resent investigation in order to exclude any ncorrect deductions). The above-mentioned ethereal liquids were inited, dried with anhydrous sodium sulphate, and the greater part of the ether removed by disillation, the residual liquid being then brought nto a small, tared flask and allowed to evaporate pontaneously until the odour of ether had disappeared. A yellowish oily liquid was thus obtained, which had a distinct odour of amyl lcohol, and produced the characteristic irritating ffect of the latter on the throat when inhaled. The amount of this liquid was 0.7063 grms., which represented o'00065 per cent of the weight of apple parings employed. It was brought into a strong lask provided with a tightly-fitting glass stopper, 25 cc. of a chromic acid mixture (J. prakt. Chem., 1892, xlv., 599) added, and the whole heated for 15 minutes on a water-bath at a temperature of about 90° with occasional agitation. The flask was then cooled, the contents diluted with water, transferred to a separatory funnel, and the acid iquid extracted five times with pure, aldehydefree ether. The united ethereal liquids, after being washed with a little water, were extracted four times successively with 25 CC. of a cent 5 per solution of barium hydroxide. The total alkaline liquid was treated with carbon dioxide for the removal of the excess of baryta, and, after filtration, the neutral liquid was concentrated to a small volume. (To be continued.) CHEMICAL NOTICES FROM FOREIGN SOURCES. Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie. Vol. xxii., 7th Series, No. 4, August 16, 1920. ACTION OF HYDROCYANIC ACID ON GLUCOSE. KILIANI'S REACTION.-MM. J. Bougault and J. Perrier. According to Emil Fischer (Liebig's Annalen, 1892, cclxx., 64), the synthesis of oxyacids by the action of hydrocyanic acids on aldehydes is due to the work of Winkler (about 1830). This reaction has been applied to the sugars (glucose, &c.), by Kiliani (Ber., 1885, xviii, 3168), by whose name the reaction is known, although it was a French chemist, Schützenberger (Bull. Soc. Chim. [2], 1881, xxxvi., 144), who first showed that inverted sugars, when subjected to the action of hydrocyanic acid and water, give rise to acids containing seven atoms of carbon, according to the equation— C,H,,O,+CNH+2H,O=C,H,O.CO,NH. The above authors have further investigated this reaction, and have discovered that alkalinity and acidity play an important part in the success of the operation. In a very faintly acid solution the reaction does not take place, likewise it fails in neutral solution. But it is difficult to lay this latter point down definitely as it is very difficult to obtain an exactly neutral solution, the alkalinity of the glass vessel being sufficient to act as a catalyst. From the above remarks, the authors infer that it was a cyanide and not hydrocyanic acid which plays the active role in the reaction. By writing the equation in the following manner CHO,+CNK+2H,O=C,H,O.CO,K+NH, these facts can be stated; it can be seen that the quantity of alkali taking part in the reaction as cyanide reappears in an equivalent quantity as ammonia on the right-hand side of the equation. This ammonia gives rise to a further quantity of cyanide, which combines as before with a fresh quantity of glucose, and so on. NOTES. AT the Machine Tool Trades Exhibition to be held at Olympia in September, a great Convention will be held under the joint auspices of the Home Office and the British Industrial "Safety First" Association. There will be two sessions, at which papers of absorbing interest will be discussed. ALCOHOL FUEL PATENTS.-Warning to Investors. The Empire Motor Fuels Committee of the Imperial Motor Transport Council has recently been considering the abnormal and unhealthy activity shown by pseudo-inventors in respect of alcohol motor fuels and mixtures containing alcohol. Shortly before the House rose, Mr. E. Manville, M.P., at the request of the Empire Motor Fuels Committee, addressed the following question to the President of the Board of Trade: "If the Patent Office will pay special attention to the number of applications for letters patent in respect of admixtures of such bodies as alcohol, ether, kerosene, benzol, and toluol, as motor fuels, in which applications no element of novelty, discovery, or invention appears to be disclosed; and if he will give instructions to the Patent Office to be especially careful not to hamper or prejudice the production or utilisation of new motor fuels by the creation of ground for litigation in respect of alleged master patents." Sir Robert Horne's reply was that "Full and proper consideration will be given to all applications for patents in respect of inventions relating to new motor fuels before the patent is granted. The Comptroller of the Patent Office in considering what is a proper subject of a patent, is, of course, bound by the provisions of the Patents and Designs Act in accordance with which he must act." It is felt by the Empire Motor Fuels Committee that great damage may be done to the prospect of early production and marketing of new motor fuels if disregard is shown by the Patent Office for the known miscibility within various limits of alcohol, benzol, petrol, and other hydro-carbons and carbohydrates, and the Committee wishes to give warning to the investing public that any claim to a master patent should in any conceivable circumstances be viewed with the maximum of doubt. The Committee feels it is regrettable in the public interests that the Patent Office should be allowing patents to be granted for mixtures which every chemist knows can be employed as fuels and which every engineer knows are more or less applicable in existing engines or in engines slightly adapted in order to suit such mixtures. ADVERTISING EXHIBITION.