190

ROBERT MUSHET, Coleford, Gloucestershire. Dated December 12, 1861. (Not proceeded with.)

3116. Manufacture of Iron and Puddled Steel.

WITH the object of introducing small quantities of titanium into steel and bar iron the inventor adds a quantity of titanic pig metal (the preparation of which is described in a former patent*) either to melted pig iron, to refined metal, or any other quality of iron intended to be used in the production of puddled steel or malleable

iron.

1861.

3151. The Preparation of Materials applicable to the Manufacture of Paper. J.WILLIS, junior. Dated December 16, THIS invention refers to a mode of treating sawdust, oatmeal, and various seeds, for the purpose of adapting them to the manufacture of paper. The sawdust is dried in a kiln, mixed with salt, and ground to a fine powder in an ordinary flour-mill, then sifted, and the finer portion added direct to the pulp for paper-making. The admixture of salt is necessary to prevent the sawdust taking fire by the heat generated during the grinding. The preparation of seeds and oatmeal is very similar, these being reduced to coarse powder under fluted grindstones. The use of a set of brushes, affixed to an endless belt, is recommended, for the purpose of assisting the operation of the sieve.

3208. Treating Coal and other Bituminous Minerals and Peat, in order to obtain Solid and Liquid Hydrocarbons therefrom. M. M. WILLIAMS, Handsworth. Dated December 21, 1861.

In the distillation of coal, peat, and the other substances named in the title the inventor employs a construction of retort which permits of being heated from the top, so that the vapours are driven downwards through the charge, and make their escape from the bottom of the retort; an excessive exposure to heat is thus avoided, and a more abundant yield of volatile products is the result.

THE security offered by this kind of paper is based upon the circumstance of its being formed of several individual films superposed, each layer having a different colour and texture, and capable of bearing a distinct water-mark.

3199. An Improved Composition for Cleaning and Reviving Woollen Cloths and other Fabrics, and the Colours thereof. E. E. PEREAU, Moorgate Street, London. (A communication.) Dated December 20, 1861.

THIS liquid, which is very efficacious in the removal of dirt and stains from cloth, is prepared from citric acid, alum, carbonate of potash, water, and alcohol. To these ingredients any suitable colouring matter may be added, cochineal being preferred for the treatment of scarlet cloth, and in this case the inventor designates the material "Eau E'carlate."

{CHEMICAL NEWS,

April 18, 1863.

586. William Clark, Chancery Lane, London, “Improvements in preparing and obtaining photographic impressions, and in the application of such impressions." A communication from Alphonse Louis Poitevin, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris.-Petition recorded March 2, 1863.

605. Joseph De Keyser, Molenbeek St. Jean, Belgium, Improvements in treating petroleum oil, and in the combination thereof with other oils for lubricating and other like purposes."-Petition recorded March 4, 1863.

660. Robert Thomson Monteith, St. Malo, France, and Robert Monteith, Crystal Terrace, Cecil Street, Greenheys, Manchester, "Improvements in making dyes from aniline and its analogues."-A communication from Georges Auguste Jules Delvaux, Rue Corneille, Paris.-Petition recorded March 11, 1863.

London, "Improvements in apparatus for making extracts 698. Richard Moreland, jun., Old Street, St. Luke's, of hops, and for selecting or separating the seeds and pollen from hops."

Notices to Proceed.

579. John Watson Burton, Leeds, "An improved mode of refining and purifying oils."-Petition recorded March 2, 1863.

606. Thomas Henry Morrell, Leyland, Lancashire, and Joseph Williamson, Willcross Gisburn, Yorkshire," A new or improved method of purifying the noxious vapours or gases given off from night-soil or other similar substances during the heating, drying, or evaporating of such substances."

3085. Christopher Binks, Parliament Street, London, "Improved methods of obtaining oxygen and chlorine gases."

3134. Robert Walter Swinburne, South Shields, Durham, Improvements in the manufacture of soda."

CORRESPONDENCE.

Deaths from Nitric Acid.

To the Editor of the CHEMICAL NEWS. SIR,-Being a medical student, I was struck with what seemed to me a novel fact in pathology, emanating from a correspondent who signs himself "F. Trachsell." This as to the cause of death of poor Mr. Stewart, suggests a gentleman, denying the accuracy of the medical opinions theory of his own, which is certainly at variance with all surgical experience of the effect of nitric acid when applied in substance to the living tissues.

I would venture to ask him the following question :-If the coagulation of the blood by nitric acid applied to a recent wound is in his estimation to be propagated through the system, and thus be the cause of remote congestions, why centrated form to phagedænic sores, infantile nævi, and does not the application of the same acid in its most coninternal hæmorrhoids, &c., produce the same results? Such being the ordinary treatment for those affections, without ever being followed by the awful consequences which Mr. Trachsell alleges. I am, &c.

