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ON THE COMPOSITION OF ELEPHANTS' MILK.
[Footnote: Read before the American Chemical Society, June 3,1881.]
By CHAS. A. DOREMUS, M.D., Ph.D.
Noticing the recent advertisements in the city regarding the "Baby Elephant," it occurred to me that perhaps no analysis of the milk of this species of the mammalia had been recorded. This I found corroborated, for though the milk of many animals had been subjected to analysis, no opportunity had ever presented itself to obtain elephants' milk.
Through the courtesy of Jas. A. Bailey I was enabled to procure samples of the milk on several occasions.
On March 10, 1880, the elephant Hebe gave birth to the female calf America. Hebe is now twenty eight years old, and the father of the calf, Mandrie, thirty-two. Since the birth of the "Baby," the mother has been in excellent health, except during about ten days, when she suffered from a slight indisposition, which soon left her.
When born the calf weighed 2131/2 lbs., and in April, 1881, weighed 900 lbs. A very fair year's growth on a milk diet. At the time I procured the samples both mother and calf were in fine health.
To obtain the milk was a matter of some difficulty. The calf was constantly sucking, nursing two or three times an hour, morning, noon, and night. The milk could be drawn from either of the two teats, but only in small quantity. The mother gave the fluid freely enough, apparently, to her infant, but sparingly to inquisitive man, so the ruse had to be resorted to of milking one teat while the calf was at the other.
When I first examined the specimens they seemed watery, but to my surprise, on allowing the milk to stand, I could not help wondering at the large percentage of cream.
The following represents approximately the daily diet of the mother:
Three pecks of oats, one bucket bran mash, five or six loaves of bread, half a bushel of roots (potatoes, etc.), fifty to seventy-five pounds of hay, and forty gallons of water.
Elephants eat continually, little at a time, to be sure, but are constantly picking. This habit is also observable in the way the calf nurses. The first specimen of milk was procured on the morning of April 5, the second on the 9th, and the third on the 10th.
The last exceeded the others in quantity, and is therefore the fairest of the three. It took several milkings to get even these, for the calf would begin to nurse, then stop, and when she stopped the flow of milk did also.
I was assured by Mr. Cross and the keeper, Mr. Copeland, that the milk I obtained had all the appearances of that drawn at various times since the birth of the calf. Mr. Cross, when in Boston, compared the milk with that from an Alderney cow, and found the volume of cream greater.
I endeavored to have the calf kept away from the mother for some hours, but could not, since she is allowed her freedom, as she worries under restraint, and besides, has never been taken from the mother. The calf picked at oats and hay, but was dependent on the mother for nourishment.
It would have been a matter of great satisfaction to me had I been able to obtain a larger quantity of the milk, or to have gained even an approximate knowledge of the daily yield, but was obliged to content myself with what I could get. By comparing several samples, however, a just conclusion regarding the quality was found. The analyses of the samples gave the following results:
No. I. II. III. April 5, April 9, April 10, Morning. Noon. Morning.
Quantity, 19 cc. 36 cc. 72 cc. Cream, 52-4, vol.% 58 62 Reaction, Neutral. Slightly alkaline. Slightly acid. Sp.gr., —— —— 1023.7
In 100 parts by weight. Water............67.567 69.286 66.697 Solids...........32.433 30.714 33.303 Fat..............17.546 19.095 22.070 Solids not fat...14.887 11.619 11.233 Casein...........14.236 3.694 3.212 Sugar............14.236 7.267 7.392 Ash.............. 0.651 0.658 0.629
Ten grammes were taken for analysis, and in No. III. duplicates were made.
It is evident from these analyses that the milk approaches the composition of cream, yet it did not have the consistency of ordinary cream—as cream even rose upon it. Under the microscope the globules presented a very perfect outline, and were beautifully even in size and very transparent.
The cream rose quickly, leaving a layer of bluish tinge below. The milk was pleasant in flavor and odor, and very superior in these respects to that of many animals such as goats or camels, and in quality equal to that of cows. Nor did the milk emit any rank odor on heating.
When ten grammes were evaporated to dryness, the last portions of water were hard to remove, as the residue fairly floated with oil. Only by long-continued application of heat, and in analysis III. over sulphuric acid in vacuo, could a constant weight be obtained.
I would have used sand in the drying, or Baumhauer's method of fat extraction, but for the small quantity of milk at my disposal and from fear of loss of fat in the latter case.
The fat in III. was determined by extracting the dried residue and also with 20 c. c. of milk by adding alkali and shaking with ether, removing and evaporating the ether and weighing the fat.
As is shown in the table the sp. gr. is very low, though the solids and solids not fat are great. The ash, casein, and sugar are in about the usual proportion. The weight of casein, it is true, is but half that of the sugar. The milk indeed shows an unusually great preponderance of the non-nitrogenized elements, and this seems to correspond with the wants of the animal, since fatty tissues are greatly developed in elephants. According to Mr. Cross, who has had large experience with these animals, they are fatter in the wild state than in bondage. These specimens must appear as exceptional; they may be considered by some as "strippings;" but as against such a view we have the recurrence in each sample of the same characteristics in the milk and a near correspondence in the composition. As may be seen from the subjoined analyses, given by v. Gorup Besanez,[1] the milk belongs to the class of which woman's and mare's milk are members, especially as regards the proportion of the non-nitrogenized to the nitrogenized elements.
[Footnote 1: "Lehrhuch der Physiologischen Chemie," pp. 423 and 424.]
Constituents. Woman. Cow. Goat. Ewe. Ass. Mare.
Water. 86.271 84.28 86.85 83.30 89.01 90.45 Solids. 13.729 15.72 13.52 16.60 10.99 9.55 Fat. 5.370 5.47 4.34 6.05 1.85 1.31 Casein. 3.57 2.53 2.950 5.73 3.57 2.53 Albumen. / 0.78 1.26 / / / Milk Sugar. 5.136 4.34 3.78 3.96 5.42 5.05 Ash. 0.223 0.63 0.65 0.68 / 0.29
Constituents. Buffalo. Camel. Sow. Hippo- Elephant. potamus.
Water. 80.640 86.34 81.80 90.43 66.697 Solids. 19.360 13.66 18.20 9.57 33.308 Fat. 8.450 2.90 6.00 4.51 22.070 Casein. 4.40 4.247 3.67 5.30 3.212 Albumen. / / / / Milk Sugar. 4.518 5.78 6.07 [1] 7.392 Ash. 0.845 0.66 0.83 0.11 0.629
[Footnote 1: Milk Sugar included.]
It may be remarked that though approaching the composition of cream it still differs enough to require it to be considered milk.
Perhaps if a larger quantity of the milk could be collected, it would have a more watery character, and approximate more nearly to other milks in that respect. However this may be the quality of the fat deserves some attention.
The fat has a light yellow color, resembling olive oil, is very pleasant in odor and taste, is liquid at common temperatures, but solidifies at 18 deg. C. or 64 deg. F.
The cow must yield a considerable quantity of milk, since the growth of the calf has been constant, and at the time these samples were milked the mother gave as freely to her babe as she ever had since its birth. The calf having gained seven to eight hundred pounds on a milk diet in one year, it is presumable that it had no lack of nourishment.
In size the "Baby" compared equally with other elephants in the same menagerie, who were known to be four and five years old.
From whatever standpoint, therefore, we view the lacteal product of these four-footed giants, we are fully warranted in ascribing to it not only extreme richness, but also great delicacy of flavor.
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THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF RICE, MAIZE, AND BARLEY.
By J. STEINER, F.C.S.
Rice contains much more starch, but on the other hand, much less albuminous matter and ash, than maize and barley. The compositions of different kinds of dried rice do not vary very much, but as the amount of moisture in the raw grain ranges from 5 to 15 per cent., no brewer ought to buy rice without having first of all inquired with the assistance of a chemist as to the percentage of water present in the sample.
Another point requiring attention is that of taking notice of the acidity, which also varies a good deal for different sorts of rice. In comparing the nutritive values of the three kinds of grain before us, Pillitz obtained the following numbers:
Barley. Maize. Rice. ——————— ——————- ————————— Air Dried at Air Dried at Air Dried at With Dry. 100 deg. C. Dry. 100 deg. C. Dry. 100 deg. C. Husk.
Moisture. 13.88 —- 13.89 —- 12.51 —- 12.00 Starch. 54.07 62.65 62.69 73.27 74.88 85.41 74.50 Dextrin and sugar. 5.66 6.67 3.57 4.14 1.12 1.26 —- Total albumen matter. 14.00 16.28 10.63 12.35 9.19 10.40 7.80 Mineral matter. 2.33 2.70 1.48 1.71 0.84 0.94 2.30 Fatty matter. 2.30 2.68 4.36 5.03 0.78 0.88 0.30 Cellulose matter. 7.76 9.02 3.38 4.50 0.68 1.11 3.10 —————————————————————————————- 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00
On looking over this table, we notice that rice contains by about 20 per cent, more starch than barley, and by about 10 to 12 per cent, more than maize.
But on the other hand, barley and maize are richer in albuminous matter and in ash. The extractive matter, i. e., the part which is soluble in cold water, is also much greater in barley and maize than in rice. The extractive matter is for barley 8.7 per cent., for maize 6.3 per cent., while rice contains only 2.1 per cent., and it consists in each case of dextrin, sugar, the soluble part of the ash, and of some nitrogenous matter (soluble albumen).
