Dr. Pavy, F.R.S., showed in his address on the "Dietetics of Bread" that in white flour, instead of obtaining the 23 parts of mineral matter to 100 parts of nitrogenous matter—which is the accepted ratio of a standard diet—we should only get 4.20 parts of mineral matter. Professor Church states that 1 lb. of white flour has only 49 grains of mineral matter, while 1 lb. of whole wheat meal has 119 grains. Whole wheat meal, besides containing other essential mineral elements, has double the amount of lime, and nearly three times the amount of phosphoric acid; so that if defective mineral nutrition in any way predisposes to consumption, the adoption of wheat meal prepared in a digestible and palatable form is of primary importance for those who are unable to obtain the phosphates from high-priced animal foods.

Wheat meal has also great advantages for those who are able to afford animal food, for, as Dr. Pavy stated, "It acts as a greater stimulant to the digestive organs."

It is probably due to this stimulating property of wheat meal that people who have adopted it find they can digest animal fat much better than previously. If this is corroborated by general experience, it may be of great benefit in aiding the system to resist tendencies toward consumption and scrofula, for these diseases are generally accompanied by loss of the power of assimilating fat. It is believed that a deficiency of oleaginous matter is a predisposing cause of tuberculous disease. An important prophylactic, therefore, against such maladies, would be a general increase in the use of butter and other fatty foods.

There is such good reason to believe that a low state of nutrition favors the development of tuberculous disease, that parents cannot be too strongly urged to provide their children with a proper supply of healthy, nourishing, and pure food (under which term must, of course, be included pure air and pure water), for by so doing they may often arrest consumptive tendencies, and thus would be diminished the ravages of that fatal disease which, when once established, is "the despair of the physician, and the terror of the public."

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THE NEW YORK FISH COMMISSION PONDS AT CALEDONIA.

The capacity of the New York State fish farm at Caledonia is 6,000,000 fry a year. The recently issued report of the fish commissioners says that this year the ponds will be worked to their full capacity.

The supply of spawn has been greater than could be hatched there, and supplies were sent to responsible persons in every State in the Union to be experimented with. At the date of issuing the report the supply of stock fish at the hatchery embraced, it was estimated, a thousand salmon trout, of weights ranging from four to twelve pounds; ten thousand brook trout, from half a pound to two pounds in weight; thirty thousand California mountain trout, weighing from a quarter of a pound to three pounds; forty-seven hundred rainbow trout, of from a quarter of a pound to two pounds' weight; and a large number of hybrids produced by crossing and interbreeding of different members of the salmon tribe. In this connection reference is made to the interesting fact that hybrids of the fish family are not barren. Spawners produced by crossing the male brook trout with the female salmon trout cast 72,000 eggs last fall, which hatched as readily as the spawn of their progenitors. The value of the stock of breeding fish at the hatchery is estimated at $20,000.

The hatch of salmon trout this season was not far from 1,200,000, and these will be distributed chiefly in the large lakes of the interior. About a million little brook trout were produced. The commission doubts whether much benefit has resulted from attempting to stock small streams that have once been good trout waters, but the temperature of which has been changed by cutting away the forest trees that overhung them. The best results have been attained where the waters are of considerable extent, especially those in and bordering on the wilderness in the northern part of the State. The experiments with California trout, have been very successful, and it is found that the streams most suitable for them, are the Hudson, Genesee, Mohawk, Moose, Black, and Beaver rivers, and the East and West Canada creeks. The commission hopes to hatch 6,000,000 or 8,000,000 shad this season at a cost of about $1,000. Concerning German carp, the commissioners find that the water at Caledonia is too cold for this fish, but think that carp would do well in waters further south.

The commission awaits a more liberal appropriation of money before beginning the work of hatching at the new State fish farm at Cold Spring, on the north side of Long Island, thirty miles out from Brooklyn.

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MIOCENE MAN.

Grant Allen, an English evolutionist, gives this imaginary picture of our supposed ancestor: "We may not unjustifiably picture him to ourselves as a tall and hairy creature, more or less erect, but with a slouching gait, black faced and whiskered, with prominent, prognathous muzza, and large, pointed canine teeth, those of each jaw fitted into an interspace in the opposite row. These teeth, as Mr. Darwin suggests, were used in the combats of the males. His forehead was no doubt low and retreating, with bony bosses underlying the shaggy eyebrows, which gave him a fierce expression, something like that of the gorilla. But already, in all likelihood, he had learned to walk habitually erect, and had begun to develop a human pelvis, as well as to carry his head more straight on his shoulders. That some such animal must have existed seems to me an inevitable corollary from the general principles of evolution and a natural inference from the analogy of other living genera."

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GOULIER'S TUBE-GAUGE.

As well known, the method by which glass barometer tubes are made gives them variable calibers. Not only do the different tubes vary in size, but even the same tube is apt to have different diameters throughout its length, and its sections are not always circular. Manufacturers of barometers often have need to know exactly the dimensions of the sections of these tubes, and to ascertain whether they are equal throughout a certain length of tube, and this is especially necessary in those instruments in which the surfaces of the sections of the reservoir and tube must bear a definite ratio to one another. Having ascertained that no apparatus existed for measuring the caliber of these and anolagous tubes, and that manufacturers had been accustomed to make the measurements by roundabout methods, Colonel Goulier has been led to devise a small apparatus for the purpose, and which is shown in the accompanying cuts.



The extremity of a brass tube, T, 0.5 to 0.6 of a meter in length and smaller in diameter than the tube to be gauged, is cut into four narrow strips a few centimeters in length. The extremity of each of these strips is bent toward the axis of the tube. Two of them, m and m', opposite each other are made very flexible, and carry, riveted to their extremities, two steel buttons, the heads of which, placed in the interior, have the form of an obtuse quoin with rounded edge directed perpendicular to the tube's axis. The other extremities of these buttons are spherical and polished and serve as caliper points in the operation of measuring. These buttons are given a thickness such that when the edges of their heads are in contact, the external diameter of the tube exceeds the distance apart of the two calibrating points by more than one millimeter. But such distance apart is increased within certain limits by inserting between the buttons a German silver wedge, L, carried by a rod, t, which traverses the entire tube, and which is maneuvered by a head, B, fixed to its extremity. This rod carries a small screw, v, whose head slides in a groove, r, in the tube, so as to limit the travel of the wedge and prevent its rotation. Beneath the head, B, the rod is filed so as to give it a plane surface for the reception of a divided scale. A corresponding slit in the top of the tube carries the index, I, of the scale. The principal divisions of the scale have been obtained experimentally, and traced opposite the index when the calibrating points were exactly 7, 8, 9 etc., millimeters apart. As the angle of the wedge is about one tenth, the intervals between these divisions are about one centimeter. These intervals are divided into ten parts, each of which corresponds to a variation in distance of one tenth of a millimeter.

To calibrate a glass tube with this instrument, the tube is laid upon the table, the gauge is inserted, and the buttons are introduced into the section desired. The flat side of the head, B, being laid on the table, arranges, as shown in the figure, the buttons perpendicular to it. Then the measuring wedge is introduced until a stoppage occurs through the contact of the buttons with the sides of the tube. Finally, their distance apart is read on the scale. Such distance apart will be the measure of a diameter or a chord of the tube's section, according as the buttons have been kept in the diametral plane or moved out of it. In order that the operator shall not be obliged to watch the position of the line of calibrating buttons in obtaining the diameter, the following arrangement has been devised: The sides of the measuring wedge are filed off to a certain angle, and the ends of the corresponding strips, d and d', are bent inward in the form of hooks, whose extremities always rest on the faces of the directing wedges. The length of these hooks and the angle of the wedge are such that the distance apart of the rounded backs of the directing strips is everywhere less, by about one-thirtieth, than that of the calibrating buttons. From this it will be seen that if the wedge be drawn back, and inserted again after the tube has been turned, we shall measure the diameter that is actually vertical. It becomes possible, then, to determine the greatest and smallest diameters in a few minutes; and, supposing the section elliptical, its area will be obtained by multiplying the product of these two diameters by pi/4.

From the description here given it will be seen that Colonel Goulier's apparatus is not only convenient to use, but also permits of obtaining as accurate results as are necessary. Two sizes of the instrument are made, one for diameters of from 7 to 10.5 mm., and the other for those of from 10 to 15.5 mm. It is the former of these that is shown, of actual size, in the cuts.

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SOLDERING WITHOUT AN IRON.

The following method for soldering without the use of a soldering iron is given in the Techniker:

The parts to be joined are made to fit accurately, either by filing or on a lathe. The surfaces are moistened with the soldering fluid, a smooth piece of tin foil laid on, and the pieces pressed together and tightly wired. The article is then heated over the fire or by means of a lamp until the tin foil melts. In this way two pieces of brass can be soldered together so nicely that the joint can scarcely be found.