—An International Advertising Exhibition will be held in the great entrance halls of the White City, London, from November 29 to December 4. The buildings have an aera of over 200,000 square feet, and it is evident that the whole space will be occupied by interesting and novel demonstrations of the power of modern advertising as an instrument of salesmanship. Those interested should write at once to the Administrator, Mr. Sam G. Haughton, 167, Strand, London. The Government, particularly the Board of Trade, is actively interested in this endeavour to aid the commerce of the Empire and so are the trades commissioners of our Colonies, while foreign countries are evincing a keen desire to be represented. For the first time the whole of the complex science of advertising in its every phase will be revealed in such a way as to interest not only the expert, the manufacturer, and the ASSISTANT CHEMIST wanted for larg distributor, but also the man in the street. The Exhibition will be open to everyone and it is confidently expected that many thousands of people will visit the White City palaces during the week. Engineering Works in the North of England. One used i analysis of Iron, Steel, and Steel Work's materials preferre Apply stating age, experience and salary required to Box 512 e, T. G. SCOTT & SON, 63, Ludgate Hill, E.C.4. The profits are to be divided among the charitiesTO Chemical Manufacturers and others.associated with the printing and allied trades. NOTICES. For Immediate Sale: Six practically new 60in. water-drive Hydro Extractors, by the eminent makers, Watson, Laidla and Co., Ltd., Glasgow; instant delivery. Apply to Jons RIDDELL, LTD., 40, St. Enoch Square, Glasgow. EDITORIAL.-All Literary communications and Books, Chemical YOUTH, 19, passed Inter. B.Sc., require Apparatus, &c., for review or notice to be addressed to the EDITOR. SUBSCRIPTIONS, £1 12s. per annum, payable in advance, should be addressed to the MANAGER. position as Assistant in a Chemical Laboratory.-Writ F. W., 50, Sefton Street, Putney, S.W.15. BACK NUMBERS and VOLUMES can be purchased on application PATENTS, TRADE MARKS. Handboo to the MANAGER. LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL. APPLICATIONS are invited for appoint ment as a TEMPORARY LABORATORY ASSISTANT in the Public Health Department, No. 2, Savoy Hill, W.C.2. The inclusive rate of pay attaching to the position will be 85s. a week. The duties will include the care of stores (chemical and apparatus), preparation of samples and standard solutions and the supervision of the cleaning of the Laboratory. Candidates must be natural born British subjects and not less than 25 years of age. Preference will be given to those who have served, or attempted to serve, with H.M. Forces. Applications stating age, experience, war service (if any) etc., should be addressed to the Medical Officer of Health, No. 2, Savoy Hill, W.C.2., so as to reach him not later than Monday, 27th September, 1920. JAMES BIRD. Clerk of the London County Council UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE. JOHNSTON CHEMICAL SCHOLARSHIP THIS Scholarship, of the value of £100, for one year, together with a prize books, will be awarded in October, 1920, on the results of an examination in Chemistry, with Crystallography or Mineralogy. Candidates must be Bachelors of Science of any British University of not more than 3 years standing from the date of graduation. Further particulars may be obtained on application to the REGISTRAR, Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne. HEAD ASSISTANT, CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT Charterhouse School required at once. Wages £3 10s. to £4 a week according to qualifications. Apply and send references and statement of age, qualifications and experience to F. R. C. WILSON, ESQ., Charterhouse, Godalming, Surrey. and advice free- B. T. KING, British and U. S. Regd. Patet Attorney, 146a, Queen Victoria St., London. 35 years referenc COVERS FOR BINDING. Cloth, Gilt-lettered. Covers for binding the Half-year Volumes of the CHEMICAL NEWS may now be obtained. Price 2/- each (post free 2/3). Volumes bound in Cloth Cases, Lettered, and Numbere at 35. per volume. CHEMICAL NEWS OFFICE, 97, SHOE LANE, LONDON, E.C.4. If in good condition, Sixpence per copy will be paid for any of the undermentioned numbers of the CHEMICAL NEWS which may be forwarded to this office:3048, May 24th, 1918. 3051, July 5th, 1918. 3053, August 2nd, 1918. 3054, August 16th, 1918. 3056, September 13th, 1918. 3059, October 25th, 1918 3062, December 6th, 1918. 3063, December 20th, 1918. 3064, January 3rd, 1919. 3066, January 17th, 1919. 3068, January 31st, 1919. 3069, February 7th, 1919. 3070, February 14th, 1919. 075, March 21st, 1919. CHEMICAL NEWS OFFICE, 97, SHOE LANE, LONDON, E.C. T. TYRER & CO., Ltd, stirilog Chemical Works STRATFORD, LONDON, E CHEMICALS for Analysis, Research, and Technical purposes TECHNICAL experimeNTS carried out on a MANUFACTURING SCALE. Inquiries solicited from INVENTORS and FATENTEES (especia ly Foreign) under the New Act, 1906 THE CHEMICAL NEWS. VOL. CXXI., No. 3153. LUBRICATION AND THE GERM PROCESS.