The amount of woody fiber or cellulose is considerable for rice with its husk, but only slight for samples without husk. The seat of the mineral matter of the grain of rice is mainly in the husk, and as this ash is very valuable as nourishment for the yeast plant, it is an open question whether it would not be preferable to use for brewing purposes rice with its husk. The comparatively largest amount of fat is contained in maize; and as such oil is not desirable for brewing purposes, different recommendations have been advanced for freeing the grain from it. In the following table some of the mineral constituents of the three kinds of grain are compared with each other. These data refer to 100 parts of ash, and are taken from analysis given by Dr. Emil Wolf.
100 parts of Potash Lime Magnesia Phosphoric Silica grain contain acid ash.
Barley. 21.9 2.5 8.3 32.8 27.2 2.55 p. ct. Rice with husk. 18.4 5.1 8.6 47.2 0.6 7.84 " Rice without husk. 23.3 2.9 13.4 51.0 3.0 0.39 " Maize. 27.0 2.7 14.6 44.7 2.2 1.42 "
The excessive amount of ash in rice with its husk is very remarkable, and as this mineral matter consists to a great extent of phosphoric acid and potash, the larger part of it is soluble in water. Consequently on using rice with its husk for brewing purposes, the yeast will be provided with a considerable amount of nutritive substance.
In conclusion it need hardly be mentioned that the use of rice with its husk would also be of considerable pecuniary advantage. There is very little oil in the husk of rice, as shown above by analysis, and it is not likely that the flavor of the brew would suffer by it.—London Brewers' Journal.
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PETROLEUM OILS.
Nothing is in more general use than petroleum, and but few things are known less about by the majority of persons. It is hydra-headed. It appears in many forms and under many names. "Burning fluid" is a popular name with many unscrupulous dealers in the cheap and nasty. "Burning fluid" is usually another name for naphtha, or something worse. Gasoline, naphtha, benzine, kerosene, paraffine, and many other dangerous fluids which make the fireman's vocation necessary are all the product of petroleum. These oils are produced by the distillation or refining of crude petroleum, and inasmuch as the public, especially firemen, are daily brought into contact with them it is proper that they should know something of their properties. Refining as commonly practiced involves three successive operations. The apparatus employed consists of an iron still connected with a coil or worm of wrought-iron pipe, which is submerged in a tank of water for the purpose of cooling it. The end of this pipe is fixed with a movable spout, which can be transferred or switched from one to another of half a dozen pipes which come around close to it, but which lead into different tanks containing different grades of the distillate. When the still has been filled with crude oil the fire is lighted beneath it, and soon the oil begins to boil. The first products of distillation are gases which, at ordinary temperatures, pass through the coil without being condensed, and escape. When the vapors begin to condense in the worm the oil trickles from the end of the coil into the pipe leading to the appropriate receiving tank.
The first oil obtained is known as gasoline, used in portable gas machines for making illuminating gas. Then, in turn, come naphthas of a greater or less gravity, benzine, high test water white burning oil, such as Pratt's Astral common burning oil or kerosene, and paraffine oils. When the oil has been distilled it is by no means fit for use, having a dirty color and most offensive smell; it is then refined. For this purpose it is pumped into a large vat or agitator, which holds from two hundred and fifty to one thousand barrels. There is then added to the oil about two per cent, of its volume of the strongest sulphuric acid. The whole mixture is then agitated by means of air pumps, which bring as much as possible every particle of oil in contact with the acid. The acid has no affinity for the oil, but it has for the tarry substance in it which discolors it, and, after the agitation, the acid with the tar settles to the bottom of the agitator, and the mixture is drawn off into a lead-lined tank. After the removal of the acid and tar, the clear oil is agitated with either caustic soda or ammonia and water. The alkali neutralizes the acid remaining in the oil, and the water removes the alkali, when the process of refining is finished. A few refiners improve the quality of their refined oil by redistilling it after treating it with acid and alkali. All distillates of petroleum have to be treated with acid and alkali to refine them. There is one thing peculiar about the distillates of petroleum, and that is that the run which follows naphtha, which is called "the middle run oil," is the highest test oil that is made, running as high as 150 and 160 degrees flash, while the common oil which follows, viz., from 45 down to 33 degrees Baume, will range at only about 100 flash, or 115 and 120 degrees burning lest.
An oil that will stand 100 flash will stand 110 burning test every time. Kerosene oil, at ordinary temperature, should extinguish a match as readily as water. When heated it should not evolve an inflammable vapor below 110 degrees, or, better, 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and should not take fire below 125 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. As the temperature in a burning lamp rarely exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit, such an oil would be safe. It would produce no vapors to mix with the air in the lamp and make an explosive mixture; and, if the lamp should be overturned, or broken, the oil would not be liable to take fire. The crude naphtha sells at from three to five cents per gallon, while the refined petroleum or kerosene sells at from fifteen to twenty cents. As great competition exists among the refiners, there is a strong inducement to turn the heavier portions of the naphtha into the kerosene tank, so as to get for it the price of kerosene. In this way the inflammable naphtha or benzine is sometimes mixed with the kerosene, rendering the whole highly dangerous. Dr. D. B. White, President of the Board of Health of New Orleans, found that experimenting on oil which flashed at 113 degrees Fahrenheit, an addition of one per cent. of naphtha caused it to flash at 103 degrees; two per cent. brought the flashing point down to 92 degrees, five per cent. to 83 degrees, ten per cent. to 59 degrees, and twenty per cent. of naphtha added brought the flashing point down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. After the addition of twenty per cent. of naphtha the oil burned at 50 degrees Fahrenheit. There are two distinct tests for oil, the flashing test and the burning test. The flashing test determines the flashing point of the oil, or the lowest temperature at which it gives off an inflammable vapor. This is the most important test, as it is the inflammable vapor, evolved at atmospheric temperatures, that causes most accidents. Moreover, an oil which has a high flashing test is sure to have a high burning test, while the reverse is not true. The burning test fixes the burning point of the oil, or the lowest temperature at which it takes fire. The burning point of an oil is from ten to fifty degrees Fahrenheit higher than the flashing point. The two points are quite independent of each other; the flashing point depends upon the amount of the most volatile constituents present, such as naphtha, etc., while the burning point depends upon the general character of the whole oil. One per cent. of naphtha will lower the flashing point of an oil ten degrees without materially affecting the burning test. The burning test does not determine the real safety of the oil, that is, the absence of naphtha. The flashing test should, therefore, be the only test, and the higher the flashing point the safer the oil.
In regard to the danger of using the lighter petroleum oils, the following, under the head of "Naphtha and Benzine under False Names," is taken from Prof. C. F. Chandler's article on "Petroleum" in Johnson's Cyclopedia. He says: "Processes have been patented, and venders have sold rights throughout the country, for patented and secret processes for rendering gasoline, naphtha, and benzine non-explosive. Thus treated, these explosive oils, just as explosive as before the treatment, are sold throughout the country under trade names. These processes are not only totally ineffective, but they are ridiculous. Roots, gums, barks, and salts are turned indiscriminately into the benzine, to leave it just as explosive as before. No wonder we have kerosene accidents, with agents scattered through the country selling county rights and teaching retail dealers how to make these murderous 'non-explosive' oils. The experiments these venders make to deceive their dupes are very convincing. None of the petroleum products are explosive per se, nor are their vapors explosive under all circumstances when mixed with air. A certain ratio of air to vapor is necessary to make an explosive mixture. Equal volumes of vapor and air will not explode; three parts of air and one of vapor gives a vigorous puff when ignited in a vessel; five volumes of air to one of vapor gives a loud report. The maximum degree of violence results from the explosion of eight or nine parts of air mixed with vapor. It requires considerable skill to make at will an explosive mixture with air and naphtha, and it is consequently very easy for the vender not to make one. In most cases the proportion of vapor is too great, and on bringing a flame in contact with the mixture it burns quietly. The vender, to make his oil appear non-explosive, unscrews the wick-tube and applies a match, when the vapor in the lamp quietly takes fire and burns without explosion. Or he pours some of the 'safety oil' into a saucer and lights it. There is no explosion, and ignorant persons, biased by the saving of a few cents per gallon, purchase the most dangerous oils in the market. It is not possible to make gasoline, naphtha, or benzine safe by any addition that can be made to it. Nor is any oil safe that can be set on fire at the ordinary temperature of the air. Nothing but the most stringent laws, making it a State prison offense to mix naphtha and illuminating oil, or to sell any product of petroleum as an illuminating oil or fluid to be used in lamps, or to be burned, except in air gas machines, that will evolve an inflammable vapor below 100 degrees, or better, 120 degrees Fahrenheit, will be effectual in remedying the evil. In case of an accident from the sale of oil below the standard, the seller should be compelled to pay all damages to property, and, if a life is sacrificed, should be punished for manslaughter. It should be made extremely hazardous to sell such oils." Prof Chandler is professor of analytical chemistry, School of Mines, Columbia College.
