SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 497

NEW YORK, JULY 11, 1885

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XX, No. 497.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

FOUNDATIONS IN QUICKSAND.

Foundations in quicksand often have to be built in places where
least expected, and sometimes the writer has been able to
conveniently span the vein with an arch and avoid trouble; but
where it cannot be conveniently arched over, it will be necessary
to sheath pile for a trench and lay in broad sections of concrete
until the space is crossed, the sheath piling being drawn and reset
in sections as fast as the trenches are leveled up. The piling is
left in permanently if it is not wanted again for use.

Sometimes these bottoms are too soft to be treated in this
manner; in that case boxes or caissons are formed, loaded with
stone and sunk into place with pig iron until the weight they are
to carry is approximated. When settled, the weights are removed and
building begins.

Foundations on shifting sand are met with in banks of streams,
which swell and become rapids as each winter breaks up. This kind
is most troublesome and dangerous to rest upon if not properly
treated.

Retaining walls are frequently built season after season, and as
regularly become undermined by the scouring of the water. Regular
docking with piles and timbers is resorted to, but it is so
expensive for small works that it is not often tried.

Foundations are formed often with rock well planted out; and
again success has attended the use of bags of sand where rough rock
was not convenient or too expensive.

In such cases it is well to try a mattress foundation, which may
be formed of brushwood and small saplings with butts from ½
inch to 2½ inches in diameter, compressed into bundles from
8 to 12 inches diameter, and from 12 to 16 feet long, and well tied
with ropes every four feet. Other bundles, from 4 to 6 inches
diameter and 16 feet long, are used as binders, and these bundles
are now cross-woven and make a good network, the long parts
protruding and making whip ends. One or more sets of netting are
used as necessity seems to require. This kind of foundation may be
filled in with a concrete of hydraulic cement and sand, and the
walls built on them with usual footings, and it is very durable,
suiting the purpose as well as anything we have seen or heard
of.–Inland Architect.

LIFT BRIDGE OVER THE OURCQ CANAL.

This bridge, which was inaugurated in 1868, was constructed
under the direction of Mr. Mantion, then engineer-in-chief of the
Belt Railway. Fig. 1 shows the bridge raised.

The solution adopted in this case was the only feasible one that
presented itself, in view of the slight difference between the
level of the railway tracks and the maximum plane of the canal
water. This circumstance did not even permit of a thought of an
ordinary revolving bridge, since this, on a space of 10 inches
being reserved between the level of the water and the bottom of the
bridge, and on giving the latter a minimum thickness of 33 inches
up to the level of the rails, would have required the introduction
into the profile of the railroad of approaches of at least
one-quarter inch gradient, that would have interfered with
operations at the station close by.

FIG. 1.–LIFT BRIDGE OVER THE OURCQ CANAL.

Besides, in the case of a revolving bridge, since the bottom of
the latter would be but ten inches above the water level, and the
rollers would have to be of larger diameter than that, it would
have been necessary to suppose the roller channel placed beneath
the level of the water, and it would consequently have been
necessary to isolate this channel from the canal by a tight wall.
The least fissure in the latter would have inundated the
channel.

As the Ourcq Canal had no regular period of closing, it was
necessary to construct the bridge without hinderance to navigation.
The idea of altering the canal’s course could not be thought of,
for the proximity of the fortifications and of the bridge over the
military road was opposed to it. Moreover, the canal administration
insisted upon a free width of 26 feet, which is that of the sluices
of the St. Denis Canal, and which would have led to the projection
of a revolving bridge of 28 feet actual opening in order to permit
of building foundations with caissons in such a way as to leave a
passageway of 26 feet during operations.

For these reasons it was decided to construct a metallic bridge
that should be lifted by means of counterpoises and balanced after
the manner of gasometers.

The free width secured to navigation is 28 feet. The bridge is
usually kept raised to a height of 16 feet above the level of the
water in order to allow boats to pass (Fig. 2). In this position it
is balanced by four counterpoises suspended from the extremities of
chains that pass over pulleys. These counterpoises are of cast
iron, and weigh, altogether, 44,000 pounds–the weight of the
bridge to be balanced, say 11,000 pounds per counterpoise.
Moreover, each of the four chains is prolonged beneath the
corresponding counterpoise by a chain of the same weight, called a
compensating chain.

The pulleys, B and C, that support the suspension chains have
projections in their channels which engage with the links and thus
prevent the chains from slipping. They are mounted at the extremity
of four latticed girders that likewise carry girder pulleys, D. The
pulleys that are situated at the side of the bridge are provided
laterally with a conical toothing which gears with a pinion
connected with the maneuvering apparatus.

The two pinions of the same side of the bridge are keyed to a
longitudinal shaft which is set in motion at one point of its
length by a system of gearings. The winch upon which is exerted the
stress that is to effect the lifting or the descent of the bridge
is fixed upon the shaft of the pinion of the said gearing, which is
also provided with a flywheel, c. The longitudinal shafts are
connected by a transverse one. e, which renders the two motions
interdependent. This transverse shaft is provided with collars,
against which bear stiff rods that give it the aspect of an
elongated spindle, and that permit it to resist twisting
stresses.

The windlasses that lift the bridge are actuated by manual
power. Two men (or even one) suffice to do the maneuvering.

This entire collection of pulleys and mechanism is established
upon two brick foot bridges between which the bridge moves. These
arched bridges offer no obstruction to navigation. Moreover, they
always allow free passage to foot passengers, whatever be the
position of the bridge. They are provided with four vertical
apertures to the right of the suspension chains, in order to allow
of the passage of the latter. The girders that support the pulleys
rest at one extremity upon the upper part of the bridges, and at
the other upon solid brick pillars with stone caps.

Finally, in order to render the descent of the bridge easier,
there are added to it two water tanks that are filled from the
station reservoir when the bridge is in its upper position, and
that empty themselves automatically as soon as it reaches the level
of the railroad tracks.

A very simple system of fastening has been devised for keeping
the bridge in a stationary position when raised. When it reaches
the end of its upward travel, four bolts engage with an aperture in
the suspension rod and prevent it from descending. These bolts are
set in motion by two connecting rods carried by a longitudinal
shaft and maneuvered by a lever at the end of the windlass.

At the lower part the bridge rests upon iron plates set into
sills. It is guided in its descent longitudinally by iron plates
that have an inclination which is reproduced at the extremities of
the bridge girders, and transversely by two inclined angle irons
into which fit the external edges of the bottoms of the extreme
girders.

FIG. 2.–ELEVATION AND PLAN.

The total weight of the bridge is, as we have said, 44,000
pounds, which is much less than would have been that of a revolving
bridge of the same span. The maneuvering of the bridge is performed
with the greatest ease and requires about two minutes.

This system has been in operation at the market station of La
Vilette since the year 1868, and has required but insignificant
repairs. We think the adoption of it might be recommended for all
cases in which a slight difference between the level of a railroad
and that of a water course would not permit of the establishment of
a revolving bridge.–Le Genie Civil.

ST. PETERSBURG A SEAPORT.

The Emperor and Empress of Russia, on Wednesday, May 27. 1885,
the second anniversary of their coronation at Moscow, opened the
Maritime Canal, in the Bay of Cronstadt, the shallow upper
extremity of the Gulf of Finland, by which great work the city of
St. Petersburg is made a seaport as much as London. St. Petersburg,
indeed, stands almost on the sea shore, at the very mouth of the
Neva, though behind several low islands which crowd the head of the
Gulf; and though this is an inland sea without saltness or tides,
it is closed by ice in winter. Seventeen miles to the west is the
island of Cronstadt, a great fortress, with naval dockyards and
arsenals for the imperial fleet, and with a spacious harbor for
ships of commerce. The navigable entrance channel up the Bay of
Cronstadt to the mouth of the Neva lies under the south side of
Cronstadt, and is commanded by its batteries. As the bay eastward
has a depth not exceeding 12 ft., and the depth of the Neva at its
bar is but 9 ft., all large vessels have been obliged hitherto to
discharge their cargoes at Cronstadt, to be there transferred to
lighters and barges which brought the goods up to the capital. “The
delay and expense of this process,” says Mr. William Simpson, our
special artist, “will be understood by stating that a cargo might
be brought from England by a steamer in a week, but it would take
three weeks at least to transport the same cargo from Cronstadt to
St. Petersburg. Of course, much of this time was lost by custom
house formalities. Sometimes it has taken even longer than is here
stated, which made the delivery of goods at St. Petersburg a matter
of great uncertainty, thus rendering time contracts almost an
impossibility. This state of things had continued from the time of
Peter the Great, and his great scheme had never been fully
realized. The increase of commerce and shipping had long made this
a crying evil; but even with all these difficulties, the trade here
has been rapidly growing. A scheme to bring the shipping direct to
the capital had thus become almost a necessity. As Manchester
wishes to bring the ocean traffic to her doors without the
intervention of Liverpool, so St. Petersburg desired to have its
steamers sailing up to the city, delivering and loading their
cargoes direct at the stores and warehouses in her streets. If
Glasgow had not improved the Clyde, and had up to the present day
to bring up all goods carried by her ocean going steamers from Port
Glasgow–a place constructed for that purpose last century, and
which is twenty miles from Glasgow–she would have been handicapped
exactly as St. Petersburg has been till now in the commercial
race.

“For some years the subject was discussed at St. Petersburg, and
more than one scheme was proposed; at last the project of General
N. Pooteeloff was adopted. According to this plan, a canal has been
cut through the shallow bottom of the Gulf of Finland, all the way
from Cronstadt to St. Petersburg. The line of this canal is from
northwest to southeast; it may be said to run very nearly parallel
to the coast line on the south side of the Gulf, and about three
miles distant from it. This line brings the canal to the southwest
end of St. Petersburg, where there are a number of islands, which
have formed themselves, in the course of ages, where the Bolshaya,
or Great Neva, flows into the Gulf. It is on these islands that the
new port is to be formed. It is a very large harbor, and capable of
almost any amount of extension. It will be in connection with the
whole railway system of Russia. One part of the scheme is that of a
new canal, on the south side of the city, to connect the maritime
canal, as well as the new harbor, with the Neva, so that the large
barges may pass, by a short route, to the river on the east, and
thus avoid the bridges and traffic of the city.

“The whole length of the canal is about eighteen miles. The
longer portion of it is an open channel, which is made 350 feet
wide at bottom. Its course will be marked by large iron floating
buoys; these it is proposed to light with gas by a new self-acting
process which has been very successful in other parts of the world;
by this means the canal will be navigable by night as well as by
day. The original plan was to have made the canal 20 feet deep, but
this has been increased to 22 feet. The Gulf of Finland gradually
deepens toward Cronstadt, so that the dredging was less at the
western end. This part was all done by dredgers, and the earth
brought up was removed to a safe distance by means of steam hopper
barges. The contract for this part of the work was sublet to an
American firm–Morris and Cummings, of New York. The eastern
portion of the work on the canal is by far the most important, and
about six miles of it is protected by large and strong embankments
on each side. These embankments were formed by the output of the
dredgers, and are all faced with granite bowlders brought from
Finland; at their outer termination the work is of a more durable
kind, the facing is made of squared blocks of granite, so that it
may stand the heavy surf which at times is raised by a west wind in
the Gulf. These embankments, as already stated, extend over a space
of nearly six miles, and represent a mass of work to which there is
no counterpart in the Suez Canal; nor does the plan of the new
Manchester Canal present anything equivalent to it. The width of
this canal also far exceeds any of those notable undertakings. The
open channel is, as stated above, 350 ft. wide; within the
embankments the full depth of 22 ft. extends to 280 ft., and the
surface between the embankments is 700 ft. This is nearly twice the
size of the Suez Canal at the surface, which is 100 meters, or
about 320 ft., while it is only about 75 ft. at the bottom; the
Amsterdam Canal is 78 ft. wide. The new Manchester Canal is to be
100 ft. of full depth, and it boasts of this superiority over the
great work of Lesseps. The figures given above will show how far
short it comes of the dimensions of the St. Petersburg Canal. The
Manchester Canal is to be 24 ft. in depth; in that it has the
advantage of 2 ft. more than the St. Petersburg Canal; but with the
ample width this one possesses, this, or even a greater depth, can
be given if it should be found necessary. Most probably this will
have ultimately to be done, for ocean going steamers are rapidly
increasing in size since the St. Petersburg Canal was planned, and
in a very few years the larger class of steamers might have to
deliver their cargoes at Cronstadt, as before, if the waterway to
St. Petersburg be not adapted to their growing dimensions.

THE ST. PETERSBURG AND CRONSTADT MARITIME CANAL,
OPENED BY THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA, ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 1885.

“The dredging between the embankments of the canal was done by
an improved process, which may interest those connected with such
works. It may be remembered that the Suez Canal was mostly made by
dredging, and that the dredgers had attached to them what the
French called ‘long couloirs’ or spouts, into which water was
pumped, and by this means the stuff brought up by the dredgers was
carried to the sides of the canal, and there deposited. The great
width of the St. Petersburg Canal was too much for the long
couloirs, hence some other plan had to be found. The plan adopted
was that invented by Mr. James Burt, and which had been used with
the greatest success on the New Amsterdam Canal. Instead of the
couloir, floating pipes, made of wood, are in this system employed;
the earth or mud brought up has a copious stream of water poured on
it, which mixes in the process of descending, and the whole becomes
a thick liquid. This, by means of a centrifugal pump, is propelled
through the floating pipes to any point required, where it can be
deposited. The couloir can only run the output a comparatively
short distance, while this system can send it a quarter of a mile,
or even further, if necessary. Its power is not limited to the
level surface of the water. I saw on my visit to the canal one of
the dredgers at work, and the floating pipes lay on the water like
a veritable sea-serpent, extending to a long distance where the
stuff had to be carried. At that point the pipe emerged from the
water, and what looked very much like a vertebra or two of the
serpent crossed the embankment, went down the other side, and there
the muddy deposit was pouring out in a steady flow. Mr. Burt
pointed out to me one part of the works where his pump had sent the
stuff nearly half a mile away, and over undulating ground. This
system will not suit all soils. Hard clay, for instance, will not
mix with the water; but where the matter brought up is soft and
easily diluted, this plan possesses many advantages, and its
success here affords ample evidence of its merits.

“About five miles below St. Petersburg, a basin had been already
finished, with landing quays, sheds, and offices; and there is an
embankment connecting it with the railways of St. Petersburg, all
ready for ships to arrive. When the ships of all nations sail up to
the capital, then the ideas of Peter the Great, when he laid the
foundations of St. Petersburg, will be realized. St. Petersburg
will be no longer an inland port. It will, with its ample harbor
and numerous canals among its streets, become the Venice of the
North. Its era of commercial greatness is now about to commence.
The ceremony of letting the waters of the canal into the new docks
was performed by the Emperor in October, 1883. The Empress and heir
apparent, with a large number of the Court, were present on the
occasion. The works on the canal, costing about a million and a
half sterling, were begun in 1876, and have been carried out under
the direction of a committee appointed by the Government, presided
over by his Excellency, N. Sarloff. The resident engineer is M.
Phofiesky; and the contractors are Messrs. Maximovitch and
Boreysha.”

We heartily congratulate the Russian government and the Russian
nation upon the accomplishment of this great and useful work of
peace. It will certainly benefit English trade. The value of
British imports from the northern ports of Russia for the year 1883
was £13,799,033; British exports, £6,459,993; while
from the southern ports of Russia our trade was: British imports,
£7,177,149; British exports, £1,169,890–making a total
British commerce with European Russia of £20,976,182 imports
from Russia and £7,629,883 exports to Russia. It cannot be to
the interest of nations which are such large customers of each
other to go to war about a few miles of Afguhan frontier. The
London Chamber of Commerce Journal, ably edited by Mr.
Kenric B. Murray, Secretary to the Chamber, has in its May number
an article upon this subject well deserving of perusal. It points
out that in case of war most of the British export trade to Russia
would go through Germany, and might possibly never again return
under British control. In spite of Russian protective duties, this
trade has been well maintained, even while the British import of
Russian commodities, wheat, flax, hemp, tallow, and timber, was
declining 40 per cent. from 1883 to 1884. The St. Petersburg
Maritime Canal will evidently give much improved facilities to the
direct export of English goods to Russia. Without reference to our
own manufactures, it should be observed that the Russian cotton
mills, including those of Poland, consume yearly 264 million pounds
of cotton, most of which comes through England. The importation of
English coal to Russia has afforded a noteworthy instance of the
disadvantage hitherto occasioned by the want of direct navigation
to St. Petersburg; the freight of a ton of coal from Newcastle to
Cronstadt was six shillings and sixpence, but from Cronstadt to St.
Petersburg it cost two shillings more. It is often said, in a tone
of alarm and reproach, that Russia is very eager to get to the sea.
The more Russia gets to the sea everywhere, the better it will be
for British trade with Russia; and friendly intercourse with an
empire containing nearly a hundred millions of people is not to be
lightly rejected.–Illustrated London News.

THE NEW FRENCH DISPATCH BOAT MILAN.

The Milan, a new dispatch boat, has recently been making trial
trips at Brest. It was constructed at Saint Nazaire, by the
“Societe des Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire,” and is the fastest
man-of-war afloat. It has registered 17 knots with ordinary
pressure, and with increase of pressure can make 18 knots, but to
attain such high speed a very powerful engine is necessary. In
fact, a vessel 303 ft. long, 33 ft. wide, and drawing 12 ft. of
water, requires an engine which can develop 4,000 H.P.

THE NEW FRENCH DISPATCH BOAT MILAN.

The hull of the Milan is of steel, and is distinguished for its
extreme lightness. The vessel has two screws, actuated by four
engines arranged two by two on each shaft.

The armament consists of five three inch cannons, eight
revolvers, and four tubes for throwing torpedoes.

The Milan can carry 300 tons of coal, an insufficient quantity
for a long cruise, but this vessel, which is a dispatch boat in
every acceptation of the word, was constructed for a definite
purpose. It is the first of a series of very rapid cruisers to be
constructed in France, and yet many English packets can attain a
speed at least equal to that of the Milan. We need war vessels
which can attain twenty knots, to be master of the
sea.–L’Illustration.

THE LAUNCHING AND DOCKING OF SHIPS SIDEWISE.

The slips of the shipyards at Alt-Hofen (Hungary) belonging to
the Imperial and Royal Navigation Company of the Danube are so
arranged that the vessels belonging to its fleet can be hauled up
high and dry or be launched sidewise. They comprise three distinct
groups, which are adapted, according to needs, for the construction
or repair of steamers, twenty of which can be put into the yard at
a time. The operation, which is facilitated by the current of the
Danube, consists in receiving the ships upon frames beneath the
water and at the extremity of inclined planes running at right
angles with them. After the ship has been made secure by means of
wedges, the frame is drawn up by chains that wind round fixed
windlasses. These apparatus are established upon a horizontal
surface 25.5 feet above low-water mark so as to give the necessary
slope, and at which terminate the tracks. They may, moreover, be
removed after the ships have been taken off, and be put down again
for launching. For 136 feet of their length the lower part of the
sliding ways is permanent, and fixed first upon rubble masonry and
then upon the earth.

Fig. 1 gives a general view of the arrangement. The eight
sliding ways of the central part are usually reserved for the
largest vessels. The two extreme ones comprise, one of them 7, and
the other 6, tracks only, and are maneuvered by means of the same
windlasses as the others. A track, FF, is laid parallel with the
river, in order to facilitate, through lorries, the loading and
unloading of the traction chains. These latter are ¾ inch in
diameter, while those that pass around the hulls are 1 inch.

The motive power is furnished by a 10 H.P. steam engine, which
serves at the same time for actuating the machine tools employed in
construction or repairs. The shaft is situated at the head of the
ways, and sets in motion four double-gear windlasses of the type
shown in Fig. 2. The ratio of the wheels is as 9 to 1. The speed at
which the ships move forward is from 10 to 13 feet per minute.
Traction is effected continuously and without shock. After the
cables have been passed around the hull, and fastened, they are
attached to four pairs of blocks each comprising three pulleys. The
lower one of these is carried by rollers that run over a special
track laid for this purpose on the inclined plane.

FIG. 1.–WAYS OF LAUNCHING VESSELS SIDEWISE.

The three successive positions that a boat takes are shown in
Fig. 1. In the first it has just passed on to the frame, and is
waiting to be hauled up on the ways; in the second it is being
hauled up; and in the third the frame has been removed and the boat
is shoved up on framework, so that it can be examined and receive
whatever repairs may be necessary. This arrangement, which is from
plans by Mr. Murray Jackson, suffices to launch 16 or 18 new boats
annually, and for the repair of sixty steamers and lighters. These
latter are usually 180 feet in length, 24 feet in width, and 8 feet
in depth, and their displacement, when empty, is 120 tons. The
dimensions of the largest steamers vary between 205 and 244 feet in
length, and 25 and 26 feet in width. They are 10 feet in depth,
and, when empty, displace from 440 to 460 tons. The Austrian
government has two monitors repaired from time to time in the yards
of the company. The short and wide forms of these impose a heavier
load per running foot upon the ways than ordinary boats do, but
nevertheless no difficulty has ever been experienced, either in
hauling them out or putting them back into the water.–Le Genie
Civil.

