locked during ploughing, and include the period during which the anchorage wagon is moved forward. In Alinge surface embedded in the ground bears a fixed ratio to the pull on the cabl, and the movement of th anchorage wagon towards the plough is av sided To anch rage flinges can be put in or out of action b lowering or raising their movable framework, and the stability flanges on the running wheels are so arring-d that they can be quickly and conveniently taken off, thus enabling the anchorage wagon to be easily moved along roads.

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being obiged to reverse anv gear. noull, therefore, be necessary to su vagn, and th di-tanc- it hit, b Always adjusted beforehand to suit -r versible plough and thength of in turiw Fur workers should buffient to attend to 40 entre single winder plugning set, iz.. a wider wego dri r. a reversible plough driver, an ordinary abt to help the latter, and one for the anchorage wagon. The surface capacity of the Singl: W nder P g denen is enurely on the capacity of the moor, the nu nber, widen, and

When the anchorage wagon is at work, it has fastened to it a special steel cable about 130 150 metres long, the far end of which is fixed in the ground. The object of this steel cable is to cause the anchorage wagon to move forward in a direction at right angles to the lengths of the furrow by double the total working width of the plough shares during the period that the plough is being pulled This forward movement towards the winding wagon. takes place automatically during the winding of the cable on the drum without it being necessary to raise the flanges out of the ground or to lower them again, and without

shape of the shares on the reversible plough, the depth of the furrow, the condition of the ground and the weather, and, not least, on the skill of manipulation. On an average, with a depth of furrow of from 15-35 cm. from 125 to 185 acres can be ploughed per hour, and the power necessary varies from 12 kw. hours per two-thirds of an acre for surface ploughing in light soil, to 18 23 kw. hours for deep ploughing in heavy soil. It is not possible to give accurate costs of electric ploughing, as the working conditions vary so much and the power is also dependent on the working conditions, such as, for instance, whether

ploughing deep or surface, with or without sub-soil looseners, &c. The advantages of the single winder ploughing system are as follows:

(1) The extremely simple use of the plough set by four men; (2) the great stability of the anchorage wagon; (3) the easy transportability of the separate parts of the plough set; (4) the great surface capacity with a minimum consumption of current; (5) the possibility of a change of speed during the working by means of carefully and conveniently arranged gear-changing apparatus.

Whether preference be given to this single winder or to the double winder ploughing system depends on the particular circumstances, and, consequently, can only be decided by considering the requirements of each particular case. For this reason it is usual to elicit from the farmer

the attached wire of the single winder system would be in the way, as would be the case, for instance, in potatogathering machines, certain types of plough, &c.; or where, on large estates, importance is attached to obtaining particularly large outputs.

(c) The haulage cable used for both the double winder and single winder systems is of special steel wire (Tiegel steel wire patent) of high tensile strength. The ends of the cable to be attached to the farming implements are provided with fasteners construced so as to prevent the fraying of the wire cable and to prevent its becoming entangled.

In the single winder ploughing system two guide rollers are provided on a bracket arm attached to one side of the ploughing implements, &c., to give support to the looped

by means of an exhaustive questionnaire full details of the estate or farm, such as loeation, condition of soil (clay, sand, light or heavy, stony, roots, &c.), flat or hilly and, what grain or vegetables are most cultivated, frequency of ditches, maximum depth of ploughing required, and whether there are other implements to be moved at the same time.

It may be said that even if the single winder system were, on the basis of its lower cost of construction and the cheaper cable network required, to be chosen, the double winder system is preferable where the ground is so loose that the discs of the anchorage wagon cannot find sufficient hold, or where the ground, on the other hand, is so hard and firm that the discs cannot force their way into It is also to be preferred for other field work where

or non-working length of cable, and a special cable guiding carriage (Fig. 13) may, in addition, be supplied for supporting this cable in special cases.

The following particulars of pre-war costs of complete equipments - (a) on the single winder wagon system, (b) on the double winder wagon system-may be of interest. (To be continued).

DR. EDWARD ARDERN, F.I.C., formerly Chief Chemist, has been appointed Consulting Chemist to the Rivers Committee of the Manchester Corporation, and has joined Mr. S. E. Melling, F.I.C., Consulting Chemist to the Salford Corporation, Public Analyst for the County of Chester, &c., in practice as Analytical and Consulting Chemists, at The Cliff, Higher Broughton, Manchester.