There is no substance on earth, or under the earth, which will chemically combine with naphtha, or that will destroy its peculiar volatile and explosive properties. The manufacturers of petroleum products have exhausted the whole resources of chemistry to make this product available as a safe burning oil, and their inability to do so proclaims the fact that it cannot be done. Chemistry has shown that naphtha, and, in fact, the other products of petroleum, will not part with their hydrogen or change the nature of their compounds, except by decomposition from a union with oxygen, that is, by combustion. These humbugs, who deceive people for their own gains, may put camphor, salt, alum, potatoes, etc., into naphtha, and call it by whatever fancy name they please. The camphor is dissolved, the salt partially; potatoes have no effect whatever. The camphor may disguise the smell of the naphtha, and sometimes myrhane or burnt almonds may be used for the same purpose. But, no matter what is used, the liability to explosion is not lessened in any degree. The stuff is always dangerous and always will be. There is not much danger in the use of kerosene, if it is of the standard required by law in several of the States. At the same time petroleum is dangerous under certain conditions. Where oil is heated it is more or less inflammable, and, in fact, inflammability is only a question of temperature of the oil, after all. Burning oils should be kept in a moderately cool place, and always with care. Of course, if a lighted lamp is dropped and broken, the oil is liable to take fire, though the lamp may be put out in the fall, or the light drowned by the oil, or the oil not take fire at all. This will be the effect if the oil is cool and of high flash test. When a lamp is lighted, and remains burning for some time, it should never be turned down and set aside. The theory is, that while lighting, a certain supply of gas is created from the oil, and that when the wick is turned down that supply still continues to flow out, and not being consumed, forms an inflammable gas in the chimney, which will explode when a sufficient quantity of air is mixed with it in the presence of light, which may happen if a person blows down the chimney; but a lamp should never be extinguished in that way. A good, high test kerosene oil can be made with ordinary care as safe as sperm oil, though, of course, it is not so safe as a matter of fact. We are sure to hear of it when an accident happens, but we never hear of the reckless use of kerosene where an accident does not occur, and yet there are few things so generally carelessly handled as burning oils.—Fireman's Journal
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COMPOSITION OF THE PETROLEUM OF THE CAUCASUS.
By MM. P SCHUTZENBERGER and N. TONINE.
All portions of this petroleum contain saturated carbides of the formula CnH{2n}, which the authors name paraffenes. At a bright red heat they yield benzinic carbides, CnH{2n-6}, naphthalin and a little anthracen. At dull redness the products are along with unaltered paraffenes, products which unite energetically with bromine, and which are converted into resinous polymers of ordinary sulphuric acid. It is difficult to isolate, by means of fractional distillation, definite products with constant boiling points.
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NOTES ON CANANGA OIL OR ILANG-ILANG OIL.
[Footnote: From the Archiv der Pharmacie.]
By F. A. FLUeCKIGER.
This oil, on account of its fragrance, which is described by most observers as extremely pleasant, has attained to some importance, so that it appears to me not superfluous to submit the following remarks upon it and the plant from which it is derived.
The tree, of which the flowers yield the oil known under the name "Ilang-ilang" or "Alanguilan," is the Cananga odorata, Hook. fil. et Thomp.,[1] of the order Unonaceae, for which reason it is called also in many price lists "Oleum Anonae," or "Oleum Unonae" It is not known to me whether the tree can be identified in the old Indian and Chinese literature.[2] In the west it was first named by Ray as "Arbor Saguisan," the name by which it was called at that time at Lucon[3] Rump[4] gave a detailed description of the "Bonga Cananga," as the Malays designate the tree ("Tsjampa" among the Javanese); Rumph's figure, however is defective. Further, Lamarck[5] has short notices of it under "Canang odorant, Uvaria odorata." According to Roxburgh,[6] the plant was in 1797 brought from Sumatra to the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta. Dunal devoted to the Ucaria odorata, or, properly, Unona odorata, as he himself corrected it, a somewhat more thorough description in his "Monographic de la Famille des Anonacees,"[7] which principally repeats Rumph's statements.
[Footnote 1: "Flora Indica," i (1855), 130.]
[Footnote 2: "No mention of any plant or flowers, which might be identified with Cananga, can be traced in any Sanskrit works."—Dr. Charles Rice, New Remedies, April, 1881, page 98.]
[Footnote 3: Ray. "Historia Plantarum, Supplementum," tomi i et ii "Hist. Stirpium Insulae Luzonensis et Philippinarum" a Georgio Josepho Canello; London, 1704, 83]
[Footnote 4: "Herbarium Amboinense, Amboinsch Kruidboek," ii. (Amsterdam, 1750), cap. xix, fol. 195 and tab. 65.]
[Footnote 5: "Encyclopedie methodique. Botanique," i (1783), 595.]
[Footnote 6: "Flora Indica," ii. (Serampore, 1832), 661.]
[Footnote 7: Paris, 1817, p. 108, 105.]
Lastly, we owe a very handsome figure of the Cananga odorata to the magnificent "Flora Javae," of Blume;[1] a copy of this, which in the original is beautifully colored, is appended to the present notice. That this figure is correct I venture to assume after having seen numerous specimens in Geneva, with De Candolle, as well as in the Delessert herbarium. The unjustifiable name Unona odoratissima, which incorrectly enough has passed into many writings, originated with Blanco,[2] who in his description of the powerful fragrance of the flowers, which in a closed sleeping room produces headache, was induced to use the superlative "odoratissima." Baillon[3] designated as Canangium the section of the genus Uvaria, from which he would not separate the Ilang-ilang tree.
[Footnote 1: Vol. i. (Brussels, 1829), fol. 29, tab ix et xiv. B.]
[Footnote 2: "Flora de Filipinas," Manila, 1845, 325. Unona odoratissima, Alang-ilan. The latter name, according to Sonnerat, is stated by the Lamarck to be of Chinese origin; Herr Reymann derives it from the Tagal language.]
[Footnote 3: "Dictionnaire de Botanique."]
The notice of Maximowicz,[1] "Ueber den Ursprung des Parfums Ylang-Ylang," contains only a confirmation of the derivation of the perfume from Cananga.
[Footnote 1: Just's "Botanischer Jahresbericht," 1875, 973.]
Cananga odorata is a tree attaining to a height of 60 feet, with few but abundantly ramified branches. The shortly petioled long acuminate leaves, arranged in two rows, attain a length of 18 centimeters and a breadth of 7 centimeters; the leaf is rather coriaceous, and slightly downy only along the nerves on the under side. The handsome and imposing looking flowers of the Cananga odorata occur to the number of four on short peduncles. The lobes of the tripartite leathery calyx are finally bent back. The six lanceolate petals spread out very nearly flat, and grow to a length of 7 centimeters and a breadth of about 12 millimeters; they are longitudinally veined, of a greenish color, and dark brown when dried. The somewhat bell-shaped elegantly drooping flowers impart quite a handsome appearance, although the floral beauty of other closely allied plants is far more striking. The filaments of the Cananga are very numerous; the somewhat elevated receptacle has a shallow depression at the summit. The green berry-like fruit is formed of from fifteen to twenty tolerably long stalked separate carpels which inclose three to eight seeds arranged in two rows. The umbel-like peduncles are situated in the axils of the leaves or spring from the nodes of leafless branches. The flesh of the fruit is sweetish and aromatic. The flowers possess a most exquisite perfume, frequently compared with hyacinth, narcissus, and cloves.
Cananga odorata, according to Hooker and Thomson or Bentham and Hooker,[1] is the only species of this genus; the plants formerly classed together with it under the names Unona or Uvaria, among which some equally possess odorous flowers, are now distributed between those two genera, which are tolerably rich in species. From Uvaria the Cananga differs in its valvate petals, and from Unona in the arrangement of the seeds in two rows.
[Footnote 1: "Genera Plantarum," i, (1864), 24.]
Cananga odorata is distributed throughout all Southern Asia, mostly, however, as a cultivated plant. In the primitive forest the tree is much higher, but the flowers are, according to Blume, almost odorless. In habit the Cananga resembles the Michelia champaca, L.,[1] of the family Magnoliaceae, an Indian tree extraordinarily prized on account of the very pleasant perfume of its yellow flowers, and which was already highly celebrated in ancient times in India. Among the admired fragrant flowers which are the most prized by the in this respect pampered Javanese, the "Tjempaka" (Michelia champaca) and the "Kenangga wangi" (Cananga odorata)[2] stand in the first rank.
[Footnote 1: A beautiful figure of this also is given in Blume's "Flora Javae," iii., Magnoliaceae, tab. I.]
[Footnote 2: Junghuhn, Java, Leipsic, 1852, 166.]
It is not known to me whether the oil of cananga was prepared in former times. It appears to have first reached Europe about 1864; in Paris and London its choice perfume found full recognition.[1] The quantities, evidently only very small, that were first imported from the Indian Archipelago were followed immediately by somewhat larger consignments from Manila, where German pharmacists occupied themselves with the distillation of the oil.[2]
[Footnote 1: Jahresbericht d. Pharmacie, by Wiggers and Husemann, 1867, 422.]
[Footnote 2: Jahresbericht, 1868, 166.]
