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Project Gutenberg's Scientific American Supplement No. 275, by Various

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Title: Scientific American Supplement No. 275

Author: Various

Posting Date: October 10, 2012 [EBook #8195]
Release Date: May, 2005
First Posted: June 30, 2003

Language: English

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*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPL., NO. 275 ***




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[Illustration]




SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 275




NEW YORK, APRIL 9, 1881

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XI, No. 275.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

       *       *       *       *       *

			TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I.   ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--The Various Modes of
     Transmitting Power to a Distance. (Continued from No. 274.)
     By ARTHUR ARCHARD. of Geneva.--II. Compressed Air.--III.
     Transmission by Pressure Water.--IV. Transmission by
     Electricity.--General Results

     The Hotchkiss Revolving Gun

     Floating Pontoon Dock. 2 figures.--Improved floating pontoon dock

II.  TECHNOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY.--Wheat and Wheat Bread. By H. MEGE
     MOURIES.--Color in bread.--Anatomical structure and chemical
     composition of wheat.--Embryo and coating of the embryo.--
     Cerealine--Phosphate of calcium.--1 figure, section of a grain
     of wheat, magnified.

     Origin of New Process Milling.--Special report to the Census
     Bureau. By ALBERT HOPPIN.--Present status of milling structures
     and machinery in Minneapolis by Special Census Agent C. W.
     JOHNSON.--Communication from GEORGE T. SMITH.

     Tap for Effervescing Liquids. 1 figure.

     London Chemical Society.--Notes.--Pentathionic acid, Mr.
     VIVIAN LEWES.--Hydrocarbons from Rosin Spirit. Dr.
     ARMSTRONG.--On the Determination of the Relative Weight of Single
     Molecules. E. VOGEL.--On the Synthetical Production of Ammonia
     by the Combination of Hydrogen and Nitrogen in the Presence of
     Heated Spongy Platinum, G. S. JOHNSON.--On the Oxidation of
     Organic Matter in Water, A. DOWNS.

     Rose Oil, or Otto of Roses. By CHAS. G. WARNFORD LOCK.--Sources
     of rose oil.--History--Where rose gardens are now cultivated
     for oil.--Methods of cultivation.--Processes of
     distillation.--Adulterations

     A New Method of Preparing Metatoluidine. By OSCAR WIDMAN.

III. AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, ETC.--The Guenon Milk Mirror. 1 figure.
     Escutcheon of the Jersey Bull Calf, Grand Mirror.

     Two Good Lawn Trees

     Cutting Sods for Lawns

     Horticultural Notes: New apples, pears, grapes, etc.--Discussion
     on Grapes. Western New York Society.--New peaches.--Insects
     affecting horticulture.--Insect destroyers.

     Observations on the Salmon of the Pacific. By DAVID S. JORDAN
     and CHARLES B. GILBERT. Valuable census report.

IV.  LIGHT, ELECTRICITY ETC.--Relation between Electricity
     and Light. Dr. O. T. Lodge's lecture before the London Institute.

     Interesting Electrical Researches by Dr. Warren de La Rue and
     Dr. Hugo Miller.

     Telephony by Thermic Currents

     The Telectroscope. By Moxs. SENLECQ. 5 figures. A successful
     apparatus for transmitting and reproducing camera pictures by
     electricity.

V.   HYGIENE, MEDICINE, ETC.--Rapid Breathing as a Pain Obtunde in
     Minor Surgery, Obstetrics, the General Practice of Medicine, and
     of Dentistry. Dr. W. G. A. Bonwill's paper before the
     Philadelphia County Medical Society. 8 figures. Sphygmographic
     tracings.

VI.  ARCHITECTURE, ART, ETC.--Artist's Homes. No. 11. "Weirleigh."
     Residence of Harrison Weir. Perspective and plans.

       *       *       *       *       *




WHEAT AND WHEAT BREAD.

By H. MEGE-MOURIES.


In consequence of the interest that has been recently excited on the
subject of bread reform, we have, says the London _Miller_, translated the
interesting contribution of H. Mege-Mouries to the Imperial and Central
Society of Agriculture of France, and subsequently published in a separate
form in 1860, on "Wheat and Wheat Bread," with the illustration prepared
by the author for the contribution. The author says: "I repeat in this
pamphlet the principal facts put forth in the notes issued by me, and in
the reports furnished by Mr. Chevreul to the Academy of Science, from 1853
up to 1860."

The study of the structure of the wheat berry, its chemical composition,
its alimentary value, its preservation, etc., is not alone of interest to
science, agriculture, and industry, but it is worthy of attracting the
attention of governments, for this study, in its connection to political
economy, is bound up with the fate and the prosperity of nations. Wheat has
been cultivated from time immemorial. At first it was roughly crushed and
consumed in the form of a thick soup, or in cakes baked on an ordinary
hearth. Many centuries before the Christian era the Egyptians were
acquainted with the means of making fermented or leavened bread; afterwards
this practice spread into Greece, and it is found in esteem at Rome two
centuries B.C.; from Rome the new method was introduced among the Gauls,
and it is found to-day to exist almost the same as it was practiced at that
period, with the exception, of course, of the considerable improvements
introduced in the baking and grinding.

Since the fortunate idea was formed of transforming the wheat into bread,
this grain has always produced white bread, and dark or brown bread, from
which the conclusion was drawn that it must necessarily make white bread
and brown bread; on the other hand, the flours, mixed with bran, made a
brownish, doughy, and badly risen bread, and it was therefore concluded
that the bran, by its color, produced this inferior bread. From this error,
accepted as a truth, the most contradictory opinions of the most opposite
processes have arisen, which are repeated at the present day in the art of
separating as completely as possible all the tissues of the wheat, and of
extracting from the grain only 70 per cent of flour fit for making white
bread. It is, however, difficult for the observer to admit that a small
quantity of the thin yellow envelope can, by a simple mingling with the
crumb of the loaf, color it brown, and it is still more difficult to admit
that the actual presence of these envelopes can without decomposition
render bread doughy, badly raised, sticky, and incapable of swelling in
water. On the other hand, although some distinguished chemists deny or
exalt the nutritive properties of bran, agriculturists, taking practical
observation as proof, attribute to that portion of the grain a
physiological action which has nothing in common with plastic alimentation,
and prove that animals weakened by a too long usage of dry fodder, are
restored to health by the use of bran, which only seems to act by its
presence, since the greater portion of it, as already demonstrated by Mr.
Poggiale, is passed through with the excrement.

With these opinions, apparently so opposed, it evidently results that there
is an unknown factor at the bottom of the question; it is the nature of
this factor I wish to find out, and it was after the discovery that I
was able to explain the nature of brown bread, and its _role_ in the
alimentation of animals. We have then to examine the causes of the
production of brown bread, to state why white bread kills animals fed
exclusively on it, while bread mixed with bran makes them live. We have to
explain the phenomena of panification, the operations of grinding, and to
explain the means of preparing a bread more economical and more favorable
to health. To explain this question clearly and briefly we must first be
acquainted with the various substances forming the berry, their nature,
their position, and their properties. This we shall do with the aid of the
illustration given.

[Illustration: SECTION OF A GRAIN OF WHEAT MAGNIFIED.]

EXPLANATION OF DIAGRAM.

1.--Superficial Coating of the Epidermis, severed at the Crease of
    the Kernel.
2.--Section of Epidermis, Averages of the Weight of the Whole Grain, 1/2 %.
3.--Epicarp,                 do.            do.           do.      1   %.
4.--Endocarp,                do.            do.           do.      1 1/2 %.
5.--Testa or Episperm,       do.            do.           do.      2   %.
6.--Embryo Membrane (with imaginary spaces in white on both sides
    to make it distinct).
7.\              /  Glutonous Cells     \
8. > Endosperm  <   containing           >  do.           do.     90   %.
9./              \  Farinaccous Matter  /


ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF WHEAT.

The figure represents the longitudinal cut of a grain of wheat; it was made
by taking, with the aid of the microscope and of photography, the drawing
of a large quantity of fragments, which, joined together at last, produced
the figure of the entire cut. These multiplied results were necessary to
appreciate the insertion of the teguments and their nature in every part
of the berry; in this long and difficult work I have been aided by the
co-operation of Mr. Bertsch, who, as is known, has discovered a means of
fixing rapidly by photography any image from the microscope. I must state,
in the first place, that even in 1837 Mr. Payen studied and published the
structure and the composition of a fragment of a grain of wheat; that
this learned chemist, whose authority in such matters is known, perfectly
described the envelopes or coverings, and indicated the presence of various
immediate principles (especially of azote, fatty and mineral substances
which fill up the range of contiguous cells between them and the periphery
of the perisperm, to the exclusion of the gluten and the starchy granules),
as well as to the mode of insertion of the granules of starch in the gluten
contained in the cells, with narrow divisions from the perisperm, and in
such a manner that up to the point of working indicated by the figure 1
this study was complete. However, I have been obliged to recommence it, to
study the special facts bearing on the alimentary question, and I must say
that all the results obtained by Mr. Bertsch, Mr. Trecul, and myself agree
with those given by Mr. Payen.


ENVELOPES OF THE BERRY.

No. 1 represents a superficial side of the crease.

No. 2 indicates the epidermis or cuticle. This covering is extremely light,
and offers nothing remarkable; 100 lb. of wheat contain 1/2 lb. of it.

No. 3 indicates the epicarp. This envelope is distinguished by a double
row of long and pointed vessels; it is, like the first one, very light and
without action; 100 lb. of wheat contain 1 lb. of it.

No. 4 represents the endocarp, or last tegument of the berry; the
sarcocarp, which should be found between the numbers 2 and 3, no longer
exists, having been absorbed. The endocarp is remarkable by its row of
round and regular cells, which appear in the cut like a continuous string
of beads; 100 lb. of wheat contain 11/2 lb. of it.

These three envelopes are colorless, light, and spongy; their elementary
composition is that of straw; they are easily removed besides with the aid
of damp and friction. This property has given rise to an operation called
decortication, the results of which we shall examine later on from an
industrial point of view. The whole of the envelopes of the berry of wheat
amount to 3 lb. in 100 lb. of wheat.


ENVELOPES AND TISSUES OF THE BERRY PROPER.

No. 5 indicates the testa or episperm. This external tegument of the berry
is closer than the preceding ones; it contains in the very small cells
two coloring matters, the one of a palish yellow, the other of an orange
yellow, and according as the one or the other matter predominates, the
wheat is of a more or less intense yellow color; hence come all the
varieties of wheat known in commerce as white, reddish, or red wheats.
Under this tegument is found a very thin, colorless membrane, which, with
the testa or episperm, forms two per cent. of the weight of the wheat.

No. 6 indicates the embryous membrane, which is only an expansion of the
germ or embryo No. 10. This membrane is seen purposely removed from its
contiguous parts, so as to render more visible its form and insertions.
Under this tissue is found with the Nos. 7, 8, and 9, the endosperm or
perisperm, containing the gluten and the starch; soluble and insoluble
albuminoids, that is to say, the flour.

The endosperm and the embryous membrane are the most interesting parts of
the berry; the first is one of the depots of the plastic aliments, the
second contains agents capable of dissolving these aliments during the
germination, of determining their absorption in the digestive organs of
animals, and of producing in the dough a decomposition strong enough to
make dark bread. We shall proceed to examine separately these two parts of
the berry.


ENDOSPERM OR FLOURY PORTION, NOS. 7, 8, 9.

This portion is composed of large glutinous cells, in which the granules
of starch are found. The composition of these different layers offers a
particular interest; the center, No. 9, is the softest part; it contains
the least gluten and the most starch; it is the part which first pulverizes
under the stone, and gives, after the first bolting, the fine flour. As
this flour is poorest in gluten, it makes a dough with little consistency,
and incapable of making an open bread, well raised. The first layer, No.
8, which surrounds the center, produces small white middlings, harder and
richer in gluten than the center; it bakes very well, and weighs 20 lb. in
100, and it is these 20 parts in 100 which, when mixed with the 50 parts in
the center, form the finest quality flour, used for making white bread.

The layer No. 7, which surrounds the preceding one, is still harder and
richer in gluten; unfortunately in the reduction it becomes mixed with some
hundredth parts of the bran, which render it unsuitable for making bread
of the finest quality; it produces in the regrinding lower grade and
dark flours, together weighing 7 per cent. The external layer, naturally
adhering to the membrane, No. 6, becomes mixed in the grinding with bran,
to the extent of about 20 per cent., which renders it unsuitable even
for making brown bread; it serves to form the regrindings and the offals
destined for the nourishment of animals; this layer is, however, the
hardest, and contains the largest quantity of gluten, and it is by
consequence the most nutritive. We now see the endosperm increasing from
the center, formed of floury layers, which augment in richness in gluten,
in proportion as they are removed from the center. Now, as the flours make
more bread in proportion to the quantity of gluten they contain, and the
gluten gives more bread in proportion to its being more developed, or
having more consistence, it follows that the flour belonging to the parts
of the berry nearest the envelopes or coverings should produce the greatest
portion of bread, and this is what takes place in effect. The product of
the different layers of the endosperm is given below, and it will be seen
that the quantity of bread increases in a proportion relatively greater
than that of the gluten, which proves once more that the gluten of the
center or last formation has less consistence than that of the other layers
of older formation.

The following are the results obtained from the same wheat:

                                    Gluten.           Bread.
100 parts of flour in center contain.. 8   and produce 128
  "             "     first layer " .. 9,2       "     136
  "             "     second    " " .. 11        "     140
  "             "     external  " " .. 13        "     145

On the whole, it is seen, according to the composition of the floury part
of the grain, that the berry contains on an average 90 parts in 100 of
flour fit for making bread of the first quality, and that the inevitable
mixing in of a small quantity of bran reduces these 90 to 70 parts with
the ordinary processes; but the loss is not alone there, for the foregoing
table shows that the best portion of the grain is rejected from the food
of man that brown or dark bread is made of flour of very good quality, and
that the first quality bread is made from the portion of the endosperm
containing the gluten in the smallest quantity and in the least developed
form.

This is a consideration not to be passed over lightly; assuredly the gluten
of the center contains as much azote as the gluten of the circumference,
but it must not be admitted in a general way that the alimentary power of
a body is in connection with the amount of azote it contains, and without
entering into considerations which would carry us too wide of the subject,
we shall simply state that if the flesh of young animals, as, for instance,
the calf, has a debilitating action, while the developed flesh of
full-grown animals--of a heifer, for example--has really nourishing
properties, although the flesh of each animal contains the same quantity of
azote, we must conclude that the proportion of elements is not everything,
and that the azotic or nitrogenous elements are more nourishing in
proportion as they are more developed. This is why the gluten of the layers
nearest the bran is of quite a special interest from the point of view of
alimentation and in the preparation of bread.


THE EMBRYO AND THE COATING OF THE EMBRYO.

To be intelligible, I must commence by some very brief remarks on the
tissues of vegetables. There are two sorts distinguished among plants;
some seem of no importance in the phenomena of nutrition; others, on the
contrary, tend to the assimilation of the organic or inorganic components
which should nourish and develop all the parts of the plant. The latter
have a striking analogy with ferments; their composition is almost similar,
and their action is increased or diminished by the same causes.

These tissues, formed in a state of repose in vegetables as in grain, have
special properties; thus the berry possesses a pericarp whose tissues
should remain foreign to the phenomena of germination, and these tissues
show no particularity worthy of remark, but the coating of the embryo,
which should play an active part, possesses, on the contrary, properties
that may be compared to those of ferments. With regard to these ferments,
I must further remark that I have not been able, nor am I yet able, to
express in formula my opinion of the nature of these bodies, but little
known as yet; I have only made use of the language mostly employed, without
wishing to touch on questions raised by the effects of the presence, and
by the more complex effects of living bodies, which exercise analogous
actions.

With these reservations I shall proceed to examine the tissues in the berry
which help toward the germination.

THE EMBRYO (10, see woodcut) is composed of the root of the plant, with
which we have nothing to do here. This root of the plant which is to grow
is embedded in a mass of cells full of fatty bodies. These bodies present
this remarkable particularity, that they contain among their elements
sulphur and phosphorus. When you dehydrate by alcohol 100 grammes of the
embryo of wheat, obtained by the same means as the membrane (a process
indicated later on), this embryo, treated with ether, produces 20 grammes
of oils composed elementarily of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, azote, sulphur,
and phosphorus. This analysis, made according to the means indicated by M.
Fremy, shows that the fatty bodies of the embryo are composed like those of
the germ of an egg, like those of the brain and of the nervous system of
animals. It is necessary for us to stop an instant at this fact: in the
first place, because it proves that vegetables are designed to form the
phosphoric as well as the nitrogenous and ternary aliments, and finally,
because it indicates how important it is to mix the embryo and its
dependents with the bread in the most complete manner possible, seeing that
a large portion of these phosphoric bodies always become decomposed during
the baking.

COATING OF THE EMBRYO.--This membrane (6), which is only an expansion of
the embryo, surrounds the endosperm; it is composed of beautiful irregular
cubic cells, diminishing according as they come nearer to the embryo. These
cells are composed, first, of the insoluble cellular tissue; second,
of phosphate of chalk and fatty phosphoric bodies; third, of soluble
cerealine. In order to study the composition and the nature of this
tissue, it must be completely isolated, and this result is obtained in the
following manner.

The wheat should be damped with water containing 10 parts in 100 of
alcoholized caustic soda; at the expiration of one hour the envelopes of
the pericarp, and of the testa Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, should be separated by
friction in a coarse cloth, having been reduced by the action of the alkali
to a pulpy state; each berry should then be opened separately to remove the
portion of the envelope held in the fold of the crease, and then all the
berries divided in two are put into three parts of water charged with
one-hundredth of caustic potash. This liquid dissolves the gluten, divides
the starch, and at the expiration of twenty-four hours the parts of the
berries are kneaded between the fingers, collected in pure water, and
washed until the water issues clear; these membranes with their embryos,
which are often detached by this operation, are cast into water acidulated
with one-hundredth of hydrochloric acid, and at the end of several hours
they should be completely washed. The product obtained consists of
beautiful white membranes, insoluble in alkalies and diluted acids, which
show under the microscope beautiful cells joined in a tissue following the
embryo, with which it has indeed a striking analogy in its properties and
composition. This membrane, exhausted by the alcohol and ether, gives, by
an elementary analysis, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and azote. Unfortunately,
under the action of the tests this membrane has been killed, and it no
longer possesses the special properties of active tissues. Among these
properties three may be especially mentioned:

1st. Its resistance to water charged with a mineral salt, such as sea salt
for instance

2d. Its action through its presence.

3d. Its action as a ferment.

The action of saltwater is explained as follows: When the berry is plunged
into pure water it will be observed that the water penetrates in the course
of a few hours to the very center of the endosperm, but if water charged
or saturated with sea salt be used, it will be seen that the liquid
immediately passes through the teguments Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5, and stops
abruptly before the embryo membrane No. 6, which will remain quite dry and
brittle for several days, the berry remaining all the time in the
water. Should the water penetrate further after several days, it can be
ascertained that the entrance was gained through the part No 10 free of
this tissue, and this notwithstanding the cells are full of fatty bodies.
This membrane alone produces this action, for if the coatings Nos. 2, 3, 4,
and 5 be removed, the resistance to the liquid remains the same, while if
the whole, or a portion of it, be divided, either by friction between two
millstones or by simple incisions, the liquid penetrates the berry within
a few hours. This property is analogous to that of the radicules of roots,
which take up the bodies most suitable for the nourishment of the plant. It
proves, besides, that this membrane, like all those endowed with life, does
not obey more the ordinary laws of permeability than those of chemical
affinity, and this property can be turned to advantage in the preservation
of grain in decortication and grinding.

To determine the action of this tissue through its presence, take 100
grammes of wheat, wash it and remove the first coating by decortication;
then immerse it for several hours in lukewarm water, and dry afterwards in
an ordinary temperature. It should then be reduced in a small coffee mill,
the flour and middlings separated by sifting and the bran repassed through
a machine that will crush it without breaking it; then dress it again, and
repeat the operation six times at least. The bran now obtained is composed
of the embryous membrane, a little flour adhering to it, and some traces
of the teguments Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5. This coarse tissue-weighs about 14
grammes, and to determine its action through its presence, place it in 200
grammes of water at a temperature of 86 deg.; afterwards press it. The liquid
that escapes contains chiefly the flour and cerealine. Filter this liquid,
and put it in a test glass marked No. 1, which will serve to determine the
action of the cerealine.

The bran should now be washed until the water issues pure, and until it
shows no bluish color when iodized water and sulphuric acid are added; when
the washing is finished the bran swollen by the water is placed under a
press, and the liquid extracted is placed, after being filtered, in a test
tube. This test tube serves to show that all cerealine has been removed
from the blades of the tissue. Finally, these small blades of bran, washed
and pressed, are cast, with 50 grammes of lukewarm water, into a test tube,
marked No. 3; 100 grammes of diluted starch to one-tenth of dry starch
are then added in each test tube, and they are put into a water bath at
a temperature of 104 deg. Fahrenheit, being stirred lightly every fifteen
minutes. At the expiration of an hour, or at the most an hour and a half,
No. 1 glass no longer contains any starch, as it has been converted into
dextrine and glucose by the cerealine, and the iodized water only produces
a purple color. No. 2 glass, with the same addition, produces a bluish
color, and preserves the starch intact, which proves that the bran was well
freed from the cerealine contained. No. 3 glass, like No. 1, shows a purple
coloring, and the liquid only contains, in place of the starch, dextrine
and glucose, _i. e_, the tissue has had the same action as the cerealine
deprived of the tissue, and the cerealine as the tissue freed from
cerealine. The same membrane rewashed can again transform the diluted
starch several times. This action is due to the presence of the embryous
membrane, for after four consecutive operations it still preserves its
original weight. As regards the remains of the other segments, they have
no influence on this phenomenon, for the coating Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5,
separated by the water and friction, have no action whatever on the diluted
starch. Besides its action through its presence, which is immediate,
the embryous membrane may also act as a ferment, active only after a
development, varying in duration according to the conditions of temperature
and the presence or absence of ferments in acting.

I make a distinction here as is seen, between the action through being
present, and the action of real ferments, but it is not my intention to
approve or disapprove of the different opinions expressed on this subject.
I make use of these expressions only to explain more clearly the phenomena
I have to speak of, for it is our duty to bear in mind that the real
ferments only act after a longer or shorter period of development, while,
on the other hand, the effects through presence are immediate.

I now return to the embryous membrane. Various causes increase or decrease
the action of this tissue, but it may be said in general that all the
agents that kill the embryous membrane will also kill the cerealine. This
was the reason why I at first attributed the production of dark bread
exclusively to the latter ferment, but it was easy to observe that during
the baking, decompositions resulted at over 158 deg. Fah., while the cerealine
was still coagulated, and that bread containing bran, submitted to 212 deg. of
heat, became liquefied in water at 104 deg. It was now easy to determine
that dark flours, from which the cerealine had been removed by repeated
washings, still produced dark bread. It was at this time, in remembering
my experiences with organic bodies, I determined the properties of the
insoluble tissue, deprived of the soluble cerealine, with analogous
properties, but distinguished not alone by its solid organization and state
of insolubility, but also by its resistance to heat, which acts as on
yeast. There exists, in reality, I repeat, a resemblance between the
embryous membrane and the yeast; they have the same immediate composition;
they are destroyed by the same poisons, deadened by the same temperatures,
annihilated by the same agents, propagated in an analogous manner, and
it might be said that the organic tissues endowed with life are only an
agglomeration of fixed cells of ferments. At all events, when the blades of
the embryous membrane, prepared as already stated, are exposed to a water
bath at 212 deg., this tissue, in contact with the diluted starch, produces
the same decomposition; the contact, however, should continue two or three
hours in place of one. If, instead of placing these membranes in the water
bath, they are enveloped in two pounds of dough, and this dough put in the
oven, after the baking the washed membranes produce the same results, which
especially proves that this membrane can support a temperature of 212 deg. Fah.
without disorganization. We shall refer to this property in speaking of the
phenomena of panification.

CEREALINE.--The cells composing the embryous membrane contain, as already
stated, the cerealine, but after the germination they contain cerealine and
diastase, that is to say, a portion of the cerealine changed into diastase,
with which it has the greatest analogy. It is known how difficult it is to
isolate and study albuminous substances. The following is the method of
obtaining and studying cerealine. Take the raw embryous membrane, prepared
as stated, steep it for an hour in spirits of wine diluted with twice its
volume of water, and renew this liquid several times until the dextrine,
glucose, coloring matters, etc., have been completely removed. The
membranes should now be pressed and cast into a quantity of water
sufficient to make a fluid paste of them, squeeze out the mixture,
filter the liquid obtained, and this liquid will contain the cerealine
sufficiently pure to be studied in its effects. Its principal properties
are: The liquid evaporated at a low temperature produces an amorphous,
rough mass nearly colorless, and almost entirely soluble in distilled
water; this solution coagulates between 158 deg. and 167 deg. Fah., and the
coagulum is insoluble in acids and weak alkalies; the solution is
precipitated by all diluted acids, by phosphoric acid at all the degrees of
hydration, and even by a current of carbonic acid. All these precipitates
redissolve with an excess of acid, sulphuric acid excepted. Concentrated
sulphuric acid forms an insoluble downy white precipitate, and the
concentrated vegetable acids, with the exception of tannic acid, do not
determine any precipitate. Cerealine coagulated by an acid redissolves in
an excess of the same acid, but it has become dead and has no more action
on the starch. The alkalies do not form any precipitate, but they kill the
cerealine as if it had been precipitated The neutral rennet does not make
any precipitate in a solution of cerealine--5 centigrammes of dry cerealine
transform in twenty-five minutes 10 grammes of starch, reduced to a paste
by 100 grammes of water at 113 deg. Fah. It will be seen that cerealine has a
grand analogy with albumen and legumine, but it is distinguished from them
by the action of the rennet, of the heat of acids, alcohol, and above all
by its property of transforming the starch into glucose and dextrine.

It may be said that some albuminous substances have this property, but it
must be borne in mind that these bodies, like gluten, for example, only
possess it after the commencement of the decomposition. The albuminous
matter approaching nearest to cerealine is the diastase, for it is only a
transformation of the cerealine during the germination, the proof of which
may be had in analyzing the embryous membrane, which shows more diastase
and less cerealine in proportion to the advancement of the germination: it
differs, however, from the diastase by the action of heat, alcohol, etc.
It is seen that in every case the cerealine and the embryous membrane
act together, and in an analogous manner; we shall shortly examine their
effects on the digestion and in the phenomena of panification.

PHOSPHATE OF CALCIUM.--Mr. Payen was the first to make the observation
that the greatest amount of phosphate of chalk is found in the teguments
adjoining the farinaceous or floury mass. This observation is important
from two points of view; in the first place, it shows us that this mineral
aliment, necessary to the life of animals, is rejected from ordinary bread;
and in the next place, it brings a new proof that phosphate of chalk is
found, and ought to be found, in everyplace where there are membranes
susceptible of exercising vital functions among animals as well as
vegetables.

Phosphate of chalk is not in reality (as I wished to prove in another work)
a plastic matter suitable for forming bones, for the bones of infants are
three times more solid than those of old men, which contain three times
as much of it. The quantity of phosphate of chalk necessary to the
constitution of animals is in proportion to the temperature of those
animals, and often in the inverse ratio of the weight of their bones, for
vegetables, although they have no bones, require phosphate of chalk. This
is because this salt is the natural stimulant of living membranes, and the
bony tissue is only a depot of phosphate of chalk, analogous to the adipose
tissue, the fat of which is absorbed when the alimentation coming from the
exterior becomes insufficient. Now, as we know all the parts constituting
the berry of wheat, it will be easy to explain the phenomena of
panification, and to conclude from the present moment that it is not
indifferent to reject from the bread this embryous membrane where the
agents of digestion are found, viz., the phosphoric bodies and the
phosphate of chalk.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE ORIGIN OF NEW PROCESS MILLING.