With good soft solder, nearly all kinds of soldering can be done over a lamp without the use of a "copper." If several piaces have to be soldered on the same piece, it is well to use solder of unlike fusibility. If the first piece is soldered with fine solder composed of 2 parts of lead, 1 of tin, and 2 of bismuth, there is no danger of its melting when another place near it is soldered with bismuth solder, made of 4 parts of lead, 4 of tin, and 1 of bismuth, for their melting points differ so much that the former will not melt when the latter does. Many solders do not form any malleable compounds.

In soldering together brass, copper, or iron, hard solder must be employed; for example, a solder made of equal parts of brass and silver (!). For iron, copper, or brass of high melting point, a good solder is obtained by rolling a silver coin out thin, for it furnishes a tenacious compound, and one that is not too expensive, since silver stretches out well. Borax is the best flux for hard soldering. It dissolves the oxides which form on the surface of the metal, and protects it from further oxidation, so that the solder comes into actual contact with the surfaces of the metal. For soft soldering, the well-known fluid, made by saturating equal parts of water and hydrochloric acid with zinc, is to be used. In using common solder rosin is the cheapest and best flux. It also has this advantage, that it does not rust the article that it is used on.—Deutsche Industrie Zeitung.

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WORKING COPPER ORES AT SPENCEVILLE.

From a letter in the Grass Valley Tidings we make the following extracts:

The Spenceville Copper Mining Company have 43 acres of copper-bearing ground and 100 acres of adjoining land, which was bought for the timber. There are a hoisting works, mill, roasting sheds, and leaching vats on the ground, and they cover several acres.

On going around with Mr. Ellis, the first place we came to was the mine proper, which is simply an immense opening in the ground covering about one half of an acre, and about 80 feet deep. It has an incline running down into it, by which the ore is hoisted to the surface. Standing on the brink of this opening and looking down, we could see the men at work, some drilling, others filling and running the cars to the incline to be hoisted to the surface.

The ore is found in a sort of chloritic slate and iron pyrites which follow the ledge all around. The ore itself is a fine-grained pyrite, with a grayish color, and it is well suited by its sulphur and low copper contents, as well as by its properties for heap roasting. In heap roasting, the ore is hand-broken by Chinamen into small lumps before being hoisted to the surface. From the landing on the surface it is run out on long tracks under sheds, dumped around a loose brick flue and on a few sticks of wood formed in the shape of a V, which runs to the flues to give a draught. Layers of brush are put on at intervals through the pile. The smaller lumps are placed in the core of the heap, the larger lumps thrown upon them, and 40 tons of tank residues thrown over all to exclude excess of air; 500 lb. of salt is then distributed through the pile, and it is then set afire. After well alight the draught-holes are closed up, and the pile is left to burn, which it does for six months. At the expiration of that time the pile is broken into and sorted, the imperfectly roasted ore is returned to a fresh roast-heap, and the rest trammed to the

LEACH-VATS.

These are 50 in number, 10 having been recently added. The first 40 are four feet by six feet and four feet deep, the remaining 10 twice as large. About two tons of burnt ore is put in the small vats (twice as much in the larger ones), half the vats being tilled at one time, and then enough cold water is turned in to cover the ore. Steam is then injected beneath the ore, thus boiling the water. After boiling for some time, the steam is turned off and the water allowed to go cold. The water, which after the boiling process turns to a dark red color, is then drawn off. This water carries the copper in a state of solution. The ore is then boiled a second time, after which the tank residues are thrown out and water kept sprinkling over them. This water collects the copper still left in the residues, and is then run into a reservoir, and from the reservoirs still further on into settling tanks, previous to

PRECIPITATION,

and is then conducted through a system of boxes filled with scrap iron, thus precipitating the copper.

The richer copper liquors which have been drawn from the tanks fire not allowed to run in with that which comes from the dump heaps. This liquor is also run into settling tanks, and from them pumped into four large barrels, mounted horizontally on friction rollers, to which a very slow motion is given. These barrels are 18 feet long and six feet six inches deep outside measure. They are built very strongly, and are water-tight. Ten tons of scrap iron are always kept in each of these barrels, which are refilled six times daily, complete precipitation being effected in less than four hours. Each barrel is provided with two safety valves, inserted in the heads, which open automatically to allow the escape of gas and steam. The precipitation of the copper in the barrels forms copper cement. This cement is discharged from the barrels on to screens which hold any lumps of scrap iron which may be discharged with the cement. It is then dried by steam, after which it is conveyed into another tank, left to cool, and then placed in bags ready for shipment, as copper cement. The building in which the liquor is treated is the mill part of the property, from which they send out 42 tons monthly of an average of 85 per cent, of copper cement, this being the average yield of the mine.

There are 23 white men and 40 Chinamen employed at the mine and the mill. There are also several wood choppers, etc., on the company's pay-roll. Eight months' supply of ore is always kept on hand, there now being 12,000 tons roasting. The mine is now paying regular monthly dividends, and everything argues well for the continuance of the same.

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SIR WILLIAM THOMSON'S PILE.

The Thomson pile, which is employed with success for putting in action the siphon recorder, and which is utilized in a certain number of cases in which an energetic and constant current is needed, is made in two forms. We shall describe first the one used for demonstration. Each element of this (Fig. 1) consists of a disk of copper placed at the bottom of a cylindrical glass vessel, and of a piece of zinc in the form of a grating placed at the upper part, near the surface of the solution. A glass tube is placed vertically in the solution, its lower extremity resting on the copper. Into this tube are thrown some crystals of sulphate of copper, which dissolve in the liquid, and form a solution of a greater density than that of the zinc alone, and which, consequently, cannot reach the zinc by diffusion. In order to retard the phenomenon of diffusion, a glass siphon containing a cotton wick is placed with one of its extremities midway between the copper and zinc, and the other in a vessel outside the element, so that the liquid is sucked up slowly nearly to its center. The liquid is replaced by adding from the top either water or a weak solution of sulphate of zinc.



The greater part of the sulphate of copper that rises through the liquid by diffusion is carried off by the siphon before reaching the zinc, the latter being thus surrounded with an almost pure solution of sulphate of copper having a slow motion from top to bottom. This renewal of the liquid is so much the more necessary in that the saturated solution of sulphate of copper has a density of 1.166, and the sulphate of zinc one of 1.445, There would occur, then, a mixture through inversion of densities if the solution were allowed to reach a too great amount of saturation, did not the siphon prevent such a phenomenon by sucking up the liquid into the part where the mixture tends to take place. The chemical action that produces the current is identical with that of the Daniell element.

In its application, this pile is considerably modified in form and arrangement. Each element (Fig 2) consists of a flat wooden hopper-shaped trough, about fifty centimeters square, lined with sheet lead to make it impervious. The bottom is covered with a sheet of copper and above this there is a zinc grate formed of closely set bars that allow the liquid to circulate. This grate is provided with a rim which serves to support a second similar element, and the latter a third, and soon until there are ten of the elements superposed to form series mounted for tension. The weight of the elements is sufficient to secure a proper contact between the zinc and copper of the elements placed beneath them, such contact being established by means of a band of copper cut out of the sheet itself, and bent over the trough.



On account of the large dimensions of the elements, and the proximity of the two metals, a pile is obtained whose internal resistance is very feeble, it being always less than a tenth of an ohm when the pile is in a good state, and the electromotive force being that of the Daniell element—about 1 08 volts.

Sometimes the zinc is covered with a sheet of parchment which more thoroughly prevents a mixture of the liquids and a deposit of copper on the zinc. But such a precaution is not indispensable, if care be taken to keep up the pile by taking out some of the solution of sulphate of zinc every day, and adding sulphate of copper in crystals. If the pile is to remain idle for some time, it is better to put it on a short circuit in order to use up all the sulphate of copper, the disappearance of which will be ascertained by the loss of blue color in the liquid. In current service, on the contrary, a disappearance of the blue color will indicate an insufficiency of the sulphate, and will be followed by a considerable reduction in the effects produced by the pile.

The great power of this pile, and its constancy, when it is properly kept up, constitute features that are indispensable for the proper working of the siphon recorder—the application for which it was more especially designed.

This apparatus has been also employed under some circumstances for producing an electric light and charging accumulators; but such applications are without economic interest, seeing the enormous consumption of sulphate of copper during the operation of the pile. The use of the apparatus is only truly effective in cases where it is necessary to have, before everything else, an energetic and exceedingly constant current.—La Nature.

