet pipe; h6, an inlet valve; h8, cover, also forming stop for air
+inlet valve; h9, inlet pipe for air with grating; i, exhaust chamber;
+i2, exhaust valve spindle; i7, exhaust pipe; j6, lighting aperture
+through cylinder end; l, igniting gas jet; m, regulating and stop valve
+for gas.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVED GAS ENGINE]
+
+The engine, it will be seen, is single-acting, and no compression of the
+explosive charge is employed. An explosive mixture of combustible gas
+and air is drawn through the valves, h2 and h6, and exploded behind
+the piston once in a revolution; but by a duplication of the valve and
+igniting apparatus, placed also at the front end of the cylinder, the
+engine may be constructed double-acting. At the proper time, when the
+piston has proceeded far enough to draw in through the mixing chamber,
+h, into the igniting chamber, g, the requisite amount of gas and air,
+the ratchet plate, j, is pushed into such a position by the pawl, j3,
+that the flame from the igniting jet, l, passes through one of the slots
+or holes, j1, and explodes the charge when opposite j6, which is the
+only aperture in the end of the working cylinder (see Fig. 7 and Fig.
+2), thus driving the piston on to the end of its forward stroke. The
+exhaust valve, Fig. 9, though not exactly of the form shown, is kept
+open during the whole of this return stroke by means of the eccentric,
+e3, on the shaft working the ratchet, and thus allowing the products of
+combustion to escape through the exhaust pipe, i7, in the direction of
+the arrow. Between the ratchet disk and the igniting flame a small plate
+not shown is affixed to the pipe, its edge being just above the burner
+top. The flame is thus not blown out by the inrushing air when the slots
+in ratchet plate and valve face are opposite. This ratchet plate or
+ignition valve, the most important in any engine, has so very small a
+range of motion per revolution of the engine that it cannot get out of
+order, and it appears to require no lubrication or attention whatever.
+The engines are working very successfully, and their simplicity enables
+them to be made at low cost. They cost for gas from œd. to 1œd. per hour
+for the sizes mentioned.
+
+[Illustration: Fig.9.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+GAS FURNACE FOR BAKING REFRACTORY PRODUCTS.
+
+
+In order that small establishments may put to profit the advantages
+derived from the use of annular furnaces heated with gas, smaller
+dimensions have been given the baking chambers of such furnaces. The
+accompanying figure gives a section of a furnace of this kind, set into
+the ground, and the height of whose baking chamber is only one and a
+half meters. The chamber is not vaulted, but is covered by slabs of
+refractory clay, D, that may be displaced by the aid of a small car
+running on a movable track. This car is drawn over the compartment that
+is to be emptied, and the slab or cover, D, is taken off and carried
+over the newly filled compartment and deposited thereon.
+
+The gas passes from the channel through the pipe, a, into the vertical
+conduits, b, and is afterward disengaged through the tuyeres into the
+chamber. In order that the gas may be equally applied for preliminary
+heating or smoking, a small smoking furnace, S, has been added to
+the apparatus. The upper part of this consists of a wide cylinder
+of refractory clay, in the center of whose cover there is placed an
+internal tube of refractory clay, which communicates with the channel,
+G, through a pipe, d. This latter leads the gas into the tube, t, of the
+smoking furnace, which is perforated with a large number of small holes.
+The air requisite for combustion enters through the apertures, o, in the
+cover of the furnace, and brings about in the latter a high temperature.
+The very hot gases descend into the lower iron portion of this small
+furnace and pass through a tube, e, into the smoking chamber by the aid
+of vertical conduits, b', which serve at the same time as gas tuyeres
+for the extremity of the furnace that is exposed to the fire.
+
+[Illustration: GAS FURNACE FOR BAKING REFRACTORY PRODUCTS.]
+
+In the lower part of the smoking furnace, which is made of boiler plate
+and can be put in communication with the tube, e, there are large
+apertures that may be wholly or partially closed by means of registers
+so as to carry to the hot gas derived from combustion any quantity
+whatever of cold and dry air, and thus cause a variation at will of the
+temperature of the gases which are disengaged from the tube, e.
+
+The use of these smoking apparatus heated by gas does away also with the
+inconveniences of the ordinary system, in which the products are soiled
+by cinders or dust, and which render the gradual heating of objects to
+be baked difficult. At the beginning, there is allowed to enter the
+lower part of the small furnace, S, through the apertures, a very
+considerable quantity of cold air, so as to lower the temperature of the
+smoke gas that escapes from the tube, e, to 30 or 50 degrees. Afterward,
+these secondary air entrances are gradually closed so as to increase the
+temperature of the gases at will.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE EFFICIENCY OF FANS.
+
+
+Air, like every other gas or combination of gases, possesses weight;
+some persons who have been taught that the air exerts a pressure of 14.7
+lb. per square inch, cannot, however, be got to realize the fact that a
+cubit foot of air at the same pressure and at a temperature of 62 deg.
+weighs the thirteenth part of a pound, or over one ounce; 13.141 cubic
+feet of air weigh one pound. In round numbers 30,000 cubic feet of air
+weigh one ton; this is a useful figure to remember, and it is easily
+carried in the mind. A hall 61 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 17 feet high
+will contain one ton of air.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1]
+
+The work to be done by a fan consists in putting a weight--that of the
+air--in motion. The resistances incurred are due to the inertia of the
+air and various frictional influences; the nature and amount of these
+last vary with the construction of the fan. As the air enters at the
+center of the fan and escapes at the circumference, it will be seen that
+its motion is changed while in the fan through a right angle. It may
+also be taken for granted that within certain limits the air has no
+motion in a radial direction when it first comes in contact with a fan
+blade. It is well understood that, unless power is to be wasted, motion
+should be gradually imparted to any body to be moved. Consequently, the
+shape of the blades ought to be such as will impart motion at first
+slowly and afterward in a rapidly increasing ratio to the air. It is
+also clear that the change of motion should be effected as gradually as
+possible. Fig. 1 shows how a fan should not be constructed; Fig. 2 will
+serve to give an idea of how it should be made.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2]
+
+In Fig. 1 it will be seen that the air, as indicated by the bent arrows,
+is violently deflected on entering the fan. In Fig. 2 it will be seen
+that it follows gentle curves, and so is put gradually in motion. The
+curved form of the blades shown in Fig. 2 does not appear to add much to
+the efficiency of a fan; but it adds something and keeps down noise. The
+idea is that the fan blades when of this form push the air radially from
+the center to the circumference. The fact is, however, that the air
+flies outward under the influence of centrifugal force, and always tends
+to move at a tangent to the fan blades, as in Fig. 3, where the circle
+is the path of the tips of the fan blades, and the arrow is a tangent to
+that path; and to impart this notion a radial blade, as at C, is perhaps
+as good as any other, as far as efficiency is concerned. Concerning the
+shape to be imparted to the blades, looked at back or front, opinions
+widely differ; but it is certain that if a fan is to be silent the
+blades must be narrower at the tips than at the center. Various forms
+are adopted by different makers, the straight side and the curved sides,
+as shown in Fig. 4, being most commonly used. The proportions as regards
+length to breadth are also varied continually. In fact, no two makers of
+fans use the same shapes.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3]
+
+As the work done by a fan consists in imparting motion at a stated
+velocity to a given weight of air, it is very easy to calculate the
+power which must be expended to do a certain amount of work. The
+velocity at which the air leaves the fan cannot be greater than that of
+the fan tips. In a good fan it may be about two-thirds of that speed.
+The resistance to be overcome will be found by multiplying the area of
+the fan blades by the pressure of the air and by the velocity of the
+center of effort, which must be determined for every fan according to
+the shape of its blades. The velocity imparted to the air by the fan
+will be just the same as though the air fell in a mass from a given
+height. This height can be found by the formula h = v² / 64; that is to
+say, if the velocity be multiplied by itself and divided by 64 we have
+the height. Thus, let the velocity be 88 per second, then 88 x 88 =
+7,744, and 7,744 / 64 = 121. A stone or other body falling from a height
+of 121 feet would have a velocity of 88 per second at the earth. The
+pressure against the fan blades will be equal to that of a column of air
+of the height due to the velocity, or, in this case, 121 feet. We
+have seen that in round numbers 13 cubic feet of air weigh one pound,
+consequently a column of air one square foot in section and 121 feet
+high, will weigh as many pounds as 13 will go times into 121. Now, 121
+/ 13 = 9.3, and this will be the resistance in pounds per _square foot_
+overcome by the fan. Let the aggregate area of all the blades be 2
+square feet, and the velocity of the center of effort 90 feet per
+second, then the power expended will bve (90 x 60 x 2 x 9.3) / 33,000
+= 3.04 horse power. The quantity of air delivered ought to be equal in
+volume to that of a column with a sectional area equal that of one fan
+blade moving at 88 feet per second, or a mile a minute. The blade having
+an area of 1 square foot, the delivery ought to be 5,280 feet per
+minute, weighing 5,280 / 13 = 406.1 lb. In practice we need hardly say
+that such an efficiency is never attained.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4]
+
+The number of recorded experiments with fans is very small, and a great
+deal of ignorance exists as to their true efficiency. Mr. Buckle is one
+of the very few authorities on the subject. He gives the accompanying
+table of proportions as the best for pressures of from 3 to 6 ounces per
+square inch:
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+                  |         Vanes.         | Diameter of inlet
+Diameter of fans. |------------------------|    openings.
+                  |   Width.   |  Length.  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+     ft. in.      |  ft. in.   | ft. in.   |       ft. in.
+      3  0        |   0   9    |  0   9    |        1   6
+      3  6        |   0  10œ   |  0  10œ   |        1   9
+      4  0        |   1   0    |  1   0    |        2   0
+      4  6        |   1   1œ   |  1   1œ   |        2   3
+      5  0        |   1   3    |  1   3    |        2   6
+      6  0        |   1   6    |  1   6    |        3   0
+                  |            |           |
+--------------------------------------------------------------
+
+For higher pressures the blades should be longer and narrower, and
+the inlet openings smaller. The case is to be made in the form of an
+arithmetical spiral widening, the space between the case and the blades
+radially from the origin to the opening for discharge, and the upper
+edge of the opening should be level with the lower side of the sweep of
+the fan blade, somewhat as shown in Fig. 5.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 5]
+
+A considerable number of patents has been taken out for improvements
+in the construction of fans, but they all, or nearly all, relate to
+modifications in the form of the case and of the blades. So far,
+however, as is known, it appears that, while these things do exert a
+marked influence on the noise made by a fan, and modify in some degree
+the efficiency of the machine, that this last depends very much more on
+the proportions adopted than on the shapes--so long as easy curves
+are used and sharp angles avoided. In the case of fans running at low
+speeds, it matters very little whether the curves are present or not;
+but at high speeds the case is different.--_The Engineer_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MACHINE FOR COMPRESSING COAL REFUSE INTO FUEL.
+
+
+The problem as to how the refuse of coal shall be utilized has been
+solved in the manufacture from it of an agglomerated artificial
+fuel, which is coming more and more into general use on railways and
+steamboats, in the industries, and even in domestic heating.
+
+The qualities that a good agglomerating machine should present are as
+follows:
+
+1. Very great simplicity, inasmuch as it is called upon to operate in
+an atmosphere charged with coal dust, pitch, and steam; and, under such
+conditions, it is important that it may be easily got at for cleaning,
+and that the changing of its parts (which wear rapidly) may be effected
+without, so to speak, interrupting its running.
+
+2. The compression must be powerful, and, that the product may be
+homogeneous, must operate progressively and not by shocks. It must
+especially act as much as possible upon the entire surface of the
+conglomerate, and this is something that most machines fail to do.
+
+3. The removal from the mould must be effected easily, and not depend
+upon a play of pistons or springs, which soon become foul, and the
+operation of which is very irregular.
+
+The operations embraced in the manufacture of this kind of fuel are as
+follows:
+
+The refuse is sifted in order to separate the dust from the grains of
+coal. The dust is not submitted to a washing. The grains are classed
+into two sizes, after removing the nut size, which is sold separately.
+The grains of each size are washed separately. The washed grains are
+either drained or dried by a hydro-extractor in order to free them from
+the greater part of the water, the presence of this being an obstacle to
+their perfect agglomeration. The water, however, should not be entirely
+extracted because the combustibles being poor conductors of heat, a
+certain amount of dampness must be preserved to obtain an equal division
+of heat in the paste when the mixture is warmed.
+
+After being dried the grains are mixed with the coal dust, and broken
+coal pitch is added in the proportion of eight to ten per cent. of the
+coal. The mixture is then thrown into a crushing machine, where it is
+reduced to powder and intimately mixed. It then passes into a pug-mill
+into which superheated steam is admitted, and by this means is converted
+into a plastic paste. This paste is then led into an agitator for the
+double purpose of freeing it from the steam that it contains, and of
+distributing it in the moulds of the compressing machine.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVED MACHINE FOR COMPRESSING REFUSE COAL INTO FUEL.]
+
+Bilan's machine, shown in the accompanying cut, is designed for
+manufacturing spherical conglomerates for domestic purposes. It consists
+of a cast iron frame supporting four vertical moulding wheels placed at
+right angles to each other and tangent to the line of the centers. These
+wheels carry on their periphery cavities that have the form of a quarter
+of a sphere. They thus form at the point of contact a complete sphere
+in which the material is inclosed. The paste is thrown by shovel, or
+emptied by buckets and chain, into the hopper fixed at the upper part
+of the frame. From here it is taken up by two helices, mounted on a
+vertical shaft traversing the hopper, and forced toward the point where
+the four moulding wheels meet. The driving pulley of the machine is
+keyed upon a horizontal shaft which is provided with two endless screws
+that actuate two gear-wheels, and these latter set in motion the four
+moulding wheels by means of beveled pinions. The four moulding wheels
+being accurately adjusted so that their cavities meet each other at
+every revolution, carry along the paste furnished them by the hopper,
+compress it powerfully on the four quarters, and, separating by a
+further revolution, allow the finished ball to drop out.
+
+The external crown of the wheels carrying the moulds consists of four
+segments, which may be taken apart at will to be replaced by others when
+worn.
+
+This machine produces about 40 tons per day of this globular artificial
+fuel.--_Annales Industrielles_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HANK SIZING AND WRINGING MACHINE.
+
+
+We give a view of a hank sizing machine by Messrs. Heywood & Spencer,
+of Radcliffe, near Manchester. The machine is also suitable for fancy
+dyeing. It is well known, says the _Textile Manufacturer_, that when
+hanks are wrung by hand, not only is the labor very severe, but in
+dyeing it is scarcely possible to obtain even colors, and, furthermore,
+the production is limited by the capabilities of the man. The machine
+we illustrate is intended to perform the heavy part of the work with
+greater expedition and with more certainty than could be relied upon
+with hand labor. The illustration represents the machine that we
+inspected. Its construction seems of the simplest character. It consists
+of two vats, between which is placed the gearing for driving the hooks.
+The large wheel in this gear, although it always runs in one direction,
+contains internal segments, which fall into gear alternately with
+pinions on the shanks of the hooks. The motion is a simple one, and it
+appeared to us to be perfectly reliable, and not liable to get out of
+order. The action is as follows: The attendant lifts the hank out of the
+vat and places it on the hooks. The hook connected to the gearing then
+commences to turn; it puts in two, two and a half, three, or more twists
+into the hank and remains stationary for a few seconds to allow an
+interval for the sizer to "wipe off" the excess of size, that is, to
+run his hand along the twisted hank. This done, the hook commences to
+revolve the reverse way, until the twists are taken out of the hank.
+It is then removed, either by lifting off by hand or by the apparatus
+shown, attached to the right hand side. This arrangement consists of a
+lattice, carrying two arms that, at the proper moment, lift the hank off
+the hooks on to the lattice proper, by which it is carried away, and
+dropped upon a barrow to be taken to the drying stove. In sizing, a
+double operation is customary; the first is called running, and the
+second, finishing. In the machine shown, running is carried on one side
+simultaneously with finishing in the other, or, if required, running
+may be carried on on both sides. If desired, the lifting off motion is
+attached to both running and finishing sides, and also the roller partly
+seen on the left hand for running the hanks through the size. The
+machine we saw was doing about 600 bundles per day at running and at
+finishing, but the makers claim the production with a double machine to
+be at the rate of about 36 10 lb. bundles per hour (at finishing), wrung
+in 1œ lb. wringers (or Iœ lb. of yarn at a time), or at running at the
+rate of 45 bundles in 2 lb. wringers. The distance between the hooks
+is easily adjusted to the length or size of hanks, and altogether the
+machine seems one that is worth the attention of the trade.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVED HANK SIZING MACHINE.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IMPROVED COKE BREAKER.
+
+
+The working parts of the breaker now in use by the South Metropolitan
+Gas Company consist essentially of a drum provided with cutting edges
+projecting from it, which break up the coke against a fixed grid. The
+drum is cast in rings, to facilitate repairs when necessary, and the
+capacity of the machine can therefore be increased or diminished by
+varying the number of these rings. The degree of fineness of the coke
+when broken is determined by the regulated distance of the grid from the
+drum. Thus there is only one revolving member, no toothed gearing being
+required. Consequently the machine works with little power; the one at
+the Old Kent Road, which is of the full size for large works, being
+actually driven by a one horse power "Otto" gas-engine. Under these
+conditions, at a recent trial, two tons of coke were broken in half an
+hour, and the material delivered screened into the three classes of
+coke, clean breeze (worth as much as the larger coke), and dust, which
+at these works is used to mix with lime in the purifiers. The special
+advantage of the machine, besides the low power required to drive it and
+its simple action, lies in the small quantity of waste. On the occasion
+of the trial in question, the dust obtained from two tons of coke
+measured only 3œ bushels, or just over a half hundredweight per ton.
+The following statement, prepared from the actual working of the first
+machine constructed, shows the practical results of its use. It should
+be premised that the machine is assumed to be regularly employed and
+driven by the full power for which it is designed, when it will easily
+break 8 tons of coke per hour, or 80 tons per working day:
+
+    500 feet of gas consumed by a 2 horse power
+      gas-engine, at cost price of gas delivered   s. d.
+      in holder.                                   0  9
+    Oil and cotton waste.                          0  6
+    Two men supplying machine with large
+      coke, and shoveling up broken, at 4s.
+      6d.                                          9  0
+    Interest and wear and tear (say).              0  3
+                                                  -----
+         Total per day.                           10  6
+                                                  -----
+    For 80 tons per day, broken at the rate
+      of.                                          0  1œ
+    Add for loss by dust and waste, 1 cwt.,
+      with price of coke at (say) 13s. 4d. per
+      ton.                                         0  8
+                                                  -----
+        Cost of breaking, per ton.                 0  9œ
+
+As coke, when broken, will usually fetch from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per ton
+more than large, the result of using these machines is a net gain of
+from 1s. 3d. to 1s. 9d. per ton of coke. It is not so much the actual
+gain, however, that operates in favor of providing a supply of broken
+coke, as the certainty that by so doing a market is obtained that would
+not otherwise be available.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVED COKE BREAKER.]
+
+It will not be overstating the case to say that this coke breaker is by
+far the simplest, strongest, and most economical appliance of its kind
+now manufactured. That it does its work well is proved by experience;
+and the advantages of its construction are immediately apparent upon
+comparison of its simple drum and single spindle with the flying hammers
+or rocking jaws, or double drums with toothed gearing which characterize
+some other patterns of the same class of plant. It should be remarked,
+as already indicated, lest exception should be taken to the size of the
+machine chosen here for illustration, that it can be made of any size
+down to hand power. On the whole, however, as a few tons of broken coke
+might be required at short notice even in a moderate sized works, it
+would scarcely be advisable to depend upon too small a machine; since
+the regular supply of the fuel thus improved may be trusted in a short
+time to increase the demand.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVED COKE BREAKER.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IMPROVEMENT IN PRINTING MACHINERY.
+
+
+This is the design of Alfred Godfrey, of Clapton. According to this
+improvement, as represented at Figs. 1 and 2, a rack, A, is employed
+vibrating on the pivot a, and a pinion, a1, so arranged that instead of
+the pinion moving on a universal joint, or the rack moving in a parallel
+line from side to side of the pinion at the time the motion of the table
+is reversed, there is employed, for example, the radial arm, a2, mounted
+on the shaft, a3, supporting the driving wheel, a4. The opposite or
+vibrating end of the radial arm, a2, supports in suitable bearings the
+pinion, a1, and wheel, a5, driving the rack through the medium of the
+driving wheel, a4, the effect of which is that through the mechanical
+action of the vibrating arm, a2, and pinion, a1 in conjunction with the
+vibrating movement of the rack, A, an easy, uniform, and silent motion
+is transmitted to the rack and table.