Oscar Reymann and Adolf Ronsch, of Manila, exhibited the ilang-ilang oil in Paris in 1878; the former also showed the Cananga flowers. The oil of the flowers of the before-mentioned Michelia champaca, which stood next to it, competes with the cananga oil, or ilang-ilang oil, in respect to fragrance.[1] How far the latter has found acceptance is difficult to determine; a lowering of the price which it has undergone indicates probably a somewhat larger demand. At present it may be obtained in Germany for about 600 marks (L30) the kilogramme.[2] Since the Cananga tree can be so very easily cultivated in all warm countries, and probably everywhere bears flowers endowed with the same pleasant perfume, it must be possible for the oil to be produced far more cheaply, notwithstanding that the yield is always small.[3] It may be questioned whether the tree might not, for instance, succeed in Algeria, where already so many exotic perfumery plants are found.
[Footnote 1: Archiv der Pharmacie, ccxiv. (1879), 18.]
[Footnote 2: According to information kindly supplied by Herr Reymann, in Paris, Nice, and Grasse, annually about 200 kilogrammes are used; in London about 50 kilogrammes, and equally as much in Germany (Leipsic, Berlin, Frankfort).]
[Footnote 3: 25 grammes of oil from 5 kilogrammes of flowers, according to Reymann.]
According to Guibourt,[1] the "macassar oil," much prized in Europe for at least some decades as a hair oil, is a cocoa nut oil digested with the flowers of Cananga odorata and Michelia champaca, and colored yellow by means of turmeric. In India unguents of this kind have always been in use.
[Footnote 1: Histoire Naturelle des Drogues Simples, iii. (1850), 675.]
The name "Cananga" is met with in Germany as occurring in former times. An "Oleum destillatum Canangae" is mentioned by the Leipsic apothecary, Joh. Heinr. Linck[1] among "some new exotics" in the "Sammlung von Naturund Medicin- wie, auch hierzu gehorigen Kunst- und Literatur Geschichten, so sich Anno 1719 in Schlesien und andern Laendern begeben" (Leipsic und Budissin, 1719). As, however, the fruit of the same tree sent together with this cananga oil is described by Linck as uncommonly bitter, he cannot probably here refer to the present Cananga odorata, the fruit-pulp of which is expressly described by Humph and by Blume as sweetish. Further an "Oleum Canangae, Camel-straw oil," occurs in 1765 in the tax of Bremen and Verden.[2] It may remain undetermined whether this oil actually came from "camel-straw," the beautiful grass Andropogon laniger.
[Footnote 1: Compare Flueckiger, "Pharmakognosic," 2d edit, 1881, p. 152.]
[Footnote 2: Flueckiger, "Documente zur Geschichte der Pharmacie," Halle (1876), p 93.]
From a chemical point of view cananga oil has become interesting because of the information given by Gal,[1] that it contains benzoic acid, no doubt in the form of a compound ether. So far as I, at the moment, remember the literature of the essential oils, this occurrence of benzoic acid in plants stands alone,[2] although in itself it is not surprising, and probably the same compound will yet be frequently detected in the vegetable kingdom. As it was convenient to test the above statement by an examination I induced Herr Adolf Convert, a pharmaceutical student from Frankfort-On-Main, to undertake an investigation of ilang-ilang oil in that direction. The oil did not change litmus paper moistened with alcohol. A small portion distilled at 170 deg. C.; but the thermometer rose gradually to 290 deg., and at a still higher temperature decomposition commenced. That the portions passing over below 290 deg. had a strong acid reaction already indicated the presence of ethers. Herr Convert boiled 10 grammes of the oil with 20 grammes of alcohol and 1 gramme of potash during one day in a retort provided with a return condenser. Finally the alcohol was separated by distillation, the residue supersaturated with dilute sulphuric acid, and together with much water submitted to distillation until the distillate had scarcely an acid reaction. The liquid that had passed over was neutralized with barium carbonate, and the filtrate concentrated, when it yielded crystals, which were recognized as nearly pure acetate. The acid residue, which contained the potassium sulphate, was shaken with ether; after the evaporation of the ether there remained a crystalline mass having an acid reaction which was colored violet with ferric chloride. This reaction, which probably may be ascribed to the account of a phenol, was absent after the recrystallization of the crystalline mass from boiling water. The aqueous solution of the purified crystalline scales then gave with ferric chloride only a small flesh-colored precipitate. The crystals melted at 120 deg. C. In order to demonstrate the presence of benzoic acid Herr Convert boiled the crystals with water and silver oxide and dried the scales that separated from the cooling filtrate over sulphuric acid. 0.0312 gramme gave upon combustion 0.0147 gramme of silver, or 47.1 per cent. The benzoate of silver contains 46.6 per cent, of metal; the crystals prepared from the acid of ilang-ilang oil were, therefore, benzoate of silver. For the separation of the alcoholic constituent, which is present in the form of an apparently not very considerable quantity of benzoic ether, far more ilang-ilang oil would be required than was at command.
[Footnote 1: Comptes Rendus, lxxvi. (1873), 1428, and abstracted in the Pharmaceutical Journal [3], iv., p. 28; also in Jahresbericht, 1873, p. 431.]
[Footnote 2: Overlooking Peru balsam and Tolu balsam.]
Besides the benzoic ether and, probably, a phenol, mentioned above, there may be recognized in ilang-ilang oil an aldehyde or ketone, inasmuch as upon shaking it with bisulphite of sodium I observed the formation of a very small quantity of crystals. That Gal did not obtain the like result must at present remain unexplained. Like the benzoic acid the acetic acid is, no doubt, present in cananga oil in the form of ether.
* * * * *
CHIAN TURPENTINE.
The following letter has been received by the editors of the Repertoire de Pharmacie: For some months past, a good deal has been heard about a product of our island that had quite fallen into disuse, and which no one cared to gather, so much had the demand fallen off because a substitute for it had been found in Europe; I mean Chian turpentine.
As this product is destined to take a certain part in the treatment of cancer, according to some English physicians, permit me, sir, to give your readers a few interesting details, obtained on the spot, concerning the turpentine tree and its product.
The turpentine tree (Pistacia terebinthus L.) has existed in our island for many centuries, judging from the enormous dimensions of some of these trees, compared, too, with their slow rate of growth. The trunks of some measure from 4 to 5 meters in circumference, and their heights vary from 15 to 20 meters. On my own land there is an enormous tree, by far the largest on the island, the circumference of its trunk being 6 meters. Many of these great trees have been used in the construction of mills, presses, etc., on account of the hardness of their wood. It is in the vicinity of the town and in three or four neighboring villages that these trees are found. To-day, at a careful estimate, there may be 1,500 trees capable of yielding 2,000 kilos of turpentine, mixed with at least 30 per cent of foreign matter. There are no appliances for refining the product here, except the sieves through which it is passed to remove the pebbles and bits of wood which are found in it.
It is gathered from incisions made in the tree in June. Axes are used for this purpose, and the incision must be through the whole thickness of the bark. Through these outlets the turpentine falls to the foot of the tree, and mixes with the earth there. On its first appearance the turpentine is of a sirupy consistence, and is quite transparent; gradually it becomes more opaque, and of a yellowish-white color. It is at this period also that it gives off its characteristic odor most abundantly.
It is, however, not the product "turpentine" that is most esteemed by the natives, but the fruit of the tree, a kind of drupe disposed in clusters. The fruit is improved by the incisions made in the tree for the escape of the turpentine, otherwise the resin, having no other outlet, would impregnate the former, hinder its complete development, and render it useless for the purposes for which it is cultivated. One circumstance worth noting is that, as soon as the fruit commences to ripen, the flow of turpentine completely ceases. This is toward August; the fruit is then green; it is gathered, dried in the sun, bruised, and a fine yellowish-green oil is drawn from it, which is soluble in ether. This oil is used for alimentary purposes, but rarely for illumination since the introduction of petroleum. It is mostly used in making sweet cakes, and often as a substitute for butter, in all cases where the latter is employed. I use it daily myself without perceiving any difference.
I may here be permitted to correct a slight mistake that has crept into several standard botanical works. It is therein stated that the inhabitants of this country extract from the fruit of the lentisc (Pistacia lentiscus L., a well-known shrub growing on this island, from which Chian mastic is obtained), an alimentary and illuminating oil. This fruit has never been gathered for its oil within the memory of man. The lentisc has probably been thus mistaken for the turpentine tree.
For the last twenty years the gathering of turpentine has been almost abandoned, although the incisions in the trees have been regularly made, but the value was so small that proprietors did not care to collect it, and left it to run to waste. There were but a few pharmacists of Smyrna and the neighboring islands who took a small quantity for making medicinal plasters. An utterly insignificant quantity found its way into Europe. How is it then that, after so many years, it was found in Europe? The problem is easily explained—the greater part came from Venice. This is indubitable, and, lately, an English chemist, Mr. W. Martindale, in a communication to the Chemical Society of London, expressed doubts as to the authenticity of the turpentine used in the treatment of cancer. If turpentine can really somewhat relieve this disease, and if this treatment is generally accepted in Europe, I much fear you will only obtain substitutions of very inferior quality to the turpentine produced in our island.
This year the Chians have been surprised by an extensive demand for this product, from London in the first place, and secondly from Vienna, and the proprietors, although but poorly provided at the moment, sent away nearly 600 kilos Paris has not yet made any demand. Yours, etc.,
DR. STIEPOWICH.
Chio, Turkey.
* * * * *
ON THE CHANGE OF VOLUME WHICH ACCOMPANIES THE GALVANIC DEPOSITION OF A METAL.
