Volume 24 (1872) (424 pages)

January 27, 1872.] SCIENTIFIC PRESS. 51 MMeEcHANICAL ‘Procress Titanic Iron and Steel. Considerable attention was drawn, three or four years since, to the manufaetnro of & very snperior iron mado from an adinixturo of titanic iron ore, with other more common ores of iron. Nnmcrous experiments wore made in this direction in the production of the mixed iron as ahove, of iron from tho titanic ore exclusively, aud of a steel, tho latter more generally known as ‘‘ Mushet’s Special Steel.” Extensive works were put up in England for the manufacture of these superior qualities of iron and stecl. but the diflieulties enconntered in the reduction of the titanic ores (or sands as they generally occur) seem for a while to have operated as an effectual disconragment to the expenditnre of money for this purposo by eapitulists. We have lately, howover, seen some ev-' ideuces of a renewal of efforts in this direction, by anew company, located at Sheffield. This movement, according to Hngineering, appears to have resulted from the successful persisteucy with which Mr. Mushet,has advocated the use of titauium in the production of high class iren and stecl. The extraordinary strength and toughness of Mr. Mushet’s titanic steel as shown by Dr. Fairbairn’s experiments, was the subject of remark in these columns at the time of those experiments being made publie. ‘‘ More recently” says the journal nbove named, ‘‘ we gave from personal observatiou some particulars of the remarkahle properties of Mr. Mushet’s new nonhardening special stecl. Now that the manufacture of these steels has passed into the hands of Messrs. Samuel Osborn and Co., thoy will douhtless be still more extensively used. When speaking some time ago of tho non-hardening special steel, we direeted attention to its enduranco when used for tools in machines driven at higher speeds than usual, and, at the present time, when with the shorter hours of labor it has become more than ever an object with engincers to get as much work out of their lathes and planing machines as they can in the shortest space of time, this point is worthy of notice.” ; In view of the growing importance which must soon attach to this description of iron ores by means of its peculiar adaptability to the mannfacture of steel, and its almost ontire freedom from sulphur and phosphorus, it may be interesting to know, that while English ironmasters are thus far almost entirely dependent upon the distant island of New Zealand for their supply, they occurahundantly intbe United States, The principal deposits of titaniferous iron ores in this country are in Northern New York, Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. The deposits in the northwestern part of North Carolina, owned or controlled by a Philadelphia company, have been found by a recent survey to extend in almost a continuous line for over 300 miles. The deposits, which affects the form of a nearly vertical vein, has a thickness of from 4 to 10 ft. Tbe per ccut. of titanio acid varies, but is about 10 0n an average. The supply of ore may be considered as inexhaustihle, and eharcoal is abundant everywhere. Bituminous coal-fields will be soon reached by projected railroads. Titanic iron orein the form of sand is found on the ocean beach to the westward of this city (San Francisco), and a company was organized some few years since to take up and work this deposit. Tue Iron Interest oF THE UNITED Svares—Errecr or Fret TRape Upon Ir. Kluepfel, 2 German writer of much distinction, and well versed in the iron trade, has written a carefully considered series of articles for a German periodical, in which the conclusions arrived at are, that if the present tariff were done away. with and free trade substituted; 1st, the production of cheap pig metal of inferior quality would he impossihle east of the Alleghanies, owing to the lack of cheap ores and the cheapness with which the metal could be obtained from England. Besides, the production of malleable iron would only be possible to a slight extent, owing to the eost of coal. On the other hand, the production of a large amount of foundry iron, as well as forge pig, might he possible. The foundry iron could be used in the vicinity of the the works, while the forge pig could be sold to the Pittsburg, ete., rolling mills. 2d, it would be impossible to produce considerahle amounts of pig metal in Western Pennsylvania, owing to thelack of ore. On the other hand the production of wrought irou and east steel from pig metal imported from other places could be done on a large scale. 3d. The same conditions would be trno for Northern Ohio as for Westy.n Pennsylvania, while it is probable that a simall district exists in Southern Ohio where blast fnrnaces and rolling mills conld be proltably worked. 