The following article was written by Albert Hoppin, editor of the
_Northwestern Miller_, at the request of Special Agent Chas. W. Johnson,
and forms a part of his report to the census bureau on the manufacturing
industries of Minneapolis.

"The development of the milling industry in this city has been so
intimately connected with the growth and prosperity of the city itself,
that the steps by which the art of milling has reached its present high
state of perfection are worthy of note, especially as Minneapolis may
rightly claim the honor of having brought the improvements, which have
within the last decade so thoroughly revolutionized the art of making
flour, first into public notice, and of having contributed the largest
share of capital and inventive skill to their full development. So much is
this the case that the cluster of mills around the Falls of St. Anthony is
to-day looked upon as the head-center of the milling industry not only of
this country, but of the world. An exception to this broad statement may
possibly be made in favor of the city of Buda Pest, in Austro-Hungary, from
the leading mills in which the millers in this country have obtained many
valuable ideas. To the credit of American millers and millwrights it must,
however, be said that they have in all cases improved upon the information
they have thus obtained.

"To rightly understand the change that has taken place in milling methods
during the last ten years, it is necessary to compare the old way with the
new, and to observe wherein they differ. From the days of Oliver Evans, the
first American mechanic to make any improvement in milling machinery, until
1870, there was, if we may except some grain cleaning or smut machines,
no very strongly marked advance in milling machinery or in the methods of
manufacturing flour. It is true that the reel covered with finely-woven
silk bolting cloth had taken the place of the muslin or woolen covered hand
sieve, and that the old granite millstones have given place to the French
burr; but these did not affect the essential parts of the _modus operandi_,
although the quality of the product was, no doubt, materially improved. The
processes employed in all the mills in the United States ten years ago were
identical, or very nearly so, with those in use in the Brandywine Mills in
Evans's day. They were very simple, and may be divided into two distinct
operations.

"First. Grinding (literally) the wheat.

"Second. Bolting or separating the flour or interior portion of the berry
from the outer husk, or bran. It may seem to some a rash assertion, but
this primitive way of making flour is still in vogue in over one-half of
the mills of the United States. This does not, however, affect the truth of
the statement that the greater part of the flour now made in this country
is made on an entirely different and vastly-improved system, which has come
to be known to the trade as the new process.

"In looking for a reason for the sudden activity and spirit of progress
which had its culmination in the new process, the character of the
wheat raised in the different sections of the Union must be taken into
consideration. Wheat may be divided into two classes, spring and winter,
the latter generally being more starchy and easily pulverized, and at the
same time having a very tough bran or husk, which does not readily crumble
or cut to pieces in the process of grinding. It was with this wheat that
the mills of the country had chiefly to do, and the defects of the old
system of milling were not then so apparent. With the settlement of
Minnesota, and the development of its capacities as a wheat-growing State,
a new factor in the milling problem was introduced, which for a time bid
fair to ruin every miller who undertook to solve it. The wheat raised in
this State was, from the climatic conditions, a spring wheat, hard in
structure and having a thin, tender, and friable bran. In milling this
wheat, if an attempt was made to grind it as fine as was then customary to
grind winter wheat, the bran was ground almost as fine as the flour, and
passed as readily through the meshes of the bolting reels or sieves,
rendering the flour dark, specky, and altogether unfit to enter the Eastern
markets in competition with flour from the winter wheat sections. On the
other hand, if the grinding was not so fine as to break up the bran,
the interior of the berry being harder to pulverize, was not rendered
sufficiently fine, and there remained after the flour was bolted out a
large percentage of shorts or middlings, which, while containing the
strongest and best flour in the berry, were so full of dirt and impurities
as to render them unfit for any further grinding except for the very lowest
grade of flour, technically known as 'red dog.' The flour produced from
the first grinding was also more or less specky and discolored, and, in
everything but strength, inferior to that made from winter wheat, while the
'yield' was so small, or, in other words, the amount of wheat which it took
to make a barrel of flour was so large, that milling in Minnesota and other
spring wheat sections was anything but profitable.

"The problem which ten years since confronted the millers of this city was
how to obtain from the wheat which they had to grind a white, clear flour,
and to so increase the yield as to leave some margin for profit. The first
step in the solution of this problem was the invention by E. N. La Croix
of the machine which has since been called the purifier, which removed the
dirt and light impurities from the refuse middlings in the same manner that
dust and chaff are removed from wheat by a fanning mill. The middlings thus
purified were then reground, and the result was a much whiter and cleaner
flour than it had been possible to obtain under the old process of low
close grinding. This flour was called 'patent' or 'fancy,' and at once took
a high position in the market. The first machine built by La Croix was
immediately improved by George T. Smith, and has since then been the
subject of numberless variations, changes, and improvements; and over the
principles embodied in its construction there has been fought one of the
longest and most bitter battles recorded in the annals of patent litigation
in this country. The purifier is to-day the most important machine in use
in the manufacture of flour in this country, and may with propriety be
called the corner-stone of new process milling. The earliest experiments in
its use in this country were made in what was then known as the 'big mill'
in this city, owned by Washburn, Stephens & Co., and now known as the
Washburn Mill B.

"The next step in the development of the new process, also originating
in Minneapolis, was the abandonment of the old system of cracking the
millstone, and substituting in its stead the use of smooth surfaces on the
millstones, thus in a large measure doing away with the abrasion of the
bran, and raising the quality of the flour produced at the first grinding.
So far as we know, Mr. E. R. Stephens, a Minneapolis miller, then employed
in the mill owned by Messrs. Pillsbury, Crocker & Fish, and now a member of
the prominent milling firm of Freeman & Stephens, River Falls, Wisconsin,
was the first to venture on this innovation. He also first practiced the
widening of the furrows in the millstones and increasing their number, thus
adding largely to the amount of middlings made at the first grinding, and
raising the percentage of patent flour. He was warmly supported by Amasa K.
Ostrander, since deceased, the founder and for a number of years the editor
of the _North-Western Miller_, a trade newspaper. The new ideas were for a
time vigorously combated by the millers, but their worth was so plain that
they were soon adopted, not only in Minneapolis, but by progressive millers
throughout the country. The truth was the 'new process' in its entirety,
which may be summarized in four steps--first, grinding or, more properly,
granulating the berry; second, bolting or separating the 'chop' or meal
into first flour, middlings, and bran; third, purifying the middlings,
fourth, regrinding and rebolting the middlings to produce the higher grade,
or 'patent' flour. This higher grade flour drove the best winter wheat
flours out of the Eastern markets, and placed milling in Minnesota upon a
firm basis. The development of the 'new process' cannot be claimed by any
one man. Hundreds of millers all over the country have contributed to its
advance, but the millers of Minneapolis have always taken the lead.

"Within the past two or three years what may be distinctively called the
'new process' has, in the mills of Minneapolis and some few other leading
mills in the country, been giving place to a new system, or rather, a
refinement of the processes above described. This latest system is known to
the trade as the 'gradual reduction' or high-grinding system, as the 'new
process' is the medium high-grinding system, and the old way is the low or
close grinding system. In using the gradual reduction in making flour the
millstones are abandoned, except for finishing some of the inferior grades
of flour, and the work is done by means of grooved and plain rollers, made
of chilled iron or porcelain. In some cases disks of chilled iron, suitably
furrowed, are used, and in others concave mills, consisting of a cylinder
running against a concave plate. In Minneapolis the chilled iron rolls take
the precedence of all other means.

"The system of gradual reduction is much more complicated than either of
those which preceded it; but the results obtained are a marked advance over
the 'new process.' The percentage of high-grade flour is increased, several
grades of different degrees of excellence being produced, and the yield
is also greater from a given quantity of wheat. The system consists in
reducing the wheat to flour, not at one operation, as in the old system,
nor in two grindings, as in the 'new process,' but in several successive
reductions, four, five, or six, as the case may be. The wheat is first
passed through a pair of corrugated chilled iron rollers, which merely
split it open along the crease of the berry, liberating the dirt which lies
in the crease so that it can be removed by bolting. A very small percentage
of low-grade flour is also made in this reduction. After passing through
what is technically called a 'scalping reel' to remove the dirt and flour,
the broken wheat is passed through a second set of corrugated rollers, by
which it is further broken up, and then passes through a second separating
reel, which removes the flour and middlings. This operation is repeated
successively until the flour portion of the berry is entirely removed from
the bran, the necessary separation being made after each reduction. The
middlings from the several reductions are passed through the purifiers,
and, after being purified, are reduced to flour by successive reductions
on smooth iron or porcelain rollers. In some cases, as stated above, iron
disks and concave mills are substituted for the roller mill, but the
operation is substantially the same. One of the principal objects sought to
be attained by this high-grinding system is to avoid all abrasion of the
bran, another is to take out the dirt in the crease of the berry at the
beginning of the process, and still another to thoroughly free the bran
from flour, so as to obtain as large a yield as possible. Incidental to the
improved methods of milling, as now practiced in this country, is a marked
improvement in the cleaning of the grain and preparing it for flouring. The
earliest grain-cleaning machine was the 'smutter,' the office of which was
to break the smut balls, and scour the outside of the bran to remove any
adhering dust, the scouring machine being too harsh in its action, breaking
the kernels of wheat, and so scratching and weakening the bran that it
broke up readily in the grinding. The scouring process was therefore
lessened, and was followed by brush machines, which brushed the dirt,
loosened up and left by the scourer, from the berry. Other machines for
removing the fuzzy and germ ends of the berry have also been introduced,
and everything possible is done to free the grain from extraneous
impurities before the process of reduction is commenced. In all the minor
details of the mill there has been the same marked change, until the modern
merchant mill of to-day no more resembles that of twenty-five years ago
than does the modern cotton mill the old-fashioned distaff. The change has
extended into the winter wheat sections, and no mill in the United States
can hope to hold its place in the markets unless it is provided with the
many improvements in machinery and processes which have resulted from the
experiments begun in this city only ten years since, and which have
made the name of Minneapolis and the products of her many mills famous
throughout the world. The relative merits of the flour made by the new
process and the old have been warmly discussed, but the general verdict
of the great body of consumers is that the patent or new process flour is
better in every way for bread making purposes, being clearer, whiter, more
evenly granulated, and possessing more strength. Careful chemical analysis
has confirmed this. As between winter and spring wheat flours made by the
new process and gradual reduction systems, it maybe remarked that the
former contain more starch and are whiter in color, while the latter,
having more gluten, excel in strength. In milling all varieties of wheat,
whether winter or spring, the new processes are in every way superior to
the old, and, in aiding their inception and development, the millers of
Minneapolis have conferred a lasting benefit on the country.

"Minneapolis, Minn., December 1, 1880."


THE MILLING STRUCTURES AND MACHINERY.


Mr. Johnson added the following, showing the present status of the milling
industry in Minneapolis:

"The description of the process of the manufacture of flour so well
given above, conveys no idea of the extent and magnitude of the milling
structures, machinery, and buildings employed in the business. Many of the
leading millers and millwrights have personally visited and studied the
best mills in England, France, Hungary, and Germany, and are as familiar
with their theory, methods, and construction as of their own, and no
expense or labor has been spared in introducing the most approved features
of the improvements in the foreign mills. Experimenting is constantly going
on, and the path behind the successful millers is strewn with the wrecks of
failures. A very large proportion of the machinery is imported, though the
American machinists are fast outstripping their European rivals in the
quality and efficiency of the machinery needed for the new mills constantly
going up.

"There are twenty-eight of these mills now constructed and at work,
operating an equivalent of 412 runs of stone, consuming over sixteen
million bushels of wheat, and manufacturing over three million barrels of
flour annually. Their capacities range from 250 to 1,500 barrels of flour
per day. Great as these capacities are, there is now one in process of
construction, the Pillsbury A Mill, which at the beginning of the harvest
of 1881 will have a capacity of 4,000 barrels daily. The Washburn A Mill,
whose capacity is now 1,500 barrels, is being enlarged to make 8,500
barrels a day, and the Crown Roller Mill, owned by Christian Bros. & Co.,
is also being enlarged to produce 3,000 barrels a day. The largest mill in
Europe has a daily capacity of but 2,800 barrels, and no European mill is
fitted with the exquisite perfection of machinery and apparatus to be found
in the mills of this city.

"The buildings are mainly built of blue limestone, found so abundant in the
quarries of this city, range and line work, and rest on the solid ledge.
The earlier built mills are severely plain, but the newer ones are greatly
improved by the taste of the architect, and are imposing and beautiful in
appearance."


DIRECT FOREIGN TRADE.

The flour of Minneapolis, holding so high a rank in the markets of the
world, is always in active demand, especially the best grades, and brings
from $1.00 to $1.60 per barrel more than flour of the best qualities of
southern, eastern, or foreign wheat. During the year nearly a million
barrels were shipped direct to European and other foreign ports, on through
bills of lading, and drawn for by banks here having special foreign
exchange arrangements, at sight, on the day of shipment. This trade
is constantly increasing, and the amount of flour handled by eastern
commission men is decreasing in proportion.

       *       *       *       *       *

Referring to the foregoing, the following letter from Mr. Geo. T. Smith to
the editor of the _London Miller_ is of interest:

SIR: I find published in the _North-western Miller_ of December 24, 1880,
extracts from an article on the origin of new process milling, prepared by
Albert Hoppin, Esq., editor of the above-named journal, for the use of one
of the statistical divisions of the United States census, which is so at
variance, in at least one important particular, with the facts set forth in
the paper read by me before the British and Irish millers, at their meeting
in May last, that I think I ought to take notice of its statements, more
especially as the _North-Western Miller_ has quite a circulation on this
side of the water.

As stated in the paper read by me above-mentioned, I was engaged in
February, 1871, by Mr. Christian, who was then operating the "big," or
Washburn Mill at Minneapolis, to take charge of the stones in that mill. At
this time Mr. Christian was very much interested in the improvement of the
quality of his flour, which in common with the flour of Minneapolis mills,
without exception, was very poor indeed. For some time previous to this I
had insisted to him most strenuously that the beginning of any improvement
must be found in smooth, true, and well balanced stones, and it was because
he was at last convinced that my ideas were at least worthy of a practical
test I was placed in charge of his mill. Nearly two months were consumed in
truing and smoothing the stone, as all millers in the mill had struck
at once when they became acquainted with the character of the changes I
proposed to make.

I remained with Mr. Christian until the latter part of 1871, in all about
eight months. During this time the flour from the Washburn Mill attained a
celebrity that made it known and sought after all over the United States.
It commanded attention as an event of the very greatest importance, from
the fact that it was justly felt that if a mill grinding spring wheat
exclusively was capable of producing a flour infinitely superior in every
way to the best that could be made from the finest varieties of winter
wheats, the new North Western territory, with its peculiar adaptation to
the growing of spring grain, and its boundless capacity for production,
must at once become one of the most important sections of the country.

Mr. Christian's appreciation of the improvements I had made in his mill
was attested by doubly-locked and guarded entrances, and by the stringent
regulations which were adopted to prevent any of his employes carrying
information with regard to the process to his competitors.

All this time other Minneapolis mills were doing such work and only such as
they had done previously. Ought not the writer of an article on the origin
of new process milling--which article is intended to become historical, and
to have its authenticity indorsed by the government--to have known whether
Mr. Christian, in the Washburn Mill, did or did not make a grade of
flour which has hardly been excelled since for months before any other
Minneapolis mill approached his product in any degree? And should he not
be well enough acquainted with the milling of that period--1871-2--to know
that such results as were obtained in the Washburn Mill could only be
secured by the use of _smooth_ and _true_ stones? Mr. Stephens--whom I
shall mention again presently--did _not_ work in the Washburn Mill while I
was in charge of it.

In the fall of 1871 I entered into a contract with Mr. C. A. Pillsbury,
owner of the Taylor Mill and senior partner in the firm by whom the
Minneapolis Mill was operated, to put both those mills into condition to
make the same grade of flour as Mr. Christian was making. The consideration
in the contract was 5,000 dols. At the above mills I met to some extent the
same obstruction in regard to millers striking as had greeted me at Mr.
Christian's mill earlier in the year; but among those who did not strike at
the Minneapolis Mill I saw, for the first time, Mr. Stephens--then still
in his apprenticeship--whom Mr. Hoppin declares to have been, "so far as I
know," the first miller to use smooth stones. If Mr. Hoppin is right in his
assertion, perhaps he will explain why, during the eight months I was at
the Washburn Mill, Mr. Stephens did not make a corresponding improvement
in the product of the Minneapolis Mill. That he did not do this is amply
proved by the fact of Mr. Pillsbury giving me 5,000 dols. to introduce
improvements into his mills, when, supposing Mr. Hoppin's statement to
be correct, he might have had the same alterations carried out under Mr.
Stephens' direction at a mere nominal cost. As a matter of fact, the stones
in both the Taylor and Minneapolis Mills were as rough as any in the
Washburn Mill when I took charge of them.

Thus it appears (1) that the flour made by the mill in which Stephens was
employed was not improved in quality, while that of the Washburn Mill,
where he was not employed, became the finest that had ever been made in the
United States at that time. That (2) the owner of the mill in which Mr.
Stephens was employed, as he was not making good flour, engaged me at a
large cost to introduce into his mills the alterations by which only, both
Mr. Hoppin and myself agree, could any material improvement in the milling
of that period be effected, .viz., smooth, true, and well-balanced
stones.--GEO. T. SMITH.

       *       *       *       *       *

For breachy animals do not use barbed fences. To see the lacerations that
these fences have produced upon the innocent animals should be sufficient
testimony against them. Many use pokes and blinders on cattle and goats,
but as a rule such things fail. The better way is to separate breachy
animals from the lot, as others will imitate their habits sooner or later,
and then, if not curable, _sell them_.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE GUENON MILK-MIRROR.


The name of the simple Bordeaux peasant is, and should be, permanently
associated with his discovery that the milking qualities of cows were, to a
considerable extent, indicated by certain external marks easily observed.
We had long known that capacious udders and large milk veins, combined with
good digestive capacity and a general preponderance of the alimentary over
the locomotive system, were indications that rarely misled in regard to the
ability of a cow to give much milk; but to judge of the amount of milk a
cow would yield, and the length of time she would hold out in her flow, two
or three years before she could be called a cow--this was Guenon's great
accomplishment, and the one for which he was awarded a gold medal by the
Agricultural Society of his native district. This was the first of many
honors with which he was rewarded, and it is much to say that no committee
of agriculturists who have ever investigated the merits of the system
have ever spoken disparagingly of it. Those who most closely study it,
especially following Guenon's original system, which has never been
essentially improved upon, are most positive in regard to its truth,
enthusiastic in regard to its value.

The fine, soft hair upon the hinder part of a cow's udder for the most part
turns upward. This upward-growing hair extends in most cases all over that
part of the udder visible between the hind legs, but is occasionally marked
by spots or mere lines, usually slender ovals, in which the hair grows
down. This tendency of the hair to grow upward is not confined to the udder
proper; but extends out upon the thighs and upward to the tail. The edges
of this space over which the hair turns up are usually distinctly marked,
and, as a rule, the larger the area of this space, which is called the
"mirror" or "escutcheon," the more milk the cow will give, and the longer
she will continue in milk.

[Illustration: ESCUTCHEON OF THE JERSEY BULL-CALF, GRAND MIRROR, 4,904.]

That portion of the escutcheon which covers the udder and extends out on
the inside of each thigh, has been designated as the udder or mammary
mirror; that which runs upward towards the setting on of the tail, the
rising or placental mirror. The mammary mirror is of the greater value,
yet the rising mirror is not to be disregarded. It is regarded of especial
moment that the mirror, taken as a whole, be symmetrical, and especially
that the mammary mirror be so; yet it often occurs that it is far
otherwise, its outline being often very fantastical--exhibiting deep
_bays_, so to speak, and islands of downward growing hair. There are also
certain "ovals," never very large, yet distinct, which do not detract from
the estimated value of an escutcheon; notably those occurring on the lobes
of the udder just above the hind teats. These are supposed to be points of
value, though for what reason it would be hard to tell, yet they do occur
upon some of the very best milch cows, and those whose mirrors correspond
most closely to their performances.

Mr. Guenon's discovery enables breeders to determine which of their calves
are most promising, and in purchasing young stock it affords indications
which rarely fail as to their comparative milk yield. These indications
occasionally prove utterly fallacious, and Mr. Guenon gives rules for
determining this class, which he calls "bastards," without waiting for them
to fail in their milk. The signs are, however, rarely so distinct that one
would be willing to sell a twenty-quart cow, whose yield confirmed the
prediction of her mirror at first calving, because of the possibility of
the going dry in two months, or so, as indicated by her bastardy marks.

It is an interesting fact that the mirrors of bulls (which are much like
those of cows, but less extensive in every direction) are reflected in
their daughters. This gives rise to the dangerous custom of breeding for
mirrors, rather than for milk. What the results may be after a few years it
is easy to see. The mirror, being valued for its own sake--that is, because
it sells the heifers--will be likely to lose its practical significance and
value as a _milk_ mirror.

We have a striking photograph of a young Jersey bull, the property of Mr.
John L. Hopkins, of Atlanta, Ga., and called "Grand Mirror." This we have
caused to be engraved and the mirror is clearly shown. A larger mirror is
rarely seen upon a bull. We hope in a future number to exhibit some cows'
mirrors of different forms and degrees of excellence.--_Rural New Yorker_.

       *       *       *       *       *




TWO GOOD LAWN TREES.


The negundo, or ash-leaved maple, as it is called in the Eastern States,
better known at the West as a box elder, is a tree that is not known as
extensively as it deserves. It is a hard maple, that grows as rapidly as
the soft maple; is hardy, possesses a beautiful foliage of black green
leaves, and is symmetrical in shape. Through eastern Iowa I found it
growing wild, and a favorite tree with the early settlers, who wanted
something that gave shade and protection to their homes quickly on their
prairie farms. Brought east, its growth is rapid, and it loses none of the
characteristics it possessed in its western home. Those who have planted it
are well pleased with it. It is a tree that transplants easily, and I know
of no reason why it should not be more popular.

For ornamental lawn planting, I give pre-eminence to the cut-leaf weeping
birch. Possessing all the good qualities of the white birch, it combines
with them a beauty and delicate grace yielded by no other tree. It is an
upright grower, with slender, drooping branches, adorned with leaves of
deep rich green, each leaf being delicately cut, as with a knife, into
semi-skeletons. It holds its foliage and color till quite late in the fall.
The bark, with age, becomes white, resembling the white birch, and the
beauty of the tree increases with its age. It is a free grower, and
requires no trimming. Nature has given it a symmetry which art cannot
improve.

H.T.J.

       *       *       *       *       *




CUTTING SODS FOR LAWNS.


I am a very good sod layer, and used to lay very large lawns--half to
three-quarters of an acre. I cut the sods as follows: Take a board eight to
nine inches wide, four, five, or six feet long, and cut downward all around
the board, then turn the board over and cut again alongside the edge of the
board, and so on as many sods as needed. Then cut the turf with a sharp
spade, all the same lengths. Begin on one end, and roll together. Eight
inches by five feet is about as much as a man can handle conveniently. It
is very easy to load them on a wagon, cart, or barrow, and they can be
quickly laid. After laying a good piece, sprinkle a little with a watering
pot, if the sods are dry; then use the back of the spade to smooth them a
little. If a very fine effect is wanted, throw a shovelful or two of good
earth over each square yard, and smooth it with the back of a steel rake.

F.H.

       *       *       *       *       *




[COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.]

HORTICULTURAL NOTES.


The Western New York Society met at Rochester, January 26.

_New Apples, Pears, Grapes, etc._--Wm. C Barry, secretary of the committee
on native fruits, read a full report. Among the older varieties of the
apple, he strongly recommended Button Beauty, which had proved so excellent
in Massachusetts, and which had been equally successful at the Mount
Hope Nurseries at Rochester; the fine growth of the tree and its great
productiveness being strongly in its favor. The Wagener and Northern Spy
are among the finer sorts. The Melon is one of the best among the older
sorts; the fruit being quite tender will not bear long shipment, but it
possesses great value for home use, and being a poor grower, it had been
thrown aside by nurserymen and orchardists. It should be top-grafted on
more vigorous sorts. The Jonathan is another fine sort of slender growth,
which should be top-grafted.

Among new pears, Hoosic and Frederic Clapp were highly commended for their
excellence. Some of the older peaches of fine quality had of late been
neglected, and among them Druid Hill and Brevoort.

Among the many new peaches highly recommended for their early ripening,
there was great resemblance to each other, and some had proved earlier than
Alexander.

Of the new grapes, Lady Washington was the most promising. The Secretary
was a failure. The Jefferson was a fine sort, of high promise.

Among the new white grapes, Niagara, Prentiss, and Duchess stood
pre-eminent, and were worthy of the attention of cultivators. The
Vergennes, from Vermont, a light amber colored sort, was also highly
commended. The Elvira, so highly valued in Missouri, does not succeed well
here. Several facts were stated in relation to the Delaware grape, showing
its reliability and excellence.

Several new varieties of the raspberry were named, but few of them were
found equal to the best old sorts. If Brinckle's Orange were taken as a
standard for quality, it would show that none had proved its equal in fine
quality. The Caroline was like it in color, but inferior in flavor. The New
Rochelle was of second quality. Turner was a good berry, but too soft for
distant carriage.

Of the many new strawberries named, each seemed to have some special
drawback. The Bidwell, however, was a new sort of particular excellence,
and Charles Downing thinks it the most promising of the new berries.

_Discussion on Grapes._--C. W. Beadle, of Ontario, in allusion to Moore's
Early grape, finds it much earlier than the Concord, and equal to it in
quality, ripening even before the Hartford. S. D. Willard, of Geneva,
thought it inferior to the Concord, and not nearly so good as the Worden.
The last named was both earlier and better than the Concord, and sold for
seven cents per pound when the Concord brought only four cents. C. A.
Green, of Monroe County, said the Lady Washington proved to be a very fine
grape, slightly later than Concord. P. L. Perry, of Canandaigua, said
that the Vergennes ripens with Hartford, and possesses remarkable keeping
qualities, and is of excellent quality and free from pulp. He presented
specimens which had been kept in good condition. He added, in relation to
the Worden grape, that some years ago it brought 18 cents per pound in New
York when the Concord sold three days later for only 8 cents. [In such
comparisons, however, it should be borne in mind that new varieties usually
receive more attention and better culture, giving them an additional
advantage.]

The Niagara grape received special attention from members. A. C. Younglove,
of Yates County, thought it superior to any other white grape for its many
good qualities. It was a vigorous and healthy grower, and the clusters were
full and handsome. W. J. Fowler, of Monroe County, saw the vine in October,
with the leaves still hanging well, a great bearer and the grape of fine
quality. C. L. Hoag, of Lockport, said he began to pick the Niagara on the
26th of August, but its quality improved by hanging on the vine. J. Harris,
of Niagara County, was well acquainted with the Niagara, and indorsed all
the commendation which had been uttered in its favor. T. C. Maxwell said
there was one fault--we could not get it, as it was not in market. W. C.
Barry, of Rochester, spoke highly of the Niagara, and its slight foxiness
would be no objection to those who like that peculiarity. C. L. Hoag
thought this was the same quality that Col. Wilder described as "a little
aromatic." A. C. Younglove found the Niagara to ripen with the Delaware.
Inquiry being made relative to the Pockington grape, H. E. Hooker said it
ripened as early as the Concord. C. A. Green was surprised that it had not
attracted more attention, as he regarded it as a very promising grape. J.
Charlton, of Rochester, said that the fruit had been cut for market on the
29th of August, and on the 6th of September it was fully ripe; but he has
known it to hang as late as November. J. S. Stone had found that when it
hung as late as November it became sweet and very rich in flavor.