FIG. 2.–DETAILS OF WINDLASS.

IMPROVED HIGH-SPEED ENGINE.

This engine, exhibited at South Kensington by Fielding and
Platt, of Gloucester, consists virtually of a universal joint
connecting two shafts whose axes form an obtuse angle of about 157
degrees. It has four cylinders, two being mounted on a chair
coupling on each shaft. The word cylinder is used in a conventional
sense only, since the cavities acting as such are circular, whose
axes, instead of being straight lines, are arcs of circles struck
from the center at which the axes of the shafts would, if
continued, intersect. The four pistons are carried upon the gimbal
ring, which connects, by means of pivots, the two chair
couplings.

THE FIELDING HIGH SPEED ENGINE.

Fig. 10 shows clearly the parts constituting the coupling,
cylinders, and pistons of a compound engine. CC are the
high-pressure cylinders; DD the low pressure; EEEE the four parts
forming the gimbal ring, to which are fixed in pairs the high and
low pressure pistons, GG and FF; HHHH are the chair arms formed
with the cylinders carrying pivots, IIII, which latter fit into the
bearings, JJJJ, in the gimbal ring. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4 show these
parts connected and at different points of the shaft’s rotation.
The direction of rotation is shown by the arrow. In Fig. 1 the
lower high-pressure cylinder, C, is just about taking steam, the
upper one just closing the exhaust; the low-pressure pistons are at
half stroke, that in sight exhausting, the opposite one, which
cannot be seen in this view, taking steam.

In Fig 2 the shaft has turned through one-eighth of a
revolution; in Fig. 3, a quarter turn; Fig. 4, three-eighths of a
turn. Another eighth turn brings two parts into position
represented by Fig. 1, except the second pair of cylinders now
replace the first pair. The bearings, KL, support the two shafts
and act as stationary valves, against which faces formed on the
cylinders revolve; steam and exhaust ports are provided in the
faces of K and L, and two ports in the revolving faces, one to each
cylinder. The point at which steam is cut off is determined by the
length of the admission ports in K and L. The exhaust port is made
of such a length that steam may escape from the cylinders during
the whole of the return stroke of pistons.

Fig. 5 shows the complete engine. It will be seen that the
engine is entirely incased in a box frame, with, however, a lid for
ready access to the parts for examination, one great advantage
being that the engine can be worked with the cover removed, thus
enabling any leakage past the pistons or valve faces to be at once
detected. The casing also serves to retain a certain amount of
lubricant.

The lubrication is effected by means of a triple sight-feed
lubricator, one feeder delivering to steam inlet, and two serving
the main shaft bearings.

Figs, 6 and 7 are an end elevation and plan of the same engine.
There is nothing in the other details calling for special
notice.

Figs. 8 and 9 show the method of machining the cylinders and
pistons, the whole of which can be done by ordinary lathes, which
is evidently a great advantage in the event of reboring, etc.,
being required in the colonies or other countries where special
tools are inaccessible.

Figs. 11 and 12 are sections which explain themselves.–The
Engineer.

THE NATIONAL TRANSIT CO’S PIPE LINES FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF
PETROLEUM TO THE SEABOARD.

While Englishmen and Americans have been alike interested in the
late project for forcing water by a pipe line over the mountainous
region lying between Suakim and Berber in the far-off Soudan, few
men of either nation have any proper conception of the vast
expenditure of capital, natural and engineering difficulties
overcome, and the bold and successful enterprise which has brought
into existence far greater pipe lines in our own Atlantic States.
We refer to the lines of the National Transit Company, which have
for a purpose the economic transportation of crude petroleum from
Western Pennsylvania to the sea coast at New York, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore, and to the Lakes at Cleveland and Buffalo.

To properly commence our sketch of this truly gigantic
enterprise, we must go back to the discovery of petroleum in the
existing oil regions of Pennsylvania and adjacent States. Its
presence as an oily scum on the surface of ponds and streams had
long been known, and among the Indians this “rock-oil” was highly
appreciated as a vehicle for mixing their wax paint, and for
anointing their bodies; in later years it was gathered in a rude
way by soaking it up in blankets, and sold at a high price for
medicinal purposes only, under the name of Seneca rock oil, Genesee
oil, Indian oil, etc.

But the date of its discovery as an important factor in the
useful arts and as a source of enormous national wealth was about
1854. In the year named a certain Mr. George H. Bissell of New
Orleans accidentally met with a sample of the “Seneca Oil,” and
being convinced that it had a value far beyond that usually
accorded it, associated himself with some friends and leased for 99
years some of the best oil springs near Titusville, Pa. This lease
cost the company $5,000, although only a few years before a cow had
been considered a full equivalent in value for the same land. The
original prospectors began operations by digging collecting
ditches, and then pumping off the oil which gathered upon the
surface of the water. But not long after this first crude attempt
at oil gathering, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co. was organized, with
Prof. B. Silliman of Yale College as its president, and a more
intelligent method was introduced into the development of the
oil-producing formation. In 1858, Col. Drake of New Haven was
employed by the Pennsylvania Co. to sink an artesian well; and,
after considerable preparatory work, on August 28, 1859, the first
oil vein was tapped at a depth of 69½ feet below the
surface; the flow was at first 10 barrels per day, but in the
following September this increased to 40 barrels daily.

MAP SHOWING THE NATIONAL TRANSIT CO.’S PIPE
LINES.

The popular excitement and the fortunes made and lost in the
years following the sinking of the initial well are a matter of
history, with which we have here nothing to do. It is sufficient to
say that a multitude of adventurers were drawn by the “oil-craze”
into this late wilderness, and the sinking of wells extended with
unprecedented rapidity over the region near Titusville and from
there into more distant fields.

By June 1, 1862, 495 wells had been put down near Titusville,
and the daily output of oil was nearly 6,000 barrels, selling at
the wells at from $4.00 to $6.00 per barrel. But the tapping of
this vast subterranean storehouse of oleaginous wealth continued,
until the estimated annual production was swelled from 82,000
barrels in 1859 to 24,385,966 barrels in 1883; in the latter year
2,949 wells were put down, many of them, however, being simply dry
holes.[1] The total output of oil in the Pennsylvania regions,
between 1859 and 1883, is estimated at about 234,800,000
barrels–enough oil to fill a tank about 10,000 feet square, nearly
two miles to a side, to a depth of over 13½ feet.

[Footnote 1: The total number of wells in the Pennsylvania oil
regions cannot be given. In the years 1876-1884, inclusive, 28,619
wells were sunk; this is an average of 3,179 per year. During the
same period 2,507 dry holes were drilled at an average cost of
$1,500 each.]

As long as oil could be sold at the wells at from $4.00 to
$10.00 a barrel, the cost of transportation was an item hardly
worthy of consideration, and railroad companies multiplied and
waged a bitter war with each other in their scramble after the
traffic. But as the production increased with rapid strides, the
market price of oil fell with a corresponding rapidity, until the
quotations for 1884 show figures as low as 50 to 60 cents per
barrel for the crude product at Oil City.

In December, 1865, the freight charge per barrel for a carload
of oil from Titusville to New York, and the return of the empty
barrels, was $3.50.[1] To this figure was added the cost of
transportation by pipe-line from Pithole to Titusville, $1.00; cost
of barreling, 25 cents; freight to Corry, Pa., 80 cents; making the
total cost of a barrel of crude oil in New York, $5.55. In January,
1866, the barrel of oil in New York cost $10.40, including in this
figure, however, the Government tax of $1.00 and the price of the
barrel, $3.25.

[Footnote 1: It is stated that in 1862 the cost of sending one
barrel of oil to New York was $7.45. Steamboats charged $2.00 per
barrel from Oil City to Pittsburg, and the hauling from Oil Creek
to Meadville cost $2.25 per barrel.]

The question of reducing these enormous transportation charges
was first broached, apparently, in 1864, when a writer in the
North American, of Philadelphia, outlined a scheme for
laying a pipe-line down the Allegheny River to Pittsburg. This
project was violently assailed by both the transportation companies
and the people of the oil region, who feared that its success would
interfere with their then great prosperity. But short pipe-lines,
connecting the wells with storage tanks and shipping points, grew
apace and prepared the way for the vast network of the present day,
which covers this region and throws out arms to the ocean and the
lakes.

Among the very first, if not the first, pipe lines laid was one
put down between the Sherman well and the railway terminus on the
Miller farm. It was about 3 miles long, and designed by a Mr.
Hutchinson; he had an exaggerated idea of the pressure to be
exercised, and at intervals of 50 to 100 feet he set up air
chambers 10 inches in diameter. The weak point in this line,
however, proved to be the joints; the pipes were of cast iron, and
the joint-leakage was so great that little, if any, oil ever
reached the end of the line, and the scheme was abandoned in
despair.

In connection with this question of oil transportation, a sketch
of the various methods, other than pipelines, adopted in
Pennsylvania may not be out of place. We are mainly indebted to Mr.
S.F. Peckham, in his article on “Petroleum and its Products” in the
U. S. Census Report of 1880, for the information relating to
tank-cars immediately following:

Originally the oil was carried in 40 and 42 gallon barrels, made
of oak and hooped with iron; early in 1866, or possibly in 1865,
tank-cars were introduced. These were at first ordinary flat-cars
upon which were placed two wooden tanks, shaped like tubs, each
holding about 2,000 gallons.

On the rivers, bulk barges were also, after a time, introduced
on the Ohio and Allegheny; at first these were rude affairs, and
often of inadequate strength; but as now built they are 130 x 22 x
16 feet, in their general dimensions, and divided into eight
compartments, with water-tight bulkheads; they hold about 2,200
barrels.

In 1871 iron-tank cars superseded those of wood, with tanks of
varying sizes, ranging from 3,856 to 5,000 gallons each. These
tanks were cylinders, 24 feet 6 inches long, and 66 inches in
diameter, and weighed about 4,500 lb. The heads are made of 5/46
in. flange iron, the bottom of ½ in., and the upper half of
the shell of 3/16 in. tank iron.

In October, 1865, the Oil Transportation Co. completed and
tested a pipe-line 32,000 feet long; three pumps were used upon it,
two at Pithole and one at Little Pithole. July 1, 1876, the
pipe-line owners held a meeting at Parkers to organize a pipe-line
company to extend to the seaboard under the charter of the
Pennsylvania Transportation Co., but the scheme was never carried
out. In January, 1878, the Producers’ Union organized for a similar
seaboard line, and laid pipes, but they never reached the sea,
stopping their line at Tamanend, Pa. The lines of the National
Transit Co., illustrated in our map, were completed in 1880-81, and
this company, to which the United Pipe Lines have also been
transferred, is said to have $15,000,000 invested in plant for the
transport of oil to tide water.

The National Transit Co. was organized under what was called the
Pennsylvania Co. act, about four years ago, and succeeded to the
properties of the American Transit Co., a corporation operating
under the laws of Pennsylvania. Since its organization the first
named company has constructed and now owns the following
systems:

The line from Olean, N.Y., to Bayonne, N.J., and to Brooklyn,
N.Y., of which a full page profile is given, showing the various
pumping stations and the undulations over its route of about 300
miles. The Pennsylvania line, 280 miles long, from Colegrove, Pa.,
to Philadelphia. The Baltimore line, 70 miles long, from Millway,
Pa., to Baltimore. The Cleveland line, 100 miles long, from
Hilliards, Pa., to Cleveland, O. The Buffalo line, 70 miles long,
from Four Mile, Cattaraugus County, N.Y., to Buffalo, and the line
from Carbon Center, Butler County, Pa., to Pittsburg, 60 miles in
length. This amounts to a total of 880 miles of main pipe-line
alone, ranging from 4 inches to 6 inches in diameter; or, adding
the duplicate pipes on the Olean New York line, we have a round
total of 1,330 miles, not including loops and shorter branches and
the immense network of the pipes in the oil regions proper.

A general description of the longest line will practically
suffice for all, as they differ only in diameter of pipe used and
power of the pumping plant. As shown on the map and profile, this
long line starts at Olean, near the southern boundary of New York
State, and proceeds by the route indicated to tide water at
Bayonne, N.J., and by a branch under the North and East rivers and
across the upper end of New York city to the Long Island
refineries. This last named pipe is of unusual strength, and passes
through Central Park; few of the thousands who daily frequent the
latter spot being aware of the yellow stream of crude petroleum
that is constantly flowing beneath their feet. The following table
gives the various pumping stations on this Olean New York line, and
some data relating to distances between stations and elevations
overcome:

On this line two six-inch pipes are laid the entire length, and
a third six-inch pipe runs between Wellsville and Cameron, and
about half way between each of the other stations, “looped” around
them. The pipe used for the transportation of oil is especially
manufactured to withstand the great strain to which it will be
subjected, the most of it being made by the Chester Pipe and Tube
Works, of Chester, Pa., the Allison Manufacturing Co., of
Philadelphia and the Penna. Tube Works, of Pittsburg, Pa. It is a
lap-welded, wrought-iron pipe of superior material, and made with
exceeding care and thoroughly tested at the works. The pipe is made
in lengths of 18 feet, and these pieces are connected by threaded
ends and extra strong sleeves. The pipe-thread and sleeves used on
the ordinary steam and water pipe are not strong enough for the
duty demanded of the oil-pipe. The socket for a 4-inch steam or
water pipe is from 2½ to to 2¾ inches long, and is
tapped with 8 standard threads to the inch, straight or parallel to
the axis of the pipe; with this straight tap only three or four
threads come in contact with the socket threads, or in any way
assist in holding the pipes together. In the oil-pipe, the pipe
ends and sockets are cut on a taper of ¾ inch to 1 foot, for
a 4-inch pipe, and the socket used is thicker than the steam and
water socket, is 3¾ inches long, and has entrance for 1 5/8
inches of thread on each pipe end tapped with 9 standard threads to
the inch. In this taper socket you have iron to iron the whole
length of the thread, and the joint is perfect and equal by test to
the full strength of the pipe. Up to 1877 the largest pipe used on
the oil lines was 4-inch, with the usual steam thread, but the
joints leaked under the pressure, 1,200 pounds to the square inch
being the maximum the 8-thread pipe would stand. This trouble has
been remedied by the 9-thread, taper-cut pipe of the present day,
which is tested at the mill to 1,500 pounds pressure, while the
average duty required is 1,200 pounds; as the iron used in the
manufacture of this line-pipe will average a tensile test strain of
55,000 pounds per square inch, the safety factor is thus about
one-sixth.

PROFILE SHOWING NATIONAL TRANSIT CO.’S
PIPE-LINE, FROM OLEAN TO SADDLE RIVER.

The line-pipe is laid between the stations in the ordinary
manner, excepting that great care is exercised in perfecting the
joints. No expansion joints or other special appliances of like
nature are used on the line as far as we can learn; the variations
in temperature being compensated for, in exposed locations, by
laying the pipe in long horizontal curves. The usual depth below
the surface is about 3 feet, though in some portions of the route
the pipe lies for miles exposed directly upon the surface. As the
oil pumped is crude oil, and this as it comes from the wells
carries with it a considerable proportion of brine, freezing in the
pipes is not to be apprehended. The oil, however, does thicken in
very cold weather, and the temperature has a considerable influence
on the delivery.

A very ingenious patented device is used for cleaning out the
pipes, and by it the delivery is said to have been increased in
certain localities 50 per cent. This is a stem about 2½ feet
long, having at its front end a diaphragm made of wings which can
fold on each other, and thus enable it to pass an obstruction it
cannot remove; this machine carries a set of steel scrapers,
somewhat like those used in cleaning boilers. The device is put
into the pipe, and propelled by the pressure transmitted from the
pumps from one station to another; relays of men follow the scraper
by the noise it makes as it goes through the pipe, one party taking
up the pursuit as the other is exhausted. They must never let it
get out of their hearing, for if it stops unnoticed, its location
can only again be established by cutting the pipe.

The pumping stations are substantial structures of brick, roofed
with iron. The boiler house is removed some distance from the
engine house for greater safety from fire; the building, about 40
by 50 feet, contains from six to seven tubular boilers, each 5 by
14 feet, and containing 80 three-inch tubes. The pump house is a
similar brick structure about 40 by 60 feet, and contains the
battery of pumping engines to be described later. At each station
are two iron tanks, 90 feet in diameter and 30 feet high; into
these tanks the oil is delivered from the preceding station, and
from them the oil is pumped into the tanks at the next station
beyond. The pipe-system at each station is simple, and by means of
the “loop-lines” before mentioned the oil can be pumped directly
around any station if occasion would require it.

The pumps used on all these lines are the Worthington compound,
condensing, pressure pumping engines. The general characteristics
of these pumps are, independent plungers with exterior packing,
valve-boxes subdivided into separate small chambers capable of
resisting very heavy strains, and leather-faced metallic valves
with low lift and large surfaces. These engines vary in power from
200 to 800 horse-power, according to duty required. They are in
continuous use, day and night, and are required to deliver about
15,000 barrels of crude oil per 24 hours, under a pressure
equivalent to an elevation of 3,500 feet.

We have lately examined the latest pumping engine plant, and the
largest yet built for this service, by the firm of H.R.
Worthington; it is to be used at the Osborne Hollow Pumping
Station. As patents are yet pending on certain new features in this
engine, we must defer a full description of it for a later issue of
our journal.

The Pennsylvania line has a single 6-inch pipe 280 miles long,
with six pumping stations as shown in the map, and groups of
shorter lines, with a loop extending from the main line to Milton,
Pa., a shipping point for loading on cars. At Millway, Pa., a
5-inch pipe leaves the Pennsylvania line and runs to Baltimore, a
distance of 70 miles, and is operated from the first named station
alone, there being no intermediate pumping station.[1] The
Cleveland pipe, 100 miles long, is 5 inches in diameter, and has
upon it four pumping stations; it carries oil to the very extensive
refineries of the company at the terminal on Lake Erie. The Buffalo
line is 4 inches in diameter and 70 miles long; it has a pumping
station at Four-Mile and at Ashford (omitted on the map). The
Pittsburg line is 4 inches in diameter and 60 miles long; it has
pumping stations at Carbon Center and at Freeport.

[Footnote 1: Millway is about 400 feet above tide-water at
Baltimore, but the line passes over a very undulating country in
its passage to the last named point. We regret that we have no
profile on this 70 mile line operated by a single pumping
plant.–Ed. Engineering News.]

A very necessary and remarkably complete adjunct to the numerous
pipe lines of this company is an independent telegraph system
extending to every point on its widely diverging lines. The storage
capacity of the National Transit Co.’s system is placed at
1,500,000 barrels, and this tankage is being constantly increased
to meet the demands of the producers.[1]

[Footnote 1: As showing the extent of the sea-coast
transportation of petroleum, we should mention that the statistics
for 1884 show a total of crude equivalent exported from the United
States in that year, equaling 16,661,086 barrels, of 51 gallons
each. This is a daily average of 42,780 barrels.]

The company is officially organized as follows: C.A. Griscom,
President; Benjamin Brewster, Vice President; John Bushnell,
Secretary; Daniel O’Day, General Manager; J.H. Snow, General
Superintendent. Mr. Snow was the practical constructor of the
entire system, and the general perfection of the work is mainly due
to his personal experience, energy, and careful supervision. His
engineering assistants were Theodore M. Towe and C.J. Hepburn on
the New York line and J.B. Barbour on the Pennsylvania lines.

The enterprise has been so far a great engineering success, and
the oil delivery is stated on good authority to be within 2 per
cent. of the theoretical capacity of the pipes. From a commercial
standpoint, the ultimate future of the undertaking will be
determined by the lasting qualities of wrought iron pipe buried in
the ground and subjected to enormous strain; time alone can
determine this question.

In preparing this article we are indebted for information to the
firm of H.R. Worthington, to General Manager O’Day, of the National
Transit Co., to the editor of the Derrick of Oil City, Pa.,
and to numerous engineering friends.–Engineering News.

THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE.

By GEORGE WARDMAN.

The practical application of natural gas, as an article of fuel,
to the purpose of manufacturing glass, iron, and steel, promises to
work a revolution in the industrial interests of America–promises
to work a revolution; for notwithstanding the fact that, in many of
the largest iron, steel, and glass factories in Pittsburg and its
vicinity, natural gas has already been substituted for coal, the
managers of some such works are shy of the new fuel, mainly for two
reasons: 1. They doubt the continuity and regularity of its supply.
2. They do not deem the difference between the price of natural gas
and coal sufficient as yet to justify the expenditure involved in
the furnace changes necessary to the substitution of the one for
the other. These two objections will doubtless disappear with
additional experience in the production and regulation of the gas
supply, and with enlarged competition among the companies engaging
in its transmission from the wells to the works. At present the use
of natural gas as a substitute for coal in the manufacture of
glass, iron, and steel is in its infancy.