* By HENRY M. WELLS and JAMES E. SOUTHCOMBE, M.Sc. THE authors draw attention that the modern view of lubrication on the physico-chemical side is the existence of a residual valency or affinity between the oil and the solid surfaces of the bearing and journal. The problem has therefore to be considered as a kind of intimate relationship between the oil and the metal. This is quite a different view to that held by investigators in the past, who thought that the property of "oiliness" so strongly manifested by fatty oils as compared with mineral oils resided in some particular physical characteristic of the oil itself. Finally, it may enable the lubricating oil manufacturer to produce the highest class of frictionreducing oils from comparatively thin-therefore cheaper-mineral oils, and incidentally this may have the utmost significance to-day when we are striving to foster and develop the mineral oil production of our own country and the Empire. FUEL ECONOMY.* Introduction. THE Committee has held altogether six meetings (c) The chemical constitution of coal. furnaces, (iv.) in steam raising and power pro- (f) Sources of supply of liquid fuels. The modern point of view has been elaborated recently by a number of students of the subject. The authors have discovered the "reason" why the fatty or fixed oils possess superior friction-heating appliances, (iii.) in metallurgical and other reducing properties to that of mineral oils. They have shown that this is due essentially to the presence in fatty oils of minute quantities of free fatty acids, which are absent in the majority of mineral oils. In consequence of this discovery, they have added small quantities (about one per cent) of fatty or organic acids, which are easily accessible and relatively cheap to mineral hydrocarbon oils. The products so obtained possess remarkably low frictional co-efficients. As an example, the addition of 2 per cent of common fatty acid to a mineral hydro-carbon oil reduces the coefficient of friction shown by this oil on a friction testing machine from o'0084 to 0.0052-a diminution of 25 per cent. By suitably choosing the type of fatty acid to be added to mineral oil the behaviour of oils in the presence of water and other contaminating substances can be modified at will. It is also shown that the risk of metallic corrosion is even less with these oils than with the usual compounded oils, because the latter frequently develops in working notable quantities of free acid. The principle of making mineral lubricating oils possessing increased frictional reducing properties by adding to mineral oils suitably chosen fatty acids in relatively minute amounts has been patented throughout the world, and has been somewhat fancifully called the "Germ Process," because the fatty acid is the germ of the idea. The value of the process lies in that oils possessing friction-reducing properties much superior to mineral oils can be prepared at relatively little extra cost to mineral oils. Secondly, by this means an immense quantity of fatty oil suitable for the manufacture of margarine and other food-stuffs is liberated for the country's needs and substituted by a much smaller amount of commercial fatty acids, which are quite unsuitable for food and are more or less in the nature of a by-product. *Abstract of Paper read before the British Association (Cardiff Meeting), Section B. Although the Committee has made satisfactory progress with its inquiries in certain directions during the past year, both time and opportunity have been wanting for completing them. The present Report,† therefore, is of an interim nature, but the Committee hopes to report more fully on the above matters to the Edinburgh Meeting next year. Coal Mining Statistics. The attention of the Committee having been drawn by Professor Henry Louis to the fact that, owing to considerable variations in the modes of arriving at the official data concerning coal outputs, &c., periodically published by Government Departments in the various coal producing countries, it is impossible to regard them as being properly comparable, the Committee requested him to prepare a Memorandum on the subject. This he subsequently did, and, having regard to the great importance of the matter, the Committee decided to publish the Memorandum in extenso as Appendix I. to this Report, in the hope that it may lead to the desired reform being effected. In particular, the Committee endorses Professor Louis' view concerning the importance of summoning an International Conference for determining the precise manner in which mineral statistics of all kinds shall be collected, tabulated, and finally issued to the public. *Read before the British Association (Cardiff Meeting), Section + Third Report of Committee (Prof. W. A. Bone* (Chairman), 1 Coal Outputs and Average Pithead Prices in 1919. According to information kindly furnished to the Committee by the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade, the total output of coal in the United Kingdom during the year 1919 has been provisionally estimated at 229,668,000 tons, and the total output per person employed (below and above ground) in the mines at 1975 tons. Owing to abnormal circumstances during the period of coal control, it is difficult to give strictly comparable figures for