_New Peaches._--A. C. Younglove had found such very early sorts as
Alexander and Amsden excellent for home use, but not profitable for market.
The insects and birds made heavy depredations on them. While nearly all
very early and high-colored sorts suffer largely from the birds, the
Rivers, a white peach, does not attract them, and hence it may be
profitable for market if skillfully packed; rough and careless handling
will spoil the fruit. He added that the Wheatland peach sustains its high
reputation, and he thought it the best of all sorts for market, ripening
with Late Crawford. It is a great bearer, but carries a crop of remarkably
uniform size, so that it is not often necessary to throw out a bad
specimen. This is the result of experience with it by Mr. Rogers at
Wheatland, in Monroe County, and at his own residence in Vine Valley. S. D.
Willard confirmed all that Mr. Younglove had said of the excellence of the
Rivers peach. He had ripened the Amsden for several years, and found it
about two weeks earlier than the Rivers, and he thought if the Amsden were
properly thinned, it would prevent the common trouble of its rotting; such
had been his experience. E. A. Bronson, of Geneva, objected to making very
early peaches prominent for marketing, as purchasers would prefer waiting
a few days to paying high prices for the earliest, and he would caution
people against planting the Amsden too largely, and its free recommendation
might mislead. May's Choice was named by H. E. Hooker as a beautiful yellow
peach, having no superior in quality, but perhaps it may not be found
to have more general value than Early and Late Crawford. It is scarcely
distinguishable in appearance from fine specimens of Early Crawford. W. C.
Barry was called on for the most recent experience with the Waterloo,
but said he was not at home when it ripened, but he learned that it had
sustained its reputation. A. C. Younglove said that the Salway is the best
late peach, ripening eight or ten days after the Smock. S. D. Willard
mentioned an orchard near Geneva, consisting of 25 Salway trees, which for
four years had ripened their crop and had sold for $4 per bushel in the
Philadelphia market, or for $3 at Geneva--a higher price than for any other
sort--and the owner intends to plant 200 more trees. W. C. Barry said the
Salway will not ripen at Rochester. Hill's Chili was named by some members
as a good peach for canning and drying, some stating that it ripens before
and others after Late Crawford. It requires thinning on the tree, or
the fruit will be poor. The Allen was pronounced by Mr. Younglove as an
excellent, intensely high-colored late peach.

_Insects Affecting Horticulture_.--Mr. Zimmerman spoke of the importance
of all cultivators knowing so much of insects and their habits as to
distinguish their friends from their enemies. When unchecked they increase
in an immense ratio, and he mentioned as an instance that the green fly
(_Aphis_) in five generations may become the parent of six thousand million
descendants. It is necessary, then, to know what other insects are employed
in holding them in check, by feeding on them. Some of our most formidable
insects have been accidentally imported from Europe, such as the codling
moth, asparagus beetle, cabbage butterfly, currant worm and borer, elm-tree
beetle, hessian fly, etc.; but in nearly every instance these have come
over without bringing their insect enemies with them, and in consequence
they have spread more extensively here than in Europe. It was therefore
urged that the Agricultural Department at Washington be requested to
import, as far as practicable, such parasites as are positively known to
prey on noxious insects. The cabbage fly eluded our keen custom-house
officials in 1866, and has enjoyed free citizenship ever since. By
accident, one of its insect enemies (a small black fly) was brought over
with it, and is now doing excellent work by keeping the cabbage fly in
check.

The codling moth, one of the most formidable fruit destroyers, may be
reduced in number by the well-known paper bands; but a more efficient
remedy is to shower them early in the season with Paris green, mixed in
water at the rate of only one pound to one hundred gallons of water, with
a forcing pump, soon after blossoming. After all the experiments made and
repellents used for the plum curculio, the jarring method is found the most
efficient and reliable, if properly performed. Various remedies for insects
sometimes have the credit of doing the work, if used in those seasons
when the insects happen to be few. With some insects, the use of oil is
advantageous, as it always closes up their breathing holes and suffocates
them. The oil should be mixed with milk, and then diluted as required, as
the oil alone cannot be mixed with the water. As a general remedy,
Paris green is the strongest that can be applied. A teaspoonful to a
tablespoonful, in a barrel of water, is enough. Hot water is the best
remedy for house plants. Place one hand over the soil, invert the pot, and
plunge the foliage for a second only at a time in water heated to from 150 deg.
to 200 deg.F, according to the plants; or apply with a fine rose. The yeast
remedy has not proved successful in all cases.

Among beneficial insects, there are about one hundred species of lady bugs,
and, so far as known, all are beneficial. Cultivators should know them.
They destroy vast quantities of plant lice. The ground beetles are mostly
cannibals, and should not be destroyed. The large black beetle, with
coppery dots, makes short work with the Colorado potato beetles; and
a bright green beetle will climb trees to get a meal of canker worms.
Ichneumon flies are among our most useful insects. The much-abused dragon
flies are perfectly harmless to us, but destroy many mosquitoes and flies.

Among insects that attack large fruits is the codling moth, to be destroyed
by paper bands, or with Paris green showered in water. The round-headed
apple-tree borer is to be cut out, and the eggs excluded with a sheet of
tarred paper around the stem, and slightly sunk in the earth. For the
oyster-shell bark louse, apply linseed oil. Paris green, in water,
will kill the canker worm. Tobacco water does the work for plant lice.
Peach-tree borers are excluded with tarred or felt paper, and cut out with
a knife. Jar the grape flea beetle on an inverted umbrella early in the
morning. Among small-fruit insects, the strawberry worms are readily
destroyed with hellebore, an ounce to a gallon of warm water. The same
remedy destroys the imported currant worm.

_Insect Destroyers_.--Prof. W. Saunders, of the Province of Ontario,
followed Mr. Zimmerman with a paper on other departments of the same
general subject, which contained much information and many suggestions of
great value to cultivators. He had found Paris green an efficient remedy
for the bud-moth on pear and other trees. He also recommends Paris green
for the grapevine flea beetle. Hellebore is much better for the pear slug
than dusting with sand, as these slugs, as soon as their skin is spoiled
by being sanded, cast it off and go on with their work of destruction as
freely as ever, and this they repeat. He remarked that it is a common error
that all insects are pests to the cultivator. There are many parasites,
or useful ones, which prey on our insect enemies. Out of 7,000 described
insects in this country, only about 50 have proved destructive to our
crops. Parasites are much more numerous. Among lepidopterous insects
(butterflies, etc.), there are very few noxious species; many active
friends are found among the Hymenoptera (wasps, etc.), the ichneumon flies
pre-eminently so; and in the order Hemiptera (bugs proper) are several that
destroy our enemies. Hence the very common error that birds which destroy
insects are beneficial to us, as they are more likely to destroy our insect
friends than the fewer enemies. Those known as _flycatchers_ may do neither
harm nor good; so far as they eat the wheat-midge and Hessian fly they
confer a positive benefit; in other instances they destroy both friends and
enemies. Birds that are only partly insectivorous, and which eat grain and
fruit, may need further inquiry. Prof. S. had examined the stomachs of many
such birds, and particularly of the American robin, and the only curculio
he ever found in any of these was a single one in a whole cherry which the
bird had bolted entire. Robins had proved very destructive to his grapes,
but had not assisted at all in protecting his cabbages growing alongside
his fruit garden. These vegetables were nearly destroyed by the larvae of
the cabbage fly, which would have afforded the birds many fine, rich meals.
This comparatively feeble insect has been allowed by the throngs of birds
to spread over the whole continent. A naturalist in one of the Western
States had examined several species of the thrush, and found they had eaten
mostly that class of insects known as our friends.

Prof. S. spoke of the remedies for root lice, among which were hot water
and bisulphide of carbon. Hot water will get cold before it can reach the
smaller roots, however efficient it may be showered on leaves. Bisulphide
of carbon is very volatile, inflammable, and sometimes explosive, and must
be handled with great care. It permeates the soil, and if in sufficient
quantity may be effective in destroying the phylloxera; but its cost and
dangerous character prevent it from being generally recommended.

Paris green is most generally useful for destroying insects. As sold to
purchasers, it is of various grades of purity. The highest in price is
commonly the purest, and really the cheapest. A difficulty with this
variable quality is that it cannot be properly diluted with water, and
those who buy and use a poor article and try its efficacy, will burn or
kill their plants when they happen to use a stronger, purer, and more
efficient one. Or, if the reverse is done, they may pronounce it a humbug
from the resulting failure. One teaspoonful, if pure, is enough for a large
pail of water; or if mixed with flour, there should be forty or fifty times
as much. Water is best, as the operator will not inhale the dust. London
purple is another form of the arsenic, and has very variable qualities
of the poison, being merely refuse matter from manufactories. It is more
soluble than Paris green, and hence more likely to scorch plants. On the
whole, Paris green is much the best and most reliable for common use.

At the close of Prof. Saunders' remarks some objections were made by
members present to the use of Paris green on fruit soon after blossoming,
and Prof. S. sustained the objection, in that the knowledge that the fruit
had been showered with it would deter purchasers from receiving it, even if
no poison could remain on it from spring to autumn. A man had brought to
him potatoes to analyze for arsenic, on which Paris green had been used,
and although it was shown to him that the poison did not reach the roots
beneath the soil, and if it did it was insoluble and could not enter them,
he was not satisfied until a careful analysis was made and no arsenic at
all found in them. A member said that in mixing with plaster there should
be 100 or 150 pounds of plaster to one of the Paris green, and that a
smaller quantity, by weight, of flour would answer, as that is a more bulky
article for the same weight.

       *       *       *       *       *




OBSERVATIONS ON THE SALMON OF THE PACIFIC.

By DAVID S. JORDAN and CHAS. H. GILBERT.


During the most of the present year, the writers have been engaged in the
study of the fishes of the Pacific coast of the United States, in the
interest of the U.S. Fish Commission and the U.S. Census Bureau. The
following pages contain the principal facts ascertained concerning the
salmon of the Pacific coast. It is condensed from our report to the U.S.
Census Bureau, by permission of Professor Goode, assistant in charge of
fishery investigations.

There are five species of salmon (Oncorhynchus) in the waters of the North
Pacific. We have at present no evidence of the existence of any more on
either the American or the Asiatic side.

These species may be called the quinnat or king salmon, the blue-back
salmon or red-fish, the silver salmon, the dog salmon, and the hump-back
salmon, or _Oncorhynchus chouicha, nerka, kisutch, keta_, and _gorbuscha_.
All these species are now known to occur in the waters of Kamtschatka as
well as in those of Alaska and Oregon.

As vernacular names of definite application, the following are on record:

a. Quinnat--Chouicha, king salmon, e'quinna, saw-kwey, Chinnook salmon,
Columbia River salmon, Sacramento salmon, tyee salmon, Monterey salmon,
deep-water salmon, spring salmon, ek-ul-ba ("ekewan") (fall run).

b. Blue-bock--krasnaya ryba, Alaska red-fish, Idaho red fish, sukkegh,
Frazer's River salmon, rascal, oo-chooy-ha.

c. Silver salmon--kisutch, winter salmon, hoopid, skowitz, coho, bielaya
ryba, o-o-wun.

d. Dog salmon--kayko, lekai, ktlawhy, qualoch, fall salmon, o-le-a-rah. The
males of _all_ the species in the fall are usually known as dog salmon, or
fall salmon.

e. Hump-back--gorbuscha, haddo, hone, holia, lost salmon, Puget Sound
salmon, dog salmon (of Alaska).

Of these species, the blue-back predominates in Frazer's River, the silver
salmon in Puget Sound, the quinnat in the Columbia and the Sacramento, and
the silver salmon in most of the small streams along the coast. All the
species have been seen by us in the Columbia and in Frazer's River; all
but the blue-back in the Sacramento, and all but the blue-back in waters
tributary to Puget Sound. Only the quinnat has been noticed south of San
Francisco, and its range has been traced as far as Ventura River, which is
the southernmost stream in California which is not muddy and alkaline at
its mouth.

Of these species, the quinnat and blue-back salmon habitually "run" in the
spring, the others in the fall. The usual order of running in the rivers is
as follows: _nerka, chouicha, kisutch, gorbuscha, keta_.

The economic value of the spring running salmon is far greater than that of
the other species, because they can be captured in numbers when at their
best, while the others are usually taken only after deterioration.

The habits of the salmon in the ocean are not easily studied. Quinnat and
silver salmon of every size are taken with the seine at almost any season
in Puget Sound. The quinnat takes the hook freely in Monterey bay, both
near the shore and at a distance of six or eight miles out. We have reason
to believe that these two species do not necessarily seek great depths, but
probably remain not very far from the mouth of the rivers in which they
were spawned.

The blue-back and the dog salmon probably seek deeper water, as the former
is seldom or never taken with the seine in the ocean, and the latter is
known to enter the Straits of Fuca at the spawning season.

The great majority of the quinnat salmon and nearly all blue-back salmon
enter the rivers in the spring. The run of both begins generally the last
of March; it lasts, with various modifications and interruptions, until
the actual spawning season in November; the time of running and the
proportionate amount of each of the subordinate runs, varying with each
different river. In general, the runs are slack in the summer and increase
with the first high water of autumn. By the last of August only straggling
blue-backs can be found in the lower course of any stream, but both in the
Columbia and the Sacramento the quinnat runs in considerable numbers till
October at least. In the Sacramento the run is greatest in the fall, and
more run in the summer than in spring. In the Sacramento and the smaller
rivers southward, there is a winter run, beginning in December.

The spring salmon ascend only those rivers which are fed by the melting
snows from the mountains, and which have sufficient volume to send their
waters well out to sea. Such rivers are the Sacramento, Rogue, Klamath,
Columbia, and Frazer's rivers.

Those salmon which run in the spring are chiefly adults (supposed to be at
least three years old). Their milt and spawn are no more developed than at
the same time in others of the same species which will not enter the rivers
until fall. It would appear that the contact with cold fresh water, when in
the ocean, in some way caused them to turn toward it and to "run," before
there is any special influence to that end exerted by the development of
the organs of generation.

High water on any of these rivers in the spring is always followed by an
increased run of salmon. The canners think, and this is probably true, that
salmon which would not have run till later are brought up by the contact
with the cold water. The cause of this effect of cold fresh water is not
understood. We may call it an instinct of the salmon, which is another way
of expressing our ignorance. In general, it seems to be true that in those
rivers and during those years when the spring run is greatest, the fall run
is least to be depended on.

As the season advances, smaller and younger salmon of these two species
(quinnat and blue-back) enter the rivers to spawn, and in the fall these
young specimens are very numerous. We have thus far failed to notice any
gradations in size or appearance of these young fish by which their ages
could be ascertained. It is, however, probable that some of both sexes
reproduce at the age of one year. In Frazer's River, in the fall, quinnat
male grilse of every size, from eight inches upward, were running, the milt
fully developed, but usually not showing the hooked jaws and dark colors
of the older males. Females less than eighteen inches in length were rare.
All, large and small, then in the river, of either sex, had the ovaries or
milt well developed.

Little blue-backs of every size down to six inches are also found in
the Upper Columbia in the fall, with their organs of generation fully
developed. Nineteen twentieths of these young fish are males, and some of
them have the hooked jaws and red color of the old males.

The average weight of the quinnat in the Columbia in the spring is
twenty-two pounds; in the Sacramento about sixteen. Individuals weighing
from forty to sixty pounds are frequently found in both rivers, and some as
high as eighty pounds are reported. It is questioned whether these large
fishes are:

(_a_.) Those which, of the same age, have grown more rapidly;

(_b_.) Those which are older but have, for some reason, failed to spawn;
or,

(_c_.) Those which have survived one or more spawning seasons.

All of these origins may be possible in individual cases; we are, however,
of the opinion that the majority of these large fish are those which have
hitherto run in the fall and so may have survived the spawning season
previous.

Those fish which enter the rivers in the spring continue their ascent until
death or the spawning season overtakes them. Probably none of them ever
return to the ocean, and a large proportion fail to spawn. They are known
to ascend the Sacramento as far as the base of Mount Shasta, or to its
extreme head-waters, about four hundred miles. In the Columbia they are
known to ascend as far as the Bitter Root Mountains, and as far as the
Spokan Falls, and their extreme limit is not known. This is a distance of
six to eight hundred miles.

At these great distances, when the fish have reached the spawning grounds,
besides the usual changes of the breeding season, their bodies are covered
with bruises on which patches of white fungus develop. The fins become
mutilated, their eyes are often injured or destroyed; parasitic worms
gather in their gills, they become extremely emaciated, their flesh
becomes white from the loss of the oil, and as soon as the spawning act
is accomplished, and sometimes before, all of them die. The ascent of the
Cascades and the Dalles probably causes the injury or death of a great many
salmon.

When the salmon enter the river they refuse bait, and their stomachs are
always found empty and contracted. In the rivers they do not feed, and when
they reach the spawning grounds their stomachs, pyloric coeca and all, are
said to be no larger than one's finger. They will sometimes take the
fly, or a hook baited with salmon roe, in the clear waters of the upper
tributaries, but there is no other evidence known to us that they feed when
there. Only the quinnat and blue-back (then called red-fish) have been
found in the fall at any great distance from the sea.

The spawning season is probably about the same for all the species. It
varies for all in different rivers and in different parts of the same
river, and doubtless extends from July to December.

The manner of spawning is probably similar for all the species, but we have
no data for any except the quinnat. In this species the fish pair off, the
male, with tail and snout, excavates a broad shallow "nest" in the gravelly
bed of the stream, in rapid water, at a depth of one to four feet; the
female deposits her eggs in it, and after the exclusion of the milt, they
cover them with stones and gravel. They then float down the stream tail
foremost. A great majority of them die. In the head-waters of the large
streams all die, unquestionably. In the small streams, and near the sea, an
unknown percentage probably survive. The young hatch in about sixty days,
and most of them return to the ocean during the high water of the spring.

The salmon of all kinds in the spring are silvery, spotted or not according
to the species, and with the mouth about equally symmetrical in both sexes.

As the spawning season approaches the female loses her silvery color,
becomes more slimy, the scales on the back partly sink into the skin, and
the flesh changes from salmon red and becomes variously paler, from the
loss of the oil, the degree of paleness varying much with individuals and
with inhabitants of different rivers.

In the lower Sacramento the flesh of the quinnat in either spring or fall
is rarely pale. In the Columbia, a few with pale flesh are sometimes taken
in spring, and a good many in the fall. In Frazer's River the fall run of
the quinnat is nearly worthless for canning purposes, because so many are
white meated. In the spring very few are white meated, but the number
increases towards fall, when there is every variation, some having red
streaks running through them, others being red toward the head and pale
toward the tail. The red and pale ones cannot be distinguished externally,
and the color is dependent neither on age nor sex. There is said to be no
difference in the taste, but there is no market for canned salmon not of
the conventional orange color.

As the season advances, the differences between the males and the females
become more and more marked, and keep pace with the development of the
milt, as is shown by dissection.

The males have: (_a_.) The premaxillaries and the tip of the lower jaw
more and more prolonged; both of them becoming finally strongly and often
extravagantly hooked, so that either they shut by the side of each other
like shears, or else the mouth cannot be closed. (_b_.) The front teeth
become very long and canine-like, their growth proceeding very rapidly,
until they are often half an inch long. (_c_.) The teeth on the vomer and
tongue often disappear. (_d_.) The body grows more compressed and deeper
at the shoulders, so that a very distinct hump is formed; this is more
developed in _0. gorbuscha_, but is found in all. (_e_.) The scales
disappear, especially on the back, by the growth of spongy skin. (_f_.) The
color changes from silvery to various shades of black and red or blotchy,
according to the species. The blue-back turns rosy red, the dog salmon a
dull, blotchy red, and the quiunat generally blackish.

These distorted males are commonly considered worthless, rejected by the
canners and salmon-salters, but preserved by the Indians. These changes are
due solely to influences connected with the growth of the testes. They are
not in any way due to the action of fresh water. They take place at about
the same time in the adult males of all species, whether in the ocean or
in the rivers. At the time of the spring runs all are symmetrical. In the
fall, all males of whatever species are more or less distorted. Among the
dog salmon, which run only in the fall, the males are hooked-jawed and
red-blotched when they first enter the Straits of Fuca from the outside.
The hump-back, taken in salt water about Seattle, shows the same
peculiarities. The male is slab-sided, hook-billed, and distorted, and is
rejected by the canners. No hook-jawed _females_ of any species have been
seen.

It is not positively known that any hook-jawed male survives the
reproductive act. If any do, their jaws must resume the normal form.

On first entering a stream the salmon swim about as if playing: they always
head toward the current, and this "playing" may be simply due to facing the
flood tide. Afterwards they enter the deepest parts of the stream and swim
straight up, with few interruptions. Their rate of travel on the Sacramento
is estimated by Stone at about two miles per day; on the Columbia at about
three miles per day.

As already stated, the economic value of any species depends in great part
on its being a "spring salmon." It is not generally possible to capture
salmon of any species in large numbers until they have entered the rivers,
and the spring salmon enter the rivers long before the growth of the organs
of reproduction has reduced the richness of the flesh. The fall salmon
cannot be taken in quantity until their flesh has deteriorated: hence the
"dog salmon" is practically almost worthless, except to the Indians, and
the hump-back salmon is little better. The silver salmon, with the same
breeding habits as the dog salmon, is more valuable, as it is found in
Puget Sound for a considerable time before the fall rains cause the fall
runs, and it may be taken in large numbers with seines before the season
for entering the rivers. The quinnat salmon, from its great size and
abundance, is more valuable than all other fishes on our Pacific coast
together. The blue back, similar in flesh but much smaller and less
abundant, is worth much more than the combined value of the three remaining
species.

The fall salmon of all species, but especially the dog salmon, ascend
streams but a short distance before spawning. They seem to be in great
anxiety to find fresh water, and many of them work their way up little
brooks only a few inches deep, where they soon perish miserably,
floundering about on the stones. Every stream, of whatever kind, has more
or less of these fall salmon.

It is the prevailing impression that the salmon have some special instinct
which leads them to return to spawn in the same spawning grounds where they
were originally hatched. We fail to find any evidence of this in the case
of the Pacific coast salmon, and we do not believe it to be true. It seems
more probable that the young salmon, hatched in any river, mostly remain in
the ocean within a radius of twenty, thirty, or forty miles of its mouth.
These, in their movements about in the ocean, may come into contact with
the cold waters of their parent rivers, or perhaps of any other river, at
a considerable distance from the shore. In the case of the quinnat and the
blue-back, their "instinct" leads them to ascend these fresh waters, and
in a majority of cases these waters will be those in which the fishes in
question were originally spawned. Later in the season the growth of the
reproductive organs leads them to approach the shore and to search for
fresh waters, and still the chances are that they may find the original
stream. But undoubtedly many fall salmon ascend, or try to ascend, streams
in which no salmon was ever hatched.

It is said of the Russian River and other California rivers, that their
mouths in the time of low water in summer generally become entirely closed
by sand bars, and that the salmon, in their eagerness to ascend them,
frequently fling themselves entirely out of water on the beach. But this
does not prove that the salmon are guided by a marvelous geographical
instinct which leads them to their parent river. The waters of Russian
River soak through these sand bars, and the salmon "instinct," we think,
leads them merely to search for fresh waters.

This matter is much in need of further investigation; at present, however,
we find no reason to believe that the salmon enter the Rogue River simply
because they were spawned there, or that a salmon hatched in the Clackamas
River is any the more likely on that account to return to the Clackamas
than to go up the Cowlitz or the Deschutes.

"At the hatchery on Rogue River, the fish are stripped, marked and set
free, and every year since the hatchery has been in operation some of the
marked fish have been re-caught. The young fry are also marked, but none of
them have been recaught."

This year the run of silver salmon in Frazer's River was very light, while
on Puget Sound the run was said by the Indians to be greater than ever
known before. Both these cases may be due to the same cause, the dry
summer, low water, and consequent failure of the salmon to find the rivers.
The run in the Sound is much more irregular than in the large rivers. One
year they will abound in one bay and its tributary stream and hardly be
seen in another, while the next year the condition will be reversed. At
Cape Flattery the run of silver salmon for the present year was very small,
which fact was generally attributed by the Indians to the birth of twins at
Neah Bay.

In regard to the diminution of the number of salmon on the coast. In
Puget's Sound, Frazer's River, and the smaller streams, there appears to be
little or no evidence of this. In the Columbia River the evidence appears
somewhat conflicting; the catch during the present year (1880) has been
considerably greater than ever before (nearly 540,000 cases of 48 lb. each
having been packed), although the fishing for three or four years has been
very extensive. On the other hand, the high water of the present spring has
undoubtedly caused many fish to become spring salmon which would otherwise
have run in the fall. Moreover, it is urged that a few years ago, when the
number caught was about half as great as now, the amount of netting used
was perhaps one-eighth as much. With a comparatively small outfit the
canners caught half the fish, now with nets much larger and more numerous,
they catch them all, scarcely any escaping during the fishing season (April
1 to August 1). Whether an actual reduction in the number of fish running
can be proven or not, there can be no question that the present rate of
destruction of the salmon will deplete the river before many years. A
considerable number of quinnat salmon run in August and September, and some
stragglers even later; these now are all which keep up the supply of
fish in the river. The non-molestation of this fall run, therefore, does
something to atone for the almost total destruction of the spring run.

This, however, is insufficient. A well-ordered salmon hatchery is the only
means by which the destruction of the salmon in the river can be prevented.
This hatchery should be under the control of Oregon and Washington, and
should be supported by a tax levied on the canned fish. It should be placed
on a stream where the quinnat salmon actually come to spawn.

It has been questioned whether the present hatchery on the Clackamas River
actually receives the quinnat salmon in any numbers. It is asserted, in
fact, that the eggs of the silver salmon and dog salmon, with scattering
quinnat, are hatched there. We have no exact information as to the truth of
these reports, but the matter should be taken into serious consideration.

On the Sacramento there is no doubt of the reduction of the number of
salmon; this is doubtless mainly attributable to over-fishing, but in part
it may be due to the destruction of spawning beds by mining operations and
other causes.

As to the superiority of the Columbia River salmon, there is no doubt that
the quinnat salmon average larger and fatter in the Columbia than in the
Sacramento and in Puget Sound. The difference in the canned fish is,
however, probably hardly appreciable. The canned salmon from the Columbia,
however, bring a better price in the market than those from elsewhere. The
canners there generally have had a high regard for the reputation of
the river, and have avoided canning fall fish or species other than the
quinnat. In the Frazer's River the blue-back is largely canned, and its
flesh being a little more watery and perhaps paler, is graded below the
quinnat. On Puget Sound various species are canned; in fact, everything
with red flesh. The best canners on the Sacramento apparently take equal
care with their product with those of the Columbia, but they depend largely
on the somewhat inferior fall run. There are, however, sometimes salmon
canned in San Francisco, which have been in the city markets, and for some
reason remaining unsold, have been sent to the canners; such salmon are
unfit for food, and canning them should be prohibited.

The fact that the hump-back salmon runs only on alternate years in Puget
Sound (1875, 1877, 1879, etc.) is well attested and at present unexplained.
Stray individuals only are taken in other years. This species has a
distinct "run," in the United States, only in Puget Sound, although
individuals (called "lost salmon") are occasionally taken in the Columbia
and in the Sacramento.--_American Naturalist._

       *       *       *       *       *




THE RELATION BETWEEN ELECTRICITY AND LIGHT.

[Footnote: A lecture by Dr. O. J. Lodge, delivered at the London
Institution on December 16, 1880.]


Ever since the subject on which I have the honor to speak to you to-night
was arranged, I have been astonished at my own audacity in proposing to
deal in the course of sixty minutes with a subject so gigantic and so
profound that a course of sixty lectures would be quite inadequate for its
thorough and exhaustive treatment.

I must indeed confine myself carefully to some few of the typical and most
salient points in the relation between electricity and light, and I must
economize time by plunging at once into the middle of the matter without
further preliminaries.