Natural gas is as ancient as the universe. It was known to man
in prehistoric times, we must suppose, for the very earliest
historical reference to the Magi of Asia records them as worshiping
the eternal fires which then blazed, and still blaze, in the
fissures of the mountain heights overlooking the Caspian Sea. Those
records appertain to a period at least 600 years before the birth
of Christ; but the Magi must have lived and worshiped long anterior
to that time.

Zoroaster, reputed founder of the Parsee sect, is placed
contemporary with the prophet Daniel, from 2,500 to 600 B.C.; and,
although Daniel has been doubted, and Zoroaster may never have seen
the light, the fissures of the Caucasus have been flaming since the
earliest authentic records.

The Parsees (Persians) did not originally worship fire. They
believed in two great powers–the Spirit of Light, or Good, and the
Spirit of Darkness, or Evil. Subsequent to Zoroaster, when the
Persian empire rose to its greatest power and importance,
overspreading the west to the shores of the Caspian and beyond, the
tribes of the Caucasus suffered political subjugation; but the
creed of the Magi, founded upon the eternal flame-altars of the
mountains, proved sufficiently vigorous to transform the Parseeism
of the conquerors to the fire worship of the conquered.

About the beginning of the seventh century of the Christian era,
the Grecian Emperor Heraclius overturned the fire altars of the
Magi at Baku, the chief city on the Caspian, but the fire
worshipers were not expelled from the Caucasus until the
Mohammedans subjugated the Persian Empire, when they were driven
into the Rangoon, on the Irrawaddy, in India, one of the most noted
petroleum producing districts of the world.

Petroleum and natural gas are so intimately related that one
would hardly dare to say whether the gas proceeds from petroleum or
the petroleum is deposited from the gas. It is, however, safe to
assume that they are the products of one material, the lighter
element separating from the heavier under certain degrees of
temperature and pressure. Thus petroleum may separate from the gas
as asphaltum separates from petroleum. But some speculative minds
consider natural gas to be a product of anthracite coal. The fact
that the great supply-field of natural gas in Western Pennsylvania,
New York, West Virginia, and Eastern Ohio is a bituminous and not
an anthracite region does not of itself confute that theory, as the
argument for it is, that the gas may be tapped at a remote distance
from the source of supply; and, whereas anthracite is not a
gas-coal, while bituminous is, we are told to suppose that the gas
which once may have been a component part of the anthracite was
long ago expelled by Nature, and has since been held in vast
reservoirs with slight waste, awaiting the use of man. That is one
theory; and upon that supposition it is suggested that anthracite
may exist below the bituminous beds of the region lying between the
Alleghany Mountains and the Great Lakes. Another theory is, that
natural gas is a product of the sea-weed deposited in the Devonian
stratum. But, leaving modern theories on the origin of natural gas
and petroleum, we may suppose the natural gas jets now burning in
the fissures of the Caucasus to have started up in flames about the
time when, according to the Old Testament, Noah descended from
Mount Ararat, or very soon thereafter. In the language of modern
science it would be safe to say that those flames sprang up when
the Caucasus range was raised from beneath the surface of the
universal sea. The believer in biblical chronology may say that
those fires have been burning for four thousand years–the
geologist may say for four millions.

We know that Alexander the Great penetrated to the Caspian; and
in Plutarch we read: “Hence [Arbela] he marched through the
province Babylon [Media?], which immediately submitted to him, and
in Ecbatana [?] was much surprised at the sight of the place where
fire issues in a continuous stream, like a spring of water, out of
a cleft in the earth, and the stream of naphtha, which not far from
this spot flows out so abundantly as to form a large lake. This
naphtha, in other respects resembling bitumen, is so subject to
take fire that, before it touches the flame, it will kindle at the
very light that surrounds it, and often inflames the intermediate
air also. The barbarians, to show the power and nature of it,
sprinkled the street that led to the king’s lodgings with little
drops of it, and, when it was almost night, stood at the farther
end with torches, which being applied to the moistened places, the
first taking fire, instantly, as quick as a man could think of it,
it caught from one end to another in such manner that the whole
street was one continued flame. Among those who used to wait upon
the king, and find occasion to amuse him, when he anointed and
washed himself, there was one Athenophanus, an Athenian, who
desired him to make an experiment of the naphtha upon Stephanus,
who stood by in the bathing place, a youth with a ridiculously ugly
face, whose talent was singing well. ‘For,’ said he, ‘if it take
hold of him, and is not put out, it must undeniably be allowed to
be of the most invincible strength.’ The youth, as it happened,
readily consented to undergo the trial, and as soon as he was
anointed and rubbed with it, his whole body was broke out into such
a flame, and was so seized by the fire, that Alexander was in the
greatest perplexity and alarm for him, and not without reason; for
nothing could have prevented him from being consumed by it if, by
good chance, there had not been people at hand with a great many
vessels of water for the service of the bath, with all which they
had much ado to extinguish the fire; and his body was so burned all
over that he was not cured of it a good while after. And thus it
was not without some plausibility that they endeavor to reconcile
the fable to truth, who say this was the drug in the tragedies with
which Medea anointed the crown and veils which she gave to Creon’s
daughter.”

An interesting reference to the fire-worshipers of the Caucasus
is contained in the “History of Zobeide,” a tale of the wonderful
Arabian Nights Entertainment. It runs thus:

“I bought a ship at Balsora, and freighted it; my sisters chose
to go with me, and we set sail with a fair wind. Some weeks after,
we cast anchor in a harbor which presented itself, with intent to
water the ship. As I was tired with having been so long on board, I
landed with the first boat, and walked up into the country. I soon
came in sight of a great town. When I arrived there, I was much
surprised to see vast numbers of people in different postures, but
all immovable. The merchants were in their shops, the soldiery on
guard; every one seemed engaged in his proper avocation, yet all
were become as stone…. I heard the voice of a man reading Al
Koran…. Being curious to know why he was the only living creature
in the town,… he proceeded to tell me that the city was the
metropolis of a kingdom now governed by his father; that the former
king and all his subjects were Magi, worshipers of fire and of
Nardoun. the ancient king of the giants who rebelled against God.
‘Though I was born,’ continued he, ‘of idolatrous parents, it was
my good fortune to have a woman governess who was a strict observer
of the Mohammedan religion. She taught me Arabic from Al Koran; by
her I was instructed in the true religion, which I would never
afterward renounce. About three years ago a thundering voice was
heard distinctly throughout the city, saying, “Inhabitants, abandon
the worship of Nardoun and of fire, and worship the only true God,
who showeth mercy!” This voice was heard three years successively,
but no one regarded it. At the end of the last year all the
inhabitants were in an instant turned to stone. I alone was
preserved.'”

In the foregoing tale we doubtless have reference to the
destruction of Baku, on the Caspian (though to sail from Balsora to
Baku is impossible), and the driving away into India, by the Arabs
under Caliph Omar, of all who refused to renounce fire-worship and
adopt the creed of the Koran. The turning of the refractory
inhabitants into stone is probably the Arabian storyteller’s
figurative manner of referring to the finding of dead bodies in a
mummified condition.

It is known that the Egyptians made use of bitumen, in some
form, in the preservation of their dead, a fact with which the
Arabians were familiar. As the Magi held the four elements of
earth, air, fire, and water to be sacred, they feared to either
bury, burn, sink, or expose to air the corrupting bodies of their
deceased. Therefore, it was their practice to envelop the corpse in
a coating of wax or bitumen, so as to hermetically seal it from
immediate contact with either of the four sacred elements. Hence
the idea of all the bodies of the Magi left at Baku being turned to
stone, while only the true believer in Mohammed remained in the
flesh.

Marco Polo, the famous traveler of the thirteenth century, makes
reference to the burning jets of the Caucasus, and those fires are
known to the Russians as continuing in existence since the army of
Peter the Great wrested the regions about the Caspian from the
modern Persians. The record of those flaming jets of natural gas is
thus brought down in an unbroken chain of evidence from remote
antiquity to the present day, and they are still burning.

Numerous Greek and Latin writers testify to the known existence
of petroleum about the shores of the Mediterranean two thousand
years ago. More modern citations may, however, be read with equal
interest. In the “Journal of Sir Philip Skippon’s Travels in
France,” in 1663, we find the following curious entries:

“We stayed in Grenoble till August 1st, and one day rode out,
and, after twice fording the river Drac (which makes a great wash)
at a league’s distance, went over to Pont de Clef, a large arch
across that river, where we paid one sol a man; a league further we
passed through a large village called Vif, and about a league
thence by S. Bathomew, another village, and Chasteau Bernard, where
we saw a flame breaking out of the side of a bank, which is
vulgarly called La Fountaine qui Brule; it is by a small rivulet,
and sometimes breaks out in other places; just before our coming
some other strangers had fried eggs here. The soil hereabouts is
full of a black stone, like our coal, which, perhaps, is the
continual fuel of the fire…. Near Peroul, about a league from
Montpelier, we saw a boiling fountain (as they call it), that is,
the water did heave up and bubble as if it boiled. This phenomenon
in the water was caused by a vapor ascending out of the earth
through the water, as was manifest, for if that one did but dig
anywhere near the place, and pour water upon the place new digged,
one should observe in it the like bubbling, the vapor arising not
only in that place where the fountain was, but all thereabout; the
like vapor ascending out of the earth and causing such ebullition
in water it passes through hath been observed in Mr. Hawkley’s
ground, about a mile from the town of Wigan, in Lancashire, which
vapor, by the application of a lighted candle, paper; or the like,
catches fire and flames vigorously. Whether or not this vapor at
Peroul would in like manner catch fire and burn I cannot say, it
coming not in our minds to make the experiment…. At Gabian, about
a day’s journey from Montpelier, in the way to Beziers, is a
fountain of petroleum. It burns like oil, is of a pungent scent,
and a blackish color. It distills out of several places of the rock
all the year long, but most in the summer time. They gather it up
with ladles and put it in a barrel set on end, which hath a spigot
just at the bottom. When they have put in a good quantity, they
open the spigot to let out the water, and when the oil begins to
come presently stop it. They pay for the farm of this fountain
about fifty crowns per annum. We were told by one Monsieur
Beaushoste, a chymist in Montpelier, that petroleum was the very
same with oil of jet, and not to be distinguished from it by color,
taste, smell, consistency, virtues, or any other accident, as he
had by experience found upon the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in
several places, as at Berre, near Martague, in Provence; at
Messina, in Sicily, etc.”

In Harris’ “Voyages,” published in 1764, an article on the
empire of Persia thus refers to petroleum:

“In several parts of Persia we meet with naphtha, both white and
black; it is used in painting and varnish, and sometimes in physic,
and there is an oil extracted from it which is applied to several
uses. The most famous springs of naphtha are in the neighborhood of
Baku, which furnish vast quantities, and there are also upward of
thirty springs about Shamasky, both in the province of Schirwan.
The Persians use it as oil for their lamps and in making fireworks,
of which they are extremely fond, and in which they are great
proficients.”

Petroleum has long been known to exist also in the northern part
of Italy, the cities of Parma and Genoa having been for many years
lighted with it.

In the province of Szechuen, China, natural gas is obtained from
beds of rock-salt at a depth of fifteen to sixteen hundred feet.
Being brought to the surface, it is conveyed in bamboo tubes and
used for lighting as well as for evaporating water in the
manufacture of salt. It is asserted that the Chinese used this
natural gas for illuminating purposes long before gas-lighting was
known to the Europeans. Remembering the unprogressive character of
Chinese arts and industries, there is ground for the belief that
they may have been using this natural gas as an illuminant these
hundreds of years.

In the United States the existence of petroleum was known to the
Pilgrim Fathers, who doubtless obtained their first information of
it from the Indians, from whom, in New York and western
Pennsylvania, it was called Seneka oil. It was otherwise known as
“British” oil and oil of naphtha, and was considered “a sovereign
remedy for an inward bruise.”

The record of natural gas in this country is not so complete as
that of petroleum, but we learn that an important gas spring was
known in West Bloomfleld, N.Y., seventy years ago. In 1864 a well
was sunk to a depth of three hundred feet upon that vein, from
which a sufficient supply of gas was obtained to illuminate and
heat the city of Rochester (twenty-five miles distant), it was
supposed. But the pipes which were laid for that purpose, being of
wood, were unfitted to withstand the pressure, in consequence of
which the scheme was abandoned; but gas from that well is now in
use as an illuminant and as fuel both in the town of West
Bloomfield and at Honeoye Falls. The village of Fredonia, N.Y., has
been using natural gas in lighting the streets for thirty years or
there about. On Big Sewickley Creek, in Westmoreland County, Pa.,
natural gas was used for evaporating water in the manufacture of
salt thirty years ago, and gas is still issuing at the same place.
Natural gas has been in use in several localities in eastern Ohio
for twenty-five years, and the wells are flowing as vigorously as
when first known. It has also been in use in West Virginia for a
quarter of a century, as well as in the petroleum region of western
Pennsylvania, where it has long been utilized in generating steam
for drilling oil wells.

In 1826 the American Journal of Science contained a
letter from Dr. S.P. Hildreth, who, in writing of the products of
the Muskingum (Ohio) Valley, said: “They have sunk two wells, which
are now more than four hundred feet in depth; one of them affords a
very strong and pure salt water, but not in great quantity; the
other discharges such vast quantities of petroleum, or, as it is
vulgarly called, ‘Seneka oil,’ and besides is so subject to such
tremendous explosions of gas, as to force out all the water and
afford nothing but gas for several days, that they make little or
no salt.”

The value of the foregoing references is to be found in the
testimony they offer as to the duration of the supply of natural
gas. Whether we look to the eternal flaming fissures of the
Caucasus, or to New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, there is much to
encourage the belief that the flow of natural gas may be, like the
production of petroleum, increased rather than diminished by the
draughts made upon it. Petroleum, instead of diminishing in
quantity by the millions of barrels drawn from western Pennsylvania
in the last quarter of a century, seems to increase, greater wells
being known in 1884 than in any previous year, and prices having
fallen from two dollars per bottle for “Seneka oil” to sixty cents
per barrel for the same article under the name of crude petroleum.
Hence we may assume that, as new pipe-lines are laid, the supply of
natural gas available for use in the great manufacturing district
of Pittsburg and vicinity will be increased, and the price of this
fuel diminished in a corresponding ratio.

Natural gas is now supplied in Pittsburg at a small discount on
the actual cost of coal used last year in the large manufacturing
establishments, an additional saving being made in dispensing with
firemen and avoidance of hauling ashes from the boiler-room. It is
supplied, for domestic purposes, at twenty cents per thousand cubic
feet, which is not cheaper than coal in Pittsburg, but it is a
thousand per cent cleaner, and in that respect it promises to prove
a great blessing, not only to those who can afford to use it, but
to the community at large, in the hope held out that the smoke and
soot nuisance may be abated in part, if not wholly subdued, and
that gleams of sunshine there may become less phenomenal in the
future than they are at the present time. Twenty cents per thousand
feet is too high a price to bring gas into general use for domestic
purposes in a city where coal is cheap. Ten cents would be too
much, and no doubt five cents per thousand would pay a profit. The
fact is, the dealers in natural gas appear to be somewhat doubtful
of the continuity of supply, and anxious to get back the cost of
wells and pipes in one year, which, if successful, would be an
enormous return on the investment.

There are objections to the use of natural gas by mill
operators–that it costs too much, and that the continuity of the
supply is uncertain; by heads of families, that it is odorless,
and, in case of leakage from the pipes, may fill a room and be
ready to explode without giving the fragrant warning offered by
common gas. Both of these objections will probably disappear under
the experience that time must furnish. More wells and tributary
lines will lessen the cost and tend to regulate the pressure for
manufacturers. Cut-offs and escape pipes outside of the house will
reduce the risk of explosions within. The danger in the house may
also be lessened by providing healthful ventilation in all
apartments wherein gas shall be consumed.

This subject of, the ventilation of rooms in which common gas is
ordinarily used is beginning to attract attention. It is stated,
upon scientific authority, that a jet of common gas, equivalent to
twelve sperm candles, consumes 5.45 cubic feet of oxygen per hour,
producing 3.21 feet of carbonic acid gas, vitiating, according to
Dr. Tidy’s “Handbook of Chemistry,” 348.25 cubic feet of air. In
every five cubic feet of pure air in a room there is one cubic foot
of oxygen and four of nitrogen. Without oxygen human life, as well
as light, would become extinct. It is asserted that one common
gas-jet consumes as much oxygen as five persons.

Carbonic acid gas is the element which, in deep mines and
vaults, causes almost instant insensibility and suffocation to
persons subjected to its influences, and instantly extinguishes the
flame of any light lowered into it. The normal quantity of this gas
contained in the air we breathe is 0.04; one per cent, of it causes
distress in breathing; two per cent, is dangerous; four per cent,
extinguishes life, and four per cent of it is contained in air
expelled from the lungs. According to Dr. Tidy’s table, each
ordinary jet of common gas contributes to the air of a room sixteen
by ten feet on the sides and nine feet high, containing 1,440 cubic
feet of air, twenty-two per cent, of carbonic acid gas, which,
continued for twenty-four hours without ventilation, would reach
the fatal four per cent.

Prof. Huxley gives, as a result of chemical analyses, the
following table of ratio of carbonic-acid gas in the atmosphere at
the points named:

In addition to the consumption of oxygen and production of
carbonic acid by the use of common gas, the gas itself, owing to
defectiveness of the burner, is projected into the air. Now,
considering the deleterious nature of all illuminating gases, the
reasons for perfect ventilation of rooms in which natural gas is
used for heating and culinary purposes are self-evident, not alone
as a protection against explosions, but for the health of the
occupants of the house, remembering that a larger supply of oxygen
is said to be necessary for the perfect combustion of natural than
of common gas.

Carbonic oxide, formed by the consumption of carbon, with an
insufficient supply of air, is the fatal poison of the charcoal
furnace, not infrequently resorted to, in close rooms, as a means
of suicide. The less sufficient the air toward perfect combustion,
the smaller the quantity of carbonic acid and the greater the
amount of carbonic oxide. That is to say, at the time of ignition
the chief product of combustion is carbonic oxide, and, unless
sufficient air be added to convert the oxide to carbonic acid, a
decidedly dangerous product is given off into the room. Yet, by
means of a flue to carry off the poisonous gases from burning jets,
the combustion of gas, creating a current, is made an aid to
ventilation. Unfortunately, this important fact, if commonly known,
is not much heeded by heads of families or builders of houses. But
in any large community where gas comes into general use as an
article of fuel, this fact will gradually become recognized and
respected.

The property of indicating the presence of very minute
quantities of gas in a room is claimed for an instrument recently
described by C. Von Jahn in the Revue Industrielle. This is
a porous cup, inverted and closed by a perforated rubber stopper.
Through the perforation in the stopper the interior of the cup is
connected with a pressure gauge containing colored water. It is
claimed that the diffusion of gas through the earthenware raises
the level of the water in the gauge so delicately that the presence
of one-half of one per cent, of gas may be detected by it. Other
instruments of a slightly different character are credited by their
inventors with most sensitive power of indicating gas-leakages, but
their practical efficiency remains to be demonstrated. An automatic
cut-off for use outside of houses in which natural gas is consumed
has been invented, but this writer knows nothing of either its mode
of action or its effectiveness.

The great economic question, however, connected with the use of
natural gas is, how will it affect the industrial interests of the
country? There are grounds for the belief that a sufficient supply
of natural gas may be found in the vicinity of Pittsburg to reduce
the cost of fuel to such a degree as to make competition in the
manufacture of iron, steel, and glass, in any part of the country
where coal must be used, out of the question. Such a condition of
affairs would probably result in driving the great manufacturing
concerns of the country into the region where natural gas is to
obtained. That may be anywhere from the western slope of the
Alleghanies to Lake Erie or to Lake Michigan. And, if the cost of
producing iron, steel, and glass can be so cheapened by the new
fuel, the tariff question may undergo some important modification
in politics. For, if the reduction in the cost of fuel should ever
become an offset to the lower rate of wages in Europe, the
manufacturers of Pennsylvania, who have long been the chief support
of the protective policy of the country, may lose their present
interest in that question, and leave the tariff to shift for itself
elsewhere. It should be remembered that natural gas is not, as yet,
much cheaper than coal in Pittsburg. But it may safely be assumed
that it will cheapen, as petroleum has done, by a development of
the territory in which it is known to exist in enormous quantities.
It is quite possible that, instead of buying gas, many factories
will bore for it with success, or remove convenient to its natural
sources, so that a gas well may ultimately become an essential part
of the “plant” of a mill or factory. Even now coal cannot compete
with gas in the manufacture of window glass, for, the gas being
free from sulphur and other impurities contained in coal, produces
a superior quality of glass; so that in this branch of industry the
question of superiority seems already settled.