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY. Fig. 1]
+
+[Illustration: IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY. Fig. 2.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A CHARACTERISTIC MINING "RUSH."--THE PROSPECTIVE MINING CENTER OF
+SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO.
+
+
+A correspondent of the _Tribune_ describes at length the mining camps
+about Lake Valley, New Mexico, hitherto thought likely to be the central
+camp of that region, and then graphically tells the story of the recent
+"rush" to the Perche district. Within a month of the first strike of
+silver ore the country was swarming with prospectors, and a thousand or
+more prospects had been located.
+
+The Perche district is on the eastern flanks of the Mimbres Mountains,
+a range which is a part of the Rocky Mountain range, and runs north and
+south generally parallel with the Rio Grande, from which it lies about
+forty miles to the westward. The northern half of these mountains is
+known as the Black Range, and was the center of considerable mining
+excitement a year and a half ago. It is there that the Ivanhoe is
+located, of which Colonel Gillette was manager, and in which Robert
+Ingersoll and Senator Plumb, of Kansas, were interested, much to the
+disadvantage of the former. A new company has been organized, however,
+with Colonel Ingersoll as president, and the reopening of work on the
+Ivanhoe will probably prove a stimulus to the whole Black Range. From
+this region the Perche district is from forty to sixty miles south. It
+is about twenty-five miles northwest of Lake Valley, and ten miles west
+of Hillsboro, a promising little mining town, with some mills and about
+300 people. The Perche River has three forks coming down from the
+mountains and uniting at Hillsboro, and it is in the region between
+these forks that the recent strikes have been made.
+
+On August 15 "Jack" Shedd, the original discoverer of the Robinson mine
+in Colorado, was prospecting on the south branch of the north fork of
+the Perche River, when he made the first great strike in the district.
+On the summit of a heavily timbered ridge he found some small pieces of
+native silver, and then a lump of ore containing very pure silver in the
+form of sulphides, weighing 150 pounds, and afterward proved to be worth
+on the average $11 a pound. All this was mere float, simply lying on the
+surface of the ground. Afterward another block was found, weighing 87
+pounds, of horn silver, with specimens nearly 75 per cent. silver. The
+strike was kept a secret for a few days. Said a mining man: "I went up
+to help bring the big lump down. We took it by a camp of prospectors who
+were lying about entirely ignorant of any find. When they saw it they
+instantly saddled their horses, galloped off, and I believe they
+prospected all night." A like excitement was created when the news of
+this and one or two similar finds reached Lake Valley. Next morning
+every waiter was gone from the little hotel, and a dozen men had left
+the Sierra mines, to try their fortunes at prospecting.
+
+As the news spread men poured into the Perche district from no one knows
+where, some armed with only a piece of salt pork, a little meal, and a
+prospecting pick; some mounted on mules, others on foot; old men and men
+half-crippled were among the number, but all bitten by the monomania
+which possesses every prospector. Now there are probably 2,000 men in
+the Perche district, and the number of prospects located must far exceed
+1,000. Three miners from there with whom I was talking recently owned
+forty-seven mines among them, and while one acknowledged that hardly one
+prospect in a hundred turns out a prize, the other millionaire in embryo
+remarked that he wouldn't take $50,000 for one of his mines. So it goes,
+and the victims of the mining fever here seem as deaf to reason as the
+buyers of mining stock in New York. Fuel was added to the flame by
+the report that Shedd had sold his location, named the Solitaire, to
+ex-Governor Tabor and Mr. Wurtzbach on August 25 for $100,000. This was
+not true. I met Governor Tabor's representative, who came down recently
+to examine the properties, and learned that the Governor had not up to
+that date bought the mine. He undoubtedly bonded it, however, and his
+representative's opinion of the properties seemed highly favorable.
+The Solitaire showed what appeared to be a contact vein, with walls of
+porphyry and limestone in a ledge thirty feet wide in places, containing
+a high assay of horned silver. The vein was composed of quartz, bearing
+sulphides, with horn silver plainly visible, giving an average assay of
+from $350 to $500. This was free milling. These were the results shown
+simply by surface explorations, which were certainly exceedingly
+promising. Recently it has been stated that a little development shows
+the vein to be only a blind lead, but the statement lacks confirmation.
+In any case the effect of so sensational a discovery is the same in
+creating an intense excitement and attracting swarms of prospectors.
+
+But the Perche district does not rest on the Solitaire, for there has
+been abundance of mineral wealth discovered throughout its extent. Four
+miles south of this prospect, on the middle fork of the Perche, is an
+actual mine--the Bullion--which was purchased by four or five Western
+mining men for $10,000, and yielded $11,000 in twenty days. The ore
+contains horn and native silver. On the same fork are the Iron King and
+Andy Johnson, both recently discovered and promising properties, and
+there is a valuable mine now in litigation on the south fork of the
+Perche, with scores of prospects over the entire district. Now that one
+or two sensational strikes have attracted attention, and capital is
+developing paying mines, the future of the Perche District seems
+assured.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SOY BEAN.
+
+
+The _British Medical Journal_ says that Prof. E. Kinch, writing in the
+_Agricultural Students' Gazette_, says that the Soy bean approaches more
+nearly to animal food than any other known vegetable production, being
+singularly rich in fat and in albuminoids. It is largely used as
+an article of food in China and Japan. Efforts have been made to
+acclimatize it in various parts of the continent of Europe, and fair
+success has been achieved in Italy and France; many foods are made from
+it and its straw is a useful fodder.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ON A NEW ARC ELECTRIC LAMP.
+
+[Footnote: Paper read at the British Association, Southampton. Revised
+by the Author.--_Nature_.]
+
+By W.H. PREECE.
+
+
+Electric lamps on the arc principle are almost as numerous as the trees
+in the forest, and it is somewhat fresh to come upon something that is
+novel. In these lamps the carbons are consumed as the current flows, and
+it is the variation in their consumption which occasions the flickering
+and irregularity of the light that is so irritating to the eyes. Special
+mechanical contrivances or regulators have to be used to compensate for
+this destruction of the carbons, as in the Siemens and Brush type, or
+else refractory materials have to be combined with the carbons, as in
+the Jablochkoff candle and in the lamp Soleil. The steadiness of the
+light depends upon the regularity with which the carbons are moved
+toward each other as they are consumed, so as to maintain the electric
+resistance between them a constant quantity. Each lamp must have a
+certain elasticity of regulation of its own, to prevent irregularities
+from the variable material of carbon used, and from variations in the
+current itself and in the machinery.
+
+In all electric lamps, except the Brockie, the regulator is in the lamp
+itself. In the Brockie system the regulation is automatic, and is made
+at certain rapid intervals by the motor engine. This causes a periodic
+blinking that is detrimental to this lamp for internal illumination.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1. FIG. 2.]
+
+M. Abdank, the inventor of the system which I have the pleasure of
+bringing before the Section, separates his regulator from his lamp.
+The regulator may be fixed anywhere, within easy inspection and
+manipulation, and away from any disturbing influence in the lamp. The
+lamp can be fixed in any inaccessible place.
+
+_The Lamp_ (Figs. 1, 2, and 3.)--The bottom or negative carbon is fixed,
+but the top or positive carbon is movable, in a vertical line. It is
+screwed at the point, C, to a brass rod, T (Fig. 2), which moves freely
+inside the tubular iron core of an electromagnet, K. This rod is
+clutched and lifted by the soft iron armature, A B, when a current
+passes through the coil, M M. The mass of the iron in the armature is
+distributed so that the greater portion is at one end, B, much nearer
+the pole than the other end. Hence this portion is attracted first, the
+armature assumes an inclined position, maintained by a brass button, t,
+which prevents any adhesion between the armature and the core of the
+electromagnet. The electric connection between the carbon and the coil
+of the electromagnet is maintained by the flexible wire, S.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
+
+The electromagnet, A (Fig. 1), is fixed to a long and heavy rack, C,
+which falls by its own weight and by the weight of the electromagnet and
+the carbon fixed to it. The length of the rack is equal to the length of
+the two carbons. The fall of the rack is controlled by a friction break,
+B (Fig. 3), which acts upon the last of a train of three wheels put
+in motion by the above weight. The break, B, is fixed at one end of
+a lever, B A, the other end carrying a soft iron armature, F,
+easily adjusted by three screws. This armature is attracted by the
+electromagnet, E E (whose resistance is 1,200 ohms), whenever a current
+circulates through it. The length of the play is regulated by the screw,
+V. The spring, L, applies tension to the break.
+
+_The Regulator_.--This consists of a balance and a cut-off.
+
+_The Balance_ (Figs. 4 and 5) is made with two solenoids. S and S',
+whose relative resistances is adjustable. S conveys the main current,
+and is wound with thick wire having practically no resistance, and S'
+is traversed by a shunt current, and is wound with fine wire having a
+resistance of 600 ohms. In the axes of these two coils a small and light
+iron tube (2 mm. diameter and 60 mm. length) freely moves in a vertical
+line between two guides. When magnetized it has one pole in the middle
+and the other at each end. The upward motion is controlled by the
+spring, N T. The spring rests upon the screw, H, with which it makes
+contact by platinum electrodes. This contact is broken whenever the
+little iron rod strikes the spring, N T.
+
+The positive lead from the dynamo is attached to the terminal, B, then
+passes through the coil, S, to the terminal, B', whence it proceeds to
+the lamp. The negative lead is attached to terminal, A, passing directly
+to the other terminal, A', and thence to the lamp.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4]
+
+The shunt which passes through the fine coil, S', commences at the
+point, P. The other end is fixed to the screw, H, whence it has two
+paths, the one offering no resistance through the spring, T N, to the
+upper negative terminal, A'; the other through the terminal, J, to the
+electromagnet of the break, M, and thence to the negative terminal of
+the lamp, L'.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
+
+_The Cut-off_.--The last part of the apparatus (Fig. 4) to be described
+is the cut-off, which is used when there are several lamps in series. It
+is brought into play by the switch, C D, which can be placed at E or D.
+When it is at E, the negative terminal, A, is in communication with
+the positive terminal, B, through the resistance, R, which equals the
+resistance of the lamp, which is, therefore, out of circuit. When it is
+at D the cut-off acts automatically to do the same thing when required.
+This is done by a solenoid, V, which has two coils, the one of thick
+wire offering no resistance, and the other of 2,000 ohms resistance. The
+fine wire connects the terminals, A' and B. The solenoid has a movable
+soft iron core suspended by the spring, U. It has a cross-piece of iron
+which can dip into two mercury cups, G and K, when the core is sucked
+into the solenoid. When this is the case, which happens when any
+accident occurs to the lamp, the terminal, A, is placed in connection
+with the terminal, B, through the thick wire of V and the resistance, R,
+in the same way as it was done by the switch, C D.
+
+_Electrical Arrangement_.--The mode in which several lamps are connected
+up in series is shown by Fig. 6. M is the dynamo machine. The + lead is
+connected to B1 of the balance it then passes to the lamp, L, returning
+to the balance, and then proceeds to each other lamp, returning finally
+to the negative pole of the machine. When the current enters the balance
+it passes through the coil, S, magnetizing the iron core and drawing
+it downward (Fig. 4). It then passes to the lamp, L L', through the
+carbons, then returns to the balance, and proceeds back to the negative
+terminal of the machine. A small portion of the current is shunted off
+at the point, P, passing through the coil, S', through the contact
+spring, T N, to the terminal, A', and drawing the iron core in
+opposition to S. The carbons are in contact, but in passing through
+the lamp the current magnetizes the electromagnet, M (Fig. 2), which
+attracts the armature, A B, that bites and lifts up the rod, T, with the
+upper carbon, a definite and fixed distance that is easily regulated
+by the screws, Y Y. The arc then is formed, and will continue to burn
+steadily as long as the current remains constant. But the moment the
+current falls, due to the increased resistance of the arc, a greater
+proportion passes through the shunt, S' (Fig. 4), increasing its
+magnetic moment on the iron core, while that of S is diminishing. The
+result is that a moment arrives when equilibrium is destroyed, the iron
+rod strikes smartly and sharply upon the spring, N T. Contact between T
+and H is broken, and the current passes through the electromagnet of the
+break in the lamp. The break is released for an instant, the carbons
+approach each other. But the same rupture of contact introduces in the
+shunt a new resistance of considerable magnitude (viz., 1,200 ohms),
+that of the electromagnets of the break. Then the strength of the shunt
+current diminishes considerably, and the solenoid, S, recovers briskly
+its drawing power upon the rod, and contact is restored. The carbons
+approach during these periods only about 0.01 to 0.02 millimeter.
+If this is not sufficient to restore equilibrium it is repeated
+continually, until equilibrium is obtained. The result is that the
+carbon is continually falling by a motion invisible to the eye, but
+sufficient to provide for the consumption of the carbons.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 6]
+
+The contact between N T and H is never completely broken, the sparks are
+very feeble, and the contacts do not oxidize. The resistances inserted
+are so considerable that heating cannot occur, while the portion of the
+current abstracted for the control is so small that it may be neglected.
+
+The balance acts precisely like the key of a Morse machine, and the
+break precisely like the sounder-receiver so well known in telegraphy.
+It emits the same kind of sounds, and acts automatically like a skilled
+and faithful telegraphist.
+
+This regulation, by very small and short successive steps, offers
+several advantages: (1) it is imperceptible to the eye; (2) it does not
+affect the main current; (3) any sudden instantaneous variation of the
+main current does not allow a too near approach of the carbon points.
+Let, now, an accident occur; for instance, a carbon is broken. At once
+the automatic cut-off acts, the current passes through the resistance,
+R, instead of passing through the lamp. The current through the fine
+coil is suddenly increased, the rod is drawn in, contact is made at G
+and K, and the current is sent through the coil, R. As soon as contact
+is again made by the carbons, the current in the coil, S, is increased,
+that of the thick wire in V diminished, and the antagonistic spring,
+U, breaks the contact at G and K. The rupture of the light is almost
+invisible, because the relighting is so brisk and sharp.
+
+I have seen this lamp in action, and its constant steadiness leaves
+nothing to be desired.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING PURE WATER FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC USE.
+
+
+Our readers are well aware that water as found naturally is never
+absolutely free from dissolved impurities; and in ordinary cases it
+contains solid impurities derived both from the inorganic and organic
+kingdoms, together with gaseous substances; these latter being generally
+derived from the atmosphere.
+
+By far the purest water which occurs in nature is rain-water, and if
+this be collected in a secluded district, and after the air has been
+well washed by previous rain, its purity is remarkable; the extraneous
+matter consisting of little else than a trace of carbonic acid and other
+gases dissolved from the air. In fact, such water is far purer than any
+distilled water to be obtained in commerce. The case is very different
+when the rain-water is collected in a town or densely populated
+district, more especially if the water has been allowed to flow over
+dirty roofs. The black and foully-smelling liquid popularly known as
+soft water is so rich in carbonaceous and organic constituents as to be
+of very limited use to the photographer; but by taking the precaution of
+fitting up a simple automatic shunt for diverting the stream until the
+roofs have been thoroughly washed, it becomes possible to insure a good
+supply of clean and serviceable soft water, even in London. Several
+forms of shunt have been devised, some of these being so complex as
+to offer every prospect of speedy disorganization; but a simple and
+efficient apparatus is figured in _Engineering_ by a correspondent who
+signs himself "Millwright," and as we have thoroughly proved the value
+of an apparatus which is practically identical, we reproduce the
+substance of his communication.
+
+A gentleman of Newcastle, a retired banker, having tried various filters
+to purify the rain-water collected on the roof of his house, at length
+had the idea to allow no water to run into the cistern until the roof
+had been well washed. After first putting up a hard-worked valve, the
+arrangement as sketched below has been hit upon. Now Newcastle is a very
+smoky place, and yet my friend gets water as pure as gin, and almost
+absolutely free from any smack of soot.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The sketch explains itself. The weight, W, and the angle of the lever,
+L, are such, that when the valve, V, is once opened it goes full open. A
+small hole in the can C, acts like a cataract, and brings matters to a
+normal state very soon after the rain ceases.
+
+The proper action of the apparatus can only be insured by a careful
+adjustment of the weight, W, the angle through which the valve opens,
+and the magnitude of the vessel, C. It is an advantage to make
+the vessel, C, somewhat broader in proportion to its height than
+represented, and to provide it with a movable strainer placed about half
+way down. This tends to protect the cataract hole, and any accumulation
+of leaves and dirt can be removed once in six months or so. Clean soft
+water is valuable to the photographer in very many cases. Iron developer
+(wet plate) free from chlorides will ordinarily remain effective on the
+plate much longer than when chlorides are present, and the pyrogallic
+solution for dry-plate work will keep good for along time if made with
+soft water, while the lime which is present in hard water causes the
+pyrogallic acid to oxidize with considerable rapidity. Negatives that
+have been developed with oxalate developer often become covered with a
+very unsightly veil of calcium oxalate when rinsed with hard water, and
+something of a similar character occasionally occurs in the case of
+silver prints which are transferred directly from the exposure frame to
+impure water.
+
+To the carbon printer clean rain-water is of considerable value, as he
+can develop much more rapidly with soft water than with hard water;
+or, what comes to the same thing, he can dissolve away his superfluous
+gelatine at a lower temperature than would otherwise be necessary.
+
+The cleanest rain-water which can ordinarily be collected in a town is
+not sufficiently pure to be used with advantage in the preparation of
+the nitrate bath, it being advisable to use the purest distilled water
+for this purpose; and in many cases it is well to carefully distill
+water for the bath in a glass apparatus of the kind figured below.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A, thin glass flask serving as a retort. The tube, T, is fitted
+air-tight to the flask by a cork, C.
+
+B, receiver into which the tube, T, fits quite loosely.
+
+D, water vessel intended to keep the spiral of lamp wick, which is shown
+as surrounding T, in a moist condition. This wick acts as a siphon, and
+water is gradually drawn over into the lower receptacle, E.
+
+L, spirit lamp, which may, in many cases, be advantageously replaced by
+a Bunsen burner.
+
+A small metal still, provided with a tin condensing worm, is, however, a
+more generally serviceable arrangement, and if ordinary precautions are
+taken to make sure that the worm tube is clean, the resulting distilled
+water will be nearly as pure as that distilled in glass vessels.
+
+Such a still as that figured below can be heated conveniently over an
+ordinary kitchen fire, and should find a place among the appliances
+of every photographer. Distilled water should always be used in the
+preparation of emulsion, as the impurities of ordinary water may often
+introduce disturbing conditions.--_Photographic News_.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+BLACK PHOSPHORUS.
+
+By P. THENARD.
+
+
+The author refers to the customary view that black phosphorus is
+merely a mixture of the ordinary phosphorus with traces of a metallic
+phosphide, and contends that this explanation is not in all cases
+admissible. A specimen of black or rather dark gray phosphorus, which
+the author submitted to the Academy, became white if melted and remained
+white if suddenly cooled, but if allowed to enter into a state of
+superfusion it became again black on contact with either white or black
+phosphorus. A portion of the black specimen being dissolved in carbon
+disulphide there remained undissolved merely a trace of a very pale
+yellow matter which seemed to be amorphous phosphorus.--_Comptes
+Rendus_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+COMPOSITION OF STEEP WATER.
+
+
+According to M. C. Leeuw, water in which malt has been steeped has the
+following composition:
+
+    Organic matter.        0.56 per cent.
+    Mineral matter.        0.52    "
+                           ----
+    Total dry matter.      1.08    "
+                           ----
+    Nitrogen.             0.033    "
+
+The mineral matter consists of--
+
+    Potash.               0.193    "
+    Phosphoric acid.      0.031    "
+    Lime.                 0.012    "
+    Soda.                 0.047    "
+    Magnesia.             0.016    "
+    Sulphuric acid.       0.007    "
+    Oxide of iron.        traces.
+    Chlorine and silica.  0.212    "
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SCHREIBER'S APPARATUS FOR REVIVIFYING BONE-BLACK.
