216 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



per cent, more power is required with the mixture of rosin and sperm 

 oil, than with sperm alone. 



The average from the trials on six stretchers, shows that 3 7-10 per 

 cent, more power is required with the mixture, than with sperm alone. 



The average from the trials on five looms, shows that 4 6-10 per cent, 

 less power is required with the mixture, than with the sperm alone. 



In regard to the economy of rosin oil, it is stated that the mixed oil 

 spends about as economically as pure sperm, and no serious evil has 

 resulted from mixed oil in the long experience of the use of this 

 article. It will be recollected that rosin oil can be used only when 

 mixed with its bulk of sperm oil. Under this division, therefore, 

 the committee have considered to what extent rosin oil my be substi- 

 tuted for sperm in the cotton mills of Lowell. As the bases of their 

 calculation, the oil statistics of the Merrimac Company have been 

 a_ssumed. The total sperm oil used for lubrification by the Merrrimac 

 Cotton Mills for the year ending November loth, 1851, was 6,772 

 gallons, of this amount rather mor? than one-quarter (26,722 0-0) 



or 1,813 gallons were used for spinning, leaving a balance 



of 4,959 gallons. Of this balance, rather less than one-fourth, or 1,192 

 gallons, were used in weaving, which requires by experiment 4 o-lO 

 less power with mixed oil, than with sperm alone, leaving 3,767 

 gallons applicable to machinery, which the committee class among 

 those with heavy bearings, and which requiries, at least, no more 

 power with the mixed oil, than with sperm oil only. We have, then, 

 in the Merrimac Company's Mills 4,959 gallons, or about three- 

 fourths of all the sperm oil used there, for which may be substituted a 

 mixture of equal parts of rosin and sperm oils, thus diminishing the annual 

 amount of sperm oil by 2,479.5 gallons, or nearly three-eights of the 

 whole. The Merrimac Mills arc using about one-sixth of the power of 

 the Lowell Corporations. If the other mills use oil in about the propor- 

 tion above, the total annual diminution of sperm oil, by substituting rosin 

 oil, will be 14,877 gallons." 



Small as the annual saving in sperm oil thus appears, the committee 

 are of opinion, that it will have been highly important that this result 

 has been approximated, since that amount will probably be multiplied 

 by all heavy bearing machinery in the country now oiled with sperm, 

 and thus an amount of that article will be thrown into the market, 

 which may tend to lower its price and improve its quality." 



ON THE TREATMENT OF FAT FOR THE I'UEI'AUATION OF 



CANDLES. 



MM. MASSE and Treboullet, in a communication to the Bulletin 

 de la Societe I' Encouragement, states : - - It is well known that fat may 

 be made to acquire a soapy character by the influence of sulphuric 

 acid. In the manufacture of candles the fat is heated with sulphuric 

 acid, or subjected to mechanical friction therewith ; it is then washed, 

 and the mass being placed in a still, is heated to between 200 and 

 250 Centigrade to drive oil' (lie aqueous vapor and with it the fatty 

 acids. With palm oil, the effect of this treatment is as follows:- 