Having said thus much of an industry now in its infancy but
promising great growth, I submit tables of analyses of common and
of the natural or marsh gas, the latter from a paper recently
prepared by a committee of the Engineers’ Society of Western
Pennsylvania, and for the use of which I am indebted to that
association:

COMMON GAS.

Natural gas is now conveyed to Pittsburg through four lines of
5-5/8 inch pipe and one line of eight inch pipe. A line of ten inch
pipe is also being laid. The pressure of the gas at the wells is
from 150 to 230 pounds to the square inch. As the wells are on one
side eighteen and on the other about twenty-five miles distant, and
as the consumption is variable, the pressure at the city cannot be
given. Greater pressure might be obtained at the wells, but this
would increase the liability to leakage and bursting of pipes. For
the prevention of such casualties safety valves are provided at the
wells, permitting the escape of all superfluous gas. The enormous
force of this gas may be appreciated from a comparison of, say, 200
pounds pressure at the wells with a two ounce pressure of common
gas for ordinary lighting. The amount of natural gas now furnished
for use in Pittsburg is supposed to be something like 25,000,000
cubic feet per day; the ten inch pipe now laying is estimated to
increase the supply to 40,000,000 feet. The amount of manufactured
gas used for lighting the same city probably falls below 3,000,000
feet.

About fifty mills and factories of various kinds in Pittsburg
now use natural gas. It is used for domestic purposes in two
hundred houses. Its superiority over coal in the manufacture of
window glass is unquestioned. That it is not used in all the glass
houses of Pittsburg is due to the fact that its advantages were not
fully known when the furnaces were fired last summer, and it costs
a large sum to permit the furnaces to cool off after being heated
for melting. When the fires cool down, and before they are started
up again, the furnaces now using coal will doubtless all be changed
so as to admit natural gas. The superiority of French over American
glass is said to be due to the fact that the French use wood and
the Americans coal in their furnaces, wood being free from sulphur,
phosphorus, etc. The substitution of gas for coal, while not
increasing the cost, improves the quality of American glass, making
it as nearly perfect as possible.

While the gas is not used as yet in any smelting furnace nor in
the Bessemer converters, it is preferred in open hearth and
crucible steel furnaces, and is said to be vastly superior to coal
for puddling. The charge of a puddling furnace, consisting of 500
pounds of pig-metal and eighty pounds of “fix,” produces with coal
fuel 490 to 500 pounds of iron. With gas for fuel, it is claimed
that the same charge will yield 520 to 530 pounds of iron. In an
iron mill of thirty furnaces, running eight heats each for
twenty-four hours, this would make a difference in favor of the gas
of, say, 8 x 30 x 25 = 6,000 pounds of iron per day. This is an
important item of itself, leaving out the cost of firing with coal
and hauling ashes.

For generating steam in large establishments, one man will
attend a battery of twelve or twenty boilers, using gas as fuel,
keep the pressure uniform, and have the fire room clean as a
parlor. For burning brick and earthenware, gas offers the double
advantage of freedom from smoke and a uniform heat. The use of gas
in public bakeries promises the abolition of the ash-box and its
accumulation of miscellaneous filth, which is said to often
impregnate the “sponge” with impurities.

In short, the advantages of natural gas as a fuel are so obvious
to those who have given it a trial, that the prediction is made
that, should the supply fail, many who are now using it will never
return to the consumption of crude coal in factories, but, if
necessary, convert it or petroleum into gas at their own works.

It seems, indeed, that until we shall have acquired the wisdom
enabling us to conserve and concentrate the heat of the sun, gas
must be the fuel of the future.–Popular Science
Monthly.

CLOSING LEAKAGES FOR PACKING.

By L. C. LEVOIR.

The mineral asbestos is but a very poor packing material in
steam-boilers. Moreover, it acts as a strong grinding material on
all moving parts.

For some years I have tested the applicability of artificial
precipitates to close the holes in boilers, cylinder-covers, and
stuffing boxes. I took, generally with the best success, alternate
layers of hemp-cotton, thread, and absorbent paper, all well
saturated with the chlorides of calcium and magnesium. The next
layers of the same fiber are moistened with silicate of soda. By
pressure the fluids are mixed and the pores are closed. A stuffing
box filled with this mixture has worked three years without
grinding the piston-rod.

In the same manner I close the screw-thread hole in gas tubes
used for conducting steam. I moisten the thread in the sockets with
oleic acid from the candle-works, and dust over it a mixture of 1
part of minium, 2 parts of quick-lime, and 1 part of linseed powder
(without the oil). When the tube is screwed in the socket, the
powder mixes with the oleic acid. The water coming in at first
makes the linseed powder viscid. Later the steam forming the oleate
of lime and the oleate of lead, on its way to the outer air,
presses it in the holes and closes them perfectly.

After a year in use the tubes can be unscrewed with ease, and
the screw threads are perfectly smooth.

With this kind of packing only one exception must be made–that
is, it is only tight under pressure; condensation or vacuum must be
thoroughly avoided.–Chem. News.

LUMINOUS PAINT.

In answer to various inquiries concerning the manufacture of
this article, we give herewith the process of William Henry
Balmain, the original discoverer of luminous paint, and also other
processes. These particulars are derived from the letters patent
granted in this country to the parties named.

Balmain’s invention was patented in England in 1877, and in this
country in 1882. It is styled as Improvements in Painting,
Varnishing, and Whitewashing, of which the following is a
specification:

The said invention consists in a luminous paint, the body of
which is a phosphorescent compound, or is composed in part of such
a compound, and the vehicle of which is such as is used as the
vehicle in ordinary paint compounds, viz., one which becomes dry by
evaporation or oxidation.

The objector article to which such paint or varnish or wash is
applied is itself rendered visible in the darkest place, and more
or less capable of imparting light to other objects, so as to
render them visible also. The phosphorescent substance found most
suitable for the purpose is a compound obtained by simply heating
together a mixture of lime and sulphur, or carbonate of lime and
sulphur, or some of the various substances containing in themselves
both lime and sulphur–such, for example, as alabaster, gypsum, and
the like–with carbon or other agent to remove a portion of the
oxygen contained in them, or by heating lime or carbonate of lime
in a gas or vapor containing sulphur.

The vehicle to be used for the luminous paint must be one which
will dry by evaporation or oxidation, in order that the paint may
not become soft or fluid by heat or be liable to be easily rubbed
off by accident or use from the articles to which it has been
applied. It may be any of the vehicles commonly used in
oil-painting or any of those commonly used in what is known as
“distemper” painting or whitewashing, according to the place or
purpose in or for which the paint is to be used.

It is found the best results are obtained by mixing the
phosphorescent substance with a colorless varnish made with mastic
or other resinous body and turpentine or spirit, making the paint
as thick as convenient to apply with a brush, and with as much
turpentine or spirit as can be added without impairing the required
thickness. Good results may, however, be obtained with drying oils,
spirit varnishes, gums, pastes, sizes, and gelatine solutions of
every description, the choice being varied to meet the object in
view or the nature of the article in hand.

The mode of applying the paint, varnish, or wash will also
depend upon the circumstances of the case. For example, it may be
applied by a brush, as in ordinary painting, or by dipping or
steeping the article in the paint, varnish, or wash; or a block or
type may be used to advantage, as in calico-printing and the like.
For outdoor work, or wherever the surface illuminated is exposed to
the vicissitudes of weather or to injury from mechanical
contingencies, it is desirable to cover it with glass, or, if the
article will admit of it, to glaze it over with a flux, as in
enameling, or as in ordinary pottery, and this may be accomplished
without injury to the effect, even when the flux or glaze requires
a red heat for fusion.

Among other applications of the said invention which may be
enumerated, it is particularly advantageous for rendering visible
clock or watch faces and other indicators–such, for example, as
compasses and the scales of barometers or thermometers–during the
night or in dark places during the night time. In applying the
invention to these and other like purposes there may be used either
phosphorescent grounds with dark figures or dark grounds and
phosphorescent figures or letters, preferring the former. In like
manner there may be produced figures and letters for use on
house-doors and ends of streets, wherever it is not convenient or
economical to have external source of light, signposts, and
signals, and names or marks to show entries to avenues or gates,
and the like.

The invention is also applicable to the illumination of railway
carriages by painting with phosphorescent paint a portion of the
interior, thus obviating the necessity for the expense and
inconvenience of the use of lamps in passing through tunnels. It
may also be applied externally as warning-lights at the front and
end of trains passing through tunnels, and in other similar cases,
also to ordinary carriages, either internally or externally. As a
night-light in a bed-room or in a room habitually dark, the
application has been found quite effectual, a very small proportion
of the surface rendered phosphorescent affording sufficient light
for moving about the room, or for fixing upon and selecting an
article in the midst of a number of complicated scientific
instruments or other objects.

The invention may also be applied to private and public
buildings in cases where it would be economical and advantageous to
maintain for a short time a waning or twilight, so as to obviate
the necessity for lighting earlier the gas or other artificial
light. It may also be used in powder-mills and stores of powder,
and in other cases where combustion or heat would be a constant
source of danger, and generally for all purposes of artificial
light where it is applicable.

In order to produce and maintain the phosphorescent light, full
sunshine is not necessary, but, on the contrary, is undesirable.
The illumination is best started by leaving the article or surface
exposed for a short time to ordinary daylight or even artificial
light, which need not be strong in order to make the illumination
continue for many hours, even twenty hours, without, the necessity
of renewed exposure.

The advantages of the invention consist in obtaining for the
purposes of daily life a light which is maintained at no cost
whatever, is free from the defects and contingent dangers arising
from combustion or heat, and can be applied in many cases where all
other sources of light would be inconvenient or incapable of
application.

Heretofore phosphorus has been mixed with earthy oxides,
carbonates, and sulphates, and with oxides and carbonates of metal,
as tin, zinc, magnesia, antimony, and chlorides of the same, also
crystallized acids and salts and mineral substances, and same have
been inclosed and exhibited in closely-stopped bottles as a
phosphorus; but such union I do not claim; but what I claim is:

A luminous paint, the body of which is a phosphorescent
substance, or composed in part of such substance, the vehicle of
which is such as is ordinarily used in paints, viz., one which will
become dry by oxidation or evaporation, substantially as herein
described.

A. Krause, of Buffalo, N.Y., obtained a patent for improvement
in phosphorescent substances dated December 30, 1879. The patentee
says: This invention relates to a substance which, by exposure to
direct or indirect sun-light, or to artificial light, is so
affected or brought into such a peculiar condition that it will
emit rays of light or become luminous in the dark.

It is a well-known fact that various bodies and compositions of
matter, more especially compositions containing sulphur in
combination with earthy salts, possess the property of emitting
rays of light in the dark after having been exposed to sun-light.
All of these bodies and compositions of matter are, however, not
well adapted for practical purposes, because the light emitted by
them is either too feeble to be of any practicable utility, or
because the luminous condition is not of sufficient duration, or
because the substances are decomposed by exposure to the
atmosphere.

Among the materials which have been employed with the best
results for producing these luminous compositions are sea-shells,
especially oyster-shells. I have found by practical experiments
that only the inner surface of these shells is of considerable
value in the production of luminous compositions, while the body of
the shell, although substantially of the same chemical composition,
does not, to any appreciable extent, aid in producing the desired
result. It follows from this observation that the smallest shells,
which contain the largest surface as compared with their cubic
contents, will be best adapted for this purpose.

I have found that chalk, which is composed of the shells of
microscopic animals, possesses the desired property in the highest
degree; and my invention consists, therefore, of a luminous
substance composed of such chalk, sulphur, and bismuth, as will be
hereinafter fully set forth.

In preparing my improved composition I take cleaned or
precipitated chalk, and subject it to the process of calcination in
a suitable crucible over a clear coal or charcoal fire for three or
four hours, or thereabout. I then add to the calcined chalk about
one-third of its weight of sulphur, and heat the mixture for from
forty-five to ninety minutes, or thereabout. A small quantity of
bismuth, in the proportion of about one per cent, or less of the
mixture, is added together with the sulphur.

The metal may be introduced in the metallic form in the shape of
fillings, or in the form of a carbonate, sulphuret, sulphate, or
sulphide, or oxide, as may be most convenient.

The substance produced in this manner possesses the property of
emitting light in the dark in a very high degree. An exposure to
light of very short duration, sometimes but for a moment, will
cause the substance to become luminous and to remain in this
luminous condition, under favorable circumstances, for upward of
twenty-four hours.

The intensity of the light emitted by this composition after
exposure is considerable, and largely greater than the light
produced by any of the substances heretofore known.

The hereinbefore described substance may be ground with oil and
used like ordinary paint; or it may be ground with any suitable
varnish or be mixed in the manner of water colors; or it may be
employed in any other suitable and well-known manner in which
paints are employed.

My improved luminous substance is adapted for a great variety of
uses–for instance, for painting business and other signs, guide
boards, clock and watch dials, for making the numbers on houses and
railway cars, and for painting all surfaces which are exposed
periodically to direct or indirect light and desired to be easily
seen during the night.

When applied with oil or varnish, my improved luminous substance
can be exposed to the weather in the same manner as ordinary paint
without suffering any diminution of its luminous property. I claim
as my invention the herein described luminous substance, consisting
of calcined chalk, sulphur, and bismuth, substantially as set
forth.

Merrill B. Sherwood, Jr., of Buffalo, N. Y., obtained a patent
for a phosphorescent composition, dated August 9, 1881.

The author says: My invention relates to an improvement in
phosphorescent illuminants.

I have taken advantage of the peculiar property which obtains in
many bodies of absorbing light during the day and emitting it
during the night time.

The object of my invention is the preparation by a prescribed
formula, to be hereinafter given, of a composition embodying one of
the well-known phosphorescent substances above referred to, which
will be applicable to many practical uses.

With this end in view my invention consists in a phosphorescent
composition in which the chief illuminating element is monosulphide
of calcium.

The composition obtained by the formula may be used either in a
powdered condition by dusting it over articles previously coated,
in whole or in part, with an adhesive substance, or it may be
intimately mixed with paints, inks, or varnishes, serving as
vehicles for its application, and in this way be applied to bodies
to render them luminous.

The formula for obtaining the composition is as follows: To one
hundred parts of unslaked lime, that obtained from calcined oyster
shells producing the best results, add five parts of carbonate of
magnesia and five parts of ground silex. Introduce these elements
into a graphite or fire-clay crucible containing forty parts of
sulphur and twenty-five parts of charcoal, raise the whole mass
nearly or quite to a white heat, remove from the fire, allow it to
cool slowly, and, when it is cold or sufficiently lowered in
temperature to be conveniently handled, remove it from the crucible
and grind it. The method of reducing the composition will depend
upon the mode of its use. If it is to be applied as a loose powder
by the dusting process, it should be simply ground dry; but if it
is to be mixed with paint or other similar substance, it should be
ground with linseed or other suitable oil. In heating the elements
aforesaid, certain chemical combinations will have taken place, and
monosulphide of calcium, combined with carbonate of lime, magnesia,
and silex, will be the result of such ignition.

If, in the firing of the elements, as above set forth, all of
the charcoal does not unite with the other elements, such
uncombined portion should be removed from the fused mass before it
is ground.

If it is designed to mix the composition with paints, those
composed of zinc-white and baryta should be chosen in preference to
those composed of white lead and colored by vegetable matter, as
chemical action will take place between the composition and paint
last mentioned, and its color will be destroyed or changed by the
gradual action of the sulphureted hydrogen produced. However, by
the addition of a weak solution of gum in alcohol or other suitable
sizing to the composition, it may be used with paints containing
elements sensitive to sulphureted hydrogen without danger of
decomposing them and destroying their color.

In many, and possibly in a majority of cases, the illuminating
composition applied as a dry powder will give the most satisfactory
results, in view of the tendency to chemical action between the
paint and composition when intimately mixed; in view of the fact
that by the addition to paint of any color of a sufficient quantity
of the composition to render the product luminous, the original
color of the paint will be modified or destroyed; and, also, in
view of the fact that the illuminating composition is so greatly in
excess of the paint, the proportions in which they are united being
substantially ten parts of the former to one of the latter, it will
be difficult to impart a particular color to the product of the
union without detracting from its luminosity. On the other hand,
the union of dry powder with a body already painted by the simple
force of adhesion does not establish a sufficiently intimate
relation between it and the paint to cause chemical action, the
application of a light coat of powder does not materially change
the color of the article to which it is applied; and, further, by
the use of the powder in an uncombined state its greatest
illuminating effects are obtained. Again, if the appearance in the
daytime of the article which it is desired to have appear luminous
at night is not material, it may be left unpainted and simply sized
to retain the powder.

In printing it is probable that the composition will be employed
almost exclusively in the form of dry powder, as printing-ink,
normally pasty, becomes too thick to be well handled when it is
combined with powder in sufficient quantity to render the printed
surface luminous. However, the printed surface of a freshly printed
sheet may be rendered luminous by dusting the sheet with powder,
which will adhere to all of the inked and may be easily shaken from
the unmoistened surfaces thereof.

I am aware that monosulphide of calcium and magnesia have before
been used together in phosphorescent compounds. What I claim is a
phosphorescent composition consisting of monosulphide of calcium,
combined with carbonate of lime, magnesia, and silex, substantially
as described.

Orlando Thowless, of Newark, N.J., obtained a patent for a
process of manufacturing phosphorescent substances dated November
8, 1881. The inventor says: The object of my invention is to
manufacture phosphorescent materials of intense luminosity at low
cost and little loss of materials.

I first take clam shells and, after cleaning, place them in a
solution composed of about one part of commercial nitric acid and
three parts of water, in which the shells are allowed to remain
about twenty minutes. The shells are then to be well rinsed in
water, placed in a crucible, and heated to a red heat for about
four hours. They are then removed and placed, while still red-hot,
in a saturated solution of sea salt, from which they are
immediately removed and dried. After this treatment and exposure to
light the shells will have a blood-red luminous appearance in the
dark. The shells thus prepared are used with sulphur and the
phosphide and sulphide of calcium to produce a phosphorescent
composition, as follows: One hundred parts, by weight, of the
shells, prepared as above, are intimately mixed with twenty parts,
by weight, of sulphur. This mixture is placed in a crucible or
retort and heated to a white heat for four or five hours, when it
is to be removed and forty parts more of sulphur, one and one-half
parts of calcium phosphide, and one-half part of chemically pure
sulphide of calcium added. The mixture is then heated for about
ninety minutes to an extreme white heat. When cold, and after
exposure to light, this mixture will become luminous. Instead of
these two ignitions, the same object may be in a measure
accomplished by the addition of the full amount of sulphur with the
phosphide and sulphide of calcium and raising it to a white heat
but once. The calcium phosphide is prepared by igniting phosphorus
in connection with newly slaked lime made chemically pure by
calcination. The condition of the shells when the sulphur is added
is not material; but the heat renders them porous and without
moisture, so that they will absorb the salt to as great an extent
as possible. Where calcined shells are mixed with solid salt, the
absorbing power of the shells is greatly diminished by the
necessary exposure, and there will be a lack of uniformity in the
saturation. On the contrary, by plunging the red-hot shells in the
saline solution the greatest uniformity is attained.

Instead of using clam shells as the base of my improved
composition, I may use other forms of sea shells–such as oyster
shells, etc.

I claim as new:

1. The herein described process of manufacturing phosphorescent
materials, which consists in heating sea shells red-hot, treating
them while heated with a bath of brine, then, after removal from
the bath, mixing sulphur and phosphide and sulphide of calcium
therewith, and finally subjecting the mixture to a white heat,
substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. The described process, which consists in placing clean and
red-hot clam shells in a saturated solution of sea salt, and then
drying them, for the purpose specified.

BOXWOOD AND ITS SUBSTITUTES.

[Footnote: Prize essay written for the International Forestry
Exhibition, Edinburgh.]

By JOHN R. JACKSON. A.L.S., Curator of the Museums, Royal
Gardens, Ken.

The importance of the discovery of a hard, compact, and even
grained wood, having all the characteristics of boxwood, and for
which it would form an efficient substitute, cannot be
overestimated; and if such a discovery should be one of the results
of the present Forestry Exhibition, one of its aims will have been
fulfilled.

For several years past the gradual diminution in the supplies of
boxwood, and the deterioration in its quality, have occupied the
attention of hardwood merchants, of engravers, and of scientific
men.

Of merchants, because of the difficulties in obtaining supplies
to meet the ever increasing demand; of engravers, because of the
higher prices asked for the wood, and the difficulty of securing
wood of good size and firm texture, so that the artistic excellence
of the engraving might be maintained; and of the man of science,
who was specially interested in the preservation of the indigenous
boxwood forests, and in the utilization of other woods, natives, it
might be, of far distant countries, whose adaptation would open not
only a new source of revenue, but would also be the means of
relieving the strain upon existing boxwood forests.

