208 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



where fifty or a hundred thousand pounds of soap may be used in the 

 course of a year, differences which cannot be deemed insignificant 

 must exhibit themselves. 



Calculating from the equivalent weights how much of each of the 

 other soaps would be required to replace one thousand pounds of tal- 

 low soap, the following quantities will be found : 



1151 Ibs. of oleic acid soap, i. e., 15.1 per cent, more than tallow soap. 

 107 " palm oil " i. e., 8.7 " 



Q2S " cocoa-nut oil " i.e., 7.2 " less " 



Differences like these must certainly be of importance in practice. 

 Bcettger's Polytechnisches Notizblatt. 



METHOD OF DISINFECTING MOULDY CASKS. 



The casks are first washed out for about five minutes with an alka- 

 line solution of soda, and then soaked for one or two days with a liquor 

 acidulated with hydrochloric acid. 



The committee of the Society for the Encouragement of National 

 Industry report that the process is effective both for wine and beer 

 casks; that it is cheap, and saves great expense. Bull. Soc. Encour. 

 VIndusL Nat., May, 1860. 



NON-EXPLOSIVENESS OF KEROSENE OIL. 



The following article on the above subject has bee'n communicated 

 by Dr. A. A. Hayes, of Boston : 



Some recent cases of accidents arising from the inflammation of 

 oils called " Kerosene," have led to an experimental research on the 

 possibility of danger connected with the consumption of coal oil for 

 affording light. 



" Kerosene " is a term applied by the earlier manufacturers to coal 

 oil purified in a special manner, and as a " trade name." But by the 

 public generally this term is applied to all oils made from coal and 

 petroleum. 



The purified oil, when properly manufactured, obtained from dif- 

 ferent kinds of coal, or from petroleum (native oil of the oil springs), 

 has nearly the same constant characters in its finished state. Its 

 character of non-explosiveness, its value for illuminating purposes, 

 and entire safety in use ordinarily, depend entirely on the skill of 

 the manufacturer, his knowledge, and moral sense in his business 

 transactions. 



By the processes of the manufacture, the standard oils are deprived 

 of their more volatile and inflammable parts, they have high boiling 

 points, and in the character of fixity approach to spermaceti and 

 other oils known as " fixed oils." Like lard and similar oils, they do 

 not emit volatile explosive vapors at common temperatures, and they 

 will extinguish small flames, when these are forced into them, being 

 thus distinguished from volatile oils. 



Only after they have been heated to the point at which their va- 

 pors rise freely in the air will flame communicate with them and 

 continue to burn. This burning of the vapor is a simple inflamma- 