By M. E. BOUTY.
In previous notes I have established, first, that the galvanic depositions experience a change of volume, from which there results a pressure exercised on the mould which receives them; second, that the Peltier phenomenon is produced at the surface of contact of an electrode and of an electrolyte. Fresh observations have caused me to believe that the two phenomena are connected, and that the first is a consequence of the second. The Peltier effect can clearly be proved when the electrolysis is not interfered with by energetic secondary actions, and particularly with the sulphate and nitrate of copper, the sulphate and chloride of zinc, and the sulphate and chloride of cadmium. For any one of these salts it is possible to determine a value, I, of the intensity of the current which produces the metallic deposit such that, for all the higher intensities the electrode becomes heated, and such that it becomes cold for less intensities. I will designate this intensity, I, under the name of neutral point of temperatures.
The new fact which I have observed is, that in the electrolysis of the same salts it is always possible to lower the intensity of the current below a limit, I', such that the compression produced by the deposit changes its direction, that is to say, instead of contracting the metal dilates in solidifying. This change, although unquestionable, is sufficiently difficult to produce with sulphate of copper. It is necessary to employ as a negative electrode a thermometer sensitive to 1/200 of a degree, and to take most careful precautions to avoid accidental deformations of the deposit; but the phenomenon can be observed very easily with nitrate of copper, the sulphate of zinc, and the chloride of cadmium. There is, therefore, a neutral point of compression in the same cases where there is a neutral point of temperatures. With the salts of iron, nickel, etc., for which the neutral point of temperatures cannot be arrived at, there is also no neutral point of compression; and the negative electrode always becomes heated, and the deposit obtained is always a compressing deposit.
I have determined, by the help of observations made with ten different current strengths, the constants of the formulae which I have explained elsewhere, and which gives the apparent excess, y, of the thermometer electrode compressed by the metallic deposit in terms of the time, t, during which the metal was depositing:
A t (1) y = ———- B + t
The constant, A, is proportional to the variation of volume of the unit of volume of the metal. The values of A, without being exactly regular, are sufficiently well represented within practical limits by the formula:
(2) A = - a'i + b'i squared,
of the same form as the expression E:
E = - ai + bi squared,
of the heating of the thermometer electrode. Further, every cause which affects the coefficients, a or b, also affects in the same way a' and b': such causes being the greater or less dilution of the solution, the nature of the salt, etc. It is, therefore, impossible not to be struck by the direct relation of the thermic and mechanical phenomena of which the negative electrode is the origin. The following is the explanation which I offer: The thermometer indicates the mean temperature of the liquid just outside it; this temperature is not necessarily that of the metal which incloses it. The current, propagated almost exclusively by the molecules of the decomposed salt, does not act directly to cause a variation in the temperature of the dissolving molecules; these change heat with the molecules of the electrolyte, which should be in general hotter than those when a heating is noticed and colder when a cooling is observed. Suppose it is found, in the first case, that the metal, at the moment when it is deposited, is hotter than the liquid, and, consequently, than the thermometer; it becomes colder immediately after the deposit, and consequently contracts; the deposit is compressed. The reverse is the case when the metal is colder than the liquid; the deposit then dilates. If this hypothesis is correct, the excess, T, of the temperature of the metal over the liquid which surrounds the thermometer should be proportional to the contraction, A, represented by the formula (2), and the neutral point, I', of the contraction corresponds to the case where the temperature of the metal is precisely equal to that of the liquid.
It might be expected, perhaps, from the foregoing, that I' = I; this would take place if the excess of temperature of the metal, measured by the contraction, were rigorously proportional to the heating of the liquid, for then the two quantities would be null at the same time. Careful experiment proves that this is not the case. The sulphate of copper gives compressing deposits on a thermometer which is undoubtedly cooling; chloride of zinc of a density 200 can give expanding deposits on a thermometer which is heating. There is, therefore, no proportionality; but it must be remarked that the temperature of the metal which is deposited does not depend only on the quantities of heat disengaged in an interval of molecular thickness which is infinitely small compared with the thickness of the layer, of which the variations of temperature are registered by the thermometer. There is nothing surprising, therefore, that the two variations of temperature, according exactly with one another, do not follow identically the same laws.—Comptes Rendus.
* * * * *
ANALYSES OF RICE SOILS FROM BURMAH.
By R. ROMANIS, D.Sc., Chemical Examiner, British Burmah.
The analyses of rice soils was undertaken at the instance of the Revenue Settlement Survey, who wanted to know if the chemical composition of the soil corresponded in any way to the valuation as fixed from other evidence. It was found that the amount of phosphoric acid in the soil in any one district corresponded pretty well with the Settlement Officers' valuation, but on comparing two districts it was found that the district which was poorer in phosphoric acid gave crops equal to the richer one. On inquiry it was found that in the former the rice is grown in nurseries and then planted out by hand, whereas in the latter, where the holdings are much larger, the grain is sown broadcast. The practice of planting out the young crops enables the cultivator to get a harvest 20 per cent. better than he would otherwise do, and hence the poorer land equals the richer.
The deductions drawn from this investigation are, first, that, climate and situation being equal, the value of soil depends on the phosphoric acid in it; and, second, that the planting-out system is far superior to the broadcast system of cultivation for rice.
Results of two analyses of soils from Syriam, near Rangoon, are appended:
Soluble in Hydrochloric Acid.
I. II. Virgin Soil. Organic matter 4.590 8.5?8 Oxide of iron and alumina 8.939 7.179 Magnesia 0.469 0.677 Lime trace. 0.131 Potash 0.138 0.187 Soda 0.136 0.337 Phosphoric acid 0.100 0.108 Sulphuric acid 0.025 0.117 Silica —— 0.005 ———— ————- 14.397 17.249
Soluble in Sulphuric Acid.
Alumina 17.460 15.684 Magnesia 0.459 0.446 Lime 0.286 trace. Potash 0.616 1.250 Soda 0.317 0.285 ————- ————- 19.138 17.665
Residue.
Silica, soluble 11.675 69.546 " insoluble 49.477 / Alumina 3.062 4.178 Lime 0.700 0.134 Magnesia 0.212 trace. Potash 0.276 1.180 Soda 0.503 1.048 ———— ————- 100.000 100.000
These are alluvial soils from the Delta of the Irrawaddy.
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DRY AIR REFRIGERATING MACHINE.
A large number of scientific and other gentlemen interested in mechanical refrigeration lately visited the works of Messrs. J. & E. Hall, of Dartford, to inspect the working of one of their improved horizontal dry air refrigerators!
The machine, which is illustrated below, is designed to deliver about 10,000 cubic feet of cold air per hour, when running at the rate of 100 revolutions per minute, and is capable of reducing the temperature of the air from 90 deg. above, to about 50 deg. below zero, Fah., with an initial temperature of cooling water of 90 deg. to 95 deg. Fah. It can, however, be run at as high a speed as 140 revolutions per minute. The air is compressed in a water-jacketed, double-acting compression cylinder, to about 55 lb. per square inch —more or less according to the temperature of the cooling water—the inlet valve being worked from a cam on the crank shaft, to insure a full cylinder of air at each stroke, and the outlet valves being self acting, specially constructed to avoid noise in working and breakages, which have given rise to so much annoyance in other cold air machines. The compressed air, still at a high temperature, is then passed through a series of tubular coolers, where it parts with a great deal of its heat, and is reduced to within 4 deg. or 5 deg. of the initial temperature of the cooling water. Here also a considerable portion of the moisture, which, when fresh air is being used, must of necessity enter the compression cylinder, is condensed and deposited as water.
After being cooled, the compressed air is then admitted to the expansion cylinder, but as it still contains a large quantity of water in solution, which, if expansion was carried immediately to atmospheric pressure, would, from the extreme cold, be converted into snow and ice, with a positive certainty of causing great trouble in the valves and passages. It is got rid of by a process invented by Mr. Lightfoot, which is at the same time extremely simple and beautiful in action, and efficient. Instead of reducing the compressed air at once to atmospheric pressure, it is at first only partially expanded to such an extent that the temperature is lowered to about 35 deg. to 40 deg. Fah., with the result that very nearly the whole of the contained aqueous vapor is condensed into water. The partially expanded air which now contains the water as a thick mist is then admitted into a vessel containing a number of grids, through which it passes, parting all the while with its moisture, which gradually collects at the bottom and is blown off. The surface area of the grids is so arranged that by the time the air has passed through them it is quite free from moisture, with the exception of the very trifling amount which it can hold in solution at about 35 deg. Fah., and 30 lb. pressure. The expansion is then continued to atmospheric pressure and the cooled air containing only a trace of snow is then discharged ready for use into a meat chamber or elsewhere. In small machines the double expansion is carried out in one cylinder containing a piston with a trunk, the annulus forming the first expansion and the whole piston area the second, but in larger machines two cylinders of different sizes are used, just as in an ordinary compound engine. To compensate for the varying temperature of the cooling water the cut-off valve to the first or primary expansion is made adjustable; and this can either be regulated as occasion requires by hand, or else automatically. The temperature in the depositors being kept constant under all variations in cooling water, there is the same abstraction of moisture in the tropics as in colder climates, and the cold air finally discharged from the machine is also kept at a uniform temperature.