4th. The produetion of all kinds of pig metal eould be carried on profitably in Michigan, Wisconsin, aud tho other States bordering on tho Great Lakes. Sth. The same is true of Eastern Missouri. Fire-Proof Buildings. The Providence Journal publishes the following extract ofa letter from the Seulptor Powers toa fmend in Rhode Island. It furnishes some valnable and timely hints witb regard to the construetion of fireproof buildings :— But it may be asked, ‘‘Is it possible to makoa eity fire-proof?” I answer, yes, and without any great extra expense, ‘To prove this, I have only tosay that although there have been frequent fires in the city ef Florenee during the thirty-four years of my residence init, not one house has been consumed, except a theatre, and that was not entirely destroyed. Jooms, full of goeds, have been heated like ovens by ignited calicoes, straw hats, etc., but as the floors above and below were all covered hy thin brick tiles, the goods burned without ventilatien. And as there was no flame, a swell like that of 2 coal pit soon gave the alarm, aud the fire was seon extmguished hy no other engine than a squirt holding about a gallon, which discharged a well-directed stream tbrough some aperture. JI once beheld some firemen marebiug to a fire in Florence. First were three meu witb picks, next four men with buckets, then three men with highly polished brass squirts on their shoulders ; al] marching with an air of pomp and importance! ‘Ihe fire was at the residence of Mr. Clevenger, the American sculptor, and had been burning 24 hours on the end of a joist just under his fire-place. He had smelt something like a coal-pit for some time, and at length perceived smoke rising from the brick floor. On going below he fonnd the room full of smoke, and a rushbottomed chair just under the joist was partially consumed. But the joist was not yet burned off, and why? Becanse tbe fire was hricked down. It could not rise and hurst into flames. The secret of fire-proof building, then, is this: It must he made impossible for the flames to pass through the floors or up the stairway. If yon will have wood floors and stairs, lay a flooring of the tbickest sbeet-iron over the joists, and your wood upon that; and sheath the stairs with the same material. A floor will not burn without a supply of air under it. Throwa dry board upon a perfectly flat pavement and kindle it as it lies if you can, You may make a fire upon it and in time consume it,.but it will require a long time. Prevent drafts, and though there will still be fires, no houses will be consumed. The combustion will go on so slowly that discovery is certain in time to prevent any great calamity. But the roofs, bow about them? Slate or tiles? Zine melts too easily. I believe that hard-burned tiles, if flat, would stand the frost at home; and if so, they constitute the best roofing. My house has no joists. All the floors are of tiles resting onarches. One of these arches was made over a room twenty-five feet square, by four men infour days. The brick are about one and one-half inches thick, and laid edgewise, with plaster of Paris, There was no framework prepared to lay them on unless you would so term four bits of wood which a man could carry under hisarm. And yet this arch is so strong as to be perfectly safe with a large dancing party on it. of one of those floors falling, and they are absolutely fire-proof. Of course light arches like these would not do for warehouses. It would pay, I think, to send out here foran Italian brick-mason who knows how to build these thin but strong arches for dwelling houses, I know that there is a prejudice at home against brick or composition floors. ‘‘Too cold in winter,” it is said. And so they are, if hare, but eover them with several thicknesses of paper and then carpet them, and no one ean discover the slighest difference between their temperature and that of wood floors. Who doubts this let bim try the experiment with the feet of the thermometer. The truth is that the brick of composition floor is no colder in itself than the wood—the thermometer attests this— hut it is a better conductor. I do not insure my house, asI know that it is not eombustible. I never have heardSCIENTIFIC Progress. A Substitute for the Spectroscope. E. Lommel has devised three very simple instrnments called the erythophytoscope, tho erythroscope, and the melanoscope, which can be advantageously used, instead of the spectroscope, for the dotection of substances by their colors and colored flames. ‘wo colored plates of cobalt blue and dark ycllow oxide of iron glass are laid upon each other, and, by inserting them in black pasteboard, with a slit for the nose, something like a pair of spectaeles is made of them. The combined glasses are only transparent for the ultra red, for yellow green, for blue green and blue rays; and they eut off all other colors. Substanecs, known to possess these colors or to impart them to the flame of a spirit lamp or Bunsen burner, can be detected by viewing them through such spectacles. The erythroscope consists of a cobalt glass and ruby glass, which only admits the ultra red, beyond Fraunhofex’s line B, to pass. The third combination, called the melansocope, consists of a dark red and clear violet glass which only allows