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SIEMENS' TELEMETER

The accompanying cut illustrates a telemeter which was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of Electricity, and which is particularly interesting from the fact that it is the first apparatus of this kind. It will be remembered that the object of a telemeter is to make known at any moment whatever the distance of a movable object, and that, too, by a direct reading and without any calculation. In Mr. Siemens' apparatus the problem is solved in the following manner:

The movable object (very often a vessel) is sighted from two different stations—two points of the coast, for example—by two different observers. The sighting is done with two telescopes, A1 and A2, which the observers revolve around a vertical axis by means of two winches, K1 and K2, that gear with two trains of clockwork. There is thus constantly formed a large triangle, having for its apices the movable point sighted and the vertical axes, A1 and A2, of the two telescopes. On another hand, at a point situated between the two telescopes, there is a table, T T, that carries two alidades, a1v1, and a2v2, movable around their vertical axes, a1 and a2. The line, a1 a2, that joins these axes is parallel with that which joins the axes of the two telescopes; and the alidades are connected electrically with the telescopes by a system such that each alidade always moves parallel with the telescope that corresponds to it. It follows from this that the small triangle that has for apices, a1 a2, and the crossing point of the two alidades will always be like the large triangle formed by the line that joins the telescopes and the two lines of vision. If, then, we know the ratio of a1, a2 to A1 A2, it will suffice to measure on one of the alidades the distance from its axis to the point of crossing in order to know the distance from the movable object to the axis of the corresponding telescope. If the table, T T, be covered with a chart giving the space over which the ship is moving, so that a1 and a2 shall coincide with the points which A1 and A2 represent, the crossing of the threads of the alidades will permit of following on the chart all the ship's movements. In this way there maybe had a powerful auxiliary in coast defence; for all the points at which torpedoes have been sunk may be marked on the chart, and, as soon as the operator at the table finds, by the motion of the alidades, that the ship under observation is directly over a torpedo, he will be able to fire the latter and blow the enemy up. During this time the two observers at A1 and A2 have only to keep their telescopes directed upon the vessel that it has been agreed upon to watch.



In order to obtain a parallelism between the motion of the alidades and that of the corresponding telescopes, the winch of each of the latter, while putting its instrument in motion, also sets in motion a Siemens double-T armature electromagnetic machine. One of the wires of the armature of this machine, connected to the frame, is always in communication with the ground at E1 (if we consider, for example, the telescope to the left), and the other ends in a spring that alternately touches two contacts. One of these contacts communicates with the wire, L1 and the other with the wire, L3, so that, when the machine is revolving, the currents are sent alternately into L1 and L3. These two latter wires end in a system of electro magnets, M1, provided with a polarized armature. The motions of the latter act, through an anchor escapement, upon a system of wheels. An axle, set in motion by the latter, revolves one way or the other, according to the direction of the telescope's motions. This axle is provided with an endless screw that gears with a toothed sector, and the latter controls the rotatory axis of the alidade. The elements of the toothed wheels and the number of revolutions of the armature for a given displacement of the telescope being properly calculated, it will be seen that the alidade will be able to follow all the movements of the latter.

When it is desired to place one of the telescopes in a given position (its position of zero, for example), without acting on the alidade, it may be done by acting directly on the telescope itself without the intermedium of the winch. For such purpose it is necessary to interrupt communication with the mechanism by pressing on the button, q. If the telescope be turned to one side or the other of its normal position, in making it describe an angle of 90 deg., it will abut against stops, and these two positions will permit of determining the direction of the base.

The alidades themselves are provided with a button which disengages the toothed sector from the endless screw, and permits of their being turned to a mark made on the table. A regulating screw permits of this operation being performed very accurately. In what precedes, we have supposed a case in which the movable point is viewed by two observers, and in which the table, T T, is stationed at a place distant from them. In certain cases only two stations are employed. One of the telescopes is then placed over its alidade and moves with it; and the apparatus thus comprehends only a system of synchronous movements.

This telemeter was one of the first that was tried in our military ports, and gave therein most satisfactory results. The maneuver of the winch, however, requires a certain amount of stress, and in order that the sending of the currents shall be regular, the operator must turn it very uniformly. This is a slight difficulty that has led to the use of piles, instead of the magneto-electric machine, in the apparatus employed in France. With such substitution there is need of nothing more than a movable contact that requires no exertion, and that may be guided by the telescope itself.—La Lumiere Electrique.

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PHYSICS WITHOUT APPARATUS.

Experiment in Static Electricity.—Take a pipe—a common clay one costing one cent—and balance it carefully on the edge of a goblet, so that it will oscillate freely at the least touch, like the beam of a scales. This being done, say to your audience: "Here is a pipe placed on the edge of a goblet; now the question is to make it fall without touching it, without blowing against it, without touching the glass, without agitating the air with a fan, and without moving the supporting table"



The problem thus proposed may be solved by means of electricity. Take a goblet like the one that supports the pipe, and rub it briskly against your coat sleeve, so as to electrify the glass through friction. Having done this, bring the goblet to within about a centimeter of the pipe stem. The latter will then be seen to be strongly attracted, and will follow the glass around and finally fall from its support.

This curious experiment is a pretty variation of the electric pendulum; and it shows that pipe-clay—a very bad conductor of electricity—favors very well the attraction of an electrified body.

Tumblers or goblets are to be found in every house, and a clay pipe is easily procured anywhere. So it would be difficult to produce manifestations of electricity more easily and at less expense than by the means here described.—La Nature.

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THE CASCADE BATTERY.

[Footnote: Lately read before the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians.]

By F. HIGGINS.

The battery which I have brought here to-night to introduce to your notice is of the circulating kind, in which the alimentary fluid employed passes from cell to cell by gravitation, and maintains the action of the battery as long as it continues to flow. It cannot, of course, compare with such abundant sources of electricity as dynamo-electric machines driven by steam power, but for purposes in which a current of somewhat greater volume and constancy than that furnished by the ordinary voltaic batteries is required, it will, I believe, be found in some cases useful. A single fluid is employed, and each cell is provided with an overflow spout.

The cells are arranged upon steps, in order that the liquid may flow from the cell on the topmost step through each successive cell by gravitation [specimen cells were on the table before the audience] to the reservoir at the bottom. The top and the bottom reservoirs are of equal capacity, and are fitted with taps. The topmost tap is used to regulate the flow of the solution, and the bottom one to draw it off. In each cell two carbon plates are suspended above a quantity of fragments of amalgamated zinc. The following is a sectional drawing of the arrangement of the cell:



A copper wire passes down to the bottom of the cell and makes connection with the mercury; this wire is covered with gutta-percha, except where immersed in the mercury. The pores of the carbon plates are filled with paraffin wax. This battery was first employed for the purpose of utilizing waste solution from bichromate batteries, a great quantity of which is thrown away before having been completely exhausted. This waste is unavoidable, in consequence of the impossibility of permitting such batteries, when employed for telegraphic purposes, to run until complete exhaustion or reduction of the solutions has been effected; therefore some valuable chemicals have to be sacrificed to insure constancy in working. The fragments of zinc in this cell were also the remains of amalgamated zinc plates from the bichromate batteries, and the mercury which is employed for securing good metallic connection is soon augmented by that remaining after the dissolution of the zinc. It will therefore be seen that not only the solution, but also the zinc and mercury remnants of bichromate batteries are utilized, and at the same time a considerable quantity of electricity is generated. The cells are seven inches deep and six inches wide, outside, and contain about a quart of solution in addition to the plates. The battery which I employ regularly, consisting of 18 cells, is at present working nine permanent current Morse circuits, which previously required 250 telegraphic Daniell cells to produce the same effect, and is capable of working at least ten times the number of circuits which I have mentioned; but as we do not happen to have any more of such permanent current Morse circuits, we are unable to make all the use possible of the capabilities of the battery. The potential of one cell is from 1.9 to 2 volts with strong solution, and the internal resistance varies from 0.108 to 0.170 of an ohm with cells of the size described. In order to test the constancy of the battery, a red heat was maintained in a platinum-iridium wire by the current for six weeks, both day and night.

The absence or exhaustion of the zinc in any one cell in a battery is indicated by the appearance of a red insoluble chromic salt of mercury, in a finely divided state, floating in the faulty cell. It is then necessary to drop in some pieces of zinc. The state of the zinc supply may also be ascertained at any time by feeling about in the cells with a stick. When not required, the battery may be washed by simply charging the top reservoir with water, and leaving it to circulate in the usual manner, or the solution may be withdrawn from each cell by a siphon. A very small flow of the solution is sufficient to maintain the required current for telegraphic working, but if the flow be stopped altogether for a few hours, no difference is observed in the current, although when the current is required to be maintained in a conductor of a few ohms resistance, as in heating a platinum wire, it is necessary that the circulation be maintained [heating a piece of platinum ribbon]. The battery furnishing the current for producing the effect you now see is of five cells, and as that number is reduced down to two, you see a glow still appears in the platinum. The platinum strip employed was 5 inches long and 1/8 inch wide, its resistance being 0.42 ohm, cold. That gives an idea of the volume of current flowing. I have twelve electro magnets in printing instruments joined up on the table, and [joining up the battery] you see that the two cells are sufficient to work them. The twelve electro-magnets are being worked (by the two cells) in multiple arc at the same time. The current from the cells which heated the platinum wire is amply sufficient to magnetize a Thomson recorder. I have maintained five inches of platinum ribbon in a red hot state for two hours, in order to make sure that the battery I was about to bring before you was in good order. The cost of working such a battery when waste solution cannot be obtained, and it is necessary to use specially prepared bichromate solution, is about 21/4d. per cell per day, with a current constantly active in a Thomson recorder circuit, or a resistance of 11/2 ohms per cell; but if only occasionally used, the same quantity of solution will last several weeks.