The diagrams are reduced from the originals, taken from the compression cylinder when running at the speed of 125 revolutions per minute, and also from the expansion cylinder, the first when the cooling water was entering the coolers at 86 deg. Fah., and the latter when this temperature was reduced to 65 deg. Fah. In all cases the compressed air is cooled down to within from 3 deg. to 5 deg. of the initial temperature of the cooling water, thus showing the great efficiency of the cooling apparatus. The machine has been run experimentally at Dartford, under conditions perhaps more trying than can possibly occur, even in the tropics, the air entering the compression cylinder being artificially heated up to 85 deg. and being supersaturated at that temperature by a jet of steam laid on for the purpose. In this case no more snow was formed than when dealing with aircontaining a very much less proportion of moisture. The vapor was condensed previous to final expansion and abstracted as water in the drying apparatus. The machine was exhibited at work in connection with a cold chamber which was kept at a temperature of about 10 deg. Fah., besides which several hundredweight of ice were made in the few days during which the experiments lasted. This machine is in all respects an improvement on the machine which we have already illustrated. In that machine Messrs. Hall were trammeled by being compelled to work to the plans of others. In the present case the machine has been designed by Mr. Lightfoot, and appears to leave little to be desired. It is a new thing that a cold air machine may be run at any speed from 32 to 120 revolutions per minute. In its action it is perfectly steady, and the cold air chamber is kept entirely clear of snow. The dimensions of the machine are also eminently favorable to its use on board ship.-The Engineer.
* * * * *
THOMAS'S IMPROVED STEAM WHEEL.
The rotary or steam wheel, the invention of J.E. Thomas, of Carlinville, Ill., shown in the annexed figure, consists of a wheel with an iron rim inclosed within a casing or jacket from which nothing protrudes except the axle which carries the driving pulley, and the grooved distributing disk. Within this jacket, which need not necessarily be steam-tight, there is a movable piece, K, which, pressing against the rim, renders steam-tight the channel in which the pistons move when driven by the steam. At the extremities of this channel there are plates which are kept pressed against the wheel by means of spiral springs, thus rendering the channel perfectly tight.
The steam enters the closed space (which forms one-fourth of the circumference) through the slide-valve, S, presses against the pistons, d, and causes the wheel to revolve in the direction of the arrows. The slide-valve is closed by the action of the external distributing mechanism, the piston passes beyond the steam-outlet, A, and a new piston then comes in play. Altogether, there are six of these pistons, each one working in an aperture in the rim, and kept pressed outwardly by means of a spiral spring. The steam acts constantly on the same lever arm and meets with no counter-pressure. The other defects, likewise, of the ordinary steam engines in use are obviated to such an extent that the effective power of the steam-wheel is 50 per cent, greater than that of other and more complicated machines—at least this is the experience of the inventor.
To the inner ends of the pistons there are attached rods which pass through the rim of the wheel (where they are provided with stuffing-boxes) and abut against spiral springs. These rods are, in addition, connected with levers, h, which are pivoted on the spokes of the wheel, and whose other extremities carry rods, 2. These latter run through guides on the external face of the rim of the wheel and engage by means of friction-rollers, in an undulating groove formed in the inner surface of the jacket. When a piston arrives in front of the upper extremity of the steam channel, the friction roller at that moment enters one of the depressions in the groove, and thus lifts up the piston and allows it to pass freely beyond the plate which closes the channel.
* * * * *
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, JAMES BICHENO FRANCIS, AT THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE SOCIETY AT MONTREAL, JUNE 15, 1881.
You have assembled in convention for the first time outside the limits of the United States, and I congratulate you on the selection of this beautiful city, in which and its immediate neighborhood there are so many interesting engineering works, constructed with the skill and solidity characteristic of the British school of engineering. Nine of our members are Canadian engineers, which must be the excuse of the other members for invading foreign territory.
The society was organized November 3, 1852, and actively maintained up to March 2, 1855. Eleven only of the present members date from this period. October 2, 1867, the society was reorganized on a wider basis, and from that time to the present it has been constantly increasing in interest and usefulness.
The membership of the society is now as follows:
Honorary members........ 11 Corresponding members... 3 Members................. 491 Associates.............. 21 Juniors................. 57 Fellows................. 53 —— Total................... 636
During the last year we have lost six members by death and five by resignation, and fifty-six new members have been elected and qualified.
The most interesting event to the society since the last convention has been the purchase of a house in the City of New York, as a permanent home, at a cost of $30,000. This has been accomplished, so far, without taxing the resources of the society, the required payments having been met by subscription. The sum of $11,900 had been subscribed to the building fund up to the 25th ult., by seventy members and twenty-nine friends of the society who are not members. The subscription is still open, and it is expected that large additions will be made to it by members and their friends to enable the society to make the remaining payments without embarrassment.
Meetings of the society are held twice in each month during ten months in the year, for the reading and discussion of papers and other purposes. The new house affords much better accommodations for these purposes than we have ever had before, and also for the library, which now contains 8,850 books and pamphlets, and is constantly increasing. A catalogue of the library is being prepared. Part I., embracing railroads and the transactions of scientific societies, has been printed and furnished to members.
WATER POWER.
Water power in many of the States is abundant and contributes largely to their prosperity. Its proper development calls for the services of the civil engineer, and as it is the branch of the profession with which I am most familiar, I propose to offer a few remarks on the subject.
The earliest applications were to grist and saw mills; carding and fulling mills soon followed; these were essential to the comfort of the early settlers who relied on home industries for shelter, food, and clothing, but with the progress of the country came other requirements.
The earliest application of water power to general manufacturing purposes appears to have been at Paterson, New Jersey, where "The Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures" was formed in the year 1791. The Passaic River at this point furnishes, when at a minimum, about eleven hundred horse power continuously night and day.
The water power at Lowell, Massachusetts, was begun to be improved for general manufacturing purposes in 1822. The Merrimack River at this point has a fall of thirty-five feet, and furnishes, at a minimum, about ten thousand horse power during the usual working hours.
At Cohoes, in the State of New York, the Mohawk River has a fall of about one hundred and five feet, which was brought into use systematically very soon after that at Lowell, and could furnish about fourteen thousand horse power during the usual working hours, but the works are so arranged that part of the power is not available at present.
At Manchester, New Hampshire, the present works were commenced in 1835. The Merrimack River at this point has a fall of about fifty-two feet, and furnishes, at a minimum, about ten thousand horse power during the usual working hours.
At Lawrence, Massachusetts, the Essex Co. built a dam across the Merrimack River, commencing in 1845, and making a fall of about twenty-eight feet, and a minimum power, during the usual working hours, of about ten thousand horse power.
At Holyoke, Massachusetts, the Hadley Falls Co. commenced their works about 1845, for developing the power of the Connecticut River at that point, where there is a fall of about fifty feet, and at a minimum, about seventeen thousand horse power during the usual working hours.
At Lewiston, Maine, the fall in the Androscoggin River is about fifty feet; its systematic development was commenced about 1845, and with the improvement of the large natural reservoirs at the head waters of the river, now in progress, it is expected that a minimum power, during the usual working hours, of about eleven thousand horse power will be obtained.
At Birmingham, Connecticut, the Housatonic Water Co. have developed the water power of the Housatonic River by a dam, giving twenty-two feet fall, furnishing at a minimum about one thousand horse power during the usual working hours.
The Dundee Water and Land Co., about 1858, developed the power of the Passaic River, at Passaic, New Jersey, where there is a fall of about twenty-two feet, giving a minimum power, during the usual working hours, of about nine hundred horse power.
The Turners Falls Co., in 1866, commenced the development of the power of the Connecticut River at Turners Falls, Massachusetts, by building a dam on the middle fall, which is about thirty-five feet, and furnishes a minimum power, during the usual working hours, of about ten thousand horse power.
I have named the above water powers as being developed in a systematic manner from their inception, and of which I have been able to obtain some data. In the usual process of developing a large water power, a company is formed, who acquire the title to the property, embracing the land necessary for the site of the town, to accommodate the population which is sure to gather around an improved water power. The dam and canals or races are constructed, and mill sites, with accompanying rights to the use of the water, are granted, usually by perpetual leases subject to annual rents. This method of developing water power is distinctly an American idea, and the only instance where it has been attempted abroad, that I know of, is at Bellegarde in France, where there is a fall in the Rhone of about thirty-three feet. Within the last few years works have been constructed for its development, furnishing a large amount of power, but from the great outlay incurred in acquiring the titles to the property, and other difficulties, it has not been a financial success.
The water powers I have named are but a small fraction of the whole amount existing in the United States and the adjoining Dominion of Canada. There is Niagara, with its two or three millions of horse power; the St. Lawrence, with its succession of falls from Lake Ontario to Montreal; the Falls of St. Antony, at Minneapolis; and many other falls, with large volumes of water, on the upper Mississippi and its branches. It would be a long story to name even the large water powers, and the smaller ones are almost innumerable. In the State of Maine a survey of the water power has recently been made, the result, as stated in the official report, being "between one and two millions of horse power," part of which will probably not be available. There is an elevated region in the northern part of the South Atlantic States, exceeding in area one hundred thousand square miles, in which there is a vast amount of water power, and being near the cotton fields, with a fine climate, free from malaria, its only needs are railways, capital, and population, to become a great manufacturing section.