the middle red tints to pass. Anyone who possesses the facility of alternately using the right and left eye, could employ two combinations at once and thus cover nearly the whole length of the spectrum. For the use of students in laboatories, we should think that the simple arrangement described above could be frequently employed to advantage for the detection and separation of a large class of bodies which give characteristic colors to flames; and, hy practice, the learner would soon be able to assign tbe true position to each color nearly as well as if he used the scale usually attached to the spectroscope. Olive Oil as a Purifier of Carbonic Acid, In the manufacture of carbonic acid for mineral waters and soda fountains, in consequence of impurities in the limestone employed for the evolution of gas, certain disagreeable empyreumatic oils and offensively tasting gases are apt to go over; and, unless separated in some way, they will impart an unpleasant flavor to the mineral water. To obviate this difficulty, HE. Pfeiffer suggests saturating pumice stone with olive oil, and passing the gases through it in the usnal way. The oil absorbs the bad gases, and can be regenerated for subsequent use by heating it to expel the absorbed impurities. After becoming quiteimpure, it is still snitable for the manufacture of blacking or for applicaton asa lubricator. It is said that Mallett employed this method to absorb the hydrocarbon products in his process of ohtaining ammoniadirectly from coal tar. As much of our limestone contains organic matter, which gives a peculiar smell to carbonic acid made from it, this method of purifying tbe gas by passing it through olive oil is wortby of trial. To DroporizE Kerosene Om. — The odor of a suhstance is in most cases adberent, like color or any other physical property, and not accidental or extraneous. Where, us in the case of kerosene oil or the ligbter petroleum naphtbas, tbe suhstance is a mixture of many constituents, it is difficult to decide which of them is the objectionable one, and so long as this has not been determined, we can devise no rules for getting rid of it, or for destroying it in any other way. Practically, therefore, we are unable to deodorize the products, and especially the lighter ones of the distillation of petroleum; but we may conceal them in the same way as formerly the disagreeahle odors incidental to sick rooms and even to ordinary apartments wero hidden by the liberal use of strong smelling liquids or tbe fumes of incense. The best adapted fluid for tbis purpose is, perbaps, the artificial oil of bitter almonds or mirbane oil; a little of it will go a great way in disguising the odor of petroleum effectually, and asit has a very high boiling point, it will accomplish its purpose most durably.—Druggist’s Cireular. SEPARATINO FisrEs.—In a recent number of the Moniteur Scientifique a paper was contributed by Dr. EK. Kopp, on the “Means of Detecting and Separating Silk, Wool, and Vegetahle Fihres from each other” by hydrochlorie acid. The practical bearing of thisdiscovery was exemplified by the immersion of several so-called pure silk ribbons and other fahrics in the acid, when the silk was dissolved, leaving the adnlterated material intact. Somewhat similar experiments were made last year by Mr. John Spiller. Recent Progress in Chemistry. I wonder what Sir Humphrey Davy wonld have said to any one who talked abeut stellar chemistry. Thut great man, in ridiculing tho idea ef lighting London with gas, triumpbantly asked the fanatics who proposed such a wild scheme, whether the dome of St. Paul’s was to be the gasometer? Yet we cannot imagine Regent street illuminated, or rather darkened, with dips again, and to us stellar chemistry bas a real meaning. Who will venturo to bonnd a seience which reaches far away through space, and with unerring accuracy tells us the compositien of distant worlds and distant suns? What can be more humiliating to our small intelligences than the reflection that a dixtant star will photograph its spectrum ou a sensitive surface with the ray of light that left it when the oldest man in this reom was a boy ? What would the great father of British chemisty have said, had he stood in the lecture room of the Royal Institution, where his great discoveries were made, and seen the burning hydrogen extracted by our great countryman Graham, from a meteorite, the heat and light of another world; or could he look with Leckyer on the hurniug flames of hydrogen, which dart up from the sun to a hight of 50,000 miles, or could he read the flashing telegrams whieh run so rapidly round our world, that all our notions of time are completely upset, and we actually receive intelligence to-day which was sent to-morrow? Ixcuse the apparent absurdity; it only shows how powerless language is to keep np with human progress. Had he lived with us, he would have seen a large city dependent entirely for its communication with the onter world by a marvellous kind of pbotography, so minute that it enabled a pigeon to carry a proof sheet of tbe Vimes under its wing.