Now, when a person is setting off to discuss the relation between
electricity and light, it is very natural and very proper to pull him up
short with the two questions: What do you mean by electricity? and What do
you mean by light? These two questions I intend to try briefly to answer.
And here let me observe that in answering these fundamental questions, I do
not necessarily assume a fundamental ignorance on your part of these two
agents, but rather the contrary; and must beg you to remember that if I
repeat well-known and simple experiments before you, it is for the purpose
of directing attention to their real meaning and significance, not to their
obvious and superficial characteristics; in the same way that I might
repeat the exceedingly familiar experiment of dropping a stone to the earth
if we were going to define what we meant by gravitation.

Now, then, we will ask first, What is electricity? and the simple answer
must be, We don't know. Well, but this need not necessarily be depressing.
If the same question were asked about matter, or about energy, we should
have likewise to reply, No one knows.

But then the term Matter is a very general one, and so is the term Energy.
They are heads, in fact, under which we classify more special phenomena.

Thus, if we were asked, What is sulphur? or what is selenium? we should at
least be able to reply, A form of matter; and then proceed to describe its
properties, _i. e._, how it affected our bodies and other bodies.

Again, to the question, What is heat? we can reply, A form of energy; and
proceed to describe the peculiarities which distinguish it from other forms
of energy.

But to the question. What is electricity? we have no answer pat like this.
We can not assert that it is a form of matter, neither can we deny it; on
the other hand, we certainly can not assert that it is a form of energy,
and I should be disposed to deny it. It may be that electricity is an
entity _per se_, just as matter is an entity _per se_.

Nevertheless, I can tell you what I mean by electricity by appealing to its
known behavior.

Here is a battery, that is, an electricity pump; it will drive electricity
along. Prof. Ayrtou is going, I am afraid, to tell you, on the 20th of
January next, that it _produces_ electricity; but if he does, I hope you
will remember that that is exactly what neither it nor anything else can
do. It is as impossible to generate electricity in the sense I am trying to
give the word, as it is to produce matter. Of course I need hardly say that
Prof. Ayrton knows this perfectly well; it is merely a question of words,
_i. e._, of what you understand by the word electricity.

I want you, then, to regard this battery and all electrical machines and
batteries as kinds of electricity pumps, which drive the electricity along
through the wire very much as a water-pump can drive water along pipes.
While this is going on the wire manifests a whole series of properties,
which are called the properties of the current.

[Here were shown an ignited platinum wire, the electric arc between two
carbons, an electric machine spark, an induction coil spark, and a vacuum
tube glow. Also a large nail was magnetized by being wrapped in the
current, and two helices were suspended and seen to direct and attract each
other.]

To make a magnet, then, we only need a current of electricity flowing round
and round in a whirl. A vortex or whirlpool of electricity is in fact a
magnet; and _vice versa_. And these whirls have the power of directing and
attracting other previously existing whirls according to certain laws,
called the laws of magnetism. And, moreover, they have the power of
exciting fresh whirls in neighboring conductors, and of repelling them
according to the laws of diamagnetism. The theory of the actions is known,
though the nature of the whirls, as of the simple stream of electricity, is
at present unknown.

[Here was shown a large electro-magnet and an induction-coil vacuum
discharge spinning round and round when placed in its field.]

So much for what happens when electricity is made to travel along
conductors, _i. e._, when it travels along like a stream of water in a
pipe, or spins round and round like a whirlpool.

But there is another set of phenomena, usually regarded as distinct and of
another order, but which are not so distinct as they appear, which
manifest themselves when you join the pump to a piece of glass, or any
non-conductor, and try to force the electricity through that. You succeed
in driving some through, but the flow is no longer like that of water in an
open pipe; it is as if the pipe were completely obstructed by a number of
elastic partitions or diaphragms. The water can not move without straining
and bending these diaphragms, and if you allow it, these strained
partitions will recover themselves, and drive the water back again. [Here
was explained the process of charging a Leyden jar.] The essential thing to
remember is that we may have electrical energy in two forms, the static
and the kinetic; and it is, therefore, also possible to have the rapid
alternation from one of these forms to the other, called vibration.

Now we will pass to the second question: What do you mean by light? And the
first and obvious answer is, Everybody knows. And everybody that is not
blind does know to a certain extent. We have a special sense organ for
appreciating light, whereas we have none for electricity. Nevertheless, we
must admit that we really know very little about the intimate nature of
light--very little more than about electricity. But we do know this,
that light is a form of energy, and, moreover, that it is energy rapidly
alternating between the static and the kinetic forms--that it is, in fact,
a special kind of energy of vibration. We are absolutely certain that light
is a periodic disturbance in some medium, periodic both in space and time;
that is to say, the same appearances regularly recur at certain equal
intervals of distance at the same time, and also present themselves at
equal intervals of time at the same place; that in fact it belongs to the
class of motions called by mathematicians undulatory or wave motions. The
wave motion in this model (Powell's wave apparatus) results from the simple
up and down motion popularly associated with the term wave. But when
a mathematician calls a thing a wave he means that the disturbance is
represented by a certain general type of formula, not that it is an
up-and-down motion, or that it looks at all like those things on the top of
the sea. The motion of the surface of the sea falls within that formula,
and hence is a special variety of wave motion, and the term wave has
acquired in popular use this signification and nothing else. So that when
one speaks ordinarily of a wave or undulatory motion, one immediately
thinks of something heaving up and down, or even perhaps of something
breaking on the shore. But when we assert that the form of energy called
light is undulatory, we by no means intend to assert that anything whatever
is moving up and down, or that the motion, if we could see it, would be
anything at all like what we are accustomed to in the ocean. The kind of
motion is unknown; we are not even sure that there is anything like motion
in the ordinary sense of the word at all.

Now, how much connection between electricity and light have we perceived in
this glance into their natures? Not much, truly. It amounts to about
this: That on the one hand electrical energy may exist in either of two
forms--the static form, when insulators are electrically strained by having
had electricity driven partially through them (as in the Leyden jar), which
strain is a form of energy because of the tendency to discharge and do
work; and the kinetic form, where electricity is moving bodily along
through conductors or whirling round and round inside them, which motion
of electricity is a form of energy, because the conductors and whirls can
attract or repel each other and thereby do work.

And, on the other hand, that light is the rapid alternation of energy
from one of these forms to the other--the static form where the medium is
strained, to the kinetic form when it moves. It is just conceivable, then,
that the static form of the energy of light is _electro_ static, that is,
that the medium is _electrically_ strained, and that the kinetic form of
the energy of light is _electro_-kinetic, that is, that the motion is
not ordinary motion, but electrical motion--in fact, that light is an
electrical vibration, not a material one.

On November 5, last year, there died at Cambridge a man in the full
vigor of his faculties--such faculties as do not appear many times in a
century--whose chief work has been the establishment of this very fact, the
discovery of the link connecting light and electricity; and the proof--for
I believe it amounts to a proof--that they are different manifestations
of one and the same class of phenomena--that light is, in fact, an
electro-magnetic disturbance. The premature death of James Clerk-Maxwell is
a loss to science which appears at present utterly irreparable, for he was
engaged in researches that no other man can hope as yet adequately to grasp
and follow out; but fortunately it did not occur till he had published his
book on "Electricity and Magnetism," one of those immortal productions
which exalt one's idea of the mind of man, and which has been mentioned by
competent critics in the same breath as the "Principia" itself.

But it is not perfect like the "Principia;" much of it is rough-hewn, and
requires to be thoroughly worked out. It contains numerous misprints and
errata, and part of the second volume is so difficult as to be almost
unintelligible. Some, in fact, consists of notes written for private use
and not intended for publication. It seems next to impossible now to mature
a work silently for twenty or thirty years, as was done by Newton two and a
half centuries ago. But a second edition was preparing, and much might have
been improved in form if life had been spared to the illustrious author.

The main proof of the electro-magnetic theory of light is this: The rate at
which light travels has been measured many times, and is pretty well known.
The rate at which an electro-magnetic wave disturbance would travel if such
could be generated (and Mr. Fitzgerald, of Dublin, thinks he has proved
that it can not be generated directly by any known electrical means) can
be also determined by calculation from electrical measurements. The two
velocities agree exactly. This is the great physical constant known as the
ratio V, which so many physicists have been measuring, and are likely to be
measuring for some time to come.

Many and brilliant as were Maxwell's discoveries, not only in electricity,
but also in the theory of the nature of gases, and in molecular science
generally, I can not help thinking that if one of them is more striking and
more full of future significance than the rest, it is the one I have just
mentioned--the theory that light is an electrical phenomenon.

The first glimpse of this splendid generalization was caught in 1845, five
and thirty years ago, by that prince of pure experimentalists, Michael
Faraday. His reasons for suspecting some connection between electricity and
light are not clear to us--in fact, they could not have been clear to him;
but he seems to have felt a conviction that if he only tried long enough
and sent all kinds of rays of light in all possible directions across
electric and magnetic fields in all sorts of media, he must ultimately
hit upon something. Well, this is very nearly what he did. With a sublime
patience and perseverance which remind one of the way Kepler hunted down
guess after guess in a different field of research, Faraday combined
electricity, or magnetism, and light in all manner of ways, and at last he
was rewarded with a result. And a most out-of-the-way result it seemed.
First, you have to get a most powerful magnet and very strongly excite it;
then you have to pierce its two poles with holes, in order that a beam of
light may travel from one to the other along the lines of force; then, as
ordinary light is no good, you must get a beam of plane polarized light,
and send it between the poles. But still no result is obtained until,
finally, you interpose a piece of a rare and out-of-the-way material, which
Faraday had himself discovered and made--a kind of glass which contains
borate of lead, and which is very heavy, or dense, and which must be
perfectly annealed.

And now, when all these arrangements are completed, what is seen is simply
this, that if an analyzer is arranged to stop the light and make the field
quite dark before the magnet is excited, then directly the battery is
connected and the magnet called into action, a faint and barely perceptible
brightening of the field occurs, which will disappear if the analyzer be
slightly rotated. [The experiment was then shown.] Now, no wonder that no
one understood this result. Faraday himself did not understand it at all.
He seems to have thought that the magnetic lines of force were rendered
luminous, or that the light was magnetized; in fact, he was in a fog,
and had no idea of its real significance. Nor had any one. Continental
philosophers experienced some difficulty and several failures before they
were able to repeat the experiment. It was, in fact, discovered too soon,
and before the scientific world was ready to receive it, and it was
reserved for Sir William Thomson briefly, but very clearly, to point
out, and for Clerk-Maxwell more fully to develop, its most important
consequences. [The principle of the experiment was then illustrated by the
aid of a mechanical model.]

This is the fundamental experiment on which Clerk-Maxwell's theory of
light is based; but of late years many fresh facts and relations between
electricity and light have been discovered, and at the present time they
are tumbling in in great numbers.

It was found by Faraday that many other transparent media besides heavy
glass would show the phenomenon if placed between the poles, only in a less
degree; and the very important observation that air itself exhibits the
same phenomenon, though to an exceedingly small extent, has just been made
by Kundt and Rontgen in Germany.

Dr. Kerr, of Glasgow, has extended the result to opaque bodies, and has
shown that if light be passed through magnetized _iron_ its plane is
rotated. The film of iron must be exceedingly thin, because of its opacity,
and hence, though the intrinsic rotating power of iron is undoubtedly very
great, the observed rotation is exceedingly small and difficult to observe;
and it is only by a very remarkable patience and care and ingenuity that
Dr. Kerr has obtained his result. Mr. Fitzgerald, of Dublin, has examined
the question mathematically, and has shown that Maxwell's theory would have
enabled Dr. Kerr's result to be predicted.

Another requirement of the theory is that bodies which are transparent
to light must be insulators or non-conductors of electricity, and that
conductors of electricity are necessarily opaque to light. Simple
observation amply confirms this; metals are the best conductors, and are
the most opaque bodies known. Insulators such as glass and crystals are
transparent whenever they are sufficiently homogeneous, and the very
remarkable researches of Prof. Graham Bell in the last few months have
shown that even _ebonite_, one of the most opaque insulators to ordinary
vision, is certainly transparent to some kinds of radiation, and
transparent to no small degree.

[The reason why transparent bodies must insulate, and why conductors must
be opaque, was here illustrated by mechanical models.]

A further consequence of the theory is that the velocity of light in a
transparent medium will be affected by its electrical strain constant; in
other words, that its refractive index will bear some close but not yet
quite ascertained relation to its specific inductive capacity. Experiment
has partially confirmed this, but the confirmation is as yet very
incomplete. But there are a number of results not predicted by theory, and
whose connection with the theory is not clearly made out. We have the fact
that light falling on the platinum electrode of a voltameter generates a
current, first observed, I think, by Sir W. R. Grove--at any rate, it is
mentioned in his "Correlation of Forces"--extended by Becquerel and Robert
Sabine to other substances, and now being extended to fluorescent and other
bodies by Prof. Minchin. And finally--for I must be brief--we have
the remarkable action of light on selenium. This fact was discovered
accidentally by an assistant in the laboratory of Mr. Willoughby Smith, who
noticed that a piece of selenium conducted electricity very much better
when light was falling upon it than when it was in the dark. The light of
a candle is sufficient, and instantaneously brings down the resistance to
something like one-fifth of its original value.

I could show you these effects, but there is not much to see; it is an
intensely interesting phenomenon, but its external manifestation is not
striking--any more than Faraday's heavy glass experiment was.

This is the phenomenon which, as you know, has been utilized by Prof.
Graham Bell in that most ingenious and striking invention, the photophone.
By the kindness of Prof. Silvanus Thompson, I have a few slides to show the
principle of the invention, and Mr. Shelford Bidwell has been kind enough
to lend me his home-made photophone, which answers exceedingly well for
short distances.

I have now trespassed long enough upon your patience, but I must just
allude to what may very likely be the next striking popular discovery; and
that is the transmission of light by electricity; I mean the transmission
of such things as views and pictures by means of the electric wire. It has
not yet been done, but it seems already theoretically possible, and it may
very soon be practically accomplished.

       *       *       *       *       *




INTERESTING ELECTRICAL RESEARCHES.


During the last six years Dr. Warren de la Rue has been investigating,
in conjunction with Dr. Hugo Muller, the various and highly interesting
phenomena which accompany the electric discharge. From time to time the
results of their researches were communicated to the Royal Society, and
appeared in its Proceedings. Early last year Dr. De la Rue being requested
to bring the subject before the members of the Royal Institution, acceded
to the pressing invitation of his colleagues and scientific friends.
The discourse, which was necessarily long postponed on account of the
preparations that had to be made, was finally given on Friday, the 21st of
January, and was one of the most remarkable, from the elaborate nature of
the experiments, ever delivered in the theater of that deservedly famous
institution.

Owing to the great inconvenience of removing the battery from his
laboratory, Dr. de la Rue, despite the great expenditure, directed Mr. S.
Tisley to prepare, expressly for the lecture, a second series of 14,400
cells, and fit it up in the basement of the Royal Institution. The
construction of this new battery occupied Mr. Tisley a whole year, while
the charging of it extended over a fortnight.

The "de la Rue cell," if we may so call one of these elements, consists of
a zinc rod, the lower portion of which is embedded in a solid electrolyte,
viz., chloride of silver, with which are connected two flattened silver
wires to serve as electrodes. When these are united and the silver chloride
moistened, chemical action begins, and a weak but constant current is
generated.

The electromotive force of such a cell is 1.03 volts, and a current
equivalent to one volt passing through a resistance of one ohm was found to
decompose 0.00146 grain of water in one second. The battery is divided
into "cabinets," which hold from 1,200 to 2,160 small elements each. This
facilitates removal, and also the detection of any fault that may occur.

It will be remembered that in 1808 Sir Humphry Davy constructed his battery
of 2,000 cells, and thus succeeded in exalting the tiny spark obtained in
closing the circuit into the luminous sheaf of the voltaic arc. He also
observed that the spark passed even when the poles were separated by a
distance varying from 1/40 to 1/30 of an inch. This appears to have been
subsequently forgotten, as we find later physicists questioning the
possibility of the spark leaping over any interpolar distance. Mr. J.
P. Gassiot, of Clapham, demonstrated the inaccuracy of this opinion by
constructing a battery of 3,000 Leclanche cells, which gave a spark of
0.025 inch; a similar number of "de la Rue" cells gives an 0.0564 inch
spark. This considerable increase in potential is chiefly due to better
insulation.

The great energy of this battery was illustrated by a variety of
experiments. Thus, a large condenser, specially constructed by Messrs.
Varley, and having a capacity equal to that of 6,485 large Leyden jars,
was almost immediately charged by the current from 10,000 cells. Wires of
various kinds, and from 9 inches to 29 inches in length, were instantly
volatilized by the passage of the electricity thus stored up. The current
induced in the secondary wire of a coil by the discharge of the condenser
through the primary, was also sufficiently intense to deflagrate wires of
considerable length and thickness.

It was with such power at his command that Dr. De la Rue proceeded to
investigate several important electrical laws. He has found, for example,
that the positive discharge is more intermittent than the negative,
that the arc is always preceded by a streamer-like discharge, that its
temperature is about 16,000 deg., and its length at the ordinary pressure
of the atmosphere, when taken between two points, varies as the square
of the number of cells. Thus, with a battery of 1,000 cells, the arc was
0.0051 inch, with 11,000 cells it increased to 0.62 inch. The same law was
found to hold when the discharge took place between a point and a disk; it
failed entirely, however, when the terminals were two disks.

It was also shown that the voltaic arc is not a phenomenon of conduction,
but is essentially a disruptive discharge, the intervals between the
passage of two successive static sparks being the time required for the
battery to collect sufficient power to leap over the interposed resistance.
This was further confirmed by the introduction of a condenser, when the
intervals were perceptibly larger.

Faraday proved that the quantity of electricity necessary to produce a
strong flash of lightning would result from the decomposition of a single
grain of water, and Dr. de la Rue's experiments confirm this extraordinary
statement. He has calculated that this quantity of electricity would be
5,000 times as great as the charge of his large condenser, and that a
lightning flash a mile long would require the potential of 3,500,000 cells,
that is to say, of 243 of his powerful batteries.

In experimenting with "vacuum" tubes, he has found that the discharge is
also invariably disruptive. This is an important point, as many physicists
speak and write of the phenomenon as one of conduction. Air, in every
degree of tenuity, refuses to act as a conductor of electricity. These
experiments show that the resistance of gaseous media diminishes with the
pressure only up to a certain point, beyond which it rapidly increases.
Thus, in the case of hydrogen, it diminishes up to 0.642 mm., 845
millionths; it then rises as the exhaustion proceeds, and at 0.00065 mm.,
8.6 millionths, it requires as high a potential as at 21.7 mm., 28.553
millionths. At 0.00137 mm., 1.8 millionth, the current from 11,000 cells
would not pass through a tube for which 430 cells sufficed at the pressure
of minimum resistance. At a pressure of 0.0055 mm., 0.066 millionth, the
highest exhaust obtained in any of the experiments, even a one-inch spark
from an induction coil refused to pass. It was also ascertained that there
is neither condensacian nor dilatation of the gas in contact with the
terminals prior to the passage of the discharge.

These researches naturally led to some speculation about the conditions
under which auroral phenomena may occur. Observers have variously stated
the height at which the aurora borealis attains its greatest brilliancy
as ranging between 124 and 281 miles. Dr. de la Rue's conclusions fix
the upper limit at 124 miles, and that of maximum display at 37 miles,
admitting also that the aurora may sometimes occur at an altitude of a few
thousand feet.

The aurora was beautifully illustrated by a very large tube, in which the
theoretical pressure was carefully maintained, the characteristic roseate
tinge being readily produced and maintained.

In studying the stratifications observed in vacuum tubes, Dr. de la Rue
finds that they originate at the positive pole, and that their steadiness
may be regulated by the resistance in circuit, and that even when the least
tremor cannot be detected by the eye, they are still produced by rapid
pulsations which may be as frequent as ten millions per second.

Dr. de la Rue concluded his interesting discourse by exhibiting some of the
finest tubes of his numerous and unsurpassed collection.--_Engineering_

       *       *       *       *       *




MEASURING ELECTROMOTIVE FORCE.


Coulomb's torsion balance has been adapted by M. Baille to the measurement
of low electromotive forces in a very successful manner, and has been found
preferable by him to the delicate electrometers of Sir W. Thomson. It
is necessary to guard it from disturbances due to extraneous electric
influences and the trembling of the ground. These can be eliminated
completely by encircling the instrument in a metal case connected to
earth, and mounting it on solid pillars in a still place. Heat also has a
disturbing effect, and makes itself felt in the torsion of the fiber and
the cage surrounding the lever. These effects are warded off by inclosing
the instrument in a non-conducting jacket of wood shavings.

The apparatus of M. Baille consists of an annealed silver torsion wire of
2.70 meters long, and a lever 0.50 meter long, carrying at each extremity
a ball of copper, gilded, and three centimeters in diameter. Similar balls
are fixed at the corners of a square 20.5 meters in the side, and connected
in diagonal pairs by fine wire. The lever placed at equal distances from
the fixed balls communicates, by the medium of the torsion wire, with the
positive pole of a battery, P, the other pole being to earth.

Owing to some unaccountable variations in the change of the lever or
needle, M. Baille was obliged to measure the change at each observation.
This was done by joining the + pole of the battery to the needle, and one
pair of the fixed balls, and observing the deflection; then the deflection
produced by the other balls was observed. This operation was repeated
several times.

The battery, X, to be measured consisted of ten similar elements, and one
pole of it was connected to the fixed balls, while the other pole was
connected to the earth. The needle, of course, remained in contact with the
+ pole of the charging battery, P.

The deflections were read from a clear glass scale, placed at a distance
of 3.30 meters from the needle, and the results worked out from Coulomb's
static formula,

C a = (4 m m')/d squared, with

          ______________
         / sum((p/g) r squared)
  O =   /  -------------
      \/        C

[TEX: O = \sqrt{\frac{\sum \frac{p}{g} r^2}{C}}]

In M. Baillie's experiments, O = 437 cubed, and sum(pr squared)= 32171.6 (centimeter
grammes), the needle having been constructed of a geometrical form.

The following numbers represent the potential of an element of the
battery--that is to say, the quantity of electricity that the pole of that
battery spreads upon a sphere of one centimeter radius. They are expressed
in units of electricity, the unit being the quantity of electricity which,
acting upon a similar unit at a distance of one centimeter, produces a
repulsion equal to one gramme:

Volta pile                                         0.03415 open circuit.
Zinc, sulphate of copper, copper                   0.02997     "
Zinc, acidulated water, copper, sulphate of copper 0.03709     "
Zinc, salt water, carbon peroxide of manganese     0.05282     "
Zinc, salt water, platinum, chloride of platinum   0.05027     "
Zinc, acidulated water, carbon nitric acid         0.06285     "

These results were obtained just upon charging the batteries, and are,
therefore, slightly higher than the potentials given after the batteries
became older. The sulphate of copper cells kept about their maximum value
longest, but they showed variations of about 10 per cent.

       *       *       *       *       *




TELEPHONY BY THERMIC CURRENTS.


While in telephonic arrangements, based upon the principle of magnetic
induction, a relatively considerable expenditure of force is required in
order to set the tightly stretched membrane in vibration, in the so-called
carbon telephones only a very feeble impulse is required to produce the
differences in the current necessary for the transmission of sounds. In
order to produce relatively strong currents, even in case of sound-action
of a minimum strength, Franz Kroettlinger, of Vienna, has made an
interesting experiment to use thermo electric currents for the transmission
of sound to a distance. The apparatus which he has constructed is
exceedingly simple. A current of hot air flowing from below upward is
deflected more or less from its direction by the human voice. By its action
an adjacent thermo-battery is excited, whose current passes through the
spiral of an ordinary telephone, which serves as the receiving instrument.
As a source of heat the inventor uses a common stearine candle, the flame
of which is kept at one and the same level by means of a spring similar to
those used in carriage lamps. On one side of the candle is a sheet metal
voice funnel fixed upon a support, its mouth being covered with a movable
sliding disk, fitted with a suitable number of small apertures. On the
other side a similar support holds a funnel-shaped thermo-battery. The
single bars of metal forming this battery are very thin, and of such a
shape that they may cool as quickly as possible. Both the speaking-funnel
and the battery can be made to approach, at will, to the stream of warm air
rising up from the flame. The entire apparatus is inclosed in a tin case
in such a manner that only the aperture of the voice-funnel and the polar
clamps for securing the conducting wires appear on the outside. The inside
of the case is suitably stayed to prevent vibration. On speaking into the
mouth-piece of the funnel, the sound-waves occasion undulations in the
column of hot air which are communicated to the thermo-battery, and in this
manner corresponding differences are produced in the currents in the wires
leading to the receiving instrument.--_Oesterreichische-Ungarische Post._

       *       *       *       *       *




THE TELECTROSCOPE.

By MONS. SENLECQ, of Ardres.


This apparatus, which is intended to transmit to a distance through a
telegraphic wire pictures taken on the plate of a camera, was invented in
the early part of 1877 by M. Senlecq, of Ardres. A description of the first
specification submitted by M. Senlecq to M. du Moncel, member of the
Paris Academy of Sciences, appeared in all the continental and American
scientific journals. Since then the apparatus has everywhere occupied the
attention of prominent electricians, who have striven to improve on it.
Among these we may mention MM. Ayrton, Perry, Sawyer (of New York),
Sargent (of Philadelphia), Brown (of London), Carey (of Boston), Tighe (of
Pittsburg), and Graham Bell himself. Some experimenters have used many
wires, bound together cable-wise, others one wire only. The result has
been, on the one hand, confusion of conductors beyond a certain distance,
with the absolute impossibility of obtaining perfect insulation; and,
on the other hand, an utter want of synchronism. The unequal and slow
sensitiveness of the selenium likewise obstructed the proper working of the
apparatus. Now, without a relative simplicity in the arrangement of the
conducting wires intended to convey to a distance the electric current with
its variations of intensity, without a perfect and rapid synchronism
acting concurrently with the luminous impressions, so as to insure the
simultaneous action of transmitter and receiver, without, in fine, an
increased sensitiveness in the selenium, the idea of the telectroscope
could not be realized. M. Senlecq has fortunately surmounted most of these
main obstacles, and we give to-day a description of the latest apparatus he
has contrived.


TRANSMITTER.

A brass plate, A, whereon the rays of light impinge inside a camera, in
their various forms and colors, from the external objects placed before the
lens, the said plate being coated with selenium on the side intended to
face the dark portion of the camera This brass plate has its entire surface
perforated with small holes as near to one another as practicable. These
holes are filled with selenium, heated, and then cooled very slowly, so as
to obtain the maximum sensitiveness. A small brass wire passes through the
selenium in each hole, without, however, touching the plate, on to the
rectangular and vertical ebonite plate, B, Fig. 1, from under this plate
at point, C. Thus, every wire passing through plate, A, has its point
of contact above the plate, B, lengthwise. With this view the wires are
clustered together when leaving the camera, and thence stretch to their
corresponding points of contact on plate, B, along line, C C. The surface
of brass, A, is in permanent contact with the positive pole of the battery
(selenium). On each side of plate, B, are let in two brass rails, D and E,
whereon the slide hereinafter described works.

[Illustration: Fig. 1]

Rail, E, communicates with the line wire intended to conduct the various
light and shade vibrations. Rail, D, is connected with the battery wire.
Along F are a number of points of contact corresponding with those along
C C. These contacts help to work the apparatus, and to insure the perfect
isochronism of the transmitter and receiver. These points of contact,
though insulated one from the other on the surface of the plate, are all
connected underneath with a wire coming from the positive pole of a special
battery. This apparatus requires two batteries, as, in fact, do all
autographic telegraphs--one for sending the current through the selenium,
and one for working the receiver, etc. The different features of this
important plate may, therefore, be summed up thus:

FIGURE 1.