LLEWELLYN POWELL.

Coal in Holland.

To the Editor of the CHEMICAL NEWS. SIR,-I expect you duly received my small parcel sent from here, and containing a small lump of the Gildenhuis cannel coal. I fear I have made a blunder in what I wrote, in so far as regards the quantity. In looking over Mr. Eekhout's letter, I read 80,000 Berliner schefftel at 50 kilogrammes each, would make the presumed quantity in the first discovered seam-as far as such has been possible to ascertain, viz., as far as exploration has been proceeded with, which is only very superficially done-about 4000

tons. I must add, however, that there is some difference of opinion on this subject between practical and scientific men, the latter of whom do not exactly believe that any quantity really worth the trouble and expense of working will be found. However this may be, I shall feel obliged to you to correct any inaccuracy I might have made in referring to the supply, of this, at all events, remarkable mineral found on the very frontier of what, geologically speaking, is a very recent formation; beside the purity of the mineral, i.c., its freedom from great quantities of ash, sulphur compounds, &c., is remarkable. I am, &c.,

DR. A. ADRIANI. P.S.-My further note, dated this day (March 25), settles the point of supply more satisfactorily.

March 25.-I had written the preceding lines, and was about to dispatch them, when I received from H. P. Gelderman, Esq., at Oldenzaal, who is one-third owner of the concession of the locality where this coal is met with, and a full copy of Dr. Vohl's, at Bonn, analysis, and a roughly sketched map of the concession. I give you hereby the abstract of the results obtained by that gentleman.

One hundred parts of the coal carefully distilled, especially with the view of obtaining the largest quantity of

tar, gave :

191

applied for the manufacture of candles. The creosote is fit, in all aspects, to be used as a means of preserving timber, &c. As the coke left only contains o'637 per cent. of ash, it is an excellent fuel.

As a gas-producing coal, Dr. Vohl found that, treated in the most advantageous manner for that purpose, 1 lb. of coal yields 12.5 cubic feet of gas-(at the gasworks of the town of Munster the coal was found to yield 22,0co cubic feet of gas per ton, the gas having a specific gravity of o 745, air being 10)—of an illuminating power twice as great as that of the ordinary coal gas; as the crude gas contains only a very small quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen and other impurities, it is readily purified. According to Dr. Vohl, a coal identical with this Gildenhuis coal is met with near the river Ruhr, and in France on the left bank of the Rhine. With the exception only of the fossil of Argshalt, in Galicia, Vohl states he is not acquainted with any more fit, or valuable for making paraffin oil and similar produce.

As the present owners are too much engaged in other business matters, they feel inclined to sell their rights to the concession. In order more correctly to learn what the prospects of the supply are, I took the trouble to write on the subject to Mr. Gelderman, at Oldenzaal, whose reply, quite reliable, comes to this-The quantity estimated to be present in the seam, now worked again, is from 80 to 100 thousand scheffel, each containing 50 kilogrammes.* It must be, however, understood that no thorough exploration has been made, owing to dissension between the owners; but this much has been ascertained, that a full supply may be relied on, and that the coal does not change its nature, but remains of the same quality.

The terrain granted for concession to work for coal is from three and a-half to four English miles long, and about one broad.

I enclose the diagram of the seams of coal now, or at least lately worked, and the rather rough map of the district under concession; these you perhaps will do well, and be kind enough to deposit at your office for the inspection of parties interested. Neither the map nor diagram sent to me by Mr. Gelderman were accompanied by any written explanation.

It appears the coal is surrounded by the sandstone of the district. As a railway is in course of construction from Almelo to Salzbergen, which line is contiguous to

The paraffin oil obtained is quite colourless and clear, gives off an ethereal, not unpleasant, smell; is very fluid, and has a density of 0.825, water being 1'000; it burns in suitable lamps with great brilliancy, without charring the cotton of the wick, nor giving any unpleasant smell. It may be safely applied to remove, as benzol does, dirty fatty marks from woven tissues.

The lubricating oil burns with ease and without causing inconvenience in such lamps as are constructed for the purpose of burning huile de schiste, or mineral oil; it is extremely fit for lubricating machinery, and, being a neutral oil, does not cause the oxidation of metals. This oil may be applied with great advantage for the manufacture of gas. The paraffin obtained by Dr. Vohl from this coal is of very good quality, and may be readily purified and

for transport, as at Almelo means of transport by water begin and proceed uninterruptedly to sea. DR. ADRIANI.

Rotterdam.