—Z. C, C. StanJord. DETERMINATION OF SULPHUR AND PHOsPHorus iN Inon.—The presence of the least trace of phosphorus and sulphur in iron will destroy it for many purposes, and 2 correct and easy way of detecting these substances is therefore of importance. K. Meineke dissolves the finely pulverized iron in cbloride of copper, separates the reduced copper by treatment witb an excess of cbloride of copper and common salt, filters through a layer of asbestos, brings the insoluble portion adher ing to the asbestos intoa breaker glass and oxidizes hy strong nitrie acid and chlorate of potash; then he evaporates with hydrochloric acid and determines the sulphur by baryta, as sulphate, and the phosphorus by molybdie acid in the usnal way. The novelty of this method is in the substitution of chloride of copper for the chloride of iron employed by otber chemists, and its advantages are said to bein tbe greater facility with which the various liquids and solutions can be filtered. It also yields more accurate results tban the former methods. ANew Liquip Fire.—Guyot says that when bromine and flowers of sulphur in excess are mixed together in a close vessel, and filtered through asbestos, a reddish, oily fuming liquid, hyposulphurous bromide, SBr», is obtained. When treated with ammonia, it soon begins to boil violently evolving copious white thick fumes. The same action takes place wben the bromide is mixed with carbon disulpbide, but the heat evolved is not sufficient to inflame the CS. unless a fragment of phosphorous be previously dissolved init. A liquid made of tbis mixture, and containing pbosphorus, the author proposes to call ‘‘the new Lorraine fire.” Rectified petroleum may be substituted for the disulphide. Maonztism.—A. Casin, after describing anew metbod of measuring magnetism, (tbe method not given inthe journal before us ), gives the following law for the magnetism of electro-magnets: ‘‘ When the core of iron fills exactly the eoil of an electro magnet, the quantity of magnetism is independent of those parts: of the core which are heyond this coil.” A New Process.—Comies Rendus contains a posthumous paper by E. L. Rivot, fora new process for treating gold and silver ores, the main feature of which consists in causing the steam to act at a high temperature on the mineral sulphides. CrEranino Guass Vesseus, which have contained petroleum, may be effected by milk of lime, which forms an emulsion with petroleum, and by chloride of lime, which destroys the smell.

January 27, 1872.] SCIENTIFIC PRESS. 51 MMeEcHANICAL ‘Procress Titanic Iron and Steel. Considerable attention was drawn, three or four years since, to the manufaetnro of & very snperior iron mado from an adinixturo of titanic iron ore, with other more common ores of iron. Nnmcrous experiments wore made in this direction in the production of the mixed iron as ahove, of iron from tho titanic ore exclusively, aud of a steel, tho latter more generally known as ‘‘ Mushet’s Special Steel.” Extensive works were put up in England for the manufacture of these superior qualities of iron and stecl. but the diflieulties enconntered in the reduction of the titanic ores (or sands as they generally occur) seem for a while to have operated as an effectual disconragment to the expenditnre of money for this purposo by eapitulists. We have lately, howover, seen some ev-' ideuces of a renewal of efforts in this direction, by anew company, located at Sheffield. This movement, according to Hngineering, appears to have resulted from the successful persisteucy with which Mr. Mushet,has advocated the use of titauium in the production of high class iren and stecl. The extraordinary strength and toughness of Mr. Mushet’s titanic steel as shown by Dr. Fairbairn’s experiments, was the subject of remark in these columns at the time of those experiments being made publie. ‘‘ More recently” says the journal nbove named, ‘‘ we gave from personal observatiou some particulars of the remarkahle properties of Mr. Mushet’s new nonhardening special stecl. Now that the manufacture of these steels has passed into the hands of Messrs. Samuel Osborn and Co., thoy will douhtless be still more extensively used. When speaking some time ago of tho non-hardening special steel, we direeted attention to its enduranco when used for tools in machines driven at higher speeds than usual, and, at the present time, when with the shorter hours of labor it has become more than ever an object with engincers to get as much work out of their lathes and planing machines as they can in the shortest space of time, this point is worthy of notice.” ; In view of the growing importance which must soon attach to this description of iron ores by means of its peculiar adaptability to the mannfacture of steel, and its almost ontire freedom from sulphur and phosphorus, it may be interesting to know, that while English ironmasters are thus far almost entirely dependent upon the distant island of New Zealand for their supply, they occurahundantly