The design and construction of the works for developing a large water power, together with the necessary arrangements for utilizing it and providing for its subdivision among the parties entitled to it according to their respective rights, affords an extensive field for civil engineers; and in view of the vast amount of it yet undeveloped, but which, with the increase of population and the constantly increasing demand for mechanical power as a substitute for hand labor, must come into use, the field must continue to enlarge for a long time to come.
There are many cases in which the power of a waterfall can be made available by means of compressed air more conveniently than by the ordinary motors. The fall may be too small to be utilized by the ordinary motors; the site where the power is wanted may be too distant from the waterfall; or it may be desired to distribute the power in small amounts at distant points.[1] A method of compressing air by means of a fall of water has been devised by Mr. Joseph P. Frizell, C.E., of St. Paul, Minnesota, which, from the extreme simplicity of the apparatus, promises to find useful applications. The principle on which it operates is, by carrying the air in small bubbles in a current of water down a vertical shaft, to the depth giving the desired compression, then through a horizontal passage in which the bubbles rise into a reservoir near the top of this passage, the water passing on and rising in another vertical or inclined passage, at the top of which it is discharged, of course, at a lower level than it entered the first shaft.
[Footnote 1: Journal of the Franklin Institute for September, 1877.]
The formation at waterfalls is usually rock, which would enable the passages and the reservoir for collecting the compressed air to be formed by simple excavations, with no other apparatus than that required to charge the descending column of water with the bubbles of air, which can be done by throwing the water into violent commotion at its entrance, and a pipe and valve for the delivery of the air from the reservoir.
The transfer of power by electricity is one of the problems now engaging the attention of electricians, and it is now done in Europe in a small way. Sir William Thomson stated in evidence before an English parliamentary committee, two years ago, that he looked "forward to the Falls of Niagara being extensively used for the production of light and mechanical power over a large area of North America," and that a copper wire half an inch in diameter would transmit twenty-one thousand horse power from Niagara to Montreal, Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. His statements appear to have been based on theoretical considerations; but there is no longer any doubt as to the possibility of transferring power in this manner—its practicability for industrial purposes must be determined by trial. Dr. Paget Higgs, a distinguished English electrician, is now experimenting on it in the City of New York.
Great improvements in reaction water wheels have been made in the United States within the last forty years. In the year 1844, the late Uriah Atherton Boyden, a civil engineer of Massachusetts, commenced the design and construction of Fourneyron turbines, in which he introduced various improvements and a general perfection of form and workmanship, which enabled a larger percentage of the theoretical power of the water to be utilized than had been previously attained. The great results obtained by Boyden with water wheels made in his perfect manner, and, in some instances, almost regardless of cost, undoubtedly stimulated others to attempt to approximate to these results at less cost; and there are now many forms of wheel of low cost giving fully double the power, with the same consumption of water, that was obtained from most of the older forms of wheels of the same class.
ANCHOR ICE.
A frequent inconvenience in the use of water power in cold climates is that peculiar form of ice called anchor or ground ice. It adheres to stones, gravel, wood, and other substances forming the beds of streams, the channels of conduits, and orifices through which water is drawn, sometimes raising the level of water courses many feet by its accumulation on the bed, and entirely closing small orifices through which water is drawn for industrial purposes. I have been for many years in a position to observe its effects and the conditions under which it is formed.
The essential conditions are, that the temperature of the water is at its freezing point, and that of the air below that point; the surface of the water must be exposed to the air, and there must be a current in the water.
The ice is formed in small needles on the surface, which would remain there and form a sheet if the surface was not too much agitated, except for a current or movement in the body of water sufficient to maintain it in a constant state of intermixture. Even when flowing in a regular channel there is a continued interchange of position of the different parts of a stream; the retardation of the bed causes variations in the velocity, which produce whirls and eddies and a general instability in the movement of the water in different parts of the section—the result being that the water at the bottom soon finds its way to the surface, and the reverse. I found by experiments on straight canals in earth and masonry that colored water discharged at the bottom reached the surface at distances varying from ten to thirty times the depth.[1] In natural water courses, in which the beds are always more or less irregular, the disturbance would be much greater. The result is that the water at the surface of a running stream does not remain there, and when it leaves the surface it carries with it the needles of ice, the specific gravity of which differs but little from that of the water, which, combined with their small size, allows them to be carried by the currents of water in any direction. The converse effect takes place in muddy streams. The mud is apparently held in suspension, but is only prevented from subsiding by the constant intermixture of the different parts of the stream; when the current ceases the mud sinks to the bottom, the earthy particles composing it, being heavier than water, would sink in still water in times inversely proportional to their size and specific gravity. This, I think, is a satisfactory explanation of the manner in which the ice formed at the surface finds its way to the bottom; its adherence to the bottom, I think, is explained by the phenomenon of regelation, first observed by Faraday; he found that when the wetted surfaces of two pieces of ice were pressed together they froze together, and that this took place under water even when above the freezing point. Professor James D. Forbes found that the same thing occurred by mere contact without pressure, and that ice would become attached to other substances in a similar manner. Regelation was observed by these philosophers in carefully arranged experiments with prepared surfaces fitting together accurately, and kept in contact sufficiently long to allow the freezing together to take place. In nature these favorable conditions would seldom occur in the masses of ice commonly observed, but we must admit, on the evidence of the recorded experiments, that, under particular circumstances, pieces of ice will freeze together or adhere to other substances in situations where there can be no abstraction of heat.
[Footnote 1: Paper clx., in the Transactions of the Society, 1878, vol. vii., pages 109-168.]
When a piece of ice of considerable size comes in contact under water with ice or other substance, it would usually touch in an area very small in proportion to its mass, and other forces acting upon it, and tending to move it, would usually exceed the freezing force, and regelation would not take place. In the minute needles formed at the surface of the water the tendency to adhere would be much the same as in larger masses touching at points only, while the external forces acting upon them would be extremely small in proportion, and regelation would often occur, and of the immense number of the needles of ice formed at the surface enough would adhere to produce the effect which we observe and call anchor ice. The adherence of the ice to the bed of the stream or other objects is always downstream from the place where they are formed; in large streams it is frequently many miles below; a large part of them do not become fixed, but as they come in contact with each other, regelate and form spongy masses, often of considerable size, which drift along with the current, and are often troublesome impediments to the use of water power.
Water powers supplied directly from ponds or rivers, or canals frozen over for along distance immediately above the places from which the water is drawn, are not usually troubled with anchor ice, which, as I have stated, requires open water, upstream, for its formation.
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A PAIR OF COTTAGES.
This drawing has been admitted into the Exhibition of the Royal Academy this year. The cottages are of red brick, tiled roof, white woodwork, as usual, rough-cast in the gables; but they are not built yet. Design of Arthur Cawston.—Building News.
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DELICATE SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS.
By EDGAR L. LARKIN, New Windsor Observatory, New Windsor, Illinois.
Within the past five years, scientific men have surpassed previous efforts in close measurement and refined analysis. By means of instruments of exceeding delicacy, processes in nature hitherto unknown, are made palpable to sense. Heat is found in ice, light in seeming darkness, and sound in apparent silence. It seems that physicists and chemists have almost if not quite reached the ultimate atoms of matter. The mechanism must be sensitive, as such properties of matter as heat, light, electricity, magnetism, and actinism, are to be handled, caused to vanish and reappear, analyzed and measured. With such instruments nature is scrutinized, revealing new properties, strange motions, vibrations, and undulations. Throughout the visible universe, the faintest pulsations of atoms are detected, and countless millions of infinitely small waves, bearing light, heat, and sound, are discovered and their lengths determined. Refined spectroscopic analysis of light is now made so that when any material burns, no matter what its distance, its spectrum tells what substance is burning. When any luminous body appears, it can be told whether it is approaching or receding, or whether it shines by its own or reflected light; whence it is seen that rays falling on earth from a flight of a hundred years, are as sounding lines dropped in the appalling depths of space. We wish to describe a few of these intricate instruments, and mention several far-reaching discoveries made by their use; beginning with mechanism for the manipulation of light. Optics is based on the accidental discovery that a piece of glass of certain shape will draw light to a focus, forming an image of any object at that point. The next step was in learning that this image can be viewed with a microscope, and magnified; thus came the telescope revealing unheard of suns and galaxies. The first telescopes colored everything looked at, but by a hundred years of mathematical research, the proper curvature of objectives formed of two glasses was discovered, so that now we have perfect instruments. Great results followed; one can now peer into the profound solitudes of space, bringing to view millions of stars, requiring light 5,000 years to traverse their awful distance, and behold suns wheeling around suns, and thousands of nebulae, or agglomerations of stars so distant as to send us confused light, appearing like faint gauze like structures in measureless voids. The modern telescope has astonishing power, thus: When Mr. Clark finished the great twenty-six-inch equatorial, now at Washington, he tested its seeing properties. A photographic calligraph, whose letters were so fine as to require a microscope to see them, was placed at a distance of three hundred feet. Mr. Clark turned the great eye upon the invisible thing and read the writing with ease. But a greater feat than this was accomplished by the same instrument— the discovery of the two little moons of Mars, by Prof. Asaph Hall, in 1877. They are so small as to be incapable of measurement by ordinary means, but with an ingenious photometer devised by Prof. Pickering of Harvard College, he determined the outer satellite to be six and the inner seven miles in diameter. The discovery of these minute bodies seems past belief, and will appear more so, when it is told that the task is equal to that of viewing a luminous ball two inches in diameter suspended above Boston, by the telescope situated in the city of New York. (Newcomb and Holden's Astronomy, p. 338.)