On Bathvillite, a New Inflammable Mineral. To the Editor of the CHEMICAL NEWS. SIR,-This new mineral, it strikes me, is what geologists call a coprolite-no very uncommon thing either in coals or shales. That the organic matter has the composition of the mineral in which it is found, is also a thing Mr. the case with all fossils found either in coals or shales. If Williams will find common enough, and, indeed, generally all these are to be regarded as new minerals, and provided with distinct names, may Providence furnish us, poor students, with the very best of memories.

his new mineral has not been found in the strata at TorMr. George Miller it seems informs Mr. Williams that banehill, but only at Bathville. These are regarded as the same deposit by geologists, and both gentlemen may feel assured that all new minerals found in the coal from the mineral at Bathville, I understand, is darker than Torbaneone locality will be found, if looked for, in the other. The hill, not paler, as Mr. Williams states.

* 80,000 × 50 = 4,000,000 kilos., and, taking the ton at 1000 kilos., comes to 4000 tons.

UTILISATION OF SEWAGE. FROM a chemical point of view the sewage question has long been definitively settled. There is no doubt of the immense intrinsic value of the manure constituents of sewage which are annually wasted under the present system of disposing of it. Nor is there any less doubt that, under this system, those valuable constituents are distributed through such a disproportionately vast mass of water, that it is entirely out of the question to think of turning them to any profitable account in agriculture. The case is precisely analogous to that of the gold-bearing minerals in Wales, or the auriferous Rhine sand. The gold is undoubtedly there in immense quantity in the aggregate; but it is so disseminated throughout a preponderating mass of worthless material, that it is practically inaccessible. No chemist acquainted with the subject; no engineer, or farmer at all capable of appreciating the chemical facts relating to it, has, or can have, but one opinion as to the utilisation of sewage, viz., that it is a thorough delusion to suppose that it can be carried into effect, so as to admit of the sewage of London being disposed of, and made a source of profit. This opinion, however, is far from being accepted or acquiesced in generally. A great number of persons believe-for it is only belief with them-that the sewage of London, representing an aggregate value of perhaps not less than a million sterling per annum, can not only be utilised in agriculture, but even made a source of profit to those whose business it is to get rid of it somehow. There are, indeed, a few who endeavour to bring forward evidence of such a possibility, and there is no doubt that many of the facts which they rely upon are unquestionable. There is no doubt that sewage, when put upon cultivated land, does act as a powerful manure, and produce very excellent results in augmenting the produce of the land. This has long been proved and admitted by every one; and this is precisely the circumstance which leads people astray in their opinions as to the utilisation of sewage. If, they argue, this can be done here or there on this or that patch of ground, why should it not be done with the whole of the sewage of London, and why should not the value of the immense quantity of material now wasted be realised? The reasons why it cannot be done have been given over and over again-any time these six years past-but they have not been heeded. Those reasons are of precisely the same kind as the reasons which operate against the extraction of gold from Welsh minerals, and are probably much more forcible. It is all very well to say there is a bar of gold weighing forty or fifty

ounces, and to appeal to that as a conclusive proof that it can be got; or to say that such and such results have been obtained by applying sewage to land. This kind of evidence and argument will have great weight with many, but it is not conclusive, nor is it to the point. If the gold that has been extracted, and which is worth some 4. an ounce, has cost 67. an ounce to get, and if this fact can once be perceived, there is an end to the chimerical opinions as to its value and the possibility of extracting it. To all intents and purposes it might as well not be there.

agricultural application of sewage, with the additional Now this is just the case with regard to the difficulties, in the case of London, that the quantity of the sewage is so immense, and subject to such large increase, as to render it probably impossible to find a sufficient area of land to receive it within a reasonable distance. situation and level of the land round London, and, above Further difficulties then arise from the all, from the fact that it is only to grass land that the sewage could be applied so as to meet the absolutely necessary requirement of disposing of it continuously every day throughout the year. No doubt a larger proportion of the land immediately round London is under grass than is the case in some other districts, but still it is only a fraction of the land that is so situated, and precisely that land is in no want of sewage, being abundantly supplied with manure produced by the consumption of its own hay in London, and carried to the land by the carts bringing up the hay. utilisation in some degree of the sewage of London There was, some years ago, a bare prospect of the being effected. The inhabitants of London having determined upon incurring a vast expenditure for the purpose of getting rid of the sewage, might have applied that expenditure in such a manner as to render the sewage available to farmers round London, instead of devoting it to a means of throwing it away into the sea, as is to be done now. This was a prospect that was certainly worth investigation at that time; but, it may safely be said that even with regard to it, there are no data which would in any way justify the opinion that such a mode of disposing of the London sewage would have been attended with advantage, or have been at all practicable.