intbe United States, The principal deposits of titaniferous iron ores in this country are in Northern New York, Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. The deposits in the northwestern part of North Carolina, owned or controlled by a Philadelphia company, have been found by a recent survey to extend in almost a continuous line for over 300 miles. The deposits, which affects the form of a nearly vertical vein, has a thickness of from 4 to 10 ft. Tbe per ccut. of titanio acid varies, but is about 10 0n an average. The supply of ore may be considered as inexhaustihle, and eharcoal is abundant everywhere. Bituminous coal-fields will be soon reached by projected railroads. Titanic iron orein the form of sand is found on the ocean beach to the westward of this city (San Francisco), and a company was organized some few years since to take up and work this deposit. Tue Iron Interest oF THE UNITED Svares—Errecr or Fret TRape Upon Ir. Kluepfel, 2 German writer of much distinction, and well versed in the iron trade, has written a carefully considered series of articles for a German periodical, in which the conclusions arrived at are, that if the present tariff were done away. with and free trade substituted; 1st, the production of cheap pig metal of inferior quality would he impossihle east of the Alleghanies, owing to the lack of cheap ores and the cheapness with which the metal could be obtained from England. Besides, the production of malleable iron would only be possible to a slight extent, owing to the eost of coal. On the other hand, the production of a large amount of foundry iron, as well as forge pig, might he possible. The foundry iron could be used in the vicinity of the the works, while the forge pig could be sold to the Pittsburg, ete., rolling mills. 2d, it would be impossible to produce considerahle amounts of pig metal in Western Pennsylvania, owing to thelack of ore. On the other hand the production of wrought irou and east steel from pig metal imported from other places could be done on a large scale. 3d. The same conditions would be trno for Northern Ohio as for Westy.n Pennsylvania, while it is probable that a simall district exists in Southern Ohio where blast fnrnaces and rolling mills conld be proltably worked. 4th. The produetion of all kinds of pig metal eould be carried on profitably in Michigan, Wisconsin, aud tho other States bordering on tho Great Lakes. Sth. The same is true of Eastern Missouri. Fire-Proof Buildings. The Providence Journal publishes the following extract ofa letter from the Seulptor Powers toa fmend in Rhode Island. It furnishes some valnable and timely hints witb regard to the construetion of fireproof buildings :— But it may be asked, ‘‘Is it possible to makoa eity fire-proof?” I answer, yes, and without any great extra expense, ‘To prove this, I have only tosay that although there have been frequent fires in the city ef Florenee during the thirty-four years of my residence init, not one house has been consumed, except a theatre, and that was not entirely destroyed. Jooms, full of goeds, have been heated like ovens by ignited calicoes, straw hats, etc., but as the floors above and below were all covered hy thin brick tiles, the goods burned without ventilatien. And as there was no flame, a swell like that of 2 coal pit soon gave the alarm, aud the fire was seon extmguished hy no other engine than a squirt holding about a gallon, which discharged a well-directed stream tbrough some aperture. JI once beheld some firemen marebiug to a fire in Florence. First were three meu witb picks, next four men with buckets, then three men with highly polished brass squirts on their shoulders ; al] marching with an air of pomp and importance! ‘Ihe fire was at the residence of Mr. Clevenger, the American sculptor, and had been burning 24 hours on the end of a joist just under his fire-place. He had smelt something like a coal-pit for some time, and at length perceived smoke rising from the brick floor. On going below he fonnd the room full of smoke, and a rushbottomed chair just under the joist was partially consumed. But the joist was not yet burned off, and why? Becanse tbe fire was hricked down. It could not rise and hurst into flames. The secret of fire-proof building, then, is this: It must he made impossible for the flames to pass through the floors or up the stairway. If yon will have wood floors and stairs, lay a flooring of the tbickest sbeet-iron over the joists, and your wood upon that; and sheath the stairs with the same material. A floor will not burn without a supply of air under it. Throwa dry board upon a perfectly flat pavement and kindle it as it lies if you can, You may make a fire upon it and in time consume it,.but it will require a long time. Prevent drafts, and though there will still be fires, no houses will be consumed. The combustion will go on so slowly that discovery is certain in time to prevent any great calamity. But the roofs, bow about them? Slate or tiles? Zine melts too easily. I believe that hard-burned