106 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



of the iron. At the same time I introduced some nitrogemzed hy- 

 drogen in the form of a small quantity of carbonate of ammonia. 

 The heat seemed to increase considerably, and the electricity passed 

 in dense multiplied sparks from side to side. I found by several 

 successive experiments that the impurities of the iron, freed from 

 their former combination, boiled up, and, meeting the nitrogenized 

 hydrogen, were carried off, either as volatile cyanides, or in various 

 hydrogen combinations, leaving a fine fibrous iron in the furnace. 



The iron, after having been balled, was passed through the well- 

 known Bordan's squeezer, rolled, without re-heating, into plates, and 

 finally cut into nails. This would give to the manufacturer a sav- 

 ing of about five dollars per ton. 



NEW KIND OF ELECTRIC CURRENT. 



When pure water flows through a porous body, an electrical current 

 is elicited ; a fact established by experiments, says M. G. Quincke, 

 which may be stated concisely in these terms : 



Some thirty layers of thin silk stuff' were placed over each other 

 and attached over one tube of the apparatus ; another tube was then 

 adapted against the former, and the part separating them covered 

 thickly with sealing-wax. Owing to the wide pores of the silk, con- 

 siderably more water flowed through, under equal pressure, than when 

 the clay plate was employed. The linen was used in the same 

 manner. 



The other substances were applied in the form of powder, in a 

 glass tube of the diameter of the above tubes. The ends of these 

 tubes, the length of which varied, according to the substance em- 

 ployed, from twenty to forty-five millims., were ground flat, and over 

 them were placed disks of the silk stuff spoken of, to prevent the 

 flow of the fluid carrying away particles of the substance under ex- 

 amination. In the case of Bunsen's coal, the tube was closed with 

 plates thereof. 



Platina was made use of in the spongy form, iron as filings. The 

 glass had been reduced to powder on an anvil. Ivory and the vari- 

 ous kinds of wood were employed in the form of sawdust. It was 

 endeavored in vain to press water through a porous plate of wood, 

 for the plate had to be luted in dry ; and on becoming moist, even if 

 cut perpendicular to the direction of the fibres, it warped so much 

 that it broke the sealing-wax or the tube. 



The direction of the electric current was not changed by adding 

 acids or solutions of salts to the distilled water, but it was consider- 

 ably weakened thereby. Poggendorff's Ann. 



FORMATION OF THE GREEN MATTER OF LEAVES UNDER 

 THE INFLUENCE OF THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 



M. Herve Mangon, of Paris, has published the results of some ex- 

 periments made by him, with a view of ascertaining whether the 

 green matter of leaves, etc., would be formed when a plant was sub- 

 mitted solely to the influence of the electric light. It is well known 

 that a plant grown in darkness is devoid of green color, and it is 