+
+
+We give opposite illustrations of Schreiber's apparatus for revivifying
+bone-black or animal charcoal. The object of revivification is to render
+the black fit to be used again after it has lost its decolorizing
+properties through service--that is to say, to free its pores from the
+absorbed salts and insoluble compounds that have formed therein
+during the operation of sugar refining. There are two methods
+employed--fermentation and washing. At present the tendency is to
+abandon the former in order to proceed with as small a stock of black as
+possible, and to adopt the method of washing with water and acid in a
+rotary washer.
+
+Figs. 1 and 2 represent a plan and elevation of a bone-black room,
+containing light filters, A, arranged in a circle around wells, B. These
+latter have the form of a prism with trapezoidal base, whose small sides
+end at the same point, d, and the large ones at the filter. The funnel,
+E, of the washer, F, is placed in the space left by the small ends of
+the wells, so that the black may be taken from these latter and thrown
+directly into the washer. The washer is arranged so that the black may
+flow out near the steam fitter, G, beneath the floor. The discharge of
+this filter is toward the side of the elevator, H, which takes in the
+wet black below, and carries it up and pours it into the drier situated
+at the upper part of the furnace. This elevator, Figs. 3 and 4, is
+formed of two vertical wooden uprights, A, ten centimeters in thickness,
+to which are fixed two round-iron bars the same as guides. The lift,
+properly so-called, consists of an iron frame, C, provided at the four
+angles with rollers, D, and supporting a swinging bucket, E, which, on
+its arrival at the upper part of the furnace, allows the black to fall
+to an inclined plane that leads it to the upper part of the drier. The
+left is raised and lowered by means of a pitch-chain, F, fixed to the
+middle of the frame, C, and passing over two pulleys, G, at the upper
+part of the frame and descending to the mechanism that actuates it.
+This latter comprises a nut, I, acting directly on the chain; a toothed
+wheel, K, and a pinion, J, gearing with the latter and keyed upon the
+shaft of the pulleys, L and M. The diameter of the toothed wheel, K, is
+0.295 of a meter, and it makes 53.4 revolutions per minute. The diameter
+of the pinion is 0.197 of a meter, and it makes 80 revolutions per
+minute. The pulleys, M and L, are 0.31 of a meter in diameter, and
+make 80 revolutions per minute. Motion is transmitted to them by other
+pulleys, N, keyed upon a shaft placed at the lower part, which receives
+its motion from the engine of the establishment through the intermedium
+of the pulley, O. The diameter of the latter is 0.385 of a meter, and
+that of N is 0.58. They each make 43 revolutions per minute.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.--ELEVATION OF BONE-BLACK REVIVIFYING PLANT
+(SCHREIBER'S SYSTEM.)
+
+FIG. 2.--PLAN VIEW.
+
+FIG. 3.--LATERAL VIEW OF ELEVATOR.
+
+FIG. 4.--FRONT VIEW OF ELEVATOR.
+
+FIG. 5.--CONTINUOUS FURNACE FOR REVIVIFYING BONE-BLACK.]
+
+The elevator is set in motion by the simple maneuver of the gearing
+lever, P, and when this has been done all the other motions are effected
+automatically.
+
+_The Animal Black Furnace_.--This consists of a masonry casing of
+rectangular form, in which are arranged on each side of the same
+fire-place two rows of cast-iron retorts, D, of undulating form, each
+composed of three parts, set one within the other. These retorts, which
+serve for the revivification of the black, are incased in superposed
+blocks of refractory clay, P, Q, S, designed to regularize the
+transmission of heat and to prevent burning. These pieces are kept in
+their respective places by crosspieces, R. The space between the retorts
+occupied by the fire-place, Y, is covered with a cylindrical dome, O, of
+refractory tiles, forming a fire-chamber with the inner surface of the
+blocks, P, Q, and S. The front of the surface consists of a cast-iron
+plate, containing the doors to the fire-place and ash pan, and a larger
+one to allow of entrance to the interior to make repairs.
+
+One of the principal disadvantages of furnaces for revivifying animal
+charcoal has been that they possessed no automatic drier for drying the
+black on its exit from the washer. It was for the purpose of remedying
+this that Mr. Schreiber was led to invent the automatic system of drying
+shown at the upper part of the furnace, and which is formed of two
+pipes, B, of undulating form, like the retorts, with openings throughout
+their length for the escape of steam. Between these pipes there is a
+closed space into which enters the waste heat and products of combustion
+from the furnace. These latter afterward escape through the chimney at
+the upper part.
+
+In order that the black may be put in bags on issuing from the furnace,
+it must be cooled as much as possible. For this purpose there are
+arranged on each side of the furnace two pieces of cast iron tubes, F,
+of rectangular section, forming a prolongation of the retorts and making
+with them an angle of about 45 degrees. The extremities of these tubes
+terminate in hollow rotary cylinders, G, which permit of regulating the
+flow of the black into a car, J (Fig. 1), running on rails.
+
+From what precedes, it will be readily understood how a furnace is run
+on this plan.
+
+The bone-black in the hopper, A, descends into the drier, B, enters the
+retorts, D, and, after revivification, passes into the cooling pipes, F,
+from whence it issues cold and ready to be bagged. A coke fire having
+been built in the fire-place, Y, the flames spread throughout the fire
+chamber, direct themselves toward the bottom, divide into two parts to
+the right and left, and heat the back of the retorts in passing. Then
+the two currents mount through the lateral flues, V, and unite so as to
+form but one in the drier. Within the latter there are arranged plates
+designed to break the current from the flames, and allow it to heat all
+the inner parts of the pipes, while the apertures in the drier allow of
+the escape of the steam.
+
+By turning one of the cylinders, G, so as to present its aperture
+opposite that of the cooler, it instantly fills up with black. At this
+moment the whole column, from top to bottom, is set in motion. The
+bone-black, in passing through the undulations, is thrown alternately to
+the right and left until it finally reaches the coolers. This operation
+is repeated as many times as the cylinder is filled during the descent
+of one whole column, that is to say, about forty times.
+
+With an apparatus of the dimensions here described, 120 hectoliters
+of bone-black may be revivified in twenty four hours, with 360 to 400
+kilogrammes of coke.--_Annales Industrielles_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 330, page 5264.]
+
+
+
+
+SOAP AND ITS MANUFACTURE, FROM A CONSUMER'S POINT OF VIEW.
+
+
+In our last article, under the above heading, the advantages to be
+gained by the use of potash soap as compared with soda soap were pointed
+out, and the reasons of this superiority, especially in the case of
+washing wool or woolen fabrics, were pretty fully gone into. It was also
+further explained why the potash soaps generally sold to the public were
+unfit for general use, owing to their not being neutral--that is to say,
+containing a considerable excess of free or unsaponified alkali, which
+acts injuriously on the fiber of any textile material, and causes sore
+hands if used for household or laundry purposes. It was shown that the
+cause of this defect was owing to the old-fashioned method of making
+potash or soft soap, by boiling with wood ashes or other impure form of
+potash; but that a perfectly pure and neutral potash soap could readily
+be made with pure caustic potash, which within the last few years has
+become a commercial article, manufactured on a large scale; just in
+the same manner as the powdered 98 per cent. caustic soda, which was
+recommended in our previous articles on making hard soap without
+boiling.
+
+The process of making pure neutral potash soap is very simple, and
+almost identical with that for making hard soap with pure powdered
+caustic soda. The following directions, if carefully and exactly
+followed, will produce a first-class potash soap, suitable either for
+the woolen manufacturer for washing his wool, and the cloth afterward
+made from it, or for household and laundry purposes, for which uses it
+will be found far superior to any soda soap, no matter how pure or well
+made it may be.
+
+Dissolve twenty pounds of pure caustic potash in two gallons of water.
+Pure caustic potash is very soluble, and dissolves almost immediately,
+heating the water. Let the lye thus made cool until warm to the
+hand--say about 90 F. Melt eighty pounds of tallow or grease, which must
+be free from salt, and let it cool until fairly hot to the hand--say
+130 F.; or eighty pounds of any vegetable or animal oil may be taken
+instead. Now pour the caustic potash lye into the melted tallow or oil,
+stirring with a flat wooden stirrer about three inches broad, until both
+are thoroughly mixed and smooth in appearance. This mixing may be done
+in the boiler used to melt the tallow, or in a tub, or half an oil
+barrel makes a good mixing vessel. Wrap the tub or barrel well up in
+blankets or sheepskins, and put away for a week in some warm dry place,
+during which the mixture slowly turns into soap, giving a produce of
+about 120 pounds of excellent potash soap. If this soap is made with
+tallow or grease it will be nearly as hard as soda soap. When made by
+farmers or householders tallow or grease will generally be taken, as it
+is the cheapest, and ready to hand on the spot. For manufacturers, or
+for making laundry soap, nothing could be better than cotton seed oil. A
+magnificent soap can be made with this article, lathering very freely.
+When made with oil it is better to remelt in a kettle the potash soap,
+made according to the above directions, with half its weight of water,
+using very little heat, stirring constantly, and removing the fire as
+soon as the water is mixed with and taken up by the soap. A beautifully
+bright soap is obtained in this way, and curiously the soap is actually
+made much harder and stiffer by this addition of water than when it is
+in a more concentrated state previously to the water being added.
+
+With reference to the caustic potash for making the soap, it can be
+obtained in all sizes of drums, but small packages just sufficient for
+a batch of soap are generally more economical than larger packages, as
+pure caustic potash melts and deteriorates very quickly when exposed
+to the air. The Greenbank Alkali Co., of St. Helens, seems to have
+appreciated this, and put upon the market pure caustic potash in twenty
+pound canisters, which are very convenient for potash soft soap making
+by consumers for their own use.
+
+While on this subject of caustic potash, it cannot be too often repeated
+that _caustic potash_ is a totally different article to _caustic soda_,
+though just like it in appearance, and therefore often sold as such.
+One of the most barefaced instances of this is the so-called "crystal
+potash," "ball potash," or "rock potash," of the lye packers, sold in
+one pound packages, which absolutely, without exception, do not contain
+a single grain of potash, but simply consist of caustic soda more or
+less adulterated--as a rule very much "more" than "less!" It is much
+to be regretted that this fraud on the public has been so extensively
+practiced, as potash has been greatly discredited by this procedure.
+
+The subject of fleece scouring or washing the wool while growing on
+the sheep, with a potash soap made on the spot with the waste tallow
+generally to be had on every sheep farm, seems recently to have been
+attracting attention in some quarters, and certainly would be a source
+of profit to sheep owners by putting their wool on the market in the
+best condition, and at the same time cleaning the skin of the sheep. It
+therefore appears to be a move in the right direction.
+
+In concluding this series of articles on practical soap making from a
+consumer's point of view, the writer hopes that, although the subject
+has been somewhat imperfectly handled, owing to necessarily limited
+space and with many unavoidable interruptions, yet that they may have
+been found of some interest and assistance to consumers of soap who
+desire easily and readily to make a pure and unadulterated article for
+their own use.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+COTTON SEED OIL.
+
+By S.S. BRADFORD, Ph.G.
+
+
+Having had occasion during the last six years to manufacture lead
+plaster in considerable quantities, it occurred to me that cotton seed
+oil might be used instead of olive oil, at less expense, and with as
+good results. The making of this plaster with cotton seed oil has been
+questioned, as, according to some authorities, the product is not of
+good consistence, and is apt to be soft, sticky, and dark colored;
+but in my experience such is not the case. If the U. S. P. process is
+followed in making this plaster, substituting for the olive oil cotton
+seed oil, and instead of one half-pint of boiling water one and one-half
+pint are added, the product obtained will be equally as good as that
+from olive oil. My results with this oil in making lead plaster led me
+to try it in making the different liniments of the Pharmacopoeia, with
+the following results:
+
+_Linimentum Ammoniæ_.--This liniment, made with cotton seed oil, is of
+much better consistency than when made with olive oil. It is not so
+thick, will pour easily out of the bottle, and if the ammonia used is of
+proper strength, will make a perfect liniment.
+
+_Linimentum Calcis_.--Cotton seed oil is not at all adapted to making
+this liniment. It does not readily saponify, separates quickly, and it
+is almost impossible to unite when separated.
+
+_Linimentum Camphoræ_.--Cotton seed oil is far superior to olive oil in
+making this liniment, it being a much better solvent of camphor. It has
+not that disagreeable odor so commonly found in the liniment.
+
+_Linimentum Chloroformi_.--Cotton seed oil being very soluble in
+chloroform, the liniment made with it leaves nothing to be desired.
+
+_Linimentum Plumbi Subacetatis_.--When liq. plumbi subacet. is mixed
+with cotton seed oil and allowed to stand for some time the oil assumes
+a reddish color similar to that of freshly made tincture of myrrh. When
+the liquor is mixed with olive oil, if the oil be pure, no such change
+takes place. Noticing this change, it occurred to me that this would be
+a simple and easy way to detect cotton seed oil when mixed with olive
+oil. This change usually takes place after standing from twelve to
+twenty-four hours. It is easily detected in mixtures containing five
+per cent., or even less, of the oils, and I am convinced, after making
+numerous experiments with different oils, that it is peculiar to cotton
+seed oil.--_American Journal of Pharmacy_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE FOOD AND ENERGY OF MAN.
+
+[Footnote: From a lecture delivered at the Sanitary Congress, at
+Newcastle-on-Tyne, September 28, 1882.]
+
+By PROF. DE CHAUMONT, F.R.S.
+
+
+Although eating cannot be said to be in any way a new fashion, it has
+nevertheless been reserved for modern times, and indeed we may say the
+present generation, to get a fairly clear idea of the way in which
+food is really utilized for the work of our bodily frame. We must not,
+however, plume ourselves too much upon our superior knowledge, for
+inklings of the truth, more or less dim, have been had through all ages,
+and we are now stepping into the inheritance of times gone by, using the
+long and painful experience of our predecessors as the stepping-stone
+to our more accurate knowledge of the present time. In this, as in many
+other things, we are to some extent in the position of a dwarf on the
+shoulders of a giant; the dwarf may, indeed, see further than the giant;
+but he remains a dwarf, and the giant a giant.
+
+The question has been much discussed as to what the original food of man
+was, and some people have made it a subject of excited contention. The
+most reasonable conclusion is that man is naturally a frugivorous or
+fruit-eating animal, like his cousins the monkeys, whom he still so
+much resembles. This forms a further argument in favor of his being
+originated in warm regions, where fruits of all kinds were plentiful. It
+is pretty clear that the resort to animal food, whether the result of
+the pressure of want from failure of vegetable products, or a mere taste
+and a desire for change and more appetizing food, is one that took place
+many ages ago, probably in the earliest anthropoid, if not in the latest
+pithecoid stage. No doubt some advantage was recognized in the more
+rapid digestion and the comparative ease with which the hunter or fisher
+could obtain food, instead of waiting for the ripening of fruits in
+countries which had more or less prolonged periods of cold and inclement
+weather. Some anatomical changes have doubtless resulted from the
+practice, but they are not of sufficiently marked character to found
+much argument upon; all that we can say being that the digestive
+apparatus in man seems well adapted for digesting any food that is
+capable of yielding nutriment, and that even when an entire change is
+made in the mode of feeding, the adaptability of the human system
+shows itself in a more or less rapid accommodation to the altered
+circumstances.
+
+Food, then, is any substance which can be taken into the body and
+applied to use, either in building up or repairing the tissues and
+framework of the body itself, or in providing energy and producing
+animal heat, or any substance which, without performing those functions
+directly, controls, directs, or assists their performance. With this
+wide definition it is evident that we include all the ordinary articles
+recognized commonly as food, and that we reject all substances
+recognized commonly as poisons. But it will also include such substances
+as water and air, both of which are essential for nutrition, but are not
+usually recognized as belonging to the list of food substances in the
+ordinary sense. When we carry our investigation further, we find that
+the organic substances may be again divided into two distinct classes,
+namely, that which contains nitrogen (the casein), and those that do not
+(the butter and sugar).
+
+On ascertaining this, we are immediately struck with the remarkable fact
+that all the tissues and fluids of the body, muscles (or flesh),
+bone, blood--all, in short, except the fat--contain nitrogen, and,
+consequently, for their building up in the young, and for their repair
+and renewal in the adult, nitrogen is absolutely required. We therefore
+reasonably infer that the nitrogenous substance is necessary for this
+purpose. Experiment has borne this out, for men who have been compelled
+to live without nitrogenous food by dire necessity, and criminals on
+whom the experiment has been tried, have all perished sooner or later in
+consequence. When nitrogenous substances are used in the body, they
+are, of course, broken up and oxidized, or perhaps we ought to say more
+accurately, they take the place of the tissues of the body which wear
+away and are carried off by oxidation and other chemical changes.
+
+Now, modern science tell us that such changes are accompanied with
+manifestations of energy in some form or other, most frequently in
+that of heat, and we must look, therefore, upon nitrogenous food
+as contributing to the energy of the body in addition to its other
+functions.
+
+What are the substances which we may class as nitrogenous. In the first
+place, we have the typical example of the purest form in _albumin_,
+or white of egg; and from this the name is now given to the class of
+_albuminates_. The animal albuminates are: Albumin from eggs, fibrin
+from muscles, or flesh, myosin, or synronin, also from animals, casein
+(or cheesy matter) from milk, and the nitrogenous substances from blood.
+In the vegetable kingdom, we have glutin, or vegetable fibrin, which is
+the nourishing constituent of wheat, barley, oats, etc.; and legumin,
+or vegetable casein, which is the peculiar substance found in peas and
+beans. The other organic constituents--viz., the fats and the starches
+and sugars--contain no nitrogen, and were at one time thought to be
+concerned in producing animal heat.
+
+We now know--thanks to the labors of Joule, Lyon Playfair, Clausius,
+Tyndall, Helmholtz, etc.--that heat itself is a mode of motion, a form
+of convertible energy, which can be made to do useful or productive
+work, and be expressed in terms of actual work done. Modern experiment
+shows that all our energy is derived from that of food, and, in
+particular from the non-nitrogenous part of it, that is, the fat,
+starch, and sugar. The nutrition of man is best maintained when he is
+provided with a due admixture of all the four classes of aliment which
+we have mentioned, and not only that, but he is also better off if he
+has a variety of each class. Thus he may and ought to have albumen,
+fibrine, gluten, and casein among the albuminates, or at least two of
+them; butter and lard, or suet, or oil among the fats; starch of wheat,
+potato, rice, peas, etc., and cane-sugar, and milk-sugar among the
+carbo-hydrates. The salts cannot be replaced, so far as we know. Life
+may be maintained in fair vigor for some time on albuminates only, but
+this is done at the expense of the tissues, especially the fat of the
+body, and the end must soon come; with fat and carbo hydrates alone
+vigor may also be maintained for some time, at the expense of the
+tissues also, but the limit is a near one, In either of these cases we
+suppose sufficient water and salts to be provided.
+
+We must now inquire into the quantities of food necessary; and this
+necessitates a little consideration of the way in which the work of
+the body is carried on. We must look upon the human body exactly as a
+machine; like an engine with which we are all so familiar. A certain
+amount of work requires to be done, say, a certain number of miles of
+distance to be traversed; we know that to do this a certain number of
+pounds, or hundredweights, or tons of coal must be put into the fire of
+the boiler in order to furnish the requisite amount of energy through
+the medium of steam. This amount of fuel must bear a certain proportion
+to the work, and also to the velocity with which it is done, so both
+quantity and time have to be accounted for.
+
+No lecture on diet would be complete without a reference to the vexed
+question of alcohol. I am no teetotal advocate, and I repudiate the
+rubbish too often spouted from teetotal platforms, talk that is,
+perhaps, inseparable from the advocacy of a cause that imports a good
+deal of enthusiasm. I am at one, however, in recognizing the evils of
+excess, and would gladly hail their diminution. But I believe that
+alcohol properly used may be a comfort and a blessing, just as I know
+that improperly used it becomes a bane and a curse. But we are now
+concerned with it as an article of diet in relation to useful work, and
+it may be well to call attention markedly to the fact that its use in
+this way is very limited. The experiments of the late Dr. Parkes, made
+in our laboratory, at Netley, were conclusive on the point, that beyond
+an amount that would be represented by about one and a half to two pints
+of beer, alcohol no longer provided any convertible energy, and that,
+therefore, to take it in the belief that it did do so is an error.
