598 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



LAMP-BLACK FROM NATURAL GAS. 



The manufacture of lamp-black from natural gas, to which 

 public attention was first drawn by the presence of some in- 

 teresting samples of the manufacture in the Ohio section of 

 the Philadelphia Exhibition, appears to be a growing indus- 

 try. Near Gambler, O., there is an establishment employing 

 special burners and other apparatus for the purpose, and pro- 

 ducing no less than sixteen tons of so-called "diamond-black " 

 per annum. The number of burners employed is 1800, con- 

 suming 275,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day. The prod- 

 uct is said to be very fine and smooth, free from grit, and 

 of an intense black color. It is quite free from oil, and on 

 this account readily mixes with water, and does not discolor 

 ether, as common lamp-black does. Only a barely visible 

 trace of ferruginous matter is left behind when a platinum 

 dish of the "diamond-black" is burned, and this is doubtless 

 derived from scrapings from the metallic surfaces on which it 

 was originally deposited. It is sold in considerable quantity 

 to the makers of printer's and lithographic inks, and some has 

 even been shipped to Europe. Professor Mallet, who has ex- 

 amined it, declares it to be an exceptionably pure form of 

 carbon. As a new industry that has attained important pro- 

 portions, it is worthy of record. 



NEW CALEDONIA NICKEL. 



The display of this metal and its ores from the French 

 penal colony of New Caledonia is affirmed by Professor Sil- 

 liman to have been one of the most remarkable exhibits in the 

 metallurgical department of the late Exhibition at Paris. 

 Hitherto the mine possessing the greatest commercial im- 

 portance as a producer of nickel has been the well-known 

 Gap Mine, in Lancaster County, Pa., worked with such suc- 

 cess by Mr. Joseph Wharton. The Gap ore is what is known 

 to mineralogists as nickeliferous pyrrhotine a white sul- 

 phide of iron, carrying about 3 per cent, of nickel, and ex- 

 ceedingly difficult to work. The extensive deposits of New 

 Caledonia yield an ore which, if not an entirely new mineral, 

 is nevertheless new in its metallurgical relations, being a 

 hydrous silicate of nickel and magnesia (called garnierlie or 

 naumeite) of an apple or pear- green color, and carrying 