D. Brass rail, grooved and connected with the line wire working the
receiver.

F. Contacts connected underneath with a wire permanently connected with
battery.

C. Contacts connected to insulated wires from selenium.

E. Brass rail, grooved, etc., like D.


RECEIVER.

A small slide, Fig. 2, having at one of its angles a very narrow piece of
brass, separated in the middle by an insulating surface, used for setting
the apparatus in rapid motion. This small slide has at the points, D D, a
small groove fitting into the brass rails of plate, B, Fig. 1, whereby it
can keep parallel on the two brass rails, D and E. Its insulator, B, Fig.
2, corresponds to the insulating interval between F and C, Fig. 1.

A, Fig. 3, circular disk, suspended vertically (made of ebonite or other
insulating material). This disk is fixed. All round the inside of its
circumference are contacts, connected underneath with the corresponding
wires of the receiving apparatus. The wires coming from the seleniumized
plate correspond symmetrically, one after the other, with the contacts of
transmitter. They are connected in the like order with those of disk, A,
and with those of receiver, so that the wire bearing the No. 5 from the
selenium will correspond identically with like contact No. 5 of receiver.

D, Fig. 4, gutta percha or vulcanite insulating plate, through which pass
numerous very fine platinum wires, each corresponding at its point of
contact with those on the circular disk, A.

The receptive plate must be smaller than the plate whereon the light
impinges. The design being thus reduced will be the more perfect from the
dots formed by the passing currents being closer together.

B, zinc or iron or brass plate connected to earth. It comes in contact with
chemically prepared paper, C, where the impression is to take place. It
contributes to the impression by its contact with the chemically prepared
paper.

In E, Fig. 3, at the center of the above described fixed plate is a
metallic axis with small handle. On this axis revolves brass wheel, F, Fig.
5.

[Illustration: FIG. 2]

On handle, E, presses continuously the spring, H, Fig. 3, bringing the
current coming from the selenium line. The cogged wheel in Fig. 5 has at a
certain point of its circumference the sliding spring, O, Fig. 5, intended
to slide as the wheel revolves over the different contacts of disk, A, Fig.
3.

This cogged wheel, Fig. 5, is turned, as in the dial telegraphs, by a rod
working in and out under the successive movements of the electro-magnet,
H, and of the counter spring. By means of this rod (which must be of a
non-metallic material, so as not to divert the motive current), and of an
elbow lever, this alternating movement is transmitted to a catch, G, which
works up and down between the cogs, and answers the same purpose as the
ordinary clock anchor.

[Illustration: FIG. 3]

This cogged wheel is worked by clockwork inclosed between two disks, and
would rotate continuously were it not for the catch, G, working in and out
of the cogs. Through this catch, G, the wheel is dependent on the movement
of electro-magnet. This cogged wheel is a double one, consisting of two
wheels coupled together, exactly similar one with the other, and so fixed
that the cogs of the one correspond with the void between the cogs of the
others. As the catch, G, moves down it frees a cog in first wheel, and both
wheels begin to turn, but the second wheel is immediately checked by catch,
G, and the movement ceases. A catch again works the two wheels, turn half a
cog, and so on. Each wheel contains as many cogs as there are contacts on
transmitter disk, consequently as many as on circular disk, A, Fig. 3, and
on brass disk within camera.

[Illustration: FIG. 4]

[Illustration: FIG. 5]

Having now described the several parts of the apparatus, let us see how it
works. All the contacts correspond one with the other, both on the side of
selenium current and that of the motive current. Let us suppose that the
slide of transmitter is on contact No. 10 for instance; the selenium
current starting from No. 10 reaches contact 10 of rectangular transmitter,
half the slide bearing on this point, as also on the parallel rail,
communicates the current to said rail, thence to line, from the line to
axis of cogged wheel, from axis to contact 10 of circular fixed disk,
and thence to contact 10 of receiver. At each selenium contact of the
rectangular disk there is a corresponding contact to the battery and
electro-magnet. Now, on reaching contact 10 the intermission of the current
has turned the wheel 10 cogs, and so brought the small contact, O, Fig. 5,
on No. 10 of the fixed circular disk.

As may be seen, the synchronism of the apparatus could not be obtained in
a more simple and complete mode--the rectangular transmitter being placed
vertically, and the slide being of a certain weight to its fall from the
first point of contact sufficient to carry it rapidly over the whole length
of this transmitter.

The picture is, therefore, reproduced almost instantaneously; indeed, by
using platinum wires on the receiver connected with the negative pole, by
the incandescence of these wires according to the different degrees of
electricity we can obtain a picture, of a fugitive kind, it is true, but
yet so vivid that the impression on the retina does not fade during the
relatively very brief space of time the slide occupies in traveling over
all the contacts. A Ruhmkorff coil may also be employed for obtaining
sparks in proportion to the current emitted. The apparatus is regulated
in precisely the same way as dial telegraphs, starting always from first
contact. The slide should, therefore, never be removed from the rectangular
disk, whereon it is held by the grooves in the brass rails, into which it
fits with but slight friction, without communicating any current to the
line wires when not placed on points of contact.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Continued from SUPPLEMENT No. 274, page 4368.]




THE VARIOUS MODES OF TRANSMITTING POWER TO A DISTANCE.

[Footnote: A paper lately read before the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers.]

By ARTHUR ACHARD, of Geneva.


But allowing that the figure of 22 H. P., assumed for this power (the
result in calculating the work with compressed air being 19 H. P.) may be
somewhat incorrect, it is unlikely that this error can be so large that its
correction could reduce the efficiency below 80 per cent. Messrs. Sautter
and Lemonnier, who construct a number of compressors, on being consulted
by the author, have written to say that they always confined themselves in
estimating the power stored in the compressed air, and had never measured
the gross power expended. Compressed air in passing along the pipe, assumed
to be horizontal, which conveys it from the place of production to the
place where it is to be used, experiences by friction a diminution of
pressure, which represents a reduction in the mechanical power stored up,
and consequently a loss of efficiency.

The loss of pressure in question can only be calculated conveniently on the
hypothesis that it is very small, and the general formula,

  p1 - p     4L
  ------- = ---- f(u),
  [Delta]    D

[TEX: \frac{p_1 - p}{\Delta} = \frac{4L}{D}f(u)]

is employed for the purpose, where D is the diameter of the pipe, assumed
to be uniform, L the length of the pipe, p1 the pressure at the entrance, p
the pressure at the farther end, u the velocity at which the compressed air
travels, [Delta] its specific weight, and f(u) the friction per unit of
length. In proportion as the air loses pressure its speed increases, while
its specific weight diminishes; but the variations in pressure are assumed
to be so small that u and [Delta] may be considered constant. As regards
the quantity f(u), or the friction per unit of length, the natural law
which regulates it is not known, audit can only be expressed by some
empirical formula, which, while according sufficiently nearly with the
facts, is suited for calculation. For this purpose the binomial formula, au
+ bu squared, or the simple formula, b1 u squared, is generally adopted; a b and b1 being
coefficients deduced from experiment. The values, however, which are to
be given to these coefficients are not constant, for they vary with the
diameter of the pipe, and in particular, contrary to formerly received
ideas, they vary according to its internal surface. The uncertainty in this
respect is so great that it is not worth while, with a view to accuracy, to
relinquish the great convenience which the simple formula, b1 u squared, offers.
It would be better from this point of view to endeavor, as has been
suggested, to render this formula more exact by the substitution of a
fractional power in the place of the square, rather than to go through
the long calculations necessitated by the use of the binomial au + bu squared.
Accordingly, making use of the formula b1 u squared, the above equation becomes,

  p1 - p     4L
  ------- = ---- b1 u squared;
  [Delta]    D

[TEX: \frac{p_1 - p}{\Delta} = \frac{4L}{D} b_1 u^2]

or, introducing the discharge per second, Q, which is the usual figure
supplied, and which is connected with the velocity by the relation, Q =
([pi] D squared u)/4, we have

  p1 - p      64 b1
  ------- = --------- L Q squared.
  [Delta]   [pi] squared D^5

[TEX: \frac{p_1 - p}{\Delta} = \frac{64 b_1}{\pi^2 D^5} L Q^2]

Generally the pressure, p1, at the entrance is known, and the pressure, p,
has to be found; it is then from p1 that the values of Q and [Delta] are
calculated. In experiments where p1 and p are measured directly, in order
to arrive at the value of the coefficient b1, Q and [Delta] would be
calculated for the mean pressure 1/2(p1 + p). The values given to the
coefficient b1 vary considerably, because, as stated above, it varies with
the diameter, and also with the nature of the material of the pipe. It
is generally admitted that it is independent of the pressure, and it is
probable that within certain limits of pressure this hypothesis is in
accordance with the truth.

D'Aubuisson gives for this case, in his _Traite d'Hydraulique_, a rather
complicated formula, containing a constant deduced from experiment, whose
value, according to a calculation made by the author, is approximately b1 =
0.0003. This constant was determined by taking the mean of experiments made
with tin tubes of 0.0235 meter (15/16 in.), 0.05 meter (2 in.), and 0.10
meter (4 in.) diameter; and it was erroneously assumed that it was correct
for all diameters and all substances.

M. Arson, engineer to the Paris Gas Company, published in 1867, in the
_Memoires de la Societe des Ingenieurs Civils de France_, the results of
some experiments on the loss of pressure in gas when passing through pipes.
He employed cast-iron pipes of the ordinary type. He has represented the
results of his experiments by the binomial formula, au + bu squared, and gives
values for the coefficients a and b, which diminish with an increase in
diameter, but would indicate greater losses of pressure than D'Aubuisson's
formula. M. Deviller, in his _Rapport sur les travaux de percement du
tunnel sous les Alpes_, states that the losses of pressure observed in the
air pipe at the Mont Cenis Tunnel confirm the correctness of D'Aubuisson's
formula; but his reasoning applies to too complicated a formula to be
absolutely convincing.

Quite recently M. E. Stockalper, engineer-in-chief at the northern end of
the St. Gothard Tunnel, has made some experiments on the air conduit of
this tunnel, the results of which he has kindly furnished to the author.
These lead to values for the coefficient b1 appreciably less than that
which is contained implicitly in D'Aubuisson's formula. As he experimented
on a rising pipe, it is necessary to introduce into the formula the
difference of level, h, between the two ends; it then becomes

  p1 - p      64 b1
  ------- = --------- L Q squared + h.
  [Delta]   [pi] squared D^5

[TEX: \frac{p_1 - p}{\Delta} = \frac{64 b_1}{\pi^2 D^5} L Q^2 + h]

The following are the details of the experiments: First series of
experiments: Conduit consisting of cast or wrought iron pipes, joined by
means of flanges, bolts, and gutta percha rings. D = 0.20 m. (8 in.); L =
4,600 m. (15,100 ft,); h= 26.77 m. (87 ft. 10 in.). 1st experiment: Q =
0.1860 cubic meter (6.57 cubic feet), at a pressure of 1/2(p1 + p), and a
temperature of 22 deg. Cent. (72 deg. Fahr.); p1 = 5.60 atm., p =5.24 atm. Hence p1
- p = 0.36 atm.= 0.36 x 10,334 kilogrammes per square meter (2.116 lb. per
square foot), whence we obtain b1=0.0001697. D'Aubuisson's formula would
have given p1 - p = 0.626 atm.; and M. Arson's would have given p1 - p =
0.9316 atm. 2d experiment: Q = 0.1566 cubic meter (5.53 cubic feet), at a
pressure of 1/2(p1 + p), and a temperature of 22 deg. Cent. (72 deg. Fahr.); p1
= 4.35 atm., p = 4.13 atm. Hence p1 - p = 0.22 atm. = 0.22 X 10,334
kilogrammes per square meter (2,116 lb. per square foot); whence we obtain
b1 = 0.0001816. D'Aubuisson's formula would have given p1 - p = 0.347 atm;
and M. Arson's would have given p1 - p = 0.5382 atm. 3d experiment: Q =
0.1495 cubic meter (5.28 cubic feet) at a pressure of 1/2(p1 + p) and a
temperature 22 deg. Cent. (72 deg. Fahr.); p1 = 3.84 atm., p = 3.65 atm. Hence p1 -
p = 0.19 atm. = 0.19 X 10,334 kilogrammes per square meter (2.116 lb. per
square foot); whence we obtain B1 = 0.0001966. D'Aubuisson's formula would
have given p1 - p = 0.284 atm., and M. Arson's would have given p1 - p =
0.4329 atm. Second series of experiments: Conduit composed of wrought-iron
pipes, with joints as in the first experiments. D = 0.15 meter (6 in.), L
- 0.522 meters (1,712 ft.), h = 3.04 meters (10 ft.) 1st experiments: Q =
0.2005 cubic meter (7.08 cubic feet), at a pressure of 1/2(p1 + p), and a
temperature of 26.5 deg. Cent. (80 deg. Fahr.); p1 = 5.24 atm., p = 5.00 atm. Hence
p1 - p = 0.24 atm. =0.24 x 10,334 kilogrammes per square meter (2,116 lb.
per square foot); whence we obtain b1 = 0.3002275. 2nd experiment: Q =
0.1586 cubic meter (5.6 cubic feet), at a pressure of 1/2(p1 + p), and a
temperature of 26.5 deg. Cent. (80 deg. Fahr.); p1 = 3.650 atm., p = 3.545 atm.
Hence p1 - p = 0.105 atm. = 0.105 x 10,334 kilogrammes per square meter
(2,116 lb. per square foot); whence we obtain b1 = 0.0002255. It is clear
that these experiments give very small values for the coefficient. The
divergence from the results which D'Aubuisson's formula would give is due
to the fact that his formula was determined with very small pipes. It is
probable that the coefficients corresponding to diameters of 0.15 meter
(6 in.) and 0.20 meter (8 in.) for a substance as smooth as tin, would be
still smaller respectively than the figures obtained above.

The divergence from the results obtained by M. Arson's formula does not
arise from a difference in size, as this is taken into account. The author
considers that it may be attributed to the fact that the pipes for the St.
Gothard Tunnel were cast with much greater care than ordinary pipes, which
rendered their surface smoother, and also to the fact that flanged joints
produce much less irregularity in the internal surface than the ordinary
spigot and faucet joints.

Lastly, the difference in the methods of observation and the errors which
belong to them, must be taken into account. M. Stockalper, who experimented
on great pressures, used metallic gauges, which are instruments on whose
sensibility and correctness complete reliance cannot be placed; and
moreover the standard manometer with which they were compared was one of
the same kind. The author is not of opinion that the divergence is owing to
the fact that M. Stockalper made his observations on an air conduit, where
the pressure was much higher than in gas pipes. Indeed, it may be assumed
that gases and liquids act in the same manner; and, as will be [1]
explained later on, there is reason to believe that with the latter a rise
of pressure increases the losses of pressure instead of diminishing them.

[Transcribers note 1: corrected from 'as will we explained']

All the pipes for supplying compressed air in tunnels and in headings of
mines are left uncovered, and have flanged joints; which are advantages not
merely as regards prevention of leakage, but also for facility of laying
and of inspection. If a compressed air pipe had to be buried in the ground
the flanged joint would lose a part of its advantages; but, nevertheless,
the author considers that it would still be preferable to the ordinary
joint.

It only remains to refer to the motors fed with the compressed air.
This subject is still in its infancy from a practical point of view. In
proportion as the air becomes hot by compression, so it cools by expansion,
if the vessel containing it is impermeable to heat. Under these conditions
it gives out in expanding a power appreciably less than if it retained its
original temperature; besides which the fall of temperature may impede the
working of the machine by freezing the vapor of water contained in the air.

If it is desired to utilize to the utmost the force stored up in the
compressed air it is necessary to endeavor to supply heat to the air during
expansion so as to keep its temperature constant. It would be possible
to attain this object by the same means which prevent heating from
compression, namely, by the circulation and injection of water. It would
perhaps be necessary to employ a little larger quantity of water for
injection, as the water, instead of acting by virtue both of its heat of
vaporization and of its specific heat, can in this case act only by virtue
of the latter. These methods might be employed without difficulty for air
machines of some size. It would be more difficult to apply them to small
household machines, in which simplicity is an essential element; and we
must rest satisfied with imperfect methods, such as proximity to a stove,
or the immersion of the cylinder in a tank of water. Consequently loss of
power by cooling and by incomplete expansion cannot be avoided. The only
way to diminish the relative amount of this loss is to employ compressed
air at a pressure not exceeding three or four atmospheres.

The only real practical advance made in this matter is M. Mekarski's
compressed air engine for tramways. In this engine the air is made to pass
through a small boiler containing water at a temperature of about 120 deg.
Cent. (248 deg. Fahr.), before entering the cylinder of the engine. It must
be observed that in order to reduce the size of the reservoirs, which
are carried on the locomotive, the air inside them must be very highly
compressed; and that in going from the reservoir into the cylinder it
passes through a reducing valve or expander, which keeps the pressure of
admission at a definite figure, so that the locomotive can continue working
so long as the supply of air contained in the reservoir has not come down
to this limiting pressure. The air does not pass the expander until after
it has gone through the boiler already mentioned. Therefore, if the
temperature which it assumes in the boiler is 100 deg. Cent. (212 deg. Fahr.), and
if the limiting pressure is 5 atm., the gas which enters the engine will be
a mixture of air and water vapor at 100 deg. Cent.; and of its total pressure
the vapor of water will contribute I atm. and the air 4 atm. Thus this
contrivance, by a small expenditure of fuel, enables the air to act
expansively without injurious cooling, and even reduces the consumption of
compressed air to an extent which compensates for part of the loss of power
arising from the preliminary expansion which the air experiences before its
admission into the engine. It is clear that this same contrivance, or what
amounts to the same thing, a direct injection of steam, at a sufficient
pressure, for the purpose of maintaining the expanding air at a constant
temperature, might be tried in a fixed engine worked by compressed air with
some chance of success.

Whatever method is adopted it would be advantageous that the losses of
pressure in the pipes connecting the compressors with the motors should be
reduced as much as possible, for in this case that loss would represent
a loss of efficiency. If, on the other hand, owing to defective means of
reheating, it is necessary to remain satisfied with a small amount of
expansion, the loss of pressure in the pipe is unimportant, and has only
the effect of transferring the limited expansion to a point a little lower
on the scale of pressures. If W is the net disposable force on the shaft
of the engine which works the compressor, v1 the volume of air at the
compressor, p1. given by the compressor, and at the temperature of the
surrounding air, and p0 the atmospheric pressure, the efficiency of the
compressor, assuming the air to expand according to Boyle's law, is given
by the well-known formula--

  p1 v1 log (p1 / p0)
  -------------------.
          W

[TEX: \frac{p_1 v_1 \log \frac{p_1}{p_0}}{W}]

Let p2 be the value to which the pressure is reduced by the loss of
pressure at the end of the conduit, and v2 the volume which the air
occupies at this pressure and at the same temperature; the force stored
up in the air at the end of its course through the conduit is p2 v2
log(p2/p0); consequently, the efficiency of the conduit is

  p2 v2 log(p2/p0)
  ----------------
  p1 v1 log(p1/p0)

[TEX: \frac{p_2 v_2 \log\frac{p_2}{p_0}}{p_2 v_2 \log\frac{p_2}{p_0}}]

a fraction that may be reduced to the simple form

  log(p2/p0)
  ----------,
  log(p1/p0)

[TEX: \frac{\log\frac{p_2}{p_0}}{\log\frac{p_2}{p_0}}]

if there is no leakage during the passage of the air, because in that cause
p2 v2 = p1 v1. Lastly, if W1 is the net disposable force on the shaft of
the compressed air motor, the efficiency of this engine will be,

        W1
  ----------------
  p2 v2 log(p2/p0)

[TEX: \frac{W_1}{p_2 v_2 \log \frac{p_2}{p_0}}]

and the product of these three partial efficiencies is equal to W1/W, the
general efficiency of the transmission.

III. _Transmission by Pressure Water_.--As transmission of power by
compressed air has been specially applied to the driving of tunnels, so
transmission by pressure water has been specially resorted to for lifting
heavy loads, or for work of a similar nature, such as the operations
connected with the manufacture of Bessemer steel or of cast-iron pipes.
The author does not propose to treat of transmissions established for this
special purpose, and depending on the use of accumulators at high pressure,
as he has no fresh matter to impart on this subject, and as he believes
that the remarkable invention of Sir William Armstrong was described for
the first time, in the "Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers." His object is to refer to transmissions applicable to general
purposes.

The transmission of power by water may occur in another form. The motive
force to be transmitted may be employed for working pumps which raise the
water, not to a fictitious height in an accumulator, but to a real height
in a reservoir, with a channel from this reservoir to distribute the water
so raised among several motors arranged for utilizing the pressure. The
author is not aware that works have been carried out for this purpose.
However, in many towns a part of the water from the public mains serves to
supply small motors--consequently, if the water, instead of being brought
by a natural fall, has been previously lifted artificially, it might be
said that a transmission of power is here grafted on to the ordinary
distribution of water.

Unless a positive or negative force of gravity is introduced into the
problem, independently of the force to be transmitted, the receivers of
the water pressure must be assumed to be at the same level as the forcing
pumps, or more correctly, the water discharged from the receivers to be at
the same level as the surface of the water from which the pumps draw their
supply. In this case the general efficiency of transmission is the product
of three partial efficiencies, which correspond exactly to those mentioned
with regard to compressed air. The height of lift, contained in the
numerator of the fraction which expresses the efficiency of the pumps, is
not to be taken as the difference in level between the surface of the water
in the reservoir and the surface of the water whence the pumps draw their
supply; but as this difference in level, plus the loss of pressure in the
suction pipe, which is usually very short, and plus the loss in the channel
to the reservoir, which may be very long. A similar loss of initial
pressure affects the efficiency of the discharge channel. The reservoir, if
of sufficient capacity, may become an important store of power, while the
compressed air reservoir can only do so to a very limited extent.

Omitting the subject of the pumps, and passing on at once to the discharge
main, the author may first point out that the distinction between the
ascending and descending mains of the system is of no importance, for two
reasons: first, that nothing prevents the motors being supplied direct from
the first alone; and second, that the one is not always distinct from the
other. In fact, the reservoir may be connected by a single branch pipe with
the system which goes from the pumps to the motors; it may even be placed
at the extreme end of this system beyond the motors, provided always that
the supply pipe is taken into it at the bottom. The same formula may be
adopted for the loss of initial pressure in water pipes as for compressed
air pipes, viz.,

  p1 - p      64 b1
  ------- = --------- L Q squared +- h;
  [Delta]   [pi] squared D^5

[TEX: \frac{p_1 - p}{\Delta} = \frac{64 b_1}{\pi^2 D^5} L Q^2 \pm h]

h being the difference of level between the two ends of the portion of
conduit of length, L, and the sign + or - being used according as the
conduit rises or falls. The specific weight, [delta], is constant, and the
quotients, p1/[delta] and p/[delta], represent the heights, z and z1, to
which the water could rise above the pipes, in vertical tubes branching
from it, at the beginning and end of the transit. The values assigned to
the coefficient b1 in France, are those determined by D'Arcy. For new
cast-iron pipes he gives b1 - 0.0002535 + 1/D 0.000000647; and recommends
that this value should be doubled, to allow for the rust and incrustation
which more or less form inside the pipes during use. The determination of
this coefficient has been made from experiments where the pressure has
not exceeded four atmospheres; within these limits the value of the
coefficient, as is generally admitted, is independent of the pressure. The
experiments made by M. Barret, on the pressure pipes of the accumulator at
the Marseilles docks, seem to indicate that the loss of pressure would be
greater for high pressures, everything else being equal. This pipe, having
a diameter of 0.127 m. (5 in.), was subjected to an initial pressure of 52
atmospheres. The author gives below the results obtained for a straight
length 320 m. (1050 ft) long; and has placed beside them the results which
D'Arcy's formula would give.

              Loss of head, in meters or ft. respectively
                    per 100 meters or ft. run of pipes.
                  +-----------------^-------------------+
                  |                                     |
                                     Calculated loss.
                                +-----------^-----------+
                                |                       |
Velocity of flow  Actual loss
   per second.     observed.    Old pipes.    New pipes.
Meters.   Feet.   Met. or Ft.   Met. or Ft.   Met. or Ft.
0.25      0.82        1.5           0.12         0.06
0.50      1.64        2.5           0.48         0.24
0.75      2.46        3.7           1.08         0.54
1.00      3.28        5.5           1.92         0.96
1.25      4.10        6.1           3.00         1.50
1.50      4.92        7.3           4.32         2.16
1.75      5.74        8.0           5.88         2.94
2.00      6.56       10.2           7.68         3.84
2.25      7.38       11.7           9.72         4.86
2.50      8.20       14.0          12.00         6.00

Moreover, these results would appear to indicate a different law from that
which is expressed by the formula b1 u squared, as is easy to see by representing
them graphically. It would be very desirable that fresh experiments should
be made on water pipes at high pressure, and of various diameters. Of
machines worked by water pressure the author proposes to refer only to two
which appear to him in every respect the most practical and advantageous.
One is the piston machine of M. Albert Schmid, engineer at Zurich. The
cylinder is oscillating, and the distribution is effected, without an
eccentric, by the relative motion of two spherical surfaces fitted one
against the other, and having the axis of oscillation for a common axis.
The convex surface, which is movable and forms part of the cylinder, serves
as a port face, and has two ports in it communicating with the two ends of
the cylinder. The concave surface, which is fixed and plays the part of a
slide valve, contains three openings, the two outer ones serving to admit
the pressure water, and the middle one to discharge the water after it has
exerted its pressure. The piston has no packing. Its surface of contact has
two circumferential grooves, which produce a sort of water packing acting
by adhesion. A small air chamber is connected with the inlet pipe, and
serves to deaden the shocks. This engine is often made with two cylinders,
having their cranks at right angles.

The other engine, which is much less used, is a turbine on Girard's system,
with a horizontal axis and partial admission, exactly resembling in
miniature those which work in the hydraulic factory of St. Maur, near
Paris. The water is introduced by means of a distributer, which is fitted
in the interior of the turbine chamber, and occupies a certain portion
of its circumference. This turbine has a lower efficiency than Schmid's
machine, and is less suitable for high pressures; but it possesses this
advantage over it, that by regulating the amount of opening of the
distributer, and consequently the quantity of water admitted, the force can
be altered without altering the velocity of rotation. As it admits of great
speeds, it could be usefully employed direct, without the interposition of
spur wheels or belts for driving magneto-electric machines employed for the
production of light, for electrotyping, etc.

In compressed air machines the losses of pressure due to incomplete
expansion, cooling, and waste spaces, play an important part. In water
pressure machines loss does not occur from these causes, on account of the
incompressibility of the liquid, but the frictions of the parts are the
principal causes of loss of power. It would be advisable to ascertain
whether, as regards this point, high or low pressures are the most
advantageous. Theoretical considerations would lead the author to imagine
that for a piston machine low pressures are preferable. In conclusion, the
following table gives the efficiencies of a Girard turbine, constructed by
Messrs. Escher Wyss & Co., of Zurich, and of a Schmid machine, as measured
by Professor Fliegnor, in 1871:

           ESCHER WYSS & CO'S TURBINE.

Effective Head of Water.   Revolutions   Efficiency.
                           per minute.
Meters.     Feet.            Revs.       Per cent.
 20.7       67.9              628          68.5
 20.7       67.9              847          47.4
 24.1       79.0              645          68.5
 27.6       90.5              612          65.7
 27.6       90.5              756          68.0
 31.0      101.7              935          56.9
 31.0      101.7            1,130          35.1

                  SCHMID MOTOR.

  8.3       27.2              226          37.4
 11.4       37.4              182          67.4
 14.5       47.6              254          53.4
 17.9       58.7              157          86.2
 20.7       67.9              166          89.6
 20.7       67.9              225          74.6
 24.1       79.0              238          76.7
 24.1       79.0              389          64.0
 27.6       90.5              207          83.9

It will be observed that these experiments relate to low pressures; it
would be desirable to extend them to higher pressures.