+It may give a momentary stimulus in considerable doses, but this is
+invariably followed by a corresponding depression, and it is a maxim now
+generally followed, especially on service, never to give it before or
+during work. There are, of course, some persons who are better without
+it altogether, and so all moderation ought to be commended, if not
+enjoyed.
+
+There are other beverages which are more useful than the alcoholic,
+as restoratives, and for support in fatigue. Tea and coffee are
+particularly good. Another excellent restorative is a weak solution
+of Liebig's extract of meat, which has a remarkable power of removing
+fatigue. Perhaps one of the most useful and most easily obtainable is
+weak oatmeal gruel, either hot or cold. With regard to tobacco, it also
+has some value in lessening fatigue in those who are able to take it,
+but it may easily be carried to excess. Of it we may say, as of alcohol,
+that in moderation it seems harmless, and even useful to some extent,
+but, in excess, it is rank poison.
+
+There is one other point which I must refer to, and which is especially
+interesting to a great seaport like this. This is the question of
+scurvy--a question of vital importance to a maritime nation. A paper
+lately issued by Mr. Thomas Gray, of the Board of Trade, discloses the
+regrettable fact that since 1873 there has been a serious falling off,
+the outbreaks of scurvy having again increased until they reached
+ninety-nine in 1881. This, Mr. Gray seems to think, is due to a neglect
+of varied food scales; but it may also very probably have arisen from
+the neglect of the regulation about lime-juice, either as to issue or
+quality, or both. But it is also a fact of very great importance that
+mere monotony of diet has a most serious effect upon health; variety
+of food is not merely a pandering to gourmandism or greed, but a real
+sanitary benefit, aiding digestion and assimilation. Our Board of Trade
+has nothing to do with the food scales of ships, but Mr. Gray hints that
+the Legislature will have to interfere unless shipowners look to it
+themselves. The ease with which preserved foods of all kinds can be
+obtained and carried now removes the last shadow of an excuse for
+backwardness in this matter, and in particular the provision of a large
+supply of potatoes, both fresh and dried, ought to be an unceasing care;
+this is done on board American ships, and to this is doubtless owing in
+a great part the healthiness of their crews. Scurvy in the present
+day is a disgrace to shipowners and masters; and if public opinion is
+insufficient to protect the seamen, the legislature will undoubtedly
+step in and do so.
+
+And now let me close by pointing out that the study of this commonplace
+matter of eating and drinking opens out to us the conception of the
+grand unity of nature; since we see that the body of man differs in no
+way essentially from other natural combinations, but is subject to
+the same universal physical laws, in which there is no blindness, no
+variableness, no mere chance, and disobedience of which is followed as
+surely by retribution as even the keenest eschatologist might desire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+RATTLESNAKE POISON.
+
+By HENRY H. CROFT.
+
+
+Some time since, in a paper to which I am unfortunately unable to refer,
+a French chemist affirmed that the poisonous principle in snakes, or
+eliminated by snakes, was of the nature of an alkaloid, and gave a name
+to this class of bodies.
+
+Mr. Pedler has shown that snake poison is destroyed or neutralized
+by means of platinic chloride, owing probably to the formation of an
+insoluble double platinic chloride, such as is formed with almost if not
+all alkaloids.
+
+In this country (Texas) where rattlesnakes are very common, and persons
+camping out much exposed to their bites, a very favorite anecdote, or
+_remedia_ as the Mexicans cull it, is a strong solution of iodine in
+potassium iodide.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: The solution is applied as soon as possible to the wound,
+preferably enlarged, and a few drops taken internally. The common
+Mexican _remedia_ is the root of the _Agave virginica_ mashed or chewed
+and applied to the wound, while part is swallowed.
+
+Great faith is placed in this root by all residents here, who are seldom
+I without it, but, I have had no experience of it myself; and the
+internal administration is no doubt useless.
+
+Even the wild birds know of this root; the queer paisano (? ground
+woodpecker) which eats snakes, when wounded by a _vibora de cascabel_,
+runs into woods, digs up and eats a root of the agave, just like the
+mongoose; but more than that, goes back, polishes off his enemy, and
+eats him. This has been told me by Mexicans who, it may be remarked, are
+not _always_ reliable.]
+
+I have had occasion to prove the efficacy of this mixture in two cases
+of _cascabel_ bites, one on a buck, the other on a dog; and it occurred
+to me that the same explanation of its action might be given as above
+for the platinum salt, viz., the formation of an insoluble iodo compound
+as with ordinary alkaloids if the snake poison really belongs to this
+class.
+
+Having last evening killed a moderate sized rattlesnake--_Crotalus
+horridus_--which had not bitten anything, I found the gland fully
+charged with the white opaque poison; on adding iodine solution to a
+drop of this a dense light-brown precipitate was immediately formed,
+quite similar to that obtained with most alkaloids, exhibiting under the
+microscope no crystalline structure.
+
+In the absence of iodine a good extemporaneous solution for testing
+alkaloids, and perhaps a snake poison antidote, may be made by adding a
+few drops of ferric chloride to solution of potassium of iodide; this
+is a very convenient test agent which I used in my laboratory for many
+years.
+
+Although rattlesnake poison could be obtained here in very considerable
+quantity, it is out of my power to make such experiments as I could
+desire, being without any chemical appliances and living a hundred miles
+or more from any laboratory. The same may be said with regard to books,
+and possibly the above iodine reaction has been already described.
+
+Dr. Richards states that the cobra poison is destroyed by potassium
+permanganate; but this is no argument in favor of that salt as an
+antidote. Mr. Pedler also refers to it, but allows that it would not be
+probably of any use after the poison had been absorbed. Of this I
+think there can be no doubt, remembering the easy decomposition of
+permanganate by most organic substances, and I cannot but think that the
+medicinal or therapeutic advantages of that salt, taken internally, are
+equally problematical, unless the action is supposed to take place in
+the stomach.
+
+In the bladder of the same rattlesnake I found a considerable
+quantity of light-brown amorphous ammonium urate, the urine pale
+yellow.--_Chemical News_.
+
+Hermanitas Ranch, Texas.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE CHINESE SIGN MANUAL.
+
+[Footnote: Dr. D. J. Macgowan, in Medical Reports of China. 1881.]
+
+
+Two writers in _Nature_, both having for their theme "Skin-furrows on
+the Hand," solicit information on the subject from China.[1] As the
+subject is considered to have a bearing on medical jurisprudence and
+ethnology as well, this report is a suitable vehicle for responding to
+the demand.
+
+[Footnote 1: Henry Faulds, Tzukiyi Hospital, Tokio, Japan. W. J.
+Herschel, Oxford, England.--_Nature_, 28th October and 25th November,
+1880.]
+
+Dr. Faulds' observations on the finger-tips of the Japanese have an
+ethnic bearing and relate to the subject of heredity. Mr. Herschel
+considers the subject as an agent of Government, he having charge for
+twenty years of registration offices in India, where he employed finger
+marks as sign manuals, the object being to prevent personation and
+repudiation. Doolittle, in his "Social Life of the Chinese," describes
+the custom. I cannot now refer to native works where the practice of
+employing digital rugæ as a sign manual is alluded to. I doubt if its
+employment in the courts is of ancient date. Well-informed natives think
+that it came into vogue subsequent to the Han period; if so, it is in
+Egypt that earliest evidence of the practice is to be found. Just as the
+Chinese courts now require criminals to sign confessions by impressing
+thereto the whorls of their thumb-tips--the right thumb in the case of
+women, the left in the case of men--so the ancient Egyptians, it
+is represented, required confessions to be sealed with their
+thumbnails--most likely the tip of the digit, as in China. Great
+importance is attached in the courts to this digital form of signature,
+"finger form." Without a confession no criminal can be legally executed,
+and the confession to be valid must be attested by the thumb-print
+of the prisoner. No direct coercion is employed to secure this; a
+contumacious culprit may, however, be tortured until he performs the
+act which is a prerequisite to his execution. Digital signatures are
+sometimes required in the army to prevent personation; the general
+in command at Wenchow enforces it on all his troops. A document thus
+attested can no more be forged or repudiated than a photograph--not so
+easily, for while the period of half a lifetime effects great changes
+in the physiognomy, the rugæ of the fingers present the same appearance
+from the cradle to the grave; time writes no wrinkles there. In the
+army everywhere, when the description of a person is written down, the
+relative number of volutes and coniferous finger-tips is noted. It
+is called taking the "whelk striæ," the fusiform being called "rice
+baskets," and the volutes "peck measures." A person unable to write, the
+form of signature which defies personation or repudiation is required in
+certain domestic cases, as in the sale of children or women. Often when
+a child is sold the parents affix their finger marks to the bill of
+sale; when a husband puts away his wife, giving her a bill of divorce,
+he marks the document with his entire palm; and when a wife is sold, the
+purchaser requires the seller to stamp the paper with hands and feet,
+the four organs duly smeared with ink. Professional fortune tellers in
+China take into account almost the entire system of the person whose
+future they attempt to forecast, and of course they include palmistry,
+but the rugæ of the finger-ends do not receive much attention. Amateur
+fortune-tellers, however, discourse as glibly on them as phrenologists
+do of "bumps"--it is so easy. In children the relative number of volute
+and conical striæ indicate their future. "If there are nine volutes,"
+says a proverb, "to one conical, the boy will attain distinction without
+toil."
+
+Regarded from an ethnological point of view, I can discover merely that
+the rugæ of Chinamen's fingers differ from Europeans', but there is so
+little uniformity observable that they form no basis for distinction,
+and while the striæ may be noteworthy points in certain medico-legal
+questions, heredity is not one of them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+LUCIDITY.
+
+
+At the close of an interesting address lately delivered at the reopening
+of the Liverpool University College and School of Medicine, Mr. Matthew
+Arnold said if there was one word which he should like to plant in the
+memories of his audience, and to leave sticking there after he had gone,
+it was the word _lucidity_. If he had to fix upon the three great wants
+at this moment of the three principal nations of Europe, he should say
+that the great want of the French was morality, that the great want of
+the Germans was civil courage, and that our own great want was lucidity.
+Our own want was, of course, what concerned us the most. People were apt
+to remark the defects which accompanied certain qualities, and to think
+that the qualities could not be desirable because of the defects which
+they saw accompanying them. There was no greater and salutary lesson for
+men to learn than that a quality may be accompanied, naturally perhaps,
+by grave dangers; that it may actually present itself accompanied by
+terrible defects, and yet that it might itself be indispensable. Let him
+illustrate what he meant by an example, the force of which they would
+all readily feel. Seriousness was a quality of our nation. Perhaps
+seriousness was always accompanied by certain dangers. But, at any rate,
+many of our French neighbors would say that they found our seriousness
+accompanied by so many false ideas, so much prejudice, so much that was
+disagreeable, that it could not have the value which we attributed to
+it. And yet we knew that it was invaluable. Let them follow the same
+mode of reasoning as to the quality of lucidity. The French had a
+national turn for lucidity as we had a national turn for seriousness.
+Perhaps a national turn for lucidity carried with it always certain
+dangers. Be this as it might, it was certain that we saw in the French,
+along with their lucidity, a want of seriousness, a want of reverence,
+and other faults, which greatly displeased us. Many of us were inclined
+in consequence to undervalue their lucidity, or to deny that they
+had it. We were wrong: it existed as our seriousness existed; it was
+valuable as our seriousness was valuable. Both the one and the other
+were valuable, and in the end indispensable.
+
+What was lucidity? It was negatively that the French have it, and he
+would therefore deal with its negative character merely. Negatively,
+lucidity was the perception of the want of truth and validness in
+notions long current, the perception that they are no longer possible,
+that their time is finished, and they can serve us no more. All through
+the last century a prodigious travail for lucidity was going forward
+in France. Its principal agent was a man whose name excited generally
+repulsion in England, Voltaire. Voltaire did a great deal of harm in
+France. But it was not by his lucidity that he did harm; he did it by
+his want of seriousness, his want of reverence, his want of sense for
+much that is deepest in human nature. But by his lucidity he did good.
+
+All admired Luther. Conduct was three-fourths of life, and a man who
+worked for conduct, therefore, worked for more than a man who worked for
+intelligence. But having promised this, it might be said that the Luther
+of the eighteenth century and of the cultivated classes was Voltaire.
+As Luther had an antipathy to what was immoral, so Voltaire had an
+antipathy to what was absurd, and both of them made war upon the object
+of their antipathy with such masterly power, with so much conviction,
+so much energy, so much genius, that they carried their world with
+them--Luther his Protestant world, and Voltaire his French world--and
+the cultivated classes throughout the continent of Europe generally.
+
+Voltaire had more than negative lucidity; he had the large and true
+conception that a number and equilibrium of activities were necessary
+for man. "_Il faut douner à notre áme toutes les formes possibles_"
+was a maxim which Voltaire really and truly applied in practice,
+"advancing," as Michelet finely said of him, in every direction with
+a marvelous vigor and with that conquering ambition which Vico called
+_mens heroica_. Nevertheless. Voltaire's signal characteristic was his
+lucidity, his negative lucidity.
+
+There was a great and free intellectual movement in England in the
+eighteenth century--indeed, it was from England that it passed into
+France; but the English had not that strong natural bent for lucidity
+which the French had. Its bent was toward other things in preference.
+Our leading thinkers had not the genius and passion for lucidity which
+distinguished Voltaire. In their free inquiry they soon found themselves
+coming into collision with a number of established facts, beliefs,
+conventions. Thereupon all sorts of practical considerations began to
+sway them. The danger signal went up, they often stopped short, turned
+their eyes another way, or drew down a curtain between themselves and
+the light. "It seems highly probable," said Voltaire, "that nature has
+made thinking a portion of the brain, as vegetation is a function of
+trees; that we think by the brain just as we walk by the feet." So our
+reason, at least, would lead us to conclude, if the theologians did not
+assure us of the contrary; such, too, was the opinion of Locke, but he
+did not venture to announce it. The French Revolution came, England grew
+to abhor France, and was cut off from the Continent, did great things,
+gained much, but not in lucidity. The Continent was reopened, the
+century advanced, time and experience brought their lessons, lovers of
+free and clear thought, such as the late John Stuart Mill, arose among
+us. But we could not say that they had by any means founded among us the
+reign of lucidity.
+
+Let them consider that movement of which we were hearing so much just
+now: let them look at the Salvation Army and its operations. They would
+see numbers, funds, energy, devotedness, excitement, conversions, and
+a total absence of lucidity. A little lucidity would make the whole
+movement impossible. That movement took for granted as its basis what
+was no longer possible or receivable; its adherents proceeded in all
+they did on the assumption that that basis was perfectly solid, and
+neither saw that it was not solid, nor ever even thought of asking
+themselves whether it was solid or not.
+
+Taking a very different movement, and one of far higher dignity and
+import, they had all had before their minds lately the long-devoted,
+laborious, influential, pure, pathetic life of Dr. Pusey, which had just
+ended. Many of them had also been reading in the lively volumes of that
+acute, but not always good-natured rattle, Mr. Mozley, an account of
+that great movement which took from Dr. Pusey its earlier name. Of its
+later stage of Ritualism they had had in this country a now celebrated
+experience. This movement was full of interest. It had produced men to
+be respected, men to be admired, men to be beloved, men of learning,
+goodness, genius, and charm. But could they resist the truth that
+lucidity would have been fatal to it? The movers of all those questions
+about apostolical succession, church patristic authority, primitive
+usage, postures, vestments--questions so passionately debated, and on
+which he would not seek to cast ridicule--did not they all begin by
+taking for granted something no longer possible or receivable, build on
+this basis as if it were indubitably solid, and fail to see that their
+basis not being solid, all they built upon it was fantastic?
+
+He would not say that negative lucidity was in itself a satisfactory
+possession, but he said that it was inevitable and indispensable, and
+that it was the condition of all serious construction for the future.
+Without it at present a man or a nation was intellectually and
+spiritually all abroad. If they saw it accompanied in France by much
+that they shrank from, they should reflect that in England it would
+have influences joined with it which it had not in France--the natural
+seriousness of the people, their sense of reverence and respect, their
+love for the past. Come it must; and here where it had been so late in
+coming, it would probably be for the first time seen to come without
+danger.
+
+Capitals were natural centers of mental movement, and it was natural for
+the classes with most leisure, most freedom, most means of cultivation,
+and most conversance with the wide world to have lucidity though often
+they had it not. To generate a spirit of lucidity in provincial towns,
+and among the middle classes bound to a life of much routine and plunged
+in business, was more difficult. Schools and universities, with serious
+and disinterested studies, and connecting those studies the one with the
+other and continuing them into years of manhood, were in this case the
+best agency they could use. It might be slow, but it was sure. Such
+an agency they were now going to employ. Might it fulfill all their
+expectations! Might their students, in the words quoted just now,
+advance in every direction with a marvelous vigor, and with that
+conquering ambition which Vico called _mens heroica_! And among the many
+good results of this, might one result be the acquisition in their midst
+of that indispensable spirit--the spirit of lucidity!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ON SOME APPARATUS THAT PERMIT OF ENTERING FLAMES.
+
+[Footnote: A. de Rochas in the _Revue Scientifique_.]
+
+
+In the following notes I shall recall a few experiments that indicate
+under what conditions the human organism is permitted to remain unharmed
+amid flames. These experiments were published in England in 1882, in the
+twelfth letter from Brewster to Walter Scott on natural magic. They are,
+I believe, not much known in France, and possess a practical interest
+for those who are engaged in the art of combating fires.
+
+At the end of the last century Humphry Davy observed that, on placing a
+very fine wire gauze over a flame, the latter was cooled to such a
+point that it could not traverse the meshes. This phenomenon, which he
+attributed to the conductivity and radiating power of the metal, he soon
+utilized in the construction of a lamp for miners.
+
+Some years afterward Chevalier Aldini, of Milan, conceived the idea of
+making a new application of Davy's discovery in the manufacture of an
+envelope that should permit a man to enter into the midst of flames.
+This envelope, which was made of metallic gauze with 1-25th of an inch
+meshes, was composed of five pieces, as follows: (1) a helmet, with
+mask, large enough, to allow a certain space between it and the internal
+bonnet of which I shall speak; (2) a cuirass with armlets; (3) a skirt
+for the lower part of the belly and the thighs; (4) a pair of boots
+formed of a double wire gauze; and (5) a shield five feet long by one
+and a half wide, formed of metallic gauze stretched over a light iron
+frame. Beneath this armor the experimenter was clad in breeches and a
+close coat of coarse cloth that had previously been soaked in a solution
+of alum. The head, hands, and feet were covered by envelopes of asbestos
+cloth whose fibers were about a half millimeter in diameter. The bonnet
+contained apertures for the eyes, nose, and ears, and consisted of a
+single thickness of fabric, as did the stockings, but the gloves were of
+double thickness, so that the wearer could seize burning objects with
+the hands.
+
+Aldini, convinced of the services that his apparatus might render to
+humanity, traveled over Europe and gave gratuitous representations with
+it. The exercises generally took place in the following order: Aldini
+began by first wrapping his finger in asbestos and then with a double
+layer of wire gauze. He then held it for some instants in the flame of
+a candle or alcohol lamp. One of his assistants afterward put on the
+asbestos glove of which I have spoken, and, protecting the palm of his
+hand with another piece of asbestos cloth, seized a piece of red-hot
+iron from a furnace and slowly carried it to a distance of forty or
+fifty meters, lighted some straw with it, and then carried it back to
+the furnace. On other occasions, the experimenters, holding firebrands
+in their hands, walked for five minutes over a large grating under which
+fagots were burning.
+
+In order to show how the head, eyes, and lungs were protected by the
+wire gauze apparatus, one of the experimenters put on the asbestos
+bonnet, helmet, and cuirass, and fixed the shield in front of his
+breast. Then, in a chafing dish placed on a level with his shoulder, a
+great fire of shavings was lighted, and care was taken to keep it up.
+Into the midst of these flames the experimenter then plunged his head
+and remained thus five or six minutes with his face turned toward them.