ICA L'

16,

THE PART OF THE INDUSTRIAL CHEMIST TOWARD PRODUCING "HIGH COST OF LIVING." By F. P. DUNNINGTON, Professor of Applied Chemistry, University of Virginia.

THE high and rising prices of our staple products and manufactures occasions much inquiry as to its limits and continuance. It may be that a view of one of the causes of this world-wide result will shed some light upon its nature, and afford valuable information as to its ultimate effects.

The economist advises us that the price of an article will increase with the demand for it, and will be diminished by an enlarged supply. In general, the prices of articles will present to us their relative values, but in the case of gold, which has long been our standard of value, its price is fixed by law at 20.67 dols. for one troy ounce. As to the demand, a small portion of the gold produced is used for jewellery and dentistry, but the remainder passes into circulation as coin, and the demand for this continues uniformly urgent.

Now let us consider the supply of gold. The method of mining gold, which is known as the cyanide p.ocess, was discovered in England about 1895. It is based upon the collection of finely divided gold by a dilute water solution of sodium cyanide. By the use of this process large amounts of gold began then to be obtained from South Africa, soon reaching 100,000,000 dols. annually, which amount almost equalled that heretofore obtained from the whole world. Other countries also made use of this process, multiplying their output, and the United States has thus increased its annual production 150 per cent. The following approximations of the statistics available will more definitely express the facts:

Total Annual Production of Gold.
(Figures in million dollars).

Year.

life, the coin must be (relatively) lessened in value, and the prices of all other commodities, &c., will be correapondingly increased. During the past twenty years many products have gradually risen in price, and since the war began the prices of many others have risen very rapidly. If we now review the prices of our staple products, all of which are still produced under usual conditions, we will note that the present average price of each of these is about double that prevailing from 1890 to 1900. Thus consider wheat, corn and hay, meat, milk and eggs, wood, oil and coal, cotton, wool and leather, iron, copper and tin, silver, zinc and lead, and articles manufactured from them.

(Tin is mined, smelted, and sold in Bauca and in Straits Settlements at (practically) same price in silver coin-the currency of that land-as during the past twenty years).

It is true that the peculiar and urgent demands of the war have raised the prices of some of these more than 100 per cent, yet we may well expect when the war is over that prices must in the main settle to a level which will for each be about double what it was in 1895. The supply of our standard, gold, will surely continue without diminution, and eventually the price of all other commodities, properties, and services must correspondingly increase before any settled adjustment can be experienced. However we may be inclined to resist, it seems but logical to promptly accept the results which arise from these present and abiding facts. There is much room to question what raising of prices should be designated as "profiteering" and what is but the natural change toward a settled adjustment of values, so long as gold still stands apart from all else as the one standard.-Manufacturers Record, Baltimore, October 17, 1918.

So

From these figures we note the "outputs" for the years 1880 to 1890 were not far from constant; then began the rapid increase of gold mining; in five years, to an increase of 100 per cent, and in twenty years to 300 per cent. that the world's annual output of gold has increased during twenty years to more than fourfold, and one cause, or surely the main cause, of this increase is the discovery of this cyanide process, a cause which must continue its effects, and therefore whatever the variations, we may look forward to no substantial decrease of this annual "output" in the future.

With this remarkable increase in the amount of gold very many other products have also been produced in larger amounts, possibly some 100 per cent, but certainly this increase in gold far surpasses the increase of any other products, and it must be inferred that gold has become therefore relatively of less value. But gold being our standard, if its value be lessened one-half, the prices of most materials must, by this fact, be doubled. In other words, there is but little commercial consumption of gold, most of the "output" is circulated as coin, and if this be multiplied proportionately more than are the staples of

A COMPARISON OF DOLOMIES. By ALBERT ROTHROCK and J. B. SHUMAKER.

WE were fortunate in being able to secure a number of specimens of dolomite from different countries through the courtesy of R. M. Wilke, of Palo Alto, California. Our purpose in studying these rocks from different places was to determine how widely the so-called dolomites vary from the typical mineral or rock. The typical dolomite, CaCO3, MgCO3, 54'35 per cent CaCO3 and 45.65 per cent MgCO3, possibly never occurs in nature; but one or the other, or both, of the constituents are replaced by various other substances.

1. Dolomite from Ossining, New York. A white crystalline variety, quite compact, as the specific gravity is 293. The silica content is rather high.

Jan. 16, 1920

THE British Industries Fair of 1920, released from the restrictions imposed by the war, is on a scale worthy of our Imperial world trade. Although the Board of Trade succeeded in securing the Crystal Palace, the largest exhibition building in the world, for the London Fair, so great has been the demand for space by British manufacturers that it has been necessary to reduce the allotments by no less than 20 per cent. Even so, there is a waiting list for possible vacancies in each section of the Fair.

