MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 57 



mont in the manner of cutting. When offering mess for sale the in- 

 spectors are particular in seeing that the pieces are cut square and 

 smooth. If they are not, they are rejected and branded infc.rior. 

 This damages the sale, and the owner incurs a loss thereby. By the 

 application of these saws, every piece is cut alike, there are no hag- 

 gled pieces, no ragged edges, every piece is cut smooth, and clean, 

 and square. In this respect alone, not to speak of the labor saved, 

 the invention is a highly valuable one. Scientific American. 



UTILIZATION OF BRINE. 



At a recent meeting of the Glasgow Philosophical Society, Mr. A. 

 Whitelaw read a paper giving an account of a process discovered by 

 him for utilizing the brine of salted meat by means of the process of 

 dialysis. When fresh meat, he said, had been sprinkled with salt for 

 a few days, it was found swimming in brine. Fresh meat contained 

 more than | of its weight of water, which was retained in it 

 as in a sponge. But ilesh had not the power to retain brine to that 

 extent, and in similar circumstances it absorbed only about half as 

 much saturated brine as of water, so that, under the action of salt, 

 ilesh allowed a portion of its water to ilow out. This expelled water, 

 as might naturally be expected, was saturated with the soluble nutri- 

 tive ingredients of the Ilesh; it was, in fact, juice of flesh, soup, with 

 nil its valuable and restorative properties. In the large curing estab- 

 lishments of this city very considerable quantities of this brine were 

 produced and thrown away as useless. This was the material to which 

 Mi-. Whitelaw has applied the process of dialysis, and he thought 

 witli success, for the removal of the salts of the brine, and for the 

 production, at a cheap rate, of pure fresh extract of meat. His process 

 lie .slated as folloAvs : The brine, after being filtered to free it from 

 any particles of flesh or other mechanical impurities it might contain, 

 was then subjected to the operation of dialysis. The vessels or bags 

 in which he conducted the operation might be made of various mate- 

 rials and of many shapes ; but whatever might be their material or 

 shape, he called them "dialysers." Such an apparatus as the follow- 

 ing would be found to answer the purpose : A square vat made of a 

 frame-work of iron filled up with sheets of skin or parchment paper 

 in suoh a way as to be water-tight, and strengthened, if necessary, by 

 stays or straps of metal. The sides, ends, and bottom being composed 

 of this soft dialysing material, exposed a great surface to the action of 

 the water contained in an outer vat, in which the dialyser was placed. 

 He found a series of ox-bladders fitted with stop-cceks, or gutta-percha 

 mouth-tubes, and plugs, and hung on rods stretching across and into 

 v.ii.-i of water, a very cheap and effective arrangement. He could 

 also employ skins of animals either as open bags or closed, and fitted 

 with stop-cocks or bags of double cloth, with a layer of soft gelatine 

 interspersed between 'them. Other arrangements would readily sug- 

 gest themselves, and might be adopted according to circumstances. 

 13 ut supposing the bladder arrangement was taken, which he thought 

 would be found practically the best, being cheap, easily managed, and 

 exposing a great surface to the dialytic action. The bladders were 

 filled with the filtered brine by means of fillers, and hung in rows on 

 polos across, and suspended into vats of water. The water in those 