+In an exhibition given at Paris before a committee from the Academic
+des Sciences, there were set up two parallel fences formed of straw,
+connected by iron wire to light wicker work, and arranged so as to leave
+between them a passage 3 feet wide by 30 long. The heat was so intense,
+when the fences were set on fire, that no one could approach nearer than
+20 or 25 feet; and the flames seemed to fill the whole space between
+them, and rose to a height of 9 or 10 feet. Six men clad in the Aldini
+suit went in, one behind the other, between the blazing fences, and
+walked slowly backward and forward in the narrow passage, while the fire
+was being fed with fresh combustibles from the exterior. One of these
+men carried on his back, in an ozier basket covered with wire gauze, a
+child eight years of age, who had on no other clothing than an asbestos
+bonnet. This same man, having the child with him, entered on another
+occasion a clear fire whose flames reached a height of 18 feet, and
+whose intensity was such that it could not be looked at. He remained
+therein so long that the spectators began to fear that he had succumbed;
+but he finally came out safe and sound.
+
+One of the conclusions to be drawn from the facts just stated is that
+man can breathe in the midst of flames. This marvelous property cannot
+be attributed exclusively to the cooling of the air by its passage
+through the gauze before reaching the lungs; it shows also a very great
+resistance of our organs to the action of heat. The following, moreover,
+are direct proofs of such resistance. In England, in their first
+experiment, Messrs. Joseph Banks, Charles Blagden, and Dr. Solander
+remained for ten minutes in a hot-house whose temperature was 211°
+Fahr., and their bodies preserved therein very nearly the usual heat. On
+breathing against a thermometer they caused the mercury to fall several
+degrees. Each expiration, especially when it was somewhat strong,
+produced in their nostrils an agreeable impression of coolness, and the
+same impression was also produced on their fingers when breathed upon.
+When they touched themselves their skin seemed to be as cold as that of
+a corpse; but contact with their watch chains caused them to experience
+a sensation like that of a burn. A thermometer placed under the tongue
+of one of the experimenters marked 98° Fahr., which is the normal
+temperature of the human species.
+
+Emboldened by these first results, Blagden entered a hot-house in which
+the thermometer in certain parts reached 262° Fahr. He remained therein
+eight minutes, walked about in all directions, and stopped in the
+coolest part, which was at 240° Fahr. During all this time he
+experienced no painful sensations; but, at the end of seven minutes, he
+felt an oppression of the lungs that inquieted him and caused him to
+leave the place. His pulse at that moment showed 144 beats to the
+minute, that is to say, double what it usually did. To ascertain whether
+there was any error in the indications of the thermometer, and to find
+out what effect would take place on inert substances exposed to the hot
+air that he had breathed, Blogden placed some eggs in a zinc plate in
+the hot-house, alongside the thermometer, and found that in twenty
+minutes they were baked hard.
+
+A case is reported where workmen entered a furnace for drying moulds, in
+England, the temperature of which was 177°, and whose iron sole plate
+was so hot that it carbonized their wooden shoes. In the immediate
+vicinity of this furnace the temperature rose to 160°. Persons not of
+the trade who approached anywhere near the furnace experienced pain in
+the eyes, nose, and ears.
+
+A baker is cited in Angoumois, France, who spent ten minutes in a
+furnace at 132° C.
+
+The resistance of the human organism to so high temperatures can be
+attributed to several causes. First, it has been found that the quantity
+of carbonic acid exhaled by the lungs, and consequently the chemical
+phenomena of internal combustion that are a source of animal heat,
+diminish in measure as the external temperature rises. Hence, a conflict
+which has for result the retardation of the moment at which a living
+being will tend, without obstacle, to take the temperature of the
+surrounding medium. On another hand, it has been observed that man
+resists heat so much the less in proportion as the air is saturated
+with vapors. Dr. Berger, who supported for seven minutes a temperature
+varying from 109° to 110° C. in dry air, could remain only twelve
+minutes in a bagnio whose temperature rose from 41° to 51.75°. At the
+Hammam of Paris the highest temperature obtained is 87°, and Dr. E.
+Martin has not been able to remain therein more than five minutes. This
+physician reports that in 1743, the thermometer having exceeded 40° at
+Pekin, 14,000 persons perished. These facts are explained by the cooling
+that the evaporation of perspiration produces on the surface of the
+body. Edwards has calculated that such evaporation is ten times greater
+in dry air in motion than in calm and humid air. The observations become
+still more striking when the skin is put in contact with a liquid or a
+solid which suppresses perspiration. Lemoine endured a bath of Bareges
+water of 37° for half an hour; but at 45° he could not remain in it more
+than seven minutes, and the perspiration began to flow at the end of six
+minutes. According to Brewster, persons who experience no malaise near
+a fire which communicates a temperature of 100° C. to them, can hardly
+bear contact with alcohol and oil at 55° and mercury at 48°.
+
+The facts adduced permit us to understand how it was possible to bear
+one of the proofs to which it is said those were submitted who wished
+to be initiated into the Egyptian mysteries. In a vast vaulted chamber
+nearly a hundred feet long, there were erected two fences formed of
+posts, around which were wound branches of Arabian balm, Egyptian thorn,
+and tamarind--all very flexible and inflammable woods. When this was set
+on fire the flames arose as far as the vault, licked it, and gave the
+chamber the appearance of a hot furnace, the smoke escaping through
+pipes made for the purpose. Then the door was suddenly opened before the
+neophyte, and he was ordered to traverse this burning place, whose floor
+was composed of an incandescent grating.
+
+The Abbé Terrason recounts all these details in his historic romance
+"Sethos," printed at the end of last century. Unfortunately literary
+frauds were in fashion then, and the book, published as a translation of
+an old Greek manuscript, gives no indication of sources. I have sought
+in special works for the data which the abbé must have had as a basis,
+but I have not been able to find them. I suppose, however, that
+this description, which is so precise, is not merely a work of the
+imagination. The author goes so far as to give the dimensions of the
+grating (30 feet by 8), and, greatly embarrassed to explain how his hero
+was enabled to traverse it without being burned, is obliged to suppose
+it to have been formed of very thick bars, between which Sethos had care
+to place his feet. But this explanation is inadmissible. He who had the
+courage to rush, head bowed, into the midst of the flames, certainly
+would not have amused himself by choosing the place to put his feet.
+Braving the fire that surrounded his entire body, he must have had no
+other thought than that of reaching the end of his dangerous voyage as
+soon as possible. We cannot see very well, moreover, how this immense
+grate, lying on the ground, was raised to a red heat and kept at such a
+temperature. It is infinitely more simple to suppose that between the
+two fences there was a ditch sufficiently deep in which a fire had
+also been lighted, and which was covered by a grating as in the Aldini
+experiments. It is even probable that this grating was of copper,
+which, illuminated by the fireplace, must have presented a terrifying
+brilliancy, while in reality it served only to prevent the flames from
+the fireplace reaching him who dared to brave them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE BUILDING STONE SUPPLY.
+
+
+The use of stone as a building material was not resorted to, except to
+a trifling extent, in this country until long after the need of such a
+solid substance was felt. The early settler contented himself with the
+log cabin, the corduroy road, and the wooden bridge, and loose stone
+enough for foundation purposes could readily be gathered from the
+surface of the earth. Even after the desirability of more handsome and
+durable building material for public edifices in the colonial cities
+than wood became apparent, the ample resources which nature had afforded
+in this country were overlooked, and brick and stone were imported by
+the Dutch and English settlers from the Old World. Thus we find the
+colonists of the New Netherlands putting yellow brick on their list
+of non-dutiable imports in 1648; and such buildings in Boston as are
+described as being "fairly set forth with brick, tile, slate, and
+stone," were thus provided only with foreign products. Isolated
+instances of quarrying stone are known to have occurred in the last
+century; but they are rare. The edifice known as "King's Chapel,"
+Boston, erected in 1752, is the first one on record as being built from
+American stone; this was granite, brought from Braintree, Mass.
+
+Granite is a rock particularly abundant in New England, though also
+found in lesser quantities elsewhere in this country. The first granite
+quarries that were extensively developed were those at Quincy, Mass.,
+and work began at that point early in the present century. The fame of
+the stone became widespread, and it was sent to distant markets--even to
+New Orleans. The old Merchants' Exchange in New York (afterward used as
+a custom house) the Astor House in that city, and the Custom House in
+New Orleans, all nearly or quite fifty years old, were constructed of
+Quincy granite, as were many other fine buildings along the Atlantic
+coast. In later years, not only isolated public edifices, but also whole
+blocks of stores, have been constructed of this material. It was from
+the Quincy quarries that the first railroad in this country was built;
+this was a horse-railroad, three miles long, extending to Neponset
+River, built in 1827.
+
+Other points in Massachusetts have been famed for their excellent
+granite. After Maine was set off as a distinct State, Fox Island
+acquired repute for its granite, and built up an extensive traffic
+therein. Westerly, R.I., has also been engaged in quarrying this
+valuable rock for many years, most of its choicer specimens having been
+wrought for monumental purposes. Statues and other elaborate monumental
+designs are now extensively made therefrom. Smaller pieces and a coarser
+quality of the stone are here and elsewhere along the coast obtained in
+large quantities for the construction of massive breakwaters to protect
+harbors. Another point famous for its granite is Staten Island, New
+York. This stone weighs 180 pounds to the cubic foot, while the Quincy
+granite weighs but 165. The Staten Island product is used not only for
+building purposes, but is also especially esteemed for paving after both
+the Russ and Belgian patents. New York and other cities derive large
+supplies from this source. The granite of Weehawken, N.J., is of the
+same character, and greatly in demand. Port Deposit, Md., and Richmond,
+Va, are also centers of granite production. Near Abbeville, S.C., and
+in Georgia, granite is found quite like that of Quincy. Much southern
+granite, however, decomposes readily, and is almost as soft as clay.
+This variety of stone is found in great abundance in the Rocky
+Mountains; but, except to a slight extent in California, it is not yet
+quarried there.
+
+Granite, having little grain, can be cut into blocks of almost any size
+and shape. Specimens as much as eighty feet long have been taken out and
+transported great distances. The quarrying is done by drilling a series
+of small holes, six inches or more deep and almost the same distance
+apart, inserting steel wedges along the whole line and then tapping each
+gently with a hammer in succession, in order that the strain may be
+evenly distributed.
+
+A building material that came into use earlier than granite is known as
+freestone or sandstone; although its first employment does not date back
+further than the erection of King's Chapel, Boston, already referred to
+as the earliest well-known occasion where granite was used in building.
+Altogether the most famous American sandstone quarries are those at
+Portland, on the Connecticut River, opposite Middletown. These were
+worked before the Revolution; and their product has been shipped to many
+distant points in the country. The long rows of "brownstone fronts" in
+New York city are mostly of Portland stone, though in many cases the
+walls are chiefly of brick covered with thin layers of the stone. The
+old red sandstone of the Connecticut valley is distinguished in geology
+for the discovery of gigantic fossil footprints of birds, first noticed
+in the Portland quarries in 1802. Some of these footprints measured
+ten to sixteen inches, and they were from four to six feet apart. The
+sandstone of Belleville, N.J., has also extensive use and reputation.
+Trinity Church in New York city and the Boston Atheneum are built of the
+product of these quarries; St. Lawrence County, New York, is noted also
+for a fine bed of sandstone. At Potsdam it is exposed to a depth of
+seventy feet. There are places though, in New England, New York, and
+Eastern Pennsylvania, where a depth of three hundred feet has been
+reached. The Potsdam sandstone is often split to the thinness of an
+inch. It hardens by exposure, and is often used for smelting furnace
+hearth-stones. Shawangunk Mountain, in Ulster County, yields a sandstone
+of inferior quality, which has been unsuccessfully tried for paving;
+as it wears very unevenly. From Ulster, Greene, and Albany Counties
+sandstone slabs for sidewalks are extensively quarried for city use;
+the principal outlets of these sections being Kingston, Saugerties,
+Coxsackie, Bristol, and New Baltimore, on the Hudson. In this region
+quantities amounting to millions of square feet are taken out in large
+sheets, which are often sawed into the sizes desired. The vicinity of
+Medina, in Western New York, yields a sandstone extensively used in that
+section for paving and curbing, and a little for building. A rather poor
+quality of this stone has been found along the Potomac, and some of it
+was used in the erection of the old Capitol building at Washington.
+Ohio yields a sandstone that is of a light gray color; Berea, Amherst,
+Vermilion, and Massillon are the chief points of production. St.
+Genevieve, Mo., yields a stone of fine grain of a light straw color,
+which is quite equal to the famous Caen stone of France. The Lake
+Superior sandstones are dark and coarse grained, but strong.
+
+In some parts of the country, where neither granite nor sandstone
+is easily procured, blue and gray limestone are sometimes used for
+building, and, when hammer dressed, often look like granite. A serious
+objection to their use, however, is the occasional presence of iron,
+which rusts on exposure, and defaces the building. In Western New York
+they are widely used. Topeka stone, like the coquine of Florida and
+Bermuda, is soft like wood when first quarried, and easily wrought,
+but it hardens on exposure. The limestones of Canton, Mo., Joliet and
+Athens, Ill., Dayton, Sandusky, Marblehead, and other points in Ohio,
+Ellittsville, Ind., and Louisville and Bowling Green, Ky., are great
+favorites west. In many of these regions limestone is extensively used
+for macadamizing roads, for which it is excellently adapted. It also
+yields excellent slabs or flags for sidewalks.
+
+One of the principal uses of this variety of stone is its conversion, by
+burning, into lime for building purposes. All limestones are by no
+means equally excellent in this regard. Thomaston lime, burned with
+Pennsylvania coal, near the Penobscot River, has had a wide reputation
+for nearly half a century. It has been shipped thence to all points
+along the Atlantic coast, invading Virginia as far as Lynchburg, and
+going even to New Orleans, Smithfield, R.I., and Westchester County,
+N.Y., near the lower end of the Highlands, also make a particularly
+excellent quality of lime. Kingston, in Ulster County, makes an inferior
+sort for agricultural purposes. The Ohio and other western stones yield
+a poor lime, and that section is almost entirely dependent on the east
+for supplies.
+
+Marbles, like limestones, with which they are closely related, are very
+abundant in this country, and are also to be found in a great variety of
+colors. As early as 1804 American marble was used for statuary purposes.
+Early in the century it also obtained extensive employment for
+gravestones. Its use for building purposes has been more recent than
+granite and sandstone in this country; and it is coming to supersede the
+latter to a great degree. For mantels, fire-places, porch pillars, and
+like ornamental purposes, however, our variegated, rich colored and
+veined or brecciated marbles were in use some time before exterior walls
+were made from them. Among the earliest marble buildings were Girard
+College in Philadelphia and the old City Hall in New York, and the
+Custom House in the latter city, afterward used for a sub-treasury. The
+new Capitol building at Washington is among the more recent structures
+composed of this material. Our exports of marble to Cuba and elsewhere
+amount to over $300,000 annually, although we import nearly the same
+amount from Italy. And yet an article can be found in the United States
+fully as fine as the famous Carrara marble. We refer to that which comes
+from Rutland, Vt. This state yields the largest variety and choicest
+specimens. The marble belt runs both ways from Rutland County, where
+the only quality fit for statuary is obtained. Toward the north it
+deteriorates by growing less sound, though finer in grain; while to
+the south it becomes coarser. A beautiful black marble is obtained at
+Shoreham, Vt. There are also handsome brecciated marbles in the same
+state; and in the extreme northern part, near Lake Champlain, they
+become more variegated and rich in hue. Such other marble as is found
+in New England is of an inferior quality. The pillars of Girard
+College came from Berkshire, Mass., which ranks next after Vermont in
+reputation.
+
+The marble belt extends from New England through New York, Pennsylvania,
+Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia, Tennessee, and the
+Carolinas, to Georgia and Alabama. Some of the variegated and high
+colored varieties obtained near Knoxville, Tenn., nearly equal that of
+Vermont. The Rocky Mountains contain a vast abundance and variety.
+
+Slate was known to exist in this country to a slight extent in colonial
+days. It was then used for gravestones, and to some extent for roofing
+and school purposes. But most of our supplies came from Wales. It is
+stated that a slate quarry was operated in Northampton County, Pa., as
+early as 1805. In 1826 James M. Porter and Samuel Taylor engaged in the
+business, obtaining their supplies from the Kittanninny Mountains. From
+this time the business developed rapidly, the village of Slateford being
+an outgrowth of it, and large rafts being employed to float the product
+down the Schuylkill to Philadelphia. By 1860 the industry had reached
+the capacity of 20,000 cases of slate, valued at $10 a case, annually.
+In 1839 quarries were opened in the Piscataquis River, forty miles
+north of Bangor, Me., but poor transportation facilities retarded the
+business. Vermont began to yield in 1852. New York's quarries are
+confined to Washington County, near the Vermont line. Maryland has
+a limited supply from Harford County. The Huron Mountains, north of
+Marquette, Mich., contain slate, which is also said to exist in Pike
+County, Ga.
+
+Grindstones, millstones, and whetstones are quarried in New York, Ohio,
+Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other States. Mica is found at Acworth and
+Grafton, N. H., and near Salt Lake, but our chief supply comes from
+Haywood, Yancey, Mitchell, and Macon counties, in North Carolina, and
+our product is so large that we can afford to export it. Other stones,
+such as silex, for making glass, etc., are found in profusion in various
+parts of the country, but we have no space to enter into a detailed
+account of them at present.--_Pottery and Glassware Reporter_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
+
+
+The most interesting change of which the Census gives account is the
+increase in the number of farms. The number has virtually doubled within
+twenty years. The population of the country has not increased in like
+proportion. A large part of the increase in number of farms has been due
+to the division of great estates. Nor has this occurred, as some may
+imagine, exclusively in the Southern States and the States to which
+immigration and migration have recently been directed. It is an
+important fact that the multiplication of farms has continued even in
+the older Northern States, though the change has not been as great in
+these as in States of the far West or the South. In New York there has
+been an increase of 25,000, or 11.5 per cent, in the number of farms
+since 1870; in New Jersey the increase has been 12.2 per cent., and in
+Pennsylvania 22.7 per cent., though the increase in population, and
+doubtless in the number of persons engaged in farming, has been much
+smaller. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois also, have been considered fully
+settled States for years, at least in an agricultural point of view, and
+yet the number of farms has increased 26.1 per cent, in ten years in
+Ohio, 20.3 percent, in Indiana, and 26.1 per cent, in Illinois. The
+obvious explanation is that the growth of many cities and towns has
+created a market for a far greater supply of those products which may be
+most advantageously grown upon farms of moderate size; but even if this
+fully accounts for the phenomenon, the change must be recognized as one
+of the highest importance industrially, socially, and politically. The
+man who owns or rents and cultivates a farm stands on a very different
+footing from the laborer who works for wages. It is not a small matter
+that, in these six States alone, there are 205,000 more owners or
+managers of farms than there were only a decade ago.
+
+As we go further toward the border, west or north, the influence of the
+settlement of new land is more distinctly felt. Even in Michigan, where
+new railroads have opened new regions to settlement, the increase in
+number of farms has been over 55 per cent. In Wisconsin, though the
+increase in railroad mileage has been about the same as in Michigan, the
+reported increase in number of farms has been only 28 per cent., but in
+Iowa it rises to 60 per cent., and in Minnesota to nearly 100 per cent.
+In Kansas the number of farms is 138,561, against 38,202 in 1870; in
+Nebraska 63,387, against 12,301; and in Dakota 17,435, against 1,720. In
+these regions the process is one of creation of new States rather than a
+change in the social and industrial condition of the population.
+
+Some Southern States have gained largely, but the increase in these,
+though very great, is less surprising than the new States of the
+Northwest. The prevailing tendency of Southern agriculture to large
+farms and the employment of many hands is especially felt in States
+where land is still abundant. The greatest increase is in Texas, where
+174,184 farms are reported, against 61,125 in 1870; in Florida, with
+23,438 farms, against 10,241 in 1870; and in Arkansas, with 94,433
+farms, against 49,424 in 1870. In Missouri 215,575 farms are reported,
+against 148,228 in 1870. In these States, though social changes have
+been great, the increase in number of farms has been largely due to new
+settlements, as in the States of the far Northwest. But the change in
+the older Southern States is of a different character.