While by far the most important use of boxwood is for engraving
purposes, it must be borne in mind that the wood is also applied to
numerous other uses, such, for instance, as weaving shuttles, for
mathematical instruments, turnery purposes, carving, and for
various ornamental articles, as well as for inlaying in cabinet
work. The question, therefore, of finding suitable substitutes for
boxwood divides itself into two branches, first, directly for
engraving purposes, and, secondly, to supply its place for the
other uses to which it is now put. This, to a certain extent, might
set free some of the boxwood so used, and leave it available for
the higher purposes of art. At the same time, it must not be
forgotten that much of the wood used for general purposes is
unsuited for engraving, and can only therefore be used by the
turner or cabinet maker. Nevertheless, the application of woods
other than box for purposes for which that wood is now used would
tend to lessen the demand for box, and thus might have an effect in
lowering the price.

So far back as 1875 a real uneasiness began to be felt as to the
future supplies of box. In the Gardeners’ Chronicle for
September 25, of that year, page 398, it is said that the boxwood
forests of Mingrelia in the Caucasian range were almost exhausted.
Old forests, long abandoned, were even then explored in search of
trees that might have escaped the notice of former proprietors, and
wood that was rejected by them was, in 1875, eagerly purchased at
high prices for England. The export of wood was at that time
prohibited from Abhasia and all the government forests in the
Caucasus. A report, dated at about the same period from Trebizond,
points out that the Porte had prohibited the cutting of boxwood in
the crown forests. (Gardeners’ Chronicle, Aug. 19, 1876, p.
239.) Later on, the British Consul at Tiflis says: “Bona
fide Caucasian boxwood may be said to be commercially
non-existent, almost every marketable tree having been exported.”
(Gardeners’ Chronicle, Dec. 6, 1879, p. 726.)

The characters of boxwood are so marked and so distinct from
those of most other woods that some extracts from a report of
Messrs. J. Gardner & Sons, of London and Liverpool, addressed
to the Inspector-General of Forests in India, bearing on this
subject, will not be without value; indeed, its more general
circulation than its reprint in Mr. J.S. Gamble’s “Manual of Indian
Timbers” will, it is hoped, be the means of directing attention to
this very important matter, and by pointing out the characters that
make boxwood so valuable, may be the means of directing observation
to the detection of similar characters in other woods. Messrs.
Gardner say:

“The most suitable texture of wood will be found growing upon
the sides of mountains. If grown in the plains the growth is
usually too quick, and consequently the grain is too coarse, the
wood of best texture being of slow growth, and very fine in the
grain.

“It should be cut down in the winter, and, if possible, stored
at once in airy wooden sheds well protected from sun and rain, and
not to have too much air through the sides of the sheds, more
especially for the wood under four inches diameter.

“The boxwood also must not be piled upon the ground, but be well
skidded under, so as to be kept quite free from the effects of any
damp from the soil.

“After the trees are cut down, the longer they are exposed the
more danger is there afterward of the wood splitting more than is
absolutely necessary during the necessary seasoning before shipment
to this country.

“If shipped green, there is great danger of the wood sweating
and becoming mildewed during transit, which causes the wood
afterward to dry light and of a defective color, and in fact
rendering it of little value for commercial purposes.

“There is no occasion to strip the bark off or to put cowdung or
anything else upon the ends of the pieces to prevent their
splitting.

“Boxwood is the nearest approach to ivory of any wood known, and
will, therefore, probably gradually increase in value, as it, as
well as ivory, becomes scarcer. It is now used very considerably in
manufacturing concerns, but on account of its gradual advance in
price during the past few years, cheaper woods are in some
instances being substituted.

“Small wood under four inches is used principally by flax
spinners for rollers, and by turners for various purposes, rollers
for rink skates, etc., etc., and if free from splits, is of equal
value with the larger wood. It is imported here as small as one a
half inches in diameter, but the most useful sizes are from
2½ to 3½ inches, and would therefore, we suppose, be
from fifteen to thirty or forty years in growing, while larger wood
would require fifty years and upward at least, perhaps we ought to
say one hundred years and upward. It is used principally for
shuttles, for weaving silk, linen, and cotton, and also for rule
making and wood engraving. Punch, The Illustrated London News,
The Graphic, and all the first class pictorial papers use large
quantities of boxwood.”

In 1880, Messrs. Churchill and Sim reported favorably on some
consignments of Indian boxwood, concluding with the remarks that if
the wood could be regularly placed on the market at a moderate
figure, there was no reason why a trade should not be developed in
it. Notwithstanding these prospects, which seemed promising in 1877
and 1880, little or nothing has been accually done up to the
present time in bringing Indian boxwood into general use, in
consequence, as Mr. Gamble shows, of the cost of transit through
India. The necessity, therefore, of the discovery of some wood akin
to box is even more important now than ever it was.

BOXWOOD SUBSTITUTES.

First among the substitutes that have been proposed to replace
boxwood may be mentioned an invention of Mr. Edward Badoureau,
referred to in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, March 23, 1878, p.
374, under the title of artificial boxwood. It is stated to consist
of some soft wood which has been subject to heavy pressure. It is
stated that some English engravers have given their opinion on this
prepared wood as follows:

It has not the power of resistance of boxwood, so that it would
be imposible to make use of it, except in the shape of an electro
obtained from it, as it is too soft to sustain the pressure of a
machine, and would be easily worn out. In reply to these opinions,
Mr. Badoureau wrote: “My wood resists the wear and tear of the
press as well as boxwood, and I can show engravings of English and
French artists which have been obtained direct from the wood, and
are as perfect as they are possible to be; several of them have
been drawn by Mr. Gustave Dore.”

Mr. Badoureau further says that “while as an engraver he has so
high an opinion of the qualities of compressed wood as a substitute
for boxwood, as the inventor of the new process he considered that
it possesses numerous advantages both for artistic and industrial
purposes.” In short, he says, “My wood is to other wood what steel
is to iron.”

The following woods are those which have, from time to time,
been proposed or experimented upon as substitutes for boxwood, for
engraving purposes. They are arranged according to their scientific
classification in the natural orders to which they belong:

Natural Order Pittosporeæ.

1. Pittosporum undulatum. Vent.–A tree growing in
favorable situations to a height of forty or even sixty feet, and
is a native of New South Wales and Victoria. It furnishes a light,
even grained wood, which attracted some attention at the
International Exhibition in 1862; blocks were prepared from it, and
submitted to Prof. De la Motte, of King’s College, who reported as
follows:

“I consider this wood well adapted to certain kinds of wood
engraving. It is not equal to Turkey box, but it is superior to
that generally used for posters, and I have no doubt that it would
answer for the rollers of mangles and wringing machines.” Mr. W.G.
Smith, in a report in the Gardeners’ Chronicle for July 26,
1873, p. 1017, on some foreign woods which I submitted to him for
trial, says that the wood of Pittosporum undulatum is
suitable only for bold outlines; compared with box, it is soft and
tough, and requires more force to cut than box. The toughness of
the wood causes the tools to drag back, so that great care is
required in cutting to prevent the lines clipping. The average
diameter of the wood is from 18 to 30 inches.

2. Pittosporum bicolor, Hook.–A closely allied species,
sometimes forty feet high, native of New South Wales and Tasmania.
This wood is stated to be decidedly superior to the last named.

3. Bursaria spinosa, Cav.–A tree about forty feet high,
native of North, South, and West Australia, Queensland, New South
Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, in which island it is known as
boxwood. It has been reported upon as being equal to common or
inferior box, and with further trials might be found suitable for
common subjects; it has the disadvantage, however, of blunting the
edges and points of the tools.

Natural Order Meliaceæ.

4. Swietenia mahagoni, L. (mahogany).–A large timber
tree of Honduras, Cuba, Central America, and Mexico. It is one of
the most valuable of furniture woods, but for engraving purposes it
is but of little value, nevertheless it has been used for large,
coarse subjects. Spanish mahogany is the kind which has been so
used.

Natural Order Ilicineæ

Ilex opaca, L. (North American holly).–It is a widely
diffused tree, the wood of which is said to closely resemble
English holly, being white in color, and hard, with a fine grain,
so that it is used for a great number of purposes by turners,
engineers, cabinet makers, and philosophical instrument makers. For
engraving purposes it is not equal to the dog-wood of America
(Cornus florida); it yields, however, more readily to the
graver’s tools.

Natural Order Celastrineæ

6. Elæodendron australe, Vent.–A tree twenty to
twenty-five feet high, native of Queensland and New South Wales.
The wood is used in the colony for turning and cabinet work, and
Mr. W.G. Smith reports that for engraving purposes it seems
suitable only for rough work, as diagrams, posters, etc.

7. Euonymus sieboldianus, Blume.–A Chinese tree, where
the wood, which is known as pai’cha, is used for carving and
engraving. Attention was first drawn to this wood by Mr. Jean von
Volxem, in the Gardeners’ Chronicle for April 20, 1878. In
the Kew Report for 1878, p. 41, the following extract of a letter
from Mr. W.M. Cooper, Her Majesty’s Consul at Ningpo, is given:
“The wood in universal use for book blocks, wood engravings, seals,
etc., is that of the pear tree, of which large quantities are grown
in Shantung, and Shan-se, especially. Pai’cha is sometimes used as
an indifferent substitute. Pai’cha is a very fine white wood of
fine fiber, without apparent grains, and cuts easily; is well
suited for carved frames, cabinets, caskets, etc., for which large
quantities are manufactured here for export. The tree itself
resembles somewhat the Stillingia, but has a rougher bark,
larger and thinner leaves, which are serrated at the edge, more
delicate twigs, and is deciduous.” In 1879, a block of this wood
was received at the Kew Museum, from Mr. Cooper, a specimen of
which was submitted to Mr. Robson J. Scott, of Whitefriars Street,
to whom I am much indebted for reports on various occasions, and
upon this wood Mr. Scott reported as follows: “The most striking
quality I have observed in this wood is its capacity for retaining
water, and the facility with which it surrenders it. This section
(one prepared and sent to the Kew Museum), which represents
one-tenth of the original piece, weighed 3 lb. 4½ ounces. At
the end of twenty one days it had lost 1 lb. 6¾ ounces in an
unheated chamber. At the end of another fourteen days, in a much
elevated temperature, it only lost ¼ ounce. In its present
state of reduced bulk its weight is 1 lb. 10 ounces. It is not at
all likely to supersede box, but it may be fit for coarser work
than that for which box is necessary.” Later on, namely in the Kew
Report for 1880, p. 51, Mr. R.D. Keene, an engraver, to whom Mr.
Scott submitted specimens of the wood for trial, writes: “I like
the wood very much, and prefer it to box in some instances; it is
freer to work, and consequently quicker, and its being uniform in
color and quality is a great advantage; we often have great
difficulty in box in having to work from a hard piece into a soft.
I think it a very useful wood, especially for solid bold work. I
question if you could get so extreme a fine black line as on box,
but am sure there would be a large demand for it at a moderate
price.” Referring to this letter, Mr. Scott remarks that the writer
does not intend it to be understood that pai’cha is qualified to
supersede box, but for inferior subjects for which coarse brittle
box is used. Mr. Scott further says that of the woods he has tried
he prefers pear and hawthorn to pai’cha.

Natural Order Sapindaceæ.

8. Acer saccharinum, L. (sugar or bird’s eye maple).–A
North American tree, forming extensive forests in Canada, New
Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The wood is well known as a cabinet or
furniture wood. It has been tried for engraving, but it does not
seem to have attracted much notice. Mr. Scott says it is
sufficiently good, so far as the grain is concerned. From this it
would seem not to promise favorably.

Natural Order Leguminoseæ. Sub-order
Papilionaceæ.

9. Brya ebenus, Δ. DC.–A small tree of Jamaica,
where the wood is known as green ebony, and is used for making
various small articles. It is imported into this country under the
name of cocus wood, and is used with us for making flutes and other
wind instruments. Mr. Worthington Smith considers that the wood
equals bad box for engraving purposes.

Natural Order Rosaceæ.

10. Pyrus communis, L. (common pear).–A tree averaging
from 20 to 40 feet high. Found in a wild state, and very
extensively cultivated as a fruit tree. The wood is of a light
brown color, and somewhat resembles limewood in grain. It is,
however, harder and tougher. It is considered a good wood for
carving, because it can be cut with or across the grain with equal
facility. It stands well when well seasoned, and is used for
engraved blocks for calico printers, paper stainers, and for
various other purposes. Pear-wood has been tried for engraving
purposes, but with no great success. Mr. Scott’s opinion of its
relative value is referred to under pai’cha wood (Euonymus
sieboldianus).

11. Amelanchier canadensis. L. (shade tree or service
tree of America).–A shrub or small tree found throughout Canada,
Newfoundland, and Virginia. Of this wood, Porcher says, in his
“Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests”: “Upon examining
with a sharp instrument the specimens of various southern woods
deposited in the museum of the Elliott Society, … I was struck
with the singular weight, density, and fineness of this wood. I
think I can confidently recommend it as one of the best to be
experimented upon by the wood engraver.”

12. Cratoegus oxyacantha, L. (hawthorn).–A well-known
shrub or small tree in forests and hedges in this country. The wood
is very dense and close grained. Of this wood, Mr. Scott reports
that it is by far the best wood after box that he has had the
opportunity of testing.

Natural Order Myrtaceæ.

13. Eugenia procera, Poir.–A tree 20 to 30 feet high,
native of Jamaica, Antigua, Martinique, and Santa Cruz. A badly
seasoned sample of this wood was submitted to Mr. R.H. Keene, who
reported that “it is suited for bold, solid newspaper work.”

Natural Order Cornaceæ.

14. Cornus florida, L. (North American dogwood).–A
deciduous tree, about 30 feet high, common in the woods in various
parts of North America. The wood is hard, heavy, and very fine
grained. It is used in America for making the handles of light
tools, as mallets, plane stocks, harrow teeth, cogwheels, etc. It
has also been used in America for engraving.

In a letter from Prof. Sargent, Director of the Arnold
Arboretum, Brookline, Massachusetts, quoted in the Kew Report for
1882, p. 35, he says: “I have been now, for a long time, examining
our native woods in the hope of finding something to take the place
of boxwood for engraving, but so far I am sorry to say with no very
brilliant success. The best work here is entirely done from
boxwood, and some Cornus florida is used for less expensive
engraving. This wood answers fairly well for coarse work, but it is
a difficult wood to manage, splitting, or rather ‘checking,’ very
badly in drying.” This, however, he states in a later letter, “can
be overcome by sawing the logs through the center as soon as cut.
It can be obtained in large quantities.” Mr. R.H. Keene, the
engraver before referred to, reports that the wood is very rough,
and suitable for bold work.

Natural Order Ericaceæ.

15. Rhododendron maximum, L. (mountain laurel of North
America).–Of this wood it is stated in Porcher’s “Resources of the
Southern Fields and Forests,” p. 419, that upon the authority of a
well-known engraver at Nashville, Tennessee, the wood is equaled
only by the best boxwood. This species of Rhododendron
“abounds on every mountain from Mason and Dixon’s line to North
Georgia that has a rocky branch.” Specimens of this wood submitted
to Mr. Scott were so badly selected and seasoned that it was almost
impossible to give it a trial. In consideration of its hardness and
apparent good qualities, further experiments should be made with
it.

16. Rhododendron californicum.–Likewise a North American
species, the wood of which is similar to the last named. Specimens
were sent to Kew by Professor Sargent for report in 1882, but were
so badly seasoned that no satisfactory opinion could be obtained
regarding it.

17. Kalmia latifolia, L. (calico bush or ivy bush of
North America).–The wood is hard and dense, and is much used in
America for mechanical purposes. It has been recommended as a
substitute for boxwood for engraving, and trials should, therefore,
be made with it.

Natural Order Epacrideæ.

18. Monotoca elliptica, R. Br.–A tall shrub or tree 20
or 30 feet high, native of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria,
and Tasmania. The wood has been experimented upon in this country,
and though to all appearances it is an excellent wood, yet Mr.
Worthington Smith reported upon it as having a bad surface, and
readily breaking away so that the cuts require much retouching
after engraving.

Natural Order Ebenaceæ.

19. Diospyros texana.–A North American tree, of the wood
of which Professor Sargent speaks favorably. “It is, however,” he
says, “in Texas, at least, rather small, scarcely six inches in
diameter, and not very common. In northern Mexico it is said to
grow much larger, and could probably be obtained with some trouble
in sufficient quantities to become an article of commerce.” Of this
wood Mr. Scott says: “It is sufficiently good as regards the grain,
but the specimen sent for trial was much too small for practical
purposes.” Mr. R.H. Keene, the engraver, says it “is nearly equal
to the best box.”

20. Diospyros virginiana, L. (the persimmon of
America).–A good-sized tree, widely diffused, and common in some
districts. The wood is of a very dark color, hard, and of a fairly
close grain. It has been used in America for engraving, but so far
as I am aware has not been tried in this country. It has, however,
been lately introduced for making shuttles.

21. Dyospyros ebenum, Koenig (ebony).–A wood so well
known as to need no description. It has been tried for engraving by
Mr. Worthington Smith, who considers it nearly as good as box.

Natural Order Apocyneæ.

22. Hunteria zeylanica, Gard.–A small tree, common in
the warmer parts of Ceylon. This is a very hard and compact wood,
and is used for engraving purposes in Ceylon, where it is said, by
residents, to come nearer to box than any other wood known. On this
wood Mr. Worthington Smith gave a very favorable opinion, but it is
doubtful whether it would ever be brought from Ceylon in sufficient
quantities to meet a demand.

Natural Order Bignoniaceæ.

23. Tecoma pentaphylla, Dl.–A moderate-sized tree,
native of the West Indies and Brazil. The wood is compact, very
fine, and even grained, and much resembles box in general
appearance. Blocks for engraving have been prepared from it by Mr.
R.J. Scott, who reported upon it as follows: “It is the only likely
successor to box that I have yet seen, but it is not embraced as a
deliverer should be, but its time may not be far off.”

Natural Order Corylaceæ.

24. Carpinus betulus, L. (hornbeam).–A tree from 20 to
70 feet high, with a trunk sometimes 10 feet in girth, indigenous
in the southern counties of England. The wood is very tough, heavy,
and close grained. It is largely used in France for handles for
agricultural and mining implements, and of late years has been much
used in this country for lasts. The wood of large growth is apt to
became shaky, and it is consequently not used as a building wood.
It is said to have been used as a substitute for box in engraving,
but with what success does not appear.

25. Ostrya virginica, Willd (ironwood, or American
hornbeam).–A moderate-sized tree, widely spread over North
America. The wood is light-colored, and extremely hard and heavy;
hence the name of ironwood. It is used in America by turners, as
well as for mill cogs, etc., and has been suggested as a substitute
for boxwood for engraving, though no actual trials, so far as I am
aware, have been made with it.

Besides the foregoing list of woods, there are others that have
been occasionally used for posters and the coarser kinds of
engraving, such, for instance, as lime, sycamore, yew, beech, and
even pine; and in America, Vaccinium arboreum and Azalea
nudiflora. Of these, however, but little is known as to their
value.

It will be noticed that in those woods that have passed through
the engraver’s hands, some which promised best, so far as their
texture or grain is concerned, have been tried upon very imperfect
or badly seasoned samples.

The subject is one of so much importance, as was pointed out at
the commencement of this paper, that a thoroughly organized series
of experiments should be undertaken upon carefully seasoned and
properly prepared woods, not only of those mentioned in the
preceding list, but also of any others that may suggest themselves,
as being suitable, It must, moreover, always be borne in mind that
the questions of price, and the considerations of supply and
demand, must, to a great extent, regulate the adaptation of any
particular wood.

With regard to those woods referred to as being tried by Mr.
Worthington Smith, he remarks in his report that any of them would
be useful for some classes of work, if they could be imported,
prepared, and sold for a farthing, or less than a halfpenny, per
square inch.

Specimens of all the woods here enumerated are contained in the
Kew Museum.

COMPOSITE PORTRAITS

Not long since we gave a figure from a drawing by Mr. Grallieni,
which, looked at from a distance, seemed to be a death’s head, but
which, when examined more closely, was seen to represent two
children caressing a dog. Since then we have had occasion to
publish some landscapes of Kircher and his imitators, which, looked
at sideways, exhibited human profiles. This sort of amusement has
exercised the skill of artists of all times, and engravings, and
even paintings, of double aspect are very numerous. Chance has
recently put into our hands a very curious work of this kind, which
is due to a skillful artist named Gaillot. It is an album of quite
ancient lithographs, which was published at Berlin by Senefelder.
The author, under the title of “Arts and Trades,” has drawn some
very amusing faces that are formed through the tools and objects
used in the profession represented. We reproduce a few specimens of
these essentially original compositions of Gaillot. The green
grocer is formed of a melon for the head, of an artichoke and its
stem for the forehead and nose, of a pannier for the bust, etc. The
hunter is made up of a gun, of a powder horn, and of a hunting
horn, etc.; and so on for the other professions. This is an amusing
exercise in drawing that we have thought worthy of reproducing. Any
one who is skillful with his pencil might exercise himself in
imagining other compositions of the same kind.–La
Nature.

