484 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



REMOVAL OF DRIED ALBUMEN FROM VESSELS. 



According to Dr. Steinde, vessels in which albumen or al- 

 buminous mixtures have been kept can be best cleansed by a 

 mixture of equal parts of a saturated solution of a double bi- 

 chromate of potash and sulphuric acid. Even burnt albumen 

 is so far destroyed in a short time by this mixture that the 

 vessel can be cleaned very readily by means of warm water 

 and a brush. 8 C,Jime 23, 1870, 200. 



POTATO FLOUR. 



Few persons in the United States are aware of the demand 

 for farina, or potato flour, and of the almost unlimited extent 

 of the market that can be found for this product, which is 

 simply the dry, evaporated pulp of the ordinary potato, the 

 whiter and more free from black specks the better. It is 

 used for sizing and other manufacturing purposes, and with 

 the aid of precipitation and acid is converted into starch. In 

 Europe it meets a large and increasing demand, in its primi- 

 tive state, as potato flour, and in Lancashire alone twenty 

 thousand tons are annually sold, and as many more would be 

 taken if put into the market. When calcined, it is used large- 

 ly for silk-dressing and other purposes. 



At this time the quotation for potato farina in Liverpool is 

 a little over four cents a pound, while wheat flour is about 

 two and one sixth cents a pound, so that the potato flour is 

 worth nearly double that of the wheat at the present rate. 

 Consignments to Liverpool are solicited by the brokers there, 

 who promise to take all that can be furnished. JV.Yl Ship- 

 ping List, December 14, 70. 



PREPARATION OF ALIZARINE. 



Messrs. Bronner & Gutzkow, of Frankfort, have proposed 

 a mode of preparing alizarine which has been favorably re- 

 ceived and introduced into several laro-e chemical works in 

 Germany. It consists essentially of three operations, as fol- 

 lows: Anthracen is obtained by the distillation of asphaltum 

 with superheated steam ; this is rectified by redistillation. 

 Anthracen heated with double its weight of nitric acid, of 

 1.3 to 1.5 specific gravity, and washed, gives anthrachinon. 

 This is dissolved in moderately warm sulphuric acid, and ni- 