A comparison of this with another form of constant battery, the Daniell, as used in telegraphy, shows that six of these cells, with a total electromotive force of 12 volts and an internal resistance of 0.84 of an ohm, cannot be replaced by less than 71 batteries of 10 cells each, connected in multiple arc, or for quantity. This result, however large it may appear, is considerably below that which may be obtained when working telegraphic lines. A current of 0.02 weber, or ampere, will work an ordinary sounder or direct writing Morse circuit; the cascade battery is capable of working 100 such circuits at the same time, while the combined resistance of that number of lines would not be below that in which it is found that the battery is constant in action.

Objection may be made to the arrangement of the battery on the score of waste of zinc by local action, because of the electro positive metal being exposed to the chromic liquid; but if the battery be out of action and the circulation stopped, the zinc amalgam is protected by the immobility of the liquid and the formation of a dense layer of sulphate of zinc on its surface. When in action, that effect is neutralized from the fact that carbon in chromic acid is more highly electro-negative than the chromate of mercury formed upon the zinc amalgam, and which appears to be the cause of the dissolution of the zinc even when amalgamated in the presence of chromic acid. The solution may be repeatedly passed through the battery until the absence of the characteristic warmth of color of chromic acid indicates its complete exhaustion. During a description before the Society of thermo-electric batteries some time ago, Mr. Preece mentioned that five of the thermopiles which were being tried at the Post-Office were doing the work of 2,535 of the battery cells previously employed. Thirty of the cascade cells would have about the same potential as five such thermopiles, but would supply three and a half times the current, and be capable of doing the work of 8,872 cells if employed upon the universal battery system in the same manner as the thermo batteries referred to.

Although this battery will do all that is required for a Thomson recorder or a similar instrument much more cheaply in this country than the tray battery, and with half the number of cells, I do not think it would be the case in distant countries, on account of the difficulty and cost of transport. A solid compound of chromic and sulphuric acids could be manufactured which would overcome this difficulty, if permanent magnetic fields for submarine telegraphic instruments continue to be produced by electric vortices. In conclusion, and to enable comparisons to be made, I may mention that the work this battery is capable of performing is 732,482 foot pounds, at a total cost of 1s. 6d.

* * * * *

[FROM THE SCHOOL JOURNAL.]



PERFECTLY LOVELY PHILOSOPHY.

CHARACTERS: Laura and Isabel, dressed very stylishly, both with hats on. Enter hand in hand.

Laura. My dear Isabel, I was so afraid you would not come. I waited at that horrid station a full half hour for you. I went there early on purpose, so as to be sure not to miss you.

Isabel. Oh, you sweet girl!

L. Now, sit right down; you must be tired. Just lay your hat there on the table, and we'll begin to visit right off. (Both lay their hats on the table and stand near by.)

I. And how have you been all the ages since we were together at Boston?

L. Oh, well, dear; those were sweet old school days, weren't they. How are you enjoying yourself now? You wrote that you were taking lessons in philosophy. Tell me how you like it. Is it real sweet?

I Oh, those I took in the winter were perfectly lovely! It was about science, you know, and all of us just doled on science.

L. It must have been nice. What was it about?

I. It was about molecules as much as anything else, and molecules are just too awfully nice for anything. If there's anything I really enjoy, it's molecules.

L. Oh, tell me about them, dear. What are molecules?

I. They are little wee things, and it takes ever so many of them, you know. They are so sweet! Do you know, there isn't anything but that's got a molecule in it. And the professors are so lovely! They explained everything so beautifully.

L. Oh, how I'd like to have been there!

I. You'd have enjoyed it ever so much. They teach protoplasm, too, and if there's one thing that is too sweetly divine, it's protoplasm. I really don't know which I like best, protoplasm or molecules.

L. Tell me about protoplasm. I know I should adore it!

I. 'Deed you would. It's just too sweet to live. You know it's about how things get started, or something of that kind. You ought to have heard the professors tell about it. Oh. dear! (Wipes her eyes with handkerchief) The first time he explained about protoplasm there wasn't a dry eye in the room. We all named our hats after the professors. This is a Darwinian hat. You see the ribbon is drawn over the crown this way (takes hat and illustrates), and caught with a buckle and bunch of flowers. Then you turn up the side with a spray of forget me-nots.

L. Oh, how utterly sweet! Do tell me some more of science. I adore it already.

I. Do you, dear? Well, I almost forgot about differentiation. I am really and truly positively in love with differentiation. It's different from molecules and protoplasms, but it's every bit as nice. And our professor! You should hear him enthuse about it; he's perfectly bound up in it. This is a differentiation scarf—they've just come out. All the girls wear them—just on account of the interest we take in differentiation.

L. What is it, anyway?

I. Mull trimmed with Languedoc lace, but—

L. I don't mean that—the other.

I. Oh, differentiation! That's just sweet. It's got something to do with species. And we learn all about ascidians, too. They are the divinest things! If I only had an ascidian of my own! I wouldn't ask anything else in the world.

L. What do they look like, dear? Did you ever see one?

I. Oh, no; nobody ever did but the poor dear professors; but they're something like an oyster with a reticule hung on its belt. I think they are just too lovely for anything.

L. Did you learn anything else besides?

I. Oh, yes. We studied common philosophy, and logic, and metaphysics, and a lot of those ordinary things, but the girls didn't care anything about those. We were just in ecstasies over differentiations, and molecules, and the professor, and protoplasms, and ascidians. I don't see why they put in those common branches; we couldn't hardly endure them.

L. (Sighs.) Do you believe they'll have a course like that next year?

I. I think may be they will.

L. Dear me! There's the bell to dress for dinner. How I wish I could study those lovely things!

I. You must ask your father if you can't spend the winter in Boston with me. I'm sure there'll be another course of Parlor Philosophy next winter. But how dreadful that we must stop talking about it now to dress for dinner! You are going to have company, you said; what shall you wear, dear?

L. Oh, almost anything. What shall you?

(Exeunt arm in arm.)

* * * * *



THE PROPOSED DUTCH INTERNATIONAL COLONIAL AND GENERAL EXPORT EXHIBITION.

The Amsterdam International Exhibition, the opening of which has been fixed for May 1, 1883, is now in way of realization. This exhibition will present a special interest to all nations, and particularly to their export trade. Holland, which is one of the great colonial powers, proposes by means of this affair to organize a competition between the various colonizing nations, and to contribute thus to a knowledge of the resources of foreign countries whose richness of soil is their fundamental power.

The executive committee includes the names of some of the most prominent persons of the Netherlands: M. Cordes, president; M. de Clercq, delegate; M. Kappeyne van di Coppello, secretary; and M. Agostini, commissary general.



The exhibition will consist of five great divisions, to wit: 1. A Colonial exhibition. 2. A General Export exhibition. 3. A Retrospective exhibition of Fine Arts and of Arts applied to the Industries. 4. Special exhibitions. 5. Lectures and Scientific Reunions.

The colonial part forms the base of the exhibition, and will be devoted to a comparative study of the different systems of colonization and colonial agriculture, as well as of the manners and customs of ultramarine peoples. In giving an exact idea of what has been done, it will indicate what remains to be done from the standpoint of a general development of commerce and manufactures. Such is the programme of the first division.

The second division will include everything that relates to the export trade.

The third division will be reserved for works of art dating back from the most remote ages.

The fourth division will be devoted to temporary exhibitions, such as those of horticultural and agricultural products, etc.

The fifth division will constitute the intellectual part, so to speak, of the exhibition. It will be devoted to lectures, and to scientific meetings for the discussion of questions relating to teaching, to the arts, to the sciences, to hygiene, to international jurisprudence, and to political economy. Questions of colonial economy will naturally occupy the first rank.

As will be seen, the programme of this grand scheme organized by the Netherlands government is a broad one; and, owing the experience acquired in recent universal exhibitions, especially that of Paris in 1878, very happy results may be expected from it.

At present, we give an illustration showing the general plan of the exhibition. In future, in measure as the work proceeds, we shall be able to give further details.—Le Genie Civil.

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NEW METHOD OF DETECTING DYES ON YARNS AND TISSUES.

By JULES JOFFRE.

The reagents employed are a solution of caustic potassa in ten parts of water; hydrochloric acid diluted with an equal bulk of water, or occasionally concentrated; nitric acid, ammonia, ferric sulphate, and a concentrated solution of tin crystals. The most convenient method of operating is to steep small portions of the cloth under examination in a little of the reagent placed at the bottom of a porcelain capsule. The bits are then laid on the edge of the capsule, when the changes of color which they have undergone may be conveniently observed. It is useful to submit to the same reagents simultaneously portions of cloth dyed in a known manner with the wares which are suspected of having been used in dyeing the goods under examination.

RED COLORS.

By the action of caustic potassa, the reds are divided into four groups: 1, those which turn to a violet or blue; 2, those which turn brown; 3, those which are changed to a light yellow or gray; 4, those which undergo little or no change.

The first group comprises madder, cochineal, orchil, alkanet, and murexide. Madder reds are turned to an orange by hydrochloric acid, while the three next are not notably affected. Cochineal is turned by the potassa to a violet-red, orchil to a violet-blue, and alkanet to a decided blue. Lac-dye presents the same reactions as cochineal, but has less brightness. Ammoniacal cochineal and carmine may likewise be distinguished by the tone of the reds obtained.