COMPOSITE PORTRAITS.–OCCUPATIONS.
1. Green-grocer. 2. Hunter. 3. Artist. 4. Cobbler. 5. Chemist 6.
Cooper.

HAND-CRAFT AND REDE-CRAFT.–A PLEA FOR THE FIRST NAMED.

[Footnote: Read before the Worcester Free Industrial Institute,
June 25, 1885.]

By DANIEL C. GILMAN, President of the Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore.

I cannot think of a theme more fit for this hour and place than
handy-craft. I begin by saying “handy-craft,” for that is the form
of the word now in vogue, that which we are wonted to see in print
and hear in speech; but I like rather the old form, “hand-craft,”
which was used by our sires so long ago as the Anglo-Saxon days.
Both words mean the same thing, the power of the hand to seize,
hold, shape, match, carve, paint, dig, bake, make, or weave.
Neither form is in fashion, as we know very well, for people choose
nowadays such Latin words as “technical ability,” “manual labor,”
“industrial pursuits,” “dexterity,” “professional artisanship,”
“manufacture,” “decorative art,” and “technological occupations,”
not one of which is half as good as the plain, old, strong term
“hand-craft.”

An aid to hand-craft is rede-craft–the power to read, to
reason, and to think; or, as it is said in the book of Common
Prayer, “to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.” By rede craft
we find out what other men have done; we get our book learning, we
are made heirs to thoughts that breathe and words that burn, we
enter into the life, the acts, the arts, the loves, the lore of the
wise, the witty, the cunning, and the worthy of all ages and all
places; we learn, as says the peasant poet of Scotland,

I do not pit rede-craft against hand-craft. Quite otherwise, I
call them not foes (as some would), but friends. They are brothers,
partners, consorts, who can work together, as right hand and left
hand, as science and art, as theory and practice. Rede-craft may
call for books and hand-craft for tools, but it is by the help of
both books and tools that mankind moves on. Indeed, we shall not
err wide of the mark if we say that a book is a tool, for it is the
instrument which we make use of in certain cases when we wish to
find out what other men have thought and done. Perhaps you will not
be as ready to admit that a tool is a book. But take for example
the plow. Compare the form in use to-day on a first-rate farm with
that which is pictured on ancient stones long hid in Egypt–ages
old. See how the idea of the plow has grown, and bear in mind that
its graceful curves, it fitness for a special soil, or for a
special crop, its labor-saving shape, came not by chance, but by
thought. Indeed, a plow is made up from the thoughts and toils of
generations of plowmen. Look at a Collins ax; it is also the record
of man’s thought. Lay it side by side with the hatchet of Uncas or
Miantonomoh, or with an ax of the age of bronze, and think how many
minds have worked on the head and on the helve, how much skill has
been spent in getting the metal, in making it hard, in shaping the
edge, in fixing the weight, in forming the handle. From simple
tools, turn to complex; to the printing press, the sewing machine,
the locomotive, the telegraph, the ocean steamer; all are full of
ideas. All are the offspring of hand-craft and rede craft, of skill
and thought, of practice put on record, of science and art.

Now, the welfare of each one of us, the welfare of our land, the
welfare of our race, rests on this union. You may almost take the
measure of a man’s brain, if you can find out what he sees with his
eyes and what he does with hands; you may judge of a country, or of
a city, if you know what it makes.

I do not know that we need ask which is best, hand-craft or
rede-craft. Certainly “the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no
need of thee.” At times, hand-craft becomes rede-craft, for when
the eye is blind the hand takes its place, and the finger learns to
read, running over the printed page to find out what is written, as
quickly as the eye.

In these days, there are too many who look down on hand-craft.
They think only of the tasks of a drudge or a char-boy. They do not
know the pleasure there is in working, and especially in making.
They have never learned to guide the fingers by the brain. They
like to hear, or see, or own, or eat, what others have made, but
they do not like to put their own hands to work. If you doubt what
I say, put a notice in the paper asking for a clerk, and you will
have a, hundred answers for every one that will come when you ask
for a workman. So it comes to pass that young men grow up whose
hands have not been trained to any kind of skill; they wish,
therefore, to be buyers and sellers, traders, dealers, and so the
market is overstocked with clerks, book-keepers, salesmen, and
small shop-keepers, while it is understocked in all the higher
walks of hand-craft. Some men can only get on by force of arms,
lifting, pounding, heaving, or by power of sitting at counter or a
desk and “clerking it.”

Machinery works against hand-craft. In many branches of labor,
the hand now has but little to do, and that little is always the
same, so that labor becomes tiresome and the workman dull. Machines
can be made to cut statuary, to weave beautiful tapestry, to
fashion needles, to grind out music, to make long calculations;
alas! the machine has also been brought into politics. Of course, a
land cannot thrive without machinery; it is that mechanical giant,
the steam engine, which carries the corn, the cotton, and the sugar
from our rich valleys to the hungry of other lands, and brings back
to us the product of their looms. Nevertheless, he who lives by the
machine alone lives but half a life; while he who uses his hand to
contrive and to adorn drives dullness from his path. A true artist
and a true artisan are one. Hand-craft, the power to shape, to
curve, to beautify, to create, gives pleasure and dignity to
labor.

In other times and in other lands, hand-craft has had more honor
than it has had with us. Let me give some examples. Not long ago, I
went to one of the shrines of education, the Sorbonne in Paris. Two
paintings adorn the chapel walls, not of saints or martyrs, nor of
apostles or prophets, perhaps I should say of both saints and
prophets, Labor and Humilitas, Industry and
Modesty.

The touch of Phidias was his own, and so inimitable that a few
months ago, an American, scanning, with his practiced eye, the
galleries of the Louvre, recognized a fragment of the work of
Phidias, long separated from the Parthenon frieze which Lord Elgin
sent to London. The sculptor’s touch could not be mistaken. It was
as truly his own as his signature, his autograph. Ruskin, in a
lecture on the relation of Art to Morals, calls attention to a note
which Durer made on some drawings sent him by Raphael: “These
figures Raphael drew and sent to Albert Durer in Nurnberg, to show
him his hand, ‘sein hand zu weisen.”‘ Ruskin compares this
phrase with other contests of hand-craft, Apelles and Protogenes
showing their skill by drawing a line; Giotto in striking a
circle.

In the household of the Kings of Prussia, there is a custom, if
not a law, that every boy shall learn a trade. I believe this is a
fact, though I have no certain proof of it. The Emperor Wilhelm is
said to be a glazier, the Crown Prince a compositor, and on the
Emperor’s birthday not long ago his majesty received an engraving
by Prince Henry and a, book bound by Prince Waldemar, two younger
sons of the Crown Prince. Let me refer to sacred writ; the prophet
Isaiah, telling of the golden days which are to come, when the
voice of weeping shall be no more heard in the land, nor the voice
of crying, when the child shall die an hundred years old, and men
shall eat of the fruit of the vineyards they have planted, adds
this striking promise, as the culm of all hope, that the elect of
the Lord shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

Now, in view of what has been said, my first point is this: We
who have to deal with the young, we all who love our fellow-men, we
all who desire that our times, our city, our country, should be
thrifty, happy, and content, must each in his place and way give
high honor to labor. We, especially, who are teachers and parents,
should see to it that the young get “hand-craft” while they are
getting “rede-craft.” How can this be done?

Mothers begin right in the nursery, teaching little fingers to
play before the tongue can lisp a sentence. Alas! this natural
training has often been stopped at school. Hitherto, until quite
lately, in schools both low and high, rede-craft has had the place
of honor, hand-craft has had no chance. But a change is coming. In
the highest of all schools, universities, for example, work rooms,
labor places, “laboratories,” are now thought to be as useful as
book rooms, reading rooms, libraries.

What mean those buildings which you have seen spring up within a
few years past in all the college greens of New England? They are
libraries and laboratories. They show that rede-craft and
hand-craft are alike held in honor, and that a liberal education
means skill in getting and skill in using knowledge; that knowledge
comes from searching books and searching nature; that the brain and
the hand are in close league. So too, in the lowest school, as far
as possible from the university, the kindergarten has won its place
and the blocks, and straws, and bands, the chalk, the clay, the
scissors, are in use to make young fingers deft. Between the
highest and the lowest schools there is a like call for hand-craft.
Seeing this need, the authorities in our public schools have begun
to project special schools for such training, and are looking for
guidance far and near. At this intermediate stage, for boy and
girls who are between the age of the kindergarten and the age of
the college or the shop, for youth between eight and sixteen, there
is much to be done; people are hardly aware how much is needed to
secure fit training for the rising generation.

It seems sometimes as if one of the most needed forms of
hand-craft would become a lost art, even good handwriting. We
cannot give much credit to schools if they send out many who are
skilled in algebra, or in Latin, but who cannot write a page of
English so that it can be read without effort.

Drawing is another kind of hand-craft, quite too much neglected.
I think it should be laid down as a law of the road to knowledge,
that everybody must learn to draw as well as to write. The pencil
maybe mastered just as readily as the pen. It is a simpler tool.
The child draws before he writes, and savages begin their language
with pictures; but, we wiseacres of this age of books let our young
folks drop their slate pencils and their Fabers, and practice with
their Gillotts and their Esterbrooks. Let us say, in every school
and in every house, the child must not only learn to read and
write, he must learn to draw. We cannot afford to let our young
folks grow up without this power. A new French book is just now
much talked about, with this droll title, “The Life of a Wise Man,
by an Ignoramus.” It is the story of the great Pasteur, whose
discoveries in respect to life have made him world renowned. I
turned to the book, eager to find out the key to such success, and
I found the old story–“the child was father of the man.” This
philosopher, whose eye is so skilled in observing nature, and whose
hand is so apt in experiments, is the boy grown up whose pictures
were so good that the villagers thought him at thirteen an artist
of rank.

Girls should learn the first lesson of hand-craft with the
needle; boys may (and they will always prize the knowledge), but
girls must. It is wise that our schools are going back to old
fashioned ways, and saying that girls must be taught to sew.

Boys should practice their hands upon the knife. John Bull used
to laugh at Brother Jonathan for whittling, and Mr. Punch always
drew the Yankee with a blade in his fingers; but they found out
long ago in Great Britain that whittling in this land led to
something, a Boston notion, a wooden clock, a yacht America, a
labor-saving machine, a cargo of wooden-ware, a shop full of
knick-knacks, an age of inventions. Boys need not be kept back to
the hand-craft of the knife. For in-doors there are the type case
and printing press, the paint box, the tool box, the lathe; and for
out doors, the trowel, the spade, the grafting knife. It matters
not how many of the minor arts the youth acquires. The more the
merrier. Let each one gain the most he can in all such ways; for
arts like these bring no harm in their train; quite otherwise, they
lure good fortune to their company.

Play, as well as work, may bring out hand-craft. The gun, the
bat, the rein, the rod, the oar, all manly sports, are good
training for the hand. Walking insures fresh air, but it does not
train the body or mind like games and sports which are played out
of doors. A man of great fame as an explorer and as a student of
nature (he who discovered, in the West, bones of horses with two,
three, and four toes, and who found the remains of birds with
teeth) once told me that his success was largely due to the sports
of his youth. His boyish love of fishing gave him his manly skill
in exploration.

I speak as if hand-craft was to be learned by sport. So it may.
It may also be learned by labor. Day by day for weeks I have been
watching from my study window a stately inn rise from the cellar
just across the road. A bricklayer has been there employed whose
touch is like the stroke of an artist. He handled each brick as if
it were porcelain, balanced it carefully in his hand, measured with
his eye just the amount of mortar which it needed, and dropped the
block into its bed, without staining its edge, without varying from
the plumb line, by a stroke of hand-craft as true as the
sculptor’s. Toil gave him skill.

The second point I make is this: If you really value hand-craft,
buy that which shows hand-craft, encourage those who are engaged in
hand-craft, help on with your voice and with your pocket, those who
bring taste and skill and art into the works of their hand. If your
means are so small that you only buy what you need for your daily
wants, you cannot have much choice, you must buy that which is
cheapest; but hardly any one within the sound of my voice is so
restricted as that; almost if not quite every one buys something
every year for his pleasure, a curtain, a rug, a wall paper, a
chair, or a table not certainly needed, a vase, a clock, a, mantel
ornament, a piece of jewelry, a portrait, an etching, a picture.
Now whenever you make such a purchase, to please your taste, to
make your parlor or your chamber more attractive, choose that which
shows good handiwork. Such a choice will last. You will not tire of
it as you will of that which has but a commonplace form or
pattern.

I come now to a third point. That which has just been said
applies chiefly to things whose price is fixed by beauty. But
handicraft gives us many works not pleasing to the eye, yet of the
highest skill–a Jacquard loom, a Corliss engine, a Hoe printing
press, a Winchester rifle, an Edison dynamo, a Bell telephone.
Ruskin may scout the work of machinery, and up to a certain point
may take us with him. Let us allow that works of art marked by the
artist’s own touch–the gates of Paradise by Ghiberti, a shield by
Cellini, a statue by Michael Angelo, are better than all
reproductions and imitations, better than plaster casts by Eichler,
electrotypes by Barbedienne, or chromos by Prang. But even Ruskin
cannot suppress the fact that machinery brings to every thrifty
cottage in New England comforts and adornments which, in the days
of Queen Bess, were not known outside of the palace. Be mindful,
then, that handicraft makes machines which are wonders of
productive force–weaving tissues such as Penelope never saw, of
woolen, cotton, linen, and silk, to carpet our floors, cover our
tables, cushion our chairs, and clothe our bodies; machines of
which Vulcan never dreamed, to point a needle, bore a rifle, cut a
watch wheel, or rule a series of lines, measuring forty thousand to
an inch, with sureness which the unaided hand can never equal.
Machinery is a triumph of handicraft as truly as sculpture and
architecture. The fingers which can plan and build a steamship or a
suspension bridge, which can make the Quinebaug and the Blackstone
turn spindles by the hundred thousand, which can turn a rag heap
into spotless paper, and make myriads of useful and artful articles
from rough metal, are fingers which this age alone has evolved. The
craft which makes useful things cheap can make cheap things
beautiful. The Japanese will teach us how to form and finish, if we
do not first teach them how to slight and sham.

A fourth point is this. If hand-craft is of such worth, boys and
girls must be trained in it. This, I am well aware is no new
thought. Forty years ago schools of applied science were added to
Harvard and Yale colleges; twenty years ago Congress gave enough
land-scrip to aid in founding at least one such school in every
state; men of wealth, like many whom you have known and whom you
honor, have given large sums for like ends. Now the people at large
are waking up. They see their needs; they have the means to supply
what they want. Is there the will? Know they the way? Far and near
the cry is heard for a different training from that now given in
the public schools. Many are trying to find it. Almost every large
town has its experiment–and many smaller places have theirs.
Nobody seems to know just what is best. Even the words which
express the want are vague. Bright and thoughtful people differ as
to what might, can, and should be done. A society has been formed
in New York to bring together the needed data. The Slater trustees,
charged with the care of a large fund for the training of freedmen,
have said that manual training must be given in all the schools
they aid. The town of Toledo in Ohio opened, some time since, a
school of practical training for boys, which worked so well that
another has lately been opened for girls. St. Louis is doing
famously. Philadelphia has several experiments in progress.
Baltimore has made a start. In New York there are many noteworthy
movements–half a dozen at least full of life and hope. Boston was
never behindhand in knowledge, and in the new education is very
alert, the efforts of a single lady deserving praise of high
degree. These are but signs of the times.

Some things may be set down as fixed; for example, most of those
who have thought on this theme will agree on the points I am about
to name, though they may or may not like the names which I venture
to propose:

1. Kindergarten work should be taught in the nurseries and
infant schools of rich and poor.

2. Drawing should be taught in schools of every grade, till the
hand uses the pencil as readily as the pen.

3. Every girl at school if not at home should learn to sew.

4. Every boy should learn the use of tools, the gardener’s or
the carpenter’s, or both.

5. Well planned exercises, fitted to strengthen the various
bodily organs, arms, fingers, wrists, lungs, etc., are good.
Driving, swimming, rowing, and other manly sports should be
favored.

What precedes is at the basis of good work.

In addition:

6. With good teachers, quite young children may learn the minor
decorative arts, carving, leather stamping, brass beating and the
like, as is shown in the Leland classes of Philadelphia.

7. In towns, boys who begin to earn a living when they enter
their teens may be taught in evening schools to practice the craft
of carpentry, bricklaying, plastering, plumbing, gas fitting, etc.,
as is shown successfully in the Auchmuty schools of New York. Trade
schools they are called; schools of practice for workmen would be a
better name.

8. Boys who can carry their studies through the later teens may
learn, while at the high school or technical school or college, to
work in wood and metals with precision, as I have lately seen in
the College of the City of New York, at Cornell University, and
elsewhere-colleges or high schools with work-shops and practice
classes. If they can take the time to fit themselves to be foremen
and leaders in machine shops and factories, they may be trained in
theoretical and practical mechanics, as in the Worcester Industrial
Institute and in a score of other places; but the youth must have
talent as well as time to win the race in these hard paths. These
are schools for foremen, or, if we may use a foreign word like
Kindergarten, they are Meisterschaft schools.

9. Youths who wish to enter the highest departments of
engineering must follow advanced courses of mathematics and
physics, and must learn to apply this knowledge. The better
colleges and universities afford abundant opportunities for such
training, but their scientific laboratories are fitted only for
those who love long study as well as hard. These are schools for
engineers.

10. Girls are most likely to excel in the lighter arts–to
design (for furniture or fabrics), to embroider, to carve, to
engrave, to etch, to model, to paint. Here also success depends
largely upon that which was inborn, though girls of moderate talent
in art, by patience, may become skilled in many kinds of art work.
Schools for this instruction are schools of art (elementary,
decorative, professional, etc.).

If there be those in this hall who think that hand-craft is
adverse to rede-craft, let me ask them to study the lives of men of
mark. Isaac Newton began his life as a farm-boy who carried truck
to a market town; Spinoza, the philosopher of Amsterdam, ground
lenses for his livelihood; Watt, the inventor of the steam engine,
was mechanic to the University of Glasgow; Porson, the great
professor of Greek, was trained as a weaver; George Washington was
a land surveyor; Benjamin Franklin a printer.

Before I close let me draw a lesson from the history of our
land. Some of you doubtless bear in mind that before the late war
men used to say, “Cotton is king;” and why so? Because the trades
which hung on this crop were so many and so strong that they ruled
all others. The rise or fall of a penny in the price of cotton at
Liverpool affected planters in the South, spinners in the North,
seamen on the ocean, bankers and money-changers everywhere. Now
wheat and petroleum share the sovereignty; but then cotton was
king. Who enthroned this harmless plant? Two masters of hand-craft,
one of whom was born a few miles east of this place in Westborough;
the other was a native of England who spent most of his days a few
miles south of this city. Within five years–not quite a century
ago–these two men were putting in forms which could be seen, ideas
which brought our countrymen large measures of both weal and woe.
In 1790, Samuel Slater, once an apprentice to Strutt and Arkwright,
built the mill at Pawtucket which taught Americans the art of
cotton-spinning; and before 1795, Eli Whitney had invented the gin
which easily cleansed the cotton boll of its seeds, and so made
marketable the great crop we have spoken of. Many men have made
more noise in the world than Slater and Whitney; few if any can be
named whose peaceable hand-craft has done so much to give this
country its front place in the markets of the globe.

Let me come nearer home, and as I take my seat let me name a son
of this very town who loved hand-craft and rede-craft, and worthily
aided both–Isaiah Thomas, the patriot printer, editor, and
publisher, historian of the printer’s craft in this land, and
founder of the far famed antiquarian library, eldest in that group
of institutions which gave to Worcester its rank in the world of
letters, as its many products give it standing in the world of
industry and art.

Mindful of three such worthies, it is not strange that
Salisbury, Washburn, Boylston, and many more have built up this
high school of handicraft; it will be no wonder if others like
minded build on the foundations which have been so fitly laid.

MAKING SEA WATER POTABLE.

[Footnote: Read lately before the Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society]

By THOMAS KAY, President of the Stockport Natural History
Society.

The author called attention to the absence of research in this
direction, and how man, endowed to overcome every physical
disability which encompassed him on land, was powerless to live on
the wide ocean, although it is teeming with life.

The water for experiment was taken from the English Channel,
about fifty miles southwest of the Eddystone Lighthouse, and it was
found to correspond closely with the analysis of the Atlantic
published by Roscoe, viz.: Total solids 35.976, of which the total
chlorides, are 32.730, representing 19.868 of chlorine.