the average pithead prices of coal in the years immediately preceding and following (respectively) the war. According to official estimates supplied by the Statisitcal Department of the Board of Trade, the pithead prices per ton of coal raised in 1913, and in July, 1919, respectively, were approximately as follows: It would thus appear that the pithead cost of coal has been nearly trebled as the result of the war. Coal Export Statistics. The Statistical Department of the Board of Trade has also placed at the disposal of the Committee detailed information concerning the amounts of coal exported from the principal ports of the kingdom (a) to British possessions, and (b) to foreign countries, during each of the years 1913-1919 inclusive. In view of the importance of such statistics, the Committee has decided to publish them in tabular form as Appendix II, to this Report. The Committee is also collecting information as to average prices obtained at the principal ports for the coal exported during each of the years in question. In the light of such statistics the Committee hopes next year to be able to review the question of the effect of the war upon the coal export trade. Chemistry of Coal. During the year considerable progress has been made with the researches on the chemistry of coal under the direction of Professor Bone at the Fuel Laboratories at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, further details of which will shortly be published. The Committee has also followed with close attention the work recently published (a) by Drs. Marie Stopes, R. V. Wheeler, and Rudolph Lessing upon the four macroscopically distinguishable portions of banded bituminous coal and their respective behaviour on carbonisation and oxidation, (b) by Mr. S. R. Illingworth at the Treforest School of Mines, and (c) by Mr. F. S. Sinnatt and collaborators of the Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Research Association. Future Standards of Gas Supplies. Since it reported its views on the above subject to the Bournemouth Meeting of the Association last year, the Committee has followed up the matter, and on February 2 last, a deputation, consisting of the Chairman, Sir Robert Hadfield, Messrs. W H. Patchell and H. James Yates, waited upon the then President of the Board of Trade (the Rt. Hon. Sir Auckland C. Geddes, K.C.B.) to lay before him the views of the Committee upon the subject, with special reference to impending legislation. In introducing the deputation, Professor Bone called the attention of the President to (a) the Report on Gas Standards which had been made by the Fuel Research Board, (b) the conclusions thereon that had been arrived at as the result of a conference between representatives of consumers, local authorities, and gas undertakings, and (c) the announcement by the President of the Board of Trade that a Bill would shortly be introduced in Parliament to give effect to the recommendations of the Fuel Research Board. (The Bill was subsequently introduced by Sir Robert Horne in the House of Commons on May 19, 1920). He explained that the Committee had looked at the question primarily from the view of the national interests as a whole, and particularly from that of domestic and industrial gas consumers. It agreed with the Fuel Research Board that the future basis of charge to the consumer should be the actual number of thermal units supplied to him in the gas which passed through his meter, but desired that the charge should be based upon the "ascertained net calorific value" of the gas supplied rather than its "declared calorific value," as proposed by the Fuel Research Board. It also endorsed the Fuel Research Board's original recommendation that the gas should be supplied at a pressure of "not less than two inches of water at the exit of the consumer's meter," but expressed its disagreement with the Board's subsequent view that the pressure condition might be reduced to one of "not less than two inches of water in any main or service pipe of two inches in diameter"; because what mattered to the consumer was the adequacy of the pressure in his own pipes rather than in the gas mains outside his premises. It was also stated that the Committee attached great importance to the pressure being maintained as constant as possible, as well as to gas undertakings being required to pay greater attention than ever to the removal of cyanogen and sulphur impurities from the gas. Finally, it was explained that the Committee, whilst agreeing generally with the proposals in regard to the new thermal basis for the sale of gas, and to the restriction of its inert constituents, considered that its chemical composition would need some statutory regulation, and that in particular no public gas supply should be allowed to contain less than 20 per cent of methane or more than 20 per cent of carbon monoxide. After Sir Robert Hadfield had endorsed the views of the Committee from the point of view of industrial consumers of gas, Mr. H. James Yates outlined his views as a maker of gas fires, who had for many years given much attention to the scientific investigation of domestic heating and ventilation. He laid stress upon the importance of maintaining a constant pressure of not less than two inches water gauge on the consumer's side of the service pipes, and that the gross calorific value of the gas supplied should not be allowed to fall below 450 