tiles, if flat, would stand the frost at home; and if so, they constitute the best roofing. My house has no joists. All the floors are of tiles resting onarches. One of these arches was made over a room twenty-five feet square, by four men infour days. The brick are about one and one-half inches thick, and laid edgewise, with plaster of Paris, There was no framework prepared to lay them on unless you would so term four bits of wood which a man could carry under hisarm. And yet this arch is so strong as to be perfectly safe with a large dancing party on it. of one of those floors falling, and they are absolutely fire-proof. Of course light arches like these would not do for warehouses. It would pay, I think, to send out here foran Italian brick-mason who knows how to build these thin but strong arches for dwelling houses, I know that there is a prejudice at home against brick or composition floors. ‘‘Too cold in winter,” it is said. And so they are, if hare, but eover them with several thicknesses of paper and then carpet them, and no one

ean discover the slighest difference between their temperature and that of wood floors. Who doubts this let bim try the experiment with the feet of the thermometer. The truth is that the brick of composition floor is no colder in itself than the wood—the thermometer attests this— hut it is a better conductor. I do not insure my house, asI know that it is not eombustible. I never have heardSCIENTIFIC Progress. A Substitute for the Spectroscope. E. Lommel has devised three very simple instrnments called the erythophytoscope, tho erythroscope, and the melanoscope, which can be advantageously used, instead of the spectroscope, for the dotection of substances by their colors and colored flames. ‘wo colored plates of cobalt blue and dark ycllow oxide of iron glass are laid upon each other, and, by inserting them in black pasteboard, with a slit for the nose, something like a pair of spectaeles is made of them. The combined glasses are only transparent for the ultra red, for yellow green, for blue green and blue rays; and they eut off all other colors. Substanecs, known to possess these colors or to impart them to the flame of a spirit lamp or Bunsen burner, can be detected by viewing them through such spectacles. The erythroscope consists of a cobalt glass and ruby glass, which only admits the ultra red, beyond Fraunhofex’s line B, to pass. The third combination, called the melansocope, consists of a dark red and clear violet glass which only allows the middle red tints to pass. Anyone who possesses the facility of alternately using the right and left eye, could employ two combinations at once and thus cover nearly the whole length of the spectrum. For the use of students in laboatories, we should think that the simple arrangement described above could be frequently employed to advantage for the detection and separation of a large class of bodies which give characteristic colors to flames; and, hy practice, the learner would soon be able to assign tbe true position to each color nearly as well as if he used the scale usually attached to the spectroscope. Olive Oil as a Purifier of Carbonic Acid, In the manufacture of carbonic acid for mineral waters and soda fountains, in consequence of impurities in the limestone employed for the evolution of gas, certain disagreeable empyreumatic oils and offensively tasting gases are apt to go over; and, unless separated in some way, they will impart an unpleasant flavor to the mineral water. To obviate this difficulty, HE. Pfeiffer suggests saturating pumice stone with olive oil, and passing the gases through it in the usnal way. The oil absorbs the bad gases, and can be regenerated for subsequent use by heating it to expel the absorbed impurities. After becoming quiteimpure, it is still snitable for the manufacture of blacking or for applicaton asa lubricator. It is said that Mallett employed this method to absorb the hydrocarbon products in his process of ohtaining ammoniadirectly from coal tar. As much of our limestone contains organic matter, which gives a peculiar smell to carbonic acid made from it, this method of purifying tbe gas by passing it through olive oil is wortby of trial. To DroporizE Kerosene Om. — The odor of a suhstance is in most cases adberent, like color or any other physical property, and not accidental or extraneous. Where, us in the case of kerosene oil or the ligbter petroleum naphtbas, tbe suhstance is a mixture of many constituents, it is difficult to decide which of them is the objectionable one, and so long as this has not been determined, we can devise no rules for getting rid of it, or for destroying it in any other way. Practically, therefore, we are unable to deodorize the products, and especially the lighter ones of the distillation of petroleum; but we may conceal them in the same way as formerly the disagreeahle odors incidental to sick rooms and even to ordinary apartments wero hidden by the liberal use of strong smelling liquids or tbe fumes of incense. The best adapted fluid for tbis purpose is, perbaps, the artificial oil of bitter almonds or mirbane oil; a little of it will go a great way in disguising the odor of petroleum effectually, and asit has a very high boiling point, it will accomplish its purpose most durably.