A characteristic of madder reds is that, after having been turned yellow by hydrochloric acid, they are rendered violet on treatment with milk of lime. A boiling soap-lye restores the original red, though somewhat paler. Artificial alizarine gives the same reaction. Turkey-reds, however, are quite unaffected by acid. Garancine and garanceux reds, if treated first with hydrochloric acid and then with milk of lime, turn to a dull blue.

Madder dyes are sometimes slow in being turned to a violet by potassa, and this shade when produced is often brownish. They might thus be confounded with the dyes of the fourth group, i.e., rosolic acid, coralline, eosine, and coccine. None of these colors gives the characteristic reaction with milk of lime and boiling soap-lye. If plunged in milk of lime, they resume their rose or orange shades, while the madder colors become violet. Murexide is turned, by potassa, gray in its light shades and violet in its dark ones. It might, then, be confounded with orchil, but it is decolorized by hydrochloric acid, which leaves orchil a red. Moreover, it is turned greenish by stannous chloride.

A special character of this dye (murexide) is the presence of mercury, the salts of which serve as mordants for fixing it, and may be detected by the ordinary reagents.

The second group comprises merely sandal wood or sanders red, which turns to a brown. On boiling it with copperas it becomes violet, while on boiling with potassium dichromate it changes to a yellowish brown.

The third group includes safflower, magenta, and murexide (light shades). If the action of the potassa is prolonged the (soft) red woods enter into this group. Safflower turns yellow by the action of potassa, and the original rose shade is not restored by washing with water. Hydrochloric acid turns it immediately yellow. Citric acid has no action. Magenta is completely decolorized by potassa, but a prolonged washing in water reproduces the original shade. This reaction is common to many aniline colors. These decolorations and recolorations are easily produced in dark shades, while in very light shades they are less easily observed, because there is always a certain loss of color. Stannous chloride turns magenta reds to a violet. Hydrochloric acid renders them yellowish brown (afterward greenish?). Water restores the purple red shade.

The fourth group comprises saffranine, azo-dinaphthyldiamine, rosolic acid, coralline, pure eosine and cosine modified by a salt of lead, coccina, artificial ponceau, and red-wood.

Saffranine is detected by the action of hydrochloric acid, which turns it to a beautiful blue; the red color is restored by washing in water. Azo-dinaphthyl diamine is recognized by its peculiar orange cast, and is turned by hydrochloric acid to a dull, dirty violet. Rosolic acid and coralline, as well as eosine, are turned by hydrochloric acid to an orange-yellow: the two former are distinguished from eosine by their shade, which inclines to a yellow. Potassa turns rosolic acid and coralline from an orange-red to a bright red, while it produces no change in eosine. If the action of potassa is prolonged, modified eosine is blackened in consequence of the decomposition of the wool, the sulphur of which forms lead sulphide. Coccine becomes of a light lemon-yellow on treatment with hydrochloric acid. Washing with water restores the original shade. It affords the same reactions as eosine, but its tone is more inclined to an orange.

Artificial ponceau does not undergo any change on treatment with hydrochloric acid, and resists potash. Red wood shades are turned toward a gooseberry-red by hydrochloric acid, especially if strong. This last reaction not being very distinct, red-wood shades might be mistaken for those of artificial ponceau but for the superior brightness of the latter. If the action of potassa is prolonged, the red-wood shades are decolorized, and a washing with water then bleaches the tissue. Rocelline affords the same reactions as artificial ponceau, but if steeped in a concentrated solution of stannous chloride it is in time completely discharged, which is not the case with artificial ponceau.

VIOLET COLORS.

Violets are divided into two groups: those affected by potassa, and those upon which it has no action. The first group embraces logwood, orchil, alkanet, and aniline violets, including under the latter term Perkin's violet, (probably the original "mauve"), dahlia, Parme or magenta violet, methyl, and Hofmann's violets. The action of potassa gives indications for each of these violets. Logwood violet is browned; that of orchil, if slightly reddish, is turned to a blue-violet; that of alkanet is modified to a fine blue. Lastly, Perkin's mauve, dahlia, and methyl violet become of a grayish brown, which may be re-converted into a fine violet by washing in abundance of water. When the shades are very heavy, this grayish brown is almost of a violet-brown, so that the violets might seem to be unaltered.

The action of hydrochloric acid distinguishes these colors better still if the aid of ammonia is called in for two cases.

The acid turns logwood violet to a fine red, and equally reddens orchil violet. But the two colors cannot be confounded, first, because the two violet shades are very distinct, that of orchil being much the brighter; and secondly, because ammonia has no action on logwood violet, while it turns orchil violet, if at all reddish, to a blue shade. Hydrochloric acid, whether dilute or concentrated, is without action on alkanet violet. If the acid is dilute, it is equally without action on Perkin's violet and dahlia. If it is strong, it turns them blue, and even green if in excess. Hofmann's violet turns green even with dilute acid, but prolonged washing restores the original violet shade. Dahlia gives a more blue shade than Perkin's mauve. The action of acid is equally characteristic for methyl violet. It becomes green, then yellow. Washing in water re-converts it first to a green, and then to a violet.

The second group includes madder violet, cochineal violet, and the compound violet of cochineal and extract of indigo. These three dyes are thus distinguished: Hydrochloric acid turns the madder violet-orange, slightly brownish, or a light brown, and it affords the characteristic reaction of the madder colors described above under reds. Cochineal violets are reddened. Sometimes they are decolorized, and become finally yellow, but do not pass through a brown stage.

The compound violet of cochineal and extract of indigo presents this characteristic reaction, that if boiled with very weak solution of sodium carbonate the liquid becomes blue, rather greenish, while the cloth becomes a vinous-red—Moniteur Scientifique.—Chem. News.

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CHEVALET'S CONDENSO-PURIFIER FOR GAS.

The condenso-purifier shown in the accompanying cut operates as follows: Water is caused to flow over a metallic plate perforated with innumerable holes of from one to three millimeters in diameter, and then, under this disk, which is exactly horizontal, a current of gas is introduced. Under these circumstances the liquid does not traverse the holes in the plate, but is supported by the gas coming in an opposite direction. Provided that the gas has sufficient pressure, it bubbles up through the water and becomes so much the more divided in proportion as the holes are smaller and more numerous.

The gas is washed by traversing the liquid, and freed from the tar and coal-dust carried along with it; while, at the same time, the ammonia that it contains dissolves in the water, and this, too, so much the better the colder the latter is. This apparatus, then, permits of obtaining two results: a mechanical one, consisting in the stoppage of the solid matters, and a chemical one, consisting in the stoppage of the soluble portions, such as ammonia, sulphureted hydrogen, and carbonic acid.



The condenso-purifier consists of three perforated diaphragms, placed one over the other in rectilinear cast-iron boxes. These diaphragms are movable, and slide on projections running round the interior of the boxes. In each of the latter there is an overflow pipe, g, that runs to the box or compartment below, and an unperforated plate, f, that slides over the diaphragm so as to cover or uncover as many of the holes as may be necessary. A stream of common water runs in through the funnel, e, over the upper diaphragm, while the gas enters the apparatus through the pipe, a, and afterward takes the direction shown by the arrows. Reaching the level of the overflow, the water escapes, fills the lower compartment, covers the middle diaphragm, then passes through the second overflow-pipe to cover the lower diaphragm, next runs through the overflow-pipe of the third diaphragm on to the bottom of the purifier, and lastly makes its exit, through a siphon. A pressure gauge, having an inlet for the gas above and below, serves for regulating the pressure absorbed for each diaphragm, and which should vary between 0.01 and 0.012 of a meter.

The effect of this purifier is visible when the operation is performed with an apparatus made externally of glass. The gas is observed to enter in the form of smoke under the first diaphragm, and the water to become discolored and tarry. When the gas traverses the second diaphragm, it is observed to issue from the water entirely colorless, while the latter becomes slightly discolored, and finally, when it traverses the third diaphragm, the water is left perfectly limpid.

Two diaphragms have been found sufficient to completely remove the solid particles carried along by the gas, the third producing only a chemical effect.

This apparatus may replace two of the systems employed in gas works: (1) mechanical condensers, such as the systems of Pelouze & Audouin, and of Servier; and (2) scrubbers of different kinds and coke columns. Nevertheless, it is well to retain the last named, if the gas works have them, but to modify their work.



This purifier should always be placed directly after the condensers, and is to be supplied with a stream of pure water at the rate of 50 liters of water per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. Such water passes only once into the purifier, and issues therefrom sufficiently rich in ammonia to be treated.

If there are coke columns in the works, they are placed after the purifier, filled with wood shavings or well washed gravel, and then supplied with pure cold water in the proportion stated above. The water that flows from the columns passes afterward into the condenso-purifier, where it becomes charged with ammonia, and removes from the gas the tar that the latter has carried along, and then makes its exit and goes to the decanting cistern.