+
+Virginia, for example, has long been settled, and had 77,000 farms
+thirty years ago. But the increase in number within the past ten years
+has been 44,668, or 60.5 per cent. Contrasting this with the increase in
+New York, a remarkable difference appears. West Virginia had few more
+farms ten years ago than New Jersey; now it has nearly twice as many,
+and has gained in number nearly 60 per cent. North Carolina, too, has
+increased 78 per cent. in number of farms since 1870, and South Carolina
+80 per cent. In Georgia the increase has been still greater--from 69,956
+to 138,626, or nearly 100 per cent. In Alabama there are 135,864
+farms, against 67,382 in 1870, an increase of over 100 per cent. These
+proportions, contrasted with those for the older Northern States, reveal
+a change that is nothing less than an industrial revolution. But the
+force of this tendency to division of estates has been greatest in the
+States named. Whereas the ratio of increase in number of farms becomes
+greater in Northern States as we go from the East toward the Mississippi
+River, at the South it is much smaller in Kentucky, Tennessee,
+Mississippi, and Louisiana than in the older States on the Atlantic
+coast. Thus in Louisiana the increase has been from 28,481 to 48,292
+farms, or 70 per cent., and in Mississippi from 68,023 to 101,772 farms,
+or less than 50 per cent., against 100 in Alabama and Georgia. In
+Kentucky the increase has been from 118,422 to 166,453 farms, or 40 per
+cent., and in Tennessee from 118,141 to 165,650 farms, or 40 per cent.,
+against 60 in Virginia and West Virginia, and 78 in North Carolina.
+Thus, while the tendency to division is far greater than in the Northern
+States of corresponding age, it is found in full force only in six of
+the older Southern States, Alabama, West Virginia, and four on the
+Atlantic coast. In these, the revolution already effected foreshadows
+and will almost certainly bring about important political changes within
+a few years. In these six States there 310,795 more farm owners or
+occupants than there were ten years ago.--_N.Y. Tribune_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A FARMER'S LIME KILN.
+
+
+For information about burning lime we republish the following article
+furnished by a correspondent of the _Country Gentleman_ several years
+ago:
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. A (Fig. 1), Railway Track--B B B,
+Iron Rods running through Kiln--C, Capstone over Arch--D, Arch--E, Well
+without brick or ash lining.]
+
+I send you a description and sketch of a lime-kiln put up on my premises
+about five years ago. The dimensions of this kiln are 13 feet square by
+25 feet high from foundation, and its capacity 100 bushels in 24 hours.
+It was constructed of the limestone quarried on the spot. It has round
+iron rods (shown in sketch) passing through, with iron plates fastened
+to the ends as clamps to make it more firm; the pair nearest the top
+should be not less than 2 feet from that point, the others interspersed
+about 2 feet apart--the greatest strain being near the top. The arch
+should be 7 feet high by 5œ wide in front, with a gather on the top
+and sides of about 1 foot, with plank floor; and if this has a little
+incline it will facilitate shoveling the lime when drawn. The arch
+should have a strong capstone; also one immediately under the well of
+the kiln, with a hole 2 feet in diameter to draw the lime through; or
+two may be used with semicircle cut in each. Iron bars 2 inches wide by
+1/8 inch thick are used in this kiln for closing it, working in slots
+fastened to capstone. These slots must be put in before the caps
+are laid. When it is desired to draw lime, these bars may be
+pushed laterally in the slots, or drawn out entirely, according to
+circumstances; 3 bars will be enough. The slots are made of iron bars
+1œ inches wide, with ends rounded and turned up, and inserted in holes
+drilled through capstone and keyed above.
+
+The well of the kiln is lined with fire-brick one course thick, with a
+stratum of coal ashes three inches thick tamped in between the brick
+and wall, which proves a great protection to the wall. About 2,000
+fire-bricks were used. The proprietors of this kiln say about one-half
+the lower part of the well might have been lined with a first quality of
+common brick and saved some expense and been just as good. The form of
+the well shown in Fig. 3 is 7 feet in diameter in the bilge, exclusive
+of the lining of brick and ashes. Experiments in this vicinity have
+proved this to be the best, this contraction toward the top being
+absolutely necessary, the expansion of the stone by the heat is so
+great that the lime cannot be drawn from perpendicular walls, as was
+demonstrated in one instance near here, where a kiln was built on that
+principle. The kiln, of course, is for coal, and our stone requires
+about three-quarters of a ton per 100 bushels of lime, but this, I am
+told, varies according to quality, some requiring more than others; the
+quantity can best be determined by experimenting; also the regulation of
+the heat--if too great it will cause the stones to melt or run together
+as it were, or, if too little, they will not be properly burned. The
+business requires skill and judgment to run it successfully.
+
+This kiln is located at the foot of a steep bluff, the top about level
+with the top of the kiln, with railway track built of wooden sleepers,
+with light iron bars, running from the bluff to the top of the kiln, and
+a hand-car makes it very convenient filling the kiln. Such a location
+should be had if possible. Your inquirer may perhaps get some ideas
+of the principles of a kiln for using _coal_. The dimensions may be
+reduced, if desired. If for _wood_, the arch would have to be formed for
+that, and the height of kiln reduced.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE MANUFACTURE OF APPLE JELLY.
+
+[Footnote: From the report of the New York Agricultural Society.]
+
+
+Within the county of Oswego, New York, Dewitt C. Peck reports there are
+five apple jelly factories in operation. The failure of the apple crop,
+for some singular and unexplained reason, does not extend in great
+degree to the natural or ungrafted fruit. Though not so many as common,
+even of these apples, there are yet enough to keep these five mills and
+the numerous cider mills pretty well employed. The largest jelly factory
+is located near the village of Mexico, and as there are some features in
+regard to this manufacture peculiar to this establishment which may be
+new and interesting, we will undertake a brief description. The factory
+is located on the Salmon Creek, which affords the necessary power. A
+portion of the main floor, first story, is occupied as a saw mill,
+the slabs furnishing fuel for the boiler furnace connected with the
+evaporating department. Just above the mill, along the bank of the pond,
+and with one end projecting over the water, are arranged eight large
+bins, holding from five hundred to one thousand bushels each, into which
+the apples are delivered from the teams. The floor in each of these has
+a sharp pitch or inclination toward the water and at the lower end is a
+grate through which the fruit is discharged, when wanted, into a trough
+half submerged in the pond.
+
+The preparation of the fruit and extraction of the juice proceeds
+as follows: Upon hoisting a gate in the lower end of this trough,
+considerable current is caused, and the water carries the fruit a
+distance of from thirty to one hundred feet, and passes into the
+basement of the mill, where, tumbling down a four-foot perpendicular
+fall, into a tank, tight in its lower half and slatted so as to permit
+the escape of water and impurities in the upper half, the apples are
+thoroughly cleansed from all earthy or extraneous matter. Such is the
+friction caused by the concussion of the fall, the rolling and rubbing
+of the apples together, and the pouring of the water, that decayed
+sections of the fruit are ground off and the rotten pulp passes away
+with other impurities. From this tank the apples are hoisted upon an
+endless chain elevator, with buckets in the form of a rake-head with
+iron teeth, permitting drainage and escape of water, to an upper story
+of the mill, whence by gravity they descend to the grater. The press
+is wholly of iron, all its motions, even to the turning of the screws,
+being actuated by the water power. The cheese is built up with layers
+inclosed in strong cotton cloth, which displaces the straw used in olden
+time, and serves also to strain the cider. As it is expressed from
+the press tank, the cider passes to a storage tank, and thence to the
+defecator.
+
+This defecator is a copper pan, eleven feet long and about three feet
+wide. At each end of this pan is placed a copper tube three inches in
+diameter and closed at both ends. Lying between and connecting
+these two, are twelve tubes, also of copper, 1œ inches in diameter,
+penetrating the larger tubes at equal distances from their upper and
+under surfaces, the smaller being parallel with each other, and 1œ
+inches apart. When placed in position, the larger tubes, which act as
+manifolds, supplying the smaller with steam, rest upon the bottom of the
+pan, and thus the smaller pipes have a space of three-fourths of an inch
+underneath their outer surfaces.
+
+The cider comes from the storage tank in a continuous stream about
+three-eighths of an inch in diameter. Steam is introduced to the large
+or manifold tubes, and from them distributed through the smaller ones at
+a pressure of from twenty-five to thirty pounds per inch. Trap valves
+are provided for the escape of water formed by condensation within the
+pipes. The primary object of the defecator is to remove all impurities
+and perfectly clarify the liquid passing through it. All portions of
+pomace and other minute particles of foreign matter, when heated,
+expand and float in the form of scum upon the surface of the cider. An
+ingeniously contrived floating rake drags off this scum and delivers it
+over the side of the pan. To facilitate this removal, one side of the
+pan, commencing at a point just below the surface of the cider, is
+curved gently outward and upward, terminating in a slightly inclined
+plane, over the edge of which the scum is pushed by the rake into a
+trough and carried away. A secondary purpose served by the defecator
+is that of reducing the cider by evaporation to a partial sirup of the
+specific gravity of about 20° Baume. When of this consistency the liquid
+is drawn from the bottom and less agitated portion of the defecator by a
+siphon, and thence carried to the evaporator, which is located upon the
+same framework and just below the defecator.
+
+The evaporator consists of a separate system of six copper tubes, each
+twelve feet long and three inches in diameter. These are each jacketed
+or inclosed in an iron pipe of four inches internal diameter, fitted
+with steam-tight collars so as to leave half an inch steam space
+surrounding the copper tubes. The latter are open at both ends
+permitting the admission and egress of the sirup and the escape of the
+steam caused by evaporation therefrom, and are arranged upon the frame
+so as to have a very slight inclination downward in the direction of
+the current, and each nearly underneath its predecessor in regular
+succession. Each is connected by an iron supply pipe, having a steam
+gauge or indicator attached, with a large manifold, and that by other
+pipes with a steam boiler of thirty horse power capacity. Steam being
+let on at from twenty five to thirty pounds pressure, the stream of
+sirup is received from the defecator through a strainer, which removes
+any impurities possibly remaining into the upper evaporator tube;
+passing in a gentle flow through that, it is delivered into a funnel
+connected with the next tube below, and so, back and forth, through the
+whole system. The sirup enters the evaporator at a consistency of from
+20° to 23° Baume, and emerges from the last tube some three minutes
+later at a consistency of from 30° to 32° Baume, which is found on
+cooling to be the proper point for perfect jelly. This point is found to
+vary one or two degrees, according to the fermentation consequent upon
+bruises in handling the fruit, decay of the same, or any little delay in
+expressing the juice from the cheese. The least fermentation occasions
+the necessity for a lower reduction. To guard against this, no cheese
+is allowed to stand over night, no pomace left in the grater or vat, no
+cider in the tank; and further to provide against fermentation, a large
+water tank is located upon the roof and filled by a force pump, and by
+means of hose connected with this, each grater, press, vat, tank, pipe,
+trough, or other article of machinery used, can be thoroughly washed and
+cleansed. Hot water, instead of cider, is sometimes sent through the
+defecator, evaporator, etc., until all are thoroughly scalded and
+purified. If the saccharometer shows too great or too little reduction,
+the matter is easily regulated by varying the steam pressure in the
+evaporator by means of a valve in the supply pipe. If boiled cider
+instead of jelly is wanted for making pies, sauces, etc., it is drawn
+off from one of the upper evaporator tubes according to the consistency
+desired; or can be produced at the end of the process by simply reducing
+the steam pressure.
+
+As the jelly emerges from the evaporator it is transferred to a tub
+holding some fifty gallons, and by mixing a little therein, any little
+variations in reduction or in the sweetness or sourness of the fruit
+used are equalized. From this it is drawn through faucets, while hot,
+into the various packages in which it is shipped to market. A favorite
+form of package for family use is a nicely turned little wooden
+bucket with cover and bail, two sizes, holding five and ten pounds
+respectively. The smaller packages are shipped in cases for convenience
+in handling. The present product of this manufactory is from 1,500 to
+1,800 pounds of jelly each day of ten hours. It is calculated that
+improvements now in progress will increase this to something more than a
+ton per day. Each bushel of fruit will produce from four to five pounds
+of jelly, fruit ripening late in the season being more productive than
+earlier varieties. Crab apples produce the finest jelly; sour, crabbed,
+natural fruit makes the best looking article, and a mixture of all
+varieties gives most satisfactory results as to flavor and general
+quality.
+
+As the pomace is shoveled from the finished cheese, it is again ground
+under a toothed cylinder, and thence drops into large troughs, through a
+succession of which a considerable stream of water is flowing. Here it
+is occasionally agitated by raking from the lower to the upper end of
+the trough as the current carries it downward, and the apple seeds
+becoming disengaged drop to the bottom into still water, while the pulp
+floats away upon the stream. A succession of troughs serves to remove
+nearly all the seeds. The value of the apple seeds thus saved is
+sufficient to pay the daily wages of all the hands employed in the whole
+establishment. The apples are measured in the wagon box, one and a half
+cubic feet being accounted a bushel.
+
+This mill ordinarily employs about six men: One general superintendent,
+who buys and measures the apples, keeps time books, attends to all the
+accounts and the working details of the mill, and acts as cashier; one
+sawyer, who manufactures lumber for the local market and saws the slabs
+into short lengths suitable for the furnace; one cider maker, who grinds
+the apples and attends the presses; one jelly maker, who attends the
+defecator, evaporator, and mixing tub, besides acting as his own fireman
+and engineer; one who attends the apple seed troughs and acts as general
+helper, and one man-of-all-work to pack, ship and assist whenever
+needed. The establishment was erected late in the season of 1880,
+and manufactured that year about forty-five tons of jelly, besides
+considerable cider exchanged to the farmers for apples, and some boiled
+cider.
+
+The price paid for apples in 1880, when the crop was superabundant, was
+six to eight cents per bushel; in 1881, fifteen cents. The proprietor
+hopes next year to consume 100,000 bushels. These institutions are
+important to the farmer in that they use much fruit not otherwise
+valuable and very perishable. Fruit so crabbed and gnarled as to have no
+market value, and even frozen apples, if delivered while yet solid, can
+be used. (Such apples are placed in the water while frozen, the water
+draws the frost sufficiently to be grated, and passing through the press
+and evaporator before there is time for chemical change, they are found
+to make very good jelly. They are valuable to the consumer by converting
+the perishable, cheap, almost worthless crop of the bearing and abundant
+years into such enduring form that its consumption may be carried over
+to years of scarcity and furnish healthful food in cheap and pleasant
+form to many who would otherwise be deprived; and lastly, they are of
+great interest to society, in that they give to cider twice the value
+for purposes of food that it has or can have, even to the manufacturer,
+for use as a beverage and intoxicant.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+IMPROVED GRAPE BAGS.
+
+
+It stands to reason that were our summers warmer we should be able to
+grow grapes successfully on open walls; it is therefore probable that
+a new grape bag, the invention of M. Pelletier, 20 Rue de la Banque,
+Paris, intended to serve a double purpose, viz., protecting the fruit
+and hastening its maturity, will, when it becomes known, be welcomed in
+this country. It consists of a square of curved glass so fixed to
+the bag that the sun's rays are concentrated upon the fruit, thereby
+rendering its ripening more certain in addition to improving its quality
+generally. The glass is affixed to the bag by means of a light iron wire
+support. It covers that portion of it next the sun, so that it increases
+the amount of light and warms the grapes without scorching them, a
+result due to the convexity of the glass and the layer of air between it
+and the bag. M. Pelletier had the idea of rendering these bags cheaper
+by employing plain squares instead of curved ones, but the advantage
+thus obtained was more than counterbalanced by their comparative
+inefficacy. In practice it was found that the curved squares gave an
+average of 7° more than the straight ones, while there was a difference
+of 10° when the bags alone were used, thus plainly demonstrating the
+practical value of the invention.
+
+Whether these glass-fronted bags would have much value in the case of
+grapes grown under glass in the ordinary way is a question that can only
+be determined by actual experiment; but where the vines are on walls,
+either under glass screens or in the open air, so that the bunches feel
+the full force of the sun's rays, there can be no doubt as to their
+utility, and it is probable that by their aid many of the continental
+varieties which we do not now attempt to grow in the open, and which are
+scarcely worthy of a place under glass, might be well ripened. At
+any rate we ought to give anything a fair trial which may serve to
+neutralize, if only in a slight degree, the uncertainty of our summers.
+As it is, we have only about two varieties of grapes, and these not the
+best of the hardy kinds, as regards flavor and appearance, that ripen
+out of doors, and even these do not always succeed. We know next to
+nothing of the many really well-flavored kinds which are so much
+appreciated in many parts of the Continent. The fact is, our outdoor
+culture of grapes offers a striking contrast to that practiced under
+glass, and although our comparatively sunless and moist climate affords
+some excuse for our shortcomings in this respect, there is no valid
+reason for the utter want of good culture which is to be observed in a
+general way.
+
+[Illustration: GRAPE BAG.--OPEN.]
+
+Given intelligent training, constant care in stopping the laterals, and
+checking mildew as well as thinning the berries, allowing each bunch to
+get the full benefit of sun and air, and I believe good eatable grapes
+would often be obtained even in summers marked by a low average
+temperature.
+
+[Illustration: GRAPE BAG.--CLOSED.]
+
+If, moreover, to a good system of culture we add some such mechanical
+contrivance as that under notice whereby the bunches enjoy an average
+warmth some 10° higher than they otherwise would do, we not only insure
+the grapes coming to perfection in favored districts, but outdoor
+culture might probably be practiced in higher latitudes than is now
+practicable.
+
+[Illustration: CURVED GLASS FOR FRONT OF BAG.]
+
+The improved grape bag would also offer great facilities for destroying
+mildew or guarantee the grapes against its attacks, as a light dusting
+administered as soon as the berries were fairly formed would suffice for
+the season, as owing to the glass protecting the berries from driving
+rains, which often accompany south or south-west winds in summer and
+autumn, the sulphur would not be washed off.
+
+[Illustration: CURVED GLASS FIXED ON BAG.]
+
+The inventor claims, and we should say with just reason, that these
+glass fronted bags would be found equally serviceable for the ripening
+of pears and other choice fruits, and with a view to their being
+employed for such a purpose, he has had them made of varying sizes and
+shapes. In conclusion, it may be observed that, in addition to advancing
+the maturity of the fruits to which they are applied, they also serve to
+preserve them from falling to the ground when ripe.--J. COBNHILL, _in
+the Garden_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+UTILIZATION OF SOLAR HEAT.
+
+
+At a popular fête in the Tuileries Gardens I was struck with an
+experiment which seems deserving of the immediate attention of the
+English public and military authorities.
+
+Among the attractions of the fête was an apparatus for the concentration
+and utilization of solar heat, and, though the sun was not very
+brilliant, I saw this apparatus set in motion a printing machine which
+printed several thousand copies of a specimen newspaper entitled the
+_Soleil Journal_.
+
+The sun's rays are concentrated in a reflector, which moves at the
+same rate as the sun and heats a vertical boiler, setting the motive
+steam-engine at work. As may be supposed, the only object was to
+demonstrate the possibility of utilizing the concentrated heat of the
+solar rays; but I closely examined it, because the apparatus seems
+capable of great utility in existing circumstances. Here in France,
+indeed, there is a radical drawback--the sun is often overclouded.
+
+Thousands of years ago the idea of utilizing the solar rays must have
+suggested itself, and there are still savage tribes who know no other
+mode of combustion; but the scientific application has hitherto been
+lacking. This void this apparatus will fill up. About fifteen years ago
+Professor Mouchon, of Tours, began constructing such an apparatus, and
+his experiments have been continued by M. Pifre, who has devoted much
+labor and expense to realizing M. Mouchou's idea. A company has now come
+to his aid, and has constructed a number of apparatus of different sizes
+at a factory which might speedily turn out a large number of them. It is
+evident that in a country of uninterrupted sunshine the boiler might be
+heated in thirty or forty minutes. A portable apparatus could boil two
+and one-half quarts an hour, or, say, four gallons a day, thus supplying
+by distillation or ebullition six or eight men. The apparatus can be
+easily carried on a man's back, and on condition of water, even of the
+worst quality, being obtainable, good drinking and cooking water is
+insured. M. De Rougaumond, a young scientific writer, has just published
+an interesting volume on the invention. I was able yesterday to verify
+his statements, for I saw cider made, a pump set in motion, and coffee
+made--in short, the calorific action of the sun superseding that of
+fuel. The apparatus, no doubt, has not yet reached perfection, but as it
+is it would enable the soldier in India or Egypt to procure in the field
+good water and to cook his food rapidly. The invention is of especial
+importance to England just now, but even when the Egyptian question is
+settled the Indian troops might find it of inestimable value.