So far as the expenditure on sewage disposition, originally contemplated, is concerned, this opportunity is past. It may be that it will recur again, if, as some are disposed to consider, the means that have been adopted for getting rid of the sewage should prove to be insufficient to meet the requirements of the case. If the discharge of the whole bulk of the sewage into the Thames at one place should be attended with the disadvantages of reflux up the river, and of pestilential exhalations in the neighbourhood of its discharge, the question as to the disposition of sewage will revert to the position in which it stood some six years ago.

The obstinacy with which, from time to time, schemes for the application of sewage in agriculture are urged upon the notice of the public, without any adequate foundation and in the face of overwhelming antagonistic evidence, is simply a revival of the spirit manifested years ago in the attempts to manufacture solid manure from sewage, attempts that were, if anything, more visionary and absurd than the advocated utilisation of sewage under present circumstances. In Mr. Lawes' pamphlet it is stated that an expenditure of some 60,000l. was required to satisfy those who insisted upon the very high agricultural value of solid manure obtained from sewage by lime, that the value assigned to it by himself and others was correct. And yet this was a fact that was almost self-evident, and which required only a consideration of the simplest chemical data to be perceived. But years after the utter worthlessness of this method of treating sewage had been laboriously demonstrated ad nauseam, ignorant and plausible adventurers succeeded in persuading the authorities of provincial towns to renew the attempt under some novel disguise, and for a time outweighed the sound and trustworthy opinions and advice of men competent to pronounce a judgment

on the subject.

The notion now most in favour is to distribute the sewage of London in small quantities over an enormous area, applying it to all kinds of crops; but, if there be any evidence as to the utility of sewage as manure, it is that it depends upon the copious application of it on a comparatively small area, in regard to the actual

amount of manure substance it contains. This is the course indicated, not only by practice but also by considerations as to the cost of distribution, and various other important particulars. Hence, it is not surprising to find it stated, as the result of investigation, that an attempt to apply the sewage of London, in its present state of dilution, to crops generally, in quantities of a few hundred tons per acre annually, would result in great pecuniary loss and signal failure, and that it is clearly quite fallacious to assume the general applicability to all crops, of manure so diluted, on the ground of any considerations as to the value and applicability of the same constituents in the undiluted state. The practical manure value of sewage cannot with any justice or reason be calculated according to the amount of manure substances it contains, since it is not known how far they can become available when the sewage has been applied to land.

Over and above all these uncertainties there is the engineering question as to the cost of putting it on the land, of which, perhaps, nothing more than a mere approximative guess has been made.

It would be a strange result if it should be found that the water-carriage system of disposing of town refuse, which has of late years been a source of so much satisfaction to sanitary reformers, has been altogether a mistake, and a retrogression instead of an improvement. Such a result is not without its probabilities, when considered from more than one point of view, nor is it at all improbable that means might be devised for inoffensively disposing of the excreta of a large population without the aid of water-carriage, and that by retaining them in a comparatively portable form they might be rendered available in augmenting and maintaining the fertility of the land in the place of the materials now imported at such considerable cost for the purposes of agriculture. Whether such a change is ever likely to be effected is, however, far beyond the range even of conjecture.

CHEMICAL NEWS, April 25, 1863.

SCIENTIFIC AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY.

kilns.

The source of thallium is evidently the pyrites; indeed, a subsequent examination of some of the ore actually employed in this process revealed the presence of thallium. A few experiments clearly pointed out the path followed by the metal :-Being oxidised along with the sulphur of the pyrites, it passed into the leaden chambers, where it dissolved in the acid in the form of sulphate. Upon the subsequent admixture with chloride of sodium, and heating, chloride of thallium was formed, which volatilised with the hydrochloric acid, to be subsequently condensed in the water trickling through the coke towers.

In the endeavour to render the hydrochloric acid free from thallium, a portion of it was distilled, but upon testing the distillate traces of the metal were still perceptible. It was then redistilled, this time at a temperature lower than its boiling-point: the acid now appeared free from thallium.

The volatility of chloride of thallium with aqueous or acid vapour appeared sufficiently interesting to render its more accurate determination advisable. Ten grains of pure metallic thallium were dissolved in a considerable excess of nitro-hydrochloric acid, and the solution gently boiled down in a retort. Upon testing the acid distillate, a considerable precipitate of sulphide of thallium was obtained. Nitro-hydrochloric acid was then added to the residue of sesquichloride of thallium remaining in the retort, and the distillation was repeated over a waterbath, care being taken that the evaporation in this case was conducted below the boiling point of the liquid. Upon now testing the distillate, evident traces of thallium were found in it; the metal in this case could not have been carried over mechanically, as the liquid in the retort had not once entered into ebullition.

Having for upwards of a year had considerable quantities of liquid containing thallium evaporated in open dishes in my laboratory, it was natural to anticipate,