In operating thus, all the remaining ammonia that might have escaped the condenso-purifier is removed, and the result is obtained without pumps or motor, with apparatus that costs but little and does not occupy much space. The advantages that are derived from this, as regards sulphate of ammonia, are important; for, on treating ammoniacal waters with condensers, scarcely more than four to five kilogrammes of the sulphate are obtained per ton of coal distilled, while by washing the gas perfectly with the small quantity of water indicated, four to five kilogrammes more can be got per 1,000 kilogrammes of coal, or a total of eight to ten kilogrammes per ton.

When the gas is not washed sufficiently, almost all of the ammonia condenses in the purifying material.

The pressure absorbed by the condenso purifier is from ten to twelve millimeters per washing-diaphragm. In works that are not provided with an extractor, two diaphragms, or even a single one, are employed when it is desired simply to catch the tar.

The apparatus under consideration was employed in the St. Quentin gas works during the winter of 1881-1882, without giving rise to any obstruction; and, besides, it was found that by its use there might be avoided all choking up of the pipes at the works and the city mains through naphthaline.

In cases of obstruction, it is very easy to take out the perforated diaphragms; this being done by removing the bolts from the piece that holds the register, f, and then removing the diaphragm and putting in another. This operation takes about ten minutes. The advantages of such a mounting of the diaphragms is that it allows the gas manufacturer to employ (and easily change) the number of perforations that he finds best suited to his needs.

These apparatus are constructed for productions of from 1,000 to 100,000 cubic meters of gas per twenty four hours. They have been applied advantageously in the washing of smoke from potassa furnaces, in order to collect the ammonia that escapes from the chimneys. In one of such applications, the quantity of gas and steam washed reached a million cubic meters per twenty-four hours.—Revue Industrielle.

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ARTIFICIAL IVORY.

It is said that artificial ivory of a pure white color and very durable has been manufactured by dissolving shellac in ammonia, mixing the solution with oxide of zinc, driving off ammonia by heating, powdering, and strongly compressing in moulds.

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CREOSOTE IMPURITIES.

[Footnote: Read at the meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Association held at Niagara Falls. 1882.]

By Prof. P. W. BEDFORD.

The object of this query can be but one, namely, to inquire whether the wood creosote offered for sale is a pure article, or not; and if not, what is the impurity present?

The relative commercial value of the articles sold as coal tar creosote and wood creosote disposes of the question as to the latter being present in the former article, and we are quite certain that the cheap variety is nothing more or less than a phenol or carbolic acid. Wood creosote, it has been frequently stated, is adulterated with coal tar creosote, or phenol. The object of my experiments has been to prove the identity of wood creosote and its freedom from phenol. The following tests are laid down in various works as conclusive evidence of its purity, and each has been fully tried with the several samples of wood creosote to prove their identity and purity, and also with phenol, sold as commercial creosote or coal tar creosote, and for comparison with mixtures of the two, that even small percentages of admixture might be identified, should such exist in the wood creosote of the market.

The following tests were used:

1. Equal volumes of anhydrous glycerine and wood creosote make a turbid mixture, separating on standing. Phenol dissolves. If three volumes of water be added, the separation of the wood creosote is immediate. Phenol remains in permanent solution.

2. One volume of wood creosote added to two volumes of glycerine; the former is not dissolved, but separates on standing. Phenol dissolves.

3. Three parts of a mixture containing 75 per cent, of glycerine and 25 of water to 1 part of wood creosote show no increase of volume of glycerine, and wood creosote separates. Phenol dissolves, and forms a clear mixture. Were any phenol present in the wood creosote, the increase in the volume of the glycerine solution, if in a graduated tube, would distinctly indicate the percentage of phenol present.

4. Solubility in benzine. Wood creosote entirely soluble. Phenol is insoluble.

5. A 1 per cent, solution of wood creosote. Take of this 10 cubic centimeters, add 1 drop of a test solution of ferric chloride; an evanescent blue color is formed, passing quickly into a red color. Phenol gives a permanent blue color.

6. Collodion or albumen with an equal bulk of wood creosote makes a perfect mixture without coagulation. Phenol at once coagulates into a more or less firm mass or clot.

7. Bromine solution with wood creosote gives a reddish brown precipitate. Phenol gives a white precipitate.

All tests enumerated above were repeatedly tried with four samples of wood creosote sold as such; one a sample of Morson's, one of Merck's, one evidently of German origin, but bearing the label and capsule of an American manufacturer, and one of unknown origin, but sold as beech-wood creosote (German), and each proved to be pure wood creosote.

Two samples of commercial creosote which, from the low cost, were known to be of coal tar origin gave the negative tests, showing that they were phenol.

Corroborative experiments were made by mixing 10 to 20 per cent, of phenol with samples of the beechwood creosote, but in every case each of the tests named showed the presence of the phenol.

The writer on other occasions applied single tests (the collodion test) to samples of beechwood creosote that he had an opportunity of procuring small specimens of, and satisfied himself that they were pure. The conclusion is that the wood creosote of the market of the present time is in abundant supply, is of unexceptionable quality, and reasonable in price, so that there is no excuse for the substitution of the phenol commonly sold for it. When it is directed for use for internal administration (the medicinal effect being entirely dissimilar), wood creosote only should be dispensed.

The general sales of creosote by the pharmacist are in small quantities as a toothache remedy, and phenol has the power of coagulating albumen, which effectually relieves the suffering. Wood creosote does not coagulate albumen, and is, therefore, not as serviceable. This is, perhaps, the reason that it has become, in a great measure, supplanted in general sale by the coal tar creosote, to say nothing of the argument of a lower cost.

* * * * *



REMEDY FOR SICK HEADACHE.

Surgeon Major Roehring, of Amberg, reports, in No. 32 of the Allg. Med. Centr. Zeit., April 22, 1882, a case of headache of long standing, which he cured by salicylate of sodium, which confirms the observations of Dr. Oehlschlager, of Dantzig, who first contended that we possessed in salicylic acid one of the most reliable remedies for neuralgia. This cannot astonish us if we remember that the action of salicylic acid is, in more than one respect, and especially in its influence on the nervous centers, analogous to quinine.

While out with the troops on maneuver, Dr. Roehring was called to visit the sixteen-year old son of a poor peasant family in a neighboring village. The boy, who gave all evidences of living under bad hygienic surroundings, but who had shown himself very diligent at school, had been suffering, from his sixth year, several days every week from the most intense headache, which had not been relieved by any of the many remedies tried for this purpose. A careful examination did not reveal any organic lesion or any cause for the pain, which seemed to be neuralgic in character, a purely nervous headache. Roehring had just been reading the observations of Oehlschlager, and knowing, from the names of the physicians who had been already attending the poor boy, that all the common remedies for neuralgia had been given a fair trial, thought this a good opportunity to test the virtue of salicylate of sodium. He gave the boy, who, in consequence of the severity of the pain, was not able to leave his bed, ten grains of the remedy every three hours, and was surprised to see the patient next day in his tent and with smiling face. The boy admitted that he for years had not been feeling so well as he did then. The remedy was continued, but in less frequent doses, for a few days longer; the headache did not return. Several months later Dr. Roehring wrote to the school-teacher of the boy, and was informed that the latter had, during all this time, been totally free of his former pain, that he was much brighter than formerly, and evidently enjoying the best of health.

It may be worth while to give the remedy a more extensive trial, and the more so as we are only too often at a loss what to do in stubborn cases of so-called nervous headache.—The Medical and Surgical Reporter.

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SUNLIGHT AND SKYLIGHT AT HIGH ALTITUDES.

At the Southampton meeting of the British Association, Captain Abney read a paper in which he called attention to the fact that photographs taken at high altitudes show skies that are nearly black by comparison with bright objects projected against them, and he went on to show that the higher above the sea level the observer went, the darker the sky really is and the fainter the spectrum. In fact, the latter shows but little more than a band in the violet and ultraviolet at a height of 8,500 feet, while at sea-level it shows nearly the whole photographic spectrum. The only reason of this must be particles of some reflecting matter from which sunlight is reflected. The author refers this to watery stuff, of which nine-tenths is left behind at the altitude at which be worked. He then showed that the brightness of the ultra-violet of direct sunlight increased enormously the higher the observer went, but only to a certain point, for the spectrum suddenly terminated about 2,940 wave-length. This abrupt absorption was due to extra-atmospheric causes and perhaps to space. The increase in brightness of the ultra-violet was such that the usually invisible rays, L, M, N, could be distinctly seen, showing that the visibility of these rays depended on the intensity of the radiation. The red and ultra-red part of the spectrum was also considered. He showed that the absorption lines were present in undiminished force and number at this high altitude, thus placing their origin to extra-atmospheric causes. The absorption from atmospheric causes of radiant enemy in these parts he showed was due to "water-stuff," which he hesitated to call aqueous vapor, since the banded spectrum of water was present, and not lines. The B and A line he also stated could not be claimed as telluric lines, much less as due to aqueous vapor, but must originate between the sun and our atmosphere. The author finally confirmed the presence of benzine and ethyl in the same region. He had found their presence indicated in the spectrum at sea-level, and found their absorption lines with undiminished intensity at 8,500 feet. Thus, without much doubt, hydrocarbons must exist between our atmosphere and the sun, and, it may be, in space.