The three Fairs, though held in different cities (London, Birmingham, and Glasgow) are in reality one Fair, each city's exhibition being devoted to special branches of industry. All three are concurrent from February 23 to March 5. The London Fair is directly organised by the Department of Overseas Trades (Foreign Office and Board of Trade), while the Fairs at Birmingham and Glasgow are organised by the municipalities under the auspices of the Board. An important point in this system is that no one industry may exhibit at two Fairs.

All three are Trade Fairs, as distinct from exhibitions, admittance being limited to bona-fide buyers by invitation only. Participation in the Fairs is confined to genuinely British manufacturing firms. Only goods suitable for inclusion in trade fairs are allowed. Buyers do not, for instance, bave to waste their time passing exhibits of locomotives and heavy guns such as are sometimes shown in Continental fairs.

Prospects and Results.

Judging from the results of the past five years the prospects of the British Industries Fair are of the brightest. Year by year the number of exbibitors, even under war conditions, has increased steadily. The flow of visiting buyers has kept pace with the advance in exhibits; at the last Fair, for instance, the number of buyers passing the turnstiles each day was roughly a thousand more than in 1918. Obviously this has resulted in a growing volume of actual business transactions. If proof be needed, it should be sufficient to quote a case reported to the Department by an exhibiting firm, who opened no fewer than 500 new accounts, 200 of which were with Overseas buyers, during the ten days of the last Fair. Only years of steady work and expensive advertising could have given such a result had not the British Industries Fair brought together the

men who wished to buy and the firm with goods worth buying.

To the buyer also the Fair has proved its value owing to the careful classification of the exhibiting trades and their collection under one roof. Too often on the Continent exhibits are scattered far and wide through a town, involving endless bunting for sections and much loss of the time which is money. When the buyer has inspected the stands in any particular section of the British Industries Fair he has seen practically the whole range of national production in that trade. To make such an Inspection except at the Fair would be a labour of months.

Helping the Buyer.

The services rendered to the invited buyer do not, however, end with the mere bringing together under one roof of the chief British manufacturers. The resources of the home Government are at his call. In the Fair building itself the Department of Overseas Trade opens a fully staffed office in order that both buyers and exhibitors may obtain authentic information on all points of importance,

such as tariffs, shipping, transport, and the status of firms.

Nor does the Department's help stop with advice and information. Material arrangements are made for the buyer's assistance at the Fair. Interpreters are provided for his use, free of charge. Writing rooms are set apart for his convenience, where he can carry on his correspondence, which is dealt with by a special Post Office in the Fair building. The provision of restaurants and tearooms makes it unnecessary for him to leave the Fair building to get his meals.

Catalogue.

The headings in the catalogue of the Fair are not in English only. Instead of being a mere list of the names of the exhibitors it is a book of reference in which the buyer finds in his own language an index of every article exhibited. In fact, all that foresight and experience can do to make the British Industries Fair, 1920, a businesslike centre for business is done.

THE ELECTROCHEMISTRY OF URANIUM AND THE SINGLE POTENTIALS OF SOME OXIDES OF URANIUM.*

By CHESTER A. PIERLÉ. (Continued from p. 17).

11. The Electrolysis of Uranyl Sulphate Solution. BUNSEN (Pogg. Ann., xci., 619; Journ. Prakt. Chem, lxii., 178) and also Carveth and Mott (Journ. Phys. Chem., 1905, ix., 231) were able to obtain metallic chromium by electrolysing a chromous chloride or chromous sulphate solution with high current density. They used an unglazed porous cup as a diaphragm. Because of the strong analogy between chromium and uranium, their method of procedure was tried.

Experiments were carried out in various ways. Different current densities were used in different temperatures, varying from o° to boiling. Strong acid solutions, weak acid solutions, neutral solutions, and solutions made alkaline with ammonia after adding hydroxylamine to hold the uranium in solution were tried. Many of the deposits obtained had a metallic appearance, but they were always contaminated with the black oxide or with a sulphote. The electrodes were also varied. The material tried as electrodes were platinum smooth and roughened, copper, carbon, graphite, and nickel. The deposits formed with the different electrodes were always the same in general properties varying with the kind of solution used, the current density, temperature, and length of run. In

From the Journal of Physical Chemistry, xxxiii., No. 8.