The waters of the Irish Sea and the English Channel nearer to
the German Ocean, from their neighborhood to great rivers, are
weaker than the above.

Schweitzer’s analysis of the waters of the English Channel, near
Brighton, was taken as representing the composition of the sea, and
is here given:

The chlorides in the–

As the requirement for a potable sea water does not arise except
in mid-ocean, the proportion of 32 per mille must be taken as the
basis of calculation.

This represents as near 20 per mille of chlorine as
possible.

From the analysis shown it will be perceived that the chlorides
of sodium and magnesium are in great preponderance.

It is to the former of these that the baneful effects of sea
water when drunk are to be ascribed, for chloride of sodium or
common salt produces thirst probably by its styptic action on the
salivary glands, and scurvy by its deleterious action on the blood
when taken in excess.

Sodium chloride being the principal noxious element in sea
water, and soda in combination with a vegetable or organic acid,
such as citric acid, tartaric acid, or malic acid, being innocuous,
the conclusion is that the element of evil to be avoided is
chlorine.

After describing various experiments, and calling attention to
the power of earthy matters in abstracting salts from solutions by
which he hoped the process would be perfected, an imperial pint of
water from beyond the Eddystone was shown mixed with 960 grains of
citrate of silver and 4 grains of the free citric acid.

Each part of the chlorides requires three parts by weight of the
silver citrate to throw down the chlorine, thus:

3NaCl + Ag₃C₆H₅O₇ =
Na3.C₆H₅O₇+3AgCl.

The silver chloride formed a dense insoluble precipitate, and
the supernatant fluid was decanted and filtered through a rubber
tube and handed round as a beverage.

It contained in each fluid ounce by calculation about:

with less than half a grain of undecomposed chlorides.

To analyze this liquid therapeutically, it may be broadly stated
that salts of potash are diuretic, salts of magnesia
aperient, and salts of soda neutral, except in
excessive doses, or in combination with acids of varying medicinal
action; thus, soda in nitric acid, nitrate of soda, is a
diuretic, following the law of nitrates as nitrate of
potash, a most powerful diuretic, nitrous ether, etc.; while soda
in combination with sulphuric acid as sulphate of soda is
aperient, following the law of sulphates, which increase
aperient action, as in sulphate of magnesia, etc.

Thus it would seem that soda holds the scales evenly between
potash and magnesia in this medical sense, and that it is weighed,
so to speak, on either side by the kind of mineral acid with which
it may be combined.

With non-poisonous vegetable acids, and these slightly in
excess, there is not such an effect produced.

Sodium is an important constituent of the human body, and citric
acid, from its carbon, almost a food. Although no one would
advocate saline drinks in excess, yet, under especial
circumstances, the solution of it in the form of citrate can hardly
be hurtful when used to moisten the throat and tongue, for it will
never be used under circumstances where it can be taken in large
quantities.

In the converted sea water the bulk of the solids is composed of
inert citrate of soda. There is a little citrate of potash, which
is a feeble diuretic; a little citrate and sulphate of magnesia, a
slight aperient, corrected, however, by the constipatory half grain
of sulphate of lime; so that the whole practically is
inoperative.

The combination of these salts in nature’s proportions would
seem to indicate that they must be the best for administration in
those ailments to which their use would be beneficial.

Citrate of silver is an almost insoluble salt, and requires to
be kept from the light, air, and organic matter, it being very
easily decomposed.

A stoppered bottle covered with India-rubber was exhibited as
indicating a suitable preserver of the salt, as it affords
protection against light, air, and breakage. As one ounce of silver
citrate will convert half a pint of sea water into a drinkable
fluid, and a man can keep alive upon it a day, then seven ounces of
it will keep him a week, and so on, it may not unreasonably be
hoped, in proportion.

It is proposed to pack the silver citrate in hermetically sealed
rubber covered bottles or tubes, to be inserted under the canisters
or thwarts of the life-boats in ocean-going vessels, and this can
be done at a simple interest on the first outlay, without any loss
by depreciation, as it will always be worth its cost, and be
invaluable in case of need.

THE ACIDS OF WOOL OIL.

All wools contain a certain amount of animal oil or grease,
which permeates every portion of the fleece. The proportion of oil
varies with the breed of sheep. A difference in climate and soil
materially affects the yield of oil. This is shown by analyses made
of different kinds of wool, both foreign and domestic. Spanish wool
was found to have but eight per cent. grease; Australian wool
fifteen per cent.; while in some fleeces of Pennsylvania wool as
high as forty per cent. was obtained. To extract the oil from the
wool, a fleece was put in a tall cylinder and naphtha poured on it.
The naphtha on being allowed to drain through slowly dissolved out
the grease. This naphtha solution was distilled; the naphtha
passing off while grease remained–a dark oil having high specific
gravity and remaining nearly solid at the ordinary temperature. I
am indebted to Mrs. Richards for this method of extracting the oil.
The process is quick and inexpensive, and is applicable to the
treatment of large quantities of wool.

The object of these experiments was to find the readiest method
of separating wool oil into its bases and acids, and further to
identify the various fatty acids. A solution of the oil in naphtha
was cooled to 15° C. This caused a separation of the oil into
two portions: a white solid fat and a fluid dark oil. The first on
examination proved to be a mixture of palmitic and stearic acids
existing uncombined in the wool oil. The original wool oil was
saponified by boiling with alcoholic potash.

The soap formed was separated into two portions by shaking with
ether and water. On standing, the solution separated into two
layers, the upper or murial solution containing the bases, the
lower or aqueous solution containing the acids. This method of
separation is very slow. In one case it worked very well, but as a
rule appeared to be almost impracticable. Benzol and naphtha were
tried, instead of ether, but the results were less satisfactory. On
suggestion of Prof. Ordway, potassium chloride was added to the
soap solution partially separated by ether and water. This caused
an immediate and complete separation. By the use of potassium
chloride it was found possible to effect a separation with benzol
and water, also with naphtha and water.

Another means of separation was tried by precipitating the
calcium salts, from a solution of the potash soap. From the portion
of the calcium salts insoluble in alcohol, a fatty acid was
obtained with a melting point and composition almost identical with
the melting point and composition of palmitic acid. The aqueous
portion of the separation effected by water and ether was examined
for the fatty acid. The lead salts of the fatty acids were digested
with ether, which dissolved out the lead oleate. From this oleic
acid was obtained. This was further purified by forming the Boreum
salt of oleic acid. The lead salts not soluble in ether were
decomposed by acid. The fatty acids set free were saponified by
carbonate of potassium. A fractional precipitation was effected by
adding lead acetate in successive portions; each portion sufficient
to precipitate one-fourth of all the acids present.

The acid obtained from the first fractionation had the melting
point at 75°-76°, indicating an acid either in carbon then
stearic or palmitic acids.

The acids obtained from the third fractionation had a melting
point of 53°-54° C. This acid in composition and general
properties was very similar to that obtained by freezing the
naphtha solution of the oil, and is probably a mixture of stearic
and palmitic acids. These acids, being in combination with the
bases of the oil, would be set free only on saponifying the oil and
subsequently decomposing with acid.

In conclusion, I should say that but a small proportion of the
fatty acids exist in the wool oil uncombined; that the proportion
of oleic acid is small, and can only be obtained in an oxidized
condition; that the main portion of the fatty acids is composed of
stearic and palmitic acids in nearly equal proportions; that the
existence of a fatty acid, containing a higher per cent. of carbon
than those mentioned, is not fully established.–N.W. Shedd,
M.I.T.

A NEW ABSORBENT FOR OXYGEN.

OTTO, BARON V.D. PFORDTEN.–The author makes use of a solution
of chromous chloride, which he prepares as follows:

He first heats chromic acid with concentrated hydrochloric acid,
so as to obtain a strong green solution of chromic chloride free
from chlorine. This is then reduced with zinc and hydrochloric
acid. The blue chromous chloride solution thus obtained is poured
into a saturated solution of sodium acetate in an atmosphere of
carbonic acid. A red precipitate of chromous acetate is formed,
which is washed by decantation in water containing carbonic acid.
This salt is relatively stable, and can be preserved for an
indefinite time in a moist condition in stoppered bottles filled
with carbonic acid.

In this process the following precautions are to be
observed:

Spongy flocks always separate from the zinc used in the
reduction, which float about in the acid liquid for a long time and
give off minute gas bubbles. If poured into the solution of sodium
acetate, they would contaminate the precipitate; and when dissolved
in hydrochloric acid, would occasion a slight escape of hydrogen.
The solution of chromous chloride must therefore be freed from the
zinc by filtration in the absence of air. For this purpose the
reduction is carried on in a flask fitted up like a washing bottle.
The long tube is bent down outside the flask, and is here provided
with a small bulb tube containing glass wool or asbestos. The
hydrogen gas liberated during reduction is at first let escape
through this tube; afterward its outer end is closed, and it is
pressed down into the liquid. The hydrogen must now pass through
the shorter tube (the mouthpiece of the washing bottle), which has
an India rubber valve. When the reduction is complete, the blue
liquid is driven up in the long tube by introducing carbonic acid
through the short tube, so that it filters through the asbestos
into the solution of sodium acetate into which the reopened end of
the long tube dips. When washing out the red precipitate, at first
a little acetic acid is added to dissolve any basic zinc carbonate
which has been deposited. In this manner a chromous acetate is
obtained perfectly free from zinc.

For the absorption of oxygen the compound just described is
decomposed with hydrochloric acid in the following simple washing
apparatus: Upon a shelf there are fixed side by side two ordinary
preparation glasses, closed with caoutchouc stoppers, each having
three perforations. Each two apertures receive the glass tubes used
in gas washing bottles, while the third holds a dropping funnel. It
is filled with dilute hydrochloric acid, and after the expulsion of
the air by a current of gas, plentiful quantities of chromous
acetate are passed into the bottles. When the current of gas has
been passed in for some time, the hydrochloric acid is let enter,
which dissolves the chromous acetate, and thus, in the absence of
air, produces a solution of blue chromous chloride. It is advisable
to use an excess of chromous acetate or an insufficient quantity of
hydrochloric acid, so that there may be no free hydrochloric acid
in the liquid. To keep back any free acetic acid which might be
swept over by the current of gas, there is introduced after the
washing apparatus another washing bottle with sodium carbonate.
Also solid potassium carbonate may be used instead of calcium
chloride for drying the gas. If the two apertures of the washing
apparatus are fitted with small pinch cocks, it is ready for use,
and merely requires to be connected with the gas apparatus in
action in order to free the gas generated from oxygen. As but
little chromous salt is decomposed by the oxygen such a washing
apparatus may serve for many experiments.

GAIFFE’S NEW MEDICAL GALVANOMETER.

In this apparatus, which contains but one needle, and has no
directing magnet, proportionability between the intensities and
deflections is obtained by means of a special form given the frame
upon which the wire is wound.

We give herewith a figure of the curve that Mr. Gaiffe has fixed
upon after numerous experiments. Upon examination it will be seen
that the needle approaches the current in measure as the directing
action of the earth increases; and experiment proves that the two
actions counterbalance each other, and render the deflections very
sensibly proportional to the intensities up to an angle of from 65
to 75 degrees.

Another important fact has likewise been ascertained, and that
is that, under such circumstances, the magnetic intensity of the
needle may change without the indications ceasing to have the same
exactness up to 65 degrees. As well known, Mr. Desains has
demonstrated that this occurs likewise in sinus or tangent
galvanometers; but these have helices that are very large in
proportion to the needle. In medical galvanometers the proportions
are no longer the same, and the needle is always very near the
directing helix. If this latter is square, or even elliptical, it
is found that, beyond an angle of 15 degrees, there are differences
of 4 or 5 degrees in the indications given with the same intensity
of current by the same needle, according to the latter’s intensity
of magnetism. This inconvenience is quite grave, for it often
happens that a needle changes magnetic intensity, either under the
influence of too strong currents sent into the apparatus, or of
other magnets in its vicinity, or as a consequence of the bad
quality of the steel, etc. It was therefore urgently required that
this should be remedied, and from this point of view the new mode
of winding the wire is an important improvement introduced into
medical galvanometers.–La Lumiere Electrique.

THE SUSPENSION OF LIFE.

Every one knows that life exists in a latent state in the seeds
of plants, and may be preserved therein, so to speak, indefinitely.
In 1853, Ridolfi deposited in the Egyptian Museum of Florence a
sheaf of wheat that he had obtained from seeds found in a mummy
case dating back about 3,000 years. This aptitude of revivification
is found to a high degree in animalcules of low order. The air
which we breathe is loaded with impalpable dust that awaits, for
ages perhaps, proper conditions of heat and moisture to give it an
ephemeral life that it will lose and acquire by turns.

In 1707, Spallanzani found it possible, eleven times in
succession, to suspend the life of rotifers submitted to
desiccation, and to call it back again by moistening this organic
dust with water. A few years ago Doyere brought to life some
tardigrades that had been dried at a temperature of 150° and
kept four weeks in a vacuum. If we ascend the scale of beings, we
find analogous phenomena produced by diverse causes. Flies that
have been imported in casks of Madeira have been resuscitated in
Europe, and chrysalids have been kept in this state for years.
Cockchafers drowned, and then dried in the sun, have been revived
after a lapse of twenty-four hours, two days, and even five days,
after submersion. Frogs, salamanders, and spiders poisoned by
curare or nicotine, have returned to life after several days of
apparent death.

Cold produces some extraordinary effects. Spallanzani kept
several frogs in the center of a lump of ice for two years, and,
although they became dry, rigid, almost friable, and gave no
external appearance of being alive, it was only necessary to expose
them to a gradual and moderate heat to put an end to the lethargic
state in which they lay.

Pikes and salamanders have at different epochs been revived
before the eyes of Maupertuis and Constant Dumeril (members of the
Academy of Sciences) after being frozen stiff. Auguste Dumeril, son
of Constant, and who was the reporter of the committee relative to
the Blois toad in 1851, published a curious memoir the following
year in which he narrates how he interrupted life through
congelation of the liquids and solids of the organism. Some frogs,
whose internal temperature had been reduced to -2° in an
atmosphere of -12°, returned to life before his eyes, and he
observed their tissues regain their usual elasticity and their
heart pass from absolute immobility to its normal motion.

There is therefore no reason for doubting the assertions of
travelers who tell us that the inhabitants of North America and
Russia transport fish that are frozen stiff, and bring them to life
again by dipping them into water of ordinary temperature ten or
fifteen days afterward. But I think too much reliance should not be
put in the process devised by the great English physiologist,
Hunter, for prolonging the life of man indefinitely by successive
freezings. It has been allowed to no one but a romancer, Mr. Edmond
About, to be present at this curious operation.

Among the mammifera we find appearances of death in their winter
sleep; but these are incomplete, since the temperature of
hibernating animals remains greater by one degree than that of the
surrounding air, and the motions of the heart and respiration are
simply retarded. Dr. Preyer has observed that a hamster sometimes
goes five minutes without breathing appreciably after a fortnight’s
sleep.

In man himself a suspension of life, or at least phenomena that
seem inseparable therefrom, has been observed many times. In the
Journal des Savants for 1741 we read that a Col. Russel,
having witnessed the death of his wife, whom he tenderly loved, did
not wish her buried, and threatened to kill any one who should
attempt to remove the body before he witnessed its decomposition
himself. Eight days passed by without the woman giving the
slightest sign of life, “when, at a moment when he was holding her
hand and shedding tears over her, the church bell began to ring,
and, to his indescribable surprise, his wife sat up and said, ‘It
is the last stroke, we shall be too late.’ She recovered.”

At a session of the Academy of Sciences, Oct. 17, 1864, Mr.
Blaudet communicated a report upon a young woman of thirty summers
who, being subject to nervous attacks, fell, after her crises, into
a sort of lethargic sleep which lasted several weeks and sometimes
several months. One of her sleeps, especially, lasted from the
beginning of the year 1862 until March, 1863.

Dr. Paul Levasseur relates that, in a certain English family,
lethargy seemed to have become hereditary. The first case was
exhibited in an old lady who remained for fifteen days in an
immovable and insensible state, and who afterward, on regaining her
consciousness, lived for quite a long time. Warned by this fact,
the family preserved a young man for several weeks who appeared to
be dead, but who came to life again.

Dr. Pfendler, in an inaugural thesis (Paris, 1833), minutely
describes a case of apparent death of which he himself was a
witness. A young girl of Vienna at the age of 15 was attacked by a
nervous affection that brought on violent crises followed by
lethargic states which lasted three or four days. After a time she
became so exhausted that the first physicians of the city declared
that there was no more hope. It was not long, in fact, before she
was observed to rise in her bed and fall back as if struck with
death. “For four hours she appeared to me,” says Dr. Pfendler,
“completely inanimate. With Messrs. Franck and Schaeffer, I made
every possible effort to rekindle the spark of life. Neither
mirror, nor burned feather, nor ammonia, nor pricking succeeded in
giving us a sign of sensibility. Galvanism was tried without the
patient showing any contractility. Mr. Franck believed her to be
dead, but nevertheless advised me to leave her on the bed. For
twenty-eight hours no change supervened, although it was thought
that a little putrefaction was observed. The death bell was
sounded, the friends of the girl had dressed her in white and had
crowned her with flowers, and all was arranged for her burial.
Desiring to convince myself of the course of the putrefaction, I
visited the body again, and found that no further advance had been
made than before. What was my astonishment when I believed that I
saw a slight respiratory motion. I looked again, and saw that I was
not mistaken. I at once used friction and irritants, and in an hour
and a half the respiration increased. The patient opened her eyes,
and, struck with the funereal paraphernalia around her, returned to
consciousness, and said, ‘I am too young to die.'” All this was
followed by a ten hours’ sleep. Convalescence proceeded rapidly,
and the girl became free from all her nervous troubles. During her
crisis she heard everything. She quoted some Latin words that Mr.
Franck had used. Her most fearful agony had been to hear the
preparations for her burial without being able to get rid of her
torpor. Medical dictionaries are full of anecdotes of this nature,
but I shall cite but two more.

On the 10th of November, 1812, during the fatal retreat from
Russia, Commandant Tascher, desiring to bring back to France the
body of his general, who had been killed by a bullet, and who had
been buried since the day before, disinterred him, and, upon
putting him into a landau, and noticing that he was still
breathing, brought him to life again by dint of care. A long time
afterward this same general was one of the pall bearers at the
funeral obsequies of the aide-de-camp who had buried him. In 1826 a
young priest returned to life at the moment the bishop of the
diocese was pronouncing the De Profundis over his body.
Forty years afterward, this priest, who had become Cardinal
Donnett, preached a feeling sermon upon the danger of premature
burial.

I trust I have now sufficiently prepared the mind of the reader
for an examination of the phenomena of the voluntary suspension of
life that I shall now treat of.

The body of an animal may be compared to a machine that converts
the food that it receives into motion. It receives nothing, it will
produce nothing; but there is no reason why it should get out of
order if it is not deteriorated by external agents. The legendary
rustic who wanted to accustom his ass to go without food was
therefore theoretically wrong only because he at the same time
wanted the animal to work. The whole difficulty consists in
breaking with old habits. To return to the comparison that we just
made, we shall run the risk of exploding the boiler of a steam
engine if we heat it or cool it abruptly, but we can run it very
slowly and for a very long time with but very little fuel. We may
even preserve a little fire under the ashes, and this, although it
may not be capable of setting the parts running, will suffice later
on to revivify the fireplace after it has been charged anew with
fuel.

We have recently had the example of Dr. Tanner, who went forty
days without any other nourishment than water. Not very long ago
Liedovine de Schiedam, who had been bedridden for twenty years,
affirmed that she had taken no food for eight of them. It is said
that Saint Catharine of Sienna gradually accustomed herself to do
without food, and that she lived twenty years in total abstinence.
We know of several examples of prolonged sleep during which the
sleeper naturally took no nourishment. In his Magic Disquisitions,
Delvis cites the case of a countryman who slept for an entire
autumn and winter. Pfendler relates that a certain young and
hysterical woman fell twice into a deep slumber which each time
lasted six months. In 1883 an enceinte woman was found
asleep on a bench in the Grand Armee Avenue. She was taken to the
Beaujon Hospital, where she was delivered a few days after while
still asleep, and it was not till the end of three months that she
could be awakened from her lethargy. At this very moment, at
Tremeille, a woman named Marguerite Bouyenvalle is sleeping a sleep
that has lasted nearly a year, during which the only food that she
has had is a few drops of soup daily.

What is more remarkable, Dr. Fournier says in his Dictionary of
Medical Sciences that he knew of a distinguished writer at Paris,
who sometimes went for months at a time without taking anything but
emollient drinks, while at the same time living along like other
people.

