NOTES. 



767 



NOTES. 



A committee of astute reformers in 

 England, charged with the duty of devising 

 some means for repressing drunkenness and 

 reforming drunkards, recommend that 

 drunkenness, and even the first offence, be 

 severely punished. For the first conviction, 

 a month in jail ; for the third, a year's im- 

 prisonment in a reformatory. Whether 

 public or private, attended with a breach 

 of the peace or not, the drunkenness is to 

 be made a crime, and dealt with according- 

 ly; not so much for the protection of soci- 

 ety, but avowedly as a reformatory measure. 

 If a man degrades himself by gettingdrunk, 

 degrade him still more by sending him to 

 jail ; destroy his remaining self- respect, to 

 the end that his respect for himself may be 

 increased ! 



Donne and others have shown that 

 water without air will acquire a tempera- 

 ture far above 212 without boiling, and 

 that it is then liable to burst into steam with 

 explosive violence. It is thought that many 

 disastrous steam-boiler explosions have 

 arisen from this cause ; and a firm in Not- 

 tingham, England, have adopted a process 

 which is said to entirely remove the difficul- 

 ty. They inject heated air at a temperature 

 of 650 Fahr., near the bottom of the water- 

 space, into the boilers, waste-heat being util- 

 ized for the purpose. The incrustation of 

 the boilers is thus prevented, the water is 

 constantly aerated, and an economy of 

 15 per cent, secured; which in England 

 alone, if the process were generally applied, 

 would result in an annual saving of 16,500,- 

 000 tons of coal. 



The Royal Astronomical Society are 

 urging the English Government to erect an 

 astronomical observatory in the highlands 

 of India. A station in the region named, 

 besides being of great service to science as 

 affording an opportunity for observations 

 within the tropics, would be of immediate 

 utility, in observing the transit of Venus, as 

 it is said that the egress of the planet could 

 be better watched in these highlands than 

 in any other part of the British dominions. 



An inquiry into the foundering of the 

 Peruvian steamer Calderon, in the bay of 

 Biscay, has disclosed the fact that the leak 

 resulted from corrosion caused by mercury 

 spilled from the gauge-cocks into the bilge, 

 where, by lodging under the boilers, and be- 

 coming oxidized with strong hot brine from 

 the boiler-leaks, it was converted into oxy- 

 chloride of mercury. In the recent investi- 

 gation into the loss of the Megara, it was 

 stated in evidence that the washing about 

 of a copper nail, in the bilge of the iron 

 6teamer Grappler, destroyed one of her 

 plates, and caused a dangerous leak. Both 



metals, when exposed to the action of salt- 

 water, become converted into oxychlorides, 

 which corrode iron rapidly when in con- 

 tact with it. 



If iron is withheld from animals, they 

 sooner or later show signs of disease, which 

 in man is attended with a peculiar greenish 

 pallor of countenance, great weakness, and 

 general disturbance of the functions. It 

 has been observed that plants grown in a 

 soil without iron are affected in a similar 

 wa y that is, they are less thrifty, lose col- 

 or, and give other indications of disorder. 

 It is therefore inferred that iron is quite as 

 essential to the growth of plants as to the 

 growth of animals. 



An important discovery, which it is ex- 

 pected will ultimately reduce the cost of 

 steam-power 60 per cent., has recently been 

 made and put into practical operation in 

 Boston. The discovery consists of a pro- 

 cess by which the great amount of heat that 

 now escapes into the air in the waste or ex- 

 haust steam from engines, is utilized by con- 

 ducting it through the tubes of a boiler 

 filled with bisulphide of carbon a fluid 

 which boils at 110 Fahr., and at the tem- 

 perature of exhaust-steam gives a press- 

 ure of sixty-five pounds to the inch in 

 the boiler. The vapor formed in this boiler 

 is used to drive an engine, instead of 

 steam, and after being used is condensed by 

 cooling, pumped into the boiler again, and 

 used continuously without loss. A number 

 of carefully-made experiments are said to 

 prove beyond question that, by means of 

 this process, the same fuel now required to 

 produce 100 horse-power, with the best en- 

 gines in use, will produce 250 horse-power, 

 showing a gain of 150 per cent, in the 

 amount of power obtained by the consump- 

 tion cf coal. This is a very important dis- 

 covery, and, if further experiments shall 

 bear out the claim which is now made for 

 it, will be of immense advantage to the en- 

 tire manufacturing interests of the country. 

 American Manufaclu rer. 



The coloring-matter of the blood-cor- 

 puscles is known as hcematosm, and the red 

 color of this substance is generally attrib- 

 uted to the presence of iron. This, however, 

 appears to be a mistake, since Malder and 

 Van Gondoever have been able to abstract 

 the iron entirely, and yet the hscmatosin 

 was as red as ever. 



M. Gaudain states that a mixture of 

 equal parts of cryolite and chloride of bari- 

 um forms a flux superior to borax for sol- 

 dering iron, or brazing copper, brass, or 

 bronze. Cryolite is a mineral that occurs 

 in great abundance in Greenland. It is a 

 double fluoride of sodium and aluminium, 

 and has been largely employed in the pro- 

 duction of the metal aluminium. 