+
+Red tape should for once be disregarded, and a competent commission
+forthwith sent to 30 Rue d'Assas, with instructions to report
+immediately, for every minute saved may avoid suffering for Englishmen
+fighting abroad for their country. I may, of course, be mistaken, but
+a commission would decide, and if the apparatus is good the slightest
+delay in its adoption would be deplorable.--_Paris Correspondence London
+Times_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO ESTABLISH A TRUE MERIDIAN.
+
+[Footnote: A paper read before the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia.]
+
+By PROFESSOR L. M. HAUPT.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+The discovery of the magnetic needle was a boon to mankind, and has been
+of inestimable service in guiding the mariner through trackless waters,
+and the explorer over desert wastes. In these, its legitimate uses, the
+needle has not a rival, but all efforts to apply it to the accurate
+determination of permanent boundary lines have proven very
+unsatisfactory, and have given rise to much litigation, acerbity, and
+even death.
+
+For these and other cogent reasons, strenuous efforts are being made to
+dispense, so far as practicable, with the use of the magnetic needle
+in surveying, and to substitute therefor the more accurate method of
+traversing from a true meridian. This method, however, involves a
+greater degree of preparation and higher qualifications than are
+generally possessed, and unless the matter can be so simplified as to be
+readily understood, it is unreasonable to expect its general application
+in practice.
+
+Much has been written upon the various methods of determining, the
+true meridian, but it is so intimately related to the determination of
+latitude and time, and these latter in turn upon the fixing of a true
+meridian, that the novice can find neither beginning nor end. When to
+these difficulties are added the corrections for parallax, refraction,
+instrumental errors, personal equation, and the determination of the
+probable error, he is hopelessly confused, and when he learns that time
+may be sidereal, mean solar, local, Greenwich, or Washington, and he is
+referred to an ephemeris and table of logarithms for data, he becomes
+lost in "confusion worse confounded," and gives up in despair, settling
+down to the conviction that the simple method of compass surveying is
+the best after all, even if not the most accurate.
+
+Having received numerous requests for information upon the subject, I
+have thought it expedient to endeavor to prepare a description of the
+method of determining the true meridian which should be sufficiently
+clear and practical to be generally understood by those desiring to make
+use of such information.
+
+This will involve an elementary treatment of the subject, beginning with
+the
+
+
+DEFINITIONS.
+
+The _celestial sphere_ is that imaginary surface upon which all
+celestial objects are projected. Its radius is infinite.
+
+The _earth's axis_ is the imaginary line about which it revolves.
+
+The _poles_ are the points in which the axis pierces the surface of the
+earth, or of the celestial sphere.
+
+A _meridian_ is a great circle of the earth cut out by a plane passing
+through the axis. All meridians are therefore north and south lines
+passing through the poles.
+
+From these definitions it follows that if there were a star exactly at
+the pole it would only be necessary to set up an instrument and take a
+bearing to it for the meridian. Such not being the case, however, we are
+obliged to take some one of the near circumpolar stars as our object,
+and correct the observation according to its angular distance from the
+meridian at the time of observation.
+
+For convenience, the bright star known as Ursæ Minoris or Polaris, is
+generally selected. This star apparently revolves about the north pole,
+in an orbit whose mean radius is 1° 19' 13",[1] making the revolution in
+23 hours 56 minutes.
+
+[Footnote 1: This is the codeclination as given in the Nautical Almanac.
+The mean value decreases by about 20 seconds each year.]
+
+During this time it must therefore cross the meridian twice, once above
+the pole and once below; the former is called the _upper_, and the
+latter the _lower meridian transit or culmination_. It must also pass
+through the points farthest east and west from the meridian. The former
+is called the _eastern elongation_, the latter the _western_.
+
+An observation may he made upon Polaris at any of these four points,
+or at any other point of its orbit, but this latter case becomes too
+complicated for ordinary practice, and is therefore not considered.
+
+If the observation were made upon the star at the time of its upper or
+lower culmination, it would give the true meridian at once, but this
+involves a knowledge of the true local time of transit, or the longitude
+of the place of observation, which is generally an unknown quantity; and
+moreover, as the star is then moving east or west, or at right angles to
+the place of the meridian, at the rate of 15° of arc in about one hour,
+an error of so slight a quantity as only four seconds of time would
+introduce an error of one minute of arc. If the observation be made,
+however, upon either elongation, when the star is moving up or down,
+that is, in the direction of the vertical wire of the instrument, the
+error of observation in the angle between it and the pole will be
+inappreciable. This is, therefore, the best position upon which to make
+the observation, as the precise time of the elongation need not be
+given. It can be determined with sufficient accuracy by a glance at the
+relative positions of the star Alioth, in the handle of the Dipper,
+and Polaris (see Fig. 1). When the line joining these two stars is
+horizontal or nearly so, and Alioth is to the _west_ of Polaris, the
+latter is at its _eastern_ elongation, and _vice versa_, thus:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But since the star at either elongation is off the meridian, it will
+be necessary to determine the angle at the place of observation to be
+turned off on the instrument to bring it into the meridian. This angle,
+called the azimuth of the pole star, varies with the latitude of the
+observer, as will appear from Fig 2, and hence its value must be
+computed for different latitudes, and the surveyor must know his
+_latitude_ before he can apply it. Let N be the north pole of the
+celestial sphere; S, the position of Polaris at its eastern elongation;
+then N S=1° 19' 13", a constant quantity. The azimuth of Polaris at the
+latitude 40° north is represented by the angle N O S, and that at 60°
+north, by the angle N O' S, which is greater, being an exterior angle
+of the triangle, O S O. From this we see that the azimuth varies at the
+latitude.
+
+We have first, then, to _find the latitude of the place of observation_.
+
+Of the several methods for doing this, we shall select the simplest,
+preceding it by a few definitions.
+
+A _normal_ line is the one joining the point directly overhead, called
+the _zenith_, with the one under foot called the _nadir_.
+
+The _celestial horizon_ is the intersection of the celestial sphere by a
+plane passing through the center of the earth and perpendicular to the
+normal.
+
+A _vertical circle_ is one whose plane is perpendicular to the horizon,
+hence all such circles must pass through the normal and have the zenith
+and nadir points for their poles. The _altitude_ of a celestial object
+is its distance above the horizon measured on the arc of a vertical
+circle. As the distance from the horizon to the zenith is 90°, the
+difference, or _complement_ of the altitude, is called the _zenith
+distance_, or _co-altitude_.
+
+The _azimuth_ of an object is the angle between the vertical plane
+through the object and the plane of the meridian, measured on the
+horizon, and usually read from the south point, as 0°, through west, at
+90, north 180°, etc., closing on south at 0° or 360°.
+
+These two co-ordinates, the altitude and azimuth, will determine the
+position of any object with reference to the observer's place. The
+latter's position is usually given by his latitude and longitude
+referred to the equator and some standard meridian as co-ordinates.
+
+The _latitude_ being the angular distance north or south of the equator,
+and the _longitude_ east or west of the assumed meridian.
+
+We are now prepared to prove that _the altitude of the pole is equal to
+the latitude of the place of observation_.
+
+Let H P Z Q¹, etc., Fig. 2, represent a meridian section of the sphere,
+in which P is the north pole and Z the place of observation, then H H¹
+will be the horizon, Q Q¹ the equator, H P will be the altitude of P,
+and Q¹ Z the latitude of Z. These two arcs are equal, for H C Z = P C
+Q¹ = 90°, and if from these equal quadrants the common angle P C Z be
+subtracted, the remainders H C P and Z C Q¹, will be equal.
+
+To _determine the altitude of the pole_, or, in other words, _the
+latitude of the place_.
+
+Observe the altitude of the pole star _when on the meridian_, either
+above or below the pole, and from this observed altitude corrected for
+refraction, subtract the distance of the star from the pole, or its
+_polar distance_, if it was an upper transit, or add it if a lower.
+The result will be the required latitude with sufficient accuracy for
+ordinary purposes.
+
+The time of the star's being on the meridian can be determined with
+sufficient accuracy by a mere inspection of the heavens. The refraction
+is _always negative_, and may be taken from the table appended by
+looking up the amount set opposite the observed altitude. Thus, if the
+observer's altitude should be 40° 39' the nearest refraction 01' 07",
+should be subtracted from 40° 37' 00", leaving 40° 37' 53" for the
+latitude.
+
+
+TO FIND THE AZIMUTH OF POLARIS.
+
+As we have shown the azimuth of Polaris to be a function of the
+latitude, and as the latitude is now known, we may proceed to find the
+required azimuth. For this purpose we have a right-angled spherical
+triangle, Z S P, Fig. 4, in which Z is the place of observation, P the
+north pole, and S is Polaris. In this triangle we have given the polar
+distance, P S = 10° 19' 13"; the angle at S = 90°; and the distance Z
+P, being the complement of the latitude as found above, or 90°--L.
+Substituting these in the formula for the azimuth, we will have sin. Z =
+sin. P S / sin P Z or sin. of Polar distance / sin. of co-latitude, from
+which, by assuming different values for the co-latitude, we compute the
+following table:
+
+       AZIMUTH TABLE FOR POINTS BETWEEN 26° and 50° N. LAT.
+
+                             LATTITUDES
+ ___________________________________________________________________
+|      |         |          |         |         |         |         |
+| Year |   26°   |   28°    |   30°   |   32°   |   34°   |   36°   |
+|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|
+|      |         |          |         |         |         |         |
+|      | ° '  "  | ° '  "   | ° '  "  | ° '  "  | ° '  "  | ° '  "  |
+| 1882 | 1 28 05 | 1 29 40  | 1 31 25 | 1 33 22 | 1 35 30 | 1 37 52 |
+| 1883 | 1 27 45 | 1 29 20  | 1 31 04 | 1 33 00 | 1 35 08 | 1 37 30 |
+| 1884 | 1 27 23 | 1 28 57  | 1 30 41 | 1 32 37 | 1 34 45 | 1 37 05 |
+| 1885 | 1 27 01 | 1 28 35œ | 1 30 19 | 1 32 14 | 1 34 22 | 1 36 41 |
+| 1886 | 1 26 39 | 1 28 13  | 1 29 56 | 1 31 51 | 1 33 57 | 1 36 17 |
+|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|
+|      |         |          |         |         |         |         |
+| Year |   38°   |   40°    |   42°   |   44°   |   46°   |   48°   |
+|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|
+|      |         |          |         |         |         |         |
+|      | ° '  "  | ° '  "   | ° '  "  | ° '  "  | ° '  "  | ° '  "  |
+| 1882 | 1 40 29 | 1 43 21  | 1 46 33 | 1 50 05 | 1 53 59 | 1 58 20 |
+| 1883 | 1 40 07 | 1 42 58  | 1 46 08 | 1 49 39 | 1 53 34 | 1 57 53 |
+| 1884 | 1 39 40 | 1 42 31  | 1 45 41 | 1 49 11 | 1 53 05 | 1 57 23 |
+| 1885 | 1 39 16 | 1 42 07  | 1 45 16 | 1 48 45 | 1 52 37 | 1 56 54 |
+| 1886 | 1 38 51 | 1 41 41  | 1 44 49 | 1 48 17 | 1 52 09 | 1 56 24 |
+|______|_________|__________|_________|_________|_________|_________|
+|      |         |
+| Year |   50°   |
+|______|_________|
+|      |         |
+|      | ° '  "  |
+| 1882 | 2 03 11 |
+| 1883 | 2 02 42 |
+| 1884 | 2 02 11 |
+| 1885 | 2 01 42 |
+| 1886 | 2 01 11 |
+|______|_________|
+
+An analysis of this table shows that the azimuth this year (1882)
+increases with the latitude from 1° 28' 05" at 26° north, to 2° 3' 11"
+at 50° north, or 35' 06". It also shows that the azimuth of Polaris at
+any one point of observation decreases slightly from year to year. This
+is due to the increase in declination, or decrease in the star's polar
+distance. At 26° north latitude, this annual decrease in the azimuth
+is about 22", while at 50° north, it is about 30". As the variation in
+azimuth for each degree of latitude is small, the table is only computed
+for the even numbered degrees; the intermediate values being readily
+obtained by interpolation. We see also that an error of a few minutes of
+latitude will not affect the result in finding the meridian, e.g., the
+azimuth at 40° north latitude is 1° 43' 21", that at 41° would be 1° 44'
+56", the difference (01' 35") being the correction for one degree of
+latitude between 40° and 41°. Or, in other words, an error of one degree
+in finding one's latitude would only introduce an error in the azimuth
+of one and a half minutes. With ordinary care the probable error of the
+latitude as determined from the method already described need not exceed
+a few minutes, making the error in azimuth as laid off on the arc of an
+ordinary transit graduated to single minutes, practically zero.
+
+REFRACTION TABLE FOR ANY ALTITUDE WITHIN THE LATITUDE OF THE UNITED
+STATES.
+
+ _____________________________________________________
+|           |              |           |              |
+| Apparent  | Refraction   | Apparent  | Refraction   |
+| Altitude. | _minus_.     | Altitude. | _minus_.     |
+|___________|______________|___________|______________|
+|           |              |           |              |
+|    25°    | 0° 2' 4.2"   |    38°    | 0° 1' 14.4"  |
+|    26     |    1 58.8    |    39     |    1  11.8   |
+|    27     |    1 53.8    |    40     |    1   9.3   |
+|    28     |    1 49.1    |    41     |    1   6.9   |
+|    29     |    1 44.7    |    42     |    1   4.6   |
+|    30     |    1 40.5    |    43     |    1   2.4   |
+|    31     |    1 36.6    |    44     |    0   0.3   |
+|    32     |    1 33.0    |    45     |    0  58.1   |
+|    33     |    1 29.5    |    46     |    0  56.1   |
+|    34     |    1 26.1    |    47     |    0  54.2   |
+|    35     |    1 23.0    |    48     |    0  52.3   |
+|    36     |    1 20.0    |    49     |    0  50.5   |
+|    37     |    1 17.1    |    50     |    0  48.8   |
+|___________|______________|___________|______________|
+
+
+APPLICATIONS.
+
+In practice to find the true meridian, two observations must be made at
+intervals of six hours, or they may be made upon different nights. The
+first is for latitude, the second for azimuth at elongation.
+
+To make either, the surveyor should provide himself with a good transit
+with vertical arc, a bull's eye, or hand lantern, plumb bobs, stakes,
+etc.[1] Having "set up" over the point through which it is proposed to
+establish the meridian, at a time when the line joining Polaris and
+Alioth is nearly vertical, level the telescope by means of the attached
+level, which should be in adjustment, set the vernier of the vertical
+arc at zero, and take the reading. If the pole star is about making its
+_upper_ transit, it will rise gradually until reaching the meridian as
+it moves westward, and then as gradually descend. When near the highest
+part of its orbit point the telescope at the star, having an assistant
+to hold the "bull's eye" so as to reflect enough light down the tube
+from the object end to illumine the cross wires but not to obscure the
+star, or better, use a perforated silvered reflector, clamp the tube in
+this position, and as the star continues to rise keep the _horizontal_
+wire upon it by means of the tangent screw until it "rides" along this
+wire and finally begins to fall below it. Take the reading of the
+vertical arc and the result will be the observed altitude.
+
+[Footnote 1: A sextant and artificial horizon may be used to find the
+_altitude_ of a star. In this case the observed angle must be divided by
+2.]
+
+
+ANOTHER METHOD.
+
+It is a little more accurate to find the altitude by taking the
+complement of the observed zenith distance, if the vertical arc has
+sufficient range. This is done by pointing first to Polaris when at
+its highest (or lowest) point, reading the vertical arc, turning the
+horizontal limb half way around, and the telescope over to get another
+reading on the star, when the difference of the two readings will be the
+_double_ zenith distance, and _half_ of this subtracted from 90° will be
+the required altitude. The less the time intervening between these two
+pointings, the more accurate the result will be.
+
+Having now found the altitude, correct it for refraction by subtracting
+from it the amount opposite the observed altitude, as given in the
+refraction table, and the result will be the latitude. The observer must
+now wait about six hours until the star is at its western elongation,
+or may postpone further operations for some subsequent night. In the
+meantime he will take from the azimuth table the amount given for his
+date and latitude, now determined, and if his observation is to be made
+on the western elongation, he may turn it off on his instrument, so
+that when moved to zero, _after_ the observation, the telescope will be
+brought into the meridian or turned to the right, and a stake set by
+means of a lantern or plummet lamp.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It is, of course, unnecessary to make this correction at the time of
+observation, for the angle between any terrestrial object and the star
+may be read and the correction for the azimuth of the star applied at
+the surveyor's convenience. It is always well to check the accuracy of
+the work by an observation upon the other elongation before putting in
+permanent meridian marks, and care should be taken that they are not
+placed near any local attractions. The meridian having been established,
+the magnetic variation or declination may readily be found by setting
+an instrument on the meridian and noting its bearing as given by the
+needle. If, for example, it should be north 5° _east_, the variation is
+west, because the north end of the needle is _west_ of the meridian, and
+_vice versa_.
+
+_Local time_ may also be readily found by observing the instant when the
+sun's center[1] crosses the line, and correcting it for the equation of
+time as given above--the result is the true or mean solar time. This,
+compared with the clock, will show the error of the latter, and by
+taking the difference between the local lime of this and any other
+place, the difference of longitude is determined in hours, which can
+readily be reduced to degrees by multiplying by fifteen, as 1 h. = 15°.
+
+[Footnote 1: To obtain this time by observation, note the instant of
+first contact of the sun's limb, and also of last contact of same, and
+take the mean.]
+
+APPROXIMATE EQUATION OF TIME.
+
+     _______________________
+    |          |            |
+    |   Date.  |  Minutes.  |
+    |__________|____________|
+    |          |            |
+    | Jan.   1 |        4   |
+    |        3 |        5   |
+    |        5 |        6   |
+    |        7 |        7   |
+    |        9 |        8   |
+    |       12 |        9   |
+    |       15 |       10   |
+    |       18 |       11   |
+    |       21 |       12   |
+    |       25 |       13   |
+    |       31 |       14   |
+    | Feb.  10 |       15   |
+    |       21 |       14   |  Clock
+    |       27 |       13   |  faster
+    | M'ch   4 |       12   |  than
+    |        8 |       11   |  sun.
+    |       12 |       10   |
+    |       15 |        9   |
+    |       19 |        8   |
+    |       22 |        7   |
+    |       25 |        6   |
+    |       28 |        5   |
+    | April  1 |        4   |
+    |        4 |        3   |
+    |        7 |        2   |
+    |       11 |        1   |
+    |       15 |        0   |
+    |          |------------|
+    |       19 |        1   |
+    |       24 |        2   |
+    |       30 |        3   |
+    | May   13 |        4   |  Clock
+    |       29 |        3   |  slower.
+    | June   5 |        2   |
+    |       10 |        1   |
+    |       15 |        0   |
+    |          |------------|
+    |       20 |        1   |
+    |       25 |        2   |
+    |       29 |        3   |
+    | July   5 |        4   |
+    |       11 |        5   |
+    |       28 |        6   |  Clock
+    | Aug.   9 |        5   |  faster.
+    |       15 |        4   |
+    |       20 |        3   |
+    |       24 |        2   |
+    |       28 |        1   |
+    |       31 |        0   |
+    |          |------------|
+    | Sept.  3 |        1   |
+    |        6 |        2   |
+    |        9 |        3   |
+    |       12 |        4   |
+    |       15 |        5   |
+    |       18 |        6   |
+    |       21 |        7   |
+    |       24 |        8   |
+    |       27 |        9   |
+    |       30 |       10   |
+    | Oct.   3 |       11   |
+    |        6 |       12   |
+    |       10 |       13   |
+    |       14 |       14   |
+    |       19 |       15   |
+    |       27 |       16   |  Clock
+    | Nov.  15 |       15   |  slower.
+    |       20 |       14   |
+    |       24 |       13   |
+    |       27 |       12   |
+    |       30 |       11   |
+    | Dec.   2 |       10   |
+    |        5 |        9   |
+    |        7 |        8   |
+    |        9 |        7   |
+    |       11 |        6   |
+    |       13 |        5   |
+    |       16 |        4   |
+    |       18 |        3   |
+    |       20 |        2   |
+    |       22 |        1   |
+    |       24 |        0   |
+    |          |------------|
+    |       26 |        1   |
+    |       28 |        2   |  Clock
+    |       30 |        3   |  faster.