B.Th. U. per cubic foot, stating that if gas undertakings supplied gas of lower calorific value a large part of the existing gas appliances would become useless. Sir Auckland Geddes, in his reply, promised to give full consideration to the facts and opinions which they had laid before him. Also, he said that he had been impressed with the physiological side of the question and with the danger of cyanogen and of too high a proportion of carbonic oxide in gas. The "Gas Regulation Bill," as subsequently presented to the House of Commons on May 19 last by Sir Robert Horne (the new President of the Board of Trade), contained far-reaching new proposals concerning the public sale and distribution of gas, among which the following are of especial importance to consumers : (a) That the Board of Trade may, on the application of any gas undertakers, by order, provide for the repeal of any enactments or other provisions requiring the undertakers to supply gas of any particular illuminating or calorific value, and for substituting power to charge for thermal units supplied in the form of gas. (b) That where such substitution has been decided upon, the new basis for the sale of gas shall be 100,000 British Thermal Units (to be referred to in the Bill as a "therm"). The consumer will then be charged according to the number of "therms" supplied to him in the gas, and the standard price per therm fixed by the order shall be a price corresponding as nearly as may be to the price fixed by former provisions for each 1000 cubic feet, but with such additions (if any) as appear to the Board to be reasonably required in order to meet unavoidable increases since June 30, 1914, in the costs and charges of and incidental to the production and supply of gas by the undertakers; and the order may make such modifications of any provisions whereby the rate of dividend payable by the gas undertakers is dependent on the price of gas supplied as appear to the Board to be necessary. (c) That an order under the Act shall prescribe the time when, and the manner in which, the undertakers are to give notice of the calorific value of the gas they intend to supply (i.e., "declared calorific value"), and shall require the undertakers, before making any alteration in the declared calorific value, to take at their own expense such steps as may be necessary to alter, adjust, or replace the burners in consumers' appliances in such manner as to secure that the gas can be burned with safety and efficiency. (d) That the gas supplied under the Act (i.) shall not contain any trace of sulphuretted hydrogen, (ii.) shall not be at a pressure of less than two inches water-gauge in any main or service pipe of two inches diameter or upwards, and (iii.) shall not contain more than a certain permissible proportion of incombustible constituents (namely, 20 per cent during a period of two years after the passing of the Act, 18 per cent during the succeeding two years, and 15 per cent thereafter). (e) That as soon as may be after the passing of the Act the Board shall cause an enquiry to be held into the question whether it is necessary or desirable to prescribe any limitations of the proportion of carbon monoxide which may be supplied in gas used for domestic purposes, and may, if on such inquiry it appears desirable, make a special order under the Act prescribing the permissible proportion. (f) That Gas Referees and Examiners shall be appointed for the purpose of (i.) prescribing the apparatus and method of testing the gas, and (ii.) carrying out of such prescribed tests. During the passage of the Bill through its Committee stage in the House of Commons, the important sub-section limiting the amount of incombustible constituents permissible in gas (vide (d) (iii.) above) was deleted, on the understanding that, subsequent to the passing of the Act, the matter shall be made the subject of an official inquiry by the Board of Trade. The effect of this amendment is, therefore, to put the question of "inerts" into the same category as that of carbon monoxide, and the whole matter now stands as follows: The Board of Trade shall, as soon as may be after the passing of this Act, cause inquiries to be held into the question whether it is necessary or desirable to prescribe any limitations of the proportion of carbon monoxide which may be supplied in gas used for domestic purposes, and into the question whether it is necessary or desirable to prescribe any limitations of the proportion of incombustible constituents which may be supplied in gas so used, and may, if on any such inquiry it appears desirable, make one or more special orders under this Act prescribing the permissible proportion in either case, and any such special order may have effect either generally or as regards particular classes of undertakings, and the provisions of the special order shall have effect as if they were enacted in this section. When such official inquiries are instituted by the Board of Trade this Committee will hope to be given an opportunity of presenting again its views (as already reported) upon the matters concerned. Alcohol from Coke Oven Gas. During the past year a notable development has been made in connection with the technology of by-product recovery from coal as the result of Mr. E. Bury's successful experimental trials, in conjunction with Mr. O. Ollander, at the Skinningrove Iron Works, upon the absorption of ethy 1 |