Phobos, the nearest moon, is only 4,000 miles from the surface of Mars, and is obliged to move with such great velocity to prevent falling, that it actually makes a circuit about its primary in only seven hours and thirty-eight minutes. But Mars turns on its axis in twenty-four hours and thirty-seven minutes, so the moon goes round three times, while Mars does once, hence it rises in the west and sets in the east, making one day of Mars equal three of its months. This moon changes every two hours, passing all phases in a single martial night; is anomalous in the solar system, and tends to subvert that theory of cosmic evolution wherein a rotating gaseous sun cast off concentric rings, afterward becoming planets. Astronomers were not satisfied with the telescope; true, they beheld the phenomena of the solar system; planets rotating on axes, and satellites revolving about them. They saw sunspots, faculae, and solar upheaval; watched eclipses, transits, and the alternations of summer and winter on Mars, and detected the laws of gravity and motion in the system to which the earth belongs. They then devised the micrometer. This is a complex mechanism placed in the focus of a telescope, and by its use any object, providing it shows a disk, no matter what its distance, can be measured. It consists of spider webs set within a graduated metallic circle, the webs movable by screws, and the whole instrument capable of rotating about the collimation axis of the telescope. The screw head is a circle ruled to degrees and minutes, and turns in front of a fixed vernier in the field of a reading microscope. One turn of the screw moves the web a certain number of seconds; then as there are 360 deg. in a circle, one-three-hundred-and-sixtieth of a turn moves the web one-three-hundred and-sixtieth of the amount, and so on. Thus, when two stars are seen in the field, one web is moved by the screw until the fixed line and the movable one are parallel, each bisecting a star. By reading with the microscope the number of degrees turned, the distance apart of the stars becomes known; the distance being learned, position is then sought; the observance of which led to one of the greatest discoveries ever made by man. The permanent line of the micrometer is placed in the line joining the north and south poles of the heavens, and brought across one of the stars; the movable web is then rotated until it bisects the other, and then the angle between the webs is recorded. Double stars are thus measured, first in distance, and second, their position. After this, if any movement of the stars takes place, the tell tale micrometer at once detects it.
In 1780, Sir Wm. Herschel measured double stars and made catalogues with distances and positions. Within twenty years, he startled intellectual man with the statement that many of the fixed stars actually move—one great sun revolving around another, and both rotating about their common center of gravity. If we look at a double star with a small telescope, it looks just like any other; using a little larger glass, it changes appearance and looks elongated; with a still better telescope, they become distinctly separated and appear as two beautiful stars whose elements are measured and carefully recorded, in order to see if they move. Herschel detected the motion of fifty of these systems, and revolutionized modern astronomy. Astronomers soared away from the little solar system, and began a minute search throughout the whole sidereal heavens. Herschel's catalogue contained four hundred double suns, only fifty of which were known to be in revolution. Since then, enormous advance has been made. The micrometer has been improved into an instrument of great delicacy, and the number of doubles has swelled to ten thousand; six hundred and fifty of them being known to be binary, or revolving on orbits—Prof. S. W. Burnham, the distinguished young astronomer of the Dearborn Observatory, Chicago, having discovered eight hundred within the last eight years. This discovery implies stupendous motion; every fixed star is a sun like our own, and we can imagine these wheeling orbs to be surrounded by cool planets, the abode of life, as well as ours. If the orbit of a binary system lies edgewise toward us, then one star will hide the other each revolution, moving across it and appearing on the other side. Several instances of this motion are known; the distant suns having made more than a complete circuit since discovery, the shortest periodic time known being twenty-five years.
Wonderful as was this achievement of the micrometer, one not less surprising awaited its delicate measurement. If one walks in a long street lighted with gas, the lights ahead will appear to separate, and those in the rear approach. The little spider lines have detected just such a movement in the heavens. The stars in Hercules are all the time growing wider apart, while those in Argus, in exactly the opposite part of the Universe, are steadily drawing nearer together. This demonstrates that our sun with his stately retinue of planets, satellites, comets, and meteorites, all move in grand march toward the constellation Hercules. The entire universe is in motion. But these revelations of the micrometer are tame compared with its final achievement, the discovery of parallax.
This means difference of direction, and the parallax of a star is the difference of its direction when viewed at intervals of six months. Astronomers observe a star to-day with a powerful telescope and micrometer; and in six months again measure the same star. But meanwhile the earth has moved 183,000,000 miles to the east, so that if the star has changed place, this enormous journey caused it, and the change equals a line 91,400,000 miles long as viewed from the star. For years many such observations were made; but behold the star was always in the same place; the whole distance of the sun having dwindled down to the diameter of a pin point in comparison with the awful chasm separating us from the stars. Finally micrometers were made that measured lines requiring 100,000 to make an inch; and a new series of observations begun, crowning the labors of a century with success. Finite man actually told the distance of the starry hosts and gauged the universe.
When the parallax of any object is found, its distance is at once known, for the parallax is an arc of a circle whose radius is the distance. By an important theorem in geometry it is learned, that when anything subtends an angle of one second its distance is 206,265 times its own diameter. The greatest parallax of any star is that of Alpha Centauri—nine-tenths of a second; hence it is more than 206,265 times 91,400,000 miles—the distance of the sun—away, or twenty thousand billions of miles. This is the distance of the nearest fixed star, and is used as a standard of reference in describing greater depths of space. This is not all the micrometer enables man to know, When the distance separating the earth from two celestial bodies that revolve is learned, the distance between the two orbs becomes known. Then the period of revolution is learned from observation, and having the distance and time, then their velocity can be determined. The distance and velocity being given, then the combined weights of both suns can be calculated, since by the laws of gravity and motion it is known how much weight is required to produce so much motion in so much time, at so much distance, and thus man weighs the stars. If the density of these bodies could be ascertained, their diameters and volumes would be known, and the size of the fixed stars would have been measured. Density can never be exactly learned; but strange to say, photometers measure the quantity of light that any bright body emits; hence the stars cannot have specific gravity very far different from that of the sun, since they send similar light, and in quantity obeying the law wherein light varies inversely as the squares of distance. Therefore, knowing the weight and having close approximation to density, the sizes of the stars are nearly calculated. The conclusion is now made that all suns within the visible universe are neither very many times larger nor smaller than our own. (Newcomb and Holden's Astronomy, p. 454.)
Another result followed the use of the micrometer: the detection of the proper motion of the stars. For several thousand years the stars have been called "fixed," but the fine rulings of the filar micrometer tell a different story. There are catalogues of several hundred moving stars, whose motion is from one-half second to eight seconds annually. The binary star, Sixty-one Cygni, the nearest north of the equator, moves eight seconds every year, a displacement equal in three hundred and sixty years to the apparent diameter of the moon. The fixed stars have no general motion toward any point, but move in all directions.
Thus the micrometer revealed to man the magnitude and general structure, together with the motions and revolutions of the sidereal heavens. Above all, it demonstrated that gravity extends throughout the universe. Still the longings of men were not appeased; they brought to view invisible suns sunk in space, and told their weight, yet the thirst for knowledge was not quenched. Men wished to know what all the suns are made of, whether of substances like those composing the earth, or of kinds of matter entirely different. Then was devised the spectroscope, and with it men audaciously questioned nature in her most secluded recesses. The basis of spectroscopy is the prism, which separates sunlight into seven colors and projects a band of light called a spectrum. This was known for three hundred years, and not much thought of it until Fraunhofer viewed it with a telescope, and was surprised to find it filled with hundreds of black lines invisible to the unaided eye. Could it be possible that there are portions of the solar surface that fail to send out light? Such is the fact, and then began a twenty years' search to learn the cause. The lines in the solar spectrum were unexplained until finally metals were vaporized in the intense heat of the electric arc and the light passed through a spectroscope, when behold the spectra of metals were filled with bright lines in the same places as were the dark lines in the spectrum of the sun. Another step: if when metals are volatilized in the arc, rays of light from the sun are passed through the vapor and allowed to enter the spectroscope, a great change is wrought; a reversal takes place, and the original black bands reappear. A new law of nature was discovered, thus: "Vapors of all elements absorb the same rays of light which they emit when incandescent." Every element makes a different spectrum with lines in different places and of different widths. These have been memorized by chemists, so that when an expert having a spectroscope sees anything burn he can tell what it is as well as read a printed page. Men have learned the alphabet of the universe, and can read in all things radiating light, the constituent elements. The black lines in the solar spectrum are there because in the atmosphere of the sun exist vapors of metals, and the light from the liquid metals below is unable to pass through and reach the earth, being absorbed kind for kind. Gaseous iron sifts out all rays emitted from melted iron, and so do the vapors of all other elements in the sun, radiating light in unison with their own. Sodium, iron, calcium, hydrogen, magnesium, and many other substances are now known to be incandescent in the sun and stars; and the results of the developments of the spectroscope may be summed up in the generalization that all bodies in the universe are composed of the same substance the earth is. |
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