IV. _Transmission by Electricity._--However high the efficiency of an
electric motor may be, in relation to the chemical work of the electric
battery which feeds it, force generated by an electric battery is too
expensive, on account of the nature of the materials consumed, for a
machine of this kind ever to be employed for industrial purposes. If,
however, the electric current, instead of being developed by chemical
work in a battery, is produced by ordinary mechanical power in a
magneto-electric or dynamo-electric machine, the case is different; and
the double transformation, first of the mechanical force into an electric
current, and then of that current into mechanical force, furnishes a means
for effecting the conveyance of the power to a distance.

It is this last method of transmission which remains to be discussed. The
author, however, feels himself obliged to restrict himself in this matter
to a mere summary; and, indeed, it is English physicists and engineers who
have taken the technology of electricity out of the region of empiricism
and have placed it on a scientific and rational basis. Moreover, they are
also taking the lead in the progress which is being accomplished in this
branch of knowledge, and are best qualified to determine its true bearings.
When an electric current, with an intensity, i, is produced, either by
chemical or mechanical work, in a circuit having a total resistance, R, a
quantity of heat is developed in the circuit, and this heat is the exact
equivalent of the force expended, so long as the current is not made use of
for doing any external work. The expression for this quantity of heat, per
unit of time, is Ai squaredR; A being the thermal equivalent of the unit of power
corresponding to the units of current and resistance, in which i and R are
respectively expressed. The product, i squaredR, is a certain quantity of power,
which the author proposes to call _power transformed into electricity_.
When mechanical power is employed for producing a current by means of
a magneto-electric or dynamo-electric machine--or, to use a better
expression, by means of a _mechanical generator of electricity_--it is
necessary in reality to expend a greater quantity of power than i squaredR in
order to make up for losses which result either from ordinary friction
or from certain electro magnetic reactions which occur. The ratio of the
quantity, i squaredR, to the power, W, actually expended per unit of time is
called the efficiency of the generator. Designating it by K, we obtain, W
= i squaredR/K. It is very important to ascertain the value of this efficiency,
considering that it necessarily enters as a factor into the evaluation of
all the effects to be produced by help of the generator in question. The
following table gives the results of certain experiments made early in
1879, with a Gramme machine, by an able physicist, M Hagenbach, Professor
at the University at Basle, and kindly furnished by him to the author:

Revolutions per minute                     935  919.5  900.5    893

Total resistance in Siemens' units        2.55   3.82   4.94   6.06

Total resistance in absolute units       2.435  3.648  4.718  5.787
                                         x10^9  x10^9  x10^9  x10^9

Intensity in chemical units              17.67  10.99   8.09   6.28

Intensity in absolute units              2.828  1.759  1.295  1.005

Work done i squaredR in absolute units         1948.6 1129.2  791.3  584.9
                                         x10^7  x10^7  x10^7  x10^7

Work done i squaredR in kilogrammes             198.6  115.1  80.66  59.62

Power expended in kilogrammes            301.5  141.0  86.25  83.25

Efficiency, per cent.                     65.9   81.6  93.5   71.6

M. Hagenbach's dynamometric measurements were made by the aid of a brake.
After each experiment on the electric machine, he applied the brake to the
engine which he employed, taking care to make it run at precisely the same
speed, with the same pressure of steam, and with the same expansion as
during experiment. It would certainly be better to measure the force
expended during and not after the experiment, by means of a registering
dynamometer. Moreover, M. Hagenbach writes that his measurements by means
of the brake were very much prejudiced by external circumstances; doubtless
this is the reason of the divergences between the results obtained.

About the same time Dr. Hopkinson communicated to this institution the
results of some very careful experiments made on a Siemens machine. He
measured the force expended by means of a registering dynamometer, and
obtained very high coefficients of efficiency, amounting to nearly 90 per
cent. M. Hagenbach also obtained from one machine a result only a little
less than unity. Mechanical generators of electricity are certainly
capable of being improved in several respects, especially as regards their
adaptation to certain definite classes of work. But there appears to
remain hardly any margin for further progress as regards efficiency. Force
transformed into electricity in a generator may be expressed by i [omega] M
C; [omega] being the angular velocity of rotation; M the magnetism of one
of the poles, inducing or induced, which intervenes; and C a constant
specially belonging to each apparatus, and which is independent of
the units adopted. This constant could not be determined except by
an integration practically impossible; and the product, M C, must be
considered indivisible. Even in a magneto-electric machine (with permanent
inducing magnets), and much more in a dynamo-electric machine (inducing by
means of electro-magnets excited by the very current produced) the product,
M C, is a function of the intensity. From the identity of the expressions,
i squaredR and i [omega] M C we obtain the relation M C = IR/[omega] which
indicates the course to be pursued to determine experimentally the law
which connects the variations of M C with those of i. Some experiments made
in 1876, by M. Hagenbach, on a Gramme dynamo-electric machine, appear to
indicate that the magnetism, M C, does not increase indefinitely with the
intensity, but that there is some maximum value for this quantity. If,
instead of working a generator by an external motive force, a current is
passed through its circuit in a certain given direction, the movable part
of the machine will begin to turn in an opposite direction to that in which
it would have been necessary to turn it in order to obtain a current in the
aforesaid direction. In virtue of this motion the electro-magnetic forces
which are generated may be used to overcome a resisting force. The machine
will then work as a motor or receiver. Let i be the intensity of the
external current which works the motor, when the motor is kept at rest. If
it is now allowed to move, its motion produces, in virtue of the laws of
induction, a current in the circuit of intensity, i1, in the opposite
direction to the external current; the effective intensity of the current
traversing the circuit is thus reduced to i - i1. The intensity of the
counter current is given, like that of the generating current, by the
equation, i1 squaredR = i1 [omega]1 M1 C1, or i1R = [omega]1 M1 C1, the index, 1,
denoting the quantities relating to the motor. Here M1 C1 is a function of
i - i1, not of i. As in a generator the force transformed into electricity
has a value, i [omega] M C, so in a motor the force developed by
electricity is (i - i1) [omega]1 M1 C1. On account, however, of the losses
which occur, the effective power, that is the disposable power on the shaft
of the motor, will have a smaller value, and in order to arrive at it a
coefficient of efficiency, K1, must be added. We shall then have W1 = K1
(i-i1) [omega]1 M1 C1. The author has no knowledge of any experiments
having been made for obtaining this efficiency, K1. Next let us suppose
that the current feeding the motor is furnished by a generator, so that
actual transmission by electricity is taking place. The circuit, whose
resistance is R, comprises the coils, both fixed and movable, of the
generator and motor, and of the conductors which connect them. The
intensity of the current which traverses the circuit had the value, i, when
the motor was at rest; by the working of the motor it is reduced to i - i1.
The power applied to the generator is itself reduced to W-[(i-i1)[omega]
M C]/K. The prime mover is relieved by the action of the counter current,
precisely as the consumption of zinc in the battery would be reduced by the
same cause, if the battery was the source of the current. The efficiency
of the transmission is W1/W. Calculation shows that it is expressed by the
following equations:W1/W = K K1 [([omega]11 M1 C1)/([omega]1 M C)], or = K
K1 [([omega]11 M1 C)/([omega]11 M1 C1 + (i-i1) R)]; expressions in which
it must be remembered M C and M1 C1 are really functions of (i-i1). This
efficiency is, then, the product of three distinct factors, each evidently
less than unity, namely, the efficiency belonging to the generator, the
efficiency belonging to the motor, and a third factor depending on the rate
of rotation of the motor and the resistance of the circuit. The influence
which these elements exert on the value of the third factor cannot be
estimated, unless the law is first known according to which the magnetisms,
M C, M1 C C1, vary with the intensity of the current.


GENERAL RESULTS.

Casting a retrospective glance at the four methods of transmission of power
which have been examined, it would appear that transmission by ropes forms
a class by itself, while the three other methods combine into a natural
group, because they possess a character in common of the greatest
importance. It may be said that all three involve a temporary
transformation of the mechanical power to be utilized into potential
energy. Also in each of these methods the efficiency of transmission is
the product of three factors or partial efficiencies, which correspond
exactly--namely, first, the efficiency of the instrument which converts
the actual energy of the prime mover into potential energy; second, the
efficiency of the instrument which reconverts this potential energy into
actual energy, that is, into motion, and delivers it up in this shape
for the actual operations which accomplish industrial work; third, the
efficiency of the intermediate agency which serves for the conveyance of
potential energy from the first instrument to the second.

This last factor has just been given for transmission by electricity. It
is the exact correlative of the efficiency of the pipe in the case of
compressed air or of pressure water. It is as useful in the case of
electric transmission, as of any other method, to be able, in studying the
system, to estimate beforehand what results it is able to furnish, and for
this purpose it is necessary to calculate exactly the factors which compose
the efficiency.

In order to obtain this desirable knowledge, the author considers that the
three following points should form the aim of experimentalists: First,
the determination of the efficiency, K, of the principal kinds of
magneto-electric, or dynamo-electric machines working as generators;
second, the determination of the efficiency, K1, of the same machines
working as motors; third, the determination of the law according to which
the magnetism of the cores of these machines varies with the intensity of
the current. The author is of opinion that experiments made with these
objects in view would be more useful than those conducted for determining
the general efficiency of transmission, for the latter give results only
available under precisely similar conditions. However, it is clear that
they have their value and must not be neglected.

There are, moreover, many other questions requiring to be elucidated by
experiment, especially as regards the arrangement of the conducting wires:
but it is needless to dwell further upon this subject, which has been ably
treated by many English men of science--for instance, Dr. Siemens and
Professor Ayrton. Nevertheless, for further information the author would
refer to the able articles published at Paris, by M. Mascart, in the
_Journal de Physique_, in 1877 and 1878. The author would gladly have
concluded this paper with a comparison of the efficiencies of the four
systems which have been examined, or what amounts to the same thing--with a
comparison of the losses of power which they occasion. Unfortunately, such
a comparison has never been made experimentally, because hitherto the
opportunity of doing it in a demonstrative manner has been wanting, for the
transmission of power to a distance belongs rather to the future than to
the present time. Transmission by electricity is still in its infancy; it
has only been applied on a small scale and experimentally.

Of the three other systems, transmission by means of ropes is the only one
that has been employed for general industrial purposes, while compressed
air and water under pressure have been applied only to special purposes,
and their use has been due much more to their special suitableness for
these purposes than from any considerations relative to loss of power.
Thus the effective work of the compressed air used in driving the
tunnels through the Alps, assuming its determination to be possible, was
undoubtedly very low; nevertheless, in the present state of our appliances
it is the only process by which such operations can be accomplished. The
author believes that transmission by ropes furnishes the highest proportion
of useful work, but that as regards a wide distribution of the transmitted
power the other two methods, by air and water, might merit a preference.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE HOTCHKISS REVOLVING GUN.


The Hotchkiss revolving gun, already adopted in the French navy and by
other leading European nations, has been ordered for use in the German navy
by the following decree of the German Emperor, dated January 11 last: "On
the report made to me, I approve the adoption of the Hotchkiss revolving
cannon as a part of the artillery of my navy; and each of my ships,
according to their classification, shall in general be armed with this
weapon in such a manner that every point surrounding the vessel may be
protected by the fire of at least two guns at a minimum range of 200
meters."

       *       *       *       *       *




THALLIUM PAPERS AS OZONOMETERS.


Schoene has given the results of an extended series of experiments on the
use of thallium paper for estimating approximately the oxidizing material
in the atmosphere, whether it be hydrogen peroxide alone, or mixed with
ozone, or perhaps also with other constituents hitherto unknown. The
objection to Schoenbein's ozonometer (potassium iodide on starch paper) and
to Houzeau's ozonometer (potassium iodide on red litmus paper) lies in
the fact that their materials are hygroscopic, and their indications vary
widely with the moisture of the air. Since dry ozone does not act on these
papers, they must be moistened; and then the amount of moisture varies the
result quite as much as the amount of ozone. Indeed, attention has been
called to the larger amount of ozone near salt works and waterfalls, and
the erroneous opinion advanced that ozone is formed when water is finely
divided. And Boettger has stated that ozone is formed when ether is
atomized; the fact being that the reaction he observed was due to the
H_2O_2 always present in ether. Direct experiments with the Schoenbein
ozonometer and the psychrometer gave parallel curves; whence the author
regards the former as only a crude hygrometer. These objections do not lie
against the thallium paper, the oxidation to brown oxide by either ozone or
hydrogen peroxide not requiring the presence of moisture, and the color,
therefore, being independent of the hygrometric state of the air. Moreover,
when well cared for, the papers undergo no farther change of color and may
be preserved indefinitely. The author prepares the thallium paper a few
days before use, by dipping strips of Swedish filtering paper in a solution
of thallous hydrate, and drying. The solution is prepared by pouring a
solution of thallous sulphate into a boiling solution of barium hydrate,
equivalent quantities being taken, the resulting solution of thallous
hydrate being concentrated in vacuo until 100 c.c. contains 10 grammes
Tl(OH). For use the strips are hung in the free air in a close vessel,
preferably over caustic lime, for twelve hours. Other papers are used, made
with a two per cent. solution. These are exposed for thirty-six hours. The
coloration is determined by comparison with a scale having eleven degrees
of intensity upon it. Compared with Schoenbein's ozonometer, the results are
in general directly opposite. The thallium papers show that the greatest
effect is in the daytime, the iodide papers that it is at night. Yearly
curves show that the former generally indicate a rise when the latter give
a fall. The iodide curve follows closely that of relative humidity, clouds,
and rain; the thallium curve stands in no relation to it. A table of
results for the year 1879 is given in monthly means, of the two thallium
papers, the ozonometer, the relative humidity, cloudiness, rain, and
velocity of wind.--_G. F. B., in Ber. Berl. Chem. Ces._

       *       *       *       *       *




THE AUDIPHONE IN ENGLAND.


The audiphone has been recently tried in the Board School for Deaf and
Dumb at Turin street, Bethnal Green, with very satisfactory results--so
satisfactory that the report will recommend its adoption in the four
schools which the London Board have erected for the education of the deaf
and dumb. Some 20 per cent. of the pupils in deaf and dumb schools have
sufficient power of hearing when assisted by the audiphone to enable them
to take their places in the classes of the ordinary schools.

       *       *       *       *       *




CONDUCTIVITY OF MOIST AIR.


Many physical treatises still assert that moist air conducts electricity,
though Silberman and others have proved the contrary. An interesting
experiment bearing on this has been described lately by Prof. Marangoni.
Over a flame is heated some water in a glass jar, through the stopper of
which passes a bent tube to bell-jar (held obliquely), which thus gets
filled with aqueous vapor. The upper half of a thin Leyden jar charged is
brought into the bell-jar, and held there four or five seconds; it is
then found entirely discharged. That the real cause of this, however, is
condensation of the vapor on the part of the glass that is not coated with
tin foil (the liquid layer acting by conduction) can be proved; for if that
part of the jar be passed several times rapidly through the flame, so as
to heat it to near 100 deg. C., before inserting in the bell-jar, a different
effect will be had; the Leyden jar will give out long sparks after
withdrawal. This is because the glass being heated no longer condenses the
vapor on its surface, and there is no superficial conduction, as in the
previous case.

       *       *       *       *       *




FLOATING PONTOON DOCK.


Considerable attention has been given for some years past to the subject of
floating pontoon docks by Mr. Robert Turnbull, naval architect, of South
Shields, Eng., who has devised the ingenious arrangement which forms the
subject of the annexed illustration. The end aimed at and now achieved by
Mr. Turnbull was so to construct floating docks or pontoons that they may
rise and fall in a berth, and be swung round at one end upon a center post
or cylinder--nautically known as a dolphin--projecting from the ground at
a slight distance from the berth. The cylinder is in deep water, and,
when the pontoon is swung and sunk to the desired depth by letting in the
necessary amount of water, a vessel can be floated in and then secured. The
pontoon, with the vessel on it, is then raised by pumping out the contained
water until she is a little above the level of the berth. The whole is then
swung round over the berth, the vessel then being high and dry to enable
repairs or other operations to be conducted. For this purpose, one end of
the pontoon is so formed as to enable it to fit around the cylinder, and
to be held to it as to a center or fulcrum, about which the pontoon can be
swung. The pontoon is of special construction, and has air-chambers at the
sides placed near the center, so as to balance it. It also has chambers at
the ends, which are divided horizontally in order that the operation of
submerging within a berth or in shallow water may be conducted without
risk, the upper chambers being afterwards supplied with water to sink the
pontoon to the full depth before a vessel is hauled in. When the ship is in
place, the pontoon with her is then lifted above the level of the berth in
which it has to be placed, and then swung round into the berth. In some
cases, the pontoon is provided with a cradle, so that, when in berth, the
vessel on the cradle can be hauled up a slip with rails arranged as
a continuation of the cradle-rails of the pontoon, which can be then
furnished with another cradle, and another vessel lifted.

It is this latter arrangement which forms the subject of our illustration,
the vessel represented being of the following dimensions: Length between
perpendiculars, 350 feet; breadth, moulded, 40 feet; depth, moulded, 32
feet; tons, B. M., 2,600; tons net, 2,000. At A, in fig. 1, is shown in
dotted lines a portion of the vessel and pontoon, the ship having just been
hauled in and centered over the keel blocks. At B, is shown the pontoon
with the ship raised and swung round on to a low level quay. Going a step
further in the operation, we see at C, the vessel hauled on to the slipways
on the high-level quay. In this case the cylinder is arranged so that
the vessel may be delivered on to the rails or slips, which are arranged
radially, taking the cylinder as the center. There may be any number of
slips so arranged, and one pontoon may be made available for several
cylinders at the deep water parts of neighboring repairing or building
yards, in which case the recessed portion of the pontoon, when arranged
around the cylinder, has stays or retaining bars fitted to prevent it
leaving the cylinder when the swinging is taking place, such as might
happen in a tideway.

[Illustration: Fig. 1. IMPROVED FLOATING PONTOON DRY DOCK.]

The arrangements for delivering vessels on radial slips is seen in plan at
fig. 2, where A represents the river or deep water; B is the pontoon with
the vessel; C being the cylinder or turning center; D is the low-level
quay on to which the pontoon carrying the ship is first swung; E is the
high-level quay with the slip-ways; F is an engine running on rails around
the radial slips for drawing the vessels with the cradle off the pontoon,
and hauling them up on to the high-level quay; and G shows the repairing
shops, stores, and sheds. A pontoon attached to a cylinder may be fitted
with an ordinary wet dock; and then the pontoon, before or after the vessel
is upon it, can be slewed round to suit the slips up which the vessel has
to be moved, supposing the slips are arranged radially. In this case, the
pivot end of the pontoon would be a fixture, so to speak, to the cylinder.

The pontoon may also be made available for lifting heavy weights, by
fitting a pair of compound levers or other apparatus at one end, the
lifting power being in the pontoon itself. In some cases, in order to
lengthen the pontoon, twenty-five or fifty foot lengths are added at
the after end. When not thus engaged, those lengths form short pontoons
suitable for small vessels.--_Iron_.

       *       *       *       *       *




WEIRLEIGH, BRENCHLEY, KENT.


Some few years since, Mr. Harrison Weir (whose drawings of natural history
are known probably to a wider circle of the general public than the works
of most artists), wishing to pursue his favorite study of animals and
horticulture, erected on the steep hillside of the road leading from
Paddock Wood to Brenchley, a small "cottage ornee" with detached studio.
Afterward desiring more accommodation, he carried out the buildings shown
in our illustrations. Advantage has been taken of the slope of the hill on
one side, and the rising ground in the rear on the other, to increase the
effect of the buildings and meet the difficulty of the levels. The two
portions--old, etched, and new, shown as black--are connected together by a
handsome staircase, which is carried up in the tower, and affords access to
the various levels. The materials are red brick, with Bathstone dressings,
and weather-tiling on the upper floors. Black walnut, pitch pine, and
sequoias have been used in the staircase, and joiner's work to the
principal rooms. The principal stoves are of Godstone stone only, no iron
or metal work being used. The architects are Messrs. Wadmore & Baker, of 35
Great St. Helens, E.C.; the builders, Messrs. Penn Brothers, of Pembury,
Kent.--_Building News_.

[Illustration: ARTISTS HOMES NO 11 "WEIRLEIGH" BRENCHLEY, KENT. THE
RESIDENCE OF HARRISON WEIR ESQ'RE WADMORE & BAKER ARCHITECTS]

       *       *       *       *       *




RAPID BREATHING AS A PAIN OBTUNDER IN MINOR SURGERY, OBSTETRICS, THE
GENERAL PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND OF DENTISTRY.

[Footnote: Read before the Philadelphia County Medical Society, May 12,
1880, by W. G. A. Bonwill, M.D., D.D.S., Philadelphia.]


Through the kind invitation of your directors, I am present to give you
the history of "rapid breathing" as an analgesic agent, as well as my
experience therein since I first discovered it. It is with no little
feeling of modesty that I appear before such a learned and honorable
body of physicians and surgeons, and I accept the privilege as a high
compliment. I trust the same liberal spirit which prompted you to call this
subject to the light of investigation will not forsake you when you have
heard all I have to say and you sit in judgment thereon. Sufficient time
has now elapsed since the first promulgation of the subject for the shafts
of ridicule to be well nigh spent (which is the common logic used to crush
out all new ideas), and it is to be expected that gentlemen will look upon
it with all the charity of a learned body, and not be too hasty to condemn
what they have had but little chance to investigate; and, of course, have
not practiced with that success which can only come from an intelligent
understanding of its application and _modus operandi_.

Knowing the history of past discoveries, I was well prepared for the
crucible. I could not hope to be an exception. But, so far, the medical
profession have extended me more favor than I have received at the hands of
the dental profession.

My first conception of the analgesic property of a pain obtunder in
contradistinction to its anaesthetic effect, which finally led to the
discovery of the inhalation of common air by "rapid breathing," was in 1855
or 1856, while performing upon my own teeth certain operations which gave
me intense pain (and I could not afford to hurt myself) without a resort to
ether and chloroform. These agents had been known so short a time that no
one was specially familiar with their action. Without knowing whether I
could take chloroform administered by myself, and at the same time perform
with skill the excavation of extremely sensitive dentine or tooth-bone, as
if no anaesthetic had been taken, and not be conscious of pain, was more
than the experience of medical men at that time could assure me. But,
having a love for investigation of the unknown, I prepared myself for the
ordeal. By degrees I took the chloroform until I began to feel very plainly
its primary effects, and knowing that I must soon be unconscious, I applied
the excavator to the carious tooth, and, to my surprise, found no pain
whatever, but the sense of touch and hearing were marvelously intensified.
The small cavity seemed as large as a half bushel; the excavator more the
size of an ax; and the sound was equally magnified. That I might not be
mistaken, I repeated the operation until I was confident that anaesthetics
possessed a power not hitherto known--that of analgesia. To be doubly
certain, I gave it in my practice, in many cases with the same happy
results, which saved me from the risks incident to the secondary effects of
anaesthetics, and which answered for all the purposes of extracting from
one to four teeth. Not satisfied with any advance longer than I could find
a better plan, I experimented with the galvanic current (to and fro) by so
applying the poles that I substituted a stronger impression by electricity
from the nerve centers or ganglia to the peripheries than was made from the
periphery to the brain. This was so much of a success that I threw
aside chloroform and ether in removing the living nerve of a tooth with
instruments instead of using arsenic; and for excavating sensitive caries
in teeth, preparatory to filling, as well as many teeth extracted by it.
But this was short-lived, for it led to another step. Sometimes I would
inflict severe pain in cases of congested pulps or from its hasty
application, or pushing it to do too much, when my patient invariably would
draw or inhale the breath _very forcibly and rapidly_. I was struck with
the repeated coincidence, and was led to exclaim: "Nature's anaesthetic."
This then reminded me of boyhood's bruises. The involuntary action of every
one who has a finger hurt is to place it to the mouth and draw violently in
the air and hold it for an instant, and again repeat it until the pain is
subdued. The same action of the lungs occurs, except more powerfully,
in young children who take to crying when hurt. It will be noticed they
breathe very rapidly while furiously crying, which soon allays the
irritation, and sleep comes as the sequel. Witness also when one is
suddenly startled, how violently the breath is taken, which gives relief.
The same thing occurs in the lower animals when pain is being inflicted at
the hand of man.

This was advance No. 3, and so sure was I of this new discovery, that I at
once made an application while removing decay from an extremely sensitive
tooth. To be successful, I found I must make the patient take the start,
and I would follow with a thrust from the excavator, which move would be
accomplished before the lungs could be inflated. This was repeated for
at least a minute, until the operation was completed, I always following
immediately or synchronously with the inhalation.

This led to step No. 4, which resulted in its application to the extracting
of teeth and other operations in minor surgery.

Up to this time I had believed the sole effect of the rapid inhalation was
due to mere diversion of the will, and this was the only way nature could
so violently exert herself--that of controlling the involuntary action of
the lungs to her uses by the _safety valve_, or the voluntary movement.

The constant breathing of the patient for thirty seconds to a minute left
him in a condition of body and mind resembling the effects of ether and
chloroform in their primary stages. I could but argue that the prolonged
breathing each time had done it; and, if so, then there must be some
specific effect over and above the mere diversion by the will. To what
could it be due? To the air alone, which went in excess into the lungs in
the course of a minute! Why did I not then immediately grasp the idea of
its broader application as now claimed for it? It was too much, gentlemen,
for that hour. Enough had been done in this fourth step of conception to
rest in the womb of time, until by evolution a higher step could be made at
the maturity of the child. Being self-satisfied with my own baby, I watched
and caressed it until it could take care of itself, and my mind was again
free for another conception.

The births at first seemed to come at very short intervals; but see how
long it was between the fourth and the fifth birth. It was soon after that
my mind became involved in inventions--a hereditary outgrowth--and the
electric mallet and then the dental engine, the parent of your surgical
engine, to be found in the principal hospitals of this city, took such
possession of my whole soul, that my air analgesic was left slumbering. It
was not until August, 1875--nineteen years after--that it again came up in
full force, without any previous warning.

This time it was no law of association that revived it; but it seemed
the whispering of some one in the air--some ethereal spirit, if you
please--which instituted it, and advanced the following problem: "Nitrous
oxide gas is composed of the same elements as ordinary air, with a larger
equivalent of oxygen, except it is a chemical compound, not a mechanical
mixture, and its anaesthetic effects are said to be due to the excess of
oxygen. If this be a fact, then why can you not produce a similar effect by
rapid breathing for a minute, more or less, by which a larger quantity of
oxygen is presented in the lungs for absorption by the blood?"

This query was soon answered by asking myself another: "If the rapid
inhalation of air into the lungs does not increase the heart's action and
cause it to drive the blood in exact ratio to the inhalations, then _I can_
produce partial anaesthesia from this excess of oxygen brought about by the
voluntary movements over their ordinary involuntary action of the lungs."
The next question was: Will my heart be affected by this excess of air in
the lungs to such an extent that there will be a full reciprocity between
them? Without making any trial of it, I argued that, while there is no
other muscular movement than that of the chest as under the control of the
will, and as nature has given to the will the perfect control over the
lungs to supply more or less air, as is demanded by the pneumogastric nerve
for the immediate wants of the economy, when the _involuntary action_ is
not sufficient; and the heart not being under the control of the will, and
its action never accelerated or diminished except by a specific poison, or
from the general activity of the person in violent running or working, the
blood is forced into the heart faster and must get rid of it, when a larger
supply of oxygen is demanded and rapid breathing must occur, or asphyxia
result. I was not long in deciding that the heart _would not be
accelerated_ but a trifle--say a tenth--and, under the circumstances, I
said: "The air _is_ an anaesthetic."