Prof. Langley, following Capt. Abney, observed: The very remarkable paper just read by Captain Abney has already brought information upon some points which the one I am about, by the courtesy of the Association, to present, leaves in doubt. It will be understood then that the references here are to his published memoirs only, and not to what we have just heard.

The solar spectrum is so commonly composed to have been mapped with completeness, that the statement that much more than one-half its extent is not only unmapped but nearly unknown, may excite surprise. This statement is, however, I think, quite within the truth, as to that almost unexplored region discovered by the elder Herschel, which, lying below the red and invisible to the eye, is so compressed by the prism that, though its aggregate heat effects have been studied through the thermopile, it is only by the recent researches of Capt. Abney that we have any certain knowledge of the lines of absorption there, even in part. Though the last-named investigator has extended our knowledge of it to a point much beyond the lowest visible ray, there yet remains a still remoter region, more extensive than the whole visible spectrum, the study of which has been entered on at Alleghany, by means of the linear bolometer.

The whole spectrum, visible and invisible, is powerfully affected by the selective absorption of our atmosphere and that of the sun; and we must first observe that could we get outside our earth's atmospheric shell, we should see a second and very different spectrum, and could we afterward remove the solar atmosphere also, we should have yet a third, different from either. The charts exhibited show:

1st. The distribution of the solar energy as we receive it, at the earth's surface, throughout the entire invisible as well as visible portion, both on the prismatic and normal scales. This is what I have principally to speak of now, but this whole first research is but incidental to others upon the spectra before any absorption, which though incomplete, I wish to briefly allude to later. The other curves then indicate:

2d. The distribution of energy before absorption by our own atmosphere.

3d. This distribution at the photosphere of the sun. The extent of the field, newly studied, is shown by this drawing [chart exhibited]. Between H in the extreme violet, and A in the furthest red, lies the visible spectrum, with which we are familiar, its length being about 4,000 of Angstrom's units. If, then, 4,000 represent the length of the visible spectrum, the chart shows that the region below extends through 24,000 more, and so much of this as lies below wave-length 12,000, I think, is now mapped for the first time.



We have to pi = 12,000 relatively complete photographs, published by Capt. Abney, but, except some very slight indications by Lamansky, Desains, and Mouton, no further guide.

Deviations being proportionate to abscissae, and measured solar energies to ordinates, we have here (1) the distribution of energy in the prismatic, and (2) its distribution in the normal spectrum. The total energy is in each case proportionate to the area of the curve (the two very dissimilar curves inclosing the same area), and on each, if the total energy be roughly divided into four parts, one of these will correspond to the visible, and three to the invisible or ultra-red part. The total energy at the ultra violet end is so small, then, as to be here altogether negligible.

We observe that (owing to the distortion introduced by the prism) the maximum ordinate representing the heat in the prismatic spectrum is, as observed by Tyndall, below the red, while upon the normal scale this maximum ordinate is found in the orange.

I would next ask your attention to the fact that in either spectrum, below pi = 12,000 are most extraordinary depressions and interruptions of the energy, to which, as will be seen, the visible spectrum offers no parallel. As to the agent producing these great gaps, which so strikingly interrupt the continuity of the curve, and, as you see, in one place, cut it completely into two, I have as yet obtained no conclusive evidence. Knowing the great absorption of water vapor in this lowest region, as we already do, from the observations of Tyndall, it would, a priori, seem not unreasonable to look to it as the cause. On the other hand, when I have continued observations from noon to sunset, making successive measures of each ordinate, as the sinking sun sent its rays through greater depths of absorbing atmosphere, I have not found these gaps increasing as much as they apparently should, if due to a terrestrial cause, and so far as this evidence goes, they might be rather thought to be solar. But my own means of investigation are not so well adapted to decide this important point as those of photography, to which we may yet be indebted for our final conclusion.



I am led, from a study of Capt. Abney's photographs of the region between pi = 8,000 and pi = 12,000, to think that these gaps are produced by the aggregation of finer lines, which can best be discriminated by the camera, an instrument which, where it can be used at all, is far more sensitive than the bolometer; while the latter, I think, has on the other hand some advantage in affording direct and trustworthy measures of the amount of energy inhering in each ray.

One reason why the extent of this great region has been so singularly underestimated, is the deceptively small space into which it appears to be compressed by the distortion of the prism. To discriminate between these crowded rays, I have been driven to the invention of a special instrument. The bolometer, which I have here, is an instrument depending upon principles which I need not explain at length, since all present may be presumed to be familiar with the success which has before attended their application in another field in the hands of the President of this Association.

I may remark, however, that this special construction has involved very considerable difficulties and long labor. For the instrument here shown, platinum has been rolled by Messrs. Tiffany, of New York, into sheets, which, as determined by the kindness of Professor Rood, reach the surprising tenuity of less than one twenty-five-thousandth of an English inch (I have also iron rolled to one fifteen-thousandth inch), and from this platinum a strip is cut one one-hundred-and-twenty-fifth of an inch wide. This minute strip, forming one arm of a Wheatstone's bridge, and thus perfectly shielded from air currents, is accurately centered by means of a compound microscope in this truly turned cylinder, and the cylinder itself is exactly directed by the arms of this Y.

The attached galvanometer responds readily to changes of temperature, of much less than one-ten-thousandth degree F. Since it is one and the same solar energy whose manifestations we call "light" or "heat," according to the medium which interprets them, what is "light" to the eye is "heat" to the bolometer, and what is seen as a dark line by the eye is felt as a cold line by the sentient instrument. Accordingly, if lines analogous to the dark "Fraunhofer lines" exist in this invisible region, they will appear (if I may so speak) to the bolometer as cold bands, and this hair-like strip of platina is moved along in the invisible part of the spectrum till the galvanometer indicates the all but infinitesimal change of temperature caused by its contact with such a "cold band." The whole work, it will be seen, is necessarily very slow; it is in fact a long groping in the dark, and it demands extreme patience. A portion of its results are now before you.

The most tedious part of the whole process has been the determination of the wave-lengths. It will be remembered that we have (except through the work of Capt. Abney already cited, and perhaps of M. Mouton) no direct knowledge of the wave-lengths in the infra-red prismatic spectrum, but have hitherto inferred them from formulas like the well-known one of Cauchy's, all which known to me appear to be here found erroneous by the test of direct experiment, at least in the case of the prism actually employed.

I have been greatly aided in this part of the work by the remarkable concave gratings lately constructed by Prof. Rowland, of Baltimore, one of which I have the pleasure of showing you. [Instrument exhibited.]

The spectra formed by this fall upon a screen in which is a fine slit, only permitting nearly homogeneous rays to pass, and these, which may contain the rays of as many as four overlapping spectra, are next passed through a rock-salt or glass prism placed with its refracting edge parallel to the grating lines. This sorts out the different narrow spectral images, without danger of overlapping, and after their passage through the prism we find them again, and fix their position by means of the bolometer, which for this purpose is attached to a special kind of spectrometer, where its platinum thread replaces the reticule of the ordinary telescope. This is very difficult work, especially in the lowermost spectrum, where I have spent over two weeks of consecutive labor in fixing a single wave-length.

The final result is, I think, worth, the trouble, however, for, as you see here, we are now able to fix with approximate precision and by direct experiment, the wave-length of every prismatic spectral ray. The terminal ray of the solar spectrum, whose presence has been certainly felt by the bolometer, has a wave-length of about 28,000 (or is nearly two octaves below the "great A" of Fraunhofer).

So far, it appears only that we have been measuring heat, but I have called the curve that of solar "energy," because by a series of independent investigations, not here given, the selective absorption of the silver, the speculum-metal, the glass, and the lamp-black (the latter used on the bolometer-strip), forming the agents of investigation, has been separately allowed for. My study of lamp-black absorption, I should add in qualification, is not quite complete. I have found it quite transparent to certain infra-red rays, and it is very possible that there may be some faint radiations yet to be discovered even below those here indicated.

In view of the increased attention that is doubtless soon to be given to this most interesting but strangely neglected region, and which by photography and other methods is certain to be fully mapped hereafter, I can but consider this present work less as a survey than as a sketch of this great new field, and it is as such only that I here present it.

All that has preceded is subordinate to the main research, on which I have occupied the past two years at Alleghany, in comparing the spectra of the sun at high and low altitudes, but which I must here touch upon briefly. By the generosity of a friend of the Alleghany Observatory, and by the aid of Gen. Hazen, Chief Signal Officer of the U S. Army, I was enabled last year to organize an expedition to Mount Whitney in South California, where the most important of these latter observations were repeated at an altitude of 13,000 feet. Upon my return I made a special investigation upon the selective absorption of the sun's atmosphere, with results which I can now only allude to.

By such observations, but by methods too elaborate for present description, we can pass from the curve of energy actually observed to that which would be seen if the observer were stationed wholly above the earth's atmosphere, and freed from the effect of its absorption.

