218 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



The practical effect of this property, when applied to gas making, is 

 to reduce the quantity of combustible products, such as tar, &c., and 

 entirely to prevent the deposition of carbon on the interior surface of 

 retorts. The importance of these discoveries will be readily under- 

 stood, when we state that the experience of the patentees leads them 

 to the conclusion that upwards of fifty per cent, may be added to the 

 volume of gas yielded by all descriptions of materials ordinarily used 

 for that purpose", without any diminution of the illuminating power, so 

 that 15,000 cubic feet will be the probable future product from one 

 ton of Newcastle coal, and 75,000 cubic feet of London gas from the 

 same quantity of Boghead Cannel. London Mining Journal. 



FLAX COTTON. 



A PARLIAMENTARY document lately published in England, con- 

 tains a report made by Sir Robert Kane, on Claussen's invention for 

 the production of flax cotton. Experiments were made by Sir 

 Robert, on a smaller scale than had been intended, in consequence of 

 the want of a sufficient supply of flax. The experiments made were 

 of two kinds, of the results of which the following account is giverft 



The first was as to the direct preparation of flax cotton from flax 

 straw, in which the separation and cleansing of the fibre from the 

 refuse part of the stalk was made a part of the process, and this was 

 not by any means satisfactorily done. The second was as to the 

 conversion of tow or low priced flax into flax cotton ; and, although in 

 this material the fibre has been already prepared and cleaned by 

 the previous dressings, the product obtained did not approach in fine- 

 ness of texture, uniformity of structure or cleanness of mass to the 

 quality of the specimens of flax cotton that are usually exhibited by 

 M. Claussen's agents. Under these circumstances, Sir Robert Kane 

 considers the trials " to have been in so far negative as the agents 

 acting for M. Claussen found it impossible to produce satisfactory 

 results in those works which they had themselves selected, and where 

 they had been working previously." At the same time it is admitted 

 that much weight must be conceded to the defective mechanical 

 arrangements. In winding up his report, after mentioning incidentally 

 that when the trials had been concluded and found unsatisfactory, a 

 letter was received from M. Claussen declining to be responsible for 

 the results, and stating that he would prefer that the inquiry should be 

 conducted at some works he had erected near London, Sir Robert 

 Kane observes : 



" In regard to the more purely scientific portion of the inquiry, I 

 beg leave to report that several interesting facts have been already 

 ascertained as to the real nature of the material produced, and as to 

 the true action of the materials used. Without being understood to 

 announce a positive conclusion, which in a report of progress would 

 be premature, I beg to state that I am pretty well satisfied that M. 

 Claussen's process does not at all produce a material approaching in 

 structure or organic quality to cotton. The views of the bursting up 