From this rapid course of argument, I was so profoundly convinced of its
truth, that without having first tried it upon my own person, I would have
sat where I was, upon the curbstone, and had a tooth removed with the
perfect expectation of absence of pain and of still being conscious of
touch. While yet walking with my children, I commenced to breathe as
rapidly as possible, and, as anticipated, found my steps growing shorter
and shorter, until I came to a stand, showing to my mind clearly that my
argument in advance was right, so far as locomotion was concerned; and,
upon referring to my pulse, I found but little acceleration.

To what other conclusion could I arrive from this argument, with the
foundation laid nineteen years before, when I established on my own person
by experiment the fact of analgesia as induced from chloroform, with the
many experiments in rapid respiration on tooth bone?

From this moment until its first application to the extraction of a tooth
you can well imagine my suspense. That I might not fail in the very first
attempt, I compelled myself and others in my household to breathe rapidly
to investigate the phenomenon. This gave me some idea as to the proper
method of proceeding in its administering.

The first case soon appeared, and was a perfect success, going far beyond
my anticipations, for the effect was such as to produce a partial paralysis
of the hands and arms to the elbow. Again and again I tried it in every
case of extraction and many other experiments, doubting my own senses for
a long time at a result so anomalous and paradoxical. I was reminded just
here of a phenomenon which gave me additional proof--that of blowing a
dull fire to revive it. For a minute or so one blows and blows in rapid
succession until, rising from the effort, a sense of giddiness for a
few moments so overcomes that the upright position is with difficulty
maintained. In this condition you are fitted for having a tooth extracted
or an abscess lanced.

Believing that I had something new to offer which might be of use to
suffering humanity, I read the first article upon it Nov. 17, 1875, before
the Franklin Institute. Shortly after I was invited before the Northern
Medical Society of this city to address them thereon. A number of medical
gentlemen have been using it in their practice, while the bulk of them have
spurned it as "negative" and preposterous, without an effort at trying it,
which I can _now_ very well understand.

Unless one is aware of the fact that in the use of any agent which has the
power to suspend the volition, it can be taken to that point where he is
still conscious of _touch and hearing_, and at the same time not cognizant
of pain inflicted, the action of rapid breathing could not be understood.
And I regret to say that of three-fourths of the medical men I have talked
with on the subject they had not been aware of such a possibility from
ether and chloroform. Until this analgesic state could be established in
their minds it was impossible to convince them that the excess of oxygen,
as obtained by rapid breathing, could be made to produce a similar effect.
_I_ should have been as reluctant as any one to believe it, had I not
personally experienced the effect while performing an operation which would
otherwise have been very painful. Such a result could not well be reached
by any course of reasoning.

Has it proven in my practice what has been claimed for it--a substitute
for the powerful anaesthetics in minor operations in surgery? Most
emphatically, yes! So completely has it fulfilled its humble mission in
my office, that I can safely assert there has not been more than five per
cent. of failures. I have given it under all circumstances of diseased
organs, and have seen no other than the happiest results in its after
effects. It may well be asked just here: Why has it not been more generally
and widely used by the dental profession as well as the medical, if it is
really what is claimed for it? The most satisfactory and charitable answer
to be given is, the failure upon their part to comprehend the _fact_ as
existing in chloroform and ether that there is such a state as analgesia;
or, in other words, that the animal economy is so organized, while the
sense of touch is not destroyed, but rather increased, the mind of the
subject fails to perceive a sense of pain when anaesthetics are given, and
the effects are manifested in the primary stage. As I before intimated,
such is the knowledge possessed by most of those who administer ether and
chloroform. This was enough to cause nearly every one to look upon it as a
bubble or air castle. Many gentlemen told me they tried it upon themselves,
and, while it affected them very seriously by giddiness, they still
_retained consciousness_; and, such being the case, no effect could be
produced for obtunding pain. Others told me they were afraid to continue
the breathing alarmed at the vertigo induced. And the practitioner who has
adopted it more effectively than any other laughed at me when I first told
him of the discovery; but his intimate association with me changed his
views after much explanation and argument between us.

It was hardly to be expected that without this knowledge of analgesia,
and without any explanation from me as to the _modus operandi_ of rapid
breathing, other than a few suggestions or directions as to how the effect
was induced, even the most liberal of medical men should be able to make
it effective, or have the least disposition to give it a preliminary trial
upon themselves, and, of course, would not attempt it upon a patient.
Notwithstanding, it found a few adherents, but only among my personal
_medical_ friends, with whom I had an opportunity to explain what I
believed its physiological action, and the cases of success in my own
practice. To this I have submitted as among the inevitable in the calendar
of discoveries of all grades.

My own profession have attempted to _ridicule_ it out of its birthright
and possible existence, which style of argument is not resorted to by true
logicians.

To all this I can truly say I have not for one moment faltered. I could
afford to wait. The liberality of this society alone fully compensates for
the seeming indisposition of the past, believing that it is proper that
every advance should be confronted, and, if in time found worthy, give it
God speed.

From its first conception I have diligently labored to solve its _modus
operandi_, and the doubt in my own mind as to whether I could be mistaken
in my observations. I asked the opinion of our best chemical teachers if
air could have such effect. One attributed it to oxygen stimulation, and
the other to nitrogen. Another gentleman told me the medical profession had
come to the conclusion that it was possible for me to thus extract teeth,
but it was due solely to my strong _personal magnetism_ (which power I was
not before aware I possessed).

Now, from what I have related of the successive and natural steps which
finally culminated in this process or plan of analgesia induced by an
excess of ordinary air taken forcibly into the lungs above what is
necessary for life, and from what I shall state as to the apparently
anomalous or paradoxical effects, with its physiological action, and the
simple tests made upon each of my patients, I shall trust to so convince
you of its plausibility and possibility that it will be made use of in
hundreds of minor operations where ether and chloroform are now used.

Aside from my assertion and that of its friends, that the effects can be
produced by air alone, you must have some light shed upon the causes of its
physiological action, which will appeal to your _medical_ reason.

To assign an action to any drug is difficult, and in the cases of ether and
the other anaesthetics a quarter of a century still finds many conflicting
opinions. This being true, you will deal leniently with me for the opinion
I hold as to their analgesic action. Of course it will be objected to,
for the unseen is, to a great extent, unknowable. Enough for my argument,
however; it seems to suit the case very well without looking for another;
and while it was based on the phenomenon resulting from many trials, and
not the trials upon it as a previous theory, I shall be content with it
until a better one can be found.

What is it I claim as a new discovery, and the facts and its philosophy?

I have asserted that I can produce, from rapidly breathing common air at
the rate of a hundred respirations a minute, a similar effect to that from
ether, chloroform, and nitrous oxide gas, in their primary stages; and I
can in this way render patients sufficiently insensible to acute pain from
any operation where the time consumed is not over twenty to thirty seconds.
While the special senses are in partial action, the sense of pain is
obtunded, and in many cases completely annulled, consciousness and general
sensibility being preserved.

To accomplish this, each patient must be instructed how to act and what to
expect. As simple as it may seem, there is a proper and consistent plan to
enable you to reach full success. Before the patient commences to inhale he
is informed of the fact that, while he will be unconscious of pain, he
will know full, or partially well, every touch upon the person; that the
inhalation must be vigorously kept up during the whole operation without
for an instant stopping; that the more energetically and steadily he
breathes, the more perfect the effect, and that if he cease breathing
during the operation, pain will be felt. Fully impress them with this
idea, for the very good reason that they may stop when in the midst of an
operation, and the fullest effects be lost. It is obligatory to do so on
account of its evanescent effects, which demand that the patient be pushed
by the operator's own energetic appeals to "go on." It is very difficult
for any person to respire more than one hundred times to the minute, as he
will become by that time so exhausted as not to be able to breathe at all,
as is evidenced by all who have thus followed my directions. For the next
minute following the completion of the operation the subject will not
breathe more than once or twice. Very few have force enough left to raise
hand or foot. The voluntary muscles have nearly all been subjugated and
overcome by the undue effort at forced inhalation of one hundred over
seventeen, the normal standard. It will be more fully understood further on
in my argument why I force patients, and am constantly speaking to them to
go on.

I further claim that for the past four years, so satisfactory has been the
result of this system in the extracting of teeth and deadening extremely
sensitive dentine, there was no longer any necessity for chloroform,
ether, or nitrous oxide in the dental office. That such teeth as cannot be
extracted by its aid can well be preserved and made useful, except in a
very few cases, who will not be forced to breathe.

The anaesthetics, when used in major operations, where time is needed for
the operation, can be made more effective by a lesser quantity when given
in conjunction with "rapid breathing." Drs. Garrettson and Hews, who have
thus tried it, tell me it takes one-half to three-fourths less, and the
after effects are far less nauseating and unpleasant.

As an agent in labor where an anaesthetic is indicated, it is claimed by
one who has employed it (Dr. Hews) in nearly every case for three years, he
has used "rapid breathing" solely, and to the exclusion of chloroform and
ether. For this I have his assertion, and have no doubt of it whatever, for
if any agent could break down the action of the voluntary muscles of the
parts involved, which prevent the involuntary muscles of the uterus from
having their fullest effect, it is this. The very act of rapid breathing so
affects the muscles of the abdomen as to force the contents of the uterus
downward or outward, while the specific effect of the air at the end of a
minute's breathing leaves the subject in a semi-prostrate condition, giving
the uterus full chance to act in the interim, because free of the will to
make any attempt at withholding the involuntary muscles of the uterus from
doing their natural work. It is self evident; and in this agent we claim
here a boon of inestimable value. And not least in such cases is, there is
no danger of hemorrhage, since the cause of the effect is soon removed.

In attestation of many cases where it has been tried, I have asked the
mother, and, in some cases, the attendants, whether anything else had been
given, and whether the time was very materially lessened, there has been
but one response, and that in its favor.

Gentlemen, if we are not mistaken in this, you will agree with me in saying
that it is no mean thing, and should be investigated by intelligent men and
reported upon. From my own knowledge of its effects in my practice, I am
bound to believe this gentleman's record.

I further claim for it a special application in dislocations. It has
certainly peculiar merits here, as the will is so nearly subjugated by
it as to render the patient quite powerless to resist your effort at
replacing, and at the same time the pain is subdued.

It is not necessary I should further continue special applications; when
its _modus operandi_ is understood, its adaptation to many contingencies
will of a sequence follow.

It is well just here, before passing to the next point of consideration, to
answer a query which may arise at this juncture:

What are the successive stages of effects upon the economy from its
commencement until the full effect is observed, and what proof have I that
it was due to the amount of air inhaled?

The heart's action is not increased more than from seventy (the average) to
eighty and sometimes ninety, but is much enfeebled, or throwing a lesser
quantity of blood. The face becomes suffused, as in blowing a fire or in
stooping, which continues until the breathing is suspended, when the
face becomes paler. (Have not noticed any purple as from asphyxia by a
deprivation of oxygen.) The vision becomes darkened, and a giddiness soon
appears. The voluntary muscles furthest from the heart seem first to be
affected, and the feet and hands, particularly the latter, have a numbness
at their ends, which increases, until in many cases there is partial
paralysis as far as the elbow, while the limbs become fixed. The hands are
so thoroughly affected that, when open, the patient is powerless to close
them and _vice versa_. There is a vacant gaze from the eyes and looking
into space without blinking of the eyelids for a half minute or more. The
head seems incapable of being held erect, and there is no movement of the
arms or legs as is usual when in great pain. There is no disposition on the
part of the patient to take hold of the operator's hand or interfere with
the operation.

Many go on breathing mechanically after the tooth is removed, as if nothing
had occurred. Some are aware that the tooth has been extracted, and say
they felt it; others could not tell what had been accomplished. The
majority of cases have an idea of what is being done, but are powerless to
resist.

With the very intelligent, or those who stop to reason, I have to teach
them the peculiarities of being sensible of touch and not of pain.

One very interesting case I will state. In extracting seven teeth for a
lady who was very _unwilling_ to believe my statement as to touch and no
pain, I first removed three teeth after having inhaled for one minute, and
when fully herself, she stated that she could not understand why there was
no pain while she was conscious of each one extracted; it was preposterous
to believe such an effect could be possible, as her reason told her that
there is connected with tooth extracting pain in the part, and of severe
character, admitting, though, she felt no pain. She allowed one to be
removed without anything, and she could easily distinguish the change, and
exclaimed, "It is all the difference imaginable!" When the other three were
extracted, there was perfect success again as with the first three.

One of the most marked proofs of the effects of rapid breathing was that of
a boy of eleven years of age for whom I had to extract the upper and lower
first permanent molars on each side. He breathed for nearly a minute, when
I removed in about twenty seconds all four of the teeth, without a moment's
intermission or the stopping the vigorous breathing; and not a murmur,
sigh, or tear afterward.

He declared there was no pain, and we needed no such assertion, for there
was not the first manifestation from him that he was undergoing such a
severe operation.

Another case, the same day, when I had to extract the superior wisdom teeth
on both sides for an intelligent young lady of eighteen years, where I had
to use two pairs of forceps on each tooth (equivalent to extraction of four
teeth), and she was so profoundly affected afterward that she could; not
tell me what had been done other than that I had touched her four times.
She was overcome from its effects for at least a minute afterward. She was
delighted.

With such severe tests I fear very little the result in any case I can have
them do as I bid.

There can be no mistake that there is a _specific action_ from something.
It cannot be personal magnetism or mesmeric influence exerted by me, for
such cases are rare, averaging about 10 per cent, only of all classes.
Besides, in mesmeric influence the time has nothing to do with it; whereas,
in my cases, it cannot last over a half minute or minute at most. It cannot
be fear, as such cases are generally more apt to get hurt the worse. It is
not diversion of mind alone, as we have an effect above it.

There is no better way of testing whether pain has been felt than by taking
the lacerated or contused gums of the patient between the index finger
and thumb and making a gentle pressure to collapse the alveolar borders;
invariably, they will cry out lustily, _that is pain_! This gives undoubted
proof of a specific agent. There is no attempt upon my _own_ part to exert
any influence over my patients in any way other than that they shall
believe what I say in regard to _giving_ them _no pain_ and in the
following of my orders. Any one who knows how persons become mesmerized can
attest that it was not the _operator who forces them under it against
their will_, but it is a peculiar state into which any one who has within
themselves this temperament can _place_ themselves where any one who knows
how can have control. It is not the will of the operator. I therefore
dismiss this as unworthy of consideration in connection with rapid
breathing.

Then you may now ask, To what do I attribute this very singular phenomenon?

Any one who followed, in the earlier part of this paper, the course of
the argument in my soliloquy, after twenty years had elapsed from my
observation upon myself of the analgesic effects of chloroform, can almost
give something of an answer.

That you may the more easily grasp what I shall say, I will ask you, If it
be possible for any human being to make one hundred inhalations in a minute
and the heart's action is not increased more than ten or twenty pulsations
over the normal, what should be the effect upon the brain and nerve
centers?

If the function of oxygen in common air is to set free in the blood,
either in the capillaries alone, or throughout the whole of the arterial
circulation, carbonic acid gas; and that it cannot escape from the system
unless it do so in the lungs as it passes in the general current--except
a trace that is removed by the skin and kidneys--and that the quantity of
carbonic acid gas set free is in exact relation to the amount of oxygen
taken into the blood, what effect _must be_ manifested where one hundred
respirations in one minute are made--five or six times the normal
number--while the heart is only propelling the blood a very little faster
through the lungs, and _more feebly_--say 90 pulsations at most, when to
be in proportion it should be 400 to 100 respirations to sustain life any
length of time?

You cannot deny the fact that a definite amount of oxygen can be absorbed
and is absorbed as fast as it is carried into the lungs, even if there be
one hundred respirations to the minute, while the pulsations of the heart
are only ninety! Nature has _made it_ possible to breathe so rapidly to
meet any emergency; and we can well see its beautiful application in the
normal action of both the heart and lungs while one is violently running.

What would result, and that very speedily, were the act of respiration to
remain at the standard--say 18 or 20--when the heart is in violent action
from this running? Asphyxia would surely end the matter! And why? The
excessive exercise of the whole body is setting free from the tissues such
an amount of excretive matter, and carbon more largely than all the others,
that, without a relative action of the lungs to admit the air that oxygen
may be absorbed, carbonic acid gas cannot be liberated through the lungs
as fast as the waste carbon of the overworked tissues is being made by
disassimilation from this excess of respiration.

You are already aware how small a quantity of carbonic acid in excess in
the air will seriously affect life. Even 2 to 3 per cent, in a short time
will prove fatal. In ordinary respiration of 20 to the minute the average
of carbonic acid exhaled is 4.35.

From experiments long ago made by Vierordt--see Carpenter, p. 524--you will
see the relative per cent, of carbonic acid exhaled from a given number of
respirations. When he was breathing six times per minute, 5.5 per cent of
the exhaled air was carbonic acid; twelve times, 4.2; twenty-four times,
3.3; forty-eight times, 3; ninety-six times, 2.6.

Remember this is based upon the whole number of respirations in the minute
and not each exhalation--which latter could not be measured by the most
minute method.

Let us deduct the minimum amount, 2.6 per cent, of carbonic acid when
breathing ninety-six times per minute, from the average, at twenty per
minute, or the normal standard, which is recorded in Carpenter, p. 524, as
4.35 per minute, and we have retained in the circulation nearly 2 per cent.
of carbonic acid; that, at the average, would have passed off through the
lungs without any obstruction, and life equalized; but it not having been
thrown off as fast as it should have been, must, of necessity, be left to
prey upon the brain and nerve centers; and as 2 to 3 per cent., we are
told, will so poison the blood, life is imperiled and that speedily.

It is not necessary we should argue the point as to whether oxygen
displaces carbonic acid in the tissues proper or the capillaries. The
theory of Lavoisier on this point has been accepted.

We know furthermore, as more positive, that tissues placed in an atmosphere
of oxygen will set free carbonic acid, and that carbonic acid has a
paralyzing effect upon the human hand held in it for a short time. The
direct and speedy effects of this acid upon the delicate nervous element of
the brain is so well known that it must be accepted as law. One of the most
marked effects is the suspension of locomotion of the legs and arms,
and the direct loss of will power which must supervene before voluntary
muscular inactivity, which amounts to partial paralysis in the hands or
feet, or peripheral extremities of the same.

Now that we have sufficient evidence from the authorities that carbonic
acid can be retained in the blood by excessive breathing, and enough to
seriously affect the brain, and what its effects are when taken directly
into the lungs in excess, we can enter upon what I have held as the most
reasonable theory of the phenomenon produced by rapid breathing for
analgesic purposes; which _theory_ was not _first_ conceived and the
process made to yield to it, but the phenomenon was long observed, and
from the repetition of the effects and their close relationship to that
of carbonic acid on the economy, with the many experiments performed
upon myself, I am convinced that what I shall now state will be found to
substantiate my discovery. Should it not be found to coincide with what
some may say is physiological truth, it will not invalidate the discovery
itself; for of that I am far more positive than Harvey was of the discovery
of the circulation of the blood; or of Galileo of the spherical shape of
the earth. And I ask that it shall not be judged by my theory, but from the
practice.

It should have as much chance for investigation as the theory of
Julius Robert Mayer, upon which he founded, or which gave rise to the
establishment of one of the most important scientific truths--"the
conservation of energy," and finally the "correlation of forces," which
theory I am not quite sure was correct, although it was accepted, and as
yet, I have not seen it questioned.

In all due respect to him I quote it from the sketch of that remarkable
man, as given in the _Popular Science Monthly_, as specially bearing on my
discovery:

"Mayer observed while living in Java, that the _venous blood_ of some of
his patients had a singularly bright red color. The observation riveted
his attention; he reasoned upon it, and came to the conclusion that the
brightness of the color was due to the fact that a less amount of oxidation
was sufficient to keep up the temperature of the body in a hot climate than
a cold one. The darkness of the venous blood he regarded as the visible
sign of the energy of the oxidation."

My observation leads me to the contrary, that the higher the temperature
the more rapid the breathing to get clear of the excess of carbon, and
hence more oxygenation of the blood which will arterialize the venous
blood, unless there is a large amount of carbonized matter from the tissues
to be taken up.

Nor must it be denied because of the reasoning as presented to my mind by
some outside influence in my soliloquy when I first exclaimed, "Nature's
anaesthetic," where the argument as to the effects of nitrous oxide gas
being due to an excess of oxygen was urged, and that common air breathed in
excess would do the same thing.

I am not sure that _it_ was correct, for the effects of nitrous oxide is,
perhaps, due to a deprivation of mechanically mixed air.

Knowing what I do of theory and practice, I can say with assurance that
there is not a medical practitioner who would long ponder in any urgent
case as to the thousand and one theories of the action of remedies; but
would resort to the _practical_ experience of others and his own finally.
(What surgeon ever stops to ask how narcotics effect their influence?)
After nearly thirty years of association with ether and chloroform, who can
positively answer as to their _modus operandi?_ It is thus with nearly the
whole domain of medicine. It is not yet, by far, among the sciences, with
immutable laws, such as we have in chemistry. Experimentation is giving us
more specific knowledge, and "practice alone has tended to make perfect."
(Then, gentlemen will not set at naught my assertion and practical results.
When I have stated my case in full it is for _you_ to disprove both the
theory and practice annunciated. So far as I am concerned I am responsible
for both.)

You will please bear with me for a few minutes in my attempt at theory.

The annulling of pain, and, in some cases, its complete annihilation,
can be accomplished in many ways. Narcotics, anaesthetics--local and
internal--direct action of cold, and mesmeric or physiological influence,
have all their advocates, and each _will surely_ do its work. There is one
thing about which, I think, we can all agree, as to these agencies; unless
the _will_ is partially and in some cases completely subjugated there can
be no primary or secondary effect. The voluntary muscles must become wholly
or partially paralyzed for the time. Telegraphic communication must be cut
off from the brain, that there be no reflex action. It is not necessary
there should be separate nerves to convey pleasure and pain any more than
there should be two telegraphic wires to convey two messages.

If, then, we are certain of this, it matters little as to whether it was
done by corpuscular poisoning and anaemia as from chloroform or hyperaemia
from ether.

I think we are now prepared to show clearly the causes which effect the
phenomena in "rapid breathing."

The first thing enlisted is the _diversion of the will force_ in the act of
forced respiration at a moment when the heart and lungs have been in normal
reciprocal action (20 respirations to 80 pulsations), which act could
not be made and carried up to 100 respirations per minute without such
concentrated effort that ordinary pain could make no impression upon the
brain while this abstraction is kept up.

Second. There is a specific effect resulting from enforced respiration of
100 to the minute, due to the _excess of carbonic acid gas set free from
the tissues_, generated by this enforced normal act of throwing into the
lungs _five times_ the normal amount of oxygen in one minute demanded, when
the heart has not been aroused to exalted action, which comes from violent
exercise in running or where one is suddenly startled, which excess of
carbonic acid cannot escape in the same ratio from the lungs, since the
heart does not respond to the proportionate overaction of the lungs.

Third.--Hyperaemia is the last in this chain of effects, which is due to
the excessive amount of air passing into the lungs preventing but little
more than the normal quantity of blood from passing from the heart into
the arterial circulation, but draws it up in the brain with its excess of
carbonic acid gas to act also directly upon the brain as well as throughout
the capillary and venous system, and as well upon the heart, the same as if
it were suspended in that gas outside the body.

These are evident to the senses of any liberal observer who can witness a
subject rapidly breathing.

Some ask why is not this same thing produced when one has been running
rapidly for a few minutes? For a very good reason: in this case the rapid
inhalations are preceded by the violent throes of the heart to propel the
carbonized blood from the overworked tissues and have them set free at the
lungs where the air is rushing in at the normal ratio of four to one. This
is not an abnormal action, but is of necessity, or asphyxia would instantly
result and the runner would drop. Such sometimes occurs where the runner
exerts himself too violently at the very outset; and to do so he is
compelled to hold his breath for this undue effort, and the heart cannot
carry the blood fast enough. In this instance there is an approach to
analgesia as from rapid breathing.

Let me take up the first factor--_diversion of will_--and show that nature
invariably resorts to a sudden inhalation to prevent severe infliction of
pain being felt. It is the panacea to childhood's frequent bruises and
cuts, and every one will remember how when a finger has been hurt it is
thrust into the mouth and a violent number of efforts at rapid inhalation
is effected until ease comes. By others it is subdued by a fit of crying,
which if you will but imitate the sobs, will find how frequently the
respirations are made.

One is startled, and the heart would seem to jump out of the chest; in
quick obedience to nature the person is found making a number of quick
inhalations, which subdue the heart and pacify the will by diversion from
the cause.

The same thing is observed in the lower animals. I will relate a case:

An elephant had been operated upon for a diseased eye which gave him great
pain, for which he was unprepared, and he was wrathy at the keeper and
surgeon. It soon passed off, and the result of the application was so
beneficial to the animal that when brought out in a few days after, to have
another touch of caustic to the part, he was prepared for them; and, just
before the touch, he inflated the lungs to their fullest extent, which
occupied more time than the effect of the caustic, when he made no effort
at resistance and showed no manifestation of having been pained.

In many cases of extraction of the temporary teeth of children, I make them
at the instant I grasp the tooth take _one_ very violent inhalation, which
is sufficient. Mesmeric anaesthesia can well be classified under diversion
or subjugation of the will, but can be effected in but a small percentage
of the cases. To rely upon this first or primary effect, except in
instantaneous cases, would be failure.

The second factor is the one upon which I can rely in such of the cases as
come into my care, save when I cannot induce them to make such a number of
respirations as is absolutely necessary. The _whole secret of success lies_
in the greatest number of respirations that can be effected in from 60 to
90 seconds, and that without any intermission. If the heart, by the _alow
method of respiration_, is pulsating in ratio of four to one respiration,
_no effect can be induced_.

When the respirations are, say, 100 to the minute, and made with all the
energy the patient can muster, and are kept up while the operation is going
on, there can hardly be a failure in the minor operations.

It is upon this point many of you may question the facts. Before I tried
it for the first time upon my own person, I arrived at the same conclusion
from a course of argument, that rapid breathing would control the heart's
action and pacify it, and even reduce it below the normal standard under my
urgent respirations.

In view of the many applications made I feel quite sure in my belief that,
inasmuch as the heart's action is but slightly accelerated, though with
less force from rapid breathing at the rate of 100 to the minute, there is
such an excess of carbonic acid gas set free and crowding upon the heart
and capillaries of the brain, without a chance to escape by the lungs, that
it is the same to all intents as were carbonic acid breathed through the
lungs in common air. Look at the result after this has been kept up for a
minute or more? During the next minute the respirations are not more than
one or two, and the heart has fallen really below, in some cases, the
standard beat, showing most conclusively that once oxygenation has taken
place and that the free carbonic acid gas has been so completely consumed,
that there is no involuntary call through the pneumogastric nerve for a
supply of oxygen.

If any physiological facts can be proven at all, then I feel quite sure of
your verdict upon my side.

There is no one thing that goes so far to prove the theory of Lavoisier
regarding the action of oxygen in the tissues and capillaries for
converting carbon into carbonic acid gas instead of the lungs, as held
prior to that time, and still held by many who are not posted in late
experiments. At the time I commenced this practice I must confess I knew
nothing of it. The study of my cases soon led me to the same theory of
Lavoisier, as I could not make the phenomena agree with the old theory of
carbonic acid generated only in the lungs.

When Vierordt was performing his experiments upon himself in rapid
breathing from six times per minute to ninety-six, I cannot understand
why he failed to observe and record what did certainly result--an extreme
giddiness with muscular prostration and numbness in the peripheries of the
hands and feet, with suffusion of the face, and such a loss of locomotion
as to prevent standing erect without desiring support. Besides, the very
great difference he found in the amount of carbonic acid retained in the
circulation, the very cause of the phenomena just spoken of.

One thing comes in just here to account for the lack of respiration the
minute after the violent effort. The residual air, which in a normal state
is largely charged with carbonic acid, has been so completely exhausted
that some moments are consumed before there is sufficient again to call
upon the will for its discharge.