The salient and remarkable result is the growth of the blue end of the spectrum, and I would remark that, while it has been long known from the researches of Lockyer, Crova, and others that certain rays of short wave-length were more absorbed than those of long, these charts show how much separate each ray of the spectrum has grown, and bring, what seems to me, conclusive evidence of the shifting of the point of maximum energy without the atmosphere toward the blue. Contrary to the accepted belief, it appears here also that the absorption on the whole grows less and less, to the extreme infra-red extremity; and on the other hand, that the energy before absorption was so enormously greater in the blue and violet, that the sun must have a decidedly bluish tint to the naked eye, if we could rise above the earth's atmosphere to view it.

But even were we placed outside the earth's atmosphere, that surrounding the sun itself would still remain, and exert absorption. By special methods, not here detailed, we have at Alleghany compared the absorption, at various depths, of the sun's own atmosphere for each spectral ray, and are hence enabled to show, with approximate truth, I think for the first time, the original distribution of energy throughout the visible and invisible spectrum at the fount of that energy, in the sun itself. There is a surprising similarity, you will notice, in the character of the solar and telluric absorptions, and one which we could hardly have anticipated a priori.

Here, too, violet has been absorbed enormously more than the green, and the green than the red, and so on, the difference being so great, that if we were to calculate the thickness of the solar atmosphere on the hypothesis of a uniform transmission, we should obtain a very thick atmosphere from the rate of absorption in the infra-red alone, and a very thin one from that in the violet alone.

But the main result seems to be still this, that as we have seen in the earth's atmosphere, so we see in the sun's, an enormous and progressive increase of the energy toward the shorter wave-lengths. This conclusion, which, I may be permitted to remark, I anticipated in a communication published in the Comptes Rendus of the Institute of France as long since as 1875, is now fully confirmed, and I may mention that it is so also by direct photometric methods, not here given.

If, then, we ask how the solar photosphere would appear to the eye, could we see it without absorption, these figures appear to show conclusively that it would be blue. Not to rely on any assumption, however, we have, by various methods at Allegheny, reproduced this color.

Thus (to indicate roughly the principle used), taking three Maxwell's disks, a red, green, and blue, so as to reproduce white, we note the three corresponding ordinates at the earth's surface spectrum, and, comparing these with the same ordinates in the curve giving the energy at the solar surface, we rearrange the disks, so as to give the proportion of red, green, and blue which would be seen there, and obtain by their revolution a tint which must approximately represent that at the photosphere, and which is most similar to that of a blue near Fraunhofer's "F."

The conclusion, then, is that, while all radiations emanate from the solar surface, including red and infra-red, in greater degree than we receive them, the blue end is so enormously greater in proportion that the proper color of the sun, as seen at the photosphere is blue—not only "bluish," but positively and distinctly blue; a statement which I have not ventured to make from any conjecture, or on any less cause than on the sole ground of long continued experiments, which, commenced some seven years since, have within the past two years irresistibly tended to the present conclusion.

The mass of observations on which it rests must be reserved for more detailed publication elsewhere. At present, I can only thank the association for the courtesy which has given me the much prized opportunity of laying before them this indication of methods and results.

* * * * *



THE MINERALOGICAL LOCALITIES IN AND AROUND NEW YORK CITY, AND THE MINERALS OCCURRING THEREIN.

[Footnote: Continued from SUPPLEMENTS 244 and 246.]

By NELSON H. DABTON.

PART III.

Hoboken.—The locality represented here is where the same serpentine that we met on Staten Island crops out, and is known as Castle Hill. It is a prominent object in view when on the Hudson River, lying on Castle Point just above the Stevens Institute and about a mile north of the ferry from Barclay or Christopher Street, New York city. Upon it is the Stevens estate, etc., which is ordinarily inaccessible, but below this and along the river walk, commencing at Fifth Street and to Twelfth, there is an almost uninterrupted outcrop from two to thirty feet in thickness and plentifully interspersed with the veins of the minerals of the locality, which are very similar to those of Staten Island; the serpentine, however, presenting quite a different appearance, being of a denser and more homogeneous structure and color, and not so brittle or light colored as that of Staten Island, but of a pure green color. The veins of minerals are about a half an inch to—in the case of druses of magnesite, which penetrate the rock in all proportions and directions—even six inches in thickness. They lie generally in a perpendicular position, but are frequently bent and contorted in every direction. They are the more abundant where the rock is soft, as veins, but included minerals are more plentiful in the harder rock. There is hardly any one point on the outcrop that may be said to be favored in abundance, but the veins of the brucites, dolomite, and magnesites are scattered at regular and short intervals, except perhaps the last, which is most plentiful at the north end of the walk.

Magnesite.—This mineral, of which we obtained some fine specimens on Staten Island, occurs extremely plentifully here, constituting five or six per cent. of a large proportion of the rock, and in every imaginable condition, from a smooth, even, dark colored mass apparently devoid of crystalline form, to druses of very small but beautiful crystals, which are obtained by selecting a vein with an opening say from a quarter to a half-inch between it and one or, if possible, both points of its contact with the inclosing rock, and cutting away the massive magnesite and rock around it, when fine druses and masses or geodes may be generally found and carefully cut out. The crystals are generally less than a quarter of an inch long, and the selection of a cabinet specimen should be based more upon their form of aggregation that the size of the crystals. Nearly all the veins hold more or less of these masses through their total extent, but many have been removed, and consequently a careful search over the veins for the above indications, of which there are still plenty undeveloped or but partly so, would well repay an hour or more of cutting into, by the specimens obtained. Patience is an excellent and very necessary virtue in searching for pockets of minerals, and is even more necessary here among the multitudinous barren veins. One hint I might add, which is of final importance, and the ignorance of which has so far preserved this old locality from exhaustion, is that every specimen of this kind in the serpentine, of any great uniqueness, is to be found within five feet from the upper or surface end of the vein, which in this locality is inaccessible in the more favored parts without a ladder or similar arrangement upon which one may work to reach them. Here the veins will be found to be very far disintegrated and cavernous, thus possessing the requisite conditions of occurrence (this is also true of Staten Island, but there more or less inaccessible) for this mineral and similar ones that occur in geodes or drused incrustations, while it is just vice versa for those occurring in closely packed veins, as brucite, soapstone, asbestos, etc., where they occur in finer specimens, where they are the more compact, which is deep underground. This is also partly true of the zeolites and granular limestone species with included minerals. I do not think there is any rule, at least I have not observed it in an extended mineralogical experience; but if they favor any part, it is undoubtedly the top, as in the granular limestone and granite; however, they generally fall subordinate to the first principle, as they more frequently, in this formation, with the exception of chromic iron, occur not in the serpentine but in the veins therein contained; for instance, crystals of dolomite are found deeper in the rock as they occur in the denser soapstone, which becomes so at a more or less considerable depth, with spinel, zircon, etc., of the granular limestone. They occur generally in pockets within five feat from the surface, but they can hardly be called included minerals, as they are rather, as their mention suggests, pockets, and adjacent or in contact with the intruded granite or metamorphosed rock joining the formation at this point. This is seemingly at variance when we consider datholite, but when we do find it in pockets a hundred and fifty feet below the surface, in the Weehawken tunnel, it is not in the trap, but on the surface of what was a cleft or empty vein, since filled up with chlorite extending from the surface down, while natrolite, etc., by the trap having clefts of such variable and often great depth, allowed the solution of the portion thus contributed that infiltered from the surface easy access to the beds in which they lie, the mode of access being since filled with densely packed calcite, which was present in over-abundance. This is not applicable to serpentine, as the clefts are never of any great depth, and the five feet before mentioned are a proportionately great depth from the surface. As I mentioned in commencing this paper (Part I), every part of the success of a trip lies in knowing where to find the minerals sought; and by close observation of these relations much more direction may be obtained than by my trying to describe the exact point in a locality where I have obtained them or seen them. There is much more satisfaction in finding rich pockets independently of direction, and by close observance of indications rather than chance, or by having them pointed out; for the one that reads this, and goes ahead of you to the spot, and either destroys the remainder by promiscuous cuttings, or carries them off in bulk, as there are many who go to a locality, and what they cannot carry off they destroy, give you a disappointment in finding nothing; consequently, I have considered that this digression from our subject in detail was pardonable, that one may be independent of the stated parts of the locality, and not too confidently rely on them, as I am sometimes disappointed myself in localities and pockets that I discover in spare time by finding that some one has been there between times, and carried off the remainder. The characteristics of magnesite I have detailed under that head under Pavilion Hill, Staten Island; but it may be well to repeat them briefly here. Form as above described, from a white to darker dirty color. Specific gravity, 2.8-3; hardness, about 3.5. Before the blowpipe it is infusible, and not reduced to quicklime, which distinguishes it from dolomite, which it frequently resembles in the latter's massive form, common here in veins. It dissolves in acid readily with but little effervescence, which little, however, distinguishes it from brucite, which it sometimes resembles and which has a much lower-specific gravity when pure.