+    |__________|____________|
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE OCELLATED PHEASANT.
+
+
+The collections of the Museum of Natural History of Paris have just been
+enriched with a magnificent, perfectly adult specimen of a species of
+bird that all the scientific establishments had put down among their
+desiderata, and which, for twenty years past, has excited the curiosity
+of naturalists. This species, in fact, was known only by a few caudal
+feathers, of which even the origin was unknown, and which figured in the
+galleries of the Jardin des Plantes under the name of _Argus ocellatus_.
+This name was given by J. Verreaux, who was then assistant naturalist at
+the museum. It was inscribed by Prince Ch. L. Bonaparte, in his Tableaux
+Paralléliques de l'Ordre des Gallinaces, as _Argus giganteus_, and a
+few years later it was reproduced by Slater in his Catalogue of the
+Phasianidæ, and by Gray is his List of the Gallinaceæ. But it was not
+till 1871 and 1872 that Elliot, in the Annals and Magazine of Natural
+History, and in a splendid monograph of the Phasianidæ, pointed out
+the peculiarities that were presented by the feathers preserved at the
+Museum of Paris, and published a figure of them of the natural size.
+
+The discovery of an individual whose state of preservation leaves
+nothing to be desired now comes to demonstrate the correctness of
+Verreaux's, Bonaparte's, and Elliot's suppositions. This bird, whose
+tail is furnished with feathers absolutely identical with those that
+the museum possessed, is not a peacock, as some have asserted, nor an
+ordinary Argus of Malacca, nor an argus of the race that Elliot named
+_Argus grayi_, and which inhabits Borneo, but the type of a new genus of
+the family Phasianidæ. This Gallinacean, in fact, which Mr. Maingonnat
+has given up to the Museum of Natural History, has not, like the common
+Argus of Borneo, excessively elongated secondaries; and its tail is not
+formed of normal rectrices, from the middle of which spring two very
+long feathers, a little curved and arranged like a roof; but it consists
+of twelve wide plane feathers, regularly tapering, and ornamented with
+ocellated spots, arranged along the shaft. Its head is not bare, but is
+adorned behind with a tuft of thread-like feathers; and, finally, its
+system of coloration and the proportions of the different parts of its
+body are not the same as in the common argus of Borneo. There is reason,
+then, for placing the bird, under the name of _Rheinardius ocellatus_,
+in the family Phasianidæ, after the genus _Argus_ which it connects,
+after a manner, with the pheasants properly so-called. The specific name
+_ocellatus_ has belonged to it since 1871, and must be substituted for
+that of _Rheinardi_.
+
+The bird measures more than two meters in length, three-fourths of which
+belong to the tail. The head, which is relatively small, appears to be
+larger than it really is, owing to the development of the piliform tuft
+on the occiput, this being capable of erection so as to form a crest
+0.05 to 0.06 of a meter in height. The feathers of this crest are
+brown and white. The back and sides of the head are covered with downy
+feathers of a silky brown and silvery gray, and the front of the neck
+with piliform feathers of a ruddy brown. The upper part of the body is
+of a blackish tint and the under part of a reddish brown, the whole
+dotted with small white or _café-au-lait_ spots. Analogous spots are
+found on the wings and tail, but on the secondaries these become
+elongated, and tear-like in form. On the remiges the markings are quite
+regularly hexagonal in shape; and on the upper coverts of the tail
+and on the rectrices they are accompanied with numerous ferruginous
+blotches, some of which are irregularly scattered over the whole surface
+of the vane, while others, marked in the center with a blackish spot,
+are disposed in series along the shaft and resemble ocelli. This
+similitude of marking between the rectrices and subcaudals renders the
+distinction between these two kinds of feathers less sharp than in many
+other Gallinaceans, and the more so in that two median rectrices are
+considerably elongated and assume exactly the aspect of tail feathers.
+
+[Illustration: THE OCELLATED PHEASANT (_Rheinardius ocellatus_).]
+
+The true rectrices are twelve in number. They are all absolutely plane,
+all spread out horizontally, and they go on increasing in length
+from the exterior to the middle. They are quite wide at the point of
+insertion, increase in diameter at the middle, and afterward taper to
+a sharp point. Altogether they form a tail of extraordinary length and
+width which the bird holds slightly elevated, so as to cause it to
+describe a graceful curve, and the point of which touches the soil. The
+beak, whose upper mandible is less arched than that of the pheasants,
+exactly resembles that of the arguses. It is slightly inflated at the
+base, above the nostrils, and these latter are of an elongated-oval
+form. In the bird that I have before me the beak, as well as the feet
+and legs, is of a dark rose-color. The legs are quite long and are
+destitute of spurs. They terminate in front in three quite delicate
+toes, connected at the base by membranes, and behind in a thumb that is
+inserted so high that it scarcely touches the ground in walking. This
+magnificent bird was captured in a portion of Tonkin as yet unexplored
+by Europeans, in a locality named Buih-Dinh, 400 kilometers to the south
+of Hué.--_La Nature_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE MAIDENHAIR TREE.
+
+
+The Maidenhair tree--Gingkgo biloba--of which we give an illustration,
+is not only one of our most ornamental deciduous trees, but one of the
+most interesting. Few persons would at first sight take it to be a
+Conifer, more especially as it is destitute of resin; nevertheless,
+to that group it belongs, being closely allied to the Yew, but
+distinguishable by its long-stalked, fan-shaped leaves, with numerous
+radiating veins, as in an Adiantum. These leaves, like those of the
+larch but unlike most Conifers, are deciduous, turning of a pale yellow
+color before they fall. The tree is found in Japan and in China, but
+generally in the neighborhood of temples or other buildings, and is, we
+believe, unknown in a truly wild state. As in the case of several other
+trees planted in like situations, such as Cupressus funebris, Abies
+fortunei, A. kæmpferi, Cryptomeria japonica, Sciadopitys verticillata,
+it is probable that the trees have been introduced from Thibet, or
+other unexplored districts, into China and Japan. Though now a solitary
+representative of its genus, the Gingkgo was well represented in the
+coal period, and also existed through the secondary and tertiary epochs,
+Professor Heer having identified kindred specimens belonging to sixty
+species and eight genera in fossil remains generally distributed through
+the northern hemisphere. Whatever inference we may draw, it is at least
+certain that the tree was well represented in former times, if now it
+be the last of its race. It was first known to Kæmpfer in 1690, and
+described by him in 1712, and was introduced into this country in the
+middle of the eighteenth century. Loudon relates a curious tale as
+to the manner in which a French amateur became possessed of it. The
+Frenchman, it appears, came to England, and paid a visit to an English
+nurseryman, who was the possessor of five plants, raised from Japanese
+seeds. The hospitable Englishman entertained the Frenchman only too
+well. He allowed his commercial instincts to be blunted by wine, and
+sold to his guest the five plants for the sum of 25 guineas. Next
+morning, when time for reflection came, the Englishman attempted to
+regain one only of the plants for the same sum that the Frenchman had
+given for all five, but without avail. The plants were conveyed to
+France, where as each plant had cost about 40 crowns, _ecus_, the tree
+got the name of _arbre a quarante ecus_. This is the story as given by
+Loudon, who tells us that Andre Thouin used to relate the fact in his
+lectures at the Jardin des Plantes, whether as an illustration of the
+perfidy of Albion is not stated.
+
+The tree is dioecious, bearing male catkins on one plant, female on
+another. All the female trees in Europe are believed to have originated
+from a tree near Geneva, of which Auguste Pyramus de Candolle secured
+grafts, and distributed them throughout the Continent. Nevertheless, the
+female tree is rarely met with, as compared with the male; but it is
+quite possible that a tree which generally produces male flowers only
+may sometimes bear female flowers only. We have no certain evidence of
+this in the case of the Gingkgo, but it is a common enough occurrence in
+other dioecious plants, and the occurrence of a fruiting specimen near
+Philadelphia, as recently recorded by Mr. Meehan, may possibly be
+attributed to this cause.
+
+The tree of which we give a figure is growing at Broadlands, Hants, and
+is about 40 feet in height, with a trunk that measures 7 feet in girth
+at 3 feet from the ground, with a spread of branches measuring 45 feet.
+These dimensions have been considerably exceeded in other cases. In 1837
+a tree at Purser's Cross measured 60 feet and more in height. Loudon
+himself had a small tree in his garden at Bayswater on which a female
+branch was grafted. It is to be feared that this specimen has long since
+perished.
+
+We have already alluded to its deciduous character, in which it is
+allied to the larch. It presents another point of resemblance both to
+the larch and the cedar in the short spurs upon which both leaves and
+male catkins are borne, but these contracted branches are mingled with
+long extension shoots; there seems, however, no regular alternation
+between the short and the long shoots, at any rate the _rationale_ of
+their production is not understood, though in all probability a little
+observation of the growing plant would soon clear the matter up.
+
+The fruit is drupaceous, with a soft outer coat and a hard woody shell,
+greatly resembling that of a Cycad, both externally and internally.
+Whether the albumen contains the peculiar "corpuscles" common to Cycads
+and Conifers, we do not for certain know, though from the presence of 2
+to 3 embryos in one seed, as noted by Endlicher, we presume this is the
+case. The interest of these corpuscles, it may be added, lies in the
+proof of affinity they offer between Conifers and the higher Cryptogams,
+such as ferns and lycopods--an affinity shown also in the peculiar
+venation of the Gingkgo. Conifers are in some degree links between
+ordinary flowering plants and the higher Cryptogams, and serve to
+connect in genealogical sequence groups once considered quite distinct.
+In germination the two fleshy cotyledons of the Gingkgo remain within
+the shell, leaving the three-sided plumule to pass upward; the young
+stem bears its leaves in threes.
+
+We have no desire to enter further upon the botanical peculiarities of
+this tree; enough if we have indicated in what its peculiar interest
+consists. We have only to add that in gardens varieties exist some with
+leaves more deeply cut than usual, others with leaves nearly entire, and
+others with leaves of a golden-yellow color.--_Gardeners' Chronicle_.
+
+[Illustration: THE MAIDENHAIR TREE IN THE GARDENS AT BROADLANDS.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE WOODS OF AMERICA.
+
+
+A collection of woods without a parallel in the world is now being
+prepared for exhibition by the Directors of the American Museum of
+Natural History. Scattered about the third floor of the Arsenal, in
+Central Park, lie 394 logs, some carefully wrapped in bagging,
+some inclosed in rough wooden cases, and others partially sawn
+longitudinally, horizontally, and diagonally. These logs represent all
+but 26 of the varieties of trees indigenous to this country, and
+nearly all have a greater or less economic or commercial value. The 26
+varieties needed to complete the collection will arrive before winter
+sets in, a number of specimens being now on their way to this city from
+the groves of California. Mr. S. D. Dill and a number of assistants are
+engaged in preparing the specimens for exhibition. The logs as they
+reach the workroom are wrapped in bagging and inclosed in cases, this
+method being used so that the bark, with its growth of lichens and
+delicate exfoliations, shall not be injured while the logs are in
+process of transportation from various parts of the country to this
+city. The logs are each 6 feet in length, and each is the most perfect
+specimen of its class that could be found by the experts employed in
+making the collection. With the specimens of the trees come to the
+museum also specimens of the foliage and the fruits and flowers of the
+tree. These come from all parts of the Union--from Alaska on the north
+to Texas on the south, from Maine on the east to California on the
+west--and there is not a State or Territory in the Union which has not a
+representative in this collection of logs. On arrival here the logs are
+green, and the first thing in the way of treatment after their arrival
+is to season them, a work requiring great care to prevent them from
+"checking," as it is technically called, or "season cracking," as the
+unscientific term the splitting of the wood in radiating lines during
+the seasoning process. As is well known, the sap-wood of a tree seasons
+much more quickly than does the heart of the wood. The prevention of
+this splitting is very necessary in preparing these specimens for
+exhibition, for when once the wood has split its value for dressing for
+exhibition is gone. A new plan to prevent this destruction of specimens
+is now being tried with some success under the direction of Prof.
+Bickmore, superintendent of the museum. Into the base of the log and
+alongside the heart a deep hole is bored with an auger. As the wood
+seasons this hole permits of a pressure inward and so has in many
+instances doubtless saved valuable specimens. One of the finest in the
+collection, a specimen of the persimmon tree, some two feet in diameter,
+has been ruined by the seasoning process. On one side there is a huge
+crack, extending from the top to the bottom of the log, which looks as
+though some amateur woodman had attempted to split it with an ax and
+had made a poor job of it. The great shrinking of the sap-wood of the
+persimmon tree makes the wood of but trifling value commercially.
+It also has a discouraging effect upon collectors, as it is next to
+impossible to cure a specimen, so that all but this one characteristic
+of the wood can be shown to the public in a perfect form.
+
+Before the logs become thoroughly seasoned, or their lines of growth at
+all obliterated, a diagram of each is made, showing in accordance with
+a regular scale the thickness of the bark, the sap-wood, and the heart.
+There is also in this diagram a scale showing the growth of the tree
+during each year of its life, these yearly growths being regularly
+marked about the heart of the tree by move or less regular concentric
+circles, the width of which grows smaller and smaller as the tree grows
+older. In this connection attention may be called to a specimen in the
+collection which is considered one of the most remarkable in the world.
+It is not a native wood, but an importation, and the tree from which
+this wonderful slab is cut is commonly known as the "Pride of India."
+The heart of this particular tree was on the port side, and between it
+and the bark there is very little sap-wood, not more than an inch.
+On the starbord side, so to speak, the sap-wood has grown out in an
+abnormal manner, and one of the lines indicative of a year's growth is
+one and seven-eighths inches in width, the widest growth, many experts
+who have seen the specimen say, that was ever recorded. The diagrams
+referred to are to be kept for scientific uses, and the scheme of
+exhibition includes these diagrams as a part of the whole.
+
+After a log has become seasoned it is carefully sawed through the center
+down about one-third of its length. A transverse cut is then made and
+the semi-cylindrical section thus severed from the log is removed. The
+upper end is then beveled. When a log is thus treated the inspector can
+see the lower two-thirds presenting exactly the same appearance it did
+when growing in the forest. The horizontal cut, through the sap-wood
+and to the center of the heart, shows the life lines of the tree, and
+carefully planed as are this portion, the perpendicular and the beveled
+sections, the grain of the wood can thus be plainly seen. That these may
+be made even more valuable to the architect and artisan, the right half
+of this planed surface will be carefully polished, and the left half
+left in the natural state. This portion of the scheme of treatment is
+entirely in the interests of architects and artisans, and it is expected
+by Prof. Bickmore that it will be the means of securing for some kinds
+of trees, essentially of American growth, and which have been virtually
+neglected, an important place in architecture and in ornamental
+wood-work, and so give a commercial value to woods that are now of
+comparatively little value.
+
+Among the many curious specimens in the collection now being prepared
+for exhibition, one which will excite the greatest curiosity is a
+specimen of the honey locust, which was brought here from Missouri.
+The bark is covered with a growth of thorns from one to four inches
+in length, sharp as needles, and growing at irregular intervals. The
+specimen arrived here in perfect condition, but, in order that it might
+be transported without injury, it had to be suspended from the roof of
+a box car, and thus make its trip from Southern Missouri to this city
+without change. Another strange specimen in the novel collection is a
+portion of the Yucca tree, an abnormal growth of the lily family. The
+trunk, about 2 feet in diameter, is a spongy mass, not susceptible of
+treatment to which the other specimens are subjected. Its bark is an
+irregular stringy, knotted mass, with porcupine-quill-like leaves
+springing out in place of the limbs that grow from all well-regulated
+trees. One specimen of the yucca was sent to the museum two years ago,
+and though the roots and top of the tree were sawn off, shoots sprang
+out, and a number of the handsome flowers appeared. The tree was
+supposed to be dead and thoroughly seasoned by this Fall, but now, when
+the workmen are ready to prepare it for exhibition, it has shown new
+life, new shoots have appeared, and two tufts of green now decorate the
+otherwise dry and withered log, and the yucca promises to bloom again
+before the winter is over. One of the most perfect specimens of the
+Douglass spruce ever seen is in the collection, and is a decided
+curiosity. It is a recent arrival from the Rocky Mountains. Its bark,
+two inches or more in thickness, is perforated with holes reaching to
+the-sap-wood. Many of these contain acorns, or the remains of acorns,
+which have been stored there by provident woodpeckers, who dug the holes
+in the bark and there stored their winter supply of food. The oldest
+specimen in the collection is a section of the _Picea engelmanni_, a
+species of spruce growing in the Rocky Mountains at a considerable
+elevation above the sea. The specimen is 24 inches in diameter, and the
+concentric circles show its age to be 410 years. The wood much resembles
+the black spruce, and is the most valuable of the Rocky Mountain
+growths. A specimen of the nut pine, whose nuts are used for food by the
+Indians, is only 15 inches in diameter, and yet its life lines show its
+age to be 369 years. The largest specimen yet received is a section of
+the white ash, which is 46 inches in diameter and 182 years old. The
+next largest specimen is a section of the _Platanus occidentalis_,
+variously known in commerce as the sycamore, button-wood, or plane tree,
+which is 42 inches in diameter and only 171 years of age. Specimens of
+the redwood tree of California are now on their way to this city from
+the Yosemite Valley. One specimen, though a small one, measures 5 feet
+in diameter and shows the character of the wood. A specimen of
+the enormous growths of this tree was not secured because of the
+impossibility of transportation and the fact that there would be no room
+in the museum for the storage of such a specimen, for the diameter of
+the largest tree of the class is 45 feet and 8 inches, which represents
+a circumference of about 110 feet. Then, too, the Californians object to
+have the giant trees cut down for commercial, scientific, or any other
+purposes.
+
+To accompany these specimens of the woods of America, Mr. Morris K.
+Jesup, who has paid all the expense incurred in the collection of
+specimens, is having prepared as an accompanying portion of the
+exhibition water color drawings representing the actual size, color,
+and appearance of the fruit, foliage, and flowers of the various trees.
+Their commercial products, as far as they can be obtained, will also be
+exhibited, as, for instance, in the case of the long-leaved pine, the
+tar, resin, and pitch, for which it is especially valued. Then, too, in
+an herbarium the fruits, leaves, and flowers are preserved as nearly as
+possible in their natural state. When the collection is ready for public
+view next spring it will be not only the largest, but the only complete
+one of its kind in the country. There is nothing like it in the world,
+as far as is known; certainly not in the royal museums of England,
+France, or Germany.
+
+Aside from the value of the collection, in a scientific way, it is
+proposed to make it an adjunct to our educational system, which requires
+that teachers shall instruct pupils as to the materials used for food
+and clothing. The completeness of the exhibition will be of great
+assistance also to landscape gardeners, as it will enable them to lay
+out private and public parks so that the most striking effects of
+foliage may be secured. The beauty of these effects can best be seen in
+this country in our own Central Park, where there are more different
+varieties and more combinations for foliage effects than in any other
+area in the United States. To ascertain how these effects are obtained
+one now has to go to much trouble to learn the names of the trees. With
+this exhibition such information can be had merely by observation, for
+the botanical and common names of each specimen will be attached to
+it. It will also be of practical use in teaching the forester how to
+cultivate trees as he would other crops. The rapid disappearance of
+many valuable forest trees, with the increase in demand and decrease in
+supply, will tend to make the collection valuable as a curiosity in
+the not far distant future as representing the extinct trees of the
+country.--_N.Y. Times_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A catalogue, containing brief notices of many important scientific
+papers heretofore published in the SUPPLEMENT, may be had gratis at this
+office.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT.
+
+PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
+
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+
+All the back numbers of THE SUPPLEMENT, from the commencement, January
+1, 1876, can be had. Price, 10 cents each.
+
+All the back volumes of THE SUPPLEMENT can likewise be supplied. Two
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+
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+
+A liberal discount to booksellers, news agents, and canvassers.
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+
+261 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+PATENTS.
+
+
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+Solicitors of American and Foreign Patents, have had 35 years'
+experience, and now have the largest establishment in the world. Patents
+are obtained on the best terms.
+
+A special notice is made in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of all Inventions
+patented through this Agency, with the name and residence of the
+Patentee. By the immense circulation thus given, public attention is
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+
+Any person who has made a new discovery or invention can ascertain, free
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+
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Scientific American Supplement No.
+360, November 25, 1882, by Various
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