236 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



which will resist the pencilings and washings of the chemist and the forger, 

 need never be looked for. London Artizan. 



CLEANING AND RENOVATING COTTON WASTE. 



Cotton waste, or the tangled and spoiled products of the cotton manufacture, 

 is extensively used in wiping all kinds of machinery, and is also deposited hi 

 considerable quantities in the "boxes" of cars and locomotives, in which 

 situation it serves as a sponge for keeping the axle always sufficiently lubri- 

 cated. No other substance has been found so desirable as cotton waste for 

 this purpose, and the price of the article fluctuates slightly with the increasing 

 demand and variable supply ; but for the last few years has been about 9 to 

 9-J cents per pound by the ton. 



Several efforts have been made to renovate and cleanse the old and satur- 

 ated waste, but until lately without success. The article has refused to 

 assume a state fit for further service on machinery, and the expense of pre- 

 paring it for the paper manufacture has exceeded its final value. The Erie 

 Kail-road consumes in this manner ninety tons per annum, but a method has 

 lately been invented by Mr. Charles D. Cooper, a car-inspector in the employ 

 of that Company, which promises to revolutionize the wasting business 

 entirely. Mr. C. has erected a small establishment where this refuse material 

 may be completely regenerated at an expense of only about 1-|- cents per 

 pound. There are two species of foul waste one, that which has been used 

 for wiping machinery until its pores are pretty well filled with bad oil, iron 

 filings, chips and dust ; the other, waste which has been kept saturated in 

 oil in an axle-box until the oleaginous fluid has become "gummy," or hard 

 and sticky. The first class makes only clean waste, after going through the 

 necessary manipulations, but the box-waste makes oil and soap as well as 

 waste, so that what was originally a nuisance becomes, like a dead horse in 

 the hands of the Parisian dealers, a very considerable source of revenue. Box 

 waste is first subjected to a great compression in a hydraulic press, and the 

 drippings are, or may be, clarified into clear and transparent oil. The dry 

 mass is next treated with a suitable alkaline solution, and a kind of soap is 

 produced, which is, however, principally consumed at a later stage in washing 

 the fibrous material. Steam is liberally employed in warming, and the mass 

 is finally rinsed by machinery, dried, and " picked" or beaten into a condition 

 actually superior for some purposes to the new material fresh from the mill. 



ON THE MANUFACTURE AND PROPERTIES OF GLYCERINE. 



Mr. George "Wilson, in a communication to the Royal Society, states that in 

 the course of a long series of experiments conducted on a large scale, he has 

 observed that the so-called neutral fatty bodies may be resolved, without 

 danger of injurious decomposition, into glycerine and the fatty acids, provided 

 that the still be maintained at a uniformly high temperature, and that a con- 

 tinuous current of steam be admitted into it. The temperature required for 

 splitting the fats into then- proximate elements varies with the nature of the 