As to hyperaemia you will also assent, now that my second factor is
explained; but it is so nearly allied to the direct effect of excessive
respiration that we can well permit it to pass without argument. If
hyperaemia _is present_, we have a more certain and rather more lasting
effect.

In conclusion, I will attempt to prognosticate the application of this
principle to the cure of many diseases of chronic nature, and especially
tuberculosis; where from a diminished amount of air going into the lungs
for want of capacity, and particularly for want of energy and inclination
to breathe in full or excess, the tissues cannot get clear of their
excrementitious material, and particularly the carbon, which must go to the
lungs, this voluntary effort can be made frequently during the day to
free the tissues and enable them to take nutritious material for their
restoration to their standard of health.

Air will be found of far more value than ever before as one of the greatest
of factors in nutrition, and which is as necessary as proper food, and
without which every organization must become diseased, and no true
assimilation can take place without a due amount of oxygen is hourly
and daily supplied by this extra aid of volition which has been so long
overlooked.

The pure oxygen treatment has certainly performed many cures; yet, when
compared to the mechanical mixture and under the direct control of
the will, at all times and seasons, there is no danger from excessive
oxygenation as while oxygen is given. When every patient can be taught to
rely upon this great safety valve of nature, there will be less need for
medication, and the longevity of our race be increased with but little
dread by mankind for that terrible monster consumption, which seems to have
now unbounded control.

When this theory I have here given you to-night is fully comprehended by
the medical world and taught the public, together with the kind of foods
necessary for every one in their respective occupation, location, and
climate, we may expect a vast change in their physical condition and a hope
for the future which will brighten as time advances.

I herewith attach the sphygmographic tracings made upon myself by another,
showing the state of the pulse as compared with the progress of the
respiration.


ADDENDA.

Sphygmographic tracings of the pulse of the essayist. Normal pulse 60
to the minute. Ten seconds necessary for the slip to pass under the
instrument.

[Illustration]

A, A1, normal pulse.

B, pulse taken after breathing rapidly for 15 seconds when
20 respirations had been taken.

C, rapid breathing for 30 seconds, 43 respirations.

D,       "         "   45 "        76 "

E,       "         "   60 "        96 "
F, pulse taken after rapid breathing for one minute, as in E, where no
respiration had as yet been taken after the essayist had kept it up for
that one minute. This was after 10 seconds had intervened.

G, the same taken 50 seconds after, and still no respiration had been
taken, the subject having no disposition to inhale, the blood having been
over oxygenated.

The pulse in E shows after 96 respirations but 14, or 84 per minute, and
the force nearly as in the normal at A, A1.

The record in B shows the force more markedly, but still normal in number.

F and G show very marked diminution in the force, but the number of
pulsations not over 72 per minute; G particularly so, the heart needing the
stimulus of the oxygen for full power.

The following incident which has but very recently been made known, gives
most conclusive evidence of the truth of the theory and practice of rapid
breathing.

A Mexican went into the office of a dentist in one of the Mexican cities to
have a tooth extracted by nitrous oxide gas.

The dentist was not in, and the assistant was about to permit the patient
to leave without removing the tooth, when the wife of the proprietor
exclaimed that she had often assisted her husband in giving the gas, and
that she would do so in this instance if the assistant would agree to
extract the tooth. It was agreed. All being in readiness, the lady turned
on as she supposed the gas, and the Mexican patient was ordered to breathe
as fast as possible to make sure of the full effect and no doubt of the
final success. The assistant was about to extract, but the wife insisted on
his breathing more rapidly, whereupon the patient was observed to become
very dark or purple in the face, which satisfied the lady that the
full effect was manifested, and the tooth was extracted, to the great
satisfaction of all concerned. While the gas was being taken by the Mexican
the gasometer was noticed to rise higher and higher as the patient breathed
faster, and not to sink as was usual when the gas had been previously
administered. This led to an investigation of the reason of such an
anomalous result, when to their utter surprise they found the valve was so
turned by the wife that the Mexican had been breathing nothing but common
air, and instead of exhaling into the surrounding air he violently forced
it into the gasometer with the nitrous oxide gas, causing it to rise and
not sink, which it should have done had the valve been properly turned by
the passage of gas into the lungs of the patient.

No more beautiful and positive trial could happen, and might not again by
accident or inadvertence happen again in a lifetime.

       *       *       *       *       *




TAP FOR EFFERVESCING LIQUIDS.


When a bottle of any liquor charged with carbonic acid under strong
pressure, such as champagne, sparkling cider, seltzer water, etc., is
uncorked, the contents often escape with considerable force, flow out, and
are nearly all lost. Besides this, the noise made by the popping of the
cork is not agreeable to most persons. To remedy these inconveniences
there has been devised the simple apparatus which we represent in the
accompanying cut, taken from _La Nature_. The device consists of a hollow,
sharp-pointed tube, having one or two apertures in its upper extremity
which are kept closed by a hollow piston fitting in the interior of the
tube. This tube, or "tap," as it may be called, is supported on a firm base
to which is attached a draught tube, and a small lever for actuating the
piston. After the tap has been thrust through the cork of the bottle of
liquor the contents may be drawn in any quantity and as often as wanted by
simply pressing down the lever with the finger; this operation raises the
piston so that its apertures correspond with those in the sides of the top,
and the liquid thus finds access to the draught tube through the interior
of the piston. By removing the pressure the piston descends and thus closes
the vents. By means of this apparatus, then, the contents of any bottle of
effervescing liquids may be as easily drawn off as are those contained in
the ordinary siphon bottles in use.

[Illustration: TAP FOR EFFERVESCING LIQUIDS.]

       *       *       *       *       *




CHEMICAL SOCIETY, LONDON, JAN. 20, 1881.

PROF. H.E. ROSCOE, President, in the Chair.


Mr. Vivian Lewes read a paper on "_Pentathionic Acid_." In March last the
author, at the suggestion of Dr. Debus, undertook an investigation of
pentathionic acid, the existence of which has been denied. The analyses
of the liquid obtained by Wackenroder and others, by passing sulphureted
hydrogen and sulphur dioxide through water, are based on the assumption
that only one acid is present in the solution, and consequently do not
establish the existence of pentathionic acid; as, for example, a mixture of
one molecule of H_2S_4O_6 and one molecule of H_2S_6O_6 would give the same
analytical results as H_2S_5O_6. Moreover, no salt of pentathionic acid has
been prepared in a pure state. The author has succeeded in preparing barium
pentathionate thus: A Wackenroder solution was about half neutralized with
barium hydrate, filtered, and the clear solution evaporated _in vacuo_ over
sulphuric acid. After eighteen days crystals, which proved to be barium
pentathionate + 3 molecules of water, formed. These crystals were
separated, and the liquid further evaporated, when a second crop was
obtained intermediate in composition between the tetra and pentathionate.
These were separated, and the mother-liquor on standing deposited some
oblong rectangular crystals. These on analysis proved to consist of baric
pentathionate with three molecules of water. This salt dissolves readily in
cold water; the solution is decomposed by strong potassic hydrate, baric
sulphite, hyposulphites, and sulphur being formed. By a similar method of
procedure the author obtained potassium pentathionate, anhydrous, and with
one or two molecules of water. The author promises some further results
with some other salts of the higher thionates.

The president said that the society had to thank the author for a very
complete research on the subject of pentathionic acid. He, however, begged
to differ from him as to his statements concerning the researches of
Messrs. Takamatsu and Smith; in his opinion these authors had proved the
existence of pentathionic acid. He hoped that the crystals (which were very
fine) would be measured.

Dr. Debus said that no one had previously been able to make the salts of
pentathionic acid, and expressed his sense of the great merit due to the
author for his perseverance and success. The paper opened up some highly
interesting theoretical speculations as to the existence of hexathionic
acid. If potassium tetrathionate was dissolved in water it could be
re-crystallized, but potassium pentathionate under similar circumstances
splits into sulphur and tetrathionate; but a mixture of tetrathionate and
pentathionate can be re-crystallized. It seemed as if the sulphur when
eliminated from the pentathionate combined with the tetrathionate.

Dr. Dupre asked Dr. Debus how it was that a molecule of pentathionate could
be re-crystallized, whereas two molecules of pentathionate, which should,
when half decomposed, furnish a molecule of tetra and a molecule of
pentathionate, could not.

Dr. Armstrong then read a _"Preliminary Note on some Hydrocarbons from
Rosin Spirit."_ After giving an account of our knowledge of rosin spirit,
the author described the result of the examination of the mixture of
hydrocarbons remaining after heating it with sulphuric acid and diluting
with half its volume of water and steam distilling. Thus treated rosin
spirit furnishes about one-fourth of its volume of a colorless mobile
liquid, which after long-continued fractional distillation is resolved into
a variety of fractions boiling at temperatures from 95 deg. to over 180 deg. Each
of the fractions was treated with concentrated sulphuric acid, and the
undissolved portions were then re-fractionated. The hydrocarbons dissolved
by the acid were recovered by heating under pressure with hydrochloric
acid. Besides a cymene and a toluene, which have already been shown to
exist in rosin spirit, metaxylene was found to be present. The hydrocarbons
insoluble in sulphuric acid are, apparently, all members of the C_nH_{2n}
series; they are not, however, true homologues of ethylene, but hexhydrides
of hydrocarbons of the benzene series. Hexhydro-toluene and probably
hex-hydrometaxylene are present besides the hydrocarbon, C_10H_20, but it
is doubtful if an intermediate term is also present. It is by no means
improbable, however, that these hydrocarbons are, at least in part,
products of the action of the sulphuric acid. Cahours and Kraemer's and
Godzki's observations on the higher fractions of crude wood spirit, in
fact, furnish a precedent for this view. Referring to the results obtained
by Anderson, Tilden, and Renard, the author suggests that rosin spirit
perhaps contains hydrides intermediate in composition between those of
the C_nH_{2n-6} and C_nH_{2n} series, also derived like the latter from
hydrocarbons of the benzene series. Finally, Dr Armstrong mentioned that
the volatile portion of the distillate from the non-volatile product of the
oxidation of oil of turpentine in moist air furnishes ordinary cymene when
treated in the manner above described. The fact that rosin spirit yields a
different cymene is, he considers, an argument against the view which
has more than once been put forward, that rosin is directly derived from
terpene. Probably resin and turpentine, though genetically related, are
products of distinct processes.

The next paper was _"On the Determination of the Relative Weight of Single
Molecules,"_ by E. Vogel, of San Francisco. This paper, which was taken as
read, consists of a lengthy theoretical disquisition, in which the author
maintains the following propositions: That the combining weights of all
elements are one third of their present values; the assumption that equal
volumes of gases contain equal numbers of molecules does not hold good;
that the present theory of valency is not supported by chemical facts, and
that its elimination would be no small gain for chemistry in freeing it
of an element full of mystery, uncertainty, and complication; that the
distinction between atoms and molecules will no longer be necessary;
that the facts of specific heat do not lend any support to the theory of
valency. The paper concludes as follows: "The cause of chemical action is
undoubtedly atmospheric pressure, which under ordinary conditions is equal
to the weight of 76 cubic centimeters of mercury, one of which equals 6.145
mercury molecules, so that the whole pressure equals 467 mercury molecules.
This force--which with regard to its chemical effect on molecules can be
multiplied by means of heat--is amply sufficient to bring about the highest
degree of molecular specific gravity by the reduction of the molecular
volumes. To it all molecules are exposed and subjected unalterably, and
if not accepted as the cause of chemical action, its influence has to be
eliminated to allow the introduction and display of other forces."

The next communication was _"On the Synthetical Production of Ammonia,
by the Combination of Hydrogen and Nitrogen in Presence of Heated Spongy
Platinum (Preliminary Notice),"_ by G. S. Johnson. Some experiments, in
which pure nitrogen was passed over heated copper containing occluded
hydrogen, suggested to the author the possibility of the formation of
ammonia; only minute traces were formed. On passing, however, a mixture of
pure nitrogen (from ammonium nitrite) and hydrogen over spongy platinum at
a low red heat, abundant evidence was obtained of the synthesis of ammonia.
The gases were passed, before entering the tube containing the platinum,
through a potash bulb containing Nessler reagent, which remained colorless.
On the contrary, the gas issuing from the platinum rapidly turned Nessler
reagent brown, and in a few minutes turned faintly acid litmus solution
blue; the odor of NH_3 was also perceptible. In one experiment 0.0144
gramme of ammonia was formed in two hours and a half. The author promises
further experiment as to the effect of temperature, rate of the gaseous
current, and substitution of palladium for platinum. The author synthesized
some ammonia before the Society with complete success.

The President referred to the synthesis of ammonia from its elements
recently effected by Donkin, and remarked that apparently the ammonia was
formed in much larger quantities by the process proposed by the author of
the present paper.

Mr. Warington suggested that some HCl gas should be simultaneously passed
with the nitrogen and hydrogen, and that the temperature of the spongy
platinum should be kept just below the temperature at which NH_3
dissociates, in order to improve the yield of NH_3.

_"On the Oxidation of Organic Matter in Water"_ by A. Downes. The author
considers that the mere presence of oxygen in contact with the organic
matter has but little oxidizing action unless lowly organisms, as bacteria,
etc. be simultaneously present. Sunlight has apparently considerable
effect in promoting the oxidation of organic matter. The author quotes the
following experiment: A sample of river water was filtered through paper.
It required per 10,000 parts 0.236 oxygen as permanganate. A second portion
was placed in a flask plugged with cotton wool, and exposed to sunlight for
a week; it then required 0.200. A third portion after a week, but excluded
from light, required 0.231. A fourth was boiled for five minutes, plugged,
and then exposed to sunlight for a week; required 0.198. In a second
experiment with well water a similar result was obtained; more organic
matter was oxidized when the organisms had been killed by the addition of
sulphuric acid than when the original water was allowed to stand for an
equal length of time. The author also discusses the statement made by Dr.
Frankland that there is less ground for assuming that the organized and
living matter of sewage is oxidized in a flow of twelve miles of a river
than for assuming that dead organic matter is oxidized in a similar
flow.--_Chem. News._

       *       *       *       *       *




ROSE OIL, OR OTTO OF ROSES.

By CHARLES G. WARNFORD LOCK.


This celebrated perfume is the volatile essential oil distilled from the
flowers of some varieties of rose. The botany of roses appears to be in a
transition and somewhat unsatisfactory state. Thus the otto-yielding rose
is variously styled _Rosa damascena, R. sempervirens, R. moschata, R.
gallica, R. centifolia, R. provincialis_. It is pretty generally agreed
that the kind grown for its otto in Bulgaria in the damask rose (_R.
damascena_), a variety induced by long cultivation, as it is not to be
found wild. It forms a bush, usually three to four feet, but sometimes six
feet high; its flowers are of moderate size, semi-double, and arranged
several on a branch, though not in clusters or bunches. In color, they are
mostly light-red; some few are white, and said to be less productive of
otto.

The utilization of the delicious perfume of the rose was attempted, with
more or less success, long prior to the comparatively modern process of
distilling its essential oil. The early methods chiefly in vogue were the
distillation of rose-water, and the infusion of roses in olive oil, the
latter flourishing in Europe generally down to the last century, and
surviving at the present day in the South of France. The butyraceous oil
produced by the distillation of roses for making rose-water in this country
is valueless as a perfume; and the real otto was scarcely known in British
commerce before the present century.

The profitable cultivation of roses for the preparation of otto is limited
chiefly by climatic conditions. The odoriferous constitutent of the otto
is a liquid containing oxygen, the solid hydrocarbon or stearoptene, with
which it is combined, being absolutely devoid of perfume. The proportion
which this inodorous solid constituents bears to the liquid perfume
increases with the unsuitability of the climate, varying from about 18 per
cent. in Bulgarian oil, to 35 and even 68 per cent. in rose oils distilled
in France and England. This increase in the proportion of stearoptene is
also shown by the progressively heightened fusing-point of rose oils from
different sources: thus, while Bulgarian oil fuses at about 61 deg. to 64 deg.
Fahr., an Indian sample required 68 deg. Fahr.; one from the South of France,
70 deg. to 73 deg. Fahr.; one from Paris, 84 deg. Fahr.; and one obtained in making
rose-water in London, 86 deg. to 891/2 deg. Fahr. Even in the Bulgarian oil, a
notable difference is observed between that produced on the hills and that
from the lowlands.

It is, therefore, not surprising that the culture of roses, and extraction
of their perfume, should have originated in the East. Persia produced
rose-water at an early date, and the town of Nisibin, north-west of Mosul,
was famous for it in the 14th century. Shiraz, in the 17th century,
prepared both rose water and otto, for export to other parts of Persia, as
well as all over India. The Perso-Indian trade in rose oil, which continued
to possess considerable importance in the third quarter of the 18th
century, is declining, and has nearly disappeared; but the shipments of
rose-water still maintain a respectable figure. The value, in rupees, of
the exports of rose-water from Bushire in 1879, were--4,000 to India, 1,500
to Java, 200 to Aden and the Red Sea, 1,000 to Muscat and dependencies, 200
to Arab coast of Persian Gulf and Bahrein, 200 to Persian coast and Mekran,
and 1,000 to Zanzibar. Similar statistics relating to Lingah, in the same
year, show--Otto: 400 to Arab coast of Persian Gulf, and Bahrein; and 250
to Persian coast and Mekran. And Bahrein--Persian Otto: 2,200 to Koweit,
Busrah, and Bagdad. Rose-water: 200 to Arab coast of Persian Gulf, and
1,000 to Koweit, Busrah, and Bagdad.

India itself has a considerable area devoted to rose-gardens, as at
Ghazipur, Lahore, Amritzur, and other places, the kind of rose being _R.
damascena_, according to Brandis. Both rose-water and otto are produced.
The flowers are distilled with double their weight of water in clay stills;
the rose-water (_goolabi pani_) thus obtained is placed in shallow vessels,
covered with moist muslin to keep out dust and flies, and exposed all night
to the cool air, or fanned. In the morning, the film of oil, which has
collected on the top, is skimmed off by a feather, and transferred to a
small phial. This is repeated for several nights, till almost the whole of
the oil has separated. The quantity of the product varies much, and three
different authorities give the following figures: (_a_) 20,000 roses to
make 1 rupee's weight (176 gr.) of otto; (_b_) 200,000 to make the same
weight; (_c_) 1,000 roses afford less than 2 gr. of otto. The color ranges
from green to bright-amber, and reddish. The oil (otto) is the most
carefully bottled; the receptacles are hermetically sealed with wax, and
exposed to the full glare of the sun for several days. Rose water deprived
of otto is esteemed much inferior to that which has not been so treated.
When bottled, it is also exposed to the sun for a fortnight at least.

The Mediterranean countries of Africa enter but feebly into this industry,
and it is a little remarkable that the French have not cultivated it in
Algeria. Egypt's demand for rose-water and rose-vinegar is supplied from
Medinet Fayum, south-west of Cairo. Tunis has also some local reputation
for similar products. Von Maltzan says that the rose there grown for otto
is the dog-rose (_R. canina_), and that it is extremely fragrant, 20 lb.
of the flower yielding about 1 dr. of otto. Genoa occasionally imports a
little of this product, which is of excellent quality. In the south of
France rose gardens occupy a large share of attention, about Grasse,
Cannes, and Nice; they chiefly produce rose-water, much of which is
exported to England. The essence (otto) obtained by the distillation of the
Provence rose (_R. provincialis_) has a characteristic perfume, arising, it
is believed, from the bees transporting the pollen of the orange flowers
into the petals of the roses. The French otto is richer in stearoptene than
the Turkish, nine grammes crystallizing in a liter (13/4 pint) of alcohol at
the same temperature as 18 grammes of the Turkish. The best preparations
are made at Cannes and Grasse. The flowers are not there treated for the
otto, but are submitted to a process of maceration in fat or oil, ten
kilos. of roses being required to impregnate one kilo. of fat. The price of
the roses varies from 50c. to 1 fr. 25c. per kilo.

But the one commercially important source of otto of roses is a
circumscribed patch of ancient Thrace or modern Bulgaria, stretching along
the southern slopes of the central Balkans, and approximately included
between the 25th and 26th degrees of east longitude, and the 42d and 43d of
north latitude. The chief rose-growing districts are Philippopoli, Chirpan,
Giopcu, Karadshah-Dagh, Kojun-Tepe, Eski-Sara, Jeni-Sara, Bazardshik, and
the center and headquarters of the industry, Kazanlik (Kisanlik),
situated in a beautiful undulating plain, in the valley of the Tunja. The
productiveness of the last-mentioned district may be judged from the fact
that, of the 123 Thracian localities carrying on the preparation of otto in
1877--they numbered 140 in 1859--42 belong to it. The only place affording
otto on the northern side of the Balkans is Travina. The geological
formation throughout is syenite, the decomposition of which has provided a
soil so fertile as to need but little manuring. The vegetation, according
to Baur, indicates a climate differing but slightly from that of the Black
Forest, the average summer temperatures being stated at 82 deg. Fahr. at noon,
and 68 deg. Fahr. in the evening. The rose-bushes nourish best and live longest
on sandy, sun-exposed (south and south-east aspect) slopes. The flowers
produced by those growing on inclined ground are dearer and more esteemed
than any raised on level land, being 50 per cent. richer in oil, and that
of a stronger quality. This proves the advantage of thorough drainage. On
the other hand, plantations at high altitudes yield less oil, which is of a
character that readily congeals, from an insufficiency of summer heat. The
districts lying adjacent to and in the mountains are sometimes visited
by hard frosts, which destroy or greatly reduce the crop. Floods also
occasionally do considerable damage. The bushes are attacked at intervals
and in patches by a blight similar to that which injures the vines of the
country.

The bushes are planted in hedge-like rows in gardens and fields, at
convenient distances apart, for the gathering of the crop. They are seldom
manured. The planting takes place in spring and autumn; the flowers attain
perfection in April and May, and the harvest lasts from May till the
beginning of June. The expanded flowers are gathered before sunrise,
often with the calyx attached; such as are not required for immediate
distillation are spread out in cellars, but all are treated within the day
on which they are plucked. Baur states that, if the buds develop slowly,
by reason of cool damp weather, and are not much exposed to sun-heat, when
about to be collected, a rich yield of otto, having a low solidifying
point, is the result, whereas, should the sky be clear and the temperature
high at or shortly before the time of gathering, the product is diminished
and is more easily congealable. Hanbury, on the contrary, when distilling
roses in London, noticed that when they had been collected on fine dry
days the rose-water had most volatile oil floating upon it, and that, when
gathered in cool rainy weather, little or no volatile oil separated.

The flowers are not salted, nor subjected to any other treatment, before
being conveyed in baskets, on the heads of men and women and backs of
animals, to the distilling apparatus. This consists of a tinned-copper
still, erected on a semicircle of bricks, and heated by a wood fire; from
the top passes a straight tin pipe, which obliquely traverses a tub kept
constantly filled with cold water, by a spout, from some convenient
rivulet, and constitutes the condenser. Several such stills are usually
placed together, often beneath the shade of a large tree. The still is
charged with 25 to 50 lb. of roses, not previously deprived of their
calyces, and double the volume of spring water. The distillation is carried
on for about l1/2 hours, the result being simply a very oily rose-water
(_ghyul suyu_). The exhausted flowers are removed from the still, and the
decoction is used for the next distillation, instead of fresh water.
The first distillates from each apparatus are mixed and distilled by
themselves, one-sixth being drawn off; the residue replaces spring water
for subsequent operations. The distillate is received in long-necked
bottles, holding about 11/4 gallon. It is kept in them for a day or two, at a
temperature exceeding 59 deg. Fahr., by which time most of the oil, fluid
and bright, will have reached the surface. It is skimmed off by a small,
long-handled, fine-orificed tin funnel, and is then ready for sale. The
last-run rose-water is extremely fragrant, and is much prized locally for
culinary and medicinal purposes. The quantity and quality of the otto are
much influenced by the character of the water used in distilling. When
hard spring water is employed, the otto is rich in stearoptene, but less
transparent and fragrant. The average quantity of the product is estimated
by Baur at 0.037 to 0.040 per cent.; another authority says that 3,200
kilos. of roses give 1 kilo. of oil.

Pure otto, carefully distilled, is at first colorless, but speedily becomes
yellowish; its specific gravity is 0.87 at 72.5 deg. Fahr.; its boiling-point
is 444 deg. Fahr.; it solidifies at 51.8 deg. to 60.8 deg. Fahr., or still higher; it
is soluble in absolute alcohol, and in acetic acid. The most usual and
reliable tests of the quality of an otto are (1) its odor, (2) its
congealing point, (3) its crystallization. The odor can be judged only
after long experience. A good oil should congeal well in five minutes at
a temperature of 54.5 deg. Fahr.; fraudulent additions lower the congealing
point. The crystals of rose-stearoptene are light, feathery, shining
plates, filling the whole liquid. Almost the only material used for
artificially heightening the apparent proportion of stearoptene is said to
be spermaceti, which is easily recognizable from its liability to settle
down in a solid cake, and from its melting at 122 deg. Fahr., whereas
stearoptene fuses at 91.4 deg. Fahr. Possibly paraffin wax would more easily
escape detection.

The adulterations by means of other essential oils are much more difficult
of discovery, and much more general; in fact, it is said that none of the
Bulgarian otto is completely free from this kind of sophistication. The
oils employed for the purpose are certain of the grass oils (_Andropogon_
and _Cymbopogon spp._) notably that afforded by _Andropogon, Schoenanthus_
called _idris-yaghi_ by the Turks, and commonly known to Europeans as
"geranium oil," though quite distinct from true geranium oil. The addition
is generally made by sprinkling it upon the rose-leaves before distilling.
It is largely produced in the neighborhood of Delhi, and exported to
Turkey by way of Arabia. It is sold by Arabs in Constantinople in large
bladder-shaped tinned-copper vessels, holding about 120 lb. As it is
usually itself adulterated with some fatty oil, it needs to undergo
purification before use. This is effected in the following manner: The
crude oil is repeatedly shaken up with water acidulated with lemon-juice,
from which it is poured off after standing for a day. The washed oil
is placed in shallow saucers, well exposed to sun and air, by which it
gradually loses its objectionable odor. Spring and early summer are the
best seasons for the operation, which occupies two to four weeks, according
to the state of the weather and the quality of the oil. The general
characters of this oil are so similar to those of otto of roses--even the
odor bearing a distant resemblance--that their discrimination when mixed is
a matter of practical impossibility. The ratio of the adulteration varies
from a small figure up to 80 or 90 per cent. The only safeguard against
deception is to pay a fair price, and to deal with firms of good repute,
such as Messrs. Papasoglu, Manoglu & Son, Ihmsen & Co., and Holstein & Co.
in Constantinople.

The otto is put up in squat-shaped flasks of tinned copper, called
_kunkumas_, holding from 1 to 10 lb., and sewn up in white woolen cloths.
Usually their contents are transferred at Constantinople into small gilded
bottles of German manufacture for export. The Bulgarian otto harvest,
during the five years 1867-71, was reckoned to average somewhat below
400,000 _meticals, miskals_, or _midkals_ (of about 3 dwt. troy), or 4,226
lb. av.; that of 1873, which was good, was estimated at 500,000, value
about L700,000. The harvest of 1880 realized more than L1,000,000, though
the roses themselves were not so valuable as in 1876. About 300,000
_meticals_ of otto, valued at L932,077, were exported in 1876 from
Philippopolis, chiefly to France, Australia, America, and Germany.

--_Jour. Soc. of Arts._

       *       *       *       *       *




A NEW METHOD OF PREPARING METATOLUIDINE.

By OSKAR WIDMAN.


The author adds in small portions five parts metanitro-benzaldehyd to nine
parts of phosphorus pentachloride, avoiding a great rise of temperature.
When the reaction is over, the whole is poured into excess of cold water,
quickly washed a few times with cold water, and dissolved in alcohol. After
the first crystallization the compound melts at 65 deg., and is perfectly pure.

       *       *       *       *       *

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