Respiration is certainly more necessary to life than food is;
but it is not absolutely indispensable, as we have seen in the
cases of apparent death cited in our previous article. It is
possible, through exercise, for a person to accustom himself, up to
a certain point, to abstinence from air as he can from food. Those
who dive for pearls, corals, or sponges succeed in remaining from
two to three minutes under water. Miss Lurline, who exhibited in
Paris in 1882, remained two and a half minutes beneath the water of
her aquarium without breathing. In his treatise De la Nature, Henri
de Rochas, physician to Louis XIII., gives six minutes as the
maximum length of time that can elapse between successive
inspirations of air. It is probable that this figure was based upon
an observation of hibernating animals.

In his Encyclopedic Dictionary, Dr. Dechambre relates the
history of a Hindoo who hid himself in the waters of the Ganges
where women were bathing, seized one of them by the legs, drowned
her, and then removed her jewels. Her disappearance was attributed
to crocodiles. One woman who succeeded in escaping him denounced
the assassin, who was seized and hanged in 1817.

A well known case, is that of Col. Townshend, who possessed the
remarkable faculty of stopping at will not only his respiration,
but also the beating of his heart. He performed the experiment one
day in the presence of Surgeon Gosch, who cared for him in his old
age, two physicians, and his apothecary, Mr. Shrine. In their
presence, says Gosch, the Colonel lay upon his back, Dr. Cheyne
watched his pulse, Dr. Baynard put his hand upon his heart, and Mr.
Shrine held a mirror to his mouth. After a few seconds no pulse,
movement of the heart, or respiration could be observed. At the end
of half an hour, as the spectators were beginning to get
frightened, they observed the functions progressively resuming
their course, and the Colonel came back to life.

The fakirs of India habituate themselves to abstinence from air,
either by introducing into the nostrils strings that come out
through the mouth, or by dwelling in subterranean cells that air
and light never enter except through narrow crevices that are
sometimes filled with clay. Here they remain seated in profound
silence, for hours at a time, without any other motion than that of
the fingers as the latter slowly take beads from a chaplet, the
mind absorbed by the mental pronunciation of OM (the holy triune
name), which they must repeat incessantly while endeavoring to
breathe as little as possible. They gradually lengthen the
intervals between their inspirations and expirations, until, in
three or four months, they succeed in making them an hour and a
half. This is not the ideal, for one of their sacred books says, in
speaking of a saint: “At the fourth month he no longer takes any
food but air, and that only every twelve days, and, master of his
respiration he embraces God in his thought. At the fifth he stands
as still as a pole; he no longer sees anything but Baghavat, and
God touches his cheek to bring him out of his ecstasy.”

It will be conceived that by submitting themselves to such
gymnastics from infancy, certain men, already predisposed by
atavism or a peculiar conformation, might succeed in doing things
that would seem impossible to the common run of mortals. Do we not
daily see acrobats remaining head downward for a length of time
that would suffice to kill 99 per cent, of their spectators through
congestion if they were to place themselves in the same posture?
Can the savage who laboriously learns to spell, letter by letter,
comprehend how many people get the general sense of an entire page
at a single glance?

There is no reason, then, a priori, for assigning to the
domain of legerdemain the astonishing facts that are told us by a
large number of witnesses, worthy of credence, regarding a young
fakir who, forty years ago, was accustomed to allow himself to be
buried, and resuscitated several months afterward.

An English officer, Mr. Osborne, gives the following account of
one of these operations, which took place in 1838 at the camp of
King Randjet Singh:

“After a few preparations, which lasted some days, and that it
would prove repugnant to enumerate, the fakir declared himself
ready to undergo the ordeal. The Maharajah, the Sikhs chiefs, and
Gen. Ventura, assembled near a masonry tomb that had been
constructed expressly to receive him. Before their eyes, the fakir
closed with wax all the apertures in his body (except his mouth)
that could give entrance to air. Then, having taken off the
clothing that he had on, he was enveloped in a canvas sack, and,
according to his wish, his tongue was turned back in such a way as
to close the entrance to his windpipe. Immediately after this he
fell into a sort of trance. The bag that held him was closed and a
seal was put upon it by the Maharajah. The bag was then put into a
wooden box, which was fastened by a padlock, sealed, and let down
into the tomb. A large quantity of earth was thrown into the hole
and rammed down, and then barley was sown on the surface and
sentinels placed around with orders to watch day and night.

“Despite all such precautions, the Maharajah had his doubts; so
he came twice in the space of ten months (the time during which the
fakir was buried), and had the tomb opened in his presence. The
fakir was in the bag into which he had been put, cold and
inanimate. The ten months having expired, he was disinterred, Gen.
Ventura and Capt. Ward saw the padlock removed, the seals broken,
and the box taken from the tomb. The fakir was taken out, and no
pulsation either at the heart or pulse indicated the presence of
life. As a first measure for reviving him, a person introduced a
finger gently into his mouth and placed his tongue in its natural
position. The top of his head was the only place where there was
any perceptible heat. By slowly pouring warm water over his body,
signs of life were gradually obtained, and after about two hours of
care the patient got up and began to walk.

“This truly extraordinary man says that during his burial he has
delightful dreams, but that the moment of awakening is always very
painful to him. Before returning to a consciousness of his
existence he experiences vertigoes. His nails and hair cease to
grow. His only fear is that he may be harmed by worms and insects,
and it is to protect himself from these that he has the box
suspended in the center of the tomb.”

This sketch was published in the Magasin Pittoresque in
1842 by a writer who had just seen Gen. Ventura in Paris, and had
obtained from him a complete confirmation of the story told by
Capt. Wade.

Another English officer, Mr. Boileau, in a work published in
1840, and Dr. MacGregor, in his medical topography of Lodhiana,
narrate two analogous exhumations that they separately witnessed.
The question therefore merits serious examination.–A. de
Rochas, in La Nature.

Some experiments recently made by M. Olszewsky appear to show
that liquid oxygen is one of the best of refrigerants. He found
that when liquefied oxygen was allowed to vaporize under the
pressure of one atmosphere, a temperature as low as -181.4° C.
was produced. The temperature fell still further when the pressure
on the liquid oxygen was reduced to nine millimeters of mercury.
Though the pressure was reduced still further to four millimeters
of mercury, yet the oxygen remained liquid. Liquefied nitrogen,
when allowed to evaporate under a pressure of sixty millimeters of
mercury, gave a temperature of -214° C., only the surface of
the liquid gas became opaque from incipient solidification. Under
lower pressures the nitrogen solidified, and temperatures as low as
-225° C. were recorded by the hydrogen thermometer. The lowest
temperature obtained by allowing liquefied carbonic oxide to
vaporize was -220.5° C.

CONVALLARIA

By OTTO A. WALL, M.D., Ph.G.

Cnovallaria Majalis is a stemless perennial plant, found in both
the eastern and western hemispheres, with two elliptic leaves and a
one-sided raceme bearing eight or ten bell-shaped flowers. The
flowers are fragrant, and perfumes called “Lily of the Valley” are
among the popular odors.

Both leaves and flowers have been used in medicine, but the
rhizome is the part most frequently used.

CONVALLARIA.

The fresh rhizome is a creeping, branching rhizome of a pale
yellowish white color, which, on drying, darkens to a straw color,
or even a brown in places. When dry it is about the thickness of a
thick knitting needle, swelling to the thickness of a quill when
soaked in water. It is of uniform thickness, except near the
leaf-bearing ends, which are thicker marked with numerous
leafscars, or bare buds covered with scales, and often having
attached the tattered remains of former leaves. Fig. A shows a
portion of rhizome, natural size, and Fig. B shows another piece
enlarged to double linear size.

The internodes are smooth, the rootlets being attached at the
nodes. The rootlets are filiform, and darker in color.

The rhizome is covered by an epidermis, composed of muriform
cells of a bright yellow color, after having been treated with
liquor potassæ to clear up the tissues. These cells are shown
in Fig. G. An examination of the transverse section shows us the
endogenous structure, as we find it also in various other drugs
(sarsaparilla, etc.), namely, a nucleus sheath, inclosing the
fibrovascular bundles and pith, and surrounded by a peri-ligneous
or peri-nuclear portion, consisting of soft-walled parenchyma
cells, loosely arranged with many small, irregularly triangular,
intercellular spaces in the tranverse section. Some of these cells
contain bundles of raphides (Fig. 2), one of which bundles is shown
crushed in Fig. J. Sometimes these crystals are coarser and less
needle-like, as in Fig. K. Fig. C shows a transverse section
through the leaf-bearing portion of the rhizome (at a), and is
rather irregular on account of the fibrovascular bundles diverging
into the base of the leaves of flower-stalks. A more regular
appearance is seen in Fig. D, which is a section through the
internode (b). In it we see the nuclear sheath, varying in width
from one to three cells, and inclosing a number of crescent-shaped
fibrovascular bundles, with their convexities toward the center and
their horns toward the nuclear sheath. There are also from two to
four or five free closed fibrovascular bundles in the central
pith.

These fibrovascular bundles consist mainly of dotted or
reticulated ducts (Fig. F), but all gradations from, this to the
spiroids, or even true spiral ducts (Fig. E). may be found, though
the annular and spiral ducts are quite rare. These ducts are often
prismatically compressed by each other. The fibrovascular bundles
also contain soft-walled prosenchyma cells. The peri-nuclear
portion consists of soft-walled parenchyma, smaller near the
nuclear sheath and the epidermis, and larger about midway between,
and of the same character as the cells of the pith. In longitudinal
section they appear rectangular, similar to the walls of the
epidermis (G), but with thinner walls.

All parts of the plant have been used in medicine, either
separately or together, and according to some authorities the whole
flowering plant is the best form in which to use this drug.

The active principles are convallaramin and
convallarin.

It is considered to act similarly to digitalis as a
heart-stimulant, especially when the failure of the heart’s action
is due to mechanical impediments rather than to organic
degeneration. It is best given in the form of fluid extract in the
dose of 1 to 5 cubic centimeters (15 to 75 minims), commencing with
the smaller doses, and increasing, if necessary, according to the
effects produced in each individual case.–The
Pharmacist.

FLIGHT OF THE BUZZARD.

During my visit to the Southern States of America, I have had
several opportunities of watching, under favorable conditions, the
flight of the buzzard, the scavenger of Southern cities. Although
in most respect this bird’s manner of flight resembles that of the
various sea-birds which I have often watched for hours sailing
steadily after ocean steamships, yet, being a land bird, the
buzzard is more apt to give examples of that kind of flight in
which a bird remains long over the same place. Instead of sailing
steadily on upon outstretched pinions, the buzzard often ascends in
a series of spirals, or descends along a similar course. I have not
been able to time the continuance of the longest flights during
which the wings have not once been flapped, for the simple reason
that, in every case where I have attempted to do so, the bird has
passed out of view either by upward or horizontal traveling. But I
am satisfied that in many cases the bird sweeps onward or about on
unflapping wings for more than half an hour.

Now, many treat this problem of aerial flotation as if it were
of the nature of a miracle–something not to be explained.
Explanations which have been advanced have, it is true, been in
many cases altogether untenable. For instance, some have asserted
that the albatross, the condor, and other birds which float for a
long time without moving their wings–and that, too, in some cases,
at great heights above the sea-level, where the air is very
thin–are supported by some gas within the hollow parts of their
bones, as the balloon is supported by the hydrogen within it. The
answer to this is that a balloon is not supported by the
hydrogen within it, but by the surrounding air, and in just such
degree as the air is displaced by the lighter gas. The air around a
bird is only displaced by the bird’s volume, and the pressure of
the air corresponding to this displacement is not equivalent to
more than one five-hundredth part of the bird’s weight. Another
idea is that when a bird seems to be floating on unmoving wings
there is really a rapid fluttering of the feathers of the wings, by
which a sustaining power is obtained. But no one who knows anything
of the anatomy of the bird will adopt this idea for an instant, and
no one who has ever watched with a good field-glass a floating bird
of the albatross or buzzard kind will suppose they are fluttering
their feathers in this way, even though he should be utterly
ignorant of the anatomy of the wings. Moreover, any one acquainted
with the laws of dynamics will know that there would be tremendous
loss of power in the fluttering movement imagined as compared with
the effect of sweeping downward and backward the whole of each
wing.

There is only one possible way of explaining the floating power
of birds, and that is by associating it with the rapid motion
acquired originally by wing flapping, and afterward husbanded, so
to speak, by absolutely perfect adjustment and balancing. To this
the answer is often advanced that it implies ignorance of the laws
of dynamics to suppose that rapid advance can affect the rate of
falling, as is implied by the theory that it enables the bird to
float.

Now, as a matter of fact, a slight slope of the wings would
undoubtedly produce a raising power, and so an answer is at one
obtained to this objection. But I venture to assert, with the
utmost confidence, that a perfectly horizontal plane, advancing
swiftly in a horizontal direction at first, will not sink as
quickly, or anything like as quickly, as a similar plane let fall
from a position of rest. A cannon-ball, rushing horizontally from
the mouth of a cannon, begins to fall just as if it were simply
dropped. But the case of a horizontal plane is altogether
different. If rapidly advancing, it passes continually over still
air; if simply let fall, the air beneath it yields, and presently
currents are set up which facilitate the descent of the flat body;
but there is no time to set up these aerial movements as the flat
body passes rapidly over still air.

As a matter of fact, we know that this difference exists, from
the difference in the observed behavior of a flat card set flying
horizontally through the air and a similar card held horizontally
and then allowed to fall.

I believe the whole mystery of aerial flotation lies here, and
that as soon as aerial floating machines are planned on this
system, it will be found that the problem of aerial transit–though
presenting still many difficulties of detail–is, nevertheless,
perfectly soluble.–R.A. Proctor, in Newcastle Weekly
Chronicle.

AN ASSYRIAN BASS-RELIEF 2,700 YEARS OLD.

There was exhibited at the last meeting of the Numismatic and
Antiquarian Society, in Philadelphia, on May 7, an object of great
interest to archæologists, with which, says The
Church, is also connected a very curious history.

It appears that about forty years ago a young American minister,
Rev. W.F. Williams, went as a missionary to Syria, and he visited
among places of interest the site of ancient Nineveh about the time
that Austin Henry Layard was making his famous explorations and
discoveries; he wrote to a friend in Philadelphia that he had
secured for him a fine piece of Assyrian sculpture from one of the
recently opened temples or palaces, representing a life size figure
of a king, clad in royal robes, bearing in one hand a basket and in
the other a fir cone. One portion of the stone was covered with
hieroglyphics, and was as sharply cut as though it had been carved
by a modern hand instead of by an artist who was sleeping in his
grave when Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, was yet an infant.

The letter describing this treasure arrived duly, but the stones
did not come. It appears that the caravan bringing them down to
Alexandretta, from whence they were to be shipped to Philadelphia,
was attacked by robbers, and the sculptured stones were thrown upon
the desert as useless, and there they remained for some years.
Finally they were recovered, shipped to this country (about
twenty-five years ago), and arriving at their destination during
the absence of the consignee, were deposited temporarily in a
subterranean storeroom at his manufactory. In some way they were
overlooked, and here they have remained unopened until they were
rediscovered a few days ago; meanwhile the missionary and his
friend have both passed away, ignorant of the fact that the rare
gift had finally reached its destination and had become again
lost.

The cuneiform inscription is now being translated by an Assyrian
scholar (Rev. Dr. J.P. Peters, of the Divinity School), and its
identity is established; it came from the temple of King
Assur-nazir-pal, a famous conqueror who reigned from 883 to 859
B.C.

The slab was cut into three sections, 3×3½ feet each, for
convenience of transportation, and they have been somewhat broken
on the journey; fortunately, however, this does not obliterate the
writing.

Mr. Tolcott Williams, a son of the late missionary, was present
at the meeting of the Society, and gave an interesting account of
the classic ground from which the slab was obtained. It was one of
a number lining the walls of the palace of Assur-nazir-pal. The
inscriptions, as translated by Dr. Peters, indicate that this
particular slab was carved during the first portion of this king’s
reign, and some conception of its great antiquity may be gained
when it is stated that he was a contemporary of Ahab and
Jehosaphat; he was born not more than a century later than Solomon,
and he reigned three centuries before Nebuchadnezzar, King of
Babylon. After the slabs were procured, it was necessary to send
them on the backs of camels a journey of eight hundred miles across
the Great Desert, through a region which was more or less infested
at all seasons with roving bands of robbers. Mr. Williams well
remembered the interview between his father and the Arab camel
owner, who told several conflicting stories by way of preliminary
to the confession of the actual facts, in order to account for the
non-arrival of the stones at Alexandretta, the sea coast town from
whence they were to be shipped to Philadelphia.

Mr. A.E. Outerbridge, Jr., gave a brief account of the finding
of these stones in the subterranean storeroom where they had
reposed for a period of a quarter of a century. The space between
the slabs and the boxes had been packed with camels’ hair, which
had in progress of time become eaten by insects and reduced to a
fine powder. The nails with which the cases were fastened were
remarkable both for their peculiar shape and for the extraordinary
toughness of the iron, far excelling in this respect the wrought
iron made in America to day.

The Rev. Dr. J.P. Peters gave a very instructive exposition of
the chronology of the kings of Assyria, their social and religious
customs and ceremonies, their methods of warfare, their systems of
architecture, etc. He stated that the finest Assyrian bass-reliefs
in the British Museum came from the same palace as this specimen,
the carving of which is not excelled by any period of the ancient
glyptic art. The particular piece of alabaster selected by the
artist for this slab was unusually fine, being mottled with nodules
of crystallized gypsum.

The cuneiform inscription is not unlike the Hebrew in its
character, resembling it about as closely as the Yorkshire dialect
resembles good English. The characters are so large and clearly cut
that it is a pleasure to read them after the laborious scrutiny of
the minute Babylonish clay tablets. The inscription on this slab is
identical with a portion of that of the great “Standard Monolith,”
on which this king subsequently caused to be transcribed the pages,
as it were, from the different slabs which were apparently cut at
intervals in his reign.

Translation of a Portion of the Cuneiform,
Inscription.–“The palace of Assur-nazir-pal, servant of Assur,
servant of the god Beltis, the god Ninit, the shining one of Anu
and Dagon, servant of the Great Gods, Mighty King, king of hosts,
king of the land of Assyria; son of Bin-nirari, a strong warrior,
who in the service of Assur his Lord marched vigorously among the
princes of the four regions, who had no equal, a mighty leader who
had no rival, a king subduing all disobedient to him; who rules
multitudes of men; crushing all his foes, even the masses of the
rebels…. The city of Calah, which my predecessor, Shalmanezer,
King of Assyria had built had fallen into decay: His city I
rebuilt; a palace of cedar, box, cypress, for the seat of my
royalty, for the fullness of my princedom, to endure for
generations, I placed upon it. With plates of copper I roofed it, I
hung in its gates folding doors of cedar wood, silver, gold,
copper, and iron which my hands had acquired in the lands which I
ruled, I gathered in great quantities, and placed them in the midst
thereof.” O.

DEPOSITING NICKEL UPON ZINC.

By H.B. SLATER.

To those interested in the electro deposition of nickel upon
zinc, the formula given below for a solution and a brief
explanation of its use will be of service.

The first sample of this solution was made as an experiment to
see what substances could be added to a solution of the double
sulphate of nickel and ammonium without spoiling it.

In addition to several other combinations and mixtures of
solutions from which I succeeded in obtaining a good deposit, I
found that the solution here given would plate almost anything I
put into it, and worked especially well upon zinc. In its use no
“scraping” or rescouring or any of the many operations which I have
seen recommended for zinc needs be resorted to, as the metal
“strikes” at once and is deposited in a continuous adherent film of
reguline metal, and can be laid on as heavily as nickel is
deposited generally.

I believe that the addition of the ammonium chloride simply
reduces the resistance of the double sulphate solution, but the
office of the potassium chloride is not so easily explained. At
least, I have never been able to explain it satisfactorily to
myself. It is certain, however, that the solution does not work as
well without it, nor does the addition of ammonium chloride in its
stead give as fine a result.

Some care is necessary in the management of the current, which
should have a density of about 17 amperes per square foot of
surface–not much above or below. This may seem a high figure,
especially when it is discovered that there is a considerable
evolution of gas during the operation.

I have repeatedly used this solution for coating articles of
zinc, and always with good success. I have exhibited samples of
zinc plated in this solution to those conversant with the
deposition of nickel, and they have expressed surprise at the
appearance of the work. Some strips of sheet-zinc in my possession
have been bent and cut into every conceivable shape without a sign
of fracture or curling up at the edges of the nickel coating.

The solution is composed of–

The salts are dissolved in the water (hot), and the solution is
worked at the ordinary temperature, about 16 degrees C.

The zinc may be cleansed in any suitable manner, but must be
perfectly clean, of course, and finally rinsed in clean cold water
and placed in the bath as quickly as possible; care being taken
that it is connected before it touches the solution.–Electrical
World.

A catalogue, containing brief notices of many important
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