—Druggist’s Cireular. SEPARATINO FisrEs.—In a recent number of the Moniteur Scientifique a paper was contributed by Dr. EK. Kopp, on the “Means of Detecting and Separating Silk, Wool, and Vegetahle Fihres from each other” by hydrochlorie acid. The practical bearing of thisdiscovery was exemplified by the immersion of several so-called pure silk ribbons and other fahrics in the acid, when the silk was dissolved, leaving the adnlterated material intact. Somewhat similar experiments were made last year by Mr. John Spiller. Recent Progress in Chemistry. I wonder what Sir Humphrey Davy wonld have said to any one who talked abeut stellar chemistry. Thut great man, in ridiculing tho idea ef lighting London with gas, triumpbantly asked the fanatics who proposed such a wild scheme, whether the dome of St. Paul’s was to be the gasometer? Yet we cannot imagine Regent street illuminated, or rather darkened, with dips again, and to us stellar chemistry bas a real meaning. Who will venturo to bonnd a seience which reaches far away through space, and with unerring accuracy tells us the compositien of distant worlds and distant suns? What can be more humiliating to our small intelligences than the reflection that a dixtant star will photograph its spectrum ou a sensitive surface with the ray of light that left it when the oldest man in this reom was a boy ? What would the great father of British chemisty have said, had he stood in the lecture room of the Royal Institution, where his great discoveries were made, and seen the burning hydrogen extracted by our great countryman Graham, from a meteorite, the heat and light of another world; or could he look with Leckyer on the hurniug flames of hydrogen, which dart up from the sun to a hight of 50,000 miles, or could he read the flashing telegrams whieh run so rapidly round our world, that all our notions of time are completely upset, and we actually receive intelligence to-day which was sent to-morrow? Ixcuse the apparent absurdity; it only shows how powerless language is to keep np with human progress. Had he lived with us, he would have seen a large city dependent entirely for its communication with the onter world by a marvellous kind of pbotography, so minute that it enabled a pigeon to carry a proof sheet of tbe Vimes under its wing.—Z. C, C. StanJord. DETERMINATION OF SULPHUR AND PHOsPHorus iN Inon.—The presence of the least trace of phosphorus and sulphur in iron will destroy it for many purposes, and 2 correct and easy way of detecting these substances is therefore of importance. K. Meineke dissolves the finely pulverized iron in cbloride of copper, separates the reduced copper by treatment witb an excess of cbloride of copper and common salt, filters through a layer of asbestos, brings the insoluble portion adher ing to the asbestos intoa breaker glass and oxidizes hy strong nitrie acid and chlorate of potash; then he evaporates with hydrochloric acid and determines the sulphur by baryta, as sulphate, and the phosphorus by molybdie acid in the usnal way. The novelty of this method is in the substitution of chloride of copper for the chloride of iron employed by otber chemists, and its advantages are said to bein tbe greater facility with which the various liquids and solutions can be filtered. It also yields more accurate results tban the former methods. ANew Liquip Fire.—Guyot says that when bromine and flowers of sulphur in excess are mixed together in a close vessel, and filtered through asbestos, a reddish, oily fuming liquid, hyposulphurous bromide, SBr», is obtained. When treated with ammonia, it soon begins to boil violently evolving copious white thick fumes. The same action takes place wben the bromide is mixed with carbon disulpbide, but the heat evolved is not sufficient to inflame the CS. unless a fragment of phosphorous be previously dissolved init. A liquid made of tbis mixture, and containing pbosphorus, the author proposes to call ‘‘the new Lorraine fire.” Rectified petroleum may be substituted for the disulphide. Maonztism.—A. Casin, after describing anew metbod of measuring magnetism, (tbe method not given inthe journal before us ), gives the following law for the magnetism of electro-magnets: ‘‘ When the core of iron fills exactly the eoil of an electro magnet, the quantity of magnetism is independent of those parts: of the core which are heyond this coil.” A New Process.—Comies Rendus contains a posthumous paper by E. L. Rivot, fora new process for treating gold and silver ores, the main feature of which consists in causing the steam to act at a high temperature on the mineral sulphides. CrEranino Guass Vesseus, which have contained petroleum, may be effected by milk of lime, which forms an emulsion with petroleum, and by chloride of lime, which destroys the smell.